I felt weird as I prepared to leave the tunnels, relaxed, which was a great contrast to my earlier feelings, especially when those wards suddenly appeared.

Sometimes, it was easier to avoid the combat than pointlessly seeking the challenge, even though it earned a dismissive glare from my reluctant companion. "Turn your back," she ordered.

"Why?" I asked.

"I need to transform."

"No," I said.

"What do you mean, no?" she said. "Do you expect me to walk?"

"An emerald dragon soaring through skies is hard to miss. So unless you want to get caught for the third time…"

She let out a frustrated growl, but luckily, she didn't continue with the transformation. Her confident expression, however, twisted when I started walking toward the entrance, not even bothering to talk to her.

I smiled when I heard her footsteps, hurried as she followed me. "W-wait," she stammered as I started to move away. I turned, doing my best to look surprised and hiding the satisfaction I felt. I needed her to follow me, but asking her directly would have given her the initiative, something I wasn't entirely willing to. Not because I wanted to succeed for the headmistress, but because a talk between the two would resolve a lot of my questions.

"Yes?"

"Are you going to just leave?" she asked, clearly surprised that I didn't offer to accompany her.

"Well, since the wards are gone, I can retreat," I said, acting ignorant of what she was implying.

"Are you going to leave me alone?" she said, crossing her arms in an entitled manner. It was an annoying attitude, but her arms crossed under her tits, pushing them to an amazing level, especially with her short frame.

"I'm not heartless, you can come with me if you want, I'm sure my employer would appreciate meeting with you," I offered, though I kept my tone simple, like I wouldn't be affected by her decision either way. Her eyes glowed even more with fury, clearly not appreciating my dismissive attitude.

She said nothing, but as I continued to walk, she followed, which was better than any acceptance.

Her silence didn't last long as she noticed the direction I was taking, using the tunnels to go even deeper rather than going to the surface. "Aren't we supposed to leave?"

"We will," I said even as I reached to the edge of the tunnel, using my wards to make sure there was no one nearby, and I started casting a spell, summoning one of my fake elemental mounts, this time an earth elemental, to allow us to travel underground for a while, at least until we were reasonably away from Mount Doom, in case they had spies observing the mountain despite the fake dragons that flew away.

The reaction of my guest, however, was completely unexpected. "What are you doing, you madman!' she exclaimed even as she raised her hands, her mana gathering into a mana spike, dangerous enough to send shivers over my skin.

Interestingly, she was not targeting me, but my spell.

"Are you mad!" she gasped after my spell was destroyed.

"About what, exactly?" I said. "I was just creating us a mount."

"And you decided to summon an elemental to do it! There are easier ways to kill yourself!"

"It's just a fake elemental, what's the big deal?" I said.

"There's no such thing as a fake elemental!" she growled. "Any physical body you create is just an invitation for them to possess. Who even taught you it's a good idea!"

Considering the number of times I had used that trick to travel, it was clearly not a problem, especially since no one that saw me commented on it. Meanwhile, her reaction suggested that doing so was a certain disaster. "I have used that trick many times," I explained.

"Impossible!"

"It's a difference due to the System," I said, making a wild guess, though it was a confident guess.

If the System could prevent Gods from appearing in its domain, why should it allow true elementals to appear?

"Really?" she murmured, her earlier fervor immediately turning into hesitation. "It even prevents intervention of Elementals? How?"

My answer was a simple shrug. I had no idea how the System worked despite my experiments, and I had no problems admitting it. "It prevents Gods from intervening. Is it too surprising that it blocks Elementals as well?"

"I guess not," she murmured, looking thoughtful for a moment before her determination came back. Though, from her tone, I got the impression that Elementals weren't too far below gods in the totem pole, which was a scary thought. "Still, I have no intention of riding an elemental back."

However, even as she delivered it petulantly, I noticed she was having trouble suppressing her trembles. She was clearly having trouble suppressing her instinctual fear.

"As you wish, as long as you are willing to walk the distance like a peasant," I countered, curious which one she would pick.

"I will walk," she said, not even spending a second on the insult. Maybe she was afraid of the elementals even more than I assumed. What an interesting nugget of information.

"I was joking," I said, quick to answer even as I conjured another vehicle, this time a simple arcana platform with two chairs. It was not only slower than the elemental mount, but also it cost much more mana.

[-2692 Mana]

Luckily, I had the luxury to waste mana.

"But it's going to be much slower," I warned even as I gestured her to take a seat after sitting, and started moving, without bothering to wait for an answer, the platform creating a brand new tunnel as it moved.

"Why didn't you use it earlier?" she asked. "It's clearly easier than creating the tunnels directly."

"Platform has a bigger magical signature, so it's easier to detect magically. If I tried to use that, even with the intervention of the wards, they would have discovered our location."

She nodded, but said nothing as we continued to travel underground. It took several minutes for us to finally get out of the mountain, and since I wasn't using the most direct route toward Silver Spires, I wasn't afraid of having observers that would detect us.

I still send a wave of detection magic just to make sure, of course, but luckily, there was no one else around. "Ah, fresh air," the dragon murmured as we pushed out, a smile appearing on her face.

As a dragon, she clearly didn't appreciate staying underground. Understandable as she could fly with her own power.

"Yeah, it's a nice change," I said.

"Really, I could have sworn you're part-rabbit, with the ease you are having underground." I shrugged at her juvenile insult, amused by her effort more than anything. Silence stretched for some more before I sent a magical message to the headmistress — well, to her office, but essentially the same — saying to her that despite some challenges, I managed to save the dragon from a surprise Eternal presence, and we're coming back.

"What was that?" she asked the moment I sent the message, not exactly trying to sound mysterious.

"I informed my employer about our unexpected guest, of course. It's not something you want to surprise."

"I see," she murmured. "Who is your employer?"

Once again, her tone was calm, but I didn't miss the undercurrent of hesitancy. Despite her attitude, she was smart enough to realize that meeting with the headmistress was an action that was hard to come back from, losing the initiative completely. So, she was trying to interrogate me subtly, without making me alert. The fact that she waited until I had sent the message, giving her an excuse to talk about it, was the best sign of it.

"Don't worry, the headmistress is a nice woman, if a bit ambitious. I'm sure you two can come to an agreement," I said.

"How nice?" she asked, trying to sound nonchalant, but after being captured twice, her hesitancy wasn't surprising. The interesting thing was the casual attitude she was trying to force despite the importance of the question. Clearly, she prioritized her pride over her safety.

"Well, she likes to show off, but ultimately, she's a fair leader. Not to mention there's no love lost between her and the Eternals or the undead, so I'm sure she would appreciate helping another enemy of theirs, as long as you approach the cooperation with an open mind," I suggested, knowing that those stock words were completely useless.

I wasn't well-intentioned in my assessment, as a seamless cooperation between them was hardly to my benefit. I wanted both of them to dance around each other, hesitant, reliant on me to facilitate the cooperation.

At this point, the headmistress was reasonably convinced of my loyalty. And I had saved my current passenger's life twice, from almost-certain death, which should be enough for her to trust me more than the headmistress unless there was a much stronger connection between them — which I doubted, as if that had been the case, the headmistress would have given me a much more detailed assignment.

Manipulating two to maximize my benefits was not the nicest thing to do, but, considering neither of the two mysterious ladies respected me enough to actually tell me their names, I wasn't exactly concerned about it.

—

[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: 5293 / 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]