Summoned and Unwanted

303 Sub-Familiar Mutation

Vincent summoned a cold bucket with almost frozen water in it. Vincent left these buckets in his storage to make ice cubes in case of a heatwave in the summer urges him to make a cold drink.

Vincent then summoned and wrapped a couple of rags around the freezing bucket. He gently lowered the baby condor in the cold water, and steam rose when the hot condor touched the cold water.

“This should help for now, the little condor.” Vincent warmly said.

“Plow wants to help too, but Plow can only keep birdie warm.” *Pho...* Plow turned her head towards Tula and jumped on her.

“Plow will let Vincent carry birdie alone. Plow is a good girl.” *Pho*

“I guess you won’t mind purchasing the next batch of unwanted familiars when I have some in stock. Please visit again, hehe.” The vendor seemed satisfied to get rid of the unsold familiars.

It wasn’t all about business. The vendor wanted to meet the resourceful Vincent again and see if he could turn one or both familiars into a different form. The vendor still found it difficult to believe that Plow was the same little blue fox he didn’t know what to do with.

“Stop mistreating familiars. Secondly, I will soon become lord Vincent Lionheart. Come to my new home where the deceased Viscount Demel Blackheart lived, and I might be interested in acquiring unwanted HEALTHY familiars.” Vincent said before he turned around and walked away.

The familiar vendor blankly stared at Vincent and the others as they left in a hurry.

.....

“So the rumors are true? The Viscount has passed away, and the widowed wife decided to marry on the same day her husband died.” *Sigh* “I don’t understand how nobles think, but... I might have acquired a new stingy noble customer.” The vendor looked at the two dirty cages and murmured, “Looks like I have to take good care of the unwanted as well.”

From this day, the man who sold and traded familiars as a job started treating the difficult to sell familiars with more care. However, it’s not like he turned a new leaf this quickly as it was all because of money. Vincent stated he would only buy healthy familiars next time.

*Click. Bam* A door was unlocked and hastily opened.

Vincent rushed to the kitchen and placed a bucket with what people might think was a half-cooked bird soup.

“Overheat.” He said.

“Teacher. Are you... are you going to try another familiar blood bond contract?” Lenn asked.

“But can it work?” Renn asked. “I heard how the soul of a person could get damaged and if a person tries to make duplicate bonds. The class of the person doing this would degrade or something like that. ”

“Soul Degradation is when a class stops advancing and keeps getting weaker until the skills or spells are forgotten, and the strength gained wanes shortly after. ” Yula informed.

She looked at Vincent with his transformation complete and added, “My husband once met with a case like this. He warned anyone getting a familiar not to get a second one.”

“Thank you for your concern, but my soul is strong, and I didn’t gain my power from the dragons or from wherever they originated at. I hope it will be different in my case.” Vincent said with his hoarse voice.

[What have you decided to try? Are you going to gift a drop of your blood for a blood bond contract, or are you going to try spending the last twenty Soul Power for a retainer bond?]

-I want to try to see if my blood can help in any way.-

Vincent scratched his arm. A bead of mutated blood glazed with a thin coating of mana to keep it from evaporating was on the tip of his finger.

Vincent opened the condor’s mouth and wiggled his finger up and down until the drop of mutated blood fell in the condor’s mouth and got swallowed.

Vincent waited for any signs, such as being pulled into a place similar to a soul domain and creating a new familiar bond or a notification window with hopefully good news or a warning.

Second after second trickled, but nothing happened. Vincent and Kazumi became perplexed after they became accustomed to seeing a reaction happen whenever they tried something. The failure felt unexpected to them.

Vincent turned his gaze on the little boar. He pressed on the scratch on his arm and drew a bead of blood once again. He wanted to see if nothing would happen again.

“Here. Drink this.” Vincent gently opened the little boar’s mouth and placed the droplet on its tongue.

The small horned yok boar frantically licked its lips because the hot mutated blood almost scaled its fragile tongue. Fortunately, Vincent received a result this time.

.

[Notice.]

[The wish of the Host to create a [Hero] with [Mutation] skill while in Overheat mutated form or a similar state has been detected.]

[No refund. No discount.]

[Will the Host agree to spend 20sp to learn an ability from the Host’s memories?]

.

[Accept -20sp] [Decline]

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“Accept.” He said with a low voice.

.

[Initation accepted. 0 SP remaining.]

[Host has one hour to...]

[Requirement achieved.]

[Sub-Familiar Mutation skill is available.]

[Sub-Familiar Mutation has been added to the Mutation Class category. The skill is ready to be used.]

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[Sub-Familiar Mutation description.]

[The skill [Sub-Familiar Mutation] will forcefully mutate an untamed familiar’s magic core when the host gifts his blood when in [Overheat] state.]

[The composition of the magic core will extensively change, and the familiar will become a mutant variant.]

[The familiar will not be able to Awaken into a Magic Beast after the skill is used. The magic core can only be awakened when the familiar forms a bond with a Blood or Magic Bond Contract.]

[The mutant variant will not be hostile towards the originator of the mutated blood strain in their veins. The mutant variant will not be immediately hostile towards beings with the same mutated blood strain.]

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Vincent smirked at the new mutation skill window. His body felt two brief connections, and then he heard, “Huh? The boar is shaking. Did your blood make it sick?”

Yula was the one holding the little boar. She was the first one to feel and notice the sudden change of the boar’s condition.

“T-the condor is also shaking!” Renn noticed.

.

[Notice]

[Frostflake Condor Sub-Familiar mutation started.]

[Frostflake Condor’s magic core is being assimilated and changed. The survival rate is 90%]

[Horned Yok Boar Sub-Familiar mutation started.]

[Horned Yok Boar’s magic core is being assimilated and changed. The survival rate is 69%]

.

[Huh!? This means they can die!]

[I am using Mana Sense, and a weird thing is happening in front of us. I can see traces of mana surrounding both the condor and boar.]

[You better stay on your toes for any dangerous side effects if it is a success or a failure. It’s always something unexpected when you try to help. This time the result could be devastating.]

[I hope Olive and Lian don’t see these two young familiars die. They were so excited and happy when you bought them.]

‘Kazumi is right. I need to hurry and hope for the best.’ Vincent thought as he quickly took the boar from Yula’s arms and placed it on the table.

“Stand back. They are mutating, and I don’t know if they can overcome it. If they become good like Plow or aggressive like a feral beast, I don’t know, but I don’t want to take any risks.” Vincent warned with his hoarse voice.

Vincent nor Kazumi could guess if the familiar would die or turn into something similar to Overload Vincent and attack anything they see if the mutation is unsuccessful.

Vincent could protect everyone if a dangerous situation occurred because the active duration of Overheat had less than five minutes remaining.

Both the boar and the condor didn’t cough blood, unlike what happened to Plow. The change in their body wasn’t as significant as the change in Plow’s body.

A couple of one-inch tendrils poked out of the two familiar mouths. It appeared to be quite similar to Vincent’s blood gauntlet transformation and how mutated blood seeps from under his fingernails and covers his hands as it was a living organism.

“Ahh! It’s scary!” Tula closed her eyes and turned around. It was similar to watching two small animals were being assimilated by symbiote alive. A horrible and disgusting sight to many.

Olive and Lian shivered, and their bodies froze from fright. Yula quickly went beside the two little demigoblins and covered their eyes. “I am here for you.” She gently whispered while also glancing if her daughter from time to time.

“Don’t worry, teacher. We won’t get in the way. Us brothers will do our best to protect everyone. ” Lenn said with his fists raised.

“Don’t worry, mother, elder sister, and green kids. We will protect you.” Renn said. His eyes looked around to find an object to use for a weapon.

“Plow helps too.” *Pho...* Plow bravely said, yet she could feel her ability to transform to make her grow bigger and stronger might last for less than five seconds.

However, fortunately, all the precautions and worrying were for naught.

A layer of mutated blood began leaking out from their mouths. The living organism-like green mutated blood covered the two familiars entirely in a matter of a minute. Both of them turned into an emerald statue, similar to what happened to Plow.

[...]

[I can see a different sight now. The mana is not chaotic anymore. It looks contained.]

-In other words, it has become safe now, right?-

[Yes.]

.....