Mira laughed softly as she lowered her head to his shoulder while her hand settled on his chest.
A smile slowly tugged across her lips because she couldn't believe how much fun she'd had today.
"Thank you for sparring with me today," Mira whispered.
"You're welcome," Austin replied.
"I had fun today." She added.
"Me too," Austin said in agreement.
Hearing this, Mira's lips curled into a faint smile as she turned towards him again. "Are you going to head back to your quarters soon… or will you be staying here a little longer?" She asked, and Austin glanced at the ceiling before looking back at her.
From the way she had asked the question, Austin could already guess the response she wanted to hear, so he didn't hesitate to satisfy her curiosity.
"I'd like to stay. If you don't mind."
Mira's smile widened, and she shook her head as she replied. "Not at all. But if you're going to stay, would you like to have something to eat or drink?"
"Yes."
"Alright, then. I'll find a maid and have something brought over for us to eat together." Mira said as she rose slowly to her feet before brushing off her skirt.
Austin nodded and watched as she turned and made her way toward the exit.
The smile on his lips lingered for a while, but as he watched her leave the room, a blue screen suddenly appeared before him
[Congratulations to the host, Mira's affection level has successfully risen to Level 2.]
Seeing this, a huge grin appeared on his face.
He wasn't surprised to see this because he had expected her affection towards him to have improved due to their sparring, which helped them to really bond.
'Now, it's only a matter of time before her affection level reaches level three, just like Lina.' He thought to himself before turning his attention back to the screen.
[The host's attributes have also increased by 20 attribute points, and you've received an additional 20 summoning points, along with 20 new physique points as well.]
[Your summoning points are now enough to summon a maximum of two spirits.]
"Woah, woah, woah, wait a minute!"
"I can summon spirits?"
"But how?!" Austin asked with a surprised look on his face, but since the system wasn't a sentient type, it couldn't give him a response to his question.
However, Austin was already used to this by now, so he hadn't expected the system to give him an answer to his question, but he was still surprised to see the string of words displayed in front of him.
This was because, from what he had learned about his awakened bloodline, the Von Jurgens were a powerful household due to their bloodline ability, which allowed them to summon spirit artifacts from the spirit realm.
These spirit artifacts had been extremely useful during the spirit beast tide and the rampage of wild spirit beings in the empire.
Austin had assumed that he would also be able to summon these artifacts, but he hadn't expected the system to tell him that he would be able to summon the spirits themselves rather than the artifacts.
Deciding to focus on the matter at hand, Austin swiftly calmed his confused mind as he tried to see the benefits of being able to summon a spirit.
Of course, the benefits of being able to do that were indeed great, though the system didn't give him more information like whether the spirits he could summon were already tamed or if he would have to tame them himself.
If it were the latter, it would not only be difficult, but it would also be impossible to achieve because spirit beasts were mostly feared due to their aggressive nature, and taming one of them had never been done before.
"Alright, let's see what type of spirit I'll be able to summon." Austin sighed softly as he decided not to think too much about how dangerous spirits were.
Since the system said he would be able to summon a spirit, the least he could do was to see what type of spirit he could even summon.
This was because, in the spirit realm, aside from spirit beasts and dangerous spirit beings, fairies, elementals, and a few others were known to inhabit the spirit realm as well. Thus, Austin was quite curious to find out the type of spirit he would be able to summon.
And so, with his mind made up on what he was going to do, he brought his attention back to the screen, which was still hovering in front of him.
[Would you like to summon a spirit now?]
'Yes.' Austin replied, and the system acknowledged his response.
Then he noticed a small magic circle appear on the floor in front of him.
Meanwhile, within the magic circle, Austin watched as small golden orbs emerged from the floor and began to float above the circle.
The orbs slowly began to crackle with electricity, then eventually, a small figure materialized before him.
The little guy had a glowing pumpkin head, and it was wearing a rich purple and gold garment, making it look like a cute little toddler dressed for Halloween.
On the other hand, the little pumpkin spirit was blinking in wonder at its arms and legs, then it finally turned around, and its eyes clashed with those of Austin.