-Lunchtime. Nefiru's POV-

I recall the series of events that led to the shocking death of the horse I'm currently chewing near the burnt ground zero.

My magic training last night took a complete turn after using the impression of Mana being energy threads that are made of smaller threads instead of conventional gaseous mixing with my Spirit before forcing it through the smaller passages of my Core like some filter.

I'm not sure how everyone perceives mana, but my image was strong when making Magic into threads then twist and stretch it before slipping through those smaller tunnels to become accustomed to the smaller Spirit strings. This efficient method requires a much higher level of concentration but doesn't have to be done with all the magic, and just a small portion transformed changes the rest of the Spirit in a chain-reaction compared to brute-forcing all Magic through holes until it becomes unstable, then gather more Mana to do it all over again.

The results were outstanding but reached a point where the cavities at the center of the core couldn't help anymore, and even the walls didn't feel solid since it was possible to go through new gaps.

It feels weird being able to perceive something many times thinner than the width of a human hair, and it's hard to believe is even real since it doesn't come from a sense like of Sight or Sound. Any sort of measurement have to be done with your own vague senses, and I wonder how deep this awareness with magic can reach... maybe atoms will become discernible someday or perhaps plank length. I searched for other methods after having reached physical limitations that can help efficiently with Magic Training like the core which was designed for that, then stumbled upon elementals.

After discovering a connection to what had to be elementals, I spread my magic outside the body while feeling it dispersing slowly the furthest away from my soul at around ten meters then started dragging the clusters that seemed the easiest back into the core.

Gather Mana with Spirit to make Magic then use that to collect elementals since they won't move with spirit alone, but at least it doesn't consume Magic to drag them around. I was unaware which element it was at first, but noticed how they were distinctly dividing inside my Core into three parts after accumulating for a while then identified the elusive forces outside my body and willed them to do something. It felt like a dream seeing drops of water, electric sparks and a tiny dot of light appear in mid-air, but sadly the elemental corresponding to light had meager quantities and control over it was the hardest, so I discarded it to focus on the other two. Unlike the training I was doing before where mana was only lost after becoming unstable, training with elementals drains it all, and replenishing with the thin ambient mana is insufficient even when it became easier to gather with the higher Spirit density.

I followed Shaila's instructions and filled my core with two equal parts of the two elements, but was still able to collect more after it overflowed, then recalled she saying it doesn't always apply. I thought she meant that it wasn't possible to pick up more elementals once the Core filled up, but that was a terrible misunderstanding on my part and continued collecting lightning that was easier until they went out of control, then started feeding on my magic by themselves to produce electric current inside my body. However, right after losing control of lightning, my body turned cold in fear and immediately focused everything I had to suppress water from following the rampage since there was a chance it happened to both. Since trying to command two elements at the same time would make it harder to restrain, I ignored lightning and tried to pull off my magic, but they followed along as if stuck then focused on water. Magic is very dangerous without skill systems since my heart was almost frozen on my first day of learning.

Electrocution was nothing new to me who played with industrial current, so I endured while my tensed up muscles conducting to the ground made it unable to move an inch then created a water bubble around my body to drain magic reserves and dampen the static charge building in the air. The torrent of electrons was channeled through the path of the incoming elementals that I was collecting and increased the charge outside until the air ionized conducting the electricity to supercharge the water and along with the increasing temperature of the air inside the sealed bubble, it became a tug war. Hard to tell how high the voltage generated was, but it was probably in the thousands if not tens of thousands when it created an EMP and possibly microwaves or who knows what other electromagnetic phenomena since it was chaotic, though the skin under the scales still hurt where lightning bolts came out.

The Elemental ratio that filled the core was half each but became imbalanced by more than two-thirds lightning when it went out of control, and since a particular Magic Density was required to just sense elementals, then it's safe to assume that is responsible for the limit of elementals that can be controlled. Perhaps controlling more elementals requires smaller ropes of energy or higher densities similar to doing exercise to lift more weight, but at the same time, it will be able to command or feed more of them over the same area. It's all about magic density, huh? I'm unable to detect or interact directly with Elementals because my current magic density is insufficient and only a vague connection tells me where they are within my magic. Passive Magic recovery has increased according to density, but now there seems to be passive Elemental recovery as well since they have started accumulating in my core where the highest magic concentration is found. Truly a marvelous device for beasts, though the concentration of magic doesn't increase density and I suppose it would be like taking those strings closer together to make a roll then elementals slowly converge there.

Inspecting the connection to the Elementals, I found they are like gates or engines that bring forth particles when instructed by Spirit during the feeding process of Mana from your magic and can be linked to pre-existing corresponding phenomena to control in exchange for losing them once you stop fueling. It seems the Spirit can only instruct at the same time you are feeding them, and water elementals last longer just creating the liquid, but they disappear once I stop controlling already made water, though making water or ice defy gravity consumes magic equivalent to creating it every second. Elementals seem to only interact with Magic until they are used to control particles then change that disposition to become like disposable spoons once magic stops fueling the process. Makes me wonder where these Elementals come from and since mana seem to be converted to matter using them as a medium then this planet probably has been getting bigger over many years.

In the case of lightning and Light elementals, they are used to reabsorb the electrons or photons to redirect flows then disappear once fuel stops, but I'm unable to explore everything the elementals can do at this rank, in particular with Light where my connection is very weak for some reason. I was able to sense more elements before these three affinities attached to me, but they are no longer accessible, and even the control of Light is so terrible that will require higher magic density to use effectively. There must be rules restricting how many affinities one being can hold, and perhaps is related to the strength of soul, but it looks like even if I get more, it will just be harder to control like Light or worse.

Lester and Alphonse converse in front of me while I slowly devour the horse to satiate my hunger caused by the injuries sustained from the lightning rampage then re-started the conversation with them once done munching on the horse's left hind leg. I want to eat the meaty parts first to make this faster, and I'm not fond of eating shit inside the intestines like the old me, but I do want to eat some juicy organs...

"Ugh, Shaila taste way better than this...where is she anyway?" I commented ripping open the belly with my claws to pull out the intestines before digging in with my snout.

"...She's having lunch too...have you truly not gone crazy enough to eat my sister?" Lester informed then interrogated with a wry smile.

"Don't worry, I'll chew properly." I raised my head chewing while blood spills to the ground. "I will eat her....but only when she can't die from it, or are you asking if you are on the menu as well? Sorry, but from the smell, you don't taste that much better from the horses and I kind of need you alive." I mocked his earthen smell, but only Alphonse had a laughing reaction. "Alphonse smells like his job is to assassinate people, but does it with a different knife every time...interesting." The black-haired assassin raised his hands in defeat and laughed then I went back to lunch.

"...She was worried about you and used all her magic to heal your head, but how can you still think about eating her?" Lester bellowed then stomped the ground loudly.

I stopped chewing to look at the blond young man's angry figure. Hey, dude, don't look at me like that, I just want to feel Shaila going down my throat, and don't get it myself, but it's as if liking something so much that you want to eat it...something is missing to understand why or maybe is the lack of touch that's causing this. I watch Alphonse placing a hand on Lester's shoulder to calm him down then I went back to breaking ribs. Whatever, I should ask about elementals before they fill and run out of control again.

"She'll be okay, so don't make a big deal out of it and no yelling during meals." I raised my head declaring while licking around my snout then moved on to chew on to the head and neck. {More importantly, why are water elementals harder to find than lightning?} I inquire watching Alphonse walk towards the house.

"Alphonse will inform Shaila..." He sighed looking up and affirmed before resolving himself to answer. "So, you decided to stay with water and lightning, but practicing two Affinities at the same time will make progress slower since you have to gain insights for two professions and lightning is harder to practice but easier to gather its elementals compared to the other which is abundant near liquid or icy sources. You also have to keep their proportions constant since there's a fixed amount that is possible to control with certain magic density and the Spirit have to get used to those quantities for the passive recovery. What most people who keep two affinities do, balance them with equal proportions since changing it is dangerous as you have experienced, but most individuals just stick to a single one and discard any other until their Spirit is trained to reject them unconsciously." He elaborated pacing around.

I'm not worried about the insights, but it's difficult gathering vast quantities of water elementals from the air, and I wonder why they are abundant in liquid or ice only. Though the body is also made of water, it seems they take some time to reappear in a source, but I'm not getting close to the contaminated river and destroy my sense of smell to practice magic. I look at Lester from top to bottom recalling he were a magician and flinched under my glare.

"Hey, Lester, can I steal the mana and elementals from someone?" I question him who freezes at the meaning behind my words then nods his head.

"Trying to steal it while they are alive is far too difficult, but when you kill a magician, their accumulated Mana becomes ownerless and disperses rapidly, so you have to envelop the creature quickly with your Magic when it dies then absorb as much as your Spirit density allows which is really not much at low ranks. However, the elementals will disperse much slower, giving you time to absorb them almost entirely, but don't cause any trouble since we need water magicians because of the contaminated river." Realizing my intentions he elaborates and sternly warned.

How interesting that I can recover a little Mana from killing a magician or a magical beast, though it is not Experience Points, the process of feeding and be instructing the elementals improves the Spirit slightly, but different instructions does it even better like making ice instead of liquid water. Whatever happens during the time when Magic fuels the engines and Spirit pass through carrying intentions refines the latter but decreases when doing the same action repeatedly. The changes are minimal but realized after experimenting with the string method and the core tunnels for scale.

"I was thinking to go hunt beasts in the forest next to the volcano for their mana after a few more days of practice since I just exploded and all, then bring Shaila with me." I elaborate my plans and seek permission to bring the little girl that could help me gather magic since our Spirits don't clash so much.

"Absolutely not!" He firmly refused.

"You think you are doing this for her, but she feels like a prisoner within these walls and won't be able to move on from whatever happened in the past." I asserted then went back to eating while we argue.

She shouldn't be allowed to go outside when a dragon was gifted as a present and it wasn't a surprise for her birthday, then deducted her past to be some kind of traumatizing kidnapping. What kind of kid as excited as she was, doesn't want to buy a toy or pet herself? From what she told me and how her brother doesn't let her out is probably something along the lines of 'protect my little sister' thing, but it's really some Noble after her blood huh?

"...It's far too dangerous." He stated after thinking for a few seconds causing me to look up again. {It's hard to trust you completely, and there are strong magical beasts in that forest that can still kill you...remember how smart one has to be to learn magic and there are also people gathering that might come after her soon.} He reveals the reason for the danger while grimacing.

After being right with my suspicion, I ponder over the matter pertaining my birth in this crappy place. Among the voices, the old me heard which sometimes were movie characters being remembered; there was something about finding 'her' before it's too late and if it is Shaila then something is supposed to happen to her...maybe another kidnapping, but I shouldn't listen to weird voices since it would mean I'm here to protect Shaila. What the hell is Guardian doing? Could it be some kind of apology for the bad parents or a little help since he looked worried for choosing a World without skill systems?

I was guided to find a traumatized but talented Noble girl who hates people and just happens to want a dragon...little girls want ponies, not dragons! However, she's perfect for a loyal companion when even slaves that are easy to make loyal harem members in fictions didn't look like that in the slightest here...so she's a gift to me? Nothing worth having is easy to keep, and if she was given to me on a silver platter then she's relevant...it makes me a little uneasy, but I will protect what's mine. Besides, in this kind of situations, there should be a lot of cannon fodder that could help me with my Magic recovery. I look on the positive side of cliche development like these then stare at Lester.

"If I'm going to be promoted from pet to guardian dragon then I want to know what happened to her and your cooperation for certain experiments in the future." I informed him of my conditions.

"Ugh, Alphonse told me to wait before asking you to protect her, though it's hard to trust you when you could swallow her in a blink of an eye, but I can allow those experiments as long as they don't involve cooking people, especially my little sister." He declared with a wry smile and continued after my nod. "This is not something any of us is comfortable talking about, but it's not really a secret in town or the country for that matter." He grimaces again looking down and I turn to finish my first horse in a hurry before hearing the story.

I finished my horse and lay down next to the skeleton while feeling full then cleaned my snout with water magic. Erm, who's gonna clean up this mess? I asked myself looking at the pools of muddy blood, the partially eaten skeleton and the pile of intestines. Well, I'm not sleeping here tonight.

"On day, a year ago, news reached us that an unknown group of a few dozen individuals settled north of the curve on the road that leads to the capital, but Father didn't bother investigating since they weren't causing trouble, but we didn't have decent scouts, and those people were rather sneaky about their actions. They were revealed to be high-ranking bandits when Shaila who was coming back from school at the capital was kidnapped despite her two guards and asked for a lot of money to have her returned, but we didn't possess such amount anymore. To make things worse, the only ones who offered a little help were Nobles who wanted to have Shaila birth their children or grandchildren in exchange, then Father who was enraged by those schemes already punched a guild official he shouldn't have and was immediately suppressed." He narrates then stops to look at a window on the second floor with an ugly expression.

I'm guessing he hates his Father who was probably a good Noble with that mentality of living and let live, but even him got fed up with those nasty Nobles who tried to buy his daughter for use as a breeding horse... I realize the irony while recalling the Earth mount that was probably made by bandits for the same reason I used it.

"We despaired when news of our father's arrest reached us, then I commanded our strongest guards and ransacked the town's most wealthy families, but we couldn't rescue Father in the guild building since it's a fortified." He paused closing his eyes recalling those memories before speaking once more. "However, I couldn't reach the required sum at the appointed time..." He oozed regret while gripping the bracelet strongly.