CH.455 Yubel surprises and Training
“Good morning, my dear Master.” Was what I woke to that day.
The voice was a bit strange, sounding like a mix of male and female. I didn’t instantly recognize who it belonged to, so I opened my eyes and took a look.
In the room with me was just one person, and not anyone who regularly spends time on HomeBase. They were a decently tall person, but I can’t exactly call them a male, nor a female. It almost looked like they were half of both.
It took me a second to realize that I knew who they were, but I will fully admit, the lack of the wings and any of the other more demonic features did throw me off a bit.
The giveaway was the mix of silvery white and dark purple hair, split evenly among the middle.
“... Yubel. What are you doing here?” I asked my monster.
“What? Am I not allowed to wake you up, Master?” She … they asked.
“You are, but you aren’t on rotation today.”
“I’m not on rotation any day. You didn’t give me a shift. So I had to make myself one.” She said, as she offered me a glass of water.
And yeah, fuck that. I’m going to be calling her a she, because convenience. Yes I know she is a genderless half-human, half- ... succubus? Whatever she is, I'll call her a her.
After taking a sip, I then asked her. “And just how did you do that?”
“That part was quite simple, really.” She said, as she took back the glass of water. “I simply used that Soul Magic the dragon was teaching you. The most difficult part was getting Tahlia to release one of the dragon avatars for my use, but I managed to bribe her.”
“... should I ask?”
“I promised her I’d get you to make her and Fantasia their own dedicated dragon avatars. Or would you prefer avatar doll in this case? Either is fine, really.”
“... Well, I don’t mind, but sadly, I’m not sure if they can ever exist outside of the Factory. They are skills, so …”
“You can just do what that Nevelle girl is learning to do. Use Soul Magic to make them an artificial soul. Shouldn’t be that difficult.”
“Says the super demon who was corrupted by light.”
“Master.” Yubel said, with a serious tone. “I know I’ve … Well, one version of me, may have gone a bit too far for their love, but I am not the same as they were.”
“... you say that, but you literally escaped the Factory and appeared in this world without my permission.”
“Had you given me a shift, I wouldn’t have had to do that. … but now that I am here, would it be too much to ask for an avatar doll that can show my true beauty.”
“... I’ll consider it.” I gave in. “But in return, you have to promise no more sneaking out of the Factory. … if Laura gives you permission you may, but unless I or she do, no sneaking out. And no making promises that I’ll have to upkeep to bribe her to help.”
“I can agree with that.” Yubel said, but she then got a mischievous look on her face. “Now, let me help you up, Master. It is time for your morning bath. And your perfect servant shall help you clean!”
I got up, as she offered, but instead of heading to the bathroom, I headed for the room of my door.
“... you know, you really should have spent a bit of time learning my schedule.” I told her, as I opened the door, while I used Storage to change my PJs for some exercise clothing. “I always do a morning exercise before my morning bath.” I said, as I left the room.
After my morning exercise, I did take a bath, and yes, I did allow Yubel to wash me. She somehow learned Soul Magic and got both Tahlia and Fantasia to her side, so she deserves at least that much.
And then, it was time for me to get to work. I didn’t actually have all that much for today. I just checked the reports, read the letters and approved what needed to be made with HomeBase. It took me only about 40-ish minutes, and I was off to join Blood Magic practice.
No, I really didn’t need to dedicate that much time to practicing Blood Magic, as I was … sufficient with it, but I wanted to. Spending time with Lua is great, but sadly the magic lessons keep her busy on most days, and the days she isn’t teaching, she is learning Holy Magic. So the best way for me to spend time with her, outside of bed, is to join in on the lessons.
After Blood Magic with Lua, I went for a swim with Cailie and the other mer-folk. I know they go for swims daily, and I do try to join them at least every other day.
They were swimming on floor 9 of HomeBase, which I had transformed into a peaceful-ish lake floor. It wasn’t an ocean like some of the deeper water floors of HomeBase, but instead a freshwater lake. Mer-folk can naturally swim in both ocean and freshwater, so I went with fresh water for this floor.
As to why I call this floor ‘peaceful’, well that is because it has very few monsters. It does have some, but they are kind of weak, mostly F and E-rank fish monsters. Sure they can still hurt someone who is low leveled, but luckily the mer-folk are used to living in waters where monsters like that appear, so they can handle themselves.
And besides, we can kill the fish for food, so that is a nice bonus.
After swimming was lunch, but that is not all that important. Our lunches were an open buffet on most days, as not everyone can take their lunch at the same time nowadays.
We generally have a few dishes available each day, usually about 6. Two of them are always blood dishes, mostly for the dhampirs but anyone can eat them, while two are completely vegetarian, mostly for Cina and Molly. They do eat meat, but they prefer vegetables and vegan food.
I generally take a bit of everything, mostly to get the taste of the day. With our kitchen staff being a mix of apprentices, cooks, and the few monsters I have that are actually great chefs, they want feedback on the food.
And I’m willing to give it, because while not everything coming out of the kitchen is amazing, nothing is ever bad.
… okay, maybe sometimes, but only rarely.
After lunch, I went for some sword practice, and I was doing it with Alice. Naturally Alice was using a swordstaff, while I had a bastard sword. Or a hand-and-a-half sword, as they are also called.
And sure, my mithril sword is more of an arming sword, or a one handed sword, but Errelitea is a bastard sword, so I’ve decided to focus mostly on bastard swords. And the Red-Eyes Sword is a two-handed sword, so it isn’t like I can just fully focus on one.
Both Alice and I had recently learned the Flickering Step skill, so we were basically maximizing the use of the skill to really get a handle on it. It was more difficult for Alice, as her Strength wasn’t as high as mine, so while her mind could easily keep up with the speed, thanks to her high Magic stat, her body sometimes didn’t move fast enough, and she’d end up tripping. My more balanced stats are just a bit better for things like this.
And thus, at the end of our practice session, Alice asked for an install. She was between Stim-Pack, for Strength Boost, and The Reliable Guardian, for Defense Boost. I just told her that she could take both right now, and so she did just that.
I also decided to install Stim-Pack into myself for Strength Boost. Sure it will push back my next ‘actual skill’ install by a couple weeks, but I think I can wait a bit more.
After the installs, I brought a book out of Storage. It was originally nothing more than a book made from high quality paper, bound in leather, but I installed Magic Formula into it, turning it into a magic book dedicated to Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl.
And Alice is half Dark Magician Girl, so the book is perfect for her.
Oh. And one more thing. When my Swift Swimming racial skill reached level 5, I unlocked a new race. That being Melusine, or a draconic mer-folk. It is the same race as what Cailie’s System Support took, so it was nice to have.
As a Melusine, I’m basically just a mer-folk but with draconic wings, and my tail is dragon scales instead of the normal mer-folk scales. It is kind of nice, but the wings do get in the way of swimming just a bit, so I still have to get used to them.
It was still a bit of a challenging race to use, as it did rely heavily on the Draconic skills, and while I’m alright with them, I’m not the best. But I’ll manage. Oh, and in case you were wondering, Melusine is considered a special race by One of Every Race.