"I don't think I've rendered enough service to warrant all this. So, what do you want in exchange?" A sultry smile played on Athalia's lips, her tone suggestive even as she looked up at him with unhidden desire.Had Greg been alone, he couldn't say that he wouldn't have been tempted by the little minx. She, however, was occupying one of three beds inside this mana acclimation chamber. Unlike his mother and sister along with Lothar who could undergo his teacher's new awakening method, Calyn, Athalia, and Reina had been forced to share a room. Working with Olivia, his teacher had inscribed the floor, walls, and ceiling of the room with a formation whose only purpose was to drain mana from the space within. Naturally, his teacher had control of the formation linked to herself which allowed her to regulate how much mana the three were exposed to.In the beginning, almost every bit of mana inside the room was expunged as the healer tried to match the conditions inside the room to what they

Though he wasn't holding his breath, Greg believed that if the powerhouses of this city actually took time to think it through, they'd see that he was actually an ally. Even if one didn't consider the fact that he was their only hope of ever escaping the black zone, Ssalythia was enough of a reason for them to help him. Greg had seen the look on the faces of the powerhouses when they became aware of her presence. What he'd seen there wasn't loyalty or any such thing. Abject terror, pure and absolute. That's what had been on their faces. They didn't serve her because she was a good leader or because they respected her. They all bent the knee and bowed their heads because they recognized that they were lambs before a tiger. While the black zone was up, they had no hope of ever getting away from her. But once it was down, they could disperse in whichever direction they wished to escape her influence. The best part was that the world serpent wouldn't care. It wasn't like she was intereste

The healer was right, the second issue was much less daunting than the first. In fact, Greg found himself not caring in the least what schools of magic either his mother or sister ended up in. So long as they made it out the other end of this process safely, then he'd be more than happy. It took a long while of contemplation before Greg could bring himself to ask. "What is the good news?" "Well, outside of this black zone where the mana concentration is normal, it would have been almost impossible to awaken them. Their body's lack of affinity with mana would have made it an uphill climb to try to saturate them with it. Nine in ten parts of what we put in them would have almost immediately been lost to the environment as their bodies rejected it. In this black zone, however, their bodies are actually the only places that are low in mana compared to the outside world, making it extremely difficult for their bodies to expunge the mana outside of them, despite their low affinity. Not on

"Rubbish!... don't just draw with your hand, infuse your will into the line!... What is this?... Are you even listening to anything I'm saying?... Your will, damn it! Use it!... There is more will in a pube on my left nut than you have in that rune... Pathetic!" Greg couldn't help but wince internally at the invective-laden tirade that Morpheus went into every time his teacher attempted to follow the instructions he had laid out for her. The deity had taken the stereotypical form of a drill sergeant from the army, complete with the campaign hat. Rather than a normal-sized man, however, the deity had taken a miniaturized form. Greg estimated that the top of Morpheus' head would only come up to just a little above his knees if he were to stand. Both he and his teacher were seated, however, so the little man was at the perfect height to not only assess the rune the healer was weaving in the air, but also to throw every possible insult he could think of to convey his displeasure at the r

Greg fought the urge to roll his eyes, even as he turned his gaze back to his teacher. Morpheus had, for whatever reason, chosen to take the approach of the ever-unimpressed master. Greg was willing to bet both his thumbs that there were fewer than ten other seventh-tier mages who would have grasped as much as his teacher had in just a single month. Creating runes that tapped into the laws associated with the concepts they represented might have seemed a straightforward thing to do. That, however, was only if one didn't consider the fact that most people only grasped a few laws and were completely incapable of touching on those that they didn't comprehend. In a single month, the deity had taught his teacher how to tap into laws that she had no mastery over, all without corrupting herself with them. Even more impressive was the fact that his teacher had actually understood and applied what she was being taught. "He's not impressed, is he?" His teacher's voice broke through the silenc