Following the instructions given by Valmor, not a single student was left out of the lessons for developing minions.

There were quite a lot of questions but most of them were about what kind of ‘haven’ these creatures are formed from. It was quite a problem but there were already some people with minions so using these people as examples, they asked each one about their minions.

Even Chad, who was present and invited as were many students of different academies, if they wished, shared their examples and the teachers offered advice on the manner of improving them.

Xero was among them and Ashley explained her minion forging and how she made minions with the spirits, then gathered a number together and merged them again before forging them with her flame which would make them Sword Demon Minions which were spirit driven demons but not Devils. Then she used her Sword Devil’s Field ability and pulled out one of the Nature Dragon Sword Devil Minions stuck in the ground.

“This is a complete Sword Devil made from the bones of a level 41 and above dragon type beast.” She said and woke it up.

The Devil transformed into it’s demon form before it shined but what appeared even shocked her as a black skinned devil with dark green hair and tiny stubs for horn, tiny wings and tail.

“What?!” Xero looked at the Devil. “Ashley, why is he so small?” Xero asked, having seen the package below and knowing it was a male.

At this moment Miss Gilbody walked up and removed her glasses and her eyes shined. “This little adorable thing is a Weakened Lesser Inferior Sword Devil Minion.” She said.

“Weakened?” Ashley and Xero said together.

“Indeed, Xero, which are the spells vital for a Sword Devils?” she asked.

Xero stopped and looked at Ashley.

“Sword Devil’s Aura, Sword Devil’s Flame and any spell to form a forge, also it would grow even more if forged or tempered by a Plated Devil.” Xero replied.

“Then there is the problem, this little thing has only your nature manipulation magic.” Miss Gilbody said.

“Oh!” Xero said.

She nodded and turned, “This is yet another method that can be used to make minions, specific races such as the Sword Devil can forge their own minions. This is probably not limited though. What is required though is patience to discover how.” She said and looked at Ashley.

“Ah, well I explained mine, I can make magic swords from any solid material in the world. Refining the same material twice improves and makes an even more powerful spirit for the sword and then just purify the body before adding the true soul of a demon creates the final Devil Soul.” Ashley said.

“There you have it, Xero, you may return to your seat.” She said.

Xero nodded and picked up the baby devil and felt the body only to be amazed by how much mana was inside it and nodded as he saw that it would be able to easily form the required spells as would the others. He would just need to spend time.

“Now, as you saw, minions are not just about simply making them and letting them grow. You must refine them as much as your main creature. Those who have sentient familiars can even teach them magic and from them the minions will further learn and soon it will form a pyramid that the masters will not need to worry about.” Miss Gilbody said.

Everyone exclaimed as they saw a perfect example that they never expected to see after watching Xero battle so many times.

Then came a question that made others excited, “Miss Gilbody, will the students that explained their abilities form a book on making minions to share or will we have to work out our own ways?”

Those with the minions frowned since the ability came naturally yet they wanted a free explanation of how to make it and the spells used for it.

“No, each person that wants an explanation must find and purchase the method from the owner themselves.” She replied bluntly. “What is more, for those who have these, anyone below level 30 should charge only 1 uncommon mana stone as the max, those above can only limit about 10 stones.” She said.

Everyone turned incredibly solemn.

The price of 1 uncommon mana stone is 10 gold coins meaning 10 stones is 100 gold. For the students of the academy, their tuition is 1 gold alone. Although the jobs on the request board are good, they still need to do lots of heavy work to acquire the money and then they wouldn’t have this kind of money.

Most Noble families don’t help their children in such things as a means to teach them how to work for their gains.

At the end of the discussion though a shocking news came, “We will remain a single month more in the Snake Nest, thereafter all students will return to their nations. This is to allow time for all students to train and develop even basic methods with us teachers helping if possible. As you should all know, the kings and nations have already prepared and are soon to leave and you children will as well. The demon invasion requires all our power so you are all to make your way home. You will be teleported to any city with a portal within your nation. That is all!” Miss Gilbody said.

Xero returned to his dormitory, with the new year already started, new students had already come in and the now 2nd year students had their own familiars that they had begun to train just like the previous year.

They were all solemn because they would not be able to benefit of the dungeon like their seniors.

“For now, let us not lose time!” Xero said, shocking them. “For the next month, let’s all work hard to get you all at least over level 10!” he said to the ten 2nd year olds.

They smiled at him, “Senior, you should probably deal with your minions before worrying about us.” one of the girls giggled.

Xero froze and looked down at the baby devil.

Ashley also giggled, “It’s like it’s our own baby.” she said.

Xero blushed and glared at her before walking to the back quickly but the others followed and watched from far as Xero touched the little one’s brow.

He didn’t stop Xero but felt it’s connection be accessed making it more calm than before and the weak soul link that was forged became very strong like a child towards its parent.

It completely relaxed while in Xero’s arm and let him use it’s huge reserve of mana as Xero needed. What he did was slowly and carefully draw out the first important spell, the [Sword Devil’s Aura] and [Sword Devil’s Divine Greatsword].

Previously he had not mentioned it but he realized that as an innate ability, this is important as the aura. He formed the aura and spell just like Ashley’s current spell, since that is his only reference. When he finished, it activated instantly and cracking was heard from the baby devil’s body.

Soon, his body began to grow, the horns stubs formed points and turned into small horns while he grew slightly longer hair and turned into a 2 year old sized child.

The only thing that made him different from Ashley was that his eyes were natural demon eyes, blood red with black sclera meaning the minions didn’t receive Ashley’s unique eye.

Xero then formed the Sword Devil’s Flaming Slice, Sword Artillery, Sword Devil’s Divine Fire Smite and Summon Sword Spirit in order of their forming. Sword artillery showed itself as one of the required innate spells making him grow to 3 year old size and possibly remove the ‘Weakened’ status as his mental abilities drastically improved and he began to talk like a child.

“Mashta, huwwy! Huwwy!” he said excited only to be hit on the head by Ashley.

“Respect master and don’t you dare order him around!” Ashley said like a big sister scolding her little brother.

He remained teary eyed and nodded before staying quiet. Finally, the last spells needed, the Sword Devil Flame and Sword Devil’s Forge were added in.

When the two formed, he jumped down and suddenly activated it and what formed were two small flames on it’s horn that slowly made the tiny horns white. Then the flames burst out covering him, injuring him greatly but the effect it had caused his body to grow to the size of an 8 year old because the forge and flame added to required aspects.

The size matched up to something similar to Cinder’s Lesser Plate Devil form meaning the Inferior and Weakened status were erased and he simply needed to be forged by a plated devil to be ‘complete’.

When the burst ended, the flames gathered into a small glowing flame that moved around like a living being and settled into the small flames on the horns.

His skin was white and his hair light green but slowly his demon side suppressed the holy flame and his blue skin and dark green hair returned to normal.

After that, Xero began working for an hour, before he found that the mana in the little devil was reaching the end, on putting the lowest level arts of the Sword Devil’s Combat Sword Arts.

“There, that should be plenty, you can start training those sword arts and how to use your skills properly, also don’t randomly make swords.” Xero said.

“Of course master!” He said saluting.

“Also… Ashley, after you leave another sword with me, try and find someone to make clothing for all your sword devil's.” Xero said.

Ashley giggled while opening her Field and looking around before pulling a long sword Sword Devil and letting it out.

Like before, this one was a baby but this time it was female. Ashley picked her up and put her in Xero’s arms with a smile, “I’ll be back soon.” She said smiling and then left with the little devil in sword form.

He narrowed his eyes at her and sighed as he looked at the little one year old sized devil girl lifting her foot to bite them.

He did the same thing and soon the mental link grew very strong like before and he followed the same path and slowly made the spells carefully without any failures or faults and was a perfect copy of Ashley’s.

The result was that she ended up the same way as the first one. She looked around 8 years old, and to his astonishment, she was very timid and actually bent her legs and stood sideways while peeking at Xero while blushing from ear to ear.

Similar to her ‘brother’ she had dark green hair that went down to her butt and had black skin.

Xero really wondered how different the little devils were for the little girl to be shameful while Ashley was shameless. “I think all of Ashley’s shame went to the minions.” was the only answer that Xero could think of.

Ashley returned and Xero found that the little devil, that was behind her, had baggy martial artist clothing and she was given.

“Alright master, let us get all remaining 28 before we go to Cinder before she leaves with father in law.” Ashley said. The two little devils were told to just train, they summoned forth their sword form with mana and began to spar together.

The boy had a gladius and the girl a thin long sword. As Xero and Ashley both copied the spells, they watched, Ashley sneered several times but remained quiet and slowly, the number of child sized devils increased as they were ‘completed’.

Almost a day passed before all the minions were completely left as Lesser Sword Devil Minions.

Not all the swords were the dragon ones. The volcanic rock sword, earth swords and others were mixed in because it was better to vary the types of true minions.

With 30 of them, there were 15 sparring battles going on constantly but after the last one was finished, they stood up.

“ALL OF YOU WEAKLINGS!” She shouted. “I held back because of what I needed to do but starting after your forging, I will make sure to pound each and every one of you until you cry because your sword skills are disgusting!” Ashley said growling.

She made them turn into swords and stored them all and they headed to Zip’s forge. There were already seven Plated Devils, not counting Cinder.

When Ashley pulled out all the minions, Cinder looked at them, “Wow, so many at once?” She asked.

“This is their first time, you need a sword to match anyway.” Ashley said.

“Good, there are seven so 3 tempering each means 24 of them are done by my minions, choose your ‘top six’ and I will do them personally.” She said.

Ashley looked at them and pointed out six of the swords while the other different swords were depressed.

They all wanted Cinder’s higher quality temper.

The six that were chosen were the first earth sword, the wooden curved sword, a nature dragon longsword, the volcanic rock sword, the wind rock sword formed in the training grounds and lastly the only ice blade made from the snow during the winter in the Lurian empire.

The others were split in groups of three and split up. The forges of the minions weren’t bad, in fact, Cinder and Zip spent a long time copying the current forge and skills to them so the forge wasn’t of bad quality and only lacked size due to their own levels.

They could also only do three forging a day which was enough for a good number of the devils. This further improved though after the first Forging due to their evolution each becoming complete Sword Devil’s and Plated Devil’s without any degrading status.

Their final height was of a 12 year old all around and the martial arts clothing all fit properly now.

When all of them were finished, the Plated Devil Minions were on the ground huffing while the Sword Devils were tired from the impacts but were in better condition.

“So what will you do now?” Cinder asked after finishing her part.

“We need to start developing our army. They need time to train first and grow more, it will take time before I can break through and allow them to break through as well.” Ashley said.

“Your Sword Devil Field has a limit of 60 swords right?” She asked.

“Yeah, that is my limit, only when I grow more and will it fit but then there is also each of their own fields so it's a matter of development.” She said.

“Is that so, well that is fine.” She said and then walked into the shed and called the imps.

She slowly walked out carrying black cannonballs as the others rolled them, there were 30 in total.

“Here, this is Devil’s Alloy, these are perfectly measured and each should only form a long sword. There are enough here for a Devil’s Alloy Sword Devil Minion.” She said. “We will be leaving tomorrow so I had these prepared in advance.” She said.

“Great!” Ashley said excitedly as she summoned sword spirits that were pushed into each ball.

She thanked Cinder and each Minion took one ball back with them and she watched the balls for a moment, “Two hours before they are done, put them on the side.” She said and everyone took them and lined them up near the wall. “Now~!” She said and suddenly they all felt a shiver down their spine. “Now I need to fix all the bad habits and movements you weaklings developed.” She said and grinned. Even when her eyes were blue, blind and she could only see a glowing mana body with some degree of detail, she was keen on sword movements and she could not accept her minions being so pathetic.

She summoned out her favorite butcher and kitchen knife she had always used, “Now get in pairs, if anyone dares do the movement’s wrong, you will feel what pain really is!” She said.

They all quickly lined up in pairs and used the Sword artillery to form swords in their hands and instantly several were beaten black and blue and put into the proper sword stance.

Xero was shocked by the strange change in Ashley’s manner but watched as the small devil’s grew better at swordsmanship. Several of which died to her beating and broke down before being absorbed by her only to start reforming in her Field. Ashley was completely merciless towards them.

BG