I walked out of my building, only a small apartment with the barest of necessities because it was all I could afford, and went to the Magic Academy. Not to be a bit arrogant, but my own talent is quite good, it’s in Dimensional and Healing magic, and allowed me to obtain a scholarship here, otherwise the exorbitant amount of money needed would have locked the entire Academy to me. Compared to the little village I came from, the capital is very flashy. With skyscrapers as far as the eye can see, jutting into the air kilometers high, some made of pure glass, others were mechanical wonders with the cold gleam of steel. The entire capital is huge, over 5,000 square kilometers for the city itself, but the land surrounding it that's considered part of the capital is well over 50,000 square kilometers.

The Magic Academy was not far ahead, it had a theme similar to the buildings before The Last War, made mostly of wood with some glass here and there for the windows. It painted a stark contrast to the new age buildings near it, though not to say that was a bad thing. It was a nice building to look at, but the teachers inside it were hellish. The amount of work required, and expectations set were enormous. But I liked the work, it allowed me to take my mind off the state of my mother, the only reason I am in this Academy is to one day cure her via healing magic. The archetype was rare in and of itself, not to mention the mentors willing to teach it are few and far between.

I entered my classroom, absentmindedly wondering whether I could find a teacher willing to help me with healing spells. If I couldn’t find one willing to help me here, then it would be damn near impossible to find it anywhere in The Empire of Iabrun. Walking through the hallways of the Academy after class was an enjoyable pastime, the building was beautiful. I arrived at the library, not for my healing magic, that couldn’t be helped with the library books, but for my hobby.

“Hello Forica, how’s the day at the library been?” I asked the middle-aged woman sitting there at the front, she had a tough looking face but warmed up a bit when greeting me. “It’s been fine, about as boring as ever, how’s your day Mike?”, she asked me. “It was fine, just checking in to see if I could find anything interesting.” I followed up, the library was massive and should stave off my boredom for a while. “Good, do you have your card?” Forica asked me, I nodded and followed the standard procedure to get inside.

Looking around, there seemed to be an endless expanse of books around me, the library was massive and I would stay here for days on end if I could. I already read most of what caught my eye in the area’s near the entrance, so I started to walk towards the older parts of the library, interestingly the Duchess of Lendenburg, Arianna, was here as well. I didn’t dislike the Nobles of the Empire, they did their best to help the citizens with what they could afford to, and especially wouldn't hate one who is willing to walk the arduous journey of magic.

Smiling, I approached her. But, she sensed me before I could start a conversation. “Oh, hello Mike! How are you?” she said with a smile which radiated like the sun, similar to the intensity of the sun in the coastal province of Lendenburg. She had an olive-tanned skin color, and was just slightly shorter than me at 5’10 feet but still very tall compared to most other people, and she had a bountiful bosom. Her silver hair shimmered in the light shining through the window, with her face radiating the unattainable beauty of the highest Noble in the Empire, captivating is all I have to say about her. The smile she had was infectious, and put me in a better mood, “Good morning to you, Lady Arianna. I’m fine, just searching for a book to read.” Her smile stiffened a bit, “Mike, how much have I told you? You can just call me Arianna.” she replied, I knew what she said but if her father, the current Duke of Lendenburg, caught wind of me saying her name with no honorific, I would be killed in secret before I could walk home, Nobles had their ways. She continued, “Mike, I found this cool book in my private library, would you like to see it?”

The informal use of words and tone was jarring when used by the Duchess, but I knew she just wanted to blend in with the rest of the students, she saw herself as a peer and not the Duchess. A Noble I could get behind, “Sure, lead the way” I said and she started walking. My eyes slowly drifted to the swaying of her hips, I’m sure I could have looked at it for hours, but I had to wrench my eyes away from the intoxicating view and look at where I was walking. The Duchess led me to the middle of the library where she had a large private table arranged for herself with the book atop it, she could afford to just leave her private belongings, any fool that dared to steal from her would find their head on the chopping block the next hour. She started to drag a chair for me, but I stopped her and dragged it myself, I wouldn’t want to bother her with this small trivial task.

We both sat down, she had the nice light scent of a perfume made in her fief, a perfume famous throughout the entire world, she was a truly intoxicating beauty but the book in front of me took my gaze away from her. It was a thick book titled “Dragons: Beasts of Calamity” by Vim Rhodes which instantly took my interest. The Duchess with her rousing smile looked at me and said “I found this in my own library, I thought you’d like it”. I nodded and started to open the book, Dragon was a familiar word but I don’t remember what it exactly meant. The Duchess looked a little disappointed, for what I have no idea, but also held rapt attention to the book.

The book’s first page showed a few names, looking like a family tree, with a picture of a lizard with massive horns at the top named “Adult Dragon” with another lizard under it with slightly smaller horns named “Juvenile Dragon”, and so on with “Young Dragon” and “Baby Dragon”, under that however was two branches, “Adult Drake” and “Adult Wyvern”, and they also used the naming of different stages in life to differentiate them. The Wyvern seems to only have 4 limbs, but the Drake looks like a mini Dragon, they both evolve to a Dragon though, it seems. The two of them both originate from a thing named a “wyrm”, that only has 2 stages of “Juvenile” and “Adult.”

Interesting, these Dragons were old monsters? Then they must have been exterminated by the adventurers, though I hate them and their feeble minds that only know how to attack monsters, they do help the population by culling the monsters. I opened the book, it started with the wyrms. The Duchess didn’t seem quite so excited at these little monsters and neither did I, the largest Adult Wyrm can only reach 6 meters at most, miniscule compared to some goliaths that the adventurers had to slay. I skipped to the first stage of the Dragon line, a Baby Dragon, which sounded much more interesting.

Do not be fooled, a Baby Dragon is not a stage of life, it is more of an evolution into a new race. I have no idea why these strange creatures go through evolution like this, the stages seem to correspond to the stages of life in a Dragon’s life, but they are completely different creatures as far as I could find out. Nevertheless, a Baby Dragon is not to be underestimated. At the least, it is a 25 meter long creature with enough power to raze a city-state to the ground. An expedition of nearly 5,000 B-tier adventurers, or 500 A-tiers, would be needed to kill one.

Interesting, B and A rank adventurers were no joke, and 25 meters long would be on the upper end of monster sizes, but still small compared to the mythical creatures that are posted on the top of the Adventurer Society’s boards. The Duchess now had her full attention on the book and so did I. I kept reading the lines on the page.

Their diet seems to be anything and everything magically related, whether it be meat, rocks or plants. Their lairs are always in mana-rich area’s, and for some odd reason, they always hold hordes of valuables. I see no reason for the hoarding, but without fail, every Dragon’s lair I have gazed my eyes upon have contained mountains upon mountains of loot.

Nodding my head, I turned to look at the Duchess and asked her “Have you ever heard of a Dragon before?” She shook her head, the silver hair shimmering all the while which only added to her beauty, before answering with “No, this is all new to me too. I would like to see more about these beautiful monsters” I looked at her with a peculiar look, “Beautiful?” She nodded, “I find them to be Noble creatures.” Shaking my head, and suppressing a chuckle, I didn’t dwell on the topic and instead flipped to the “Adult Dragon” page.

Do not engage at all costs.

Weird, that was the only thing written there with the portrait. I looked at the Duchess, but her eyes were glazed over, as if she was focusing on something else.