Gabriella and Avian were both wide eyed as they looked at Dahlia who had just made a contract with a spirit so quickly right after Avian explained everything to her.
Actions such as this were extremely reckless as contracts between spirits was almost close to impossible to get rid of once they were made without killing either the [Shaman] or the spirit, but really only Avian could blame himself as Dahlia likely acted because of the things he had just said, fortunately Avian guessed that she likely made a contract with a low level spirit making the terms like negligible, Dahlia too admitted as such and even told Avian about how she negotiated the terms of the contract to lower the demands earning herself another pat on the head.
The spirit she contracted was called Nixie, which was a general name for her species then her actual name.
Low to mid-level spirits never truly gained true names, only high level spirits possessed true names that solely belonged to them which are also the spirit’s most guarded secret as their true names could be used in all sorts of malicious ways if anyone came to know of them, spelling nothing good as a magic user could utilize a spirit’s true name to summon them and then capture them to do with them as they saw fit.
Avian wasn’t an expert on spirits as much as he knew about magic, but he did know a little bit luckily and knowing that was enough to understand what kind of spirits Nixie were.
Nixie’s in general were low-level water-type spirits that looked like a mix between frogs and small humanoids, they were mischievous pranksters just like another spirit with a similar name of the wind-type called Pixie’s, it’s because of this prankster like nature, Nixie not only were capable of water element magic, but also illusion as it was this ability they used to play games on other creatures near ponds and rivers.
Nixie also preferred to stay near human or elven settlements as they liked to play tricks on these 2 races the most explaining why a Nixie was present with them as they were in the middle of a bath which was a Nixies home ground.
-Wait…does this mean Dahlia can cast magic now? What kind of spells does a Nixie know?
Curious, Gabriella immediately asked as she was fascinated with the kind of magic Dahlia could now do, Avian too was curious and nudged Dahlia along to show them, Dahlia wasn’t shy and immediately told them that she currently could cast only 4 spells which was everything the Nixie she was contracted to knew.
These 4 spells were [Water Breathing], [Create Water], [Wild Empathy] and [Minor Illusion].
Avian knew the effects of all of these spells the moment he heard them, but Gabriella didn’t, allowing Dahlia to explain as she spoke.
[Water Breathing] was a fairly self-explanatory spell, what it did was allow the person to choose 1 willing creature and give them the ability to breath in water for 1 hour.
It had major uses in places where water was abundant and quite a lot of utility in some niche situations making it a fairly good spell even if it wasn’t offensive.
[Create Water] had a similar utility purpose as its only function was to create fresh drinkable water with 1 cast creating 7 liters, this was a spell most useful to people who didn’t have access to fresh water or travelers who needed to go for long distances without being able to see civilization, another good spell.
[Wild Empathy] was an odd spell to say the least, more situational as what it did was turn wild animals friendly towards the caster or at least less likely to attack them, this didn’t always succeed as it highly depended on the users own charisma plus their casting ability of this spell, certain conditions make this spell fail as well, like the creature being hostile to caster because it was attacked by the caster or because the creature was under another person’s control, so on and so forth, making it not a very good spell because of how limiting it was, but good enough for certain situations.
Lastly [Minor Illusion] was a spell that allowed the caster to create any kind of sound they heard before or create the illusion of any object within 2 meters cubed, the illusion of the object is only an image and cannot produce a sound, reflect light, be smelled or any other sensory effect, without the caster the duration of the illusion is 1 minute, but if the caster channels it the illusions duration becomes indefinite until the caster decides to cancel it, since it’s an illusion anything that touches the illusion will pass through and then be canceled, the range of this spell from the caster was 10 meters.
-That’s…! Amazing! Can you try casting one of these spells?
Gabriella asked, fully sucked into the magic as she wanted Dahlia to demonstrate her new powers, starting to feel a bit nervous, but also encouraged, Dahlia attempted her best to cast the magic Gabriella wanted to see.
Wanting her to start off easy, Avian asked her to use [Create Water] then try something difficult like [Minor Illusion], Dahlia nodded her small head and cupped her hands for a second before concentrating, Avian watched her every move intently to not miss anything crucial while Dahlia simply connected with her contracted spirit Nixie and cast her spell.
-[Create Water].
Speaking the name of her spell, her empty cupped hands momentarily glowed before filling themselves with water that looked like it materialized from thin air, her small hands weren’t able to store all the water she was creating and quickly enough they overflowed as fresh cold water started to flow down her cupped hands for a few seconds before finally stopping.
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-Wahhh…!
Even though this was really nothing impressing, Gabriella was still pretty impressed as she rarely got to see magic, Avian too felt how mystical it was, but there were also other things on his mind as he observed her casting spells while also thinking about her current spell arsenal.
The spell Dahlia had just cast [Create Water] was considered a rank 1 spell by the [Wizards] as one needed to be a rank 1 [Wizard] to cast this particular spell.
The ranks of blessings in this world went from unranked to rank 9, for [Wizards] this wasn’t any different, but to them the rank of their blessing was also an indicator of up to what rank of spell they could learn to cast, the higher their rank the higher level spells they could cast.
But Dahlia just now had cast a rank 1 spell [Create Water] which only rank 1 [Wizards] could cast even though she was an unranked [Shaman], did this mean Dahlia already was a rank 1 [Shaman]?
No.
This could be said to be one of the benefits of being a [Shaman] or rather those categorized to work with the elements as [Druids] too were capable of ignoring the rank of the spell in return of being limited to certain spells.
[Shamans] and [Druids] didn’t need to be of higher rank like [Wizards] to cast higher ranking spells as long as they met their individual requirements and paid the price casting spells beyond your rank was not impossible as [Shamans] possessed the help of the spirits while [Druids] possessed the help of nature, [Wizards] and everyone else needed to rely mostly on themselves which is why they couldn’t cast higher ranking spells without being of sufficient rank themselves.
Furthermore, this wasn’t the only thing either, observing Dahlia Avian saw how she merely chanting the name of her spell before casting it, if it was any other magic users who casted the same spell like a [Wizard] then they would need certain chants, hand movements and materials to cast the same spell, which would obviously have been slower than casting it directly like Dahlia showing one of the core benefits of a [Shaman] as they were speedy casters.
Currently Dahlia’s highest ranking spell was her [Water Breathing] spell which was considered a rank 3 spell, to be honest Avian could actually earn quite a penny if he used Dahlia advantage of being able to cast higher ranking spells, but this was looking at the short term as what Avian needed in the future was a competent magic user not a hustling [Shaman].
Demonstrating her first real display of magic both Gabriella and Dahlia were delighted to witness the magic that unfolded before them, getting a bit too excited, Dahlia started to cast every other spell she could cast going from [Create Water] to [Water Breathing] showing that Gabriella could indeed breath underwater which caused all sorts of fun for these two.
[Wild Empathy] wasn’t a spell that she could cast since there was no animal, but she did attempt to cast [Minor Illusion], creating the image of the bean salad Avian had cooked and she had eaten earlier, though Avian was able to discern that the illusion wasn’t very detailed and that it heavily relied on the casters memories and their imagination, it was still close enough to the real thing that Gabriella almost thought it was real before she tried to hold it only for her hands to pass right through turning the illusion hazy as it got interrupted.
Dahlia was so excited by her new abilities that she almost didn’t stop casting her spells willy-nilly, Avian obviously saw the danger in her actions and was about to warn her, unfortunately he was too late as Dahlia quickly became tired as she couldn’t cast any spells anymore making her panic for a second before Avian explained.
-You just depleted most of your Mana, that’s the reason why you can’t cast spells momentarily, be careful Dahlia because in the future your life may or may not depend on you keeping track of your mana, if it ever gets low like right now, remember the feeling and always stop before you drain yourself dry, once you are out of mana you become tired and you will even faint if it is severe, remember this alright?
Avian warned, quite sternly at that making Dahlia shook awake as this was the first time Avian had been so severe to her with his tone, but she didn’t dislike it, she still could feel incredible warmth from his sternness making her hug him even tighter as she felt drowsy and tired.
-Yesh…I…will…take…care…master…
Seeing her so sleepy, Avian figured that it was about time they left the bath and go to sleep already.
Raising Dahlia from the water in a princess carry, Gabriella watched them leave as she too was prepared to go as well, but just as she got out of the tub, her towel which she took care to not let slip from the very beginning mysteriously started to unfold itself as it slipped away from her skin without knowing.
As it happened, Gabriella instantly became aware as she started to get panicked, her panic made her stance unstable as the slippery floor started to shake her, her years of training didn’t prepare her for this as she ultimately fell on the floor causing quite a ruckus as she screamed.
-HYAAA!
Gabriella’s scream didn’t go unnoticed by Avian as he momentarily turned around to see what was going on, he didn’t expect when he turned around to see a butt naked Gabriella with her legs spread out and her bountiful chest in full view to came in his eyes.
Gabriella and Avian even though starting off hot steamy when they were about to enter the bath together, hadn’t progressed as soon as Dahlia came in-between them, they thought nothing in particular would happen If this continued this way, but seeing Gabriella’s alluring and womanly body caused to awaken the heat inside Avian’s chest as he took a very good look of her body without a single shred of shame or embarrassment.
Hurting all over, Gabriella didn’t notice Avian’s eyes at first, but as soon as she calmed down, she saw how Avian was shamelessly looking her up with any regard, Gabriella instantly became ashamed and so embarrassed that her inner temperate started to spike to the point her blood started boiling, trying to reach for the towel to cover her shameful body, Gabriella ended up looking even more seductive with the way she attempted to cover herself.
At the end neither of them exactly knew what to say when it was finished, only the light breathing sound of Dahlia as she started to fall asleep could be heard as a deep silence enveloped the bathroom, Gabriella didn’t even have the courage to look at Avian with her bright red face.
Avian too decided to leave, but just before leaving he spoke.
-My room is unlocked tonight; you can come if you want.
-Huh?!
Only saying those words, Avian left the bathroom and closed the door leaving a quite dumbfounded Gabriella as she looked at the door wide eyed, not sure if she just misheard something or if this was really what her master just said.
In all actually she did know that what he said was real, it was just that she couldn’t really believe it.
Most importantly, the question that really bothered her stood.
Does she visit him or does she not?
Her first day as a [Knight] was quite memorable as Gabriella pondered seriously.
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