Ikuta's consciousness wakes up and tries to block the direct sunlight from hitting him " Just five more minutes " He senses that the room gets darker, wondering if Claire or Louis come inside to wake him up.
" Can I just train at lunch I'll be sure to exercise and wear that heavy training jacket ? " " What are you talking about " an unfamiliar voice forced him to jump out of bed thinking he might have to fight off a thief just like that time his father sent a puppet to do the same .
He threw his blanket and grabbed a stick and pointed it at the door glimpsing at branches " Huh ? " He was confused to smell wood and leaves " What ? " the blanket fell and he looked at the seed .
He remembered that Claire left it in his room and told him it was his father's gift , he already knew what it was but called his father's puppet " Dad there is a tree in my room " " Because that tree is the world tree "
" Huh ? " Ikuta kept his acting " But didn't history say it's dead ? " " It is that's not the real one just an imitation but it could be as good as the real one " " Then isn't it expensive ? " " Oh don't worry about money I could confidently say I own half the world's resources "
Ikuta wonders if his father meant that he has as much money as the world because he rarely has any media exposure " But why did it grow inside my room ? "
" Because you exercise too much kid , the world tree doesn't just need sunlight they need a very strong person to give it nutrients and this also means you don't have to clean the roof because the world tree can get more sunlight through the green on it "
" But is our money okay ? " " It's perfectly fine the world tree was very cheap because you need to water it and not just any water would work , but with all the plants that keep growing because of you I won't have to worry about it , plus you might meet a spirit with this "
Ikuta thinks about Yggdrasil giving a part of itself to elves " What kind of spirit will it be ? " " Of course it's gonna be nature but rather than that it could be anything but nature is just the more important part , Anyways I have to get to work soon you have at school okay ? "
He hears the voice again " Are you okay ? " He looks at the tree " Yes ? " " Ikuta ? " Louis asked and walked in " Louis there's branches all over my room " Ikuta said " Of course there are that's what happens if we bring Yggdrasil's seed to you "
Ikuta wanted to know more " Why does it grow if it's near me ? " " It's like how a strong person has a more bountiful lifeforce than others , you exercise way too much for your age but because of how we manage it you don't stress your body too much "
Ikuta wondered if there were other things he had yet to know other than the potential he held " Also Ikuta your training will be much shorter because of Yggdrasil "
" Really ? " " Your father said it takes too long and you are the only one who has been cleaning the air " Ikuta didn't understand what that meant .
" How about this you are like the sun getting warmer and warmer everyday , but the water which is the food we have been giving you is flooding the entire planet so we need a powerful plant that can keep up with the sunlight you are emitting "
" Ohh that makes sense but I have the dark affinity ? " " That doesn't matter right now Yggdrasil has been eating up the sunlight that our plants couldn't get also you don't have to worry about Yggdrasil starving if you are away your dad suggested a contract between you and the yggdrasil "
" But it's like a world tree " " And you are feeding it so make the gardener and plant contract already it's not very hard and Yggdrasil is still a young tree and since you will be feeding it from now on your training will be much harsher to keep feeding her "
" Wait why is it gonna be harder ? " Ikuta asked and Claire came inside " Because from now on you will have much harsher training obviously but that also means you have more food to eat " As if that wasn't enough .
" Also we called the school today that you won't be going we had you excused for family matters " Ikuta sighed and showed worry about the finances " Ikuta if you are that worried about money your father has the Draupnir ring "
Ikuta was surprised that his father had one of the treasures from Odin's vaults " But isn't that " " It's okay Ikuta your father won't be punished by gods " " Okay I'll train for the whole day " " Before that you will make a contract with the world tree so give it a name "
" Okay " Ikuta surrendered to his father's goodwill ' What should I name it anyways ? ' Ikuta knew that Claire and Louis won't help him " I'll call it Yukina (柚木那) " " Okay if that's what you're naming it then here "
Claire helps create the contract for Ikuta leaving a blank rectangle to write the characters on . Finishing the naming ceremony Yukina happily says her name to Ikuta " Alright now time for training "
Ikuta worries about the house that he might accidentally destroy during training . Both Claire and Louis took their spot and fought against Ikuta ...
After a very long fight that destroyed some of the disposable parts of the house , Ikuta throws all the metal into a fire to recycle " Ikuta what are you doing ? " Yukina asked " I'm making more weapons "
" What !? Is there war ? " " No I just do it because I like it " " You like making weapons ? " " Yeah , every month Claire and Louis do intensive training for me and it's they both fight me "
Yukina looks at the forge underground watching Ikuta control the fire " Ikuta why not try using your stomach's fire " Ikuta was confused and asked " What ? " " You don't know ? " Ikuta stopped the fire and ran upstairs .
" Claire ? " " What is it ? " " Yukina just said that my stomach has fire " " She's right " " She is ? " " Yes a body used to be explained by using the elements of the world based on their functions but because it's hard and dangerous to learn it not many try to learn it "
" Really ? " " Yes , For example , your respiratory system or it was used to simply be called the lungs has the elements of wind because that's just where your air goes into , your digestive system or your stomach was fire "
" Wow " " Your musculoskeletal is just associated with the strength along with your blood vessels and there are many more but not many are practitioners of using their body as a source of magic because you have to train it really well , but we do have some examples like those who poison their bodies "
Ikuta couldn't believe how much potential he had yet to discover " We can start teaching how to use it after all your body is like a hungry monster and it's strong to compensate so we can start today "
" Oh okay I'll just forge the weapons first " he walked back down the basement with a sigh wondering what kind of training it will be ' It'll be hard , really hard ' he was sad and Yukina watched him make weapons .
" Why are you making so many good ones though ? " Ikuta recalls the contents of the familiar bond " I just think it's good for me to be ready in case something bad happens " ' Although I actually do it because I know I need to make better weapons '
Yukina's roots touches Ikuta " What is it ? " " Are you scared of something ? " Ikuta looks up to check if anyone could hear him " Yes , partly because I'm facing a monster I shouldn't tell anyone about "
" Why ? " " Do you know forbidden knowledge ? " " I heard that from the elf I used to be inside of " " Good then what I have on the monster is that kind of knowledge , because I have seen it I can expose other people to it , I can't tell you everything about it but you just have to know they are like a powerful god "
" So you make weapons because it's the only way ? " " It's one of them , I've been training a lot because I'm scared , I know how powerful they are and how dangerous it is to stand too close to them "
" Then is there anything I can help ? " " Maybe but it's just making you stronger I just hope I don't hit the limit of my talent soon " Yukina branches a branch through Ikuta " What are you doing ? " Ikuta wanted to continue hammering the blades and Yukina said .
" Don't worry Ikuta you won't reach that soon " Ikuta was confused " Why ? " " I just know my mother Yggdrasil has known many people you won't reach the limits of your talents yet " " But not very soon either ? "
" Yeah , you have so much potential Ikuta " Ikuta wondered if it was enough to have a lot of potential if he needed to get as strong as he can before he faces his father " I'll try at least "
He hammers away thinking more about what has happened yesterday . He checks on the room where the elf , defender and the box was " Yukina do you have some memories of the elf ? " " A little bit but only the important ones "
" Like ? " " There's a hidden room where she guards her lover " " Well anything else ? " " She does have the ancient teachings of nature inside which she was going to sell if she couldn't get the pandora's box "
" Okay I'll search for that " Ikuta relayed the commands to search for the ancient teachings " By the way Yukina do you have any memories about Yggdrasil ? " " only a part of it like the scary withering uuuggghhh "
" Well that's too bad " ' I'd rather not give Yukina any forbidden knowledge , even if she has some memories of the elf and Yggdrasil it would be risky if she suddenly learns about dad ' " At least the withering isn't around "
Ikuta sighs and looks at Yukina sensing that she almost had a single piece of forbidden knowledge ' It's still not enough though ' he worried about keeping Yukina safe because he already told Ryela about his father .
' How should I remove forbidden knowledge ? ' " With soul magic " ' The demand for soul magic is getting higher and higher ' Ikuta complained he knew there was no such thing if he were to just stay put .
' soul magic is completely illegal because of the uses around it . the puppet spell does control people so nobody likes it ' he remembers that there is an illegal trading of slaves in the black market .
' Although from what the duchess said the slave collars are just punishment and healing so no mind magic but nobody uses that kind of slave collars anymore , But it's not useful if it controls a soul instead of reading it '
A lot of laws surround the magic on the soul restricting its use which is why not many have authentic truth-telling magic items " By the way Yukina make sure not to talk about the monster to anyone okay ? " " Yes because it's forbidden knowledge " " Then I also can't tell you anything about them too "
" Okay " Ikuta was glad Yukina wasn't ignorant about the dangers of forbidden knowledge . He goes up to have lunch takeouts " Ikuta your school has a physical fitness test so we sent them some scores over so that you don't break anything like last time "
Ikuta recalled the arcade machine he broke at the mall " You only have a few tests that you can do without breaking anything , the strength test is all out of the way " " Okay "
" the physical fitness is tomorrow I wonder whose fault is it ? " his father said " I thought that the physical test was still months away ? "
" The weather is predicted to change , winter is coming earlier which means a lot of classes have to be cramped a little early because it's gonna be summer sooner " Louis said .
" Also if you take care of Yukina well she'll grow fruits for you to eat " Claire said " But it will be winter " " Which is the perfect time for you to try to get the ice affinity "
" Huh how ? " " That's just how the season goes Ikuta , usually you have to wait for years because it's like a trial and error but with Yukina increasing the probabilities "
" But how would she be able to do that ? " " Simple feed her cold mana " " But isn't that kind of mana hard to make ? " Ikuta had read in the book and even had a personal experience from the duchess knowing that it is that hard to be able to derive mana from aspects surrounding the lack of something .
" Yes it is which is why your father is sending over a lot of things " " But I still haven't finished the book about dark magic yet ? " " He said it's better to have it in hand plus it's rare to find books on dark magic , But you can at least get the ice affinity " " Fine "
" How do you get an affinity ? " Yukina asked " It's usually described as the innate ability to interact with an element , If you have a light affinity you get to interact with light how you do it highly depends on how great it is , not many try to gain an affinity artificially because it's an ancient art so it's very hard " Claire answered .
Ikuta finds something strange asked Claire " Then why is there mana around us ? " " Because that's what happens when people frequently use magic , If Magic had completely changed the world then it would've been hard for science to appear . "
" So the reason why there is mana around is because people use it " " And it's also why places like the north and south pole have plants growing because that place is full of people trying to take advantage of the extreme cold "
" It could also explain why it's constantly shifting " Louis opens the news channel " The sudden surge of cold mana has interrupted the normal seasonal change , As of now there are a lot of businesses trying to change their schedule due to this sudden change "
The news explained the tight schedule that businesses and classes have because Winter came early " Now you just gotta make sure that Yukina can take the cold mana and make something out of it "
Ikuta wonders why his father is giving him so many opportunities ' Dad has always been looking out for me ' he was confused again with his intentions of opposing , all he cares about right now is to be able to survive whatever ordeal he will encounter involving his father .
" What am I going to do for lunch ? " " We have to fix the house so you can bring your laptop and go to the other house " Ikuta thinks about an alternative " Can I visit my friend's house ? " " Sure just make sure to run back home " Ikuta checks on Nisse and Ezio who were having lunch .
" Sorry Ikuta I have to help at the restaurant " " I have to help out at home with our plants " " Awe that's too bad " " You can try Druk he says hives in a skyscraper " Nisse said " But is that okay ? " Nisse thinks about it if it would be " I'll ask him " Nisse walked to Druk who was reading a book .
" Druk ? " Druk was surprised to hear Nisse " W-what ? " " Is it okay if Ikuta visited your home ? " Druk was completely confused because he still didn't understand this visiting that the circle of three friends do " Uhm okay " " Okay you heard that Ikuta you can visit him " " Thank you Nisse and you too Druk "
The day went by and Druk felt terrified on what to do with friends over . His parents usually weren't around and the cleaner won't come until dinnertime .
Ikuta rang the doorbell with a bag and his laptop " Oh hello Ikuta when is Ezio and Nisse coming " " oh no it's just me " the words struck Druk's expectations .
" it's just you ? " Druk asked with a weakening voice filled with disbelief " Yep " Druk felt embarrassed for being excited and stupid to assume three visitors were coming " Come in " he already accepted the visit so it would be wrong if he rejected it .
" How was school I had to stay at home because of training ? " " It was fine nothing big happened , except the announcement they said they have to do physical test early and we have to worry about the cold " Druk imagined the time he was called a snow dragon because of his white scales .
" What kind of dragon are you Druk ? " " Thunder why ? " " Nothing I'm just asking , I'm still really new with this magic thing so I got curious " " You are very good at it , you already learned a few spells on dark magic that sort of magic is usually hard to understand " " It'd only because of the inheritance from that mannequin that I was able to use a few spells "
Druk looked at Ikuta and asked " Are you planning to be anything ? " " Not really , why ? " " Nothing I was just curious I never had friends in the first place " Ikuta recalled how Druk doesn't have friends .
" Then what do you do at home ? " " Study but it's boring " " what are you learning about ? " Druk was confused to hear a different reaction than most kids and answered " Thunder magic ? " " What does it talk about ? " Druk looks at the balcony .
" It's just the study of clouds and how we can control it , nowadays there are better variants of affinities like electricity because a lot of machines are powered by it " Druk thought Ikuta wouldn't understand the words " Oh so it's like energy ? " Druk nodded .
" But thunder is much harder to control " Druk said " Because it's a natural force " " Yeah it's why my family bought a unit in a skyscraper " Druk took a seat by the window " This is where I get most of my mana because our ancestors used to fly to the sky to absorb thunder mana "
" Cool will you be able to fly then ? " " Not sure even Ezio will have a hard time when he gets wings , and mom and dad are afraid I might fall " Ikuta looked at a painting showing a majestic dragon with clouds underneath it " It's one of the reasons why thunder dragons are rare "
Druk looks at Ikuta who stared at the painting " That's the defender , nobody knows who is his parent but he could use a lot of elemental magic , see those dragons in the back , one of them is my ancestors " " So do you know anything about him ? " " I do but it feels boring to talk about "
" It's fine I'm the one who asked you " " Uhm well the defender was the one that fought against the abyss and otherworldly species that invaded our world "
Druk walked to another room " That over there is one of the abyss's commander that fought the defender , we don't know much about the defender only that they fought against the invasion of the abyss . "
Druk sighs having to disappoint Ikuta " Wow so we don't even know about the abyss ? " " Some people had associated it with the withering that appeared but nobody really knows " " I heard the saintess was also there " " Yeah the disappearance of the world tree and the dragon gods caused us to lose most of our blessings "
" Speaking of blessings , what about the inheritance that dragons have ? " " We received it from our ancestors , it's the reason we have really good homes but it gets harder to preserve the fortune " " Oh so you mean money " " Yes , that's why mom and dad are working so hard , so I have to work hard to "
Druk sighed " Sorry this must be boring for you " " oh no it isn't learning about the history of dragons from a dragon makes it fun " " I'm glad you like it but I really have nothing else to show " Druk sighed knowing this was the end of all the good and interesting things .
" It's okay , I have a lot of things to talk about " Ikuta said trying to encourage Druk " What can we talk about ? " " How about magic what can you do ? " " Summon lightning from my body " " So the reason why you have white fur is because it's like the clouds ? "
" Yeah I guess that's what it is , it's also why it changes into grey sometimes " Druk showed the change by summoning a little lightning through his hands " Before we used to live in the ground because of the danger a thunder dragon had when they are young but now I can easily control it to make a spark "
" That's amazing." " It's not that amazing . For a kid, it's very normal . you are the amazing one , Ikuta " " Dad did say my scores are higher than most kids." " How do you get that kind of score? "
" I just had a lot of time " Druk wonders what things Ikuta had to do to get to where he is right now " What did you have to eat ? " " Just food , dad always sends over money to buy food for me , I just eat them and exercise as much as I can until I lose all the calories "
" But didn't they say that too much exercise is bad ? " " It is unless you increase it slowly " Druk considered exercising but considering his family's economic priorities " Do you have to worry about money ? "
Ikuta recalled that his father had told him not to worry about money " Not really , Dad never told me how much we have " Druk wonders how Ikuta's family is well off to be able to have meals like that every day and a shopping spree like that .
" Either way I'm not entirely sure what it's like but he keeps sending so many gifts I think it might be a lot " Druk sighed " It's okay , but there's nothing to talk about now " " We can talk about magic , how are you doing ? "
" It's going well because my affinity is thunder I could create energy from electricity but the clouds are still better for thunder dragons " " If only we could go to the sky " " That will be very hard , but by the end of the year we have a trip going skydiving "
Ikuta looked at Druk " I'm kinda scared , we didn't have it because I still had to control my magic but now that I do I have to worry about getting as much in the skydiving trip " Ikuta wondered where Druk would go .
He opened his laptop and searched for the location " Is this where you are going ? " Druk looked at the location " Mount olympus ? That's too much , and it's not even an ideal place to go for me "
" Why ? " " Ikuta that place is full of many elements it's one of the places I shouldn't be going " " Oh is that so " Druk wondered if Ikuta had any idea about magic as a starter " Here this is where me and my extended family are going to take me , mom and dad have been taking turns for the past years with my older cousins "
Druk showed the location " Here this is where we plan to go at least only within this range this is where several children with thunder affinity first go to , skydiving is hard so many choose to stay closer to the ground this way "
" I see , so this one is where you want to go , it makes sense " they talk more about Druk's family's plan to improve his magic potential and Druk looks at the time " Oh it's almost dinner are you staying ? " " No need I'm only here because I wanted to try visiting "
" Okay you can come again next time " " Alright see you tomorrow Druk " Ikuta left Druk's house and Druk looked outside the dark skies ' I wonder if I'll be able to live up to my ancestor's names ' Druk waited for his parents to come home .
Ikuta arrives home to eat his dinner and a piece of music is played " What's that ? " " A music box " " It's made with the musical essence of Orpheus too " His father said .
" Your father sent it over thinking it could be good , it's a magical item that can channel what you are feeling , but that's not set right now " Claire said .
Ikuta smiled holding it swearing to not use the setting that channeled his feelings " I still like nature's sounds more " " Then you better get used to the winter's snowstorms then "
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