Descending Into A Novel-Chapter 128:Erin’s Training

Raymond took a deep breath, staring at the countless holes and mini craters within the training room.

It was a good thing he had brought Erin to the training room, rather then trying to teach her at his apartment.

He wasn’t even afraid of Erin causing any damage or injuring, the academy would fix it all anyways. He didn’t even need to pay any points for the repair.

He was afraid of Ellen.

Setting that aside, he watched as Erin struggled to control her mana properly.

It got to the point her morph was struggling, unbeknownst to Erin herself. Raymond watched in fascination as her tail, wings and horns slowly grew in size. Becoming sharper and longer, Raymond had yet to see her true appearance. But he could make a pretty good inference based on what he was observing.

Crimson red scales crawled up her skin on her hands and face, claws appearing on her hands instead of fingers. Her eyes even shifted from the usual red to the more reptillian-like eyes of a dragon. Her sharp teeth became more fang-like.

Based on the size estimates though, he guessed Erin was only around ten meters? A lot on the smaller side that’s for sure, despite the fact her size should have been much larger based on what he knew from Flare.

This was the first time he got to see a young dragon so up close and personal after all, he wanted to make good use of it. Erin was also an extremely special case so he wanted to observe her a while longer.

Unfortunately, he had to stop her before her own self-casted morph gave out and she returned to her true body. He didn’t know how exactly she would react, but better to not risk it.

"You can stop now."

Erin let go of her mana, collapsing onto the floor. Despite her wings and tail being on her back, it didn’t seem to hinder her lying down at all. Her arms and legs forming a star as she lay down on the ground. Erin’s dragonic features slowly retracting, until she looked as she normally did.

"It’s too hard! I can’t do it!"

He comforted Erin, telling her. "Thats alright, we can just take it slow. There’s no rush to learn it."

To further comfort her, Raymond employed his strategy of vigorously petting her.

Pat pat~

"Heehee."

Massive success. Her glum appearance disappeared within seconds at his touch.

"Let’s go back home now."

"Okay!"

Teleporting back to his apartment, Raymond and Erin began the second part of their training.

Playing the piano.

Except Erin struggled with this as well. Despite Raymond teaching her the easiest song he knew and guiding her every step of the way, everything from the rhythm to the pitch was completely off.

Erin was definitely a genius when it came to magic, but for some reason. She struggled to use magic voluntarily. Her control was seriously lacking, even more so then usual dragons.

"Erin. Practice by yourself for a while okay? I need to grab something first."

"Okay!"

Adjusting the seating so she could comfortably practice, Raymond left her alone for a while as he searched for his engraved glasses. The ones that let him see the flow of mana better rather then rely on his mana senses only. If Erin was struggling so much just to maintain a simple mana flow in her body, then something was clearly wrong.

He scratched his neck, frowning when be realized he misplaced the glasses. He hadn’t used them in a while ever since the presentation.

"Ellen, have you seen my glasses? The ones that let me see mana better."

"Yeah it’s over here. Let me bring them to you."

She paused, holding his glasses carefully in her hand. "Why...are you looking at me like that?"

"Like what?"

"Like—like that!"

Raymond’s eyes couldn’t usually be described as intense. It was more soft and mellow, giving him a very laid-back energy.

But the way he was looking at her right now felt anything but soft and mellow.

He just kept looking so...

A word appeared in her head. But Ellen refused to use that word in this current situation, because that would be the same as admitting something embarrassing—and Raymond’s ego was already a bit too high sometimes.

"Stop looking at me like that!"

"Like what?"

She looked away, unable to handle his gaze any more.

He tilted his head. Unsure of what exactly Ellen was making such a fuss about.

" Just hand me my glasses already."

She tossed them in his general direction, still looking away for now.

Catching it with his brute force telekinesis, Raymond decided to leave Ellen alone for now.

’What was that about?’

He put that out of his mind for now. Returning to Erin’s current practicing.

Seeing her still struggle with even the most basic movements, he sighed. The piano he bought wasn’t the highest quality or the most expensive, but the sound shouldn’t have been this bad!

To the small, minor musician spirit within Raymond. Erin might as well have been stabbing him in the heart over and over again.

Putting his hands on hers, he calmly told her. "You can stop now."

"Okay."

He was tempted to ask her to try practicing her mana again, but Erin was still young and he didn’t want to strain her.

"Lets rest for today. You can try again tomorrow."

It was definitely not because he was lazy.

***

Raymond pushed his glasses up, watching Erin struggle to keep her mana flowing.

This time, with the help of the glasses. He was able to see much more clearly what exactly was going on.

Something was blocking her mana.

Raymond wasn’t even aware such a simple issue like mana blockage could occur for dragons. With their mana, blocking it was like trying to block a waterfall with a branch. Basically impossible due to the immense forces of their mana. It also made them heavily resistant against many harmful effects. Further improving a dragon’s already extreme defense. Another fun fact he had learned from Flare about dragons.

Even Raymond, when he was starting magic. Had never experienced the issue of mana blockage. Despite being a human with worker mana.

How Erin had such an intense mana blockage yet failed to ever notice or even feel pain from it was beyond him.

He rubbed his chin, mana blockage was a relatively simple solve. Just clear the blockage in the circulatory system.

There were a few methods, Raymond could control his own mana and inject it into her body to clear it. Or Erin could consume some sort of elixir that strengthened her circulatory system. A really barbaric option was to poke a needle into the particular vein or artery containing the blockage and siphon it out.

Lots of methods, but he wasn’t sure which suited Erin the best.

Raymond was pretty confident in his own mana control. He was an Archmage after all, but Erin’s constitution was vastly different from a human even in her human morph. He wasn’t fully sure about it yet and didn’t want to risk causing any damage. The circulatory system was vital for mana, any small damage could quickly escalate into a massive issue down the line. For someone with Erin’s potential, it could be disastrous.

He had already checked the academy store, but there wasn’t any elixirs currently available that could strengthen her circulatory system and clear out the blockage. Elixirs like those tended to have a revitalizating effect which made them much more valuable then others. So any new restocks were quickly bought for use.

And Raymond didn’t even consider the last option at all.

"Mmh-!"

Erinst dragonic features started growing again, a sign of her struggle to push her mana through the blockage.

"That’s enough now." 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

Now that he knew the issue however, she didn’t have to do this whole training any more. There was no point when she couldn’t control her mana properly.

Lost in thought of how to fix Erin’s issue, he didn’t notice when Erin came up to him instead of collapsing onto the floor as usual.

Tugging on his clothes, she looked up at him. Nervously asking, "A-am I not good enough to use magic?"

"Nonsense. You’re the best."

"But, why can’t I do it?"

She trembled slightly, making Raymond to get on his knees as he comforted her.

"There’s just a small problem with your mana right now. Once I fix it, you’ll be able to do it easily."

"Really?"

"Really. There’s a blockage in your circulatory system which is preventing your mana from moving properly."

"Circulatory?"

She tilted her head, unsure of what this long word meant.

"It a word to describe how blood moves in your body."

"But mana is different from blood?"

"Mana moves in the same system. Me and you are different, but I can bring both of us to get ice cream."

"Can we get ice cream now?"

"...okay."

Just the mere mention of it already made her want to get ice cream. Raymond couldn’t have been happier.

Now, he could just use Erin as an excuse to get ice cream. No longer would he have to be faced by Ellen’s judgy eyes.