Waves of warm and sweet air brush against my face as I slowly start regaining my consciousness. My brain enters its booting sequence, sending probing commands towards every organ and limb. A small yawn escapes my mouth. After around thirty seconds, the body responds to the brain’s pings and I begin realizing that the warm, soft and delicate puffs of air hitting my skin aren’t exactly part of my waking up routine.
My mind switches to a higher gear and starts frantically going through all its data banks, recalling all the events of the previous day. The records end during the night, when I’m wiping away Sirgia’s forehead from sweat, and then jump to the current moment. Another pleasant wave disperses when breaking off against my lips, nose and eyelids. A sudden realization arrives in the calculating centre of my head. I must have fallen asleep while nursing Sirgia.
I open my eyes a tiny bit, and as I suspected, there’s a mountain range made of sheets, in the shape of a small person lying on their side. There’s no doubt that it's covering a certain dwarf’s lower body. And only just now I notice that my right arm is reaching over that hill and supporting its back. There is no more confusion about the mysterious hot air assaulting me above.
「Uaaaaaaah… I fucked up and drifted off literally centimetres from her. Even throwing my arm over… I better quickly get up before she wakes up.」
Fully opening my eyes, I prepare to lift myself up with as gentle movements as possible to not disturb the cute dwarf’s rest, but before I do so, all the brain cells in the commanding centre abruptly stop responding and both my mind and body freeze in place. It takes me three full seconds to realize that I’m not staring at Sirgia’s dangerously close sleeping face, but at Sirgia’s dangerously close awake face. As I look into her cinnamon-brown eyes, she glances into my grey ones, with her usual neutral expression, like nothing is even a little bit wrong here.
Another wave of hot air travels towards my face when Sirgia exhales softly, sending shivers down my spine. I quickly close my eyes and focus on calming my panicked body and mind before I even try opening my mouth. Two deep breaths later, I feel ready to face her again and I lift my eyelids. Nothing has changed in the previous view.
“Morning,” I start awkwardly while we gaze into each other’s eyes.
“Uhn.” She faintly nods without breaking the link.
“Ummmmm… How are you feeling now?”
“Good,” Sirgia answers in a quiet tone.
“I see…”
Silence falls onto us and we just stare into each other's eyes awkwardly.
“Ermmm… Do you feel any weird? You lost consciousness pretty abruptly yesterday…” I ask, still worried that something might have happened to her.
She finally stops gazing into me and looks up. I follow her eyes and judge that she is looking at my arm which is bent under my head acting as a pillow, or more likely at my hand which is holding a piece of cloth.
“Did Master stay by my side the whole night, wiping my body?”
“Well… Yeah…”
Sirgia looks forward again but quickly lowers her gaze with a very faint blush on her cheeks. I'm starting to grow a little worried as I imagine her getting all embarrassed right now due to thinking about what I could have done or where I could have touched when she was asleep.
“I’m… sorry… for you having to do something like that for someone like me…” she whispers barely audible words, but we are so close they are sound and clear to me.
Her self-depreciative tone finally brings my cool back and I sigh deeply, making her look at my face again. I can’t be such a sissy when she’s more worried about me having to take care of her than of her own body. I move my hand, which was behind her back, up to her head and gently ruffle through her brown hair. Closing the remaining distance between us, I rest my forehead against hers and look into her charming eyes.
“Do not be sorry for something I brought upon you. I will always gladly look after you because you are my—no, our friend. I feel immensely relieved to know that you are fine after that attack. And you should be able to confirm that via our connection. So don’t blame yourself and tell me whenever there’s something wrong, got it?" I speak to her confidently, without averting my gaze even for a millisecond.
She just stares at me for a while before quietly nodding. “Uhn.”
A kind smile appears on my face and I move my hand back from her head. “Good. And you better not forget that.” I playfully boop her nose with my index finger and sit up.
Sirgia follows suit, grabbing the sheets to cover herself since I took off her shirt when wiping the body and left her only in panties. I quickly take care of the last part of her wound, which is under her left eye. The silvery scar going from her forehead down to the cheek will, unfortunately, have to stay, but it doesn’t affect her cuteness by even a bit.
Then, I order her to take a bath but she insists that a shower is enough, so with this compromise, she leaves to wash her body. I prepare some clothes near the door and walk out of the room.
She quickly arrives in the kitchen and joins me in making breakfast. The moment Emi lays her eyes on Sirgia in the dining room, she jumps at her, covering the dwarf almost completely with her elastic body. We all have a decent laugh watching how the little girl tries to escape the resistant hug. I tell everyone that I accidentally triggered one of my defensive items and Sirgia was caught in the blast. I’ll one day properly explain the hilt to Cornelia, but right now, even I don’t know much about it.
Today we continue with the search. Just a bit of the upper floor and employee areas are left. We split into the same groups, but just before we disperse, I get an idea to test something out.
“There’s something I want to check. Would you be willing to help me, Safi?” I ask.
[Of course, Master.]
She comes closer to me curiously. I move my hand to her face, brushing against her cheek and place a soft peck on her chilly lips. We enjoy the short moment of our intimacy and I back off, seeing a lovely smile on her face.
“Erm....” Cornelia looks my way with slightly widened eyes.
“What? I’m pretty sure the two of them has already babbled out to everyone here that we had sex together.” I glance at Sirgia questioningly and she nods. “See? Is it so weird for me to give Safi a small kiss?”
“Well… no… I just didn’t expect to see you do it around everyone.”
“There will be many more people wandering these corridors in the future. I don’t want anyone to feel neglected just because I’m too shy to show some affection in public. And besides, that was a little test. Feeling any different, Safi?” After defending my actions, I turn to the sapphire beauty again.
[I feel refreshed and slightly more energetic after Master’s kiss. And a bit warmer near my core,] she conveys and I repeat for others to hear.
I summon her Status window and have a look at it. There’s an additional line in the category bar, notifying me that her stats are boosted by 10% for 24 hours. I share my findings with the rest of our group.
“Master’s kiss is like a D-grade energy potion mixed with a body enhancement one… Amazing…” Sirgia analyses its efficiency.
“Yeah. I don’t know all the details behind that effect, because just until now I thought it’s only a stat boost, but Safi mentioned being refreshed too, so there might be some hidden effects. And when we—”
Before I get to finish my sentence, Emi pulls me down while bringing herself up by grasping my vest and cheerfully assaults my lips. Her frosty tongue pierces my defences and entwines with mine in a joyful dance. My warm saliva mixes with her frigid slimy liquid. I place my hand on her back for support and lean a bit more to make it easier for her to embrace me. After a few deep kisses, she gives me some space and stays in a hug. I calm my breathing and pat her head.
Cornelia’s cheeks bloom in almost full red from that spectacle and she averts her gaze. She’s similar to me. Up until now, she hasn’t experienced any closer contact with the opposite gender. I just recently graduated from being a virgin myself.
“Sorry about that.” I bonk Emi’s head with my hand. She makes a smug grin while rubbing her face into my chest. “As I was going to say, the more sensual the contact is, the stronger effect follows.”
“How much stronger?” Sirgia asks curiously.
I summon Emi’s window this time and announce that she has received a 15% stat boost.
“It rose by 5% just because it was a deeper kiss?” Cornelia speaks amazed, still blushing.
“And after we did that, their stats were up by 50%.”
“WHAT?! 50%?! That’s insane!” Cornelia forgets her embarrassment and shouts in shock.
“S-grade potions…” Sirgia looks up at me with amazement in her eyes for the first time ever.
“I agree. But still, we literally need to have sex. And additionally, the person has to be my Partner and at least think positively of me. I’d say that’s quite the trade-off there with the number of restrictions.”
I sigh dejectedly and Cornelia nods to my words.
“That reminds me, I’d like to be your Par—” I turn to her and start speaking, just to realize that I’m making the same mistake as with Sirgia. “—Ekhm… If it’s fine with you, I’d like to contract us as Partners, so I can know about your well-being when we are separated.”
“Yes, of course, I’d love to—EEEEEEEEH?!”
Cornelia, lost in her contemplation about something, answers halfheartedly, just to notice it mid-sentence. She gets as red as a fully grown tomato and grabs the hem of her robes on the sides, dropping her gaze to the ground. I tried my best, but the effect is even worse than with Sirgia. She is gone. Completely.
“Hey, listen to me.” I try to pull Cornelia back from her wild imagination. I’ve learned how deep and illustrative it can be during our past studies. “It’s not for any lewd things! Sirgia, help me!” I turn to the dwarf girl which already returned to her calm and neutral state.
She trots to Cornelia and stops in front of her, just below her face. She looks up at the dazed woman. There’s around forty centimetres of difference between their heights, so Sirgia has to lift her head a lot when standing under Cornelia’s gaze.
“Master can feel our presence with his skill. And we can feel him too. We can even tell when Master is worried or happy,” she calmly explains.
Under the emotionless stare of Sirgia, Cornelia slowly cools herself down and the more logical part of her mind assumes control of the situation. She takes a few deep breaths and lifts her head. Her beautiful face still flushed with a red tinge.
“I see… Sorry… I don’t mind,” she answers with an awkward smile.
I bump Emi on the head a few times to release myself and walk closer to Cornelia with an extended arm. I nod at her and she takes my hand. I invoke the skill and moments later start noticing the connection between us. Smiling, I take a step back to give her more space. To test the effects, I focus my mind on thinking about how beautiful she is. That should be enough for her to notice my positive emotions. And I guess it works because her eyes widen and the blush on her face increases a bit more after just calming down.
“Great, let’s get back to work then.”
We scatter and everyone moves to their designated part of the mansion. On my way to ours, I summon the Partners menu to take a peek at Cornelia’s entry. Besides being 0/5, it shows the Bond Type as Friends and emotion as Passion. I guess we are connected through her passion to learn about new and mysterious things. And I am that thing in this case. I wonder how wide is the range of emotions and bond types, the title definitely didn’t list all of them.
There are no special surprises during our journey through the top floor of the living quarters. Along the way, I chat with Sirgia about the previous day, and especially about what she knows about Soul Relics since there were only some vague records in the royal library. She explains to me that some immensely skilled artificers were able to imbue souls into objects, usually using specifically prepared gems or crystals. Then, an artefact that was crafted using that gem would usually turn out insanely powerful, fitting the image and characteristics of the soul.
There is a downside though. Soul is a soul. It’s an entity on its own. You could say it’s a living being. And that living being is locked inside some crystal box connected to a weapon or something. It’s much harder to gain the favour of a sentient entity than just a blood-bound artefact, which basically judges your quality and power through the mentioned blood.
A person, because that’s what usually the soul is, can choose whoever they want to serve and can even decide to stop working for an already picked master at any moment. You could say that you enter a relationship with your weapon.
Sirgia apologizes to me for her behaviour yesterday, explaining that she was surprised to see such a powerful Soul Relic choose to serve me. I naturally tell her that I don’t mind and that I’m grateful for her worry about me. And also that I’m happy she finally used a less formal tone. I think I catch her cheeks getting a little rosy after that statement, but that can also be just some light refraction from all the red curtains and bedsheets.
She continues by saying that while it’s strong, it also may be threatening. She does not believe that an artefact of this calibre would choose anyone and the soul inside must have some reason or goal to act so subserviently. She asks if I ever used it, so I tell her about the times I activated the hilt. Then I bring it out and pour my mana into it in front of her. The purple helix connects to the crystal and purplish mist forms the yet immaterial whip.
Sirgia’s mouth slightly opens at the sight and she begins glancing around the handle, my hand, arm and whole body, trotting around in circles.
“I… don’t understand…” she mutters under her breath after the examination.
“Don’t worry, I also don’t get how it works yet.”
“No, that’s not what I meant.” She shakes her head. “Master is currently too weak to even wield this Soul Relic properly and the soul inside connects its mana reserves to yours, which can be observed by this purple mist. Through this helix, the soul transfers its mana into Master’s circuits, so that you don’t collapse barely seconds after activating it.”
I look at her in shock and then at the silvery handle in my grasp. I would have never thought that it is supplying me mana and not the other way. It’s such a bizarre concept. This weapon is literally boosting my own body just so I can use it.
“What I don’t understand is the reason why.” Sirgia stops in front of me and looks up with curious eyes. “Why is such a strong artefact with such a powerful soul inside expending its mana just so someone nothing but weak in its eyes can use it?”
I dive into my thoughts and rack my brain over a possible reason, but nothing comes up. I recall a peculiar event during my first encounter with it though. I tell Sirgia about the stone I found it encased in, how it lured me in with a sweet scent while others were repelled, how they died when trying to pull it out but in my case, it just sent a wave of mana through my body, mind, memories and let me pick it up.
“Physical Structure Evaluation, Deep Mind Dive and Recollective Memory Vindication…” she speaks in a shocked tone while taking a step back and stumbles over her trembling legs, falling onto her butt.
“Hey, everything okay?” I quickly kneel by her side and place my arm over her back to support her.
“Those are all high-tier spells…” she looks me in the eyes and I can feel how perturbed she is just from a short glance. “It’s… impossible…”
“Why? What’s impossible?”
“A person has to be an experienced 6th Tier sorcerer or even 7th Tier to be able to cast spells like those in quick succession.”
My jaw drops down almost hitting the very floor.
「7th fucking Tier?! What the fuck?! Even during the Great War, the 7th Tier was the peak of Humanity’s existence! And now, centuries later, people at 5th one are considered fabled heroes!」
Quickly increasing worry coming from Sirgia through our connection brings me back to reality. I look at her visibly concerned face and ponder over the reason why she is getting so frightened out of a sudden. And then it dawns on me.
“Wait… Doesn’t that mean… that I’m literally holding a soul of a 7th Tier sorcerer in my hand?”
She nods. I gulp audibly. The saliva opposes my orders and goes down my throat with a lot of resistance. If that soul can cast 7th Tier surveying magic, there’s a possibility it can use a more offensive one too. But the worse thing is… how strong of a monster must have the person who locked that soul in the crystal been themselves? My brain can’t comprehend those power levels. I’m just a trash Tier 1.
“Ha… haha… hahaha…” I plop onto the floor by her side and start laughing. This whole situation feels like a joke. I’m being helped by an insanely powerful entity and it’s definitely not out of its big-hearted kindness. It has to have a goal, but I can’t do anything. It’s not like I can talk to it.
“Hahaha… Oh well… If it’s going to such lengths to help me, then I guess I must be important to it. It shouldn’t hurt me on a whim, so don’t worry, nothing we can do about this.”
I pat Sirgia’s head reassuringly. Her worry slowly recedes and she faintly nods to my words. I help her up, we take a short break to calm ourselves and get back to work. With how often we get distracted delaying our search, others might start thinking that we are doing some weird things instead.
After we are done with the wing we move to check on the other girls. They already finished the upper area near the VIP rooms and moved down. We decide to leave that floor to them and walk down the hidden stairs to the cellars. Time flies slowly during our inspection of various crates and barrels in stone rooms of many sizes.
We don’t find anything suspicious, just some tools, old clothes and such. In one of the chambers, we stumble upon another hidden passage leading to a place with numerous boards on the walls and a big wooden table in the middle. There are lots of papers pinned around. Maps, sketches, notes, portraits. And a comprehensive map of a respectful size is placed on the table, most likely depicting the castle.
We decide to leave that room for now. I’m not yet sure if I want to keep such information with me or if I should deliver it to the King, just to be safe. They could fortify the marked weak points with that. I’d repay Rossberg at least a bit.
A few hours more and we are finishing looking around and cleaning this small dungeon. I stand on Sirgia’s side and give a last glance towards the empty space while ruffling her hair a bit with my right hand.
“Nice. No issues.” I take a deep breath of relief. “Now, I have an important question for you.”
Sirgia moves her gaze up, with my hand still present on her head.
“What do you say about helping me give life to a few small ideas of mine?”
She furrows her brows. I didn’t know her face can get even cuter but that single action has proven me wrong.
“Ideas?” she asks.
“It would be too much of a waste to keep such a skilled artisan like yourself to just cook, so why not make good use of your experience and create a few things for me?”
I notice a faint spark in her eyes for a moment but it fades out very quickly and she drops her gaze to the ground.
“But with my Job locked to that of a Slave and other restrictions from the Slave Mark, I won’t be able to fully utilize my skills…” she says with a hint of hopelessness in her voice.
“Pardon me for a moment.”
I kneel in front of her like the day when we left the slave trading company together. I move my hands to the collar of her shirt and start slowly unpinning the buttons while watching her reaction. She just stares at me with her usual blank expression.
After a few buttons, I uncover the area above her chest, without arriving at her small bra. A circle with a few sigils enters my sight. The Slave Mark. I glance at her face with a smile, pull a small knife from my ring behind my back, make a slight cut on my index finger and press it against the mark. Closing my eyes, I focus my mind on it, sending my mana towards the finger.
Judging that the connection is steady enough, I break the seal. “Release!”
A few cracking sounds emanate from the symbol and it shatters into tiny particles, releasing Sirgia from its influence. I naturally had researched all about Slave Marks during my time in the castle. Breaking one when you are a rightful owner of the slave is a piece of cake if you know a few tricks.
“Problem solved. Just don’t tell anyone, okay?” I give the surprised Sirgia a few pats.
I stand up and she examines the place where the mark disappeared. A moment later she looks up at me.
“Can I… really do it?”
“Only if you want of course. They might be hugely under the level of a master like yourself though.”
“I do!” She clenches her small fists and gazes at me with sparkling eyes full of determination. “If it’s for Master, I’ll create anything!” she announces slightly more lively than usual.
A satisfied smile appears on my face from the fact that I was able to cheer her up even a tiny little bit.
「I have high hopes for you, my sweet little craftsman!」
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Imagine trying to hit something with your sword, only for it to slap you in the face and dissapear.
Thanks for the Chapter!
@BenchHunter Better. Having in mind the artifact functionality of materializing and dematerializing its "blade", imagine trying to hit someone just to have it go poof on you and pass through with every swing, switching on and off like a torchlight
@Saileri LMAO. I can imagine this as a confusion tactic in a 1v1 battle.
"Oop, there it goes. Where it lands, nobody knows."
:D lol
That's the basic idea of almost all the Major Artifacts in DnD, it helps until its bored