“I… This was my first mission. For the last sixty years, I’ve been training diligently, in hopes that I could prove helpful to my Goddess! Even if I may not be very ‘experienced’ in many ways, I have still participated in several thousand hunting trips!” Talia was fairly embarrassed about her relatively ‘sheltered’ life.

Michael snickered as he watched the naked High-Elf utilize her aura to fly closer to him. When she approached within a few meters, he asked “What happened to your clothes anyway?”

The Huntress finally realized that she was completely nude, and hastily retreated away from him, while shouting “You! Avert your eyes! Do you not feel any sense of shame?!”

He casually answered “Meh~, shame is for pussies. Anyway, I’m gonna teleport ya outta here now, so stop freaking out for a second!” There was a distance limit of thirty meters, so once she flew far enough, he wasn’t able to send her into his Companion-storage.

After a few seconds, he yelled “Oi, if ya keep fuckin around, I’m just gonna leave ya here!” at the woman who was constantly moving around the room so quickly that he could barely see her.

Hearing that threat, Talia finally came back to her senses and slowly approached him. She frowned, “I apologize for my foolishness… What should I refer to you as? Commander, Captain, Sir, Immortal One, Harem Keeper?”

However, without answering the question, he sent her into his sixth Companion-slot and teleported into her room. When he dropped her onto the bed, he told the startled High-Elf: “For fuck’s sake, my name is Michael. You can call me Mike… The little nekomimi calls me Mikey~, which is almost as annoying as all her nyah-meow bullshit, but it’s still tolerable. Anyway, I might be a pervert, but I ain’t gonna have sex with you, so stop freaking out so much. You have a great body, and so does pretty much everyone who has more than two Charisma. I might masturbate to you, but even if you wear clothes, it wouldn’t keep me from being able to see through them, hehe~.”

The Huntress asked “Very well then, Michael, what are your orders? As long as I am under your command, I will be sure to fulfill them adequately… unless they conflict with my own moral values.”

He snickered, then said “I ain’t your commander; you can do whatever the hell ya want. Hmm, that’s weird, I don’t remember picking this up?” while checking his inventory.

“Angelic Boa of Efflorescence: A magical trading card. Increases Strength, Vitality and Endurance by two point if consumed by a Player. Can be used in various card games. Rare Quality, requires level­-fifteen to activate.”

As he pulled out the shiny card, Michael tilted his head and yelled “Oh shit! I completely forgot about that snake being elite! Hahahaha~, it was so weak that I kinda figured it was just another trash-mob. Actually, that damn giant monkey was way stronger!”

Talia asked “What is that strange object?” while utilizing her ‘Scan’ ability. However, the next moment, it burst into flames and rapidly invaded his lungs, in the form of a white smoke.

He coughed violently while gagging and complained “Goddamn it! Ack! So fucking gross!” Even if he hated it, the six stat-points were still worth the disgust and discomfort.

The Nephilim finally calmed down after a minute or so he held his right hand against his head, “Ugh, I haven’t even eaten anything since I woke up… Do you eat Demonic Raptor meat?”

She frowned, “My people do not consume the tainted flesh of Chaotic monsters… unless we are starving, or exceedingly desperate.”

Michael walked out of the room, while sighing dramatically, and telling her “Fine, whatever, I’ll fry-up some gorilla steaks. Damn it! We need to go buy some fucking… Actually, Blondie! You said that you wanted orders, right? Here’s twenty gold, use Fast Travel and go back to your house; shove all your pots, pans, and just about everything else that you need, into two containers. Okay, then after that, store those into your two bag-slots! Ah, just open the map, focus on your village, and then it should ask you…”

Talia took the coins from his hand and said “As you command, Michael.” while nodding her head and disappearing in a beam of light.

Then he muttered “Well… I was gonna tell her to find something to cover herself up with first.” Immediately losing interest in the High-Elf, he noticed that the skeletons were actually starting to ‘wake-up,’ as the sun was beginning to fall behind the mountaintop.

Kelsey and Roycerus ‘looked’ around, and started telepathically worrying about their missing ‘pets.’ Michael complained “Oi, if ya wanna bring animals into the house, let me know about it first… Wait a second, why the hell are you brats even staying in here anyway? From now on, the two of you should start living in Sarah’s old place. The cave, it’s just a fuckin cave.”

He would have told them to stay in the Necropolis, but he didn’t want them to feel like prisoners. On the other hand, he also ordered the level-two Human Skeleton to head up into his ‘workshop.’ Since it needed to ‘recharge,’ he wasn’t sure exactly how long it would be before he could ensoul the mindless creature.

After he ‘listened’ to the two ‘children’ complain, Michael eventually yelled “Alright, enough! Stop fucking whining, I ain’t your… Wait, am I actually your father?! No, nope, I refuse to be a responsible parent! Okay, stop crying for fuck’s sake! You’re like, what, a day old now? Grow up!”

Finally, he asked “Now that you’ve settled down a bit, I went on a hunting trip earlier and found some fun toys for you kids to play with… Which color do ya like better?” as a red bead appeared in his left hand, and a clouded white one appeared in the right.

Without hesitation, Kelsey grabbed the Wind mana-core and Roycerus picked the Fire. Their instincts told them to immediately devour those shiny magical pearls, so they didn’t need Michael to explain it to them first.

A few seconds passed, and then they started evolving. The skeleton on the left, began bursting into purple flames, while the one on the right seemed to be shrouded in a dark mist.

The Nephilim muttered “I kinda expected them to turn into gorillas, but I guess this is fine.” Once the fire died down, it was easily visible that Roycerus had grown at least a foot taller and his bones had also become far thicker than before.

“You have evolved Roycerus into a Rank-F, Violet-Flame Human Skeleton. Stats have increased: +5 Aura, +4 Vitality, +4 Endurance, -1 Intelligence.” Inside of those hollow eye-sockets were tiny orbs of constantly burning, purple fire, but the rest of his ‘body’ had turned pitch-black: as if it were permanently charred.

After that, a second message appeared: “You have evolved Kelsey into a Rank-F, Skeletal Human Wraith. Stats have increased: +2.5 Aura, +5 Agility, +2 Intelligence, +1 Wisdom, +1 Perception, +1 Charisma, -2 Strength.”

Her bones seemed to shrink a bit, and her pelvis actually became significantly wider and less obstructed. Not only that, but the black cloud of aura that was surrounding her, gave the illusion of flesh occasionally.

However, the most significant change was the ‘Racial Skill’ that she had received. “Apparition Level 1: The caster is able to adjust their weight by manipulating their aura. While this spell is active, physical damage taken is reduced by 10%. Every point of Aura can negate or create one pound of weight. Costs one mana per second.”

She wasn’t able to levitate immediately, but there weren’t very high requirements. With roughly one-hundred and fifty level-one, rank-G, mana-cores from Demonic Slimes, Michael wasn’t particularly stingy.

Thus, he took out twenty and gave each of them ten. His guess was correct: once they leveled-up within his territory, he was allowed to distribute their stat-points.

[Resident Information

Name: Kelsey
Titles: Of the Eternal Darkness
Level: 2
Experience: 0/20
Age: Adult
Race: Skeletal Human Wraith
Rank: F
Class: None
Specialization: None
Profession: Unemployed]

[Stats

Health: 20/20
Mana: 25/25
Stamina: 10/10
Mana Regen per minute: 30
Health Regen per hour: 20

Strength: 1
Vitality: 2
Endurance: 2
Dexterity: 3
Agility: 6
Intelligence: 5
Wisdom: 3
Perception: 2
Charisma: 2

Willpower: 3
Luck: 3
Aura: 3

Attack Rating: 5
Defense Rating: 1]

[Resident Information

Name: Roycerus
Titles: Of the Eternal Darkness
Level: 2
Experience: 0/20
Age: Adult
Race: Violet-Flame Human Skeleton
Rank: F
Class: None
Specialization: None
Profession: Unemployed]

[Stats

Health: 50/50
Mana: 10/10
Stamina: 25/25
Mana Regen per minute: 20
Health Regen per hour: 50

Strength: 3
Vitality: 5
Endurance: 5
Dexterity: 3
Agility: 3
Intelligence: 2
Wisdom: 2
Perception: 1
Charisma: 1

Willpower: 3
Luck: 3
Aura: 5.5

Attack Rating: 15
Defense Rating: 2.5]

Going by his usual desire to keep things relatively balanced, he raised Kelsey’s Vitality and Endurance by one each and increased Roycerus’ Agility to three points. Thus, the wraith was less squishy, and the Skeleton was lighter and able to move more quickly.

Michael smiled at his two ‘children’ and told them “Are ya happy? Good, now go out and pick a cave to live in.”