《The Journey Of Rex》


 Chapter 1

    Rex, a child prodigy. At the young age of 16, he already finished his study at a prestige college and now at the age of 20 in the middle of the night at his own house he lays on a puddle of blood, his blood.


    Apparently, there''s a criminal on loose and by some twisted fate, the criminal and the prodigy meet. At first, Rex doesn''t know what to do, so he gets up from his bed to raise his hand and shows that he''s not a threat but the criminal is in panic so when he saw Rex moves from his bed, he shoots him.


    One minute after the incident when the criminal escape from Rex house. He chuckles "So this is how ill die, Pathetic" Even in the face of death he''s not afraid. "This is how the ''Mad Scientist'' will die, laying in his blood and not by some explosion or some experiment gone wrong".


    ''The mad Scientist'' a nickname that was given by Rex friend, it''s not because he''s mad or even a scientist, no he''s got that nickname because of his love to experiment on anything whatever that is. From the smallest thing like cola and mentos to inserting a virus at his company server just to see what will happen. He still got some more experiment on his backyard that needs tending but now it seems that his experiment-full life is coming to the end.


    Rex wakes up and immediately touch his stomach where the bullet struck and to his surprise, there''s no hole or even blood. First, he thought that was only a dream but when he looked around, he knew that is real since he wakes up inside a circle made by chalk-like material.


    The circle is connected to another similar circle where some old man is lying unconscious or even dead. "Yups definitely dead". Rex said after he checks the old man.


    The old man is wearing some sort of robe that looked like just Gandolf the black, he even has his staff laying beside him.


    After checking around the room that looks like some sort of dungeon and reading all of the notes and books that is just laying around the room, he can deduct that the old man is a wizard or more exactly the Archmage of Genda whatever that means.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    Rex knew that after reading the wizard note, the archmage is trying to swap his mind with his apprentice to prolong his own life.


    After the mention of magic in one of the note, Rex is convinced that he is on a completely different world. After that, he starts to shouting ''status'' or ''character screen'' or other embarrassing things, but to his disappointment there''s nothing.


    With nothing to do and a new life to live, he comes out of the dungeon only to find himself inside a cabin in the middle of a forest.


    "There must be something for me to eat in here" Rex search all around the cabin until he found some boxes that a surprisingly worked like a fridge, he knew that work like a fridge by feeling the different temperature inside the boxes.


    After securing a food source, he starts to read all the books inside the dungeon and inside the cabin that is full of bookshelves to learn magic.


    "So if I''m not wrong, magic is the process of manipulating mana to do what you want, the more impossible the action the more mana that is needed. For example when you want to create fire out of nothing the mana that is needed is more than when you create fire from charcoal. And then mana is an energy that flows through anything and importantly everyone. When using magic you must manipulate the mana within you to change the mana outside of you. Every creature in the world can use mana since mana is in every creature, the difference is the amount of mana each creature can store inside their body, for example, if mana is calculated by numerical value the average human body when being born is 100 mana and an average dragon when they just hatched have around 5000 mana. Luckily the world is fair so even when you are born with little mana you can always work to increase it, which is hard. Dang, this book is helping me understand magic and mana, but what I need to understand right now is how to manipulate mana."


    Rex skims over so many books until he found what he is looking for. ''Magic 101'' written by the archmage himself. "Now this is what I''m looking for". Rex said to himself with a happy tone.


    "um, so I must look inside of me to find my core or something"


    "What the heck its not working at all"


    "Is this book even right"


    Rex with the help of ''Magic 101'' starts his journey on this new exciting world.

 Chapter 2

    Three months have passed since his arrival at this new world. On this three month, Rex passed his time by studying magic with the help of books.


    One week after his arrival Rex face a problem, food. The food on the magic boxes is empty, so he must go out there in the forest to find food. Luckily he already knew how to use magic. So the food problem is taken care of when he uses his wind blade to slash a boar from the distance.


    After the problem with the food, he got no more problem except for boredom. He already finished reading all the books inside the cabin and all the notes left by the archmage.


    On day 91 since his arrival, he decided to go out there and explore the world. Before he does that he loot the cabin and all inside the dungeon except for the archmage that he left on touch inside the dungeon, surprisingly the corpse is still fresh without a sign of rotting.


    With a bag full of provision, another little bag full of gold coins, face beaming with a smile, hearts beating of anticipation and souls full of determination. Rex left the cabin that he called home in this 3 month.


    "Now where should I go?"


    Rex decided to go where the sunset, after walking for about 4 hours while juggling a ball of fire on his hand. Rex finally encounters his first exciting event, a pack of wolves.


    "Hehehe perfect timing. I need to test new thing I was just thinking about"


    From the bottom of one of the wolf, there''s a rumble to be heard and suddenly a spike made out of earth rises straight through the wolf head.


    "Hmmm, so it''s like that"


    Whoosh a strike from one of the wolf almost hit Rex head. "Whoa, watch out, you almost hit me" Rex throw the ball of fire from his hand towards the wolf that just attacked him.


    "Now that my theory is confirmed, playtime is over" Rex spins while simultaneously releasing a continuous wind blade from his hand.


    After butchering and cooking the wolf, Rex resumed his journey to the west. And when the night came, Rex unpacks a small portable tent from his backpack. The sun cames out just the moment Rex wakes up, he unpacks his tent and stores it inside his backpack then continue walking to the west.


    7 days of monotonous journey that is setting up his tent when the night came, eat when he''s hungry, wash when he feels the urges to and when some fool animals attack him he eats it. Over and over and over again.


    He thought that he will get attacked by some mythical creature or something like a goblin, orc or even some animal that have unusual feature but ever since he started his journey there''s not even once a creature that looks different from the earth can be seen. If he cants use magic he will think that he''s still on earth.


    But after 7 days of boredom, he finally encounters something interesting. A bunch of bandits is attacking a caravan.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    First, he only watches as the battle is already started. ''Nice, a fellow Mage'' Rex think as he looks at an old man throwing a bunch of coal that transform into a fireball when he throws it towards the bandits.


    ''Nice thinking old man. By converting coal to fire he saves time and mana. The only downside is that he needs to carry a bunch of coal with him at all time but still nice thinking on his part.''


    When Rex is tired of watching he decided to help the old man kill the bandits. He spreads his mana from his body to his foot to the ground until it covers all the area of the battle.


    When Rex mana that is on the ground reach the old man, he the old man is startled and start to look for the source of mana. He is afraid that it is from a magical creature like a dragon but when he the source of the mana, there''s no dragon to be found instead he found a 20 years old boy, with black unkempt hair, eyes red as a blood and plastered on the boy face a vicious smile that send shivers down the old man spines.


    The ground below grumble like an earthquake and not even 1 second has passed spikes start raising from the earth stabbing all the bandits. The guards and all of the people in the caravan is left untouched. When all of the bandits are dead, the spikes start to crumble one by one leaving chunks of earth together with the bandit''s corpses lying all around the ground.


    When the spikes are long gone, the old man digs out a bunch of coal from the pocket of his robe and start taking a throwing pose when Rex shout.


    "Hey! Easy there, old man I mean you no harm"


    "Who are you and what do you want from us"


    "I''m Rex and I want you to calm down"


    "No can do Rex, I''m responsible for these people safety and the last time I check someone who can do what you just do is not exactly safe to be around"


    *sigh*"Listen here old man, I just want to go back onto civilization before being bored to death"


    "How can I know you will not attack us?"


    "Really? After I save you all from those bandits you ask me if I want to attack you? If I want you to be dead ill just let them do those works"


    Hearing what Rex just say the old man lower his stance and spoke "Yeah you are right, I''m sorry about that and thank you for saving us"


    "Umm, Rex right? How about we talk in my carriage while the guards clean this up?"


    The old man still wary of Rex, lead them inside one of the biggest carriages in the caravan.


    "Um Rex once more I''m truly sorry about all that, but you must understand that these people are very important for me, they are the new student at GMA"


    "Whats GMA?"


    "It stands for Genda Magic Academy"


    "Why do you build your academy so far from the capital?"


    "What? We do build the academy on the capital"


    "Wait What? Then why are you in the middle of nowhere instead of going to the capital?"


    "I''m just finished picking up the new student, we are on our way to the capital when those bandits attacked us"


    "Ohh, so you go around the country picking up the student for the academy?"


    "yes"


    "Why not order all the student to go on their own?"


    "What? GMA is an elite academy, only those who show a promising future can go to GMA for those who are like to become a mage without a big mana pool they can go to the other academy"


    "So how you differentiate those who have a talent and those who don''t have talent?"


    "We measure their mana pool with these things" The old man shows Rex a crystal ball.


    "What''s that?"


    "It''s a tool that we used to measure the mana pool of an individual. When someone touches it the stone will glow from white to red to dark red. GMA wants someone who can bring out the shade of red when they touch it" To demonstrate what he just said the old man touch the crystal ball until the crystal glows bright red. He explains that the darker the red the bigger their mana pool.


    "Hey old man, can I test touching it?"


    "Sure I don''t think why not oh and before you touch it my name is Regin so stop calling me old man"


    When Rex touches the crystal ball it glows bright red before its start to darken and continue to darken until there''s a crack on the stone, the moment the crack start forming on the stone, the carriage is moving making the contact between Rex hand and the crystal ball broken.

 Chapter 3

    After calming down Regin, Rex asked him about anything and Regin like a caring old man answers with a patient.


    Apparently, the are on the way to the capital of Genda(the kingdom name) carrying a new batch of gifted student for the GMA, they do this kind of recruiting every 3 years.


    The work of recruiting fall onto each mentor which is Regin, if they want a new batch of student to teach they need to go out there on each town in Genda to test everyone that wants to be mage, when they passed the crystal ball testing they will be brought by the mentor that is doing the testing.


    The kingdom will pay for student education in exchange for their service to the kingdom. And for the mentor, they will earn a bonus the more their student succeed.


    Two days later the caravan arrived at the capital city of Genda. On their way to the capital, Rex ask all about the thing that must be common sense in this world how can Rex tell that it is common sense? The answer is the expression of Regin face when Rex asks the question.


    When Regin asked where do Rex come from, Rex will always answer ''Faraway'' which is technically true. Rex and Regin made a deal that when they arrived on the academy Rex will pay Regin to register him as one of the new students and don''t need to do service to the kingdom.


    It turns out the archmage is extremely rich since the coins that Rex loots from the cabin is more or less 500 gold coin. The money is the same across the continent, they used the gold-silver-copper format with 1 gold coin equal 100 silver and 1 silver equal 100 copper. For comparison 20 copper is enough for living in the inn for one day so you can imagine how much 500 gold is.


    Because he knew that he is now rich as fuck, he decided that he will not stay at the boarding house like his classmate instead he by the help of Regin, ordered the builder guild a mansion complete with butler and maids only for the price of 20gold coin.


    With the help of wood and earth mages, the lead architect says that the mansion will be completed in a week. In the meantime, Rex will stay at the closest inn to the academy.


    "Now that your accommodation is taken care of, I must excuse myself. Ohh and don''t forget to attend the opening ceremony tomorrow morning"


    Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author."Okay and thank you Regin"


    At Rex room at the inn he stays.


    "Whew, now that I back at civilization I wonder what will I do now"


    Rex gets up from the bed and made his way out of the inn, he wants to explore the capital a bit.


    "I knew it," Rex said in front of a big building with a sign that said ''Monster Hunter Guild''. When he got inside he immediately thinks about the adventurer guild that appears throughout fiction. A bar to the right, a receptionist table and of course the iconic quest board. Filled with all kind of people with even more kind of weaponry, from the short sword, a bow, hammer, spears and even some exotic weapon like katar.


    The only thing that is missing is some guy with a robe and staff, wizards. By the looks of it wizard or in here mages are rare and are an elite bunch.


    "Hey kid, don''t be standing there and blocking out the door," A big man with an axe strap to the side of his pants said.


    "Or what baldie?" Rex said, making the big bald man surprised


    While shaking his head the big bald man just walks on the side and saying something about kid and respect.


    ''Hmm weird, in this kind of setting he was supposed to assault me and so I can show off my magic power'' Rex thought.


    Rex disappointedly walks toward the quest board and start to look through the note plastered on the wall. From what he can see it seems that there are so many kinds of monster closely to the capital but what he experiences is very different. Rex made up his mind to check out the Monster Hunter Guild after he finishes studying at GMA.


    Before he goes explore more of the city he goes toward the receptionist to register himself as a monster hunter.


    "Welcome sir, how may I help you?"


    "Id like to register as a monster hunter"


    "Sure let me just take the formula for you to fill" She goes to the backroom before coming back carrying paper and quill.


    "your name sir?"


    "Rex, just Rex"


    "Weapon of choice? So when we are making a group hunt we know where to put you"


    "I don''t use a weapon, just magic"


    There''s a visible reaction from the receptionist lady.


    "Is anything wrong?"


    "Well you are not looked like one"


    She scribbles some more on the paper and continues asking.


    "Do you have any preference of monster to hunt?"


    "What kind of question is that?"


    "Since you are a mage, you automatically rise to the top hunter of the guild and those on the top have the privilege to be informed first when there''s a new monster to hunt, oh and on the topic of that where are you staying so we know where to send the letter.


    "Hmm, I prefer the dangerous one like a dragon, hydra, behemoth or the likes. And I currently staying at the flaming horse in but after a week I will be staying at the new mansion on the sides of GMA"


    "That is all the information I need from you, now if you would be so kind as to follow me"


    "Where are we going ?"


    "To the testing ground, I need to verify your ability to use magic."

 Chapter 4

    Both of them, Rex and the receptionist lady made their way to the back of the guild where there is some sort of training ground. There''s a target for archery and other long-range weapons, a dummy for the melee weapon and last but not least the place where they are heading to, the training ground for magic-user.


    The place is made by four pillars made by the four elements standing beautifully together around a magic circle that is made by carving out the floor. The pillar is connected to each other and on the circle itself.


    "Please stand on the middle of the circle and channel your mana to the circle, the circle will tell about your attunement to the basic four-element"


    Rex goes to the middle of the circle and channels his mana. when Rex mana flows out from the circle and touches the pillar made out of fire burn with blue fire, the pillar of water froze making it the pillar of ice, wind pillar burst out like a geyser and lastly the pillar of the earth slowly turning to some kind of metal.


    "Hmm, impressive, you have an affinity for the four basic elements. I have confirmed your statement, now hold this and don''t ever lose it"


    The receptionist handed Rex a card that says his name, his weapon of choice which is magic and on the bottom of the card there''s a series of number his number is 150700421.


    "When we received information for a dangerous monster to hunt, we will immediately send you a letter to the place you are staying, so be sure to check at least once a day"


    After registering at monster hunter guild and got his card he continues his exploration across the city to find a new exciting thing but sadly there''s no new thing to discover besides the various strange guild. Dejected for not finding something to do he goes back to the flaming horse to eat dinner and sleep till morning.


    In the morning the next day, after preparing himself and eat he made his way to the academy for the opening ceremony at GMA. The ceremony itself is pretty mundane just like any other opening ceremony on earth, the only difference is the number of new students there''s only a handful of a new student since GMA only accept those who are gifted with big mana pool. When the ceremony is finished, Regin himself lead the new student for their first class.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    "Okay, now that we are here, first thing first for you to became mages you need to learn magic and for you to use magic you need to control mana. Who in here can already control mana?" Theres only about 6 student that raises their hand, including Rex


    "On these couple of weeks we will focus to manipulate mana so for the six of you that can already control mana, congratulations you''ve earn yourself a vacation for three weeks from now"


    Rex doesn''t believe that he gets a three weeks vacation on the first day at school. "Lucky me, well ill just continue my experiment from the night back at the inn"


    Rex is experimenting on the ants at the inn. He is curious about what will happen when he forced his mana on a living thing. He knows that when you inject your mana on something you can control it. That''s how he made those earth spike that he liked so much he spreads his mana towards the ground all around him and make the earth to the shape of spikes just below his enemy.


    Now he wonders if he can control living thing by injecting his mana on them. The first one he injects mana to does nothing, but when he continues to inject his mana to other ants the ant before explode. He doesn''t even know why the ant before is exploding when hi inject his mana to another ant. While he''s daydreaming about controlling an army of ants he is stopped by the inn lady holding a letter with his name on it.


    "Esteemed guest, there''s a letter for you from the monster hunter guild"


    Rex takes the letter then thank the inn owner before he reads it.


    ''To mage Rex. By your request to be informed about a dangerous monster. We are here informing you about such monster north from the city. There''s a sighting of a dragon at one of the mountains that bordered with the neighbouring kingdom. The scout that we send said that the dragon looked scared of something and it wishes to hide at one of the mountains. We at the guild hereby request mage Rex to join the hunt for the dragon, the king is willing to spend 50 gold coin for banishing the dragon from his realm.''


    "What the fuck, I know that I requested it but a dragon as the first mission is a little bit too much, isn''t that supposed to be the last boss or something. Maybe what they mean by dragon are those little wyverns."


    "Well fuck it, I already died once, what the worst gonna happen to me, death? Pftt"


    Rex has made up his mind to go hunt a dragon, he asks all about the mountains and the area around to the inn owner. She says that its a natural border between the kingdom of Genda and the neighbouring kingdom of the elves, because of the treacherous trek there''s no way for an army to pass.


    After asking all about the safest route to reach the mountains range, Rex made his way to one of the many shops that sell provision and buys enough food and water for 7 days, the mountains are two days away by carriage.


    Rex rented a carriage complete with a drive that will accompany him for 7 days. He prepares all the things he will need for the hunt and put them all on the back of the carriage. After the preparation, he goes out on a journey to slaying dragon.

 Chapter 5

    Two days had passed since Rex leave the city they are on the side of the roads, the driver is preparing to camp for about 3 days while waiting for Rex to finished his business. Rex leaves the soon to be camp towards the higher grounds. He was looking for a cave that is big enough to fit a dragon inside.


    The moment Rex reach place far enough from the driver he manipulates his mana to flow to the ground below him and then he raises the earth below making a pillar of earth. From on top of the pillar Rex search all around the mountains. After a while, he can see a cave so big that he is wondering how can the earth hold up all the masses and not collapse but since this is a world of magic he figures that must have something to do with mana.


    Rex''s jumps from the pillar of earth toward the cave with the help of his new wind spell that he develops on those two days journey that is called flying. He uses wind on his foot as a propeller and another wind on his body to stabilize himself. The caves itself is 200 meter from the earth pillar that he was just standing before. Oh and because of the lose of mana to control it the pillar just collapse because of the weight.


    He finally made it to the front of the caves and from inside it, he can see fire coming towards him. Without much preparation, Rex raises the earth in front of him to shield himself from the burning flame while simultaneously spraying water inside the caves.


    The water and fire meet in the middle and make a big amount of steam that blocks his view. At first, the fire is far bigger than the water but after a bit, the water seems to be overpowering the fire until finally the fire stopped but Rex water still advancing inside.


    While lowering his earth shield. Rex stops his water and on the inside of the caves, he can see a big shadow getting out of the caves slowly but surely.


    "So it''s a sea dragon that I sensed earlier, it is strange that you come so far from the sea to made your territories" The shadow spoke with an aggressive roar.


    When the thing finally comes out of the caves, Rex can finally see the big as fuck red dragon standing majestically under the sun. Its scale is scarlet red, the colour of his eyes is a shade darker than black like a Fanta black that absorbs light, its leg is big and sturdy as the earth itself, the belly of the dragon is protected by red scale that is different from his other scale and his majestic wings spread blocking out the sun.


    When the creature finally sees whos he has been fighting these whole time he is visibly shooked.


    -Flashback a few days earlier-


    When the red dragon feel an aura made by big amount of mana beaming from the human city, he believes that there''s another dragon out there claiming territory for itself, that''s why he escapes from his lair not too far from the city but not too close either since the mana he feels is a lot more than his own mana. He just following the rules of the monster: ''When a monster spreads out his aura and you feel inferior from it, run''


    Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.-Flashback end-


    "you are ... a human? With mana pool as big as an elder dragon" The red dragon asked Rex while lowering his head to meets Rex eyes.


    "You can talk?"


    "Every intelligence species can talk, what''s the problem with me talking?"


    "I-I''m just surprised a monster can speak the human language"


    "I''m more surprised seeing you with that amount of mana inside a little body"


    "Is it really that much? I feel just fine"


    "Much is an understatement, I even thought that you a wandering dragon that wish to claim territory for itself"


    "Why do you think like that?"


    "It is because of your aura, every monster that has a little bit of mana can sense it making them hide"


    "Wait what is that why I never encounter a monster? What even is an aura, I don''t even do anything"


    "Doing nothing is doing something, by not controlling your mana you let your aura flaring out at the world and that is exactly why they hide"


    "How can I control it?"


    "I can teach you how to control your mana to hide your aura but it is not free"


    "What''s your price?"


    "By the looks of it you are searching for me and its not for controlling aura, tell me human why are you looking for me?"


    "Oh yeah about that, I got a quest to hunt you down"


    "Hahaha hunt me down, just because you have a big amount of mana it doesn''t mean that you can control it all let alone defeat me."


    "wanna make a bet? If I defeated you, you must teach me how to control my aura then after that I''ll kill you"


    "And If I win"


    "Well if you can defeat me, which I doubt, then you are free from one annoying pest"


    "To crush your confidence is a reward enough for me, deal" Immediately after saying that the dragon breath fire out of his mouth.


    Rex is using the same strategy as the last one, raise a shield in front while blasting the dragon with water. The fire and water once more made big steam in the middle and the moment the fire stop Rex earth shield is broken by the claw of the dragon.


    Rex dodges the claws by jumping up to the air and float in front of the dragon that is looking straight at the human eyes. Rex sends a barrage of wind blades toward the dragon head but the thick scale of the dragon shrugged the attack that is strong enough to carve a mountain.


    With his wing, the dragon is trying to knock Rex out of the air, but because of the surprisingly superior control of the wind Rex can easily dodge all the dragon attack.


    Rex uses his fire magic to make fireball and bombard the dragon with it. The fireball just lands on the dragon scale without doing anything. And with a thundering roar the dragon laugh "hahaha, you are using fire against a fire dragon"


    To Rex surprise, the dragon eats the fireball that is being thrown at it. Without thinking much about it Rex used another strategy to attack the dragon. Rex uses his favourite magic against the dragon, earth spikes raise from the ground trying to pierce the dragon but sadly the scale is still too tough to be pierced by the earth.


    Realizing his magic is useless against the dragon, he flies all over the place looking for a weak spot. Finally, Rex sees an opening, the eyes the most fragile body part of any living creature that has them.


    Rex plans to lure the dragon to use his fire breath and when he''s breathing out fire Rex plan to use his winds blade to attack the dragon eyes.


    Rex flies close to the dragon head and thrown out his blade and when he sees the dragon is preparing to use his fire breath he dodges and fly close to the eyes and start bombarding it with his wind blades.


    But to his horror, the dragon has a protective eyelid like those on a crocodile. Shocked that his plan failed, he doesn''t even see the dragon wings coming towards him. *thud* The sound of Rex landing on the ground hit by the wing.

 Chapter 6

    His body aching all around, his spirit is almost broken and his mind is overheating thinking how to hurt the dragon. When he opened his eyes, there in front of him a small anthill standing without care of the battle that is going on.


    "That''s it, ants" After seeing those ants Rex got an idea, a crazy idea.


    Once more he flies towards the dragon head while dodging all the claws, wings and fire that the dragon used to attack Rex. When he arrived on top of the head he channels his mana to the dragon trying to find its brain. When the dragon finally realised whats he doing, it''s already too late.


    "nooooooo" With a painfull roar the dragon scream.


    What Rex expected did not come to reality, he is waiting for the dragons to explode but instead the dragon roar and speak.


    "You fool do you realised what just happen"


    "Why are you not exploding?"


    "Ex- What are you talking about you stupid human. You just made a soul pact"


    "A soul pact?"


    "Yes a pact, a contract, a deal, a pact, an involuntary pact"


    "I''m sorry about this you overgrown lizard but I don''t know what the fuck you are talking about"


    *sigh*"What''s done is done, you win. Now get down here so I can explain to you what you''ve just done"


    Rex jumps from the dragon head and lands gracefully on the ground.


    "Listen here you brat, what you just made is an involuntary pact with me as the servant and you as the master. When two sentient creature voluntary exchange mana through their souls they made a pact that means their lives is now connected when one of them died the other will follow soon its one of the con of a pact. The pro is both of them now share their mana and lifeforce for example when an old warlock made a deal with a demon from the hell he will gain immortality since demon lifeforce is immortal that is a voluntary pact. Now on the topic of the involuntary pact, its made by forcefully connecting souls that don''t wish to make a pact but since your mana pool is bigger than me you can overpower it. That made the pact semi-completed, you gain all the lifeforce and mana but I gain nothing from it, I can only gain something that you wish to share with me."Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    "So you are like my servant now?"


    "Yes whoever hard it is for me to say it is correct, but that''s not all when I died you will continue living with my mana pool and lifeforce but when you died I follow you to the afterlife"


    "Hahaha cool, but I remember back at the inn I test it on the ants and they explode"


    "You can only have one pact active at a time when you decided to make another pact, the last pact you made is broken that means death for the ants back at the inn"


    "Now, since you are my servant you must follow my command?"


    "Yes"


    "Teach me how to control my aura"


    *sigh*


    After that Qidorth the red teach Rex the human all he knows about controlling mana and aura. The tutoring takes about 2 days inside Qidorth caves that now Rex ask made by Qidorth himself. By the time they come out of the caves they now a best friend with each other. It turns out their ways of thinking is similar.


    "Tell me Qi what else the pact gives?"


    "Another useful thing the pact gives is to shapeshift or change to each other species, now you can turn into a dragon and I cant no more turn into an elf. That is one of the abilities the druid of the forest like to abuse, they loved to turn into savage animal giving them the strength of the animal. Pftt druids, you never know what is going on in their nature-loving head."


    "You were saying about the elf?"


    "Really? I just told that now you can change into a dragon and you only pay attention to the elf"


    "Yeah yeah, dragons big deal. I''ve defeated one already, I''m not planning to turn into one soon, now tell me about elf"


    *sigh*"It''s my last pack, I used my overwhelming mana to make a pact with the elves. I can change into one but now because of my pact with her is broken shes must be dead right now."


    "That means now you cant change into an elf. Shame, id like to see an elf"


    "It is a shame indeed, but now you can control your aura what will you do now?"


    "Oh yeah about that, I need to bring a proof so the guild will let me collect the rewards. Now gives me one of your horn"


    "Excuse me? Do you have any idea how important a horn to the dragon is? Of course, you don''t, listen here human a dragon horn is like a -"


    "A fang will do"


    While grumbling Qidorth the red pluck his fang from his gum and gives it out to the human that is now his master.


    "Now Qi turns into a human and follow me to my camp"


    Qidorth the red dragon obey his master will and unwillingly turns into a human male with red hair, a deep dark black and last but certainly not least a missing teeth.


    "What the fuck Qi, do you have any decency?"


    "You fully aware that I am not wearing anything and yet you told me to change"


    "Wait here for a moment"


    With that said Rex flies back to his camp where a driver is sleeping on one of the tents. Rex search inside the carriage for clothes for his new servant to wear. After finding one that is not too shabby he flies back to the caves and give Qidorth the clothes then told him to bring his fang back towards the camp.

 Chapter 7

    Rex, Qidorth the red and unnamed driver make their way back to the city with their loots that is a big ass fang almost as big as Rex that been tied on top of the carriage. When the driver noticed Qi carrying a big fang on is back he doesn''t even question about it, a true professional at his trade.


    "Qi when we get back to the city, we need to find a tailor shop"


    "I request you to make mine black"


    "Of course, you will have an all-black uniform, after all a butler always wears black"


    "I know what a butler is, but if you think that I will stay in one place while you go out risking your life you are surely mistaken"


    "Hahaha relax, ill bring you wherever I go, you will be like a personal servant" Rex got a grumble in response.


    "Hey mister driver, how long till we arrived at the city?"


    "Two hours from now when we passed that hill we can see the city"


    "Nice, can you remind me how long since we left the city?"


    "Eight days and I need to charge you an extra cause the contract is only for 7 days"


    Rex reaches out inside his small bag full of coin and gives the poor man 5 silver coin that makes the man visibly happy so he goes back inside the carriage and continues playing rock-paper-scissor with Qi to pass the time. Playing a reaction based game made him realise something, it seems that his reaction time is faster than before.


    "Qi after I made the pact with you I can sort of feel stronger, faster and even smarter"


    "That''s something normal, your body will be as strong as a dragon. That is what I mean by sharing lifeforce, it is probably why most of the druids make a pact with predator and not prey"


    They are talking to each other about druids and pact while playing some more reaction-based game for two hours before the driver called out to them, telling that the just passed the hill he is talking about before.


    They can see the city in all of its glory. The city is built amidst the swaying grass of a meadow and is truly beautiful. The city is surrounded by farmland almost twice as big as the city itself. From on top of the hill, they can see towers looming across the city, some of it owned by GMA and the other guilds that called the city home.


    Finally, after 8 days of uninterrupted travel Rex is back at the monster hunter guild that is still sturdy looking. He marvels at the building for about a minute before making his way inside while telling Qi to wait outside. He reaches the front of the same receptionist that made his guild card.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    "Um lady, I have this letter sent to me eight days earlier"


    "Finally you received it why took you so long to come here? no nevermind doesn''t answer the question. We have info about a dragon just like what you want, please follow me so that I can brief you about the hunt, the other hunter is ready three days ago for the hunt"


    "Oh yeah about the hunt, I already slay the dragon there"


    First, the receptionist is looking amused but after she sees the serious expression of Rex shes quite shocked.


    "But that''s a raid-sized hunt, no way you can hunt the dragon alone"


    "I have the fang of the dragon as proof of conquest just outside of the guild, my butler is carrying it right now"


    The receptionist is almost shocked to death when she comes out of the guild and saw Qi carrying a Rex-sized fang. She then told Rex to wait and goes back inside before coming out with the big bald man the other days. The big bald man and receptionist lady checked the authenticity of the fang and then after they confirmed it, they handed Rex a purse full of gold coin. The bald man who supposedly the guild master carry back the fang inside the guild while muttering something about kid and surprises.


    Finished with the monster hunter guild Rex brought Qi to the flaming horse inn and when they arrived the inn lady is carrying a letter for Rex that says.


    ''Dear Mage Rex, the mansion you requested to be built by the builder guild is complete along with the servant house that will tend to all your need, they have been hired by mages Regin. Please immediately go to the mansion and talk with the head butler, all your question will be answered by her.''


    Rex thanks to the lady by paying her a huge tip of 10 silver then goes pack up his thing from his room. Rex and Qi made their ways to Rex new home and are greeted by Rex new head butler, Aqua. A tall blonde woman with clear blue eyes and an hourglass figure.


    "Are you the ones responsible for this mansion from now?"


    "That is correct master Rex"


    "How much the maintenance cost for a mansion this big?"


    "From what I can tell by the number of staff and the size of the mansion, one gold coin is enough for a year."


    Rex handed Aqua 10 gold coins and say "Here takes this and use it well for 5 years maintenance, I want you to use the money as you saw fit and if it''s not enough don''t be shy to ask me more"


    "Thank you master Rex, I will use it to make you pleased"


    "Good to hear that, now can you guide us through my new home?"


    "Your wish is my command, please follow me"


    Aqua start to explain all the facility of Rex new mansion while guiding them through all of the rooms. From the outside, the mansion looks magnificent. It has been build with strange wood that Rex has no idea what. Tall, rectangular windows let in plenty of light and have been placed in a mostly symmetric way.


    The mansion is equipped with an average kitchen, two bathrooms, and a study room, it also has a big living room, library, training ground for mages, four-bedroom on each cardinal direction and the master bedroom in the middle. Oh and a big dining room.


    The building is shaped like a square. The mansion is surrounded by a beautiful garden and there''s another smaller building beside the mansion for the staff including Aqua.


    "That is all master Rex if you want something just ring this bell and I will come to you as soon as I can"


    Aqua handed Rex a bell that is looking suspiciously enchanted. The moment Rex touches the bell and feel the mana swirling inside of it, Rex know for sure that the bell is enchanted.


    "Wait, Aqua before you go I need you to teach Qi here how to became a proper servant and here''s a tip for you"


    Rex thro a gold coin at Aqua and she caught it with one hand before bowing to Rex and leaves while pulling Qi with her.


    "Whoah this bed feel awesome, I can lay here forever"

 Chapter 8

    Rex lied since after lazing around the bed for only 15 minutes he started getting bored. Rex finds the enchanted bell that Aqua gives him and ring it. Not even a minute had passed since he rings the bell when there''s a knock on the door.


    "Aqua I need to postpone Qis training, I need him for something. Tell him to meet me in my study room."


    "Yes, master."


    Rex study room is located just beside the master bedroom. After waiting for a while he hears a knock on the door and Aqua voice. "Master, Qi is here."


    Without waiting for Rex permission to let him in Qi just barged inside and closed the door with force at Aqua face. It looks like he''s not happy about something. Watching all of that Rex let out a chuckle and asks Qi. "How''s your training?"


    "I don''t know what you wish to accomplish by sending me to study from her but by the looks of your face, it tells me that you have reached your goal. Now tell me the reason I''m here?"


    "You need to relax a bit, enjoy every second of your life since you don''t know how much longer you are going to be alive. Anyway, you remember those ants I told you about?"


    "The ants that you made a pact with?"


    "Yeah yeah those ants, I am trying to mind control them but they just explode, I wonder if you have anything like that?"


    "Exploding an ant is easier than picking my nose."


    "No, not exploding thing, I want you to teach me mind control."


    "Mind control is a hard and rare kind of magic since you have to be very careful if you don''t want to make a pact with the target. Don''t you ever experimenting to mind control something, if you lose focus and made a pact with another creature I will be the one exploding."


    "How about I inject my mana to the creature body except for the brain, do you think it will work."


    "That may work but never touch their souls with your mana"


    "Wheres, the souls located?"


    "inside their head, the brain"


    "And if they don''t have a brain?"


    "The cores"


    "Like monster cores?"


    "Yes every creature with mana have a core inside their brain"


    "So I have one too?"


    "And so do I"


    "Cool"


    "Is that is?"Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    "No that''s not all, now that I have a new experiment to test and a room for me to write I need to start cataloguing my experiment. Wait for me to catalogue my experiment and we will go find a new test subject"


    Rex quickly finds a quill and ink and what looks like to be an empty book made by unknown material and start scribbling down on the books. Qi appears to be meditating while waiting for Rex and after a while.


    "Qi cmon, we need to find a new test subject"


    "Where are we going?"


    "South of the city but before that, we need to register you as a monster hunter. Hehe, a monster as a monster hunter ironic."


    Two people are standing in front of the quest board at the monster hunter guild, an average size black hair man and the other is a big hulking red-head.


    "At the south, there are only goblins, are goblins strong?"


    "They are usually a weak creature, an average human can kill 3 adult goblin without breaking a sweat. But beware, just like any other species, they can have some outstanding goblin of their own for example those shamans can be quite problematic."


    "Whats a shaman?"


    "Human have mages, elves have a wizard and the goblin they have shamans"


    "Well let''s go kidnap some shaman from the forest"


    Rex takes some notice from the board that is mostly a hunt for goblins and one notice for a rogue wizard that is said to be hiding in the forest. When they arrived in front of the receptionist desk Rex told the receptionist that Qi wishes to be registered as a monster hunter.


    Qi goes through the same procedure as Rex the only different when Qi goes to the four pillars, the pillar of earth, water, and the wind is the same with Rex but the pillar of fire burst out violently with blue fire. When they are finished with the guild they go straight to the forest without even preparing food or other necessities.


    "It''s weird"


    "What?"


    "The last time I''m here there is no goblin to be found but now" Rex open up his hand to show the pile of death body made out of goblin corpses that are scattered all across the village.


    "All monster including goblin can instinctively detect the aura of a strong creature. They likely sense your aura then goes into hiding, after all the first time we meet you are beaming your aura like the sun"


    "So that is why I don''t encounter anything interesting the first time I''m here"


    "Quite possibly yes, now what are you going to do with him?" Qidorth pointed at a goblin with weird clothes that is gagged up and tied at a tree.


    "Well communicate of course, before we use force we must always remember to use diplomatic ways to solve our problem"


    "It is funny how you said that while standing at the middle of fresh corpses that you just killed"


    Rex just shrugged of Qi retort and moves to remove the gag on the goblin mouth. The moment Rex do that the goblin viciously screams at Rex with an unknown language. Rex feels that the weird goblin is cursing at him but he can''t be sure since he doesn''t know the language.


    "Qi what is he saying?"


    "How the hell am I supposed to know that? He is speaking their language"


    Rex watched as Qi placed his hand on the goblin head and channel mana through the hand towards the goblin.


    "Hey I thought giving mana to someone head is making a pact with them"


    "No it''s different, I have trained over the years to avoid making contact with the soul when I channel mana to the brains"


    "I want you to teach me"


    "I can''t, it''s very likely for you to touch the soul when training and you touching souls other than mine equal my death. And I don''t want to die yet"


    The goblin is petrified when Qi touch his head but at the moment Qi removed his hand from the head.


    "Fuck you, your mother is a pig, fuck off-"And other unpleasant words.


    "Well its a bummer I can''t do that but luckily I have you to do that for me"


    Rex smacked the goblin to make him shut up and interrogate him or rather just asking the goblin how it feels to be a goblin, whats their social structure, their opinion about gods and other nonsensical things. While Rex and the goblin are talking about the kind of food they like to eat suddenly there''s a whooshing sound.


    They stopped talking or rather the goblin stop talking because the goblin stopped being alive since there''s a dagger pierced through the goblin forehead. Rex heard that sound again and when he turned his head to see, all he can only see is Qi hands extended in front of Rex. His hand is bleeding caused by a dagger that is stuck to his palm.

 Chapter 9

    With an annoyed face, Qi said "In case you did not notice, we are under attack"


    Qi searches his surrounding but found nothing, so do Rex. They hear it again the sound of something flying across the air. Before they can see the source of its Rex''s shoulder has been hit, a dagger is embedded on Rex''s shoulder making him grimaced in pain.


    Rex spread his mana to make an earth spike when he hears the whooshing sound but when his mana reaches around 10 meters he can sense something behind him. When he turned to look at it he found nothing. His mana is clearly sensing something but his eyes say otherwise.


    It moved! He can sense that it is moving only that he cant see it. Annoyed by it he makes a box made out of earth around it whatever that his mana is sensing. Seeing that there''s no other dagger being throw at them, Rex shrinks the box little by little.


    When the box is getting pretty small to fit a human he can hear a voice coming from inside. " I yield, please spare me"


    "What is your name and why are you attacking us?"


    "Elanalue, Elanalue Torfaren. I must have mistaken you for the hunters"


    "So you are the dangerous criminal that is hiding in the forest"


    "Yes that''s me, now can you please, please release me from this thing. I''m afraid of a confined place" Rex is pretty shocked that shes confessed quite easily.


    "Not until you tell why you attacked us"


    "I already told you that, I have mistaken you for the hunters"


    "How do you know that we aren''t one?"


    "There is no way they send an experienced mage like you just to hunt a cornered elf, my bounties is not high enough"


    "I''ll release you from the box but I have to tie you up" Qi is the one who is surprised that Rex is willing to release the one who just now attacking them.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    "Yes tie me up, whatever, anything other than this box thing"


    Rex releases her from the box of earth and told Qi to tie her up. When it all set Rex asked why not go work for the kingdom instead of becoming a criminal, the only answer Rex got is a burst of laughter from Elanalue.


    She explain that an elf can not find work at Ganda because it is a kingdom that frequently goes to war with the elven kingdom, even to this day they still sending assassin at each other to kill the king or other important members of society. Elanalue herself is such assassins send by the elven kingdom to assassinate the Ganda kings.


    She used to be before her group got attacked by a dragon making her the only survivor. Her group is on route to the capital of Ganda when an elder dragon flies across the sky then landed just in front of their caravan.


    She describe the dragon as fiery demons, breathing fire on all the elves, luckily with her aptitude to fire and by extension light she can escape the red dragons fiery wrath.


    Hearing the description of the dragon in Elanale story Rex said something unexpected both by Elanalue and Qi.


    "Qi here is the one who attacked your caravan"


    The emotion of surprise is clearly showing on the face of the elf and the transformed dragon. Ignoring their surprised face Rex say something even more surprising.


    "Qi takes off your clothes and change to a dragon"


    "What. Are you mad? We are close to the capital city, there is a chance for them to noticed."


    "Are you really afraid of a little kingdom?"


    "I''m not, but I believe it will give you some problem if they see me"


    "aww, you are thinking about me?"


    "It''s not li-"


    "You act like a tsundere you know. But nevermind that, I don''t really care about it, just change so our friend here can see your magnificent form that you are so proud of"


    Qi takes off his clothes and when the last piece of clothing touches the ground he changes, his nail turns into claws, his skin changing to a red scale and his body is getting bigger. When the elf can finally see Qi true form she is shocked, seeing the elf act like that Rex spoke.


    "It is him right? The dragon that killed all your friend"


    "YES!!! It is him, how can a human mage command a dragon?"


    "It''s not important how I can command a dragon, what is important here is how do you feel right now? How does it feel when the one who killed your friend is standing just right in front of you, is it revenge for your friend? The despair that you cant do anything? or even sad?"


    "To be honest with you they are not a ''friend'', we are just bound together by duty to the elven kingdom. What is truly important here is how can a mere human command a dragon, an elder one at that"


    Qi even in dragon form is visibly confused so does Rex.


    "Qi you can change back to a human now"


    After the three of them is no longer confused, surprised and shocked. They have a nice and pleasant conversation they agreed that the elf will teach Rex how to control light in exchange Rex will free her.


    Rex told Qi to remove all the thing that constrict the elf and then they made their way deeper to the forest lead by Ela, they are going to Ela hideout.