Chapter 7

*8 years later*

It's been eight years since my adventurer training began and many changes have taken place , for one i have grown taller in height, my horns have grown bigger, my tail has also grown longer, stronger and more flexible. My tail is so strong that I could lift my siblings with it despite me being only a year older than them.

Puberty had hit me like a truck and all I could think about was sex for a while, and with my dragon like libido, it was torture but I managed to endure with meditation taught to me by Rize. The meditation form helped with clearing the mind and increasing mind recovery. I had also been learning magic, potion making and different forms of hand, claw and weapon combat. Learning how to use different weapons is fun but I still preferred to use my partial transformation racial skill to change my hands to dragon claws, since my tail was flexible and strong I could use it in combat as a third hand to chose a spell direction or hold a weapon.

My unusual style of combat had earned me praise from all my teachers but I still don't know how effective it would be against monsters. That is why I still train with weapons.

I wanted to learn blacksmithing and other trades, but I am not a genius, I could only handle so much. My daily schedule left me always exhausted. Weapon training begins very early in the morning, grandpa John and Marcus aren't pulling any punches in that regard.

From noon till evening is filled with magic training, memorizing runes and experiencing mind down daily. Well it's not all bad news, as I have finally been able to summon my grimoire and it was discovered that I was an rune caster. This simply meant that I could draw Witcher like runes.. After drawing a rune with magic, I just need to shout out the effect that I wanted with intent , like if I drew an earth rune, I could only use earth attributed spells such as earth spike, earth wall and other earth attributed spells. Though keeping the rune active drains mind, it takes only a small amount to maintain, but each time I say an effect after drawing , my grimoire glows and the corresponding mind is taken from me, and with no falna my spells were significantly weak. Casting a spell beyond my maximum mind would cause a mind down, which I have been experiencing a lot as my maximum mind amount doesn't grow, because I don't have falna yet.

Another limitation is that the primary elements such as water, fire, air and earth cost way less than their secondary derivatives such as ice, wood, space etc. Drawing stage 2(Secondary elements) runes always drained all my mind, causing a mind down and that was just the cost of drawing it. Causing me shivers , whenever I think of the amount of mind required to sustain the stage 2 spells. Because of my mind limitation , I haven't successfully cast many spells to be recorded in my grimoire.

According to Rize my grimoire seems to be the cause of the way my magic functions, as the traditional way was a more complex. A traditional spell would require a chant for all spells cast and sometimes rituals have to be included for it to be cast but my grimoire skipped that and only required runes as a medium to cast .

Another welcome change is that my cute siblings had joined me in training. Though they were not as diligent as me, they have been somewhat improving as time goes by. After all they weren't reincarnators like me.

Today is a great day, as I would be tested in combat by fighting monsters in the Arena. What is the Arena you ask?. Well with so many retired adventurers it was easy for the town to build and arena, where they fight each other and surface monsters. Though I would only be fighting goblins and kobolds this year, my grandpa John said I would fight an orc as my graduation before heading to Orario next year. It seemed I was to go and pick a familia in Orario next year to prepare the way for any of my siblings that wanted to become adventurers too.

After news of the Hera and Zeus familia fall came, Orario has been fighting a group of rogue gods and adventurers called evilus, causing a power shift in Orario. This power shift have cause various familia to fall but so came the opportunity to join the ranks of rising familias as they were mass recruiting.

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In front of Draco was a goblin, a normal surface goblin. He was in the middle of the pit arena. The sound of the crowd that could be heard in the background could be heard as they wanted to be entertained.

'Okay for a 13 year old, this should be easy right. I mean I trained a lot for this' Draco thought to himself a the gate that separated him and the monster opened.

There are two types of monsters. The surface monsters and the dungeon monsters.

All monsters have a core inside them called magic stones. When the stone is removed the monsters body turns into dust, the same happens if the stone inside them is damaged and broken. After killed, they drop a magic stone on the ground and a drop item if lucky.

Monsters on the surface are weaker than their respective species in the dungeon due to the fact that they split the magic stone power with their progenitor, making each generation weaker and weaker.

Draco's family watched from above and his siblings cheered their big brother.

"Remember not to underestimate your opponent" Grandpa Marcus voice could be heard as the fight begun.

Goblins are stronger than the average adult without falna. Monsters are also stronger than adventurers of the same level. But can still be beaten with techniques and training solo. The only exception elite monsters and bosses.

*Swish*

Before the goblin could charge toward him, Draco transformed his hands into claws and aimed to lacerate the goblin.

*Spurt*

*giiiiiiii, gigi*

His claw slashed the goblins chest as it's flesh and blood splattered around revealing its chest bones and it screamed in pain. Desperate for survival, the goblin instinctively retreated back and immediately ran forward, jumping and slashing it own claws down towards Draco. But he obviously wasn't going to stay let this be as he had innate fast reflexes, so he stood his ground and used his long flexible strong tail to grab the goblins leg and pull it down. The goblin fell on the ground still bleeding, but didn't have the chance to do anything else as Draco used his tail to hoist it up in the air. Moving under the goblin predicted fall area, Draco raise his claw in a piercing motion beneath the goblin. His claws pierced the goblins chest. It turned to dust as what was left in the arena was Draco standing in the arena with his arm extended up at the place where the goblin was pierced while holding its magic stone.

"…." Silence filled the arena as everyone looked shocked, except his teachers.

Before it was followed by cheers. Not many ordinary people get to see adventures fight, because of how dangerous monsters were, especially the fight of a young potential adventurer with monster looking features.

" Sigh, I knew this would happen, a goblin was too easy for him" said grandpa John as he saw how everyone was shocked especially Rize, as she knew how talented he was in magic and other crafts she taught him. But wasn't aware he was this strong in physical combat too.

Meanwhile back in the arena. 'That was scary but I looked cool right???' Draco thought to himself after the battle, because of his quick reflexes it always seemed to him that he had extra time to analyze and think of solutions quickly. All he lacked was experience to help make the most optimal decisions.

"He fought really well, but we can't tell him that as it would boost his ego. Any ideas?" asked Marcus.

"Leave it to me" said Rita as she went down towards Draco.

"Good work, but watch your movements. You could have finished it off in one move, but you used three. Since you have some ridiculous reflexes you could have made better judgment and used less flashy moves. The claw slash you first used could have ended it all if you put a bit more strength into it and aimed for a vital area instead of the chest. This wasted precious stamina as the only limitation to your ridiculous reflexes is that you lose stamina faster, which could have been used in perform other action". Said grandma Rita in an admonishing tone.

Hearing this Draco felt embarrassed as what she said was true. When fighting multiple enemies, stamina was precious and he wasted it just to look cool to his siblings.

'I have got to get more experience in combat soon as I would've heading to orario next year after my birthday' Draco thought to himself as he exited the Arena with his grandma.

"From tomorrow onwards, you will fight against monsters in the arena everyday till I say otherwise" said grandpa John as everyone watched the other scheduled matches in the arena.