"Ha..."
Sou heaved a sigh of relief after healing his arm. He stood up and walked towards the burned body of the brunette maid. A corpse lay with a hole on the neck and the lower body completely burned just beside her body.
He noticed the purple glow radiating from their dead and burned bodies, just like the time he defeated Drago.
(So I can grow my army but cannot use them until I reach a certain level? What a weird setting...)
A dim grey and black light hovered over their bodies which caught his attention.
(Mana?)
Sou continued to watch over the wandering mana when he suddenly felt his mind going dizzy. His mind started to get flooded by a huge load of information. His vision narrowed to a microscopic level, making his eyes strain, and he could again see the particles from earlier, but unlike before, they were not bonded, just wandering around aimlessly.
(So this is how mana looks like...)
He was mesmerized by the world he was seeing. The translucent particles were so beautiful to look at, with their oval-shaped body glowing with stately grey and deep black. To think that Sou was ordering such mysterious and majestic entities made him curious about the system's abilities which allowed him authority over mana. He wondered about his limits of Mana's Authority, which were, of course, a lot in number.
He was lacking practice. He was only capable of moving mana or compressing mana, but he could not chain mana particles and use them as his own mana or draw out the destructive properties of mana. If only he could solve this mystery, he would not have to worry about the small mana pool of his and use the mana in the surroundings to achieve greater feats.
Tring!
{Keep practising Mana's Authority to use World's Mana}
Sou made a wry smile on his face, his face full of disappointment. "So in the end, practising is the only answer... Hm?"
A particle disappeared and after a few moments, some more followed, the purple glow getting dimmer and dimmer.
"What?"
Since Sou couldn't extract mana from the dead as of now, he didn't care about the disappearing mana. What concerned him was the fading purple glow.
He used Devil's summoning on the two maids who posed as formidable opponents for Sou without taking any chances.
"Get up."
Shaa...
A creepy breeze flew by Sou as the purple light swallowed their bodies and the figures rose from their corpses, the brunette maid's body covered in grey and the other maid's covered in deep black.
Both of them patted their bodies with a question mark painted on their faces.
"How is such a thing possible?"
The grey one made an astonished face after realizing that she was brought back to life, which was something that never had its record in the history of Melim.
"Are you the one who brought us back to life?" the black maid glared at Sou terrifyingly who was carefreely watching the two.
Seeing their astonished faces and glares directed towards him, Sou opened his mouth to speak, but before he could spell any words, a hoarse and animosity filled voice resounded in their heads.
"What?!" cried both of them with a scared tone.
Seeing their stupefied reactions, Sou spoke up.
"Calm down Drago. And you two, stop being afraid of your future comrade."
"C-Comrade?"
"Yes, he is Drago, a Dragon and you can fight alongside him if you are with me."
The grey maid became frightened upon hearing the word 'Dragon' while the other one looked at Sou with disbelief. Sou let out a sigh after noticing their unchanged intentions.
"Serve me. At least I won't treat you like that woman." Sou pointed towards the body of disfigured Rina and then spread his palm, offering it to them.
The two of them stared at the offering hand for some moments and then looked at each other, signalling each other with a nod. Both knelt with one knee on the charred floor and placed their hands on Sou's hand, swearing servitude.
"We will be under your care, Master."
Sou smiled as if he as accomplished something.
"Rest in my shadow. If you were to get into fights now, you will be defeated in no time. Oh! You won't be able to come out once you are in until I reach a certain level, you can still talk to me though."
Sou took a glance behind him with a troubled expression.
Both of them looked at Sou with a perplexed reaction but submerged themselves into his shadow unquestioningly.
Tring!
{Evaluation complete}
"Ho... the results are out."
{You have gained a total of 450 Experience Points}
{LEVEL UP!}
{LEVEL UP!}
{LEVEL UP!}
{LEVEL UP!}
Sou's eyes widened at the results. This was better than what he expected.
(I think I am starting to understand how the levelling up system works. Every time I levelled up, it was related to gaining battle experience or using the experience and knowledge I gained and using them in fights to the utmost. Experience Points has nothing to do with levelling up I guess...)
While Sou was pondering about the system's functions, a cry reverberated in his ears.
"DIE!!"
"So loud..."
Sou turned his glare on the attacker, sending shivers down his spine.
Schwing!
Sou swung his dagger which he instantly summoned and sent the attacker's head flying, cutting precisely just below his chin.
"Do you guys know that you suck at hiding?"
At least fifty soldiers, from mage to brutes, from all over the mansion, stood with their guards up. On the other end was Sou, gazing at his unfortunate victims who are about to get slaughtered ruthlessly.
Sou summoned his sword and covered the sword in Lightning element and the dagger in Fire element.
(Points in Agility, points in Adrenaline and points in Endurance.)
"Become my stepping stone and DIE!!"
Sou charged at them with full speed with a smile.
Slash!
***
[Lord Dick's Room]
"What's this commotion? What is happening?"
"Lord Dick, it seems like the boy has escaped."
The grey dressed man bowed and explained the situation to Dick.
"What?! How can he escape?! What were those muscle heads doing?!"
"Lord Dick... there is some more news..."
Dick flung his hands on the table, breaking the table in two with enormous strength.
"What now?!"
"Miss Rina's presence... has completely... disappeared..."
The man noticed Dick's blank eyes after hearing the news and hanged his head to avoid eye contact.
"Rina is... gone...?
Silence.
"... him."
"W-What?"
"Kill him. Kill him! FUCKIN' KILL HIM!"
Dick went in a fury, breaking things and throwing chairs around.
"DON'T LEAVE A LIMB ATTACHED! KILL HIM! MASSACRE HIM!"
"L-Lord Dick! Calm down a bit!"
***
[Sou's Location]
"M-Monster..."
"Thank you for your contribution." Sou grinned.
Schwing!
The man's head went flying.
"And that was the last one."
{LEVEL UP!}
(I must have gone quite far now. Status.)
NAME- SOU REYNOLDS
AGE- 7
EQUIPPED TITLE(s)- DESTROYER, DOMINATOR
LVL- 20
HP- 1221
MP- 780
STRENGTH- 320 (+)
AGILITY- 385 (+)
WISDOM- 287 (+)
ENDURANCE- 580 (+)
ADRENALINE- 423 (+)
EXP POINTS- 650
Tring!
{You can use Devil's Summoning}
-Servant Capacity- 10
-Number of Servants- 3
{Raise your level to increase 'Servant Capacity'}
(Nice!)
Sou was waiting for this moment, but he thought that it would be troublesome if he let out Drago now, after all, he didn't want to destroy the whole town.
"Come out."
The two maids emerged from his shadow.
"How do you feel?"
The maids responded while bowing.
"A lot better, Master."
"Good."
Sou pointed at the maids.
"You will be Grey and you will be Black from today onwards."
"Thank you, Master."
Both of them shined in brilliant silver. Wings popped out of Grey's back and a flaming trigram appeared at the back of Black.
"What power!"
They observed themselves with sparkly eyes, feeling excited over the huge amount of power they gained. But Sou was looking at them with disapproval in his eyes.
(I guess naming based on colour is a no-go, they are going to turn silver after being named in the end, just like Drago.)
Sou sighed deeply.
(But I got to see something new at least.)
Sou pondered looking at the pair of wings and the trigram.
Sou blasted off the ground with Grey following his tracks and Black in his shadow as she could not keep up with their speeds.
"Well then, tell me something about the Lord."
"But he created three guards who are always around him."
"Created?"
"Master must have seen the bodies in the basement. Those were the people killed by the Lord and their mana was extracted and used in the creation of the guards."
"I see..."
"What? Isn't that redhead their daughter?"
"Hmm... Lead the way to Junko. You two will be able to serve her again if fate allows."
"Right away, Master!"
They dashed straight to Junko.
***