“Be careful,” she murmured as I grabbed her hand. Her voice was steady, but it was impossible for her to hide her tenseness from me successfully.

“Don’t worry, boss,” I said, putting enough focus on the last word, enough to make it a mocking statement. Any other time, she would have reacted that badly, but this time, she didn’t even notice that, her attention on my fingers.

It was not hard to understand her. I was yet to learn the full details, but it was clear that she had spent a considerable portion of the last two centuries locked in the tower, and even the possibility of getting free from that was not so inconsiderable.

I was careful as I used Tantric to slowly imbue Arcana energy in a manner subtle enough that she wouldn’t notice, and started building a temporary container in her finger, paying attention to do so extra stable.

I considered deliberately failing a couple times before succeeding to further undersell my abilities. I would have probably done so without the presence of the princess and Janelor, their presence giving me a sense of pressure.

Both were enemies of the Eternals to a certain degree, though even without them, it was clear that the Eternals weren’t exactly a friendly organization, evidenced by the way they tried to use Zokras to take the school down.

After I completed it, she started circling her mana, once again using her clumsy mana flow to store Divine Spark into the storage, not too different from the way she used to create my Light node.

I would have been annoyed, if it didn’t give me even more chance to steal Divine Spark.

Most of the Divine Spark I stole, I just pushed into my body, cleansing through Tantric before letting my body absorb it — since the effectiveness of it helping me to level up getting lower and lower, I decided to prioritize absorption over letting the System devour it.

The next time, I would try to steal some from the Princess, to see whether the difference in Divine Spark would help.

The process took a long, and the waiting after that took even longer, so I decided to leverage the pause for something productive. I already had my mana inside her, and she was conveniently distracted to examine the performance of the storage I created.

Perfect time for some experimentation.

I started to examine the relationship between the Divine Spark and her body, to see why she was failing to absorb it.

As I carefully examined her state, I soon realized that was not entirely correct. The best way to describe her status was halfway successful — as otherwise, she would have long died due to side effects regardless of the impact.

Though, the deeper I dug, the more I respected her solution. The simplest way to describe her trick was to create a giant Light Node for herself, compressing most of the Light Spark into an immobile mess, allowing her to survive despite a half-complete process.

Of course, the actuality wasn’t as simple, as the Divine Spark was clearly resisting being compressed to such a degree, so she couldn’t just compress the Spark completely and continue to use her mana.

She had to maintain a subtle balance of letting it liquify to get rid of the pressure, circling through her body before solidifying it into a node once more — while using Darkness Spark to suppress the process.

All the while, the way she had used the spark was diametrically opposed to mine, as even halfway successful, it was clear that she wanted to let it dance in her body freely. My trick was far more similar to Janelor’s trick, though using transformed Divine Spark rather than Mana.

I didn’t attempt to steal the Darkness Spark, as unlike the abundance of Light Spark she was suffering, she clearly had much less, enough that the disappearance of it might actually be successful.

Curious, I created a very small probe of pure mana, one that displayed the full capability of Tantric Node.

As I did so, I could feel my competency in Tantric rising, but I received no notification from the System, the partial block working excellently.

[-14 Mana]

The transformation itself might be complete, but the amount of mana was small enough to avoid her attention, especially with the presence of the other, and I watched the process as it moved through her body.

It didn’t take long for me to notice something very important. It occasionally collided with slivers of Light Spark, only for them to disappear almost immediately. At first, it made me frown, as while Tantric was able to purify the Divine Spark, it was certainly not an instantaneous process, not even for a sliver.

I turned my full focus into the process. I realized what was going on at the fifth occurrence.

Before I could absorb Light Divine Spark, I needed to purify it completely, stripping it of its nature — or transforming it into Tantric nature, but that was not a question I was yet to answer — before my body could accept it.

Yet, the same didn’t apply to the headmistress, who was already halfway merged with Light Spark, with their nature mostly aligned. A simple touch of Tantric effect was enough to soften the rigidity of the Divine Spark, which then allowed it to merge with her properly.

As it merged with her, I understood why she was having trouble describing the interaction between Divine Spark and the gods. It directly merged into her body just like my featureless Divine Spark did, but unlike my featureless one, it also imposed its nature on the Headmistress, enhancing the nature of her light more.

It was a subtle change, impossible to notice if I hadn’t been looking for it deliberately, but impressive nonetheless. I couldn’t imagine how it would look once it was completed fully.

The best part, since it would fully merge with her, it would be protected from the absorption of the system as well.

I smiled at the process. I was certainly afraid of showing my ability to purify Divine Spark even with our growing relationship. But giving that little, almost indiscernible push to complete her half-completed merging was much less spectacular.

One that could be easily dismissed as a coincidence, just like she did the ability of the storage I created to hold Divine Spark.

Being underestimated was certainly useful.

There was no time like now, I decided as I tightened my hold over her hand, and pressed my finger to her palm, slowly infusing light energy that was infused with Tantric as I caressed her palm.

I barely held a chuckle as I used the extremely destructive light energy as a massaging aid. It was not necessary to do so. On the contrary, using healing energy or pure mana would have been more useful, and easier.

Using the destructive and aggressive nature of the Light mana as a massage aid, on the other hand, was considerably challenging. Even with my stats and magical competence, I doubted I could have achieved without Tantric’s assistance, which was, for the lack of a better term, softening the Light, making it gentler and more obedient.

“What are you doing?” the headmistress asked, quick to question as she looked at me, though it took a moment for her to react as she was still distracted by the monumental nature of my earlier achievement.

“Helping to fight against tenseness, just in case the storage somehow blocks your mana flow,” I said. “Why, is it not working?”

“That’s not what —“ she started, only for her eyes to widen, as she doubtlessly noticed a sliver being absorbed in her body. Her shock was palpable enough that even she had no hope of hiding, so I reacted.

“Should I stop?” I asked as I slowly pulled back my mana.

“No!” she gasped, making by far the loudest voice I heard her making, not that I begrudged her for it. After all, what just happened represented a solution that plagued her for centuries.

“Are you sure?” I asked, acting shocked at her sudden reaction. “You don’t have to lie to protect my feelings, I can handle it,” I said, letting my smile widen.

“I’m s-sure, continue,” she said, her face blushing in excitement, her breathing fast, once again highlighting just how cute her flawless face could be while showing emotions.

“Why did you react that way, then?” I asked, enjoying pushing her once again.

“I…” she muttered a bit, lost at the moment as she tried to find an excuse for her explosive reaction. “I was just surprised at your competency at manipulating Light. It’s a harsh element, yet you’re able to manipulate it other than a destructive force. That’s impressive.”

“Really??” I asked.

“Oh, yeah,” she said, jumping at the opportunity to change the topic. “It’s a great performance for a human that’s not even a demigod to show that kind of flexibility while using Light. The nature of the light is not a simple destructive force, but it was rare for a mere Chosen to manipulate it like that, using it as a soothing force. Even a demigod might have trouble with it.”

“Well, I can’t take all the credit, I’m applying some of the tricks I learned from Janelor,” I said, more than happy to give her a viable direction for her suspicions. It was for the better if she thought a combination of my mana manipulation abilities and the secret techniques of a dragon was responsible for it.

“Good, that pile of scales is finally earning her keep,” she murmured, her animosity showing even with the elation she was feeling. “Now, continue,” she said.

I slowly massaged her hand for a long while, letting my Light-natured mana invade her body more and more, using the opportunity to understand the unique nature of her body as well as the way her Light-natured body interacted with Light mana.

With such access, it didn’t take long for me to notice something specific in her body, one that was subtly changing the nature of her mana, making it more rigid than it needed to be.

Rigid enough to reject the merger of the Light Spark, responsible for extended failure.

It was clearly not a part of her true nature, but it wasn’t just some simple enchantment either. It was subtle, but woven into her nature subtly enough to be mistaken for one.

I wasn’t surprised by her not noticing it, because it was not only woven very subtly, but also it actually included a very subtle amount of Divine Spark, but it was used much more complicated manner than I ever thought possible.

The only reason I noticed that was as the Tantric energy infused her body, it flickered enough to earn my attention.

Just like that, the mystery deepened even more. Like I didn’t have enough questions to answer.

After some thinking, I decided to avoid that for a while. Instead, I stood up, catching her eye. “You’re still very tense,” I said. “Do you want me to work on your shoulders? It’ll be a bit exhausting for me magically, but you clearly need a proper massage.”

—————

[Level: 36 Experience: 631374 / 666000

Strength: 46 Charisma: 63

Precision: 40 Perception: 42

Agility: 40 Manipulation: 45

Speed: 39 Intelligence: 49

Endurance: 39 Wisdom: 51

HP: 7334 / 7334 Mana: 9000 / 9000 ]

SKILLS

Grandmaster Tantric [114/140]

Master Melee [100/100]

Master Biomancy [100/100]

Master Elemental [100/100]

Master Arcana [100/100]

Master Subterfuge [100/100]

Master Craft [85/100]

Expert Speech [75/75]

PERKS

Mana Regeneration

Skill Share

Empowerment (0/1)

Teleportation

COMPANIONS

[Titania – Level 35/38]

[Cornelia – Level 22/26]

[Helga – Level 22/26]

[Marianne – Level 21/29]