Chapter 26

Emerald Academy is divided into five regions.

Apart from the relatively independent Dragon Fort Plains, the other four areas are ranked by level: Special, Upper, Middle, Lower.

Monster trainees are assigned to the four level areas according to strength and potential for study and cultivation.

At this moment, the Special Level area is quite lively.

"Hey, did you hear? A prince from Dragon Fort is coming to our Special Level area today holding a golden token to select a trainee as a retainer. I don't know if I'll be chosen."

A young jackal-person with pitch-black fur all over grinned, his emerald wolf eyes full of anticipation.

"Your hopes aren't high," said the young jackal-person's friend, a dragon-person youth with dull gray scales, speaking lightly.

The gray-scaled dragon-person's words made the black-furred jackal-person instantly a bit displeased; it snorted,

"Degus, you look down on me too much; I'm still in the Special Level area. Well, although my rank is low, I'm still excellent, aren't I?"

Degus glanced at his jackal-person friend "Hog"; he knew Hog's background, and indeed, as Hog said, he is still excellent.

Unfortunately, its best aspect is not in cultivation, but in leading soldiers in battle.

Hog once went on a sentinel mission, leading only nine monster soldiers at the time.

The result was that the number of enemies that suddenly appeared in Hog's assigned area reached dozens, and their overall strength was more than twice that of Hog's side.

But the final result was that Hog led nine monster soldiers and returned victorious with dozens of enemy heads. On them, the heaviest injury was merely a broken arm of one monster soldier; the rest of the monsters suffered only minor injuries and great stamina loss.

This incident caused a little stir in the Emerald Academy's Special Level area at the time, but it soon died down.

Because Hog's own strength is not conspicuous in the elite zone, there are not a few monster trainees stronger than him who are capable of killing all enemies.

The reason it still caused a bit of a stir is merely because this does not match Huoer's own strength, causing only a slight shock.

Degus felt that this friend of his still had great potential; perhaps he could one day become a commander who leads tens of thousands of monster troops—nothing is certain.

Of course, the premise is that his strength must keep up; after all, a commander's strength cannot be too weak, otherwise he wouldn't even be able to control his own subordinates—that would be laughable.

However, this is not the reason Degus wants to discourage his friend; he sighed, "Hog, not to mention you—even I probably don't stand a chance this time."

Hog raised his eyebrows, looking somewhat fierce, and asked in puzzlement, "I'll forget it—after all, I'm ranked at the bottom of the elite zone, but you are a top-three genius there; your chances of being selected ought to be pretty good."

"But the dragon blood flowing in my veins is that of a black dragon," Degus said calmly.

Hog's words got stuck; he scratched his ear and cheek for a while, finally managing to blurt out, "Maybe the prince who came this time is a black dragon."

Saying that left even Hog himself without confidence.

Not to mention the distant past; just speaking of the recent several decades, among all the Dragon Castle princes who have obtained the golden token, none has been a black dragon.

They are either red dragons or blue dragons, or occasionally a powerful hybrid of the two; sometimes a spellcasting genius appears among the green dragons, coming with a golden token to select retainers.

Black dragons, white dragons—at least none have appeared in the past several decades; if we go further back, there might have been some, but they would probably be exceedingly rare.

Of course, this does not mean that black and white dragons cannot earn the loyalty of elite zone monster trainees; in fact, any Dragon Castle prince will receive some degree of loyalty from elite zone monster trainees.

But the difference between being passively left over and actively choosing is huge; Hog and Degus, given their talents, will surely become retainers of some Dragon Castle prince before graduation, but they obviously prefer to follow a prince who is powerful and ambitious.

Those who can obtain the golden token represent the upper echelon of the Jade Academy's approval of that prince—strength, talent, potential, and so on; each one is an outstanding among the Dragon Castle princes.

Just as Degus is among the top three monster trainees, the princes who can obtain the golden token are also among the very top of the dragonkind, even the very top!

Dong, dong, dong~ the resonant bell rang three times.

Degus and Hog, who had been sunk in silence, both startled awake: "The Dragon Castle prince has arrived!"

They both understood what the three bell tolls signified, and so they hurriedly rushed toward the gathering point.

Although they knew deep down that their chances of being selected were slim, but what if? Nobody can say for sure.

The gray-scaled dragonfolk and the black-furred hyenafolk are both agile monster races, and Degus and Hog are not weak either; with a few swooshes, they covered tens of meters, their speed far surpassing that of a cheetah!

On a huge plaza constructed from massive stones resembling marble.

Lai Ang stood on a platform ten meters high, looking down at the monster trainees converging from all directions.

Sparsely scattered, at a glance there were fewer than two hundred monster trainees.

However, considering that each of them is a genius who rose from countless monsters into the elite zone, it's understandable.

The smaller the number, the stricter the selection, and thus their quality and strength are even greater.

"Prince Lai Ang, the trainees have all assembled; you may now freely select one elite zone monster trainee as your retainer according to your preferences," Peisituoya said gently from the side.

Peisituoya is that dog-headed maid, and this time she is accompanying Lai Ang to the elite zone.

Because what Peisituoya is responsible for is the chief of the Black Dragon Castle—now there are two of them, requiring somewhat more energy.

"Come to think of it, I shouldn't need to be responsible for much longer—I'll probably only have to attend to Prince Lai Ang," the dog-headed maid Peisituoya thought to herself.

As the maid in charge of feeding Lai Ang and cleaning the Dragon Castle, in just four months Peisituoya had already noticed a certain trait in him that set him apart from other princes.

He worked hard.

At first Peisituoya thought Lai Ang was just sleeping, but later she found that he was constantly abnormally fatigued, which was quite off.

Peisituoya herself was also cultivating, and she quickly guessed that Lai Ang was undergoing some kind of mental cultivation.

After all, Lai Ang's fame lies in his magic.

"Those ranked in the top ten, step forward."

A calm voice from the side brought Peisituoya's slightly scattered attention back.

She glanced at the prince, and together they held their heads high and chests out, looking down.

The master is strong; as his maid, she naturally shares in his glory.

(End of chapter)