Chapter 107: Bare Skin

"Val, strip."

Valerian stopped in his tracks and turned to Seraphine.

The embarrassed maiden was once again replaced by the researcher who wanted to uncover another mystery that was right in front of her.

"Pfft, weren’t you red as a tomato a minute ago?"

With a slight laugh, Valerian questioned the elf girl on the couch in front of him.

"Yes, but now it’s about the game. And to win, I need to study your body."

"And for that you need to strip, or are you saying you won’t allow me to examine your body? That’s kind of unfair, Val."

Valerian raised his hands in defeat.

"Okay, okay, I will. Just don’t turn into a tomato again."

Valerian began to take off his apex uniform one piece at a time. His uniform had a lot of layers, so it took a while for him to shed them all.

With every piece of clothing Valerian took off, Seraphine leaned in slightly more, unconsciously wanting to get a better look.

As the last piece hit the floor, Valerian stood in his own living room with a bare chest, his tightly coiled muscles shining against his healthy pale skin.

He obviously still had his pants on, but just the sight of the naked upper half of Valerian made Seraphine forget about the game for a second as she admired his perfectly chiseled body.

"What do you want me to do, Sera?"

His voice took her out of her staring, and she coughed lightly to hide her embarrassment and the light pink blush on her cheeks.

She stood up and put the jacket of her uniform on the couch. She walked up to Valerian, stood in front of him for a moment, and just looked.

Valerian could feel her gaze move over his whole body, closely analyzing every part and every inch.

’Is this really just for the game?’

Valerian thought with slight amusement, as he could clearly see how her eyes gravitated toward his abs the most.

"C- can I touch you?"

She asked slightly nervously, looking up at Valerian, to which he simply shrugged.

"I won’t answer your questions, like I said."

She nodded and moved her hand cautiously to his body. She lightly brushed her hand across his chest. Her hand was warm on his skin and slightly ticklish, but he stayed quiet and let her do what she wanted.

Her hand stayed on his firm chest for a moment, feeling the muscles underneath the skin. But beside the blush on her face, there was also a deep frown as she felt the texture of his skin.

When she moved her hand across it, she could feel a weird sensation on her fingertips that felt more like she was channeling her own mana than actually touching a person.

"Are you channeling your mana right now?"

Valerian looked down at her concentrated face as she studied his chest.

"My mouth is sealed."

She didn’t let up and moved her fingers from his chest down to his stomach. Her fingertips slowly traced the lines of his defined abs, carefully feeling everything she could.

As her hand moved a bit too close to the lower end of his stomach, a slight panic surged through Valerian.

"Sera, I don’t think you should touch me there yet."

Her movement stopped, and she continued to make her way around his body. Valerian raised his arms so that she had better access to his sides.

She slowly moved around his body, keeping her hand on his side for a second before moving to his back.

As she stood behind him, she marveled at the defined back muscles. She carefully and slowly took his long silver-white hair in her hands, swung it over his shoulder to have better access to his back, and began to feel it with her hands.

With her out of sight, Valerian could feel every touch more clearly—how her movements became slower at certain parts of his back, or when she stopped moving and just let her hand rest for a second before continuing.

Her fingernails brushed against him from time to time, not enough to hurt in any way, but more to show that she was applying more pressure.

When she was satisfied with his back, she stepped back around him, tracing along his side with her fingernail. As she stood in front of Valerian again, he could see the faint blush on her cheeks and hear her slightly heavier breathing, but he didn’t say anything.

"Your arms."

Complying with her command, Valerian lowered his arms and held them out in front of her.

She took his hands in her palms and placed her hand over his, feeling every crevice.

Moving her fingers from his hands, she slowly felt his forearm and gave it a light squeeze before feeling his bicep.

She stayed on his bicep for a bit longer, squeezing and slightly rubbing it with her thumb.

She moved further up and reached his shoulders, then his neck. And then finally, her hands moved up to his face.

Her hands lightly cupped his face and held it firm. Their eyes met, and for a moment, everything was silent.

Neither spoke, just staring into each other’s eyes.

Seraphine broke the eye contact when she stepped back and removed her hands from his face.

"Thank you, Valerian. I have much to think about."

Valerian looked at her face, which had a slight smile on it, and involuntarily smiled as well. She walked back to the couch and took her jacket.

Without saying much more, she walked to the door and stopped before stepping out.

"I presume we can meet again tomorrow? For the game, of course."

"Yeah, see you tomorrow. Good night, Sera."

She smiled and walked out of the room.

"Good night, Val."

As the door closed, Valerian was left standing without a shirt in the middle of his living room. He didn’t know what to think right now.

This was definitely not how he had expected his talk with Seraphine to go.

He picked up the uniform pieces that he had taken off and stored them in his pocket space. After that, he took a long shower to calm down and threw himself onto his bed.

Tomorrow he would need to train with Ravena again, and who knew how many swings he would need to do. And after that, he would meet with Seraphine again for the game.

After such a mentally exhausting day, Valerian wanted nothing more than to sleep. So he buried himself under his blanket and fell asleep.

---

After Seraphine left Valerian’s dorm room, she stood still for a moment, not moving, just looking down at the ground.

The events of the past hour caught up to her, and her face became bright red. She kneeled on the ground and buried her face in her palms.

’I practically felt every inch of his body... and what did he mean by "yet"?’

Her thoughts were running wild, and she wanted nothing more than to crawl into her bed right now.

With hasty steps, she left the male dorm building, entered the female one, and walked to her room with a slight anticipation for tomorrow.