123 Prefect Freshman
Right before the two-hour and thirty-minute mark, Jody's entire body shuddered, and his aura erupted outwards involuntarily. A silver atmosphere burst out of his body as the force phenomenon manifested in the air above him. Nine white spheres of light floated in the air like little marble-sized stars.
Jody felt a sense of pride swell up within him. He had worked so hard to reach this point, and now it seemed like his efforts were finally paying off.
But there was still one thing on his mind. He turned to Sylvester, who had been watching him from the sidelines this whole time. "What about you? Are you okay?"
Sylvester gave a low growl, "I will need some time to rest in the grimoire, but I will be fine."
"I'm great too, thanks for asking," Xavier chimed in, feeling left out.
"Prefect Freshman rank! The absolute peak at that! Not bad, kid," Sylvester sounded drowsy as he slowly descended towards the grimoire. He left one last line before vanishing within the grimoire's second page, "Don't stop training while I'm gone, kiddo. Don't waste our potential."
Jody nodded.
With a flash of purple light, Sylvester disappeared into the second page of the [Cosmos Revolving Grimoire]. Jody wondered what his current compatibility rating with Sylvester was, and the answer appeared in his mind instantly.
[Guardian 1: Cosmos Devouring Sky Wolf, compatibility rating: 47%]
"Holy crap… down a full 13%? Wow, how much strain does this cause him exactly?"
Jody shook his head, then withdrew his consciousness from the host space.
Opening his eyes and glancing above, he boisterously laughed out loud.
"Hahaha, I'm a Prefect Freshman, and now I have 9 BP! I'm one step closer to ranking up! I wonder what level that little brother of mine had reached in this time," Jody was suddenly concerned about his young half-brother Jumoke. What level had he reached? Advanced Freshman? Maybe the peak like Jody himself? Jody felt that Mokie likely didn't have more than 8 BP even if he attained the Prefect Freshman rank.
Of course, Jody wouldn't even feel threatened if the kid broke through to the Sophomore rank.
Though the force of 9 BP was insignificant to the current Jody, he knew his mother's training would be centered around either the Saint or Sage formulas. Plus, it was always good to hide a few cards. If possible, he didn't wish to display his physical strength or astral light too openly in the future. It was better to stay low profile. He was unsure which path to learn, as his mother formulated both.
He was unaware of how strong she was on either path.
Standing up to stretch, Jody almost gagged! His body was covered in filth, and he smelled abhorrent. Frowning, Jody decided to take another bath with his mother's maidservants first. In his mother's absence, the maidservants always washed him entirely in the nude, giggling and playing in the water among themselves. This was natural because their defenses against him were nonexistent. After all, he was only eight years old. Should they be wary?
Of course, the current Jody was more like an extremely handsome teenage young man. But these maidservants who had known him as an infant seemed to not really notice.
In reality, this was indeed an enjoyable time for Jody. His mother's maidservants weren't on a level that would bring ruin and destruction to a country, but they were all gorgeous with magnificent bodies. Simply magnificent.
'Cosmo'
After enjoying a bath full of spring scenery, Jody released his source artifact, the [Cosmos Revolving Grimoire], and tried to summon Eureka again.
"Summon Twilight Sphinx!" the Cosmos Revolving Grimoire flipped open to the fourth page and released a blinding purple-violet light. A kitten jumped out of the page and into Jody's embrace. The kitten had fur that looked like pure gold and a little tuft of three-colored fire on top of its head, burning in purple, silver, and golden radiance.
To his surprise, summoning his Twilight Sphinx this time cost him a mere 35% of his body's total mana, while maintaining the [Cosmos Revolving Grimoire] was only taking up 1% of origin force every five seconds. This was about 30% lower than the first time he summoned the sphinx kitten, making it far more practical to do. Before, its utility was purely for novelty. It would make more sense just to carry her around.
In fact, it still might.
"Trippy," Jody was surprised to see that Eureka seemed slightly bigger. Though she was still small enough to fit in both his hands, she could no longer fit in one. Suddenly, a thought occurred to Jody, "Could it be that you grow up as I grow in strength?"
"Ding ding! We've got a winner, folks. Show him what he's won." Xavier commented via telepathy.
"Responding to host: This Twilight Sphinx is spirit-bound. The growth of your soul directly affects the growth of the beasts and vice versa," said Trippy telepathically, although Jody wasn't actually speaking to the artifact spirit.
Still, this was the first time the artifact spirit had spoken to him through something other than a prompt in months. Because of that, Jody didn't correct it. Suddenly, he heard a loud commotion outside of his tent. He sat up, still feeling a bit dazed from his recent breakthrough. Walking outside, he saw that the area around his tent was completely packed with people.
He exited the tent with Eureka on his head and was greeted with hundreds of excited or scared eyes staring directly at him. They looked like a mob waiting to see Bigfoot, who had finally arrived. Before Jody had a second to think, the crowd erupted in deafening cheers!
"Young master Josiah that's amazing! Congratulations on your breakthrough!"
"Did the young master only awaken a few months ago? He's already at the top of his rank!"
"They say the fourth young master is a natural transformation pro. What does that make the third young master? A formula maniac? This is too outrageous!"
"Young master, my sister works as the Mistress' maidservant. How old are you this year, young master, thirteen years old? Fourteen? Say…do you happen to have a little girlfriend yet?"
"Long live the young prince of the mist! Long live Frozen Mist! Long live the Frozen Night!"
"Long live the Frozen Night!"
"Long Live the Prince of the Night!
"Long live the Frozen Night!"
.
.
.
"What's going on here?" Jody asked, confused.
One of the onlookers turned to him, "You don't know? You just caused a massive energy surge throughout the entire area. Everyone could feel it. You've become quite the sensation around here."
Jody was slightly overwhelmed with all this attention. Clearing his throat lightly, he asked, "Ahem, excuse me. Make way for me, please. I have to meet with my mother."
As soon as Jody said the word "mother," the temperature in the surroundings plummeted. Instantly the faces of all the warriors present became solemn as they stepped to two opposite sides and turned to stand at attention. This revealed a straight path immediately in front of where Jody was standing. Jody found himself rather impressed with how uniform their movements were. His mother was a seasoned general, it seemed. These movements were smooth, so crisp, so clean!
Sure enough, sashaying slowly down the newly opened path was a woman with man-slaying beauty. She wore soft black armor that showed off her incredibly curvaceous body, walking with steps that seemed more like skates, slowly gliding across the ice until she arrived at his front. Every time her hips moved, her ample, perked, and round derriere made the men surrounding them want to die for her.
"Advancing to Prefect Freshman from Advanced Freshman in less than 10 hours. Fortifying your foundation this past month seems to have worked in your favor. I suppose you barely qualify to be my disciple," came the cold bell-like voice of Frozen Night Master Ice.
"Still not bowing?"
"Master!" exclaimed Jody while dropping and kowtowing three times.
He was already used to his mother's change in personality. When she was with her legion, she was none other than the Frozen Night Master! Her demeanor was aloof, and her voice was like an iceberg, with far more coldness underneath the surface.
Jody believed that this was probably his mother's real face. Isis' spiritual sense swept over her son, making him feel totally naked, as if all his secrets were laid bare in front of his mother's gaze.
Glancing at her humbled son, a slight smirk appeared on Isis' face before disappearing altogether. Who knew that all she had to do to make this child willingly be so well disciplined was take him seriously as a warrior? Well, she was ultimately his mother first. Despite herself, she grew a little upset while watching him dirty his clothes and knock on his cute little head.
"Enough, Jody, you can stop. Well, hurry up off the ground, my heart, hurry. Do you have a serenity crystal or not? Your mother, I, does not have all night to play with you."
Jody moved his left hand over the space ring on his right index finger and retrieved the neon crystal that emitted a pink, purple, and gold rainbow hue. Isis' eyes widened as wide as saucers when she saw the diamond, and many of the warrior's jaws dropped, as they stared in awe.
This was a neon diamond, a top-quality serenity crystal!
A clamor quickly broke out among the surrounding warriors. At this moment, Jody became aware that he had caused another commotion. Hearing the words neon and diamond being whispered, he looked at the beautiful crystal in surprise.
'So they called it a neon diamond? It has them so riled up? Are they that rare?' Jody was already becoming accustomed to being the center of attention after his rebirth. 'It seems stars truly do continue to shine in the distance after they die…'
"Is this one okay, ma?" Jody simply pretended not to notice the astounded faces surrounding him as he asked a question to which he already knew the answer.
"Baby…" Isis picked up the fist-sized pink, purple, and golden diamond, her hands trembling, "Baby, where…on earth did you find this!? Quickly tell Mommy where she can get more of these!"
Jody was previously an assassin for a world government. While some might prefer to call him a spy, he was usually only given missions where it would be impossible to avoid killing others. His cautious nature developed in his previous life through various life-or-death experiences. If their enemies were as capable and reliable as his mother had said, then spies or traitors should be among them now.
He couldn't expose Eureka right here.
In fact, Jody may have only presumed this to be true, but he was completely correct. Not even Isis knew for sure who all the spies were in her camp.
After thinking deeply briefly, Jody held up Eureka to his mother and responded, "Mom, I found a Moonlight Sphinx cub and tamed it! The crystal came from that cave!"
This may have been a lie but also a partial truth. There were indeed a few neon diamonds in that cave. After all, Sylvester had insisted that Jody wouldn't need them then. Of course, Jody still took Eureka's crystal bed with him. Why would he actually leave a nest made of diamonds?
Isis' eyes flashed with the light of excitement. She glanced to her right, and a squadron of warriors in violet armor immediately saluted while shouting, "Yes, Mistress! We hear and obey!"
"Hughes, you have healed already, yes? If so, please accompany them," commanded Isis to what seemed like no one in particular.
However, to Jody's shock, a silhouette appeared directly behind his mother before he could try and figure out who Hughes was in the crowd.
Shocking still was the way this guy looked!
Standing stout behind his mother, like a man-shaped mountain, stood an excessively tall and incredibly handsome man. Man? No, this being was a celestial demi-god descended from the sky. He was far too good-looking. This strange creature, in Jody's eyes, towered over them at nearly three meters tall. This was the largest person Jody had ever seen outside of his inherited memories!
Of course, in comparison to a member of the Titan clan, this guy was far too puny. He had pointed ears, sharper even than Jody's own, crystal clear green eyes, and long golden blonde hair draped over his shoulder as he knelt before Jody's mother. In truth, this guy Hughes looked pretty enough to be a woman. However, the broad contours of his muscular physique gave his face a sculpted metal-type masculine look.
The impression this man gave Jody could be summed up with one word.
Fun boy!
Okay, maybe two words.
"Ma, watch out; there's some creepy-looking, girly face guy! Trippy!" shouted Jody jumping in front of his mother with his arms out.
[Pharaoh's Law] materialized in the air before it glided onto Jody's head and wrapped itself into a striped head-cloth crown. It covered Jody's whole cranium, the back of his head, and halfway down his back. It had two large flaps hanging behind Jody's ears and in front of both of his shoulders.
