Chapter 39: Dragon Egg
“Did you know? The academy is about to conduct a comprehensive evaluation for everyone!”
Year 833 of the Falling Stars Era, May 21st, Nissier Snow Mountain, Winterfell Academy. Even though summer had already arrived across the entire continent, the temperature on the icefield remained bitingly cold.
Of course, this had nothing to do with the students inside the academy. Whether scorching heat or bitter cold, the constant-temperature magic array fixed the environment to the most comfortable temperature for human survival. During the afternoon break, in the library hall, a group of teenagers who looked to be around ten years old sat at a table, skimming through difficult spellbooks while chatting softly.
A red-haired girl who appeared older and more mature held a notice in her hand, her expression mysterious as she spoke to her friends beside her: “I specifically got this early from my mentor! Look, I heard the prizes for the top three are very generous, and this time, the Lord has also graciously provided additional rewards!”
“Oh? How generous?”
Immediately, someone nearby asked curiously, and others quickly followed up: “Will the Lord be coming too?”
“Of course!” The red-haired girl gave a decisive reply, her expression turning serious, a mature glint shining in her eyes. “I shouldn’t need to remind you—your parents have definitely told you why we came to this academy: to study hard and become mages.”
There was no need for reminders. Most of the teenagers sitting at the table nodded silently.
At first, everyone had only come to test whether they had the talent to become spellcasters, hoping to change their predetermined fate by becoming a mage.
But soon, the parents of the children who passed the tests understood clearly: this academy was undoubtedly cultivating the first batch of local mages in the Moldavia Territory. They would be the foundation of the Northern mage force and the first organized group of spellcasters under that Lord’s command.
—Perform well, strive to catch the Lord’s attention as soon as possible!
So-called competition began from this moment. Without a doubt, outstanding individuals would receive rewards and the attention of important figures. Upon graduating from this academy, they would immediately gain that Lord’s favor. With that in mind, everyone would strive toward this goal.
“Wait, Ivan, why aren’t you reacting at all?”
Saying “everyone” was a bit of an exaggeration—there were still some who weren’t very interested, and the red-haired girl’s puzzled question was directed at one of them.
Sitting at a corner of the table, the platinum-haired boy, who had been silently flipping through a thick tome, raised his head. Called out by his friend, he couldn’t very well continue reading and said with some helplessness: “Karin, isn’t this comprehensive evaluation held every month? We’ve already participated twice. Is there really a need to get so excited?”
“I knew you’d say that.”
Nodding, the red-haired girl named Karin snorted and then retorted with a click of her tongue: “But this time is completely different from the previous evaluations. Ivan, I know you ranked in the top ten last time, and your sister even took first place twice in a row, but this evaluation might not be the same!”
“Oh.”
Ivan replied lukewarmly, raising an eyebrow slightly. He looked at Karin with a very indifferent expression, until she couldn’t stand it anymore and had to explain on her own: “Fine, stop staring at me like that. I’ll tell you!”
Composing herself, Karin tidied her hair and then said solemnly: “The previous evaluations were just ordinary exams—mixing all subjects together, occasionally doing some experiments, dissecting a few magical beast corpses. But this evaluation is different. Rumor has it there will be a practical combat drill!”
Waving the notice in her hand, the red-haired girl showed the writing to everyone: “Look, we not only need to complete the exams, but also survive alone in the wilderness near the Snow Mountain for a week. Those who can’t make it will be rescued by the following mentors, but that exam will be scored as zero. Those who survive will only pass, and only those who bring back extra prey can get high scores!”
“Wilderness survival? You mean living in the snow and forest?”
“That’s not hard. My father is a hunter; I’ve known how to find food in the forest since I was little!”
“This is terrible. My ecology and natural science scores aren’t high… And what if we encounter magical beasts along the way?”
“We’re mages, why do we have to do this kind of thing?”
Scattered discussions arose, but since they were in the library hall, everyone kept their voices low. Even Ivan furrowed his brow slightly, as if pondering the difficulties and challenges.
“Don’t worry. The mentors have already driven away the dangerous magical beasts nearby, so the most we’ll face are opponents like Frost Slimes and Giant Wild Boars. With the spells we’ve learned, even if we can’t fight them, we can escape.”
Seeing this, Karin was in a good mood, so she dropped another big news: “Not only that, after we return, we can rest for three days, and then comes the final test—the Arena Battle!”
This was much easier to understand than wilderness survival. Everyone present instantly grasped what it meant.
“Strange…”
At that moment, Ivan spoke up. The boy rubbed his chin in confusion: “To be honest, it hasn’t been that long since we started learning magic, right? Even a genius like my sister hasn’t undergone a formal Revelation to become a true professional. I can understand wilderness survival—it tests our practical application of daily knowledge—but students fighting each other in an arena…”
He shook his head, as if searching for the right words, but in the end, he could only express his thoughts honestly: “A few apprentices shooting Magic Impact and Fireballs at each other, occasionally failing due to insufficient mana, and it’ll inevitably turn into a brawl… For the mentors, isn’t that just watching a monkey show?”
The platinum-haired boy’s reasoning made sense, and the others at the table nodded in agreement, also finding it odd. But Karin retorted bluntly: “For those adults, yes, it is. But Ivan, you should also know that we’re not being trained to become mage lords.”
At this, the red-haired girl’s eyes dimmed slightly. “This is the Northern lands, near the Great Aias Mountains’ Black Forest. Our mission is to grow quickly and then fight against the Black Tide… From the very beginning, we need to cultivate our combat awareness. The first arena battle might be laughable, but it’s far better than dying in a fortress later.”
“Ivan, you understand that, don’t you?”
Of course, he understood.
Silently nodding, the white-haired boy knew what she meant.
The Karin before him was the leader of this small group. Since the academy’s founding, she had used her enthusiastic personality and outstanding leadership among the children to gather many talented students, and Ivan was one of them.
Such tactics couldn’t have been learned by the red-haired girl on her own; someone must have taught her. Soon after, Karin herself admitted that her father had taught her. Her father was a Knight Commander at Black Forest Fortress, who died in the Great Black Tide two years ago. He taught his daughter these leadership skills, hoping she would become a knight and inherit his position.
From the very beginning, Karin understood that most of the academy’s first batch of students wouldn’t become lords researching in mage towers. A large portion would go to the battlefield. Without needing reminders from adults, she could see with her own insight that the Lord of this territory, that great figure, would definitely venture into the Great Aias Mountains or the icefield in the future to open new lands, and they, the mages, would be the main force among the pioneers.
Ivan understood, because he was the same.
Having lost his parents to the Dragon Calamity, he never wanted to become a mage holed up in an academy for research. His goal was to slay dragons.
In this world, there were many kind and human-friendly dragons. Across the continent, there were also many Dragon Lords. For instance, the Lord’s mount, the black dragon living in the snowy mountain lake, wasn’t evil at all. It even occasionally took some students diving in the snow lake. Ivan’s target wasn’t these dragons; his target was the evil dragons that rampaged everywhere, attacking humans.
This was his motivation for learning, and his dream. Ivan wasn’t the only one who thought this way; Amira thought so too. The siblings had long agreed to take the Lord as their goal and become the strongest dragon slayers in this world!
Through Karin’s explanation, everyone present understood the significance of the upcoming evaluation.
“Looks like I need to cram some knowledge about the snowy mountain ecology. I don’t want to be rescued by the mentor in a sorry state.”
“Yeah, speaking of which, what are the most common monsters nearby? Snow Hares or Frost Butterflies?”
“I haven’t practiced combat much… Hey, Bella, want to try it out on the training ground later?”
“Sure, but don’t cry when I beat you!”
Many had already started inviting close friends for practical combat practice, while others more worried about wilderness survival felt they needed to brush up on that knowledge. In short, everyone had found their goal and began to work hard.
But Ivan stood up, walked over to Karin, and took the notice from her hand.
The notice looked freshly made, as if the girl had indeed gotten it from the mentor. Scanning it, Ivan found the content matched what Karin had said, only more detailed and with more precise wording.
“Joshua Van Radcliffe, Honorary Principal of Winterfell Academy, Lord of Moldavia… will additionally award the student with the highest total score a special prize.”
Murmuring the content, Ivan glanced at his companions. Most of the excited teenagers were admirers of this great figure, and to perform well before their idol, they would naturally work even harder.
“I wonder what the prize is.”
As he said this, his eyes swept over a treasure chest pattern beside the sentence. The chest was drawn so vividly it looked real. Ivan initially glanced over it, but immediately felt something was off and looked back carefully.
“Wait, isn’t this the box I delivered to Mentor Theodore a month ago?”
A month ago wasn’t that long ago for Ivan, especially since it was because he and his sister had delivered these two boxes for Mentor Theodore that they received the voucher to borrow books from the library’s inner vault.
More importantly, he knew what was inside!
“Those dragon eggs!”
Drawing in a cold breath, Ivan fell into a long silence. Many thoughts flashed through his mind, and the more he thought about it, the more plausible it seemed.
Mentor Theodore had taken the dragon eggs to the snowy mountain lake back then, and soon after came the sound of battle. After the battle subsided, the Lord brought Mentor Theodore back to the academy… The black dragon down the mountain also seemed to be a female. Although he didn’t know why Mentor Theodore was attacked by it, these events did seem connected!
Could the prize be a dragon egg?! Would the Lord be so generous?
No, the Lord had always been generous, and for him, whoever got the dragon egg would still be part of his power. Moreover, such a prize might be meant to attract more students from other places to study at Winterfell. He would definitely do this!
—And if he or his sister won, then in the future, the two of them would bring a dragon to slay other dragons?
Thinking this, the platinum-haired boy couldn’t help but pause slightly. His expression was strange, as if he wanted to laugh, and as if he wanted to sigh.
But in the end, he murmured softly.
“Truly… ironic.”
With that, a spark of fighting spirit ignited in his eyes.