As I collapsed next to my cute, naked dragoness who had been trembling softly as she did her best to process her explosive climax, tethering on the edge of unconsciousness as she mewled in dazed satisfaction.

If she didn’t show the signs of exhaustion already, showing she wanted to go back to her sleep, I would have pushed her against the wall for another session.

Instead, I pulled her against my chest, enjoying her warmth as her arms wrapped back automatically. It was supposed to be a calming moment, but it wasn’t. Not when I was trying to process the latest realization, one that threw everything I had managed to discover about the System into question yet again.

It was the reason I let her go back to sleep rather than bothering them. I wanted to think about the implications of the Tantric, and why it was different than my other skills.

Of course, before making an immediate decision, I first needed to make sure my earlier discovery was not just a misunderstanding of the root, or a mistake of blocking. Which meant, I needed to do more experimentation. I quickly applied the same blocking trick to every single skill I owned, but the difference for every single skill, from Crafting to Melee, from Subterfuge to various magical skills, was sharp enough to be apparent, leaving no place for doubt.

Yet, for Tantric, between blocking and not blocking, there was absolutely no difference in performance.

I was shocked. Yet, I wondered whether it was even reasonable for me to feel shocked. From its ability to help others level up to actually giving me the ability to strip its uniqueness from the Divine Spark, there was nothing ordinary about the achievements triggered by the Tantric skill.

No wonder I never managed to find any proper information about it in the library.

Yet, that only created more questions. I remembered the dismissal the headmistress had when I first displayed that I had the ability to contain her Light Divine Spark, which, when analyzed together with the shock she displayed when she realized the structures made from Tantric mana were able to contain Divine Spark much more efficiently.

It meant that I wasn’t the only one unaware of the true potential hidden in my skill.

It also meant that I needed to be careful about the capabilities I revealed to her — in particular, the ability to purify the Divine Spark.

But that was a decision for another time. Instead, I repeated the earlier experiment, this time focusing on the changes that occurred between blocking and not blocking the skill, to see if I could catch something more.

At first, I was not sure whether it was going to be successful considering I was still under the wards that weakened the reach of the system, but after some time, I realized that wasn’t the case.

The subtle shadow of the darkness wards created a little layer between the skills nodes in my soul space and the System, and that created subtle friction between that link, allowing me to catch the existence of a flow I had never noticed before. It was subtle flow, hard to describe, and impossible to decipher — at least under my current level of ability. I doubted that I could feel anything more than a flicker that would have been mistaken by my body’s natural flow if it wasn’t for the assistance of the headmistress’ unique wards…

Yet, the same connection between the System and Tantric was dead. No flow, not even a flicker, completely empty, existing only in form.

And that only made it more complicated.

With a sigh, I slowly extracted myself from the arms of Janelor as she slowly fell back to sleep, our little exertion enough to make her collapse even after she had just woken up. I was tempted to nap with her, but that latest realization about the extraordinary nature of Tantric was enough to overwhelm that particular desire.

I couldn’t say that I was glad about that realization, but that was not due to any direct reason related to its application of it. On the contrary, it actually allayed one of my biggest fears, that, somehow, I would find myself helpless with the System blocked.

Yet, it was inconvenient, because it put a lot of things in question, particularly about how the System functioned. I didn’t have the slightest idea why Tantric could function without the assistance of the System, and it put into question whether Tantric actually came from the System…

My unique nature of getting experience certainly added to that particular question.

It was an annoying feeling, discovering the truths about such a fundamental part of my being, only to end up with more and more questions.

Unlike the previous times, I didn’t even have the luxury of going to the library to explore some ancient books, or interrogate a naughty dragon or a prude angel for some scraps of information, because it was getting riskier to reveal even hints of my discoveries compared to the scraps of information I might extract, especially since their actions already confirmed their information.

And since it was pointless to ask the headmistress, it was also pointless to go digging around the library. It was just vain to assume that the headmistress was unaware of anything in the books, not when she had spent almost two centuries ruling the place, her unique method of concealment making reading the best way of killing time in isolation.

Technically, there might be a book or two she missed, but it was not worth my limited time digging around, hoping to find something that she hadn’t comprehended properly.

With a sigh, I sneaked out of the school, aware that, technically, I still had one important destination where I might find the answers I was seeking.

I closed my eyes, focused on a mental direction before creating an air elemental, and started flying.

-1320 Mana

Unfortunately, my destination was not where I knew I could find the information I was searching, for two reasons. First, technically, I didn’t know the exact geographical location of the information, but that didn’t prevent me from searching.

The real reason I didn’t dare go around poking, I was afraid of the attention it might create.

I did not have the power to deal with the Eternals.

At least, not yet.

Everything I had discovered about them, every little detail that had been revealed, suggested that they had a veritable army, one that treated warriors and mages over level thirty as disposable items — not to mention their ability to apparently mass-produce them easily, considering the training event I had stumbled on during the encounter in Mount Doom.

No, I didn’t dare to go around poking such an organization.

At least, not before I could reach a power level I would feel comfortable. Instead, I set my direction to the mental pull of two companion nodes in the same direction. I chose to use another air elemental rather than traveling directly, because there was no urgency for me to risk using teleportation.

Moreover, the travel allowed me to train my skills without the intervention of the System. Tantric might not be connected to the System, but it was certainly not the case for the rest of my skills.

Even picking my target skill wasn’t too difficult. I picked Arcana, which was, ultimately, the most flexible magical ability one might have, from ward creating to utility charms. It might give a weak offensive, but considering my challenges, I didn’t have the luxury of sacrificing the utility to maximize my damage potential.

As I flew toward my destination, I blocked my Arcana skill, trying to cast a simple arcana bolt, only for it to fizzle halfway, before it could even reach its target.

“Frustrating,” I murmured. It was impossible for me to ignore just how critical the practice I was doing, not with the ease I was having blocking my own skills to drive the fragility of the power granted by the System, but that hardly made the sensation of failing something that was as simple as breathing any easier.

It was like trying to relearn walking.

But sometimes, you needed to relearn how to walk, if the alternative was to rely on a pair of enchanted legs that might simply run out of power and fold in the middle of an adventure.

I journeyed even as the sun slowly set, covering the area in darkness, underlining just how long my journey was even with the assistance of the air elemental, hunting the occasional strong monster I came across to replenish my reserves.

Yet, even as the sun set, there was no uninterrupted darkness, not with the explosions of the light that was happening on the horizon.

I couldn’t help but smirk as I saw the signs of Titania’s signature spell.

—————

Level: 32 Experience: 524160

/ 528000

Strength: 46 Charisma: 63

Precision: 40 Perception: 42

Agility: 40 Manipulation: 45

Speed: 39 Intelligence: 49

Endurance: 39 Wisdom: 51

HP: 6528

/ 6528 Mana: 7592

/ 8000

SKILLS

Master Melee 100

/100

Master Tantric 100

/100

Master Biomancy 100

/100

Master Elemental 100

/100

Master Arcana 100

/100

Master Subterfuge 100

/100

Master Craft 84

/100

Expert Speech 75

/75

PERKS

Mana Regeneration

Skill Share

Empowerment (0

/1)

Teleportation

COMPANIONS

Cornelia – Level 22

/26

Helga – Level 22

/26