The next few days were relatively uneventful for Eon. The difficulty level of the exam papers suggested the teachers didn't bother holding back at all, which was a little troublesome for Eon, who was rather average at most of the subjects.

Aside from the exam papers the other hot topic around the school was the mysterious death of a King Scorpion in the southern forests. Apparently the monster was rather dangerous and notorious, giving troubles to even bigger hunter groups to track it down. The mysterious demise of that Scorpion raised some outrage in the hunter community in the town.

That actually cleared away a lot of curious behaviors the scorpion exhibited. Like how it initially trapped Myera instead of engaging in a head on battle, or how it was so scared of fire-related spells. The scars on its outer body could also be explained as sword marks acquired through struggling against the master swordsmen from a hunter group. That also made Eon wonder how powerful Myera truly was..

"Spare a minute?" A sudden question intervened Eon's musings. It was Evelyn. "I kinda have something to talk about."

Whatever she had to talk about, it clearly had her worried, Eon could tell.

Eve led him to the school gymnasium, which was rather isolated in this time of the day. "Did you kill the King Scorpion?" She asked.

Eon was slightly taken aback by the little accusation. "W-what?" He stammered.

His mouth involuntarily opened in shock as Evelyn reached her pocket and took out a small black piece of a tattered clothing.

"I was on the site with my dad as they investigated whatever was left of the scorpion corpse. I snuck in and stole this evidence." She explained. "I could recognize this color anywhere. And I bet another wave of unwanted attention is something you didn't want right now."

It was indeed a part of Eon's clothing. They were badly damaged in the battle with the scorpion. He even buried his damaged clothings so their parents wouldn't find out. So much for hiding evidence, he sighed.

"Thanks Eve.. that was actually thoughtful." Eon replied.

"So you did kill the scorpion huh."

"Well, not really. I was present there in the vicinity, planning to observe the scorpion silently. But then I was attacked by it and a wandering trader saved my life." Eon decided to omit a few details but it was a believable truth.

Eve hummed to herself. "Now that you think about it.. it does make sense." She relaxed herself on a nearby seat. "If you were to defeat the tournament champion and kill a King Scorpion, I'd definitely start investigating the legality of the source of your spells. I even started to think you got yourself a new mentor or something.."

Eon remained silent, not knowing what to reply to that.

"So, how was the experience? Facing a King Scorpion and all?"

"Nerve wrecking.." Eon chuckled nervously.

"Hey.. wanna have a little battle?" Evelyn asked after a moment's silence, her orange eyes lit up.

It was Eon's turn to get shocked again. "But why?"

"Just curious about your skill level. It's always good for mages to spar against each other from time to time, measuring their progress and everything. Right?

"We aren't even qualified as mages.." Eon sighed, which Evelyn either failed to hear or pretended not to.

Though one needed to pass the first year of a magic academy to qualify as a mage, people nowadays started to hone their skills and everything from their childhood for a head start if they aspired to be a mage. The same was true for most other fighting-job classes. So Evelyn referring themselves as 'mages' wasn't that far-fetched.

Evelyn always saw Eon as a rival. Coming off a respected mage family, she was taught spells since she could barely talk. The Ignovor family specialized in fire magic, and was famous in the whole Kingdom of Primora. The family was also famous for the party they held for the 'ignition' ritual. It's a ritual done on the family members once they reach a certain age, and it grants them superior control over their fire spells and makes their spells all the more powerful. Most mage families also had a secret of some sort, which granted the members an unfair advantage in execution of magic when compared to a mage with no background. Eon was such a mage, his parents ran a shop in Aeria, and had no combat experiences whatsoever. Eon getting a mentor at such a young age caused some form of jealousy in Evelyn's mind. And Eon personally liked to believe that Evelyn regrets rejecting Leonhart's offer to teach her Blue Magic.

The two young mages were at the two corners of the gym. Eon's plan from the start was to close the gap as most of his spells were close ranged. Evelyn on the other hand excelled in ranged spells. "Slime Magic: Hop!" Eon launched himself forward at high speed to close in.

"Flare Rain!" Evelyn summoned a magic circle in front of her. Hundreds of tiny fire projectiles were launched towards Eon, only to get deflected by a Quick Shield.

"Flame Tornado!" Evelyn casted a big fiery tornado, trapping Eon inside. A smug smile appeared on her face as no activity was seen inside the tornado.

The smile didn't last long. A horrified Evelyn saw a detached hand swiftly coming towards her. She screamed in pure horror and moved away from the hand's path. The hand grabbed the leg of the seat behind her, letting her carefully observe the apparently detached hand.

The hand did not shed any blood, instead the part detached from the main body shone in a purple light, clearly magical in origin. A fine thread of mana could be seen attached to the end of the hand, stretched towards the tornado.

"Oh.." Evelyn realized a little too late. As she turned towards the tornado, she saw Eon flying towards her. Letting out a scream she poured a big chunk of her mana in launching a powerful Fire Storm on point blank range, blasting the mage boy away.

"Good thing that direct contact with fire casted with magic can't easily burn a living being.. right?" Eon muttered as he collapsed on the floor.

***

A human or any living being had its own magic resistance. The more powerful a being was, the higher was its magic resistance. That was why using any spell on an inanimate object dealt more damage than casting it on a living person. This was also why a lance might pierce through anything with ease, but an Air Javelin used by the same lance on a monster might just simply push it away.

But sadly the magic resistance didn't fully apply on the target's possessions. And thus Eon would still have to explain why his shirt had burn marks all over. Eon loved these little battles, but he knew explaining it to his mother would be a nightmare, especially after his little incident in the tournament.

"Oh, you're home!" Eon's mother peeked from the kitchen. "Want something to ea-" she failed to complete her sentence before noticing Eon's shirt's condition. "By the grace of Goddess Cogna what did you do? You promised me you would stay out of fights till you completely heal! You were in the hospital less than a week ago!"

A load of question answering and reassuring later Eon went upstairs and entered his room, holding a plate of cockatrice meat nuggets. Making himself comfortable in his chair he put a nugget in his mouth and stared through his window. He saw a vendor outside trying to sell his neighbor some quetzalcoatl feathers as good luck charm, and claiming they are indeed the real thing. "I'm gonna miss this place.." He sighed as he looked around the house, realizing his peaceful days in Aeria would be coming to an end as he was going to get enrolled in Grimoria's Magic Academy soon.

"How about visiting us every once in a while then?" Mother's voice startled him. He looked away, slightly embarrassed. She picked up a nugget from his plate and put it in her mouth. "I bet you wouldn't find your mom's special nuggets over there."

"I'll visit every once in a while."

"Liar.."

"What?" Eon looked at his mom to find her staring outside the window with a frown on her face.

"That vendor is such a convincing liar, if I didn't have enough experience with dealing quetzalcoatl feathers I'd believe him too!"

Ah! so the feathers were indeed fake. Wait..

"You dealt with quetzalcoatl feathers before?" A surprised Eon asked his mother.

"Yes well.. You know your grandparents were monster loot suppliers. And often the shop had hunters trying to sell fake loots for more price. Before marriage I used to manage the shop as well. And I have a great eye for identifying real or fake ingredients. Your mother is pretty awesome." She smiled smugly.

"Guess you learn something new everyday." Eon mused.

"Oh by the way, Mr. Brute asked for you earlier. He told me he has something important to discuss with you. It's gotten dark already so don't forget to pay him a visit tomorrow."

Eon's mother picked another nugget from his plate and left the room.

***

In a rather dark room in the midst of nowhere, a middle aged man in a robe paced like a caged tiger. Surrounding him were glass utensils and giant glass tubes filled with liquids of various colors.

"Failure.. failure.. failure.. another failure..." Anger streamed through his voice. "This is the fourth time the experiment failed like this. What was I doing wrong? Was it because I skipped over the cockatrice blood?"

He stood before a row of glass tubes, first four of which were either cracked or broken, devoid of any liquid inside. Laid under his feet were long white feathers. And broken glass.

"But I do believe this time it would work out." He looked at the fifth tube. Inside the green liquid of the tube one could see a tiny fetus of a snake-like creature thanks to the magical light. "You, my little one, are far more powerful. You shall bring fear and agony to the world once again. I hear they call your brothers Apocalypse Dragons. So I guess I should call you the same. Apocalypse Dragon III, Awaken!"

The tiny fetus in the glass tube let out a soft yet audible scream.