Nothing, what comes to mind when you hear the word is darkness, an endless expanse of darkness

But is it really? For he knew darkness to be a form of energy, something that has shape and mass so how come he saw it when there is nothing

Was nothingness whatever you think is nothing?...

He opened his eyes to see a white ceiling above, a refreshing view when compared to that empty expanse of void

That's all he could think before an absurd amount of sensations hit him, rendering his brain stupid for a split second before he started to wade his way through these crystal clear sensations

But no matter how clear it was it only caused chaos when they piled over each other making him unable to tell up from down

Only after a solid minute did he give up on trying to understand, and focused on resisting these weird senses of his

"Master?"

The maid's voice rang by the side, she was concerned about his unclear hazy eyes and came closer, now looking at him from above

Her concern had the opposite effect as with her presence his senses started flaring up insanely, the beating of a heart, the flow of blood, everything inside her was transmitted to him ever so vividly he was on the verge of fainting

Suddenly the door was flung and an oppressive aura permeated through the room, with it came the rushing figure of Ellis and Anput, concern clearly etched on their faces

The maid felt weak when she was hit with the aura but tried hard to stay standing, on the other hand, YuJu who was struggling felt comfort envelop him, the aura did him no harm but started to eat away at the clarity, until nothing of it was left

"Haaah"

He felt the hot sigh of relief from the maid above him, who stopped trembling slightly due to Elis taking back her aura

"Are you okay Master"

Ellis came closer asking worriedly, just now she felt extreme emptiness inside her that almost made her cry, and the source she was her master, thus she rushed here with all her power

"I'm fine, thank you"

He recovered quickly and sat up looking at Ellis in wonder, how did she eat away that weird sensation? He wanted to ask but she looked as puzzled as he was, probably doing it unknowingly

'I need to keep her near me when I wake up'

He recognised that he was going somewhere, or rather 'Nowhere' when he slept and it was putting him in a weird situation, since Ellis was his only clue toward coming out of that weird condition he would naturally keep her around

"Its nothing, I'm okay now"

He assured them, but they still looked worried

"We have to go today, prepare us breakfast, Anput provide her help if she needs any, as for Ellis, go wear something decent and we will talk about our next destination"

He gave everyone their tasks but brought attention to Ellis when he told her to wear something decent

"?...!"

She looked down and realized she was only wearing the nightgown that the maid gave her yesterday, thankfully it wasn't that much see-through, still, it was embarrassing enough making her quick step out of the room, while trying to hold a semblance of dignity of course

The maid also went out after bowing followed by the slightly reluctant Anput, she was the most affected by his previous condition

"Must I avoid sleep for a while?"

If it was him from before he would be able to easily go on for days without sleeping, weeks even, but his current body couldn't support such exertion, he was still too weak

He shook his head and got up, changing into a dark shirt and black jeans, after years of slinking around he got used to black

He met Ellis at the dining room and the two started to talk while waiting for breakfast

"We shall take the necessities we need from here before going toward the Bersu village in the north, I don't think anything of it remained so we won't make a stop there, we will take the west road instead and travel to the nearby port city, by the time we get there, there shouldn't be anyone alive, and since it had many people there would be many beasts to hunt till level fifty, once we do the borders will be our destination"

It sounded pretty easy, and she trusted her master knew which places were dangerous and which were not, that trust came from both his unexplainable knowledge and her connection with him

"Master may I ask something"

Still, there was something bothering her

"Go ahead"

"Why are the places we are going to all deserted?"

The reason she wanted to know that is that she suspected her master was intentionally diverting the path from anywhere with humans fearing she might try to help them, after all they could just go straight north-west why go north then west, making her indigent that he didn't trust her to control herself

"It is because you need to train your control over aura, and you are going to need someplace with no watching eyes, for your own good"

She didn't see any reason that might affect her use of the skill with humans watching, but when he said those last words she felt something was off, especially with his slight smile, so she quickly nodded her head

Soon breakfast came and the three ate while the maid waited by the side

A short while later everyone was done with their food and went out toward the lobby where a backpack and a sports bag lay on the ground

"Master, I have prepared all the food you brought in these bags"

He noded, figuring she took the bags from the mansion and put on the sports bag, hanging it to the side while Ellis wore the backpack

"Then we shall leave"

Ellis nodded and opened the door to go out with Anput following, as for YuJu he took one last glance at the maid and gave her his parting words

"Take care of this place until we come back"

Then turned and left the lonely maid in this large empty mansion

As he walked out he spotted Ellis looking back with resolute eyes, her aura seemed to consolidate toward the mansion

"Tch, this is why I didn't want to stay a second longer than I needed"

He clicked his tongue in irritation as he knew what this entailed, when an aura holder encounters something that resounds with their trait they would consolidate their aura around that subject, affecting the development road of the aura, that's why every time Ellis seemed to want to consolidate her aura around something her would spank her out of that state, alas it seemed he was a step too late as her aura already gained an air of nobility

Slap!

"??"

He gave her another spank snapping her out of her state though it didn't matter this time, and he could even see the changes in her attitude as her eyes sent a questioning look while she kept her voice from leaking, evidently showing her newfound self-control that every noble should have

"Don't dilly dally, we have a long road ahead"

She pursed her lips and walked ahead, dissatisfied that she got spanked for no reason

'Sigh, at least she got attached to something within my control, maybe I could use that to shape her more?'

He thought hopefully as he opened the flashing status screen, a new notification had popped up just now, he was expecting it as well since it was exactly twenty-four hours since he entered the mansion

_________________________________

-You Have Gained Title: Noble

-You have earned the right to lord over a territory, Please choose your territory

_________________________________

He looked back and pointed the screen at the mansion, setting it as the centre of his new territory

'With this I should have a base when I get back to the human world'

He thought happily, though it ached him to have lost a day of hunting and travel he knew it was worth the trade-off, the noble title was something that would usually take months to obtain by governing a territory whereas he obtained it within a day

'Another hidden perk of the first week, many titles are easier to obtain and some become downright being given out'

This was all to prepare the weak human race for the invasion, but even so they would not be prepared what so ever, all these extra perks and buffs would hardly make a dent against those beasts outside

_________________________________

-Territory set

-Territory Perk tab opend

-Family Tree availible

-Family Inheritance available

_________________________________

He was excited about the gains and about to turn around while checking the new features when....

_________________________________

-Title "Noble" Merged into Master Class

_________________________________

'Say what????'

His eyes revealed utter confusion, he had never seen a title being affected by anything his entire life, much less actually merging into a class! This was crazy! But the madness didn't end there

_________________________________

-Territory Changed into Household

-Territory Perk Changed into House Upgrades

-Family Tree Changed into Entourage

-Family Inheritance Removed

-Skill Master's Grace Acquired

-Skill Contract-SoulMaid Acquired

-Skill Contract-SoulGuard Acquired

_________________________________

The series of transformations left him silent, even he couldn't keep his shock in check with these unknown and unheard of features, sadly his status screen seemed to have something against him since it just wouldn't leave him to think without flashing again, this time it was accompanied by a foreign feeling entering his soul

_________________________________

-You have signed a Contract-SoulMaid with Subrina

-Master's Grace Activated

-Subrina Gained "Sleepless" Talent

_________________________________

"....."

This time he didn't think or do anything, he just waited for any more surprises

His wait was in vain as the status stopped messing with him after that last notification

Now that he finally had a moment of peace he wanted to check this all-new overhaul of his knowledge, but first, he needed to solve the gaze settled on his butt now for quite some time

Swivelling his head he looked back at Ellis with a glare, catching her red-handed glancing at his butt with evil intentions, clearly wanting some revenge since he always snapped her out of her trance with a spank

Realizing she was discovered she took a few steps back, and some more when he approached

"M-Master wh-wha" SLAP! "Eeep!"

A hard spank put her back in her place, and knowing complaining would only result in her butt bubbling up more she could only lower her head in shame and rub her butt while walking forward

YuJu followed after sending the mansion a satisfied glance, his mouth morphing into a grin, how could he not be happy when he had gotten the maid he had desired on top of all these extra rewards

The group moved with much more vigour than they started, due to YuJu's good mood and Ellis's desire to keep her Master's hands at a distance from her tushie