Chapter 165

With the little game with the princess over, I decided to pay a visit to my favorite blacksmith, not just to have a detailed discussion with her about today’s findings and possible ways to optimize tools to store Divine Spark, but also to finally add her as a companion.

Our relationship had progressed significantly from the days I was afraid that achievement might alert her that I wasn’t completely normal. At this point, even discounting the physical aspect of our relationship, I was her only reliable ally. Also, more importantly, I finally had enough Divine Spark to actually fuel the companion process.

I still had doubts whether Divine Spark was actually fueling it, or it was a complicated trick to force me to work for the System, but that was an issue for a future time.

At this point, sneaking through Hall of Crafting was trivial, especially since the place was crawling with unfamiliar faces, helping the usual workers. After the battle, the school required a lot of supplies, weapons, potions, and much other stuff.

When I arrived at the warehouse deep underground that Oeyne appropriated as her residence, I was already smiling with anticipation. With a flick of my wrist, I opened the door, revealing the beautiful, caramel-skinned beauty on the other side of the door, busy scribbling something on her work desk.

When she turned to check the door, she was alarmed. Understandable, as the feeling of losing the protections around one’s residence wasn’t a comfortable feeling, but her fear was replaced by a coy smile when she has noticed it was me who broke in.

I said nothing, just smiled as I walked forward, enjoying her enthusiastic expression even as the door slammed behind me.

“Hey,” she murmured as I stood next to her.

I was planning to focus on her body, to jumpstart the fun process of improving the Companion Process, when the designs on the table caught my attention, one, for some reason, felt very familiar, but I failed to pin the exact source. “What’s this?” I asked.

“Just another order from the Princess,” she grumbled in annoyance. “They have a lot of harebrained designs they want me to work on. They have too much time and money on their hand if they want to waste my time with those.”

“Are they that bad?” I asked even as I cycled through her designs, trying to pin why it was feeling that familiar. And the fact I wasn’t able to pin the source of the familiarity despite my System-boosted Intelligence was weird.

“Technically, no,” Oeyne admitted. “As far as I could see, the theory behind them is solid, but their initial assumptions for those designs are simply ridiculous. It simply assumes a very different environment. It’s like assuming rocks are is replaced by air. Most of the designs are too fragile, simply leaking mana.”

“How interesting,” I whispered. “And do they want you to fix the leaking issue?”

“That’s the interesting part, no. They want me to ignore the leaking issues, and focus on other aspects.”

“And how many of those designs have you completed for our glorious princess.”

“A few,” she gasped, which might be about the sharp nature of my voice. Although, it might be also about my wandering hand, landing on her shoulder. A subtle, gentle touch, but I didn’t blame her for reacting with a gasp. Not with her previous experience, well aware of how it would progress.

“Be more accurate, sweetie,” I murmured even as my fingers slid down. “You’re an artisan, I expect you to be more accurate.”

She paused for a second, her breathing getting labored, though it was more excitement than nervousness, her impressive bosom swelling even more. While she considered the question, my hands cupped the fullness of her breasts, softly squeezing them.

“They have given me a lot of initial designs, hundreds,” she answered even as my fingers found her nipples, teasing them slowly. “However, most of those designs have similarity, a dozen or so categories if we group the similar ones.”

“Interesting,” I said as alternated between mauling her breasts and teasing her nipples, interrupting her explanation with moans. “And you have delivered any result to them?”

“Just the initial conjecture, nothing useful. Not that any of them could be used in the first place.”

“Never do that again without talking to me,” I whispered in a playful yet threatening tone. With the mysterious levels Delia gained, I would prefer to maintain control of the information flow, just in case. She nodded. “Good,” I whispered.

I could have asked her more questions about the design, but I decided against it. It was clear that Oeyne was treating them as a thought experiment, suggesting she didn’t have any worthwhile conclusions. More importantly, I was on the edge of leveling up, which would make it much easier to analyze those designs.

And, speaking of leveling up... “Though, it still leaves your punishment...” I growled softly even as I waved my hand, once again creating a set of magical chains that wrapped around her limbs from the silver ingots lying around, and forcing her to fall on her knees.

[Level: 31 Experience: 494110 / 496000

Strength: 46 Charisma: 63

Precision: 40 Perception: 42

Agility: 40 Manipulation: 45

Speed: 39 Intelligence: 49

Endurance: 39 Wisdom: 51

HP: 6226 / 6324 Mana: 6923 / 7750 ]

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 22/26]

[Helga - Level 22/26]