Xero quickly put her back in the seal since she could not even be summoned out at this time and he had to order her to remain because she kept jumping out.
Finally with peace and quiet he rested and trained until night time where he went to dinner before going to bed where he was jumped on once more as he went to sleep with Ashley.
***
“Ahahaha! All of them done within 12 hours, now that is good time!” Grunt laughed as he looked at the strange sight were there were bone hilts for swords sticking out of the bones.
“It’s not that impressive, they are just low grade magic blades that had a lot of wasted material.” Ashley said.
“Come on let's go bury these and make my beauty.” He laughed as he picked up to bones and walked outside and looked around before walking a small distance and dropped the bones in an open space.
After a small while two piles of bones had formed about 6 meters from each others.
Xero took out his wooden sword to try out the ability of this and began to control the earth mana by sticking the sword into the ground. The connection to the earth mana was many times greater.
The ground began to rise and cover the bones until it was perfectly covered the pile.
Ashley flew over and pushed a sword spirit into the pile.
At once the pile began to glow the earth began to spin as the earth turned bone white. A grinding sound was heard as the material inside the pile seemed to be broken down and slowly it compressed until it formed what looked like a dragon egg that was nearly 3 meters high and half a meter wide. It landed on the ground as a pulsing was coming from the ground.
“What in bloody hell is going on?” Grunt asked.
Ashley was looking at it while the Familiar seal was flashing and when it stopped she turned and grinned. “Inept old man, how old are you?” She asked.
“I’m 67, what about it?” He said.
“Your prime is gone right, you’re no longer getting much stronger I assume?” She asked.
Grunt snorted, “Who says, some people don’t stop growing until they start dying at near 100. Why brat?” He asked.
“If you leave this little ‘egg’ out in the open, first off 90% of the mana in the area will be drawn into it and most plants will die leaving it a barren land. Not only that it will take 20 years for this egg to ‘hatch’ and give you your dragon sword.” she grinned.
His face turned serious. “It lacks mana you're saying?” He asked.
“Yep, to refine all that bone matter and organize the elements from the seven elements will take a long time. Of course, if you provide mana it will speed up, uncommon mana stones, rare mana stones maybe even higher quality, after all it is one very weak sword spirit trying to make dragon bones into a sword.” She laughed.
His face was twitching but his eyes started to blink, “If I put this thing in the training areas I may be able to supply the energy.” he suddenly said and grinned. “Now that I think abou it, Xero needs to do that as well, how will you supply the mana?” He asked.
Ashley looked back at Xero and grinned, “Master doesn’t need to worry, 10 years or 20 years, it won’t be too late for him to obtain the sword since he is still only 12 years old at the moment.” She smiled
Grunt also realized this but he still looked at her grinning, “Still will you still make an entire area a barren wasteland. It will easily attract the attention of powerful people who will take it away.” He said.
“Try touching it?” Ashley said.
Grunt looked and touched it only to feel his mana being sucked up and he pulled his hand away. “Bloody thing is a blood sucker!” He shouted now wondering how he will transport it all.
"I can easily move it for you, the sword will not affect me, if you want your area here not to become a wasteland, get the headmaster to give access to both eggs to be transported to the volcano badlands were there won’t be a problem if the it is ruined since it's already badlands.” She said.
Grunt growled as he found himself as trapped as Xero by the girls cunning. Although she only learned of it after making it, she is profiting from it way too much making him itchy from anger.
“Fine, make the boy’s sword while I go talk with Gatekeeper Valmor and see if he will let us do that.” He sneered.
Stomping off he caused the ground to shake.
Ashley watched him leave before finally snorting, “Finally gone.” And turning to the warehouse.
“Where are you going?!” Xero asked.
“There is something good in here.” She said simply and walked inside. The sound one things flying came as soon as she stepped inside and the sound of her sniffing and knocking on the walls and on chests. Finally she walked out and in her hand was a small fire shaped ruby. "I knew this old man had some good stuff.” She said and kissed the little gemstone. "I wonder how angry he will get when his Dragon heart crystal is found gone.” She said and tossed it into the pile of swords.
“We can’t! He will easily find out!” Xero shouted.
“No he won’t, that thing was left in the corner under some old rag pelts that are moldy and rotting. I found it thanks to the mana it radiated. I smelled it yesterday but I didn’t want to alert him. I also found that this thing wasn’t obtained by him but fell into the warehouse without his knowledge.” She said. She pulled Xero and showed a very small opening in the ceiling that allowed water to drip into the box that it had been inside of.
“Now bury it before he comes back.” Ashley said. She was quite serious at this time making Xero feel strange when she always acted so cutely around him.
He stuck the sword in the earth and the pile formed and when it was done she put the sword spirit into the pile.
Only then she relaxed as the pile began to spin and form the egg. A red glow came from the center before being covered up by the bone crust and closing the energy inside. The egg was half as big as Grunts because the bones were smaller making the sword to be born a smaller sword instead of a large one.
When the egg landed mana began to draw towards it and she smiled wryly. “Master’s egg will take almost 40 years to make, if it has a steady supply of mana then maybe it can be cut down to 5 as well but the best guess is 7 to 8 years. In other words only near the time master graduates.” She said
“That is fine. It will already be too powerful for me to use at the time. I still don’t feel good about taking that thing from Grunt.” Xero said.
Suddenly Ashley jumped on him and rubbed her face on his chest, “Ah~! Master is so cute since you’re so soft~! But I'm here to be naughty in your place so always remain this cute even if you eventually grow ‘big’. Even then I will still love master~!” She shouted.
Unable to get away from her grip on him he had to wait for Grunt to come back so that they could transport the eggs to the Volcanoes inner layers. There were 30 layers and the max level was usually around 65 for the creatures around here. Grunt found a cave and cleared it out of the denizens who were very powerful but under his attacks died in under ten punches. Grunt’s egg was placed here and buried in the bedrock so it gathered mana faster while another cave was chosen to become the home for the egg owned by Xero.
Ashley confirmed that it would take 6 years. Grunt asked why it still took so long and the answer was a blunt, “These are level 60+ dragon bones. You want a small level 1 sword spirit to eat through so much bone in under a day!? Stop dreaming, it needs to eat, digest and assimilate all that material, as well as be supplied with mana to even accomplish half of that. The sword will form in 3 years but it takes 3 more years to digest all of the eggs materials into the sword and form a proper sword with edge and everything. Stop dreaming you inept old man! Everything has its natural course in the world. If you want a spirit sword made of dragon bone in another method go find some stinking blacksmith that can do that for you.” Ashley roared at him and vanished into the seal huffing in a rage.
It shocked the two of them by the outburst but they could do nothing but exit the place and
leave the eggs be with the area marked with a magic tracking symbol so they can find it again when the time comes, they left.
In the area though, mana flowed like rivers into the eggs and within a short time the density of mana within the deeper layers began to decrease matching a few of the lower layers before it stabilized due to the thickness of the mana.
Chapter 21
Three months, another semester, has passed since the events of the camping trip. The academy is now covered in a blanket of snow. Most students aren’t really affected as they use their winter uniform along with the all purpose mage robes that are enchanted to be cool in summer and warm in winter.
With winter also comes winter vacation were the students are allowed to return to their homes and enjoy the new years with their family. Similar to everyone, Xero was also going home to see his family after three months.
Xero was from the Lurian Empire. It's a relatively southern nation but southern in relations to the continent they live in. In after, it was the north areas, that were warmer than the south meaning the Lurian Empire was much colder. It had much less agriculture development, though there did exist it thanks to magic and artificial plantations underground and greenhouse preparations during the winter for spring and summer planting.
The Lurian empire was a more industrial empire, the empire had more mountainous land though not completely barren but it survived due to its metal production. They were makers of many weapons and were backed by the two great smithing races, the dwarf and the Cyclops.
Dwarf were 1 meter tall bulky and heavily bearded men with more than 10 times the strength of a common human. They are heavy drinkers and highly honorable and hate only three things, being made fun of about their size, having their beard insulted and having their metal work insulted.
The cyclops race, on the other hand, were once considered a monster race but after several heroes met peaceful cyclops and helped them establish a strong tribe and eventually gained some territory they joined the dwarfs due to their smithing skills. Today, cyclops are divided between Wild Cyclops and what is referred to as monoeye cyclops.
The monoeye are the peaceful ones, they only stand between 150 to 220 cm tall, have one large eye and maintain their powerful strength through smithing. They are no longer fat and ugly after mixed breeding with humans and dwarf and possess many human features and are only a bit dimwitted, at least the males.
Wild cyclops on the other hand were between 250 to 400 cm tall and were extremely brutal. They had large fat and muscular bodies using clubs as weapons and have sickly yellow or brown skin.
The difference is too significant to mistake so people do not even consider the monoeye as anything similar to the cyclops.
The metal products are the highest quality items in the nation and smithing is also one of the highly credible jobs in the nation. It is high paying for hard labor and even Xero’s older brother is a smith with some dwarfs since he was not able to go to the Magic Academy.
It is through his job that Xero’s family could remain living a relatively peaceful, though not rich, life.
Of the family, only the father has a familiar but it is also not high level. His familiar is a silver wolf that did not surpass level 30. It is said that the level cap is a form of talent measure, level 30 usually signals a commoner or the lowest ranking noble depending the familiar, level 50 level cap is middle ranked noble, level 70 is high ranking noble and level 90 is seen as the peak where kings reside. Anyone that can surpass level 90 is referred to as Archmage and is considered the greatest powers of the world because each level beyond level 90 is considered one step to godhood. That said no one knows if that is true.
The current Xero was many times different compared to the one that left 6 months ago. His figure was now lean and muscular, on his back and waist were several swords. On his back was a heavy looking stone sword, on his waist was one of wind, another of green ore and another that looked of volcanic rock and obsidian.
In three months Xero has gone around gathering some materials and formed for himself elemental swords, these were four swords he worked best with. The students at the academy even refer to him as the Several sword freak since he carries those heavy blades on him.
“Master, is this were your family lives?” Ashley asked as they were walking out of Gravlin, one of the large cities in the Lurian empire.
“My family live outside of the outskirts.” Xero said.
The outskirts was outside of the protective 'Inner city’ that is surrounded by very high walls. Of course there was still walls but not as high but still heavily armed.
Lurian empire separates the cities into ‘outer city’ where residential, market and entertainment districts form and the 'Inner city’ were noble district and many powerful Smithy exists. Most nobles in the Lurian empire had their own Smithy so these would exist in the Inner city while having shops in the outer city to sell their expensive merchandise.
Outside of both inner and outer city are the wilderness lands. The land of Lurian empire is hilly and covered in cold forests but it was filled with monsters that are hunted on regular basis by the city guard but the population is most controlled by hunters similar to Xero’s own father. There were many hunter families living in the forests to hunt the beasts and it is normally through them that the guards find out about increased strength of the monsters before they get too strong to cause trouble.
In the woods Xero walked a particular dirt path cut in the wood until, in the distance, he spotted a clearing with a fence and a wooden gate with a large sign. “Null residents, leather and monster products at a reasonable price.”
“So master’s family are hunters? It's quite something that master comes from such low standings considering the talent master has.” Ashley said.
"I have the talent I have because your mana exploded in my body.” he said.
“It would have happened sooner or later master.” She giggled.
After three months, Xero was finally able to find several outfits that Ashley was comfortable wearing without being overly revealing. Her current outfit was a pair of overall pants with a small short sleeves shirt that showed her belly. As a Devil she was quite strong and wasn’t affected by the cold much due to her internal temperature being very high. Besides this, she took to using some different suits like baggy fabric pants with bandage bra like a swordswoman, or hot pants and small shirt. Xero was still thankful that she would cover up, at least her privates.
“Ah~! This snow is hard to see through, it's making my eyes hurt.” She complained.
“Come on, let’s go see father and mother.” He said and pushed open the fence and closed it as he saw Ashley flying in.
Her two dark bat wings and tail as well as her white horns were perfectly visible signaling her as a demon but one would be really confused when looking at her perfectly human colored eyes, except for the white slit pupils.
The clearing was covered in snow and there were several buildings that were visible.
“That is the smoking house, that is the silo, that is a windmill to grind the grains we can produce, there is the barn where we raise Mountain Ox and some Sheep and ram for milk and fur.” Xero explained his families grounds.
“Is level 3 and 4 monsters that good?” She asked with a strange face.
Xero laughed, “It’s not that they aren’t good, it's that domestic animals don’t raise in level easily. Not to mention that we can’t handle stronger monsters and that these are common food items. We also don’t have money for magic herbs.” He said.
Ashley frowned, “What is master talking about, even though the snow hurts my eyes I saw almost 100 different magic herbs and plants while we were walking here.” She said.
Xero laughed wryly, “We can’t compare to you Ashley, we don’t see the world the same way as you.” He said.
She seemed to remember something and nodded as they walked to the house that was made of wood and stone with sturdy glass windows and a strong structure agains
t the cold. Although the family was not rich, it wasn’t poor.
Knock! Knock!
With two knocks, Xero waited until the door opened to a middle aged man with a strong lumberjack physical wearing leather pants and a long sleeve cloth shirt that was rolled back. He had a short brown beard with spots of white. This was Xero’s father, Nil Null.
“Who is it dear?” A gentle voice called from behind.
“It’s me, Xero!” he said.
“Xero! My boy so you’re finally back!” Nil said and laughed.
He grabbed the boy and lifted him into a hug. One could not underestimate the power of a level 30 old man. Even at this level, he could fight low ranking dragons and many beasts. It is the strength of low ranking knights.
“Big bro is back!” A small voice said.
More cries came from inside as Xero was pulled inside. In the house were five other people, one was a middle age but still beautiful woman with slightly droopy eyes. Her hair was in a bun and she was a bit chubby from childbirth, this was Opal Null, Xero’s mother.
In her lap was a 1 year old baby who was Xero’s youngest brother, Zilch Null.
“Uf!” Xero exclaimed as a small body jumped into his chest. With chestnut hair and a few freckles on his face, this was Xero’s second youngest brother, Nero Null, his 6 year old brother.
“Little bro you’re back!” another person came over and hugged him. A pair of developing breasts squashed him. With long brown hair like their mother, a childish expression on her bubbly face and wearing winter clothing, his only sister, the 15 year old Nadir Null.
“Hey hey! Did you bring back any gifts for me?!” She asked shaking him.
“Me to! Me to!” Nero said shaking him along with Nadir.
“My my, children get off your brother or he won’t be able to do anything.” Opal said with a gentle smile. She stood up and put the baby into the arms of Xero’s older brother, Void Null. He was 19 and one of Xero’s older brothers. He had a strong build like their father but no magic talent so he had no familiar. He looked like a younger version of their father.
My Blind Familiar_The Ash Golem Page 24