Isaac woke up with a groan and stretched his arms.
His head felt strangely light and refreshing. In fact, his whole body felt good, as if the exhaustion from the previous day had somehow melted away during the night.
He lay there for a moment, taking in the quiet surroundings of the Mirror World.
He noticed Emily was still in his arms. The leash remained tied around her neck, and as his eyes adjusted, he took in the rest of her appearance.
His eyes shot up in surprise.
If he had not been worried about waking Emily, he would have shouted out loud: What the hell did I do last night!?
Bunny ears sat on Emily’s head, white stockings covered her legs, and a single long white glove rested in one of her hands.
There were many hickeys scattered across her body. His gaze moved lower, and he realized they had forgotten to clean up after everything that happened last night.
They had done it until both of them were completely exhausted, their life force hitting near bottom. They fell asleep right there on the mat, outside and naked.
Fortunately, the Mirror World had stayed intact. Otherwise, Isaac did not know what he would have done if they had been thrown back into the real world like that during the night.
He could only sigh in embarrassment as he thought about falling asleep with Emily outside.
But it could not be helped. Yesterday, he had emptied his life force several times over. First, he had been with Celia after she consumed the Heaven Reversal Moon Elixir.
Then the two of them had gone at it again crazily after gaining their Lust transformation. They even went wild once more in the bathroom within the dream. The deed in the dream still consumed lifespan, so his reserves were already low.
It had not helped that he fought a huge battle earlier in the day. After all that, he had spent almost the entire night with Emily.
’What kind of crazy bastard does his wife like that when it is her first time from behind?’ he berated himself silently.
He had been so drunk that he went wild without holding back. Emily seemed to have enjoyed it too, which only made him feel a bit better about it. Still, the memory left him shaking his head. He massaged his brows slowly, trying to clear his thoughts.
’I was drunk last night, badly at that. It is Priscilla’s doing, isn’t it?’
He ground his teeth at the idea. He was going to teach that maid a lesson later. For now, he focused back on Emily. He knew why Priscilla had drugged him. She wanted him to produce heirs.
It seemed the dragon maid had ignored his advice after meeting the children at the Crawling Serpent Tribe, which only confirmed her decision.
Although Isaac did not know exactly what he had been fed, he did not need to worry about heirs right now. After all, he and Emily had done it from behind for all of the night.
’I got saved by Emily’s request. So why do I feel... awkward about it?’
It was like a firefighter saving you while you were doing solo sex. You would be thankful for being saved, but still feel ashamed.
Isaac sighed again and decided to check his System.
Last night, he had given Emily various resources to consume so that once she leveled up her Physique, she would gain powerful skills.
It was a good thing he had brought those items along. But in his drunken state, he had also purchased some stupid things from the Time Limited Shop.
Although their prices were not too serious, Isaac still felt he had lost a lot of money. He could only console himself by remembering that Emily liked the Spank skill and the Buttplug, so it was money well spent in the end.
As for the Hands of Devotion skill, it was meant for massaging. His wives would like that, especially Alice.
’I feel like I am becoming a pervert,’ he thought with a wince.
Isaac decided he was taking the news of buying those particular skills and item from the System to his grave.
He shuddered to think what would happen if Celia found out. That little gremlin would never let him live it down.
’I need to ask Emily to stay silent about it,’ he reminded himself.
He just hoped that Emily had not recorded last night like she sometimes did at the request of Celia or Alice. He could not understand why his wives, especially Alice, wanted those kinds of videos. But this time, he could not let anyone see what happened. His dignity was at stake.
"Isaac? You are awake?" Emily asked, slowly opening her eyes. She shifted a little in his arms and looked up at him with a soft expression.
"Yes. How are you feeling right now?" he asked, looking down at her. "Did I go too hard last night?"
"I... feel good. Last night was amazing," Emily said in an embarrassed tone, her cheeks turning red. She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek.
Isaac nodded and held her for a moment longer.
"Let’s take a bath before we leave the Mirror World," he said.
He lifted Emily into a princess carry and flew with her toward his room. It felt a little weird flying naked like that, but he tried not to think too much about it. Once they reached the room, he gave her a proper bath, making sure everything was cleaned up carefully.
After the bath, he spoke up. "Uh... Emily, can you not tell anyone about what I did last night?"
"But everyone already knows," Emily replied, her face burning. Last night had been crazy, and she felt her cheeks heat up again as she remembered some of the things she had said to keep Isaac spanking her.
"No, I’m not talking about doing it from behind but about..." He made a gesture with his hands to show bunny ears. He thought about gesturing the buttplug too, as saying the word out loud felt too embarrassing, but stopped since the gesture seemed just as bad.
"The tail and other things you wore," he added in the end.
Emily nodded. She felt quite embarrassed herself, but she noticed that Isaac looked just as awkward. Emily already knew Isaac was not used to these kinds of things.
He had only done it because she asked, and he had been trying to adjust for her sake. Since he was feeling this way, she decided it was her responsibility to make him understand how she really felt.
"Isaac, thank you for last night," she said as she held his hands. "I was really happy. Thank you for listening to me."
Even though she spoke those words because they needed to be said, her face was still burning with embarrassment. Isaac felt the same way. He could not help it. Last night had been wild for him. Never in his wildest dreams had he thought he would do something like that.
But now that he had gotten a taste of it....
’No, no, what am I thinking?’ he quickly pushed those thoughts away.
"How is your Physique progress?" Isaac asked, changing the topic.
"It reached 100%. I can make a breakthrough," Emily said.
"Alright. Let’s do it now," Isaac replied.
Emily nodded and sat cross-legged on the bed. She closed her eyes and started her breakthrough. When she finished, she floated in the air for a moment before slowly returning to the bed. A wave of mana erupted from her. For a short time, the wave became erratic. Isaac sensed multiple energies mixed in it. One was regular mana, another was life force, and there was also the Dark Mana that he and Celia could access but not use yet. There were even more energies present.
Isaac was stunned and did not understand what had happened. Frost appeared in the room, and for a moment, he thought he heard the wailing of ghosts.
Then everything returned to normal, and Emily opened her eyes. She exhaled lightly, breathing out a bit of chilling air, and looked at him.
"It’s done," she said, a smile breaking on her face.
"Congratulations," Isaac said.
"Thank you. Now, I will go cook the breakfast. I can check my skills later," she said as she stood up.
Isaac was a bit surprised, so Emily added, "Today is my turn, and Alice and Selene invited Chairman Lucius and Aunty Beatrice. I want to cook something good for them, so it would take time."
"Okay, but take it slow," Isaac said. He knew Alice had already told her about Chairman Lucius’ partner.
He waved his hand to send her out of the Mirror World.
He knew that for Emily, power and family mattered about the same. No, she cared more about family, and power was just a tool to protect them.
So it made sense that she was more eager to cook for everyone than to check her new skills right away.
Now alone, Isaac said, ’System, share Emily’s Physique progress before she broke through!’
Hollow Crown Physique (Level 0, Progress: 40% → 100%).
He started his own breakthrough next. After it was completed, he felt an eternal cold flowing through his veins. The cold was chilling, yet he felt comfortable with it. Rather, it felt like home, as if his body had finally gained something it always should have had.
Hollow Crown Physique (Level 1, Progress: 0%).
Then he checked his first new skill.
Hollow Reservoir (SSS+ rank, Level 1).
Active Effect: Can use stored life force to heal, or boost summons.
Passive Effect: Extracts life force from defeated enemies.
Isaac was stunned. The effect was simple, but it was enormous. Emily already had powerful summons, and with her boosting them using this skill, she would be unmatched.
Next, he checked the following skill.
Soul Tax (SSS+ rank, Level 1).
Active Effect: Mark a target with curse. 20% of the damage dealt by the marked target will be siphoned and converted into healing energy.
Passive: 1% damage to the target of their total Constitution stat. Duration: 10 minutes.
Isaac read everything again carefully. It seemed like the skill would deal about ten percent damage over ten minutes while also reducing damage taken by twenty percent.
The skill was overpowered. It felt too strong, and it was only at level one. He knew it would grow even stronger as it leveled up.
Next came the Soul Ledger skill.
Soul Ledger (SSS rank, Level 1)
Effect: Record the souls of defeated enemies or beings that served the user and died.
Isaac felt confused by it. The description seemed quite simple. He wondered why it held such a high rank and whether it would gain more effects later on.
Since he did not understand it fully, he moved on to the next skill.
Empty King’s Stomach (SSS rank, Level 1)
Effect: Allows user to store 1000 Mana, 1000 Life Force, and 1000 Dark Mana for later use.
Isaac was stunned by the numbers.
At their current Adept rank, both he and Emily had a limit of around two thousand in all stats.
Now they could gain an extra one thousand mana on top of that.
Emily could also store life force and dark mana, even though dark mana normally belonged only to hell species.
The life force storage was especially useful because it covered the main drawback of the Celestial Kitsune Physique.
He no longer needed to worry as much about doing the deed too much. As long as he did not push too far, he would not run out of life force. He could even outlast someone like Catherine in a long ’fight’. Feeling happy about it, he checked the final skill.
’Let’s show sis a good time next time too,’ he thought with a smirk. He was going to take revenge for all the teasing he received over the years.
Hollow Crown Manifestation (SSS+ rank, Level 1)
Active Effect: +30% to all stats, +50% to summons’ strength, skills cost reduced by 25%
Passive Effect: Transform into Netherborn Emperor. Allows user to use the SSS rank skill [Emperor’s Decree.]
Isaac almost reacted out loud when he saw it. The skill felt completely broken. A thirty percent bonus to all stats was already ridiculous on its own.
But the fifty percent boost to summons was something else entirely. Emily had abyssal summons, boss monster summons, catastrophe summons, and even ancient king summons.
Each one was already a powerhouse, and this would make them far stronger.
Feeling excited, Isaac spoke once more. ’System, share Emily’s new skills!’
Hollow Reservoir (SSS+ rank → Transcendent rank)
Soul Tax (SSS+ rank → Transcendent rank)
Soul Ledger (SSS rank → SSS+ rank)
Empty King’s Stomach (SSS rank → SSS+ rank)
Hollow Crown Manifestation (SSS+ rank → Transcendent rank)