Primer

"Magic doesn't have to be learned according to your natural aptitude?"

"I'm not sure what you mean. If someone has an affinity for a particular element, they can focus on that school of magic. Otherwise, as long as they meet the requirements to learn magic, it makes no difference which school they choose," Lolise said calmly.

"No difference at all?"

"Only a difference in focus."

"Oh, so it's like choosing a major in college." Zheng Yichen nodded. That wasn't so bad. He sat on the ground, his wings stirring faintly behind him. "How do I find out what kind of magic I can learn?"

"..." Lolise gave Zheng Yichen a look of astonishment, one that seemed to hold an extra measure of concern.

The sort reserved for an ignorant little child.

"Uh, do I just try learning it and see?" Zheng Yichen asked after a moment's hesitation. That seemed like the only possibility.

"You're a dragon, not a human. Almost all members of the Dragon Race can cast spells." And spellcasting was hardly their only advantage. They also possessed physical strength that human warriors could spend a lifetime training and still struggle to match, along with extraordinarily long lives. With gifts like those, it was no wonder some people coveted the bodies of dragons.

Cursed Dragons... In the end, they could not escape death, like dragons under a curse.

The name had appeared after the Dragon Race wiped out every Cursed Dragon. Come to think of it, there was nothing wrong with calling them that.

"You mean they learn it as soon as they try?"

"They don't need to learn. The Dragon Race's inherited memories contain the knowledge."

Zheng Yichen simply spread his claws. "Unfortunately, I don't have those."

All he had was knowledge of another world accumulated during his life before crossing over. Perhaps a dragon's brain was big enough, or perhaps his soul had undergone some fundamental change. Either way, his old memories remained quite clear. If he had once committed something to memory, he could usually recall it after a little thought.

Lolise drew a book out of thin air. It was sized for an ordinary person, but through some unknown means, she enlarged it tenfold. "A Primer for children. Even children from common families can get their hands on one if their circumstances are decent."

"...I don't think you needed to add that last part," Zheng Yichen said, embarrassed. A Primer for children was one thing, but even commoners' children could read it? Huh. Conditions in this world sounded pretty good!

"It doesn't matter. Even among those who can get one, more than ninety percent are screened out. Besides, you're only a young dragon. You're no different from a child."

Zheng Yichen looked down at the little girl, then at his own body, which stood around three meters tall. "Come on. Half a year ago, I wasn't even as tall as you. At this size, I must be... grown up, right?"

"Even if you're nearly the size of an adolescent dragon, you're still a young dragon." Lolise touched the scales on Zheng Yichen's body. "You're even sturdier than a black dragon... but I don't think you are one."

Zheng Yichen examined his coloring. His scales were dark as stone, not quite true black. "I did hatch out of a rock."

"Oh? What are you disappointed about?"

"Disappointed? That I'm not a monkey." Zheng Yichen shook his wings.

"..." Lolise shook her head slightly. She didn't understand the reference, but now that she knew his soul came from another world, she could make a guess. He probably wasn't talking about monkeys in this world, but some powerful being from his own.

Otherwise, why would he compare it with the dragons of this world and wish he were something else? But what sort of monkey, even one born from a stone, could be stronger than a dragon?

Knowledge from another world... It made her want to learn more.

"If you hatched out of a rock, you were probably stillborn."

"...Dead!?"

"You're unusual to begin with, so it wouldn't be strange for you to hatch from a dragon egg that had lost all signs of life, perhaps even fossilized with age." Lolise stared at Zheng Yichen. "It takes a young dragon more than five years to become an adolescent, including a dormant period lasting several months. Before that period, a young dragon's size changes, but not by much. Its body grows rapidly during dormancy. That's another way you're different."

"Your body belongs to the Dragon Race, and you're even a pureblood, but you don't grow like a normal dragon. You're an anomaly. Perhaps the name Cursed Dragon suits you better than it did the ones later generations called by that name."

"Hmm. It still sounds strange. 'Cursed' isn't exactly a good word."

"Not necessarily," Lolise said calmly. "Your identity means the world will never accept you. And..."

"And what?"

"I don't want to say yet." Lolise glanced at Zheng Yichen. Entering his dreams had been remarkably difficult, which was rare for her. Even if she encountered an ordinary member of the Dragon Race, invading their dreams would not be hard. Zheng Yichen's soul was far weaker than a dragon's.

Yet entering his dreams was exceptionally difficult. It had something to do with certain "factors" carried by his soul, factors that did not belong to this world and conflicted with it in several ways. For now, they did not seem to be a problem. Zheng Yichen was lively and perfectly fine. But they remained a potential danger.

She kept quiet because some things caused no trouble if left unknown, yet became dangerous the moment they were discovered...

"Even if I told you, you wouldn't understand with what you know now. You'd forget it after a night's sleep."

"..." Lolise's words reminded Zheng Yichen of the time he had tried reading about algebraic geometry out of boredom before crossing over. The more he studied it, the more he wanted to give up. After glancing through it and sleeping on it, he could not remember a single symbol he had seen!

Zheng Yichen set the Primer on the ground and propped up his chin, muttering in Chinese as he flipped through it. Every so often, he used a claw to draw symbols on the floor beside him. Once it was covered, he scraped his claw across it, leaving himself a fresh sheet of "scratch paper."

Magic in this world was much like the subjects he had studied before crossing over, except that it depended more heavily on "aptitude." Some people picked up English with ease, while others struggled. Here, only those who learned easily qualified to study magic further. Anyone who struggled would only find it harder and harder, falling into a vicious cycle that kept them from even getting started!

It was possible to overcome that with enough resources, but ordinary people had no such means. The requirements for becoming a warrior were lower, though it was a path that was easy to begin and hard to master. Becoming a warrior was simple; becoming one powerful enough to rival a mage was another matter. Few managed it.