Hah~
Kurose Akira let out a long, exhausted sigh. He had finally completed the unsealing of Ivsha's magic crest. The spell had been far more troublesome than he'd imagined.
Once it started, there was no pausing it midway.
Seven times.
A full seven life-magic ritual cycles.
Ah~
He lifted his head and looked out the window. The once-bright sky had gradually dimmed, night quietly descending. The moon hung among the branches like a luminous pearl, casting down a veil of gentle moonlight.
Truly mesmerizing~
"Thank you for your generosity, Mr. Kurose~" Ivsha said with deep satisfaction, her tone filled with gratitude.
At her lower abdomen, the magic crest glimmered faintly. This signified that the first layer of the crest had been completely unsealed—but it was only the first.
As for how many layers the crest contained in total, Akira didn't know. Judging from the structure of the pattern alone, there were at least three.
Which meant he would have to undergo at least two more full rounds of life-magic rituals.
Tch—
Akira's hands trembled slightly.
He honestly didn't know if he could still hold out.
This was the first time he had ever felt a real threat to his life—from a succubus.
At that moment, a system prompt appeared.
[Your adventurer Ivsha has successfully unsealed the first layer of her magic crest!][All attributes +50! Magical potency increased by 30%!]
"Fifty points to all attributes? And a thirty percent increase to magical power?!"
Seeing the prompt, Akira couldn't help but smile in relief.
At least… his suffering hadn't been for nothing~
"Then~ I'll head back to the church for now, Mr. Kurose. Sweet dreams~"
"Mm."
After Ivsha left, Akira logged out of the game.
He removed the VR headset—but the trembling sensation from the game still lingered in his real body.
He could barely imagine how he'd managed to endure it all.
Though… it really was incredibly comfortable…
"Time to wash up and sleep~"
He muttered softly. After showering, he fell straight into a deep, dreamless slumber.
The next day.
When Akira woke up, both his body and mind still felt utterly drained.
The aftereffects Ivsha had left him with were far too intense—this wasn't something simple sleep deprivation could explain. His body felt as if it had been completely wrung dry.
After a quick wash, Akira slung his backpack over his shoulder and headed to school.
He was so exhausted that once he reached his seat, he immediately slumped forward, resting his head on the desk with his eyes closed—yet his mind was filled entirely with Ivsha's seductive figure from the night before.
He was really tired.
But even so… he still wanted—
The school bell rang.
Akira grabbed his backpack and went straight home.
After eating a little, he couldn't wait any longer and immediately logged back into the game world.
When he entered the guild, he found Ivsha already there.
She was sitting quietly to the side, her gaze fixed intently on the puzzle in Loserine's hands.
"Hm?"
Curious, Akira walked toward them. Normally, Ivsha showed zero interest in Loserine's puzzles.
But when he got closer, he understood.
Loserine was just about to complete the Along the River During the Qingming Festival puzzle.
At her current pace, it would take roughly another half hour to finish.
Akira didn't rush. Instead, he began handling his own affairs.
He opened the in-game marketplace and listed a Nun's Amulet in the trading section.
He wasn't entirely sure of the amulet's true market value, so he set the price a bit higher.
"One for fifty silver coins… I wonder if it'll sell," he thought.
Only a few minutes after listing it, a private message popped up.
SuperCoolGuoguo: "Hey, buddy, can you lower the price? A nun's amulet with 5 Luck—you're selling it for 50 silver?"
"Then name your price."
SuperCoolGuoguo: "10 silver!"
"..."
Akira closed the chat window without hesitation.
Ten silver coins for a nun's amulet with five points of Luck?
That was pure fantasy.
Right at that moment, Ivsha brought good news.
"Mr. Kurose, Loserine is about to succeed!"
"Oh?"
Akira immediately turned his attention to Loserine.
He watched as she carefully placed the final puzzle piece.
In an instant, the entire puzzle erupted in radiant light, as if celebrating the completion of a task.
The next moment, a system prompt appeared before Akira's eyes.
[Your adventurer has completed a character development task!][Learned high-tier sword technique — Water Moon!]
"Water Moon?"
A flicker of curiosity crossed Akira's eyes. He was deeply interested in Loserine's newly acquired sword art.
At the same time, he was equally eager to see Ivsha's new high-tier magic.
"Let's go to the training room," Akira said to both of them. "I want to see your high-tier magic and high-tier swordsmanship."
"If Mr. Kurose wishes to see it, then of course," Ivsha replied.
"As you command," Loserine said calmly.
A flash of white light—
Akira brought them to the guild's training room.
The room was completely empty, save for a metal training dummy standing at the far end.
"Who's first?" Akira asked, glancing between Ivsha and Loserine.
"I will," Loserine said, stepping forward.
She moved lightly to the front of the dummy and slowly drew the Oathbound Sword from her waist.
Hoo—
Though a skeleton didn't breathe, Akira could still see faint streams of luminescence drifting from the corners of Loserine's mouth.
"Water Moon!"
At her shout, a crescent moon silently appeared behind her.
The Oathbound Sword in her hand flowed downward like cascading water, slicing through the air toward the metal dummy.
The strike was dreamlike—illusory, poetic—as though time itself had frozen in that instant.
The metal dummy couldn't move, couldn't dodge. It could only silently endure the power of the blow.
A crisp metallic sound exploded through the air, blue ripples spreading outward like waves across water.
When the sword energy dissipated, the metal dummy shattered into countless fragments, scattering across the floor like falling hail.
Akira stared in astonishment.
He knew the dummy was forged from refined iron—exceptionally hard.
Yet before Loserine's sword, it had been as fragile as tofu.
"Still not hard enough," Loserine remarked flatly, before returning to Akira's side.
Akira merely shot her a glance.
Refined iron… not hard enough?
Then what was?
At the same time, a prompt appeared in his view.
[Simulated Combat Power: 500]
"Five hundred combat power?"
Akira raised an eyebrow and quickly estimated.
Five hundred—this was already peak combat power among adventurers below level 20.
Of course, that was excluding mythic adventurers. From what he knew, among the hundred thousand player guilds so far, no mythic adventurers had openly appeared—at least, not publicly.
And this number only represented the sword technique's power, not overall combat strength.
"Then~ it's my turn," Ivsha said lightly.
She took a few graceful steps forward, her movements as soft as a breeze, as though she were one with the world itself.
She didn't approach the metal dummy, stopping instead about twenty meters away.
Ivsha clasped her hands together, quietly chanting a spell.
At first, Akira didn't sense anything amiss.
But after a few seconds, his attention was drawn to a nun-shaped phantom floating above the dummy.
It was a projection condensed entirely from light-element magic, radiating brilliant golden light.
Yet what shocked him was this—
At the core of that golden phantom, dark-purple flames of corruption flickered violently.
Before Akira could even begin to unravel the mystery behind Ivsha's magic—
BOOM!
A deafening explosion erupted.
The nun phantom detonated instantly. Blazing light-element magic mixed with dark-purple fallen flames surged outward in all directions!
The entire training room shook violently, as if it were about to be torn apart.
Akira stood frozen in shock, his ears ringing from the blast.
The metal dummy was gone—completely erased.
He had never seen magic this powerful.
Never felt energy this overwhelming.
Ivsha's magic—
Was it really this absurd?!
And at that moment, a number appeared before his eyes.
[Simulated Combat Power: 520]