Advancement

Eros narrowed his eyes, still not quite used to Wendy's glowing body. Somewhat puzzled, he asked:

"Why did you kick me?"

Wendy stood on the bed with her hands on her hips. "So what if I kicked you? I felt like it, so I did. It's already this late, and you still want to sleep?"

Well, that was that! Looking at his older sister, who had regained her bossy, overbearing manner, Eros felt rather helpless.

Wendy was cute when she acted like a little wildcat, but he still preferred the Wendy who had snuggled up to him like a kitten last night. Sadly, that was not a sight he could enjoy often.

Hearing the commotion inside, a maid knocked on the door and asked whether they wanted to wash up now.

After that kick, Eros no longer felt sleepy, so he answered the maid and told them to bring in the washbasins and toiletries.

Time continued to march on, and Eros's studies proceeded in an orderly fashion.

At first, the family elders were deeply puzzled by the progress of Eros's strength.

His talent had clearly been enough to draw the Great One into personally baptizing him, so why was he accumulating Spirit so slowly?

A month or two had passed, yet the Spirit in his body was still barely any greater than right after his baptism. No matter how they thought it over, they could not understand it.

Left with no choice, Eros told them that the family's dormant divine artifact had chosen him and entered into a contract recognizing him as its master.

He explained that the divine artifact absorbed most of the Spirit he took in each day, which was why his progress had been so slow.

Upon hearing this, the elders were not displeased that the divine artifact was draining Eros's Spirit. On the contrary, they were overjoyed.

First, the Great One had chosen him and personally baptized him. Then, the divine artifact had chosen him as well, taking the initiative to request a contract recognizing him as its master.

What did this mean? It meant that the day of our family's resurgence was upon us!

That day, the servants at the duke's residence received another bonus for no apparent reason. Supposedly, this time it was because the duke's elders were delighted.

Oh, great gods above, may the generous duke and his family be happy every day.

As for Eros, he had considered using spirit marrow to help Barbara recover her strength, but after asking about it, he learned the situation.

Most of the family's spirit marrow had been used up during his baptism, and what remained was needed for various other purposes.

Although the family elders said they could suspend those other uses and divert all that spirit marrow to him first, Eros still refused.

He was not shameless enough to hold up the entire family's operations for his own sake.

Then I'll supply it myself. So what if it takes a little longer? Besides, Barbara doesn't need to recover completely.

She only needs enough strength to stay awake. That shouldn't take too long. It's no big deal.

And so it continued until the year Eros turned nineteen, when Barbara finally said:

"I've recovered enough now to stay awake for a very long time."

Hearing those words, Eros let out a long breath. At last, he no longer had to work for Barbara.

Within a few days, the Spirit in his body reached the limit that a Sequence 9 could accumulate.

The family brought out the advancement materials they had prepared long ago and inscribed the ritual array for him. There was little difficulty, and he easily advanced to Sequence 8-Listener.

Still, he knew that one reason it had been so easy was that the advancement ritual had been held in the Shadow Realm.