Chapter 38: School’s out
After that last sleepover, the girls became a bit more subdued in their actions and looked at Tiff with mixed gazes. A lot of wariness with a little bit of longing. This only lasted about a week before they accepted that they had actually really enjoyed themselves and things got back to normal. Jill had awakened her darker side and now likes to be tied up when she comes over, the tighter the better. Either me or Sofy will usually get tied up with her. The girl has some serious frustration issues in her home life. Her family dotes on her since she is the only daughter in generations, but it makes her feel as though they are babying her. Tiff also visits occasionally, though without any new toys. After her recent spending spree, before that last sleepover, her allowance was mostly used up. However, she’s become addicted to the sight of me trying to squirm away from her and failing whenever she uses that ridged d**** with the flexible spines. The most surprising one was Amy. Can you believe that she actually came over one weekend on her own and requested that we teach her how to tie ropes. I became the model since she wouldn’t allow herself to be tied up, but she had no problem helping Sofy to reward me after her lessons. Brit mellowed out a bit after that and Amy started fawning on her in front of us. A complete reversal of their previous behaviors. Seems like they’ve both fully acknowledged their feelings for each other and Amy became the dominant one in the relationship.
Weeks seemed to just fly by and it was soon time to depart for the dungeon. The most bothersome thing to happen was that the boys in class felt some pressure as the days left became lesser and lesser. During the last two weeks, we had to fend off numerous confessions, questions about which classes we would take next season and what our plans were for the break. Worst of all was that it wasn’t limited to just Sofy. Almost a third of their confessions were actually directed to me and got most of the assholes. Some of the least offensive comments I heard after rejecting them were remarks about how a mere servant had no right to reject a solicitation from one such as themselves. The more offensive sorts would debase me as nothing more than an animal that could be bought from her owner. These sorts, along with the ones that would get grabby towards us, would receive a giant water ball spell from me. Nothing powerful enough to do any lasting damage of course. Only enough to force them back and soak them thoroughly. You can imagine their walk home afterwards, it’s still winter afterall. Nana had apparently received some complaints, but just told me that I was doing a good job when Sofy told her our reasons.
For the next academic season Sofy had signed herself up for basic apothecary, basic enchanting, advanced math and of course, stage four magecraft. There are currently five levels of education in the academy: introductory, basic, intermediate, advanced and master. You usually have to follow that order when signing up for classes, but she was able to take a test and skip intermediate math due to my tutoring. Same thing for apothecary and enchanting, she was able to test into the basic level directly. The first four levels are purely lessons and the master level are basically all research courses. I’m just glad that the culture class has only one level. Though, I did make it a point to beg her not to take any of the offered derivative courses on politics and foreign relations. She agreed, but informed me that she would once again take a course the following season. Thankfully she said that she would limit such courses to only one per season.
As you may have guessed by the fact that she signed up for the stage four magecraft lesson, Sofy had managed to get to stage four in mind cultivation the week before the academic season ended. I had made some progress myself, getting to stage three of spirit, raising my intelligence stat and nearly doubling my divine energy. Training my spirit energy is aggravating to a high degree. It becomes inefficient after I’ve used up about twenty percent of my energy in training. This happens twice as fast when training the energy instead of cultivating. I use one point of energy to increase my max energy by one point and now I’m two points down. Aarrrggg! This dynamic basically brings that twenty percent daily cultivation down to about ten percent. Anyways, today is Lightday, the day after classes ended and we are meeting up at the north gate before heading to the city of Namiir where the dungeon is located. My and Sofy’s current status are as follows:
<Status> +[disguised stats], -[hidden stats]
Name: Lilia | Age: 20 | Sex: Female
+Race: {Vampire(50%)}{Blood demon(25%)}{Dragon(20%)}{Dryad(5%)}
Cultivation Stages: {Body: 3(0%)}{Mind: 4(0%)}{Spirit: 3(0%)}{Divine: 3(0%)}{Law: 0}
Energy Reserves: {Qi: 10000/10000}{Mana: 26500/26500}{Spirit: 1100/1100}{Divine: 5100/5100}
Attributes: Str: 10000(55%) | Vit: 10000(55%) | Agi: 10000(60%) | Int: 26500(50%)
Soul Potential: 287
<Skills>
{passive}
[Sense Mana 3], [Sense Presence 3], [Sense Intent 2], [Sense Danger 2], [Second Sight 2]
-[Soul Devourer 2]
{active}
[Mana Control 3], [Mana Shaping 2], [Inventory 2]
-[Shadowmeld 2], [Contract 1]
<Traits>
[Agility Boost], [Exquisite Fur]
-[Vampiric Bite], [Regeneration], [Body Manipulation], [Dragon’s Perception], [Adaptive Blood]
-[Longevity(activate: 500sp)], [Mana Affinity(activate: 1000sp)]
<Blessings>
[Eidetic Memory], [Don’t Mind Me]
[Priestess(Goddess Katherian)]
{Prayer}{Bless}{Ability}
-[Status Manager]
<Curses>
[Glass Cannon], [Slow Learner], [Mute], [Frustrating Magic Hands]
[Destined to Serve(Master: Sophia)]
{Orders}{Attire}{Punishments}{Empathic Link}
<Status>
Name: Sophia | Age: 24 | Sex: Female
Race: {Human(50%)}{Wood Elf(50%)}
Cultivation Stages: {Body: 2}{Mind: 4}{Spirit: 2}{Divine: 2}{Law: 0}
Energy Reserves: {Qi: 1000/1000}{Mana: 12000/12000}{Spirit: 1000/1000}{Divine: 1000/1000}
Attributes: Str: 1000 | Vit: 1000 | Agi: 1000 | Int: 12000
Soul Potential: 120
<Skills>
{passive}
[Sense Mana 5], [Sense Presence 4], [Sense Danger 4], [Synergy 3]
{active}
[Mana Control 4], [Mana Shaping 4], [Tamer 2], [Assess 5]
<Traits>
[Longevity], [Mana Affinity]
<Blessings>
[Child of the Forest]
[Destined to serve(Servant: Lilia)]
{Orders}{Attire}{Punishments}{Empathic Link}
[Priestess(Goddess Katherian)]
{Prayer}{Bless}
<Curses>
{none}
We saw the others in a clearing off to the side of the road just as we exited the gate. Amy had brought her father’s winged lion for her and Brit to ride. Tiff had a winged horse and was being escorted by one of her family’s female guards, a high level stage four body cultivator if the energies I can sense from her are accurate. Jill was pouting next to a griffon with one of her brothers holding its reins. He had volunteered to accompany her and she wasn’t allowed to decline.
“Did you wait long?”~Sofy
“Not at all. We were the first ones here and it’s been ten minutes at most since then.”~Brit
“Any of you ever flown there before?”~Sofy
“I have. My name is James, the youngest of Jill’s brothers. Thanks for looking after my little sister all the time. We can take the lead if you’d like?”~James
“By all means, please do. Though we packed plenty of supplies, I’d prefer not to get lost on the way.”~Sofy
“We’ll depart as soon as you’ve prepared your mount then.”~James
“What do you mean?”~Sofy
“I can understand wanting to ride bareback, but you need to at least put reins on it.”~James
“Idiot! That’s her tamed beast. She can just tell it what to do over the link between them.”~Jill
“Oh, right. Don’t be so mean, Jill. I know you didn’t want me here, but you would have ended up with someone escorting you, no matter what. At least I’m one of the few who don’t smother you with affection. Besides, Tiffany’s and Sophia’s families also sent an escort and that mount of the guard captain’s is fiercely protective of those two.”~James
“Huh, Sofy has an escort? Where?”~Jill
“Don’t play dumb. I’ve heard the rumors about her little servant, fought Tiffany’s father to a draw in a magic duel.”~James
“Ah. I’m used to Lily always being with Sofy, so I forgot that she’s actually really strong.”~Jill
With things cleared up, we all got mounted and started on our journey. Most flying species have an innate ability to cast a wind barrier when they are flying, especially the ones that aren’t very aerodynamic. The air around us was still cold flying so high up. Me and Sofy are wearing our usual travel gear and the others are wearing similarly warm clothes. We were able to arrive at Namiir just before sunset. We checked into a high-end hotel and started exploring the city. James and the guard that came with Tiff, who’s name I discovered is Irene, got their own rooms and the rest of us are sharing a large suite.
After picking up a map and other relevant information about the dungeon at the local guild, the six of us went to a nice restaurant to eat and visited many different shops. So as to not fill up my inventory beforehand, we mainly just did a lot of window shopping for now. We’d come back after our adventure in the dungeon to buy things. There’s actually a fair number of dwarves in this city. They mostly take crafting jobs and sell to the adventurers passing through. Raw materials are brought over from the Boknar mountain range in the north and they send mostly food supplies back. The food supplies in this world depend heavily on meat since there is an abundance of beasts and monsters. Poorer people can’t afford to buy much planted goods. We eventually made our way back to the hotel and got a good night’s sleep in anticipation for the start of our dungeon dive the following day.
