The training floor of the safehouse smelled distinctly of sweat. Mostly Liam’s sweat.
It was Thursday morning, roughly twenty-four hours before the Novice Gauntlet, and Vespera Nocturne was making it her personal mission to push him to the absolute brink of magical exhaustion.
Liam stood in the center of the reinforced mat, breathing heavily. His plain black t-shirt clung to his torso, and the muscles in his arms burned with a dull, persistent ache. He had just spent the last two hours chaining his ’Shadow Step’ ability back to back while dodging a relentless barrage of Vespera’s ice projectiles.
"Your burst speed is acceptable," Vespera called out from the edge of the mat.
She was leaning against the glass partition, looking pristine and unbothered.
"But your stamina is genuinely pathetic. You managed fourteen consecutive jumps before your core bottomed out. If Julian Vance brings a team of twenty to the Gauntlet, you will run out of mana before you finish dismantling half of them."
"I am an E-Rank," Liam pointed out, wiping a bead of sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. "My mana pool is the size of a teacup. I am already operating at an efficiency level that breaks fundamental laws of physics."
"Then we need to stretch the teacup," Vespera replied smoothly. She pointed a manicured finger toward the observation deck, where Liora was sitting with a datapad, reading up on magical theory. "You have a walking, talking S-Rank battery sitting right over there. Siphon her."
Liam frowned.
He had successfully siphoned Liora’s excess starlight the day before, but that was just to top off his existing reserves. Permanently expanding a mana core was a different biological process. It required forcefully over-pressurizing his internal pathways until they stretched.
Right on cue, the golden System window popped into existence directly in front of his face.
[The Ice Queen is correct! To expand your mana capacity, you need a massive, sudden influx of Yin energy.]
[However, a simple hand-holding session will not provide the necessary flow rate. The Consort’s starlight is bottlenecked at her primary meridian nodes.]
[System Mandate: Acupressure Mana Transfer.]
[Task: You must manually stimulate the Consort’s secondary pathways to force the starlight to the surface. The most highly concentrated nodes are located at the base of her neck, the curve of her waist, and the inner mid-thigh.]
[Instruction: Press firmly, channel your shadows, and try to ignore the fact that Vespera is watching you like a hawk. Or don’t. Jealousy is a great motivator.]
Liam closed his eyes for a brief second, silently asking the universe why his path to absolute power required him to act like a massage therapist in a highly awkward social dynamic.
"Liora," Liam called out, his voice returning to its usual calm baseline. "I require your assistance."
Liora immediately put down the datapad and walked onto the training floor.
She was wearing athletic leggings and an oversized hoodie she had borrowed from the safehouse wardrobe. She looked up at him with bright, eager eyes, ready to help him prepare for the tournament.
"What do you need?" she asked, her voice cheerful.
"I need to forcefully expand my mana core," Liam explained, keeping his tone perfectly clinical to mask the absolute absurdity of what he was about to ask. "To do this, I need to draw out a massive amount of your starlight. But standard contact will not suffice. I have to stimulate your secondary meridian nodes to widen the channels."
Liora tilted her head, looking slightly confused. "Okay. How do we do that?"
"I am going to have to press down on very specific points on your body and inject a trace amount of shadow magic to loosen the pathways," Liam said. He listed the locations strictly as a medical professional would. "The base of your neck. The sides of your waist. And the inside of your thighs."
Liora stopped breathing for a full two seconds.
A vibrant, explosive blush rushed up her neck, taking over her face. Her blue eyes went wide, and she instinctively took a half-step backward, her hands hovering nervously near her waist.
Over by the glass partition, the temperature instantly dropped by ten degrees. A thin layer of frost began to creep up the wall behind Vespera.
The Ice Queen crossed her arms, her icy gaze locking onto Liam with a mixture of intense suspicion and profound judgment.
"Are you absolutely certain this is a legitimate magical technique?" Vespera asked, her voice dangerously soft. "Because it sounds remarkably like a convenient excuse to grope my priority asset."
"I do not make up magical theory for recreational purposes," Liam replied, unfazed by her murderous aura. He looked back at Liora, his expression softening just a fraction. "It will not hurt. But it will feel incredibly strange. If you are uncomfortable, we do not have to do it."
Liora looked at the sweat on Liam’s brow. She remembered him throwing himself in front of an exploding crystal for her. and the feeling of his shadows wrapping around her spine and pulling her back from the edge of death.
She took a deep breath, forcing her shoulders to relax. "No. It’s okay. I trust you, Liam. What do I need to do?"
"Sit on the mat," Liam instructed quietly.
Liora sat down cross-legged on the padded floor. Liam knelt directly behind her. He could feel the sheer weight of Vespera’s glare burning a hole through the back of his head, but he tuned it out, focusing on the girl in front of him.
"Starting with the cervical node," Liam murmured. He placed his thumbs on the base of Liora’s neck, right where her shoulders met her spine.
He applied a firm, steady pressure, letting a trickle of freezing black mana seep from his skin. Liora let out a sharp, surprised squeak. Her shoulders hiked up to her ears as the cold shadows met her warm skin, but then a wave of profound relaxation washed over her.
The knotted tension in her muscles dissolved.
"Now the lateral nodes," Liam said.
He slid his hands down the sides of her oversized hoodie, slipping his fingers underneath the fabric to press directly against the soft curve of her waist. Liora gasped loudly this time.
Her starlight core flared in response to the intimate contact, and a brilliant silver glow began to leak through her skin, illuminating the dim training room.
Liam activated the ’Yin Siphon’. The raw, unrefined starlight rushed into his hands, traveling up his arms and slamming directly into his depleted mana core. The sheer volume of energy was staggering. It felt like trying to swallow a rushing river.
"Now the femoral nodes," Liam stated, his voice slightly strained from the effort of containing the magic.
He moved around to kneel in front of her. Liora was practically glowing now, her eyes half-closed and her breath coming in shallow little puffs. Liam reached out and placed his hands firmly on the inside of her thighs, right above her knees.
The moment his fingers pressed into the sensitive meridian points, the bottleneck shattered.
A shockwave of silver and black magic exploded outward, throwing a gust of wind across the training floor.
The starlight flooded into Liam’s system with the force of a tidal wave. He grit his teeth, forcefully pushing the energy downward into his own core, forcing the tiny container of his E-Rank magic to stretch, tear, and rebuild itself thicker and denser than before.
Liora let out a soft, melodic moan that she immediately tried to muffle with her hand, her face burning with embarrassment.
The physical sensation of the mana leaving her body was overwhelming, like a massive weight being lifted off her chest combined with a deeply pleasant, electric shiver.
[Ding!]
[Deep Tissue Siphon Successful! Your mana capacity has permanently expanded by 300%.]
[Liora Selene is thoroughly flustered and highly appreciative of your hands. Affection +10 (now 124).]
Liam finally broke the contact, pulling his hands back and sitting back on his heels. He exhaled a long breath of freezing black mist. The dull ache in his muscles was gone, replaced by a thrumming, vibrating sense of absolute power.
His teacup had just become a gallon jug.
He looked over at the observation deck.
Vespera was staring at the floor. The entire left side of the training room was encased in solid ice. She had unconsciously frozen the room out of pure, unadulterated frustration while watching the highly intimate exchange.
She noticed Liam looking at her, forcefully cleared her throat, and immediately turned her back.
"Your capacity seems adequate now," Vespera snapped without looking at him. "Go take a shower. You smell terrible. We will discuss your gear after dinner."
As the Ice Queen marched out of the room, Liora finally opened her eyes. She looked at Liam, a tiny, knowing smile playing on her lips despite her bright red cheeks.
"You know," Liora whispered, leaning forward slightly. "I think you broke her brain a little bit."
Liam looked at his hands, feeling the massive surge of power rolling through his veins.
"The Ice Queen will survive. Come on. Let’s get you some water."