After the little danger with Mana Gems, risking revealing my ignorance, I decided to let her take the lead in the conversation. "So, what kind of accident caused you to be lost in here?"

"An unfortunate one," she stated with a frown, though that frown didn't last long as I filled the pool with more of my mana.

[-613 Mana]

She took a deep breath, the mana density of the artificial pool decreasing significantly. "There's not much to talk about, I was flying around in the Desolate Outlands for a mission, when I accidentally came across a raiding party of those Eternals, and I had to jump into the dimensional rift that they came out, and found myself in this accursed place."

Interesting, I thought, her words giving me yet another information, suggesting the Eternals was conducting more aggression than I expected, underlining my lack of information even more.

Therefore making the sexy dragon in front of me, busy absorbing mana, even more important. I slipped even more mana to the pool, curious of the speed she continued to devour my mana. How big was her mana capacity?

[-942 Mana]

So, while she continued her story — which, unfortunately, focused on the details of her fight against the undead rather than the details of her life — I decided to follow what exactly she was doing with all the mana.

I expected to follow the mana into a reservoir, similar to the core that held our mana together in our soul space, ready to be used, but that turned out to be a complete inaccuracy.

It wasn't that she didn't have any reservoir. She had many, spread around her body, but I doubted that even their collective reservoirs would hold a thousand points of mana. And she had already absorbed more than that, yet continued to absorb.

[-1282 Mana]

Curious, I let even more mana infuse the water, but this time, watching even more carefully, maintaining an active connection with the flow.

Distracted by her own story and the comfort of the bath, she missed that particular detail, and I was free to follow the trail of the mana. I followed it until her bones, only for it to disappear at that point.

My eyes widened at the sudden disappearance, though luckily, I was able to hide it as a reaction to a particularly exciting part of her story. Inwardly, I focused my full attention to the exact moment of disappearance, to see whether she was somehow sending it to a different dimension.

The answer turned out to be no. The more accurate definition was that her bones were absorbing the mana, but it was assimilated with such a great speed that I had almost missed it. Curious, I paid careful attention to the point of absorption, and after a while, I noticed her bones were slowly transforming under the renewing flow of mana.

The transformation itself was quite mysterious. While I wasn't free to use my Biomancy abilities directly on her to assess the problem more carefully, I could get a rough understanding of the transformation that was going on her bones, and whatever the exact nature of the transformation was, its magnitude was impossible to deny. The power they radiated, the potential it implied, impressively significant.

Interestingly, it wasn't a quick transformation. Far from it. All the mana she had absorbed barely allowed her to transform a fleck of her bones, making me question just how much mana she would require for the complete transformation. To properly assess that, I needed a better understanding of what was going on, or a deeper analysis — which was hard to achieve without alerting her.

Still, my guess was easily in the millions.

"So, you have no idea why the undead suddenly decided to ambush and chase you that aggressively?" I asked, after she had mentioned the fifth ambush she managed to defeat before her eventual capture. I had already assumed it was less about the ritual, and more about the deal between Zokras and the Eternals.

"It was probably for the ritual they were doing?" she answered lazily, confirming that she had no idea why the Eternals were showing a special interest in her. I believed her, because I doubted that, in her relaxed state, she could slip into a lie.

I hummed, letting the silence rule the situation even as I tried to decide what to ask next. It was a difficult one. Unfortunately, her lengthy explanation about the ambushes she had gone through didn't really help me, not in terms of understanding her limits…

And certainly not to understand why someone was so determined to kill her.

I let the silence stretch for a moment before I asked the next question. "So, what was the mission that made you end in Desolate Outlands?"

"Just a regular mission from the tribe, trying to get some resources for a potion," she answered, then frowned. "The mana is getting a bit thinner, why don't you release some more?"

"Unfortunately, I'm at my limit," I answered, which earned a frown immediately, showing an explosion was not too far away as well. I rushed to finish the explanation, just to bait her. "Unfortunately, carefully imbuing the water constantly without making it explode is exhausting."

She was quick to take the bait. "So, that's the challenge of releasing that's difficult, not the mana."

"Yeah," I answered. "It's much easier to do through direct physical contact."

"Is it?" she murmured a question, tensing slightly, smart enough to realize the direction that statement could easily evolve. "Any special place, or just skin-to-skin contact."

"Any skin contact is sufficient," I answered her. "Though the back allows the easiest process, hands and feet work just as well."

"I see," she murmured. I said nothing for a moment, just enjoying the lingering expression of careful consideration on her face, as she clearly measured the sudden nature of the offer. The innocent nature of my offer, however, went along to reduce alertness, especially with a lot more mana tangling on the other side of the rope.

"Just my hand, right?" she asked a moment later.

"A hand is more than enough," I said, doing my best to suppress my naughty smile that threatened to pop out.

"G-good," she said, unable to hide the sudden stammer in her tone, showing that, despite her general aggressiveness, she was not familiar with the casual physical contact. However, more mana was clearly an enticing prospect.

Whatever process she was using to power up instead of the System and leveling up clearly required a lot of mana, and now that she had found a renewable mana source, she was tempted to compromise on her personal modesty slightly to get even more of it.

Just as I liked.

"Hmm," she murmured. "You're not worthy of holding my hand," she murmured even as she scooted closer to me, the constant bubbling of the water still hiding her body, and soon, her foot pushed out of the water.

"As you wish, your dragoness," I said with a smirk, amused by her forced insult as she tried to undercut the weight of the touch even more. She wasn't the first haughty woman I would tame bit by bit, but her true nature as a dragon certainly made it the most daring one.

I said nothing when she glared at me, just grabbed a hold of her foot, pressing my fingers on her sole.

[-273 Mana]

"Mmm," she murmured as I slowly infused not only mana, but also some healing energy through her skin, making the touch even more comfortable as I unleashed my massaging skills, enjoying the softness of her skin.

Having an alternative form to protect her human-like body from the ravages of the environment was certainly handy.

It wasn't surprising to see her stiffening suddenly as the pleasure hit her. "Why are you rubbing it?" she asked.

"Well, it helps to infuse mana quicker, but if you prefer the slower way…" I said, keeping my fingers still, but deliberately limiting the mana flow in the process. I even transformed the mana a bit, letting Arcana-natured mana slip through, to create the sensation that could be described as thorny.

To her credit, she resisted the contrasting sensation a bit, almost a minute, before she relented. "If it's easier for you, feel free to move your fingers," she said, like she was making a great sacrifice for my benefit.

Well, she was in the process, but luckily, she was unaware of the full extent of said sacrifice. "As you wish, your dragoness," I said, even as I let my mana flow more.

But fate saw to it that I couldn't have a comfortable break where I just seduced a sexy dragon, because just as I started to intensify my mana flow, I felt a disturbance on the alert wards I had left on the fake dragon body.

Someone had just discovered its true nature.

—

[Level: 31 Experience: 493210 / 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: 6823 / 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]