The journey back to the school was surprisingly uneventful. I had been attacked by a few monsters, but there was no sign of any kind of undead. I wasn't surprised by their decision, as after the last battle, not only had their losses become untenable, but they had also lost their leader. Also, it might be vain of me to say, but I believed that I had thoroughly intimidated them, hitting them with surprise after surprise.
Of course, they weren't the only ones that experienced earth-shattering surprises. My encounter with the librarian had a fair number of surprises, from her enthusiastic carnal involvement to her mind-altering Light Magic, from my surprisingly effective new Tantric skill to the incomprehensible revelation I had received in my achievement. Things were even more complicated than I had expected, and the fact that I somehow positioned myself as a stalwart defender against a very dangerous Necromancer plot didn't help the situation any.
I slipped through the guards with familiar ease, and as much as I wanted to take a long bath, I didn't have the time for it. I still had my meeting with Cornelia —by some miracle, I hadn't missed it— and before that, I wanted to check in with Aviada and Helga, just to tell them that I returned safely.
I disguised myself as a servant before starting to look for Aviada, which turned out to be a good choice as I found her in the arena, battling against two men —one fighter, one mage- at the same time, destroying them easily. It was easy to see the incredible development she had shown since our last meeting. I felt pride when I easily recognized some tricks I had used when I was fighting against her and Helga.
Unfortunately, the place was too crowded for me to actually talk to her, so I quickly scribbled a note for her, obscurely mentioning my return and giving her a meeting date for tomorrow early in the morning, then waited until her victory, then made eye contact with her. I gave her a small wave as I slipped the note between her items. The relieved smile on her face told me that she recognized me, though it was immediately followed by anger.
I was going to pay for my disappearance tomorrow.
With Aviada handled, I changed once more, this time into my library assistant outfit, then I went to where I would find Helga. The library.
It didn't take long for me to locate her, huddled in an obscure corner, a tower of books piled in front of her as usual. Unlike the other times, I could see that her mind was on something other than reading, her gaze blank on the page, not bothering to flip it as I watched. She was truly worried.
I couldn't help but feel a stab of guilt as I saw her worried. It was the right choice to force them to leave, as I doubted any of us would have got away with our lives if we were together. They were definitely not ready for that level of combat. Still, seeing her scared gave me a little ping, so I decided to reward her for her obedient waiting.
I sneaked behind her until I wrapped my arms around her, and whispered gently. "Guess who?" It was a testament of our closeness that despite not detecting me before, she wasn't panicked by a pair of arms suddenly around her. Instead, she turned her head and caught my lips in a desperate kiss, one that conveyed fear, longing, and relief.
It was a beautiful kiss that lasted for a couple of minutes, which was still too short in my opinion, especially when it was followed by a hard slap.
[-1 HP]
I could have avoided it, of course, but I let her succeed, knowing it was a way to express her fear. "Where were you?" she gasped. "I was worried sick."
I briefly considered lying to her, but then I remembered the book in my possession. She was the best person to help me solve its mystery before I gave it back to Titania. "Things were more dangerous than I had expected," I whispered, letting my expression reflect the full seriousness of the situation. "Really dangerous. But we can't talk about it here, let's go to my room," I said. She nodded, but I was amused to see the slight blush on her face. "Don't expect much from my room, though," I warned her. "It's a real dump."
"It's okay," she answered as she stood up. After leaving the library, I once again changed into a servant outfit and guided her through the corridors, helping her to avoid attention as we walked down, something easy to achieve as we walked down the corridor.
To her credit, Helga managed to keep her curiosity in until we arrived at my room, which was then replaced by an unimpressed gaze. "I told you it's a dump," I said with a shrug.
"It's not that bad," she murmured with a blush, which was very unconvincing. I smiled widely to tell her that I wasn't offended. "So, what happened?" she asked, immediately delving into more important topics.
"A lot," I answered even as I turned toward the wall, started drawing several runic nodes, tracks of mana burning brightly. "Too much to talk about without making sure we aren't overheard," I added, and after finishing the most basic layer of defense, I passed the book to her.
[-53 Mana]
"Meanwhile, can you please examine this, maybe you can get a better idea about it," I added. Setting up the defenses was going to take a lot of time, so Helga working on the mysterious book was a good opportunity.
"What's this?" she asked, intrigued. "I've never even seen this alphabet, let alone the language."
"I don't know either, but it's valuable enough that two dozen necromancers used it as the bait for a trap."
"Trap! Two dozen!" she exclaimed, the book lay forgotten at her concern. "And you were involved in-" she tried to continue, but I silenced her with a kiss. It was a slight miscalculation, as when I tried to pull back, Helga's arms wrapped around my torso, pinning me in place, preventing my attempts of pulling back.
[Level Difference of at least 50%! No Experience]
[Companion Acquisition: Relationship not sufficient for the third stage]
The notifications were annoying, but I ignored them as I focused on the kiss. Helga was too delicious to rebuff just because the System decided to act like an asshole.
I moaned in appreciation as she slipped a tongue in my mouth, her hands caressing my body like she was trying to make sure that I was still alive, scared of the danger I had gone through earlier. And since she insisted on a break, I decided to give her a break to remember.
My hands danced over her robe's buttons and ties with a striking familiarity, quickly getting rid of her outer clothes, revealing her unappealing blouse and skirt, and a body that still managed to be sexy despite everything. I was about to undress her further when she surprised me by hiking up her skirt and pushing her panties down, following that by frantically pulling my shaft out.
Then, she pulled away from my kisses, and leaned against the wall, her ass raised, angle perfect for my entry. I was surprised by her initiative, but not as much as her next words. "Fuck me hard!" she moaned. "I need to make sure that you're still here."
It was a request impossible to deny, so I stood behind her, quickly fingering her entrance a few times to make sure she was loose enough before impaling her. She moaned loudly as she turned her head, her lips seeking for a kiss, her hips pushing out to meet my frantic pounding. The sound of flesh hitting flesh mixed with desire. With Helga showing such impressive enthusiasm, it didn't take long for her to reach climax, dragging me along with her. She tightened around me, and I filled her.
[Mana regeneration perk activated. Duration, 8 hours]
The notification came as a surprise. Under the excitement of the moment, I had forgotten that I was edging depletion after pumping Titania full with my mana as well as my seed.
"Mmm, that was what I needed," Helga gasped as she tried to control her breathing, but she cried in surprise when I pushed her on the bed and ripped off her clothes, their resistance nothing against my enhanced strength. Soon, she was lying on my bed completely naked, her nipples deliciously erect and her entrance stained with my mark.
"You're delusional if you expect me to stop after that," I said even as I hovered above her in missionary position before sheathing myself inside her again. "We were supposed to work-" she started only for me to silence her with yet another kiss. I impaled her once again, but this time, it was a long, patient slide that contrasted greatly with my earlier frantic assault. The one before was to remind her that I was still alive, this one was about reminding her of the meaning of pleasure.
With my lips alternating between her lips and her neck, and with my fingers triggering every sensitive spot in her body, it didn't take long for her to fall under the daze of pleasure. With her usual caution burned into cinders with desire, she looked spectacular, almost making me explode prematurely. Luckily, I had excellent control over my body.
"Oh, yes," she moaned. "This is the peak of pleasure."
It was good to see her losing her mind from pleasure, but I wanted to teach her that what she had said was not entirely true. The test run of my new skill had worked wonders on Titania, so I was curious about how it would work on Helga.
[-5 Mana]
I started slow, using my kiss to slip a flicker of mana to her, while maintaining control. The first thing I noticed was the ease I could control that flicker of energy. In Titania, it would have disappeared in moments, but Helga's mana space was a calm sea compared to Titania's tornado.
I easily reached Helga's core, using my flicker of mana to examine her skills. The view I got from her was much clearer. I still couldn't identify exact points, but I had a much more accurate view of her abilities. I wondered about the reason for it. Maybe it was the level difference, or maybe it was the increased exposure. I didn't spend a lot of time on that, however, and focused on the concrete information it provided. I could theorize about its drivers later on.
The most important difference between Helga and Titania was the quality of the core itself. Titania's was much stronger, and much more concrete, though it was probably the effect of the level difference. Other things caught my attention as well. Such as the deficiency in her physical stats, her strength in particular. She really needed to bring them up. Her mental stats were much stronger, with her intelligence shining well above her other stats.
To make things even better, I could also read her skills as well. Though I wasn't able to recognize all of them, I could easily identify that they were either about magic, or mental aptitude, both working excellently with her designation as a magical researcher, with Arcana as the only actual applicable skill. No wonder she had never been taken seriously in combat parties.
I was lucky that the rest of the school was stupid enough to miss her true value.
With that cursory examination finished, I pumped more mana inside her, curious on whether I could make any changes.
[-250 Mana]
I targeted her strength, poking and caressing it with my mana, but failed to achieve anything other than a sudden intensifying in Helga's moans. So, I wrapped my mana around her strength, trying to reinforce it. That came with an interesting result, as I felt her hand around my biceps gripping me much stronger. With sudden inspiration, I solidified the reinforcement before pulling back.
"What! How!" Helga gasped between my long, even pushes.
"What happened, sweetie?" I asked.
"I just received a temporary strength bonus," she murmured, shocked. I just smirked in satisfaction. "How-" she tried to ask, but when I quickened my assault, her cry of pleasure took priority. I decided to experiment a bit more. I pushed another generous dash of mana into her, but this time, just let her absorb it.
[-100 Mana]
[Achievement: Boosted Blast. Discover an alternative way of helping your ladies level up. +2 Intelligence. +500 Experience]
The achievement was a surprise, though definitely appreciated. "Impossible!" she cried even as she suddenly tightened around me as she climaxed. "I just gained experience!" Interesting, I thought, even as I let myself climax as well, filling her with my seed and mana.
[-500 Mana]
Her trembling just intensified further, experiencing a second climax before the first one even subsided. She was gasping and moaning helplessly, unable to control her trembling. I lay next to her, pulling her into a gentle spooning while I waited for her to calm down. It took awhile for her to recover from that spectacular high, while I just lay there, enjoying the moment of calm.
Then, she decided to speak, her tone still trembling and weak. "I just gained experience," she murmured as she twisted until she was looking at my eyes. "Twice."
"Before explaining, can you tell me how much experience you gained," I asked.
"Not a bad amount," she answered. "Two points the first time, which was nothing, but the second time I gained almost fifty points." Not bad, I realized, though there was a great difference between the methods of delivery, the more intimate version had almost ten percent efficiency. Not a great amount, but considering the skill was not yet fully evolved, it still showed promise. "Stop thinking," she cut me off. "You owe me an explanation."
I could have tried to argue against that, or maybe try to convince her that it was an illusion, but I didn't bother. I believed that our relationship was strong enough to handle the truth. Not to mention, after the latest reveal, I decided that I needed to understand the origins of my powers. Helga needed to know about it to actually help me.
"It all started one night in the library," I started, before giving her a quick breakdown of my unique status. I didn't reveal all of my secrets of course, and slanted the events in a way that made me look better. Still, some of them were shocking even when softened.
"I can't believe you're Orlin," Helga murmured in shock, slapping my chest again and again in anger. Luckily, it was quick-burning anger rather than true rage. "Did you take that shape to seduce me?"
I smirked. "Believe it or not, I was just trying to read books without arousing suspicion, when I saw you needed help. Since I had a soft spot for you, I decided to help, and you can't blame me for falling for you," I explained. "And once I had to retire that disguise, I did my best to reconnect with you." Luckily, rather than a punch, I earned an extended kiss. I once again thanked my charisma. Without it, I doubted I could have avoided a nasty castration attempt. Not to mention, explaining that after two spectacular, back to back orgasms made it even easier.
I still avoided giving details about the rest of the girls, and completely skipped Cornelia for the moment just to avoid triggering her. I had other ideas to handle that particular revelation. Then, the explanation reached today.
"I can't believe you saved her life," Helga murmured as fascination, shock, and hero worship were battling in her eyes when I explained to her what happened with Titania. Considering Helga practically lived in the library, her hero-worship for the strongest female in the school was very understandable.
I wondered how she would react if I could manage to arrange a threesome with her.
"It was a surprise for me as well," I explained. "But it was mostly luck, the necromancers were so focused on keeping her contained that it gave me the perfect opportunity to destroy their traps. From there, even though it was a tough and exhausting battle," I said. "Maybe I deserve a reward," I said cutely while I blasted her with my charisma.
"Maybe," she murmured, and I hit her with a biomancy spell, curing her exhaustion. Before she could say anything else, I had already slid inside her.
[Companion Acquisition: Progress 52%]
The sudden notification put a smile on my face as I started pumping into her once more, enjoying the way she climbed onto my lap with a renewed fervor. Revealing my secrets made us closer, allowing the companion tracker to progress once more. But as she rode me wildly, my attention was firmly on her beauty rather than the implications of another power boost or the strategies to handle new challenges.
Those, we could handle tomorrow. For now, I had a blonde bookworm to enjoy.
—
[Level: 19 Experience: 181050 / 190000
Strength: 20 Charisma: 32
Precision: 15 Perception: 19
Agility: 19 Manipulation: 24
Speed: 17 Intelligence: 24
Endurance: 16 Wisdom: 26
HP: 1653 / 1653 Mana: 1359 / 2375 ]
SKILLS
[Master Melee [100/100]
Expert Arcana [75/75]
Expert Elemental [75/75]
Expert Biomancy [75/75]
Advanced Subterfuge [50/50]
Advanced Tantric [50/50]
Basic Speech [25/25]
PERKS
Mana Regeneration