Arnold was currently walking next to Rafaela and Lyra. They were now marching up the long stairway that led to the basement and lab. Mr. Merchant said that he'll meet them in the castle's reception room.

He recalled what Lyra told him earlier.

-“Aether is a dangerous power to wield. I’ve tested it myself during the early days of experimenting with homunculi and the result has always been their skin melting off their bones or their bodies shutting down randomly.”

When he asked how she was able to test Aether on her homunculi, she replied:

-“Aether exists in all livings beings, I’m sure you know that already. Homunculi are human just like you and are born with this energy inside their bodies. The only thing they lack is a soul. So long as a living thing has lifeforce, it will have Aether. A plant, a bird, a critter—all of them possess this energy. But not just any creature can harness the power like aura users can use aura or Ki users can wield Ki. When kept inside your body, it is harmless, but when forced out using the body as a vessel, it becomes an unstoppable force that will never stop growing. That’s what I did—I forced Aether out of their bodies as a means to strengthen them and the result have never been satisfying during early stages.”

She then said: “I’ve never attempted to test it again so I can’t give you a straight answer whether it can be used in the third stage.”

She probably didn’t want to use her children as lab rats again, which Arnold could understand. He looked down at his hands which was indistinguishable from a sheltered noble girl yet held considerably more power than his own body.

If he could harness Aether without repercussions, then he might be able to finish his journey without any more trouble. He could recall the merchant telling him about two martial artist clans who were fighting over the martial book so it was inevitable that he’ll fight them.

“Do you want to eat something before you depart?” Lyra asked after they left the basement floor. They were now walking down a marbled hallway. This interior was no different from the Berkley castle’s interior.

Not just the sheer size of the castle, but the decorations, armors standing in the hallways and furniture was the same as what you’d find in a noble’s household.

Are all the disciples this wealthy?

“I’m not hungry right now.” Arnold replied bluntly.

“Hmm, I see.”

“I’ll pack you some food for the road.” Rafaela said from beside him, “It’s all I can do since I’ll be useless now that my powers are unstable…”

Right, the entire point of having her travel with him was to heal and buff him. She’s basically useless to him now.

Arnold merely nodded. There was no reason to push that conversation any further.

He looked at her, noticing she was still carrying his helmet.

She kept the promise, he thought to himself. His memory was quite hazy from recent events but he could recall making her promise him to return the helmet if he found her again.

“!” Rafaela suddenly made eye contact with him but quickly looked away, her droopy ears wiggling up and down.

Arnold spoke to Lyra as they walked up the stairs to the second floor, “Where are the other angels? This place looks completely abandoned.”

“I ordered them to stay in their rooms. Curiosity will get the best of them and they’ll sneak into my lab to… Forget I said anything.”

‘To do what!?’

Although he wanted to find out what they’d want to do with a corpse, he decided to let it go since it was best to leave it up to Lyra to keep an eye on his body. But couldn’t she put a blanket on his body at least…? Everything besides his lower region was bare for the whole world to see.

“Where are we headed?” he asked.

“Rafaela brought your equipment to her room since we couldn’t just let it lay around in the lab. Normally an angel wouldn’t have her own room without sharing it with others but I decided to let her have her own space away from others. I know she needs it, especially now.”

“Wait, what do you mean by equipment?”

It was true that he was wearing Gergois and had Luxtivin on his waist but shouldn’t they have disappeared right after he died?

“Besides your magic bag, there was a sword and full set of armor on your person. According to the skeleton, at least.”

They arrived at a room on the second floor that was on the far end of the hallway. Rafaela quickly opened it, revealing what Lyra was talking about. Well, the armor wasn’t here but the sword was leaning against the wall while still in its sheath.

Arnold slowly approached the weapon—his soul weapon.

He could feel a strange sensation coming from the sword when he touched its hilt.

It suddenly vanished right out of its sheath and return into his body. The feeling that accompanied it felt the exact same as when he did it before in his old body.

“Hm, despite being a weapon constructed with your raw aura, it can still be stored within an unfamiliar body. You must share a strong bond with it.”

Arnold nodded at Lyra’s words, recalling the day he asked Sebas to teach him martial arts and help him harness the power of soul weapons. That was the same day he awoke from a coma after almost being assassinated again for the fourth time.

He vowed from that day onwards that he’ll use his power to kill those who attempt to take his life.

“It’s not the same as it used to be but it’s still my sword.”

The reason he could still pull it within his body was probably due to the fact that it still had some aura left from the last time he used it. This wouldn’t serve as an issue even if he takes it into battle since he had no way to use aura anymore.

“I’ll leave you two now.” Lyra approached the door, “Meet me downstairs in the reception room once you’re done with your preparations. You still haven’t told me where you’re going after this.”

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“Yes. Thank you for your help so far.” Arnold bowed.

“Mm.” with that, Lyra left the two of them alone in the room.

Arnold rummaged through his magic bag and pulled out all the clothes he brought along. As you would expect, all the clothes looked too big for him since his old body is quite tall and muscular.

Arnold then pulled out the sack of magic items he bought from the merchant on their first meeting, all of which could come in handy:

Wizard’s Little Finger—As mentioned before, it’ll come in handy when he wants to cast spells from a distance. The magic item’s purpose is to amplify the attack power of spells. Even a simple fireball can become deadly. Since he had the all-purpose magic scrolls—made by the seller himself—he could use both items in unison.

Reflection Knight Shield(A). It can reflect 50% damage of attacks from enemies lower levelled than the user or 20% damage of attacks from enemies high levelled than the user. He has no idea what build he could make with this body or if it was similar to his other body so using this shield during combat is a good idea.

Ring of Fortress. The magic item allows its user to allocate their attack power to defense for a limited amount of time. It’s a D-rank magic item so the duration was fairly short (5 minutes). Unless he’s facing someone on his level, using this to allocate STR to DEF would be a waste of time since his defense is already so high (which is balanced for a knight or warrior at level 90).

[Call of Body] earrings (×2). The magic item recovers its wearer’s stamina by an increase of 50% the normal speed. It also increases agility by 5 points. He will definitely wear these to help him when using [Speed of Sound].

Great Borati Chime. A magic item catalyst that allows regular mages to use divine spells. This is the only magic item that he’d used until now since it saved him from using most of his healing potions.

He suddenly felt a piece of paper inside the magic bag, so he swiftly pulled it out.

‘This is…’ he looked at the black page that gave off an ominous black mana.

‘That’s right, I haven’t used this until now. Maybe this can help me in the fights to come so I’ll use this as a last resort.’

Just when he rolled the paper up, tied a ribbon around it and put it away, Rafaela’s arms suddenly wrapped around his body. He ignored her and continued rummaging through his stuff to check what he had left and what he needed for his journey.

He felt Rafaela’s hot breath in his neck, making him jolt. She began sucking on his nape and putting her hands inside the dress.

Her fingers found his nipples and rubbed them gently.

“Stop… it… I’m busy…” feeling her pinching this body’s nipples made him stifle a moan. What the hell? Is it supposed to feel this tingly?

“….”

Rafaela began kneading his breast with one hand and lifted his dress with her other hand, exposing his bare butt that had no underwear covering it. She suddenly pulled away and knelt down, pushing him forward gently until he leaned on the table.

“What are you…”

He felt himself being spread open from the backdoor. Something invaded him from the back, making him stand on the tips of his toes.

“Urkkk.” he didn’t realize it before but Elves have insanely long tongues. Rafaela’s tongue went so deep that it slithered past his prostate, which he also had for some reason now…

Thinking about how this biology works will only give him a headache so he’ll just go along with it. He can’t guarantee he won’t get erect if he ends up in a bathhouse with other women though.

Rafaela fondled his testicles with one hand, cupped in her palm, while the other grabbed his erect member.

She continued like that for a few minutes and suddenly got more aggressive in stroking his member, which didn’t exactly feel pleasant when done so roughly.

"You’ww not ffiniwing? Am I noth doing a gooth jawg?"

“Eek!” Arnold strained his lower body. “Take your tongue out before you speak!” every movement of her oddly strong tongue could be felt, sending pleasure up his spine. There’s no way humans feel this much pleasure, whether male or female. Maybe this level of sensitivity is exclusive to homunculi?

She pulled her tongue out, the sudden action making him clench his insides. a feeling of emptiness loomed.

Before he could say anything, she grabbed his hand and pulled him to the bed. He was then pushed onto the bed, his dress pushed up by his erection.

Rafaela slowly pulled his dress over his member, freezing in place.

She took peeks of his face as she hesitantly put her hands on it.

“…What’s wrong?”

“Uhm… You have such a cute face but this thing is attached to your body…” She wiggled it. It was as hard as rock.

“….”

True, no one would expect a girl as cute as the body he was inhabiting had such an ominous thing attached to her body. It was full of veins and had a dark pigmentation that made it look “menacing”, not to mention the size once fully erect.

“…Just forget about it and continue…”

Rafaela made a small smile and put both hands on his member again and slowly began stroking. The head popped out when she stroked all the way to the base. Transparent liquid leaked out like a leaking tap, which Rafaela slowly licked up like a small kitten drinking milk. She moved her tongue around the head, covering it in both saliva and the transparent liquid.

Her hands didn’t stop despite those movements. She then used a hand to lift up his sack, revealing something peculiar underneath—this body’s original genitals.

Just as that jack-of-all-trades said, it was still there. What was the name for this type of body again? It was on the tip of his tongue and was quite popular back on Earth in “certain lewd” mediums.

“Wait, what are you doing…?” Arnold, who was already feeling the pleasure little by little felt what she was doing. She suddenly pushed him back onto the bed with his legs raised high, exposing all his privates to the world.

“R-Rafaela!” a high-pitched voice came out of him, which suited his cute appearance.

This was a position he was never put in before. It’s way too embarrassing for a man to lay down like this in missionary position.

He could feel his lips being separated. Cold air went into his body from that place, making him shiver.

Arnold could hear a “shlick, shlick” sound coming somewhere. He looked at Rafaela after lifting his upper body and noticed one of her hands was between her legs. He could hear her stifled moans as her hand moved faster before a squirting sound reached his ears.

“….”

He suddenly felt two fingers go inside him making him let out a shameful “kyaak!”.

Rafaela began licking the bean that had sprouted from its hiding place while stroking Arnold—using the hand wet with her own juices as lube—and fingering him with the other. It seems she was just getting herself ready for the inevitable insertion later. She got wet surprisingly quick…

Her fingers scraped and poked his walls. The mess made from “his” love juices and Rafaela’s saliva traveled down to his anus.

“Guhk!”

The pleasure made his mind go blank, and saliva leaked from his mouth. His delicate toes curled subconsciously as he strained his lower body, pushing out even more liquid and drenching the floor and bed sheets. Rafaela inserted another finger, using her index and right ring finger to spread him open and using her middle finger to scraped the top of his walls but this time deeper inside.

Where the hell did she learn this from? Is she secretly in bed with other women?

He could barely form a coherent thought from the immense pleasure that assaulted his senses. He had no idea that homunculi feel pleasure as well. Each scrape, rub, and lick felt like electricity assaulting his senses and shocking him with pleasure. He raised his hips instinctively when Rafaela hit his weak spots. Small puddles had already formed on the bed and floor from his incessant squirting.

“!” with a final moan, he could hear gushing liquid, which hit Rafaela right in the face. His semen also shot into the air.

Rafaela quickly put his penis inside her mouth and licked the area behind the head while he was still ejaculating. Her cheeks filled up like a chipmunk’s before she pulled him out of her mouth, some strings of semen shooting right onto her face.

She gargled his semen in her mouth before swallowing with a big gulp. Wasting no time to let him get out of his confused state, she climbed on top of him while breathing hoarsely.

Arnold’s legs were forced behind his ears while Rafaela straddled him and inserted his sensitive penis inside herself.

“Ahnnn~” her sweet moan filled the room, along with the sound of skin slapping skin.

Rafaela bent down and whispered in his ear, “Make me forget about my life again, just like our first night.”

Unlike her elegant self, her voice was mixed with coyness and had a seductive tone to it.

He looked up at her eyes. It almost seemed like hearts had formed in her pupils with the way she was looking at him.

“Rafaela—"

Before Arnold could say anything back, she stuffed her bare breasts in his face with a giggle. How that was humanly possible in their current position was best left up to imagination.

The two of them continued like that for several hours, with Rafaela always taking the lead…