Titania Samson. The elusive leader of Samson Corporation. A mentalist who claimed her talent was to see numerical information about people who talked to her.

After Amanda told him the reason why everybody remained deathly silent while in her presence was "classified information", Robert dedicated a lot of time to thinking about it and piecing the puzzle parts. Which was fine because Robert had nothing if not time.

The claim about the nature of her talent was probably bullshit. People often refrain from talking about their talents and knowing the talent of a four-star was a huge deal. The less your enemies knew about you, the better. And the restriction of having to talk to them also didn't make sense. That's not how talents usually work.

Evidence pointed out that it could be a spirit ability. But unique abilities needed to be verbally called. Unless she could do that without letting people hear her calling it. Titania was a mentalist and a person with unlimited resources. Something to muffle the sound of a unique ability evocation wasn't impossible to make.

Robert believed the last puzzle piece would appear during this meeting. If it wasn't a talent, his tower of iron will would grant him some degree of protection. He had already invested more than two decades into this tempering. In fact, the three abilities were long overdue an upgrade but he didn't find a compatible concept. Yet.

The door to Titania's office opened. Gerome, the three-star butler, came out.

"Mr. Blaze, thank you for waiting. Mrs. Samson will see you now."

It was about time. They only made him wait three hours. But if Robert had to answer what his biggest virtue was, he would answer "patience".

*

*

Titania studied him for a few minutes.

"Mr. Robert Blaze. Congratulations on your successful expedition. What depth did you reach again?"

He stared at her. The question was a trap to make him speak. Time to test his theory.

"Four before the Slime Cavens incident, eight after that as the paths changed."

He felt a pressure on his mental palace as the technique’s shell drained some essence. Then his tower of iron will also react.

“Did you have sex with Amanda?” Titania asked with a smirk.

“What? No!” Robert protested.

“True,” Gerome said.

“Second or third base?” Titania guessed with a wink.

“No way.” Robert shook his arms vehemently.

“Saw her naked at least?”

“Please stop.”

“Aww, come on!” Titania protested with a frown. “You can tell me that two healthy youngsters were the only people they saw – the masked weirdo doesn’t count – and nothing happened. You must’ve at least kissed!”

“She kissed me. Once.”

“Gerome, what is wrong with men these days?”

“That’s absolutely despicable, ma’am.”

Robert firmly believed he was being hazed. She couldn’t be getting the answers from his mind because he could feel his tower of iron will hadn’t yet faltered. Fortunately for him, Titania abandoned that line of questioning before it was too late.

"What was the name of the deepest realm?"

"Waterlogged Rainforest."

The pressure redoubled. Robert cycled his essence through the shells of his three Mental tempering techniques.

"Interesting," Titania said without a hint of irritation.

The pressure vanished.

"You, Mr. Blaze is either a…" she paused and laughed. "Oh, I figured out how you're cheating. You used your time in that liminal void of yours to temper. Amazing."

When Titania said "amazing", Gerome's eyebrows twitched as he stared at Robert for one and a half seconds. He refocused his gaze on the far wall immediately after that.

Smiling, Titania asked. "How many years did you invest in it?"

"I beg your pardon?"

No pressure.

"Your mental palace!" She said with a hint of irritation.

So far, Robert believed all these emotions were staged. Except for the "amazing" because it drew a reaction from Gerome.

"Honestly? No idea. Less than three decades, more than two."

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"Liar!" She accused. "What's the time dilation in your mental palace?"

He really didn't want to answer but he also wanted to get out alive and on good terms with the Samson matriarch.

"A bit over three times."

She cackled. "That's seven decades of tempering!" Titania said with an accusatorial finger. "Gerome, how long did they stay away?"

"One hundred and seventeen days, ma'am."

“Times ninety-nine? In people’s timekeeping measurements?”

The fact she needed to make that addendum shed some light on their dynamics.

“Thirty-one years, eight months, and seventeen days, ma’am”

“See? You can’t get to three times in only thirty-one years. You’d need at least a hundred years for that.”

Oh, so that’s why she was annoyed. Robert couldn’t help but smirk.

“Explain it to me and I’ll grant you one wish!” She said boastfully.

“Any wish?”

“No, you can’t marry or fuck my great-granddaughter.”

Robert laughed and shook his head. “I don’t want Amanda. It’s something money can buy.”

Titania laughed and shook her head. “Something money can buy? Robert, please be more ambitious. Or better. Stay the way you are. What do you want?”

“Two Realms. The Gravity Slime Caverns and the Puffbloom Islands. They must’ve dropped in value greatly because they each are depth seven and six now. Not to mention both realms are extremely low on Ether.”

“Fine, but I will require your services if the way you reached that heinous time dilation is what I think.”

“What services?”

“A decade of tempering in the liminal void. Only the two of us, alone.”

“I have school to attend. And a person to protect.”

“Not all at once. We have all the time in the world.” She studied him. “I’ll fund some supreme-quality healing for you to counter your aging. Let’s say, a decade over a decade. That works.”

That also kept him bound to Samson for that long. Not that Robert had any intention to quit but..

“Deal. How fast can you get me the deeds to the two realms?”

“You do realize that the government won’t reopen the passage between the slime caverns and Earth, right?”

“I don’t care. In fact, I want it closed.”

If he could find the relevant portals in the Maze Corridors, his access issues were over.

“Now tell.”

“Biological processes are halted in the liminal void. Your only need is sleep, when mentally tired. I spent the best part of these thirty-one years tempering the mental palace, twenty-four hours per day.”

“You lucky bastard. Your talent is the most unfair thing I’ve ever seen. You got a hundred years of tempering in three years.”

No wonder why her unique Mental spell failed, then.

“Which bastion you choose?” She asked.

“Yes.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“Both.”

Titania sighed. “Do you have any intention of betraying this corporation, Robert?”

“None at all. I don’t think I would ever find a better job elsewhere. And as you stated yourself, I don’t have many ambitions. Does this corporation have any intention to betray me?”

“Of course not!” Titania lied.

Robert detected a slight twitch of her eyes.

“You know that going to the liminal void is a huge risk, right?” He asked.

Titania gets filled with a raging energy out of nowhere. It’s like the flip of a switch. Her speech goes from calm and collected to excited and chaotic. Her back curves a little. Her breathing becomes heavier.

“Robert boy. I've been stuck at four stars, ninety-nine percent for fifty years already. I tried everything. I will take any advantage I can if it helps me advance by even a fraction of it. Hells, I would kill you right here and now if it would push me to that last percent point. It won’t, so you’re safe. There’s this funny thing about power. Power can never be given. Power has to be taken. To grow powerful, you must take power from others.

“Some are content with the power they reached but you have no idea what a five-star can do. The power gap between you and me is smaller than between me and the Empress. I’m not happy here. This is my cage. So you want two realms to help me develop my own mental palace in the liminal void. So be it. I would burn half the interspace if that was what it took to advance.”

Something she said struck Robert. Burn half the interspace. Cause absolute destruction to trigger their ascension. Suddenly, what happened in the Gravity Slime Caverns started to make sense. Kill a realm. Gain the last one percent. Would Robert also reach such a point? Where he would cause genocide to advance? Would he consider life so beneath him that killing a planet full of sentient beings would be the same as a kid torching an anthill? It made him sick and dizzy.

Titania wasn’t a person. She was a force of nature, a demon, something otherworldly.

“Then we have a deal,” he said instead of what he really wanted to do.

Dizzy, Robert left the arcology most important room and took the tram. If he was playing cloak and dagger, Titania was on another game board entirely. One where the stakes were completely skewed. He took the tram and went home.

*

*

“Robert! I was looking for you everywhere!” Amanda complained from his living room couch. Freddy sat next to her feet while she petted the two floating furballs.

“I had a meeting with the boss,” Robert replied with an exhausted sigh and a finger pointing up.

“Granny?” Amanda asked, gaining a nod in return. “What did she ask you?”

“I’m not comfortable disclosing that. But I got out alive, so that’s good.”

Amanda studied his face. “Tell me. Did she ask about us?”

Robert facepalmed and then rubbed his face. “She did. In the most straightforward way possible. ‘Did you fuck my great-granddaughter’?” He made an impression.

Amanda blushed and looked away. Toward the bedroom. She immediately pulled her head to look at the puffblooms on her lap.

“At least Gerome took my side on that part,” Robert said. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. Your granny, she's… something.”

“Something? She’s a lot of somethings, alright. But yes. What else did you talk about?”

He told her about her deal to help her foster her own mental palace tempering in exchange for the two realms.

Amanda smirked. “Look at you, a real estate mogul… What do you intend to do with these realms?”

“Turn them into my own sanctum. The passage from Earth is closed, I intend to transform that abandoned city into my… fortress of solitude?”

“Okay?”

“Also, the speed with which the Slime Caverns are recovering is quite fast. I think I’ll be able to harvest a lot of slime cores there.”

“That won’t work, no, no!” Amanda said as she shook her head. “You need to make people work for you. What if you can harvest a thousand cores per day? It is inconsequential. You need to scale your operation.”

She didn’t show this side of hers often. Amanda was being groomed to become the next matriarch since she was old enough to remember stuff. What she said was basic business acumen but to Robert, it seemed she was already calculating costs, logistics, and profit margins.

Robert went to sit next to her. Amanda turned to face him.

“It will be some time before we need to worry about that,” Amanda said, already inserting herself into his business. “The realms aren’t going anywhere. How are you doing?”

“I’m fine. What about you?”

“I visited our mental health specialist. She has a talent that helps people unravel their stressful feelings and thoughts. It’s quite therapeutic. Say, do you have any appointments for today?”

“I was supposed to report at the training facility but that was only if you didn’t show up. Now that you are here, I only need to send a message downstairs letting them know I’m acting as your bodyguard.”

“Cool!” Amanda sighed. “I’m going shopping. Buy some things, crank the gears of economy, vent some stress. Wanna come with me?”

“I’m contractually obligated to go with you, Amanda,” Robert replied in the wrong way.

“Spoilsport.”

[BOOK 2 END. 131,630 WORDS]