'Forgiving and magnanimous? You still remember a small grudge from five years ago when you were ten, I know cats are more forgiving and magnanimous.' Rio thought
"SPEAK! If you stay quiet, I will assume you are disregarding my final kindness and I will have no choice but to make you my servant" Rio said annoyingly as If she didn't expect him to still stay calm in this kind of situation
"....."
"Ha, to refuse a toast, only to drink in forfeit? People with your personality will never survive in this world."
'Truthfully, I could just use my origin magic and melt her face, however, I want to see where this will go, however, she is someone I need to get rid of or she would be nothing but an obstacle.'
"Carlos, bring the slave seal" Lara commanded to someone behind me
Then heavy footsteps approached, just to be faced with a man with a huge build, trimmed beard, and short brown hair carrying a stone that had a dim light emitting from it.
'System analyze'
[Ding!]
Name: Carlos Porter
Class: 1st Rank Hachidan Marital Artist
Strength: 52.5
Agility: 56.9
Endurance: 59.7
'Tsk, I knew I couldn't be as easy as just melting her face, now I got someone who could kill me in a flash if I am not careful, this situation is dangerous indeed.' Rio thought while brainstorming a plan with the highest probability of not dying
Lara picked up the stone and seem to be nearing it near my forehead. The numbing feeling started flaring up again
'System Scan'
[Ding!]
[Slave Stone...Can forcefully imprint a slave mark in the consciousness of those below the realm of magus]
'WHAT?! I think it is time to make my move. I have to attack the guard first while the guard is down' I contemplated then proceeded to use a Level 7 darkness spells I obtained from the inheritance, it might be a bit of an overkill, but better safe than sorry.
'Bleak Envelopment' Rio cast silently
Rio's face went pale and blood leaked from the corner of his mouth whilst the guard started bleeding from all 7 orifices and then suddenly exploded, which luckily scared Lara, Rio mana was practically expended from that one spell, and he used fire to burn the rope tying his hand and knocked her out whilst she was still scared frozen and then searched his ring for anything that can help replenish mana.
While scanning Rio's eyes finally came upon a pill
[Ding!]
[Low-grade Rejuvenation pill...Replenishes a small amount of mana]
As Rio threw the pill in his mouth, Rio finally stabilized himself and the world didn't seem like it was spinning.
'Luckily her endurance was low and I was strong enough to knock her out in one go, or else I would have been a slave for life.'
Rio saw Lara laying on the floor, he haven't noticed since he was tied up in a chair, still planning on how to proceed, she seemed to be grown up physically, but, it doesn't seem like her mind grew with her body.
Rio planned on killing her, however since a slave stone seem to be present, why not make use of it? She was able to get her hands on such an item, so she would probably be of better use to me alive than dead.
Rio picked up the stone and imitated the action she did. Rio put the stone towards her forehead, however, nothing happened.
Since a faint blue light was coming out of it, maybe if he sent some mana into it, it would trigger. However, he was not in the condition to be sending mana. Rio checked through his ring once again and found a couple more rejuvenation pills.
After ten minutes, his mana was about 20% filled, Rio saw signs of Lara waking up so he proceeded with the slave stone and poured his mana into it whilst placing it on her forehead.
The stone shone brighter, whilst continuously producing threads going into Lara's head. Lara's eyebrows creased as she seemed she tried waking up, however, before she opened her eyes, the stone seeped into her forehead implanting into her consciousness
Rio now felt a strange connection towards Lara, whilst Lara finally opened her eyes in shock, seeing Rio tower over her.
"Stand."
She stood up, whilst her face showed confusion as if thinking, why did I just follow his instructions? She then realized the stone was missing and the face of confusion turned once more into shock.
"Wait...did you just enslave me?? How dare you! Do you think that the Hyuser family is something you and your family can face??"
Since she was completely under my control, it seems she was using her family as her final card to try to scare Rio
"Silence, nothing happened here, clean up the mess" Rio ordered with a blank expression and walked out of the warehouse
Whilst she was taking care of the mess, Rio looked around to see where he was, it looked unfamiliar, however, Rio knew they were definitely still in the academy, he sneaked around to see if he can see a place he can remember.
It wouldn't be good if Rio ran into someone, including in this state. After around 5 minutes of lurking around, Rio found the alchemist's lab, after around 5 minutes he finally reached his dorm and slumped on his bed, Rio had a couple of hours until morning.
'Should I just skip class, it's not like I need it. However, it seems I have people watching me so it wouldn't be wise to skip.' Rio thought and decided to cultivate instead of sleep.
Six months passed and during that time, Rio had gone to all the classes and knew basically all the taught, however, Rio had to pretend that he was a beginner to avoid suspicion, Rio also went to the forest frequently and raked in EXP when possible, to prepare for the competition.
Rio also finds out that the numbing feeling seemed to activate when he was in some kind of danger and makes him react accordingly. Rio seemed to have gotten it as an inheritance since he first hand viewed a Draconic general in battle practically 100,000 years it isn't weird, Rio got this instinct.
Lara acts as normal as the slave imprint makes it impossible to go against his will, Rio also reminded her not to try anything that could remove the mark, since her family has a slave stone, they probably had something or someone who could easily remove the mark.
Anyway, Rio planned to kill her after she was done being useful, when Mages reach the Magus Realm, they can enter their consciousness and directly remove it. However, since he made it clear not to remove it unless someone spots it, she's being enslaved she can't do anything to the mark.
If she can't enter the top ten in the competition, Rio can just kill her since she stopped being useful, however, if she does manage to become top ten, she can be useful in the secret realm.
Due to this, it seems she got more determined and got her family's support, even more, to strengthen herself for the competition. Of course, Rio took spirit stones when he needed them.
'status'
[Ding!]
Name: Rio Casmir
EXP- 2000
Class: 1st rank Mage
Subclass: 1st Rank Hachidan Martial Artist
Strength: 54.6
Agility: 57.8
Endurance: 52.0
Mana: 148.0