The familiar chime of system notifications rang softly in Isaac's mind as he held Catherine close against him.
[Your wife, Catherine Lorrain's Affection has reached 150.]
[Affection of three wives has reached 150.]
[You have received Bracelet of Green Court (Legendary, Growth-type)]
A bracelet materialized in his mind. Isaac focused on it at once. A flash of genuine surprise crossed his face as the details settled into place. The ability was straightforward. Once worn, any land he farmed would begin attracting crop spirits and spirit animals.
That surprised him more than he expected. His own skill was supposed to draw crop spirits already, yet he had not encountered a single one so far.
At first he had assumed it would happen naturally once his fields reached a certain quality. Now he was starting to believe he had been wrong about how easily they appeared.
The bracelet would help close that gap. Crop spirits could nurture growing plants directly, raising their quality by a wide margin. His harvests were already solid, so the added support would make a real difference.
Spirit animals were another matter entirely. They ranked below elemental spirits on the hierarchy, yet that comparison only applied when measured against the higher beings.
In truth they remained rare and poorly understood. Proper research on them was scarce because sightings were so uncommon, and their powers stayed mostly mysterious. Stories claimed they could bring good luck, summon pure rain, or perform other quiet miracles.
A few religions had even grown up around famous ones after travelers near death in the wilderness were saved by their intervention.
If the bracelet could truly attract spirit animals, it was valuable beyond simple farming. It could also grow stronger.
The upgrade requirement was not especially harsh. He only needed to gather twenty crop spirits of different types and five spirit animals.
Isaac smiled and summoned the bracelet into the open air. It was a simple band of deep green metal etched with faint leaf patterns that seemed to shift when the light caught them. Using telekinesis, he slipped it onto his wrist. His arms were still wrapped around Catherine, so he had no choice but to move it that way.
Almost an hour and a half passed before she stirred. Catherine blinked slowly, focused on his face, and then smiled.
"You have been holding me this whole time? Since when did my little brother get so good at knowing how to tug at a woman's heartstrings?" she teased, already sounding more like her usual self. Isaac could see the difference clearly. Her mental state looked far steadier than it had been earlier.
"It's husband, not little brother," he answered, and flicked her forehead lightly with a thread of telekinesis.
Something unexpected happened. One of Catherine's skills let her cut through void and space. She altered it with her evolved aura so the effect could travel through mana instead. The cut was weak, but it still severed the telekinetic thread cleanly before it reached her.
Isaac stared for a moment, caught off guard by the casual precision.
"If you can surpass me in combat, I'll think about calling you husband," she said, clearly satisfied by the look on his face.
He sighed, though the sound carried more fondness than real irritation. Catherine had spent a long stretch inside her Conqueror Trial. She could not raise her level there, but the time had sharpened her control over every ability she already possessed.
As a Champion-rank awakener her soul was strong, which made her evolved aura more effective at reshaping skills. She had also used those skills for years, while Isaac had only held his for a few weeks—or months if he counted the time inside Selene's trial—that familiarity let her twist them with far more ease.
"Is that a challenge?" he asked, the corner of his mouth lifting.
"It is," Catherine answered. A faint competitive light burned in her eyes.
Isaac grinned. The Perfectionist title sat in his status with five stacks already, each one further accelerating the growth of his skills. Catherine was clearly counting on her higher base stats and the superior refinement of her evolved aura to keep the edge.
Neither of them asked when the fight would happen. They simply looked at each other, drawn each by each other's gaze.
A silence descended, but it felt charged, unlike before. Their lips met. Isaac's hand slid to the back of her head, fingers digging roughly into her hair while his other arm tightened around her waist. They kissed with real hunger.
Catherine pressed into him as if she had been starved for the contact, and even though Isaac still could not remember the details of his own Conqueror Trial, the same feeling sat heavy in his chest. It had been too long since he could be this close to her.
They stayed locked together on the broad branch of the tree, exchanging their breath and saliva. Catherine's claws lengthened and sharpened.
She tore his shirt open with two quick rakes, then set her mouth against the side of his neck, trailing lower across his shoulders and up to the sensitive skin behind his ear.
Isaac's hand kept moving over the curve of her ass, fingers digging into the soft flesh there. Blood rushed hard between his legs as the contact deepened.
They pulled back after a long moment. Both of them were breathing heavily, faces flushed and close.
Catherine licked the mixed saliva from her lips and spoke in a tone that mixed challenge with clear invitation. "Why did you pull back? Are you afraid of doing it here?"
"Afraid? Me? I'm just worried that you won't be able to use your clones in this narrow space, and without them you'll be completely at my mercy," Isaac answered.
They both looked ready to continue right there on the branch, yet each of them forced the urge down. The tension stayed thick between them.
"When are we going to fight?" Isaac asked, deliberately shifting the subject.
Catherine's eyes curved with quiet amusement. Instead of answering at once, her hand settled over the front of his pants and began caressing his shaft through the fabric. Isaac bit his lip, nearly letting out a sound at the soft pressure.
"My season will be coming soon. We can fight then," she said.
"Season?" he asked.
"The season of mating. It's the time when Celestial Kitsunes are most sexually active and their instincts push them to have children. Even you won't be able to ignore it when it hits. We also won't have to worry about life force during that period, so we can keep going as long as we want."
She licked her lips again and kept stroking him while she leaned in to whisper near his ear. "Can you really stand against me then? I won't have to worry about sucking up your life force then, and my stamina is a lot higher than yours."
"We will see," Isaac said, keeping his smile steady.
Both of them projected confidence, but quiet doubts sat underneath. Catherine had always held herself back during past seasons, sometimes locking herself in a room for days. She had worried she might attack Isaac if she stayed free. Now the situation felt different.
Until recently she had been like a child who had never tasted something sweet, able to ignore other people talking about how good it was. She had tasted it herself now, and she liked it—loved it. The thought of how far she might lose control when the season arrived left her uncertain.
Isaac carried his own concerns. Four of his bloodlines already increased his lust. On top of that, Catherine had said lifespan would not be an issue during the season, so the only limitation would be his physical stamina, and his physical stamina was sky high.
He was more than a little worried about how much control he might lose once the instincts took hold.
"Well, it's good you have so many wives," Catherine said, as if she had picked up on his thoughts.
"What do you mean?" Isaac asked.
"I've read records about previous male and female Celestial Kitsunes. Some of them lost so much control during the season that they drained their partners completely of life force and still didn't stop. But you have multiple partners. Even if you lose control, you can just switch and let the others recover until you do them again." She finished with a small wink.
Isaac stayed at her speechlessly. The logic made sense, yet the way she phrased it made him sound like a scumbag, who kept partners only for sexual relief. Seeing the pout form on his face, Catherine chuckled.
He decided to move the conversation elsewhere, not intending to let her have more fun at his expense. "So what did you mean when you said we won't have to worry about life force? I guess you're saying a Celestial Kitsune's life force gets strengthened tremendously during the season. How does that actually work?"