Eventually they reached the Gym that had many different tools to exercise the body and all of them were magic tools that adjusted to the strength of the person. The user could control the weight in increments of 10% of their own strength.
For warm ups Xero put on a full body jump suit that when activated, would try to pull his arms and legs backwards making him look like a backwards shrimp. This was training for the back muscles as well as the body since the leg, abs and back muscles all help control the arms and legs.
He started to run while Ashley simply watched bored and soon flew to the nearest roof area and stripped down before falling asleep under the sun.
Xero didn’t mind her as ordered and kept doing the warm ups before he began to training exercise that Grunt had made him do in the camp. In the month he did it while there he could complete it so after that he was made to do it with a specific suit that causes illusions in the mind as if he was burning or freezing while causing electric pulses to shock his body.
Not only that but he had weights on his arms and legs that he needed to train with so the exercise was slowly getting intense while causing him to feel the burning sensation on his entire body.
When he was finished that he moved to the barbells. They were easy to lift at first and with the same suit he did the first exercises, he got in position to do squat reps. He set the weight to 70% of his full strength. This is because of the suit’s interference so only when he felt good about it would he increase it.
Setting a goal of 30 for 70% he started while his body was pulsed with the electric currents while his mind was attacked by the illusions.
When he was finally finished, this was much later when he reached 90% of his full strength to exert, he was sweating greatly but his body felt great.
As he removed the suit in the locker room and took a shower he found that the tattoos around his left arm and legs had shrunk a bit. He knew that the yoga martial arts that Grunt gave him had a huge impact on his muscle growth but as they say, the best result came from pure physical exertion.
Eating is good to gather the material in the body but only through exercise will that material be put to use after breaking and healing his body and only this way he can catch up to Ashley.
He dressed up once more and outside he looked around but didn’t find the little devil. “Ashley?!” He shouted.
A moment later she appeared, stark naked, flying towards him. “You called~ master~!” She said throwing herself at him but he sidestepped her.
“Where are you clothes?” He asked.
She looked down and looked at him, “Oops, I forgot to put them back on!” She said and flew off to get them and about a minute later she returned dressed.
Xero shook his head, “Come on, I want to examine the sword spirit spell that we have ignored until now.” Xero said.
“What material do you want master?” She asked.
“That is the thing, explain the skill in details?” He asked.
When he asked she looked at him before closing her eyes for a long moment. "I am not sure about this but~ it seems to be a permanent summon skill.” She said.
“What does that mean?” He asked.
She stuck out her hand and summoned a small white orb, “It means when I summon them, the spirits won’t unspawn and will only die. When like this they will just drift until they hit some kind of material and form a sword of it. As long as that sword remains in the material, it will remain alive as it is surviving off the mana in the material but when removed, without some kind of host it will die.” She explained.
“Richard put several dozen stone swords together to make one stronger sword, how does that work?” Xero asked.
She froze a long time but shook her head, "I don’t know, not until I try it.” She said.
“Okay.” Xero looked around and gestured to her to follow as they good to the forest edge. “Put 10 sword spirits into 10 random trees.” He said.
Feeding the mana ten spirits appeared and she pushed one into each tree and after a while, a ‘branch’ grew out but it looked like a sword handle. Gripping the sword he pulled it out and found the crystal eye like gem at the base of the hilt and blade. It was a long sword unlike the great sword the earth sword formed into.
He pulled them all out and began to pile them one on top of each other. They were all the same, about 90cm long, with 20 cm for the hilt with now sword guard. The blade itself was dull and everything was made of wood.
“What do we do now master?” Ashley asked
Xero didn’t say but just pulled out his sword and began to twirl it in front of him. Slowly the earth around the ten swords began to climb up and bury it. This was a basic element manipulation skill that they learn in the first year. It has a simple formula that allows the mana of the mage to interface with the ambient mana giving them a small degree of control for something like moving dirt or gathering air, making or controlling a small bit of common fire and so on.
“Ashley, put another one in the pile, I want to see the effect of wood swords being grouped together.” Xero said.
She nodded and summoned another one and put the spirit inside.
As soon as the spirit was pushed inside something strange happened. Earth and nature mana began to gather around the pile and the earth began to form into a very dense rock.
Suddenly the familiar seal began to glow and Xero saw this and examined what was happening as found that the Sword Spirit summon skill was growing a bit more complex and stopped as quickly as it appeared. The next moment Ashley was happily jumping around. “Master! Master~! My Sword Spirit Summon skill upgraded as I completed the sword merging. Now I know what happens. The first sword spirits create Magic Swords, just like masters but they range in different material and strength but they all help with magic casting. When master groups more than 10 sword spirits with swords and buries it before merging it will create what is called a Spirit sword.” She said excited.
“Magic Sword, spirit sword, what is the difference?” he asked
She happily hugged him, “Of course there is a difference, for one, a Spirit sword made from random materials like common wood would be as hard as iron and they can conduct more mana and help with making spells. If master used iron on the other hand the swords would be turned into some magic iron many times more powerful. If master used a wand it would transform the wand into a kind of sword wand with more efficiency. It depends on the material used!” She said excited.
She turned and looked at the now brownish rock that looked like a tree trunk and it was indeed starting to look like that. Slowly a dark brown handle began to appear from the center and extend upwards.
“Go on master, pull it out. The Spirit sword is a sword with a low level conscious, it will choose its master but because you are my master it will instantly recognize you as its master as well. All sword spirits summoned by me will.” She said excited.
“If it doesn’t recognize me?” He asked.
“It remains stuck and no matter how strong the person it would break before coming out.” She said.
Xero looked at the sword and gripped it and felt a presence from the sword and he pulled it out while the large stone shrank forming the body coming nothing more than half the size it was.
Ashley grabbed the rock and put it against the blade and slowly the rest began to shrink forming a cover and eventually became the shape of a sheath.
“There master, all the power was preserved and now you have a better nature magic spirit sword. If master works well you will be able to develop magic formula for it as well. You just need to feed it mana and it will eventually develop it.” She said before licking her lips, “When master does, heh heh, let me eat it cause it will taste really tasty then!” She said wiping the drool from her mouth.
He frowned and flicked her head, "I thought you didn’t like eating swords.” He said.
“What! Since when!? The taste depends by the sword spirits all taste good!” She said looking covetly at the wood s
word.
“Whatever, this will be useful to help me protect myself.” He said and put it on his belt sash that held his first sword but now he put the new sword there and put the other in his bag.
“What is the life expectancy of a spirit sword?” He asked.
“Magic swords last about an hour but Spirit swords can actively eat the mana in the air so they can survive as long as they want but only being ‘planted’ on the ground would they ‘grow stronger’ I am certain there is stronger forms but~ I don’t know~!” She said playfully
Xero shook his head and turned, “Come on then, let's go get something to eat.” He said and the two left to go eat lunch.”
Chapter 20
Grunt turned the wooden sword left and right and examined the edge, finding it amazing the slightly dull edge could still cut. He took the sheath and stored the weapon and handed it back to Xero.
“Boy, this is a hell of a Magic blade. Although not so good in physical combat but the ability to conduct magic through it is amazing. You said it was that Sword spirit thing right?” Grunt asked.
“Yes, this particular one Ashley said it was a Spirit Sword, ten magic blades formed from sword spirits further merged by another after being buried. She said that it acts as a monster itself and can grow stronger eventually developing spells.” Xero said.
Grunt shook his head, “No this thing can ‘hold’ magic formula not develop. That said, the material greatly affects the outcome of the spell. This wood sword would help with nature magic. But it can use other magic. That cleave spell the girly developed, if you engraved it into the soul of this sword spirit, you can directly use it through the sword.” He said.
Xero went into deep thought before turning to Grunt, “Is there a place to buy materials?” He asked.
“Want to make more swords?” He asked.
Xero nodded, “Although I do want to experiment with this, I also want to see if I can’t develop a strong elemental sword. If I get metal or ore related to all the elements or at least the basics and turn them into magic swords then merge all those into a spirit sword, I kinda hope that it would make a powerful spirit sword for magic.” he said.
Grunt laughed loudly, “Good dream kid, though it is one you can accomplish. That said a wood sword isn’t that good, not unless it’s Elf Magic Wood or dwarven Ironwood. You should still breed this sword, from what I understand, as long as it is placed inside the ground or solid matter, it will slowly grow stronger right? Then take this sword to the 6th layer of the forest training field and find one of the Bloodvine trees. These are trees with a unique kind of tree sap that is as red as blood and as thick. Stab the sword into the tree at a good angle that no one would notice and mistake as a branch. When this kind of tree is used as material, there is a rare chance that an ability called, bloodsucker, is born. This kind of ability makes the sword suck the blood of its cut victims and converting the blood into plant mana that flows into its wielder and heals any wounds they may have.” He said.
Xero was in shock when he heard of such a strange kind of tree. It was a mystery to him how such a thing came into existence.
“Can’t I just make a sword out of the tree directly?” He asked.
“Well you can but you will be in the middle of a battle with Bloodvine bats that live off the sap of the tree. If you can make it then good job.” he said
Xero’s lip twitched and nodded as he understood the meaning. Although he can make it, how many trees are there and how fast can each sword be made. There is no way that he would be able to make enough swords without killing the tree.
“I’ll probably try going today or tomorrow. I still want to test some things out with this sword first since it is troublesome to make more.” Xero said and took the sword and put it at his waist.
“Oh right, kid, since you're making something so interesting, mind giving me a hand.” He said. Waving to follow, Grunt lead the boy out of the school to the field and into a far off warehouse that was built next to a large hut.
This was Grunt’s house, unlike the other teachers, he lives outside of the school castle near the forest. Beside this was a large warehouse where he stored many things.
“Come in kid.” He said as he opened the door.
Entering Xero found himself standing in a junkyard yet not one. There were many piles and boxes of different times and goods. From tools to bones to many different objects.
“What are these?” Xero asked when he found a nest with eggs in one of the shelves.
“Urg…” Grunt muttered and rubbed his head. “Ah that’s right! They’re Griffin eggs. Nasty biters those things and prideful to a damn fault. Puts those damn hypocrites to shame. That said, an adult griffin isn’t a joke because an adult is level 60 while infants are born directly at level 5 and grow quickly to level 15 within 3 months before they learn to fly.” He said. “Now come come!” He said and they moved the back were a pile of huge bones were laid out. “Here we are. My dragon bone collection.” He laughed.
“Dragon bone?! Like real dragon bone and not just drakes?” Xero asked in shock.
“Of course, why would I keep drake bones, though I do have a few since they are good potion ingredients. Nevermind, boy make me a blade like that sword you made yourself out of these bones. I'll let you make your own. These seven piles have Water, Fire, Wind, Earth, Light, Dark and Demon dragon bones, their the basic kinds I killed and gathered. It shouldn’t take much to make a sword right?” He asked.
Xero shook his head, "I don’t exactly know how much bone is needed but it probably isn’t much since the trees didn’t die when the swords were made.” He said.
Looking at the piles Grunt decided and pulled out one huge femur bone from each pile of dragon bone while taking a thinner leg bone that usually accompanies the femur.
“The big one is for me, small one is for you.” he said.
“Inept old bear, you want to make dragon bones into swords?” Ashley asked.
“Got a problem imp?” he asked.
Ashley snorted.
“Ashley put the sword spirits in the bones.” Xero said. Ashley pouted, “Ashley…” Xero said but the sword devil pouted, crossed her arms and looked away like a spoiled kid.
“See brat, this is why you need to be stronger than your familiar, that way they won’t constantly bitch about the orders.” Grunt complained.
“Ashley!” Xero shouted.
“Boo~! Why should I help this old fatty… also you don’t have enough bones. You need at least 10 swords to make 1 spirit sword.” She said crossing her arms.
The two looked and indeed found that there were only seven bones. Considering the fact that she said at least 10 swords it meant that more than 10 would work better so in no time at all Grunt doubled the number of his bones and Xero’s.
“For mine I just want an extra light, dark and demon.” Xero said.
Grunt shrugged since he wasn’t losing anything by taking them back. Again the two looked at her and this time Xero was frowning at the pouting devil.
“Ashley, I don’t want to use the familiar command.” He said.
Ashley looked back and hid a slight smile on her face while she forced a pout. “Then I want you to hug and pat me until I'm satisfied and I want a big kiss on the lips!” She said.
Xero froze when he heard her words before almost smacking his face in with a tired expression on his face when he finally figured out why the cunning devil was complaining so much. She knew they wanted this yet they could not obtain it without her help in summoning the spirits and pushing them into the bone.
“No kiss and I can pet you at night until I go to sleep… and I'll willingly let you sleep with me but nothing more then that.” He said.
“Okay!” she turned around instantly with a bright smile as she walked in front of the bones. She stuck her hand out and a flow of mana from Xero went into the familiar Seal to the devil and 24 spirits appeared and she took one and put one in each of the chosen bones.
When d
one she went over and hugged Xero happily rubbing her cheek to his chest before hopping and wrapping her legs around his waist.
“Is that it? Where are the swords?” Grunt asked.
Ashley turned with a frown to look at him, “The sword spirits are already making them. It will take a while since it’s dragon bone and that is anything but easy material.” She said.
“How long exactly?” Grunt asked.
“As little as an hour, as long as a week probably, who knows, Earth dragon bones are as hard as hundred times reforged metal so how can it be soft? You will know the sword is done when the hilt appears but don’t go pulling it out because the longer it stays inside, the more of the bone is used to improve the sword. If you later put all of the bone into the ground to make the spirit sword, it will use the most of the material wasting very little.” Ashley said and went back to hugging.
"I guess we can’t do anything about it.” Xero said as he balanced himself under the devil’s hugs and neck kisses she was giving. It was quite hard for a young man in the midst of puberty to be in this situation so early. Truthfully, Xero was not sure how long before he actually fell for her seduction. The only saving grace is that she is an 'Infant’ and he could think of her as just a spoiled brat which takes the edge off by a lot.
“I’ll be going, I'll come back to check tomorrow okay.” Xero said.
“Aye, since it’s a slow process might as well not rush it.” He said waving off the boy and devil.
The devil in question did not let go of Xero and was latched on like a baby koala hugging it mother and does not let go. Xero was bright red because it drew a great deal of attention and he could not get her off due to the deal so he made a beeline to his room were he was finally able to peel her off with the excuse of meditating to expand his mana pool so she jumped out of the window saying she would go prepare some food personally, though only something small, since there are only weak creatures near the school.
My Blind Familiar_The Ash Golem Page 23