CH 14

Fifth Cub was about to hatch from her shell! Ning Chu froze and reacted by hurriedly locking the door to his room to prevent anyone from suddenly entering. He crouched beside the bed, not even daring to breathe too heavily, his heart racing nervously.

Crack— The dragon egg cracked open another slit.

Third Cub was so excited that he jumped up and down around the bed around the dragon egg, but was beaten straight out by the little black dragon with his paw. He settled down next to the egg and stretched his neck to sniff it.

The two dragons and Ning Chu waited together with bated breath. The dragon egg went quiet, not a sound coming from it, as if she had suddenly lost strength halfway through.

Every dragon cub’s shell needed to be broken on its own, with no external help. Ning Chu knew that this wasn’t the time to rush, so he opened the《Dragon Island》store and bought the things he would use later.

Soft towel, special milk powder and small bottle for dragon cubs, oat grass which Fifth Cub liked to eat… There was a kettle in the dormitory, but Ning Chu thought it was too slow, and borrowed Third Cub’s fire magic to brew milk powder.

When everything was ready, the dragon egg shook slightly.

The top of the egg shell pushed down a small piece from inside, and a tender green paw quickly retracted. Third Cub was even more anxious, but he didn’t dare to reach out and touch the claw, so he tilted his head and called out, “Aowu…”

More and more gaps in the surface of the eggshell soon revealed a larger gap, and a small green dragon cub timidly peeked out. She was a full circle smaller than Third Cub, but the half of her head that was exposed looked very round and appeared to have a pair of short, tiny horns that curved to the side.

The first thing she saw was Third Cub, and the young red dragon kept wagging his tail in front of her and came up to her and licked her forehead. Fifth Cub was licked by him and leaned back, holding on to the egg shell to stabilize herself. Fifth Cub was very happy to see her two companions again, but she was also a little confused when she looked around and saw Ning Chu not far away.

This was a strange human.

Fifth Cub was so startled that she almost fell head over heels as she scrambled back into her eggshell. Ning Chu’s eyes were sore and he whispered, “Little Fifth?”

The familiar tone and address made the little green dragon freeze, and she quietly probed again to look at Ning Chu. This human was unfamiliar from face to dress, but there was a sense of familiarity.

In front of him were small towels, milk bottles… and oat grass!

Fifth Cub turned her head and looked at Third Cub for help, and Third Cub “whimpered” twice.

[He’s ‘Ning’.]

Fifth Cub couldn’t believe it, and her round eyes quickly filled with water, as she struggled to get out of the eggshell. She had been sleeping for too long and had just broken her shell, so she couldn’t stabilize her limbs very well and stumbled all the way.

Ning Chu caught her halfway and carefully picked her up, holding her in his arms.

Fifth Cub was “whimpering” and climbing upwards by Ning Chu’s collar, constantly rubbing Ning Chu’s face with her horns.

Ning Chu was so distressed that he tilted his head to follow Fifth Cub’s spine and softly coaxed, “My good cub, daddy is here.”

Fifth Cub didn’t understand why she hatched again and saw ‘Ning’ even though ‘Ning’ had turned into someone else. She couldn’t think too much about it, just felt happy and buried her head into the side of Ning Chu’s neck, trying to memorize his current scent.

Ning Chu picked up Fifth Cub’s little head and picked up the milk bottle, “Are you hungry? Have something to eat first…”

He tested the temperature and was about to feed Fifth Cub when footsteps sounded in the hallway outside the dormitory door.

Ning Chu looked up alertly, put Fifth Cub back to the bed with the bottle, and pulled the curtain to cover everything inside. The next moment, the door handle twisted from the outside and Bowen’s voice rang out, “Hugh, are you in there?”

Ning Chu unlocked the door and Bowen walked into the dorm, “What did you lock it for?”

“I was just changing my clothes,” Ning Chu said as if nothing had happened, “I just locked the door for a while.”

Inside the covered bunk, Third Cub spread one wing in front of Fifth Cub, signaling her to keep quiet.

“We’re all males here, what are you worried about…” Bowen muttered, taking off his coat and getting into bed for a nap. Only when he pulled the curtain of his own bed did Ning Chu return to his own bed.

When she saw Ning Chu come back, Fifth Cub immediately crawled on top of him. Ning Chu picked her up and settled her next to his heart, then put his index finger to his lips and said silently, “Shhh.”

He picked up the bottle again and gave it to Fifth Cub to drink.

The eggshells were temporarily piled up in the corner of the bed with Third Cub stacking them using his mouth, and he flew over to Ning Chu’s shoulder to watch Fifth Cub drink the milk. The little black dragon searched Fifth Cub’s body and made sure that her status was healthy and he sat quietly on the pillow.

Fifth Cub finished the whole bottle in one gulp, burped a little, and licked the tip of her nose.

There was a small handful of oat grass on the bed, and she caught the scent and turned her head to stare. Ning Chu picked up the oat and whispered, “Want more?”

He was worried that Fifth Cub might eat all at once, so he gently rubbed her tummy with his other hand. She seemed to be fine, it didn’t bulge too much, and after Fifth Cub broke from her shell again, she seemed to be a little fatter than before.

Ning Chu took the oat grass in his hand and fed it to Fifth Cub little by little. Fifth Cub didn’t eat much before she tilted her head and stopped eating, turning over and lying on her back on Ning Chu’s chest, lifting her little paw to lick it.

She was very sleepy after eating, and her movements became slower and slower as she licked and licked, and finally fell asleep directly. Ning Chu carefully adjusted his position and pulled the thin blanket to cover Fifth Cub’s exposed stomach. He closed his eyes and also drifted off to sleep for a while.

When Ning Chu opened his eyes, Fifth Cub had just woken up and was playing with Third Cub. She couldn’t fly, and with a pair of small wings clinging to her scales on her back, she stretched her hind legs and tried to stand up and pounce on the little red dragon. She wasn’t as agile as Third Cub and was about to fall over when Third Cub flew close and caught her.

Fifth Cub steadied herself, found Ning Chu awake, and ran towards him with a cheerful cry.

Ning Chu sat up and pulled the bed curtain open a crack, and saw that Bowen’s bed was neatly tidied up, so he was relieved to see that he had gone out. Fifth Cub looked up at Ning Chu’s movements, grabbed onto his clothes and started to climb up.

While Ning Chu was taking a nap, Third Cub had briefly told Fifth Cub about everyone’s current situation, and she knew that she had to hide herself well now and not be discovered by the other humans here.

Ning Chu picked her up and cupped her round face, “Good girl, how do you feel?”

Fifth Cub came close and kissed the tip of his nose, “Aowu…”

Ning Chu smiled, and the curve of his mouth faded away again. Fifth Cub finally came back to life, and probably because of the uninterrupted supply of dragon crystals, she looked more alive, fatter and stronger than before. But Ning Chu still had one thing on his mind, how exactly had Fifth Cub died?

He once asked Third Cub, Third Cub was also not sure, only that it must be related to humans. Although Fifth Cub was the weakest of the five rare dragons, she was a magic dragon, much stronger than ordinary dragons, and knew how to change back to her juvenile form to hide her tracks. In addition, the last place where Fifth Cub appeared was Enigma Forest.

As a Rosette Leaf Dragon was filled with wood magic, the forest should be the safest place for her. Another point was that Fifth Cub didn’t eat meat, was timid by nature, introverted and kind, and would never attack people.

Ning Chu hugged Fifth Cub for a while and gently tickled her chin, “Does Fifth Cub want to… tell Daddy about the past?”

Fifth Cub was smart enough to understand what he wanted to ask. Before Ning Chu woke up, the little black dragon had already asked her once, when Fifth Cub remembered the bad memories and trembled with fear, the little black dragon didn’t force her anymore.

At this moment, having Ning Chu holding her was the greatest security. She gathered her courage and rubbed against Ning Chu’s palm, “Aowu.”

Ning Chu thought about it and opened《Dragon Island》first, and found Fifth Cub in the contract page.

“Would Little Fifth Cub be willing to make a contract with me?…” Ning Chu just clicked on the application, and the system immediately popped up a prompt.

[Congratulations, you have successfully signed a contract with ‘Fifth Cub’ a Rosette Leaf Dragon!]

The little black dragon pricked up its ears to see what kind of contract Ning Chu had made with the other dragons. However, Ning Chu’s words were just asked, and the next moment he said, “It’s done.”

No incantation, no contract formation, not even a waiting time. That was it?

The contract was signed successfully, and a new option was added to the contract service, the same as Third Cub’s,【Battle Settings】,【Daily Settings】and【Dragon Language Translation】.

Ning Chu guessed right, he could also use the magic element of Fifth Cub after he made the contract with her. Ning Chu turned on the dragon language translator and touched Fifth Cub’s head, “Okay cub, I can understand you now.”

Fifth Cub was still a bit timid, buried into the side of Ning Chu’s neck, and only raised her head after a long time. Her voice was intermittent, and through the game’s translation, Ning Chu could understand what was going on.

Fifth Cub was in the Enigma Forest when a strange group of humans broke in and found a dragon’s nest deep in the forest. They captured the young dragon cub in the nest and looked like they were planning to take it away. Normal dragon hunters never catch juvenile dragon cubs, they were too small to feed nor worth much money.

Fifth Cub originally wanted to escape, but when she saw the captured dragon cubs, she had a moment of weakness and wanted to help, but her trail was found. Fifth Cub was shivering, and she formed herself into a ball and hid in Ning Chu’s arms, “Aowuuu…”

Ning Chu vaguely heard two meanings, “the young dragons were dead” and “looking for Dragon Island”.

His heart sank.

These people wanted to find Dragon Island.

The five magic dragons were secretive and difficult to find, some people even said that every time they disappeared, they actually entered a certain realm, which was Dragon Island. Only dragons could enter, and the dragon king was the only legendary dragon on Dragon Island. Successfully taming or killing the dragon king would let anyone command all the dragons, and gain the immense power of the dragon race.

But this statement was too unbelievable, and five magic dragons’ magic being given by the dragon king was in similar rumors, and wasn’t true in the slightest. Ning Chu had heard it once in Crow Market, but no one believed it at all.

If Fifth Cub was captured by that team, they wanted Fifth Cub to lead the way to take them to Dragon Island… But they ended up killing Fifth Cub and all the young dragons.

Ning Chu has no difficulty in imagining what these people did. His guess was basically the same as what Fifth Cub said. Third Cub was so angry that he flew in the air furiously, and the flames in his mouth didn’t stop, splashing on the bed curtain and burning a hole the size of a fingernail.

For the first time, the little black dragon didn’t stop Third Cub’s reckless behavior. His pupils were red, and his sharp claws uncontrollably flexed.

When he found these people, he would tear them into pieces.

Ning Chu lowered his eyes and smoothed Fifth Cub’s spine while reassuring her, “It’s okay… it’s okay. I’m here.”

Fifth Cub slowly calmed down and fell asleep again with her head buried in Ning Chu’s neck.

It was normal for her to be sleepy in the past few days since she had just broken her shell, so Ning Chu didn’t go to the arena at night and focused on staying with her in the dormitory.

—

For the next three days in a row, Ning Chu didn’t accept any challenges and didn’t appear in the arena. The rumors started to spread among the students that he had signed up for the Beast Cleanup, so he wasn’t available recently. In fact, Ning Chu stayed in the dormitory whenever he was free since Fifth Cub wasn’t emotionally stable yet and was very clingy to him.

Every day when Ning Chu went to class, she watched him leave, and when Ning Chu was coming back, she waited for him early and jumped into his arms first. At night when he slept, the little black dragon’s place was also occupied by Fifth Cub, and the little black dragon went back to sleep in his original corner.

In the past few days, Ning Chu hadn’t been idle in the game, he had slowly built Dragon Island into its original form, with residential areas, play areas and feeding areas, the captive animals had grown up so there was no worry about food reserves, and the previously abandoned playground had been renovated.

Coupled with the help of Fourth Cub, the island’s little dragon cubs were living more comfortably than before, each growing very sturdy.

As for the Beast Cleanup, Ning Chu hasn’t signed up for it yet, but he did have the intention to. Especially after he had signed a contract with Fifth Cub, he could already use wood magic without any problems. Now all that was missing was a reasonable explanation for how he went from being a scum with poor to almost zero innate skill to becoming more powerful than the strongest student in his class.

Ning Chu picked a time to go to the teacher’s office and find Clark. She was surprised by Ning Chu’s arrival and thought he had come to ask for help, showing an expression of relief and approval, “Go ahead.”

Ning Chu said, “Teacher, I’m going to participate in the Academy’s Beast Cleanup.”

Clark immediately lost her smile, “What nonsense are you saying? Shouldn’t you know the best how weak you are?”

“Teacher, actually I…” Ning Chu bowed his head and sighed, pretending to have no choice, “In fact, my innate skill isn’t what I’ve shown in class.”

Clark looked him up and down, “Is that true?”

“A while ago my innate skill suddenly skyrocketed, and I was too scared to tell anyone or show it.” Ning Chu was very nervous, afraid that Clark would see what was going on, and this reason sounded inexplicably awkward, but now, Ning Chu could only continue to go along with it. “Recently, the beasts have been rampaging, and I wanted to do my part for the Academy, and I don’t want to be my old weak self again.”

Clark’s eyes were suspicious, not clear how much she believed, as she looked up slightly, “What innate skill do you have now? Let me see.”

Ning Chu quietly confirmed that no one was passing outside the office, before his hands gathered a cloud of wood aura, instantly knocking down several books on the table behind Clark.

“Sorry…” Ning Chu walked over and picked up the books and set them up again, and Clark’s eyes suddenly lit up.

The magic Ning Chu had just used was simple, but the concentration of magic elements contained in it and the speed was beyond the ability of students of his age.

Clark was half convinced and got up to look at Ning Chu again, “You’ve improved… How did you change so much?”

Ning Chu said he didn’t know, and he was trying to figure it out.

In the end, Clark speculated that it was likely that his innate skill was extremely high but had been suppressed for some reason at an early age and had only recently been able to break through.

Ning Chu immediately confirmed, “You’re right, I think so too.” He tried to ask again, “So then, the Beast Cleanup…”

Clark said, “The power of high level magical beasts is not ordinary, you…”

“Don’t worry, I won’t act alone,” Ning Chu immediately added, “I had coincidentally met with Bly of the mercenary group earlier, I will team up with him.”

At the critical moment, Ning Chu used Bly’s name.

“You know him?” Clark raised an eyebrow and resumed her seat in the chair, “Okay, I’ll give you permission to go.”

She took out a round pin from the drawer with the Lance Academy logo engraved on it, and by wearing it, one could participate in the Beast Cleanup and could enter and leave the Academy freely.

Clark handed the pin to Ning Chu and said, “You can skip the rest of the class and the credits will be recorded as usual.”

Ning Chu took the pin, “Thank you.”

Clark agreed to keep Ning Chu’s innate skill a secret for now.

Before Ning Chu left, Clark warned, “Your safety is most important, don’t be a hero.”

Ning Chu thanked her again and left the office. With this one thing settled, Ning Chu began to worry about how to coax Fifth Cub again. He was worried about the danger outside, so he wanted to leave Fifth Cub in the dormitory and let Cubbie take care of her, and he would only take Third Cub with him.

The reason for leaving Cubbie behind was that he was afraid of being found outside, unlike Third Cub, who had been around Enigma Forest before, so he wasn’t worried about him showing his true form in case of any unexpected situation. Fifth Cub’s eyes were filled with tears as soon as she heard that he wasn’t taking her with him. Her paws grabbed Ning Chu’s collar and refused to let it go.

She had been resurrected once and was more sensitive to things like separation, especially since Ning Chu had been away for so long. She didn’t want to stay in the dormitory, she wanted to go out with Ning Chu.

Ning Chu patiently coaxed, “I’m just going to class, I’ll be back soon, and it’s dangerous outside, there are many bad people. You’re safest here.”

Hearing Ning Chu say that there were bad people outside, Fifth Cub slightly shivered and started to hesitate a little.

Before Bowen came back, Ning Chu fed her oat grass, bought several toys, and played with Fifth Cub for a long time. Finally, Ning Chu repeatedly promised that he would come back as soon as possible, and Fifth Cub sullenly agreed.

The next morning, Bowen urged Ning Chu to go to class, and Ning Chu smiled awkwardly, “I… I’m taking a leave of absence.”

Bowen’s eyes widened beneath his lenses, “You took off time again? Aren’t you afraid that Clark…”

Ning Chu answered him evasively, “It’s okay, I told Clark yesterday and she agreed.”

Bowen’s expression was puzzled, but he was in a hurry to get to class, so he didn’t ask more questions and nodded, “Okay then, I’ll go first.”

After the students on the floor went to class one after another, Ning Chu changed into another outfit and put on a loose jacket outside. There was a large pocket on the inside of the jacket, and Third Cub could be hidden inside.

He picked up the Fifth Cub and kissed her on the forehead, “Wait for me.”

The little black dragon stared intently, his eyes fixed on Ning Chu’s lips. Fifth Cub was put back on the bed, she whimpered a few times and turned her head on the pillow to face Ning Chu with her tail. Ning Chu knew she was still a little upset and sighed silently. He bent down and rubbed the little black dragon squatting next to the bed, “Cubbie be good at home too, take care of Little Five.”

The little black dragon was still staring at his lips, but Ning Chu didn’t even notice, and got up to put on the brooch Clark gave him yesterday. He tucked Third Cub into his jacket and pushed the door open.

At this time of the day, most of the students were in class and there was little movement in the Academy, so Ning Chu relied on the pin and made it out of the school. He first went to the arena to pick up his usual mask from Donald.

Knowing that Ning Chu was going to participate in the Beast Cleanup, Donald half-joked, “My place has gotten a lot cooler since you haven’t been here lately.”

Ning Chu’s current popularity was as high as Wuuth’s, plus there were rumors that the two knew each other somewhat, making his identity even more mysterious.

Ning Chu smiled, “I’ll be back to earn some money.”

He said goodbye to Donald, left Crow Market and went to a hidden corner nearby, made sure no one was around, and put on his mask. The mask firmly concealed Ning Chu’s face, along with his teal pupils, and otherwise didn’t affect his vision or movement.

Outside the school he had to use Hugh’s identity, but outside the school, he was “Ning”.

Inside the dormitory, the little black dragon played with a rattan ball with Fifth Cub for a while, and then suddenly changed back to his human form and sat on the edge of the bed. Fifth Cub knew that Wuuth had a human form and had seen his face before, so she was only slightly stunned, not surprised. She licked her paw and pushed the rattan ball.

Wuuth caught the rattan ball, picked it up and put it aside, “Come with me.”

He picked up the Fifth Cub, hid her in his collar, and took her quietly back to his dormitory building when no one was around. Wuuth was in a special situation, the dormitory he was given allowed him to live alone, and there was no one else in his room.

Wuuth put down Fifth Cub, found a black jacket similar to Ning Chu’s from his closet, and put it on. He pulled up the jacket, half squatted in front of Fifth Cub, and gently scratched Fifth Cub’s chin like Ning Chu did, asking, “Do you want to go find your dad?”