Mystical Journey

Maria shifted her head over. She had an oval face and white skin. It was just that her eyes were a little small; this was caused by nearsightedness from reading and studying. Her small eyes ruined her overall appearance, channeling an aura of reservedness.

“I’m back for a matter. Father, why did you head out? I made my way back to inform you of an important matter!” She spoke with seriousness and let go of the watering can in her hands. Kevin noticed that watering pot had run out of water for a long time, yet she did not realize this. It was obvious the matter for which she returned was important.

“What is it, you say?” His mutter hid a few syllables and released a still boundary around to prevent any leakage of sound.

The half transparent membrane slowly spread out, enveloping over the both of them. The noise from the outside world was completely isolated while the voices inside wouldn’t be able to make their way out.

Maria looked at Kevin gravely.

“Father, do not accept the badge from the Dragon Alliance Treaty of the empire! Do not ever!”

Dragon Alliance Treaty? Badge? Kevin was stunned. First, he received an advice from Selena and his daughter came from afar to warn him.

Even a silly person like Kevin would know something was wrong.

He was about to surprise his daughter with the badge he clenched behind his back. Hearing this, he simply couldn’t whip it out.

“Why?” He struggled to calm down and asked in a low tone.

“Those who held the badges distributed this time have the obligation to participate in war and required to go into battle!” Maria answered in solemnity, “These badges could definitely summon the drags, but they too are obligated to join the battle.”

“Battle? Against the Black Streak Empire?” Kevin felt his throat going dry. He had some prediction that he had to pay a price as every want needed to be obtained by sacrifice. He just didn’t think that this badge would require him to pay such a high price.

“Yes, the moment of your acceptance of the badge and signing your own name would automatically count as signing an agreement to participate the war against Black Streak Empire. Our Deladia Empire is located at the juncture between the North and South. We must first take care of the Black Streak Empire separated in the middle in order to seize the rich soil of the South. This is a war that could destroy an empire; it not a child’s play!” His daughter, Maria solemnly declared.

“This is news gathered from mother. She specifically came to warn me from receiving that badge. Only those wizards who have no more hope would gamble by accepting the badge.”

Looking at Maria’s concerned face, Kevin felt lumps up his throat. He didn’t know how to tell his daughter that everything was too late.

He knew what he was made of. He was only a wizard who thrived through wizardry potions. If he could depend on his accumulated savings on selling potions to summon dragons a couple of times, then if he were to stand in battle his death would almost be inevitable.

He had never actually battled anyone before. He was a purely academic wizard.

The badge was already in his hands. This meant that the deed was sealed.

Kevin tightened his grip on the badge. He felt helpless and depressed.

Compared to the resources on his mother’s side, he was only a regular little Level Four wizard. He possessed no strong connections and could not provide his daughter with enough assistance.

As for her mother, she would often bring her to gatherings of those young nobles, receive advice from other Great Wizards, and travel abroad to other wizard organizations for study exchanges.

This was how his daughter came about to be a Level Four wizard at a young age, entering the Moon Trace Watchers and becoming a genius elite that was nurtured with importance.

Seeing her father’s expression, Maria sensed something amiss. She immediately became nervous.

“Don’t tell me, father, you…!”

Kevin took a deep breath in and looked into his daughter’s worried eyes. In the end, he nodded.

“I have already accepted the badge…”

These words had Maria’s heart sink deep but more so was sorrow. As a wizard, she had already considered the worst case scenario before her arrival.

“It… It’s okay. Don’t you still have me? Don’t worry, father. I have arranged everything.”

“Arranged? What arrangement?” Kevin was stumped. He didn’t think that his daughter could be this calm.

Wars against the Black Streak Empire had been known to always lead to major losses. Joining the battle, even if he was a wizard, the chances of him returning was only estimated at one in four.

Maria drew a deep breath in and regained her composure.

“Don’t worry, I have upgraded to a Level Four battle wizard!” She extended her arm to grab Kevin’s hand. “This time, I will protect you!!”

Gazing at Kevin’s hesitation, he quickly took out a small round black rock.

“Look, this is the proof of my drop out. I have discontinued my studies. You need not worry about my studies. I have taken care of everything…”

Smack!

A clear and crisp sound was heard.

Kevin’s hand was raised up high. He gazed at his daughter in sorrow, pain, and disappointment.

“Did I say I need your help?! Who told you to drop out! Who told you to drop out! Huh!?”

Kevin couldn’t help it as his tears gushed out of his eyes. He would never have thought that not only could he not help his daughter, he even became her burden.

What was the battlefield of the Black Streak? It has a death poll as high as one in four! If anything were to happen to his daughter joining him in battle…

“It’s okay,” Maria’s right cheek was swollen but a smile still beamed through. “I have already dropped out and your badge may not be able to summon a dragon. We don’t need to worry too much. Maybe we’ll be able to summon the strongest black dragon?”

Kevin looked at his daughter with torrenting pain creeping up wave by wave.

Finally, the father-daughter duo couldn’t help but embrace each other and whimpered.

They did not resemble one bit the honorable wizards.

******

At night.

All the wizards in town and wizards who accepted the badges gathered in the town center. A huge canopy was built there. All the citizens around were moved out to leave this town.

Accepting the badge was equivalent to signing an agreement. The empire would be in charge of the aftermath. Those who survived the battlefield and established a certain meritorious service would regain freedom and the dragon in pact would naturally be the wizard’s personal pledged partner.

This was the so-called high risk, high reward.

To be pledged partners with a dragon, even a low-level wizard would pose a huge threat to high-level wizards. After all, even the weakest White Dragon and green dragon clan was a level six standard in adulthood.

So under such conditions, naturally there would be many wizards willing to take the risk.

Kevin, together with his daughter who was dead set on following him, participated in this Summoning Affair at night.

He brought along his large amount of summoning materials based on the requirement. A mountain of gemstones, heptachromic gemstones and a small bottle of sulfur. It was said that it could increase the chances of summoning a black dragon and a red dragon.

This time they could choose the strongest black dragon or the second, red dragon. They were really fond of volcanos.

Carrying hope with them, they were dressed in long robes and standing in the midst of the crowd. Tens of wizards formed a circle and listened to a Great Wizard of the empire in the center speak nonsense in the center. Most of their thoughts were running through the kind of dragons they would be able to summon in a moment.

“The empire has sacrificed a lot to be able to sign the Dragon Alliance Treaty with the dragon clans. I hope everyone would appreciate this opportunity and chance upon the benefits from the risk. Think about it. Once you return from the battlefield, you can have a dragon partner of your own. Your social standing in this empire will be equivalent to that of a Great Wizard.”

The Imperial Great Wizard shouted with a tone of instigation.

“Tonight will be when you summon your pledged partner. Once you have summoned, you can not go back on your word. The successful wizards will heed the enlistment and onward to the border for mopping-up operations to battle with warlocks and wizards of Black Streak Empire. The process isn’t as dangerous as you’ve imagined. There will be hunting troops and assassination troops that will be assisting you. As long as you’re careful enough, completing the mission is a cinch…”

Hearing the Great Wizard’s nonsense, Maria tightened her grip on Kevin’s hand. She could feel the nervousness of her father.

“Don’t worry, father. I am here with you. It will be okay.”

“I’m alright, I’m alright. It will be fine.” Kevin nodded but felt sorrow creeping in. As a father and a senior, to think needed his daughter to comfort him in turn.

“I have participated in assassination and hunting talks in the academy. Don’t worry, it will be alright.” Maria was calm. It didn’t look like she was faking it.

Kevin felt his palms seating but gave his daughter a gentle smile, although even he felt his smile was stiff.

The success and failure would be known tonight. If he could summon a black or red dragon, then his safety would be ensured by a whole lot.

******

Garen had recently distributed the majority of his attribute points evenly between attributes. He only left a bit on his Draconic Aura.

Within the span of more than a year, he had accumulated 62 potential points. Adding these potential points onto the attributes wasn’t the same as other worlds that require many points to increase just one attribute. There were no restrictions here as one potential point was equivalent to one attribute point.

However, Garen suspected that it might be due to the fact that this body had risen to an essential change stage.

Once this body achieved a qualitative change, to rise it would require an amass of more potential points to a tad of attribute increase. This was the process of forcefully increasing a qualitative change. Truth be told, heaving the body would require a huge supply of energy and couldn’t be done just by mere potential points.

Yet Garen had yet to meet with this circumstance. He suspected that either the potential points here were embedded with enough energy, or that the body of this White Dragon had yet to reach to the qualitative change level.

Overall, he took sixty points out of these sixty-two potential points to be evenly distributed among these attributes which were strength, agility, and vitality, each attribute by twenty points.

The remaining two points was appointed the Draconic Aura.

Muscles defined everything.

Garen had always believed in this.

Strength was everything. He was most proficient in this strategy. The majority of his combat strategy hovered around the sportsmanship of strength above all so increasing strength and mass was the fastest way to effectively combat and ensure survival. The remaining free time after could then be used to research on the wizardry system.

The required potential points for Draconic Aura was two points. Adding these, his Draconic Aura was now level three.