Today for me didn’t start like normal. Because today is not a normal day. Today is Unika’s birthday, so no morning training for me. Instead, after Lua made sure Unika would sleep for about one more hour, Alice, Cailie and I went to work on her breakfast. Cailie headed for the CropFields to get the freshest possible fruits and vegetables, no Storage kept ones don’t count. Meanwhile Alice was working on a fresh loaf of bread, while I was dealing with the protein. After joining us in the kitchen, Cailie juiced some of the fruits and also made a vegetable smoothie. Unika isn’t the best at eating her vegetables, but she does drink vegetable smoothies. I can also make vitamin pills or gummies with HomeBase, but having a more natural source is better. Alice then took over for Cailie, slicing the remaining fruits and letting Cailie set them up on a serving tray. Meanwhile, I was cooking up some thick steaks. They were from a bison I spawned inside HomeBase some time ago, one that I’ve been slowly growing with Rank Up Magics. By the time I killed it, it was an S-rank monster. The reason I did it was to control the diet and how the bison grew. I tested the same with some fish on floor 42, and it did make the food taste just a bit better than what I could normally do. But sadly it is so much work that it really isn’t worth it, except for special occasions. For fish it is a bit more worth doing, as when eating it raw the taste difference is more noticeable. But I still won’t be doing it unless I can somehow automate the entire process. Or maybe I need to hire beastkeepers who will do it for me. Unless Einar and Eline can spare the time. They might have the time. The Card Beasts have been out on fewer missions since the Card Venturers got their A-rank licenses. The Venturers can deal with most threats, so the Beasts only go out for S-rank and unknown threats. By the time I was finished with the meat, there was a giant pile of steaks ready to go. As well as two more on a separate plate, along with eggs and fried rice. I looked over to Alice and Cailie, and the two of them were also finished, so we headed for our room. Nᴇw novel chapters are publɪshed on novel-fire.ɴet As we arrived, Unika was just waking up. Wilma and Lua had been keeping an eye on her, and when Lua heard that we were done, she used a bit of Blood Magic to end the effect of the sleep spell she placed on Unika. We sang her happy birthday, and set out her breakfast. And when she saw the giant pile of meat on the secondary platter, a glowing fox emerged from her body. Stella didn’t actually have a birthday, at least not one we knew. The same goes for the spirit inside Cailie. Well, technically that spirit isn’t a separate soul like Stella is, instead an extension of Cailie’s soul. A copy of sorts. And for some reason, Alice and Mana share the same birthday. It technically isn’t the same because of the different calendar, but the date as written is the same. Stella and Unika quickly thanked us for the breakfast, and then dove straight in. Literally in the case of the light projection fox. I have no clue how the food that Stella eats while operating as a light projection actually does anything for her, but apparently it does, so I just leave it to be a magical mystery. … no, no I won’t. Instead, I used Mana Vision to follow the mana around the two. And with each bite Stella took of the steaks, a strong pulse of mana was sent from her to Unika. So Stella is somehow turning what she eats into pure mana and sending it to Unika. That mana then strengthens Unika, temporarily, almost like it was used to cast a buff spell on Unika. Good to know that the two of them can do something like that, even if it isn’t as exciting as something like a mysterious space magic portal between the two would have been. Also, this is just a guess, but I think if Unika wasn’t full on mana, she would probably be recovering mana instead of getting that magical buff. After her breakfast, despite the fact that it was her birthday, Unika still wanted to get her practice in. Or maybe that was because it was her birthday. I don’t know. But anything she wanted was free for her to do, so she ended up sparring with me. Mainly using Magic. I was using a mix of Prism-Ice Magic and Space Magic, while Unika came at me with her Sunshine Light Magic and Solar Flare Fire Magic. My Prism-Ice Magic held up surprisingly well against her higher leveled Fire Magic, but her Light Magic easily pierced through it. And while it did scatter somewhat, like if it had passed through prism, it didn’t stop the spell. Instead it caused unavoidable Light Spells to hit me. But luckily I was able to stop it with Space Magic. I even attempted to defend against the Light Magic with some Gravity Magic, but making a gravity strong enough to capture light isn’t exactly a good idea, or something that is easy to control. I know I wasn’t meant to use it, but I did want to test it out. And not like I was nerfing Unika with it. And yes, it is actually quite easy to increase someone’s gravity with Gravity Magic. Sure an AoE effect is easier, but then it would affect me, so I’d rather use a targeted increase gravity spell. And no, I wasn’t using Time Magic on Unika. If I did, it would be unfair. Time Magic really isn’t well balanced, as slowing down my opponent while speeding myself up gives me good enough of a reaction time to take on people way above my skill and stats. And the opponent’s only choice really is to dispel the effect. Or try to out speed the effect of the Time Magic. But back to our practice. It was good for me to use ice against fire, but admittedly, it is a bit of a shame I didn’t want to yet reveal one of the secret gifts I wanted to give to Unika today. I was really tempted, but I managed to not do it. After we finished the morning practice, the two of us headed to the baths and I washed all of Unika. It took a while, since her nine tails really take some time to clean. But every time we clean them, the final result is worth all that effort. Since our morning had run long, it was already time for lunch. It was slightly better than the usual HomeBase fair, but the dessert was Unika’s birthday cake. And as you might be able to guess, for it to feed everyone on HomeBase, it was quite large. My kitchen staff had really done it again with the multi-tiered cake. It looked like Stella’s mountain, with a circular edible Sun floating above it. The Sun cake was floating thanks to a magic circle drawn into the serving platter. Admittedly making the cake look wasn’t even my idea, but I do love the final results. Unika took a slice of the round Sun cake, and she also cut the top of the mountain, which held the large crystal that had been at the top of Stella’s mountain until most of it was used to protect the two during their combination evolution. I took some cake after Unika and I also wanted a piece of the Sun. But I didn’t take any of the mountain, wanting to make sure there was enough cake for everyone. I then took my seat next to Unika. Stella had once again materialized as a light fox, but this time she was tiny and standing on the table. She asked me to feed her some of the cake, so of course I did. Which made Unika want me to feed her as well, so I had to start alternating. But not for long, as Alice also wanted to feed the two, so soon enough Alice and I were altering which of the needy foxes we were feeding. And you know what comes after cake, right? Yes, presents. For that, I let Valoa go first. I mean, if Unika’s little brother wants to be first, who am I to deny him? What he had was something both very normal, but at the same time very special. A monster carcass, meat fully butchered and cured into jerky, hide cured and ready to be used, claws polished, bones preserved and all around perfectly put to use, or ready to be used. Sure it was just an E-rank Lynx, but that isn’t why it was special. It was special because it was the first monster Valoa ever hunted. And he did it technically by himself. Yes I had people watching over him as he did, but he did beat the monster solo. He was also involved in the other parts of preparing it, even if he needed a bit more help with those parts. Unika was extremely proud of her little brother’s first catch. And even more proud of how effectively he had used it. I assumed that Olia would go next, but she instead let some others, saying that it was better her gift be saved for later, or Unika crying would take so long that it would keep others from returning to work. Which, knowing what her gift is, might actually be the case. So to get them ‘over with’, I let my employees give their gifts before us. Admittedly Einar and Eline were still somehow the first on the list. They had kept up the Card Beast tradition, so even with Unika not involved, they had captured a monster for her to tame. A small snow fox. It is an F-rank monster found in cold climates, and is generally not hunted by people. But plenty of beginner tamers tame them, as they are very easy to tame. Unika quickly tamed the fox and laid it on her lap. Next was the painter squad, Inka, Jonin, Lange, Artie and Odessa. The five of them had painted a large mural of Unika and Stella on one of the walls of HomeBase. Yes, they did ask for my approval. There were naturally gifts from my other employees, the dhampir students and the Card Ventures, but let’s get to what you really want to hear. What I and my other fiancées got Unika. From Alice, it was a spellbook containing new spells. The System doesn’t have any spells that are specific for Unika’s Sunshine Light Magic and Solar Flare Fire Magic. Which does make me question why those aren’t unique skills, but ask the Goddess and she tells me she doesn’t know. But with her unique racial skill, Alice can decently easily develop new spells, so she wrote a spellbook about them. And she can optimize them for use with Quick and Instant Cast. From Lua she got some special shampoo. Lua made it with Sharon to be extremely good for beast folk’s fur, especially the tail fur. And it really is. I would know, I was a test subject for a few of the first ones. And if you are asking why Lua is needed for it, well it does use Holy Water as the base and you need Holy Magic to make it. Cailie was technically next, but her song to Unika was going to be performed later. It isn’t one meant for an audience. So let’s move to Janina. She had brought out another treasure from her own treasury. The Rending Claws of the Deep. She told us that they are the claws of the great beast she once faced. The one that she described to look like Cthulhu. I had looked up the ‘Old Miasma Beasts’ when I got access to perfect System Support, but the information on them is basically nonexistent. When they were around, the System was much less organized than it is nowadays. In fact, it was during the time when the Crystal People still watched over the Chaos God Cores. So while the System knows they exist, partially because of Cthulhu, they don’t know where the others are, or how many of them there are. And now Janina was passing the rending claws, something she believed she would need if she ever faced another one, to Unika. They would still need to be made into something Unika can use, but that was better left for us instead of having Janina do it. Last, before me and Olia, is Wilma. And she has made Unika a new bow. We’ve been experimenting with them since Unika’s evolution, and made more than a few successful ones. But the one that is by far the best for Unika is one based on the ZW - Phoenix Bow. The bow is normally contained in a small backpack looking thing. From there, it can deploy either in its bow form, or as a pair of fiery phoenix wings. And any arrows shot with the Phoenix Bow are automatically set ablaze and will burn any opponent hit by them. Oh, and the Phoenix Bow is a legendary weapon, in case you were wondering. Just holding it does increase your strength by 1100. I might go over its stats at some point, but not right now. Second to last was me. I didn’t do too much, since I did help with some of the other gifts and I still have the ‘secret gift’ for later. As well as a little surprise to go with it. My dedication was a statue made of the Gem of Refraction. Aka. the huge gem that was at the top of Stella’s mountain, until what happened to it happened. I developed a way to join those small pieces of the crystal back together, and I used it to make a statue of Unika and Stella. My idea was that we could take it to the monster world and set it in the shrine that is at the top of the Solar mountain. Unika, and especially Stella, appreciated that I was able to bring most of the crystal back together, and they agreed that it should be returned there. Well, I still have some, but it is really good for magical tools and weapons. Last was Olia’s gift. And it was like no other. It was something only she, with my help, could make. Videos of Unika’s father. I, and some of my monsters, used a lot of Time Magic on Olia to make her perfectly recall memories with her late husband, and we recorded them all with Storage. Olia then gathered the best to show Unika right now, and the rest would be viewable to her whenever she wanted. And as Olia assumed, seeing the memories did bring tears to Unika’s eyes, and she spent most of the afternoon just watching through everything. Including memories she never could have known like her own birth. Since our day was largely taken by Unika watching her mother’s memories, we didn’t have the time to head out. Not that Unika would have many places she’d probably want to visit. Her family is here, so the only place would really be their old home. Which probably has new people living in it, so we can’t just barge in for some casual recollections. And we already had a tear filled memory moment. So instead, it was time for me to give Unika her magic stone. Yes, that was the ‘secret gift’. It is no secret I’ve been giving the promissory stones to my fiancées on their birthdays, and now it is Unika’s turn. Hers was held by a small baby fox, and that baby fox was attached to a pendant. One with a chain that can adjust its length so that she can wear it even when she is in her full nine-tailed fox form. And as Unika dragged me to my bedroom, I knew it was time to reveal the last secret. So I pulled up One of Every Race and changed races. As my new tails grew in, I used the two and brushed them against Unika’s currently single tail. … Did I ever say that Unika can combine her tails into one? Or three. Or any number really, but one and three are the two she commonly uses when she doesn’t want all nine to be out. Unika looked at me, seeing that I was using a race she’d never seen me use before. One she’d been asking why I’d never gotten. One I told her I’d get eventually, but that I actually already had and I was trying to improve. The race of Fox-folk. And Fox-kin. And the one I was currently using, Multi-Tailed Fox-kin. I had actually tried to get all the way to Kitsune, but having that many tails made with Manamorphic Body is not easy. So I’ve never been able to keep them for long enough for the System to give me the race. But that didn’t seem to bother Unika too much. Her one tail split into nine, and she aggressively dragged me to bed.