26 Chapter 26 ~ Leveling up

[ [ Haa... Haa... Haa... ] ]

( Nina: Level increased by 1! )

( Sarah: Level increased by 1! )

( Lumi: Level increased by 2! )

~~~

( It worked, huh? )

Beating his Devil Hounds, the three of them were able to level up.

Looking at them, they are now catching their breaths hard. Sarah could only barely stand, Nina is kneeling on her knees, and Lumi is already lying on the ground; their figures now is a complete mess; It's easy to say that the battle they had fought was intense.

But nevertheless, Shiro was impressed by their combat abilities. The three of them clearly knows how to fight.

At the beginning of the battle, Lumi immediately targeted the Devil Hounds' eyes; her accuracy was 100%, none of her arrows had miss. Of course, because of this, Lumi was targeted by the Devil Hounds, but Nina immediately went to her side, protecting her by punching away the enemies that are jumping towards her. Sarah, on the other hand, had solo'd three Devil Hounds on her own, keeping them also away from Lumi and Nina.

Shiro thought that their strategy was good. They could have easily get defeated if they didn't help each other out, a little more work and their teamwork could get even better.

[ How... How was that, master? ] Sarah asked Shiro, still catching her breath.

[ Yes, I'm surprised. ]

Sarah contributed the most during that fight. She fought 3 Devil Hounds by herself without needing help from the two. Surviving from fighting 3 Devil Hounds is a hard task considering the close gap in their levels. Shiro was also particularly impressed by how great she was at using the sword he had given her; she had proven that she really was a knight who knows how to fight.

[ I-Is that so!? Th-Thank you, master! ] she bowed her head with gratitude.

[ Master! Did Nina do great!? ] the barbaric Nina came into Shiro's side and asks with enthusiasm written on her face.

[ Yes. You did great too, Nina. ]

Nina perfectly blocked all the attacks that she and Lumi were receiving from the Devil Hounds. Her attacks are not that strong but her defensive capabilities are high; if it wasn't for her, Lumi might not be able to survive that fight. Additionally, she acted completely different from what Shiro had expected. It was said that she came from a barbaric tribe that values strength more than anything else, yet, she focused on protecting Lumi, rather than trying to defeat the enemies on her own to show the strength her tribe is most proud of.

[ Thank you, master! I'll impress master more! ] forming a fist, she shouted through the air with confidence.

[ How about me, Vlad-sa... Master!? ] the demihuman, Lumi, ran to Shiro side with her ears twitching and her tail swinging. Her face too is showing a huge smile.

Seeing her appearance and hearing her question, Shiro could only form a smirk on his face.

[ Hu-Huh!? Ma-Master! ] seeing the smirk on Shiro's face, Lumi's enthusiasm instantly died.

[ No. No. Don't worry, you did great too. ] Shiro muttered to Lumi, turning his smirk into a smile.

The truth was, Lumi was the one Shiro was the most surprised with. During the fight, her personality completely changed to what Shiro was not expecting. The color of her eyes went from blue to green, the care-free expression on her face turned serious, she was like a deadly hunter, ready to kill her prey. Not to mention, her bowing skill is almost perfect. All the shot she had thrown struck to where she wants it to, despite shooting her arrows at a very long-range, it was like she was shooting them at point-blank.

[ Thank you, master! ] hearing Shiro's words, a bright smile was formed on Lumi's face. She then copied Sarah and bowed to Shiro too.

Looking at the figure of his two combat slaves, Shiro was satisfied. At first, he was very hesitant when he had bought them, but now, he was more than happy that he did.

~~~

There were many reasons why Shiro wanted to see how capable the trio was.

First was: unlike his summons, who mostly consists of monsters that might not be able to blend in the human society, Sarah, Lumi, and Nina, are in the races that people often see in this world. The only summons that Shiro could think of that might be able to accompany him outside are the Vampire brides and the Succubuses, but both of that summons have their own qualities that Shiro thinks will get him into trouble.

As far as Shiro has seen, his two Vampire Brides are two capable servants, but in this world, they're still pretty weak, especially when they're on their debuffs. Additionally, to Shiro, Stella and Ayla are two important companions that are close to his lovers, he's afraid to use both of them in combat.

The second reason was: Shiro's summons won't level up anymore. The XPS they would gain will all only be distributed to Shiro's. But Shiro's also already at the max level, he wouldn't be able to level up anymore too, and even if Shiro could still level up, with the amount of XP he would need to gain, the only thing that might get him to increase his level is to massacre entire cities.

Shiro knows that his personality is slowly being changed by Vlad Alucard, but even if he's current race is a Vampire that close to demons now, he was still a human who has sympathy for all things that are living. He is not insane that he would massacre people to try and gain an extra level.

That was why he thought that leveling up his slaves to become capable fighters that can blend into the human society would be a better choice than him summoning his demonic and monstrous summons and using Stella and Ayla as his companions when he's outside the mansion.

[ Anyway, master... What was the reason why you wanted to see our skills in combat...? ] as Shiro started to think about all this stuff, Sarah had interrupted him.

[ Well, I'm glad you asked that. ]

And the third reason was -

To make them his party members in the guild.