Tec Mage Chapter Thirty Five: Rainbow Baby

Alison was a NPC for the game called royal road but being the most advance game ever been made meant that each NPC had emotions, with emotions each NPC had their hopes and dreams, their fears and drives and their past and shames

Alison was the same, she was a receptionist for the Tutors guild but she also had a hidden class that she had passed on to Atlas

She her self was a magus, in the past a magus was a legendary person, kings to popes would actively search out a magus just for advise and any kingdom that held a magus was indeed a lucky and prosperous country

This all changed with Alison's 2nd apprentice, Alison's 1st apprentice was her own daughter Cece and she was the apple of her eye, Alison doted on her daughter and was willing to teach her daughter all she knew from the natural world to magic

On Cece 15th birthday she brought a young man home to meet her mother, Alison didn't like this young man, he was full of him self, confident and sly but for the sake of her daughter happiness Alison excepted him 

Two weeks later Cece announced that she was getting married, Alison tried to talk Cece in to a slower relationship and take her time hoping that she would see how wrong the partnership was between them

Alison failed and Cece married the young man against her mothers wishes, after a quick wedding and honeymoon Cece begged her mother to take her husband as a 2nd apprentice, after weeks of pleading and against her good sense Alison agreed

Cece only wanted her husband to have a bright future and being a magus was surely one of the highest positions not born in to like kings

Weeks went by with Alison teaching both her daughter and her newly wed husband the ways of magic, Alison even taught them magic she had learnt from other magi, other magi frowned on their magic being taught to others but it wasn't against any rules held by the magi, if someone taught their magic to another that just meant they trusted their decision

With in time Cece husband had learnt much but whispers had reached Alison's ears of dark dealing and state secrets being sold to other thus weakening and endangering the kingdom Alison supported

Cece was still madly in love with her husband and refused to hear any negative things about him, Alison could of banished him but that meant banishing Cece for she would never leave her husband, Alison only choice was to secretly fix the mistakes of her 2nd apprentice before word got out

Alison was successful in correcting the dark dealings of her 2nd apprentice but now she refused to teach both Cece and her daughter's husband any more magic 

Cece begged and begged her mother to continue teaching them magic but now Alison knew with concrete evidence what Cece husband was like, he was a money hungry animal who didn't care what misery he brought on others just as long as he got what he wanted, the info he had sold would of caused a civil war and then when the kingdom was weaken from in fighting a army would of attacked and claimed it, this would causes death to so many people that Alison was only glad she had heard of it in time

As Alison started to relax after fixing the 2nd apprentices choices she heard an even more disturbing piece of info, Cece husband was in debt and had sold some new information, this info made Alison heart shake to it's core, it was the complete information on all the magus spread out though the land, if it was only about the magus it wouldn't be to bad after all people looked to the magus as teachers but the information included the magus's family members and were they lived

How do you make a powerful magus bend to your will, you attack their week point, family

Alison quickly sent out word to all the magi what had happened and told them to go in hiding with their family's, one after another magus left their positions at royal court or advisers to the clergyman to hide their family's but not all magus managed to flee, at least two were killed trying to protect their love ones and a third was imprisoned for refusing to serve

After hearing about this the surviving magus went looking for answers, with the help of Alison they easy found out that it was because of Cece husband but uncomfortable questions needed to be asked, like who told him about the other magus, more digging and a new piece of information was revelled, Cece had told the were about's and relationships of all the magus to her husband

Cece was desperate to find a magus who would teach both her and her husband magic and thus told all she knew about the magus

Even though Cece hadn't sold the information about the magus her self she was partly responsible for the deaths of magus

When Cece and her man heard about the deaths of the magus they had gone into hiding, the magus would surly have killed Cece husband and Cece couldn't have her first love murdered, so they ran never to be heard of again

This broke Alison's heart, her own daughter had turned her back on so many peoples suffering and sided with a greedy monster

Alison had lost both of her apprentices and her only beloved daughter

After such a massive betray the magus stated new laws that must be held for the well being of all magus

1: Other magus magic can not be taught to others apprentices

2: The where about's of magi will never be told

3: No information will be given out about family members

4: If apprentices want to learn other magi magic then they can be given a broad where about's of the magi 

5: Capture Cece and kill on sight her husband Cress the greedy

Alison's head was held down, she felt shame in teaching Cress but she still begged the magus not to kill her only daughter

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Alison looked up from her story to look at Atlas "the reason I'm telling you about this isn't because i want you to find my daughter or even kill Cress the greedy, the only thing i want is a apprentices who I'm not ashamed of" Alison's old hands reached up to Atlas face

"God damn it, bend over so i can reach you" Alison was a lot smaller than Atlas

Atlas did as he was told and Alison brushed his eye lids and the top of his brow

"Ding"

You have learnt Soul Perception

Soul Perception Beginner Level 1

A skilled liar can fool even them self but the soul will always tell the truth, read a person's soul to judge if what they say is truth or a lie

I wish i had this skill when my daughter was around, if only i had it i could of know what Cress the greedy was up to, if i only trusted my instinct" Alison had a tear in her eye

Atlas was a man who had trouble expressing his emotions but at this point it wasn't about him and his needs and so it was easier to comfort Alison

Reaching out to Alison Atlas grabbed her shoulders and hugged her, Atlas was considerably bigger than Alison and a hug was almost like a heavy rug draped over Alison "It's not your fault" said Atlas in a small voice

Unprepared Alison was shocked, standing there Alison reached up with her small hands and hit Atlas

"I know it's not my fault, what the hell was that about" said Alison 

Atlas quickly let go of Alison, even though he had gotten better at reading emotions and displaying them at this point he had got it wrong

"I'm sorry, i thought you needed a hug" Atlas wasn't hurt from the punch that Alison threw

"Just stop that, OK, ....... listen, because of your achievements I've decided to send you to your advancement, this means you can learn from other magi as long as you can persuade them to teach you" explained Alison

"Achievements?" Atlas was confused, Atlas had learnt magic but it was the lowest form of magic, circle level magic 1 and 2

As if reading Atlas mind Alison answered "Magic isn't the only thing magi do, improvement and advancement in all things, as long as you have enough achievements then you may go for advancement in your class"

Alison went quite, in a small voice she continued "to be honest, inventing a new magical metal should be enough to make you a master magi" Alison coughed then seeped her hand over the table behind her "but lets not get ahead of your self"

Alison unfolded a map and placed it on the table "this is were you will find the nearest magus" Alison pointed to a country

Atlas read the name of the small town written on the map "Baran Village" it seemed like a small little village

"No, no, no not that village the one above it, The floating City of Heaven, Lavias" said Alison

"Floating city? no wait, Why are you telling me this, isn't it against the rules" asked Atlas

"I'm not telling you where the magi is just the where about, it's a test for you to find them your self" answered Alison

"Mmmm, OK, how do i get there, it's a floating city and i can't fly" asked Atlas

"That too is a test" smiled Alison

Alison couldn't help Atlas, this was a test to see if Atlas was worthy of a class up, how he went about it would show how suitable he was for the magi class

With nothing more to discus Atlas left the tutoring guild but not before picking up some more books on history and warfare, walking back to his shop Atlas had his magical aura of the eye activated

The skill had changed, when Atlas used the eye technique in the Sunken Crypt he could see mana aura from the heavily condensed mana leaking from the skeletons but now the mana aura was coming from everything even if it wasn't heavily condensed, buildings were leaking small amounts of mana but anything alive was lighting up with the leaking mana, Atlas was reminded of the movie The Matrix when looking at the world, instead of ones and zeros Atlas was watching a scenery of  coloured mana being released all around him

It was a useful skill, with a head ups Atlas could tell if a spell was coming and could tell what kind but that wasn't all, items that people were wearing emitted it's own mana so Atlas could tell what kind of resistance people had, a high fire mana concentration meant that they had fire resistance was high

Walking though the streets with the skill activated was like living in a painting, Atlas wonder what other enjoyable things were in this world, getting excited Atlas decided to go out in to the world, with the  books in his position he could study while on the move

With his mind made up Atlas needed to make sure all his lose ends were tied up, his first step lead him to the training hall, when Atlas first entered the game he had made a deal with the training hall instructor that resulted in Atlas making scarecrows dummies that hit back, it was about time he checked and repaired any that needed it, Roark the instructor wasn't there so Atlas went to each dummy and repaired them, with the skill repair under his belt all he had to do was touch each attack scarecrow and say the words

"Repair"

After repairing the dummies Atlas picked up a wooden spear hanging from the wall and tested it out, with the first hit Atlas got a pop up message

You have completed the basic training

Atlas was stunned, he hadn't spent a lot of time in the training hall hitting the scarecrow, he had heard that it took a month of hard core training to complete the basic training, Atlas surmised that the training he did with Mary and Dracken and his very own more advance attacking scarecrow was the cause, just as Atlas finished musing over the reasons Roark came running in

He looked flushed and had wet hair, it turns out that Roark was using the shower in Atlas old home behind the training hall but come running when he heard Atlas striking the dummies, Roark was quite pleased that Atlas had completed the basic training hall and awarded him a iron spear

"You aren't the first to complete the basic training, in fact it has taken you the longest to complete it, what was it? 3-4 months" Roark didn't think highly of Atlas weapon choice, he believed that a spear was to cowardly but that was completely blown away when Atlas had completed the basics

"Now that you have complete the basics you can move on to the other training halls" before Atlas could ask Roark lifted his hand to stop Atlas "i can't tell you were they are, you have to find them, it's part of the training" 

Atlas said his goodbyes and left with the iron spear, the 2nd thing Atlas had to do was teach Mary Enchanting so she could take over his duty's while he was gone, Dracken would be taught Alchemy so he wouldn't be left behind, both of Atlas apprentices were working in the shop 

Mary was working at her forge with a tall powerful woman, her name was Nina, they both were working on elemental blacksmithing

"Mary can i have your attention" asked Atlas

The tall powerful woman looked up from the forge "we are busy at the moment" she waved Atlas away, under her breath she muttered " damn mage, think that what ever they do is more important than the rest of us"

At this point the large Black wolf known as Midnight lifted his head and growled at Nina, the wolf knew witch side his bread was buttered, even though Midnight was Mary's pet he was captured by Atlas, Mary was Midnights masters but Atlas was master to Mary making Atlas a grand master to Midnight

"SHUT UP, DOG" Nina raised her voice

Midnight looked at Nina and just sneezed at her, instinct and intelligence was abundant in this black wolf, in some ways he was smarter than Nina 

Mary quickly grabbed Atlas hand "Yes MASTER" Mary emphasised the word master and directed it at Nina, while being pulled away by Mary Atlas looked over his shoulder, the face of Nina was pale with worry, not realizing who Atlas was she dismissed him like a little child

"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME, DOG" Nina threw the rag she was holding at Midnight, batting the cloth out of the air Midnight just sneezed at Nina

Nina wasn't a bad person it was just she was rough around the edges and did things her way, it had been that way for years but now she regretted it, after years of searching for any elemental mana she was given free elemental mana by Mary's master, not realizing who Atlas was she had dismissed him, Nina was scared of losing access to the mana

Atlas found Dracken working at a table reading his notes and rearranging information "do you fancy learning Alchemy" asked Atlas

Dracken was on par with Mary with making money but he was behind her ever since she had gain the secret class Elemental Blacksmith, placing his note away Dracken got out of his chair and followed Atlas without saying a word

Down in the 1st basement Atlas taught Dracken Alchemy and Mary Enchantment, both apprentices had watched Atlas for months working on enchantment and potions so they picked up the craft easily, in fact Atlas learnt Elemental blacksmith from Mary

Elemental Blacksmithing and Enchanting had a lot in common, even though Atlas didn't learn the skill he could still put it into practice, it was like a person not having the cooking skill but still able to make stew

After the two apprentices learnt their new skills Mary took over the enchanting bags business and refilling the lamps of growth, while Dracken would help in any way he could, Atlas also handed over the mana extractor and two of his mana containers to Mary

With the running of all the cash making side projects under good care Atlas finished with his last lose end, in the Gnolls underground home was a hug cluster gem, with Mithril and other smaller gems Atlas made a system where one of the smaller gems would drain mana and pass it along the mithril like electricity though a copper wire and thus store the mana in the giant cluster gem, on the other end was a mithril cup that could hold any of the gems that had a spell grafted on it

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

The cluster gem was now turned in to a generator, the gnolls would touch the gem that drained mana and then the cluster gem would store it and finally the spell gems would absorb the mana from the cluster gem, the whole thing was designed to recharge the gems that powered the power tools of the gnolls

That was it, all of Atlas responsibilities were now covered Atlas prepared him self for the adventure

At the city's gates Atlas was waving goodbye to Mary, Dracken, Beast, and some guards, on his hand was a new ring made by Mary, the rings was the finished product of two Elemental blacksmiths, when Mary had handed it over it was kept in a earth box to contain the burning fire the ring was made of, When Atlas had tried to equip it he had to retreat his hand away from the burning heat, Atlas had a very high fire resistance from hitting intermediate in different crafting skills and added on top of that was the special bonus of 15% elemental resistance that magus naturally received, that wasn't all, Atlas had a skill called Avatar Of Fire that increased his fire resistance further but with all these added resistance Atlas still couldn't equip the fire ring with out burning him self and constantly receive damage, the only way for him to equip the fire ring was to increase his fire resistance, the other 9 rings on his hands had been made by him self using blacksmithing and enchanting, each one increased his wisdom and intelligence by 3 but with enchantment destruction and a new enchantment on each ring he had changed the rings to fire resistance 5%, with everything added together Atlas fire resistance had reached 97%, with this amount Atlas was able to equip the ring without too much damage done to him, in fact it helped him, with the 3% non fire resistance Atlas was taking constant damage, if this was a NPC he would of gone mad from the pain but Atlas was a player and the pain was a fraction of what it would be for real life, this meant that his stat Endurance was pushed to the extreme and climbed very fast

 Atlas had taken a wagon to travel to Baran Village as he wasn't sure exactly were the village was, he had bought a passage on a merchants wagon going to the village, the crew who managed the wagon trail had hired players to protect them but they had enough and so Atlas had to pay the fee of 200 gold for the week long journey

As the wagon travelled away from the city Atlas stopped waving

"That was a nice send off" said Forge, resting on Atlas shoulders and neck Forge looked like a big red thick scarf   

The goodbyes had brought a tear to Atlas eyes, he settled down and asked for a book from his bag

"Mana mouses, book" in the back pack a transparent mana mouse pushed out a book, this was one of the reasons Atlas went travelling in a pubic wagon, he was free to read while some one else drove

In the back of the wagon people talked and made idle chit chat, when people tried to talk to Atlas he just rubbed his eyes, it was incredibly hard to read while in a wagon, instead of him answering Forge spoke for him scaring the other people in the cart, each night when the wagon stopped and made camp some of the players would go and search the surrounding area for adventure

Atlas stayed at the camp, he was no longer in the forest area where the animals didn't attack him out of respect and so if Atlas wanted to go exploring he most likely had to kill for no reason, instead Atlas made food, fish with green herbs and white wine sauce with boiled rice, it was a nice and simple dish that increased heath regeneration and increased intelligence by 20 points for a hour

The players that had stay behind and the NPC enjoyed the food and Atlas made a little money from selling the food, when the other players came back from their adventure Atlas identified and bought some of the things they found

Royal jelly

A honey meant for the royalty of bees, can be used in potions or/and cooking, can convert normal bees to queen bees

Horned beetle x 6 (dead)

A battle hardened beetle, used in potions

Summer Spring Grass x 20

Grass with a mild sweet smell, only grows when spring turns in to summer

Coco fruit

Bitter and poisonous, a lot of effort will be needed to convert this in to some thing useful

Atlas bought these thing with the food he had made

Every night when the day had finished was the same, some of the players would go and search for experience, most of the time they couldn't go to far and thus only picked up plants, insects and odds and ends, that was until the 3rd night

Atlas was reading a biology book on humans while stirring the cooking pot using magic when his attention was pulled away from his book by laughing, the players had returned and it seemed like they had a big hull

Atlas did his usual thing of buying the stuff they didn't want

Spider's web (tangled)

silk spider web from the rainbow spiders, when proceed the silk can be turned in to fine silk

Spider eggs (crushed)

The undeveloped eggs of Rainbow spider

Spider's legs x 6

The legs of the rainbow spider

When Atlas asked about the items the players told a story of a spiders nest and how fearlessly they destroyed them

Laughing hard one of the players coughed up some water he was drinking "uff cuff rummm, it's just a shame they didn't drop anything useful"

"Were is the spiders nest" asked Atlas

The group told Atlas without hesitation, they had all ready cleared out the nest

"You guys don't mind if i go and collect some of the organs" asked Atlas

The party of players looked at each other, they had only picked up drops from the spiders and not skinned them, they all thought about the money they could make but then they thought better of it

"You can have your fill of food from the cooking pot" Atlas had made bread, soup and sausages "and to sweeten the deal you can share this bottle of vodka" Atlas placed the clear liquid down

"OH vodka" one of the players undid the cork and place the rim to his nose "it is vodka"

The rest of the players held out their cups to receive some of the vodka

"Be careful, it 90% prof and needs to be watered down" warned Atlas

"Don't worry about us, just make sure your back by morning"

With the warning and the permission of the other players Atlas left for the spiders home with Forge on his shoulders

Atlas didn't have any trouble finding the spiders cave, before he even entered the cave he knew it was the right place, the cave entrance had spider silk all over the entrance, Atlas picked up a fallen branch and scoped the web up like a fork in spaghetti

In the cave the light from the moon was completely blocked and pitch darkness was all their was but with the magical aura of the eye skill Atlas could see all, walking though the tunnels Atlas meet with the first dead spider, it was the size of a big dinner plate, it was on it's back with it's legs curled back on it's self

Looking at the dead spider was very scary, spiders had the god given talent to take down prey much bigger than them self using web trapping, poison and their unreal speed and agility, not to mention the thin hairy legs and many eyes, Atlas wasn't sure if he should continue, in real life he wasn't afraid of spiders but in game the spiders were huge, you could see the drool from the dead spiders fangs

"It's just a game" Atlas told him self

"What's a game" asked Forge

This made Atlas jump "nothing lets continue"

Atlas dismantled the spider, first was the eyes, they were collected in a flask, when Atlas placed each eye in the flask he noticed that they had a different colour to them

Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet and pink

Each eye had a small glint of colour in them "was this the reason they were called rainbow spiders" thought Atlas

The spiders fangs, poison glades and brain was removed from the head and from the abdomen the silk gland and heart was removed, the rest Atlas couldn't do any thing with, when the spiders re spawned they could eat what was left

Atlas continued though the nest, every time he meet with a dead spider he would collect the parts he wanted and leave the rest for the re-spawn, Atlas did notice with the bigger older spiders their eyes were deeper in the rainbow colours, some had one eye completely blue or red

Atlas was quick at cutting the pieces off the spiders, for one he was practice at gaining skins from rabbits and fishmen but also he had a knife that was coated in a powerful acid, each cut would cauterize the flesh and stop any liquids from flowing

As Atlas dived deeper in the nest the dead spiders got bigger, soon Atlas had to stop collecting the spiders heart, each heart was the length of the spiders body and even rolled up took a lot of space up

Now that Atlas didn't take the hearts from the dead spiders he quickly got to the end of the tunnel in to the spider queen nest

If he thought the other spiders were big they were nothing compared to the queen, dead like the rest of the spiders the biggest difference was it's size, giant wouldn't describe it, the size of a bungalow would, Atlas was scared he was ashamed to say it, he looked around to make sure there was a escape plan, as his eyes went around the room all along the walls were broken spider eggs and in the corner was a pile of skins, the remnants of the spiders prey

That was the other scary thing about spiders, they would drain you alive making your inner body in to liquids before draining the nutrients out

As Atlas was thinking these thing his eyes rested on the discarded skins of the spiders prey, he wasn't happy but still he could see that there was more to the pile than the skins, equipping his staff Atlas pushed the skins about

Tattered wolf skin

A rotten wolf pelt, all there is left of a powerful beast

The pile was full of pelts but being subjected to the poison of the spiders meant they couldn't be used in any thing except fire tinder, moving more away Atlas picked up a dim blue light coming from the pile, brushing more of the dead skin away Atlas was greeted by a shield and a strange looking suit of armour, Atlas went to pick it up

"Shuucck"

"What was that" Atlas was already nervous

"Shuckkle"

Some thing was still here, Atlas magical eye technique didn't miss anything, if it had mana then he could see it, the noise was coming from the dead queen spider, Atlas didn't want to get closer instead he moved the house sized spider with clay hand, Big earth hand melded out of the ground and pushed the spider queen around to show......a tiny spider on the queen

Atlas breathed out a sigh of relief, a small spider like this wasn't to bad, about the size of a tarantula this little spider was a baby who had escaped the players wrath, right now the little spider was on the queen trying to bite the dead body

Atlas new what was happening, this little baby was trying to eat it's mother but it's fangs weren't enough to pierce the hide, some spiders would eat there mothers when food was short and now there was no food for this little one

Slowly Atlas approached the little spider, raising him self using clay hand spell until he was at the height of the dead queen spiders belly Atlas poked the baby with his staff, as soon as the staff touched the hairs on the eight legs the baby spider freaked out

Jumping in the air and pouncing at the staff that had barely touched it, it danced on the tip of Atlas staff bouncing up and down turning left then right with it's two front legs raised showing it's fangs, this type of spider was so aggressive, when it was satisfied it left the tip of Atlas staff and returned to the body of the dead queen

"It's kind of cute" said Forge "We should take it with us"

The baby spider sensing something did it's little dance again

"I don't know about that" the creatures in Royal Road grew insanely quick, midnight the wolf was the size of a big dog but know with the help of good food and a couple extra levels it had grown by an extra 30% in a mouth, Atlas could only imagine the little spider growing to a huge spider and following him around

"Don't abandon it, when other spiders take over this den they would surely eat it, it's the last of it's kind" explained Forge

"How do you know that" asked Atlas

"Instinct" answered Forge

That was all Forge was willing to say about it, Atlas sighed, in his heart he didn't want to abandon the last of it's kind but wouldn't a new batch of spiders spawn in a day

"Just take the little spider, it will be useful in the future" said Forge

"Instinct?" asked Atlas

"Instinct" nodded Forge

The little spider still was bouncing on his legs with it's fangs raised, Atlas wasn't going to have the spider bite him, Atlas pulled out a horned beetle and stuffed it in the out stretched legs of the baby spider

Instantly the baby spider latched on it and wrapped it in silk, while the spider was working on the beetle Atlas pressed down on the spiders back and picked up the baby spider, quickly as he could Atlas placed the spider in a box he had already made

With the young spider out of sight Atlas felt better he picked up the shield and armour and identified it

Shield crest of Duke Crowfeather

Ceremonial armour for the Duke of Crowfeather

An amour and shield for only decoration purposes, thin as a piece of paper this armour will lose to all weapons

Restriction: race Alvinas

Meant for the Dukes son, this warrior bird meet it's end when fighting Alvinas mortal enemies, Spiders

Atlas read the information again, it meant nothing to him and so packed it away, Atlas took a good amount of time dismantling the queens body, the eyes were the most fascinating, each one had it's own colour like the rainbow but unlike the rest of the rainbow spiders each one of the queens eyes were a deep colour, not even a hint of other colour in it, red was red, orange was orange and so on, Atlas put each eye in it's own container, his instinct said it was some thing special, everything was packed away except the heart

A spiders heart spanned the out side of the abdomen, it's shape was more flat than round but even rolled up a building size spider would still have a heart the size of an wrapped carpet, Atlas had to discard the other spiders heart just to make room

With full packs Atlas left the spiders den, back at the camp Atlas was greeted by the drinking players

"Got anything good"

"Not really, spiders eyes, some webbing" answered Atlas as he tightened his hands around the box that held the baby spider

End Of Chapter Thirty Five   

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Special thanks to the people who asked for me when i was sick, thanks for caring