Chapter 65

As much as I wanted to explore the mystery of a second earth gem I had extracted from the magical tortoise who had been busy leading a horde moments ago —and now, busy being overcooked— I needed to act. I instantly conjured another elemental mount.

"Are we leaving?" Cornelia asked, shocked. "But that was a horde. The reputation from destroying it singlehandedly would-" she tried to continue, only for me to cut her off.

"It would make sure we would die under the blade of an assassin," I cut in even as I pulled her on the elemental, and surged forward.

"What! And why are we in such a hurry?" she asked, her voice mixing with the wind created by our speed, high enough to give her whiplash. I didn't even bother removing the evidence, just spending a second to dispel the remaining runes. The other monsters would soon come for the cooked meat, messing up the already complicated scene more, not that the still burning inferno left a lot of evidence behind.

"Because the spell I used is hard to classify as discrete, especially in the middle of the night, sweetheart," I explained. "The necromancers would soon discover our location either way, but only if the school doesn't react to it first."

"Why does it matter if the necromancers know it was you?" Cornelia asked. "It's not like they can hunt you this close to the school."

"You would be surprised," I murmured, pausing for a moment to weigh in the pros and cons of telling Cornelia about the true overreach of the necromancers, and came on the side of openness. First of all, she had already seen the evidence of their presence, and her knowing the full extent of it was better than going half-assed and getting discovered. I didn't want her to disappear in the middle of the night, not after all the effort I had put into developing her.

More importantly, she was already aware of some of my more important secrets, and after my incredible achievement of allowing her to level up and eye-catching performance of destructive fire, she both trusted me and relied on me. Add in our physical relationship and her emotional reliance, I didn't have a reason to keep it a secret. So, for the next five minutes, I gave her a brief breakdown of the necromancer presence, including the secret army camp and possible spies.

"They can't have spies in the school," she gasped. "That is..."

"Impossible," I completed in a deadpan tone. "Honey, believe me, not only it's possible, but it's not even that difficult. Consider just how easily we had slipped away today with our own skills. Now, add the possibility of a high-level insider, and we have a true clusterfuck in hand."

"Are you sure we have a spy among the faculty," she asked.

"Almost certainly," I countered. Technically, it was possible that the shade I had destroyed after it scouted the library was an excellent example of double-bluff that was designed to seed distrust between the professors, it was not very likely, especially since it had already happened before I had started ruining their big plans, and they had chosen a night when Titania was absent.

"So, we know that we can trust the head librarian, the headmistress, and no one else?" Cornelia asked.

"Yeah, and the latter only because the school would have already fallen if she was an agent of the death cults. We're trusting her, because if we can't trust her, we already lost the battle before it started."

"This is horrible," Cornelia gasped in shock, followed by silence as she tried to process the most recent set of revelations. I didn't begrudge her for it, considering the number of shocks she had experienced in the last couple of hours. I stopped speaking as well, not wanting to shock her again before she could process the current information.

Pity, because I was thinking of arranging a meeting between her and Helga, curious how they would react to each other with their loaded past.

As we traveled back to school, I finally turned my attention back to the latest development. Why there was a second earth gem in the earth tortoise. Earlier, I had assumed that the necromancers were using the earth gem to turn a lucky discovery of a growing horde into a weapon, but the presence of a second gem turned that assumption sideways, especially with the weird chaotic spell I had felt on it. It didn't last for long once the creature was dead, but what I could feel at that fleeting moment was enough to unsettle me.

"Surely not," I murmured to myself, trying to ignore the most obvious possibility, but failing spectacularly in the process. I hoped that my assumption was too wild, as the necromancers were dangerous enough without the ability to artificially triggering monster hordes. Their hordes of undead were bad enough, limited only by the relatively time-consuming and complicated process of raising dead.

However, while it was bleak, it wasn't suicidally bleak. After all, a natural magical gem was a rare treasure. A very rare one, to the point that even many mid-sized noble families didn't have one despite their desperate search. It meant that it was expensive and rare enough that they needed to be very careful while employing, and each failure cost them a lot, while enriching the defenders in the process.

So, as one of those lucky defenders, I was suddenly filthy rich. By selling these two gems, I could easily establish a new noble family if I felt so inclined —including the bribes required to get the noble title—, not that I wanted to do so. Not when I could use them to create a very beautiful weapon instead.

I dispelled the elemental only after moving more than a hundred miles, more than enough to avoid any kind of detection as long as I avoided flashy spells, which meant fire magic was out, not that it was a big issue.

"Are we going to rest for a bit before we return?" Cornelia asked.

"Why would we return?" I asked even as I draw Aviada's sword. I could see a golden lion prowling in a nearby bush, this time an old male, making it much easier to handle than the pride of lionesses I had battled before. "We still have quite a bit of time to

"But the monster horde, followed by conjuring that elemental mount?" Cornelia stammered in shock. "Aren't you exhausted?"

"I have to admit, I'm a bit low on mana," I admitted even as I charged toward the lion, turning the tables enough that I was able to get a slash before it could react, which turned an already unfair fight into a total rout. A few seconds later, the golden lion lay dead, making me richer in material, and making Cornelia richer by around a hundred and fifty experience points. "That's why I'm killing them with my sword, like a brainless warrior," I quipped with a smirk.

"You're unbelievable," she murmured in fascination as I quickly butchered the monster magically, extracting the most precious materials and leaving the rest to rot.

"Shall we," I said as I presented my arm in a move that would be perfect in a formal ball, but comically exaggerated in the middle of nowhere, earning a chuckle, though it still felt a bit hysterical. She was still trying to find her balance. We walked toward the next target, and at that point, I once again charged forward, taking down a small pack of twisted wolves with a few calculated slashes. I even activated the lure effect of the sword, making hunting much easier, as monsters started to come to us rather than the reverse.

I felt a desire to own a proper weapon as I sliced through the charging monsters, even as I started to suspect that it wouldn't rival Aviada's sword, even with the addition of the earth gem. It might be the expanded perception given by Master Swordsmanship, but I started to feel the hint of untapped potential, one that rejected my call even as I tried to reach it by mana senses. The more I used it, the more I was getting convinced that it was something more than just a simple long-lasting magical sword with some nifty magical tricks like lure effect.

However, even if my presumption was correct, I doubted that Aviada was capable of tapping into that power, or even if she was aware of it in the first place. Other families were certainly unaware of it, that was for certain, as otherwise, they would have never let Aviada's collapsing family keep it in hand. Yes, her ex-fiancee tried to take the sword, but it was equally about his pride as the sword itself. I could feel that whatever the mystery lay in the heart of the sword, the real big hitters were unaware of it.

I needed to question Aviada about the history of the sword.

Once the current crisis was resolved, of course. Whatever the mystery that lay in the sword, it was clearly not as important as the ever-growing necromancer threat.

I turned my attention back to the hunt, and decided to change my methodology a bit. And since my mana had recovered during my hunt, I decided to change my methodology a bit. Handling them in the melee was fun, but not as fun as the tricks I could pull with Cornelia next to me, wearing nothing but a robe, primed to finally complete the companion process.

Once again, I decided to impress. I activated the lure ability of the sword in its full potential, despite knowing that it would create a dangerous wave of creatures. After handling a horde single-handedly, it was simply not scary. I still established three layers of runes around me to replicate the earlier inferno trick just in case it pulls a larger group than I had first assumed, but I didn't expect to do so.

It was good, because I wanted to pay Cornelia the attention she deserved. "Now, why don't you show me just how much you have improved after gaining all those levels and achievements?" I asked her huskily, making her shiver. Before she could answer, I pulled her robe off her body once more, revealing delicious naked skin to shine under the bright moonlight.

Her melodic gasp reached into my ear even as I wrapped my arms around her waist, pressing my shaft against her entrance. "R-right now?" she stammered.

"No time like the present," I whispered into her ear even as I slapped her ass, once again leaving a delicious handprint, my other hand freeing my shaft, which was feeling claustrophobic in the confines of my pants. "Show me just how much you have improved. There's even a reward if you can impress me. But let too many to reach the defensive line, and you'll get a punishment instead," I added, unable to keep myself from chuckling, curious whether she would enjoy the reward or the punishment more.

From what I had seen, until now, I had a feeling that it was the latter.

Before she could say anything, the first monster reached the boundary. A lone dire bear, charging fearlessly toward us, caught under the effect of the lure. While Cornelia tried to conjure a flame spear, however, I slid inside her, which caused her to botch the spell. She wasn't an amateur, so rather than dispelling the spell, she had managed to dump more mana into it and turn it into an area-effect fireball, burning the bear into cinders, even as she clamped around my shaft.

[Companion Acquisition: Progress 83%]

"Not bad, but a bit wasteful," I said to her. "You could have easily killed it by spending a tenth of your mana, easily."

"Hey, not fair! You distracted-" she tried to complain, only to receive a spank to silence her.

"Yes, I did, but even your initial flame spear was excessive," I said. "Watch carefully." With that, I slowly conjured a much more compact fire arrow slowly, allowing her to watch the process. It was one of the tricks I had discovered during my studies with Helga. It was effectively three different fire spells tightly wrapped around each other, giving it a unique penetration ability. I used the spell on another creature, taking it down in one move.

[-11 Mana]

"That's too hard for me," she gasped, only to receive another spank to her ass.

"It's well within your capabilities," I countered after the small punishment, even as started pumping her rhythmically. "Watch carefully," I ordered as I built the spell again, this time much more slowly, giving her ample time to observe the trick, even as I continued to pump her mercilessly, forcing her to take my presence deeper and deeper. Her moans rose accordingly, adding to the effect of the lure we had created.

"How about this?" she asked as she created a poor copy of the spell, its structure already unraveling.

"Try aiming to that rock," I said, pointing at a human-sized stone that was about fifty feet away. Cornelia followed by order, but the spell dispersed after flying ten feet. I grabbed her beautiful red hair, and forced her to turn to me. "Do you see where it went wrong," I gasped.

"The structure is-" she started, only to explode into a moan as I left a bite mark on her neck. "The structure needs to be more stable."

"Exactly," I said as I slammed my full length inside her, forcing her to moan explosively. "Try again."

She followed my directions for the next several minutes, while I continued reinforcing her soul space by dumping my mana. Whenever a creature appeared, she shifted back to her preferred spells like flame spears and fireballs, which didn't help her mana pool. She tried to be more conservative in terms of spending, but that resulted in more and more creatures slipping through her defenses.

"Another miss," I said as I spanked her ass once more, but this time, my touch was accompanied by a convenient biomancy spell, cleaning and lubricating her bowels, preparing her other hole for my invasion. I plopped a finger, making her moan, even as I continued to slam into her tightness. "You need to be more accurate on assessing the threat level," I said even as the creature was eviscerated by my earthen fist.

[Companion Acquisition: Progress 87%]

"Sorry," she gasped, starting to slur under the rush of pleasure. "But I'm almost out of mana."

"Not a problem, sweetheart," I said even as I used our closeness to inject a generous portion of mana inside her, even as I increased the number of fingers from one to three in her puckered hole. Refilling her mana was almost trivial at this point, as her full capacity was about a third of mine despite the relatively small level difference, making it very easy for me to top her up completely.

[-1116 Mana]

[Companion Acquisition: Progress 89%]

[Achievement: Amorous Assist. Help your paramour to stand against unbeatable odds through indirect and unconventional means. +2 Intelligence, +500 Experience]

"Is there anything you can't do?" Cornelia gasped in shock, even as her spells picked up speed. However, as her spells increased, so did the monstrous attention targeting us. Combined with the effect of the lure, it wasn't shocking for the stronger monsters to appear. At this point, almost half of the attackers were above class ten, making it very difficult for Cornelia to defeat them before they reached the defensive line, forcing me to get involved.

"You're slipping," I warned her, after we destroyed yet another wave of monsters, while I continued to pump her. She tried to answer, but it was a difficult task to achieve with her continuous moaning.

Instead of giving a proper answer, she started crying in joy. "Yes, yes, oh YES!" she cried, starting to shudder, but to her credit, she didn't stop her task of attacking the monsters, even when they had attacked us from multiple directions. She defended herself generously, though she required another mana injection to sustain herself.

[-983 Mana]

Then, I noticed something interesting in her soul space. A weird sensation flickered around the edges, then, for lack of a better term, the walls folded around itself by creating an independent cell, before moving to the center, and mixing into the center of power. "Another achievement," she gasped in glee. "This time, endurance and perception, two points each."

[Companion Acquisition: Progress 92%]

"I know sweetheart," I said, subtly taking responsibility for it —not that I felt guilty about it, as I clearly enabled it— even though I was pretty sure I finally watched the maturation of natural achievement.

I examined her soul space carefully even as she attacked the monster horde with a renewed enthusiasm, trying to understand the difference between the types of achievements. Surprisingly, I have realized that getting an achievement actually weakened the soul space, not enough to prevent it from a full level, but a few of them might actually reduce the level capacity by one. Yet another interesting detail I had failed to find in the library, and considering its importance, I wasn't going to write it off as me missing it. It was either unknown, or it was another secret hidden from the general public.

It made me curious, but not as much as the rapidly growing progress bar of the companion system. Considering the rewards I had received during the earlier phases, I couldn't help but feel enthusiastic about finally unwrapping that particular box of present to completion...

—

[Level: 24 Experience: 296900 / 300000

Strength: 28 Charisma: 41

Precision: 24 Perception: 27

Agility: 25 Manipulation: 30

Speed: 23 Intelligence: 34

Endurance: 22 Wisdom: 33

HP: 2899 / 2928 Mana: 2834 / 3960 ]

SKILLS

Master Melee [100/100]

Master Tantric [100/100]

Master Biomancy [100/100]

Master Elemental [100/100]

Expert Arcana [75/75]

Expert Subterfuge [75/75]

Basic Speech [25/25]

PERKS

Mana Regeneration

Skill Share