In a, now, sunny and hot somewhat mountainous land. A new but bustling town formed.
This was the Null family’s town. After the spring harvest and the events of the harvest church, the land had become much more fertile. This caused the farmers to be excited and with Opal and the servants of the family, they effectively cleared a good amount of land for farming.
That said, Opal began her own private farm work with the Null family serfs and the product she wished to produce is her tea plants and magical herbs.
Of course, magical herbs were far from easy to grow much less for humans but the things they were useful for were just land maintenance while the fairies and her own familiar were the true farmers for these herbs.
At this moment, the Null family had returned. Nil, Zip, Void and Jasmine all returned together with their knights to find the more developed city.
A serious expression was on their face as Nil sent some servants to each church so that he could have a talk with them to see if he can gain some aid from them.
Zip went with his father and helped fill them in but it seems some things they already received before their arrival.
The fact that Zip has the power to give initial breakthrough was known but they did not hear about the demon invasion which made them serious.
They each sent someone to check through their communication artifacts and soon the confirmation came.
“So a new demon invasion. How will we deal with this one?” the dark fire church high priest asked.
“It is stated that the Holy Church pope activated the final defense mechanism causing the Holy City to fall and the crack to collapse. There is only the space crack hidden in the frontier now.” the light ice church priest said.
The others nodded.
“So Sir Null, besides to tell us this, is there anything you wish to say? Or was this all?” the light fire church said.
One can say that in the Lorian empire the fire church was the strongest due to the blacksmithing. This makes their priests and followers a bit overconfident.
“I wished to see about getting the aid of your churches in providing help in recruitment for the city knight order and training.” he said.
The two fire church priests scowled, “You want us to recruit for you and train your knights! I shall excuse myself before even more stupid ideas fill my ears. We are at the verge of a crisis and I still am asked to provide the resources for another!” the light fire church priest stormed out.
Following behind but quiet was his counterpart of the dark fire church who agreed.
On the other hand, the Dark Holy church and the light and dark ice churches remained.
“Please continue.” the dark holy priest said.
Nil nodded and sighed, “I need help, I do not know how to produce a familiar summoning and binding circle. I want to provide my Knights Order all with familiars to boost the city's strength. Also I feel that people like my son’s hunter union and commanders of the city guard could also get them. The more familiars in the city would further increase the city's development.” he explained.
The three looked at each other.
“Sir Nil, you should know that to maintain the circle isn’t cheap. Each summoning is two uncommon mana stones, 20 gold coins each summoning but that isn't an unreasonable price because damage happens and the price to repair even a small section is expensive. The city guard currently numbers around five hundred and your knights are around 150. That is 300 uncommon mana stones, one common mana stone is ten slime cores and uncommon mana stones are 100 common stones for an uncommon one. 300 uncommon mana stones are a frightening figure to gather.” the dark holy priest said.
He sighed when he saw that there was no way to get the aid of the churches. He counted mentally how much money the city treasury had and figured he could get around thirty men summoning familiars without affecting the city since it was within the amount of money he could keep from the taxes.
“Let us revisit this at another date, there is much we need to discuss on our side as well. We are not at liberty to accept or deny it so we can get back to you on this.” the dark holy priest said.
“Indeed, let us move to a topic we can discuss now though.” the light ice priest said.
At this time the dark and light ice church priests revealed a scroll.
“Sir Nil, after much consideration, our Dark Ice church has thoughts of considering you a saint of the church and your familiar an idol. Until you reach at least level 80 though it is called Holy Priest but it is just second to the current saints and third from the pope. We wish to train you to become our saint.” the dark ice priest said.
“These two scrolls are special and contain training manuals our holy priests have trained in since long ago.” the light ice priest said.
Zip, who sat on the side looked at them confused. “Aren’t the Light and Dark church usually enemies?” Zip asked.
“Not of the same element, or at least for some gods. Most element gods are formed by twin gods. The ice church is particularly tighter and shares many similar myths. There have been ice phoenix saints appearing in the Dark Ice order before. Still the Fenrir is the proper dark order idol and the ice phoenix is the light church.” the dark holy priest said.
The two nodded agreeing to the words of the other.
They soon push the scrolls into Nil’s hands and he reluctantly opens one and then the other.
“The one of the Light church is more complete.” he commented.
“We tend to have more followers and have had more idols so we have more practical knowledge while the dark order possesses more mythological knowledge on the fenrir and so they have formed hypotheses we do not. Such training has to be tested for results.” the light priest said.
Understanding Nil smiled wryly. “Is there an option to reject?” he asked.
“In these times nearing war, you can answer yourself also, your request might be approved if you accept. We will not restrict you though and will just provide knowledge and in its place you can become the icon of our order, a name and face of the church.” the priest said.
Nil sighed and nodded, agreeing.
“Good, we must first deal with the deficiency in your magical knowledge. We will send a master of magic to teach you personally. As for your familiar, we can start after you have enough knowledge to make your own spells.” the dark ice priest said.
“Fine. For better or for worse I do need strength.” Nil said.
After the agreement Nil stood and said he could come over anytime before they left with the three priests.
Nil and Zip returned home and when arriving, they found Xero stepping off a large sword and several black skinned youths lifting a large stone about half a meter in diameter from the sword and carefully walking off.
“Xero!” Nil said and went over.
“Ah, father! I am home.” he said smiling.
“It is good you are back.” He replied and looked at the strange stone. “What is this?” he asked.
“It is a magic communication stone, one was made by the academy for each family of students and they gave us a Student ID card similar to an adventurer or mercenary ID so that we can access it. Because of the crisis now, there are less times we can safely travel to the academy so they are using this method to allow us to communicate and also it has a function to teleport small inanimate objects like books so we can ask for specific types of books and the librarians will make a copy for us, free of charge unlike before when we had to pay.” Xero said.
“Wow!” they exclaimed. “I wonder how the academy made so many.” Zip said.
“Miss Gilbody said that they always had these made in case of serious crisis such as this where the students can’t come to the academy. Also, these are setup to allow students to witness class through them during specific times. The teachers would give us class through it.” He said.
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“So it’s like home schooling or is it long distance schooling?” Nil asked his son but Zip shrugged having never heard of this happening.
“I guess long distance schooling is the proper word. I think, oh right, it’s Summer break now! Nadir should be coming home right?” Xero asked.
At that moment, the three sensitive men suddenly heard a noise. It was a strange sound like a very strong flame focused out of a small exit.
WOOSH!
A suddenly object suddenly rocketed past over the manor walls at a very fast speed. It’s speed was similar to the Flying Sword like Edge. The figure left a line of smoke behind it and it’s body was a blur.
“What is that!?” Nil said.
Suddenly the object swerved and shot upwards before whatever was pushing it stopped.
They finally saw the figure as it slowed down as it headed up. It had an oval body with an opening at the back, it was made of some sort of black metallic material and there was a strange crack on one side.
It suddenly aimed down and began to fall right towards the three of them at a very fast speed.
“Move!” Xero shouted and the three jumped out of the way as that object rushed down and suddenly a strange scene appeared as it rapidly slowed down and stopped in mid air while slowly rotating.
Four lights came from it as small legs that had been shrunk small suddenly grew out forming four S shaped legs and landing without making a single crack.
At that time the guards rushed in and surrounded the strange black object that reminded one of an iron vase.
It suddenly began to shine and rapidly expanded to the size of a 500 liter cast iron alchemy cauldron.
Xero pulled out Edge and was ready to have the flying sword fly out and kill whatever that thing was.
Slowly the lid of the cauldron began to rise and suddenly burst out and a figure popped out, “SURPRISE!” an excited voice said followed by a boastful laugh.
The guards who were on guard were struck dumb but the three Null family men knew that voice like no one else and Nil walked over pushing the men out of the way and reached the 16 year old and grabbed her by the ear. “Nadir! You bad girl! Why did you make such a flashy entrance!? Also what is that!?” He said, making her exclaim and hold her ear.
“Ah! That is mean! I thought it would be a fun way to show off how much I grew!” she said pouting.
At this time the cauldron shined and rapidly changed into a small brass teapot with one handle and a small top. It was white colored and had a floral design.
“Miss! I told you it was too much!” A voice said from the pot and it floated over.
“Oh come on! It was fun at least!” Nadir said pouting.
“For you but it’s not fun for the others!” The pot said.
“Oh, so you're familiar began to talk? What was the name?” Zip asked.
The two stopped and the pot floated over, “I’m Dots, I’m a Transforming Pot Spirit.” she said.
“Didn’t Nadir name you Potty before?” Xero asked.
The pot trembled and ‘turned’ towards Xero while a very menacing aura came from her. Behind her, Nadir was trembling and sweating. “After I evolved into what I am and was able to talk and move at my own will, I made sure to get a proper name.” She said and ‘looked’ at Nadir who flinched.
Nil looked on and turned to the guards and had them return to their posts. With the false alarm properly resolved, they all head inside and Nil filled in Xero to the recent changes to the town, especially the fact that it was finally named. It was formally recognized as the Town of Cipher.
Afterwards Xero explained to his family how the dean and the archmagus was on the side of building a strong army instead of focusing on their own strength and thus suggested for them to also work on their own minions since most of them have already gained some initial form.
Even Jasmine gained a possible Minion summoning. Crystal is able to generate a fist sized gemstone which beats like a heart and plants it like a tree seed and that seed begins to absorb mana and would slowly grow until it, supposedly, breaks the heart and floats out like a Gem spirit bound to it’s maker.
He needs to plant them in secret though because the gem he makes is useful for magic staffs as well making it annoying if mages discovered he could make them. Only Nadir hasn’t shown any ability to make Minion’s yet but Xero made sure to tell them that they can add spells to minions just like the familiars and could make each one unique.
After that though, Nadir was jumping like a child trying to pull her family outside so that she could show off.
“Come on! Come on! I want to show you my magic!” She shouted.
Soon they walked out, “I’ve been meaning to ask. Why is Dot’s called a Transforming Spirit Pot?” Xero asked.
Nadir ignored him though and called out Dot.
“Alright! Big bro! Let me show you, I can be a big help to you!” She said to Zip, “Dots, Forge mode!” She shouted.
Suddenly the white teapot shined and dropped down like a lead lump. She began to look like a 2 meter wide stone cauldron while the lid and body fused and the top of the lid grew upwards and opened at the top forming a chimney and a small door appeared on the side. Four thick legs held up the forge.
“Alright Dots! Bottoms up!” Nadir said and opened a bag with a lot of iron ore and dumped it down the lid. “Now Smelt!” The Forge shaped pot began to glow for a short while before the little door opened and from it the pot began to cough up iron ingots that were releasing smoke but were perfectly solid and perfectly measured to be 1 kilo exactly.
They looked in shock by the rapid succession of events.
Still, Zip walked up and picked up one of the ingot, ignoring that it was still scalding hot since his body was already resistant to common levels of heat.
He then summoned Cinder, “What do you think of these?” he asked.
She took them and sniffed it and licked it, “It’s 90% pure iron, really good stuff. Would result in good material for making some Devil’s Alloy from this.” she said.
Zip nodded and looked at Nadir, “Where did you get these?” he asked.
She pouted, “I just forged them! Didn’t you see!?” She stomped the ground.
“I saw something… Not sure what though.” He said.
At this time, Dot’s shrank down. “Bro sir! I really did just smelt those. I am a Transforming Pot and when Miss made the forge form for me I gained Smelt, Purify and Alloy Smelting as innate spells.” She said.
“Just curious though… wasn’t your academy a Craft and Mercantile academy?” he asked.
“Yeah…” Nadir replied.
“Then why did you learn just to Smelt iron and not make potions and other things like most Pot familiar owners?” he asked.
“I did learn that!” Nadir shouted. “Wanna see!?” She said and turned around and looked around and ran over to her mother’s garden and carefully removed several herbs by the root. “Dots, Cauldron mode.” She said.
The pot floated over and dropped to the ground before becoming a cauldron but one that was only around a 50 liter cauldron. It floated in the air while Nadir opened the lid and dumped everything and closed it.
She then took a step back and sat with her hands clasped together and closed her eyes.
Suddenly a flame lit up under the cauldron and magical runes lit up, “Extract…” Nadir said and the lights shined, “Mix herbs one and three. Boil herb 2, 4, 5 and 6.” She said and went quiet.
After a minute she started the next part, “Extract medicine from herb broth then Mix both extracts and boil it for one minute then extract again, purify and done.” She ordered.
Sweat began to come off her forehead as the process advanced and when she sighed the fire went out and she stood up and opened the lid. “Dots, the glass jar.” She said.
From the Cauldron, a few glass jars came out and Nadir put them down on the ground. “Alright, fill them up!” she ordered.
“Yes miss!” Dots said.
She tipped over and her lid closed before the mouth of the cauldron slightly bent forming a slight channel in the center.
The next minute, a crystal clear red liquid with a sweet smell filled their nose. It filled one jar, then the next until three full jars were in front of them. Nadir put the top on and looked with a childish smug look on her face towards her family.
“Um… sweetie, what potion did you make?” Her father asked.
“These are Healing potions.” She said.
They all looked down at the jars.
Healing potions normally come in small vials containing at most 500 ml of potion and are separated in low, middle and high quality which is determined by the clarity of the potion.
The three jars Nadir had pulled out were all two liter sized filled near the mouth and the potion was crystal clear with a red tin, this was clearly a high quality potion.
Healing potion is a beginner ranked potion but to reach high quality one needed a really good familiar or very good skill in alchemy to obtain these results. This clearly showed how well she was taught to use her familiar. When she was sitting down, it was clear that she was in control of the refining while having the familiar aid her.
“Um… sweetie, who taught you this?” Nil asked.
“My teacher, previously my alchemy teacher was like an old witch and really mean but then the nice library man in the academy saw me working hard and took me as a private student and taught me lots and even helped me learn more about Dots Dimensional pot spell and a whole lot of different branches of magic that I want to learn.” She said excited.
“How many branches of magic are you learning?” Xero asked.
“Um…” Nadir scratched her head and looked at Dots. “Space, Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Light, Dark, Metal, Sound, Ice, Lightning, Steam, Lava…” Nadir said a whole bunch in one breath.
“Wait!” Xero shouted. “Are you learning nearly all branches of magic?” He asked.
“Huh? Yeah but not really in depth, just Space magic and Transformation magic as well as learning how to craft. I wanna be able to make weapons and armor through Dots soon.” She said excited.
They looked at her in awe and even Opal looked at her daughter a bit strangely.
“What are you trying to make after learning so much?” Void asked.
“Miss wants to take my Dimensional Pot skill that makes a very large pocket of space inside me and make a livable space inside me. My Travel Mode has a very basic concept of it since I make a space inside me that she sits inside but isn’t cut off from the world. We use a mix of fire and wind magic to travel at a fast speed while I shape myself to pass through the air faster.” Dots explained.
The jaws of the family dropped.
“My my, you sure are a dreamer dear.” Opal said and clapped her hand. “At least we have a very cute alchemist in our family now.” She said with a smile. She turned to Xero, “Xero, can you call your cute familiar, I want to taste her cooking again. Mama misses her tasty food and even Eva isn’t able to get that unique taste.” She said with a depressed face.
Xero smiled wryly, “Alright, let’s all go have dinner then.” He said.
The family returned into the house where Ashley was summoned and she herself called out all the female Sword Devil Minions that she took into the kitchen as her assistants and to teach them how to use her fire to make good food.
The male ones though were kicked out for some reason but they took the time, with Xero, to train outside with their Sword Arts.