"NO! I don't want to!"
Ignatius was roaring at me angrily, releasing flames everywhere he could.
"Come on, you don't have any other option, to be honest. You'll get bored if you stay here for all eternity. At the very least, you could help me find a way to free you."
"I won't trust you, you damned human witch! Your parents killed me, and you even ate my soul! Do you think I'll ever trust anything you could possibly say?!"
"But if you don't, you'll be here forever! Come on, become my familiar!" I replied.
After that, Ignatius began to let out a roar as he released a powerful breath attack over me, bathing me in flames. Naturally, I was burned alive.
"Burn! BURN!" he roared, using his feet to crush my body and splatter it into the ground.
I slowly regenerated back and looked at him.
"It's useless, stop doing that…" I said to him, sighing.
"I will fight! My will is unbreakable! I have been forged in countless battles!"
He used his claws to slash my little baby body mercilessly before beginning to burn and crush me again until I turned into burnt meat paste.
Man, this guy doesn't even bat an eye after killing a little baby girl? He's the worst.
"You're pretty evil, you know? You're constantly slaughtering a little baby. Don't you feel any remorse? I would feel terrible if I were to try killing a baby dragon and would probably not do it… but you don't even show any mercy against a human baby?" I asked.
"You humans are just a pest of this world!" roared Ignatius.
"You drain the life of the world, and the world is constantly crying because of it! It cries in pain because of you! We Dragons are the guardians of the world! Do you think we would ever cooperate with you?!" he roared back.
"Wait, what? What did humans do?" I asked.
"You would never understand even if I explained it to you! The sins of humanity are far too many to be forgiven! All of you need to be wiped out so the world can be saved!" the dragon replied.
"Come on, tell me more. I'm completely clueless," I told him.
Thus, he began to squish me like a bug once more.
Of course, I regenerated back.
"Hehehe… we can do this all day if you want. Let's see who has a stronger will, Ignatius," I reminded him.
"T-Tch… you won't get through me, EVER!" he roared.
And , every night, I was agonizingly tortured by this dragon as I tried to speak with him. Of course, my mind had somehow evolved so I can actually dull all my senses while I'm with him, so I don't even feel pain anymore. Then again, it's not like it would affect me that much.
Anyways, the end of the week quickly came. During the past three days, I was practicing Fire magic and Nature magic. The result? Nothing much.
Thanks to my new pendant, the intensity of my flames had become stronger, and I can conjure Ember multiple times in a row a bit faster than before.
Meanwhile, using the aid of Naturia, I can finally control the plants a bit better. Before, it was quite difficult. I could nourish them to make them grow big, but it was pretty taxing on the mind to order them to do things because plants don't possess minds. In other words, they don't answer to commands.
What I would need to do make plants "move" is to insert my will inside of them and pretty much become their mind, something too complicated for me at the moment. On top of that, I'm just barely grasping the most basic principle now thanks to the aid of Naturia, the very young Nature-attribute Spirit, my first familiar if you don't count the System.
Thanks to Naturia, I don't get so exhausted when using mana anymore as she shares some of my exhaustion. It's as if my stamina bar had suddenly increased in capacity thanks to her. However, she still feels tired after a while and both of us blank out if we do too many things for a while.
Then again, you can't expect big changes and improvements in just a few days. After all, growth is a gradual process that might take years, so I'm pretty happy with what I've achieved.
In any case, it was finally time.
Today was the day! I'm finally going to go outside and see the outside world for the first time.
We were going to visit Aquarina's town and stay the whole week there. Mother already told me that we could do this once or twice a month. That way, I could see Aquarina a lot per month and not just for a single day!
Speaking of which, my parents weren't so worried about our home because there's nothing we really needed to protect there.
Nevertheless, they left guards while mother left the barrier activated, which was actually fueled through massive crystals found under this whole place.
Apparently, there was a big temple from ancient times, where she placed massive Magic Crystals she made with alchemy by fusing multiple monster crystals into one.
She then purified them and infused her mana into them until they were filled. She called them "mana crystal batteries" or something along those times. Surprisingly, four of them could fuel the barrier for over a decade, so she wasn't actually constantly using mana to maintain the barrier, but she did have to give it mana every 10 years.
Oh, right. They also left some guards so a dragon or a remnant from the Demon King's army doesn't get here and begin trashing our house and farm.
Now that I'm talking about the guards, the guards that they left were quite unique.
You see, aside from familiars, there are also summons. Although they're similar in some ways, since you can summon a familiar through spells, there are also independent magic spells that completely generates a living being.
Of course, to make such a thing possible, one would have to be an incredible magician.
However, my parents are pretty amazing, so they showed me what it was to create summons.
"Create Summon: Archangel Guard Troops."
My mother chanted simple words, with several flashing lights emerging before us not long after.
An army of winged men wearing white armor soon appeared in front of us out of nowhere…