Beast Slayer Online: Initialization
Copyright© 2026 by CaffeinatedTales
Chapter 178: The Morning After Sorcery
The next day at noon, Lannor sat on the bed with a vacant stare.
A soft, expensive fur blanket covered him from the waist down, leaving only his sharply defined upper body exposed. Across from the bed stood the ornate dressing table Margarita had brought from Aretuza.
The sorceress sat on a cushioned stool with her bare back toward him. From Lannor’s angle, everything below her waist looked like a perfectly ripe peach resting atop fine wool.
Their eyes met in the mirror.
“You’re awake. How do you feel?”
The mature, alluring voice carried an unmistakable note of amusement.
Lannor struggled to keep his expression composed. It had nothing to do with strength or power, merely the shallow pride of a young man who had only recently graduated from adolescence.
That was Mentos’ assessment, before Lannor promptly shoved it back into silence.
“Last night wasn’t fair. You used magic.”
“Hey. I’m a sorceress. Of course I can use magic in bed.”
The smile tugging at Margarita’s lips deepened in the mirror.
“Or are you saying a succubus would have done better?”
Lannor pressed his lips together.
Damn it. Acting calm back then had consequences. She had clearly remembered the part about the succubus.
So last night, Margarita had apparently decided to measure herself against that standard. No wonder he still felt tired.
In sheer stamina, sorceresses were more terrifying than any brute Lannor had ever faced.
Once the teasing subsided, Margarita resumed applying her makeup while leisurely enjoying the sight of the man who had recently terrified Temeria’s entire administrative center looking distinctly uncomfortable.
Lannor shook his head. He had no intention of continuing that topic.
Once all the Space Marine procedures were complete, she could throw all the magic she wanted at him.
“Rita, how far has your project for cultivating human tissue on crystals progressed?”
“You’ve become interested in that?” One elegant eyebrow arched upward. Genuine surprise flickered across her face.
“Though I suppose it makes sense. Berengar hasn’t stopped talking about your talent for alchemy these past few days. What is it? Curious to see the frontier of alchemy?”
Lannor climbed out of bed and began dressing.
“Exactly. I want to see how far mana-based alchemy can go.”
In truth, merely seeing it was never his goal.
He intended to master it.
More than that, he intended to lead it.
The project was the cornerstone of his future plan to cultivate Astartes implants independently. If he could not drive it forward, then all his later ambitions might as well be abandoned now.
“You’ve only been away from Aretuza for a month. The Crystal Cultivation Technique has barely advanced during that time. The project is led by my mentor, Tissaia. My own field isn’t alchemy, so I don’t know every detail. However...”
Margarita turned slightly on the stool and looked over her shoulder at him.
Even standing behind her, Lannor could still glimpse the graceful curves outlined from the front.
“Research like that requires mana. A witcher’s mana reserves are ... difficult to discuss.”
She chose her words carefully.
From a sorcerer’s perspective, “difficult to discuss” was charitable. Most would simply say witchers had almost none.
A novice sorcerer might not survive half a second against a witcher in combat, but in terms of raw mana, the reserves of three or four ordinary witchers combined still would not compare.
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