"Brat, I told you to call me just Aria and not Auntie."
She held Harold under a headlock until he tapped out and both of them laughed.
"Is that a homunculus? But I already have a battle homunculus."
"This one is not a simple battle homunculus, it is warmonger's equivalent."
Harold's eyes widened in shock. Warmonger was the key to destroying the bigger savages.
Savages were of seven tiers, each one more powerful than the previous one.
They also had multiple classes and varied in form and abilities based on it.
The only mythic savage defeated by humanity is the Trembling Bard. An impish-looking being with enough power to sink an entire island.
Mythic meant that the savage was tier 5.
Its power was not even its destructive part. It emitted a strange frequency which caused aggression and fear among humans.
It took the warmonger a lot to defeat it.
"Forget about this homunculus for now, where is my sister?"
"Mother is waiting for you inside."
Aria went inside the house as Harold came near Edoran.
"I am Harold Faulkner. Come inside, it is my birthday today. Do you want to have some cake?"
Edoran looked at Harold apprehensively. Then he walked in with Harold.
'This is my life now. Let me at least try to make it better by acting along.'
Edoran was shocked to see the interior of the mansion. It was thrice as large as it looked outside. It had a grand look like that of a king's castle.
"Surprised, huh? This house is made out of the wood of a Greater savage. That is why it can become larger inside by bending space."
There were many servants preparing the grand hall and decorating it. A man with grey hair was guiding them.
"Gideon, this is my new homunculus. How does it look?"
The man inspected Edoran and said, "It is wonderful, master Harold. Your grandfather is arriving shortly so I ask you to guide it to where the other battle homunculus is."
Harold nodded and took Edoran to a room. A boy was sitting inside with black hair and red eyes similar to those of Edoran.
"Harold, you are back. I have attuned my core more with my body now. I should be able to at least defend myself against tier-1 savages now."
"That is really good. I have even got a partner for you to practice with."
The boy looked at Edoran and smiled.
"Hey, I am Jake. I am a battle homunculus just like you. How strong is your core? Has it reached tier 2 yet?"
"Hah, no Jake. He got only developed now. His core is activated only once. You guys catch up, I am going back."
Jake nodded and asked Edoran to take a seat next to his bed.
"What is your name?"
"I am Edoran. Are you not a homunculus? Don't they treat you like a slave?"
"No. Harold is a good man. He supports me well and never speaks harshly. Even though my core is less than 15% made out of a savage core, he still helps me develop."
'It is no good. This boy has been completely brainwashed by this family. He does not know that he has to go and fight those savages out there.'
"Edoran, how about we check the efficiency of your core? Come with me to the training room."
Edoran did not say anything and went along with Jake. They reached the training room. It was a clean hall with many weapons and armour around.
Jake took a deep breath and his hand started glowing forming a small hexagonal structure.
"This is the subspace. You can store items in it. Each core can create a subspace. Humans need to be holding a core with them to use a subspace but we homunculus can create it just by thinking."
Edoran noticed that the subspace was less than half the size of the one that Aria had made.
"You should summon it as well. Just focus on creating space."
Edoran stretched out his arm just like Jake and focused on making a space for storage.
A huge red hexagonal structure formed in front of him. It greatly overshadowed both Aria and Jake's subspaces.
'This Edoran's core is really powerful. To be able to make such a big subspace, I wonder how much of his core is savage.'
They both heard someone clapping behind them. An old man in a blue striped suit and matching hat clapped enthusiastically. His wrinkled face broke out into a smile.
"Ohoho look here. A homunculus creates such a large subspace. You must be the one I commissioned from Orion Labs."
Jake bowed down instantly upon looking at the man and greeted him.
The man just casually waved his hand at him and asked him to rise.
"I am William, grandfather to your owner. You are stronger than I anticipated. Would you like to spar with my friend here?"
Edoran did not want to spar. Jake gave him a dark look implying that he should accept William's offer.
Edoran was scared to see Jake like that.
'How ruthless is this old man for Jake to be so scared? I should probably agree just to be safe.'
Edoran accepted the spar. A tall heavily-built man stepped forward. He had a little armour around him. His face was kind despite his rough build.
"This is my guard, Leon. He is a human so he needs to use the core in his armor. You should just use the energy in your core to augment yourself. Focus on making your body stronger."
Leon stepped forward and shook Edoran's hand. He pushed his thumb on his chest plate and it glowed orange.
He took a stance to attack.
'Fuck. This man is serious. I need to guard myself properly.'
Edoran focused on his core to strengthen him. Power surged into him again. Leon rushed at him at inhumane speed.
Before Edoran could dodge, a fist came to his face sending him flying.
Blood flowed from his cut lip as he winced in pain. He slowly got to his feet.
'Shit. That felt like a sledgehammer ramming into my face.'
Leon rushed at him again and raised his hand to give him a destructive hammer fist.
Edoran brought his forearm up to defend against the attack and focused on protecting his head.
His hand barely sustained the attack as he grits his teeth in pain.
He gave a vicious body punch to Leon. The armour on Leon's body cracked as he was sent flying as well.
Leon landed on his feet and smiled while coughing..
"You are powerful. Let's see how you handle this."
He slammed both his fists into each other and they radiated an orange light.
Edoran knew that he had to dodge it. He bent under the next punch from Leon barely avoiding it but Leon had anticipated that and tripped Edoran's legs.
As Edoran fell, Leon punched his chin with an uppercut and Edoran screamed in pain.
His chin was burning from the attack. He stood up again but felt his legs starting to shiver from the attack.
Edoran looked at Leon and made a plan. He rushed at Leon for a tackle.
Leon again aimed for an uppercut but as his fist came forward Edoran quickly curved his body around it and puched his chest at the core.
Leon gasped with pain as his fists stopped glowing. The core dimmed in brightness as well.
Leon kicked Edoran away and activated his core again. He was about to plummet Edoran.
"That is enough. Good job, Edoran. You actually managed to land two hits on my guard."
Leon pulled Edoran up to his feet and patted him on his back.
"You really surprised me with that dodge from my second uppercut."
'It hurts so bad. My chin feels like it has been ground completely.'
Edoran massaged his chin.
"Don't worry, your regeneration speed is immense being on the calibre as the warmonger."
Harold entered the training room. He rushed to Edoran to check on his condition.
"Grandpa, I have always told you to not go so far with friendly spars. You should have stopped the moment one of them got injured."
William held his head high and said, "Ohh, it looks like this young brat is trying to teach me. It is not like they are hurt really bad."
Harold just sighed and asked them all to come up to celebrate his party.
"Edoran, go change into the dress I left for you upstairs in the room I took you to before."
Edoran nodded and left. The hall was decorated lavishly. Many people were present in fancy dresses.
Edoran rushed to the room and found a neat and crisp suit for him by Jake's bed. He quickly changed into it and went out again.
He was surprised to see everyone waiting for him as they stared at him with various emotions.