Chapter 30: Daring Gambit

After finishing my preparations, including packing the food, dropping in to my secret stash to take my weapons, and preparing a fake medical notice for the library to explain my extended absence took several minutes, sneaking out of the school bounds while avoiding the guards consumed another few. After that, I dashed away at a pace that would have exhausted anyone without my impressive physical capabilities.

At first, the road was crowded, intersecting with many different patrols, and several other groups of students and the occasional lone wolf, all geared to the brim, most with at least one magical item strong enough for me to pick up from a distance. Surely, it was nice to be rich. I doubted my family could have afforded to gear me with a comparable item even if it wasn't for my supposed disabled status.

But several minutes later, something happened that distracted me from the situation at hand immediately. I stepped out of the range of the ancient wards and defensive enchantments that covered the school.

It was a weird sensation to be deprived of them completely, I realized, a nervous smile appearing on my face despite my best efforts. I lived under those impressive wards since my magical awareness first developed. Even the special training forests I trained in were under those wards, just partially deactivated to give students space to train. But they were ever present still, ready to snap in place if real danger arose.

For a while, I stood still, feeling my surroundings without the imposing presence of the wards, trying to understand the difference. Magic was much easier to detect for one, to a point that most of the tricks that I pulled back in the school would have been impossible to achieve outside with my limited capabilities.

With a sigh, I continued running at the same grueling pace, but kept one of my hands close to my sword at all times. The roads weren't without protection, but it was markedly different from the ancient wards, at best enough to delay a moderately strong attacker for a minute before collapsing.

It was also the reason why the occasional group of travelers looked at me with a mixture of shock and fascination. They all traveled in crowded groups, even occasional large caravans with crowded guard regiments. The fact that I was willing to travel alone was a statement itself just as much as my fresh look despite my aggressive pace of movement, which implied significant stats. Luckily, we were close to Silver Spires, so it wasn't noteworthy enough to raise an alarm.

After all, there were a lot of students over level ten in Silver Spires.

Several more minutes later I started to slow down, finally nearing the hidden glade I had assigned as a meeting location for both Aviada and Helga. I hadn't seen the location before, of course, as my previous condition wasn't exactly conducive for free exploration, but posing as a servant after I first discovered my powers was helpful in more ways than one, allowing me to pick up a lot of minor secrets. The location of the glade, where a few students were using as a semi-secret gathering location whenever they had a mission, was one of those secrets.

I was greeted by angry shouts as I got closer, and was about to rush forward until I could discern the lack of urgency behind them, and more importantly, realized that those belonged only to Aviada and Helga. With a sigh, I slowed down, trying to understand the reason for their argument before interjecting.

"... at least I'm not a meathead that believes that waving a metal club around is the solution for every problem," I heard Helga yelling in anger.

"Yeah, and living your life surrounded by dusty tomes is any better," came Aviada's reply just as quick.

"Of course it is, though it's not surprising in a barbarian's failing to notice that everything in our society works thanks to the magicians and their discoveries."

I couldn't help but sigh again when I realized the cause of the argument. Yes, the only reason I arranged them to arrive before I did was to see how they reacted to each other's presence without my involvement -though due to Marianne distracting me, I was even later than I had first planned- but finding them in a childish fight about the validity of their selected discipline was a bit surprising. At least, it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

I thought about interjecting myself into the situation, but then decided to check the situation first from an arcane mirror. They were standing far away from each other, their body language signifying no immediate breakout of action, so I decided to stand back and watch them, curious about how things would develop. Their childish bickering about the merits of their own specialization lasted for several more minutes until it ultimately faded into listless jabs.

I was preparing to walk toward them when Helga stage-whispered. "... at least I don't have to dress like a whore to get attention." And just like that, the embers of the argument were inflamed once more.

Aviada laughed in derision even as she dragged her hand over the sides of her body, accentuating her curves. "Honey, it's not shameful to tease others about what you have," she said before grabbing her sword momentarily, her smirk getting a predatory twist, "especially if you can easily prevent people from touching." I had to admit, Aviada had a point there, as her clothes were tastefully chosen, a tight pair of pants that looked elastic enough to allow a complete range of motion, and a leather top just as tight, but with a few top buttons released. Her armor was limited to her shins and her forearms to protect her extremities against faster creatures without limiting her movements. Her lack of armor was a good choice, because non-magical armor was effectively useless against any creature above class six. And as a bonus, it enhanced her sharp sexiness, which meshed perfectly with her personality.

Helga was no less beautiful in her own softer, curvier way, but in this situation, her modest manner of dressing worked against her. Unlike Aviada, she was wearing a loose set of robes made of pockets and satchels, and as shapely as a potato sack. She had reasons for dressing like that of course, mostly relating to her relative inability to protect herself, and more importantly, her lack of clout to get away if she actually resorted to doing so. Under those circumstances, the less attention she drew to her figure, the better.

Of course, oblivious from her sudden spike of anger, the logical reasoning behind her mode of the dress did little to blunt the impact of Aviada's words. "Unlike you, I don't need to impress any wandering eye with my body just to have a chance," Helga answered slowly despite her rage. "He's discerning enough to appreciate a timely reveal, unlike whatever pathetic brute you're trying to string along by pushing your breasts on his face," Helga answered.

"You wish you had these to push in your little nerdy boy toy's face," Aviada countered as she cupped her breasts, once again showing off her boisterous personality. Helga laughed, which was justifiable considering the pair she was hiding underneath her robes. I hid a couple of minutes more, curious how the discussion would develop, but the girls stayed stuck on sniping me, unaware that they were talking about the same person. I shook my head in amusement.

It was going to be interesting once I revealed myself.

"Finally," shouted both girls at the same time when I stepped into the small hidden glade, both of their faces filled with relief as they stepped toward me with determined steps, only to come to a sudden stop as they realized that they weren't the only one that was walking forward. "What!" they exclaimed at the same time.

"Hi, girls, sorry to keep you waiting, but I had a last-minute emergency," I said with a smirk, uncaring of the sudden glares I was receiving. After pushing the situation to this point, I needed to own the situation thoroughly to succeed in my plan of introducing them to each other. "But it's good to see you getting along well," I added even as I continued to walk.

The girls looked at each other in shock, but it was slowly replaced by the realization, which then left its place for anger. In a moment of a sudden feminine alliance, both girls turned to me, Aviada slowly pulling her sword while Helga raised her hands, glowing brightly. "Do you want to explain?" Aviada spoke calmly, though since she was waving her huge sword threateningly, the effect was somehow different.

"Explain what?" I said with a smile even as I walked toward them, ignoring their sudden fury. It was a tricky situation, but I was just as relaxed inside as I was displaying outside, because I had a plan before inviting them here together, and their reaction was well within my calculations. In the end, neither of them was seduced through my sweet words or lofty promises; they still had no true idea about my identity. Despite that, we were thoroughly acquainted with each other, thanks to my impressive martial abilities in Aviada's case, and my mental alacrity in Helga's case. Though my willingness to help them in extremely dangerous situations didn't hurt my seduction attempts.

I just needed to impress them with those abilities once more.

Initially, I had a very complicated fight choreography to ensure the girls wouldn't be able to bring their full power to the fight, which, at the time of making the plan, was still required to give the impression of effortless domination. However, last night's unexpected gains removed the need for those plans. First of all, I managed to gain two whole levels, with a fresh new branch of magic as a result. Also, I gained five points of charisma, which would be helpful in supporting my arguments. The pure power it would add to my spells was just a bonus.

"You need a lesson," Aviada spat out even as she charged forward, waving her sword swiftly.

I smiled. "You want to spar to warm up before we leave to hunt," I said even as I pulled out my sword, deflecting her attack with a swing that might have been mistaken for a casual move by someone that was inexperienced, but it required impeccable timing to deflect Aviada's superior weapon backed by her deadly strength. Though, it wasn't as strong as it could be, meaning Aviada was just trying to scare me -or just impress me through her seriousness considering her personality- rather than trying to kill me. I took a step forward, far faster than Aviada expected, and slapped her bottom.

[Level Difference of at least 50%! No Experience]

The notification was unfortunate, but on the plus side, it highlighted the absolute difference of strength between us. But before I could enjoy my suppression, I felt a tickle in the back of my mind, warning me about an oncoming spell. I didn't bother to look at it, just waved my hand to force a thick wall of earth out of the ground, and heard the distinct sound of an arcane bolt fizzling out, mixed with Helga's gasp. I took a step back from Aviada, ducking under her wild swing, which was much faster than the previous one, and spoke. "You girls want to have a spar together, huh? That works for me."

I took a few steps back while the girls looked at me with a thoughtful expression, their earlier anger melted away after my show. Their sudden change of heart wasn't surprising. In the end, in a world filled with monsters, there was nothing more attractive than power, and I had just displayed overwhelming ability simultaneously in their preferred area of expertise. Thanks to my rapid rise of power, I was good enough to contend against the top students of each branch, and with my full range of abilities in play, I was willing to bet that I could defeat the weaker half of the professors even. Also, with twenty-four points in charisma, I exuded a rather impressive aura, which didn't hurt.

The girls stood still for a moment, their eyes locked as they examined each other. While my impressive range of abilities didn't include mind-reading, I didn't need it to understand that they were trying to assess each other to see whether the other would leave after the reveal, solving the problem neatly. But from their increasing frowns, they slowly realized neither of them had the intention of removing their hat from the ring.

I decided to interject when I saw Aviada raising her sword, this time pointing towards Helga. "Let's start the spar," I said as I flicked a small stone at Aviada, which bounced off of her head. She looked at me with a frown. I made sure to look intimidating, signaling to her that hurting Helga was not a preferred way of solving the issue. "Come on girls, I'm waiting," I said.

Aviada didn't need more prompting and rushed towards my side, this time her movements backed by her full lethality. Unfortunately for her, by now, even her best was not enough to get anything more than a semi-serious interest from my side. But despite that, I made sure to smile at her with my seduction mode turned on, making sure that Helga saw it as well. Helga started peppering me with arcane bolts, forcing me to use my other hand to conjure shields to defend against her, splitting my attention.

Their teamwork was atrocious, of course. Aviada disregarded Helga's assault, and Helga was too focused on scoring hits of her own to use her magic in terms of utility, which would have blocked my options to deal with Aviada, turning her into a true threat. I was tempted to step closer to Aviada, tricking Helga into scoring some friendly-fire, but their relationship was bad enough before adding a wild variable. Instead, I started attacking Helga with my own magic, sending waves made of elemental wind, individually weak, but quick enough to force her to take a step. After repeating it a couple of times, she realized my point, and copied my assault with arcane energy, limiting my range of movement, which in turn gave Aviada a strong advantage. There was still a gap between us, but without a free movement area to display my superior mobility, I actually had to try to keep her at bay.

Her sword was no joke.

The spar was fun, and if we weren't supposed to spend the rest of the day hunting dangerous animals in a dangerous location, I would have extended the spar until the girls collapsed in exhaustion. Unfortunately, leveling them up was more important than teaching them about coordinated combat. So, without a warning, I intensified my assault and sent several chains of earth at Helga. She was late in noticing them, and ended tangled up on the ground, where a few more chains pinned her in place. And without her assault, I was once again free to display my superior mobility. I stepped inside Aviada's guard, easily blocking her last-minute kneeing attempt to wrap my hands around her wrists, forcing her to drop the sword with a twist. After that, before she could adapt to the sudden change of combat, I pinned her in a hold impossible for her to escape from without dislocating her arm.

[+1 Melee]

[+3 Elemental]

[-5 HP]

[-47 Mana]

"It was a nice spar," I said even as I tightened my hold over her, which allowed me to free one of my hands. I first waved that hand to cast another earth spell, which created a moving platform under Helga to bring her closer, still bound in chains. While Helga closed in, I grabbed Aviada's hair and pulled back hard enough to force a gasp out of her, which I muffled in short order with a heated kiss, just to drive in my dominance further.

[Companion Acquisition: Progress 47%]

When Helga arrived at my side, I pulled out a rope from my small bag and tied Aviada's hands behind her, still careful to avoid using magic on her. When I dispelled the chains on Helga, I was expecting her to struggle against the kiss, or at least play hard to get, so the searing kiss she initiated was a surprise. A welcome one, though it was only partially about the pleasure itself, which was clear from the victorious glare Helga sent to Aviada.

[Companion Acquisition: Progress 46%]

[Achievement: Subdue the Storm. Decisively deter the following argument for your own benefit after being caught. +2000 Experience, +2 Agility, +2 Manipulation]

Helga's progress was nice, but not as nice as receiving yet another achievement, pushing my stats even higher. At this point, my stat point development reached to an unheard of before point, well past unbelievable and approaching ridiculous. Not that I was complaining. In a world where everything was trying to kill humans, extra power was never something to be scuffed at.

"So, girls," I said even as I freed Aviada from her ropes with a knife throw. "Are you ready for our adventure..."

—————

[Level: 15 Experience: 107050 / 120000

Strength: 17 Charisma: 24

Precision: 12 Perception: 13

Agility: 16 Manipulation: 19

Speed: 12 Intelligence: 16

Endurance: 13 Wisdom: 18

HP: 1050 / 1050 Mana: 1167 / 1350 ]

SKILLS

[Master Melee [69/100]

Expert Arcana [75/75]

Advanced Subterfuge [50/50]

Advanced Biomancy [50/50]

Advanced Elemental [28/50]

Basic Speech [25/25] ]