Chapter 122
The sensation of absorbing the divine spark was an interesting feeling, somehow a mixture of taking a soft, lingering sip from an excellent wine, and drinking a sip of water desperately after a week's journey through a desert, displaying both the soft comfort of the first and the desperation of the second simultaneously.
Still, it was an amazing sensation, overwhelming even without the fact that I would be able to level up again, and even progress the Companion Process as an excellent bonus. It was slowly absorbed being into my soul space. The system probably would have liked to absorb it immediately, but that part failed due to the interference of her wards, the same wards that prevented the proficiency increase for the skills and gaining experience... Still, as long as the amount of Divine Spark became too overwhelming in my soul space, it was not a big problem.
The process to steal some of the Divine Spark from her was complicated, but once established, it was mostly self-reinforcing, allowing me to focus on other things. I turned my attention on the headmistress, her beautiful face strained with the weight of the action she was doing, her focus impeccable.
It was the perfect time to examine her status. I carefully constructed a mana probe, weak yet stable, before pushing it into her body. Her own body was chaotic enough with her throbbing mana, making it impossible for her to detect my little trick.
It also made it difficult for my mana probe to survive, forcing me to recreate probe after probe to search for her soul space, only to fail repeatedly despite my intensive effort. She might be hiding her soul space, of course, but she was clearly straining her own ability to the limit to channel the divine spark. Why should she bother to hide her soul space so thoroughly? Even if she suspected tricks from me, reinforcing its defenses was much easier than hiding it completely.
I created another probe, this time much stronger, taking the risk of getting caught, pushing even deeper into her body to find the connection point with the system. Then, I plunged that probe into her mana flow, tracing it toward the source, the only location I hadn't checked.
Initially, I wasn't expecting to find anything, because I had assumed the flow was coming from the crystal platform rather than her, because I assumed the platform was holding the divine spark, and she was just channeling it. It certainly made sense when considering the ability of the platform. As the mana probe traveled deeper into the mana flow, deeper into her body rather than the platform, however, I was forced to rethink that assumption.
When I finally found a metaphorical space, reinforced by layers and layers of mana, my eyes widened in surprise for two reasons. First, it was clearly not a soul space, and combined with my fruitless search that checked every other possible location, it wasn't hard to conclude that she lacked a soul space altogether.
Shocking, but not as shocking as it would have been before listening to her story about the root of the system. Knowing that it was an artificial construct of relatively recent origins, developed by the enemies of her faction, her lack of a system was interesting, but not exactly enough to shake my worldview. Combined with her ability to block the system in her tower, it was something I should have guessed.
The second discovery was much more interesting. Inside her reinforced containment unit, I had found an energy source that was getting more familiar with each passing minute. She was holding the Divine Spark inside her body. Which was an interesting choice, considering she had a perfectly viable container in the form of the platform. I was yet to decipher the platform's full range of functions, but based on my work on the broken remains of the spear, I was absolutely sure that it could contain the divine spark inside her infinitely with no side effect.
Which left the question, why she was carrying it inside her despite the obvious disadvantages.
Unfortunately, before I could deepen my probe, the strain on her face started to strengthen, and her mana flow started to decrease. I dispersed my mana probe hurriedly before she could notice it.
Once the mana flow slowed down, she stopped mixing Divine Spark, and instead focused on absorbing her mana. The moment it stopped, however, her mana rushed inside me once more, no less intense, but with much better control. If she maintained that intensity while examining my body, I had no chance of hiding my real soul space if she used that to search for it, but luckily, she was panting in exhaustion already.
Not the best mood to do something that was completely unnecessary —from her perspective— just to be on the safe side.
Instead, she focused that mana on my fake soul space, examining the small core of transformed divine spark, much smaller than what Titania had been carrying. It was a difference that couldn't be explained by the small amount of Divine Spark I managed to steal.
"You'll visit me for the rest of the week, just before the dawn every time," she said, trying to sound impervious to hide her exhausted state. Since my own Companion node also required repeated attempts to fully form, I wasn't too surprised by her words.
"As you wish, headmistress," I said as I stood up, trying to ignore the way her sweaty robe stuck to her body. The robe was too thick to make it an erotic sight, but the hints of curves were just enough to trigger the memories of her beautiful nakedness, making my mouth water.
Even then, I wasn't particularly broken as I left the headmistress behind, too interested in the amount of divine spark that filled my real soul space, still moving, unlike the Node that was created in my soul space. I could have still destroyed that node to recover the divine spark it went to its construction, but since it would make the headmistress very suspicious, I didn't follow up with that.
Luckily, it was too weak to affect me even if it hadn't been housed in a fake soul space.
With that done, I turned my attention back to the flowing Divine Spark, still waiting for the connection with the system to occur, relatively calm as it stayed mixed with my mana.
However, the moment I stepped out of the tower —and out of the concealment of the tower— I lost all hints of control over the Divine Spark, which was devoured by the system in an instant. Not expecting such a reaction, I was barely able to maintain my own soul space as the pain hit, forcing me to grit my teeth. It was a pain that transcended physical, hurting my whole existence as it shredded an escape route through my soul space.
"Okay, no letting it absorb all of it immediately," I murmured to myself even as I struggled to stand up, trembling badly. There was no HP loss warning, but that didn't change the fact that I had never been that close to death, not even I had been in the necromancer base, dashing away from the scary lich and his death knights.
Luckily, repairing my soul space was something I had significant expertise on. After spending all the time using tantric to reinforce the soul space of the girls to increase their level cap, repairing my own was a simple activity.
[-5491 Mana]
A simple, yet costly activity, I corrected in my mind as I dumped more and more mana into my soul space. Not that it annoyed me much. After all, if was one thing I didn't lack, it was mana.
I could have waited around in my room, and linger until my mana was completely recovered, reinforcing my soul space even further before the next ritual, allowing me to safely store more Divine Spark, but I received a notification that eased the process of recovery significantly.
The kind that I had been missing for a whole.
[Achievement: Devouring Divinity. Take the first step into recovering your divine power. +5 to all stats. +20000 Experience]
Level UP!
[Select one of the following skills: Grandmaster Tantric, Expert Craft, Master Speech]
Despite the significant increase in power it represented, I couldn't help but frown as I read the notifications. Still, before pondering on the implications, I first focused on the simpler part, namely, skill selection.
Selecting Tantric was tempting. Tantric was the only reason I was able to devour Divine Spark successfully, thanks to the extraordinary flexibility it granted while synchronizing with others, not to mention, stronger my Tantric abilities, easier I could level up my companions, and likely to a higher level. Extra firepower was never something negative.
The problem, it would block my skill selection for the next five levels, a loss of flexibility I couldn't afford, especially not before I could ascertain how much experience the Divine Spark would generate. So, I turned to the other options.
Speech was an inferior option, even with all the advantages it would grant me against the headmistress and the princess. Craft was the vital thing I needed before I repaired the spear properly. After selecting, I started thinking about the complicated structure of the spear even as I pulled a spare dagger, using my mana to reshape it.
[+9 Craft]
[-341]
A smile appeared on my lips as I saw the result. The current complexity I was dealing with was far above the skill accounted for, easily allowing me to gain more points —or more accurately, assimilating the skill node I had received from the system.
The significant improvement in the ease I was handling my mana was another beneficial perk, but even that wasn't enough to suppress the frown that appeared on my face as I read my latest achievement again and again, my gloom deepening.
If my assumptions were correct, the System had just told me a lie, a big one.
My information about the Divine, both in terms of the gods and their lesser counterparts were extremely limited, but even my limited interaction with the Divine Spark suggested that leveling up had little to do with becoming a divine. Ultimately, the System was an external source of power that could be cut off, manipulated, or destroyed.
More importantly, I started examining the remaining scraps of power in my body, the ones that were yet to be absorbed into my body. My soul space, rather than allowing them to settle and empower my body, started to devour them as well, running contrary to the claims of resurrecting my divinity.
It was even trying to devour the node that was created in my fake soul space, forcing me to reinforce its walls to prevent the System from succeeding. Explaining its disappearance to the headmistress wouldn't have been fun.
Also, the direct claim in the achievement, about being the resurrection of a god was another suspicious point. It wasn't the first time the System implied something in that direction, but it was the first time it confirmed it in such a direct manner. I had no idea whether it was true or not. The existence of the gods was something I had just learned just a couple of days ago, with absolutely no idea about their nature and their life cycle.
Technically, there was a possibility that it was the truth, that I was the resurrection of a god, and my System was something I had created before my temporary destruction to enable my rise to power.
The problem, it sounded too good to be true, especially in conjunction with the existence of the widespread System, designed to devour the Divine Spark of the gods. And suddenly, my own system was asking me to do the same, baiting me with more power, and the possibility of becoming a Divine being.
It sounded too good to be true...
Funny enough, the sudden burst of suspicion didn't change anything in my immediate plans. Whether the outlandish claim of my System was actually the truth, or it was just an excuse to force me to gather more Divine Spark, I would still visit Titania to push my level even more.
I needed more strength to survive the looming disaster first...
[Level: 31 Experience: 467193 / 496000
Strength: 46 Charisma: 58
Precision: 40 Perception: 42
Agility: 40 Manipulation: 45
Speed: 39 Intelligence: 49
Endurance: 39 Wisdom: 51
HP: 6324 / 6324 Mana: 1321 / 7595 ]
SKILLS
Master Melee [100/100]
Master Tantric [100/100]
Master Biomancy [100/100]
Master Elemental [100/100]
Master Arcana [100/100]
Master Subterfuge [100/100]
Expert Speech [75/75]
Expert Craft [59/75]
PERKS
Mana Regeneration
Skill Share
Empowerment (1/1)
Teleportation
COMPANIONS
[Cornelia - Level 21/25]
[Helga - Level 17/21]