MY 10,000× DIMENSIONAL SYSTEM

Chapter 38 Gratitude

Gratitude

"That's 3-2! We win this time!" Silver pumped his fist and the girls groaned in annoyance.

They had been sparring multiple times and each session consisted of 5 rounds, so best 3 out of 5. Sometimes the girls won, sometimes the boys won. This time though it went to the boys due to a clever play that had Umbra as the center. The dragon had essentially created an opening for his sister to attack him, but it was a trap which let him temporarily seal her in a space of darkness.

Silver and Thanatos then switched their opponents, making the Lich fight Kim and the Wolf to fight Belladonna.

It was an especially bad match-up for Kim since she relied on her speed and Thanatos used his large army of Undead to slow her down severely, and he had a passive barrier around him that prevented the girl from simply teleporting on his head.

As such, he overwhelmed her with sheer numbers.

As for Belladonna, the moment Silver got close, he pulled her into his domain, and a moment later the two re-emerged with the Vampire knocked unconscious and the wolf heavily injured. But there was still a triumphant smile on his face.

Eventually, Chiara broke free of her entrapment, but by then it was too late and the dragon got jumped.

One nice thing was that the group didn't need to worry all that much about their injuries due to the army of trees which gave off intense life force. So in no time, they were back to their peak conditions.

They were about to get back into it when Christopher suddenly appeared in their midst. The eyes of everyone lit up at their master's appearance and they all showed forms of submission in one way or the other.

Christopher just smiled slightly and gestured for them to rise.

"I made you guys stuff." He went straight to the point and everyone was surprised.

Without a word, Christopher waved his hand and the numerous sets of equipment appeared and everyone's eyes widened.

"Th-This!" Belladonna exclaimed as she stared at the glistening armor and weapon pieces. Her eyes instantly being drawn to the blood red battle dress and short swords.

"These… these are ours?!" Kim said with disbelief as she stared at the purple and blue armor and Gauntlets.

Everyone else had various reactions to the sets of equipment. But the most obvious and common were shock and immense gratitude.

"I kinda thought that it would be weird if you guys didn't have suitable equipment, especially since I have to ability to procure said equipment, so I decided to make these for you lot." He said calmly and each of them felt gratitude swell in their hearts. Except Thanatos, for obvious reasons.

"Master… this is too much." Kim said, looking like she was about to cry. He had already saved her life and made her far stronger than she had ever imagined possible. And yet here he was, taking out the time and effort required to produce these sets of priceless equipment.

Christopher smiled and gently rubbed her head.

"I did it because I wanted to. You lot are my subordinates. But at the same time,I see you as my friends. So it's only natural that I give you stuff. Besides, I enjoyed making all of these so it's a win-win." He grinned and his words made their gratitude grow even more.

Moreover, him calling them his friends was something none of them knew they needed.

"Heh, you really know how to please a lady, Master." Belladonna giggled cutely and Christopher just kinda shrugged.

"Anyway, you guys should put them on." He said and the group nodded eagerly.

Then the twins suddenly came up to him, Umbra holding the Eclipsed Night Band and his mouth and Chiara carrying the Radiant Dawn Band in hers.

"Master! Can you help us wear ours?" They asked in unison and Christopher laughed, finding the two adorable.

The way their tails wagged reminded him that, despite the fact that they were terrifying Dragons, they were still kids. And he was technically their parent figure, so it was natural for them to want his help in wearing the items he'd given them.

"Alright, come here." He said gently and they complied, the duo floating next to him.

He then took their bands and reached out and gently grabbed Chiara's tail. The gesture did not upset her one bit.

Then he slid the band down her tail until it almost reached the base where it tightened, but not to an uncomfortable degree.

Then he did the same with Umbra and the twins craned their necks to see the bands on their tails which they wiggled excitedly.

"Wow! My connection to light feels so much stronger! And my control over Mana is much smoother too!" Chaira exclaimed and Umbra nodded.

"Mhm! It's really cool!" He grinned.

Off to the side, Silver and Kim put on their new Armor and Gauntlets and marveled at the changes.

"This is amazing. I think I can move way faster than before! And my connection to Lightning and Space is way stronger than before!" She mumbled in amazement.

"I got a huge overall boost just from wearing this. I wonder what their effects are." Silver muttered to himself excitedly, his tail swaying back and forth, clearly betraying his excitement.

Belladonna put on her new battle dress and beamed.

"Not even the best Vampire Artisans I know of can create equipment this exquisite. All of my magical abilities have been amplified several times over. And my connection to blood is far higher. And these." She stared at the Vermillion Reapers with a fond gaze and gave them a few experimental swings. Amazingly, they were so sharp that they didn't even let out a whistling sound as they cut through the air which caused the Vampire to grin.

"These are something else entirely."

And finally, Thanatos put on the Deathweaver's Mantle, the Ring of Eternal Dread,and bound the Necrosphere to him causing it to float by his side and a strange cackling noise escaped his bony mouth. He was laughing.

"Magnificent. I had no regrets submitting to Master before. But now, I will do everything in my power to aid him. Even if it kills me a second time." He said to himself.

Christopher talked to the group for a bit before saying.

"Alright, there's something I wanted to bring to everyone's attention." His sudden announcement made everyone look at him curiously.

Then he brought out the golden card from before and Belladonna immediately narrowed her eyes with interest.

"Is that…?" Christopher nodded.

"Indeed. This is an invite to an Auction. But not any simple Auction." He then went on to explain the deal with the Sinestra Auction and everyone's eyes widened.

Kim became a little nervous and asked.

"An Auction with the majority of the world's superpowers gathered in one place? That sounds a little… scary." Her statement was met with agreement from Silver.

"Calm down, I'm sure Master has a reason for telling us this." Thanatos said and the two beast people decided to listen.

Christopher nodded towards the Lich before explaining.

"The thing is, I want you lot to accompany me." He admitted and everyone was surprised.

"... Why?" Chiara asked.

"Well, I thought that just staying in the Dimension would get a bit boring for you guys. And sure you follow me out on missions, but it's that and then you're right back inside here. So I thought that it would be nice to give you guys more freedom to move around in the outside world and do your own stuff." He smiled.

"In short, I don't want to restrict your movement to just inside the dimension." He finished and everyone's eyes widened.

Everyone was silent for a second before the twins suddenly rushed forth and tackled him.

"MASTERRR!" They almost cried and snuggled into him tightly. Christopher was surprised by the show of affection. But then he smiled and rubbed their heads gently. Seems like his idea had been right on the mark.

Kim seemed to be on the verge of tears while Silver and Belladonna just chuckled and shook their heads, their movements almost identical. But the gratitude in their eyes was clear.

Thanatos just shrugged, but the flames burning in his eye sockets seemed to be brighter than before as well.

Christopher didn't quite undertake just how gratified they were, because his actions were things rarely seen in the world.

Silver prior to meeting him was a wolf struggling to survive with his pack. Though Christopher killed all of them. He knew that the world was cruel, whether to humans or wild monsters like him.

Kim had seen some of the worst of humanity and Demi-humans and kindness was something rarely seen and just like Silver, she struggled greatly just to survive. The twins, despite being kids, still inherited a memories from their ancestors, and thus understood that the world was far from kind and usually, kindness was cruelty to one's self.

Thanatos literally died and understood that to be happy, people tend to do some terrible things, even if it meant hurting others and throwing Kindness out of the window.

Finally, Belladonna was quite a high ranking Vampire, but even then she lived in a world were Manipulation and exploitation reigned supreme and people were killed just to appease others despite being innocent.

In short, none of them were strangers to the cruelty of the world. And yet they had been lucky enough to encounter a master who, not only gave them power, but gave them the kindness they didn't know they needed.

So despite the gesture seeming small, and some would even call it the bare minimum. To them, it was worth countless times more than gold.