Chapter 179

When I arrived at the headmistress’ room, I found it decorated with crystal pillars once again, glowing softly as they charged with her unique-natured mana, pushing the oppressive darkness of the wards she used to block the System.

She was once again dressed in her gold-embroiled armor, carrying a sword, her beautiful wings carrying an impressive sight with their soft glow. Unfortunately for her, I had already seen her dressed like that before, so I noticed other details. Like the subtle hint of blackness under her eyes, indicating a sleepless evening. One that also implied exhaustion as well considering just how strong her supernatural body must have been.

And, it wasn’t the only extraordinary detail I had noticed. I could also feel the remains of a repeated spell, most likely wards, lingering in the air. A momentary focus had even revealed the type of wards she had been casting.

The storage ward.

Even with my exceptional Perception, I had barely been able to notice the lingering remains, but that didn’t mean she had cast it only a couple of times.

After all, pure mana wards, unlike the ones that had been created with the assistance of physical objects, left next to no residual once destroyed. For me to be able to pick them casually meant that she must have created hundreds of them during the night.

And, if her frustration — which, unlike her exhaustion, was much easier to notice on her beautiful face — was any indicator, her repeated attempts to create alternative storage for the Divine Spark had failed spectacularly.

How fascinating.

“Good morning boss. What a great morning, right?” I said cheerfully, amused that I wasn’t the only one that had gone through an extremely exhausting evening, though unlike her, I was able to hide it better.

Her twitching eyelid was enough to show just how much she appreciated my greeting. “Come on boss,” I said, pushing even more. “You’re an angel, shouldn’t you be more cheerful in the morning.” This time, it earned a growl, warning me to keep my mouth shut.

It was enough teasing, I decided as I took my position while she climbed on the platform wordlessly, not even warning me as her mana flooded me, much stronger than the previous time, enough to be classified as ill-advised.

A cry of pain escaped my mouth before I could suppress it, surprised by her move. A punishment, I noted, unable to hide my grin as I once again created a magical funnel leading to my fake soul-space, stealing as much as Divine Spark as I could manage.

Despite the pain her sudden flood had created, it was hard to say there were no benefits. A stronger flood meant more fragments, and more importantly, it meant she could pay less attention to the sudden disappearance of some of them, allowing me to steal more without making her suspicious.

When it came to an end, I had almost stolen five times the previous amount despite a similar duration, most of it safely locked in my body — a perk of the improved storage I had managed to develop — isolated from the hungry fingers of the System, a sliver of it went to the fake soul space, improving the Light Node, showing the headmistress that her great effort hadn’t gone to waste.

However, she seemed to miscalculate the drawbacks of her not-so-subtle punishment, because the moment she cut her mana flow, she trembled, leaning forward as she was going to fall.

Luckily for her, she was in the room with a perfect gentleman! I didn’t waste any time before standing up and wrapping my arms around her. “Don’t worry boss, I got you,” I said cheekily.

“Stop hugging me,” she gasped as she pushed me back, her face blushing much harder than I expected. “And stop calling me boss!”

“As you wish, boss,” I said, smiling cheekily, enjoying her frustration as I acted significantly laxer. A cheekiness she could not push against too hard, not when I was her only way of keeping her important dragon guest happy, unaware that her guest was much more helpful to me than her, and I would have paid a great price for the privilege of accompanying her if she had presented the deal differently.

Especially since I had resolved the misunderstanding about the exact job description of a servant.

Still, watching the headmistress as she tried to swallow her anger at my playful jabs was beautiful, especially since she was even more uncomfortable compared to the subservience she had shown to Janelor.

Her thoughts were visible on her beautiful face as she weighed the importance of her problem versus admonishing me. However, ultimately, her needs won over her desire to reinforce her authority over my harmless rebellion. “Show me that storage ward again,” she ordered.Reêad latest novels at novelhall.com

“As you wish, boss,” I said cheerfully as I created the storage, this time even simpler to make it easy for her to copy it flawlessly, watching as she forced another piece of Divine Spark. The storage held the Divine Spark in without any issue.

I expected her to repeat the spell after examining it a few seconds later, solving whatever that was preventing her from completing it, but she surprised me by injecting more Divine Spark into the storage, as if she was trying to break it.

[Level: 32 Experience: 499110 / 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: 8000 / 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 [77/100]

Expert Speech [75/75]

PERKS

Mana Regeneration

Skill Share

Empowerment (0/1)

Teleportation

COMPANIONS

[Cornelia - Level 22/26]

[Helga - Level 22/26]