"Hiss—"
"You're stepping on me."
The next day, morning.
Dawn's sunlight streamed into Serie's room, and from within the room came Gut's drowsy voice.
Upon hearing this, a trace of playfulness flowed through Serie's golden eyes, and her feet pressed down even harder.
"Oh?"
"I'm stepping on you, so what?"
"Mm—"
"That feels great."
"If possible, could teacher please move your foot placement a bit lower?"
The elf sitting on the bed's edge glanced down at her disciple's abdomen that she had inadvertently stepped on, instantly understanding what "a bit lower" referred to.
Immediately, she kicked out, pushing away her disciple who had slept on her floor last night, then stepped onto the floor and got down from the bed.
Seeing his teacher had gone to wash up, Gut simply stopped lingering and got up from the floor. After stretching his somewhat stiff waist, he also tidied up the makeshift bedding from last night.
Meanwhile, in the washroom.
Standing before the mirror, the elf examined the clothes on her body from top to bottom.
Although both her upper and lower garments were intact, even if there were a few wrinkles, they were probably from her own restless sleeping.
But...
In such matters, even though Serie trusted Gut to some extent, she still felt somewhat uneasy.
After hesitating briefly, the elf ultimately cast a spell on herself.
As magical power quickly enveloped her entire body, after a moment the magic faded, and several spots of faint fluorescence appeared on Serie's body.
This special detection magic could use fluorescence to mark traces of others' contact within a short time period.
Whether Gut had done anything strange while she was unconscious could be known at a glance.
Fortunately, the test results weren't the kind Serie wouldn't want to face.
From top to bottom, the elf's body only had a few traces of minimal fluorescent reaction. Judging from the locations and fluorescence intensity, they were probably accidentally brushed against when her disciple was bringing her back.
In sensitive areas for women, there wasn't even a single spot of fluorescent reaction.
Standing before the mirror, Serie seemed to suddenly remember something and opened her mouth to look.
Fortunately, there was no fluorescence in her mouth either.
It seemed her disciple had behaved quite gentlemanly, without any inappropriate actions.
Except...
On her ears, the fluorescence was bright enough to use as a light bulb.
Looking at her ears glowing green in the mirror, the elf smiled helplessly, wiped away the fluorescent traces on her body, and began washing up with peace of mind.
While cleaning off the lingering alcohol smell from last night's dinner, she also reflected on her own carelessness.
Losing consciousness from drinking—such a low-level mistake actually happened to her?
Was it because long periods of peace had made her too relaxed?
Or...
Had she unconsciously become accustomed to having a trustworthy disciple by her side?
That's why she dared not even set up a Protection Barrier before falling unconscious?
Mm... probably the former.
Elves' emotions were ultimately more indifferent than humans'. Even if she understood humans well, building subconscious habits still required considerable time.
This was true even for her disciple Flamme.
She had watched that child grow up from a young age, establishing subconscious habits through long companionship.
In terms of time spent together, Gut was still far from enough.
However, in Serie's reasoning, she unconsciously overlooked an extremely important point.
That was that the other disciples she had taken were far from being as abstract as Gut.
Not only did he constantly harbor thoughts of "riding over his teacher" and "defying his elders," he dared to express them to his teacher without concealment.
Only Gut could do such things.
And "special" existences always leave deep impressions.
This was true even for elves.
On the balcony, Gut, who was opening the window for ventilation, was startled, because at this moment, the system suddenly popped up two notifications.
[Ding!]
[Host's original talent trait [Mythological Mage's Disciple (Blue)] has disappeared, strengthened to [Serie's Beloved Disciple (Purple)]]
[Host's original talent trait [Good Fortune (Blue)] effect has been enhanced]
[Serie's Beloved Disciple (Purple)]
[Trait Description: As the beloved disciple of the great mage Serie from the mythological age, when beside your teacher, you will possess higher wisdom and comprehension]
[Trait Effect: 1. When host is near teacher Serie, wisdom and comprehension will receive moderate improvement; 2. When teacher Serie imparts knowledge to host, host's learning speed is improved, with improvement magnitude affected by teacher-student relationship]
[Good Fortune (Blue)]
[Trait Description: Your teacher Serie is the protagonist blessed by fate in this world. As her trusted beloved disciple, you will also enjoy the world's fortune]
[Effect: Host's luck improves, cultivation speed slightly accelerated]
"What's this situation?"
Gut looked toward the washroom in the room. Though unclear about what exactly happened, the cause of these changes must be related to teacher Serie.
Could it be that after the elf discovered she had slept in the same room as her disciple, she developed different feelings toward him?
This reason was possible, but unlikely to be the reason.
During their previous outdoor adventures, he had slept alongside his teacher before.
Especially when they made floor beds in the forest cabin while crossing the Schwer Mountains, Serie, who had poor sleeping habits, had even rolled onto him while wrapped in her blanket.
The greater possibility might be that his teacher had used some magic to detect that he hadn't taken advantage of her while she was unconscious, thus developing a better impression of this disciple.
Regardless, this purple-grade Serie's Beloved Disciple trait was a milestone advancement in his teacher's affection level, worth celebrating.
Taking advantage of his teacher still washing up, Gut briefly returned to his own room.
After locking the door securely, Gut looked at the golden talent trait on the system interface that he had copied from the hero during last night's dinner.
Because he was afraid of activating the trait during the gathering and being noticed by Himmel, Gut had restrained himself until now, waiting for this suitable moment.
[Ding!]
[Talent trait: Heroic Bearing (Gold) has been activated]
[Effect: Upon activation, host's physical strength upper limit will be drastically raised, and when not yet reaching the limit, growth speed will be drastically accelerated]
"Damn good!"
Feeling the surging power gradually emerging in his body, the physical strength limit he had nearly reached was suddenly pulled up to a level he previously wouldn't have dared imagine.
However, all these changes hadn't stopped yet. Before Gut could adapt to the abundant vitality in his body, the system notification sounded again.
[Ding!]
[Talent trait: Heroic Bearing (Gold) has similar and complementary effects with Super Limit Body (Blue), will merge into new talent trait]
[Merge complete]
[Trait Name: Body Transcender (Gold/Growable)]
[Trait Description: Extremely high physical talent with the possibility of continuing to break through limits, you now have the possibility of transcending this world's physical strength upper limit]
[Trait Effect: 1. Physical talent greatly enhanced; 2. With Body Strengthening Technique cultivation, all bodily functions and lifespan will receive comprehensive reinforcement; 3. With Body Strengthening Technique cultivation, physical limits will continuously receive slight improvements (When physical strength touches this realm's upper limit, this talent trait will change again)]
As the system notification faded, another wave of changes surged through Gut's body.
This change was different from before. In the previous change, Gut mainly felt his physical bottlenecks being broken through, giving his physical strength broader improvement channels.
This time was more focused on reinforcing various bodily functions.
For example, overall lifespan, various organs, and even including his little brother's firmness and endurance were all included.
After a long time in this wonderful feeling, Gut slowly opened his eyes.
Although after all the changes from obtaining the trait were complete, Gut's various bodily functions were still lacking compared to his current physical strength.
But having such gains, Gut was already very satisfied.
The shortfall could be made up through subsequent cultivation of Body Strengthening Techniques.
Taking a deep breath, Gut clenched his fist, then reached out to grasp the metal handle on the door, gently exerting force and completely breaking it off.
After holding the metal handle in his palm, as veins bulged on his arm, under Gut's gritted teeth and effort, the metal door handle made "creak" "creak" sounds of "screaming."
Shortly after, it was rolled into an extremely rough sphere by Gut.
Holding this small ball in his hand to play with, with each exertion of force, as it became more rounded, Gut also gradually adapted to his body's suddenly increased strength, and before long could control it well.
Truth be told, Gut's strength adaptation could be completed so quickly also because the strength increase this time wasn't actually too much.
After all, the Body Transcender talent trait mainly increased physical limits, and the physical strength boost was just incidental.
If he wanted to reach the level of crushing diamonds bare-handed like Eisen, Gut's cultivation probably still had a long way to go.
After continuing to fiddle with the "door handle" for a while, Gut put the now somewhat rounded "door handle" back and tested the otherworld magic he had recently learned on the broken part.
"Reparo!"
With finger movements replacing a wand, supplemented by vocal incantation.
Instantly, the metal door handle that Gut had rolled into a ball began to tremble, gradually deforming, gradually unfolding from a spherical object, then...
Fell to the ground.
Gut: ...
Ultimately, he was still somewhat lacking in skill, or rather, this metal ball—no, it should be called a door handle—was indeed quite troublesome to repair.
After several more attempts at casting, the final results were all fruitless.
It seemed that rather than relying on Reparo magic to complete the repair, it would be more realistic for Gut to use brute force to bend the door handle straight and reinsert it.
But as a mage recognized by Serie, Gut had his pride.
After repeated attempts proved fruitless, Gut resorted to his ultimate method.
"Teacher!"
"Please come here, I have some magical questions I need to ask!"
In the elf's room.
Serie had just used magic to dry her hair and was planning to enjoy a beautiful return to sleep while she had nothing to do: ...
Since her disciple was asking about serious magical questions, the elf couldn't refuse. She got up from bed again, wearing pajamas and slippers, followed Gut outside the door, and entered her disciple's room.
As soon as his teacher entered, Gut eagerly closed the door.
Serie's eyelid twitched, and a Binding Magic construct unconsciously gathered in her hand.
Serie trusted this disciple of hers considerably.
When she was unconscious or unable to resist, Gut probably wouldn't take advantage;
But when she was conscious, he might very well try something with the thought "the teacher will resist and subdue me anyway."
In fact, Serie's assessment was quite accurate.
But unfortunately, this time Gut truly had magical cultivation questions to ask, and really hadn't planned to take advantage.
Therefore, when Gut noticed the magical fluctuations on teacher Serie, he instead asked in confusion.
"Teacher, what are you doing?"
"Nothing, tell me about your problem."
"Oh." Gut didn't think much of it, pointing to the "twisted" door handle on the floor and telling the elf.
"Teacher, I wanted to try using Reparo magic to fix it, but I failed."
After hearing her disciple's explanation, Serie looked at the "twist" on the floor, her eye corner couldn't help but twitch.
A mage having this level of strength was excessive!
Moreover, this disciple before her was just a young man, still having considerable time before his physical peak. If he could advance his strength another level during this period...
Serie truly didn't dare imagine what it would be like if warriors tried to rush him for close combat in the future.
Probably, they'd be torn apart bare-handed by this disciple of hers.
While the elf was lost in wild thoughts, her hands didn't stop moving.
With a few circles of her fingertip, a silent spell with high technical requirements was completed soundlessly.
Then, the "twist" on the floor flew up again under Serie's magic, becoming a relatively round iron ball before crashing down hard.
"Thud!"
The iron ball's fall created a small crater in the floor.
Serie looked at this iron ball on the ground, then at the somewhat embarrassed smile on Gut's face, not knowing what to say for a moment.
She had thought her disciple was reckless, accidentally breaking the door handle and then trying magic repair unsuccessfully, so in frustration twisted it into a "pretzel."
Now it seemed the truth wasn't like that.
It turned out the previous "twist" was the product of her disciple's repair attempt.
For a moment, Serie didn't want to say more. After sighing, she increased magical power supply and precisely controlled it, successfully removing the "spherical" modifier from the "spherical door handle," fixing it while also bending down to repair the small hole that had been smashed in the floor earlier, so she'd pay less when leaving the inn.
After doing this, Serie called her disciple to the table, pulled out a draft paper from the desk, wrote and drew on it, explaining to Gut how to use this world's magical theory to make analogous adjustments and improvements to otherworld magical theory.
After leaving the adjustment as homework, the elf who had fulfilled her teacher's duties planned to return to her room to continue sleeping.
However, her disciple tactlessly asked whether she wanted to go sit at the Association.
After hearing his teacher's decisive refusal, Gut nodded and no longer disturbed his teacher.
Just...
Looking at the homework Serie had left when departing, the abstract theories on it were indeed somewhat troublesome to contemplate.
So, was there something that could make theory more concrete?
There was, there was!
Gut, changing clothes to prepare for work at the Association, conveniently broke off another door handle and pocketed it.
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Powerstones?
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