Chapter 227

The princess was enthusiastic enough for her tongue to invade my mouth aggressively, which was to be expected after she got a taste of the reward, and expecting even more leveling. Unfortunately, it was not what she would receive. Not because I wanted to ration my mana — as the regeneration helped me immensely on that aspect — but I had seen the risks of leveling too quickly.

While my method was not as barbaric as the Eternals had been using, it was still enough to make quick leveling a bit of danger. Her soul space needed to settle to make it safe.

Luckily for her, I had an even better reward. I reached a small internal storage, and pulled the little present I had picked from Mariel's room.

A little flicker of Darkness Spark, beautifully treated with Tantric.

[-450 Mana]

[+1 Tantric]

A gasp escaped her mouth as the Darkness touched her, which was much more strained than I expected. Luckily, I was aware that it was an experiment, and used a very limited amount.

I wondered whether it was the difference between an angel and a human that was the source of the difference, or it was the fact that Mariel had been much more aligned with the nature of the Divine Spark after carrying it with her for two centuries.

Either way, I clearly needed to make it more malleable. Luckily, it was the whole reason I was experimenting with her.

"Focus on the way you have been using your Divine Spark," I ordered, curious whether the mindset would have any impact on it. I didn't do that with Mariel, but she was already strongly aligned with Light, making that redundant at best.

She tried to say something, but considering I had stolen her lips once again, the only thing she let out was a soft gasp. But I could imagine her trying to say my actions were not conducive to focusing on darkness.

I didn't care about the intensity of her success. At this point, I was more interested in understanding the nature of Divine Spark than empowering her — for empowerment, I had easier options.

I just waited to see if the difficulty of the absorption process was changing.

Her mana started to cycle inside her. At first, it was smooth, but soon, she started to sieve her mana into her own Divine Spark reserves, letting it gain a shadowy quality while she tried to focus.

The result was not earth-shattering, but promising. As her mana started to gain Darkness nature, but not fully. In parallel, the difficulty of absorption started to reduce, but it was noticeable only because of my sharp senses. Maybe meditating for hours and days would have worked much more efficiently, but I didn't have the time to do that.

Luckily, I had my own cheat tool. I used Tantric to dilute the darkness effect more and more, until her body finally accepted it, the minuscule Darkness Spark melding into her quickly.

It wasn't a lot of Divine Spark, not enough to give her an actual power-up, which was nice since that was not my objective in the first place.

But, as a nice bonus, somehow it made an impact I hadn't been expecting. Not directly, but somehow, it worked like a skill, and the ease of using her own darkness multiplied several times.

Fascinating.

Too fascinating, even. If I didn't have the ability to examine her soul space to know the exact skills she had, I might have actually thought that it triggered a skill. The similarity, combined with my unique system's constant demand for Divine Spark, raised some interesting questions about the link between the Skills and Divine Spark.

Pity we were facing an emergency, which prevented me from whisking the princess to a three-day retreat filled with experimentation and debauchery.

"How's this as an advance payment," I said, acting like I hadn't simply multiplied her capabilities several times, making her a much more formidable and dangerous opponent.

"Enough to make sure I succeed," she whispered. And, considering she was already capable enough to grab the Crown Princess position strongly enough that other princes needed help from the Eternals to push her out — and failed to attain complete success even then — it was not hard to imagine what that power up meant in terms of effectiveness.

"Good, but since I don't want to show my face around, let's make sure you will succeed," I said as I captured her lips once more. I didn't want to spend more mana, but since I was facing such a convenient experimentation opportunity, I decided to do so.

Especially I could feel the small pull of the System, trying to absorb the Divine Spark her body absorbed.

I needed to solve that.

[-382 Mana]

[Companion Acquisition: Progress 1%]

[+2 Tantric]

Ordinarily, Companion Process wasn't supposed to start with just a kiss, but at this point, I was capable enough to trick my own System by using trickery.

Amusingly, it still required a mental component, which I had achieved by pushing her toward the

Yet, the results were on the negative side of my expectations. It slowed down the absorption, but only because it was generating a reverse pull. Still, while I was unhappy with the result, I wasn't surprised by it.

Not when my system had been subtly blackmailing me for more and more Divine Spark.

Yet, that didn't mean it couldn't be used for my benefit.

First, I reached that companion node, and absorbed it back. Then, I flared my mana even as I let my own Divine Spark take its place as we kissed.

[-1280 Mana]

[Companion Acquisition: Progress 25%]

I didn't receive any notification of experience gain or stage completion, but considering I had been using my own Divine Spark, it wasn't shocking. However, while I didn't care about my own experience, I was slightly frustrated by the lack of achievement at the Princess.

Yet, the benefit of it was clear. The companion node was still pulling the Divine Spark toward itself, but with a lesser intensity. And, when it brushed against the node, it bounced back.

It was another advantage of creating the node myself. I was able to create an inverted storage around, blocking it from actually absorbing the Divine Spark, while still pulling enough to prevent the System from absorbing.

It wasn't the most elegant solution, but it worked well, which was all I could hope for at that point. I pushed another sliver of Darkness Spark inside her, noting the absorption process. It still took a great deal of Tantric cleansing, but a sliver less than the earlier attempt.

A piece of evidence toward the existing Divine Spark helping assimilation, but ultimately, not conclusive, requiring much more experimentation.

When I pulled back, her eyes were wide in shock, easily distinguishing the smoothness of her darkness mana flowing with surprising smoothness.

"I'm sure you can feel the improvement in your capabilities," I whispered as I pulled back. Earlier, she was barely able to maintain two puppets, but I was confident that, after my improvements, three wouldn't be out of the question, maybe even more if she could use her increased flexibility as an advantage.

"Yes," she said, trying to sound confident, but unable to suppress the fascination in her tone.

"Don't forget I expect a good performance. I won't be happy if I find myself forced to act," I said as I pulled back. It was another subtle trick, it worked as a threat, but also a promise. I was implying that I would punish her if she failed, but I was also saying that I was ready to intervene openly if things got too bad.

Which conveniently removed the dilemma of a possible last stand and the merits of an early retreat from her. Why would she retreat even if the worst outcome of staying was better than retreating.

It was not true, of course, as I was weaker than what I had been reflecting her, but I didn't feel bad about that, after she made the choice of doing the same to Silver Spires, involving the school with her political realities.

Also, she was a politician. Lies were basically foreplay for them.

Looking at her, still trying to catch her breath after our latest kiss, I was tempted to lean forward once more, but delaying my arrival at the border was not a good idea. I didn't battle to start immediately, but it was not a bet I was willing to take.

I disappeared from the room with an illusion trick before leaving the school, hoping the princess wouldn't waste the trust I had laid in her...

[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: 7126 / 9000 ]

SKILLS

Grandmaster Tantric [118/140]

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]