The Third Party - Chapter 26

3rd Person’s POV (12 yrs. and 3 months old)

The three could not help but gape at the objects present on their field, there were armors stacked on a wooden rack along with swords embedded with gemstones -which Ken recognized to be similar to the princess’s sword-.

On the other wooden rack, behind it were two carriages and one coach, standing outside it was a person who seemed to look like some kind of noble from the dragon kingdom talking with the three leaders, he is a good looking man with a sturdy build, almost the same height as their master Klein.

Wearing such lavish clothing, and an imposing aura, it felt like the three were seeing someone of a marvelous caliber, but they could not let themselves simply just stay frozen at the side, the three composed themselves and approached the four people.

“Good morning masters.” said the three simultaneously as they bowed with respect to their masters.

“Good morning students, let me introduce you to our new guest.” said Klein holding his right hand towards the dragon noble. “This here is Indur, the head magic and magic tool researcher of the Dragon Kingdom. Indur, meet our three human students, Ken, Celine, and Wilbert.”

The three bowed in recognition to the guest, meanwhile their minds could not comprehend such a person to be a head researcher. They could have been a one of the promising politician of their kingdom -is what Ken thought-.

“Hmmm, humans, I did receive a report that you have taken some in the past few years, but seeing them up close is…” the head researcher could not help but doubt the words of the report he received, mainly the doubt that one of the humans had saved their king.

He could understand that his dear friend Klein would take in three human kids as students/ disciples under his wing, but a human, saving a Dragon King? Unlikely.

He observed the three for a few seconds, turned his gaze towards Klein before looking back at the three.

“Which one of you saved our majesty, the King?” the three were filled with surprise with their guests question, making them think, how much of a hot topic is saving the King at the Dragon Kingdom.

Reluctantly, Ken stepped forward and announced that he was the one he was referring to.

“You? *scoffs* how could…” he could not finish his sentence as he had used his mana to sense the boy’s magic capacity, but what he discovered dumbfounded him.

“Boy, how is that your mana is so potent? And what is this? Your mana seems to be all over the place but you have a strong grip over it, wait are you playing with your mana? And, are you a boy or a girl?” he said.

Under the researcher’s calculating gaze, Ken can’t help but feel embarrassed, making his face flush and his body grow hot, he cannot help the thought that someone just inspected him. His friends chuckled and giggled at the side, making him further embarrassed.

“I’m a boy sir.” replied Ken, with his face still flushed, for other reasons.

‘White, how is he doing that?!’ -Ken-

‘I don’t know. He must be using some kind of skill.’ -White-

‘Look into it then.’ -Ken-

‘Got it.’ -White-

“Now, now, let’s not overwhelm the kid, anyway, why don’t you introduce them what you have brought with you.” said Klein, trying to divert the subject since his friend tend to go full on researcher when encountered with new things.

“Very well, but we will have a talk later.” Indur said to Klein then faced the vehicles. “Here I have brought armors and weapons embedded with gemstones, ordered by her highness to be brought here for her training.” Indur said, gesturing to the rack full of armor and swords.

“And these are not the only ones, I have also brought our newly invented training suit, these are magically enchanted training suits designed to accommodate our soldier’s bodies when undergoing training and battles.” Indur brought out a pair of white shirt and pants which is plain with no designs whatsoever.

“What does it do?” asked Lana.

“The suit enhances body capabilities such as enduring heat, cold, basically any harsh environment and other complications when worn, if I have to scale it, the suit can protect you from a tier 1 spell, but of course, higher than that can cause harm.” explained Indur, Ken was once again amazed by the said invention, although thinking that it really isn’t a massive feat, still it’s an accomplishment.

“Is it safe to use? Won’t the enchantments on the clothing affect the wearer?” asked Ulysses looking at the head researcher with scrutinizing gaze.

“Yes it is safe to use, as we have developed this in the past few months, over the first week it was used, it didn’t cause any side effects to our soldiers, thus we have ensured that all soldiers of the dragon kingdom gets one as we think it would deliver outstanding results.” said Indur proudly, making Ken think whether this was a kind of modernization trait.

‘White, have you explored the Dragon Kingdom?’ -Ken-

‘Yes, I have.’ -White-

‘What’s the status of their technological advancement?’ -Ken-

‘They are getting close to learning about science, as they had taken into account on studying about the natural order of things.’ -White-

‘Then what about the suit?’ -Ken-

‘I don’t know much, but I’ll look into it later.’ -White-

‘Okay’ replied Ken to his head thinking that he can’t help but feel mesmerized by the invention.

“I see you’re interested on our creation, well you should be as it has become a great achievement to our kingdom, pushing our technological advancement forward, and with this as the start, I’m sure we’ll be able to secure a bright future for the kingdom.

Unless we push up the standards on our schools, give the students more opportunities to learn, and specifically guide those gifted ones on their specific fields we-“ Indur could not finish his rant…

“That’s enough Indur.” as he was stopped by Klein, feeling a headache coming from his friend’s rant, as he had known that Indur was prone to getting lost in his own world.

“Did you bring other things along with you?” said Klein to his friend, Indur nodded, went inside one of the carriages, and brought with him a box, opened it and showed the content to the others.

“I’ve also brought accessories, rings, amulets, necklaces and bracelets, and just like the other stuffs I’ve brought with me, these things are also enchanted with magic, the enchantment on these things are space magic, letting you store inanimate object onto them, with a capacity that varies on each accessory.” explained Indur, whiles showing it around.

“Excuse me sir, if you don’t mind me asking, how were you able to enchant these things with magic?” asked Ken, with glittering eyes, and a slight bounce to his feet.

“We were able to enchant these objects with magical properties through the use of runes.” said Indur. “Are you familiar with runes?” he asked…

“No sir, what is it?” replied Ken.

“Runes are magical glyphs, it has magical properties according to the elemental mana it was forged on, with a specific rune, you will be able to enchant it upon an object, but the process is quite hard, if done incorrectly, it could cause massive loss in both resources and quality of the product.” explained Indur.

“Why elemental mana? And not elemental magic?” asked Ken quickly after Indur finished his sentence.

“Why you ask, because elemental mana is like raw mana but with a specific elemental affinity to it, unlike elemental magic which is the raw form of conjuring raw mana into an element hence having its effects of fire, water, and etc. on its output,

Elemental mana however is the use of converting raw mana into a specified elemental effect.” explained Indur but was reciprocated with a confused look from Ken.

“You don’t understand?” Ken shook his head no. “Then let me put it simply, when we use spells commonly it takes the form of the element we desire, when it comes to runes formed by elemental mana,

It’s like using a spell with a desired elemental effect but on its raw mana form, once you have converted raw mana into elemental mana, you are then able to create runes out of those mana.” explained Indur to which Ken nodded holding his chin in a contemplative manner, Indur was about to move on with his task when he got interrupted again, making him frustrated.

“What now?” -Indur-

“I would like to ask one last question.” said Ken, feeling frustrated but unwilling to reject the offer, Indur nodded.

“Is it possible to create runes out of raw mana?” asked Ken which made the head researcher think, clearing his mind out of all those angry thoughts, as a sense of enlightenment struck him.

“Hmmm, that’s a good question, I shall look into it once I return, but what made you ask such question?” replied Indur to Ken, genuinely curious to the young ones sudden thought.

“I just thought, why not use raw mana to create runes? Is it any different with elemental mana?” said Ken, not agreeing nor denying the truth of the matter but implying on both sides of the topic.

“Good thought there boy, I must say Klein, you have a promising student here.” said Indur as he addressed Klein.

“Thank you Indur, but wait till you see them use magic.” -Klein-

“I’ll be looking forward to it, since I will be here for the majority of the day before returning, but why did you say them? Aren’t we just talking about this student?” said Indur, the others could not help how Indur could just blatantly speak of such matters as if it was a normal conversation, they were also capable of great feats too you know.

“Oh trust me, I assure you that our other students will show you an astounding performance later on to the day.” said Klein to his friend, Indur is still skeptical but dropped the topic as he respects the words of his friend.

After all they both were in the research team before, and until now, although it was more like distant learning for the two of them since responsibilities kept them from doing their research together.

“Klein, have you got any support magic tools for the students?” asked Indur.

“No, I don’t, I did thought of that some time ago but abandoned the thought since I was busy with my responsibilities here and my job as their master/ teacher.” -Klein-

“Well, good news, I’ve brought some with me, and I’m giving them to you.” said Indur catching Klein of guard as he widened his eyes in surprise.

“R-Really? That would be wonderful for them.” said Klein in delight, while the three students wore confused expressions.

“I couldn’t go empty handed, and besides, this was your idea, and since you have helped in the past to create a handful of these tools to help the kingdom, I think it’s good for us to bring some for you as a form of repaying our debt to you.” said Indur fondly towards Klein,

The others can’t help but feel that there’s something going on with the two, especially Ken who’s grinning mischievously with a thought in his mind.

‘What are you thinking?’ -White-

‘Oh, nothing, hehe.’ -Ken-

‘O-kay, anyway, in regards to your first question, he used a unique skill only to him which lets him perceive the mana of other people, let’s call it mana sense.’ -White-

‘Woah! That’s so cool, do you think I too can have one?’ -Ken-

‘Depends if you can create such a skill.’ -White-

‘Okay!’ -Ken-

Just as the two finished talking telepathically, their other friends have arrived at the field lead by the princess, the gang interacted for awhile before abruptly being interrupted by soldiers walking into the field from the direction their group of friends came from.

The soldiers were about two hundred, and others of them looked similar to the head researcher bringing with them books, notes pens on a sling bag but the group of disciples -except for princess Lang- had a difficult time discerning them from the rest of the soldiers since all their indication is a white cape behind their back and the sling bag.

The first seven disciples thought that they were generals or someone with a high rank within the battalion since they look lavish with those capes behind their backs, but their assumption was quickly shut down when twenty of them walked towards the equipment Ken created.

And the other twenty -giving them a forty researchers in total- positioned themselves behind Indur in two lines, the other twenty who had arrived at the equipments got into work of studying the strange contraption.

Ken was worried of what they might do to his equipments, he looked at his master, and was met with Klein’s calm and stoic face, indicating that there’s nothing to worry about, easing up his worries, but the initial thought still lingered, so he forced himself to focus.

The left behind one hundred sixty soldiers whom formed a formation of five groups with four lines having eight individuals in each line, four of them station at every edge of the field, while the last group positioned themselves behind the carriages and coach.

“Greetings your highness, and companions.” said Indur and bowing in respect to the newly arrived princess.

“Greetings head researchers, I see that you’ve brought the things I’ve asked for, but I wonder, why did you bring more than what I tasked you to do?” said Princess Lang, the statement oddly sounded offending to the others who doesn’t know her well,

But it was a different story when it comes to Indur, as he had known that this was just the princess showing her concern as he raised his head to answer.

“No worries your highness, I assure you that these extra luggage we’ve brought did not deter the progress of the kingdom, they are merely gifts to one of our benefactors.” explained Indur, to which the princess nodded.

“Then what are the other researchers doing here?” asked Princess Lang, curious as to what their head researcher is about to do.

“They are here to help me in examining the performance of our inventions in your training today, would you allow us to study them your highness?” asked Indur, the princess cannot refuse as she knows that it was due to this kind of behavior of Indur that led their research department through leaps and bounds of achievement and development.

“I’ll allow it, as long as it does not cause any harm towards my companions.” replied the princess, which made the head researcher smile in glee and the other researchers to bow in gratitude towards the princess.

Indur then nodded to the other twenty researchers by the equipment area to start researching the contraptions and learn about their function/s, he then direct the other twenty behind his back to pick up ten training suits from the coach and prepare the princess’s exclusively made training suit, as well as prepare the armors and weapons that will be used.

“Oh and before I forget, please give these ten support magic tools to your students since our princess already has one.” said Indur handing out ten gemstones to Klein.

“Of course.” replied Klein, Indur nodded then turned around to the other dragon soldiers and researchers to position themselves at the sidelines and bring with them the carriages and coach.

While the group that was left at the field -particularly the disciples- were dumbfounded, some thought that they feel like guinea pigs for experiments -which was the sole thought of Ken-, but nonetheless they readied themselves, as the researchers handed them the training suit to wear, ten were all white, while the princess had outlines of red to her suit.

‘I think I don’t need to tell you the properties of the suit now do I.’ -White-

‘Hmm, you could have, but since we’ll be using one so I’ll just find out for myself, but you’ll still help, right?’ -Ken-

‘Of course.’ -White-

“Now here’s what you’ll be doing once you’ve worn the suit, try to use your mana by imprinting it to the suit, letting it recognize you and giving you access to its uses and activating it’s enchantment.” said Indur to the eleven students who were given the suits. “Is that clear?”

“Yes sir.” replied simultaneously of the eleven with a nod.

“If you have any questions, you can ask them later after every procedure we would like for you to do.” added Indur, he then turned around to position himself before the twenty researchers at the center edge of the field.

‘Yup, we’re more like experimented guinea pigs, *chuckles internally*.’ -Ken-

With that thought in mind, Ken mentally prepared himself for the day.

——-