Just like Meriel had predicted, academy life was kind of boring. Four days had already passed since he started attending classes, and although Ziggy and Mary seemed really entertained and fully invested in their teachings, Meriel was a bit more skeptical.

  Most of the things he was taught were, as he predicted, useless to him, though that was probably because they mostly went through the ancient history that Meriel knew well enough already. Finally, however, he managed to learn something about his former colleagues. Finding the information was easier than he'd even thought it would be, though it was strangely undetailed in some aspects..

  He sat in the library and studied one of the many tomes focusing on him and his former party members. Right now, he was leafing through *The Dragon of Mura*, and actually found most of the things there true to his own memories. That much was to be expected though, since his own niece had written it, probably with the help of his sister.

  Jonathan, Meriel, Beryl, and Vivien entered the Azbokeus dungeon, ready for their final adventure. Now, nobody from the Delver party ever expanded on the fight that happened therein. However, I can assume that they have won fairly swiftly, since none of them got seriously wounded, and the dragon (according to everyone, including the mages of Mura city) died that very day.

  The tragedy happened soon after, however. Killing the dragon offset all of the monsters in sight, and even though most of them went into hiding or scattered throughout the continent, one of them attacked my uncle Meriel from the shadows.

  Meriel the mage died not by the dragon's hand but by a monster attacking him when he expected it the least. It was a sad day, and all of his party members mourned his death.

  Jonathan soon after became enraged with losing his partner and began to put himself more into the magic academies (although he never truly was a mage). He began lobbying to change their ways, began showing the others the way of sword-spell arts.

  Most mages seem to think of his ways as foolish, however, and that’s not even speaking of the fact that he can’t practice this spell-sword making himself. It’s been years so far, with little progress.

  My mother claims that her brother would not approve of new techniques, though he isn't here to protest. Most of the high-ranking mages from the academy seem to agree with her statement and began trying to convince the king to stop the hero from whatever this spell-sword art was.

  Beryl the Hunter seemed to simply evaporate after the last stand on Azbokeus Dungeon. There are very few records of what happened to him. However, he seemed to go into his home village, with some claiming that he wants to spend his days simply hunting some game for his village, not interested in the money or the fame further.

  Vivien the healer joined the temple and became a bishop. She’s only been influential for a little while, so there have been few changes to the temple in Mura, but she seems to be beloved by the people.

  Finally, there was one more party member that I have omitted until now: Elsa the alchemist. Apparently, she was a half-elf, a rarity of the world. The details of how she joined the party are unclear, and so is how she departed. What is known, however, is that she didn't even arrive at Mura after the dragon was slain, and instead departed towards somewhere unclear. There have been very few sightings of her. Most of them are fabrications of people seeking fame of one type or another.

  And so, a legend was born. I dearly hope that my uncle is remembered for centuries to come.

  Meriel closed the book with a soft sigh and leaned against the back of his chair. Finally, he found a book that actually explained what happened to his party members, even if it didn’t go to full detail. And of course nobody knew what happened to the one person he actually wanted to find.

  He thought long and hard on where she could have gone, but decided that there was only one place: the elf forest. She had grown up there after all, and although she was half-human, her mother was a full elf and raised her as one. He would have to search for her there, but it was a long way from the Lavarza kingdom, and it wasn't a safe path.

  Finally, the dragon he would have to craft became clear. A dragon that could actually fly him there.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  Quick steps sounded behind him, and Meriel turned his head, seeing Ziggy and Mary walk into the library holding several books of their own.

  "Hey Mr. Meriel, are you reading again?" Mary said joyfully and quickly went to sit beside him. Ziggy went around the table, putting his books down and sat on the other side.

  "Yes, though I am done for now." Meriel sighed, though he couldn't quite hide his smirk. He skipped a class, and the two decided to attend. He didn't like leaving them unsupervised, but the two formed a duo of sorts, and rarely left each other's side.

  That much was to be expected though, since circumstances brought them closer than anything else in their lives. The two finally found a friend at their mental level, and there was nothing better to build trust than spending a lot of time at each other's side.

  "So, what did you two learn today?"

  "Just history again, kind of interesting though. But no spells or nothing. Maybe if you didn't spend so much time reading and actually taught us something, we would already be ahead of the class!" Ziggy snorted, and searched for something in his satchel.

  "Boo, Ziggy!" Mary smiled and looked at Meriel again. "We learned about how the spells each have a level! Did you know that one of the teachers has spells of level 30 already?"

  "Going a bit quickly there, aren't we?" Meriel said, smiling, ignoring the pitiful level of the teacher. A teacher should be well-versed in several spells, and have each as close to level 50 as possible. "When did they tell you about how levels work?"

  "It's simple," Mary retorted, and picked up a small parchment of paper. "We just cast a lot of spells, and we get to higher levels. Higher levels mean that we can cast them in a better way ,so they are stronger. Isn't that right, Ziggy?"

  "Yeah, that's about it, though you said it in a weird way," he nodded and continued searching his satchel.

  “I did not!”

  "That's not quite true though," Meriel said and leaned against one of his arms on the table. "It's the other way around—your mana heart becomes more acquainted with the spell, and so the level reflects that."

  "Isn't that exactly what I said?"

  "No, no, no. There's a spell on the whole continent that shows you the progress of your mana heart with a certain spell as you master it, but it's not that the level rewards you; it's your hard work rewarding you, and instead, you have something that shows you how much you've progressed. It’s called a magical imprint. They should be teaching that very soon. Think of it as… making a line on a wall every time you go for a run.”

  "Ugh, my head hurts. There's so much learning to do! When are you going to teach us yourself, Mr. Meriel?" Mary said, and once again, she had that hungry look in her eyes, just like she always did whenever she circled back towards this topic.

  "Tomorrow, okay? We have a day off."

  "Is it a promise?" Mary said, suddenly standing from her chair.

  "Yes, it is. I probably have to beat some things they told you out of your heads either way."

  "Okay. Okay." She said mumbling to herself, and even Ziggy seemed a bit to be smiling a little bit.

  "So, what are you reading, Mr. Meriel? Also, have you decided on the dragon that you needed to craft?"

  "I actually have, much to even my own surprise. I will need to create something that will be able to carry me on its back, so it will be a larger dragon than Ziggy."

  "Hey! That's unfair! I would already be larger if we weren't in that damn barrier!" Ziggy retorted, though Meriel could see he wasn't truly offended.

  "And as to what I'm reading, I have been reading on the past and how my Delver party ended up."

  "Oh, anything interesting in that?"

  "Yes, a lot! But never mind that. Tomorrow I will teach you some first spells that you need to know—that everyone needs to know—and then I'll probably have you help me. I will need some parts for the dragon after all."

  "Are you going to lose your other arm?" Ziggy asked, looking at the stump in Meriel's hand again.

  "You do realize that human flesh isn't a requirement for a dragon, right?"

  "But don't you want the dragon to be able to transform as well?" Ziggy offered, pointing to his own body.

  "It would be nice, yes, but I can't simply cut my own body parts off every time I need to craft a summon." He smiled and stood up from his chair. "Let's go then. We'll probably need to go to the market first, and then we can go to the canteen for dinner."

  Meriel thought hard as they walked into the streets of Mura and found his previous commitment unsatisfactory. Just buying some parts wouldn't be enough to create a dragon that could fly such long distances. It was a marvel, a stroke of good luck that Ziggy could fly at all. Meriel had very little understanding of how these creatures even stayed in the air though he reckoned mana had something to do with it.

  But buying parts wouldn't get him that far and he couldn't count on his luck once again. He needed to see something that would let him learn how to make such a large creature fly. He needed to go and see some creatures that did something similar, get to observe them from up-close.

  Tomorrow, he’d go to the monster market.

  Ratings (Bonus chapter): 109/125

  Patrons (3 more advance chapters) : 16/20