Gift Exchange (Part 1)

The evening came to a close and I put my spoils into my storage ring. Fred was only glad that he had already thoroughly studied all of his techniques and no longer needed the manuals. He would be terrified if he knew I was thinking of setting up a gambling ring when I got to the sect and gradually acquire all the techniques my fellow disciples possessed. Why pay contribution points on what you could acquire for free?

"What's that look on your face for?" Fred asked.

"Oh nothing, just thinking of my future plans," I replied

Fred pitied whoever was on the other end of those plans.

We had a delicious dinner. I thought the cook would only give me bacon for breakfast. I was pleasantly surprised instead. Almost everything was bacon-wrapped. Whether it was vegetable, meat, or more bacon, all of it was bacon-wrapped. There were only a few things that weren't bacon-wrapped, such as a savory-sweet cornbread. My stomach was wonderfully bloated by the end of the meal, as was Rosie's. Between the two of us, we had cleared three-quarters of the table. The cook needed a raise. I intended to tell Vivian after dinner. I had said the same thing almost every birthday dinner, and from what I could tell Vivian had followed through. The head cook was probably our highest-paid employee behind the cultivators thanks to me. The cook now went out of her way to make sure I was happy with the food.

We returned to the study after dinner for gift-giving. I was super excited about the present I was giving Vivian. We may have had a serious argument in the morning, but she was still one of the most important people in the world to me. Soon I'd be leaving the villa and wanted to leave it with fond memories. I was so excited that I decided to go first.

I passed a small box to Vivian. Vivian may be 23 now, but she still took the box just as excitedly as a young kid. She examined it from multiple angles trying to guess what it was. Because I knew Vivian would do this, I put the gift in one of the most common boxes we used at the warehouse and mercantile. There were hundreds of thousands of possibilities with this box size. I let Vivian suffer in the anxiety of mystery for a bit before I told her, "Vivi, just open it already!"

Finally she tore off the paper, and opened the box. Inside was lots of packaging to keep the item inside secured, which was another box, a jewelry box this time. Vivian frowned at me for deceiving her while I grinned. Vivian wasn't a huge fan of jewelry, but if it was from her little sister, she'd cherish it forever. She slid the top of the box off revealing the jewelry sitting on a cushion inside. It was a golden fox-loop pendant identical to Rosie's.

"Is this what I think it is?" Vivian asked, "I can't take it, Rosie is your companion." Vivian felt bad about turning down a gift, but there was no way she would take Rosie from me.

I pulled out my own pendant from under my robes to show her that she wasn't taking Rosie from me. This only made Vivian more confused.

"Well if you still have Rosie, then what's this?" She asked as she held up the pendant I gave her.

"It's a copy!" I said while pausing for dramatic effect, "Li Kai helped me get in contact with a beast-tamer in the Dancing Sword Sect, I employed him to create a copy of Rosie's pendant. Rosie also had to put in quite a bit of energy to craft this gift. This pendant is from both of us. Let me show you what it does."

I called Rosie to return to my pendant. When she did the blue gem appeared within both pendants.

"Vivi, call Rosie out," I commanded.

Vivian followed my instructions and soon Rosie emerged from her amulet.

"Both of these pendants are a part of Rosie, once she returns to one of them, she can emerge from either of them. When Rosie isn't busy with me, you can summon her to enjoy her company no matter how far apart we are. We can even pass messages to each other. Rosie, give Vivi her message," I said excitedly.

Rosie spat out a piece of paper, which Vivian unfolded and read. It said, I love you, Vivi! Vivian pulled Rosie and me into a big hug. "Thank you, Zoey, this is the best gift you could've given me."

"Of course it is, all the gifts I give are the best gifts," I said smugly.

"Little brat," Vivian teased. We both giggled.

In return, Vivian gave me her present. It was a much bigger box. It was likely an outfit, but it could be a weapon like she surprised me with years ago. I hefted it, but due to my recent increase in strength, I had no idea what was inside. It felt as light as a feather, but everything was as light as a feather now. I almost launched Rosie into space when I picked her up in the morning.

"Just open it!" Vivian teased while mimicking my voice.

I stuck my tongue out at Vivian and then ripped the paper open without ceremony. It's a good thing the contents were durable. I accidentally ripped the entire box in half. Maybe going up to the peak of qi-gathering in one go without adapting to my strength was a bad idea. A beautiful robe dropped from the two halves of the box. In spirit, it was no different from my ordinary robes, but even a glance could see they were of much higher quality. Lilac robes with purple accents. A white tunic and skin-tight trousers to wear under the robes. Brown boots that only went just over the ankle with appreciable platforms. Vivian had even accounted for my short-girl complex. It was only a couple of inches, but every little bit helped. It even had a matching overcoat to go with the weather we were having right now. Almost every square inch of the outfit was crafted of the same fabric. So I turned to Vivian, where she was waiting with a smug expression.

"It's shadow spider silk. They're demonic beasts that can be raised to various levels to produce different strengths of cloth. The ones that produced this silk were beast lords and their silk can block the attacks of foundation-establishment cultivators and below."

Finally, clothes I won't destroy in training! I squealed and hugged Vivian while thanking her before running out of the room to put my new robes on. They were softer than velvet. The robes and even the skin-tight trousers fit perfectly, they didn't restrict my movements at all. It was almost like I wasn't wearing robes at all. If it weren't for the fact that I was warm and I wasn't feeling any breezes in places I shouldn't, I would constantly be bobbing my head down to make sure I was clothed. I didn't know how Vivian got such precise measurements, but I decided to not worry about it. Best of all, the robes had pockets!

I returned to the parlor and did a little spin to show off my new robes to everyone. Everyone clapped except Li Kai, who said I didn't use a proper martial form. I executed the first set of movements in my Master Martial Arts, then stuck my tongue out at Li Kai and made a face at him. Everyone laughed, even Li Kai grinned despite himself.

Next, it was time for my parents' gifts. Nikol came to me and asked me to show her my storage ring. I put my hand forward and Nikol touched her own storage ring to it, transferring something within. I eagerly sent my mind inside the ring to see what my mother got me. At first, I almost jumped out of my new robes from fear, but then I realized the human-like silhouette was an empty suit of armor. I pulled my mind out of the ring and looked at Nikol. It was a little low-tech for her style.

"Think about equipping the armor while opening the ring," Nikol directed.

I did as she asked and soon dark metal chain mail flowed out of the ring like a fluid and covered my entire body except my face. My robes and boots remained uncovered, but my tunic and trousers were submerged under the chain mail. The links that made up the chain were so fine they could be mistaken for a cloth weave. After the chain mail was completed liquid metal seemed to flow in several spots, forming into gauntlets, shoulder pads, greaves that covered my boots, a waist guard that wrapped around my waist like a mini skirt with an open front, a breastplate, and lastly a helm with a break-away fox mask. None of the pieces were exceptionally thick, but they still allowed me to move easily without adding too much bulk.

It was an excellent set of armor for an agile fighter like myself. Nikol also showed me all the tools built into the gauntlets, just like her own mechanical glove. It could even discharge an electric shock into an enemy I was touching. The whole suit was made of Eternium. An essential metal for equipment used by young cultivators and one of Eternia's major exports.

I hugged Nikol while still fully armored and eagerly looked forward to my next present.