Trying to escape from a horde of undead while trying to protect the famous head librarian of the Silver Spires wasn't what I had been expecting when I woke up, but I took it in stride. I was getting used to the curveballs the life was throwing to my way.
I raised my hand after we took a turn, mana gathering at my palm. The librarian rose her hand in an instant, her fingers glowing brightly, her expression threatening despite her exhaustion. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck rose in fear as I realized my mistake. Casting a spell on a situational ally afraid of her situation wasn't the safest thing to do.
Luckily, the situation was dangerous enough that rather than blasting me directly, she chose to threaten me. "Calm down, I'm trying to mask your presence," I said even as I pointed my own body, and let the biomancy-based spell to cover my body and mask my life presence. The spell took hold much easier thanks to my skill increase, while the librarian's eyes grew in surprise.
[-15 Mana]
"You can cast it on me as well," she said after a moment's hesitation. I appreciated her quick response, as I could hear the undead moving once again. I flexed my mana once again, ignoring the sense of exhaustion that filled my being. Still, I forced myself to cast another spell, this time creating two fake life signatures dashing out of the canyon, directly toward the school.
[-36 Mana]
"Let's move," I said, but rather than dashing outside the canyon, I turned back.
She followed me for a while, but I could see the doubt on her face as we moved deeper into the canyon. "We shouldn't move too deep," she said, though her tone was already reminiscent of order despite her exhaustion.
"Why?" I asked, more to highlight the fact that I wasn't her subordinate at the moment rather than actually learning her reasoning, which was obvious. She wanted to use the opportunity to slip away from the canyon before the necromancers could establish a cordon, not wanting it to turn it an endurance battle when her mana was so low. Of course, she didn't know that, for the next several hours, I had the absolute advantage thanks to my mana regeneration.
And if that gave her the impression that I was stronger than I actually was, all the better.
Upon being questioned, her displeasure was clear. After all, back in the school, she was famous for her unbending ways, not just against the staff and the students, but also against the other faculty members. It was evidence of just how exhausted she was that she actually chose to explain. "We have already ditched them thanks to your spell. That's the best opportunity for us to get away from the canyon before they realize our trick and envelop the canyon."
"I don't think that'll work," I countered. "When we step off of the canyon, we'll be out in the open. They have too many disposable soldiers for us to be confident about ditching them safely."
"At least we would have a chance," she countered, her anger intensified. "Once they return and envelop the canyon, we'll be sitting ducks, and they'll find us long before we could recover enough mana."
Even with her exhaustion and her thankfulness about being saved, I could see that her patience was running thin. "Long before you could gather enough mana," I countered with a smirk on my face, mostly thanks to my subterfuge, because I was trembling inside.
"You can recover mana faster," she stated, not bothering to hide her shock, while I nodded, doing my best to look nonchalant. Her shock was not misplaced, as according to everything I read, mana regeneration had always been an insurmountable challenge for the mages, restricting their leveling efficiency greatly by forcing them to rely on warrior specializations. "When will your mana refill?"
Under her careful gaze, I felt like an animal to be dissected. Even if the mana regeneration wasn't my biggest secret, revealing it to someone whom I didn't have the slightest leverage against was dangerous, especially that someone was significantly stronger. Still, since I had already taken the step, there was no reason to hold back. "About half an hour," I said, glad that I had the perk active from both Aviada and Helga. Sometimes, being prepared helped.
She smiled, and for a moment, her harsh expression melted, revealing the beauty hidden under her prickly demeanor. "That's good," she said. "Our survival is almost guaranteed now."
I responded to her with my best smile, using the full extent of my charisma and my charm, even though the rational part of my mind cursed me for daring to something as stupid as trying to seduce the head librarian. The horny part of my brain, on the other hand, showed its full support, especially with my memory bringing forth the amazing sight I had observed when she was in the shower.
Some things were worth the risk, I decided.
We moved in silence for a few minutes, then I gestured her to stop when I noticed a perfect hideout. "Why do we stop here?" she asked.
"It's the perfect defensible spot," I explained even as I moved to the nearest wall and started to draw a rune. "The entrance is small enough to prevent the bone dragons from entering, and while some of the walls are a bit thin, we can reinforce them with runes, which will also function as an escape route. Moreover, we could easily trap the path leading to the entrance, and the cave itself is large enough that they can't force us out with area-effect spells."
"That's an awful lot of enchantments," she said doubtfully. "Even with your regeneration, can you really do all that before they find us?"
Her suspicion was reasonable. After all, the enchantments I had mentioned wasn't the simplest in terms of mana consumption, not to mention the great variety we required to implement them successfully. However, thanks to my excessive stats, I had a mana pool quite a bit larger than my level justified.
Rather than answering, I started drawing the first runes on the walls of the cave to hide our life signature as well as partially suppressing mana fluctuations. It would not allow us to freely throw fireballs and lightning bolts, but we would be able to charge the defensive runes faster than a tortuous' crawl.
After some complicated mental calculations, I started working on the defensive enchantments. "That's an interesting rune," she murmured as I draw the first reinforcement rune on the wall to prevent the walls from being collapsed with a swipe of a bone-dragon. "It lacks an internal balancing component, but you're balancing it with your own magic," she added, with just the slightest doubt. After all, stabilizing a rune was beginner stuff, which made my choice a bit weird at the first glance."
I didn't say anything, but focused on drawing the second rune, once again balancing it with my own magic, but pulling just a dash from the first one. "Interesting," she murmured.
"Impressive perception," I said, even as I couldn't help but feel slightly bummed. I was hoping to impress her after the full scheme had been completed, though I guessed that was a bit arrogant. She wasn't one of the most famous mages of the Empire for no reason.
"Not as impressive as trying to build such a large defensive scheme without self-balancing nodes, relying their magical weight on each other to achieve balance," she said, for once, sounding impressed. "It requires more finesse to establish, but it would be more stable. Genius," she continued, easily summarizing the benefits of my approach.
"I can't take the full credit," I said with a dismissive wave. "The idea belongs to a friend, I just came with the practical application for it."
"I would like to meet that friend someday," she said in a casual tone.
Too casual, even, but I didn't comment on it. For all of her direct reputation, she apparently could play it slowly as well. It was an invitation for me to talk about who I was, but in a way that I could easily ignore without being rude. I chose to ignore, as I had already revealed more than I was comfortable with. "Maybe someday," I answered in a similar easygoing manner as I finished another rune, feeling a sweat sliding down on my forehead. The array cost significantly less in terms of mana compared to the traditional approach, but required intense concentration when finalizing it.
My esteemed guest chose to sit a nearby rock, carefully examining me as I engraved the array, her gray eyes shining with deep concentration despite her clear exhaustion. Under her careful gaze, I carefully finished the last node before placing the last of the connection, then let out a sigh, letting myself breathe freely once more.
[-476 Mana]
[Mana: 531 / 1683]
The array cost me a good chunk of mana, but funny enough, my mana was around four hundred when I started establishing it, meaning I actually managed to recover mana while establishing a defensive formation. The mana regeneration perk was truly unbelievable.
After taking a few deep breaths to relax, I started drawing the next set of defensive arrays, not wanting to lose any time. She looked at me with no small amount of shock, clearly aware of just how much mana I had spent on the array. I just shrugged with a smile.
"Who are you?" she whispered, finally unable to resist the temptation, but her tone had a slight alarm as well.
I couldn't help but stiffen. I understood her reasoning, as I had shown, and continuing to show, an impressive number of nonstandard abilities, making her wary even after I had saved her life. I guessed that from the extra effort I had to put in the ambush, she knew that I was weaker than her. She would have just cut through the ambush and freed herself and the hostage. But I was revealing too many diverse abilities to make her feel comfortable.
If it was someone else, or her under different circumstances, I would have just ignored the question, or outright rejected it, abandoning them to their fate. She was different, not because she hid an amazing body underneath her robes —though it didn't hurt— but because the necromancers were clearly stronger than I had first assumed —both in and out of the school— and she was the only one I could trust to be against them. It meant that sooner or later, our paths would cross. It would be more useful if she had good feelings toward me.
"That's a complicated question," I murmured, which, technically, was honest and true. Before that fateful day, who I was was obvious, but every day after that, it was getting more and more blurred. Just a week ago, I was scurrying around like a rat as I tried to peek on the students, but here, in the cave, accompanied by one of the strongest mages of the Silver Spires, preparing to face against a horde of undead led by more than a dozen necromancers… The answer was getting more blurry than I had expected. "But you can say that I'm trying to find myself," I answered.
"Interesting place to look," she answered, and for the first time, I saw a genuine smile of amusement on her face.
"Can't argue with the results," I answered with a shrug even as I drew yet another rune to establish a defensive trench at the entrance, littered with several fire and earth runes. I didn't want the cave to be filled with the skeletons. "The school has interesting opportunities for clarity," I murmured, though I looked at her pointedly, revealing yet another secret to her against my better judgment. I hoped that it wouldn't explode to my face.
To her credit, her only reaction was a widening of her eyes, understanding my point. With my abilities, if I had been a genuine student, everyone would have recognized me, and she already knew the rest of the teaching staff and notable guards. Which left only a few options, I was either a stowaway, or I was a staff that was hiding his abilities, both having rather dangerous implications considering no one had noticed my presence.
"Yeah, neither the guards nor the wards really work to keep a sneaky intruder out," I said, answering her concerns before she could answer. Yes, my role as staff had given me a big advantage, but even without that, I could sneak in with half of my current abilities.
"Maybe you can share some ideas to improve security," she offered, revealing another benefit of my last statement. For her, the security of the school was more important than delving deeper into my identity. It was a small advantage, but an advantage nonetheless.
"I would like that," I said even as I put the finishing touches for yet another magical exploding trap. "But let's handle our current problem first. Our biggest threat is their necrotic bolts. Those hurt a lot, and even with our defenses, there's no guarantee that we can avoid if all of them attack at the same time."
"True, but why do I feel like you already have an idea?" she answered.
I smirked in response. "Not a workable one," I answered with a frown. "Not yet, at least," I added before crouching next to her and quickly scribbling a few symbols on the ground. "I'm trying to establish a deflection field based on life energy, and using arcana to shape and stabilize, but I'm still having problems."
"Arcana, elemental, and biomancy," she murmured. "That's an interesting selection."
"It works for me," I said, dismissing that line of inquiry. We didn't have time, and even if we did, I had already revealed more than I was comfortable with. My leveling strategy could wait for the second date. "Do you have any idea how I can make this ward work?" I added, deflecting her question.
That launched a rather lengthy discussion about the comparative advantages of different ward schemes. I managed to surprise her more than a few times with my innovative approaches, but it was nothing compared to how much I had learned. Even if warding was not a focus area for her, her experience still towered mine an incredible amount, allowing me to figure out a lot of new applications for my stationary magic. Luckily, with my intelligence and wisdom scores, it had been rather easy to memorize every single word that left her mouth. Her words were truly treasures, especially considering she was the caretaker of the —second— biggest information repository of the world.
[Tempting Tutoring: Impress a sexy educator with your impressive learning capabilities. +1000 Experience, +3 Intelligence]
I could see the signs of her approval, but the system's confirmation was always welcome, though three points increase from that was a surprise. I knew she was impressed because she holding herself back, revealing more theorems and secrets in half an hour than I was able to dig out in the library since my awakening, though, considering her survival was highly dependent on my performance, maybe it wasn't that surprising.
A while later, I stood up, drawing another set of runes to establish the nodes even as I continued to talk with her. I was moving, because my mana finally recovered, and I didn't want to waste a second of regeneration. More defensive encampments we had, the better. Of course, I took time to heal both her and myself to full health.
[+310 HP]
[-245 Mana]
Soon, my new array took shape, creating a subtly glowing wall of arcana energy, but with the warm sensation of life magic. I just hoped that it would work better than we had hoped against the necrotic energy. After being hit by their attack several times, I didn't fancy struggling to defend a chokehold under a rain of their disgusting death bolts.
"So, why exactly you were chasing that guy with such anger," I asked even as I started working on the escape tunnel, in case things got too bad too fast.
"He stole a precious book of mine," she answered.
"It must be really precious," I answered even as my mind shifted to the vault. After failing to use a shade, it must be the next strategy. "By the way, I remember having to kill a shade yesterday, which, now that I'm thinking about it, was suspiciously close to the library, and was about to enter the faculty residence. Do you think it might be about that?" I said. At this point, considering everything else I had revealed, it was hardly a secret.
"Maybe-" she started, but before she could say anything else, a rumbling sound reached our ears, most likely from a bone dragon trying to push himself through a tight spot. "They are here," she said.
"About time," I answered even as I squeezed my fists, excited to test my new toys. "How is your mana situation? Do you think you can defend yourself here alone?"
"I have enough mana for a few big spells," she answered, though her expression confused. "Considering they wouldn't be stupid enough to push through the defenses blindly, I should be able to resist for several minutes without trouble. Why?"
"I was thinking about some creative greeting."
------------------
[Level: 17 Experience: 149150 / 153000
Strength: 18 Charisma: 27
Precision: 13 Perception: 14
Agility: 17 Manipulation: 20
Speed: 15 Intelligence: 20
Endurance: 14 Wisdom: 21
HP: 1309 / 1309 Mana: 1685 / 1734 ]
SKILLS
[Master Melee [100/100]
Expert Arcana [75/75]
Expert Elemental [75/75]
Expert Biomancy [75/75]
Advanced Subterfuge [50/50]
Basic Speech [25/25] ]
PERKS
Mana Regeneration