A ritual like this is no worse than a bug bite
A ritual like this is no worse than a bug bite
One week.
Exactly one week had passed since Maria began sneaking out of the campsite every night.
Sitting in front of the campfire, Celine was flipping through a grimoire, lost in deep thought. Her gaze had been fixed on a corner of the page for an eternity.
'She's gone again.'
Glancing at Maria's empty sleeping bag, Celine quietly bit her lip.
The saintess disappeared into the forest without fail as soon as the sun went down, dragging her exhausted body back only when dawn broke.
Her gait was always strangely weak and unsteady, and beneath her loose clerical vestments, her lower abdomen was curiously bulging every morning. Always without exception.
"Looks like Maria went to pray again, huh? She seems to have gotten awfully devout lately."
Oiling his standard-issue iron sword on the other side of the campfire, Ars muttered with an innocent expression.
Celine merely pretended to flip a page indifferently, not even bothering to respond.
'Prayer. Yeah, sure, some kind of prayer.'
Her thoughts tangled into a complicated mess. The subtle scent wafting from Maria's body, the bulge of her lower belly, and above all, the abnormal holy buff cast upon Ars.
Celine was a mage. She knew better than anyone that holy mana of such terrifying output could never be maintained merely by a single saintess offering up prayers.
"Celine, why don't you get some rest too? Your expression's been totally stiff lately."
Lena lightly tapped Celine's shoulder with her rough hand, tuk.
"I'm fine. It's just... my research hit a bit of a wall."
Celine closed her grimoire and stood up from her seat.
Over the past week, Ars had racked up truly dazzling military exploits. Starting with the Ogre King, he cut down the Poison Wyvern, the Steel Golem, and even a lesser avatar of the Demon King one after another.
At the root of all those terrifying exploits was the holy buff Maria had cast.
In contrast, Celine's magic was insignificant.
Her flame magic amounted to nothing more than slightly melting the Steel Golem's ankle, failing to leave even a scratch on the wyvern's tough scales.
Lena, at least, could draw attention and buy time with close-quarters combat, but Celine's magic was increasingly losing its place in battle.
"To think magic like mine... is only good for barely melting an ankle."
Celine muttered bitterly as she looked down at the staff in her hand.
The magic stone embedded in the tip of the staff gave off a faint glow, but that luminescence seemed absurdly pathetic compared to before.
'At this rate, I'll be reduced to nothing more than dead weight.'
Suddenly, the existence of the 'Magic Tower' crossed her mind.
The headquarters and center of imperial magic studies.
It was said that the tower master who ruled over that place possessed several legendary ancient grimoires.
Celine had also heard plenty of rumors about those grimoires ever since her days at the magic academy.
'If only I could get my hands on even one of those ancient grimoires... my magic could awaken by leaps and bounds just like Ars's swordsmanship.'
However, she also clearly remembered the rumors regarding the tower master's notoriety. A perverted old geezer obsessed with knowledge.
The rumor went that under the pretext of magical research, he summoned young female mages to conduct filthy experiments on them.
"I should head over to the Magic Tower tomorrow."
Lena sharply raised her eyebrows at Celine's sudden declaration.
"The Magic Tower? Why go there all of a sudden?"
"I've found a reason to examine an ancient grimoire. With my current level of magic, I'm of no help to the party's combat strength whatsoever."
"There's no way that old bastard of a tower master would show you a grimoire that obediently. Haven't you heard the rumors about that place? What that crazy old bastard does to young female mages...."
"I know."
Celine coldly cut Lena off.
"But there must be a way. Even so, the tower master is a mage after all, so he should show some interest in an academic exchange."
Lena tried to say more, but kept her mouth shut. It was because she saw the glint in Celine's eyes, shining far more intensely than usual.
The next morning, Celine slipped out of the campsite before dawn broke.
Right then, she ran into Maria, who was just walking out of the forest. The saintess's face was utterly exhausted and filled with fatigue, and beneath her clerical vestments, her lower abdomen was swollen and bulging without fail.
"Celine...? Where are you going this early in the morning?"
Maria asked with a surprised look. At the edge of her voice lingered a poorly concealed tension.
"I'm heading to the Magic Tower for a bit. I have something to research."
Celine replied indifferently as she brushed past Maria.
In that fleeting instant, Celine's sensitive sense of smell accurately caught the subtle odor wafting from Maria's body.
The desperate trace of trying to cover it up with luxurious scented oil was obvious, but beneath it lingered the heavy soak of a man's thick body odor.
'Just as I thought.'
Without lingering attachment, Celine turned away and quickened her pace.
The Magic Tower stood magnificently atop an isolated hill about half a day away from the city.
Its antique stone exterior looked merely like an old, ancient tower at first glance, but in Celine's eyes, the countless magic circles elaborately interwoven into every corner of the outer walls reflected vividly.
A powerful high-tier barrier of at least the 7th circle enveloped the entire tower in layers.
"I am Celine, a contracted mage. I request an audience with the Tower Master-nim."
Celine spoke in a low voice as she placed her hand on the crystal ball set at the entrance.
A moment later, the massive stone door opened on its own with a heavy thud, and the gloomy voice of an old man drifted out from inside.
"Enter."
The interior of the tower was truly a grand library of overwhelming scale. Colossal bookshelves soaring toward the dizzyingly high ceiling were intertwined like a maze, while magical lanterns floated midair, scattering a dreamy blue luminescence.
Behind the massive executive desk placed in its center, the tower master revealed himself.
In appearance, he was an outright old man who looked to be in his seventies.
Yet within his eyes, a bizarre vitality wrought from mana flickered unpleasantly, and the gaze sweeping down Celine's entire body overflowed with blatant greed.
"Ho-oh, if it isn't Celine. How truly surprising that you have come walking in on your own two feet. I thought you would be busy after joining the hero's party."
When the tower master gave a light flick of his finger, a teacup puffing with steam floated gently in the empty air before Celine.
"I have come because I have something to tell you, Tower Master-nim."
Without sparing so much as a glance at the teacup, Celine met the tower master's gaze head-on.
"I wish to request permission to peruse the ancient grimoires. I need them to overcome the wall my magic has hit."
"Ancient grimoires, is it... Yes. Indeed. Commonplace grimoires wouldn't be able to draw out your talent any further, after all."
The tower master curled the corners of his twisted mouth and laughed creepily.
It was a smile steeped in the leisure and arrogance that only someone who had ruthlessly seen through a weakness could possess.
"Yes, that's right. If there are conditions for perusing them, please name them."
"Conditions, you say... Simple. The Mana Synchronization Ritual."
Celine's eyebrows twitched faintly.
"The Mana Synchronization...... Ritual, you say?"
"Indeed. The mana dwelling within the ancient grimoires is so formidable and ferocious that reading them through half-baked methods is utterly impossible. You must synchronize your mana circuits with mine and fundamentally remodel your constitution so you can withstand the grimoires' mana."
The tower master's explanation seemed plausible on the surface. But Celine did not miss the damp, filthy lust concealed behind that blatant gaze.
'Mana synchronization? What blatant, trite sophistry.'
However, Celine had no option to refuse.
While Maria shaved away at something every night to provide Ars with an overwhelming holy buff, she herself was gradually degrading into useless dead weight.
At this rate, being abandoned by the party was only a matter of time.
"This Synchronization Ritual... what kind of procedure does it involve specifically?"
"It is simple. You and I directly exchange mana. And the most foolproof medium to maximize that efficiency is none other than bodily fluids."
"By bodily fluids...."
"Saliva, sweat, and... fluids far thicker and denser than those, of course."
The tower master slowly rose from his seat and approached Celine. Though he possessed a slight frame, the overwhelming aura of mana rippling across his whole body pressed heavily against Celine.
"As you well know, mana is directly linked to life force. And the bodily fluids in which human life force is most densely stimulated... are those secreted in a state of intense sexual arousal."
Celine gritted her molars. It was a filthy condition, just as she had anticipated.
"...What happens if I refuse?"
"Then there will be no grimoires either. You will just continue to rot as a third-rate mage, and before long, you will be expelled by the hero's party once they find a new mage."
The tower master's sarcastic words pierced straight to the bone with cruel precision.
Celine quietly closed her eyes. Maria's lower belly bulging every morning, Ars laughing innocently without knowing a thing, and Lena's gaze looking at her as if in pity flickered across her mind.
'Maria is sacrificing herself too, having something trampled upon. There's no reason... I can't do the same.'
Celine slowly opened her eyes. Her steadfast gaze was filled with unwavering resolve.
"Very well. I will accept the Mana Synchronization Ritual."
"Haha, a wise choice indeed. Then let us begin right away without further delay."
When the tower master snapped his fingers, one wall of the office slid open with a seureureuk, revealing a secret room.
Inside the room, alongside all sorts of suspicious magical tools, sat a bizarrely wide ritual bed placed right in the center.
Celine slowly made her way toward the bed.
'Ars. I'm sorry. A ritual like this is just like getting bitten by a bug anyway.'
Celine's fingertips quietly began to unbutton her mage robe.