Chapter 67

Titania's message couldn't have come up in a more opportune time, as the artificial monster horde I had discovered last night was a rather dangerous development that needed to be discussed before I took the risk of talking with an unknown quantity like the mysterious headmistress of the school. Also, the opportunity to face Titania again was a nice opportunity, especially considering I was finally strong enough to actually content with her with the level difference. There was no doubt that we still had a huge level cap, but at this point, my stats were high enough to compensate for it.

However, rather than directly going to her room, I first changed the destination to my own to pick up the plans, and maybe also bringing Helga along. After seeing the incredible benefits of finally completing the companion process with Cornelia —and completing with her first had been a real surprise considering the nature of our initial contact, though maybe it was fated considering her aggressive and ill-considered foray in the library had changed my destiny— so I wanted to complete the process with Helga as well.

Of course, that left the problem of unlocking the progress for the fourth stage. At first, I was planning to use Cornelia as the bait, allowing Helga to experience their old deal from the other side, hoping that giving her a sense of power against her old dominatrix opponent, though I believed it to be a long shot. I had no doubt that Helga would have enjoyed that, as she had suffered under Cornelia's sexy toys for too long not to nurse a grudge, but that didn't mean that it would unlock her fourth stage.

My amazing display of power against the monster horde had worked for Cornelia, but that was because Cornelia had a personality that worshipped power. What I had done there was the purest display of it, not to mention I had achieved that through fire magic, the purest display of power for Cornelia to understand.

The same wouldn't work directly for Helga for the last stage. She was different than Cornelia, yearning for prestige and trying to carve a place for herself through her unique perspective. She wanted to prove herself against everyone that they were wrong throwing away her innovative approach to spell-casting to favor the inefficient ancient styles critically dependent on skills.

Also, as I walked away from Cornelia's room, I noticed that I could still feel Cornelia's presence, and that sensation was not blunted by the distance. Excellent, I thought. Having real-time access to her exact position and her mood might prove vital in protecting her. I definitely didn't want to lose her after putting all the effort to raise her.

I let my mind wander on the solution as I walked to my room and opened the door, and saw Helga stretching cutely on my bed, the towel around her body barely hiding the deliciousness underneath, her hair glistening wetly, suggesting she had freshly showered. "Morning," she murmured as she stretched further, which 'accidentally' undone her towel and it fell down, pooling around her waist, leaving her vast bosom naked. "Oops," she murmured as she raised her hand to her mouth, the other wrapping around her torso like she was trying to hide them from my view, though it would have been classified as a spectacular failure if her intention was to actually hide her beautiful peaks.

"Did you rest well?" I said as I strode toward her, and leaned for an extended kiss, our tongues dancing as I delivered a generous boost of mana, which I converted to experience for her.

[-452 Mana]

"Perfectly," she said. "I couldn't wait to return to study the wards. Despite the faults, they are so interesting. The application of Mordin's theory on triple connections alone..." she murmured, bursting into an exciting explanation, her tits dangling freely as she waved her hands excitedly. It was amusing just how easily she could lose herself in the intricacies of magical theory as easily as the pleasure of the flesh.

A light spell exploded in my mind as I watched her, illuminating an interesting path. Maybe her excitement toward the theory, along with the desire to prove herself, was the best way to finally step into the last stage. Bringing her along to the meeting with Titania would achieve both, especially since I no longer feared Titania in terms of the difference in power. Revealing the existence of Helga was no longer dangerous, especially since I was Titania's only reliable ally against the necromancers. "I'm going to meet with Titania in five minutes, do you want to come with me?"

"Titania?" she said before it clicked in her mind and she stammered. "D-do you mean the H-head librarian," she stammered in shock.

"Yes, silly. I'm talking about the head librarian. We're going to have a talk about the necromancers," I explained even as I leaned down to steal another kiss from her shocked lips. "Get ready, you only have five minutes."

[+1 Speech]

"Right!" she gasped as she jumped up, while I moved to the desk that was piled with the defense blueprints of the school as well as the copious piles of notes Helga had created during her analysis, though I kept my attention on her. Watching her as she hurriedly dressed was fun and sexy at the same time, with a large dash of cute mixed in. "I'm ready," she said as I chuckled.

"No, you're not," I countered as I took a step forward and slipped my hand under her skirt, only to rip her panties off with one pull. "Now you're ready."

She opened her mouth to say something, but when I leaned forward, she canceled that in favor of parting her lips excitingly, rewarded by another searing kiss. Her moans intensified further when my hand slipped under her skirt to tease her naked entrance.

"Let's go," I said after pulling back, leaving her primed for more. "We're in a hurry."

"O-okay," she stammered and followed me out of the room.

This time, I didn't bother disguising myself. At this point, putting a simple illusion combined with a change of posture was more than enough for me to disappear into the crowd, faking ordinary perfectly. "Try not to act too shocked when with Titania. Don't forget that I'm going to be there to keep the heat off, and don't reveal anything about our unique way of leveling, or about the mysterious book you're trying to decipher," I reminded her. At this point. I was confident to weather the storm it would bring. At absolute worst, I could easily escape into Mount Dread to hide from the people, and it wasn't a likely outcome in the first place. Even if Titania discovered it, it wouldn't be her benefit to reveal the secret of her only ally to outsiders until the current disaster was concluded.

[+1 Subterfuge]

I planned to be strong enough to be untouchable before the current crisis could be solved —not to mention developing a better, more intimate relationship with Titania in the process— so revealing that particular secret wasn't exactly scary.

I knocked on her door when we arrived at the destination, and reached the final target. The door opened, and I stepped inside, only to see Titania already sitting on a large table, wearing a fresh set of robes, though she wasn't good enough with restoration spells or makeup to hide her exhaustion from me. "Who's this," she asked in a scary tone when Helga walked in, making Helga freeze in fear.

"She helps me study magic," I said as I walked forward, ignoring her tone, gesturing Helga to follow me. Titania's expression lacked emotion, but a sudden pressure filled the room, a mixture of charisma effect and pure mana pressure. Helga gasped in shock, too weak to handle such a rush. I sighed exaggeratedly as I brought my own pressure forward, blanketing Helga for protection effortlessly. "Are you done posturing so we can start the discussion," I said even as I gestured Helga to sit next to me.

[+2 Subterfuge]

Titania's outward reaction was so small that even with my enhanced senses, I was almost tricked that she wasn't surprised with it. Even then, I would have probably underestimated the impact if I hadn't had an excellent secret trick in form of a growing Companion System, of which I was getting a better understanding with each experiment. After the enlightenment provided by the adventure with Cornelia, it was hard for me to miss the sudden rush of anger and shock, or how they faded immediately as a side effect of her light magic. Truthfully, I wasn't sure whether she actually felt them for a moment before her unique magic erased them. No wonder she was emotionless.

Though, that made my eventual victory tastier. I still remembered this impeccable woman cumming around my shaft as she mewled innocently, her raven hair stuck to her petite body, her gray eyes widened with pleasure.

"Why is she here?" Titania asked again monotonously while Helga flinched.

I grabbed Helga's hand under the table to calm as I answered. "She's here to give her findings about these," I said even as I threw the blueprints on the desk.

"Where did you find them," she asked, once again monotonous.

"A necromancer base," I said, which earned nothing more than a raised eyebrow. Apparently, not even the secrets of the school in the hands of Necromancers was enough to break her forced calm, through my Tantric senses, I could feel her panic for a moment before it was swallowed by her light magic. Apparently, it worked for all emotions, not just positive or intense ones. I gave a quick breakdown of the base adventure.

"It's worrying," she said.

"What's worrying is that our defenses have more holes than aged cheese," I answered before turning to Helga. "Why don't you give a breakdown of your findings to our dear librarian so she understands the true weight of the issue. Use illusions to create a three-dimensional model to be through."

"I'm not sure my mana is enough," Helga answered, though only after she sent a hesitant glare at Titania, still unable to process her position completely.

"Don't worry, I can transfer some mana," I answered, earning a surprised gaze from Helga, and more surprisingly, a sudden flare of jealousness from Titania —which was once again quelled immediately. I turned Titania with a questioning glare. "You don't mind, do you?"

[+2 Speech]

"Why would I mind?" she said in the same inflectionless tone.

"Excellent," I said as I gestured Helga to start.

First, Helga took a deep breath and cast a complicated Arcana spell, creating a lingering light-based illusion that was visible to all, though it strained her quite a bit. Despite its small size, the level of detail it contained was not simple. "To begin, I don't think this diagram represents all of the defenses," Helga said. "Essentially, there are two tiers of wards, one to stay active indefinitely, one to be raised to defend against a dangerous assault, but both schemes have suspicious gaps," Helga explained.

"Like what," Titania said monotonously.

"Like these three points," Helga said as she cast an additional spell, and the illusion expanded. Helga dragged her finger across several locations. "For example, at these three points, the wards folds in a way that was impossible to maintain unless they were wrapped around a spell pylon, but there's nothing on the plan."

"Maybe the plans neglected it," Titania said, though I felt a flare of panic.

"While it's possible, it's extremely unlikely," Helga countered immediately. "Such a pylon needs to be really strong to handle such interference, and around it, there's no ward to justify the existence of such support. It clearly exists to support another set of the dormant ward, probably quite a bit stronger than the first two layers."

At this point, I sent a warning glare at Titania through flaring my magic, because I could feel hers bubbling like she was about to attack. It was sharp and focused, so Helga didn't even realize just how close she was to death. "Very good discovery," I said. "Do you think it's likely the necromancers discovered the same?"

[+1 Speech]

"Debatable," Helga answered. "A ward expert would have probably noticed, but it needs to be a peak expert. I have no idea undead have access to such a thing."

"And is the existence of the third layer of wards secret?" I asked Titania.

She looked reluctant, but still answered. "Not among the key members of the faculty."

"So, we need to assume that it's known by the enemy from day one, but they are still making a move," I pondered. "Is there a special meaning to the third layer of wards?"

"I don't know, they haven't been raised for at least three centuries, where they needed to resist against an unprecedented horde led by frost giants that destroyed most of the Northern Fortresses. The rest of the details are only known by the Headmistress."

"Such wards are likely not without its cost," I murmured, but rather than continuing, I gazed at Helga when her illusion flickered. "Are you getting tired?"

"A bit-" she said, only to gasp in shock when I wrapped my arm around her waist and pulled her onto my lap, and kissed her aggressively, transferring enough mana to refill her reserves. "You don't mind, do you?" I asked lazily to Titania, amused at her sudden flare of jealousy —once again suppressed by her light magic.

[-154 Mana]

"No, it's logical not to waste time waiting for her to recover," Titania answered.

[+10 Experience]

"Definitely," I answered, though the sudden experience gain surprised me for a moment. Helga was clearly too weak to actually provide any experience. Then it occurred to me. Helga was weak, but Titania wasn't. Apparently, frolicking with the third lady in front of the others worked well as well, though significantly less than what I would have gained through kissing her. Still, every little bit counts, especially if collected in such an entertaining manner. "So, about the wards?"

"They are likely not without their cost," Titania continued, her mannerism unflappable. "No ward with such an incredible strength is. I expect that at a minimum, it would put the Headmistress out of commission for several days through exertion. But it shouldn't matter, as doing so, she would definitely push the attack back."

"It matters," I frowned even as I cast a spell to unzip my pants and slipped through Helga's wet entrance easily, making her moan under the unexpected rush. "Even that leaves too many motivation for such

[Companion Acquisition: Progress 76%]

[+40 Experience]

"How so?" Titania asked while I enjoyed the combined rush of getting more experience and finally bringing Helga into the final stage. The gamble I took was the correct one.

"Simple," I said even as I started pumping inside Helga, making absolutely no effort to actually hide what was going on under the desk, softly bouncing Helga on my lap. "It might be that they are trying to assassinate Headmistress during the activation, or they might actually just rely on her exhausted state to do whatever they were planning to do in Silver Spires through their secret agents and retreat, neatly avoiding her wrath. The second part works well with the shade they tried to put in the library, or your ambush. It means that they have something to do, and they either require some significant time to activate, or they require more time than your forays to the wild give them."

[+3 Speech]

"Do you think that's the case?" she asked.

"Maybe," I answered. "However, it can easily be something else completely. We don't know the identity of their ally on the inside, we don't know who leads the necromancers. We don't even know who is the leader of their little alliance, or if is there really one?"

"Isn't that obvious, necromancers are the leader."

"Not obvious enough to rule other options out," I countered, even as I lazily pumped into Helga, enjoying the moment. "Not unless you have some ironclad evidence that you're yet to share with me, such as the identity of their supposed underling," I said, and she fell silent.

[Companion Acquisition: Progress 77%]

[+50 Experience]

[+1 Speech]

"I don't have such evidence," she answered, and I smirked.

"We don't need to waste time discussing that particular topic then," I said. "That we can leave after talking with the Headmistress and getting a better understanding of the impact of this supposed ultimate layer of wards." I couldn't help but scoff, as the first two layers of wards were hardly impressive, reducing my expectations toward the third layer.

"Helga, please continue about the details of the protective structure of the wards," I said, even as I considered just how far I could push the situation before Titania finally reacted to the jealousy she was feeling...

—

[Level: 26 Experience: 332000 / 351000

Strength: 31 Charisma: 44

Precision: 27 Perception: 30

Agility: 28 Manipulation: 33

Speed: 26 Intelligence: 37

Endurance: 25 Wisdom: 36

HP: 3562 / 3562 Mana: 4311 / 4680 ]

SKILLS

Master Melee [100/100]

Master Tantric [100/100]

Master Biomancy [100/100]

Master Elemental [100/100]

Master Subterfuge [78/100]

Expert Arcana [75/75]

Advanced Speech [33/50]

PERKS

Mana Regeneration

Skill Share

Empowerment (1/1)

COMPANIONS

[Cornelia - Level 17/25]