Chapter 304: A Little Thief, the Draconic Language
"What's going on?"
As Ayrin took the little yellow dragon out of his pocket, he abruptly froze in place.
The cute little dragon, with its saggy skin and plump belly, had found a completely transparent oval crystal and was currently trying its best to sink its teeth into it.
The crystal was extremely clear and contained no blemishes. It was covered by a layer of mysterious pink light and released strange, but faint, arcane energy fluctuations.
Oval shaped crystals were extremely rare because forcefully transforming a normal, multifaceted crystal into another shape would generally cause it to lose its effects.
"This fellow is already trying to eat another crystal?"
Stingham's eyes abruptly widened as he saw the crystal, "Ayrin, when did you obtain a crystal like that? How come I've never seen it?"
"I never obtained a crystal like this though," Ayrin replied in a perplexed manner.
"Could it be…" Stingham and Rinloran had the same realization as they simultaneously turned their heads and looked towards the area where Clayston and Jean Camus had fought.
"Could it have stolen the crystal from Clayston, or perhaps even Jean Camus?" Ayrin's mouth hung open as he too connected the dots.
The three youths looked at each other in silence for a while.
Indeed, this was the only possibility. Where else could the little dragon have suddenly obtained a crystal from?
"I think it was stolen from Clayston's corpse. And it should be something extremely valuable." Rinloran observed the little dragon and the crystal which it clutched tightly as he thought back to the previous situation, "Just now, Jean Camus was very meticulous with his search of Clayston's corpse. Furthermore, after not finding anything, he furrowed his brows as if somewhat disappointed."
"Rinloran, do you mean that Jean Camus knew about this crystal and was looking for it, but that it was stolen away by this little guy before Jean Camus could find it?" A mischievous look emerged on Stingham's face.
"If so, isn't this little guy is a little bit too fast? Even Jean Camus and Clayston himself failed to notice him?" Ayrin felt speechless.
"Did you already forget about what just happened earlier? That little guy stole my Spirit Obstruction Gem without any of us being able to react. Wait! Where's my Spirit Obstruction Gem?!" Stingham abruptly screamed.
Ayrin and Rinloran exchanged looks.
The Spirit Obstruction Gem which had been hanging around Stingham's neck had indeed disappeared once again.
"Did you take it?" Ayrin asked as he, Rinloran, and Stingham, all looked at the miserly little yellow dragon.
As if it had a guilty conscience, the little yellow dragon slightly shrunk back.
Ayrin reached into his pocket and froze once more.
He speechlessly took Stingham's Spirit Obstruction Gem out from within his pocket.
"It was actually you! Just what kind of dragon is this! It even steals from its own teammates!" Stingham was dumbfounded as he shouted, "And I didn't even realize it!"
"You little fellow…" Ayrin and Rinloran speechlessly stared at the little yellow dragon. Slowly but surely, mischievous looks emerged atop their faces as well. "Anyway, back to Clayston's crystal. It must be extremely precious if Jean Camus values it. And it was stolen without a trace by this little guy."
"If you ever steal from me again, I will really beat you up!"
As Stingham dispiritedly took back the Spirit Obstruction Gem, he menacingly threatened the little dragon. Afterwards, he too turned his attention back towards the crystal in its clutches. "So just what kind of crystal is this?" he asked.
"It should be a legendary void gem, the Fractal Crystal," Lotton's voice abruptly rang out.
"Next time, can you appear before you speak? Suddenly chiming in just like that, it's very easy to give someone a heart attack," Stingham shouted in annoyance as he turned his head and looked at Lotton, who was still hidden under one of the rocks behind him.
"Void gem? Fractal Crystal?" Ayrin immediately became excited, "Lotton, you know the origin of this crystal?"
"Clayston obtained several artifacts from Kiloran, who as you known, was a famous Draconic Scholar during the Era of the War with Dragons. There are many legends regarding his arcane skills. Some believe that his ability to create six perfect crystal figures of himself which could not be differentiated or seen through came purely from a secret arcane skill, whereas others believe that it came from the crystal before you, the void gem called the Fractal Crystal."
Lotton lowered his head as he paused for a moment and then slowly continued, "Legend has it that Kiloran obtained the Fractal Crystal from within a meteorite which fell from the skies. This crystal supposedly doesn't belong to Doraster or the dimension in which we preside, and that is why it is called a void gem."
"The legends must be true then? Just now, there were exactly six crystal mirror images of Clayston. It must have been due to the crystal!" Ayrin looked towards Lotton in shock.
As Lotton was merely conjecturing based on his own knowledge, he was unable to give Ayrin a straight answer. Instead, he continued telling the legend of the crystal, "This crystal is said to also create a strange force field between the user's six crystal mirror images, allowing the user to switch between the mirror images' positions at an extremely fast speed."
"Then at any time, any of the six crystal mirror images could be the real body?!" Ayrin, Rinloran, and Stingham exclaimed in astonishment.
In Jean Camus' battle against Clayston, Clayston's six crystal mirror images had each been approximately ten to twenty meters away from each other. This meant that with this crystal, a single arcane master could freely move anywhere within a one hundred meter area. Whether attacking or dodging, this was an amazing ability to have.
"No wonder Clayston was so confident at the beginning. If this crystal is truly the same one as in the legends… it is fortunate that Jean Camus is the person who he encountered. Other arcane masters, such as the ones of our Office of Special Affairs, may not necessarily have been able to kill him." Ayrin became lost in thought for before excitedly shouting, "Lotton, do you know how to use this crystal? Do I just need to inject some arcane particles?"
"I don't know," Lotton responded. "Because no one has ever confirmed these legends, there are also no records of how to use it."
"Let's just give it a try," Stingham couldn't wait any longer as he reached out to grab the crystal, "Hey! Hurry up and let go. Such a powerful artifact, and you are still biting it. What if you destroy it?!"
But almost immediately, Stingham began to scream, "Ack! Ayrin! Hurry up and control it!"
Before his hand could even touch the crystal, the little yellow dragon had bitten onto one of his fingers.
"This is something that it stole. If you want to use it, you need its approval." Ayrin pet the little yellow dragon as he said, "Can you let go of Stingham? As for this crystal, it belongs to you. But can I borrow it from time to time?"
"The dragon is actually listening to Ayrin!" Rinloran thought as he watched the little dragon release Stingham and then, after a moment of hesitation, give up the crystal following Ayrin's words.
"Lotton, do you perhaps know what kind of dragon it is?" Ayrin couldn't help but ask as he watched the little dragon puff its chest towards Stingham.
"I've never heard of a dragon like this either," Lotton shook his head, causing a strange creak to ring from his neck.
"Well you are already incredible. You know so much more than us," Ayrin said sincerely. "How do you know so much?"
"My father once told me that in order to survive, you must do everything you can to learn. The more you know and understand, the more likely you are to continue living." Lotton's body slightly trembled as his voice became unusual, "So when we hid and lived within the Land of Slaughter, we would observe and study our targets and try to learn as much from them as possible. Before killing them, we would even torture them to try and learn more."
"Father? You had a father?" Stingham exclaimed in surprise.
"Idiot!" Black lines emerged over Rinloran's face as he couldn't resist flicking Stingham on the forehead, "Who doesn't have a father?!"
"I didn't mean that," Stingham replied as he rubbed his forehead. A moment later, his face paled as he stuttered, "You were in the Land of Slaughter with your father? But you were the only person who escaped in the end. Lotton, you couldn't possible have killed your father… and eat… and eaten him?!"
Lotton remained silent for a long time.
Rinloran began to tremble as well.
"He was killed by an enemy to save me," Lotton slowly replied.
Stingham let out a sigh of relief as he wiped sweat of his forehead and said, "That's alright."
"Idiot!" Rinloran swore once more. How could the death of Lotton's father be 'alright'? To survive amidst the Land of Slaughter and see one's father killed before one's own eyes… At this moment, Rinloran didn't wish to think about this matter and anything related to it any longer.
"Lotton, your father exchanged his life for your own, so you must continue to live, and live well," Ayrin comfortingly said towards Lotton after taking a deep breath.
Lotton remained silent as he lowered his head.
"It doesn't seem to be working," Ayrin said as he directed his arcane particles into the oval crystal. It didn't seem to have any effect outside of causing a purple light to radiate from the crystal in addition to the original pink light.
"Are there not enough arcane particles? Or perhaps it there is a skill which goes along with it? Or maybe the legends were simply not true?" These thoughts ran through Rinloran and Stingham's minds as they exchanged looks.
But right at this moment, the little yellow dragon in Ayrin's other hand suddenly muttered several mysterious and incomprehensible syllables. It was speaking Draconic!
Upon hearing these syllables, Ayrin abruptly fell into a daze.
For some inexplicable reason, these syllables sounded unusually familiar to him. Many strange images began flashing in his mind as an odd feeling surged through his entire body.
