Chapter 148: Scary, Talking Dragon

"But let's not forget my role in this. I also dealt lots of attacks and I might have even dealt more damage to the beast than Kyle. Without me, you wouldn't have won this battle!" Void concluded his outburst.The group froze and their faces went pale... They felt like asking the obvious question that lingered in everyone's head: 'It can talk?'. But they weren't stupid to ask such after seeing the reaction the beast had just shown.

Lina stepped back instinctively, while Zara held her breath. Even Finn looked momentarily shaken.

"Y-you're right," Celine said with a stammer. "We didn't mean to ignore your efforts."

"Yeah," Lina added quickly, "We're sorry… dragon."

"Hmph." Void snorted, lifting his chin as if to say the matter was closed.

An awkward silence fell over the group as no one could find the courage to talk anymore. the tension thick enough to cut with a blade.

After a long pause, Finn finally broke the silence, glancing at Kyle. "So… Kyle, you never told us about your companion. How exactly did you get it?"

Kyle didn't panic when he was asked. He had already planned on what to tell them and he was confident they'll believe.

"Well," he began, choosing his words carefully. "I found him in the forest. He was… kinda stuck in a trap."

"A trap?" Celine repeated.

"Yeah. It looked like some kind of rune formation. It was draining his mana, so I broke him out. After that, he decided to stick with me."

Finn narrowed his eyes. "You're telling us that just randomly decided to follow you around because you saved it?"

Void scoffed, drawing their attention. "First of all," he said with disdain, "I'm not a that. Watch your words, human."

Finn almost fell off from fare when he heard Void speak again but knew he was in the wrong and apologized. "Sorry."

Void's eyes narrowed, and he snorted again. "It's Void."

Finn nodded before asking. "So, uh… Void. Why'd you agree to come with him?"

Void's sharp eyes narrowed further. "Do you think I would waste my time explaining myself to someone like you? I have my reasons. If you can't accept that, it's your problem, not mine."

The group recoiled slightly at Void's harsh tone, exchanging nervous glances.

"Well," Zara said, stepping in cautiously to ask the question that was in everyone's mind. "Void… are you… a dragon?"

"Nah..." Void nodded his head in denial. "I'm a cat."

Kyle sighed at Void's sarcastic reply. "He's a dragon, I guess," he said with a shrug.

"You guess? What do you mean, you guess? Either he is, or he isn't!" Lina added in a high tone.

Kyle gave another nervous chuckle. "Hey, it's not like I know much about dragons, okay? All I know is that he's ridiculously strong and can talk."

Finn looked even more incredulous. "This doesn't make sense. What would a dragon be doing in the forest? And why would it agree to be someone's pet."

"You dare insinuate that I am a mere pet?" Void screamed in anger. "Watch your tongue, human, before I teach you your place!"

"Sorry... I didn't mean it like that! I swear!"

Kyle stepped between them quickly, raising his hands. "Alright, Void, calm down. Finn didn't mean any harm."

He turned to Finn and added, "And you, maybe be a little more careful with the way you address Void."

Finn nodded quickly. "Yeah, sorry. Bad choice of words again."

Kyle decided to wrap up the conversation. "I guess I just got lucky. Found a dragon, broke him out of a trap, and now he's with me. Simple as that."

Celine frowned and her curiosity was still not satisfied. "Void, what about your family? Do you have anyone else out there?"

Void's expression darkened instantly. "I don't know," he replied. "And frankly, it's none of your business. Stop pestering me with stupid questions that don't concern you."

The sharpness of his voice made them flinch, and they instinctively stepped back with shaken confidence.

Kyle sighed again, rubbing his temples. [You're not making this easier, you know.]

[They were asking stupid questions. What do you expect me to do?]

Kyle forced a smile and turned back to the group. "Look, Void's not big on small talk. Can we drop it?"

The others nodded reluctantly, though they were still glancing nervously at Void, who stood tall and unbothered, exuding an aura of superiority.

"Fine," Lina muttered, still looking skeptical. "But I'm keeping my eye on him."

Void smirked and he exposed his sharp teeth in a grin. "Feel free to try, little human. You might learn something."

Kyle sighed, feeling the tension still lingering in the air. "Alright, enough chit-chat... We're meant to he happy that we have managed to find the source of the tide"

The group's attention shifted immediately and their earlier unease faded as the weight of their accomplishment settled in. A collective sense of relief washed over them.

"Yeah," Finn agreed, "We actually did it."

The group walked closer to wolf on the floor to examine the fallen beast. The corrupted wolf lay splayed across the ground, its massive body sliced into two perfect halves. The precision of the cut was awe-inspiring, the edges clean and sharp, as if the blade that struck it had been wielded by an expert.

"Okay, boss. What happens with the beast now?" Finn took the initiative to ask.

Kyle stepped closer to the corpse and he looked at it with a thoughtful expression. "We will check it for a mana core first."

The group exchanged glances before gathering around the massive carcass. Finn and Celine volunteered to cut into it while Kyle observed with an air of curiosity.

The group managed to cut through the beast, but when they tried to peer inside, their eyes stared on the empty hole where the mana core should have been.

"It's not here," Finn said in disbelief his voice.

"What?" Celine's brows furrowed as she leaned closer. "That's impossible. A beast this powerful should definitely have a core!"

Kyle feigned a look of surprise. "That is strange."

"None of the beasts we've fought so far had cores," Celine pointed out. "Not even the lesser ones. This… this is serious. If something's giving them energy other than mana, then we're dealing with a bigger problem than just a beast tide."

"You're right. That's not normal." Kyle confirmed, placing his hand on the wolf's hide, storing it in his inventory. Sёarᴄh the novёlF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

The group watched as the massive corpse shimmered faintly before vanishing.

"I'll carry it back to the academy," Kyle said when he saw the confused expressions of his teammates. "They'll want to study it."

Everyone nodded in agreement. None of them were particularly eager to take the beast's remains themselves.

Kyle smiled inwardly, feeling the wolf settle into his inventory alongside the thousands of other beasts he and Void had dispatched earlier. He entertained a thoughts about what he could do with all those resources before pushing the idea aside.

They still had work to do.

Turning his attention to the atmosphere, Kyle took a deep breath, feeling the dense mana in the air almost flow through his veins. The richness of the energy was intoxicating, a sharp contrast to the usual faint presence of mana outside the forest.

It felt alive, pulsating with an almost rhythmic beat, as if the very air was urging them to sit down and cultivate.

Celine took a moment to notice it too. Her hand instinctively moved to her chest as she inhaled deeply. "The mana here… it's so dense," she murmured with wide eyes.

"It's incredible," Lina agreed, glancing around. "I've never felt anything like this. It's so concentrated I feel like I could reach out and grab it."

Kyle remained quiet, his sharp gaze fixed on the glowing pool just a few meters ahead. The pool radiated an ethereal light, casting soft, shimmering waves across the surrounding area. Its surface churned slowly, as if alive, and every ripple seemed to send another surge of mana into the air.

The glow wasn't just light; it was mana in its purest, rawest form, visible to the naked eye.

The group stood rooted in place and they locked their gazes on the pool. Seconds slowly stretched into a long silence, the group's awe rendering them speechless. It wasn't until Lina finally voiced the question lingering in everyone's mind that the spell was broken.

"What… is that?" she whispered.