As the sun rose on yet another day in north-eastern domain, I found myself considering a few things.
My new and faithful servant/summon divulged some fascinating information, explaining that marrying women from different races could enhance a man's abilities, provided he had enough mana to support his new family members.
The key to this power boost was granting them his family name, which gave him access to their skills and affinities.
However, marriage wasn't the only route to these benefits.
Anyone who served under you and received your name would evolve, and the same went for the namer.
For this exchange to happen, mana points were the primary form of currency. Skills and affinities, too, could be traded in return for this currency.
A master without sufficient mana points and skills to trade would pay the ultimate price: death.
So, I guess my father was lucky I wasn't answering the family name. He didn't have enough mana points and skills to support a trade with me.
This reality proved true for Isadora's previous master, who lacked the resources to keep up with the strength of so many demon spirits.
The moral of the story, then, was that I must be incredibly cautious when sharing my family name.
If my mastery exceeds my capabilities, I could very well perish.
Luckily, my bonded companion, Serena, had numerous skills and affinities to spare, and Isadora possessed a staggering 31,000 mana points.
While this was reassuring, my previous trades with the minotaurs had left me down ten 10,000 mana points, just as the exchange with Isadora did.
So, was Isadora mightier than an entire civilization of minotaurs? A thought that made me chuckle.
But, since the minotaurs never evolved before, I couldn't say for sure, much like with the grygans.
Isadora even told me that in the Demon Continent, Demon Kings and Demon Emperors spanked their wives for skill points.
Amusing...
Today, I stood just outside of the dungeon with my closest companions - Fasit, Serena, and Isadora.
Ophelia left before dawn to visit the Adventurers' Guild and source items from the dungeon to sell.
Fasit gave her permission as long as she respected the Grygan culture.
Mojito informed me that Ophelia intended to retrieve her handkerchief during her trip, which I found to be a pleasant visit, despite her elevated nature.
However, my attention wasn't on Ophelia or her visit.
Instead, I was eager to trial my new Unique Skill, [Creator].
I intended to craft artificial elemental spirits using the power I acquired through [Spirit Magic].
Isadora explained that my body absorbed spirit particles during our journey to the labyrinth's final floor, unlocking the [Spirit Magic] power.
Neat...
I decided to conduct my experiment in the nearby forest, free of distraction and conducive to accuracy.
I wore a straw hat, plain white tunic, and leather pants.
As I prepared to start my experiment, Fasit piped up and asked, "So, Great Lumiere, what are we doing here?"
I blinked, and then rubbed the back of my head sheepishly. "Oh, right. I guess I forgot to tell you that part."
"Fufufu... as expected, Fasit doesn't know." Isadora chuckled smugly, and Fasit raised an eyebrow.
"What do you mean?" Fasit asked.
Isadora shrugged nonchalantly. "Oh, nothing. It's just that Lord Lumiere only wants to confide in his most loyal servant. Me."
Fasit bristled a bit at that. "Excuse me? I've known Great Lumiere longer than you have, Isadora. I'm his most loyal servant."
I didn't even know how to break them up.
Luckily, Serena stepped in. "Ladies, come on. There's no need to fight over this now." She had a smile on her face.
But then, out of nowhere, Serena proudly declared, "And anyway, if Lumiere were to confide in anyone, it would be me. I'm his betrothed."
Isadora frowned and looked at Serena, unsure of how to respond. Fasit chuckled and folded her arms, pushing her large melons... um, breasts out even more. "How does it feel when it's coming from someone else?" she said, mocking Isadora's earlier comment.
Isadora sighed heavily and rolled her eyes. "Whatever…" she muttered.
Now that the conflict had settled, I was finally able to get back to the task at hand.
I could call upon the artificial spirits that [Creator] designed through my exceptional combination of elemental series, absorbed spirit particles, and acquired [Spirit Magic].
Most often, the creation of artificial elemental spirits required a lot of testing to get everything precisely right, but my [Beginner's Luck], thankfully reduced the risk of error and allowed for an almost seamless experience.
Sometimes I feel like that's cheating... Sigh.
I started the creation.
The first polygon I created was the elemental spirits of fire, water, wind and earth, which I then followed up with a more intricate series of circles for the plant, dark, and lightning spirits.
Once the process was complete, seven unique and vibrant magic circles of various colors and features manifested themselves in the space around me.
The whole area was illuminated with a bright light, bringing the whole region into focus.
"What's going on?" (Serena)
"From what I can see, it looks like the creation of these spirits will be a success.." (Isadora)
"You can tell," Fasit squeezed her eyes as if in strabismus.
"Yes, this is the first time I've seen someone doing it so effortlessly!" Isadora watched with an amused expression.
"As expected of my lord.." Serena chuckled.
I flawlessly utilized my acquired skill set to consolidate systems.
A typical combination of varying elemental magic was necessary to create such spirits.
When creating each elemental spirit, I meticulously gathered elemental energy of that specific type using my elemental manipulation abilities.
Through his process, I combined elemental energy with spirit magic and other vital components to create artificial spirits.
It was challenging to maintain the balance between the elements in a designed artificial spirit, but I skillfully handled it, producing optimal results.
The spirits I had summoned appeared one by one on their respective summoning circles.
They were stunning, as expected from beings made up purely of beautiful energy.
Their hair was impeccable and shone brightly in the sunlight.
Each spirit's hair color matched their element and was too cool for school.
The water spirit had hair as blue as the ocean, the fire spirit had hair as red as flames, the wind spirit had hair as ivory as its namesake, the earth spirit had sandy brown hair, the plant spirit boasted green wavy hair like a dryad, the dark spirit had hair as black as obsidian and the lightning spirit had hair as yellow as a lemon.
Their eye colors mirrored their hair colors in perfect synchrony.
The gender split was equally impressive: three of the spirits were ladylike while four others were dashing gentlemen.
Both the fire spirit and the dark spirit had two black horns protruding from their foreheads and were hunky AF- I mean, extremely handsome.
All of the spirits were garbed in white robes apart from the earth spirit who was rocking a "no-shirt policy" and showing off his intimidating muscles.
It made me laugh like a mad scientist, which probably made me seem even more insane than I already was.
Although they looked like they were a solid ten-out-of-ten on the attractiveness scale, except for the earth spirit.
They looked like they were all in their mid-twenties with the exception of the wind spirit, who hovered by my side and was seemingly around the same height as me, which is impressive since I'm only 150cm.
The other spirits stood proud and tall around 175 to 180cm.
But, in reality, they were all... one-day old? Yep, that's right. These newborn spirits were born today. Crazy, right?
Anyway, my question was, 'could they talk?' Shoot, I didn't even get a chance to voice my question when the spirits all simultaneously genuflected before me and spoke in a regal manner, "We are here to serve you, Great Lumiere."
I felt like an important bastard!
"Wow, they look so beautiful, and refined.." Serena watched in amazement.
Fasit smiled, "Indeed... unlike some spirits we know," she shifted her gaze to Isadora.
"Are you talking about me?!" Isadora flared up.
"Oh? But I never called any names... the conscience really does know how to play tricks on a person, fufufufuu..." a gentle laugh from Fasit.
"Guys? Let's not start with this again.." Serena wasn't ready for another of Fasit and Isadoraʼs bickering.
"Yeah, I suppose you're right," Isadora folded her arms. She directed her gaze at the seven spirits before them, and spoke up "These spirits really do look refined, and the amount of mana they're giving off is quite potent."
"As expected of our lord," said Fasit, watching proudly.
I decided to give these spirits names.
Hence,
The water spirit "Aquarius",
The wind spirit "Sylph",
The plant spirit "Flora",
The earth spirit "Gaia",
The lightning spirit "Fulgur",
The fire spirit "Ignis",
The dark spirit "Umbra",
This was the order in which I named them.
---Status Update---
New Title: Spirit Master.
[Dark Magic] has evolved from Rank D to Rank C
[Lightning Magic] has evolved from Rank C to Rank B
[Spirit Magic] has evolved from Rank D to Rank B
Acquired a new Additional Skill: [Spirit Aura] (Rank C) can make use of spirit particles to generate attacks capable of destroying incorporeal beings.
Acquired a new Unique Skill: [Armatization] can turn summoned spirits into weapons.
----
"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" (Lumiere)
I fell to my knees holding my head in my hands.
Curses, this was all All-Father's fault.