A Tough Job

Gerald Came back home in secret. Barely anyone noticed his figure as he moved along the road under the cloak. After he entered the front gates, the butler came to greet him.

"Young Master, you are back. Let me help you with… Oh!" Butler Sebas Tian exclaimed after seeing the state of him. "Young Master, what happened?!"

"I don't wanna talk about it!" Gerald replied forcefully and went inside. He wasn't going to explain how he nearly died after taunting a powerful monster. That would be embarrassing!

"Get a maid to prepare a bath for me and get the other guys to gather in my room in one hour," he ordered.

Sebas bowed, "As you wish, Young Master!"

***

The warm water felt good on his aching body. It helped speed up the blood circulation and relieved some pressure on his swelled skin.

After drying himself, Gerald draped his body in a simple robe, as the tight clothes were too much for his sensitive flesh. He then floated towards his room where the gang was gathered, waiting for him.

"Whoah, what happened? Did you fall from the sky?" Sera exclaimed at the sight of him.

"Ha-ha, very funny," Gerald responded sarcastically and opened the door with his mind. He currently felt like a helpless ghost and he was certainly acting like one, floating just above the ground.

The rest were somewhat hesitant to follow him as the experience with the Pixie left them quite traumatized as they tried to enter the lab a few times in the last few days.

And indeed, just as every time prior, the Pixie was transformed into something different for each of them, either something they feared or something they tried dearly to protect. They had to try hard not to react.

"Help me," the creature inside the cage said pitifully as it looked at Gerald with its big watery eyes. However, Gerald spared it only a glance and went to open a drawer.

"Bloody hell, why the fuck did I leave it here," he quietly cursed under his breath as a spare hand flew out of the drawer and fixed itself on his body.

The Pixie started screeching and banging on the bars of the cage seeing it was ignored. It bared its sharp teeth and wailed at an extremely annoying and loud frequency.

"Shut up!" Gerald barked.

Weeeeaaaa!

The beast responded with an ever louder shriek.

However, the defiant scream soon turned to one full of pain and fear as the Pixie shrunk back and hid in a corner of the cage curled into a ball.

"I said: Shut up!" Gerald silently said through gritted teeth and lowered his finger. The Pixie looked at him hatefully and licked a small circular burn would on its arm.

"What was that? I didn't see anything!" Xilia exclaimed.

The rest were similarly surprised. Both by the way of attack and by how easily Gerald dealt with the monster.

"It was a laser… An infrared laser," Gerald answered nonchalantly. "Your eyes can't see it."

Blum opened his eyes wide and quickly took out his book, scribbling something in it. In just a few days, the things he had learned in this Mansion were worth more than all the years spent outside.

"Fascinating!" he gasped. An invisible attack that could burn an enemy at a distance. Such magic could be invaluable! He yearned to learn it.

"I can maybe teach it to you later…"

"Really?!"

"Sure," Gerald replied. "But first, did you read the books I told you about?" He asked him seriously.

"Only a few," Blum answered in embarrassment. "The Pixie is a damn good deterrent, I couldn't even get close!" In reality, he just wanted to stay as far away as possible from the little illusion demon. If Xilia came just five seconds later he would probably be dead.

"Alright then." Gerald took a few books off the bookshelf and handed them over. "Here, study these first. After you are done come to me and I'll give you the rest." He had something for everyone.

Warren got a new sword and basic armor and a few Stamina Potions as well as a Potion of Focus for his training.

Qiona received the recipe for Mana Elixirs as well as a whole bunch of ingredients for the said potions. When she was done, everyone would receive a few vials of the stuff, especially the two new guys that just joined.

If they wanted to learn Combat Arts, the 3-5MP their bodies normally contained was almost worthless, and so they had to augment it through external sources.

The other three girls were handed a note with detailed instructions for a few things he needed.

"Are you serious?!" Xilia's face scrunched up after she read the first few lines. As for why she had such a reaction, well, he basically sent them to gather shit. Aged manure from nearby farms to be exact, however, the difference was not that large.

"You can get a few workers, of course," Gerald suggested. "But you have one day to do this before the monsters come. Maybe less…"

"Are you insane?" Sera exclaimed after seeing what he wanted them to do. "I'm not going out there to gather manure when war is at the door! Forget about it!"

She was absolutely against doing such a dirty job.

"Look," Gerald said expressionlessly, "As I said, you can hire some workers, but I want this done before the next sunrise. I don't care how you do it, just do. And now please leave, I need to rest." He appeared quite tired as he floated to his bed and laid down.

"Oh, and by the way," he spoke as they were leaving, "Try not to die."

"Ugh!" Sera stomped on the floor in anger after the door closed behind them. Warren and Blum wisely sneaked away as soon as they were out and disappeared somewhere in the Mansion.

"He always leaves us suddenly and then comes back looking like he fell under a millstone! And then his crazy requests and ideas, I can't stand it!" She erupted as they went a ways away.

"Sigh," Xilia exhaled and placed her palm on her chin. "Whatever, he must be doing it for a reason… Let's just go with it and see what happens."

"We still need to gather workers and a big warehouse where we can store all of this," Elly chimed in. "Why don't we each do one thing, it should go much smoother."

"Good idea! We can draw straws for the resource gathering, I got a few of them here!" Sera quickly took a few pieces of dried grass from her pocket, which she had for some reason, and made one of them shorter than the rest.

"Alright, who's going first?"

Elly and Xilia went and took one each, leaving the last one for Sera. Then they compared them to see who got the 'good' job.

A depressed "Noooooo!" soon reverberated through the Mansion, and Sera felt like crying.

"Can we try again," she begged. "Please!"

However, the other two girls pretended to be busy and quickly went to do their part of the job.