"A Little!? You call that a little-" Another person spoke, in utter shock,
"Yeah, I mean... If I used a bit of Mana but made it able to pierce more, then wouldn't that be efficient?" Caelus spoke.
"But-, You know what, just do what you want, just don't destroy too much, this place won't be able to regenerate itself fast enough..." Tellus sighed as the rest of the group began leaving. They wanted to stay longer, but it was time for them to start their training with the leader.
"Hmmm, if I could do that, could I..." The thought alone allowed him to manipulate the air below him, causing him to rise as the air below his legs was heavy enough to hold him, yet looked the same, and above and around him, it was the same, so at this moment, he was floating.
A mere thought allowed him to do this. But he still had to think, for him having to constantly think to float was excessively straining to his mind, so he'd use his wings instead.
"So, what are you doing here?" A voice spoke, softer yet masculine as the person walked up, they were shorter, yes, it was expected, but his height was still enough that Caelus only needed to look to the side to see them.
Caelus wondered if he could lower his size. Though he expected it would be harder, he made himself a few inches shorter so it was easier to talk and look at others.
"Training, I just began my cultivation since I found an interest in it," Caelus spoke; he was cautious, but he didn't try to hide it. His instincts told him not to trust automatically; it was the same with Tellus, but he had suppressed it then. His human instinct to connect overrode the draconic instinct for solitude.
"Well, to see the fact you're friends with a Royal Guard Trainee would say otherwise, but you don't look like you're trying to get close to the Empire from her, you seem too relaxed for that." They spoke. Their hand moved and took a pen... Which he didn't expect to be here, but it was efficient after all.
A click, and it expanded, turning from nothing into something, clearly breaking a law, but he didn't really think it mattered. Since magic existed, he could suspend the fact that it was impossible.
It became a flute. Looking at the other person, Caelus turned and tilted his head. Music? He had no idea what this was to be used for; it didn't seem efficient that this person was to use music out of nowhere.
"I assume you have no idea what paths there are, right? Well, first, I need to know your name. For a Dragon, your name must be something extravagant. Is it Alaric? Or-"
"It's Caelus." He spoke, sighing, not wanting to hear people ramble, but not wanting to be rude either. "What's your name?"
"Sol, is the name, it means Song of the Sun." They spoke, confused, wondering why he asked. But also, wanting to know what Caelus meant. "Caelus, what does that mean?"
"It means the Sky, or Heavens." Caelus was already tired from talking so much, but he found it expected; his name wasn't familiar, in this world or the other. At least from where he was from.
"Well, could I see the ability you use? I know you aren't using what's approved by the church, though I doubt any Mage does the same; they're way too interested in learning more, that they'd ignore those rules." Sol spoke with excitement. Even with how he looked or acted, he was strong enough to probably beat Caelus in a fight, at least right now, because Caelus couldn't tell his strength.
"Sure," Caelus spoke, turning to the dummy. He took out the staff, and in an instant, three slashes formed at the same time, flying over it, cutting off both of its hands and then its head from a forty-five-degree angle.
The metal went flying, crashing into the back of the wall. A few seconds passed as the dummy's metal in the wall disappeared, being absorbed, only for the dummy to heal back a few seconds later.
"...Okay, wow, that's a lot different from any mage I've seen in battle," Sol spoke, a little surprised, but he expected it as well. Dragons didn't abide by the ruling of the church; even if he followed their rules, he didn't automatically believe everything.
"I don't know if it is, maybe they simply change it to abide by the church to make them feel good about it," Caelus spoke casually. He didn't expect Sol to get angry or something; they seemed reasonable enough.
Sol chuckled. "Quite rude but not wrong. I've heard of clergy getting mad at a kid calling them ugly. But they can't do anything there, the Royals wouldn't allow that."
Caelus listened to Sol ramble from, now still sending out more slashes once in a while to train his attack. Once Sol finished, Caelus nodded, to which Sol left, assuming Caelus listened. Waving as he went.
"At least he isn't like my cousin," Caelus said, snorting. He began walking away, heading back to the training area for physical attacks.
Caelus looked through the door after opening it, watching Tellus clash her blade with another trainee. At the same time, a man stood, his blade sheathed at the hilt, looking down, his hair tied in a ponytail, a light brown color. Older and rougher body, with a scar reaching his lip.
Caelus noticed his senses were growing dim; he shook his head.
[Something's wrong, don't leave this way, that guy is a Royal guard and training them, go look somewhere else to leave, also, I see what you did with that cut, you still can't forget that, huh~]
"Do not speak like that again, it's weird, but yes, I can't, that's what memory is, though I wouldn't expect you to understand." Caelus let out a fake cough while closing the door and walking away to hide the fact that he was going to laugh.
[HEY!!! >:( So rude.]
Caelus looked at the back door and walked off. Staring at it, he found it suspicious that he had to go through this way, but he did; he didn't want any more fights, so if this was safe, he'd be happy.
Walking towards it, he opened the door, went inside, and saw it was not outside but inside, leading up to a tower. Caelus sighed, walking up the stairs as he noticed a paper right in front of him. Grabbing it with his feet, he threw it up with effort and was just barely able to catch it.
Reading it, he groaned. It was an invitation to a tournament that allowed anyone who wasn't a royal guard trainee to fight to see who the strongest cultivator was. It was used as propaganda by the church, since it excluded people from its side.
"Really, you brought me here to see this?" Caelus sighed. Knowing the system wanted something to happen other than him getting used to this world, but even he knew it felt a little boring. So he shrugged, took the paper, crumbled it, and put it in his other pocket, which didn't lead to the system's inventory.
Continuing up, he reached the top and noticed two guards chatting and not watching. The outskirts, which he shrugged, he wasn't going to tell on them or something.
He walked to the side and looked over, seeing Tellus still training, though in the winning position, and he also got a better view of the kingdom, which was large to say the least, its walls going on for so long that, even for his vision, they blurred. Finally, the guards noticed and spoke.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOIN- THIS IS TRESPASSING-" One of the guards shouted, which also got the attention of the royal guard trainees.
"Oh, whatever, do you have laws that specify dragons or every species?"
"Why does that matter? It's trespassing no matter what-"
"Ah," Caelus spoke, only to then jump and grab onto one of the tiles up on the top of the watchtower, and sat upon it, just to see if any of them would notice.
For a few minutes, they searched below the tower and around it, but they didn't look up, even though he very clearly had wings, which made him feel like these people were incredibly dumb... Other than Sol and Tellus, at least.
"Have you tried looking up?!"
He found it weird that it took this long for them to notice or look up, but as soon as Caelus heard it, he jumped, applying Mana onto his internal body, or more specifically, his legs, launching himself far and letting him land on the ground without destroying anything, slowing down from the air.
Once he landed, he looked around, noticing no one was there, and then seeing a giant bell, one that had thousands, if not tens of thousands of people, going to the church just to pray, it felt inefficient still, for his human brain, he felt annoyed they were forced to do this. But he wasn't able to do anything right now.
Walking off, he looked to the side, noticing a lady still in her stall, not old, not young, about middle-aged, Old enough to even be his own mom... On his human side. He walked over, wanting to see what she was selling.
"Oh, Welcome Customeeeeeh- HUHHH-" She was about to welcome him, only to be completely confused by the fact that a Dragon was there. She seemed extremely calm only a few seconds ago.
"I just wanna know what you're selling, it just looks like some jewelry, and I guess a bottle made of..."
The lady didn't answer for a second, realizing what Caelus was asking, she finally got herself together, her hands still somewhat shaking. "Ah- These are some of my stuff which I wish to sell off, since I'm no longer married, and well, these were gifts, so I don't want to keep something which wasn't for me. And also because I would need to pay extra just for having this." She let herself breathe while speaking, feeling a little embarrassed that she was rambling.
"As for the bottle, it's made of ceramic, something my brother brought, though he told only to sell it to cultivators, since you're a Wyvern, you can't really have it, I guess-" She continued, her voice and hands no longer shaky.
"I'm a Dragon," Caelus replied. Cutting in between her speaking.
"...What." Her voice grew cold.
She wasn't surprised. She sounded angry. She turned towards Caelus. Her hand was moving down, as if to grab a weapon.
"Okay. Calm down," Caelus spoke; he looked down, noticing a rapid change in the lady's surface temperature. He knew she was mad.
Caelus, stepping back, looked towards the lady, waiting to see what she was going to do.
His hand still gripping the staff loosely, he saw a beam of light falling down from the sky. Her body was covered in light as it transformed, the shop no longer there as the light disappeared, and a being.
Almost mechanical in appearance, pure white in skin, with gold outlines and clothing also in gold, a face that wasn't a face, rings, spinning black. Like they were corrupted. Leaking a... Bright Blue liquid from the center down the clothing.
"Ugly... But also... Wait, is that Gold." Caelus's Eyes lit up, waiting for it to move or so much as twitch, would he release his simplest attack.
Right as it was about to move, the door to the room right next to her opened, pulling inward as the person who left looked like an exhausted girl, rubbing her eyes. She was about to turn to the lady who was about to attack.
Caelus, blinking for only a second, saw her turn back into the humanoid form, with the shop suddenly appearing again.
"What in the hell." Caelus shook his head while keeping his staff held.