The most beautiful, most wonderful part of Clancy’s life turned over in the bed they shared together, let off a crooked squeak. Turning back over again, afterwards, still snoring softly.

Clancy being a proper gentleman pretended to neither hear, nor smell it, as he’d done for the last ten plus years, since they’d gotten to that level of comfort with each other. Whether  they were living in cult barracks, or in a laboratory holding cell, or in the wild unknown lands of a monochrome world.

He got out of bed soon after, his cell phone alarm clock announcing the end of their month off from the obligations and drudgery of the real world.

Their vacation was over, but looking at how relaxed he felt, and how at ease she looked, her skin still glowing from her last feeding, he decided that he wouldn’t drag his feet too long till finally taking her on their next one.

Sometimes working too hard was counter-intuitive, like exercising a muscle into exhaustion and then failing to let it rest. Similarly, in the time that they’d been together not rushing about trying to make ends meet, they’d been able to raise their cultivation till they both in the eighth level of the Spiral realm. Just one away from the Palace Realm.

A tremendous amount of progress, that for Clancy, was a tremendous amount of fun to get to.

The jump in power filling his body with enough raw esoteric energy that it felt like he was on cusp of touching something that had been out of reach before. His handle on the flow of magical energy in his surroundings more sure than it had ever been before.

His body’s unique traits making his blood even more robust and powerful. Making it feel like he could bend steel bars with just his fingers. Making it feel like he could be reduced to a pile of bleeding meat and so long as his head was intact he’d been back in action before the sun had set.

The rise in their cultivation was both good and bad, since that meant that Anne’s feedings would help her more, and count for more. Unfortunately, it also meant that he’d need more to come back when she almost killed him with the feeding.

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The growth in her power assuring that she still took the same portion of his vitality with each feeding. Leaving Clancy in a near dead state.

Right off the top of his head, Clancy knew, that the most affordable restorative serums whose efficacy were high enough to still affect him, were all a minimum magnitude of five-to-ten times more expensive than Amrita-9.

Which meant would be an even bigger concern from now on. However, Clancy, had decided to look on this positively, cultivation and growing as a sorcerer, were like mountain climbing. Things naturally got steeper, and more difficult the higher you went, but that was just part of making progress. Four ranks in four weeks time, was definitely making progress. A monstrous and unprecedented level of progress that had Clancy feeling more sure of the likelihood of him, and his lover actually surviving this whole mess.

With that cheery thought, he bathed, and dressed, getting ready to meet the day. Leaving a hot pot of coffee in the coffee machine, and a plate of freshly made waffles with cream and whipped sugar, for Anne to wake up to.

*****

Clancy drove over to the city of Fontaine’s Foundation Offices. Once he was inside the build he headed up to the third floor for the first time, not sure what to expect.

A few butterflies flew around in his stomach, making him wonder if this was what it’d be like to have had to meet new people in primary school, had he ever gone to normal primary school and not just spent his younger days being taught everything that the cult and his father had thought a future god would need to know.

Instead of the big liquid-crystal request wall, and queues, that were on the lower floors there were desks, with people sitting in them. Desks with two sets of placards, one belonging to the owner of the desk, the Foundation’s Administrative Coordinator, the so-called clerics of the Prospero Foundation, and one belonging to the field agent that the cleric was assigned to work with.

Clancy’s Cleric was a woman with mousy, young, woman with wispy red hair, and glasses. Looking stressed and nervous at the same time.

“Hi…” said Clancy. Giving her a wide smile, while proffering his hand. Determined to make a good impression.

“Hiee!?...I, uh...I mean...Hi, good morning how are you? Mr….Ambrose.” said the excitable woman. Stopping mid-way through to glance at the other placard on the desk.

“Good morning….Ms.Webber.”  said Clancy. Taking at a look at “her” placard, and then waggling his eyebrows to make light of the act. Hoping to cut the thick tension they were both feeling with some humor.

The woman just flushed. Which made Clancy unsure whether it worked. By his reckoning he’d either just embarrassed her, or pissed her off, which was a fail either way.

“Er...right. Well, please sit down… and we can...uh...we can get things started.” said the cleric. Shifting things around on her desk till there was only single stack of folders left.

With the topmost folder being taken off the stack for Clancy to read through, while she explained how things would work now that he was serving as directly contracted agent for the Foundation.