Rise of the Devourer

Noah arrived at Drakan’s stake, having realized only after he left that without Arcane Step, or Tony available he would have to walk to the place. Having arrived a little late, he could already hear everybody from inside the place, and as Noah opened the door, he was greeted by a table full of familiar faces.

“There he is!” Kaelan shouted, a cup filled with a drink in hand as he stood up and walked towards Noah. Noah smiled as he looked at the draconian man who wrapped an arm around his shoulder.

“Late as always, eh? I’ve been hearing of your adventures from the others,” Kaelan said.

“Fashionably late,” Noah said, smiling.

Kaelan patted his back, laughing far more than the simple quip should’ve gotten. And then, he looked at Noah expectantly. “You’ve grown stronger. I look forward to seeing how much.”

Noah nodded, before he looked at the rest of the group.

Valeria sat, leaned back in her chair, next to Seraphina and Snow who were going over some book, likely not having even noticed Noah’s presence. Snow’s sky serpent, Sky hovered over her shoulder and Noah noticed a modest sized Shadow lying under the table, almost blending into the darkness.

Snow herself had changed, having grown even further, looking not that much younger from Seraphina anymore. Her tattoos had also changed subtly, though Noah could not tell how exactly. The girl sat with her horns in the open and a much greater confidence came from her presence. Noah used Identify on her.

[Rune-ink Tamer - Lvl 72]

Noah looked in surprise at her. The girl had ranked up to E rank and gone all the way up to level 72 in the time he’d been gone.

Snow raised her head, noticing him at last and Noah gave her a wave in greeting.

Erwest was there as well, surprisingly enough, seated next to Valeria. The paladin regarded Noah and gave him an acknowledging nod. Slight hints of scars covered his arms and face, and there was something very subtly different about him. Erwest had always been withdrawn and acted like he perpetually had a stick up his backside but he felt even more aloof than before now. Noah checked the man’s level.

[Hellion’s Paladin - Lvl 200]

Aurelia was seated on the other side, besides Snow, and with another surprising person besides her.

The red-haired princess looked at Noah with an almost embarrassed expression as he entered. Even from a glance he could tell she felt quite out of place here, and Aurelia was partly sticking to her to give her comfort.

Seraphina was the last one to notice Noah, finally raising her head when Snow stopped paying attention to her, and the woman gave Noah an annoyed expression for having interrupted the two of them.

Noah took all of it in, before stepping towards the table alongside Kaelan. He took a seat next to Vion. The group regarded him with varied expressions and Noah was once again hit with the realization of how everyone around him had changed.

It really had been quite some time, despite it having passed in what felt like a blink of an eye. He hadn’t been the only one making progress.

A second later, he realized something, and glanced towards Kaelan, using Identify again.

[Dragon Warrior - ??]

Kaelan sensed the check, and winked at Noah. Which was rather weird given his draconian face.

“A drink for my friends here as well,” Kaelan said, calling out to the waitress who nodded, before quickly bringing a cup of some kind of alcohol in front of Noah.

He picked the cup up, and took a sip. It was sweet.

“So, I heard you guys had quite the adventure out there. The princess and Aurelia have been telling us about it,” Valeria said, taking a sip from her cup.

“What have they been telling you?” Noah asked.

“Well, the princess talked about how you were really stubborn and kept chasing a difficult wyvern to bond with, and how you guys would spar and that you were particularly rough and did not hold back at all, but even then she would still win most of the time,” Valeria said.

Noah raised an eyebrow, glancing at Vion.

Vion seemed like she’d be embarrassed for a second, but almost like a switch flipping, she brushed her hair aside. “Of course, we wouldn’t allow ourselves to lose,” she said in her princess voice.

Noah simply hummed to himself.

“Though, Noah was a good partner as well. He did not hold back and pushed our limits, helping us grow. We wouldn’t have been able to get this far without him,” Vion added.

Valeria hummed to herself, looking at Vion, and then glancing at Aurelia. A second later she glanced sideways at Seraphina. “That’s some tough competition, Seph,” Valeria said.

“Competition?” Noah asked, confused, but Valeria did not elaborate.

“I’m honestly a little disappointed that I didn’t get to come along. Wyverns are fun. I heard you guys even participated in a proper territory war? Those are rare and really good way to raise your levels. I’m jealous,” Kaelan said.

Vion snorter. “That was nothing more than a mere skirmish. A true war would not have seen us survive.”

“Oh? You’ve seen one princess?” Kaelan asked.

“Oh- uh, well, no, but Draxi- the King has talked about it, so we know a bit,” Vion said.

At the mention of the King, Noah looked at Aurelia, sending her a message through their bracelets.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“What kind of narrative are we running with for Vion here? Or do they know?” Noah asked.

“They know she’s a secret hidden princess of the King. Not that she’s also a dragon,” Aurelia replied.

Noah nodded. He watched Vion who continued to chat, and he could see she was enjoying herself quite a bit, despite her princess persona. He suspected she didn’t know how to interact with other people very well without it.

“I also wanted to see the wyverns,” Snow said looking at Noah. “What kinds were there? They all have innate magic and I hear a hive can even have rare ones. The one the princess was talking about was one wasn’t it? A nightshade wyvern?”

“Yup,” Noah replied. “We also saw a few other variant types. Not sure what that means though.”

“It means these types do not naturally occur. Like albinos, but magical versions of that. Sometimes it’s also a result of two abnormal wyverns pairing up. Normally one parent’s magic wins, but sometimes they both combine,” Seraphina replied.

Snow’s eyes glimmered with excitement at that.

“You know… we can probably go back sometime in the future. Maybe after the trial is done,” Noah said, picturing Snow riding on the back of his wyvern. He would enjoy that as well.

“Really?” Snow asked, practically jumping up in excitement.

“Really,” Noah replied, smiling.

“No fair, I want to go as well!” Seraphina protested, pouting.

“You can come as well,” Noah said. “Though we may have to check in. The wyverns probably won’t like having so many people drop in all of a sudden,” he added, glancing at Vion.

“We can make arrangements. After the end of the trials all of us can head to the hive to meet the wyverns,” Vion said.

The group cheered in response.

“Folks, apologies to interrupt but I’ve gotten some rather unfortunate news,” a draconian man spoke, heading their way, wearing an apron on top of a muscular scaled body. It took him a moment to recognize Drakan, the chef and owner of this place.

“The hunters have sent word that there have been territorial conflicts in the area. The entire forest is wary and game is rare, so we won’t be able to get today’s stock. I truly apologize for the inconvenience. I will, of course, give you a full refund, and everything you’ve had so far will be on me,” the man said.

The group paused, glancing at Noah, Aurelia and Vion, a couple of smiles broke out. Noah stood up.

“I actually have something with me,” he said to Drakan.

The chef paused. “I appreciate the offer… but there are certain standards I follow, and it would be an even bigger insult on my name to serve something subpar. It is why I only bring and accept the finest quality of game.”

Noah hummed, glancing around. Walking by, he pushed aside a few tables together to form a larger area as Drakan simply watched him. After fiding the table to be large enough, he took out the wyvern from his inventory.

The giant creature’s corpse appeared in a blink, the table underneath creaking from the weight.

Drakan stumbled back.

Noah glanced towards the man. “Is this up to your standards?” he asked.

“Yes… yes that’ll do. I’ll get on it,” Drakan said, quickly rushing back into the kitchen.

The rest of the group laughed, Aurelia rolling her eyes as she whispered ‘showoff’ under her breath.

Noah simply grinned.

***

The suns had set by the time the group’s feast ended, and everybody was stuffed. Drakan had practically been vibrating, going all out in his preparation of the food, muttering something about his levels. They stumbled, almost all of them slightly tipsy. Given their high constitutions, it’d taken some really strong spirits to have any effect at all. But with lifeblood not working, even Noah had gotten a little drunk.

Erwest and Snow did not drink, being the only completely sober ones.

Seraphina groaned as they stepped out, leaning against Kaelan’s shoulder, her face flushed red. Noah had found out, a little later, that the woman barely had any constitution, choosing to put nearly all her points in mystic.

He did not feel surprised to hear that.

A cool breeze passed by the streets, Vion glancing around the group. The princess had opened up more and more over time, eventually even dropping her royal we and now a slight blush from the alcohol remained on her face.

The group remained there for a moment, taking the breeze in.

Kaelan pulled Seraphina up, the woman starting to fall asleep on his shoulders. “Well, we’ll be having back to our manor. Where are you guys staying right now?”

“At the castle, for the time being,” Aurelia said, glancing at Noah.

“Best not to have Vion go back on her own,” Noah said as well, and Kaelan nodded.

Valeria glanced towards Snow and Erwest. “What about you two?” she asked.

Snow paused. She looked between the two of them hesitantly. “I… I think I'll stay with Seph. She’s been teaching me a lot of things, and it would be easier for me to learn if I’m with her,” Snow said, glancing sideways as if she felt guilty.

“Sounds good, you take care alright? We’ll have time later to catch up properly. Bun Bun and Tony will like playing with Shadow and Sky as well,” Noah said.

Snow nodded. Noah watched her for a moment. She had grown, and had also grown more independant. It was a lot of small things, but collectively, they added together.

Noah had to admit, he’d felt responsible for her. But now… he had a feeling that she would be able to find her own way, even if he wasn’t around all the time.

“I’ll come with Noah. It’s my duty to keep an eye on him and I’ve already let him run around unsupervised for long enough,” Erwest said.

“Yeah yeah, of course. How could I forget my guardian,” Noah said.

“You guys should visit the castle. We have quite a few sparring areas and they could use them to train for the preliminary rounds of the trials,” Vion said.

Valeria looked at Kaelan in surprise. “Uh, sure. Did not expect to get to train in the castle but why not, it definitely won’t hurt.”

“Good preparation before the trials begin. Only a couple weeks left now,” Kaelan added. “I look forward to sparring with the two of you again.”

Kaelan’s eyes then drifted to Vion. “And you, of course, princess Vion.”

“Don’t get too cocky by the way. We haven’t just been sitting around. All of us have been training our assess off,” Valeria said, grinning at Noah.

Seraphina said something as well, her words too slurred to make out properly. Kaelan pulled her up again, telling her to detoxify but Seraphina wasn’t listening anymore.

“Well, we should head back before she starts throwing up,” Valeria said.

And with that, the group split in two, speaking their goodbyes as they went their separate ways.

Noah, Vion, Aurelia and Erwest turned around, making their way towards the castle.

They all walked in silence for a few moments, Noah taking glances towards Erwest in between. The man had mostly been silent during their entire stay.

“Soo,” Noah said, glancing at Erwest. “What have you been up to in the meantime?”

“Training,” Erwest said, not elaborating any further.

“Uh-huh?” Noah said, as the group returned to silence.

After a few seconds, Erwest glanced towards Noah. “You two have grown,” he said.

Noah paused, surprised, before smiling. “Yeah, we have.”

Erwest grunted, and the group continued on their way. Noah looked out to the castle in the distance, watching the lights of the city flickering in the night as the moon began to rise through the sky. fr𝐞𝐞𝚠e𝗯𝗻ovel.c𝐨m

He looked up, staring at the moon, at the Watcher that looked upon the world.

It had almost been a year since he had first arrived in this world. And even now, he was only just getting started on his path. He thought of the shade wyvern.

He’d need to make sure he was stronger by the time he went to meet her again. Strong enough to be on par.

For now though, the trial awaited him.