My Familiars

The main ingredient for their bodies was my blood and my mana. With the skills I had and my stats, I could probably extract a pint without feeling anything, but each of them only needed ten drops. Which had something to do with the concentration of life energy because of my race and blah blah. I understood the principle but that didn't mean I liked thinking about it since it was still a new concept to me. Even a studious young man like myself couldn't study all the time.

When their bodies were done, they ended up looking younger than before, now in their early teens. It was starting to feel like I was making child labour but that should be fine. Right?

'Yeah, I'm gonna stop thinking about this.'

With the vessels ready, I began to fuse the souls with the bodies. The links that would bind them as my familiars were made using small pieces of my own soul but this didn't hurt my heart as much as what went into making their bodies. Just like when I summoned them, I had to sacrifice my stats to make their bodies. And since familiars were different from the shadows that I summoned, if I absorbed them I wouldn't be able to re-summon them.

My stats were still all above 500 and they could now improve their own stats, but my heart still bled like a miser paying to raise his children.

'After all this you three better make it up to me!'

Once their souls and bodies fused, there was only one step left before they became my familiars. The granting of true names. Since these names held extreme power over them, I couldn't use the same random names as before. However due to the leisure I had with Superspeed Thought Processing, I already came up with their names.

"Jeanne."

Magic girl was now Jeanne since when I thought of magic I thought of witch, then, burning, then Jeanne d'arc. Basically I gave her the first decent name that came to mind.

"Ein."

#1 was now Ein since I searched for a cool word for 'one' and it popped up.

"Brad."

Buff boy was now Brad....Yes, I ran out of ideas but that's besides the point.

Once I gave the three of them their new names, their bodies shined with a brilliant light as a black symbol was drawn on their chests. The symbol looked a little ominous but this was proof that I made no mistakes. When the light died down, the three opened their eyes and went down on one knee in unison.

"I'm honoured to serve you, Master."

Even though they all did the same thing, they were no longer the dolls which I could manipulate. They each only had their original memories and some of mine so they were different, each with their own wills. But due to the bond that existed between us I didn't worry that they would betray me.

"Finally, it's nice to meet you all, well this isn't the first meeting really. Now then, let me take a quick look."

[Jeanne

Race: Half-Spirit Familiar

Strength: 22

Agility: 29

Dexterity: 31

Defence: 25

Titles:]

[Ein

Race: Half-Spirit Familiar

Strength: 32

Agility: 31

Dexterity: 40

Defence: 32

Titles:]

[Brad

Race: Half-Spirit Familiar

Strength: 46

Agility: 40

Dexterity: 29

Defence: 43

Titles:]

Now that they were no longer part of me, they were only able to take the skills that they were compatible with. This was why Jeanne got all of the magic skills while Ein and Brad didn't.

Since they were artificial I knew they would be half-spirit familiars, which weren't necessarily weaker than spirit/true familiars, but it was easier to kill them since they could only become invulnerable to physical attacks through Spirit Form which had a time limit. Even so, I would love to get a skill like this which was screaming with potential.

'At least I don't feel like I wasted my stat points.'

To make their bodies, I had to sacrifice about 100 stat points each from Strength, Agility, Dexterity and Defence. It was like my flesh was torn from my body, which would likely really hurt now that I had a living body. Wait, now that I think about it, that's really bad! Damn it! You guys serve as good meat shields. Plus with Return you can immediately teleport to my side so I don't want some crap like you being late to show up to the fight.

With their current statuses I didn't expect much from them but now that they were my familiars they should be able improve themselves quickly without my help.

'I'm busy right now but I should find some time so that they can train themselves.'

I still felt pretty much immortal but I wanted them to get strong quickly so that my hard work could stop faster.

'Hmm, maybe I should give them some equipment.'

I still didn't feel anything from staring at their naked bodies, but since they weren't easily disposable anymore it would be best if I properly took care of them.

I focused on my right middle finger as if trying to see through it, and then when I felt like there was the sound of a door opening, I thought of what I wanted and waited for it to appear in my hand.

'Ah, storage. Well done, lich. I shall enjoy the fruits of your labour in return for what you did to me.'

I still didn't know why or how I was able to absorb the lich's rings but I had no problem with it either. Well, the phone one might be a problem but the rest were great. One ring boosted my magic capacity two-fold, the next provided an automatic ribcage defence once I encountered an attack while another allowed me to instantly use a spell to increase my physical prowess. The ring that I was using was made using lost magic that sealed a spatial pocket into the material. As expected, the explanation was long and boring and not something I cared about but it could all be summed up as an item bag in a ring.

This ring was something the lich found while it was researching bone magic. Since that seemed to be around 200 years ago it was pretty old but it somehow didn't show any sign of hitting that expiry date.

I pulled out armour and robes that the lich had saved from past enemies without much expression on my face particularly because I saw how the eyes of my three familiars lit up. While I knew they couldn't betray me I just liked making sure that I kept the high ground. That and I knew of that the lich hid the more valuable stuff in a different location.

Luckily, since I saw the ring while sorting out my memories, I could hold back the excitement in my heart as I used it.

"That should do it. Pick out what you think you can use."

"Yes, Master."

Once more, they answered in unison before picking out clothes to wear. Naturally, I also changed into the best gear the lich had that wasn't flamboyant but could do its job well. While I changed, I finally noticed a problem and looked at them.

"Um, will you three be able to fit into those clothes?"

"No problem." this time, only Jeanne came with an immediate response but the other two seemed to agree so I didn't say anything.

When we were all dressed, their clothes on them were baggy as I thought, but then they all changed size, or age to be specific.

'So they could do that, huh? Nice, I don't have to worry about any weird looks if I ever enter a town with them.'

Since there were a few decent swords I took one and gave the other to Ein and Jeanne took the staff that the lich used. As for Brad,

"Sorry, I don't have anything for you."

"It's fine Master, my fists are all I need."

Even as a familiar you're still like that huh. Well, it's easier on my wallet so I'm fine with it.

"Okay my familiars, it's time to set forth!"

"Yes, Master!"

After raising their spirits, I went on my palanquin as usual. Even though our races were different, my mode of transportation wouldn't change.

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