Chapter 72 - Fawn

"What... What just happened..?" Eiro asked quietly, just staring at the Fawn in front of him, although it just looked at him confusedly and tilted its head to the side. With a deep sigh, the Imp just pushed his body away from the ground and shook his head as he tried to get rid of the snow stuck to his clothes.

"Nevermind. Go on, get back to where you came from, bud. I'm sure the Stag's worried." The Imp pointed out as he slowly turned around and looked at the river in front of him, realizing that he somehow had to get back over there again now that he completely lost the location of the Stag. He didn't really feel like following it anymore anyway, even if he did manage to see it again.

Although then, just as Eiro was about to take another step forward to repeat the process from before, the Fawn pressed its forehead against the Imp's hand. "What are you doing?" He asked, surprised, and the Fawn simply looked up at him, while Eiro noticed something else.

"Hmm, weren't you bigger before? I'm sure you at least reached my chest, but now...", now, the height of the Fawn was simply around the Imp's hip. It wasn't much of a difference, but it was more than enough.

"Well, who cares..." Eiro sighed. Sure, he was curious, but most importantly, he had to get over to the other side of the river again. Slowly, he stepped onto the surface of the river to make it freeze, which it slowly did, at least to the extent of letting him stand on it.

To the extent of letting him stand on it. Him. Only him. Not the Fawn that was immediately following behind the Imp and placing its feet onto the small surface of Ice as well. "Stop it, you're going to-"

And the next he knew it, Eiro's clothes gained a fair bit of weight as they were soaked in ice cold water, and ripples of ice formed around his feet before he stopped letting his mana flow out of them.

"...make me fall..." The Imp sighed annoyedly and then just looked up at the sky. Somehow this didn't feel all that bad. It was similar to the boiling hot bathtub. Maybe... It might be a far stretch, but maybe Eiro could try something out.

For now, he still just had to get out of here. The current he was able to handle, but he didn't want his clothes to freeze after walking around in them a little while, and just quickly got out of the water to the other side of the river's shore, quickly collecting some branches and sticks while his clothes were already hardening up, and the Imp slightly glanced at the Fawn that was still standing inside of the water. "Come on over, this will heat you up too."

Quickly, Eiro pushed some of the snow to the side with his feet and then took one of the Flame Magic Stones Out of his bag and used it to light a small fire. The power of the Flame Magic Stone was a bit stronger than usual, but that seemed to be because his affinity rose a bit as well.

Either way, quite swiftly, Eiro managed to get a fire going and swiftly hung his clothes over the large rock that he lit the fire next to, to get them to dry. And meanwhile, the Fawn had also come out of the water and slowly layed down next to the fire, all the whilst Eiro made his way into the freezing cold river, now utterly unclothed.

The river back really wasn't all that big, and because of its crescent-like shape, Eiro could sit inside of the water and still reach the place he planted his seed at with his tail.

If the water that was artificially heated up increased his affinity for the Fire Element, then this water that was cooled down by nature itself should be a fair help for his new affinity for the Ice Element. Or was it a new affinity? It said his Water Element awakened into the Ice Element... So did it replace his Water Element Affintiy? That didn't seem to be it... Specific things like this usually weren't discussed in the books Eiro read, and if they were, just very briefly.

It was like they wanted to avoid the stat and skill system, so... That wasn't anything he really knew about.

Either way, for now... He just had to do what he had to do, right? Eiro had to continue feeding the seed his mana to make it sprout. It would be nice if it could become as large as the tree in that... Vision? Illusion? Fantasy? Whatever it was that Eiro just saw a few moments ago. Well, that hope was unrealistic anyway, and Eiro would be happy if it reached the bare minimum that Jura would accept him as an apprentice at.

And so, the Imp just started continuing this. He continued on and on, and somehow, while the flow of his mana slowed down considerably, the recovery rate became larger and the amount that he could move at once also increased.

Slowly, just so slowly, the Imp's mana now flowed into the seed while the Demon himself used a new method to accomplish this.

Hours later, when Eiro was finally done for the day, he got out of the water, although his legs just felt so incredibly heavy, as if they were made of metal. He took slow steps and swiftly reached the flames, then simply stood in front of them for a little while, looking down at the Fawn which had been sleeping up until now, but then stood up and stretched its body properly and walked up to Eiro to rub its face against his leg.

"...what are you doing..?" He asked, but the fawn just continued as it was doing without stopping. With a slight sigh, the Imp simply looked down at it with a slight frown and pushed it away as he walked over to his clothes and put them back on, before covering the fire in a bunch of snow to put it out.

And as steam rose from the small temporary campfire, Eiro started making his way through the forest into the direction of his house. Although, a certain little fella simply wouldn't stop following him.

"Don't you need to get back to the Stag? Go on, leave." The Imp said quite clearly, but the fawn simply stood there and stared at him before tilting its head to the side, and Eiro sighed deeply.

"...Fine..." Eiro sighed and just turned around before continuing to walk, "I don't expect Jura to let you stay anyway, but you can try your luck I guess."

---

"Sure, let him stay." Jura said with a light smile as he extended his hand forward to rub over the fawn's head, and Eiro raised his brows confused. He didn't even ask yet... "Would it be too much to ask not to listen to private conversations I lead with myself?" The Imp inquired, and Jura just started to laugh in response.

"Haha, what are you even asking? Of course it would. But be happy, I won't even ask why you crossed the river to get to this stag and then left again immediately without wanting to take it with you." Jura pointed out with a slight smirk, as if saying 'I got you', although Eiro was just looking at him surprised.

He... didn't notice the Stag? Was it actually there, or did Eiro really just imagine it?

"Come on now, stop making that face! Forest creatures like this are great familiars. I used to have one too, a young Albino Wolf. Quite feisty she was, that one." The old man laughed, and Eiro raised his brows curiously.

"Familiars? Didn't those need to be some special creatures or breeds?" The Demon asked, but Jura just sighed and shook his head as he turned around and went to grab a towel, which he swiftly threw at the Imp. "Dry it's feet when you come back in later, but take it with you to the other room when you take your bath. The children will wake soon." Jura said, and Eiro looked at the old man with a frown.

"Sure." He said and was just about to turn around, before Jura simply sat down on his chair. "Most are only capable of taking such beings as their Familiar, because they don't know the right methods. Anything can be a familiar as long as it's willing to."

With a satisfied expression, Eiro then left the main part of the house and then quickly made his way over to the adjacent structure, where he quickly started to prepare his bath. And once the water started boiling, the Imp sat down inside of the water and looked at the fawn with a serious expression.

"Go lay down over there." The Imp said. After all, the water in this tub sometimes ended up boiling over the edges, so he didn't want the young animal to be hurt somehow. It was weird, but while it seemed to be the Stag's child, it didn't give off the same feeling at all.

It just seemed to be a normal young, small deer. And while it didn't directly listen to each and every of the Imp's commands, it seemed very docile and kind. Slowly as the Fawn approached Eiro's hand to snuggle up to it again, the Imp pulled his arm away.

"Stop, don't. I said go lay down over there. This water is hot." Eiro said in a strict tone as he pointed at the other side of the room, and while the fawn looked back and forth from the Demon and the corner he was pointing to, he repeated himself once more. "Go." He added, making the small forest creature slowly turn around and make its way over there, despite how it simply seemed as if it was pouting. Eiro was aware that it couldn't actually do so, but it just somewhat seemed like it outwardly.

Either way... for now, Eiro couldn't help himself but try to compare the feeling of the ice cold river water to the boiling hot tub water. Maybe he should try and let his mana flow here as well?

Slowly, the Imp sat up inside of the tub and pressed his feet against each other before wrapping his stump in his palm, properly trying to make his mana flow in the circles. And... There definitely was a change. His regeneration increased even more compared to normal, even when compared to the 'normal' increase from when he did this while just sitting in front of the seed. That part was the same as what happened when he was sitting inside of the cold river water and doing this. However, the rest was basically the opposite. His mana was flowing way faster than normal, and he could actually move far less at once than he was used to. Well, the minimum mana that he had to move at once also went down like this, while in the cold water it just became more.

That made Eiro came to a relatively simple conclusion. If at some point he needed to use proper spells, then spells while he was in his 'Freezing' state would be stronger, but slower. On the other hand, spells while he was in his 'Boiling' state would be weaker, but far quicker. At least that's the conclusion Eiro came to. But in the end, he couldn't really entirely be sure about that, so there was no use in thinking about it until he actually knew proper spells to test this out on.

After all, until now he was only going for raw manipulation. And actually, that did give Eiro a little bit of an idea that he felt like he wanted to try out. Slowly, Eiro tapped the water surface with his finger and tried to do the same thing he did at the river. In his head, it didn't make much sense... But right now when he tried to make the water freeze... the ice spread out nearly instataneously across the surface of the water.

Sure, it melted nearly immediately afterward after being broken up by the bubbles, but in the end, it seemed like this principle of nature that he had already observed also applied when it came to magic.