Dragon Sorcerer 1- Chapter 27 (Patreon)

Chapter 27- What Exactly Are You?

I settled in to meditate and felt the mana returning much faster. The combination of the new bond level and the 4x factor from the skill was restoring eight mana every minute. I’d have no problem keeping Lesser Regeneration stacked on Cami. As for her, she was still unconscious. Apparently, nearly dying and then being healed took a lot out of you. Lisella had said was something about blood loss not being replaced as quickly as other aspects of healing.

Now though she’d be healing much faster. Effectively she was healing 8 HP every minute. It wasn’t like I could see the wound closing being my eyes, but scars on her stomach were gone and even the deep cut in her neck was down to nothing more than a large red line.

Serius walked over to me. He stood there watching me meditate. With my eyes I couldn’t see him, but the pouches of various magical ingredients he carried gave him an odd cloying scent. He didn’t speak so I didn’t either waiting until my mana was completely restored.

When I opened my eyes he was staring down at me. We locked into what seemed like a staring battle for a moment but finally he said, “What are you?”

I chose to believe that the goddess would honor his deal and he wouldn’t be able to determine I was actually a dragon. “You keep telling me I’m going to be a student of the university. Shouldn’t you be the one telling me what I am?”

“No, I’m serious. I had to resort to using a very high level divination spell but I was finally able to see your stat sheet. But even before then, the others were distracted but I saw you. You were leveling up and gaining class abilities which was odd enough, but maybe possible if you mother taught you the basics of a class. It would be illegal but possible.

“None of that explains why you were shaking or why you are suddenly a couple inches taller than before or why you added a good twenty pounds of muscle while you were trembling on the ground. If those things weren’t enough, I talked to Lisella. Not only did you copy Identification but you also watched her cast a healing spell one time and then duplicated it.”

I shrugged. “What’s so odd about that? I thought you said I was some kinda prodigy.”

“You may be… er… you are, at least according to my crystal ball, but that still doesn’t explain it. Magic doesn’t work like that. Not academic magic, not divine magic, not class magic, or even pact magic. You can’t cast a spell like it was an instinctive ability. And even if you could learn magic like that, Lesser Regeneration is divine magic and bound to only two domains. You would need the blessing of one of those two gods to be able to learn that spell.”

I just gave him a smile. I found that I liked playing with him. Truthfully, I would probably kill him some day but the more I traveled with the adventurers the more I realized I had things to learn from them. This is what it meant to be human. I would be weak until my tribe made me stronger and for that to work, I needed the people I surrounded myself with to be strong.

Accepting Lisella as a mentor was still something I wasn’t sure about. I didn’t know what type of control it would give her over me or what commitments I would have to make to her. I would have to be careful so that if the moment of revenge came I’d be ready. Luckily, as the old saying goes, revenge is a dish best served cold and there are none more cold blooded than dragons.

“How am I supposed to answer any of your questions. I simply do what I do. Lisella started to explain what the images of my test explained but she never got very far. Or more to the point she claimed not to know what the double wings image was.”

Serius took a deep breath and then nodded. “That’s true. None of us know what it is.”

“Well there you go,” I said as I stood up. “Maybe this ability has to do with that image. And if you don’t know what it is then how could I possibly trust you to tell me what’s possible and what isn’t possible.”

He stared at me for a moment. “You should choose a mentor and quickly. You represent things we don’t understand and that is a threat. I’ve decided that your value out weights the risk you represent. Others may not come to that same conclusion and the university can be a dangerous place. You will need a powerful advocate.”

“Are you asking to be my mentor?”

Now he smirked at me. It wasn’t at all becoming on a human. I wondered if I looked that silly doing it. Probably not. I was a dragon after all and so that had to count for something. “No, I doubt we’d be a good fit. Now if you could talk your friend into letting me be her mentor, I will be able to teach her magic of the highest order. She has it within her to become a true wizard and perhaps an archmagi.”

“I wouldn’t know anything about that. I only met her a few days ago.”

“So you say, but I’ve got eyes. The two of you are quite close. Oh and I suppose a happy birthday is in order.”

“Happy birthday?”

“Of course, because you told the others you were seventeen before but I’ve seen your stat sheet now. Your eighteen now and an adult. Not that your age is the interesting part of your sheet.”

I worried for a moment that it said something about my race but he said, “How have you reached level eight as a monk without any formal training? And how is it that you’re so proficient at magic despite only being a monk? None of this makes sense.”

I realized that most of his questions were not directed to me. Then he shrugged and gave me a wicked smile. “Oh well, at least Lisella will be glad to know that you’re officially eighteen now.”

His meaning was lost on me, but one thing hit me. If I was eighteen even having a mentor wouldn’t be so bad. I could accept a mentor and still make my own decisions. At least that was how I understood it. I’d have to ask around to make sure. I started to ask Serius but he had already bent down and was helping Cami up. She had woken while I was lost in thought.

We hugged and it felt more genuine than I expected. She was still a pathetic human, soft and squishy, but somehow her warmth and softness were good things in my mind. I just wrote it off as my curiosity at new and odd things. Everyone knew that it was more natural to be cold blooded.

Serius called everyone around. “Given what has happened and the fact that we still have wounded. I’m going to teleport us to the city of Taleian. But I’ll only be able to take the wagon, so you all have to fit in the wagon and anything we can’t bring along will have to be left behind.”

Cami spoke up immediately, “We aren’t leaving Patch and Rollie here.”

Serius adopted a lecturing tone. “They will only get in your way once we reach the university. And traveling with them will be quite a problem. It will cost quite a bit just to find a way to keep them in Taleian and we’ll only be there for a few days while Liam’s arm finishing regrowing.”

Cami shook her head. “No, I want to take the bears.”

I smiled not because I cared about the bears, well not that much, but because my stubbornness was rubbing off on her. Then it hit me. Perhaps this connection was part of why I was adapting so very well to human life. As far as I could tell, I was practically a natural at it.

Then Cami looked at Modessa. “If you become my mentor will you promise to let me bring the bears to the university.”

Modessa looked at Serius briefly before he gave her a small nod. I don’t think Cami saw the gesture and I wasn’t sure what to make of it but something tickled the back of my mind that it might be important. The rogue said, “Absolutely. We’ll still have to work out the details of our contract and it can’t be formalized until we reach Urgoi, but yes I will agree to that. But… they’ll have to travel on their own. I’ll high a place for them in a merchant caravan going overland. Will that be acceptable?”

“Won’t we be going overland, too?” Cami asked.

Serius said, “No, I’m only spending the mana to teleport us because we’re close to Taleian and we need a place for Liam to recover. After that we’ll be booking a ship and taking a portion of the journey by ship.”

I nodded. “Ah, you aren’t powerful enough to teleport us all the way to the university."

He chuckled. "You have no idea what a wizard of my caliber is capable of and you'd do well to remember that. But more importantly, you don’t know why I do what I do.”

“I do know you were barely powerful enough to defeat a bunch of what was it ogres.”

Serius glared at me and his face went flat and he got a small grin as though something had just occurred to him. He ignored my statement and ordered everyone to the wagon. Galbrecht helped Liam up there while Modessa pulled Cami away from me to go sit near the bear cubs. Serius climbed up into the front and then said, “Lisella, if you need a hand up, you should let Nico help you. He’s just turned eighteen and will no doubt enjoy the chance to help a princess up into the wagon.”

Modessa laughed, Cami frowned. Even Galbrecht and Liam seemed mildly amused while Lisella was all smiles. I didn’t know what was going on but I climbed up into the wagon without waiting for Lisella. She was a level twenty adventurer after all. She hardly needed help getting into a wagon. That made Modessa laugh even more and Lisella’s smile disappeared.

I felt the magic swirl around us but didn’t have the faintest idea what it was doing. The patterns were moving so quickly that I might as well have been looking at ten different types of paint all being dropped into a bucket at the same time. Whatever tier magic this was, it was far beyond my capabilities.

Then I heard Galbrecht say, “Brace yourself. The first time can be very rough and if you get sick make sure to do it outside the wagon.”

I scoffed but then felt like I was being twisted and pulled into myself. The entire world was wound up and then I was spun out again in pieces. It was horrifying to feel so completely out of control. When we reappeared, I definitely was leaning over the side of the wagon and retching. It was mortifying. I hadn’t done anything like that since I was a hatchling. Cami, looked sick, but the others all seemed to take it in stride. Well other than the bear cubs and the horses which pulled the wagon. All four of the animals seemed wobbly and were having trouble remaining standing.

When I looked up from vomiting, I forgot all about the animals though. My breath was taken away as I saw what had to be the most massive city in the world. The wall rose at least fifty feet up and while they would be no barrier to a dragon, I could see how they’d be quite a barrier for the landbound, lesser races.

I smiled as I wiped my lips clean. I’d done it. I’d made it to a human city. Now the future could begin.