(A/N baby don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me, no more)

Once the girl left, Layn finally had some time that he oh so desperately needed for himself. Because ever since he managed to replicate the cultivation thing of the ancients back when he absorbed the energy from the mana crystal, he has yet to properly sit down and analyze it.

Even though the archmage had plenty of time on his hands while the entire group was travelling, the fact that he was constantly surrounded by the keen eyes of his teammates made it impossible to experiment with his own cultivation.

Only now, without anyone in sight and enclosed within a room, Layn could sit down and observe the situation of his own body.

“Right now, about half of the energy from this rope goes into the translation spell and reinforcing buff.” Making a mental note, Layn made sure to cut all the unnecessary leaks of energy before focusing on the state of his body.

Right now, the energy that he absorbed through the rope ever since its creation already reached a state of strange flow within his flesh. While part of the energy constantly accumulated in his aura, despite splitting the spare energy equally between his own magic and the magic of the ancients, the feeling that his inner power gave, was on an entirely different level.

“Could it be…” After fixing several minor flaws that the archmage managed to find in his inner flesh, the flow of his internal magic only strengthened even further. When compared to the weakass energy contained by his aura, it seemed that the ancient methods were actually far better!

That is if someone wasn’t as knowledgeable as Layn. Because while cultivation appeared to be far superior in every aspect now that he was training it, Layn could already tell that the ultimate cap of how strong one could get seemed to be artificially limited by something!

On the other hand, the normal magic that Layn knew and practised to absolute limits had no such thing as a limitation. Just like his slightly failed arcana, as long as one could properly amass enough energy, any feat would be possible!

“Either way, the easiest way to get stronger right now…” Before Layn could finish his words, the cracking of the door could be heard. Quickly replaced by the sound of steps, then someone climbing the stairs before the doors to Irea’s room opened up once again, with the girl herself casting a curious glance at the archmage.

“Am I not disturbing you?” Prompted by the girl’s question to look around, Layn realised just what kind of position he has assumed. Sitting on the edge of the girl’s bed, he rested his elbows on his legs while holding up his chin in a small curve made by his hands. From the girl’s perspective, he looked as if he was sitting there and just judging her!

“Ah, sorry, I was lost in my thoughts.” Putting the girl’s question aside, Layn stood up from his seat before looking at the girl meaningfully. “Now that you are back, I assume…”

Irea’s eyes twitched slightly when she saw how ready the archmage was to follow her. The surprise in her eyes quickly turned into mischief, as she stepped several paces forward, before putting her arms around the man’s neck.

“What, are you going to tell me that this registration is so important…” Using one of her hands to pull down the piece of her robe, Irea went as far as to reveal nearly her entire cleavage in a random attempt at seduction.

‘What am I doing…’ Partway through her move, Irea’s hand suddenly stopped, leaving Layn with nothing but the sight of the side of the delicious looking mound atop the girl’s upper body.

“I hope you do not expect me to back off now.” Completely dropping the idea of some kind of registration, Layn moved his hands forward before placing them on the girl’s shoulders. With her body already pressed tightly to his, the archmage actually needed to use quite a bit of strength to make the girl let go of his neck.

“Huh?” Torn between Layn’s actions and words, Irea clearly didn’t know what to expect. Standing there with a confused expression, she simply continued staring at Layn’s face, as if it was the only source capable of answering her doubts.

“You see, I don’t want to push my luck, so I will be frank instead.” Rather than beating around the bush for the next few years only to ultimately get the girl with several buckets worth of someone else’s semen inside her, Layn decided to make his move directly.

In the end, what was this new life of his if not an opportunity to fix the mistakes he did in his past?

“Ever since you helped me out with cultivation back then, or rather, when you kissed me, I had my eyes set on you. To be perfectly honest, I was curious about you ever since we met, but with every passing moment, I became only more and more infatuated with you.”

Speaking his feelings directly, Layn entered a strange state of mind quite similar to how he felt during the siege of Azkernal. Just like back then, his consciousness appeared to leave his head, allowing his deepest desires to control his actions. Back during the siege, it allowed the younger version of archmage to survive the onslaught, right now, it gave him a chance to directly confess.

“I’m sorry for being super frank, but I can’t tell if it’s love or not. As you know, I didn’t really know a lot of people in my life…” Referring back to the same backstory he was using so far, Layn smiled. In the end, this backstory of his wasn’t all that different to his earliest years.

“So whether this attraction, this intense need to keep you all for myself can be called love.” Suddenly raising his head, Layn looked into the teary eyes of the girl who was too shocked by the sudden confession to react in any way or form. “But I’m not going to just give up on it, because of my lack of confidence!”

Suddenly pulling on his hands, Layn brought the girl back into his embrace, before pushing his lips directly towards her mouth.”