There was also a signed order and an official that would go with them to announce the order by the earls decree making the citizens submit through political power.
The family had a few days to prepare their things, One thing to note is that the entire family was going, this included Zip and Jasmine. That meant that they would have to give up their jobs here and the dwarf smith was quite regretful about it but gifted Zip some tools of the trade so that he can make his own smithy in the village, setting up his own smithy in the future.
The last order of business to complete was actually a big surprise to some of the officials. With Xero funding his three older siblings and his mother, two uncommon mana stones each, he made them all summon a familiar. This was to allow the family to train and hold strength above the common people that was required to show their power both to suppress nay sayers and monsters within this undeveloped land.
Although none of the four had any talent in magic arts, with the help of Xero helping to fill their undeveloped mana channels, making a few of them open to allow them to absorb some mana, which was a painful business that made him quite sad to do but was forced to, they all had a small amount of mana required to summon their familiars and do the binding.
Even the airheaded mother and sister were told with a very strict expression that they should not take it lightly and had them listen intently as they learned the familiar summon and binding spells.
Both spells used magic formations instead of magic formulas to activate and only required their mana to fuel both of these were made into the very same circle that the summoning happened.
And two days before they left for the village the family gathered within the Inner city. Unexpectedly there were some nobles watching from a ways away. They did not expect much but they somehow admired the families idea to get familiars, any of them would do the same for their talentless to at least try and get a talent or useful family member.
The first to go was the oldest member, Opal.
She stood on the circle and was mesmerized before her mouth moved as if automatically, “The fields of Trees, the fields of flowers, the field of crops, the life of the land that breaths through the earth, come and riseth with majesty and beauty.”
The small bit of mana she had began to feed the formation and the light shined, slowly small ball of light rose before from it, limbs extended. With a pop, the light vanished and within the light was a small fairy with flower hat and a tiny watering can made from a nut.
The chains of light grabbed it and with instruction from the caretaker of the formation she bound the little fairy to her.
“Wow mother, you have a fairy, doesn’t that mean you're a real magic talent!?” Zip asked.
“Don’t over think it son, it could have a large growth or small growth we can only wait and see.” Nil said not to discourage his son but to make his head cool down so that he won’t overestimate his own family.
Next was Zip himself. He waited a moment as he felt the words of his own incantation appear, “The burning flame of the soul, the power of the earth in the bones and the hammer of my will, bring forth the Ashes of my burned will and forge my power!” He said.
Xero’s brow twitched at the mention of ashes but shook his head. Besides a few rare families who were all nobles such as Univa’s family who almost always had dragon type creatures genetics did not follow in the bloodline.
That is, at least, until he saw it. Slowly rising from the formation, with a diameter of 10 cm, glowing a bloody red, a demon core rose from the ground. Soon ash began to gather and soon the small body of an imp was formed.
Unlike the strange deformed Ashley when she had first appeared, what appeared was an 10 year old sized imp. It had a hunched back, small nose and pointed ears, huge empty black eyes and small red wings. This was the classic appearance of an imp that everyone had seen. Not to mention, it was actually a large and strong at that because true 1 cm sized demon core imps would be half the size of this one. It was clear as day that this thing was once a very strong demon.
The chains that retrain the creature latched on and Zip put the familiar binding and watched the creature get sucked in.
He returned and on his face was a complex expression as he looked at Xero. An awkward feeling spread among the two as well as Nil who did not know how to react. Of course it was a coincidence, after all Nil himself has no demon familiar but two of his children do.
“Void, your turn.” Nil said after a moment.
“Great!” He said excited.
To get a familiar, even if it is late in the game it was a dream come true because one's potential could be better dug out with this and they will not be stranded on the common man’s level 20 bottleneck.
Void’s expression turned serious as he stepped on the circle. With the effect of the circle, that could almost be called an illusion, the chant formed.
“Bones forged of ore, breath of fire, black as shadows, flesh of ash, the hunter who stalks in the night, the predator of the day, Rise to power.”
The face of the men in the family turned a bit shocked as the small bit of mana caused a large reaction.
Were Void gained a 10 cm big demon core, Xero’s original size was 12 cm, amazingly another demon core of 10 cm appeared. Fire began to rise from the circle as ash surrounded. This was far different compared to the Imps, the body dropped down into the flames and formed a tail, then paws instead of arms and legs. On all fours, with black ash flesh that looked like skin and bones, was a small demon feline with its eyes as black as an Imps and its open jaws showing the inner heat inside.
With everyone in shock, the chains trapped it and everyone remembered that it was finally time to bind it and so it was done.
At this time, no one believed this was a coincidence. If it was two people then okay but three in a row from the same family, how could this be a coincidence, the strangest part is that none of it is planned. Each chant is unique to each person formed from the effect of an illusion in the circle meant to bring out the chant from within.
They were rather worried, the three men looked worried at the only sister of the family, if she did get a demon as well then they would be hard pressed to deny some prince who wished to marry her. Of course, with her current age, it wouldn’t be hard to have her be accepted under special tutelage in a magic academy but it would be hard to resist the higher rank nobles.
“It’s my turn!” Nadir exclaimed and ran over stopping inside the circle while humming. “Pot of magic, pot of clay, pot of joy, shy spirit of pots, happy cooking spirit, with the body of a pot, spread cheer.” She said in an outrageous manner as if playing.
What happened next amazed everyone even more as the formation shined and from the summoning circle, a small clay pot, 30 cm wide, 20 big appeared. It looked badly made, badly burned and seemed ready to crack. Strangely it seemed to float up before it was ‘restrained’ and Nadir bound it. It was different to the Pot fairy, this was just a clay pot.
When she bound it, the pot truly did shatter and was absorbed into the seal showing it was truly a familiar causing them all to seem strange at the apparent useless familiar.
With an awkward moment, the caretaker coughed and called their attention, “My, your noble sirs, follow me, we shall see the identifier to consult about your familiars.” he said with a bow and everyone remembered that the elder was there as well.
Everyone that got a familiar was identified and the old identifier look quite shocked.
"I was curious as to why so many males of the same family had the demons, it seems I was right, your family, from the generation of the children on, males of your bloodline possess a unique trait to summon only demon familiars.” He said.
It was in utmost secrecy of course in an isolated room. The elder explained that there was no knowing when such a unique trait would appear or when, it was by luck that such thing is found. The elder said an oath that he would not speak of it until it was found through a different source.
A
s for the familiars themselves, Opal contracted with a harvest Fairy, a very unique fairy that is quite good at managing the land and has great skill in cultivating the land for orchids, fields or herb patches, both cultivated land and wild herbs. Zip got an Imp as expected, the potential was only a small bit less than Ashley but considering the Imp’s own experience, it was possibly even better then the little devil. Void’s was a true mystery, the fact was that the feline was a mutated Imp. It is referred to as a Cat Imp or cat demon. It is a very difficult to appear Imp only born from evil feline monster souls that retain willpower and memories as a feline beast. Such things are rare because souls are tortured and cleansed before becoming demons. For them to hold memories is a very difficult thing.
The last on was Nadir’s pot. It was a Pot spirit, a spiritual item that would slowly grow a soul as it grew bigger and stronger. The method to use and grow is similar to the pot fairy but the use is direct from the owner of the pot. Holding the pot, the formed spell, “Dimensional pot” creates a space inside the pot that can store many things and the weight transferred to the pot was one thousandth of the true weight.
To grow the pot, one must use the several existing skills, Mix, Cook, Boil, Synthesis, Extract, Combine. Be it cooking or alchemy the pot aided in making it through the use of magic but like all familiars, it has mana channels and just as badly as Nadir, they are massively clogged which is why its appearance was so horrid.
The identifier gave suggestions to the demon users to crush the demon core only when the demon reached level 10, the jump in strength would be massive enough to cause some corruption so searching for the church of light to perform the stunt was required.
With the instructions given and bowing their thanks, the family leaves the inner city to their home to finish the last preparations to move as they store all their things, amazingly, inside Nadir’s pot.
Two days later, with a massive Great sword suddenly spawning near Gravlin, the guards, official and many workers that were paid by the earl who sponsored the expansion of the village, they cautiously climbed on and sat down wary of the edges and with Xero commanding and the official showing the way, they flew to the nameless village that was now controlled by the new noble family of Null.
Chapter 23
“By decree of his esteemed Earl Fracess Horin Kree, the newly appointed Noble Knight, Nil Null, has been appointed lord of this territory.” the official announced after two days ago changing the lives of this small nameless village.
Previously, with the help of Xero, it took only a few hours to arrive at the village in the north west.
Just as reports say, the area had a large amount of forests and several rocky mountains, the earth itself wasn’t ‘fertile’ thanks to the cold temperature but it was better than other regions that relied more on metal. It was clear this was a farmland area.
More than a fourth of the people that were sponsored to come here were farmers that would serve the Null family directly, specifically called serfs, they were people with more rights than slaves but less rights than common people.
As for miners, lumberjack, carpenter and masons, miners and Lumberjacks came while the former two would have to be attracted with the abundant resource and a structured foundation. In fact, half these people were reluctant because the area wasn’t exactly ‘safe’ there were lots of monster clans around, goblin and orc tribes inhabited the woods while monsters lived in the forest and caves.
It could be said that the recently risen nobles with only 30 common guards, did not really make the villagers that ‘safe’. Of course, the village did have small wooden walls but monsters did not really attack the poor people because there was really nothing to offer.
Hunters would avoid the big creatures and so a harmony was formed with the humans at the top of the food chain in regards to the animals but at the bottom when monsters are added. They actually feared that the coming of the nobles would bring more problems than benefits.
Of course they could not go against an imperial decree, so they could only regretfully accept it and try and aid the new lord.
As for Xero, he wasn’t seen by anyone besides as a young nobles son, no one regarded him as much more than a child.
In the two days that followed, it was with the help of the Lumberjacks that an area was cleared outside of the village and a large palisade was formed. A village lord’s castle was not built inside the village, instead when one appears, they built it outside and the village would grow around it.
It was only made of wood for now but the house was much larger than any of the villages house and was built a bit crude but everything was made well as there was no leak in the walls, and there was a room for each person while the floor was wood plank floor that held heat while a crude stone chimney was formed to heat the house.
When Mason’s arrive the lord's manor would be rebuilt out of stone and wood no longer looking crude but one needed to show results to attract the right people and so, with the help of a some studied scholars that were hired to help the Null family, they began their plan of action.
Xero would have only two weeks of break and one week was already gone by, he had four more days before he had to fly back to the academy for the second half of the year.
With Xero, Zip and Void as well as the scholars sitting in an office built into the manor, they look at a map of the area. The area covered was almost 30 km around the village with it being shown in the center. A small dirt path was drawn out leading towards the south east were the nearest village was.
The map had goblin and orc tribes marked out living in caves or having built forts in the forest, even level 45 trolls lived in some forests, larger mountain peaks had equally strong dragon type beasts and other areas where territory of feral beasts like wolves and bears.
“The Feral beasts are easier to kill off, this bear herd is from a Shadow bear group, there are between 10 to 15 bears in this territory and each have its own sub territory and their levels range from 25 to 35. They use darkness and shadow magic making them tricky to battle.” the scholar said and pointed to wolf and mountain lion territory, “There is a Pride of mountain lion in this area they are Rocky Hide Mountain Lions and the strongest is level 30, this mountain is thought to contain a mining node.” the scholar said. He then pointed to a river to the east about a kilometer away, “This river is the nearest source of water, the village has a well but it isn’t sufficient for us when you think of how the village would grow and the many things that will require a lot of water. Along the way…” The scholar pointed to goblin tribes, “These insufferable savages obstruct the passage as they pass in great number. The tribe itself number between 70 to 100 goblins 20 hobgoblins and 4 all of which are different and this even includes a magic type goblin.” He said.
Nil sighed as he heard all this and knew that it will be a long arduous problem to deal with the established monster tribes, conquering the region will take a while. “The least troublesome would be the beasts, the wolves I will personally attack while it is winter where my own familiar has the advantage. The bears should also be in hibernation so we should send someone to scout their caves.” Nil said. As an experienced hunter he could at least properly plan out how to get beasts, as for the tribal monsters he will need to see if he could hire someone that could make strategy and help him. He will also need strong defensive mage as well as strong magic users.
“What would you have of the townspeople?” The scholar asked.
“The safe space around the village is limited to the south and southwest along the roads, have the lumberjacks start clearing the land in these safe spaces where there will be no danger of monster attacks. Although it is cold, it shouldn’t be a problem for them. What is the normal pay for the lumberjacks and miners?” he asked.
“The miners are currently ‘unemployed’ but they are people the earl sent so during the winter they will not be heavily affected by lack of food, along with the lumberjacks who are clearing space to the south of the village whic
h is east of your manor, it will for a second district if one considers the village its own district. If left separate the district will develop into a workers village eventually.” The scholar said.
“What kind of work do the villagers have?” Nil asked.
“During the winter there is little to no work as for pay of the lumberjack, it is usually 10 copper coin a day while the query for trees felled is usually 5 trees done in groups of three a day. Then it must be trimmed removing leaves and branches and cut the logs for proper use.” He said.
Nil thought a while, “How many Lumberjacks do we have?” He asked.
“60 at the moment.” the scholar replied.
“That is 20 groups, or 100 trees a day, the first several days it will be mostly construction of the town itself.” Nil said and looked at he pay were the circles around each specific ‘district’ was drawn.
“Alright, instruct them to clear cut the south as well as the space between the village, manor and worker district. This will open land that can be developed. From there we will already have wood so wooden palisades can then be raised, if we hire some of the villagers we can increase the number of workers as well as help train their basic strength during the winter and give them some money. If they do not want to be lumberjacks then they can help construct homes and palisade. Offer 5 copper coin for young men who are new to the job and once they are experienced a bit raise the 10 copper, those building the palisades should have a wage of 10 copper a day as well. Have the miners help build so that they do not remain idle.” Nil said.
The Scholar looked at Nil in surprise by the accurate work distribution and use of limited manpower.
My Blind Familiar_The Ash Golem Page 27