DEMON'S VIRTUE

Eiro watched Rudy work. He really was rather skilled with a knife at this point. He seemed to have a rather high Dexterity stat value, or else movements like that really would never be possible. Either way, the Demon just looked around the kitchen a little more, until he saw the knives that were neatly lined up on the counter next to Rudy.

They really weren't able to figure out all too much about Rudy's 'Castle' class ability yet. They figured out that Rudy was able to give basic recovery boosts for people's health, mana and even stamina, and was even able to increase the efficiency of any production-type skill. They were rather weak, and Rudy had to concentrate on everything happening heavily while consuming large amounts of mana, but it wasn't everything yet. After Eiro started exploring all of the special sub-spaces placed all around this mansion, he became even more convinced that one aspect of Rudy's ability was spatial-storage related.

The Demon slowly picked up one of the Knives that were laying right next to his son and flipped it around a little bit. It was of high quality, but that was to be expected. It was made by Armodeus, after all.

While Rudy was getting everything ready for now and placed everything onto the stove or into the oven that he needed to, Eiro thought that this was a good a time as ever. He grabbed Rudy's arm, flipped his hand over, and tried to stab the knife right into his palm. But of course, the tip of the knife merely pressed his skin down a little, it didn't even put a scratch on Rudy.

"Err... What are you doing?" The young man asked, and Eiro slowly raised his head to look back at Rudy, "Just listen to me. Now, just imagine. You already managed to figure it out before. You are a castle, you protect and nurture the people that surround you. They are the townfolk, the knights, the farmers. But none of them have reached the castle just yet. Imagine a large space inside of your body." Eiro started, and Rudy slightly sighed and nodded his head. He placed the spoon in his other hand to the side and took a deep breath to concentrate on his mana.

"Good. On your palm, create a gate. Large and glorious, the first thing anyone sees when entering your castle. The Knife is something you need. Just let it seep into your body." Eiro said quietly. Rudy followed Eiro's words to the dot, but no matter how hard he concentrated, nothing happened, and Eiro didn't understand it either. Rudy was doing everything right, Eiro was sure of it. His mana was flowing in the same way as Eiro's did whenever he tried to store things inside of his body. Eiro couldn't imagine that the principle was very different to Rudy's ability, considering everything he learned about spatial magic the past few days.

And then, it suddenly clicked with Eiro.

"Wait... What if your ability isn't actually a storage ability...?" Eiro muttered, and Rudy slowly opened his eyes with a deep sigh, "See? I said it all along. Maybe you just made a mistake?" The young man suggested, but Eiro immediately shook his head.

"Oh, no, you definitely have something similar. But I was looking at it the wrong way. Sure, a castle holds many things. Treasuries, food storage, libraries, and so on... But those things aren't the main reason a castle exists. Rather, they're the result of that main reason. A castle is supposed to house others." The Demon muttered, and Rudy looked at him with a wry smile.

"What, you want me to try and store other people now?" Rudy asked, but Eiro just laughed and shook his head, "No, of course not. I want you to try and let out the people that are already inside of you."

"Alright, I know I gained some weight lately, but that's not fair!" The young man protested. Eiro looked at him with his brows raised and shook his head, "That's not what I mean, and you know it. No, I've briefly read about an ability in that hidden library I told you all about. It's like a summoning ability, and I think it may be similar to what your ability actually is. Let's go back to imagining your body as a castle. Create anything you need. A throne room, hallways, a kitchen, bedrooms, anything that you can think of. Just let your intuition guide you." The Demon said. Rudy closed his eyes while Gondos dove into Eiro, letting the Demon properly inspect Rudy's mana and its flow.

It seemed like he was really condensing the mana in different places according to the way that a castle may be built, with his heart being right in the throne room.

"Good. Now, imagine people inside of that castle. Maids, Butlers, Chefs. Guards and Knights, Gardeners, anyone that might be needed." Rudy once more followed Eiro's words. And all of a sudden, the Demon noticed clumps of Rudy's mana actually moving along the hallways that he created inside of his body. There were quite a lot of them, too many to assume Rudy was actively controlling them. This just showed that they were finally on the right track.

Eiro grabbed Rudy's arm and ran his finger across his skin, leading from his elbow to his hand, "Imagine one of the people following this touch. He is looking for the exit, because he has to go and get something out in town. And then, right at the end of the hallway is a door that he knows leads outside." Eiro said, circling the center of Rudy's palm.

And before he knew it, Eiro felt a little bit of resistance. He pulled his own hand away and just looked at what was happening on Rudy's hand. Slowly, patterns were appearing on it, that seemed to simply form the shape of a wooden door. It wasn't overly fancy, but it did its job. Literally.

The small wooden door, as large as Rudy's thumb, was slowly pushed open. And revealed beyond it was a small humanoid figure. It was pure white, and it had an Androgynous form, not even wearing anything like clothes. It didn't have things like a mouth, nose or eyes either. It was like the base for a person that was yet to be created.

With a light smile on his face, Eiro extended his finger toward the door to create a place for the humanoid figure to stand. It was maybe 5 centimeters tall, and carefully stepped onto the Demon's steady finger.

"Open your eyes." Eiro said excitedly, and Rudy slowly did just as he was told.

"...Heh?" He muttered the moment he saw the small figure held by Eiro, "Did... Did that come from me?"

"Yes, yes it did. Look down at your hand." Eiro added. Rudy looked at his palm, and just barely managed to see the wooden door close down and disappear completely, simply leaving behind Rudy's skin again, "What the actual fuck!" He yelled out, "What just happened? I thought it was like figuratively, but I'm LITERALLY a freaking castle?!" Rudy exclaimed, unsure what exactly he should feel about this revelation.

With a slight smile on his face, Eiro handed Rudy the small humanoid, "Yes, yes you are. But there's nothing wrong with that, now is there?"

"Of course not, but... Just why? What kind of use do these guys have? Or do they have any use at all?"

"I guess you'll just have to find out. Explore that ability a bit more, and just try to use it as much as you can. The more intuitive it becomes to use it, the more you will naturally find out about it. There are plenty of skills and abilities that simply give you knowledge you didn't have before, like language comprehension skills. That ability of yours might also give you knowledge about how you should actually use it." Eiro pointed out.

The young man slowly looked down at the pure-white humanoid figure that was standing on his finger. With a slight smile on his face, he just nodded his head, "Yeah... And even if I can't figure it out for now, as long as I can create more of them, they might become useful. A single ant can't lift a strawberry, but if the whole colony helps out, then possibly so."

"That's the right mindset." Eiro pointed out with a smile. The mood became pretty light and cheerful, even though it was quickly cut through be the sound of Eiro's stomach grumbling again.

"It's going to be ready in another five minutes, just wait already." Rudy laughed, and Eiro slightly shrugged, "Hey, it's not my fault. Complain to whoever made it that evolutions make me hungry." The Demon pointed out.

He watched as Rudy started to try and make the small humanoid figure disappear inside of him again. After just a few moments, he successfuly managed to create another door and let the figure back inside. With a satisfied mind, Rudy turned back toward the stove and just continued cooking properly for Eiro, while the Demon and Gondos split up into two again.

"That's a pretty unique ability in and of itself though, isn't it..?" Nelli pointed out quietly, and Eiro immediately nodded his head, "Definitely. Rudy's class ability might have the greatest power in and of itself, but that's because it works over a long period of time. It's not like the others' abilities that are mostly useful just in specific situations. Rudy is a non-combat all-rounder, and that really seems to shine through this unique class of his."

"...Fair enough. Well, as long as it helps him with what he wants to do so that he can level his class up some more, all's fine, right?" Nelli said with a light shrug. Eiro immediately nodded his head in agreement.

"Exactly." The Demon said. Just a few minutes later, Rudy placed down a plate of food, as well as freshly-baked bread, down on the table in front of Eiro, and the Demon immediately went ahead and ate it. He really needed to eat a lot for now. Maybe he should just go out and hunt some large animals, roast them over some fire, and eat them completely. Because of his overeating skill, the food that he ate that was too much for him was basically 'stored' until his body needed it. That 'stored' food wasn't as efficient at giving him energy as food he just freshly ate, but it was better than nothing, really.. The next two weeks might be a bit of a bother to get through, because Eiro could already feel that he needed a lot more energy for this than for his prior two evolutions, but in the end, it would all hopefully turn out just fine.