DEMON'S VIRTUE

Over the next week, Eiro grew to be around 1.8 Meters tall, and ended up tripping a fair amount because he wasn't used to this sudden change in perspective. His blue and red horns continued intertwining a bit, while Eiro's general bodily features became a bit more humanoid.

His hands and feet were now basically exactly like those of a person, although his feet might still be on the bigger side of things, and his proportions 'fixed' themselves so that you wouldn't really notice him being a monster if you only saw his 'shape'.

While Eiro's skin did indeed just become a bit paler on his chest, neck, throat and face, it stayed a red color similar to what he was used to. The mark extended a bit and covered more space, but that wasn't a big deal.

What changed most about his skin, however, were the areas around his other limbs. From right above his elbows and knees down to his finger, toe, or stump-tips, his skin became blue instead.

But overall, that wasn't even the change that annoyed the Imp the most... Instead, it was the thin tail that grew at the bottom of his back that got caught in the door more than just once.

Now, it was the last day of Eiro's second evolution, or to be more exact, the last hour. The young Imp was on his way of returning home from his daily 'Work' of trying to properly help the seed sprout.

The constant, uneasing, annoying pain that Eiro was feeling in his very bones had stopped the moment his growth seemed to have slowed down, so he was relatively relaxed, at least as relaxed as you could be with your body suddenly undergoing rapid changes like this within a week.

It wasn't like he didn't expect it, but it was simply a step above his last evolution, during which he simply grew a little bit in size. This time... the changes were just far greater, and it made Eiro a little nervous if he had to be honest.

Sure, it wasn't like anything beside his exterior really had changed about him, and he was still the same old Eiro that he was one week earlier, but since even the color of his limbs changed and he got an extra one, it still was a hard thing to get used to.

In the end he noticed that his tail was honestly pretty neat, especially after that big old headache that he had for a couple of hours disappeared, which seemed to have made it so that Eiro could actually move his tail around how he wanted it to. And while he didn't really find a direct use for it yet, Leon and Avalin enjoyed playing around with it, and that was... good? Eiro wasn't really sure, but they were happy, so Eiro was happy too.

Well, besides when Avalin nearly bit off part of it... She really liked biting into anything she could get near her mouth ever since she started teething. Nelli did Eiro a favor and healed the bite-mark, but he should really be careful about that kind of thing now.

Either way, for now, the Imp just made his way back home and wanted to get started with his new daily 'ritual', the literally boiling hot bath. It seemed like his evolution would be over while he was doing so, so Eiro figured he would be able to take his time and just see what exactly changed for him stat-wise.

And so, that was exactly what he did! He got everything ready by melting enough snow inside of the bathtub, let the water start boiling, put the fire out and then sat down inside of the water.

The tub was actually pretty small for him now, considering that Jura wasn't amongst the tallest people Eiro has seen before either, so he couldn't properly submerge himself anymore, but other than that, it was still pretty relaxing. And like this, Eiro could actually take his time and read a little as well, because he could now properly place his arms on the edges of the tub to keep the book away from the water.

And just as Eiro was trying to flip the page over, which was annoyingly hard with one hand as he found since taking off his wooden hand, a certain notification appeared in front of him, blocking the sight of the page.

[Congratulations! You Evolved and became a Unique Species! You are now an Ice Blue Collector Imp!]

Immediately, Eiro placed the book to the side and said the word he had only said once in the last week. "Status."

[Name – Eiro][Race – Ice Blue Collector Imp][Level – 1]

[Health – 19.750][Mana – 32.000]

[Strength – 20][Constitution - 30][Resistance – 20]

[Agility - 42][Evasion – 20][Dexterity - 42]

[Intelligence - 79][Wisdom – 52]

[Perception – 66][Willpower – 20][Charisma – 20]

[100 Stat Points Available]

Eiro looked at the Status screen floating in front of him curiously, before not being able to avert his eyes confusedly. His Mana had nearly tripled... Eiro knew that it increased a lot compared to last time, but this really was just insane, wasn't it? And on top of that, he had 100 Stat points to just spend away all of a sudden! Last time he only got ten as an extra!

With an excited smirk, Eiro immediately got up from the bathtub and started drying himself off, while continuing to look through his status. His meditation skill went up by two levels, and his Water Magic skill by one. But that wasn't the thing that surprised the Imp the most skill-wise.

What surprised him was rather one small box inside of his status.

[Beginner Fire Magic Skill][Level – 1]

"That was the notification that appeared then, isn't it?" Eiro asked himself with a slight smirk on his lips, before he just swiftly made his way into the main part of the house to wait for everyone to wake up. This was something he wanted to show off, after all.

To his very pleasant surprise, everyone was already awake, so Eiro swiftly explained the changes in his status to them, and the children were rather excited about it.

"Whoa! Twenty Thousand Health? Mine is only about Seven Thousand..." Rudy muttered quietly, and Eiro raised his brows rather confused at what was just said. "Seven... Thousand..?" He asked, and slowly turned toward Jura, to try and figure out whether that was a large amount or not, and the old man slowly chuckled in response.

"Hmm, it is quite surprising... Both of your values, at that. Rudy's Health is incredibly high for a child his age, despite the fact he cannot even take damage, and your's, Eiro..." Jura said as he moved his hand along his chin, "Is quite low." He pointed out, and immediately, Eiro opened his eyes wide in surprise.

"I was aware of this for a while now, but I thought you knew. The Average Noble has around a Million. Well, in the end, once you reach that stage, Health matters little, as even that amount of Health will become useless once your head is blown off." The old man pointed out as he sat down on a chair with a loud groan, and Eiro looked back at him confused.

"One Million..? That is..." The Imp muttered in response, trying to figure out what was going on. Was he actually that weak? Would any of the training he could do under Jura actually do anything for him..?

"Jura, stop teasing him already!" Nelli exclaimed as she suddenly appeared above the old man's head, "You were observing him the past week anyway, you know that he's on the right path for the seed! So at least tell him about that already!" The Naiad demanded, all the whilst the children were either tiredly sitting on their bed or getting started with their tasks for the morning, and Eiro looked back at her surprised.

"Tell me what?" Eiro asked, and the old Prosthetist started grumbling to himself. "Damn spirits, can't even mind their own business..." He whispered quietly, and then leaned back in his chair. "Fine!" Jura exclaimed suddenly, before he stared right at Eiro. And despite him not having eyes, it still seemed exactly like Eiro was being stared at.

"I will tell you this now, but there will not be any further explanation until you grew your seed into a sapling properly!" The old man said, seemingly a 'final decision' of his. And as if his life depended on it, Eiro payed attention to Jura as closely as he could.

"'Health' as we know it is actually something called 'Life Force'. Our Status displays it as 'Health' for whatever reason. Any type of 'Damage' we take drains away at our life force in addition to the actual 'Damage' we take. You can die while retaining some 'Life Force' due to extreme actual Damage, and you can die with your body in peak condition because your 'Life Force' was drained. It is something seperate to actual 'Health', so don't mind such matters for now!" Jura exclaimed as if slightly annoyed, but for some reason, the young Imp was actually feeling rather calmed-down due to what the old man told him.

"I see..." He muttered quietly, "Thank you!" Eiro added, before Jura huffed out some air and turned his head away.

"Either way, what is this 'Collector Imp' thing? I figure the 'Ice Blue' part is because of Lady Winter and her blessing to you, but as for that..." Jura muttered quietly, although Eiro had a little bit of an idea.

"Erm... Maybe because I have more than one card? And I bought most books I could afford if they seemed interesting... And grabbed some trophies from a lot of monsters... So maybe because of that?" He guessed, and Jura just shrugged and nodded his head.

"Seems like a fair enough guess. Do you have any idea about what your racial ability this time around could be?" Jura inquired curiously, but Eiro just shook his head. "I don't, sorry. I can still use my last ability like normal, though, I already tried that. Last time I found out about it because I was desperate. Hopefully this time it won't be the same." Eiro pointed out, making Jura chuckle slightly, and then the old man seemed to want to move on to the last thing that changed about the Imp Status-Wise.

"Now then. Do you at least know why your Fire-Magic skill suddenly awakened?" The old man asked as he slowly stood up, and finally the children payed some attention as well, especially Arc and Rudy, who both also had a fire-element affinity, and Eiro just smiled at them and nodded his head.

"I think I know what triggered it. One week ago, the first night I stayed out in the cold like that, my body became slow and lethargic, and I couldn't move well anymore. I wasn't hurt, but I still wanted to heat up with a bath. I forgot to put out the fire, and ended up making the water boil.. I think I got a notification about my Fire Magic at that time."