The Peqling Magical Creature

"Your mana core... Its shade is a scarlet gloom..."

Lyra had no idea what Landria meant but she knew it had to be something interesting due to his reaction.

The pillar of light died down in a few moments and the vicinity slowly returned to normal. The pressure surrounding the area also dissipated.

Lyra walked out of the magic circle and waited for Landria to explain.

"The color of your mana core determines your affinity towards a certain type of magic. Since yours is scarlet, it means you have an affinity for chaos magic. Learning this type of magic will come easy to you and you will be more powerful casting them," Landria explained.

"Hmm... so what did you mean by scarlet gloom shade?" She proceeded to ask after nodding her head in understanding

"There are four shades of mana cores which represents how good your mana core is. Mana cores play a vital role in the heights you can attain cultivating your magic. If it's not good enough, a mage will get stagnated after reaching a particular level," Landria began explaining.

"These four shades are bright, light, dark, and gloom, ranging from the clearest to the darkest of course... The darker a mana core is, the better it is. If one has a bright mana core regardless of its color, they are doomed to remain a basic mage for life. At most, they may get to the apprentice Level if they strive hard enough.

A light one is not as bad and it improves mage chances by a lot but the peak is not guaranteed regardless. From what I've heard, most of the mages all across the globe possess light mana cores. You're seen as a normal mage if you possess a light mana core.

Now a mage who possesses a dark mana core regardless of their color is guaranteed to be among the top powerful magicians in the future so long as they continued to cultivate their magic. It is rare to possess a dark mana core and such mages are treated better since they end up having talent than others with a certified bright future..." Landria paused a bit as he got to this point.

He breathed in a little still astonished about what had just been witnessed here before resuming his explanation.

"Now a mage possessing a gloom shade mana core is beyond incredible and up to a billion times rarer than possessing a dark one... According to my father, in the history of magic, the number of mages who had been said to possess this shade of mana core could be counted with ten fingers. He battled one in his younger mage days and lost miserably and my father is not the type to lose in a fight even though he was significantly younger and weaker at the time," Landria said with a look of amazement.

"You're saying I will become very powerful?" Lyra had a look of excitement on her face as she voiced out.

"If you learn chaos magic well and you're diligent at it, then that is a certainty," Landria responded.

Lyra could feel excitement welling up from deep within her after hearing this. All she could think about right now was the possibilities.

'I guess this was why she was able to use a spell without ever learning a thing about magic or chanting words,' Landria remembered their first encounter and felt it made sense now.

It had only been a small whirlwind on her palms but that was out of her element and she conjured it without saying a word or knowing a thing about magic.

"Conjure up something let me see," Landria said.

"Hmm okay..." She said and proceeded to stretch out her right hand.

Fwwhiiii~

Mana gathered around her and in the next instant, a jet of wind blasted out from her palms scattering dust across the vicinity.

Landria was amazed as he watched the trees in the environment bend back a little from the intensity of the wind.

"I always try to hold back because I feel as though I might hurt someone if I unleash the power within..." She stated.

'She has an affinity for chaos, this is already out of her element... It's already amazing that she can do this much without uttering a magic spell. When she starts using true chaos magic it's going to be even more intense than this,' Landria couldn't pretend like he wasn't amazed.

He was surprised to find someone blessed with such a mana core in this part of the world. No one would expect that out here in the middle of nowhere, there was a teenage girl with a scarlet gloom mana core.

'Make her your slave!'

"What?" He yelled out as he heard the weird voice in his head once more.

"I didn't say anything," Lyra responded with a confused tone.

"Not you," Landria stated with a slightly apologetic expression.

Lyra was still confused as she looked around trying to see if there was anyone in the vicinity that she didn't see earlier or something.

"Your parents must be ready to leave by now, let's meet here tomorrow evening. I'll explain more on what I know about chaos magic," Landria stated.

Lyra nodded and they proceeded to leave the forest afterward. Landria felt they had already attracted enough attention to themselves for the night and the voice in his head which only appeared at random moments was another thing he was wary of.

He didn't want to look demented so he decided to end the meeting right here.

----

The next day arrived and Landria who had woken up early, as usual, did his daily Lebenoire physical exercises. A few hours later he was ready to leave for Velves forest.

He spotted the pamphlet he had gotten from old man Croan about a week ago and sat down on the bed to think while going through it once more.

The rewards were really tempting and Landria was interested in getting them but the task was not a simple one.

'Peqling infant... hmm,' Landria thought.

A peqling magical creature in its adult form was a fourteen-foot-tall bird with golden feathers and a tail of multiple bright colors like that of a peacock.

It was an elegant creature that happened to be quite rare as well. Landria was not sure he'd be able to see one in Velves forest and even if he did, getting its infant if it did have one was a different case altogether.

The peqling magical creature had a habit of spreading a deadly airborne toxin across the vicinity the moment it sensed it was in danger. This toxin was not only capable of deteriorating life forms in a manner of seconds but also non-living things as well.

It was an elegant creature that tolerated human existence but the moment anyone tried to mess with it, it became one of the deadliest creatures in existence.

Landria also felt it was pretty wrong to just take the infant from its parent. What if the new owner didn't treat it right and it ended up dying.

He felt it was better off staying with its parent but then the rewards were tempting.

Even though his moral compass made him feel doing this would be wrong, he still had a logical thought in his head...

'Even if I don't hunt them, others will and they most likely wouldn't show any mercy doing so,'