A couple of days later, I understood the technique on the level, where all I needed was more practice, so there was no sense to continue, if I didn’t need the dragon’s supervision. Time is precious after all. Instead of training the same thing, I and Felicia decided that it would be better to learn something new again.

[“Next in line is the technique to coat yourself in dense mana, which can give you a stronger defense, and can shield you from a variety of magic spells and even from a bad weather. It’s a useful skill, much easier to control than the first one, but a bit harder to achieve. The reason for that is the fact, that you need to move your mana outside of your body.

The principle is different from using spells, because when you use magic, it’s already transformed mana that leaves your body. With enough practice you could in theory send your mana outside, and then transform it, resulting in slightly different results from normal magic, but because of the natural mana in the air, this isn’t a reliable solution for casting spells.”]

So basically we already made muscles from mana, and now comes the skin. Again thanks to my ethereal form training, I already knew how to coat myself in mana, because it was necessary to be able to hold an ethereal thread without changing my whole form, which drained my mana mercilessly.

I knew that Felicia was watching me when I did it before, so she too already should have some idea about how to do it. Wanting to move to another lesson as fast as possible, I tried doing what I was doing before, namely coating my limbs first. I succeeded easily, but there was a small problem I didn’t predict.

I couldn’t stretch my mana any further, I could only coat my front limbs and that was all. A bit surprised I started to focus more and more, while strengthening the mana flow while simultaneously trying to push it outside. I was so focused, I practically shut myself out off my surroundings.

Dragon's pov

I don’t know where the girl came from, but the small white spider that was with her was one I recognized as soon as I saw her. How could I not recognize the daughter of my dearest friend. Sure I was a bit forceful in bringing her to my lair, but back then I didn’t know she could use telepathy.

I was in a huge shock when I sensed her connection to the system, and in even bigger one when that traitor appeared. He spoke of some nonsense, and then stole the only fragment of the goddess I revered, the one I was intending to give to her descendant. I was honestly infuriated.

There were more mysterious things about those two, that I didn’t want to delve into, but I was honestly happy when they agreed to train under me. I finally wouldn’t be alone on this floor, and I would get to know a girl that was basically my family, even if she was a spider.

I was honestly surprised at the results they were showing so far. The guy I trained some time ago, maybe about a hundred years if not more, was extremely talented, but even then he didn’t even compare to those two. In days they managed to learn an advanced technique devised outside of the system, and in some more they already got to a good control level.

I was now observing the little spider coating herself in mana, even if she only managed to cover smart parts. She seemed surprised that she could only do that much, and tried even harder. I’m not saying anything about the cat girl, because even with her even more extreme talent, by now she was already hundreds of meters in the air again, when she somehow managed to launch herself off again.

But then something happened, that I could never have foreseen. The mana the little white spider was emitting suddenly turned darker. It coated her whole, but it wasn’t the same technique I was teaching them. It wasn’t something positive.

The mana wasn’t belonging to the darkness attribute, I knew it too well as an inhabitant of the darkness dungeon. It was evil. This attribute was impossible to be held by any living creature of this world, was now emitted by the very opposite of it, the albino. I was so shocked, that I couldn’t move, the unnatural feeling that I felt only once in my life returned.

I wanted to get rid of it, I wanted to erase it from this world, and for a second I thought about killing the little one. But I couldn’t get myself to do it, even if I tried. I tried touching her, only to get burned by the intensity of the mana. I had no idea where it was coming from, but the amount was so big, that it easily eclipsed mine.

Suddenly something fell from the sky, the cat girl landed on the spider’s back with quite the impact, and to my surprise woke her up. All signs of the evil mana were gone, and all that remained was the gentle mana coming from the cat. This mana too, had a familiar feeling to it.

I sighed in relief. There was something wrong with this spider’s soul if she could emit the evil attribute, but she wasn’t the one who I was afraid of. That one was long dead, and would never return. Meanwhile if she ever again was about to be consumed, there was someone watching over her, so I knew that I had nothing to worry about.

Still, the devil’s mana somehow returned to this world.