Chapter 329: A Hidden Talent

Chapter 329: A Hidden Talent

Early Evening - Late Summer : Valtivar | Siratha

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"How fascinating... So, the properties of atoms are dictated solely by the number of protons, and their stability is determined by the number of electrons and neutrons, but can be forcefully balanced with mana?" Hera slowly rotated a tiny aluminum marble with her aura as she stared into her unmoving reflection on its surface. "How did you even figure that out?"

"Haha," I let out an awkward chuckle, unsure how to respond. "It's not too hard to figure out with space mana."

"Not too hard, he says..." A smile slowly mixed into her dumbfounded expression as she looked toward Mother and Father.

But they both simply gave slow nods of understanding. "We know how you feel."

Eventually turning back to me, she didn't bother hiding her disbelief. "To be honest, whenever we spoke up on the mountain, I always assumed your knowledge stemmed from 'the times changing' as you mentioned previously.. I simply couldn't let myself believe a single dragon could advance things so much.. to the point that even after a month of constantly being proven otherwise, I still struggle to believe it..."

Unable to say the foundation of my understanding was from Earth, I simply rolled with the praise. "All I did was look for explanations beyond magic. Like if I wave my wing and create a gust of wind, what did I do? Well, 'I created a gust of wind' would be an easy answer, right? But ask how. If wind mana really was what made the wind move, what about if I flap my wings so hard that a layer of ice momentarily forms on the underside of my wings? Creating such a destructive blast of wind would take an equally immense amount of wind mana because energy requires energy."

Father's gaze, focused on me as I spoke, slowly shifted to his wing as he gently moved it around, attempting to answer the questions I posed. "Ah, so the energy being put into the wind is the energy I put into my wings to displace the air.. and the wind is simply the flow from high-pressure to low-pressure?"

I slowly nodded with a smile, seeing he understood.

It had been about a month since I returned with Hera at that point, and while she, of course, joined Mother and Krystallo's science lessons without hesitation, Father had finally started getting interested in them as well.

And to my surprise, he was actually an extremely quick learner, to the point that he made Mother seem slow, learning what took her several months in just a few weeks. "What a fascinating way to look at things..."

But unfortunately, he couldn't hold a candle to Hera. "It truly is..." Slowly sinking into thought, she used purely unattributed mana to put pressure on the aluminum marble, melting and morphing it with ease before splitting it and creating hundreds of tiny needles. "It's a way of thinking that makes me question if I really know as much about mana as I thought..."

Over the last month, after spending essentially all day every day with her, we quickly came to know each other pretty well, but with each passing day, it became more and more apparent how much of a monster she was. -She isn't just a quick learner either... The moment she learns something, she can apply it.-

But at the same time, who was I to even call her a monster...

In just a month, I had massively improved my directional aura control, improved my fine control over my divinity by leaps and bounds, and even deepened my knowledge of mana and its properties far more than I normally would have, thanks to Hera. -It's given me some pretty crazy ideas too.. but I'll need to save that for another time...-

Looking at the room's entrance, I saw Lief bowing just beyond the door and immediately motioned her inside with aura.

*click* Typically, when she entered, she would hold her head high until she got up to me, but her demeanor was a little different that day.

*pat* Quickly walking up to me, she formally kneeled while maintaining a serious expression, something a little unusual. "I kneel before The Lord."

"Lief, is something wrong?"

She hesitated before nodding. "Off the coast near Morva Asari, there was a fleet of ships spotted, all bearing the flag of the Holy Kingdom. I normally would have handled this myself, but one of the dragon scouts said it appears to be a military fleet with many dragons on board and among the crew."

My gaze quickly shifted to Mother and Father, whose expressions were now dominated by displeasure. -A military fleet, huh...- "Do you know where they are headed?"

She quickly shook her head. "We don't know, but we do have a guess." She continued after seeing she had everyone's attention. "Two weeks ago, a group of dragons gave the new apostles several assets, from dungeons, gold, and artifacts to an entire mythril mine in order to gain their favor. However, the mythril mine is just south of where they were seen, and they are hugging the coast as if looking for something in the mountains."

-A machine that caves in dungeons...- My expression quickly darkened, just like Father's.

Such a purpose-built machine being there narrowed their intentions to two options: collapsing the mythril mine, possibly in an attempt to lower its value, or collapsing The Dungeon of the Colossus.

Neither were good options, but between the two, one had a far more immense impact on Siratha.

And Father knew it too. "If they collapse the dungeon, the dungeon's core will go on a rampage and push the monsters out..." And the result would be a monster wave the likes of which no one could even fathom.

-If Mother wasn't exaggerating when she said that place was dangerous even for Elders, a monster wave from there would be a serious problem...- "It's a good thing we're intercepting them before they reach the dungeon."

"Yes, yes it is..." He spoke with a darkening tone as he squinted his eyes towards the ship. "It looks like there are templars as well. The third Division."

-Templars and dragons, huh...- One of the most elite units of humans combined with dragons sounded like a nasty combo, but somehow, as we got closer, I felt eager and excited.

I felt like a kid ready to test his new toy.

But as we approached, a slightly crazed smile came to Father's face. "Do you mind if I make the first attack?"

-Huh?- It wasn't what I was expecting. "I don't mind, but what is it you want to do?"

"Haha, I just want to test an idea I got from one of your lessons..." He sounded like some mad scientist, twiddling his fingers, overlooking the massive fleet of ships like they were his prey.

Honestly, I wasn't sure how to feel about it. I wasn't sure whether to be nervous or excited.

But at the end of it all, I was curious, so I couldn't say no.

At least that was the case until he pulled out a fairly large, hollow sphere of mythril and began lining the outside with countless runes.

-What is he...- But as I used my aura to see what exactly he was doing, my eyes went wide. "IS THAT CUBANE?!"

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