83
Looking at my charred clothes I Change them with a quick magic circle, seeing unknown magic causes Zola's eyes to gleam momentarily. Truly a magic lover, wonder how she would react to my magic being based on imagination and my traits being conceptual.
"So, you are the fairy dragon Zola who is skilled in ancient runes right?" She stands up straight and with a pulse of her spirit energy her clothes that were roughed up also fix themself. She is just trying to show off her magic I see. Kind of like when two of those Anole lizards see each other and flash their red neck flap markings.
"I am the only fairy dragon in the demon world, so yes I am the fairy dragon Zola." I nod and am internally taken aback by her casual attitude, is it because of her curiosity or because of my power? If I remember correctly she zapped Chen Rui to half-death when they first met.
"I searched you out because I would like to learn ancient runes from you, of course not for free. I will be willing to hear out any request you might have or I can offer research materials as payment." Going to keep the fact I know where her stolen Rune tablets are, which can be useful for later.
"What?" She tilts her head as if she didn't hear me very well, and so it's begun.
"I was just saying how I could offer you-"
----
- Zola POV -
"I was just saying how I could offer you-"
This not a dragon but very much like a dragon, person, has sought me out to learn from me? Well if he offers me some good things I don't mind having him be my experimental subject for a few weeks. No, wait a few months at the least if he wants to learn from me personally.
"Zola?" I hear him call me and he looks a bit odd as she stares at me.
"What?" he rolls his eyes and summons a snake made of water, the snake is giving off an aura of its own as if it is alive.
"I will be more than willing to help you in your research for your help in learning the ancient runes." His smile tells me he is being genuine and I can't help but check a few of my qualification marks for a perfect lifelong experimental subject. A dragon of some kind, Likes magic and is interested in learning more, willing to be an experimental subject in return for learning. Not a bad candidate for a good experimental subject indeed, lets's try him out and see what happens.
----
- Citizen of Dark shadow empire POV -
"Did you hear the news?" I ask my co-worker as he takes a bite of his lunch.
"Huh? what happened?" he mumbles with his mouth full.
"The empress invited all who want to challenge Nova, the bastard who she is marrying. It's probably her way of escaping a forced marriage and is relying on a strong man like me to come and save her." I get a few odd looks after my declaration, maybe I got a bit more heated than I intended when I was speaking.
"And so you are going to challenge him? I would like to see that!" A few people nod and even cheer, I knew I would have the support of my friends. Now that they are interested it's time to rope them in, the price of entry is too expensive for just me but with their help, I just might be able to enter.
"Good, now hand over your savings so I can pay the entry fee and challenge that scum and sweep the empress off her feet." He begins choking and I quickly stand up and pat his back, if he dies how will I get the money?
"Thank you, but back to the topic, You want us to help pay for you to fight a man who was able to acquire the empress's hand?" I nod and he shakes his head. "You are only demon king, how do you expect to beat him."
"With the power of true LOVE!" A fist comes from the side and hits my jaw knocking me to the ground.
"Love my ass, you just want to lose our money, I won't give you so much as a white crystal coin." He snorts and turns away, I will find the money one way or the other. Wait for me, Catherine!
----
- Azgalor Beelzebub POV ( Kia's dad ) -
"You seen the report from the dark shadow empire?" I lean back in my seat and reread the note, if we can win this we will directly damage the reputation of the empire and potentially cripple or kill the upcoming Nova industries.
"I did, I thought about entering myself honestly." Manu answers from the side and I nod, if he can convince the Nova to soul-shackle in return for a powerup from his unique soul-shackle mutation then that would be perfect.
"We will wait for the leader to give his opinion, have you still not figured out what happened to your nephew Broc? He had your family artifact didn't he?" Manu grits his teeth and I suppress a smile at his annoyance.
"This is a leviathan family matter, mind your own artifact." I grit my teeth in return, if that idiot never lost our mask we would be the number one family in the demon world!
----
- Nova POV -
"You are sure that I should just walk into the circle?" She bats her eyes cutely while tilting her head with a small nod. Looking back at the death trap of ancient runes I sweat a little, how did I manage to piss her off already?!
"Don't worry if you want to learn the ancient runes then you must experience the ancient runes directly. It's safe, I tried it the other day but I didn't get the results I wanted... well I tried the smaller one." she mumbles the last part and I shake my head at her antics. This is just jumping to my death, but she still doesn't know about my teleporting yet so I will just teleport as soon as it activates.
I walk into it confidently and also prepare to whip myself out as soon as it looks like something horrible will happen. An orb of light emerges and floats around me in a circle, it then whirls around the room and disappears after a few moments.
"Wow." I hear from behind me as I feel a prickling on my skin and it reminds me of evil light and so I summon a spear of it. The runes glow dies out and Zola appears on my side and touches the spear with a happy look.
"Light element users are rare in the demon world, did you come from the human world? I have a hard time training my light element powers with the abundance of dark elements saturating the world. it's one of the reasons I made this pocket dimension, well that and to take the step into kingdom Rank." After going on a tangent of questions and thoroughly molesting my spear she is seemingly satisfied, but then she notices something off. "Wait, why is this light so weird? If I look at it as normal light it is identical, but it has something different about it. A mutated talent?"
"It's light that also can damage other light, still as strong as normal light against dark as well." And so a whole new rigorous examination of the light spear begins with this time she brings out some tools.
----
"You are right, it's like a light made of darkness or darkness made of light, that can't be possible. The two can combine for many effects but this particular effect should be impossible. I am a master at fusing the elements and the level this is fused on is impossible to distinguish its exact makeup." I dissipate the spear and consider the trait, to be honest, I don't know its makeup or if it's replicable without the trait. It will be fun to see what she can come up with after seeing something like this though, even if it's not what she thinks it is.
"Not that it isn't fun to look over my magic and all, but I would like to get at least a few runes learned. I have a friend that is sealed with ancient runes and I want to help him break free sometime soon." Poor Paglio would likely be killed if she saw him now, I will keep the name a secret until she is a bit more open with me.
"Really? I could take a look at your friend in return for you helping me with my research." She smiles lightly and I feel a headache coming on, isn't that the whole reason I am here, to begin with!?
"His identity is a sensitive issue at the moment, I would prefer if I could learn the runes myself and unseal him on my own. In return, I will sign a contract with you to help you with your research and even supply materials for your experiments." I pull out a Phenex tear and hand it over to her and she shakes the bottle and scans it to try and figure it out.
"What is this?" I cut my arm with a quick slash and before blood can pour out fire heals the wound shut and no mark is left.
"I have a similar ability to the Asmodeus family, that bottle contains a drop of medicine derived from my power and can heal any wound. Well, not any, a smashed brain will possibly heal but the memories would most likely be scattered and that's only if you can collect all the pieces so it can heal it. But ripped-up hearts or even cut-off limbs can be reattached instantly." When Paglio said she will cut herself open if she can learn something new, I knew that these tears would be very valuable to her. " I also can get just about any material with my resources and that will support any experiment you can come up with." For the first time since I came here, she has a serious look and aura around her.
Pushing up her glasses she thinks about what I offered and what I want in return before finally speaking.
"I won't bind myself to your bidding I am a free spirit pursuing my passion for magic and knowledge. But I will teach you in exchange for materials and your assistance in obtaining things I need for my further cultivation. It won't be a mass amount of items and more so very dense in element items like an item rich in Light or something so I can further my understanding." I nod and remember the earth source piece that the earth king gave me and bring it out.
"Stuff like this?" Her eyes go wide and her jaw slackens.
"Is that an elemental source? I heard of these before a long time ago, I have never encountered an elemental though." She practically begs with her eyes to look at it and I toss it over and she looks it over with a fervent look.
"If I had one of these for each element I could be the first fairy dragon to make the six-element kingdom." Exactly what I have planned for you, assuming at least we stay on each other's side. She became a monster able to hit above her weight class by a massive degree with that kingdom. The downside is that kingdom is a prerequisite to inheriting the elemental goddess's divine will, and I would have to prevent that or lose Zola. The elemental goddess created the fairy dragon race to make her a replacement body and they are coded to seek out that kingdom. None have made it before Zola, she is the most likely candidate if I don't help her.
"So, are you interested in being my teacher?" She grips the earth source and bites her lip.
"No special favors or requests other than runes?" I shake my head.
"I only want to learn the ancient runes and you are the only one I know who can teach me, if I have any favors or requests it would be unrelated to our deal." She takes a deep breath and finally nods.
"Ok, but if you cannot learn because of lack of ability then that's not on me."