I’ve spent the next 30 minutes summoning myself from the past and getting [Passive Growth] back to 100%, just because I could. It was basically free to do so; the only downside came from the emotional damage I took from the scratches I gave my past selves on the head. No, I refuse to say how good those were.

  Lilith was waiting for me when I opened the door, and she eyed me carefully before taking a look at the dust that was once the furniture inside the room. I just smiled innocently. Thankfully, she didn’t comment on anything.

  “The Dragon King made preparations for you to join the dragonlings of hatch 12.011-C, the ones you were with yesterday,” she said. “Please follow me.”

  I followed her, and after a bit of walking and teleporting, I couldn’t before, but after [Spatial Manipulation] evolved into a [Racial] skill, I could feel how impressive the teleportation matrix was. We arrived back at the room where I was left by the first employee who helped me.

  The other five dragons were already sitting on those fancy dragon chairs around a large table. I noticed there was an extra chair, right next to the metallic dragon.

  As we approached, they all turned towards us, but none said anything. Lilith told me to sit on the empty chair, which I complied with and sat, or lay? Honestly, with these chairs could be either one.

  As Lilith made her way to an elevated platform, all the other dragons kept staring at me with curiosity in their eyes. I honestly felt a bit embarrassed by how their eyes scanned every centimeter of me. I even sensed an [Appraisal] attempt by the metallic dragon, which bounced off my barriers. The fact that I was technically naked didn’t help. No, rational part of my mind, they also being naked doesn’t help, it only makes things worse, in fact.

  “As it was explained to you,” Lilith said. Their attention moved from me to her in the blink of an eye. “Denaru Theris will be joining your hatch from now on. There has also been an adjustment to your lessons.

  “Instead of continuing with the basic program, we will be conducting an experimental version of the final lessons. The six of you will form a group and explore and interact with the world here in the Cradle.”

  That caused the dragons to eye each other with surprise, before the grey one, Korin, turned to Lilith and raised a wing like a human would raise a hand to ask a question.

  “But Lilith, aren’t dragons prohibited from interacting with everything inside the Cradle except the Myriad Palace?” She asked. I had already heard their voice before, but only when I didn’t have the [Draconic Language] skill, so I was a bit caught off guard when I could understand them just as I could understand every other person I’ve met.

  “Normally, yes,” Lilith answered. “But there are exceptions. There are fifteen dragons currently living inside the Cradle. I won’t get into details, but know that this is a very exceptional exception. Usually, you would be able to roam Nahala with the help of an accompanying dragon in the last lessons.”

  They eyed each other again, but none said anything. Eventually, Lilith asked if we had any more questions, and everyone, including myself, raised a wing; it was better than raising my hand from the position I was in.

  “Very well,” she nodded. “We will go in a semi-ethical order. Korin, then Fae, then Illo, then Pyro, then Borris, and lastly Denaru.”

  Lilith motioned for Korin to go. “Why the sudden change? Will more hatches also have this opportunity?” she asked.

  “Only this hatch will have this version of the final lesson,” she said, ignoring the first part of the question and mentioning the white dragon with blue patterns to speak.

  “You said something about an accompanying dragon. Who will be the one accompanying us?” the white dragon, Fae, asked.

  “There will be none,” Lilith said, causing Fae’s face to almost contort into a question mark. “You six will act as a group. But don’t think there won’t be a leader. Denaru will be the leader.”

  To that, the metallic dragon raised his wing again, but this time he started waving it, trying to catch Lilith’s attention.

  “Borris, I already said the order we will be moving with the questions, please wait for your turn.” She said.

  Borris made a sour expression, but lowered his wing. Lilith then motioned to the black dragon to speak.

  “I was going to ask something else, but I think I’ll ask the same thing Borris will ask,” Illo said. “Why is the newcomer who will be the leader? Shouldn’t we make a dispute for it? Or use the top of the last ranking we did?”

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  “It was to save time,” Lilith said. “But you are welcome to make this dispute. Does everyone agree to it?”

  The five dragons nodded their heads, with Borris nodding his vigorously. Oh boy… What kind of mess did I get into?

  “Very well,” Lilith said, nodding her head once. “After this explanation, we will be moving to the internal battle grounds.”

  She then motioned the red dragon to speak.

  “I assume there will be rules as to what we can and cannot do?” Pyro asked. That was a clever question to ask, and it seemed Lilith liked that someone had asked it, because she smiled for a moment before answering.

  “Yes, there are rules,” she said, then, with a snap of her fingers, a massive list of rules appeared behind her, floating in the air. “Each one of you will receive this list as an artefact later, so you don’t need to memorize it at this instance, but please go ahead and study it for the next fifteen minutes.”

  I had to divide my mind into several trains of thought to be able to read them all in ten minutes, and the last five to consider them. But basically, it is just a bunch of normal stuff like “don’t kill any EXCEED unless threatened first”, followed by a bunch of examples of threats. One of them caught my attention, though. It was a rule with sugar-coated text that boiled down to “Don’t have intimate encounters with anyone or anything. In case of doubt if an action is considered an intimate encounter, consult with Denaru.”

  I felt singled out on that rule, not only because I understood what it meant, but I could easily see a bard joke being tossed around, and I, apparently, was the one responsible for not letting it happen. FUN.

  After the time Lilith had given us to read the rules had elapsed, she motioned for Borris to ask his question.

  “Why does this newcomer have such special treatment?” He said, moving his wing so that it would hit me in my face. I just let it happen because it wasn’t a threat, and my barrier easily blocked it off. “First, we had to sign a contract that we wouldn’t talk about him with anyone else other than ourselves. Then, he enters our hatch, and now we have a totally different lesson plan? Why not do this to every hatch?”

  ‘Nepotism, of course,’ I thought, but didn’t say.

  “Those things do not concern any of you,” Lilith said. “This will be the last time this has been talked about. Am I understood?”

  “Yes, Lilith,” Everyone said it, including me. Something about her tone of voice made my heart skip a beat, and I said it without thinking much.

  “Good,” she said. “Now, for the last question. Denaru?”

  “Ahm, yes,” I stumbled on my words. I had almost forgotten what I wanted to ask after that. It wasn’t anything about how I was apparently stuck being responsible for a bunch of kids, possibly very powerful kids, but still kids nonetheless. “What is ‘the Cradle’?”

  Borris laughed at my question. I could also see the other four trying to hold back their laughter.

  “How do you not know that? Have you hatched in a forest and just now arrived here?” Borris laughed. I really wanted to answer him, but Lilith cut my chance.

  “Borris, enough of that,” she said, and Borris shut up, avoiding eye contact with her. “To answer your question, Denaru. As you lack the formal lessons, the easiest manner to explain it is this.”

  She snapped her fingers, and a sphere appeared in the middle of the table before zooming in, and a map with several continents formed on top of the table.

  “The Cradle is the Dragon’s King territory. It’s called that because it has the most stable levels of magicules in the environment, and the Dragon King allows the other dragons to use it to hatch their offspring, as it has the highest chance for them to become actual dragons instead of devolving into wyverns.”

  I understood that this map was my dad’s territory, and the sphere from before was the actual world, but something was nagging me. From how big this place is, and considering the size of the middle continent on the map, how large is the actual world we were in? Something in the back of my mind was suggesting it was bigger than Earth itself.

  It took me a few moments to realize Lilith was staring at me.

  “Ah, I see. Thanks,” I said. She nodded, and the map vanished like it was never there.

  “Do any of you have any more questions?” She asked. When nobody raised a wing, she continued. “Very well, let us move to the battle grounds.”

  We exited the room soon after. Lilith was leading five eager dragons and one looking very exhausted. The one exhausted was, of course, me. I had asked if it was really necessary, and all the other dragons said yes, and Borris said if I was already wanting not to fight, I wasn’t fit to be the leader.

  To be honest, I didn’t want to be the leader of a bunch of volatile dragons. But I guess I was chosen for a reason? I was sure the reason was that I had more life experiences in the outside world than they did, but I really didn’t want to believe that. Who places someone in a leading position just because they had more experience in… no, it makes perfect sense. I’m just dumb to realize it now.

  It took us thirty minutes, counting with teleportation, for us to arrive in a place that was basically a giant open field. I could see hills, clouds, trees, and even hear a river somewhere.

  “The rules will be the same as the ranking battles,” Lilith said. “Each one of you will be allowed to challenge anyone with a higher rank than you, or in this case, Denaru himself, as the current leader. The battles will be one-on-one. Killing will not be allowed. Everyone will receive a mark that will absorb any fatal damage or heal the user if absorption isn’t possible. The battle ends when either side yields or when the mark activates.

  “Now that the rules were explained. You may begin the challenges.”

  “Denaru, I challenge you!” The moment Lilith finished speaking, every dragon shouted at me immediately. I almost sighed in defeat, but managed to hold it in. I had no idea what time it was, but I knew it would be a long day for me.