Determined to seduce the transformed dragon that shared a bath with me, I decided to move to the next step. I carefully slid my hands forward, once again caressing her calf before arriving at her inner thigh, enjoying her flawless skin.

I was tempted to part her legs, giving me access to the treasure that lay at the end of my beautiful journey, but I managed to hold myself back. After all, despite her cute looks, I didn't forget the dangerous monster that lay under it, making the push inadvisable.

Instead, I dragged my hands over her legs up and down, the rhythm broken by occasional circular movement as I did my best to awaken her desires even as I continued to feed.

[-832 Mana]

The whimper that answered as her tenuous control over her own voice started to slip, followed by purrs of pleasure as I explored her inner thighs suggested that I was on the perfect track, even though my gentle movements were bringing me closer and closer to the danger zone.

Considering her petite body, it wasn't exactly a long distance.

Interestingly, as I got closer, she started to move in comfort, raising her hips as if she was trying to fasten my treatment. It was an instinctual reaction, because the more mana I transferred, the more distracted she started to get.

Her transformation process clearly required her active attention, at least when I was transferring as much mana as my regeneration could supply.

I wondered how she would have reacted if I pushed aggressively. Would she have reacted with another painful punch, or she would accept my intrusion as long as it meant more mana. Pity I didn't have the luxury of testing it. Her cooperation was too critical to risk.

Of course, that didn't mean I was resigned to the situation. Instead of pushing my fingers forward into her inviting tunnel, I stopped. "So, how was the massage," I asked even as I leaned back, making a show of stretching.

"Why did you stop," she asked?

"Expelling mana continuously is a tough task," I answered with a shrug. "My hands are starting to hurt."

I barely held back a chuckle at her disappointed hiss, clearly unhappy about the sudden ceasing. "You can't be serious," she stated.

"Of course I am," I said. "My mana reserves might be limitless, but the same isn't true for the capacity of my skin. After a while, it starts hurting, and if it doesn't stop, my skin burns," I said. Which was technically true. It was also true that I could cure those burns easily with Biomancy, but since I wasn't an idiot, I kept that particular fact for myself.

"But I was just about to complete a stage in my transformation," she said, her tone petulant. Seeing her petite body buried in water, her blushing face contorted in a childish expression, it was impossible to believe that she was a mighty dragon.

I shrugged again, doing my best to hide my smirk. "Unless you're willing to sit on my lap to increase skin contact, so that I could transfer even more mana, there's nothing I can do."

I expected to earn an aggressive reaction by those words, maybe even a punch, though I assumed it was a worthy punishment to add the seeds of some future closeness.

The thoughtful expression on her face surprised me.

"It's… unacceptable," she murmured, though the delay between her words, along with their listlessness, was rather suggestive. It had a tone of disbelief, as she was clearly smart enough to realize that I might be stretching the truth for my own ends, and she was clearly not experienced enough in the matters of the flesh to accept that as a fair trade.

Under normal circumstances, at least.

When the same implied offer came from her two-times savior, especially after an extended soak and massage that clearly awakened some unfamiliar emotions in her body, it was a completely different story.

"If you say so," I said, deliberately not pushing for more. I just closed my eyes and leaned back, enjoying the bubbling of the water even as I let some more into the water.

[-93 Mana]

Much less, of course. And after the earlier flood she experienced, giving a touch of mana was clearly a better way to torture her than depriving her completely. Especially since it gave her a reason to stay in the pool.

After a few seconds, I felt the mana getting drained slowly. I cracked my eyes, watching her carefully. The frustration was clear on her face, clearly not enjoying the sudden change of pace. I stayed in the pool, slowly radiating more and more mana, just enough to keep my appetite whetted.

Pity that she wasn't weak-willed enough to actually surrender to the desire before another critical trigger sent a warning. Luckily, it wasn't the actual route I had picked but one of the fake routes I had established just in case, but even the fact that they had discovered it meant that they were looking for the dragon with more deliberation than I expected.

It also meant that they knew dragons had the ability to transform, but that wasn't too shocking.

"I need to leave for a moment," I said as I suddenly stood up, revealing my naked, glistening body to her gaze. I was happy to note that her gaze stayed on my body for more than a few seconds.

"Why?" she asked.

"I need to check the surrounding wards, to make sure everything is working properly," I said. I didn't tell her the truth, because, without her, I could ambush them much easier.

She didn't exactly give me a sneaky vibe.

With that, I dressed quickly — but not quickly enough to prevent her from getting a decent glimpse of my body — I was back into the tunnels. From what I was receiving from the detection wards, I assumed that there were five people in the tunnels, but luckily, they didn't stay as a group, but split into many directions, prioritizing time over security, assuming that in an area under their control, there was no risk doing so.

It was a bad assumption.

Reopening the tunnels I had collapsed earlier was the easiest way of reaching them, but if I had done so, I would end up finding, but if I did so, I had to retreat back, which would lead them directly into the safe house I had established.

Instead, I started creating a new tunnel even as I lamented the number of underground construction work I had to do recently, reaching a ludicrous level.

The detour that I had to take delayed me a bit, and when I finally got close enough to them, two of them were together.

"Any of you were able to find it?" one of them asked.

"Dead end. How about yours?"

"No, none of those tunnels reaches anywhere, are we sure she didn't go back to the surface?" asked another.

"Not likely," the second one stated. "Even if she had been transformed, it's almost impossible for her to slip through the wards if she was on the surface. Dragons are not exactly sneaky."

"Then, where is she? We have checked all tunnels, and we still can't find her. Maybe we should stop?"

"Do you want to explain to the Elder that we have screwed up one task she assigned to us?" the first one asked, his voice tense.

"No way in hell, she's scary," said the second one. There was still a thick wall of earth between us, preventing me from seeing them, but I was sure that he was shivering in fear. Whoever they were talking about, she was clearly scared.

"Then what are we going to do, we don't have a lot of time left. We can't just disappear for hours without some very pointed questions."

"We just need to continue searching until the Trial ends," the other one. "And if the worst happens and we can't return until the challenge ends, we just need to bribe them more to look away."

"You're right, we still have a day before the trial ends. That should be enough to find and kill her."

Footsteps reached my ear, suggesting they started walking away to restart their search, though the second one stopped after a few steps. "Do you know why we're trying to kill her, other than the obvious?"

"I don't, and I don't recommend you to start digging about the reasons for her actions, or for any elders for that matter. Not if you want to continue living, at least."

With that, they started walking around, leaving me alone to search. With a sigh, I moved even deeper into the distance, trying to decide what to do next. The discussion I had stumbled on forced me to change my plans even more.

The fact that they were trying to kill her was not a surprise, but the fact that only a small fraction of them was trying to do was suspicious. It was a pity that the ones that were trying to kill her clearly knew little about her.

It meant there wasn't a lot I could do that right now, though that didn't mean the trip itself was completely a waste. I created two dragon simulacrums that could be triggered from a distance, in case they started to draw closer. Knowing that their actions were limited as they tried to conceal themselves from their allies gave me several more options to distract them.

[-2731 Mana]

Unfortunately, it also meant that killing them was a bad idea. Luckily, they were kind enough to inform me that their time was limited. After establishing some more extra tunnels to waste their time even more, I went back to my shelter.

—

[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: 5322 / 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]