Insect Tamer's Ascension Chapter 509. Dragon hatchling

The troubles that came looking for Theo were minimal. Since he spent nearly all his free and class time studying, the only option for him was to keep his social circle to the minimum.

As people started noticing how diligently he studied, there were times when students with equally influential backgrounds would approach him out of curiosity and ask to look at his notes.

Theo didn’t mind that. All he cared about were his marks, and competing against eleven-year-old students wasn’t really his thing.

But when one of those students asked to keep the notes until the next day, Theo had to set a boundary and refuse the request.

In the evenings, Clara and Elias brought him different kinds of beetles, and with the budget from his pocket money, Theo started buying all sorts of evolutionary materials.

While the royal capital offered a variety he couldn’t find anywhere else, the prices were several times higher than normal as well.

Still, Theo had an advantage that not many shopkeepers liked. Thanks to Clara’s and Elias’s skills, he could get those evolutionary materials in grams instead of greater quantities, which significantly reduced the cost.

The first evolution potential popped up almost immediately, and Theo spent the next two days guiding it through the evolution. When it finally evolved, Theo already knew the size increase wouldn’t show anytime soon, but it was still disappointing.

The next evolution potential was easier, too. Theo knew better than to beat around the bush by experimenting blindly with random materials.

If a beetle was Earth-type, he would feed it basic Nature-type evolutionary materials and carefully record the resulting evolutionary paths.

Each set of materials was tested on a separate beetle, bringing the number of starter evolutionary options to five.

Out of those five, Theo successfully unlocked second evolutionary options for two of them.

That way, one beetle gained a dual affinity for earth and nature, just as he had predicted.

The other developed earth and ash affinities.

It was Theo’s first time dabbling with the ash element, but it wasn’t too different from the fire affinity.

Soon after he was done with those evolutions, Theo was hit with his first exams.

Aside from one course where there were no exams, Theo had to study day and night before the day of the exam.

Afterward, the cycle continued. During that time, he managed to make many more connections.

Surprisingly, the most enjoyable class wasn’t the hybrid studies class but the one that focused on survival.

The professor was crazy, but Theo grew fond of him within just a week.

Theo also got in contact with Cassie’s group and officially became a part of it. Helping the girl in the first test had worked in his favor.

And through that, Theo finally got to learn Orrin’s story.

He came from an influential family, and everyone had fallen into his trap during the first year.

But by the second year, the guy’s reputation had plummeted so much that no one wanted him in their group anymore.

Still, nobody could openly say ’no’ to an influential boy like him, so whichever group Orrin decided to join would have no choice but to accept him.

Most students were at least a little afraid of him until Theo, the new student, came forward.

By coincidence, Theo ended up becoming a part of Orrin’s group and quickly got into an altercation with him.

And for the first time, Orrin intentionally chose to stay away from someone.

Theo knew the moment he introduced himself that Orrin understood he wasn’t someone to mess with.

The Merricks already had a reputation of their own, and now they were even a Count family.

On top of that, Theo had won tournaments that normally weren’t even meant for someone who had just joined the academy.

In the exams, he got a total score of 88%, only because of the fact that they lasted just an hour while the course material was far lighter than before.

At the same time, Theo focused on the new insects and tried his best to help Clara’s and Elias’s beasts to evolve as well, though it was difficult since his ability still didn’t work properly on higher-level and higher-grade beasts.

Yet, for the first time ever, Theo felt genuine competition from a group of eleven- and twelve-year-olds. Ten students had a higher average score than him.

The highest was an unbelievable 98%.

The moment Theo heard that, a flip of ego switched inside him.

From that day onwards, his grind became far harsher, and even Clara and Elias couldn’t do anything to stop him.

Theo had decided he would take on the challenge and take first place, and that kind of goal demanded relentless dedication, along with countless meaningful things that took everything out of him.

So when the date of the next tournament approached, Theo was under an entirely different level of pent-up stress.

His grades were improving. His strength was increasing. His beasts were evolving. He was still trying to level up himself.

But even after pushing himself so hard, all that remained was a mind too exhausted to focus on anything else.

His next opponent was also a third-year student, and the moment Theo got to know her name, he felt like this fight was real.

According to the information given by Selmira, the girl he was facing possessed a dragon hatchling as her first beast.

And hearing that made Theo realized this was the first time one of his insects would fight a literal dragon-type beast.

From that day onwards, he tried his best into joint training with the mantis.

For the tournament, he had already prepared a complete plan of action.

Yet, there was this excitement inside him which refused to leave him, mixed heavily with anxiety.

What if the dragon, no matter whether it was a hatchling or not, possessed scales that were so tough that the mantis wouldn’t be able to hurt it at all?

What if all this hard work was going to be for nothing, as in the end, someone born with overwhelming strength would always stand above someone who had risen from nothing?

All that remained now was to wait for the next five days to pass.