CH 4

Cloud Raising Dragon Cub App

Third Cub shook its wings and its huge form suddenly disappeared. In the place where it had just been, there was a juvenile dragon cub crouched on the lawn that had been overwhelmed, a shrunken version of the Scarlet Flame Dragon. Third Cub flew to Wuuth’s side and landed, slightly hanging its head.

[…There was a little delay on the way.]

Wuuth didn’t care about it, he put the short knife into its sheath, “Did you find her?”

Third Cub scratched the stone with his front paws,[No.]

Wuuth frowned, “Search again.”

The last place where the Rosette Leaf Dragon appeared was in this area, so he didn’t believe that he couldn’t find any trace of her in the forest.

Thinking of the Rosette Leaf Dragon, Wuuth’s eyes became dark red, between the look of ruthlessness and anger, but it quickly suppressed it. He asked again, “Where are the dragons nearby?”

[In the center of the forest. I saved a few of them some time ago, and with me here, the humans don’t dare to come in.]

“But you have to be careful,” Wuuth said, gazing coldly at the falling leaves in the distance, “And be careful to hide your tracks, there may be someone coming just for you.”

[With shape-shifting magic, humans can’t find me.]Third Cub tilted its head, signaling that it understood.

The shape-shifting magic allowed him to return to his young form, and when he flew into the clouds or the woods, he simply shrunk down and hid his scent, as if he had disappeared into thin air. The human world was more complex and dangerous than they thought, so they had to be careful.

“Good,” Wuuth got up from the stone, “I’m studying at a human Academy, so I can’t contact you all the time. I have to leave for a while in a few days.”

[Where to?]

Speaking of which, Wuuth looked a little impatient, “An Academy exchange of some sort.”

Probably just a few fights, and then he’ll be back. His teacher, a skinny old human, chased him around for days, begging him, and when Wuuth said no, he choked himself as if he was going to pass out on the spot. Wuuth had no choice but to agree, because his teacher was usually good to him and had not done anything to hurt the dragons.

Third Cub nodded, [Okay].

Wuuth looked like he was about to leave, when Third Cub tightened his front claws, and his tail dangling from the stone waved apprehensively, [And…]

“What?” Wuuth turned his head.

[I met a strange human.] Under Wuuth’s questioning gaze, Third Cub tensed and was torn, [He looks a lot like ‘Ning’.]

Wuuth’s face sank, “Do you know what you’re talking about?” His pupils suddenly changed, and his dark red eyes stared at the young dragon crouching on the stone, “A greedy, dirty, despicable human is worthy to be compared with ‘Ning’?”

Third Cub hung its head, but he believed that the human was ‘Ning’. He called out his former name, wasn’t afraid of him at all, and would speak to him in a familiar tone. He wanted to explain a bit more, but Wuuth was already on the Dwarf Dragon’s back, the setting sun shining on his side face, his fluttering lashes casting a shadow.

“He’s not coming back.” Wuuth rode the Dwarf Dragon away as soon as the words left his mouth.

Third Cub was left alone, and he stayed quiet for a while, stretching out his paws and scratching the rocks viciously, before flying into the forest and disappearing.

After settling the assignment, Ning Chu, who had just opened the game, saw that Third Cub’s status had changed again.

【Status: Distressed.】1The word used here is more like, feeling a sense of loss because of what Wuuth said. [/efn_nte]

What? What happened? He scrolled down and there was another dragon that didn’t look right either.

【Cubbie (????)】

【Status: Depressed.】

What… Ning Chu’s gaze turned to the window and looked in the direction of Enigma Forest. The two dragons’ emotions changed at the same time, were they together? But that was just Ning Chu’s guess. He paid attention to the information card while he went to the cafeteria with Bowen to get a meal.

On the way, Bowen asked him, “Where did you go this afternoon? I didn’t see you when I woke up.”

“I went to take an assignment.”

Bowen thought he was listening to someone’s instigation again, and his eyes glared under the lenses, so Ning Chu hurriedly explained, “Level 1, I finished it in one afternoon.”

“Alright.” Bowen’s expression relaxed and he pushed the glasses on the bridge of his nose. He remembered that Ning Chu had asked him about earning money in the morning, and he knew that Ning Chu’s family wasn’t well off, so he didn’t ask more questions.

When he finished eating, Bowen cleaned up the dishes and sighed, “I have another practical class tomorrow, ugh…”

It was normal for students to complain about their classes, but Ning Chu didn’t know what was going on in practice class, so he didn’t say anything in silence.

Before going to bed, Ning Chu loaded《Dragon Island》.

During the day, he went to have a look, and the rabbit meat placed at the entrance of the cave was gone, while most of the haystack was dragged into the cave and thickly matted on the ground.

At night Ning Chu came online, the baby dragon cubs were sleeping on the new hay, and there was one more adult common dragon in the cave, sleeping in the spot at the entrance of the cave.

Ning Chu watched for a while and went to check the rest of the map.

There were quite a few wild animals in the back of the mountain; rabbits, cows, sheep and whatnot, probably all the babies he used to buy from the mall to put on the island were breeding freely until now. These reserve foods looked like they weren’t quite enough, but the mall wasn’t unlocked yet, and he couldn’t buy things.

Ning Chu became fretful, thinking that he had to work a little harder to earn money. He wandered around and went offline, missing the dark purple dragon that had returned to the island.

The dragon first came to the cave entrance, but didn’t see the extra food and hay inexplicably appearing. Its eyes became slightly disappointed, it shrunk in size and entered the cave.

The next day’s practice session was held outside. Ning Chu followed Bowen to the small park at the side of the Academy, where many students were already waiting for class.

When Ning Chu appeared, a few students looked surprised and shouted, “Eh, when did Hugh come back?”

Ning Chu reacted slowly to the fact that they were calling him and looked sideways at the person who spoke. Under the thin bangs in front of his forehead, his teal pupils looked over clearly, unlike the thick hair that always covered most of his face, and his demeanor seemed different.

The man froze for a moment, and another student next to him asked, “Why didn’t you tell us? We waited for you for a long time the day before yesterday.”

Ning Chu deliberately looked timid and puzzled, “Why did you wait for me? You don’t dare to enter Enigma Forest, and you want to steal my assignment?”

The student who had just raised his voice said indignantly, “Who doesn’t dare to enter Enigma Forest?

Ning Chu responded indifferently, “That day you left directly without even approaching the entrance. I thought you were afraid, but it turns out you weren’t.”

Many students around heard his words and quietly watched the action.

The faces of several people in front of him weren’t very good, but since their innate skill wasn’t low, having someone who was much weaker questioning them about being timid and afraid, the area began to feel suffocating.

The student also wanted to say something, glanced at the direction of the teacher not far away, and immediately shut up. The teacher was a very young-looking woman, wearing a white magic robe down to her ankles, her red-brown curls tied casually behind her head.

She swept the crowd to make sure everyone was there and said, “We’ll continue practicing sparring magic today.”

Ning Chu was the only one in the room who didn’t know what sparring magic was, and the teacher sat down on a bench after that, not looking like she was going to teach it either.

He whispered to Bowen, “How do I practice?”

“You didn’t forget even the spell, did you?” Bowen pulled him back to a corner, “Did you bring your magic wand?”

The students spread out, forming groups of two or three, keeping a distance where they wouldn’t interfere with each other but wouldn’t leave the instructor’s sight.

Ning Chu took out his magic wand, “Is this it?”

Once he looked at him, Bowen knew he had forgotten everything about it, and was a little confused, but didn’t look into it. He recited a string of incantations, while waving his magic wand, when a bright green light burst from the tip of his magic wand, and quickly wilted.

Bowen hid his lips and coughed softly, “You try it.”

When learning a new spell for the first time, one needed to recite the incantation, and only when they became proficient could they activate it directly. The string of incantations was obscure and difficult to remember, so Ning Chu stumbled over it several times and waved his staff like Bowen. However, nothing happened, and the atmosphere was stagnant for a while.

“What’s wrong? You succeeded last time,” Bowen scratched his head, “Try again?”

However, no matter how much Ning Chu tried, the incantation became more and more smooth, but no magic was produced.

Bowen couldn’t do anything about it, and he didn’t dare to take Ning Chu to ask his teacher, because students with poor innate skills like theirs weren’t taken seriously and were lucky not to be scolded. He reassured Ning Chu, “Maybe it’s because of the memory loss, maybe you’ll be fine after you recover.”

Ning Chu didn’t feel too bad and nodded, “Okay, I’ll practice some more.”

The instructor occasionally got up and walked around to check the effect of the students’ practice, and when she passed by Ning Chu, she paused for a moment.

Ning Chu didn’t look away, still reciting the spell, and her footsteps then went away again.

The afternoon was still free, and Ning Chu was ready to make another trip to Crow Market. The demand for Flocculent Fruits was high, and there were basically assignments for it every day. He signed the papers and heard a commotion coming from inside.

Ning Chu twisted his head to look around, and the crowd there was hurrying to the sides to avoid it, when a familiar Dwarf Dragon came out of it. It was Wuuth’s dragon.

But Wuuth wasn’t near it, and the contracted beast basically only listened to its master, so even if the Dwarf Dragon didn’t show aggression, others still dared not approach.

Only Ning Chu knew that although the Dwarf Dragons looked fierce, they were actually very docile and hardly ever attacked people on their own. The Dwarf Dragon slowly approached Ning Chu’s direction, as if it was taking a walk. When it reached Ning Chu, the Dwarf Dragon’s footsteps stopped.

It tilted its head and sniffed, and its eyes locked on the fruit plate on the table. It was a small snack that Crow Market usually put outside for students to take, with some dried fruits and candies, among other things.

Ning Chu had just glanced at the habits and preferences of the Dwarf Dragon when he was looking through the catalog last time to confirm its breed, and he knew what it was looking at; Dwarf Dragons liked walnuts best. He took a walnut from the fruit tray and placed it on the ground near him.

The people around him watched Ning Chu’s action and whispered to each other.

The Dwarf Dragon hesitated for a moment, but finally didn’t resist the temptation of the walnut and came closer to eat it.

“Grizzly?” Wuuth’s voice suddenly sounded, and the Dwarf Dragon was startled, the walnut in its mouth accidentally dropped and rolled all the way to Wuuth’s feet.

Wuuth looked down at the walnut, and then looked at Ning Chu. Ning Chu looked at him with an innocent face, staring at him with his hands behind his back.

Wuuth withdrew his eyes and walked around the walnut towards the door, saying coldly, “Let’s go.”

The Dwarf Dragon followed his footsteps and quickly left. Ning Chu grabbed his commission card and left Crow Market as well.

Yesterday, Third Cub had left without him, and Ning Chu wasn’t sure if it would show up today. He arrived at the entrance of Enigma Forest again in the beast cart and shouted impatiently. Ning Chu waited for a while, but saw no familiar figure.

He continued to walk along the outer edge of the forest, looking for the fruit in the woods, while shouting for Third Cub. After walking for a long time, Ning Chu finished picking the fruit from two trees and stopped to sit on the grass to rest and count the fruit in his bag.

Ning Chu tied the bag and was ready to go back. Third Cub was probably out today. He got up with a sigh, and a faint sound came from the bushes behind him.

Ning Chu’s face was happy, and then he quickly reacted. Third Cub was big, so he couldn’t make this kind of noise. Ning Chu held his breath and slowly turned around, a magical beast was standing not far from him.

It looked like an adult leopard, with yellow and gray patterns on its body and vertical pupils staring at Ning Chu.

Ning Chu thought that this magical beast was at least third grade, probably left the forest periphery, and he accidentally bumped into it. He stood still and didn’t dare to make a move. He couldn’t run directly, he only had a small pathetic folding knife, and a magic staff on him.

The spell he had just practiced in the morning was still firmly in Ning Chu’s mind, and it seemed he could only try it. He quickly pulled out his magic staff and recited the spell in the direction of the beast.

——Still nothing happened.

The beast made a low, threatening sound in its throat and lowered its back in an attack position.

Ning Chu paused for a couple of seconds, clutched the Flocculent Fruit in his arms and turned to run.

In order to avoid losing his way, he deliberately memorized the terrain when he came here, so as not to panic, but how could he possibly outrun a third-grade beast with a strong body?

The sound behind him was getting closer and closer, and Ning Chu’s left shoulder hurt as he was pounced on. The fruit in his arms rolled around, and the beast, not knowing what it was, took a step backward, not immediately attacking Ning Chu.

In this gap, Ning Chu reached out to feel the folding knife on his body.

He still underestimated the danger of the forest… If he died here today, he didn’t know if he would have a chance to be reborn again. Ning Chu tried to calm himself down, observed the beast’s neck and abdomen, and quietly opened the knife.

The beast found Ning Chu seemed powerless to resist and circled around in place ready to pounce again when it suddenly stopped moving and looked at the bushes nearby. He didn’t know what it sensed, but it whimpered a few times and couldn’t stop backing up.

The bush moved, and a small red figure burst out.

It was just two palms big, its black dragon horns twisted backwards and it roared viciously at the magical beast, “Aowu!”