Using The Spirit Crystal

The rest of the day seems to pass by agonisingly slowly. I find myself drumming my fingers on the table impatiently, waiting for classes to finish. Surprisingly, I haven’t faced any backlash throughout the day for skipping school on Friday. I suppose nobody really cares at this level. Finally, the bell sounds and I take off to find Mia. She’s waiting for me by the gates, and we rush to get back to her place. The air between us is thick with anticipation.

On the walk back home, I tell Mia about what I saw. “A flash of red? You think somebody was in the barrier with us, watching?” She asks me. I nod in response. “I have a theory about who it was, but I can’t prove anything obviously.” She looks at me for a few seconds before she speaks. “You think it was that woman Belle, don’t you?” “Who else do we know of that has powers like that?” She shakes her head. “She sounds scary. Let’s try not to get on her bad side.”

Soon the mundane version of Mia’s house is visible. We walk quickly inside the barrier and to her house. We get inside and throw our bags down. “Come on, let’s do this already! I wanna see her!” Mia exclaims and I giggle at her eagerness. Not that I can blame her of course, I’m just as eager to see what’s going to happen.

I pull out the figurine and the crystal from my inventory. Mia inspects the statue, nodding approvingly. “I like her.” She says, and I smile. “It’s gonna be cool to have a life sized version of her around, that’s for sure.” I say, in agreement. We sit down on the couch and I place the two objects on the table in front of us. I use the artificial spirit skill on the objects. I hope for a loving and caring woman who will be loyal to me, the guild and Mia. With a flash of light, the crystal and the statue are pulled together by some unseen ****. For a moment, nothing happens. Then a voice speaks inside my head.

‘Hello?’ It says. The voice is pure as bells, clear, but also on the deeper side of the feminine vocal range. It is calm, dignified, but also a little timid. It’s a voice that reflects exactly the personality I was hoping for. “Hi?” I ask out loud. “Did it work?” Mia asks. I nod and hold up my hand to forestall any other questions. ‘You are my creator?’ The voice asks. I nod. “Yes, I am your creator.” I say, waving at the statue.

To my amazement, the statue of Poison Ivy looks up at me and waves back. Mia gasps and I grin. “Do you have a preferred name?” I ask it. ‘I do not know what a preferred name is.’ The voice in my head says. “A preferred name is a preference for what people address you as.” I respond. ‘What is a preference?’ The voice asks. I think for a moment before answering. “A preference is a feeling or emotion that is more positive towards one thing than another.” It’s good that I’ve had an interest in philosophy for a while, or I wouldn’t really be able to answer her questions.

‘I do not understand what emotions are. Therefore, I do not have a preference. Is your name creator?’ The statue asks. “My name is Gemma. Can I give you a name?” I ask. ‘Of course Gemma, whatever you like.’ The voice replies. “Your name is Ivy. And hopefully one day, you will be your own person.” I say, smiling. The statue mimics my smile, and a new window pops up when I try to observe her.

“Oh my god this is so cool! Her health regeneration is so high!” I exclaim to Mia, who grins at me. “It worked properly then?” She asks. I nod enthusiastically. “She talks inside my head.” I explain why Mia can’t hear her. “Can you make her talk out loud?” She asks. I turn back to Ivy and repeat the question.

‘I am sorry Gemma, I am unable to.’ Ivy apologises as the window opens in front of me. “That’s alright.” I tell her, looking at Mia. “No she can’t, I need to raise her intellect.” I say. “How do you do that?” She asks. “Well, from the looks of it, Ivy uses a similar levelling and statpoint system to me. She doesn’t have an XP bar though, she has a ‘consumption bar’ instead. The observe window says that she will grow in power by feeding her materials, so the next logical step is to start feeding her stuff.” I say, pulling out some of the loot that hasn’t sold yet from my inventory.

I take out my phone quickly and de-list the items from the abyss auction. Then, I lay the items of loot in front of Ivy. There are jars of blue and green slime, the two rings of strength and agility, goblin spears and a few other items. “Can you eat those?” I ask her. She looks down at all the items, then nods. ‘Yes Gemma.’ She says, and begins munching on the rings first.

It’s a very odd sight, seeing a tiny statue of Poison Ivy eat a bunch of different items of loot. It’s interesting though, and Mia and I watch in fascination as she takes little bites out of one of the rings. It takes her a while to finish the ring because of her size. After she finishes the first ring, two windows pop up in front of me.

The other window is the same as the first one. Ivy is now level 3 apparently. I open her character sheet and look at the available statpoints. To my dismay, there are only 9 available. After checking Ivy’s stats, I realise that it must be to compensate for the extra statpoint she had at level 1. I spend all 9 points on intellect, raising it to 10. “Can you try speaking again Ivy?” I ask her, and try to send a mental image of vocal cords to her. Now that I think about it, I can feel a small mental link to Ivy. It’s a weird sensation.

Ivy looks down for a moment, concentrating. “Oh. I feel different.” Ivy voices out loud, sounding a little higher pitched, but the same as she does in my head. Mia claps with joy at the sound. “This is so cool! I don’t think you understand how bullshit this whole thing is dude, that’s pretty advanced magic.” She says and I chuckle at her reaction. “Are you alright?” I ask Ivy. She nods at me, looking down at herself as if she is only just now realising she is there. “Yes Gemma, I am alright.” Ivy says.

“Can you grow any bigger?” A look of concentration appears on her face, then she shakes her head. “I require a lot more material to be able to grow bigger.” Ivy says. I think for a moment, then turn to Mia. “You can order raw materials from the auction, right?” I ask. “Yeah you can. Are you going to order stuff so that Ivy can grow more?” She asks in response. Pulling up the abyss auction on my phone, I nod.

After spending $20,000 on raw materials, Mia and I make a trip to the abyss auction outpost to collect the delivery. I purchased a bunch of raw titanium to make up the bulk of Ivy’s body, some material that is supposedly a kind of super rubber-silicone-polyurethane hybrid meant to emulate skin, as well as some silicone for Ivy’s breasts, ass and other super soft bits. We collect the materials with no issue, and head back home, having left Ivy to munch on the loot.

When we arrive back in the building, I am greeted with the same window I got before, about Ivy levelling up. She is now level 5, and I decide to hold off on spending the points yet. I get the boxes of raw materials out of my inventory and take them to the dining room. I open the boxes and place the raw materials on the dining table.

Walking back to the living room, I stop Ivy from eating the rest of the loot. “Ivy can you come with me?” I ask her. She looks up at me. “Of course, Gemma.” She says, and I hold out my hand. She climbs into my palm and I carry her to the dining room, carrying the remaining loot items in my inventory. I set Ivy down on the dining room table and set down the remaining loot with her. “Can you eat all these materials first please?” I ask her. “Yes Gemma.” Ivy responds, and begins to munch on the titanium ingots.

“Form your teeth out of that titanium once you’ve eaten enough.” I instruct her, indicating the metal that she’s eating. “Use the metal to grow bigger. I’ll check back on you soon.” I tell her, and she nods in understanding. I walk back out to the living room and sit down on the couch with Mia. “It might take a while for her to eat that stuff, so let’s watch something.” I tell her. We put on some more of Love, **** and Robots and snuggle. I kiss Mia on impulse, very happy with my new life.

After an hour, I go to check on Ivy. She’s grown quite a bit bigger, the statue of her base form started at about 20cm tall, and she’s now 50cm tall. I instruct her to stand on the chair while she eats the materials, and to sit down on it once she’s big enough. She voices her understanding and I go back to watching tv with Mia.