It didn't take long for both of them to arrive at Cathy's hideout, which honestly surprised Damian upon seeing it. There was nothing but a single stairway leading down to a door. He remembered passing by this place, thinking it was some sort of underground bar, but he hadn't expected it to belong to one of his students.
As they walked down, a figure stood in front to block their path.
Damian saw a golem that was wearing a suit. Compared to the military-issued golems that were being used by the imperial army, he could tell that this one was in another class on its own. This is just an estimate on his end, but he figured that it'd be strong enough to take on twenty men.
"Don't worry, she named this one Robert. It's friendly as long as you're vouched by Cathy..."
Saying this, Richard went ahead and waved at the golem. Its head moved closer and its eyes glowed a crimson hue as it seemingly began scanning him. After a while, it turned green and the golem opened the door to let them in.
What greeted Damian after that was...an absolute mess.
The inside looked surprisingly big, it possibly even had more space than the workshops the academy uses.
But scattered around the place were random scraps of metal along with magic scrolls containing some spells. A few of these magic scrolls also seemed to be quite well-made and expensive, so seeing something like that just rolling on the floor was quite disturbing.
There were also some strange devices that seemed to be made by Cathy just lying in random places...and Damian was genuinely concerned about what went through her head when she thought about making these.
For example, he saw a couch that was equipped with a flotation device along with four artillery cannons with enough firepower to tear a castle into pieces...
Lying in some corner was an artificially created parrot that was just swearing all sorts of insults he didn't even know existed.
And cooking her meal at the kitchenette was a golem in the shape of a spider with a chef's hat.
"You look surprised, professor..." Damian thought that he hid his emotions perfectly, but it seems that it was bad enough that Richard was able to tell.
"Yeah, I'm just really surprised I...didn't expect to see all of these...weird things..."
"Ahaha, I feel you there. You should've seen the place when we first met her...I think she was creating a device that would allow her to soar past the sky. It was a real mess, she nearly destroyed the entire main square..."
"Sheesh, I could see her doing that..."
"They're strange, but don't tell her that, professor. She gets conscious about it for some reason."
"Hey, I heard that!" a voice shouted from the other side. Before anyone could react, a pink-haired girl emerged from the rubble, pouting as she greeted them.
She was wearing nothing more than a black shirt and was holding a comically large hammer, which was incredibly enormous compared to her petite figure. Despite this though, Damian was able to note her incredibly toned forearms the moment she reached for a handkerchief to wipe her glasses.
The dwarves took great pride in their powerful forearms, a symbol of the hard work and dedication they poured into their inventions. But even among them, her arms stood out—more rugged and muscular than any Damian had ever seen on a dwarf.
"My lovely babies are not weird, yeah? You folks are just too much of a daft to understand it!"
"Cathy, it's nice to see you."
"Richard, I see you're still looking peachy as ever. So what brings you here this time? Is the lass wanting to make another device for another one of her scams? I'm telling ya, if she's short on cash she can just help me with my inventions here—"
"Actually, I'm here because our professor needs to speak to you."
"Professor? What are you—!"
She jumped in surprise upon finally noticing me behind her.
"Golly, don't scare me like that hun..."
"I mean, I wasn't trying to. You just walked past me earlier..."
"Huh, really? Could've sworn you'd be like an assassin or something with your level of sneakiness."
"Ahaha! Wouldn't that be exciting?"
Cathy watched her breath as she sat down on a nearby couch...the one that had four cannons.
"So if you're a professor of the academy, I assume...oh yeah, it's school time now, isn't it? I completely forgot."
"Yes it is, Miss Cathy. Your scores would take a real hit if you continue to be absent without any reasonable excuse. I'd also be forced to create your own schedule for you if you don't submit it on time."
"Ooh, yeah, that does not sound good. Don't want you putting me in some boring clown show. Okay then, I can submit to you my schedule, but I won't be able to drop in to take them yet, unfortunately."
"May I ask why?..."
"Hehe, I'm working on a little project..."
She pulled a lever beside her and a huge chunk of the ground opened up.
And emerging was a sight that instinctively placed Damian on guard.
"Cathy...is that..." Even Richard was surprisingly speechless.
After all, staring down at them was the figure of one of the deadliest species in the world. A reptilian creature with scales so tough that it could take the toughest of magic spells, wings so wide that they seemingly covered the sky, and layered with razor-sharp teeth.
A dragon.
A creature so rare and powerful that it's capable of toppling down countries on its own.
Damian had the misfortune of fighting one in the past, and it was not a pleasant experience.
But now that he had a close look at it...
"Ease up boys, this baby is nothing more than a golem I shaped to be one of those overgrown lizards. I mean, I did build it to try and imitate the same abilities that those buggers have. But let's face it folks, even I'm not skilled enough yet to fully replicate that..."
"W-What on earth even possessed you to make this thing?" Richard suppressed the anxiety in his voice as he asked this.
"Erm...just bored I guess? I mean, I was just eating steak one time, yeah? And I was like, won't it be rad to make a dragon? Did a lil tweaking and here we are! I call him Scalley v.1."
"So, Miss Cathy. You're telling me you can't return to the academy yet because you're not yet finished with that?"
"Well, technically he's done, but that's not really Scalley's final form, yeah? I need to collect some battle data to improve some bits and pieces and make him closer to the real thing! Which is why you folks came at just the right time!"
Damian suddenly had a bad feeling...
"Since you strong lads are here, why don't you take Scalley for a spin?"
"W-What? Cathy, you seriously can't be suggesting that."
"Why not? Well, the professor doesn't seem to be much of a fighter so he's out...but you, Richard, my boy. You're probably gonna have a fun time with him, yeah?"
"When it comes to your inventions, there is no fun. Do you know how many times we've nearly died helping you with your experiments?"
Cathy chuckled.
"Oh, come on. Listen, I've installed a built-in kill switch so if anything goes wrong, which is highly unlikely anyway because my lil baby is perfect this time around, then we could just end it right then and there and go on our merry way."
"You can understand why I don't trust your words, right?"
"Humans getting so hung up in the past is so annoying. Look, all of us will benefit from it one way or another. I get my battle data, the professor gets me attending back to class, and you'll get some nice experience...come on, do you really want to pass out the chance to fight a replica of a dragon?"
She pressed a button, and not long after the eyes of the dragon golem glowed a crimson hue. Its head slowly rose up before it opened its mouth, laying its razor-sharp teeth for all to see. The dragon golem let out a replica of a roar similar to the real thing...
Seeing this, Richard let out a sigh as he took out his blade.
"Fine, but make sure to keep the professor out of this."
"Don't worry, I can tweak the data a lil bit so Scalley will see us as his lil pups, and you as someone who wants to eat 'em. Robert will help us too in case debris go flying..."
"No way anyone will be stupid enough to try and eat a dragon."
"..."
Damian felt a sense of secondhand embarrassment upon remembering a moment of his past.
After a bit of tweaking with the magic interface, the dragon golem let out a mighty roar that shook the earth. At the same time, a massive barrier was erected around the room. It was riddled with tons of complex magic runes, but Damian got the gist that the barrier was meant to keep things silent from the outside and to prevent any damage from leaving this place.
"Alright, let's get this show on the road!"
As she pressed a button, the dragon quickly charged at Richard and swung its massive claws.
"-!" He was able to guard it, but it was clear that he was struggling...
Gritting his teeth, he pushed aside its claws and went for a counterattack. He quickly moved around to its blind spot and swung down with such tremendous force and speed that it shook the earth upon hitting the dragon golem.
But...
"Tch...it's really tough." Richard clicked his tongue upon seeing that it had no effect.
He quickly moved away before its claws could reach him and widened the distance between them once more...
Seeing this, the dragon opened its mouth. Large amounts of magic energy gathered in it, compressing into a single ball of raw destruction. It may have been a test drive, but Richard knew that getting hit by that might really kill him.
"Looks like I'll have to get a bit crazy..."
He shifted his stance before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath.
"The five seals of power..."
A huge surge of magical energy began to overflow from Richard. The dragon golem immediately sensed this and launched its attack on him.
"The first seal of flesh...release."
His magical energy was then focused around his body, and as he drew his blade, he instantly spliced the ball of magic into two before immediately moving in for the kill. From the dragon's perspective, it just shrugged off its strongest attack and was already mere inches in front of it.
The dragon golem let out a roar as it swung down to try and push him back...
But as its claws collided with his blade, they were quickly sliced off as if made of butter...