A Core Ship From The Start

Chapter 107: Chapter 90: Ann and Greiya_1

Thus, Duanmu Huai entered the Manaria Magic Academy as a student and began his studies in magic.

Of course, during his learning, Lorena and Ogis didn’t stand idly by either. They investigated the situation within Manaria Country.

Duanmu Huai found that at this time in history, most countries were equivalent to large city-states, with both the Holy City and Manaria being no exceptions. Take the Holy City for instance, Sacred City Toddheim was the political center of the country, the walled city inhabited by the majority of the population. Then, with the Holy City as its center, roads spread outward like a spider web. Following this were places like farming areas for crop cultivation, mining areas for resource extraction, and so forth. These areas converged around small towns.

Simply put, this era mostly consisted of a large city together with several towns that formed a city-state.

It was the same with Manaria, except it had two cores – the Manaria Magic Academy and Manaria Royal City were two different independent cities, keeping watch over each other. The small towns and zones between these two cities collectively made up the land area of Manaria.

In comparison to the Holy City, Manaria’s land area was larger, but still relatively limited.

What Ogis and Lorena were investigating were the matters within Manaria Country, such as its social stability, phase of development, necessary requisites for conducting trade with the Holy City… Seeing as Lorena was a missionary priest of the church, it was certain she would tackle such matters.

Meanwhile, Duanmu Huai continued his studies in Manaria Magic Academy the whole time.

The wealth of knowledge regarding magic in Manaria was quite abundant, and their unique practices were indeed quite interesting, like a technique known as “Mana Amplification”. This technique allowed for the continuous casting of spells, thereby reducing the cost of casting subsequent spells.

Translating it into card game terms, if a large-scale spell requires a 100 units of spiritual energy, then the caster, by casting ordinary quick spells repeatedly, could use “Mana Amplification” to decrease the cost of casting that large-scale spell, even reducing it to zero in one go.

In simpler terms, it’s about quickly casting small spells in the early stages, employing “Mana Amplification” to decrease the spell casting cost in the later stages, followed by casting several large-scale spells concurrently with zero cost, thereby dealing a severe blow to the opponent.

Then there was another known as “Earth Secret Art”, the advantage of this spell was its patient and steady pace. By refining “Fragments of the Earth” through “Earth Secret Art”, continuous increments in attack and defense power can be made, ensuring consistent performance throughout the battle process.

Both of these techniques have their strengths and weaknesses. “Mana Amplification” deals lower damage in the early stages, making it easily countered. However, if making it to the later stages, continuous casting of powerful spells would be devastating to the opponent.

On the other hand, ”Earth Secret Art” is more stable. It may lack the explosive outburst of “Mana Amplification” in the late stages, but it ensures constant dominance throughout the combat process.

Duanmu Huai was initially quite uncertain, but he eventually decided to learn “Mana Amplification”. After all, he wasn’t concerned about the lack of defense and attack power during the early stages of “Mana Amplification”. This might concern the other frail mages of the academy, but for Duanmu Huai… he didn’t need to worry about lack of defense or firepower at all.

Here, Duanmu Huai revisited the long-missed campus life.

Yes, the same student life as before.

At first, Duanmu Huai would cause a commotion no matter where he went. There were even instances where he was mistaken as a rampage magical puppet when he went to borrow books from the library. But after learning that he was an envoy from the Holy City, people stopped making jokes but ended up not daring to chat with him either.

After all, due to his hulking stature, ordinary people could barely reach his height, and his armor especially was enough to daunt people. His helmetless head was even more daunting, so everyone kept a respectful distance from Duanmu Huai.

However, Duanmu Huai, having outgrown his adolescent sentimentality, didn’t mind at all.

Moreover, he wasn’t friendless.

“Ah, I found you, Mr. Knight!”

Duanmu Huai, who was sitting and reading, looked up to see a brown-haired girl in a school uniform running excitedly towards him with her companions.

“You’re indeed here, just as I guessed.”

“After all, I’m too lazy to change places.”

Looking at the brown-haired girl before him, Duanmu Huia chuckled softly and responded. The girl before him was none other than Princess Ann of Manaria, whom they met when they first arrived here.

Whether it was because of her status as a princess, Ann took care of Duanmu Huai and his companions, who were guests who had traveled a long journey. As a result, they became familiar with each other. From Duanmu Huai’s perspective, Ann was a lively, cheerful, and slightly impulsive girl. She was kind to others, intelligent, and her magical powers were ranked first in Manaria… not surprising.

Following Ann was a striking girl with short, deep red hair. What however, caught everyone’s attention on the first glance were her thick tail and vivid red wings that sprung from underneath her skirt.

She was Ann’s friend, Greyia. Greyia was a half-dragon-half-human studying abroad in Manaria from another country on the Manaria Continent, the Dragon Kingdom Regnes. She was born to her dragon father, the king of Regnes, and her human mother because they were deeply in love, and was sent to study in Manaria.

Compared to the lively, outgoing, and somewhat reckless Ann, Greiya appeared to be introverted and not particularly good at socializing. So most of the time, it was Ann who did the talking, while Greiya mainly focused on listening.

But Duanmu Huai had seen her before.

It was… During the stimulus of Soul Resonance, he saw the battle between humans and the Dragon Race. The one who descended from the heavens at that time was Greiya. Apart from seeming a bit more mature than she does now, there hadn’t been any significant changes.

So, was Ann the princess who led the humans, fought against, and eliminated the Dragon Race?

Gazing at the non-stop, lively, chatterbox Ann, Duanmu Huai slightly frowned. Honestly, just by looking at the harmonious scene between the two, people would probably never guess that they ended up warring against each other.

Moreover, Duanmu Huai also detected some contradictions.

According to Ann, the current relationship between humans and the Dragon Race might not be especially harmonious, but it hadn’t degraded to the point of mutual hostility. But from the scene he had witnessed before, Greiya seemed only slightly older than she is now, which means that the battle should take place in the near future.

However, why would it happen?

What kind of problem arose that led to the outbreak of war between humans and the Dragon Race?

“Mr. Knight? Mr. Knight!!”

Completely engrossed in his thoughts, Duanmu Huai didn’t notice Ann talking to him. Seeing Duanmu Huai ignoring her, Ann stretched out her hand, trying to wave it in front of him. But the height difference between Duanmu Huai and Ann was too great. Even when Ann tried to jump around, waving her arms vigorously, she still couldn’t reach Duanmu Huai’s chin. So an aggravated Ann lifted her finger and aimed a sudden flash of light right in front of Duanmu Huai’s face.

“Hey!”

The flash whizzed by, startling Duanmu Huai and snapped him out of his thoughts. He looked at Ann, who was puffing her cheeks in indignation, staring directly at him.

“Ugh, what were you thinking about? Why do you keep zoning out?”

“I apologize, I was thinking about some other stuff… I’m sorry.”

“That’s better. We’re two pretty girls talking to you here, it would be rude of you to lose focus.”

Upon hearing Duanmu Huai’s reply, Ann nodded in satisfaction.

“So… where were we?”

“I still want to hear your story, Mr. Knight.”

“My story, huh…”

At this point, Duanmu Huai chuckled. He was certainly not wasting his time here. Initially, to liven up the mood, Ann had asked Duanmu Huai to share his adventures. After all, both her and Greiya were princesses, who, although not exactly confined within palace walls, certainly didn’t have any experience with adventuring. Thus, they were quite interested in hearing about it.

As for this, Duanmu Huai didn’t mind either. He had undertaken countless adventures in his game, many of which were quite memorable and worth sharing with the two of them. Of course, Duanmu Huai also took the opportunity to inform them about the Chaos Evil God. After all, they would be fighting against it alongside him in the future. The more they know about it, the better.

Both of them were quite enthusiastic about Duanmu Huai’s stories. Taking a break every day to listen to Duanmu Huai’s tales had become a part of their daily routine.

“So, where did we leave off yesterday?”

“The Blue Elf couldn’t return home, so he created a Second Empire!”

“There’s no such thing as a Second Empire.”

Duanmu Huai rolled his eyes, she can’t just go around saying things like that. The loyal Blue Elf doesn’t have secrets, okay!

“Alright then, let’s continue from there…”

As he spoke, Duanmu Huai glanced towards the wall next to him, where he noticed a distinct human-shaped heat image. Uh… Isn’t that Owen, Ann’s guard, who he had met earlier?

However… Speaking of Princess, why is your guard acting like a stalker?