The Arcane Emperor-Chapter 101: Opening the [Sleep Learning] Space

Chapter 101: Opening the [Sleep Learning] Space

“You have everything you ne-” Rainer started.

“Ah wait, Ra-Francis. You should bring some Fairy Dust for grandpa,” Sarah interrupted.

“Why?” the two ‘twins’ echoed.

“He’s… he’s on his last leg. He’s pretty much expended every method of life-extension on Earth.”

“Should I bring some Magicite too?” Francis asked, inwardly wondering why Sarah never mentioned anything about their grandfather running out of time till now. No matter, it wasn’t his problem. No doubt by the semi-constipated look on Rainer’s face - his Charisma made it somehow look enchanting - his less unfettered half was worrying enough for the both of them.

“No, he’s used it already. Well, it’s called something else on Earth but you get the idea.”

“Off I go then,” Francis said, grabbing the split off bag of Fairy Dust from Rainer and putting it into his ring. He had gotten Gunthar's spatial ring at the Undead’s request. Gunthar was the best.

“Are you sure you don’t need anything else?” Rainer asked.

“I’ll be fine, dad.”

Rainer chuckled awkwardly before moving out of the way. He still wasn’t sure how to act around his second self. A small part of him was glad they wouldn’t be spending too much time together.

A drop of blood later, and the former Avatar had honed in on ‘his’ mother and grandfather. Using [Arcane Energy Manipulation], Francis started weakening the space. Streams of Arcane Energy torrented past his right and left. With a final grin and wave towards his ‘audience’, he vanished to a world far beyond this one.

Francis walked through the Void as he neared his destination. Normally, only his high Intelligence would allow him time enough to glimpse the Void when walking through it, but this journey was longer than anything he took before.

He imagined even an ordinary Human would have a chance at seeing the darkness within this place. To his right he felt a fearsome power in the distance - only for it to vanish suddenly. Any thoughts pertaining to what that was were interrupted as a Divine Presence swept over him.

As he was traveling sans passenger, he didn’t even have to use [Void Presence] to cover himself.

So it’s a place without the system?

He wondered curiously, having received the same treatment when ‘he’ entered Earth. Even his Void-dampened self had been excited to learn which Classes his mother and grandfather had. It looked like he’d have to wait and find out till he could bring them back. And it likely wouldn’t be hard, though he guessed based on what he saw in [Void Seer] he might have to make multiple trips.

His expectations were raised high just before he entered the world. After all, to anyone else, Earth was incredibly different from the other places he visited. What about this place?

However his elation soon turned to a searing pain. He slammed in and out of the Void several times as he missed his destination. The very air itself seemed to be disrupting his Void-walk as he crashed in a mangled mess onto sand. Several pieces of his body were strewn about him.

With a guttural scream he managed to take control of himself, stopping himself from blacking out from the pain. Only his experiences in [Sleep Learning] prevented that. He poured his Arcane Aura into [Arcane Invogration] and used [Flesh Manipulation] to drag the pieces of his body back to him. All of his attention was on either reattaching limbs to stop the bleeding or healing essential processes to live.

He quickly realized his 27 Arcane Aura wasn’t enough. He dumped 40 points into Aura Attunement, and another 40 into Aura Control, when the former only increased his maximum but didn’t give him any Aura. Aura Control both improved control as stated and also helped with refining World Energy into Aura. It made [Arcane Invigoration] far more efficient.

Francis sunk into a meditative trance and focused on both recovering his Aura and healing his body. But the World Energy here felt thin. Instead, he felt something far different permeating the atmosphere: Mana.

It wasn’t like the scattered Mana of the Dragon Isles, but instead it was a thickness that could almost be physically felt. He even felt that his body was practicing Affinity Attunement on it’s own.

Sinking deeper into his trance, he left any questions for later.

The [Harbinger] woke up confused. There was the sound of other people breathing around him and a cold metallic feel on his wrists. Gingerly he sat up, using his recovered Arcane Aura to finish any healing. He had no regrets about the points spent, given he had originally put a single point in to test whether he and Rainer shared points. They didn't. Even then, he doubted Rainer would complain about it. Nor would Francis care if he did.

He stared down at the restraints, giving a faint chuckle as he thought to cut them open with his [Arcane Blade]. A frown marred his face as the spell failed. It was as if the Runic formula was scrambled in his head.

Using his Aura, he cast [Arcane Revelation] and took another look at the restraints on him. He tried to cast another spell and the restraints lit up with Mana in the center. They weren't enchanted and yet they seemed to the source of his casting issue. He thought of just Void Calling them away, but he didn’t know what failsafes might be built in. What if there was a explosive in the wrist parts, rather than in the connected bar?

For now, he set the issue aside. While he was pretty sure he could regrow limbs with [Arcane Invigoration], especially with the addition of [Flesh Manipulation], there was no reason to risk it before he had to.

He took a glance around the place he was in. As far as he could tell it was a wooden… something. It was definitely moving and seemed far too large and wide to be a carriage, but they weren't over water or in the air either.

Technology then?

He wondered, but [Arcane Revelation] showed the thing, whatever it was, had Mana flowing through it and in use. Not like an enchanted item, but rather as if the object itself was casting a spell using the ambient Mana - something that shouldn’t be possible.

He saw seven other inhabitants, all of them wearing the same restraints. They looked Human, and [Appraisal] didn’t show otherwise.

[Male, Human, Classless]

[Title: None]

And all were Mages, probably, given the restraints’ purposes. They had far too much Mana for their ages. He knew from his own body the reason for that. Not only was it attuning to Affinity without any effort from him, it was a bit better than his usual practice. For the non-talented [Archon] it still wasn't significant, but for anyone with a smidgen of Mana Talent, it’d be impressive.

Five were girls and two were boys. He figured approaching a girl would be an easier bet with his Charisma, but then he remembered his eyes. While his Charisma might make it so his Void-dark eyes didn’t detract from his appearance per say, they were still frightening.

So he sat in front of the boy to the left of him. The 14-year-old or so boy’s tired eyes looked up at him before jerking back a bit at Francis’s eyes.

“Y-yes?” he asked, a bit shakily.

“I have some questions for you. If you can answer them, I’ll take you out of here.”

All of the inhabitants perked up at that. Even if there was a tinge of disbelief on their faces.

Francis smirked before manipulating a variety of elements all around him. The restraints may stop spells but they did nothing to his manipulation skills. A fire burned, only to be smothered by water and then froze into a ball of ice before shattering and raining snowflakes across the watching mages.

“Arch-Magus…” one of them reverently whispered.

“And so many elements,” another added, with equal parts confusion and awe.

“What do you w-want to know?” the boy said, his voice nervous but mirroring the hope in everyone’s eyes.

Later that night, Rainer sat in his [Sleep Learning] space. One by one he called people in, though Francis rejected the call.

However, it wasn’t just the usual people. With his current strength, and the looming Dungeon meet, there was no point in hiding this secret from the people he planned on entering the Dungeon with. It wasn’t as if it could be stolen. And his strength, along with Kara’s and her mother’s now that he thought of it, was more than enough to stand at the top of this world. Or at least to run away if need be.

First was Mira, the [Aural Devastator] Fairy he first heard of the Dungeon meet from. Then was the Fairy Elru, though without Theodore as he had yet to figure out how to bring undead in. He waited until they both got their bearings straight and managed to learn how to create bodies. Soon after he called up the men one by one. Furtak and his [Ice Wolf Queen] companion, though as his kind-of-familiar, they only counted as one slot for the Dungeon. Prince Laneth and Amer as well joined soon after.

Rainer immediately regretted turning around after the two ladies got dressed. Seeing an ancient Goblin and Devil naked, again, now that he unfortunately thought of it, was not on his to-do list.

He had only told everyone he was inviting that this was an illusionary world. That in and of itself was impressive.

“Not bad,” Mira said, having an almost predatory look at both Amer and Furtak.

Mana-loving Fae…

Rainer thought while shaking his head. According to Luna, pixies were ever weirder, though he still had no idea what they were other than Luna didn’t want to be compared to them. Which could literally say anything about them, coming from that Fairy.

“I’m guessing this is the current group for the dungeon,” Prince Laneth chimed in.

“Correct. I’ll be filling in the rest of the slots before then. And now that you’re here, it’s time to explain what here is,” Rainer started before anyone else could speak. He went on to explain the space, the benefits, the minor drawback of no skill exp.

All of them stared at him like he had grown a second head. Rainer chuckled and complained a bit more about how he doesn’t get any skill experience from here. The looks of outrage on their faces were entertaining. Several of their faces practically screamed ‘How dare you complain’.

Amer started giving off a laugh somewhere between insane and maniacal.

“No wonder you told me hold off practicing the spell. You… are you descended from Divinity? What sort of madness is this place?”

“Full-blooded human,” Rainer stated, confusing everyone with how offended he sounded. They knew he wasn’t racist so why was he so bothered by the insinuation? How could they be aware of his antagonistic relationship with that group?

After some idle talk, the group quickly separated after a quick demonstration of how to revive from death or injury. Everyone was more than eager to test out whether this impossible place truly worked as he said it did. Given that many of them were already in the high-levels of the 2nd Tier, they cared less than most about skill exp.

Rainer performed a quick Avatar ritual and set the Avatar to work on taking the level 9 [Arcane Presence] to the imagined Arcanium Descent.

He called Talvara shortly after. It was time to test the various ways of meshing Void Will and Arcane Power in his body.

A month after his clone had left, Rainer oversaw the building of his Enchanter’s Guild. He wasn’t sure why Francis hadn’t returned, but according to conversation he had with Talvara in [Sleep Learning], everything was fine and he’d be bringing his mother and grandfather as soon as he could Void-walk in the strange atmosphere of the place. He had apparently ended up too far from them but was keeping watch with [Void Seer].

Talvara had been oddly accommodating and offered her Ashen Dwarven workers to him with ease, and even supplied the Mana Crystals they needed to build things. After all, until he set up the Nalmar-esque Enchanter’s stations that connected to the Mana-Well, he couldn’t let anyone else use it.

He was suspicious of her generosity but let it go. They shared enemies, and he might very well ask for her help - or rather her servants’ help - in getting back his elemental from the Arcane Elementals if his child wasn’t being treated as well as Talvara implied. So, deepening their relationship was par for the course.

The Guild itself was located a bit outside the city in one of the very expensive lands owned by the Lamia Clan. They were responsible for keeping the Neutral City free of the berserk energy of the Mountains nearby. It was apparently unhealthy in the long term. And so, their personal land had the highest quality.

All three clans agreed with establishing his guild here, especially after the power boost he gave to all of them with Body Enchantments, along with the implied reward of future enchanted items in the first place. They didn’t care that the Body Enchantments were not gifts but were instead grossly expensive in the materials required.

They had centuries to acquire copious amounts of resources.It wasn’t a matter of having money in Neutral City but having a place to spend it. The best Enchanters were monopolized by Mage Guilds in the North and they rarely sold anything truly impressive to outside sources.

To any power, sets of enchanted items meant more of their people could pass their 2nd Tier trials. In the past, they could only loan out a powerful set to the most promising individuals. After all, if they failed it would be lost. But with an Enchanter’s Guild in their backyard…

Rainer turned his attention back to the quick construction offered by the Ashen Dwarves. The plan was for a metal tower in a large courtyard, surrounded by shorter buildings that boxed the courtyard off. The tower itself would have no entrances and would be enchanted to resist teleportation. Once he figured out that enchantment, of course.

The Mana-Well itself would be stored at the top of the tower with his Avatar, from which enchanted lines would connect to various Enchanter’s workstations - just like in Nalmar. His Avatar would spend his days enchanting, giving the illusion of numerous Enchanters already creating goods.

It was easy enough to make a normal Avatar, as Francis technically wasn’t one. And, therefore, Rainer’s Soul had fully recovered without any pieces missing.

From there, it wouldn’t be hard to make this a place of learning for Enchanters, and then for Aura users raised by the Guild and given powerful items for their trials. Making it a place of magic would be far harder, but his dream of an Academy of magic was taking its first step. He planned on moving to his own island eventually, but Neutral City would do for now.

There was a much more pressing matter on the horizon, however…

“How’d it go?” Rainer asked Elelaria beside him. For the past few weeks, she’d been hinting that he was looking to fill several spots on his Dungeon team. And that any team members would have access to far better body enchantments. She even ‘accidentally’ revealed that one of the body enchantments had to do with teleportation.

“The Dwarves seemed to ignore my hints, but you never know with them. My grandfather asked me about it upfront, and I told him the truth,” she said, glad that Rainer didn’t seem bothered by that. It was nice to be trusted to work on her own. “But Mala, the head of the Lamia Clan, was by far the most interested. She was quite impressed with her granddaughter’s enchantments.”

Rainer thought that made sense; out of all the clans, the Lamia had the highest Talents. While they often lacked magic-related talents, their talents in Mana was prodigious. A Lamia of the Everlasting Grove born without a Mana talent was almost as rare as a manaless Fae. Which meant they could use the enchantments moderately well without even having to get a specialized class for it.

“She wants to meet with you later tonight. The official reason is her own enchantments, but no doubt she will probe about your Dungeon Team plans. I would avoid saying you need more members outright, but instead fill the time enchanting her by talking about their strengths. Assuming they are strong?” she ended with that question.

“They are. One’s flame-touched, another is master of Soul and Space magic with the largest Mana Pool I’ve ever seen. An-”

“Save it for her,” Elelaria said with a sigh. She shouldn’t even be surprised that the people he already managed to gather were ridiculous. While Rainer himself was scary with his ability to teleport, she could imagine the fear someone who was both skilled in Souls and Teleportation could instil. Almost everyone relied on their energy pools to protect their Souls, so a true expert was a fearsome thing. Especially as he just tacitly admitted that his Mana Pool was larger than Mala’s, who had the largest by far in Neutral City.

“Do you think she’ll agree?”

“All the clan heads and any 2nd Tier experts participating are going to be old. They only differ in how close to the grave they are. This isn’t a time to honor relationships but rather to pick the team that gives them the greatest chance.

“But even that isn’t the most important point. Your Body Enchantments are.”

“Why?” Rainer asked curiously. Yes, teleporting was powerful, but it would be expensive for anyone without a specialized Tier 2 class for using Body Enchantments. He hadn’t yet showed Elelaria his [Sleep Learning] space, so she couldn’t know that would be far more enticing than anything else. Though he didn’t plan on sharing it with anyone he couldn’t trust enough.

“Even if they reach level 25 with both their classes, they still have to pass the Trial. Being close with such a powerful Enchanter, body and otherwise, isn’t that the greatest boon?”

“Good point.” Rainer had already planned on asking for a Void Lord or two from Talvara to join him. So, worst case scenario, he had a group of powerful Void Lords joining him. But, while he could trust Talvara, her servants were another thing. Hence he didn’t want to fill more than one or two slots with them.

He glanced over the construction and thought over the meeting for tonight. His goals were drawing closer and closer and he would be reunited with his family soon. Now, he just needed to find a way for Arcane and Void to work together.