"So, what is your exact plan to repair the spear?" Delia asked, unaware of the groundbreaking, shocking detail I was trying to process after discovering her precious secret, or if she noticed, she had written it off as a reaction to her sudden hug. Though, when she kept her hand on my shoulder, her body close enough for my arm to rub against her chest, I started leaning toward the second case.

She was clearly using it to distract me further as I explained it.

Luckily, I had no problem using her strategy for my particular needs, especially with the System fueled by Divine Spark once more. I put my arm around her waist, equally casually, and pulled her closer against my body.

[+100 Experience]

"It's going to be a complicated affair, are you sure you want to exhaust your pretty mind with such useless stuff," I said patronizingly.

Considering she had acquired several magical skills just to receive a more accurate explanation, I doubted my deflection was something she wanted.

I had no idea the method she had used to increase her level in such a radical manner, even changing her skill configuration in the process, but I was certain that it didn't have a trivial cost. If it had been easy, she wouldn't have reduced her level.

"I know," she murmured sensually, letting me hug her even tighter, showing her determination to use the seduction route, making it a delicious twist to my usual operating principle. "Still, Her Highness asked me to get a detailed explanation, and I can't violate her orders. You wouldn't let me get scolded, would you?"

"Of course not," I said as I touched her chin gently, examining her pouty lips that formed a smile that begged for a long, lingering kiss. "It would be a pity for such a beautiful face to show sadness."

My flirty sentence didn't affect her in any way, of course, as I delivered it deliberately badly. A little pause between words and a slightly misaligned emphasis was all that needed to destroy the charm of a cute sentence.

She reacted as it did. "Thanks, you're my savior," she said, exaggerating even more. Meanwhile, her fingers were dancing on my arm softly, selling the idea of closeness. I leaned forward just to test her, curious how far she would push herself.

She waited until inches separated our lips before turning her head, letting that kill land on her cheek, a convincing seductive smile on her face, promising much more in a near future. Of course, I had no doubt that that near future would turn to a nebulous destination that would get far away more and more.

A true challenge.

"Of course I am," I said, pushing my chest proudly, leaning hard on the pompous, vain personality I had created for them. "I'm always the best."

"So, about the way you would repair the spear?" she asked.

"Well, it's not a final strategy, as the new tools give me some interesting options I need to consider," I murmured. "However, the core strategy is similar. First, I need to align the fragments of its internal arrays…" I started, giving a complicated explanation, once again relying on a lot of obscure theories just like I had done before, but this time, I tried to be as accurate as possible.

Unlike the last time, she had the skills to understand what I was talking about, forcing me to be even more careful. I didn't have the option to blame her for misunderstanding some basic concepts, or lacking fundamentals.

Not that it was a big problem for me. It would have taken me less than five minutes to concisely explain every single detail, but one thing stopped me from doing so. I noticed a slight tightening on the corner of her mouth, suggesting she was feeling a strain.

Maybe maintaining those high levels was even harder than I assumed.

So, rather than going directly, I deliberately kept the explanation long-winded, mixed with long breaks where I bragged pointlessly about my own genius to kill even more time. She asked me clarifying questions, but they didn't help her as much as she hoped.

Posing as a pompous, self-absorbed idiot with the sensibility of an unwashed piece of rock worked wonders in the current situation.

I didn't waste that time, of course. Even as I explained, I started walking around the room, checking and testing the tools, though I avoided paying attention to the wards, not to her presence.

However, even as I examined the tools, most of my attention was on her. I observed her throughout my explanation, watching the outward signals of her tenseness to understand how the strain was affecting her.

When we hit an hour mark, and she was still listening without an explicit attempt to stop me, I decided that whatever she was using could easily last hours, though whether she could last more than a day was hard to guess.

[+700 Experience]

Her occasional flashes of skin bequeathed me with experience kept the long-winded explanation entertaining, at least for me. I was tempted to push for more experience, at least more than glances on her intentional flashes and casual touches, as I had missed the sensation of rapid leveling,

"I think that's enough," she said as she stood up, declaring her surrender against my delaying tactics. I wondered whether the strain of the process or the boringness of my bragging finally broke her patient resistance.

"But I was just going to explain how I solved the interference problem between rotating arrays when —" I said, doing my best to look disappointed. The expression of shock on her face was very amusing.

"No need!" she answered in panic, only to realize her mistake when she noticed my — fake — frown. "I mean, I need to talk with the princess, and your explanations are more than enough to satisfy her. We can talk later."

And with that, she left, but not before hugging me one last time, and whispering her thanks.

I was tempted to follow her, curious about the mystery behind her sudden power-up, but I was surrounded by too many wards to make sneaking away from a viable option. Staying hidden was much hidden when people didn't simply dismiss my presence as a servant.

Luckily, I had a lot of things to go, I thought even as I grabbed a magical chisel, using it to get a sliver of metal from the spear.

[-63 Mana]

I had enhanced the strength behind my hit with a spell, because there was no chance that wards in the room weren't examining my activities, one way or another. And even if there was none, there was no harm in acting safely.

Then, I threw the metal sliver into an alchemical crucible, throwing as much as fire mana the item could handle to melt it, so that I could properly analyze its material composition.

[-430 Mana]

Using almost a thousand mana in the process was excessive, aggressively so, but it wasn't something I had decided randomly. No, it was the perfect excuse to fill the room with my own mana, which gave me an innocent reason to directly interact with the wards without alerting them.

And just like that, I started a combined analysis session, splitting my attention between examining the nature of the wards that surrounded the room very thoroughly along with the alchemical analysis of the structure of the metal of the spear.

Neither task was simple, and together, they were enough to strain my Intelligence and Wisdom to the limit. Especially since I was analyzing the wards, again and again, to make sure I had missed nothing critical. Minutes turned into hours, and I started sweating.

[-1291 Mana]

For once, it wasn't a fake reaction.

Luckily, it wasn't a waste. In terms of analyzing the nature of the spear, I had made significant progress, especially identifying the nature of the metal that had been used. While it wasn't complete, I was confident I could create some more of that magical alloy.

Unfortunately, the same luck didn't apply to the wards around the room. It seemed that, by using the excuse of creating the best room I requested, they had used an impressive number of wards to check the room. Voice detection, mana sensitivity, movement… Some were there to make sure the spear was never removed from the room, the others designed to observe the movement of the occupants, each designed with several redundancies.

It didn't mean they were unbreakable, of course. I could dismantle them in less than an hour without triggering any of the embedded traps, but it wouldn't work if there was anyone that was actively observing the room.

Simply brute-forcing would have been easier.

When the end of the day reached, I felt a touch annoyed about the waste of time. The great number of equipment reduced the time I needed to analyze the spear, but not as much as it would have been if I was able to freely spend my mana without alerting my observers.

Especially since it was my request that forced me into this situation.

Still, it was not a complete waste, as the mysterious condition of my escort was much more interesting to resolve. I opened the door and gestured to the guard. "I'm almost finished. Can you call Lady Delia so I can give her a report?"

"As you wish, sir," the guard said and walked away, leaving me with anticipation. However, a minute later, the guard had returned, a stiff expression on his face. "I'm sorry sir, but it seems that Lady Delia has to join a very important meeting, but I had been informed that she would love to have lunch tomorrow."

I just nodded as I followed the guard outside, wondering whether it was just a seduction ploy, maintaining the distance, or she was dealing with the aftermath of her power-up.

—

[Level: 31 Experience: 494110 / 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: 7750 / 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]