Reborn As The Villain In A Game-Like World-Chapter 40: First Disciple

Melinda had a complicated expression. Was the outcome favourable or dreadful? She couldn’t discern the result from Jack’s expression, which showed complicated excitement.

"Master... please tell me."

It had been Melinda’s dream since she was a little girl to become a mage. After learning the cleaning spell to B grade in only a few days all by herself, she became confident about her own abilities. Why did she feel so apprehensive now?

Jack took his gloved hand away and pondered for a moment. "Well, to put it simply, you have ’elemental’ affinity. It allows you to manipulate every naturally occurring element. Fire, water, earth, and wind."

Melinda’s expression brightened. That was good news! Right?

"So why the complicated expression, Master?"

Jack let out a long sigh. "There is no such thing as an ’elemental’ affinity stone or spirit. The elemental affinity is split up, and therefore, to raise your elemental affinity, you have to achieve enlightenment in all four elements simultaneously. Not only that, but to reach the A grade, you will need to find four elemental stones or make a contract with four spirits."

Melinda’s expression sank to a new low. A single elemental stone could cost a million platinum; although the basic elements were more common, they also had higher demand than an affinity such as Void or Space.

Jack noticed Melinda’s depressed mood and quickly added, "This would be an awful situation for a normal mage. Gathering that many resources and gaining enlightenment in four different schools of magic at once is simply impossible. But you are my future blood queen, and we have an eternity to spend on powering you up. Also, the benefits are massive. An A-grade elemental mage is very difficult to fight, as they are extremely versatile."

Taking a second to dig deep into his memory of wiki articles and build guides, he added, "That’s not even mentioning that your elements will upgrade at around A grade. For example, Ice, Volcanic, Storm, and even Nature spells will become available to learn."

Jack then put his gloved hand on her forehead, using telepathy to impart his knowledge of water. How water was made up of two hydrogen and one oxygen atom. How the different boiling points affected its composition, how to create steam and ice, and how water could dissolve things.

After a few minutes, Jack had finished shoving all the information he knew about water into Melinda’s brain. She crumpled to the ground, clutching her head. Transferring too much unknown and confusing information at once seemed to have overloaded her. Unlike the princess, who had some knowledge already about Luna affinity, Melinda had only recently started using magic, so she had a very shallow understanding. Imagine if someone opened up your brain and shoved an entire chemistry textbook inside without warning. That was basically what Jack had unknowingly done to Melinda.

Despite her clear suffering, she almost couldn’t sit still with excitement. Inside her sea of consciousness, she felt the world recognising her level of knowledge. She soared through the tiers in mere seconds, all the way to the C grade. She felt knowledge of spells available at the C grade being implanted into her very soul as if they had been there all along. It felt comfortable and warm to Melinda. Her whole life, she had dreamed of this moment, and finally, it had come. She had officially learned a real spell.

With excitement, she jumped up despite her terrible headache and looked around. On a table in the corner was the stone she was familiar with checking regularly at the library. She placed her hand and injected a small amount of mana. On the stone’s flat surface, in blue letters, information appeared:

[Melinda Harrington]

[Human (???)]

Schools of Magic:

[Elemental Affinity (LOCKED)]

[Water Magic (C)]

Hydrokinesis [E]

Water Cannon [F]

[Fire Magic (F)]

Pyrokinesis [E]

[Earth Magic (F)]

Geokinesis [E]

[Wind Magic (F)]

Aerokinesis [E]

=Null Spells=

Clean [B]

Mana Control [D]

Melinda spent a few minutes just staring at the stone, reading the same words over and over. For years it only displayed her name, and recently she had learned Mana Control at the F grade. But now... the stone’s surface was almost covered from head to toe with skills.

Melinda had done a lot of reading in the past, and the most schools of magic a person was able to wield at once were five. Scholars theorised that the body had limited space for mana circuits or that the soul was simply overloaded. Nobody knew for certain, as very few mages in history had ever reached the realm of quintuple magic schools, and even fewer were willing to share their secrets.

"Melinda, I will help you advance your other schools of magic at another time. Too much information at once will only confuse you. You should have enough insight to reach B-tier in Water Magic in the near future, but you will need to practise with Water Magic first to increase your understanding."

Melinda absentmindedly nodded and walked away from the stone.

Suddenly, the area shuddered as Master Gray appeared in a puff of smoke. Behind him, three very different individuals stood with curious expressions.

"Mashter, ish this where yer livfe?" a small purple-coloured kobold said while glancing around with his massive, yellow, snake-like eyes. He was tiny, like a small child.

"Yes, Varn, it is," Master Gray replied and directed his attention toward Jack. "Jack, this is Varn. He is fifty-two years old and still stuck at the C grade in Wild Magic. He is an abandoned son from a draconic bloodline; he crossed the Aldric Mountains to come here and study. Unfortunately, he has low talent, is very stubborn, and his school of magic is very random for gaining enlightenment."

By the end of the introduction, the poor kobold looked incredibly hurt, with his large ears drooping down.

Master Gray then added, "Varn, this man here is Jack Wilson. He is going to try and give you enlightenment. If he is successful, he will become your new master."

At the word Wilson, Varn froze on the spot and silently shuffled away. Master Gray tried to push him forward, but he refused, using his draconic strength to escape the old man’s grasp.

A haughty-looking woman standing behind Master Gray gave a snicker. "Little Varn, you are fifty-two years old and still act like a child." The woman had black hair, brown eyes, and a tight-fitting black outfit. She gave Jack a condescending look. "I shall allow you to try and teach me, but I must warn you—ow!"

Master Gray smacked her over the head. "This ungrateful and self-entitled woman is Akna Yaeldrin, a half-elf that was left with me a hundred years ago by an old acquaintance. She was a prodigy back then but has stalled in the C grade for over a hundred years."

"Oi, never tell a man about a woman’s age!" Akna said with fury as she contemplated bashing the old man.

Jack just shrugged. "Whoever is willing to take me as their master and gain enlightenment can step forward. Otherwise, bring me some other disciples."

Akna was incredibly angry at being treated dismissively. She walked up to Jack but shrunk back a little under his scrutinising gaze. He eyed her with complete contempt and disgust. She had never been looked at this way; she had an amazing appearance, a mighty background, and an amazing sense of humour. Yet this vampire, the most degenerate of all races, was looking down upon her?

Jack grinned. He couldn’t wait to see this stuck-up woman beg to become his disciple.

"What is her affinity?" Deciding that speaking to her would only lose him brain cells, Jack asked Master Gray.

"Ice Magic," he responded.

Akna turned around and glared daggers at the old man but suddenly felt a surge of information forcing its way into her head. She could resist it using her mana, but she caught a glimpse of something. It looked like a magical recording of a frozen wasteland where some strange creatures called penguins were sliding along. The recording then zoomed out and showed the endless and timeless nature of ice, encapsulating centuries of hidden knowledge, unmoving through the ages. It then zoomed even further out over the ocean, a massive floating island of ice that sat near a glacier. Although it was massive above water, when the recording went below... the unbelievably dark outline of a titanic amount of ice was visible. The recording abruptly stopped as fast as it had come.

Akna stood there dumbfounded, just staring off into space. For someone that had only seen snow and ice during the winter seasons, seeing the vastness of Antarctica from Jack’s memories was amazing.

"This is only a tiny glimpse of the possibilities..." Jack said sagely.

Akna’s haughty attitude for a 124-year-old half-elf had completely vanished. "Hoh hoh, how interesting indeed..." a booming voice laughed out.

Jack spotted the culprit standing leisurely behind Master Gray. The half-orc’s gray, muscular skin was covered in blue runic tattoos. One of his eyes was covered in a magnifying glass, and he had a weird creature perched on his shoulder. In his hand was a tome with pages of thin metal sheets with spells and diagrams etched into them with Rune Engraving.

Walking past the stunned Akna, the huge orc met Jack’s eyes. "Although I know Metal Magic, I am more interested in Rune Engraving. Do you know anything about the topic?"

Jack wordlessly replied by showing him a mental recording of his time at Dalon’s forge. Just like Dalon, simply gazing at the creation process of the eight-letter rune "Enhance" caused the orc’s brain to be overwhelmed with enlightenment. Like Melinda, the orc had a massive headache and went to sit down.

Akna took this opportunity to complain. "Erm... Jack, can I receive some more knowledge?"

"Call me Master Wilson, and I might consider it."

"But—but... you... agh."

"But what?" Jack asked with an amused expression.

"You’re a vampire!" she exclaimed without being able to hold it back anymore.

"Yeah, so what if I am?" he asked with a smirk.

"They... I was told vampires are bloodthirsty, mindless creatures that only like to rape and steal. The enemy of all sentient races."

Jack nodded in agreement. "Indeed, most of them are like that, but I didn’t agree with their ways, so I’m here."

"You won’t eat me, right?" Akna asked in a tone one would use with an animal.

Jack debated shoving all his scientific knowledge into her head all at once to test the limits... He just needed Akna to lower her mental defences a little more...

"Of course not. I have a ’partner’ for that already." Jack smiled while looking at Melinda, but she didn’t notice his remarks, as she was still gazing into space with amazement.

Akna gave Melinda an unimpressed look and snorted. "Fine."

Jack shook his head. "Nah, I’ve changed my mind. You annoy me."

"Huh? How dare you!" Akna practically screamed like a child who had their favourite toy taken away.

Just as she was about to go for a punch, a hearty chuckle was heard in the corner. Turning their attention, they saw the half-orc with a happy grin on his face while looking at the status stone. "I really upgraded to B grade in Rune Engraving!" he said excitedly.

Master Gray’s eyes practically popped out of his head from shock. Sharing enlightenment through telepathy was no new idea, but it was deemed only slightly more efficient than just explaining something to someone with words or diagrams. What kind of deep, profound knowledge did Jack possess to share this level of enlightenment?

"Bullshit!" Akna exclaimed as she marched over to the stone.

The large orc ignored Akna and strode over to Jack, giving a deep bow, and, funnily enough, the small creature on his shoulder that looked like a weird owl also gave a small bow.

"Thar Hornraven takes Jack Wilson as my master!"

Jack was all smiles. He had successfully gotten himself a runic engraver to teach him about runes... even though he was supposed to be the master.

"I accept Thar Hornraven as my disciple."

With his first official disciple, Jack began imagining all the potential uses for Thar. That’s when a fairy with an oppressive aura appeared, dressed like a tiny empress, and she exclaimed in her loud voice, "I’m back! What did I miss?"