Aimless Ascension

I crept back to my room in utter frustration. The dopamine release subsided as almost all the happiness of advancement drained out of me. All the pain I suffered for so long was only for half a trick.

I couldn't make the stone reappear.

"There's no prestige to my magic," I said, grunting uncomfortably after entering my room.

"Prestige?" Saarya raised an eyebrow. Her nose was still wrinkled even though she couldn't smell the reek, mostly.

Well, she couldn't keep the art going forever, as she already had exhausted herself in drawing the spirit formation and helping me throughout the process.

There was literally a layer of gunk over my skin before. Although Saarya had cleaned that off mostly when I was resting, I still emanated a terrible stench.

Of course, we couldn't smell much of it throughout and even now.

Saarya was a master at manipulating the mind, so blocking the receptor that helped in smelling was a pretty simple job for her.

"This isn't magic in the sense you're hoping it to be."

"But I was supposed to make the stone reappear," I complained. "Or what's the point of it?"

"That you'll do," Saarya said. "You just need to give it some time."

"How much time?"

"Until you have the energy to learn more about your fate lock," Saarya said.

I narrowed my eyes, noticing she knew exactly what I needed to do to get my prestige. "Do you know how to make the stone reappear?"

"I might," Saarya smiled. "I can teach you an art that could help you do it, though I can't say for sure."

"What art?"

"Not now," Saarya said. "You're tired, you need sleep at this moment."

"What are you talking about?" I said, bloating my biceps in front of her. The advancement chiselled it down even more, as the outline of my shape looked far more professional. "I'm full of energy."

Saarya just shook her head. "Even if I try to teach you now, you won't be able to learn it that easily."

"Try me," I said, still with those provoking poses.

Saarya clicked her tongue. "Fine, sit with me then."

Saarya led me to the stone bed, and we sat side by side.

"Remove your vest," Saarya said, as my heart skipped a bit.

"You mean. . ." my voice trailed off, lost for words.

Saarya simply hit me in the heat. Then she removed the cue from my head, as I could smell the terrible reek again. "I'll only clean off the impurities and reek."

I gave her a disgusting look, asking why.

"You need to lose that smell in case others suspect something out of this," she reasoned.

That seemed plausible, though most people reeked terribly, not having enough water to bathe every day. Also, all practitioners went through this same thing after their breakthrough, so her worry was valid.

I turned and brought the water pot, which barely had any water left in it. Besides, there was no way just water was enough to cleanse this kind of reek.

"Remove, or do you want me to do everything?"

"Oh, of course," I said, and immediately stripped down my vest, which reeked no less than myself I feared. I have a terrible urge to send it to the other dimension on my left wrist, but sadly, I only have another vest like that. Slavery was exceedingly unhygienic.

I sat straight in front of Saarya, who laid her eyes upon my upper body without much change in her expression, yet I felt goosebumps crawling upon my skin. She hadn't even touched me.

"Don't think too much about it," Saarya said. "In my better days, I have treated worse conditions."

Her palm glowed in a faint whitish-golden light as she drew closer to me. Unconsciously, I sniffed her body odour. Even though she had been quite close to me the whole time, she only reeked of dreams.

"That look in your eyes always makes me reconsider," Saarya said offhandedly as she touched me with those glowing hands, "had I done a blunder in choosing you?"

"That seemed a bit harsh," I said, biting my lips. I mean, was there a healthy youth left in the world who won't get turned on by a woman as beautiful as her? Besides, my conditions were even severe with my life as a slave.

She was simply too close to me. Wherever her palm touched, it cleansed off all the filth and cleanse the stench of me. Saarya had helped me heal before. In her words, this was simply something like a cleansing spell. She had varieties of simple spells like that. Well, she had been only two steps away from divinity, after all.

"I guess youth will always be youth," she commented, cleaning off my chest.

I just squealed inwardly.

After giving me shivers with her palm, she moved to my back, stroking my back with both of her palms. When done with my upper body, she regarded me, her eyes on my lower body.

"Umm," I licked my lips, unsure how to say this. Then I noticed the tent on my pants that seemed to be only growing as her eyes were on it still.

Gale interrupted his narration and turned to face his disciple.

"I think I should omit some parts of the later part," he said as a blush appeared on Xiaolin's face.

"Master, it's fine," Xiaolin squeaked. "I'm an adult. I won't mind hearing it all."

"I mean, won't you get uncomfortable hearing me get intimate with another woman?"

Xiaolin blinked, uncertain about the answer to that question. "I won't find out if you skip it," she said after long deliberation. Her face was red with only that.

"Fine," Gale said. "Then again, what you're thinking didn't happen."

So Gale continued his narration.

Thankfully, the innkeeper wasn't here to hear his tale.

________

I guess it would have made more sense to clean off the filth where Gale advanced… Sadly, I completely forgot about it until I was halfway down this chapter.