CHAPTER 178: | MANA ATTUNEMENT
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Not bothering Clarice at her task, Alister nodded at her as he watched her back slowly vanish through the vast hallways. He smiled, then took a single step with his skill [Void Step] as he vanished like a ghost and reappeared next to Samantha, still at her desk, preoccupied with Shuxie's reports. "Messiah, the situation in the Ilia Kingdom has become direr, so please issue an order to Sister Anastasia to let the sisters retreat."
Listening to Shuxie's reports, Samantha contemplated her words for a while, then stared at the reports as she let out a breath. Then nodded at her words, since it isn't one without any credits, for the Church of the Holy See near the Ilia Kingdom is too keen to purge their sisters there. So Samantha said to Aliya, who was her personal guard and butler, "Then, Aliya, please call Anastasia along with Fenda here. We're all having another meeting."
Aliya nodded in acknowledgment as she bowed, then said with reverence in her voice, "May the goddess bless us." Then she left the room in haste, while she still maintained her elegance. Samantha, seeing Aliya leave the room, smiled.
"You may continue, Shuxie..." said Samantha gently as she read her reports while listening to her opinions on how to solve the problems. She pondered the unorthodox solutions that Shuxie presented for a while to see if there were any flaws in them before nodding.
"Hmm, now that you're done, Shuxie, please take a seat and let us await the arrival of your sisters..." Samantha said in an illustrious manner as she felt the touch of Alister crawling at her groin. And instead of being all grumpy about it, Samantha smiled, since it's been a while since she had last seen him.
Alister, sitting next to Samantha, smiled at her reactions as he reached his hands deeper, then deeper, awaiting for her to be angry. But to his dismay, Samantha merely chuckled without giving any hint of arousal as she said, "How naughty~"
The slick warmth of her response lingered on his fingertips, a teasing reminder of her control, even as the faint rustle of papers from Shuxie's stack filled the tense atmosphere between them.
Alister smart enough retracted his hand, but before he could fully retrieve it Samantha grabbed his hand and whispered in his ear lewdly, "Are you backing out right now?" Alister blatantly nodded at her words, and Samantha smiled as she chuckled.
"Well enough, let's stop joking and get down to business. So, how's the task that I've told you about? Are you done, since you've finally shown yourself?" Samantha said with seriousness, but overall she was still procrastinating herself not to moan in front of her followers entering the room one by one. As she herself was incredibly wet right now from his touch.
Alister nodded as he continued to play with her insides, but Samantha wasn't someone who would moan just at this level of intensity. So instead of teasing Samantha, Alister said softly, "Indeed, I have already completed it."
Hearing his voice, Samantha could now rest easy, since those millions of books would become the foundation of the empire that she would create for him. So she asked, "Then, if you're done, may I ask where you are going now?"
Alister smiled, then retracted his hand from her groin as he licked the juices that got onto his hand like a gigolo. While he took his time staring at the geographical map of the entire Sahara continent, at where the kingdoms were located, where the nobles' estates were erected, or where the mana crystal mines could be found, or perhaps where some oases could be found, as well as danger zones and such, pasted on the ceiling. Alister pondered for a while, then said, "I am thinking of going to the Altia Kingdom, Endless Mine."
Samantha, hearing her husband's words, wasn't so surprised at how daring he was, to dare to try his luck on one of the most renowned mines, where one of the strongest sentient crystals could be seen inhabiting the deepest part of it. And Samantha, unable to hold herself, stared at him still licking at his fingers as she couldn't help but snicker at how smart or stupid he was for picking such a difficult place to venture right now. Before she teasingly said, "Then good luck on your journey, since you'll be needing it."
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Alister chuckled in response to her teasing as he said softly, "Then perhaps you've already blessed me with your holy water, Messiah~" And without waiting for a reply, Alister took a [Void Step]-empowered step, traveling through miles as he disappeared from the room like a ghost. Samantha, being left behind without being pampered by him, couldn't help but chuckle in amusement as she whispered softly, "I guess Alister is missing out today, since it's a safe day~"
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In one of the thousands of training facilities that the Evernight Church owned, Lumicor was standing right at the middle of the arena, and his subordinate, who was Minerva, stared at him with her expression as calm as the water itself.
"Then let us begin..." Lumicor said coldly, and he dashed through the sands in a manner like a shadow, though he was not as fast as before when he could travel through the speed of light or closer to it.
Minerva, who had been facing Lumicor's relentless training for the past few months without her permission and without her acknowledgement to be his subordinate, gnashed her teeth in rage, and she stared at his spear path closing in to her neck, so she lifted her legs and then intercepted his spear with the heels of her high heels, and then she shouted with rage. "Stop this nonsense you fucker!!!"
Lumicor, who was unperturbed at his subordinate cursing him, merely smiled in amusement, and he put more strength in his grip, then he threw Minerva off balance, and then he swerved her through the air with a single slash from his spear at her waist, as he controlled the mana in the environment to generate three starlight spears, and then he launched them toward Minerva to distract her before he leaped through the air, as he muttered softly. "Defeat me and you're free..."
In Minerva 'POV' earlier, was caught off guard by the sudden increase in strength of Lumicor's slash, clenched her feet, and she tried to maneuver her way out of his range, but before she could do so, Lumicor was already one step beyond her.
His figure suddenly blurred, and instead of dislocating her legs to restrain her movements by force, Lumicor didn't do that, but instead he sent Minerva flying to the air with pain arcing through her waist, which was bruised from the attack of Lumicor's that Minerva couldn't even react to, nor did she know that Lumicor had hit her there.
But the attacks didn't end there, as a blinding light flashed to Minerva's pupils, and before she could recollect herself, three spears made of starlight intercepted her at the air, giving her no time to breathe, but how could she, a woman trained by Lumicor for a whole year, not overcome such a simple feint?
Nor did Minerva expect Lumicor to be gentle in their training when he was as cruel as a man could ever hope to be, and it was within her calculations that he would not give her any time to take a breath just because she was his subordinate.
"Hmph then let us see this through the end!" Minerva said, and she kicked the air like it was a solid foothold, and then she danced like a swan in a pond with grace visible in her every movements, and as she stared at the spears intercepting her, Minerva smiled, then she poured all of her mana to her heels, and she sent the spears to its caster with a single step, thus reversing her situation as those spears were intercepting Lumicor instead.
Her first victory in all of their duels was within her reach, and finally she could defeat this damned kidnapper who had dared to kidnap her along with her sisters that had now become cultists, and Minerva smiled in elation at her first victory, then she vanished in a blur as she appeared at the back of Lumicor with her heels striking his spine, as she whispered. "This is my victory..."
The tip of her heels exploded at Lumicor's spine, and Minerva could clearly feel it, the taste of her victory, but to her dismay, what her heels attacked was an astral projection of him, as the real Lumicor reappeared behind her, and then pain tore through her stomach as she was impaled by Lumicor's gilded spear at the last second, and Lumicor, the victor of their duel, smiled.
"Indeed... I could now fully reactivate all of my skills through the mana in the atmosphere..." Lumicor said coldly, as he stored his spear in his inventory, then he controlled the mana in the air to condense into a dewdrop of light that then fell into Minerva's stomach, stitching up her wounds, as he frowned at the inadequacy of his dewdrop's regenerative capabilities.
"A pity that even after a year of trying to understand mana... increasing my attunement to the world... it isn't simply enough to recover to my former self." Lumicor whispered, as he stared at Minerva's pale stomach exposed to the world, already healed in a matter of minutes, then he nodded.
"But I wouldn't call my efforts for the past few months a waste..." Lumicor said, his expressions unreadable, as he sat in a lotus position, then he meditated not to increase his mana or refine its purity but to understand its nature, as he continued. "For I had increased my attunement to mana."
