"And then, Silvia just blew away the drawing of the chains, and the robot- Boom! Slammed into the ground," Modak laughed loudly, "Seriously, it was one of the craziest things I've ever seen!"

  "Says you! You punched that Roxie once and it just dropped dead!" Silvia responded, taking a sip of her beer. Ryan, who had still not moved from his spot on the couch all evening after coming back from his shower earlier, smiled at his friends.

  "I can't believe you guys... Modak can control his aura now, and Silvia awakened a new skill... I'm feeling a little inadequate right now," he laughed, groaning as he leaned forward to put down his bottle on the table.

  "Well, we've got to catch up to you somehow, right?" Silvia stood up and walked to the kitchen, grabbing another round of beers for everyone, "But seriously... I was so terrified that it just happened. I painted that wall, and then later when we were chased by the robot, I just drew the chains before I realised."

  Ryan turned around, "Wait, do you mean you did it subconsciously?"

  "No, not subconsciously... I knew that I wanted to do it, like I had the thought and my body did it for me before I could even realise. It was kind of creepy, but not that bad, really."

  Modak raised a brow, "You did do it super fast so I was wondering about that too... Maybe it was just all the stress and adrenaline working together."

  "Probably! Either way, it's a really cool new skill, right?" the elf smiled broadly, "I don't think I can make anything permanent, but I can make things that are just really useful for a bit. Like..."

  Silvia got out her brush and pulled over the three pots of pigment. She quickly mixed together a bright pink on the tip of the brush, and painted something in front of her. It was a massive, bed-sized pink, fluffy beanbag that she dropped down into without hesitation. She was just waving the brush in front of her, drawing a circle.

  "See? It's neat, right?" Silvia asked, and Ryan slowly got up with a slight groan to take a closer look.

  "It's not just neat, it's pretty crazy. Just... uhm, I don't know how to say this, but it looks kind of... fake?"

  "Huh?" Silvia looked down at the beanbag, and Modak also came to take a closer look.

  "Oh, yeah, he's right. It's hard to see since the beanbag is just a single colour, but it looks painted, weirdly? Like right here," Modak ran his fingers over the beanbag's surface, "You can see the brushstrokes."

  "Right! Wait, so... did the wall have that as well? Why did the robot not see it?"

  "You did put a lot more effort into that. You went in and used more colours to make it fit right, and even tried to draw in the right shadows. Plus, it used a ton of mana, didn't it? Since you did it so casually right now, it might be lower quality," Modak cupped his chin in thought, "Do you want to come by the magic tower next week? That way we can try to measure the strength of your drawings under different circumstances, limit-test, that kind of thing."

  "Sounds great! Let's do it!"

  While Silvia and Modak started talking about these plans, Ryan walked over to his backpack to grab his wooden toolbox, bringing it over to the coffee table, "Do you guys mind if I work on Violette and Morgana right now?"

  The two of them looked at Ryan's hand and were a bit hesitant. Modak asked, "Are you sure that's a good idea? Your finger is broken, right?"

  "Well, sure," Ryan looked down at his hand, "But because of the salves and Tiar, the swelling went down already, and as long as I don't put too much pressure on it, it doesn't hurt that much either. It's going to be enough to get started, at least."

  "If you say so. Come on, we can help you again, like we did with Maximus!"

  Silvia immediately dropped down in front of the coffee table while the beanbag behind her disappeared. Looking inward, Ryan asked an important question. Which of the two wanted their body to be built first.

  Both Morgana's dark purple spirit stone and Violette's cerulean blue stone let off a faint glow. They were obviously both extremely excited and eager to be able to walk around, but Ryan couldn't make both of them at once. His skill was only active for thirty minutes at a time. By now, he should be able to finish one of them after two, at most three cycles, with cooldown, that was still up to four hours for just one of them. Ryan didn't mind staying up late into the night, but he was still worried it would be a bit unfair.

  "Does one of you mind waiting a little bit? I'll get to both of you today, but I just can't build you both at once..." he said, trying to see what they were thinking. Slowly, Violette offered up to wait for a little while, or at least, that's what her glow seemed to mean to Ryan.

  "Okay, then I'm going to make Morgana, first," he smiled. And though he felt bad for Violette, one of them had to come first.

  He pulled out the box and placed it onto the table. The art on its side depicted a witch; probably the most cliché witch that you could think of. A large witch's hat and black robes hiding her almost luminous, alabaster skin. She had long black hair and wore a black piece of fabric tied over her eyes.

  "Okay, that doesn't seem too complicated," Ryan smiled, a little relieved. Morgana seemed quite thin, so she wouldn't have too many complicated pieces, and while Ryan worked on the main body, Silvia should be able to help him sort through the fabric that would make up the clothes.

  Quickly, Ryan snapped a few pictures of the box art to use as reference and then pulled out the frames. There were only three different materials. Fabric for the clothes, porcelain for her body, and a large bundle of threads that were clearly meant for her hair.

  "Thank god," Modak let out a slight breath of relief, "I was worried that you'd have actual flaps of skin that you had to cut out."

  Ryan scoffed, "Well, we might get there at some point, who knows what other spirits will join us in the future?"

  "Yeah... warn me if that's ever the case," Modak shuddered slightly, "I just can't see that kind of stuff for some reason... they gave me some stitches when I was in the hospital a few weeks ago and I almost threw up."

  "Hah, wuss," Ryan scoffed, pulling up his shirt. He showed his shoulder to his friends and pointed at the jagged, ugly scar you could see there quite visibly, "This one? This psycho trucker guy hit me with a metal pipe and tore my skin open. I sewed this shut using this sewing kit my ex girlfriend carried with her everywhere."

  "Your what-" Silvia stared at Ryan, confused.

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  "You've dated someone before? I thought you don't care about that stuff," Modak added.

  "Didn't we just have a conversation about this stuff the other day? About you not being super interested in dating."

  Ryan sighed, "Well, when you're thirteen, it's less about being into someone and more about the status of 'having a girlfriend'. Also, yes, I've dated a couple people. Just never very seriously, and I never super cared about any of them. I just didn't find it necessary to talk about it."

  Silvia and Modak glanced at each other for a moment, "What do you think she's like?" Silvia asked, "I want to see the kind of person that would date a thirteen year old Ryan."

  "What's that supposed to mean?"

  "... Nothing."

  Ryan grabbed the roll of unused gauzes and threw it at Silvia with a smile, "Just shut up, I'm starting now."

  As Ryan got all his tools ready, Modak narrowed his eyes, "Did you just say a trucker hit you with a metal pipe when you were thirteen, and you turned around and stitched the wound shut yourself?"

  "Mhm, what about it?"

  "... Nothing," Modak replied, and Ryan smiled a bit.

  He quickly activated the 'Spirit Construction' skill and got started. First things first, he cut out the pieces of fabric so that Silvia could already get started sorting them, and then began to take the porcelain pieces out of their frames. Just as usual, these were tiny pieces, but since Morgana had rather slender limbs, it was surprisingly easy to sort them into where they belonged, roughly.

  Modak was the one that took the job of sorting through these porcelain parts while Ryan took everything apart, joining him once he was done.

  The white porcelain was smooth and cold, almost freezing to the touch. The way they looked here, lined up like this, you could almost think that these pieces belonged to a vase that had been shattered into smithereens. But with every piece, Morgana's body continued to take shape.

  By the end of the first cycle, Ryan had finished one of her arms up to the shoulder, as well as her other hand. During the next half hour, he made sure to line up all the other pieces properly, almost already pressing them together, so that he could get this done as soon as possible. He just felt really bad for Violette having to wait longer.

  Throughout the second cycle, he managed to finish Morgana's body, and then quickly moved on to the fabrics. By just pushing them together in the right places, Ryan quickly created the robes and the hat. Now, there was just one thing left to do. Her hair.

  After untying the bundle, he just had a ton of individual, tiny strands of hair in his hands. And these had to be, one by one, pushed into the porcelain scalp. Luckily, these hairs only seemed to take hold when they were in the right place, so Ryan was able to just push the tip around until he felt the strands take hold. Even so, the hair alone took up almost a full cycle of his skill.

  He pulled out Morgana's core and pressed it into the cavity in her chest, before pressing on the porcelain cover. Ryan quickly pulled on her clothes and placed the hat onto her belly. Almost immediately, she began to take control of her new body, pushing herself off the ground. Morgana grabbed her hat and placed it onto her head. Her porcelain lips shifted into a smile. She was the first of the spirits that was actually able to show expressions like this.

  "Nice to meet you, Morgana," Ryan smiled, and the small witch just slightly bowed her head while starting to look around. But before doing anything else, before this cycle of his skill ran out, Ryan grabbed Violette's box so that he could get started on her body right away.

  While Silva and Modak also greeted Morgana, and the other spirits quickly gathered around her, Ryan began taking out Violette's frames. He was a little surprised as he looked at the box, though. Violette was an Anuran. He should have guessed from the appearance of her domain. Anurans were an amphibian species of frog-folk that had gone nearly extinct a hundred years ago. Ryan could count the amount of Anurans that he knew of, whether he knew them privately or they were notable figures online or on TV, on just one hand.

  Anurans were quite short and were still physically powerful, standing at one and a half metres tall while having physical strength comparable to that of an an orc a metre taller than them. And historically, Anurans were known to be an extremely powerful combat force. It was part of the reason why they were the victims of a genocide a century ago. They were seen as a threat to some wannabe-emperor, who tried to kill them all.

  Ryan actually had a model figurine of one of the revolutionary anuran warriors that freed their people from this oppression and slaughter. But there was something else special about Violette. Modak and Ryan had only just spoken about it, but she was the first spirit with actual 'skin'.

  Maximus was just a suit of armour, Gregor was made of metal and Gaia of stone, and Jester seemed to be some kind of marionette covered in fabric all over. And of course, Morgana's skin was literal porcelain. But as he took it out, Ryan could feel the slick, almost leathery, smooth skin that he was going to have to attach to Violette later.

  However, it seemed that he first had to make a base to attach the skin to. They were actual bones; Ryan would have to build an anuran skeleton first, pull Violette's skin over that, and then finish her clothes. And those clothes looked quite 'noble', like those of some kind of aristocrat.

  It took Ryan two more cycles beyond this one to finish her up, as well as one more to finish her clothes. Ryan didn't want to wake her up without her clothes, after all, so she agreed to wait for one more hour until he could completely put together the clothes and put them on her new body.

  And then, at last, he put in the spirit core into the place where her heart should be, closed her up, and then waited for her to stand up.

  With an excited jump, Violette soon vaulted onto her feet. She as well had a massive grin on her face, and immediately jumped at Ryan to give him a hug.

  "No need to thank me, alright?" he smiled a bit, and Violette soon jumped off him and ran over to the other spirits, giving them a hug as well. She was the smallest amongst the spirits by a good bit, though after building her body, Ryan had seen that she was quite muscular as a physical warrior-type tended to be.

  "Alright, now that you two are here, let's take a look at this."

  [Violette]

  [Fencer | Level - 1]

  [AP - 25.5]

  [Stats]

  -[Aura - 0.71]

  -[Strength - 0.82]

  -[Stamina 0.69]

  -[Resistance - 0.73]

  -[Physicality - 0.89]

  [Skills]

  -[Fencer's Advance | Level - 1]

  -[Fencer's Attack | Level - 1]

  -[Fencer's Parry | Level - 1]

  [Morgana]

  [Witch | Level - 1]

  [MP - 32]

  [Stats]

  -[Dexterity - 0.80]

  -[Intuition - 0.79]

  -[Mana - 0.84]

  -[Sociability - 0.71]

  -[Spirituality - 0.78]

  [Skills]

  -[Witch's Brew | Level - 1]

  -[Witch's Familiar | Level - 1]

  -[Witch's Grimoire | Level - 1]

  He quickly noted down everything in the two spirits' statuses, and then checked out their skills. First, Violette's. Fencer's Advance was a movement-boosting skill, and Fencer's Attack, similar to Maximus' Knight's Attack, was a skill that boosted physical attack with a fencing sword. And lastly, the Fencer's Parry skill allowed her to use a blast of aura to parry even much more powerful attacks. Overall, judging from her skills and stats, Violette seems to be a fighter that was more suited for many fast, weaker attacks and high technique, as compared to Maximus' focus on raw damage that was meant to simply overpower the opponent with brutish strength.

  As for Morgana's skills, there was Witch's Brew. It was an ability to make various potions. However, as far as Ryan knew, a witch's potions were different from those that were out on the market right now. While those were mostly supportive like healing potions and ability-boosting potions, a witch's potions were more combat focused. Like a potion that would blow up when thrown onto the ground. The Witch's Grimoire skill was her spellcasting skill. What was more important were the actual spells that she could cast. The skill that was the most interesting, and the one that Ryan hadn't heard of before, was the Witch's Familiar skill.

  According to the skill's description, she was able to communicate with and employ the assistance of small animals. He didn't quite know what that meant and how that 'assistance' looked, but she was quite interested in seeing it. Plus, since the skill specifically said 'small' animals, it would be interesting to see if that meant in relation to her, or maybe to Ryan. That would make a large difference, between... mice, and ladybugs.

  Either way, Morgana's skills were already pretty damn impressive. Ryan could also tell that Modak was interested in seeing what she could do, so they would probably take a look at that together later.

  But first and foremost, though it was past midnight by now, it was time to really celebrate.

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