"Hmm? Leo?" She was surprised by the sudden question and Rein's voice was loud, so everyone heard this clearly.
And naturally, this caught Anna's attention.
"Who's Leo~?" She shouted in her ever cheerful voice from Taika's back with her cute, radiant smile.
And she wasn't the only one to cheerfully shout like that.
There were others who were surprised by this sudden request too, and although it was unreasonable, even they knew she wouldn't actually mind calling the creature, even if it was too big for this place.
And after Anna's cheerful question, the others, especially Alf, also shouted in a loud voice.
"Leo?! You mean the guardian turtle of Atraxia?!"
His voice was loud, his heart beat faster, and the expectations-filled eyes were also something that made our moms chuckle.
And, after he mentioned the word turtle, Anna shouted again…
"A turtle~!? Anna wants to see the turtle too~! Daddy said they are big, strong, and coool~ creatures.
We have one here too~?"
Her question was expected, though. She was a child who had seen less of the world than me.
Even I haven't seen a turtle for a long, long time.
Not with my own eyes, that is.
Turtles were mostly sea creatures and land turtles are mostly found in island nations or distant places, so seeing a turtle was a rare thing in itself.
And here, we were talking about a familiar, strong, energy beast who ruled over the surroundings they walk on.
Everyone knew the name Leo, and even if there was something of that name, it was easy to guess what Rein was talking about from the way she said it.
And this really was something we would all like to see.
Meeting the guardian who had protected their family for more than a few decades.
And although the creature was young compared to its millennia-long lifespan, he had completed his growth.
The creature was large, and Rein's grandma was helpless against the star-filled eyes everyone was giving her.
"Sure. He will love meeting such marvelous people, too."
She was hesitant, but she didn't disagree with these selfish requests of us young children.
Even I had starry eyes while thinking just how great that creature would be and I really was excited to meet an (Indigo) ranked perfect creature.
Rein, sitting before me, was enjoying my excited expression, which I knew she definitely found cute.
And I didn't mind that one. There were some unique expressions of hers I liked more than her blushing ones.
Just shaking my head at these thoughts, we all looked at grandma who had closed her eyes and bent down and touched the grass-filled ground.
She was feeling the grass and the earth with her hands, and maybe trying to feel some vibrations of the earth, or communicate with the earth itself.
Well, whatever she was doing, after a few moments, I heard Celes's voice in my head.
[[ Master, he is big~. But nothing compared to the one from the forest. ]]
And after saying that much, she shared the vision of a mountainous creature, slowly walking through the forest, but not crushing the trees in his path.
It was strange and as we looked from above, this looked even more surprising than looking normally.
A giant turtle with a giant scaly back, a round hard rocky back that looked like a mountain in size.
Though his whole body was green, from its legs, and shell, to even its tall head coming out of his shell, one part of its body was different from this entire green body, covered by forest moss and plants... its eyes.
They were blue, deep, filled with wisdom, and so big that they looked like a small pool of water.
As it moved with this giant body, the earth didn't shake like it normally should, but instead, the trees in his path moved and made way for him to pass, and after he passed from that place, they returned to normal.
The turtle exuded a significant amount of natural energy, something I had only felt when I met the golden deer family.
The power to just naturally influence nature and the element of nature those beasts controlled.
(Indigo) rank was a stage few creatures could reach even after having the potential and bloodline of that rank.
Not the 'true potential' of an (Indigo) rank.
What I was seeing right now was the true (Indigo) rank.
Strong creatures of nature, being that had the ability to naturally influence nature.
(Purple) ranking creatures like Taika though were different beings altogether.
Just being one of the creatures of (Purple) rank meant they would reach that rank even if they did nothing and just hunted creatures in the wild.
And how much a creature of purple rank grow after reaching the limit of their rank was all up to them, their life and their master, if they had one.
Purple-ranking creatures were fundamentally different beings altogether.
Unlike other beasts, they can change their forms after reaching a certain stage, then evolve into stronger creatures.
But at that rank, they aren't energy beasts anymore.
They are 'normal' humanoid creatures who were once a beast.
The natural restrictions, abilities, power, and strength, they had would also change after that evolution, and Taika was a creature that will evolve after a few years when she reaches the stage which she will definitely reach.
And dad was her master… it was all up to him how he treats her, handles her, and how their relationship develops.
This evolution would even make her far stronger than she was right now, and I know she was damn strong.
Even more than this giant turtle.
She was strong right now, and she will grow even strong and that was what tigers were.
She was born to rule and serving under someone weaker than them was fundamentally the last thing they should do.
But Taika was different. More than that, she was weird for a ferocious being like tigers.
She was a special one among her kind, just like Tuuli.
Taika saw the true potential of dad, which was genuinely higher than Rein's grandma.
And the old lady already knew that.
Not only that, I still did not know what had happened and just how these two met but, I knew one more thing… Taika genuinely saw dad as her master and respected him and all of us.
Not just because we were his family, but she was just that different.
She was an excellent partner, and so was the giant creature which had just exited the forest area, and I can see it with my third eye now.
He was big, enormous if I said so.
I had seen few who were of his level and even then, he was a familiar, something that would have been impossible for normal people to see.
But I was seeing this and he was closing in with an unreal speed.
Just a few more steps and he will be here, but, well, he was a strong creature for sure.
We watched as a large figure entered everyone's field of vision and the position of the sun made him even more visible, lighting the scaly back of the turtle with its golden light.
This was evening, soon it will be sunset and Leo would have to go back as soon as we were finished here.
He was a good beast, and right now, there was a turtle smile on his beaky face.
He was an old grandpa, full of wisdom, and without a doubt, a strong creature.
'Three eyes.'
============
[Giant Earth Turtle] (Familiar name: Leonardo)
Strength: 180
Dexterity: 174
Stamina: 165
Magic Power: 149
Intelligence: 93
[Skills: Elemental request, Nature walk, Earth powers, Terrain ruling, Mana speech, Defensive fortress, Spinning wheel, Magic cancelation, Wise one, Protection scream, Metal creation, Green blood guardian.]
---> Look closely. Watch, observe, and memorize. This is what a truly powerful being with this much strength looks like.
---> This is the limit for a creature of similar rank, and creatures of higher rank than this are a creature of unfathomable strength.
---> Though this turtle is cute, don't fall for those adorable looks.
---> The creature has a very high affinity with earth attributes, and the level of control it has is magnificent in itself.
---> A great being, and one who knows what its true powers are, unlike someone who has barely touched the surface of this ocean.
============
'I know already. And don't worry. We have time and I believe we can reach even higher than just reaching the maximum.'
It wasn't even a question. I AM weak.
I was weaker than even Rein if we talked about pure strength.
I can defeat her, sure can, but not normally.
I had this golden fruit, the special artifacts, all the enchantments on Asta, and the scripted spells in my mind to help me.
Without them, I might even lose to Alf, let alone Carla.
I was still weak even while having all the knowledge, skills, Solnova, and magic.
I can just memorize stuff. I was not a genius like Alf or Carla, not in a normal manner anyway.
My talent was archery, as well as energy manipulation.
And both were difficult to actually use in combat against strong opponents.
Even my original skills. I was far from being able to utilize even half of their powers.
I was just lucky to reach [Upper-intermediate] mastery and (Stage-2) for my eyes.
Things will go well, I knew they will.
But that was for future me to think, not the me who had the whole family around me, watching the giant creature who was looking down at everyone and... especially me.
He wasn't a ruler like Taika so I knew he won't know about Zoe but; he was eagerly looking at me right now.
The shadow of its enormous figure cast upon this entire house, and the way how every servant and people from the house were outside, looking at this creature with excitement and surprise, I knew calling him here was something bigger than I thought.
But, the beast was already here and, instead of looking at his master who had been on his deathbed for that long of a time, he was looking at me.
He was looking at me with genuine surprise, and even I didn't know the reason behind this.
His deep blue eyes were sparkling as if he was looking at something very interesting.
And I really had no idea why he was like this.
I wasn't the only one surprised like this though, everyone was.
And we didn't have to think too deeply as the giant creature smiled down at us and opened his mouth and spoke in an old, but clear voice, [ "Aren't you special, young boy~?" ].
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