The next morning, everyone besides Ariel woke up feeling a bit sore. His food was at a level of horror that they have never expected, at first his friends though that he was over reacting, but when they got a taste they understood how much they were mistaken.

Even now they shudder remembering what they ate and to disperse that memory, decided to try starting a conversation on a more positive note. That’s why Brendon started commenting about it in a more amused tone than before.

“I truly never ate something so bad, we should never let him cook again or we will really regret it.” At the side Erna didn’t say anything, but still nodded in agreement, only Sarah spoke in on Ariel’s side unlike them. “No one can be perfect, and this is the thing that Ariel is bad at. Isn’t this actually good for Erna? Before you marry you should try to improve your cooking as much as possible. That would definitely please him and improve your future relationship.”

During the conversation Sarah seemed to be delighted at Ariel’s cooking skill instead of being unsatisfied. This is because it is the only thing she found that can be used to impress Ariel, since people would always be more captivated by humans who are skilled at something they aren’t, instead of them being good in something that person is a master of.

In the mean time however, Ariel was feeling quite depressed as he was standing at the side while listening to them. Although anyone would when people were talking about them like this while that person was listening so close to them.

Only after a while did Brendon notice this and with an expression of embarrassment, spoke while looking at him. “Maybe we should stop this conversation for now and talk about something different.” Understanding his meaning the girls looked towards Ariel while feeling slightly awkward and waited for Brendon to speak again.

“Oh yeah, after a nights rest you should have got some of your Mana back. Did you try summoning your familiar already, Ariel?” The person in question let out a breath of relief due to this awkward event ending, but still felt a little wrong in his heart while responding. “I haven’t. I thought I would try it after you ended your “discussion”.”

Brendon once more broke out into a stiff smile while silently urging Ariel with his eyes. Ariel stopped complaining and then took a breath after his friends went quiet, and started trying to summon his familiar without further ado for his first time.

Erna and the rest watched him as the large amount of Mana gathered around Ariel’s body and was slowly sucked into the symbol etched on his right hand. Slowly it lit up and they saw a blue mass of cold substance rise into the air from it, without having any solid form so to speak.

After finishing the summoning Ariel opened his eyes that he closed before, and looked towards the creature in front of him. When he laid his eyes on it, he suddenly froze for a while just like his friends who were shocked at the side, but soon excitement overcame him.

From an another person’s perspective it was actually a seemingly weak creature, only at a low level Disciple rank, but more knowledgeable people would quickly recognize that what Ariel summoned was a spirit.

Spirits were extremely unique monsters. The most basic one were very weak, but what made them different and precious was their unlimited ability to evolve. Normally mages would look for something that would have a large potential to grow for a familiar, spirits are the most coveted things for them in the whole world.

It is said that if their master is strong enough, in the future a spirit can reach even the legendary Emperor rank. From this you could see how high is their potential, most common beast like the crimson fur hunter Ariel had met before, could only reach the late level of Elite rank if they’re lucky, and the only other way would be for them to have a mutation, but that is beyond rare.

However the reason that all mages aren’t going after only spirits was not only because they were extremely rare. Due to their unique builds they only live in places perfect for their own affinities like water or earth element. Such like fire spirits were even rarer and could only be found near lava or magma sources.

What’s more, they are experts at hiding and are very easily spooked, so to be able to make a contract with one would be called a god sent miracle. Of course even Ariel was absurdly happy for this good fortune and his friend were also dumbstruck by his devil’s luck.

Sarah still hadn’t taken of her eyes off the small spirit as she spoke to him. “It is really a spirit? Also it seems to be an ice one at that. This is just too lucky, how did it get here?” There didn’t seem to be any cold enough places around here, so it is not surprising that Sarah would be dubious about it.

However Ariel didn’t pay too much attention to it as he responded. “I don’t know how it found me, but it was extremely lucky. We can think about it later since we still have to quickly find Erna’s familiar is because we should be returning very soon and it would be a shame if she was the only one who didn’t get anything.” To escape their own speculations they quickly nodded at his proposal and had Erna lead the way while suppressing their own mind, from wandering about.

Still, through the whole run the four of them continued give looks towards the floating spirit which was still too weak to fight in its own and could barely do anything yet besides follow them. They really wanted to find out more about it and explore its capabilities, but that would have to wait for later, since they soon reached their final true destination.

In front of them they saw a small patch of plains that was a bit unusual to the purple wilds, but not rare. Looking around, Ariel, Sarah and Brendon were wondered what kind of beast lived here that Erna desired it so much.

The one to ask her was Sarah. “So where is the thing you want to contract?” She seemed a bit puzzled since they didn’t notice anything so far. However Erna pointed out her finger towards a place a bit further from them.

The three took a better look at that direction and soon became astonished. When quickly looking though they didn’t notice, but now they saw that there was a herd of some kind of white animals there, which they easily looked over due to their body’s neutral color.

Soon however even more shock appeared on their face as they realized what they were. Even the matter about the ice spirit seemed to dissipate from their minds because those animals were actually the mythical unicorns that almost every girls dreams about having.

Unicorns were extremely rare, not as much as spirits, but still rare. Of course the four of them have already heard that there was a herd of them bred here, by The Academy so it was still understandable to find them here and that’s the only reason they could still accept it.

However just like the spirits they were quite hard to get. Also their requirements were quite stricter since to even try, you first had to be a maiden witch had the light attribute or it would be hopeless to even try to tame them.

But that was only the minimal standard, the unicorns were as proud as they were rare and so if you wanted one, you had to exhibit amazing talent before they would accept you.

Now seeing that Erna actually wanted to tame one, her friends became a bit skeptical. However it wasn’t in anyway dangerous to try if she didn’t overdo it, so Ariel gave her some encouragement. “It is worth a shot, but don’t push yourself if they reject you or it can get dangerous, though with your talent it is unlikely that they would decline to contract you.”

With his words, Erna became even more excited and certain about getting one, but Brendon’s next words quickly completely ruined her mood. “However I never knew you had such a girly side to you. I guess you learn something new every day.” It was truly unexpected that a girl like Erna who was quite serious and fierce would pick such a feminine familiar and although it is also had quite a high potential compared to other beast there are also others she could have picked.

Hearing his words Erna quickly turned red like the night before shouting. “It is not your business what I pick, just shut up and be quiet!” The embarrassment was written on her crimson face and her flustered words didn’t help. She felt truly angry at him because she had already thought that her worst fear of being made fun for that wouldn’t happen.

The only reason Brendon stopped teasing her was because of the death glare that his sister was sending him. Like this Erna got a bit of peace to calm her heart before trying to contract one of the unicorns.

After several minutes of waiting, she finally started moving while exuding strong light Mana around her body, to show her worth towards the unicorns. The one she picked to tame was unsurprisingly the biggest of the bunch and also the one which appeared to be the leader with a majestic air around it.

When Erna approached, all of the unicorns directed their gazes towards her as they started feeling her Mana and strength. Luckily none of them attacked her which showed that they at least were not hostile towards her and had a positive impression of her. Now she only needed to find out if the unicorn she picked would accept a contract with her.

As she came closer, the large unicorn didn’t move from its spot and calmly waited for her to reach it. When she as already only a meter away, she felt some pressure from stressing herself, but steadily continued walking. Soon she reached the majestic creature and slowly put her arm on him, starting to slowly stroke its head.

Her face started overflow with happiness when she noticed that the unicorn didn’t reject her at all, and quickly started forming their contract, just like Sarah did with her little panda. When it finished, Erna couldn’t hold her excitement anymore and hugged the neck of her new familiar.

At the side, her friends also felt happy for her as Brendon muttered. “She actually succeeded. That means her talent is truly extraordinary.” Listening to Brendon’s muttering and seeing how Erna was excited about her familiar, Ariel directed his gaze towards the little ice spirit hovering next to him.

As if feeling the Ariel was thinking about it, the small lump of coldness came closer to him. Ariel held out his hand and the ice spirit quickly landed on it. Looking it over, Ariel spoke. “Where did you come from? Is it truly fate that we met?” The little spirit suddenly started hopping up and down on his palm, making it strangely adorable and its action made it seem like it understood his words.

Seeing this, joy appeared in Ariel’s eyes as even he couldn’t hide his happiness of meeting this little friend of his, who will undoubtedly be with him for a long time to come. Although soon he was brought back from his thoughts by Sarah’s voice. “Since we all got a familiar now, how about we go look around for a while until it is time to return?”

None of them said anything against it, especially the unbelievably happy Erna who had a bright smile on her face. Like that they started wandering about and simply enjoying the rest of the time they had here, in this forever memorable place “the purple wilds”.

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If you want to read further, visit https://verathragna.wordpress.com/ I will always have an extra chapter there