– "My lady! You must look after your hair!" The servant lectured the young lady of the house, Lumine Aurora.
"Come on~, I have you to do that, don't I? You're always there for me anyway~ but more importantly! Did you hear? Did you hear! I got engaged to the crown prince, he's so dreamy, the moment he kissed my hand when he confessed to me-" Lumine screamed.
The servant sighed "Then you better look after your hair, the eyes and hair are the proof that you're of the Aurora household, if you lose that, the crown prince can't and won't be engaged with you any longer " the servant threatened as she continued to brush her hair faster and faster.
"He-hey! You're going too hard… I get it, I get it!" Lumine pleaded to the servant, She then continued "I've known you since we're kindergarteners, where did the innocent, cute, and optimistic friend go.." she pouted.
"Ha… how many years has it been, my lady…" the servant said with a stern look, but deep down she knew… that she has no right to be happy with her lady as a servant with no name… –
…
Nero flew across the skies and explored the forest of thunder, he contemplated how he could influence the story towards the direction where the empire won't go down leading to the trash ending. Scanning below him, the view was… certainly unique, compared to earth's forests that are green, lush, and full of creatures, the trees in 'forest of thunder' were grown in twisted ways, roots that were overlapping each other on other tree trunks, the color green being absent, the trees bare no leafs nor fruits but not withering. Lost in thought, Nero soon realized why not even named monsters roam the forest of death.
*crackle*
Lightning struck down on the ground from quite a distance away from Nero, startling him. Soon after, lightning struck again, following the first after 1 minute, then 30 seconds… Each strike of lightning reduced the timing of the next strike by half, hammering the same spot like a blacksmith purifying metal. The number of strikes slowly piled on as it went from hundreds to thousands of lightning strikes per second and the tempest slowly circled around the spot.
The storm clouds all flocked near the site location. Nero, intrigued by the unnatural behavior of the weather, landed near one of the trees. He stood there observing the disaster that's happening far away…
Storm raged, lightning and thunder blending into one, the wind gathers and connects the heaven and earth, the clouds soon lands on the earth like a spear, twisting into a hurricane,
The phenomenon has been dubbed 'Zeus's rage' in 'TRMCP', given by the people due to the unending lightning strikes and wind that could pull anything into it, ripping it to shreds…
'wait…' noticing the hurricane that appears to not move… could only mean one thing.
"FUCK" Nero tries to fly away with all the strength and mana he could muster, disregarding the vow he made a few hours ago, but it was hopeless. In this magical world, everything was much harsher than on earth, magical disasters are no exception. Being pulled in, Nero, still struggling against the hurricane, was soon dragged into the storm cloud.
The current of the wind was relentless, exteriorly the hurricane seemed to twist anticlockwise, however the conditions are much worse here… the alternating current of the wind, switching from clockwise to anticlockwise, the lightning that seems to be stagnant in the center of the storm, looks to be frozen in place from the sheer number of strikes.
Nero could feel his feathers being plucked from the grips of the wind, lightning striking near him. The small body of a crow in a hurricane was being ripped to shreds; being tossed around like a plaything in Zeus's hand. It wasn't long until lady luck closed her eyes, and black lightning with purple outlines stuck his wing, Nero felt the electricity course through his body in slow-motion, the feathers being burned and toasted, the pain was dragged on as the memory of the servant lecturing Lumine crossed his mind…
…
Lady luck smiled upon him again…
Our poor black winged friend opened his eyes, the burned injuries were still prominent and distinctly painful. "... I kinda thought I might get unimaginable powers…or die again" Nero joked to himself as he limped hopping around. Unable to fly with the burned feathers and exhausted mana, Nero looked around to understand the situation…
'The eye of the storm' Nero acknowledged, the wind surrounding him, the obvious stagnant lightning bolt in the center, and the fact that he's alive, only gave him one explanation. Our curious little crow hopped closer to the stagnant lighting as a particular feeling became obvious to Nero.
'Mana…'
The minty feeling that he's feeling in the wind could only mean that there's mana, "why's mana here" He questioned. Mana is a benefit of life forms in the world of 'TRMCP', being created by the mana cores, a crystal every life form has inside of their heart. The size varies depending on how much one has trained in their mana core, increasing the capacity of mana inside of the person.
– The only known way of increasing mana, is to ingest a mana core from monsters or animals –
Nero, curious as the crow he is, steps closer to the source of the mana to investigate, ignoring the pain he's experiencing as he gets closer to the stagnant lightning bolt. He looked up, the lightning was like a tree… similar to the trees in the forest of thunder, the lightning rooting itself deep into the ground, charring the dirt it holds.
The black lightning bolt; The eye of the storm that's in the center of the hurricane stands there in the middle of a large crevice, Nero generates a small gust of wist with what little amount of mana he recovered and glided to the foot of the lightning, where a singular crystal was being charged by the black lightning.
Amidst the black lighting the crystal is shaped in a form of a hexagonal prism, with a tint of purple, the inside of the crystal holds black veins much like a plasma ball. The lighting charges the crystal with high current like a battery that has infinite capacity.
"That's! An elemental mana core? But… its…?" Nero shows immense confusion he's experiencing, never in the story of 'TRMCP' has there ever been an elemental mana core that has the attribute of lightning… much less lightning magic, He thought but he then remembered a particular line that didn't make much sense in the novel.
– Dick Coalson, presented Lady lumine with a hexagonal gem as a parting gift before leaving to the magic academy –
"This is it!" Nero exclaimed, the wealth he accumulated while still having no geographical advantage near the forest of thunder was because he sold this crystal… "but it's not common for elemental mana cores to exist though, much less him selling it, if he did he should've been much richer". Question after question, the count of unanswered things piled up, but what Nero understood was, is that this is a critical opportunity.
An elemental mana core, possesses an unparalleled amount of mana compared to any normal mana cores that living beings possess, creatures that have consumed elemental mana cores have all become named monsters, and revered as continent guardians.