Chapter 167

A touch of annoyance stirred in my heart even as I stepped into the tunnel that was under the control of the headmistress' precious dark wards. The fact that it was a part of my plan wasn't enough to completely dismiss the sting of being summoned like a servant.

The fact that it stopped me from enjoying the extended embrace of a busty blacksmith hardly helped to maintain my mood.

I knocked on the door, but there was no response. However, I could sense her mana moving behind the door, with no attempt to keep it hidden. On the contrary, her casting was more obvious than the usual, as if she wanted me to detect her behind the door.

Yet the door stayed closed.

A transparent attempt to exert her power. But like most direct applications of authority, or like sexy underwear, just because it was transparent didn't mean that it was useless. I waited silently for five minutes before a spell finally hit on the door, opening it.

When I entered, I found her still in her human form, lying on a reclining chair. Still short, with her emerald hair bright enough to get all the attention if it wasn't for her deliciously amazing curves, the only thing that was different was her clothing, wearing some kind of short nightie rather than a dress.

If it wasn't for her beauty, I would have been much less willing to play along with her little games.

"How can I help you, mistress?" I said, but made sure to add a slightly mocking tone, reminding her that, ultimately, I was just playing around rather than being intimidated into service.

Sometimes, it was easier to act truly servile, waiting until it was the time to lash out and defeat the enemy. However, the current situation was certainly not one of those, not with the power inequality of our initial meetings, saving her from certain death twice. The

She didn't miss that particular detail if her cute frown was any indicator. "I'm hungry, prepare some food for me," she said, her tone excessively dismissive.

"As you wish, mistress?" I asked. "Any preference? Maybe some steak?"

"Something lighter. After spending that much time in the wilderness, I'm not in the mood for something heavy."

"How about a salad, maybe some steamed vegetables?" I asked, only to receive a shocked gaze.

"What are you talking about," she muttered in shock, and no small amount of anger. "Salad, vegetables? Do I look like a cow to you?"

I smirked sardonically, realizing that my menu idea was not exactly well-thought-out. Clearly, vegetables were hardly the most appealing food for a dragon. "Maybe some nice braised dire chicken, then?" I asked. "And some spices to give a nice aroma."

"Maybe," she said, then her smirk widened, like she was about to deliver a dangerous blow. "But I want you to cook it here, yourself, I can't trust the servants here. What if there were spies, and use the opportunity to poison me."

It wasn't a particularly good reason. The existence of spies was not in doubt, but it was very unlikely for those spies to be aware of her presence. And even if they were aware of her presence and determined to take her down, I doubted that poisoning would be the first method.

I had a feeling that poisoning a dragon wouldn't be a simple task.

I didn't bother explaining that, of course, not when her smirk told me all I needed to know. It was clearly an excuse to force me to do some menial work.

Jokes on her. Of all the things she could ask me to do using the headmistress as an excuse, cooking wouldn't even earn a place on the list of annoyances. It didn't bother me at all, not when I had to prepare my own meals for a long while, especially after I started leveling up.

I didn't tell her that, of course, instead of letting her think that she had pulled one over me. "As you wish, mistress," I said with a resigned tone. "Just let me go and pick some supplies first."

"Sure, go ahead," she said, waving her hand dismissively, which did some nice things to her skimpy nightie. "But don't dawdle too much, I'm feeling famished."

The supply trip didn't last long since I didn't bother talking with anyone, but directly arrived at the storage and took all the ingredients and equipment I needed. I could have used the headmistress' orders to get them officially, however, but it would be like shouting to the spies in the school that was something extraordinary going on.

And when I knocked on her door, once again, she kept me waiting, which made her tactic even more amusing and childish, making me actually chuckle. And when the door finally opened, the sight that was revealed was certainly enough to compensate.

She was still wearing the same nightie, but her legs were crossed, her body leaning forward a bit to enhance her beautiful cleavage even further.

I still remembered the sensation of dragging my fingers on her soft skin.

"Mistress," I said with a nod, making a point not to linger my gaze on her body, not giving her the attention she clearly desired.

Instead, I moved to the corner, a couple of spells and a ward enough to create a temporary kitchen. I started cooking, which was a smooth process thanks to my Craft skill, which didn't only help me to create very useful weapons but also prepare meals.

Once again, generalist skills for the win.

I started whistling as my knife danced over the meat, mixing the pieces with a spice mixture rapidly, even as the ward structure replicated an oven and started to warm up to the correct degree.

However, I wasn't just mixing the meat with the spices. Instead, I was carefully coating every single one with a great amount of mana carefully, not only increased the magic it contained, but also carefully enhanced the flavor packed in it, something that I was able to do before making the meat explode, only because my Tantric ability allowing me to keep mana smooth and calm even outside my body.

[-842 Mana]

A costly activity. Pity that the wards blocked the System from improving my skills, as it would have been a nice bonus along with the delicious smell that filled the room.

However, as I cooked, I heard the distinct sound of fabric being pulled off. A soft, suggestive sound, one that tempted me to look back, but I kept my attention on the preparation. The sound was too loud, too stretched out to be anything but accidental, a part of her teasing.

The sigh of annoyance that followed certainly confirmed that assumption.

She followed that with another spell, her mana signature distinct, before footsteps started to move toward me, sauntering slowly, until she was directly behind me. Still, I didn't look at her until she actually leaned against my body.

"It smells nice," she murmured even as her breasts rubbed against my back, her voice soft, suggestive. "You're a better cook than I expected. Maybe I should actually take you back with me as my servant," she added, teasing and mocking me at the same time.

And I had to admit, it was working despite the brief respite I had earned thanks to Oeyne. "That's not possible, unfortunately," I murmured, but only after a reasonable pause, one that implied that the determination behind my words wasn't as strong as the words implied.

I had no idea to truly be her servant, of course, but giving her the impression that it was possible wouldn't hurt. She would try to impress me, which would come with a lot of relevant information about the world that was not under the control of the system.

"I see," she murmured as she shifted a bit, standing next to me. Only then did I let my gaze drop toward her, getting the first glimpse of her changed clothing. Her negligee was gone, replaced by a tight dress. It was longer than her negligee, reaching to her knees, but its tightness was more than enough to compensate for the loss of sexiness.

Together with the generous cleavage, she was very beautiful, but that prevent her from looking furious I barely paid her a glance before turning my attention back to cooking, carefully infusing more mana into the water I used to braise the meat.

[-381 Mana]

"You're wasting a lot of mana," she commented as she watched me slowly infuse the water with more and more, which, unlike directly reinforcing the meat, was going to be set aside as leftover, while the mana slowly evaporated away.

"That's the quirk of cooking," I answered. "If you want to make a delicious dish, you need to be willing to waste a lot of mana." This was technically correct, but that didn't change the fact that the mana-intensive cooking technique was my own invention, merging Tantric and Craft on the fly.

No one else had used such a technique before to my knowledge, which wasn't as surprising as it might sound. First, I doubted there were more chefs that had a mana pool reaching four digits in the first place, which was requisite for the technique. Then, those chefs would require a significant Arcana skill, assisted by some very complicated wards to compensate for Tantric — which I suspected something unique to my own situation, as I failed to discover any similar skills in my studies.

Even if it wasn't a unique skill, it was likely rare enough that there was not a chef that had it.

Still, even more importantly, there were very few people that could actually eat such a mana-intensive dish without exploding, and even less that could actually extract the slightest benefit. Even most efficient mana recovery potions were little more than a wasteful luxury, dedicated for the usage of low-leveled rich scions rather than actually used in battles. Most of it was about people's inability to efficiently consume external mana.

The only exception, was the sexy dragon next to me, doing her best to get my attention without being too obvious. Her ability to directly extract mana from things she consumed, which, by her own admission, was the only thing that kept her alive without the System and the mana regeneration it provided.

She was the only one that could really appreciate the complicated dish I was about to finish preparing, after one last touch.

[-925 Mana]

Again, I had used a lot of mana, but this time, it wasn't just to maximize the taste of the meal I had prepared. I had used the opportunity to attach some of it to her dress, one that would allow me to apply some mischievous tricks.

"Your dinner is ready, mistress," I said. "Shall we move to the table?"

[Level: 32 Experience: 499110 / 528000

Strength: 46 Charisma: 63

Precision: 40 Perception: 42

Agility: 40 Manipulation: 45

Speed: 39 Intelligence: 49

Endurance: 39 Wisdom: 51

HP: 6528 / 6528 Mana: 6139 / 8000 ]

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]

Master Craft [77/100]

Expert Speech [75/75]

PERKS

Mana Regeneration

Skill Share

Empowerment (1/1)

Teleportation

COMPANIONS

[Cornelia - Level 22/26]

[Helga - Level 22/26]