Rainer stared at his grandfather, his mother standing nearby with a coin in her hand. If he wanted to win, he needed to end this quick. Compared to his grandfather who had spent much of his life running and fighting for his life, Rainer was green.
Which was why he couldn’t give him even a moment to breathe.
Using a brief moment of thought, tens of miles around them transformed into a wide-open grassland.
While he waited for the literal coin to fall, Rainer thought over his advantages. The most obvious was the bonus from his Tier 2 classes, along with the sheer amount of Intelligence he had. While it was possible to improve Intelligence quite significantly with inscribing Runes in ones Mana Pool, assuming you had a talent for Mana, it likely wouldn’t compare to his current amount.
And so it fell.
Rainer held his grandfather in place with [Void Hold], as he dashed forward with an Arcanum Step. [Arcane Awakening] reached 100% in mere moments.
As if expecting it, his grandfather showed no surprise to being immobile. Arcane energies churned around him.
Eight [Arcanum] Magic Circles appeared behind a forward-flying Rainer and fired. The beams of Arcane energy glanced off and exploded the [Arcane Domain] created glass-like shields as Frederick’s body started glowing with Arcane.
Rainer entered shield mode mid-air as his grandfather fired back, not even slowed as he appeared right before Frederick.
A surge of Arcane Energy rumbled from both them. Rainer prepared his [Arcane Awakening: Final Arcanum] as he stretched his hand out, and his frozen grandfather created a powerful orb of Arcane Energy in front of him. Further glass-like shields reminiscent of [Arcane Awakening: Shield Mode] covered Frederick’s body as well.
Partially freeing himself from the [Void Hold], Frederick reached out with the orb, prepared to collide with Rainer’s magic. Only for his grandson to vanish and the [Void Hold] to disappear from him. Only a moment passed before the world became alight with Arcane.
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“I suppose ties are common when death is temporary,” Frederick said aloud, the reformed bodies of both Sophia and Elizabeth next to him. Despite running from the blast, they had been caught up in the Arcane explosion.
At the last moment, Frederick had managed to redirect his attack to Rainer, who appeared behind him. But it wasn’t enough to overcome Rainer’s attack - not even close, just what was that powerful beam of Arcane? Was that something he could fight against directly even with Tier 2 Class bonuses?
But seeing the result of the clash, Rainer shouldn’t have survived either.
He knew his grandson could have teleported to a greater distance before attacking, but then it was a question if Rainer could get a [Void Hold] back on him fast enough before Frederick could escape the blast. His movement speed was one thing he was quite proud of. So in all likelihood, Rainer had teleported directly behind him.
“Tie?”
Frederick was stunned as heard the raspy voice coming from the cratered and glassed grassland they had created.
Covered in burns and ash, Rainer stood up. He still didn’t have access to his Mana, so he kept his body together with an Arcane Aura-made [Arcane Invigoration]. Despite the state of his skin and several of his organs, his major functioning parts were unharmed.
“Funny joke, old man.”
A dozen or so seconds later, his Mana and Arcane Power came back, and he was healed in seconds. A buffet of wind flew out from him, blowing ash into the air, as the sheer amount of Arcane Power used to heal him went out. Flowing Arcane lines crossed his body as [Arcane Invigoration] did it’s work.
He reformed his clothes moments later, looking none the worse in just moments.
His grandfather snorted, both annoyed at and proud of his zombie-like grandson.
“Let’s go again.”
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Further duels proved that ties were in fact common. Whenever his grandfather could survive his initial bursts, Rainer struggled to fight back against him. But with [Void-walking] and [Void-traveling], there was simply no way for his grandfather to kill him. And if he was truly patient enough, he could try another burst after his Void Will recovered. Not that he did so here.
Frederick came close a few times, but Rainer could recover from just about anything that didn’t kill him instantly.
His grandfather thought his and Kara’s idea of setting limits to the duel was a bad idea, and didn’t agree to try that, so they were left with a score leaning in Rainer’s favor.
But, it was time for what he had been waiting for a long time: trading spells.
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Rainer glanced over the four spells his Grandfather gave him. He expected more, but according his to his mother, when it came to combat, Earth’s Mages tended to focus on only a few spells to mastery. Of course, combined with some form of Manipulation even a single spell can take on many forms.
He supposed that wasn’t too untrue for this world either. Yarik, the Skyborne Guildmaster, came to mind. Other than what appeared to be a group [Lightning Domain], [Lightning Manipulation], and some lightning-type traveling spell, he hadn’t seemed to use anything else. Rainer supposed specializing for combat made sense, especially when learning and studying new magic was considered a very dangerous undertaking for most.
He excitedly learned [Arcane Domain] in only a few minutes, a Tier 6 spell he was happy to gain. It wasn’t too hard to change the Tier 5 [Arcane Tendrils] to [Arcane Chains], using his own Arcane-weaved chains as opposed to pure Arcane energy. With his experience in creating the spells [Arcanum] and [Arcanum Shield] based on his Arcane-weaved magic circles, it was a simple effort. Now that he had a control technique in both Arcane and Void, his combat power increased greatly.
Wrapped by [Arcane Chains], how would someone escape a [Void Call] or a [Blade of the Void]?
The other two spells, however, were temporarily useless to him. Just like he created spells that depended on skills or outside resources, so had his grandfather. The skill, [Arcane Haste], which had the side-effect of covering him in Arcane Energy, was necessary for these two. And his grandfather had no idea how to teach the skill as it had been learned at the time by total accident. He also seemed quite put out as he had named his own power, ‘Arcane Unleashed’.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Seeing a millennium old Human pout was a strange experience.
Frederick had merely wanted to attack as fast as possible in an Arcane-fueled rage, and next thing he knew, Arcane Power was flowing around him, making all his magic far faster. Despite using it for centuries, he didn’t have the slightest idea over how it worked. And it was far too much Arcane Energy for Rainer to see clearly with [Arcane Revelation].
But for now, it was time to gain the final level of [Arcane-Spatial Domain]. He also had plenty of other spells to work for even more skill points.
Or rather, it was time to wake up, Rainer thought ruefully as he felt his body leaving the [Sleep Learning] space. But before he woke up, he saw his grandfather angrily walking over to him.
“What?”
“Rainer, I know you may not understand, but giving someone a fake spell in our culture is about the highest insult. It’s literally telling them to go kill themselves. While, mind you, we wouldn’t die given our current location-”
“Wait, wait. The spells I gave you are completely real.”
His grandfather gave him a disbelieving look.
“You asked for my strongest spell. So I gave you [Absolute Frost].”
As [Blade of the Void] was technically half a spell, that wasn’t completely true, but it terms of sheer area damage his frost spell won out.
“And then I kindly gave you [Deliverance], which much of the runes for [Absolute Frost] came from. And I already told you, casting [Absolute Frost] safely without a Magic Word Language was almost impossible, but you told me that wasn’t an issue.”
“Neither of these two things are anything close to resembling a spell! And this journal… how can anyone sane believe this [Deliverance] could ever be cast?!”
Rainer awkwardly scratched his cheek. The runes were a bit messy, but…
His grandfather suddenly sighed as he rubbed his temples.
“I see my problem. I thought the same thing about your [Void-walking]. Can you give me some Magic you learned from this world or from raw manipulation instead? Not all of us have your… ‘talent’ when it comes to runes.”
“Sure.”
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As Rainer sat and planned, looking over all the information Elelaria got him on the Farseers, he froze.
Wasn’t he trying to do exactly what’s been done to his family for all generations? Attacking and stealing from someone just because of what he could gain from it? Not exactly the same as wanting to capture someone as an experimental research material, but close enough. He was seeking knowledge at the expense of another.
Yes, the Farseer Magus annoyed him, but it hardly warranted writing off their entire Guild as possible collateral damage. And really, he owed them a bit for the whole idea of a Dungeon Meet. Without it, there could already be several Tier 3 existences walking around in this world that Rainer would have no choice but to run from or bow to. And he was far too prideful to ever live under another anymore.
It was good his mother noticed that and didn’t try to push things, though it seemed Sarah got to enjoy that kind of attention instead.
He let out a long breath, still valuing his sister far more than any morality. Not to mention that passive spells would be useful for any of the Mana-overfilled-Mages he would have in his Dungeon party. Mira came to mind as well given she didn’t even use her Fae-granted Mana pool for combat but Aura instead.
He always valued those he cared about over his own uncomfortableness or he never would have killed another human being on the likely possibility they’d betray knowledge of Luna.
Going in as a non-lethal thief sounded like a good compromise. And leveling up [Void Suppression] and gaining [Void Harmony] beforehand could prove beneficial. Though he wouldn’t have noticed the stealth effect of [Void Suppression] had Amer not mentioned it back when he was merging with Francis. As such, he had no idea just how effective it would be.
Not to mention at even higher levels it would likely change his appearance enough to be impossible to identify. There was no reason for any blood to be shed in this. Just because he killed someone for less, didn’t mean he had to kill someone for more.
“Luna, you think I’m wrong for trying to steal from people who’ve done me no harm?”
Luna stopped playing with his hair for a moment before continuing on. It seemed she didn’t need to give it much thought.
“If they have something Rainer wants and won’t give it, they are harming Rainer.”
Rainer chuckled, knowing he should have expected such an answer. He supposed it didn’t matter, it wasn’t as if he was depriving the Farseer’s of knowledge by copying theirs. What amounted to corporate espionage for his sister’s benefit was hardly his moral limit after all. In fact, Rainer could easily see it from that angle as a plus. Screw the corporations of any world! And no doubt if they were capable they’d want his secrets just as much.
“You wanna go fly somewhere nice?” He remembered a few nice scenes during his adrenaline fueled flight to the Tarainien Empire border. And [Void-Traveling] meant he could go anywhere he’s been before, as well as hasn’t, in a few moments.
Luna flew in front of him before returning to full size.
“Let’s go.”
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Rainer wasn’t sure where he got the idea, perhaps he was just a bit pretentious at the moment and felt that a powerful Mage should have a flying throne.
So here he was, in a violet Arcane-weaved throne, flying over a magical forest - magical in the sense that the trees looked very foreign to him though not so much in substance as they had just the tiniest lick of magic in the occasional tree. The place itself was several hours of faster than sound flight from Neutral City. This time, it was just a single Void-Travel. Luna sat in his lap, glancing around, her silver hair only blowing gently in the wind despite their speed of travel.
Really, copying Tiamat’s flight magic was one of the more convenient things he ever did. [Eldritch Flight] ignored so many issues with high-speed flight. One of which likely included the sheer amount of friction a full grown dragon would produce, their bodies not being designed for flight whatsoever. From what he knew, they could grow beyond the size of aircraft carriers.
“Ooo, go over there,” Luna pointed from his lap imperiously.
“At your command.”
A few more ‘commands’, and Rainer wondered just where she was leading them. He had even Void-traveled a few times at her request and they ended up now truly deep into the south. That train of thought paused when they heard a few yells coming from below them.
Rainer glanced at the likely hunting group, facing against one of the most hideous things he’d ever seen. A feline boar was certainly not something he ever dreamed of seeing. A hairless cat with tusks and a large round body with stubby cloven legs might have been weirdly ‘cute’ if it wasn’t the size of car.
Perhaps even worse, the hunting party was losing quite badly to this missmatched thing. With a single thought, Rainer let the Void descend. The monster looked at him stunned as he then stretched out his hand.
He froze. This wasn’t like the berzerk monsters of the mountains near Neutral City. This one could very well be sentient one day. But should he show mercy even when…
Rainer scratched the side of his head as he brought himself out of another side-track on morality. He didn’t want to kill this boar-thing so he wouldn’t. It should be as simple as that. That was what being powerful gave him.
As if sensing his changed mind, and still quite fearful of [Void Descent], the feline-looking boar backed away slowly before rushing into the forest, somehow gracefully avoiding trees on its way despite it’s size and shape. How frightening. He hoped to never meet such a thing ever again.
The group of 11 Elves and a single Lamia looked at him in a mixture of gratitude and fear and then flinched when 12 streams of violet water headed towards them. Though it took only seconds for them to realize the healing magic for what it was.
The violet throne vanished into the distance moments later.
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Rainer glanced at Luna, wondering where the concentrated look on her face came from. She seemed to be leading them somewhere, though even she didn’t know. Truly looking at her for the first time with [Arcane Revelation], what he saw stunned him but didn’t surprise him.
Just as his [Sleep Learning] Space acted as the focal point of his Soul, even more so now, her Faerie Arcane-Fire acted as the center of hers. Though it seemed far more active than it should be…
Where, or perhaps what, was Luna leading them to?