As we walk, I think about the combat effectiveness of my companion, so far she has only acted as a tagalong. Though she did look after my wound when I lost consciousness and I can not blame her for not fighting in the previous battle as she did not even get the chance thanks to my effort but I have doubts she will be able to kill in battle. If she is going to stay with me we need to maximize her combat capability. I leave the matter of her being too kind for now and think about other ways for her to improve her combat ability. I take a better look at her robe and staff. I see that they have minor enchantments and they do not have any stealth enchantments. She sees me observing her and gives me a questioning look. I walk infront of her, my face centimeters away from hers and say "You are beautiful." before she gets uncomfortable with me so close. She enters bashful mode and does not even the absence of her staff.
I can confirm there is an enchantment here, for... improving structural strength, auto repair and the last ones function takes me a few seconds to understand, it is interesting enchantment for a inner mana conduit. My conclusion is that this things enchantments are an utter 'masterwork' of elven craftsmanship but I can not yet comment on the mana conduit enchantment as I have yet to fully understand its functions. Furthermore I have just realised how well I am able to feel the enchantments intent so are all mages able to do so or is the readers knowledge required to be at a higher level than that was put into the intent. A voice interrupts my thought process.
"Hey give that back! Did you call me beautiful to steal my staff?!"
Yet again I look into her eyes and say: "Yes, you are still beautiful." She goes back into her own world again as I walk off with her staff, I am already erasing the intent of the previous enchantments. From what I can tell the mana conduit enchantment allows the caster to cast spells not directly from their body, so it is useful when casting dangerous spells like fire. The staff also seems to combine the usage of inner charged mana and charged mana stored in the staff to improve spell efficiency. I enchant the staff using my knowledge with structural strength, auto repair functions, fix the horrible mana storage, add a concealing effect and add my own newly created mana conduit which will use very little inner charged mana if charged mana is available in the staff as it will transfer the intent from the casters inner mana onto the stored charged mana, this will make the efficiency skyrocket. Finally I add my ownership protection enchantment like on my weapons and an activation based transmitter or in other words a radio beacon. Ah, I almost forgot the conceal enchantment. After she breaks out of her daze she runs after me. I did all of this using a sub surface micro enchanting technique so she should not notice anything wrong judging by the surface inscriptions.
"What are you doing to my staff!"
"I am just studying the elven 'masterwork' of this fine staff." I hand her back the staff.
"I understand you are a talented enchanter but this staff was made by a renowned rank 2 enchanter! It was a gift for my birthday." Well, that guy is either a shitty enchanter or he does not like you. She proceeds to test out the magic capabilities of the staff, as the staff has yet to absorb mana the magic efficiency enchant should not yet kick in fully so I do not think she will feel a difference. She calms down but is still eyeing me suspiciously. "Don't do that again!" I am already walking away thinking on about how to get a hold of her clothes, for obvious reasons.
"What? Call you beautiful?"
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Aelynthi stammers as she says "Yes! Do not make fun of me!"
"Do you always react like this to guys calling you beautiful or is it just me?"
Aelynthi does not know how to respond to my words and proceeds with the most logical path of decision. Beat me up. I am not a masochist but I just enjoy the look on her face and her cute antics which are almost like some anime. Wait, if I always get beaten up as I enjoy her reactions won't this make an association between pain and joy in my mind? Alright, no more teasing... Nevermind, creating a spell to remove pain is easier than to forgo teasing her. As that problem is solved, I solve the next, when we find a lake or river and she goes to bathe I will steal her clothes and... promptly return them after studying their enchantments but how will I mask my enchantments on the robe? The solution: weave them in within the cloth using my favorite material, carbon nanotubes. I will need to prepare some beforehand.
We are lucky to find a stream the next day, there is a deep enough part for a person to bath. I say to Aelynthi: "Tomorrow morning I will take bath here, it is good for the skin." and go on setting up camp not too far away. Unfortunately she does not take the bait. We go to sleep but I stay awake, after 10 minutes she leaves towards the stream. I watch her leaving on my camera, my security core alarms me of a registered signature exiting the area which I turn off. Shortly I leave the camp to follow her with my combat overlay on.
The plan so far is going good. She starts undressing, I am momentarily stunned at the display before me. I snap out of it when she enters the water, next I creep up and steal her robe that she had left on a tree branch. I do not touch her undergarments as that is not important for the objective. I leave the vicinity and start studying the enchantment. The first thing I notice is that the material is excellent, some kind of densely woven silk. The enchantments are subpar again with something to improve slashing resistance, an auto repair function and horrible mana storage. As I had time to prepare, better said over prepare as I have sheets of CNTW with me I decide to reinforce her robe. The necessary mana control and mana usage makes me sweat as I need to do this in an acceptable time period of 10 minutes. I redo the enchantments in a similar way to my current armor as I walk back to place the robe where I left it. I stop in my tracks when I hear a scream, I do not understand the content but I know the source and I have no choice but to continue going back. I see a head glaring at me from the water, I place her clothes on the tree branch and say: "I took the liberty of washing your clothes." and walk off. She did not say a word when she returned and we fell asleep in separate rooms of the rock tent.
The next morning just before sun rise I am woken up by my security core that informs me: a registered signature is leaving the camp. I get up quickly, find a rock lined with intent that says: 'Goodbye'. I run around packing my things and set off after her. I am not going after her to get her back, no such thing. All of my actions so far have been to get rid of her and that will not change for the foreseeable future. I am going to escort her back to the elven territory, due to the contract, due to the fact she is royalty. It is definitely not because I am worried about her and most definitely not because I have already planned out to spend my free time by teasing her.
I keep a minimal distance of about 500 meters from her. So far she has shown no indication of knowing that I am here. Even though this is not an effective use of my time, my mind is never idle. Along the way I made a directional security camera to aim at her so I can sleep soundly and not worry about her leaving or being in danger. She sleeps in trees with minor tree shaping to stop herself from falling. I note her casting a spell, before going to sleep, to investigate later. Sleeping while tied to a tree on its branches probably is not the most comfortable sleeping method but at least she is sleeping. She has most likely figured out that I have modified the enchantment on her staff after casting that spell, but that is not important.
A day before entering elven territory I spot 5 heat signatures 200 meters from her off to the side and the bad news is that they are heading towards her.