On the way down , Felix had already explained he would need a couple of hours of time to prep. It was only about seven o' clock in the evening when they reached the bottom of the crypts, and everyone let Felix to the training room without bothering him.
Felix sat in the center of the training room, and began to absorb and convert the darkness into Yin energy. After about three hours, Felix felt like he had enough of it, but still, he kept going until just before midnight and made some extra Yin energy just to be absolutely sure he would have enough. Finally, he called Leo and Scarlet into the training room.
"All right." Felix said to Scarlet. "Go ahead and lie down in front of me." he instructed her. "It will feel uncomfortable, like a thousands bugs are crawling under your skin, but please don't make unnecessary noises or movements. Even I don't know what will happen if I get distracted or mess this up." Felix said.
Scarlet nodded and lay down in the center of the training room, and Leo watched her like a hawk. Felix placed his hand on her solar plexus, and waited until it was midnight, when the darkness peaked. Then, he activated the elemental conversion spell.
It went just about the same as last time. Scarlet grit her teeth and had a bewildered expression on her face, but she managed to mostly keep still after a moment, and didn't make any sounds. After about half an hour, Felix had that same feeling of being like a flame that ran out of fuel, and he stopped the spell.
"How is it, Arboro?" he asked in his soul.
"Looks good. The darkness in her is extremely pure and powerful, likely due to the new moon. I'll meld her new affinity with her soul now." Arboro said, after examining her for a moment.
Felix felt his soul tingle, and he allowed Arboro to use his body as a medium for her power. After a few minutes, the dark Yin light faded from his palm.
"Is it done?" Felix asked Arboro.
"It is. She should be fine. However, while I was messing with her soul, I took the liberty of infusing her with the remaining Yin energy you had available. She's a female, so it will be beneficial to her, and strengthen her Yin spirit." Arboro said. Felix could swear he heard mirth in her voice, but he didn't put much thought into it.
"It's done." Felix said aloud, withdrawing his hand.
"That was... really uncomfortable. It felt like my very soul was being played around with like putty." Scarlet said, sitting up with a shudder.
"That might not be too far off from what happened, since after converting your affinity, I had to re-meld the affinity to your soul." Felix said.
"Are you specializing in soul magic, Felix?" Scarlet asked him.
"Well, slavery magic is a branch of soul magic after all. I figured if I'm going to be in the Belrose family, knowing some tricks about souls probably won't hurt." Felix replied.
Scarlet nodded, but Leo frowned at that statement.
"Let me examine your soul please, Scarlet." Leo said, stepping forward.
"Okay." Scarlet said, nodding meekly.
Leo put his hand on Scarlet's back, and closed his eyes, his hand glowing. After about thirty seconds, he withdrew his hand, and looked at Felix with a surprised expression.
"Despite just having undergone what could be best described as soul surgery, her soul not only doesn't look worse for wear, it looks like you strengthened it considerably. Just how did you do that?" Leo asked Felix.
"I just told you I knew some tricks about souls. Did you think I was lying?" Felix asked him with a smile.
Leo frowned at that statement, but said nothing. "Well, regardless off anything else, even if her soul does look better, I'm letting nothing up to chance. Let's return to the manor so Scarlet can get some bedrest just in case." Leo said. Felix nodded in response.
"Jeez, I'm not some fragile wallflower you two." Scarlet said with an annoyed expression. But still, she stood up with them anyway, and they walked back to the lift, with Hope and Verity joining them, looking like they just got pardoned when Leo pulled the chain to summon the lift.
"Scarlet, Leo and I just care about you a lot. Let us dote on you a little bit sometimes, okay?" Felix said.
Scarlet rolled her eyes, but she didn't reject what Felix said. Felix and Leo both worked on darkness spell construction while they waited for the lift, and when they were on the lift, while the three girls talked about random things. When they finally reached the surface, it was about four in the morning, and everyone except for Felix looked very tired, and shuffled off to bed without saying much. Felix spent another couple hours in his room, and finally finished Hex: Hemophilia, before going to sleep.
The next day, when Felix woke up, he summoned Caldwell to his room, using his soul link. He'd been neglecting Caldwell all this time, and he figured if he was going to have him as a slave, he might as well make use of him. After a couple of minutes, Caldwell knocked on his door, and entered after Felix called out to him.
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"Master." Caldwell said, kneeling.
"Sorry I've neglected you, Caldwell. I've been very busy. What have you been up to for the last couple of days?" Felix asked him, waving his hand so he could rise.
"Since I was taken as your personal slave, I am no longer performing the menial labors of the rest of the slaves, and was just told by my old supervisor to await your order. He also gave me a low level spell manual, so I was working on some basic spells so that I might hopefully be of slight use to you, Master. Since you have the darkness element yourself, I decided it made more sense for me to focus on my water element, and so I have been training by the small lake on the property. During the last couple of days, I constructed the Create Water spell, and the Snowball spell." Caldwell explained.
"Snowball spell?" Felix asked him, with a raised eyebrow.
"It's best used as a distraction spell, Master, much like your earth element's Sand Attack spell. Since I won't be able to be much use in combat for a long time, I figured it was more reasonable of me to act as a distraction if need be, first." Caldwell explained.
Felix nodded. "It seems you're at least halfway competent. Good work. The water element is more focused on control and information gathering rather than direct confrontation, so I'd like you to focus on these aspects, rather than trying to turn yourself into some kind of battle thrall. For combat spells, work on things which will slow and freeze someone, and for informational spells, the more the merrier." he commanded.
"Yes, Master. Although, my current spell manual doesn't really have access to a whole lot of spells..." Caldwell said hesitantly.
"Don't worry about that. I'll use my authority to have Hope pick up some more spells for you from the manor library. For now, I only want you to focus on building as many water spells that will be useful to me as possible. Now go wait by the lake and get back to work, and if anyone questions you, you are free to use my name." Felix ordered.
"Yes, Master." Caldwell bowed and left the room. Felix gave Hope some soul commands to grab him spells from the Library, and he headed outside to train in the Earth element.
When he exited the manor, he saw Scarlet training with her whip. He observed her for a while.
"Her aura has changed." Felix muttered to himself. He couldn't pinpoint it, but Scarlet's aura, demeanor, and expression had some subtle changes from the day before. Still, she destroyed the training targets just as before, and worked up a sweat just as before, and she waved to him from afar just as she would before. So Felix didn't put too much thought into it, and sat down to train. After about a half hour, Hope showed up with refreshments and joined him. Felix ate, and turned to Hope.
"Did you deliver Caldwell those spells like I asked?" he asked her.
"Yes, Master." she responded, nibbling on a rice ball.
"Which spells did you give him?" he asked.
"Ice spike so that he has at least one direct combat spell, Snowcloud to obscure and slow, Freeze so he can more directly try to freeze people, and sap their energy over time, and then Water Sensing so he can see in the general area. I would have given him more information oriented spells, but frankly, as a low grade mage, he'll be lucky if he even finishes those four spells by the time of the Young Mistress' coming of age ceremony in a month and a half." Hope responded.
"Good picks." Felix said. "By the way, what are your elemental affinities, anyway?" he asked.
"My major element is the Wind, and my lesser element is Wood, Master." Hope responded.
"What spells have you constructed?" he asked.
"Not many, Master. The poor don't have much time to sit around constructing spells idly, and neither do slaves, usually. So I only have the Wind Blade, Nourish, and Revitalize spells constructed." Hope said.
Felix nodded. "All right. Then whenever you're not busy with any maid tasks, you're to focus on your wind magic. Feel free to use my authority to study whichever spells you deem appropriate from the library. Also, grab one or two more wood healing spells, just in case I get injured and Revitalize isn't enough." Felix commanded.
"Yes, Master. Although, most wind spells are only really useful for either strong cutting attacks, or speed..." she said hesitantly.
Felix nodded. "That's right. I want you to be fast, in case I need to have you run off somewhere long distance on my orders. So focus on the speed spells first. But it wouldn't hurt to know one or two combat spells. You never know what you may run in to out there in the world." he said.
"Yes, Master." Hope said, nodding, as she continued to nibble at her rice ball.
After they both finished eating, Hope walked off, and Felix continued to construct spells. After a short while, she returned, carrying a couple of books from the Library. Felix examined them. Grove's Embrace, Blessing of the Sky God, and Slipstream.
"What do those three spells do?" he asked Hope.
Hope sat next to him. "Grove's Embrace is a spell which will allow me to directly heal you with wood element, as long as I'm physically touching you. Blessing of the Sky God greatly improves running speed and lowers stamina usage, and not only can I use it personally, I can even cast it on you as well. Slipstream allows me to move more quickly and efficiently by lowering the natural resistance of the wind pressing against me." Hope explained.
"Good picks." Felix said, nodding in approval. "What's your mage grade, anyway?" he asked her.
"Upper low-grade, Master. I was told once by my parents that our family used to be a lesser nobility spawned from a Knighthood some generations past, but that glory has long since faded into nothingness. As far as I'm aware, I'm the last member of my family." Hope said melancholically.
Felix was surprised. How did he manage to have both of his slaves happen to be low-grade instead of peasant-grade mages? Being low-grade was already the top 10% of mage grades, let alone upper low-grade. He became suspicious. Although he felt there was something not quite right with the situation, in the end, he could only guess that he got lucky.
In order to give Hope more time to focus on spells, Felix opted to take a couple of more slaves into his personal service. With Arboro nagging him excessively to do so and saying she would never stop insulting his manhood if he did not, he ended up picking up a pair of twin maids who were both recently enslaved together as debt slaves, named Vice and Virtue. If not for the fact that they parted their long, brown bangs in opposite directions, Felix would not be able to tell them apart, as they were both the same height (about 5'3, or 160cm), had the same eyes (ocean blue), the same weight (roughly 120-130 pounds, if Felix had to guess), had the same face (cute), the same aura (cute), the same mannerisms (demure, and also cute), and wore the same clothes. Felix put Hope in charge of the both of them, and she gave him a funny look when he introduced them to her, but otherwise she just curtsied and began teaching and delegating out most of her maid chores to them.
The next day Felix overheard rumors from some gossiping slaves that he, the second Young Master, was turning into a harem overlord just like the first Young Master. Felix just ignored the rumors with a straight face as Arboro snickered.