Three months, another semester, has passed since the events of the camping trip. The academy is now covered in a blanket of snow. Most students aren’t really affected as they use their winter uniform along with the all purpose mage robes that are enchanted to be cool in summer and warm in winter.

With winter also comes winter vacation were the students are allowed to return to their homes and enjoy the new years with their family. Similar to everyone, Xero was also going home to see his family after three months.

Xero was from the Lurian Empire. It's a relatively southern nation but southern in relations to the continent they live in. In after, it was the north areas, that were warmer than the south meaning the Lurian Empire was much colder. It had much less agriculture development, though there did exist it thanks to magic and artificial plantations underground and greenhouse preparations during the winter for spring and summer planting.

The Lurian empire was a more industrial empire, the empire had more mountainous land though not completely barren but it survived due to its metal production. They were makers of many weapons and were backed by the two great smithing races, the dwarf and the Cyclops.

Dwarf were 1 meter tall bulky and heavily bearded men with more than 10 times the strength of a common human. They are heavy drinkers and highly honorable and hate only three things, being made fun of about their size, having their beard insulted and having their metal work insulted.

The cyclops race, on the other hand, were once considered a monster race but after several heroes met peaceful cyclops and helped them establish a strong tribe and eventually gained some territory they joined the dwarfs due to their smithing skills. Today, cyclops are divided between Wild Cyclops and what is referred to as monoeye cyclops.

The monoeye are the peaceful ones, they only stand between 150 to 220 cm tall, have one large eye and maintain their powerful strength through smithing. They are no longer fat and ugly after mixed breeding with humans and dwarf and possess many human features and are only a bit dimwitted, at least the males.

Wild cyclops on the other hand were between 250 to 400 cm tall and were extremely brutal. They had large fat and muscular bodies using clubs as weapons and have sickly yellow or brown skin.

The difference is too significant to mistake so people do not even consider the monoeye as anything similar to the cyclops.

The metal products are the highest quality items in the nation and smithing is also one of the highly credible jobs in the nation. It is high paying for hard labor and even Xero’s older brother is a smith with some dwarfs since he was not able to go to the Magic Academy.

It is through his job that Xero’s family could remain living a relatively peaceful, though not rich, life.

Of the family, only the father has a familiar but it is also not high level. His familiar is a silver wolf that did not surpass level 30. It is said that the level cap is a form of talent measure, level 30 usually signals a commoner or the lowest ranking noble depending the familiar, level 50 level cap is middle ranked noble, level 70 is high ranking noble and level 90 is seen as the peak where kings reside. Anyone that can surpass level 90 is referred to as Archmage and is considered the greatest powers of the world because each level beyond level 90 is considered one step to godhood. That said no one knows if that is true.

The current Xero was many times different compared to the one that left 6 months ago. His figure was now lean and muscular, on his back and waist were several swords. On his back was a heavy looking stone sword, on his waist was one of wind, another of green ore and another that looked of volcanic rock and obsidian.

In three months Xero has gone around gathering some materials and formed for himself elemental swords, these were four swords he worked best with. The students at the academy even refer to him as the Several sword freak since he carries those heavy blades on him.

“Master, is this were your family lives?” Ashley asked as they were walking out of Gravlin, one of the large cities in the Lurian empire.

“My family live outside of the outskirts.” Xero said.

The outskirts was outside of the protective ‘inner city’ that is surrounded by very high walls. Of course there was still walls but not as high but still heavily armed.

Lurian empire separates the cities into ‘outer city’ where residential, market and entertainment districts form and the ‘inner city’ were noble district and many powerful Smithy exists. Most nobles in the Lurian empire had their own Smithy so these would exist in the Inner city while having shops in the outer city to sell their expensive merchandise.

Outside of both inner and outer city are the wilderness lands. The land of Lurian empire is hilly and covered in cold forests but it was filled with monsters that are hunted on regular basis by the city guard but the population is most controlled by hunters similar to Xero’s own father. There were many hunter families living in the forests to hunt the beasts and it is normally through them that the guards find out about increased strength of the monsters before they get too strong to cause trouble.

In the woods Xero walked a particular dirt path cut in the wood until, in the distance, he spotted a clearing with a fence and a wooden gate with a large sign. “Null residents, leather and monster products at a reasonable price.”

“So master’s family are hunters? It's quite something that master comes from such low standings considering the talent master has.” Ashley said.

"I have the talent I have because your mana exploded in my body.” he said.

“It would have happened sooner or later master.” She giggled.

After three months, Xero was finally able to find several outfits that Ashley was comfortable wearing without being overly revealing. Her current outfit was a pair of overall pants with a small short sleeves shirt that showed her belly. As a Devil she was quite strong and wasn’t affected by the cold much due to her internal temperature being very high. Besides this, she took to using some different suits like baggy fabric pants with bandage bra like a swordswoman, or hot pants and small shirt. Xero was still thankful that she would cover up, at least her privates.

“Ah~! This snow is hard to see through, it's making my eyes hurt.” She complained.

“Come on, let’s go see father and mother.” He said and pushed open the fence and closed it as he saw Ashley flying in.

Her two dark bat wings and tail as well as her white horns were perfectly visible signaling her as a demon but one would be really confused when looking at her perfectly human colored eyes, except for the white slit pupils.

The clearing was covered in snow and there were several buildings that were visible.

“That is the smoking house, that is the silo, that is a windmill to grind the grains we can produce, there is the barn where we raise Mountain Ox and some Sheep and ram for milk and fur.” Xero explained his families grounds.

“Is level 3 and 4 monsters that good?” She asked with a strange face.

Xero laughed, “It’s not that they aren’t good, it's that domestic animals don’t raise in level easily. Not to mention that we can’t handle stronger monsters and that these are common food items. We also don’t have money for magic herbs.” He said.

Ashley frowned, “What is master talking about, even though the snow hurts my eyes I saw almost 100 different magic herbs and plants while we were walking here.” She said.

Xero laughed wryly, “We can’t compare to you Ashley, we don’t see the world the same way as you.” He said.

She seemed to remember something and nodded as they walked to the house that was made of wood and stone with sturdy glass windows and a strong structure against the cold. Although the family was not rich, it wasn’t poor.

Knock! Knock!

With two knocks, Xero waited until the door opened to a middle aged man with a strong lumberjack physical wearing leather pants and a long sleeve cloth shirt that was rolled back. He had a short brown beard with spots of white. This was Xero’s father, Nil Null.

“Who is it dear?” A gentle voice called from behind.

“It’s me, Xero!” he said.

“Xero! My boy so you’re finally back!” Nil said and laughed.

He grabbed the boy and lifted him into a hug. One could not underestimate the power of a level 30 old man. Even at this level, he could fight low ranking dragons and many beasts. It is the strength of low ranking knights.

“Big bro is back!” A small voice said.

More cries came from inside as Xero was pulled inside. In the house were five other people, one was a middle age but still beautiful woman with slightly droopy eyes. Her hair was in a bun and she was a bit chubby from childbirth, this was Opal Null, Xero’s mother.

In her lap was a 1 year old baby who was Xero’s youngest brother, Zilch Null.

“Uf!” Xero exclaimed as a small body jumped into his chest. With chestnut hair and a few freckles on his face, this was Xero’s second youngest brother, Nero Null, his 6 year old brother.

“Little bro you’re back!” another person came over and hugged him. A pair of developing breasts squashed him. With long brown hair like their mother, a childish expression on her bubbly face and wearing winter clothing, his only sister, the 15 year old Nadir Null.

“Hey hey! Did you bring back any gifts for me?!” She asked shaking him.

“Me to! Me to!” Nero said shaking him along with Nadir.

“My my, children get off your brother or he won’t be able to do anything.” Opal said with a gentle smile. She stood up and put the baby into the arms of Xero’s older brother, Void Null. He was 19 and one of Xero’s older brothers. He had a strong build like their father but no magic talent so he had no familiar. He looked like a younger version of their father.

Opal walked over and hugged Xero, “It's good to have you back home sweetie.” She said.

“I’m happy to be back, so much happened since I went back to school.” He said.

“So little bro, where is your familiar, bring it out so we can see if it is strong enough to live up to dad’s reputation.” Void laughed.

Getting out of his mother's embrace Xero turned to the door, “Ashley come in already.” Xero said.

Strangely, she poked her head in like a shy girl and appeared in their view acting shy before bowing. “Hello, I am Ashley Null, I am masters Familiar and wife!” she suddenly blurted out.

The room was silent by the bombshell that fell and Xero facepalmed himself, “Stop with the wife thing Ashley, she is my familiar, a lesser Sword Devil infant. I summoned her as a…”

“My my! To think that my little boy would be married so soon! I wasn’t even ready for it.” Opal said cupping her hands on her cheeks. “And such a cutie!” she said and walked over and grabbed Ashley’s hand. “Come in, don’t stand in the snow. Just look at you, so poorly clothed, your skin even turned blue!” She exclaimed.

“Mom, she is a demon, not a human. She doesn’t feel as much cold as us.” Xero said.

As if not hearing anything she began to rummage around, “Let's see, there should be some of Xero’s old winter coats around here.” She said

“Hey, are you really little bro’s wife?” the equally dull headed Nadir asked.

“Of course!” Ashley puffed her chest out.

“No she isn’t, she is just my familiar!” Xero cried out.

“You’re his sister so I’ll call you sister in law!” Ashley said.

The two hit it off instantly but then Xero froze and looked at the carefree Void.

“Hey Xero, give up, you know how dumb Nadir is, she is even worse than mother’s airheadedness.” Void commented.

“Yeah… I know.” He said took off his swords and put them against the wall before sitting down on the seat next to the 19 year old and start playing with his one year old brother.

“He grew so big in six months.” Xero said.

“Hey big bro, since Xero already has a wife, doesn’t that mean you're the laziest without a girlfriend?!” Nadir asked.

Almost choking from the words, Void seemed to have been hit hard in some manner and seemed a bit depressed. He handed the baby to Xero, “Here take care of him a bit, I need to go get some firewood.” He said escaping outside after picking up a coat.

Nadir looked at him leave then looked at Xero, “Why did he leave?” She asked.

“Don’t mind it.” Xero said and looked around, “Eldest brother working?” Xero asked.

His eldest brother is known as Zip Null, he is 22 and is the eldest son of the family. He is married to a woman named Jasmine and they live with his family here but he works at one of the smithy in Gravlin and helps sustain the family.

“Yeah, Jasmine went to town to buy some medical herbs to have them in stock in case anyone gets sick while Zip is working. He should be back after a while. Anyway, what are you doing with all these swords?” Nil asked.

Xero smiled and began to explain about his time at the academy including how he obtained the swords. He removed his shirt and lifted his pants to show the tattoos that cover his body. That said, his face was already free of them after training and the ones on the leg have retreated to his knee while the ones on the arm were halfway to the elbow.

“What is this little miss’s level?” he asked.

Thinking a bit Xero shrugged, “My strength is between level 15 and 16 now so Ashley should be around level 23 or 24 by now.” Xero said.

With his strength growing, her power is also slowly rising.

"I shouldn’t be above level 22 master, with each level the distance between levels will also grow wider so even if you gained 3 levels since the trip, I gained only 2 and when master catches up I will probably be around level 25 only.” She said.

The eye of the father was wide, “You mean she hasn’t even reached full potential yet?” Nil asked.

"I did say she was a Lesser Sword Devil Infant so she isn’t even grown much so yeah, she hasn’t reached full potential.” Xero said.

Nil nodded and began to laugh, “My boy is a genius!”

“Found it!” Opal suddenly said as she pulled out a small dusty fur coat. “Ah~! Its filthy, I can’t have you wear such a thing. Oh well, for now I will have to concede, oh I need to go change Xero’s single bed for a couple’s bed!” Opal said.

“Mother let me help!” Nadir said happily following along her mother pace.

Nil and Xero smiled wryly and looked at each other.

“Master, your mother is quite funny.” She said and turned to watch the two look around for warm clothing to go get furs from the storage. Her tail was wagging freely behind her while she stood just off to the side from Xero.

“Ah! Ah!” the little one year old was crying out as it stuck its hand out towards the wagging tail. His reflexes weren’t high so it missed the tail quite a few times even though no one paid attention. Suddenly it came close and it finally hugged the tail.

“Eh?” Ashley said and turned back but the baby gripped the tail. It was smooth so when Ashley tried to pull it off his grip gently it slid and he grabbed the heart shaped barb at the end and laughed as he grabbed it. “W-wait!” She said but he suddenly stuffed it in his mouth and with his itching baby teeth began to bite.

“Kya!” She said paralyzed. The stimulation almost caused her to collapse. Her legs bent in as if she needed to go pee and she was trembling.

“What's wrong?” Nil asked as he tended the fire and saw her shaking.

Xero finally looked down and saw the baby biting the tail. He began to laugh, “Oh right, I forgot Ashley’s tail is sensitive.”

“M-master~! G-get it out!” She exclaimed but Zilch sudden bit a bit harder and laughed at the twitching.

She was unable to muster up the strength as the tail was being played with and soon began to pant while exclaiming, seeing that the situation would degrade Xero finally removed the tail from the baby and let it go. “Eh…” She muttered and collapsed. She seemed dazed and looked at Xero somewhat angry and with complex emotions.

She decided not to voice her anger but muttered, “and it was almost…” before her face blushed and she decided to go outside to cool.

Finally only Xero and Nil remained and the man laughed, “Interesting familiar, quite rare for a familiar to fall for its master.” he said.

"I heard that too, she is annoying though.” he said.

“Son…” Nil said looking at the boy, “You should know that Devils aren’t like that, her nature as a devil is greatly suppressed because of it.” He said.

Xero nodded understanding what it mean. In fact, it was as he said, Sword Devils would actually be an extremely cruel and powerful demon. Eating the swords of the enemy, killing the enemy and making them into swords for their own use, they would not care as the world was their forging pit filled with unique materials to make their swords.

Her love suppressed that and allowed her to think as a human with some devil aspects.

Soon the mother-daughter pair returned and looked around, “My, where is my little daughter in law?” She asked.

Xero smiled, “Zilch grabbed and played with her tail and she got embarrassed so she went outside.” Xero said, “You don’t need to worry, even if she died she would just come back to my Familiar seal.” He said.

That said he found it impossible for such a thing to happen since all the monsters around here were on the low end of the 20s at best.

“Ah~! And I wanted to try some of your sisters young clothing on her after fixing the bed.” She said a bit sad.

At the same time, Void returned with wood over his arm. It was all properly chopped and in good size to burn. “Father, Big brother just returned, he went to his home to light the fire, he will be over after a while to greet brother then he will leave to pick up sister-in-law.” He said.

“Oh good, I also have been meaning to ask him to reforge a few old tools and my old sword. It's gotten some nicks in the blade and rust is forming.” Nil said and pointed to a long sword on the side. Although he was a hunter, bow and arrow were only for common animals while the sword was needed to hunt the monsters along with his familiar.

Void put down the firewood and got near the fire as he huffed in cold. Unlike the father and son with magical talent, most of the family lacked magical abilities. Resisting the cold was much harder without mana covering the body.

Xero looked around and grabbed the volcanic rock and obsidian sword and pointed at the fire. With a slow wave, the fire began to lick the new wood and quickly burn it and grow stronger. Then he controlled the fire mana and spread it around the room and made it collide with the ice mana invading the house. Quickly the house heated up.

“Father, there are some infiltrations in the house, cold will keep getting in if they aren’t fixed.” Xero said pointing out a few holes in the roof and cracks in the wall.

Nil cursed and shook his head, “Leave it for the morning, it's almost night time already, just this isn’t enough to destroy the house anyway.” he sighed.

A knock on the door was followed by it opening and Ashley entering, “Master~ father in law! I brought back a few good things!” She exclaimed and brought out a list showing Xero.

“You hunted a Mountain bear King! What’s this… seven stalks of arctic wolf tail, ten snow blossoms and Red Polar meat fruit. What are all these for?” Xero asked.

“Well the bear is food, the low level animals you all eat probably isn’t healthy, for master anyway it probably isn’t, as for the herbs.” She looked at Nil and pointed, "I thought that these herbs would be enough to help father in law break the bottleneck of level 30 since he can’t evolve his wolf.” She said.

Nil laughed, “Child, this old man already hit his peak, if I could so easily evolve Silver then I would have but as a poor commoner I can’t get material for that.” he said.

Ashley sifted around a magic bag she was given by Xero when he found that she liked collecting spices and herbs. She pulled out all the herbs mentioned, “Here father-in-law, I found all these in the surrounding woods, just feed it to your familiar. Then I can kill it for you. It should form a monster core with this and evolve.” She said.

The mana from the herbs were radiating in the room making it cold. One had to say, her eyes were something that would be regarded as broken. Seeing mana she would easily be able to gauge the mana of everything in front of her. The fact that so many herbs were just laying around their home caused them all the feel a heartache.

“Oh right, I picked this…” She said taking out a small bag of leaves, “They are tea leaves with a lot of mana, if you cook it in a stew with the bear, it will help everyone get a little better at using magic.” She said.

She just smiled and Xero shook his head, “Father, you should try and feed them to Silver, if you can break to level 31, it may be possible for father to get a title and monthly salary of coin from the empire as well as be put in command of a small hunter village near Gravlin.” Xero said.

The old man nodded a bit robotically and the others poked their heads out as they saw what was going on, Nil took the herbs and everyone dressed up and walked outside or through the window.

Nil’s familiar seal flashed and in front of him appeared a horse sized silver furred wolf. One herb at a time he fed the wolf and when all of them were fed, a strange event began to happen. The familiar seal began to shine brightly, at the same time the fur of the silver wolf stood on end.

Then the cold wind began to blow more and all the snow suddenly started to lift up. Finally the wolf howled and a huge blizzard blew. The fur began to grow and the body doubled in size.

Ashley, with the volcanic sword in hand grinned as she jumped forward. Xero felt his mana flow into the magic formula for the Elemental Grand Cleave. A slash of fire formed from the blade and in a blink of an eye the slash cut into the wolf splitting it in half.

Slowly the creature split but then its body exploded into a burst of light. Strangely it did not go to the seal and instead it all kept absorbing mana and soon gathered into one forming an icy blue orb that finally flashed into the familiar seal. Then a huge pulse of mana began to be sucked into the body of the man causing him to tremble.

Xero took out a blue uncommon mana stone and ran to his father and put the stone on the opposite hand that the seal was on.

He wanted to completely remake his father with this chance and so the mana flowed into his body and ruthlessly smashed through the closed channels that were sucking the mana to the seal. Even if the mana pool was dry by now it soon got mana flowing and passing through the body with an increased flow trying to keep up.

Only after half the mana stone was emptied that the seal settled down but what Xero wanted to do had been accomplished. His father's mana channels were much more open now. This would greatly increase his talent in the same manner that his own had increased after the burst of mana.

Of course his father's was many times weaker but it was enough to cause him to be worthy of a low noble title.

The blue pearl like orb flew out and began to glow as it formed into a 4 meter tall body of a wolf. The fangs, claws and some of the fur on the back and tail was formed from deep blue ice while its silver fur shined like snow.

Nil soon woke up from the pain and looked at the massive wolf, “Silver!” He exclaimed and slowly extended his hand. The wolf rugged its nose against his hand and licked him like a dog would its owner. The tongue was cold but it was a heartwarming scene.

Not only that but the creature was powerful.

“Amazing, its gaining new skills.” Xero’s father said.

“Father let me see!” Xero said quickly and put his hand with the familiar seal over his father's. Unlike him, his father did not have a promising childhood education. He learned only from the national academy instead of the magic academy. Still one thing Xero learned was that familiar owners can help each other when innate skills form.

He looked at the skills and found them to be simple skills, Great howl, claw slash and such. The new skills were ice spells. Ice spike summon, Blizzard howl, Ice field, Ice wolf spawn.

These four skills were unique to the Ice Wolf race. The spawning spell was even more a very unique skill found in 1 out of 2000 ice wolves who develop alpha status.

The first one Xero formed the Ice spike summon, changing the efficiency and control points, it improved the power and control. The spell ended up as Ice Missile, the ice spikes on the back of the wolf will become controllable projectiles the wolf can throw within a 300 meter radios.

Blizzard howl came next and after changing a few things, it became Hail Breath where the howl would release a gust of hail. This also prompted a new skill which was the true Blizzard skill to form quickly and he could do nothing about it. Ice field was a spell where the area the ice wolf was around would be turned into an area it was best adapted for increasing the power of ice magic. When Xero was finished it became Tundra Field. The last one ‘ice wolf Spawn’ was almost fully formed by the time he reached it but he arrived just in time to crack a fault in the sequence causing the spell to break down.

Fixing the faults that appeared from that, mana efficiency rose increasing the number of spawns that were summoned and increasing their strength from level 10 to level 15 spawns. They would survive for 30 minutes before returning to being snow. They would only form if there was ice present making this spell work together with the Tundra field.

When all was said and done, the power of the Null family had suddenly reached a new height with the arrival of an unexpected little devil that changed the face of the family.

With the evolution of the wolf into an Silver Ice Wolf, the family celebrated in grand style the return of Xero. With Ashley cooking the bear, the whole family, even the missing two that came later, feasted on a very tasty meal that would probably change the fate of the family.