51 - Bonds

Name: Adrin || Age:20 || Mage [level 15]

Life: 85/85 || Stamina: 150/150 || Mana: ?/?

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–-Status–

Error: Mage (apprentice tier) level maxed.

[18] levels up converted to [9] general class level up.

Select a secondary class to distribute points and levels.

Alert: Negative status detected, -90% to all Physical stats.

[10]+[30] attribute points remaining.

[3]+[9] skill/spell points remaining.

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Strength: 13 || Intelligence: 19 || Agility: 9

Willpower: 20 || Perception: 3 || Dexterity: 5

Endurance: 4 || Vigor: 5 || Wisdom: 3

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--Affinity list--

Metal [93], Crystal [64], Lightning [59], Magni [45], Life [86],

Blood [42], Fire [89], Air [78], Ice [35], Water [51].

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–Slotted Perks [3]–

Metallurgy [12], Shell [23], Magni Flux [10]

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--Passive Ability list--

Bodybuilding [4], Arithmetic [5], Melee weapons [3], Spearfishing [1],

Marksmanship [2], Mana Sense [8], Crafting [3], Cooking [1],

Farming [1], Lascivious [1], Mathematics [2], Martial Art [4], Foresight [1].

Storage Space [1].

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--Skills list--

Hack [4], Throw [4], Aim Assist [2], Sneak [3], Crystal Meld [6],

Mana Meld [8], Spell Scribe [4], Enchanting [5], Lightning Flux [3],

Life Touch [2], Blazing Hand [3], Wind Touched [2], Freezing Palm [1],

Deluge [1], Bloodboon [2].

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--Spell list--

[Cleanse], [Shell], [Candle], [Torch], [Fireball], [Bolt]

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BattleLog:

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New spell scribed - calculated completion 74%

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48229 Magical damage dealt, [Mage] class leveled up.

Over-damage detected, [error error] unlocked.

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Class [Mage] (Apprentice tier) level maxed, 2x2 personal storage space granted.

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Level 22 Undead Troll Overlord killed.

34 undead aspects absorbed.

‘So I was granted the undead aspect instead of experience points? Only two-by-two storage? Something was unlocked. What does any of these even mean?’

He sighed and closed the status.

His status display was just as weird as the pulsing magic circuit on the center of his chest. It wouldn’t take a genius to figure out that magical marvel had kept him alive all this time. After prodding the first layer of circular diagram of runes with [Mana Sense], he could tell that maintaining it would require tons of [Life] aligned mana, or whatever it's called. Adrin was quite sure there was a name for it, but he had been proven wrong before.

What was for sure, without the tuned mana, it would have been like the plug had been pulled. His chest would have stopped pumping air to his lungs and oxygen to his brain and that was just the first layer. It was a mind-bogglingly complicated piece of true genius.

The new face in the mirror was also shocking. He almost did not recognize the person in the reflection until his hand touched his cheek and pinched it. It was like he was looking at his vastly more handsome identical twin brother he never had.

He had turned into a real ikemen and he didn’t even know how to feel about it. Girls would probably swoon by a simple smile and he didn’t know if he liked or wanted that kind of attention. Sure, it would be nice to finally be noticed, but he was already used to being the shadow and working in the dark.

The day had begun with him waking up in the lady’s warm embrace. Adrin also didn’t know when he had fallen asleep yesterday but he had woken up feeling better.

A hell lot better.

It felt like he was finally at peace with everything, good or bad. Of course, he rather had not cried his eyes out like a wimp, but even an idiot would know he had needed the release.

Adrin recalled the moment that he realized that he was the old man he had conjured using the [Awakening] ritual. It wasn’t an easy thing to sort through who he was, how he should act, or what he should even do about it. He couldn’t have told anyone as no one could have understood what he was going through.

Needless to say, it was nothing like the stories in the old world. Sometimes he still wondered if the old man in the [Awakening] had slowly taken over this youthful body. Other times he had even questioned reality itself. The process of getting here, in this balanced, not too insane state, had felt impossible at a time.

He had dove into the embrace of fleshy pleasure just to forget about many of his inner struggles. He felt like going insane if he didn’t. The validation that came from it was exceptionally relieving but it was something that would never last.

A chuckle escaped him. He wasn’t as tough as he thought he was, and waking up as an abandoned, crippled man, had hit him harder than he wanted to pretend.

Bella already saw it coming because she also had gone through a similar situation. The look in the lady's eyes when their eyes met as she woke up had told him that she had cried in the past, probably as hard as he did. The sexy lady had kindly lent him a lovely huge bosom to cry in instead of a shoulder but he wasn’t going to complain about it. No man would.

‘When was the last time I’ve ever felt like this?’ Adrin wondered and sighed.

It felt like a very long time since he found some peace. Considering everything, he should have a plan going forward, or as the saying goes, he would have been planning to fail.

Once a seed was planted, a plan started to grow inside his head. He had more options when he had a lot less to hide. The most important thing he would need was a buffer to work on himself and his dream. Everything else was secondary, freedom be damned if he couldn’t even survive the aftermath if anything went wrong.

As the wise man had said, a man had to choose his sacrifice. If being a hug pillow to this sensuous lady would keep him safe while he worked, then so be it. The lady with straight bloodred hair left the bed and him to his thoughts, but not before giving him a quick kiss on the cheek.

But if this plan worked, he would be free from both the annoying politics and the metaphorical threat hanging over his head. If everything went as intended, he would be hitting two birds with one stone. Preferably three, but that might be asking too much.

The fact was reality was crueler than fantasy. There was kindness in this world, of course, but not every person in the kingdom would gratefully accept a new powerhouse rising rapidly among them.

In these people’s eyes, the [Lightbringer]’s rise of power and/or influence would disturb the current balance of power. Such things were never going to be good for those who already had established their lofty place in society.

Of course, the better of these people would decide to wholly support the [Lightbringer] for the sake of humanity. Many others would try to take advantage of him, but there was no doubt there would be factions that wanted him out of the equation instead. The news of his sudden recovery would undoubtedly stir the existing power mongers’ metaphorical cup and something would likely happen anytime soon.

The ground for all of this was simple.

People hated uncertainty.

Many would rather fight to keep things as they were than risk losing them all. It was just human nature, and he tried to be a sensible person who would plan around that.

A tiny clank pulled his attention to the door. The first thing he saw was Lily’s butt pushing the door open so the trolley she was handling could get through. The girl’s face turned red as soon as she realized that he was watching her all along.

Lily dipped for a slight bow before she headed his way with, what appeared to be, a trolley of food in her hands. The trolley was also filled with silver forks and other cutleries, and it gave him an exciting idea to explore. The girl had a big beautiful smile on her face as she got close to him and his heart warmed up with each echo of her steps.

Adrin had almost forgotten the existence of the maidservant, and he only remembered what she was to him when she leaned over and pursed her lips. Lily was his designated maidservant aka his slave as long as he was still alive. The girl had taken care of him all these years, and for that, he would be glad to return the kiss.

He could almost feel the raging hunger in her as their lips met and separated. The girl had cupped his cheek, for change, and the way her thumbs lovingly caressed them, it felt like she found it hard to let him go. His new ikemen face might have something to do with that, but at this point, he didn’t care how he looked anymore.

The warmth he felt from the simple gesture was incomparable and it had taken him a moment to put it together inside his head. Unlike others, the girl wasn’t free to meet or fool around. As far as he knew, the pretty girl in the fluffy maid uniform only had her master, for better or worse.

He understood a little more when he put his feet in her metaphorical shoes. Lily was glad that the only man in her life had finally woken up but she couldn’t express herself freely because she was just a slave. It was just sad.

Thus he wanted to provide what she needed, well, if she was willing.

The girl deserved it.

“Lily, would you like to lock the door for me,” Adrin suggested and the girl’s eyes went wide when she heard it.

She already knew what those words meant with one look. The girl blushed so hard when their eyes met, but she still went ahead and quietly locked the door behind her.

In the meantime, everything silver in the room flew into his hand, and [Metallurgy] worked its magic to give him some independence in movement. In the future, maybe he should tightly lace his bones with interconnected metal wires, making them even tougher.

It turned out, in real life, completely covering the bones with any type of metal wouldn’t be healthy for anyone, supers or not. He also had to forget about hiding blades in between his bones like the famous superhero as it was just unfeasible.

Nevertheless, these tiny interconnected silver-alloy scales would be his impromptu metal muscles just like how he had bent the silver spoon. There wasn’t nearly enough material to work on at the time, so he covered the center of his back and a line of shrinking scales at the back of his arm to the fingers. His moments were a little awkward but they would smooth out with more practice.

For now, [Metallurgy] was doing all the hard lifting, and Adrin could almost feel the skill getting better by the seconds. This might be a brute way to solve the issue but it should be possible to equip the tiny joints with nerve-linked micro-magitech-motors later. He had almost zero experience in the matter, but in the distant future, even nanotech armor should be possible.

A symbiotic living armor as the puny new god had in the other superhero movie would be an excellent goal to head towards. His sacrifice wouldn't be in vain as he would probably be an indestructible magitech cyborg in between the upgrades he had planned inside his head.

The girl gasped when she saw her partially shiny master miraculously push himself up.

There was no more hesitation when Lily gently climbed on the bed and began to unveil her biggest assets. It was good to be able to hold them in his hands again.

He was far from fully healed, but the girl was able to enjoy herself fully thanks to the skill [Bloodboon] primarily. He was ready to serve by simply pumping and rotating blood into the manly tool. Even [Lascivious] had been activated as soon as the girl climbed over him, and unlike back in the old world, he was able to last as long as required of him.

Adrin might be built like a mace, but there was no need to say he had a much shorter end of the stick. He couldn’t feel anything much but he still enjoyed watching the loveable maid’s almost unwilling descent into a manic trance.

It didn’t take long for Lily to completely lose it and he took the enjoyment out of this too. It was like watching an x-rated movie from a first-person perspective. The star was a busty top model cosplaying as a maid declaring her unending love towards her master (and his tool).

After everything was said and done, Adrin had to revitalize the utterly exhausted girl, but he wasn’t complaining. It was his pleasure to see her widened eyes as she suddenly regained her stamina.

Lily didn’t feel like a slave as she insisted on spoon-feeding him. He might have come from a world that condemned slavery, but if these unfortunate people were treated right, he didn’t see any problem with it.

There would be people who would strongly disagree with him, but everyone was entitled to their own opinion. Adrin was able to come to this conclusion because there were ‘laborers’ in the old world who were treated less than a human. Not many knew about them and even less cared.

Sure, they could quit whenever they wanted, but who was going to feed their family back home? These people chose to be modern slaves, to be stepped on, all because they had no choice.

Other choices were taken away by people in power.

That was much crueler to his eyes than the slaves in this world.

Adrin swallowed down the last of the fruit juice and Lily sighed in relief. The girl hummed happily as she began to work on the mess they had made. He might not feel the same if he was in her place but the girl seemed to be happy and content.

A question though still bubbled out of his mouth.

“Could you have requested to serve another Master, Lily?”

The girl’s eyes snapped at him as if he had said something taboo. She sighed before she turned around to continue her earnest work.

“Mistress Bella is right,” the girl said after replacing the blanket, “but yes, that is true, Master,” she pressed on the word as if patronizing him.

“Then, why don’t you? Why stay?”

“No other Master will willingly spend his precious mana to revive a lowly maidservant like myself,” she stated simply.

Adrin shrugged, “it is just mana, there's plenty of it around.”

A huge smile widened on her face as if he had said something she was expecting to hear. Lily wanted to say something in reply but she just shook her head and continued to work. The girl gave her master a goodbye kiss after everything was done.

Adrin breathed in relief after she closed the door behind her. Little that he knows, that the seemingly insignificant interactions with Lily would create a bigger wave than he had ever imagined.

A tiny click echoed in the room before the panel in the wall swung open.

‘Secret doors, of course,’ Adrin mused inside his head and rolled his eyes. That was how the woman had left the room and sneaked on him the first time.

“I envy her, you know, the lucky girl didn’t even ask but still she received,” the lady said as she walked towards the bed and sat beside him.

Her lean sexy back was facing him as she continued, “is it because she is yours… because the girl is your slave?”

Adrin was surprised by the accusation.

At first, he wanted to deny it, but the words got stuck in his throat. An experienced lady like her wouldn’t just throw words around. Bella could be on to something when he stopped and thought about it.

After what he had gone through in his past life, he had a massive issue with believing in people. He just couldn’t depend on anyone to do the right, selfless, thing. Everyone was self-serving in his eyes, whether they knew it or not, but he hadn’t treated Lily like he should’ve.

He had gone easy on her. Adrin had to admit that one of the reasons he could trust Lily easily was because there was a magical bond between them. Deep down he knew that she simply couldn’t betray him.

The runes on the collar around her neck were evidence of this. Lily could never betray her Master after he had marked the enchantment circuit with his mana.

Of course, she could have only acted nice to him, but the maidservant would be the best actress in the world if she had been faking it all this time. He could feel the sincerity in her as she tried her best to make him feel better when he barely could feel anything. The girl’s eyes had kept prying if her Master had enjoyed their time together on the bed.

It was only he who hadn’t been honest with himself.

“Yes, you are probably right,” Adrin sighed in disappointment.

He was disappointed with himself.

No one wanted to admit it, but it seemed, that everyone is a slave to something. Adrin realized that he was a slave to his past. The wound in his heart was deeper than he thought. He had been judging others to be emotionally compromised but he was even worse than any of them.

The lady’s eyes gleamed wildly when she turned and leaned to him. She probably had entirely another thing in mind as her breath quickened.

“Then, why don’t you make me absolutely yours too?”

Bella said with a tinge of red on her cheeks. The redhead’s massive bulging pair was slightly resting on his chest, threatening to spill out from her dress with each breath as she pressed for an answer.

Adrin couldn’t believe his ears.

Did the ex-Matriarch had just asked to become his slave?