With a bit of food in them, the Familiars began to get mobile again, and one by one they headed home to meet their Witches.
Wolfe made his way back to his room carrying Stephanie and Flame while Pup whined and pouted about the injustice of being too big to carry. The Witches were all there waiting for them, looking exhausted and hungover with no detectable aura at all.
“The Headmistress said that we should rebuild our aura before we sleep because the gains will decrease with time, and we will lose some of the benefits of the ritual if we restore naturally. I hate to do this when you’ve been channelling so much all night, but we need just a little more.” Cassie apologized.
“That’s fine. I saved a portion of my storage just in case something like this happened. I think the others are already asleep, though.” Wolfe told her, indicating the spot on the other bed where Mary had curled up with Pup, who was snoring soundly.
“Oh, shoot. That’s not good.” Cassie sighed but climbed into bed and dismissed her magically created gown. It was clear that she wasn’t in much better shape herself, and she would likely be asleep within minutes, even if she tried to stay up to rebuild her aura.
Wolfe found it more than a little endearing how she looked up at him, trying to fight off sleep, then longingly at her pillow. Just the sight of her trying so hard made him want to wrap her up in his arms and keep that adorable state all to himself.
“How about I’ll force-feed you all until your aura stops growing? The Pentacle should balance your auras anyhow, so feeding one is the same as everyone.” He suggested.
“Yes, that’s good. Let me know how it goes.” She mumbled, drifting off to sleep as Wolfe climbed into bed behind her and pulled her into his arms, with Ella up against his back.
Wolfe was not going to let this benefit go to waste after he put in that much work, so he began channelling mana into the five witches, waking most of them up with a surprised gasp at the sensation.
Mary just made a happy noise and buried her face in Pup’s fur, but her aura was recovering at the same rate as everyone else’s, so he let her be.
Cassie settled back into sleep while Reiko was shocked awake from her spot on the floor, where she had fallen asleep while picking up Flame. She stood up like she was planning to go back to her room and looked longingly at the second mattress where Pup and Mary were sprawled out before she was pulled into bed by Ella.
“You will gain more when you’re in contact with us. Now sleep.” The Blue haired Tomboy insisted.
Both of their armour spells faded in the next few seconds, and Wolfe took a second to savour the feeling of being buried in Witches on their queen-sized bed before he got to work again, meditating and pouring everything that he gathered into their auras.
At some point, Wolfe fell asleep, utterly exhausted, and only woke up when the afternoon light finally reached the bed through his window. Reiko and Ella had switched positions during the night, and Reiko’s long blonde hair had come untied. The long blonde tresses had spread everywhere, including into his face, and Wolfe caught the scent of floral shampoo and some sort of smoke before the hair in his face made him sneeze.
There wasn’t much that he could do about it with a Witch sleeping on each arm, so instead, he focused on their auras. They didn’t grow in maximum power by much, even with the ritual, but the sense of individuality was stronger, like it was less of a generic collection of power and more a part of themselves.
A Witch’s aura didn’t really store mana as he could, it just filtered it for their use, but you could feel the strength and density of it when around them, telling you just how much magic they could use and how much of a reserve they had, since casting magic using their own power depleted their aura to varying degrees for a few hours until they had rested.
Thinking about it that way, it was almost like a stamina meter. When their aura felt faint, they were exhausted from magic use and would need to sleep or meditate. But here at the Academy, everyone’s aura was always in a half-exhausted state from training, so Wolfe didn’t notice it as much as he thought he would if they had more time to relax.
Wolfe tried adding more mana to see if the job was finished, but instead of going to the aura, it was strengthening the Crests on their abdomen, which had balanced out to about half full for some reason.
Wolfe carefully refilled them so he didn’t wake the Witches up and felt the crests grow stronger by the minute until there was a lurching sensation in the link, and he felt everyone’s connection change and grow stronger in an instant.
Wolfe focused on his Inheritance and found that the last few weeks had indeed brought him some significant changes. But he also noticed something else that he had missed before. The Inheritance wasn’t complete. In fact, it was far from it.
There were runes that he could see with empty spaces between them where there shouldn’t have been. The scrap of paper that had contained the lingering magic must not have been enough to store all the data, and he had only gotten the basic shell of the Inheritance spell.
When he got out of the Academy, he would have to go looking for Magi relics and see if he could do something to fill in the blanks in his Inheritance and see what all he had been missing that the Ancient Magi had intended for their successors to have.
[True Name] Beowulfe Abraxas Asmodai Lokarth Noxus
[Magi Bloodline] 22->38 Percent
[Demon Bloodline] 16->32 Percent
[Mana Density] 40 Percent/40 Percent
[Mana Focus 2/7] 18 Percent Complete
[Lightning Affinity] Low
[Fire Affinity] Medium
[Gravity Affinity] Low
[Unholy Affinity] Medium->High
[Other Elements Locked Due to Insufficient Bloodline]
[Familiar Witch Lv4] Ella
[Familiar Witch Lv4] Cassie
[Bound Familiar Lv2] Stephanie
[Blood Pact Lv2] Reiko
[Blood Pact Lv2] Mary
[Pentacle Complete]
The constant use of [Detect Hidden] had really paid off for him, and his Unholy Affinity had actually increased, while his Bloodlines had improved after forming the Blood Pact with Mary and Reiko.
He would have to spend more intimate moments with them to maximize what he could gain, but they had the time now that the midterm long weekend was upon them.
The change in the bond woke up Stephanie first, and Wolfe could sense her excitement. Once the bond was strong enough, she should be able to talk to him properly, mind to mind.
The sense of joy was accompanied by the image of her licking his face, an ability their bond didn’t have before. It seemed to catch her just as off guard as Wolfe, and Stephanie froze in position, halfway upright.
The next few images she sent were too blurry and scrambled to understand, followed by the clear and distinct image of a breakfast plate.
“Got it, you’re hungry. I am too. Just give me a moment to get untangled.” Wolfe agreed.
That was not an easy task. Cassie was wrapped around him like an octopus, and when he tried to move her, she only clung tighter.
“Wake up, sleepy head. Dinner service is starting, and your aura has recovered.”
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That was enough to wake them up. More correctly, it was enough to wake Pup up, and his enthusiasm at the word Dinner rolled Mary onto the floor, half awake and disoriented. The resulting thump and cursing woke everyone else up.
“Why are we all naked?” Mary asked, looking around the room for her clothes.
“There are uniforms for everyone on the dresser. You went to the Moon Ceremony in a dress made with magic, remember?”
“Oh yeah. That was a wild night. At some point, someone even stole the Headmistress’s Familiar Nymph from her throne on the altar. She just disappeared, but the ceremony kept going, so I think she was fine. The students will never forget that party, that’s for sure.”
“I am glad you enjoyed yourselves. Now get dressed before we all starve.” Wolfe joked.
They weren’t the only ones feeling rough today. Casual wear and tousled hair were the fashion of the day for everyone they met on their way to the cafeteria, matching the sloppy uniforms of their group.
“Didn’t you all just make amulets for this type of situation?” Wolfe asked.
“Any active amulet interfered with the ceremony, and we forgot to take them off and leave them behind, so we had to deactivate them, and they can’t be used again yet.” Reiko sighed.
“Who knew that going to a party would be so exhausting?” Cassie agreed, making the others laugh. She had never really been to a party before, so she didn’t have a reference to compare the ceremony to, but she was certain that her sister wasn’t usually this exhausted after a party unless she had found more than one man for the night.