Chapter 124

It was past midday when I arrived at the town defended by Titania, delayed by destroying a few monster hordes I had came across. Therefore, I wasn’t particularly surprised to find the town surrounded by an impressive number of weaker monsters, assaulting the walls without a break.

None of these monsters were particularly strong, meaning that after their latest explosive ploy was destroyed, the enemy was relying on the constant attacks to keep the pressure up, hoping to exhaust the defenders, both in terms of endurance and equipment.

And it seemed to be working. Even with weaker students and citizens showing a much greater combat ability compared to my last visit thanks to their level increase and the stat boosts from the achievements they triggered, the stronger fighters were getting significantly lesser benefit from the continuous assault of the weaker monsters. However, they were still unable to rest because they needed to respond to the breaches, preventing the monsters from cutting a swathe through the weaker defenders.

Titania was the one that best exemplified that exhaustion, standing on the most visible location on the walls, only using her magic when absolutely necessary, and even then, it was a use soft, the flickering blast of light that lacked her usual domineering vigor.

I might have even worried if I couldn’t feel her current through our connection, much stronger than her weak blasts might suggest. Good, I thought. She was following my suggestion about faking exhaustion, meaning she was ready for an ambush.

The same applied to Marianne, who was healing only the deadly cases at the back of the line, keeping most of her mana in reserve. It wasn’t the most efficient way for a healer to work, but after getting proficient with the life energy trick I had taught her, she wasn’t just a healer. She represented a deadly hidden card against an undead assault.

I was tempted to pull her along to my time with Titania once again, helping her recover her mana while I once again enjoyed their combined attention, but unfortunately, pulling both of them from the siege would affect the defenses negatively.

After a magical message to Titania, I sneaked into her room, waiting for her to appear. Since she needed to organize the defenses before taking a break, it took a while for her to arrive, and I spent that time using magic to checking the surroundings, both by checking the wards to get any hint of the agents of the Eternals, and using my new detection capabilities to detect undead presence.

[-482 Mana]

The security of my lovers was an important thing, especially with such a complicated siege going on.

When the checks resulted in no outcome, I turned my attention to the wards of the room. Just because I detected no enemy presence didn’t mean that there was no enemy presence, or that they couldn’t pay me another visit. Though, in the interest of multitasking, I started to reconstruct the furniture in the room by adding some magical resistance, both making the room safer and improving my craft skill. With my mana and stats, maximizing an expert-tier skill was trivial.

[-5981 Mana]

[+16 Craft]

It took fifteen minutes for Titania to arrive, a time enough to turn her room into a temporary fortress. Then she arrived, making me abandon those attempts in the interest of more interesting things.

“Hi-” she started, only to let out a cute little cry when I grabbed her wrist and pulled her on my lap. A cute expression appeared on her face as I leaned, ready to capture her lips, something that would have made people gasp in shock if they had seen her blushing like an innocent young maiden.

I started kissing her, and she melted under my touch immediately, her domineering attitude nonexistent under my touch. Technically, the aim of the kiss was to transfer mana, but at this point, even for her, it was a poorly constructed excuse for her passion.

[-319 Mana]

[+100 Experience]

A brief yet heated kiss later, I pulled back, caressing her cheek gently, happy about the kiss as much as I was happy about the experience gain. I had missed the addictive sensation of slowly growing stronger. Even with my suspicions toward the source of my unique system, more power wasn’t something to be discarded.

“So, how were things?” I asked.

“Nothing unexpected, just continuous siege,” she answered before launching a summary of the highlights, none of them triggering suspicion. “Anything on your side?”

“A few,” I answered with a quirked smile even as my hands started to work on her robe, unbuttoning it with a teasing slowness even as I kissed her neck, rather than explaining.

“Caesar!” she warned petulantly, once again cute enough to irrevocably destroy her scary persona if there was an observer, earning a bright smile from me. “Don’t dawdle.”

Strength: 46 Charisma: 58

Precision: 40 Perception: 42

Agility: 40 Manipulation: 45

Speed: 39 Intelligence: 49

Endurance: 39 Wisdom: 51

HP: 6324 / 6324 Mana: 7595 / 7595 ]

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]

Expert Speech [75/75]

Expert Craft [75/75]

PERKS

Mana Regeneration

Skill Share

Empowerment (1/1)

Teleportation

COMPANIONS

[Cornelia - Level 21/25]

[Helga - Level 17/21]