“Eiko, say Mama.”
“Ma.”
“Mama.”
“Ma.”
“My baby is so smart!” Iris said as she rubbed her cheek against Eiko’s body, which made the baby slime giggle. On the other side, the Unicorn snorted in irritation.
Lux and Hanz only looked at this scene with amused expressions on their faces.
‘I’ll choose two from the options later, once I have a better understanding of what would be more beneficial for Eiko,’ Lux thought as he walked towards Iris who was humming happily, while dancing with the baby slime in her hands.
“Thank you, Iris,” Lux said. “I wouldn’t have been able to upgrade Eiko’s rank without your help.”
Iris stopped dancing and smiled at the red-headed teenager who rarely visited her due to his training.
“You’re welcome, Brother,” Iris replied as she presented Eiko to Lux. “Eiko, call him Papa.”
The little slime looked at Lux with curiosity before spraying water on his face, drenching him completely.
Iris hurriedly took a step back and moved Eiko away, preventing the mischievous baby slime from continuing to spray water on her beloved brother. ᴛʜs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛʀ s ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛ ʙʏ ovl(ꜰ)ir(e).nt
Eiko stopped spraying water before giggling like a naughty kid that had succeeded in its prank. Iris then gave Lux an apologetic look, while the latter just waved his hand to tell her that he was fine.
As Lux dried his face with a towel, Iris admonished Eiko for being naughty, which made the baby slime look at her with a teary-eyed face. Seeing her adorable daughter look at her that way, Iris couldn’t find it in herself to further chastise the baby in her hand.
“Just don’t do it again, okay?” Iris said in a gentle tone. “That is your Papa. you should always treat him as you treat me. We’re family, so you shouldn’t play pranks on your Papa, okay?”
“Family,” Eiko repeated Iris’ words before nodding her head in understanding.
Iris smiled with satisfaction “Good girl! Now let’s say sorry to your Papa, okay?”
“Un!” Eiko nodded.
Iris once again approached Lux with Eiko in hand. The Half-Elf had just finished wiping his head, and looked at the baby slime with a guarded expression on his face.
Eiko looked at Lux innocently as Iris held her up until the baby slime was only two feet away from Lux’s face.
“Pa!” Eiko said.
Lux smiled and lightly patted Eiko’s head. “Mmm.”
Eiko didn’t move and allowed Lux to lightly pat her head. When the Half-Elf pulled his hand away, the baby slime jumped off of Iris’ hand and landed on her Papa’s head with excellent precision. The baby slime then turned around to face Iris with a smile on its face.
“Ma!”
“Well done, Eiko!” Iris clapped her hand as she praised her baby. “That’s my baby girl!”
Her praise made Eiko giggle, which made the baby slime jump back to her. The young lady caught the mischievous baby effortlessly.
Iris had a lot of experience from raising many monsters that had been left behind by their owners in the academy because they were still too young to accompany them on their journey to Elysium.
Baby Monsters were often targeted by other monsters because they were deemed as easy prey, which in turn resulted in their early demise. To prevent this from happening, Barbatos Academy had opened up a nursery for these monsters. Their owners only had to prepare a good number of beast cores in order to hasten their growth.
Iris was a Beast Tamer, so she would frequent the nursery in order to take care of the baby monsters that were left behind. She was not new to the mischievous antics of these monsters because, most of the time, newly born monsters just wanted to seek the attention of their owners.
Depending on their personality, some would play pranks to their owners because this was their way of showing their affection to them.
“Big Brother, I think Eiko is a prankster,” Iris said as she lightly patted Eiko’s head as she faced her stepbrother. “Monsters like these are very hard to raise because they do things at their own pace. Sometimes, they will even take the initiative to attack other monsters out of curiosity, which often leads to them getting seriously injured.
“If you plan to take Eiko with you to Elysium, make sure to always have an eye on her, so she doesn’t go and cause trouble for anyone.”
Lux nodded. “Thanks for the reminder. I’ll keep that in mind.”
As someone who had no experience with raising pets, Iris’ insight was very helpful to him. Eiko was his first Beast Companion, so he needed to understand her character. This way, he would know how to handle certain situations when he was traveling, while bringing her with him.
Iris was about to say something else, but she stopped after hearing Astra’s irritated neigh.
“What’s wrong, Astra?” Iris asked.
Astra once again neighed as it used its horn to point at the baby slime who had crawled on top of Iris’ head.
Eiko glanced at the Unicorn and narrowed her eyes. Because of her ability to understand all creatures, she understood that the Unicorn wanted her to leave her Mama’s head.
The baby slime didn’t want to leave, so she decided to show the arrogant Unicorn that she wasn’t someone that it could mess with.
Eiko spat several Fire Bullets in rapid succession towards the Unicorn that was trying to make her stay away from her Mama.
Astra had already expected that this would happen, so it casually dodged Eiko’s attack with ease, while looking at her in contempt.
The arrogant expression on the Unicorn’s face didn’t sit well with Eiko, so she unleashed a barrage of spells that she had just recently learned.
Astra neighed with disdain as the little Slime pelted it with elemental attacks in rapid succession.
As a monster that had been cared for by Iris for many years, Astra’s rank was equivalent to a Rank 3 Monster. Since the Unicorn specialized in speed, it was very easy for it to dodge the attacks of a low-level monster like Eiko.
After seeing that her attacks weren’t connecting, Eiko’s body glowed briefly as it shouted with its adorable voice.
“Arise!”
Suddenly, a scene that Lux and Iris didn’t expect to happen in front of them happened.
Seven Skeleton Fighters, and Four Skeleton Grand Archers appeared in front of Iris.
Eiko raised its head and shouted. “Attack!”
The Slime’s seven Skeleton Fighters charged at the Unicorn with fury. The Skeleton Grand Archers also used their Crippling Volley attack in order to limit the number of places that Astra could move.
The Unicorn was caught by surprise, but it wasn’t entirely helpless either. As one of Iris’ guardians, it had faced this situation numerous times when it accompanied her to Elysium.
Astra disappeared from where it stood using its Blink ability, then fired a beam of light from the tip of its horn at the approaching skeletons.
The attack blew the Skeleton Fighters away, and shaved off half of their health. The Unicorn once again Blinked and instantly appeared behind the Skeleton Grand Archers and used its Thrash attack, kicking them in different directions.
Lux had already pulled Iris and helped her back away from the intense battle, so she wasn’t in any danger from the battle that was currently being waged by Eiko’s summons as well as Astra’s skills.
Hanz stood in front of his Master, ready to block any wayward spells or attacks that might head in her direction.
Unknown to the three of them, Eiko had Blinked away from Iris’ head, and was currently jumping towards her minions in order to fight alongside them. Astra wanted Eiko to stay away from Iris, which upset the baby Slime.
Because of this, she decided to fight against the annoying Unicorn, and show it that she was not someone that could be bullied easily.