Chapter 116: The morning of departure 1

Adam crossed his arms.

"So the stronger your body becomes..."

"The more we can use our powerful blessings with a significant margin of safety," Vespera confirmed.

Selene smiled slowly.

Shiora did too.

Elena started to laugh.

Adam stopped.

A very unpleasant sensation had just run down his back.

He slowly looked up.

Seven women were looking at him.

The same kind of overly enthusiastic stare.

Adam narrowed his eyes.

"No."

Selene looked perfectly innocent.

"What?"

"I recognize that look."

Shiora placed a hand on her chest.

"We’re just reflecting on our progress."

"Of course."

Elaria adjusted her glasses.

"From a purely statistical point of view—"

Adam immediately raised a hand.

"Whatever you do, don’t start a sentence with ’statistically speaking.’"

Lyriana slightly suppressed her smile.

Elena burst out laughing.

Even Isadora couldn’t keep a straight face.

Adam looked slowly at the group.

Then he sighed.

"You bunch of predators."

This time, laughter filled the entire room.

Selene sank back into the cushions.

"You’re making a big deal out of something."

"Seven people just looked at me the exact same way after discovering that a skill could improve their stats. I’m not making a big deal out of anything."

Shiora smiled.

"It’s simply a matter of optimization."

"Exactly. That’s precisely the kind of sentence that worries me."

The atmosphere remained light for a long time.

But Adam couldn’t stop thinking about what he had just learned.

Two blessings of the highest order for almost each of them.

Several Mythic Reds.

Powers capable of manipulating time, space, battlefields, magic, martial progression, or even their relationship with the World Tree.

And yet...

They still had limitations.

Very real limitations.

Their bodies.

Their minds.

Their stamina.

Adam glanced briefly at his own invisible panel.

Mana Body.

Eyes of the World.

Two blessings he had previously considered almost as additional attributes of his status.

Now that he knew their true rarity...

He would have to examine them much more seriously.

And probably ask many more questions.

Many.

Adam finally sank deeper into the cushions.

"You know what?"

Elena turned to him.

"What?"

"Every time I think I’m starting to understand your true level, you give me a new reason to revise my entire assessment."

Selene smiled.

"Get used to it."

Adam closed his eyes.

"That phrase is really becoming too frequent in my life."

Laughter resumed around him.

And for a while longer, they simply continued talking.

About blessings.

About their possible evolutions.

About physical limitations.

About the dishes for dinner.

About the trip the next day.

And, naturally...

About all the things Adam already regretted promising to cook in the future.

The conversation continued for a while longer before naturally losing its momentum.

After dinner, desserts, and all the discoveries about their blessings, no one really wanted to broach another serious subject.

Selene was finally the first to get up.

"Bath." "

Adam looked up at her.

"Is that a suggestion or an order?"

"An excellent idea."

"So, an order."

She smiled without replying.

The others gradually left the relaxation area and headed towards the thermal baths.

After such a hearty meal, the hot water was immediately welcome.

For nearly an hour, they remained in the spacious bathroom.

At first, it was simply about relaxing.

Hot pool.

Lazy conversation.

A few jokes.

Then the massages began.

This time, they were much more physical than the ones Adam usually gave to simply relax muscles.

The atmosphere gradually became more intimate.

The laughter gave way to a calmer, more personal closeness.

What followed remained between them.

When they finally left the baths, a little over an hour had passed.

And Selene already seemed far too pleased with herself.

Adam looked at her.

"Why do I get the feeling you’ve all been planning something?"

"No idea."

"Very convincing."

They returned to the main room.

The door remained closed.

The outside world continued to move at its own pace while the Chamber offered them ample time.

Adam quickly understood the meaning of their earlier glances.

The women hadn’t forgotten their discussion about the Kama Sutra.

Nor the stat gains from the morning.

Nor the fact that gradually strengthening their bodies would allow them to better withstand certain Mythic Red blessings.

Adam tried to remind them that a progression skill wasn’t a reason to turn every evening into a scientific experiment...

No one seemed particularly convinced.

The rest of the night unfolded in complete privacy.

They spent several hours there, with breaks, discussions, and moments of rest among themselves.

Adam continued until even the most enduring members of the group were completely exhausted and satisfied.

When calm finally returned to the Room, not a trace remained of the mocking energy they had displayed a few hours earlier.

Selene herself had nothing to add.

Which was probably the best possible sign.

They finally made their way to the enormous bed.

The seven women naturally gravitated towards Adam.

Some immediately found a comfortable position.

Others murmured a few more words before fatigue overtook them.

Little by little...

The Room became silent.

Adam felt several presences against him.

Warmth.

Regular breathing.

An almost complete stillness.

Then he closed his eyes.

And fell asleep.

The next morning, Adam was the first to wake up.

For a few seconds, he didn’t move.

The soft light of the Room dimly illuminated the bed.

Around him, the others were still asleep.

Selene had practically monopolized part of the blanket.

Elena was sleeping next to Lyriana.

Elaria had managed, once again, to keep her glasses close enough to risk falling asleep on them.

Vespera was perfectly still.

Shiora had a hand resting on a pillow that she seemed to have mistaken for something important.

Isadora, finally, was sleeping with that inexplicable dignity that she seemed able to maintain even unconsciously.

Adam smiled.

Then he noticed the notifications.

Several windows were waiting in front of him.

"Let’s see..."

He opened the first one.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

System Notification

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Growth validated.

Host Progression:

*Strength: +2

*Agility: +2

*Endurance: +3

*Intelligence: +2

*Spirit: +2

Luck:

No change

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Adam reread the numbers.

Then he immediately opened his previous mental status to compare.

Strength: 21

Agility: 21

Endurance: 32

Intelligence: 24

Spirit: 22

And now...

His gaze lingered mainly on the Endurance.

"Thirty-two..."

Three more points in a single night.

The progression was frankly absurd.

A second notification appeared.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Skill Progression

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

*Massage: Level 3 → Level 4

*Fertility Control: Level 4 → Level 5 5

*Vigorous Body: Lv. 4 → Lv. 5

*Kamasutra: Lv. 1 → Lv. 2

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Adam lingered on the last one.

Kamasutra had already gained a level.

This probably meant that its growth effects would gradually become more effective as the skill progressed.

He decided, however, to verify this later.

A third window concerned the others.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Partner Growth

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Elena of Valoria

*Strength: +1

*Agility: +1

*Endurance: +2

*Intelligence: +1

*Spirit: +2

Lyriana Noctis Sylvermoon

*Strength: +1

*Agility: +1

*Endurance: +2

*Intelligence: +2

*Spirit: +1

Other Companions:

*Isadora of Valoria: Spirit +1

*Selene Arkwell: Strength +1

*Elaria Silverleaf: Intelligence +1

*Shiora Crimsonhorn: Agility +1

*Vespera Drakharis: Stamina +1

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Adam remained silent.

As on the previous day, Elena and Lyriana benefited much more from the skill.

But the other five were still making progress.

One point.

It would have seemed insignificant to him a few days earlier.

Now that he knew how difficult it was to earn even a single point at their level...

He no longer saw things the same way at all.

Then came the final window.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Satisfaction Confirmed

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Satisfaction Points Earned:

+4,000

Previous Points:

3,600

Current Points:

7 600

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Adam stared at the total.

Seven thousand six hundred.

His gaze instinctively drifted to High Draw.

He remained silent.

Then immediately closed the function.

"No."

He had already learned his lesson.

Or at least...

He was trying.

"I’ll keep the points."

His full status then appeared.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Status Panel — Adam

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Level: 3

Stat Value

Strength 23

Agility 23

Endurance 32

Intelligence 26

Spirit 24

Luck 13

Available Stat Points: 12

Talent:

*Happiness Return System

Stat Points Satisfaction: 7,600

Blessings

*Mana Body — Orange Rank · Unique Grade — Lv. 3

*Eyes of the World — Gold Rank · Legendary Grade — Lv. 3

Skills

*Boundary — Rank - · Grade - — Lv. 3

*Adaptation — Blue Rank · Rare Grade — Lv. 2

*Vigorous Body — Blue Rank · Rare Grade — Lv. 5

*Healing — White Rank · Common Grade — Lv. 2

*Massage — Green Rank · Uncommon Grade — Lv. 4

*Fertility Control — Blue Rank · Rare Grade — Lv. 5

*Weapon Mastery — Orange Rank · Unique Grade — Lv. 1

*Kamasutra — Orange Rank · Unique Grade — Lv. 2

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Adam checked his level again.

Three.

Still three.

With thirty-two in Endurance.

He shook his head.

"This level really doesn’t mean anything anymore."

He closed the interface.

The others were still asleep.

So Adam decided to use this brief moment of peace.

He slipped out of bed.

Get dressed quickly.

Then he headed to the kitchen.

Today was departure day.

But before that...

He had made a promise.

Breakfast.

Adam opened his inventory.

The first plates appeared.

The House reacted immediately.

A table was set.

Plates.

Cutlery.

Cups.

Napkins.

Then Adam began to bring out what he had prepared the day before.

First...

The crêpes.

A large pile.

Then a second.

The pancakes.

Plain.

With fruit.

With chocolate.

Next came the jams.

Strawberry.

Peach.

Purple apple.

Local berries.

And the jam made from the famous fruit whose taste was reminiscent of both strawberry and grape.

Then the spreads.

Chocolate-hazelnut.

Pistachio.

Almond.

Honey walnut.

Chocolate-almond.

The bread.

The butter.

Honey.

Fresh fruit.

Cupcakes.

Several juices.

Milk.

Coffee.

Tea.

And of course...

Hot chocolate.

The effect was immediate.

Adam had barely placed the first large stack of pancakes on the table when he heard a movement behind him.

Then another.

He turned around.