I watched as her exotic face turned confused, then reluctant, before admitting. “What kind of massage?”
“I was thinking of a simple palm massage,” I said. “It sounds simple, but works well on humans. Elves shouldn’t be too different.”
She looked thoughtful, her blush invading her face slightly as she considered it. “Maybe it wouldn’t be too bad,” she muttered.
“Good, come here, then,” I said as I cast a simple spell to reshape Earth into a large slab — once again using Arcana to do so rather than direct elemental, still reluctant to test them. I was yet to see anyone else using them, and I didn’t want to take the risk.
[-138 Mana]
My homemade System sent a notification, showing the relative inefficiency of such a move, but I ignored it, instead channeling nature mana to grow a thick slab of grass on the surface, comfortable to sit down — or lie down if she preferred.
I didn’t care about the mana expenditure, because that much mana was nothing compared to all I had spent trying to get a sense of the location of the girls, easily measured in millions. The best I was able to get was a vague sensation about their safety — and I was almost sure that was not due to the System, as that was all I was able to feel about Aviada as well.
She was at a distance and safe, but that was the extent of the information I was able to acquire as I found myself stranded.
Still, I didn’t consider that as a waste, as it allowed me to maintain my current position without taking absurd risks like going back to Primordial Aether. Instead, I stayed here safely as more and more elves gathered, bringing more and more Divine Spark with them.
With that, more power to make my ultimate journey safer.
As I thought that, Seldanna sat on the platform I created and raised her hand. I grabbed, wasting a bit more to coat my fingers with proto-HP, hiding that behind a thin layer of nature mana.
[-29 Mana]
The combination worked spectacularly. Her eyes widened the moment I dragged my finger over her palm, shocked by the sensation. I ignored the following shocked gaze as I focused on her palm, acting like I hadn’t noticed it.
I stayed focused on her hand for the next minute, letting my mana penetrate through her body to loosen her. Tantric might have been revealed as a true miracle that was able to purify all kinds of mana and Divine Spark, but it didn’t mean that its initial function as a massage aid was lost.
I had no problems using it to the limit.
I could feel that she was relaxing enough to pull back, which was not something I wanted. I decided to remind her about one of the stressful points. “Any news from the central tribes,” I asked, probing her about one of the more important topics.
My week wasn’t just filled with magical experiments, I also spent some time learning about the political state of the plane. It wasn’t as useful as I had hoped. Elves turned out to be even more insular than I had expected, their communication rarely extending further than their neighboring tribes — and that was not always positive.
Their information about the tribes farther into the plane was sporadic and contradictory, though there were some points that were more aligned. One of those points was what I had already concluded, that they were considerably stronger than the border tribes.
Seldanna informed me that the border tribes had sent several messengers to communicate with them when the undead proved themselves too strong to handle, but received no response.
“Not really,” she answered, her stress back at the mention. “They should have returned already even if there was no help was in the horizon.”
“And even if they failed to reach, the central tribes should have already noticed the undead invasion and reacted,” I completed her words, completing her concerns.
“Yes, and now, they have another thing to complain along with every ridiculous problem they bring, expecting me to rule in their favor,” she complained, her lips getting looser as my fingers steadily destroyed the stress she accumulated.
She sent me a warning look as my fingers climbed up to her arms, but as the mana flooded through her body, her complaints about that were suspiciously absent. Pity teasing her about that was not possible without scaring her.
Instead, I listened to her arguments about the difficulties of her job while I continued massaging her, flooding her body with mana. As a welcome side effect, it gave me a chance to observe her internal structure more in detail, examining how she was handling the additional Divine Spark.
The results were … interesting. Even in the demigod state where the impact was limited, I could see that it was somehow transforming her body. Some of those transformations were clearly beneficial, a stronger body that could not only perform better in battle but also channel the mana better.
That was not a new finding, as I had long detected it, along with the fact that natured Divine Spark empowered them much more than the purified spark I used.
Now, I was trying to understand how it scaled up by feeding more and more Divine Spark to her, empowering her further — subtly enough that she would assume it was just the after-effects of the fruit she had consumed rather than my active management.
{-1 Nature Spark, God Tree}
{+1 Nature Spark, Elven Priestess}
The results were … complicated. It was hard to measure that, but I was almost sure that the growth trajectory of the natured Divine Spark wasn’t as steep as my unique technique. It wasn’t linear, but it wasn’t directly exponential as well, falling somewhere in between.
Not the best news I could get, especially when I contrasted her capabilities with the god tree I had created — now more of a god forest as I continued to enhance the connection — and the trajectory it was displaying.
It showed that, for the same amount of Divine Spark, they had a much more significant display of power. The gap was even steeper for the gods than for demigods, and to make things worse, the higher the power level, the bigger the gap would be.
I was jealous … but also I was not. They might have a much steeper curve of improvement, but they lacked one important thing in comparison. My ability to take any type of Divine Spark and absorb it.
I had seen what a great challenge for to actually absorb Divine Spark. Even after turning it into a God Tree, the little guardian tree would have died under the addition of the new Divine Spark if it wasn’t for my assistance.
That would be less of a problem the stronger it got, but still, that was a great impediment. Properly absorbing and bonding with Divine Spark required not only time, but also some kind of compatibility — even with my assistance.
The priestess that was currently mewling under my hands, for example. She was able to merge with Nature Spark easily because they were already attuned to nature mana to a significant degree.
I doubted things had gone happily if I tried to bond her with Light Spark — or worse, try to give two different Sparks at the same time.
I still remembered just how much trouble to mix mana of two different natures. It was spectacular enough to dissuade me from experimenting on Divine Spark until I reached a much higher place.
“You should give yourself more time,” I murmured to her ear even as I shifted higher, putting my hands on her neck, rubbing gently, each caress making her tremble a bit. “You’re too tense.”
“What can I do … with everything going on,” she murmured with a sigh, leaning back slightly against my chest as I stood behind her. “The constant raids, internal conflicts, the reinforcements trying to arrive…” Then she turned toward me, her expression frustrated. “And you had to go and pick me to handle that mess. Couldn’t you have picked someone else?”
I could have rightfully pointed out that the amount of power my choice granted to her was more than a good deal for the little troubles she was dealing with, and things like undead raids would have happened regardless of my intervention, only worse.
However, I wasn’t stupid enough to do so, not when she was just trying to find an outlet for her frustration, her new role preventing her from talking with anyone else.
“I could have, of course, but who else could have handled everything as amazing as you, and keep all those tribes under control. Would you trust anyone else to handle it as well as you without it turning into a mess,” I murmured softly, stroking her ego.
Not the most clever of words, but worked amazingly well when combined with the masterclass massage she was receiving. She leaned against my chest…
… and I felt some kind of connection between us. A subtle connection, almost nonexistent, and easily written off as an illusion.
If I wasn’t familiar with the sensation of the Companion Process. It wasn’t exactly the same, but the similarities, however faint, were unmistakable.
However, before I could push forward, I felt a strong sense of warning from the outer wards.
Another undead attack. Just in time.
{Strength: 8 Charisma: 10
Precision: 8 Perception: 9
Agility: 8 Manipulation: 10
Speed: 8 Intelligence: 10
Endurance: 8 Wisdom: 9}
{Purified Divine Spark: 520}
{Pseudo-HP: 2869 Mana: 10123}
{ADDITIONAL SPARKS
Light - Chosen 7.4
Nature - Chosen 10}
{MINIONS
Guardian God Forest - 2105}
Elven Priestess - 15}
[Level: 36 Experience: 631374 / 666000]
