The Youth's Ambition

The Magnolia Empire, the oldest empire on the entire Yulan Continent, had unified the whole continent in the first year of the Yulan Calendar. But as time passed, conflict broke out endlessly across the Yulan Continent, and the Magnolia Empire repeatedly fractured. By now, it was merely one of the four great empires. Even so, the Magnolia Empire remained the foremost economic power and also produced many mages. Its magic academies ranked second only to Ernst Academy.

The sheer number of mages in the Magnolia Empire was beyond imagination. Arnold was also looking forward to interacting with other mages. Of course, given Arnold's current level, he could essentially ignore any mage below Eighth-level. Only Eighth-level mages with uniquely insightful understandings of magic might interest him.

On a road at the border between the O'Brien Empire and the Magnolia Empire, a merchant caravan numbering several hundred people was resting.

Quite a few people were eating.

"Pitero, you just finished eating and you're already refining earth elemental essence. You're really diligent." A fat middle-aged man sitting in a carriage spoke to a youth seated cross-legged beside it, refining magical power. However, his tone clearly carried no praise.

"Uncle Teren, I know my magical talent is poor, but I don't want to give up. Magic is so mysterious." Helplessly, the youth opened his eyes, stopped refining his magical power, and began talking with the fat middle-aged man.

This youth was called Pitero. When he was seven or eight, his parents had taken him to have his magical talent tested. The results had been deeply disappointing. Pitero possessed affinities for both wind and fire, but both were low-grade. Furthermore, his spiritual force was only eight times that of an ordinary person. Among all those suited to practicing magic, Pitero's talent was the absolute lowest, without equal. In the end, his parents had not sent him to a magic academy to study magic. They had only made him resume training in martial skills and strengthen his body.

As the two talked, the fat middle-aged man kept scolding Pitero, while Pitero merely humored him and did not dare talk back. The middle-aged man was far stronger than Pitero. He was a Fifth-level Warrior, while Pitero had only just reached the level of a Third-level Warrior. The difference in strength kept Pitero from resisting him.

"Uncle Teren, look! Someone came out of the Warcraft Mountain Range." The instant Pitero spotted someone, he immediately diverted Teren's attention. Sure enough, Teren stopped berating Pitero and looked over.

A man dressed in a dark blue mage's robe, with a sword strapped to his back, emerged from the direction of the Warcraft Mountain Range.

Wearing a mage's robe, he was presumably a mage. Yet he carried a sword on his back, and the sword's hilt, as seen from Teren's side, bore a strange shape. The swastika symbol was not part of the continent's common language, so it was no surprise Teren did not recognize it. Teren did not think this mage carried a sword merely to look impressive. Therefore, it was highly likely that he was a mage who also cultivated battle qi.

Beside this mage was a dragon-like creature, roughly three meters tall and resembling a velociraptor. Its entire body was covered in hard black scales. It looked very much like a velociraptor, yet it was not one. How could a velociraptor be so small? Ordinary Seventh-level velociraptors stood as tall as a two-story building and measured twenty to thirty meters in length. This black dragon was extremely small, so it was likely some unknown draconic beast.

"Is that a dragon?" Pitero asked doubtfully.

"It must be a high-level dragon. Haven't you seen those horses scared flat on the ground?" Teren glared.

The black-clad man walked toward the caravan. Every horse in the caravan lay prone on the ground, too afraid to move, and the caravan guards immediately went on alert.

Seeing the state of the caravan's horses, Arnold felt helpless. This was clearly an unfriendly signal. "Red-Eyed, put away your dragon might already." Arnold glared at the small Black Dragon beside him.

The small Black Dragon snorted. The caravan's horses promptly stood back up.

Arnold slowly approached the caravan.

"Brother, what do you want?" a mercenary guard shouted.

"Judging by your route, you're heading to the Magnolia Empire, right? I hope you can give me a ride along the way," Arnold replied.

"Sure, sure. Thirty gold coins will do." The mercenary guard first turned back and muttered with a burly middle-aged man, then came back and spoke.

Arnold directly took out a pouch, counted out thirty gold coins, and handed them to the guard.

After a brief discussion, Arnold took a spot on a flatbed carriage toward the rear of the caravan.

After leaving Yale, Arnold had headed toward the central region of the Warcraft Mountain Range, found the Red-Eyed Black Dragon, and signed a Master-Servant Contract with him.

As Arnold's magical beast, shouldn't the Red-Eyed Black Dragon have been enormous? He was this small now because of his innate talent. Normally, magical beasts could only speak human language and freely change their size after reaching the Saint Domain. But Red-Eyed, as a mutant of the Black Dragon Clan, gained the ability to grow larger or smaller upon reaching maturity. Thus, when Red-Eyed followed Arnold on this journey, Arnold naturally required him to shrink down.

Yet even if he had to shrink, as a proud dragon, Red-Eyed insisted that three meters was already short enough and that he could not become any smaller. Arnold therefore let him have his way.

As they watched the Red-Eyed Black Dragon follow Arnold over, both Teren and Pitero felt immense pressure. Red-Eyed had indeed shrunk, looking like a small wingless pterosaur, and he had also retracted his dragon might. Yet Red-Eyed still looked terrifying, especially those expressionless crimson pupils.

Still one meter away from the carriage, Arnold directly sat down beside Teren.

Teren was stunned. No matter how fast someone moved, one could still see their figure, right? But Arnold was different. Showing off a little, he used the Wind Escape Technique. In Teren's eyes, he moved so fast that not even an afterimage could be seen.

But the youth Pitero beside the carriage had his eyes light up. So fast! He must be a powerful mage. Pitero's eyes shifted, and he stopped sitting on the ground, directly climbing onto the carriage to sit with Teren.

"Esteemed Mage, have some wine!" Teren respectfully handed over a wineskin.

Arnold did not stand on ceremony. He accepted it, took two swigs, and praised, "Not bad. I haven't had wine in a long time." In truth, Arnold had barely drunk any wine before.

"Thank you for your praise, my lord." Teren took back the wineskin and said proudly. Then the two began chatting. Watching from the side, Pitero felt deeply frustrated and blamed himself for not thinking to offer wine to this mage first. Having clearly just come out of the Warcraft Mountain Range, he must have been thirsty. If Pitero could take this mage as his master, he too could grow stronger. Arnold's appearance sparked a trace of ambition within Pitero.

Pitero was so anxious that he could only watch Arnold and Teren converse, unable to get a word in. It left him greatly troubled.