With time off, Karl decided that it was likely best to just focus on personal improvement. He still had Remi and Cara at Royal Rank, and while the spaces were pushing them upwards, they hadn’t managed to break through yet.
It would only take a little longer to force them to advance, and if he could do it during the days off, they could have a party.
[Party?] Cara asked. freēwebnovel.com
[Yeah, a little celebration for you reaching a new Rank. Since we have a day off, we could do something fun, possibly order a cake.] Karl suggested.
Cara considered it for a few seconds, then began to roll around on the bed. [Maybe later.]
Cara must be feeling lazy today, if even the offer of a party wasn’t enough to get her motivated. But Karl continued to work on the energy levels and quality in the spaces anyhow. Soon, they would all need to be at the same level, and preferably before the students went to school and the team was reassigned.
“Oh, you need to keep doing whatever that is. It’s so good.” Lotus nearly purred, pulling Karl from his meditation for a moment.
Dozens of thoughts, each more lewd than the one before, were going through his mind, but when he opened his eyes, Lotus was frowning at him.
“No, don’t stop. You were leaking power into the tub, and it makes it both warm and tingly.” She explained.
Sybil nodded in agreement, still trapped in Rae’s arms, but not trying to get free, as she was enjoying the extra bubbly hot tub.
The cleaners were likely going to hate them for this brilliant idea, but for the amount that Karl was paying for the suite, they could suffer the occasional mess.
For a few hours, everyone just relaxed, enjoying their time off. Then Rae called for room service, and that was everyone’s cue to get dressed for the day.
Karl noticed that before she even started to stand up out of the bubbles, and without even attempting to dry off, Sybil changed into a black silk martial arts outfit that had to have been made by Rae.
For one, it was bonded. Secondly, it was Monarch Rank silk, and Rae wouldn’t let her baby Rogue wear someone else’s silk.
It was an excellent gift, and now Sybil wouldn’t have to replace her training and infiltration clothes for most of her lifetime, if ever. Most likely, it would become her most prized possession.
“There are towels over there. You don’t need to get dressed while still wet.” Karl informed her, in case the Rogue had simply missed their presence.
Rae giggled. “Sybil is body shy. She got into the tub fully dressed as well, and only after the bubbles were in place.”
Sybil nodded frantically, then grabbed a towel and ran to the bathroom to dry off and cycle her outfit so that it would come back dry.
Karl got out of the tub, and everyone was drying off when Sybil came back out of the bathroom, then covered her eyes, squeaked, waved her hands, then ran away.
“She’s easily embarrassed, isn’t she?” Dana laughed as Rae vanished to go recover her Rogue.
[The Sybil is funny. She’s ashamed to not be all muscles like the rest of you.] Rae explained a few seconds later.
Karl considered that. With all the walking and travelling that they had been doing, they were all pretty ripped, even with the good eating. Despite what Cara thought about his backside.
[Bring her back for breakfast. We’re all dressed now, no visible abs to make her self-conscious.]
For the first time since he entered the Golden Divine Academy, Karl found himself with downtime in front of a television, and time to watch the daily morning news. Of course, it would all be only a fraction of the truth, but there might be something on that would entertain him as he worked on forcing the energy in the spaces past the point where it would force Remi and Cara to advance.
Both of them might have just been slow to grow, as they were the newer arrivals, and Remi was still quite young for a Naga Queen.
Cara might be young for a Void Badger as well, but Karl couldn’t actually find enough information on them to tell him if they were supposed to get larger, or how fast they grew.
They weren’t native to the GDN, so the data in the public records was limited.
The news reports of the day were unexpectedly boring. They must be in a slow news cycle because it was all about a plumbing issue in the Capital that would take all week to fix. There was no mention of war, or monster spawns, or anything else that might be threatening.
So, Karl changed the channel to replays of sports highlights for background noise as he worked.
Dana was doing the same thing, with her head resting on a pillow in his lap, building her mana pool.
Most of the day had passed when Karl began to feel resistance. One of the two spaces was resisting his attempts to advance it, and Karl had a sneaking suspicion that he knew which one.
[Cara. Stop messing with the space. You can only hang out at Royal Rank so long.]
[Nope, I’m not done yet.]
[Name your price.]
[…
Fine, you make good on the promise of cake, and we have a deal.]
[Hazelnut chocolate fudge cake?]
[With strawberries and whipped cream.]
[Rae, could you order that? My lap is occupied.]
Rae laughed and went to the phone to order the cake. The kitchen wasn’t completely certain that they understood what she wanted, but they assured her that they would make a suitable party cake for them, along with an assortment of other snacks to arrive with dinner.
Once Cara stopped being stubborn, a sixth space started to form, and the quality of both her space and Remi’s began to undergo a rapid qualitative change.
As soon as the change started, Remi transformed back into her Spirit Snake form, using the logic that the smaller she was, the higher the density of energy she could pack into her body when she advanced.
If she was a tenth the size, that should make the process ten times easier, in the mind of Remi.
Hawk woke up from his extended nap as the new space formed. [Oh, are we getting ready for a new friend? Epic mission to steal a baby dragon? We could make it a black dragon to pass on Nacht’s Legacy.] He sleepily suggested.
Thor chuckled at the idea. [I believe his exact words were you cannot have a baby dragon.]