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The only thing that the school was really vulnerable to was assassinations, evidenced by the ease I displayed as I repeatedly sneaked in and out without even a guard being aware. Not surprisingly, the city walls were even easier to slip through even when they tripled the number of the guards holding vigil.

I left the city limits to follow the party of the girls, but only a sliver of my attention was on them. How could I maintain my focus, when the notification I had received about the system being depleted of its power threw most of my future plans into a chaotic storm. I didn’t know whether my trick to hasten the leveling of the girls would even work —or indeed responsible for the sudden depletion in the first place— or even my Companion Acquisition process would continue.

The only silver lining was the fact that there was no visible drop in my actual abilities, both in terms of Stats and Skills.

Still, even as I started thinking about the best sources to start my research for divine spark, I couldn’t help but snort in amusement. “Such arrogance,” I murmured. A month ago, just gaining a level was an incomprehensible achievement that seemed like a miracle, and now, I was unsatisfied by my Level thirty status, a cap that many would be willing to risk their life to have, not to mention the decades they needed to spend and the support they needed to actually reach that point.

And it wasn’t even my actual cap, but a temporary stop.

Greed was addictive, I realized with a self-depreciative snort.

However, as the cover of the night darkened, I abandoned my introspection about the perils of powers or the ways to reverse my status, and instead focused on my senses. Yes, I trusted the abilities of Helga and Cornelia to stay safe before I could catch up with them, but it was better to be safe than sorry as they walked toward an ambush.

As a fringe benefit, I finally had the chance to see Iomene in action. During their day travel, the students had handled the monster appearances while she stayed in the back. During the night, however, she took the lead, showing her worthiness as a ranger. She had an ornate longbow as her main weapon, using it with an ease that suggested either an impressively high level, or a hyper-focus on her weapon skill. For some reason, I was inclined to think the latter was the case. If she had other abilities to match her bow skills, she wouldn’t be marked as an easy target, no matter her lack of political support.

Of course, just because she was hyper-focused on her weapon skill didn’t mean she was useless. The ease she was showing as she picked the targets hundreds of yards away easily, followed by a pinpoint accuracy arrow, suggested both a keen eye and significant experience. The cold yet clear orders she conveyed, allowing the group to move efficiently without losing strength or time also suggested a long leadership expert, though that was less surprising. Her abilities might be barely enough to make her an ordinary faculty member in Silver Spires would have made her one of the leading figures in most cities.

As they continued to move deeper into the wilderness, I was slowly reducing the distance between us, partially because the darkness provided a convenient cover for my presence —and any nearby monster attacking them first before they even noticed me— and partially because I was getting a better understanding of Iomene’s observational capabilities and her perception Stat, allowing me to better measure the distance.

From a closer distance, I finally had a decent view of Iomene. The first thing that popped out about her was her hair, a shiny silver cover that shone brightly under the moonlight even when she tried to use her hood to cover it to avoid notice. The color was simply too noticeable to actually keep covered. She wasn’t tall enough to be actually classified as such, and had more of a lithe build both in terms of her chest and her hips.

Her face, however, strikingly beautiful despite the sharp angles, reminding me of the myths about fey folk, especially with her glimmering eyes that shared her hair color, especially under the moonlight. No wonder the rest of the faculty didn’t accept her despite her capabilities. However, despite her beauty, her clothing was extremely conservative, consisting of brown featureless leather armor and pants that hid her body perfectly.

The only exception to her drab dresses was her longbow, made from a tree I was unable to recognize, ornate enough to make me assume it was a decorative piece if I hadn’t watched her take down many low-class monsters with a single hit, delivering her arrows directly into the weakest spot. I suspected that it was a magical item, but it was hard to be sure from a distance in the absence of a direct effect.

As they got closer to the mission area —a small, concealed valley, perfect for an ambush— I started to feel a subtle sense of danger, and prepared myself to act. Then, Iomene gestured her group to stop, showing that I wasn’t the only one that was feeling tense. She stilled for a moment, looking at the distant valley, about half a mile away, for almost a minute. “Prepare a camp,” she ordered, pointing at a nearby rocky area.

“Do we need to, madam,” called one of the students in an exhausted tone, no doubt unhappy with the night mission, and wanting to finish it as quickly as possible. Arrogance was a dangerous habit.

“Prepare the camp, that’s an order,” she repeated calmly as she climbed over a nearby stone, not even bothering to look at the guy that commented, expecting her order to be followed. The guy bristled at being dismissed, his hand tightening around the hilt of his sword, but ultimately, that failed. The others students —except Cornelia and Helga— started cursing under their breaths even as they set up a perimeter quickly.

Iomene just ignored them.

“Should we set up magical defenses?” Cornelia asked, whose expression was much more serious.

That earned Iomene’s attention, her silver eyes momentarily shifting toward Cornelia. Cornelia took her gaze without flickering, her calm arrogance different than the confidence of an ordinary student. Ordinarily, I would have blamed it for Cornelia’s noble ego, but there was no frivolity in Cornelia’s tone. Unlike the rest of the team, she was fully aware of the danger they were facing, maybe even more acutely than Iomene herself, who only had a subtle sensation that alerted her about the danger.

Surprisingly, Iomene was quick to pick on that as well. “Set up the strongest defense you can set up without compromising your combat capability,” she ordered. “I have a bad feeling.”

“Paranoid bitch,” murmured the same male student that first challenged her decision, loud enough to be heard by everyone.

Iomene ignored the insult easily, but Cornelia was not as calm. “Would you mind repeating it?” Cornelia asked, her tone intimidating enough even without the ball of flame that started crackling in her hand threateningly.

The boy gasped in shock, stammering in shock, but before Cornelia could act, Iomene interjected. “Enough,” she called coldly, no doubt losing some of the respect she had generated toward Cornelia. I just shook my head. She still needed to learn to keep a better handle on her fury. “Just prepare the defenses as soon as possible. You have twenty minutes,” she said as she jumped down the rock, and gestured to the angry boy, as well as two of the rangers. “You two, follow me, we’re going to scout,” she added.

Despite their grumbling, the boys followed Iomene helplessly. They weren’t like Cornelia, with the strength to challenge the faculty members, so, rejecting a direct order was not an option, especially with a lack of sizable support.

They left, which left only four people in the camp. Helga and Cornelia, as well as a random healer girl and another male warrior. “You two, stay on guard,” Cornelia ordered sharply even as she moved toward the center of the camp, pulling a large emerald from her pocket, already carved with several runes to support many types of wards. Since Iomene was gone, it was trivial for me to sneak into the camp, so I got closer.

Helga walked toward her even as Cornelia was about to cast a spell. “We can’t use that for the center,” Helga said even as her fingers closed on the diamond.

“What do you know,” Cornelia snarled angrily, but considering anyone else daring to do the same would have threatened a fireball on the face, I could confidently say that their relationship was developing nicely, if a bit slow for my tastes.

Helga’s development, on the other hand, was much more noticeable. “Hey, if I need a brute to burn a forest down, I would trust you to handle it, but wards are my area of expertise,” she countered with smug expressions. “Or, can you actually set up a ward that is balanced between five nexus in less than ten minutes?”

Cornelia didn’t answer, but the tightening of her hand was sufficient as an answer. Her arcana proficiency was less than useful to achieve such a monumental task. “Doesn’t matter how fancy your initial structure, it’s meaningless if you can’t tie the appropriate destructive spells into the matrix, unless you count grazing a monster as a win,” she countered.

As much as I would have liked to watch their low-key argument, we were under a potential ambush, and I wanted to secure the camp as quickly as possible. “How about you girls work together?” I interjected, enjoying the way they flinched at my sudden appearance.

“Caesar,” they once again whispered simultaneously, angry at my sudden appearance.

“Hey, I told you that I’ll be following,” I said.

“Shouldn’t you follow instructor Iomene,” Helga asked. “She’s the one that’s facing a likely danger.”

“Maybe,” I said, as I wasn’t entirely sure of that, mostly because I was yet to discover how the ambush was going to be launched. “But I do know that I would risk her life than you two,” I added.

“You jerk,” Cornelia murmured, but she clearly appreciated the weird compliment. “So, what should we do?” she asked, her earlier dominance immediately disappearing with my appearance.

“You two are going to set up a defensive ward together,” I said, enjoying the simultaneous flash of distaste that appeared on their face. “That’s nonnegotiable,” I added, not giving them a chance to reject the suggestion. As much as I would have liked to watch them bicker, we were facing a dangerous situation, and I wanted to get a handle on it as quickly as possible. “Understood?” I added sharply when I noticed their petulant expression.

“Okay,” they murmured simultaneously, pouting cutely.

“Excellent,” I said, smiling even as I took a step forward, and kissed Helga’s lips, using that to transfer some mana, while I observed my soul space to check if there was any reaction.

[-156 Mana]

After a searing kiss, I pulled back while Helga blushed, confident that there was nothing wrong with the mana transfer. Interestingly, however, unlike many other times, I didn’t receive no experience notification due to the level difference, something that I had been solidly ignoring for a long while.

Then, I looked at Cornelia, who was looking haughty, doing her best to be prideful and not ask for a kiss, but failing spectacularly. “Come here,” I said with a chuckle. She snorted in anger, but that didn’t prevent her from smashing her lips against me, her tongue similarly enthusiastic. This time, I transferred mana not to help recover her mana, but to give her some more experience.

[-192 Mana]

Once again, I didn’t detect anything extraordinary, even when Cornelia received her experience boost normally. “Now, go and create the ward,” I said as I slapped her ass. “And don’t worry about spending all of your mana, as I can always help you recover,” I reminded the girls, happy with the lack of performance degradation in my support capabilities.

The girls left for the edges of the camp, immediately starting to argue about the warding scheme loudly, while I started creating a secondary hidden ward in the center of the camp, one that would keep me hidden from even the strongest observer as a side benefit. I wanted to stay in the warded area just in case.

I started constructing a complicated, layered ward that would stay hidden until I triggered, many weaves of mana wrapping around each other, something that was only possible through my ridiculous Manipulation stat, allowing unprecedented mana flexibility. I spent my mana excessively for the next hour, spending quite a bit of mana than what was necessary for a temporary camp, my attention on the state of my soul space. It was another experiment. I wanted to see whether excessive mana spending would affect my leveling status.

[-8315 Mana]

[+4 Arcana]

Luckily, during the construction phase, I hadn’t noticed any adverse effect, either on my magic potential or my regeneration speed, suggesting that the only change due to the depleted Divine Spark was the lack of further leveling —though, even that was an assumption that I needed to experiment further. The fact that my Arcana skill continued to develop was just another interesting bonus.

Only after constructing the ward, I turned my attention outside the wards, only to see Cornelia and Helga still arguing about certain details of the wards. “No, that wouldn’t work with the other spells,” Cornelia cut in. “We’re wasting mana.”

“I don’t think so, you’re forgetting the resonance effect,” Helga countered. They were too focused on the glowing structure in front of them to notice my closing presence. While they continued to argue, I looked over from their shoulder, seeing the impressive ward they had created, both more elegant and more dangerous than anything they could have created alone.

“Looks impressive,” I said even as I leaned down and captured Cornelia’s lips in a searing kiss, refreshing her mana through a searing kiss, before I pulled and repeated it for Helga.

[-1846 Mana]

“So, it seems that we’re ready for any kind of activity,” I said even as I watched their blushing faces. “So, who is going to stay on guard and who is going to accompany me in the tent?” I asked.

“Maybe we’re going in and leave you on guard,” Helga tried to counter, trying to beat her shame in a different way. Cornelia smirked as well, like they had trapped me perfectly.

Unfortunately for her, I was more than happy to turn her bluff into reality. “Oh, really, go ahead if you can handle,” I said, smirking in such a patronizing manner that they had no choice but to follow their threat and walk into their tent.

I just smirked, curious which was stronger, the bad blood between them, or desire to resist my mocking. Unfortunately, the sound of an explosion reached my ear just as they were about to step into the tent.

“It seems that your little show is delayed, girls,” I sighed in disappointment even as I moved to a hidden observation spot, determined to stay until I could catch the reason for it.

[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: 5121 / 6600 ]

SKILLS

Master Melee [100/100]

Master Tantric [100/100]

Master Biomancy [100/100]

Master Elemental [100/100]

Master Subterfuge [97/100]

Master Arcana [95/100]

Expert Speech [70/75]

Advanced Craft [50/50]

PERKS

Mana Regeneration

Skill Share

Empowerment (1/1)

Teleportation

COMPANIONS

[Cornelia - Level 20/25]

[Helga - Level 17/21]