Almost six hours after I had walked into the room, I had long collapsed on the bed next to Marianne’s sleeping figure —as Titania had left a couple of hours ago to measure the defensive efforts— trying to push back temptation to sleep next to her, exhausted by the constant exertion, though not the physical side. It was not to say that the physical side of it was not exhausting, but my stats were more than enough to compensate for the particulars.

However, the mental challenge constantly enhancing Marianne’s soul space and converting my mana into experience again and again for six hours. And the strain from constantly depleting and refreshing my mana reserves was not inconsiderable.

Pity that with everything going on, I didn’t have the time to enjoy some after-sex cuddling.

I had a feeling that, if I dared to do something like that with a lower endurance, I wouldn’t have walked out alive. Still, what a way to go.

After throwing one last glance at Marianne, deliciously naked except copious amount of cum covering her tits as well seeping out of her every orifice, still wearing a silly smile even as she slept, I pulled the covers on her and left the room.

Since I had already discussed a strategy with Titania —basically advising her to act like she over-exhausted her mana while staying in a warded location to prevent ambushes— I didn’t waste much time in the town. I just walked around once to check the unique chaotic resonance the mysterious organization was using to create artificial monster hordes. Luckily, there didn’t seem to be any, suggesting that, at least for the short term, they had reached the end of their little bag of tricks. Then, I conjured another trusty fake elemental steed, and left the town through the same tunnel I had created earlier.

-1163 Mana

As I traveled back to Silver Spires, enjoying the wind on my face while I considered the next steps.

The discovery of an organization of mysterious assassins just hours ago put a rather unwelcome twist to the challenge I was facing. First of all, it suggested that I was not the only one with the ability to manipulate the leveling system, but remembering the disgusting sight of their soul spaces, it was clear that they had a wildly different technique than mine. Whether it was the limit of their abilities, or I was facing just the tip of the iceberg, I didn’t know.

But I had a feeling that I would learn.

However, their inclusion meant I needed a develop a better strategy to protect myself than just handling whatever they were throwing at me.

The simplest thing to do that would be to talk to the headmistress about the plot, including the existence of the mysterious organization to see whether she would prepare any insights about them. Considering that she was a crone that had been alive for centuries, her knowledge did seem likely. They were targeting Titania, who was one of her loyal supporters until I sunk my hooks into her —well, I did sink something into her, repeatedly, which was decidedly more effective than hooks— which meant there shouldn’t be an alliance between the mysterious organization and the headmistress. As a bonus, openly talking with her would increase the defensive effectiveness of the school quite a bit.

Unfortunately, there was one very small problem with that plan. I didn’t trust her.

Admittedly, I wasn’t the most trusting person. Not that I had the luxury to extend my trust easily considering the challenges I had been facing, the potential worth of my unique system, not to mention the potential shady activities every single organization, official and illegal alike, might do to take someone that could actually manipulate the leveling system.

My distrust toward the headmistress was on another level.

First of all, for someone that managed the most important educational facility of the Empire, she was shockingly unknown, more of a scary ghost that perched on top of Silver Spires rather than an actual educator. And meeting with her directly didn’t help any. Her mysterious ability to limit the effectiveness of the system was very scary, and the way she dressed didn’t make her any more trustworthy.

Pity that I still had to collaborate with her to some degree.

I started to consider it a dangerous idea. “I need more data,” I murmured even as I turned my gaze toward the spires of the school, shining silver from a distance. I needed to know more about her before I could make a decision. What she really looked like? How did she act when alone? What was her objective? Why was she hiding in Silver Spires without taking any action for centuries?

Something resembling a smile crossed my lips as I considered the best way to do so. It had been a while since I sneaked around when being caught meant mortal danger. It was hard to feel the same exhilaration lately, because the worst thing that would happen was to waste a bit more time to get what I wanted more directly.

Sneaking into the personal tower of the headmistress was the opposite. Sneaking in through those expertly crafted magical defenses was hard enough, and the fact she lived in a self-enforced solitude meant that there was no convenient servant I could disguise myself to create an easy way to sneak in.

More importantly, getting caught had scary consequences, and just to make things better, I had no idea what those consequences would be. I didn’t know how strong she was —though considering she had to use Titania as a regent, I had to hope that there were some limits to it. However, even if that assumption was correct, she clearly had a range of mysterious abilities, as implied by her ability to empower Titania and hamper my connection with the system just by walking in her room.

When I arrived at the school, I met with a total cacophony, squads of students leaving the school, led by the faculty members, while the others returned with obvious signs of battle damage, their highly varying numbers and haunted expressions implying casualties.

The strategy to weaken the school through the monster hordes was clearly ramping up.

However, I didn’t choose to leave Silver Spires to hunt the hordes, because the number of students and faculty members that were preparing the leave the school was suspicious, as if almost someone was trying to leave the school defenseless. Considering the number of mana gems in the possession of the necromancers had to have a limit, it made sense from their perspective to launch all of them together to deplete the reserves before launching a final assault. Not to mention it was questionable whatever process they had to employ to trigger monster hordes had no other cost.

Of course, I might be completely wrong and they might be just using that to badger all those squads under endless monster hordes before easily marching against the school, but I doubted that. If they had that capability, why would they bother to actually gather a huge undead army?

The commencement of the attack would have given me an excellent opportunity to sneak into the headmistress’ room. Unfortunately, I actually had to talk to her before the attack commenced. The involvement of an organization that could send three people over level thirty to a mission together wasn’t an entity I wanted to ignore, even at the cost of violating the headmistress privacy despite potential violent consequences. Hopefully, she would be out, discussing some war matters with the rest of the faculty.

For my disguise, I chose a boring gray cloak with a hood, just enough to hide my identity without giving a clue about my affiliations. I doubted that it would be too effective if I got caught, but it at least soothed me mentally.

My real method to keep myself concealed was a complicated arcana array around myself, blocking any hint of presence. It wasn’t a mana-intensive spell, but the same way juggling a dozen knives was not a strength-intensive task. It was a complicated mana structure that needed to be maintained and shuffled at all times to catch any scrap mana I radiated. It was only possible through my finally completed Master Arcana skill, and even then, barely.

-45 Mana

I could feel sweat dripping down my face as I stood at the entrance of her tunnel, shuffling my own personal ward to prevent any kind of mana or life energy from radiating out as I tangled with the defensive wards of the entrance. It took me twenty minutes even to bypass the outer wards, and another ten minutes to take the first step on the imposing stairs. I climbed them slowly as I constantly used little slivers of mana to assess the ward structure, taking the most challenging walk of my life.

Then, I arrived at her office, only to hear people talking from the other side. Apparently, she was actually having a meeting, quite an important one considering no one had walked in or out while I studied the wards.

Luckily, her office wasn’t the only place I could enter using the stairs. One floor up, I could see another door, probably to her living quarters. I took a deep breath as I carefully climbed upward, afraid of what to find in her personal quarters.

When I opened the door, however, I met with a sight even more shocking than I had expected. Not because it was the scariest thing I had ever seen, but because it might have been the poorest personal quarter.

The room itself was quite large, however, other than a weird crystal in the middle of the room, and a huge shelf filled with books, I could easily convince myself that I walked into the servants’ quarter. The bed was small and uncomfortable looking, there was a long pole with five hangers, one empty, the other four with dark colored misshapen cloaks, just like the one that she had been wearing during our meeting. Though, despite their misshapen nature, their inner lining was covered with an impressive number of runes, some familiar, some utterly foreign, suggesting they were not simple utilitarian garments.

There was no bed, but just a cot was thrown in. Other than that, there was a small desk in front of the shelf along with a chair, both looking supremely uncomfortable. On a corner, there was a small pitcher of water and a washbasin. The floor was bare stone, absent of any kind of carpeting.

Even my room when I was the mule was supremely better than this horrible prison place.

My attention turned into the crystal in the middle. Essentially, it was a platform, about a foot in height and four heights in diameter. It looked like a solid diamond, which was a ridiculous contrast to the poorness of the rest of the room.

The crystal was perfectly circular, and its surface, other than an impressive number of rune carvings that I no idea what it meant. However, they were written in the same script I had found in the book I had acquired from Titania’s library when I started scouting her. Ultimately, the crystal was the main suspect for limiting my contact with the System.

Pity that I had forgotten to check about Helga’s progress on that, or even bother to question Titania about it.

The shelf was equally impressive. Like everything else in the room, it was crafted horribly, but the number of leather-covered books, actively radiating mana stronger than most magic items, which I didn’t think was possible. However, since their names on their spines were written on the same confusing script, I decided to examine the crystal first.

I walked closer, and touched it with my mana … and suddenly, my mana calmed. The difference was like a calm lake and a typhoon. I had no doubt that, if I cast a spell-like this, the effects would be much more precise than I ever thought possible.

My mind flew through the possibilities, sharper than I ever thought possible. With every passing second, I was reaching a new understanding of magic regardless of the topic. My perception of the different topics started to merge…

It was a beautiful moment of enlightenment, so much that I felt very annoyed when the annoying click of the door distracted me from my musings.

Then, I remembered where I actually was! “Fuck,” I murmured as I did the only thing I could do. I dashed toward the only thing I could hide behind, the bookshelf, even as I cast a weird spell that perfectly merged the concepts of air element and arcana simultaneously, creating an illusion to hide me from the sight. It granted me near-perfect invisibility as long as I didn’t move.

Ironically, casting such an intricate spell was only possible due to the extreme calmness of my mana, given to me by the same item that caused me to be caught in my current circumstances. I watched with no little amount of trepidation as the hunched figure of the headmistress walked toward the middle of the room, my heart beating like crazy.

—————

Level: 30 Experience: 447193

/ 465000

Strength: 41 Charisma: 53

Precision: 35 Perception: 37

Agility: 35 Manipulation: 40

Speed: 34 Intelligence: 44

Endurance: 34 Wisdom: 46

HP: 5370

/ 5370 Mana: 1394

/ 6600

SKILLS

Master Melee 100

/100

Master Tantric 100

/100

Master Biomancy 100

/100

Master Elemental 100

/100

Master Arcana 100

/100

Master Subterfuge 97

/100

Expert Speech 70

/75

Advanced Craft 50

/50

PERKS

Mana Regeneration

Skill Share

Empowerment (1

/1)

Teleportation

COMPANIONS

Cornelia – Level 21

/25

Helga – Level 17

/21