Author: ello peeps i bring you ch 28 if you like dont forget to rate and comment thx for reading PEACE!!

Ch 28|| Eaten?

Tara and Kai both looked confused. How can you be eaten and yet live? but Ryyla was clearly born, so how the hell did he escape then?

"Teacher enough, tell us, how did your father escape?"

"Kukuku my father, he ate the dragon that ate him!"

"You mean your father actually killed a dragon, how how is that possible?"

"Kukuku, mana, when my father got swallowed whole in desperation he punched and kicked viciously within the dragon's throat, but nothing he did seem to harm the dragon. As my father fell almost 3 hundred feet, finally, he hit the stomach acid. Within seconds, my father's armor was quickly being eaten away. He quickly climbed onto a nearby rock that was clearly 10 feet tall. Even though he had only been submerged for a few seconds the acid had eaten away most of his armor and plenty of his flesh. In some parts even my father's bones could be seen, he was in a terrible condition and he was dying ."

"Teacher what did your father do?"

"He realized something."

"And what is that?"

"The rock that he thought was a boulder, the one he climbed onto. Well, it was no mere rock, it was a mana stone. One the size of a boulder, standing 10 feet tall and 10 feet round."

Kai and Tara both gasped in shock even Sen's eyes were left wide an amazement. Because in this world there were mana stones, but that's it. There was no such thing as a mana boulder, but here Ryyla was saying it was so, the three couldn't believe it.

"Teacher, how can there be a mana stone the size of a boulder? wherein all of Gordonia can such a monstrosity exist?"

In the world of Gordonia, mana stones were rare. Not stones with an element attached such as a fire stone or an ice stone. Those were after some time manufactured by mages, but mana stones were pure condensed mana. None of which could be created by mages. All of them were only ever found beneath the ground and even when mining them you had to do it in a special way.

Mana stones are the rarest stone in the entire world and the biggest ever discovered was no more than the size of a large mans fist. A firestone or a stone of elemental quality which was made from magic would cost around 50 silver. While a mana stone the size of a pinky would easily cost around 1,000 gold and the one that was the size of a fist was easily worth 60-75,000 gold.

Why would people spend such fortunes to purchase something so small? Well, the answer is quite simple, mana stones can be used to make elemental stones with a ratio of 1 to 10,000. Yes that's right, with a mana stone the size of a pinky you could make 10,000 elemental stones, but not only that you could also smelt weapons and armor making their toughness multiply by double sometimes even triple depending on the quality of the blacksmiths skills.

That's how much raw pure power was in these mana stones. Many kingdoms rose and fell because of the slightest fluctuation of who had more mana stones. Even today mana stone mines were the most sought after resource in the entire world and to rulers nothing mattered more.

This is why Kai, Tara, and Sen couldn't comprehend a boulder-sized mana stone. The fortune which would come with owning such a stone could easily be in the 100's of billions of gold if not more. The owner could take the world for their own if they wanted it'd be as easy as taking candy from a baby.

"When my father realized it was a mana stone he couldn't even have time to care because he was dying. Imagine laying on top of 100,s of billions of gold and not caring. Who could even conceive such a notion. My father quickly absorbed some mana directly from the mana stone and using his light magic he healed in only a few seconds."

"Afterward, he was stuck, completely surrounded by a lake of acid.

So he did what any normal person could do in such a situation. He was in denial, he thought. "How could this happen to me, a warrior of the 10th rank"

"He went from being a great leader of many adventurers to completely alone in what seemed like an instant. That's exactly what he was, completely alone and then he became angry. He couldn't believe he was in such a stupid situation. To be swallowed by a dragon and not killed, to be sitting on a fortune with no way to spend it."

"He punched and kicked and cursed at the air, what were the odds to get trapped inside of a dragon astronomical. He thought he was the only being in history to ever be in a situation like this and it only made him more infuriated at the situation. After a few days he began to pray, not to anyone in particular just to anyone that would listen, but alas he was alone."

"Utterly and completely alone in this near pitch black stomach. By the 5th day, he was terribly hungry but more than that he was thirsty, so thirsty he thought he might go insane. After another 5 days he was delirious, he sat there and every few minutes he would make a ball of light and float it over that pitch black lake of acid and think to himself.

"Even if I drink just a little of that acid and then quickly use healing magic on my mouth and throat then maybe I can quench this dam thirst"

Draden was clearly losing his mind from hunger and thirst, but still he didn't act. He was at the bottom of his depression and yet even then he couldn't just jump into the acid and end it all. By now two weeks had passed and he didn't even use light magic to illuminate the surrounding darkness anymore. Draden simply lay curled up in a ball atop that stone and at this point he just didn't care anymore, he couldn't.

His hunger and thirst, his loneliness, the complete darkness the acid lake and the fortune he laid upon. None of it mattered anymore, Draden simply thought.

"Tired, so tired, it doesn't matter anymore none of it matters. I'll soon die within this beast stomach. I just wish from the bottom of my heart that this damn dragon would die, if something could kill it I could rest in peace, but I guess even that doesn't matter.Now I just simply wish to sleep."

And with that Draden slowly closed his eyes in this vast blackness and with it silence followed.

Ryyla looked down with a sad look on her face. Even just retelling the story brought emotions up within her that she herself was still confused about. A single tear rolled down her cheek coming to a rest as it splashed on the ground. In the 10 years that the three have known Ryyla none of them had ever seen her sad let alone shed a tear.

This as well brought up complicated emotions up within Sen. As he listened to her story he didn't really feel much at all ,maybe a bit excited towards the fighting aspect of it, but when Ryyla got to the sad part and then she shed a tear, Sen felt a knot twisted up in his stomach.

For some reason he didn't like seeing Ryyla saddened, it was the first time he had ever felt that way towards another person and with all of Sen's vast knowledge he had no clue what he was feeling, he softly called out to Ryyla.

"Teacher."

Sen gently placed his hand upon hers and softly gave it a small squeeze and on his face he had a bit of genuine worry. Ryyla looked up at Sen her face a bit tinged with red, she saw that Sen was worried for her and she felt happiness from the bottom of her heart.

"Hehehe, don't worry I'm fine."

Ryyla gave a small smile and set sens hand back in his lap. She lightly wiped away her tear as she continued on.

"Where were we ?"

"Your father he laid there."

"Ah yes, as my father laid there giving in and accepting his fate. He waited and waited and waited, soon 3 days had passed and he was still alive. And although he was a bit confused he was still resigned to his fate and so he continued to wait. But it was strange, absolutely bizarre, another week had passed and still he was alive. ................"

Not only that, his hunger started to fade. After another week his head cleared and after a month his body no longer lost energy, but instead regained vigor. He was astonished, and although his thirst still wasn't gone he felt somehow good. As he pondered the reason why a few more days had passed and he felt even better.

He finally realized why, it was the mana stone, what else could it be. Every day his body absorbed a bit of mana directly from the stone and he didn't know why, but somehow it was regenerating his cells anew. Every time he got hungry and his body would try to deteriorate, the stone would regenerate him satiating his hunger.

He soon realized that this stone was the answer to not only his continued life, but the dragons nearly immortal lifespan as well.

"Each dragon must have a mana stone this size within them. It maintains there life and also feeds them magical energy allowing their magic to be monstrous."

Draden couldn't help but stare in awe, he was the first elf to ever discover something so incredible about the dragons.It was at that moment an idea popped into his head.

"My body can somehow use this energy and live. If I can figure out how to control it, then I may be able to figure out how to leave here as well."

And so, Draden thought and pondered how to use the mana, and he thought and he thought and he thought. Months had passed and still he found no answers and so one day he decided he needed a break. So instead of thinking about how to use the mana he decided to exercise to clear his mind.

He punched out a few times and kicked at the air and since he hadn't exercised and he was feeling pretty good he punched some more and he kicked some more. By the end of it 7 days had passed and he was drenched in sweat. He laid down, not because he was tired, but because of his thirst. Even if he stopped getting hungry, his thirst for some reason never went away.

And so he continued to lay there and let the mana regenerate his body. As he did, he soon drifted off to sleep and when he awoke to his amazement, he being a warrior of the 10th rank with but a glance he could tell, his body, it was stronger.

Once more he was amazed, he knew it was because of the stone and so he exercised again. This time, even though he was thirsty he continued anyway just to see how far he could go and to test if it really was the stone. After 10 days he finally collapsed, his entire body emitted a white-hot steam and once more his consciousness faded from him.

When he awoke, again his body had become stronger and he wondered to himself.

"If this stone can do this how come dragons aren't stronger than they are now. If you simply have to push you self to the limit shouldn't dragons be gods and why then did they disappear."

As he stared at the stone he continued to ponder until like a lightning bolt a thought struck him.

"Maybe there's a limit to how far one can grow from this or maybe there's simply not enough mana stones in the world this big. Could this resource actually be the reason the dragon's fought each other so long ago."

End of Chapter 28