Chapter 33: New magics

The next morning, I woke up feeling warmer than usual. Blanche was hugging me tightly in her sleep. Or I should say tighter than usual. I guess she was lonely since we couldn't do many things together. I should spoil her a little more.

I pulled her closer enjoying the embrace for a little while longer.

"Ungh…" Blanche's eyes quivered slightly and she opened them up slowly.

"Good morning, sleepyhead."

"G-good…" Blanche snuggled against me adorably. Her ears were slightly red, which was even more clear due to her pale complexion.

"We have magic training today."

"Y-yeah…"

"Are you ready for it?"

"Y-yeah…" Blanche repeated herself like a broken record.

I could only smile and pat her head.

Since magic is strongly affected by an individual's imagination, I tried to come up with some new magic techniques I have only put on paper so far. There were some spells of the compound variety too, but more of the single element spells. Blanche also told me the day before she came up with a wind spell she wanted to show me.

When we exited the room to go eat with the ducal family, Blanche was still holding my hand a little bashfully.

"Is something the matter?"

"I–I'm gonna show you my best today!" Blanche declared with an intense look.

"I'm sure you will," I smiled at her reassuringly.

"Can you not flirt first thing after waking up?" Lena looked at us with annoyance written all over her face.

"Just so you know, Blanche was flirting with me even when asleep."

"Eeh… what?"

"D-did I really?" Blanche blushed a deep crimson.

She really is super adorable.

For breakfast we had eggs with bacon and bread, which to regular people of this world would be a feast even for lunch. Noble life sure is different from common people. Back in the forest we usually only had a few nuts, dried meat or soup. Not to mention bread appeared on our tables only when we got it from bandit loot.

"Thank you for the food. Mr. Henry, where are we going to do the magic training?"

"Well, given we already finished all the things we needed in this town, minus a few boring details, I was thinking of checking on the mines and lakes now," Henry winked at me.

"Then I guess it's my duty to show you around the Eastern mines, then," I smiled back at him.

"You made your base in the mine, right? I would like to see it," Laina said before she plucked a sausage cut to a tiny piece in her mouth.

Later we boarded two carriages, though only me, Blanche and Lena were dressed in armor, as we would be training against monsters as well.

"Is that a Blackrock Lizard Armor? You don't see that very often," Henry commented on our choice of protective gear. Since we wouldn’t be running around much, we took this armor, since it had better defensive capabilities then the hunter armor that was our more common wear, due to its mobility and flexibility.

"Is is that rare?"

"Blackrock lizards don't live natively on this continent. Though they appear in Dimension breaks from time to time."

And Gemma gave it to me just like that?! Is he crazy? He’s a merchant, he shouldn’t be throwing money at some kids…

"Oh wow, I didn't think Mr. Gemma could give them out that easily," Blanche looked as surprised as me.

"Gemma gave it to you, eh? He might have some kind of plan in mind for you."

"I think so too. We did speak about his brother working in the Slime research facility, I haven't heard much of it before, could you tell me more about that place?"

"Slime research facility is one of the Monster research facilities the royal family is funding from the taxes. Though, given that slimes are such weak monsters, they don't receive that much money. Goblins and some types of insect monsters are in a similar situation, but not as bad as the slimes. Though, thanks to the Ant monster research facility we were able to move fast against the Murder ants that appeared to the south from here."

"I heard the queen tends to be an SS rank monstrosity."

"You know your stuff, Arito. You’re correct, Murder Ant Queens usually are upper S or low to mid SS rank calamities. That is why we called for S rank parties that could take them on. In the meanwhile we have adventurers defeating the ants, keeping them from over-populating," Laina explained.

"Since we bought all those corpses, we could go and try defeating some, what do you two think?" I turned to the two girls sitting to the left from me, Lena being in the middle.

"Yeah, let's do it!" Blanche was instantly on board.

"Well, I wouldn't mind training against some stronger insect monsters."

"The workers are D rank at best, so I guess we could let you go there. But take Amberia and Alvin with you," Laina insisted.

"Yes. Those two at least. Though, I would rather send some other guards with you too, just in case."

"But that would halt my development! I can't be an adventurer if I have people protecting me all the time!" Lana insisted.

"Well, I would be happier if we had one or two more people with us," I helped out the worried parents.

"Even Arito is on board, so it should be fine."

"You traitor…" Lena’s teeth grinned evilly at me, to which I could only smile weakly.

"Well, I think we need some scouts in our party. Blanche isn't really good at stealth, you are magic swordsman and I am more on the martial artist side with magic and bow skills. My stealth is good enough to fool people, but not monsters. I would also like someone for a role of tank. Were we ever fighting a big monster of rank A or S, we will definitely need someone to buy us time."

"Grrr… I guess you're right…" Lena grumbled as she agreed with me.

About twenty minutes later we made it to the mines and the servants set out to prepare the base from where we would be training, while I took the ducal family to the mine I had my base in.

"Alright, let me give you a little tour. Here we have the Dining room with an aquarium. I also have filter stations and breeding tanks behind this room. There is a kitchen connected to cold storage and regular storage rooms."

"On the opposite side is our bedroom, Romi's, Goblin Trio's and the Ogre's bedrooms. All the way in the back is an Alchemy room and Alchemy storage. That place is always locked and only Arito has the key," Blanche added.

"That's the entire base floor and we have three more floors, so please come after us," I smiled at them.

"Oh wow, so many fish, crabs and even Octolocks… you don't see this that often. How do you light it?"

"I used alchemy to infuse Magic stones into a rope and then engraved Light spell’s magic circles into them at regular intervals. Applying magic power makes them glow in color of the rope, though, so we need to color them to get this color yellowish."

"I see. Charging individual Magic Lamps would take too much time, how is magic consumption of the rope?" Henry asked while inspecting the magic circles.

"Charging this floor is worth as much magic power as five Magic Lamps. The lower floors, especially the second and third floors, are less efficient because the floors are too big."

"Mastaaaaa…" as I was explaining the light source for the entire cave system, the Shade Pixie I bought at the auction flew over carrying a glass jar with gray-ish glittering powder inside.

Pixie Dust (Shade)

A dust made by Shade Pixie. Due to it being rich in magic power, it's a highly sought after item used in many different magic fields. Due to the natural disposition of the pixie that made this dust, it's best used for Light, Dark and Illusion magic items.

"This is for me? Thanks Albae," I patted the pixie as she sat on my shoulder.

"So you really did tame one of the Fey… interesting," Laina was checking the little pixie sitting on my shoulder, as if she was some kind of rarity.

"Um… is there something wrong?"

"Ah? Oh, I forgot to tell you, while Henry is the head of the duchy's political, economical and other scenes, I'm head of research. My specialty lies in Fey creatures. Have you heard of the Spirit world?"

"I believe it's a world like this one that is populated by creatures called Fey. They are similar to ghosts as they mostly don't have physical form and only magic works on them. Being possessed by Fey can change your appearance to a certain degree too. Pixie Dust can be made into a cure for it though. Fairies and Pixies are the most human-like and only on rare occasions appear in our world."

"I believe the Sage spoke of a theory that The Spirit World, All-light realm, Nether Realm, Dragon Realm and our world, the Mortal Plane are all connected through the Dimensional rifts," Lena remembered a book she read.

"Yes, his main point was that the fairies and pixies can appear in all of the realms, though he also said that Dimensional Rifts are 'Failed connections to another realms' which brought a lot of ire from the Draggera empire," Henry added his part to his daughter's words.

"Well, what could you expect from a nation of fanatics? They once got helped by a dragon and this is what it led to," Kalvig made a half tired, half annoyed look.

"Well, past the southern mountains, where the wilderness called Great Sea of Stone spreads, are tribes of humans, demihumans and magicfolk among which are so-called 'Shamans' who use power originating from the Spirit world, called Spirit magic. Though it's called magic, it uses spirits as a medium to use spells. They are definitely not as bound by magic type as other magicians, but their power output is defined by the strength of the spirit they are contracted with. There is also a limit on the number of spirits they can make a contract with," Laina, the most knowledgeable about Fey creatures, went on a speedy rant, which left us, the uneducated lambs, stare with empty eyes at her.

"Have you… contracted a Fey, Mrs. Laina?" I slowly and unsurely asked her, preparing for another rant.

"Sadly, no. I wanted to study under a shaman, but given the barbaric tendencies of the south, it's too dangerous to venture alone, and we can't take an army to another noble's domain. That would be bad on so many levels."

"You could've just bought one as a slave, you know?" Kalvig folded his arms.

"That doesn't really sit right with me, you know? Plus, Shamans are almost immune to all types of Subordination magic." Laina frowned at her father in turn.

"Is slavery that common here?" I asked, holding Blanche's hand, which was trembling. The bandits with captives were always on about selling them as slaves, but since I stepped in, I don’t really know much about it.

"It's rarer today than it was in the past, due to the last king's innovations and restrictions. For starters, mistreating slaves is forbidden by law, slaves have the right for decent clothing and a place to sleep, as well as two meals a day minimum. Slaves also cannot be forced into… uhm, indecent activities, and to do something that would endanger their lives. There are three types of slaves. Debt slaves, Born slaves and War slaves. The Debt slaves tend to have most rights, but their price is also all over the place, depending on the debt of each and every slave. There are former shop owners who went into debt due to some misfortune, gladiators who couldn't get treatment for their wounds and fell into debt, you name it. Born slaves are those who were born to slaves, usually you can’t buy them until they are adults and they are responsible for all types of chores around the Slave houses. There is a new law for these slaves actually. They are to be handed to government orphanages for a small fee, basically the nation is amassing a great number of them in one place for education."

"In order for them to grow up into proper citizens, right?"

"Yes. That is exactly it. This law should be implemented in the next year. Now then, the last type are War slaves. Those are currently the rarest type, because there are no wars with our neighbors. We are part of the Southern Alliance after all, and even those states that are not a part of it think twice before starting something with any of the members," Kalvig explained to me.

"Given how you spoke about the shamans, I guess you sometimes get slaves from the southern wilderness, right?" I asked, wishing to get more informed, since for all I knew, the slavery here could be even worse than on earth. After all, it is all up to people how they interpret a new law. They could for example chop off an ear from a slave and call it ‘education.’

"Yes. When the tribes there fight each other, sometimes the losing tribe moves north and causes damage to our villages. The army is then dispatched to take care of them, which means an influx of slaves comes soon after it."

"Well then!" Laina clapped her hands, dispelling the heavy atmosphere, "We can call the inspection of mines over, so how about we move to the fun part of learning some new magic?"

"Yes, that would be good. Right, Blanche?"

"Y-yeah…" Blanche nodded.

She clearly has bad memories of the time she was held captive by the bandits and treated poorly by her family.

We exited the mines and went to a clearing. As it turned out, knight captain Amberia took her knights and took care of a goblin horde in the forest. I could see a tail sticking out from Amberia's shadow, so some of my wolves must've gone with them.

"Let's decide on what we are going to do now. Would you rather test your new spells first, or learn new magic first?" Laina took the lead with a bright smile.

"You will take a rest now."

"Indeed."

Henry and Kalvig gently, yet intensely took Laina to the open camp the servants made for us.

"N-noooo! I want to watch it! Don't take this away from me!!!" Laina tried to fight back, but given no one knew how the spells could react and whether they would stay in a determined area, we needed her to stay further away. For example Agatha was smiling from under a parasol pouring tea for her mistress. Well, it could be dangerous for the kids they carry if the magic affected their growth. There actually were reports where children exposed to extremely high amounts of magic power during their mothers pregnancy resulted in some kind of defect. The most famous one is a young bandit from Count Helsink’s territory who was born with bat wings… Now that I think about it, isn't he actually a vampire who just hides his true identity? That would be an interesting development.

"I think we should start with some of our own spells," Lena raised her hand.

"Yeah, me too. I wanna show that spell I came up with!" Blanche added her part too.

"Hmm, yeah. I wanna fire off those spells as well. Let's do that first. Will we draw who will go first?"

"I think we should."

"Agreed."

"Okay. <Item Box> I have a bag of marbles here. Whoever first picks black goes first, is that acceptable?"

"How are you prepared for this?"

"Chika never wanted to do house chores so I came up with this so the Goblin Trio could decide by themselves… then I found out they are colorblind and ended up pulling straws…"

"Hahah, I see," Lena laughed and picked a marble. Once we all had one, we showed them to each other. All white. We drew again, and this time both Blanche and Lena picked Black, so I would go last. The girls drew one more time and this time only Lena took the Black so she would be going first.

"Yaaaaaay! Let this great sorceress show you the best of her new spells!" she smiled happily.

"Do you want targets?"

"Naaaaah, don't need them! My offense is terrible anyways," Lena waved me off and got ready to chant. "Alright, Here goes. <Sanctuary>"

A dome of light spread from Lena and enveloped us all. It grew and grew until it was about ten meters in diameter.

"Is this a kind of barrier?"

"Partially. I used Light magic to shield us from ghosts and other undead monsters. In theory it should also work on demons. Though, even the most basic Light shield barrier can do that. My Sanctuary constantly recovers a small amount of stamina as well as heals small injuries. It shouldn't be able to heal severed limbs, though."

"I see, a combo of Light, Healing and Barrier magics… can I test it a little?"

"The cut of arms?"

"The monster protection duh. I'm gonna summon undead monsters."

"Sure, go ahead." Lena said with a confident smile.

"You can summon undead, Arito?" Henry looked at me with confusion, completely unlike Lena, who just rolled with whatever I said.

"Well, it's more like I tamed a monster that can do that for me. Let me show you."

I exited the dome of light, took out Necromancer slime and returned to the Sanctuary. Once there, I ordered the slime to summon its undead monsters. Zombie goblins, Wraiths, Wisps, Skeletons and other undead monsters started getting out of the slime. And as if it all was for naught, they disappeared once they touched the wall of light.

"Hah-hah-hah! You would need something much more powerful than this to bring my sanctuary down!" Lena boasted with a happy smile.

And that my friends, is a flag…

The slime most likely picked up on Lena's boasting and grew a little bigger. In the next moment a pair of black, goat-like horns pierced through the slime, followed by two skeletal hands clad in black spiky armor.

"Arito… is that what I think it is?" Blanche looked uneasy as she asked.

"Yep."

"Wh-what is it?" Henry readied his sword, expecting the worst possible scenario was upon us.

"Uh-umm… that's a… you know, a Death knight."

"What?" Henry's voice skipped an octave as he looked at me dumbfoundedly.

Not like I can blame him. This thing was a pain to deal with the first time, the second time and the third time as well. I had to retreat two times before I managed to get rid of it. Even the Purification spell does little to no damage to it. Death Knight regenerates as long as it has magic power. Creating undead servants from corpses it kills. Unending thirst for battle and blood. Carnage can be its second name. That's what a Death Knight is.

A humanoid figure with spiky armor giant broadsword and tower shield exited the slime. Blanche looked a little worried and even Lena was not so sure of herself. Since magic is related to our imagination and will, this could weaken her spell severely.

"Orghrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!" The beast’s howl could freeze one's core, yet we were protected from it by the Sanctuary's light.

"So the Sanctuary can protect us from mental attacks too, huh?" Blanche sighed in relief.

"Seems that way… Lena, keep up the barrier! I believe in you!"

"Y-yeah!"

And as if to laugh at my words, the Death Knight came at the light shield and bashed it with its own tower shield. The Sanctuary shook, but remained still standing. The knights outside were getting ready to fight with the Death Knight, all sporting slightly desperate faces. Amberia was with Laina, so we couldn’t really count on her to save the day.

Oh, come on guys. It's not as bad as a Skull bear. We have grown since we faced it last time.

"Arito, couldn't you order it to stop?"

"I could, but wouldn't it be a waste?"

"What?!" Lena panicked as she watched me turn away from her.

"Blanche you're up!"

"Okay! Enjoy the show! <Binding Vines!>" Blanche used a spell she came up with. The roots broke the ground and slithered around the Death knight's legs. The death knight was however struggling. It bashed its shield into the sanctuary, its sword was stabbing the ground and vines in hope of freeing itself. "Not good. I gotta use the other spell as well. <Air Dominate>"

The second spell Blanche used created an invisible field around the Death knight that halted movement of the air. In other words it turned the air into rock hard substance. Were the Death knight breathing, it would be suffocating right now, but as an undead, it did not need to breathe, and the suffocating effect was not triggered.

"I'm not sure how long I will be able to hold it back, so please do something Arito!" Blanche was expending quite a big deal of magic power.

"Right. I gotta show my finest spell as well. Watch closely," I smiled at the girls and slightly worried Henry. "<Reality Break>"

Reality Break. A space magic spell that created a fissure in space like Item Box or Dimension Home do, but this spell was meant for attack. The result was a spell capable of cleanly cutting through —or rather, separating— anything in range, given I used enough magic power.

The slash flew from me and cut the immobilized Death knight diagonally in half. The monster instantly died and turned into grey ash. This ash was then sucked into the Necromancer slime, recycling it.

"Aaaand it's done. Good work everyone," I turned around with a smile, while clapping my hands.

"That… was a space magic attack… I never thought something like that was possible…" Edgar and Raven, the two Space magic users, had eyes on top of their heads, trying to make sense of what they just saw.

"How did you do it?" Raven, with his eyes glued on me, practically warped next to me.

"Calm down, idiot," Edgar chopped Raven's head and pulled him a little away, "Now Arito, could you explain the spell?"

"Okay. So… you know how things that get stuck at the boundary between an Item box —or a Dimension Home— and the real world get cut when the portal gets closed? It's that closing fissure that cut the Death Knight just now. Oh, the moving of the fissure was hard to pull off, but all I had to do was change my visualization. I originally imagined it as an arrow, but a wave was a much better choice."

"I'm going to try the method, if you'll excuse—"

"Hold it!" Edgar hit Raven again with his hand. "You can try magic once you are off duty, that is the way of a butler."

"Uuu… Right, I will remember it. Arito, if you even need to help with magic, come to me. I will teach you spells even Edgar doesn't know!" Raven hit his chest and skipped away with a happy smile.

"Umm… so, Arito, could you tell us about that slime now?" Henry pointed at the Necromancer Slime

"Okay!" I picked up the slime and carried him over to the group. "This is Necromancer Slime, an evolution of Corpse slime. My theory about its evolution is that it needs to live in dark energy rich places in order to evolve. I was feeding it corpses of demons, you see? I first thought that the corpses needed to be in a certain state of rot to be worth eating for them, but it was actually the dark magical energy remaining in the bodies. Yue's feathers proved to be good feed as well, while rotted meat not so much. Though there were some Corpse slimes that started to like the more rotted variety… sorry, I'm getting off track."

"And its ability is to summon undead, right?"

"Yes. However it can only summon undead it ate previously. Though, I'm not sure how it can summon incorporeal monsters like Wisps and Wraights."

"The incorporeal monsters are said to be manifestations of souls. Oh, have you ever heard about the Will-o'-Wisps?"

"They are tiny humanoids with lanterns I believe, Fey type monsters, right?" I tried to remember the book about monsters I received from the Gods.

"Um… back in the village… they called them Soul collectors… I heard," Blanche raised her hand uncertainly.

"You are both correct. Soul Collectors are what they are called in the south-eastern regions, that is because they appear wherever something dies and collects the souls. Some Fey researchers, like Laina, believe that they collect only soul fragments, or soul shards that reside inside the bodies and the actual soul of the person leaves for the realm of the gods before that."

"Aah, I see. Since the Wraiths and Wisps are believed to be souls trapped in this world, unable to pass on, this theory could make them seem more like monsters instead of former people. It would also explain why Whisps and Wraiths can only wail as if in pain."

It would mean that the Wraiths and Wisps are combinations of these soul fragments and don't possess an ego… would the same apply for other undead? I heard from the gods that there is a Demigod of the Undead that founded a country… a country of Undead, huh?

According to the book, there are many undead monsters of A rank and higher that are highly intelligent. Now that I think about it, Vampires are undead monsters too, I should ask Romi about the nature of undead monsters when I have time.

"Indeed. The church supports this theory and some sects even started spreading it as Divine teachings. You might not believe it, but the first one who came up with this theory was the Sage himself. He is called [Master of all magics] on top of his Sage title, because he could use all magic given by gods and all heretic magics as well. Among all of those, Necromancy was the most thoroughly studied. Too bad no one knows where he disappeared to…"

Well, that's because he's dead… not like I can say that.

"Anyway," Henry turned to Blanche while clearing his throat, "Blanche, the spell you used, Binding vines, was it? What exactly was that magic?"

"Well… I'm not sure myself. When we were training with Lena, I thought it would be nice if my Wood magic could help me restrain my enemies, and next thing I knew, I felt the roots moving according to my magic."

"Hmm… That’s interesting. From what I know, Wood magic is only good for growing plants and making fertilizer. What you describe to me, sounds more like druidic magic."

"Druidic magic?" Blanche tilted her head.

"It's one of the special kinds of magics referred to as Religious magics. Practitioners of these are said to be able to borrow power of the divine realm. However, the Druidic magic is said to be capable of manipulating the power of nature itself," Henry added.

"Indeed. Though, no druid uses the same magic. Some specialize in controlling earth, others control plants and I heard of an odd one living in Amoeba Principality who could even control fire."

"So all natural phenomena are fair game… maybe even water currents would be manipulatable…" Lena pondered.

"And you might be able to control the weather as well…" I added a tidbit of my information.

Me and Lena were most likely pulling our information from the same pop culture, but the people of this world wouldn't know that.

"Oh! I would love manipulating the weather! We could get the most optimal weather all year round!"

"You should ask in the church. They collect information for all Religious magics, you might be able to learn more there."

"Okay, I will!"

"So, do you have any other new spells?"

"I have one!" Lena raised her hand and used the spell "<Flickering light!>"

Tiny balls of light appeared all around us, flickering as they hovered in the air.

"Fireflies?"

"Exactly!" Lena's nostrils flared with excitement.

"What a wonderful spell. It might be popular with other nobles."

If this would have their hearts thumping, wouldn't fireworks have even greater potential? Oh, Lena can't use fire magic, I forgot about that…

"I don't have any other spell, what about you Arito?"

"A few, but those are still incomplete. My visualization is still little off, making it potentially dangerous," I patted Blanche who latched on my arm.

"Okay, then. Since there are no new spells, let us start with Introduction to Force magic. Henry, could you show them the spell?"

"Sure thing. I will show you the lowest and easiest spell of the Force magic, so pay close attention. <Push>" Henry extended his hand to a rock placed on a boulder and used the spell. The spell created a forcefield and pushed the stone off the boulder.

"As you can see, the spell uses your magic power to create a forcefield that pushes the stone away. Force magic is sometimes called Hardened Null magic, because you don't give any special element to your magic power."

"So it's like a Null magic for offence…"

"Yeah, I don't think I ever read any book for Null magic that used it for attack, I only found self-buffing spells, analytic spells and group buffing spells."

"It kinda reminds me of telekinesis…"

"Right?"

Me and Lena were whispering to each other and Blanche nodded alongside us.

"So… is Force magic like… punching someone with magic power?"

"That's more or less correct. Once the stones are set up, do you want to try it?"

"""Yes please!""" the three of us said at the same time.

………

……

…

"This is… harder than I thought…"

"The image of pushing someone with just my mind is… really hard…"

Lena and I were struggling with imagining the exact way to push someone with our minds, even though we had knowledge of movies from our previous lives.

"Hmmm… <Push> Ah! I did it!! Arito, I did it!" Blanche laughed happily as her stone tumbled from the boulder.

"I see that, congrats. Hmm… how did you do it though?"

"I remembered Shizu's [Return to Sender] skill and realized it works similarly!"

The [Return to Sender] skill is a rare skill that has the power to send back projectiles with use of a melee weapon like clubs or swords. It created a forcefield when swung, that at higher levels even extended from the weapon. My guess was that it used raw magical power to extend the reach. Currently, Shizu could strike projectiles five meters away from her and the skill was at level 6. Maybe at level 10 she will be able to strike projectiles even further away with greater speed.

"Okay, I'm gonna try imagining it… Push… <Push>" with the second, more concrete image in my mind, the spell took effect and the small stone went flying.

"Grr… I won't be left in dust! Push! Push! <Push! —Ah! It moved! Push! <PUSH> Yay! I did it!"

"Good work!" Blanche clapped her hands excitedly.

"Congrats."

"Good work everyone. For now, try to get better control of the spell then we'll talk more about the other spells."

"OKAY!" The three of us continued training the spell for two more hours until lunch, when we returned to Laina, waiting for us at the base camp.

"Welcome back," Laina pouted as she welcomed us back.

"We're back, dear," Henry kissed his wife softly on her head and took a seat next to her.

For lunch, we had simple sandwiches with chicken meat and sliced Appo fruits. Wow, this is good. The chicken meat is really tender and juicy…

"Oh, wow! What is this meat? It's so good!"

"That meat is from Cachicks. They are usually only kept for eggs, but their meat is also a great source of food. Though, you need to have cooking skill of level 5 at least for the meat to taste this good. It's not like it would be inedible, but the taste can be a little off," Laina explained to the excited looking Blanche, who turned to me with excited, sparkling eyes.

"I'm ready for the exam for Cave Pigs, should I add the Cachick test too? The test is held on the same day anyway."

"Please do!!" Blanche's eyes sparkled like crackles.

"The test for Cachicks is simpler than the one for Cave pigs. For the Cachicks you only need to know how to feed them in a way that will make them have a lot of eggs while preventing them from gaining muscles. Being knowledgeable about cutting their feathers to prevent flight is also good to have."

"So it's the opposite of how it is with the Cave pigs, where you want them to eat as much as they can to build up their meat and fat."

"Well, it all comes from differences in their natural habitat. Cave pigs have adapted to life in caves so they have weak bodies and when well fed they become unable to move much. On the other hand, Cachicks easily grow muscles and when they become strong enough to fly, they can become quite the nuisance. Not to mention that their beaks are as hard as steel and they can even break bones with them," Henry added with a slight frown.

"Anyway, do you have a place to keep them?"

"Yes. I'm going to connect the second floor's farm with a separate mineshaft and make an animal farm there. I have the surrounding area mapped out, so it will be easy to make a waste disposal facility with the help of Grime slimes."

"That should be enough for the Cave pigs, but remember to prepare a sunny enclosure for the Cachicks. They like sunbathing in most cases."

"I will keep that in mind, thank you, Mr. Henry."

"It's fine. We have a tamer with Cachicks in the back of our mansion's land, keeping us stocked with meat and eggs, so we have some knowledge about them."

"What is your plan after lunch?" Laina asked.

"I guess I could train my swordsmanship," Lena pondered.

"Mm-hmm. I want to continue my embroidery practice, I need to show madam how much I have improved," Blanche said and took out her embroidery kit and bunch of papers with her cloth designs. I guess I will have to make her a studio sometime.

"In that case, I will continue solving the box I got in the auction. I'm already one side away from solving it," I continued to move the pieces around and managed to solve five out of six sides so far, so I felt really tense, given how close I got.

The first side had a picture of slime and was relatively easy to solve. Second side had deer, the third side had a wolf and the fourth side had a lion-like monster with two heads. The fifth side had a camel-like monster with four heads, which I never saw before. The last side had apparently a dragon, but I only managed to tie together the right upper corner, where the head was.

The puzzle worked in a way that when you clicked a button, it ejected up and you could twist it. When you did, the surrounding pieces would sink down and turn clockwise, or counterclockwise.

"Hah! Hah! Hah!!" Lena was huffing and puffing while training with Amberia, but I didn't pay any attention to them at all. I was absorbed in the puzzle so much, I didn't even notice the tea Edgar brought me. Were it not for Blanche, who poked me with her tiny finger, I might’ve let it get cold.

"Hoh, you seem to be the only one who can get him out of the trans-like state, Blanche."

"It's only because we spend so much time together, is all," Blanche blushed as she continued her embroidery of a knight and a princess in white dress.

"I'm gonna… thanks for the tea…" I quickly bopped my head to Edgar and sipped a little before returning to the puzzle.

"Okay, now I turn this side… done! I did it!!!" the puzzle hissed and the corners poked out. In the next moment the dragon picture ejected from the cube and opened like doors. What awaited me inside was a small —around two centimeters in diagonal— grey bag.

"Hmm? What is this? A bag for dolls?" Blanche asked.

"Can I take a look?" Laina looked over the table before murmuring, "A shrinking bag? What a weird antic."

"Do you know what this is?"

"I believe it is a Shrinking Bag. A kind of magic item made from a Sorcery stone called Shrink stone. That thing is rarely found in cavern type Dimensional rifts, it works in a weird way. The more mana you give it, the smaller the item will become. However the mana becomes nigh-impossible to detect."

"I see, and what do I need to do to unshrink it?"

"Well, you need to absorb the mana, but that in itself is extremely hard."

"Well, good thing we have experts in eating magical energy," I smiled to myself and opened my Dimension home before calling out my Space slime who had the highest magic absorption skill of all slimes I had, sitting at level nine.

I ordered the slime to absorb magic power from the bag and as soon as it started the bag started getting bigger and bigger. In less than a minute the bag stopped growing, most likely because the fabric was not allowing it to get any bigger.

"Thanks," I patted the slime before sending it back to the Dimension home.

"Now then, what do we have here~?" I smiled ear to ear and opened the bag. Both Blanche and Laina were looking over the table with baited breath.

"Books?" Blanche looked surprised.

What was inside the bag was a pack of six books bound in leather with no decoration at all. It looks like some kind of diary to me…

I picked one of the books and opened it. My take on the study of Necromancy was the name of the book and it was like a combination of spell book and diary. Each spell was revisioned and changed, some were even added anew.

"I-its spell book by the Sage!!!" Laina overreacted as she opened another book.

The six books contained studies made by the Sage on their respective topics, which were: Void magic, Gravity magic, Illusion magic, Psychic magic, Subordination Magic and Necromancy.

"Yes, that they are."

"Edgar, do not speak a single word about this."

"Understood, my lady," the elderly butler bowed politely, which didn't really suit his intense looks.

"With this, I can better understand the undead nature. It might point me to why I can tame those summoned undead and demons."

"You can tame summoned monsters? That's a new one."

"I'm currently working with the theory that summoning skills of monsters, like Yue's Demon summoning, or the Necromancer slime's Summon Undead, work differently than the Summoning magic people use."

"Well, the summoning magic isn't really our family's forte, so I cannot tell you whether you are correct or not," Laina looked apologetic.

"It's alright, I actually like having to find answers for myself, so I don't mind at all," I smiled at her.

"This Subordination magic… it's used for slaves, isn't it?" Blanche looked worriedly, when she looked up from the book she picked up.

"Yes. Subordination magic is commonly used for those kinds of contracts, but I believe it's also used when you hire someone through the adventurers guild as a guard, or with the merchants guild."

"Like a safety measure against someone abandoning their charge, or taking out the secrets of a shop, right?"

"Yes. Knights are also bound by contract with their liege, using this magic. This magic mainly depends on details of the contract and what kind of relationship is created between the contractors."

"I see… I will look into the other books later. Some of these magics seem useful."

"Yes. Though I never thought that the box would hide something this incredible."

"Even though it is called Box of the Sage, it receives no interest because it doesn't hold any magical power… truely, count Beeze would be so frustrated if he found out he had something like this."

"Count Beeze?"

"The original owner of this box. He apparently found it in a workshop where the Sage worked while he was still studying magic. I heard from him that he sold it as he could not brag about it to other nobles, due to it not being a magic item."

"It sucks for him, but I don't plan to return it any time soon, nor ever," I smiled broadly as I started putting the books in the Item box. It's getting full, I should sort it out soon. I still didn't sell all my games from the Kassana Forest too…

"Boss!!" Chika all of a sudden waved me over to the cave entry.

"It seems there is some problem, I'm going to check it out."

"Okay. We will head for the town once you return," Henry nodded as he sent me out.

"Should I go with you?" Blanche asked with a serious look.

"I will take care of this," I patted her head, making her blush a little as I left.

I entered the cave and followed Urza, who joined after Chika. She had a bruise on her cheek.

"Who did it to you?"

"Please don't let it bother you master, some goblins refuse to work and I just happened to be between them."

"No. Those goblins will be receiving punishment as they clearly didn't understand the hierarchy we have here. Even Yue understood it quicker then others."

The hierarchy we have in our small community is me on top with Blanche right next to me, then Romi with her vampire servants and Kuro leading the wolves as her equal. These groups were followed by the Goblin Trio under Urza and Yue, Akane and Albae behind her. Last humanoid monsters were Ogres under Elga and the Kobolds under Yenga.

After the first group were the useful monsters for our everyday lives. First were the slimes, followed by Demon Bees, Forest spiders, Dryas and Fire Beetles. This group was special in a way, as it was forbidden to harm them.

Last group were the so called 'Pets' minus the wolves, who were in the first group. Leading the group of pets were the Owls, Cie the Blue moon Viper, Hogo the Bearded Naga, Newt Hound, Ryuu the Chilltail Dragon, Red Fox, Celestial Orb and the River Sahuagins (who were still just tadpoles).

The dead last place was that of the Goblins. They were only good for fieldwork and they refused to do even that now.

I practically stormed into the third floor, where we had the goblins stay. They were lying all in one place, eating fruits, laughing and enjoying life. You can enjoy life after work.

"Alright guys. Get back to work."

"No." Was the irritated goblins' answer.

"I see, In that case <Quagmire>" I used an earth magic spell and bound the goblins in the mud that I quickly hardened. The goblins started screaming, but their loud displeasure fell on deaf ears.

I walked up to one particularly loud goblin and sliced his throat.

"Let me tell you this straight. You are dead last in importance. If you can't do your one job, then you better become a fertilizer instead."

"This not fair!!!"

"We kill you!!!"

The goblins screamed as I walked over and sliced throats of the loudest ones. The Blue Goblins were surprisingly calm as if they were already prepared for their fate. Since that was the case, I went and dealt with the Brass Goblins first.

"Now then, from twenty goblins only nine remain. What do the rest of you say? I offer you a fair share of food for your work. If you do this again, however—"

"We'll work!!!"

"That's what I wanted to hear. Good. What about you, Blue Goblins?"

"We work for food."

"Nice and simple, eh? That's what I like to see," I released their bounds, "Well now, to make sure you keep yourself in place, I will put a guard to watch over you… who would be best though? Hmm… Elga could be a good fit. What do you say, Urza?"

"Indeed. And if they misbehave again, she can always clean this place. It's not like we need someone who doesn't pull his weight. On that topic…" Urza looked pointedly at a Brass goblin child that was almost as big as the rest of the goblins. He was a subspecies called Brass Goblin King.

"That is a good idea. You there, come here," I waved the goblin king over to me and opened my dimension home.

"Under-stood…" the boy getting ready to die at any moment stood up and walked to me.

His determination is admirable, but I only want to train him. Plus it will keep the rest of the goblins in check. And one day, when he becomes strong enough to lead the goblins, I might release him and have him be my watchdog.

"You will receive special training. <Dimension Home> Enter."

"Yes." the goblin king nodded solemnly and entered the separated space.

With that done, I waited for Elga to come with the Ogres and as she didn't need to show her power, the takeover of Ogres here was as smooth as it could be. On my way out I collected food for the orphanage Romi asked me for and was done for the day.