It felt like Adrest had only just closed his eyes, then Alissa was gently shaking his shoulder and in a singsong voice trying to wake him up.

“Adrest wake up, Aaadddyy, if you don’t get up soon, I’ll give you a little shock.”

Adrest sat up quickly at the threat and waved the troublemaker off.

“I’m up, I’m up.”

Alissa giggled while taking a seat on the bed near against the still half laying down Adrest.

“Now that the hard part’s done and the runes are carved out, I just need your spacial mana again. It’ll be a lot more than last time and might feel uncomfortable, but bear with it.”

She brought the core to Adrest’s view, and every square inch was covered in small flowing script that made his head hurt when he tried studying it for too long.

As his head started to pound, Alissa seemed to sense it because a small, warm hand covered his eyes at that same moment and Adrest could hear Alissa on the other side.

“That’s enough for now, these circles are still too high level for even a peak C rank, let alone a peak D rank.”

She paused as Adrest felt the weight shifting on the mattress and was startled to hear her voice so close to his ear. She gently continued,

“There are five circles intertwined around the core, with another four supplemental circles for support. I’m not bragging when I say it’ll be S rank when I activate it. Only those who have gone past the S rank will be able to peak here again.”

Adrest got chills at the implication of her words, being able to keep out even S rank senses was incredible. It had to be known that there were only a few thousand of those known in the current continent and nearby islands. Adrest knew that Alissa had put a lot more into this than she made it seem.

“Thank you, Alissa.”

Holding her position, she whispered, “Wait until it’s done to thank me. I lied a little earlier. Because the core is at such a high level, I’ll need to use every last drop of spacial mana you have and then some. And I’ll ignite some of your blood to raise its level as its leaving you.”

Adrest felt the warm breath in his ear, but still went cold at the description.

“Burn my blood?”

Alissa used her other hand to stroke his head reassuringly, like she often did for Belle.

“I’ll give you a pill that will leave you weak for a few days, you will grow by a full rank for 3 or so hours. Then, as the mana is being guided out of your body, I’ll wrap it in your blood and use lightning magic to burn your blood fusing the pure essence from it into the strand of spacial mana to forcefully raise its power. I’m sorry but high-level sources of spacial mana are really really rare, I don’t have any here, and I can’t go home to get any.”

Adrest shivered at the painful sounding process but knew that it had to be done, especially as Alissa had already done the hard work and all he had to do was sit there and grit his teeth for a few hours.

“It’s fine Alissa, I’m not afraid of a little pain, if I were you’d have killed me by now.”

There was light again as Alissa shifted her target to his nose, which she pinched and shook mercilessly.

Happy with her revenge, Alissa brought the large core closer to the bed and sat up straight before turning to him. She waved a purple and black speckled pill appeared in her hand.

“This is a Rampaging Lily pill. It strengthens you by a full rank temporarily and provides a boost up to A rank. It was a gift from a senior I met years ago. It’s not helpful to me anymore but perfect for you.”

Adrest took the offered pill and looked closely at its shell, taking in a calming earthy scent, that vitalized his whole body. At Alissa’s instruction he popped it in his mouth and swallowed it whole. As soon as it fell in his stomach, dark purple veins slowly spread out from near his navel. To Adrest they felt icy cold but the areas they covered became invigorated and many times stronger.

“Good. Now put your hands on the core and put this in your mouth.”

Alissa waved a familiar wind barrier around the bed and handed Adrest a slab of black leather. He was confused and looked to her for an explanation.

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“I don’t want you to accidentally bite a chunk of your tongue off later, and it will help you stay focused on your mana. You're technically at peak C rank, so use your senses to learn more about your spacial mana, maybe it’ll even help you learn how to use it.”

It made sense to Adrest, so he did as instructed and soon nodded to Alissa. They waited for the spiderwebs of black veins to fully cover his body and felt Adrest was feeling unstoppable. Sadly, his thoughts of power were soon stopped when a warm and comfortable weight settled in his lap. He saw the girl on him was blushing even on the back of her neck.

Shyly, she explained, “I’ll have to keep my hands on yours and the crystal the whole time, and I can’t let your hands shift either. I’m really sorry about this next part Ady, but I can’t stop once we start, or it’ll explode. So, no matter what you say I’ll have to keep going to the end.”

Adrest took the leather from his mouth and gave the woman on him a quick hug, “I’ll be alright, take as much as you need.”

He was soon in position and Alissa’s hands interlocked with his on the core, not allowing them to shift even a millimeter. Then, he felt a small shock at Alissa’s mana entering his body and surrounding his core as he lowered any and all resistance to her.

A large bundle of near-invisible strands of mana were taken from his enlarged core, and soon entered his right arm towards the floating gem. He saw deep purple mana surround it with a thick layer of blood before his mind went blank. Adrest made a deep imprint of his teeth in the leather, thankful for its existence now. It felt like his arm had been blown up from the inside out, and an uncomfortable stinging through his entire arm.

“I’m sorry, I’ll work as fast as I can.” Alissa promised him, not taking any joy in this task.

The next 3 hours were a losing battle for Adrest, he had been able to focus through the pain for the first hour and learn more about his own mana, feeling like he was close to being able to manipulate it on his own. But the other two had been a fight just to stay conscious. Every time his blood was used as fuel, the stinging and stabbing pain in his arms got worse. It currently felt like they were burning in an icy hot hell.

But soon, the large core lit up with deep blue intertwined with black, purple, red, and even some green bits of script rotating endlessly through the core, taking on a life of their own. The might it now radiated intimidated the near delirious Adrest, sending a shiver down his spine.

He couldn’t look away from the light, too intimidated and it was like staring into the sun, and again as his eyes started stinging Adrest was pushed over on his back with a small hand covering his eyes, the warm sensation and darkness slowly relaxing him.

As hair draped on Adrest’s nose, he felt soft lips, just barely tickling his ear as Alissa sweetly whispered. “You really don’t learn, do you? I’ll let it go this time since you did so well. It’s time for you to sleep for a bit now though, the pill is wearing off and I used almost half your blood. Thank you Ady, here’s a little reward.”

He felt a comfortable heat spread from the fair hand on his eyes, and was quickly slipping off to sleep. But before he succumbed, Adrest felt a pair of incredibly soft lips kiss his cheek.

Making sure Adrest was completely asleep, Alissa carefully maneuvered off the bed and her cheeks were dusted pink as she watched the young man rest, his chest rising slowly and evenly. She smiled and used a finger to touch the lips that had just given away her first kiss. It was an impulse, but Alissa didn’t regret it. Adrest had done very well, and she wanted to give him something for it.

She pulled out a green paste and red bottle. She gently spread the salve on Adrest’s arms and face. It would heal the damage done to his muscle and bones, as well as re-energize him. The red tonic, she carefully poured a bit at a time into his mouth and massaged his throat to help him swallow. That would replace all the blood he had lost, as well as burn any remaining impurities in the blood that she had left behind. His strength would be at a new level when Adrest woke up, after all Alissa couldn’t let him suffer for nothing, could she?

Grinning happily and lightly humming, Alissa waved her hand and the large two feet wide core floated behind Alissa as she made her way outside and a few miles away from the stone house. Finding a suitable location, she used magic to clear away leaves and dug out a deep and wide pit. A bottle was uncorked and an impossible amount of crystal clear water flowed out, quickly filling the new large pond.

Then, she sent out hundreds of multicolored stones, mana stones of basically every type and grade filled the sky before sinking to the bottom of the body of water. She threw a large seed in the perfect center of the pond, and let it land on the surface before grinding up a few bright green and blue pills, as well as letting out three drops of dark red blood from her finger.

Alissa sent the paste to envelop the seed and in minutes a huge white, water lily many meters wide, sprouted on the water and emitted a mist of mana in the surroundings. Alissa sent eight capstones to activate a barrier to entrap the mana in the area, and lastly had the Core take its place overtop the lily floating a few feet above the flower's pistil.

At the same time an invisible ripple spread out through the forest for hundreds upon hundreds of miles in every direction. Alissa was aware of every monster and beast where the barrier encompassed. Now to outsiders it would be like this section of forest didn’t exist and any intruders would lose their sense of direction, eventually being guided out.

If Adrest was here, he would have fainted from the amount of wealth that had just been used. The stones alone would have been enough to buy a city or two, not to mention the water lily and pills. Purification treasures like that were extraordinarily rare, and even more sought after. They could become the foundation what ever power found one. Even monarchs would have their eyes go mad with greed at the high rank natural treasure Alissa had taken out. But no one could argue with its effect.

She made a few final adjustments and finally, Alissa was satisfied with the pseudo sacred land and let the fatigue show on her face for just a moment before heading back to the house with her little family.