Eldritch Creature's Guide

It took one hour for Yvraine to finish all of the exercises that the Old Bahar imparted her, and she dutifully carried them every single day. It was clear that she worked very hard in mastering her Level 3 Ultimate Ability Metamagic and successfully incorporating it into her combat style and combining it with the Silvermoon Swordsmanship and her sword mastery as a whole.

While Yvriaine was training, Samiel started reading his Grimoires, as that was something he was doing when he was bored or had some time to pass. Even though he already went through the Grimoire he was reading, as that one was on the Basic Principles of the Void, it never hurt off to constantly repeat the basics.

Every time he read it once more, he noticed some details or things that he had missed before, and that was understandable because he was aware of the fact that the Grimoire was an accumulation of knowledge about the Basic Void Magic collected through the several Eras, and it was impossible to comprehend just by reading a two or three times.

Often here and there, he came across some tips and cheats on how to cast the Void Spells more effectively and easily; sometimes, there were also secret meanings hidden in the lines of the Grimoire, containing the great wisdom and secrets of the Void.

When Yvraine finished her practice of the Metamagic Techniques, Samiel put away the Grimoire he was reading because it was time for their date. Right now, the relationship between the two of them was... don't know, because nobody had any knowledge of what was happening and if there were even some stages in the romantic relationship.

Ironically though, both of them were pretty clueless, but that also suited them because they let it flow freely, and they just enjoyed the company of each other. They often went on dates or just spent some time together, most commonly shared their interest in eating, as Samiel often cooked for their dates.

There was even a time when Yvriane attempted to cook, but it didn't end very well, as she burned everything and wasted a lot of relatively precious ingredients. Since that day, she didn't even attempt to approach the kitchen, as she was pretty much embarrassed by what had happened.

"Finished already?"

Samiel asked, looking at Yvraine, who was sitting cross-legged on one of the beds that were in their room.

"Yes... did you check out the state of the war?"

Even Yvraine was becoming a bit restless because she wanted to participate in the war already, as the humans were something of an ire for the Nesser Dynasty, but right now, she was forced to remain in the Goldtooth City until the situation on the frontlines stabilized.

"I did, and there are still not any notable changes; everything is going according to my calculations, and we need to wait the next ten days until everything has calmed down up there."

Samiel answered; it was already the third time or fourth time she had bugged him about this. Even though he had already explained the situation and even gone into details, why it was better to remain here, because their individual strength was relatively insignificant in such a large-scale war.

While Samiel was on that way better compared to Yvraine as he had his Undead Army, which he could use, additionally with his highly destructive Void Magic, he would be able to make a difference even in big battles, but he preferred not.

Let the Demons and Humans kill each other. Samiel knew that while the missions that the Demon Tribes were issued right now to participate in the initial fights and serve as the vanguard were paid very well, he was also aware of the fact that this was the most dangerous part of the entire war because the shores of the Human Continent were properly fortified and defended.

On top of that, Samiel considered the Demon Tribes his enemies, as much as he considered the Human Brotherhood as one. The Demons were descendants and bearers of the Daemon Lineages from the Abyss, and based on what the Menuhyutt told him, because of that, they were hostile towards the Hall of Kadath.

So he wasn't that thrilled about helping the Demon Tribes above a certain level of tolerance. While the Human Brotherhood was the bigger of these two evils, he knew that he wouldn't be helping the Demon Tribes above a certain level, as that clashed with his self-interest as the Holy Son of the Hall of Kadath.

In truth, if they were fighting against anyone else, then Samiel would have joined another side, but here, on the 8th Floor, the game of shadows, between cat and mouse, had started, as the players of the game were moving their pawn across the chessboard.

And in this game, one of the players was an even greater threat to the current order of things than the Demon Tribes to the Hall of Kaddath, so Samiel had to grit his teeth and let it go, something which irritated Yvraine to frightening levels. She was greatly impatient and wanted to kill some humans because the Nesser Dynasty didn't really care about the Demon Tribes, as they had a relatively neutral relationship with them.

On the contrary, the entire Seldarine Pantheon was sometimes cooperating with some Daemons and their Houses against the Dark Seldarine Pantheon. So the result of this lesson was that the Cosmospolitcs were complicated as hell, and nothing was as simple as it could seem at first glance.

"Once and for the last, I won't be going there now because, in truth seeing the Demons being killed in mass numbers makes me happy as the Demon Tribes are my enemies... such is the politics of the Hall. Not to mention that right now, the situation is unstable; without the path of the retreat, we could end there without any route to escape, and the Human Brotherhood has a number, tremendous numbers, as there have probably something around 1,5 million combat-ready soldiers. Even though the heavy majority of it is only at the Iron-Tier, the remaining 10% is distributed between Steel-Tier and Bronze-Tier, which is still something about 100,000 Steel-Tiers, and 45,000 Bronze-Tiers, not talking about the almost 5,000 Silver-Tiers... that is enough to overwhelm us even ten times over."

Samiel explained it once more because he feared what would happen if they were cut out from any escape route. He knew very well that sooner or later, they would be surrounded and captured; of course, the Human Brotherhood wouldn't dare to kill them and probably ship them to the Magisterium or the Avalon Kingdom, which would negotiate with the Nesser Dynasty and Hall of Kadath about our release.

In truth ending in the hands of the Magisterium was a fate worse than death because the Hall Master had already warned Samiel that the Magisterium was gathering forces for the past tens of thousands of years to challenge the Hall of Kadath as the most powerful mortal faction in the Material Plane.

"Ts... whatever... what do you have planned for today's date?"

She then turned the list and asked him the most important question of the day. When they initiated their courting process, they decided that they would divide the planning of their dates, as both of them would be planning one, so it won't be all on him.

Something that Samiel greatly appreciated because he had to admit that he was not the most creative person about that, and Yvraine wouldn't probably appreciate it if he decided their date to take place at the Library or the graveyard, practicing the art of grave robbing.

Grave robbing was an important art that must be learned by any Necromancer because the graves were a source of nice and good corpses for the materials to create powerful Undeads. Especially the corpses of the mighty Professionals could take even tens of thousands of years to decompose naturally because their powerful Mana will keep them in their perfect state. Thus, even Samiel was no exception to this and often went to rob graves, especially the graves of demons on the 8th Floor, containing some nice corpses, which served very well as his Undeads after they were resurrected.

Due to that, the average Level of his Undead Army was Level 45 Bronze-Tier. The overall increasement was about 6 Levels, which was very good, and that was just from replenishing the Undeads and replacing them with the Undeads resurrected from the corpses of Demons.

"Yes, hopefully, it won't be the disaster like the last time."

He stated as she scoffed at him, because the last time, he indeed to her to the graveyard, thinking that doing something together would be great. And contrary to his idyllic expectations, it ended as a disaster, as he got cold shouter aside from scolding how stupid he was...

So he learned from his past mistakes and now properly prepared for their date, as they would be having a picnic on the top of a nearby mountain range, where there was a beautiful view of the sunset.

He had already prepared food for the picnic, taking notes to prepare Yvraine's favorite dishes, and even toured the entire Goldtooth City to find a restaurant where they had the best desserts. As shameful as it sounded, Samiel was never good with pastries and sweet things in general, so he preferred to buy something instead.

After that, they left the Inn and the Goldtooth City entirely, heading towards the place which Samiel marked on the map. It was at the nearby mountain range where he found that one of the mountains had an excellent spot for a picnic and, of course, a beautiful view of the sunset. They left Samiel's familiar Nefertari in the Inn's room because she was happily sleeping after eating her fill and overeating herself.

Lately, Yvraine has been telling him that he has been feeding her too much and that Nefertari was getting a bit fat, but she always looked so cute, and he couldn't just say no to her. Especially when she was looking at him in those sad eyes of hers, looking crestfallen, he always had to give her something good to munch on.

Still, there was something in her words, as even he had noticed Nefertari's growing belly and that she was getting into a ball-like shape from the food. In the end, he internally decided that she would be getting lesser meat and more movement, preferably some activities that would not be harmful.

Like hunting for some Magical Beasts or enemies in the forests.

After one hour, both Samiel and Yvriane arrived at their destination, as Samiel took summoned several of his Undeads and ordered them to prepare the place, setting here small table where they would be sitting on the ground and also some blankets and other things to make a comfortable place here.

Aside from that, he then summoned more of his Undeads and ordered them to scout the area and take positions so that they could have undisturbed time together. He knew that this place was swarming with the Magical Beasts and, occasionally, some adventurers that would be coming here to dispose of them or hunters that hunt for food.

"I had to admit that this is countless times better than the last time..."

Yvraine commented as she sat down at the table cross-legged and Samiel followed suit. It was still pretty warm, but not too warm, so the weather was rather ideal for the outdoor picnic at this time of the year on the 8th Floor.

Fortunately, the 8th Floor wasn't a cold place, or else, Samiel would need to choose another place to have their date, and even in this situation, he came up with using all of his brain capacities. After they sat down around the small tea table, Samiel started bringing out the dishes he had prepared specifically for her that he had stored in the Dimensional Ring previously.

So they were nicely hot and ready to eat. The thing he was preparing today was... grilled chicken sandwich. In truth, it was pretty hard to prepare because he couldn't find meat that would have a similar taste and properties to chicken on the 8th Floor, and only by chance he managed found cocktatrice, which was some weird Magical Beast with a similar appearance to chicken.

Of course, the Cocktatrices were generally Silver-Tier and Gold-Tier Magical Beasts, so the meat of one was relatively pricy, especially since the express delivery to the 8th Floor cost him more than 500 Credits.

But in the end, he was pretty proud of himself because he managed to accomplish everything, and after the debacle of the last time, he knew that he needed it. Especially considering the fact that Yvraine always put a lot of thought into her planning because, for example, when she was planning their date, they went on a tour of the Magic and Weapon Shops of the Goldtooth City and then went to some good restaurant.

"So, how is the food?"

Samiel asked as he saw that Yvraine devoured another sandwich, already fourth in the row, so even though the question may seem obvious, it was more like a starter of the conversation. Both of them decided that socialization was not the best aspect of their capabilities, and sometimes they used these conversation starters to avoid that weird and uncomfortable silence.

"Delicious... that is the meat of the Cocktatrice, right?"

Yvraine complimented Samiel's cooking, which brought his usually stoic face smile. He nodded to her question, not really surprising that she had already tasted the Cocktatrice, as that was food only a very rich could afford, as the Cocktatrices were hard to catch. They lived in remote places, mainly in danger zones, which were places that were swarming with powerful Magical Beasts and they were masters of hiding from the more powerful.

So catching one was hard. That was the reason why one kilogram of the meat cost approximately 2,000 Credits, which was an absolutely outrageous price, and of course, for example, in terms of Gold Coins, he wouldn't even be able to buy it because nobody would be stupid to sell it for the Gold Coins in the Tower.

Fortunately, he was rich, and soon after his pet project of IMC came to fruition, he would be even richer. He already consulted the thing with the Hall Master, to which he received green and some praises, as Menuhyutt told him that as the Holy Son, one of the tests for the position of the Hall Master, he needed to have skills in gathering money.

After they finished eating the main course, Samiel took out the desserts, which were the chocolate mousse, one of his favorite deserts, something which Yvraine took a great liking to, as the sun started setting down and they were just enjoying the beauty of the nature.

Sitting next to each other, looking as the sun was setting down, neither of them said another, just Yvriane leaning over his shoulder, as they enjoyed each other's presence and warmth in this magical moment that both of them wished never to end.

As they were sitting there in silence, and after overcoming his indecisiveness, Samiel leaned over as he kissed her on the lips; instantly afterward, Yvraine started returning his kiss as their tongues interviewed.

Their kiss continued for two minutes until they separated, as Yvraine buried her head in his chest with a blush covering her cheeks.