Growing Stronger… Is Not Easy

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I've been trying to grow stronger every day since I was born. Unfortunately, exhaustion always gets the better of me and I am forced to stop. Nevertheless, practicing each day has definitely made me more proficient in the abilities I possess.

Then again, how can I accelerate this process? Seeing how this world is filled with dangers, and how the world itself seems to just want to get rid of us even without the Demon King present anymore, I'm getting the urge to grow stronger.

I don't think I can simply live under my parents' strength throughout my entire life. If possible, I would like to become as strong as them someday, if not stronger.

Practicing Mana Usage, Ember, and Agriculture every single day until I grow too exhausted to even move anymore is the norm for me. On top of that, I'm also doing as many physical exercises as I possibly can with this one-year-old body.

I might be in an urge to grow stronger, but at the end of the day, I'm still limited by what I can do.

In any case, thanks to Naturia, I'm able to possess a higher stamina than what someone at my age would normally have.

It felt as if my very soul grew a bit bigger by making a contract with this little Nature-type Spirit.

As the System had told me before, the exhaustion not only came from a small baby body, but from my very soul.

It seems that the more familiars one formed a contract with, the stronger or bigger the soul might become as one shared a Soul Bond with their familiars. Therefore, what I shall call from now on as Soul Fatigue, becomes less prominent, while, Soul Stamina, a term I shall also coin, grows larger.

If I originally had 10 Soul Stamina before, after forming a contract with Naturia, I probably have around 30 now. In other words, I can work three times longer than before thanks to her. By channeling her power and infusing her into my soul, I can work even harder.

However… it's still not enough. I require more familiars! With that, it's quite a shame that they're hard to come by, add on the fact that it's even harder to find someone fitting to become a familiar. I can't just pick a random beast either, that won't give me anything useful.

Naturia, despite being a young Spirit, is already very special. If push comes to shove and I have to pick a beast or a monster as a familiar, then there's no doubt that it has to be a strong creature.

And with that in mind, that moves me back to Ignatius, my dear dragon friend. I really enjoyed his meat, and I bathed in his blood as well. The pendant made with his magic crystal greatly enhances my Fire magic as well, but now… I really want his soul to become my friend.

If Naturia tripled my Soul Stamina, how much could Ignatius give me if I formed a contract with this guy? Wouldn't it be amazing? Although this is just pure speculation, there's a possibility that forming a contract would increase it from 30 to 100! Perhaps even more, I may never know.

Due to this, I really require the help of this dork… but he's still unwilling to aid me in my cause.

I have to keep confronting him relentlessly each night and force him to cooperate.

I have to simply train my will while using my astral projection inside of his Soul Scape. It seems I have to force him to obey me.

He's too unwilling and hates humans. Plus, it seems like the Dragon King, his father, was also tasked by the world itself to kill Heroes and humans, so I guess he inherited that desire.

Due to this, it seems like it's impossible to cooperate with him or convince him no matter what… with that in mind, I have to get tyrannical and simply force him to cooperate.

I have to punch his astral projection in the guts, kick him in the balls, detach his wings, bite his neck, or something…

Astral projections do feel pain, so I can abuse that part. Then again, seeing how he's an ancient dragon and all that, he might be very resilient towards pain.

Moving all of that aside, after I woke up, I ended up spending most of the day inside the tent resting while my parents brought me food. In fact, both stayed with me while eating too. Surprisingly, Nepheline and Shade came along with Aquarina as we all shared dinner together.

The food of the Amazon Tribe was unique, there were things I had never tasted before, such as preparations with spicy and sweet sauces, grilled and salted fish, as well as special types of bread that were colorful and had all kinds of seeds on them.

There were also things they called "tortillas" made of corn flour and other seeds, which were like thin bread slices you could wrap around things. By filling them with delicious meat, vegetables, and strong-flavored sauces before wrapping them up into a package, one could enjoy all the delicious flavors at once… Uwah, what a bliss.

Even the little Aquarina ate her tortillas happily. The fact that I got to taste the food of other cultures really made me happy.

Also, there was a certain fruit that was colored green. It was extremely creamy, with a hint of oiliness to it that stuck to my mouth called an avocado. It had a black and rough outer layer to it, but in contrast, the inside had this creamy and oily texture. By grinding it and adding some tomatoes and salt, as well as a bit of a spicy kick, they went amazingly well with the tortillas alongside grilled meat cut into thin slices.

I enjoyed these meals thoroughly. For some reason, my parents and Aquarina's parents were surprised by how much I ate. Eating the dragon really enhanced my metabolism, so even as a one-year-old, I was able to eat a lot, perhaps as much as a grown adult.

Even spicy things didn't affect my stomach at all. I guess I also gained an iron stomach from eating the dragon.

Sometime later, my parents explained to them that it was perhaps due to me having eaten a dragon. Only with that did Nepheline and Shade finally understand why I ate so much.

Apparently, Aquarina had yet to eat such a mythical being to boost her foundation, but my parents had saved a lot of dragon meat inside a special dimensional leather bag where the meat was maintained perfectly. In other words, Aquarina was most likely going to get her own dragon feast and dragon blood bath soon…

She was unaware of this, though. She continued to eat her meals, as oblivious as she might be.

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