Chapter 217 - Aura

"...Subordinate, this monster?"

Ethan was visibly confused. He never expected the monster to surrender to the mere vision of his aura. He realized that the title was much more valuable than he could have imagined, because without it, he could have lost the fight now.

At his words, the monster lowered his head even further, a sign of complete subordination to his new master.

'..If I could get his power to adapt as the fight progresses and his innate intelligence in detecting weak points, I could definitely become much stronger than before.'

From the powers, Ethan knew very well that taking this monster as a subordinate had only advantages to show, but as he understood with time, loyalty was a very difficult value to understand. First he had to know the subordinate, understanding what they wanted and acting to try to help them accomplish whatever they wanted, Ethan believed that 'loyalty' worked just like that, kind of like trust. Words didn't have much value, but they could have value for someone like Glenda or Maple, while with Reyna actions and moods were much more effective, in short, everyone had something they wanted, and the more they were satisfied, the more their loyalty increased.

'If a monster like this is subordinated to the strong, that means the more overwhelming my power, the more obedient this monster will be, so it will increase its loyalty to me.'

It was far less risky to have Maple, Glenda and Reyna as subordinates, but the advantages were far too high to refuse such an offer, and above all, in this floor and perhaps even the lower ones, his aura was strong enough to overwhelm them all, reason for this behaviour from the monster.

'Without Maple's presence I would surely have had a tough time, yet now I can obtain a new subordinate thanks to her.'

Smiling, Ethan decided to accept mentally, but as soon as he did, numerous panels appeared in front of him

[[Nameless] is now your subordinate. Please rename it.]

[Since the pact was established, the Host will know how to properly control the monster. Skill [Aura] created]

[Communication will be allowed]

[Restricting the subordinate from learning the Host's previous world's languages...]

'A spiritual contract is stronger than a normal contract.'

With this certainty that he had partly clarified his doubts concerning spiritual energy, he now had to find a suitable name for his new subordinate.

'..I can't think of anything.'

Ethan had only seen him fight, and based only on his extreme adaptability, few names came to mind, and they didn't seem to meet the expectations he had for such a strong creature.

"...First, can you feel my presence? you should be able to."

Similar to Maple, Ethan could now feel the presence of the monster and its aura, thanks to the invisible wire composed of spiritual energy capable of binding the two auras, concrete proof that the contract had been successful.

"Yes, Master."

The monster spoke up. Unlike Maple, it didn't seem at all surprised that the two could now communicate without any problem, but decided not to give weight to this. For now, what mattered was to be able to get out of the dungeon, and as Light had said, any being connected to his soul wouldn't have any risk, even crossing worlds.

But to his surprise, even trying to escape the real dungeon, another panel occupied his vision.

They had to get out of the dungeon before they could go back to the real world. Now the information was of little importance as Ethan had barely travelled his way from the entrance of the first floor, but if for example he had to go down to the 100th floor, to get out it would still take hours and hours as he had to go up again, which made him sigh because this information should have been sent to him from the start, not when he was trying to get out.

'I'll let it slide only because the system gave me a new skill.'

He didn't want to talk to the system right now, he certainly had more important things to do. First he wanted to name the monster properly, and then he definitely wanted to try to understand more about the skill [Aura], since he had yet to use it.

"Follow me, we'll return home."

His simple words, however, had an effect that even Ethan didn't expect.

[[Nameless]'s loyalty increased by 1]

[[Nameless]'s loyalty increased by 1]

...

'...It seems loyalty surprised me once again.'

[...The skill [Aura] has a passive effect. If you want to give an order to your subordinates, Aura will let the Host's words be carried out with much more strength than normal, reaction will go accordingly to the subordinate's feelings. This skill is special. If the Host learns how to control it, then it will turn into an active effect.]

He was worried that this skill might adversely affect all of his subordinates except the monster who needed to feel the power behind his orders to obey. But the system had also included what really interested him, so with a sigh, the two were already out of the dungeon.

"...I have something to talk with you about. You can now feel my spiritual energy, can't you?"

Since he was in no hurry anyway, Ethan decided to learn how to control the aura before he left the Dungeon, so as not to frighten not only his subordinates, but also everyone else. After the system pointed out to him about the aura, he noticed that around him, a sort of white mist was putting pressure on the monster, which was essentially having to bear the weight of Ethan's aura, but the thing he didn't quite understand, was that this aura contained traces of divine within, and that if Loki saw him with this aura, she would probably mistake it for a divinity he had awakened.

"...Yes, Master. I can feel the weight of your spiritual energy on my soul. This being had been spared from death and know that this punishment would not be enough to make up for its mistakes."

The voice was sore, but at the same time Ethan could feel the respect the monster had for him, which had surprised him for a moment, but he understood the reason for his loyalty right away, so he decided to move on.

"...let's move on. You can feel my aura, but do you know how can I suppress it? If I were to walk around freely in this aura, it would be a disaster, so I hope you know something more than I do."

The system had given him a skill and explained that it could be active or passive, for now it was always active and could not be disabled, this meant that Ethan would continue unintentionally to put pressure on anyone who was at a small distance from him, and in addition his subordinates in the real world would be met by the enormous pressure his spiritual energy could master.

The monster was surprised at the words of its master. He didn't have control over his aura, so it meant he wasn't even fighting with the enormous spiritual energy he possessed before, the monster realized he didn't have a chance at beating Ethan in the first place.

[[Nameless]'s loyalty increased by 10]

[[Nameless]'s loyalty increased by 10]

...

Ethan was surprised to notice that from 1 at a time, now the monster's loyalty was increasing by 10 at a time, but he continued to ignore it as he had to regain control of his aura first.

"...Master. You must think of the aura emitted as the fruit of the spiritual energy you control. The higher your control, the easier it will be for you to control your aura. To suppress it, all you have to do is think you want to seal it inside your body, and it will disappear. As soon as you want to manifest it, either individually or against a group of enemies, you will always just imagine releasing the aura, it is very controllable so you have the choice to release it partially, all at once, progressively. The only known limit for the aura is the amount of spiritual energy that a being possesses, the rest is the work of imagination and knowledge of the principles of the aura itself."

In reality, the aura was the distinctive character of beings who used spiritual energy. All were able to manifest the aura and to make of it what most d.e.s.i.r.ed. The problem with Ethan's was not only the purity, the white colour was considered the purest existing, but also the traces of divinity within it. In short, Ethan's aura could be considered superior to any aura that existed in the 1999 world. The only thing that would stop the strongest monsters from following Ethan was just the amount of spiritual energy he possessed. Though pure up to this level, Ethan didn't yet have a tenth of the spiritual energy possessed by the boss of the 100th floor, but that was something neither of them could know, at least at the time.

"..I see. If that's the case."

Ethan had also gained control over the spiritual energy from Maple, so it was easy for him to understand what the monster meant, and after a few seconds, Ethan imagined suppressing all the aura within him, closing it with a lock so that not a single drop would escape from its body.

"...Do you still feel it?"

The monster shook his head. Just as he had told him to imagine, Ethan had completely sealed the aura, which now would not be possible to feel for anyone but himself.

He was satisfied with the notification and ready to exit the real dungeon, but there was still the question of the name that made him remain puzzled. Since the monster seemed to admire strength so much, Ethan wanted to give it a name that represented strength in itself, but he could only think of something completely different from what the monster really was. He feared that the name would negatively affect the monster's powers if he gave it one that was meaningful and too different from what he really was.

[...Naming the subordinate is something purely personal. This means that whatever name the host will give to the monster, it will be able to evolve following the direction that the host has decided for it.]

This meant that any name Ethan would give to a monster who didn't have one, could drastically change the abilities gained by the latter.

'Interesting...'

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(I have a discord server. discord.gg/cpVr5X8. You may ask me: "Why should I enter the server?". Well, I'm replying to every interesting question you readers are asking in my chapters, so, you should absolutely enter if you want to read my answers. Ah, and you can find some image reference of items in the story such as Light..! (Soon even Qienta).. so it's recommended to join, I frequently post polls as well, regarding things that(most likely) will be present in the story. One last thing, I post chapter updates in my discord right after I posted on , so I guess you can join to be able to know when I post chapters faster.)

(Poll going on in the discord: Vote what you think is better. I only want to introduce one of these three, the ones with most votes when I feel like it wins. - Light being able to interact with the real world. - Qienta shows up before planned. - More power ups than planned for the girls and Ethan himself.)

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(Alternate Titles: "Ok, now let's talk about a good name for this fella?", "Ethan be like: Okay let's fix this *3 seconds after* done!", "So, why Ethan's Aura has traces of divinity?")