Be Careful!

After agreeing to accept the training in place of money, Raymond hurriedly exited the meeting hall and closeted himself in the Sacred Chamber.

The thought of losing so much money made his skin crawl, but Raymond would choose this option over spending the money he had on hand to buy spells for Jasmine.

He could still find little solace in the fact that he was not going to pay them gold coins with his own two hands. He chose to focus on the fact that they were giving him free money while teaching him to wield his mana skillfully.

Raymond felt a lot better after thinking along those lines.

Zzz~

A nerve popped out on his forehead as Jasmine's loud snoring reverberated across the chamber.

"How long are you going to sleep?" Raymond started pulling on her cheek to wake her up. How can she sleep through all of this when he practically sacrificed part of his income for her sake?

Raymond knew he was being petty, but for some reason, Jasmine's blissfully sleeping figure irritated him today.

"Ouch!" Jasmine woke up, startled— more by finding herself in an unfamiliar place rather than the pinch she received from her master.

"Hua… Master… where are we?" She asked in between her yawning. "I don't know this place!"

"We are in the afterlife. Actually, while you were asleep, our room was set on fire by the elves, and we ended up dying in the process!"

"Hehe, funny." Jasmine faked her laugh. "Why is my butt still aching if I am in the afterlife?"

Raymond had no retort for her dumb yet perfect counter. He simply shook his head and explained to her about the events that transpired while she was asleep.

"What? All of that happened? You fought with an elder?" Jasmine shouted in shock, which stirred the sleeping duo awake. "Master, you should've woke me up!"

"Yeah, what were you going to do? Annoy him to death?" Raymond asked her dryly, which made her pout.

"Master, I don't annoy anyone else but you! Don't make fun of me like that!" Jasmine protested, but Raymond ignored her antics and decided to inform Vivi and Lyla about the deal he had struck with Celestia.

"Lyla, Vivi, I will be busy for the next few days. You guys will be spending some time with Elder Clearmoon, and while you are at it, make sure this one stays out of trouble." Raymond jerked his thumb at Jasmine, who was beaming like an idiot after thinking about getting her hands on gravity related spells.

"Elder Clearmoon?" Vivian muttered. "She is nice, I guess… compared to other elders," she added.

"But why are you going to be busy?" Lyla questioned. She didn't want to leave his side for so long. "Why can't we stay with you?"

"Don't worry, I am not going anywhere. I will be here and will meet you guys daily," Raymond took her hand and squeezed it gently. "I am going to learn how to control my mana, and it will be pretty dangerous to stay close to me until I have adequate control."

"Ray, who is going to teach you that? Is it Celes?" Vivian had a hunch. Among all the elders in the Council, only her grandpa and Celes had enough knowledge of obscure concepts like mana manipulation without the help of a magical core.

A core rotated at an impossible speed, which held tight control over a person's mana, and to wrest that control away from the core and do it manually was no joking matter.

Vivian had tried it before— for it had the obvious advantage of significantly reducing the time required for spellcasting— but promptly gave up on it after realising how difficult and time-consuming it was to learn the process of conscious manipulation.

But her Ray had a broken core. He had no choice but to learn how to do it manually.

"Yes, the High Priestess has agreed to teach me in exchange for these leaves from the World Tree." Raymond nodded and brought forth a heap of leaves inside the Sacred Chamber from his spatial pendant.

"Wow, so shiny!" Jasmine exclaimed, awed by the radiant leaves that illuminated the chamber.

Lyla was not as vocal about her awe as Jasmine, but the twinkling in her eyes said it all, whereas Vivian was practically drooling— staring at the leaves in a stunned stupor.

"Is…is that really from mother?" She stuttered, too shocked to think coherently. "Please tell me it's real."

"Hah, of course, it's real! Here, try it for yourself!" Raymond shoved a bunch of leaves in Vivian's hands and told her to eat it.

Her hands trembled as her fingers clutched the leaves tighter in fear of losing them if she loosened her fist. Slowly, she brought it to her mouth and chewed a leaf. An ethereal bliss covered her body with every drop of juice that she swallowed.

"Haa~~ - so good!" Vivian moaned, feeling high on the rush of pleasure. As she came down from her euphoria, she stared at Raymond with an ardent gaze; her eyes flooding with gratefulness.

Vivian was overwhelmed with a visceral feeling of gratitude and glomped on him suddenly. "Thank you! Thank you!" She started chanting as if in a trance and peppered his face with a volley of kisses before capturing his mouth in a searing hot liplock.

"Woah, calm down, lady!" Raymond wrapped his hands around her huggable waist and propped himself up to make some room for breathing. She was so lost in herself that Raymond was sure she had forgotten to breathe. "You need to breathe!"

Vivian came back to her senses and coughed to hide her embarrassment. "Uhm, sorry. I was a bit excited. It's not every day that you get to eat something from the World Tree. Hehe, I always wanted to taste this ever since grandpa told me only the blessed one can have a chance to ever see these leaves let alone actually eat it!"

"Is that so…?" Suddenly Raymond felt like he had made a bad choice by deciding to trade the leaves for just training. If he was not able to breathe fire by the end of this, he would have to spank the High Priestess for fooling him.

'Goddammit! Why am I thinking about her ass?' Raymond scowled. His mind was aimlessly wandering to the glimpses of swaying hips he had gazed at in the morning.

Raymond felt like his perverted tendencies were coming back to him. He had been rather lax in his physical training these last few days, he realised that might be the reason for his lack of self-control. Much of his time was spent on making love to his wives and doing missions for the mercenary guild.

Now that he carefully thought about it, Raymond had no heart to actually train his body; it appeared futile since he had stopped getting tired physically. If he didn't get tired then his core wouldn't start moving mana through his body automatically.

Besides, no matter how much he ran and did exercises to strain himself, it felt like he was adding a drop of water to a vast ocean. Raymond only saw one way in front of him that would help him become even stronger and that was through his magic.

The physical exercises alone were not enough for him anymore. It was now time for him to focus on improving his magical abilities. He already knew his mana was significantly different and more powerful than others, all he had to do was learn how to wield it properly.

It always annoyed him how his opponents tended to blow their cores when they realised they couldn't match him in strength. Before he could beat them to his heart's content or interrogate them for information, they usually detonated their core and ended their lives.

Raymond wanted to correct that flaw of his if he could. What was the point of having all that power if he couldn't even decide the life and death of his enemies? If they were going to blow themselves up, then they should do it at home. Why fight him and then commit suicide when they couldn't beat him?

That spy who was following him in the Capital city had done the same when caught by Raymond and so did the strange shadowy creature that had kidnapped Sasha's brother. Both of them killed themselves before he could force them to spit out their intentions.

"Um, Ray," Vivian called him, pulling him away from his thoughts. "If you're going to be alone with Celes, please be careful… I have seen her since my childhood. She is not what she portrays herself to be in public."

"Hmm? I know she is a crazy stalker who likes to stalk people with potential." Raymond shrugged. "I will tolerate her for now, if she misbehaves, hehe, I can always give her a spa— slap and make her behave."

"No, you don't understand, Ray! Please listen to me, she was born with a special ability. If she looks into your eyes and asks you any question, please avoid eye contact with her immediately before answering." Vivian pleaded. "She… she can tell if you're lying or not if you look into her eyes. And those with weaker willpower find it hard to lie to her."

"Really?" Raymond was not worried about her. What could she possibly ask him that would risk his safety? If, by any chance, she wanted to know his secret to power, Raymond was all too happy to share the training method left behind by his grandpa.

And, Raymond always kept his money safely inside his spatial pendant and the pendant was on him every minute of the day. It's not like he hid his treasures somewhere and she would ask for the location.

"Don't worry, Vivi." Raymond ruffled her hair. "I won't fall for a cheap trick like that."

So with a hint of anticipation, Raymond prepared himself to pour his heart and soul into learning how to wield his mana like an expert.