Aurora's body size increased significantly, reaching a height of 2m until the ice dragon's head almost touched the cave roofs.
The dragon continued to spout its cold breath over the surrounding area. Aiden jumped back to keep a safe distance from Aurora, the ice dragon's temperament having become sensitive enough after she absorbed many of the Glacirion gems in the cave.
"Aurora. Do you hear me?" asked Aiden, speaking softly as he slowly stepped closer to her.
When she heard Aiden's voice, her fury calmed down and no longer spewed the natural ice power from her body.
It flew low and landed fully on the ground, with the ice dragon's eyes fixed on its master, Aiden.
Gradually, Aiden's palm managed to touch Aurora's head. The ice dragon's eyes were closed as if enjoying Aiden's strokes. The fear in Aiden's heart vanished instantly.
'I don't think she'll threaten me, especially since she's been with me for the past week,' Aiden replied.
'Supposedly, an emotional bond is starting to form between her and me, but she's not a cat or a dog that easily obeys.'
'I still have to be careful,' Aiden said.
The ice dragon seemed comfortable and didn't show any aggressive attitude towards Aiden. That was quite a relief for the young man, but there was another problem haunting him.
Aurora's increased size made her easily visible to people. Aiden couldn't possibly take her home with the ice dragon's enlarged body condition —the room wasn't enough for her.
'Should I leave her here?" Aiden asked.
'That's bad.She could kill me if I did that,' Aiden said.
As Aiden was thinking of ways to take Aurora away, he was startled by a mysterious voice coming from behind him.
"Looks like you found something interesting, Aiden," someone said.
Aiden reflexively turned his head and saw an old man standing at the entrance of the cave, wand in hand. It was Master Sylas from the city library.
"Master Sylas?" startled Aiden.
Aurora woke up and got to her feet, a strong murderous aura rising in the ice dragon's body at the sight of a stranger entering her territory. She didn't know who Sylas was.
The ice dragon responded by spitting a cold breath mixed with ice spines forward, targeting Sylas.
Sylas thrust his hand forward, creating a magic shield wall that protected him. The magic wall successfully withstood the ice power from Aurora, making the dragon even angrier.
"Can you calm the dragon down? Tell it that I didn't come with bad intentions," Sylas pleaded, realizing he couldn't resist Aurora's ice power any further.
"Tell me, what is your purpose here? Why did you follow me?" asked Aiden, yet to calm Aurora down.
The ice dragon again spouted cold breath forward with great force. Sylas was forced to break the Sunstone gem to strengthen his light element.
Instantly, Sylas' power grew stronger, especially in his magic defense. Aiden was shocked when Sylas showed the ability of the light element, which was said to be rare among mages.
'Light element?Who is he exactly?' Aiden asked.
Aiden didn't want to act carelessly. He looked back and asked Aurora to stop spitting her cold breath at Sylas. Slowly, the ice dragon began to listen to Aiden's words.
The dragon stopped attacking Sylas, but it could still be seen flying around the cave ceiling, looking wary.
Sylas could breathe a sigh of relief. After the ice elemental's attack ended, Sylas removed his light magic defense and stood where he was, not daring to approach Aiden.
"I didn't expect you to have a beast like the dragon," Sylas replied.
"You have not answered my question, Mr. Sylas," Aiden said.
"The reason I came here was because I saw you coming to Fog Hill, and also because I was curious," Sylas said.
"I've been watching you ever since you practiced fire magic. I think you've shown good skills," Sylas explained.
"But not good enough to pass the entrance exam," he said again, his words catching Aiden's attention.
"You seem to know quite a lot about the Astralis Magical Academy," Aiden explained.
"I know some things you don't."
Sylas looked up to the front above, looking at Aiden's ice dragon. With its status as one of the high-level beasts, it made other beasts lower than it dare not attack, especially beasts of the main race.
"If you want, I can train you some things on one condition," Sylas replied, making Aiden's eyes narrow.
"What's that?" asked Aiden.
"After you join the Astralis Magical Academy, you try to enter the Elite Mage rank and obtain the Celestine gem," Sylas replied.
"Gem Celestine?"
"That's right. The Celestine gem is one of the six legendary-level gems. With it, I can raise my magical level to a higher level," Sylas explained.
Aiden didn't understand what Sylas was talking about yet; the book on basic magic only explained a few things and wasn't specific. Aiden didn't know what level a mage was and how to level up.
"There are some things I don't understand from what you're saying, whether it's about legendary-level gems or mage-level," Aiden said.
"That will be taught when you join the academy. However, lucky for you. If you want to become my disciple, then I will teach it to you earlier," Sylas explained.
"That way, you will have great abilities beyond those of the nobles at the same level."
"How?" asked Sylas.
Aiden looked back, Aurora didn't respond to anything and was still staring at Sylas with a suspicious face.
Sylas' invitation was tempting and would definitely help him a lot, but as a foreigner, Aiden still had to be careful of Sylas' hidden intentions.
"Alright. I'll be your disciple as long as you do me a favor," Aiden replied.
"What's that?" asked Sylas.
"Help me make a beast tamer contract with this ice dragon," Aiden said.
Sylas smiled, his hands clasped around his waist as he shook his head. Sylas realized that Aiden wanted to tame the beast immediately, but doing a beast tamer required several things.
Starting from materials to one's mage level. For now, Aiden wasn't qualified to do that.
"You still don't have the capacity to perform a beast tamer contract," Sylas replied.
However, Aiden did not give up. There had to be a reason why Aiden had obtained the Eye of the Beast King talent in his current situation, as well as his encounter with the Legendary Ice Dragon.
"I'm still going to do it. Please guide me!" said Aiden, confidently.
In the end, Sylas could only agree to what Aiden said, even though he knew the risk of death to Aiden would be great because in the beast tamer contract process, a tamer and a beast had to fight.
"I won't be responsible if you die."