Continuing Forward

Druak's vision had come back and he could now see what had happened to Astra.

As he looked at the location of where Astra was he began to worry, as what was there wasn't Astra's body but something else.

Panicking, Druak rushed to the object that was now on the ground, which could only be described as an egg. This egg wasn't any normal egg though. It had intricate waves and a blue glow to it that could even be mistaken for some kind of enormous rare gem.

Druak had been staring at the object on the ground for quite some time, only being able to think about the worst possible outcomes. However after some time he had managed to calm himself down and could now think more calmly.

'I should check her condition first.' Druak thought, remembering he still had dragon's Insight.

Druak tried activating it. However no matter how much he tried it didn't matter. He could no longer use his dragon's insight.

"Damn it. Why is this stupid thing not working." Druak yelled, bashing his fist against the ground.

Realising there was nothing he could do right now, Druak decided he couldn't just stay here and do nothing but sulk.

Standing up, Druak approaches a orb that was on the floor. This orb appeared to have been dropped by the applicants that Druak had just fought.

Reaching out to for it Druak begins to circulate a small amount of mana into the object and grumbles."Looks like those nobles were quite low ranked. Can't even have a storage artefact over the first stage…. Guess this will have to do."

Luckily Druak had found a specific storage object that could hold living creatures. However due to his past life he didn't find this object nearly as valuable as what others might have, it was as if he was holding a tiny world in the palm of his hands.

After looking around Druak noticed there was nothing else the nobles had dropped that was significant so he approached the egg that lay on the ground.

Pulling out the orb the egg suddenly disappears, leaving a small indent where the egg used to be.

"Sorry Astra, this is all I can do for now."Druak says as he slowly walks back to the training hall area.

After Druak left the three kidnappers appeared once more.

Slamming his hand down at the air Edward yells."F**k, that peasant took my storage orb. That cost me over 20 gold coins to get and now a damn peasant has it!!"

The other two kidnappers also had similar outbursts but the most significant was definitely Edwards as 20 gold coins was a lot of money, especially for someone in his rank.

Edwards' face looked as if it was going to explode, but for some reason this subsided and turned into a much more panicked expression.

Noticing this both of his goons looked at him in confusion. This was abruptly stopped by Edward yelling."What are you looking at, we need to get my stuff back… and let that PEASANT understand his place in the world!!"

As Druak walked back to the main hall he had originally started in he noticed something was different about him. At first he thought it was nothing significant but after paying closer attention he noticed that the amount of mana he had significantly dropped. This didn't come with something else that he had also noticed, his physique had also altered. Luckily this was for the better.

'What's happened, why has my mana plummeted but my physique has skyrocketed.' Druak thought, trying to figure out the cause. The only conclusion he could come to was whatever Astra had done to him, but because he was too focused on finding out how to improve his stage he didn't get the chance to see what actually happened.

As Druak was busy thinking about what had happened to him, he was abruptly stopped by a large crowd of applicants.

Approaching the crowd a familiar voice shouted."Druak over hear." This continued until Druak had eventually found the source of the voice.

Druak could now see who it was, it was Oscar, one of his team mates from one of his previous tests.

Once Druak was next to Oscar the first thing he said was."What's going on, why's everyone crowded over here."

Oscar looked rather confused. However after looking at the blank badge on Druak's uniform he seemed to be less confused and said."This is a tradition in the academy. Some of the students from upper years come down to assist the teachers in this test."

Even after hearing this Druak was still confused and decided to ask a different question."Isn't it just 2nd year students, why's everyone seem so excited."

Oscar let out a sigh and said."Because only the top 10 students can participate in this test, so all of these second years will probably be the leading people of our kingdom."

Finally understanding what was going on Druak decided to get closer to the front of the crowd, squeezing through all the other applicants.

After eventually getting past the majority of the other applicants Druak could now see the 2nd year students.

Before him were three women each with their own attraction and seven men two of which were covered in equipment used for crafting. Surprisingly these two were the ones that interested Druak the most, as he had a blacksmith subclass in his past life which he put a great deal of time into.

Druak even managed to recognize one of the students, this student was unknown as Hugh DragonSmith. This was a last name he was given after crafting a 5th stage weapon from a high ranking drake that had been slain after terrorizing multiple villages, most however mistook it for a dragon as it was much larger than ordinary drakes.

The strange thing for Druak was that he felt more intimidated by the man next to Hugh despite him being much smaller than Hugh. This wasn't surprising as Hugh was a half giant and was over 7ft tall.

As Druak looked up at the other man a sudden gush of aura burst toward Druak, almost causing him to fall to the ground.

'Who the hell is that man.' Druak thought, finally able to get back his balance.

Druak could now see that this man was also much taller than the others atop the stage and understood that this man was not to be underestimated.