The Arcane Emperor-Chapter 121: Passives

Chapter 121: Passives

While his true body zoned in and out during a meeting with the Tideborne Guildmaster, Rainer’s second Avatar stood in front of the Dungeon. It was on the way to the ship the Flameborne Ambassador was on - having Neutral City somewhat on his side proved a boon in many ways, even if ‘how’ they tracked the man escaped Rainer - so he figured he’d visit and see just how they were keeping people from entering it.

Steps of a massive pyramid led to a lonely portal at the top. But it wasn’t the Dungeon’s entrance that attracted him, but the sheer amount of magic in air. He ignored the many presences he felt in the surrounding jungle and just looked with [Arcane Revelation].

What the hell is this spell?

A swirl of complicated magic surrounded the pyramid, all stemming from a small hut off to the side. It felt beyond dangerous, and not something to be tested lightly.

“What are your intentions, [Archon]? It is not close to the time for the Dungeon Meet. You’d best leave, lest we misunderstand you.”

A severe and scolding voice echoed from the hut, as an old man matching it exited. Despite his white hair, the dark-skinned Human didn’t actually look older than 40 when it came to his face. An odd contrast to his slow walk and hunched posture that relied on a cane.

Due to the recent auction, Rainer was aware of what the clean white robes and golden tassels meant. Of all the Mage Guilds, the Flameborne and the Farseers stood at the top. The former owned the most gold and Mages, while the latter seemed to have a mastery of old Northern Imperial Magics no one else had. The only reason they hadn’t been ganged up upon by the others was due to their defensive and passive magics along with their general policy of not bothering others.

Their devotion to studying magic would have earned Rainer’s respect if their devotion to secrets wasn’t just as strong.

Rainer rolled his eyes at the tone and let the Arcanium descend. The magic buckled under the wide pressure affecting every inch of it. The Magus himself seemed connected to the spell as he stumbled backward, affected by both the damage to the spell and [Arcanium Descent] itself.

Not looking to start anything, Rainer stopped. For all he placed less importance on this world’s experts, with both his strength and now the strength of his family, he knew he wasn’t invincible.

Group Spells were a perfect example of that. But he couldn’t just let someone get away with talking down to him, not when he represented so many people behind him. Much of his current reputation was based on assumptions of his abilities after all. Showing weakness would be the same as admitting he wasn’t as strong as they thought, as both Elelaria and his Grandfather had mentioned to him.

“My intentions are my own.”

The Farseer Magus looked somewhere between angry and fearful, but simply bowed and went back into his hut. Judging from the Magic around the Dungeon, it seemed as if he was repairing the minor damage caused. Minor in the sense that while small, it affected every single part of the spell at the same time.

After a few more minutes of inspecting the dungeon, Rainer’s Avatar flew off. Given the hostile nature of one of the Magus’ guarding the place, and the several more he sensed in hiding, he guessed he wouldn’t get an answer for why everyone had agreed to the Dungeon Meet in the first place. No doubt there were plenty of parties ready to go at a moment’s notice. What did the Farseer’s have to gain? Perhaps he should ask the Wolf King when he had time.

That was about the only place he might get a real answer.

Now in full control of his real body once more, Rainer couldn’t figure it out. What did the Tideborne Guildmaster want? Was this an elaborate assassination attempt? A stalling tactic while his army tried to steal the Enchanter’s Guild’s source of ‘Mana Crystals’?

He switched again to his first Avatar, currently meeting with the Enchanters who recently decided to join the guild. He decided to include a display of simple enchanting skill while demonstrating how to draw Mana from the workstations. Elelaria off to the side explained the general policies of the Guild. His grandfather was currently guarding/studying the Mana Well in the meantime, with an express warning not to do anything to it.

Switching rapidly between Avatars and his main body at need, sometimes feeling like he was fully in two at once, Rainer felt something in his mind, or perhaps his Soul, expand a bit.

[Avatar Control has reached level 7]

[Experience Gained: 0.01%]

Just one more… Rainer thought. One more until he could have his Avatars be fully autonomous from him. Though they would still lack some subjective reasoning, they wouldn’t be too far from him and would basically match his combat abilities according to Amer. Whether it worked for more than one Avatar at this level was another question. Though no doubt the Devil would be envious of his fast progress. Rainer guessed his massively powerful Soul was the source of it, given that [Avatar Control] was of both mind and spirit. A Soul that only got far stronger with the recent merge.

The Tideborne Guildmaster poured himself another glass of wine before going on another tangent, this time finally answering Rainer’s earlier question about the Farseers.

“Specialities… well, you could say they don’t really have any in terms of elements. We don’t know what their recruiting standards are. But when it comes to divination, illusion, tracking, defense, and passive magics they are unmatched. Their current Guildmaster once fought a melee with two Demon Princes, relying solely on the various passive magics affecting his body. Were their Guild not so insistent in remaining neutral, except against Demons, we could have taken the Dragon Isles in the last war.”

Rainer’s eyes narrowed. Neutral or not he’d be raiding their Guild for Sarah’s benefit. Weren’t such magics perfect for her? Her rush towards the 2nd Tier, and claims of almost reaching level 10 in [Enchant Manipulation], bothered him deeply. Remembering the tens of thousands of lives he helped reap in the Mana-Filled world just for ‘sending a message’, what were a few more to protect his family? Assuming he even needed to kill anyone. Rather it might be far better to just try and rush in and out.

As if sensing the mood, the Tideborne Guildmaster laughed.

“Many have desired their knowledge. As far as I know, no attempt at penetrating their inherited Magus Tower has succeeded.”

Rainer sighed, finally tired of all the talking.

“What do you want?”

For some reason this made the Mage nervous. Or was it sheepish?

“What would it take to get some more of this Fae Wine?” he asked, finally giving in. He had tried being subtle, hoping this Archon would just gift him some Fae Wine without his desire for it having been made obvious. Yet this Magus either ignored or was completely obtuse to his attempts.

“You want Fairy Dust?” Rainer did his best not to reach out and cut off his head with an [Arcane Blade].

“You should work on your expressions, it was a bit too easy to see that you planned on killing me. And while I can see how that might’ve been just the sort of phrase to hint at wanting Fairy Dust, I need no such thing. If anything, the old freaks of the Mage Guilds chasing away the Fae is one of life’s greatest tragedies. Ignoring my love for wine, they were incredibly helpful when it comes to Dungeons and other things. If you really need the extra lifespan provided by dust after living hundreds of years, perhaps you are better off dying.”

“You… you stayed here just to ask for wine? And talked to me for over two hours just because you didn’t want me to fleece you in terms of price?” Rainer guessed, some earlier nonsensical parts of their conversation starting to make sense.

“Yes,” he responded, now unashamed.

Rainer laughed. It wouldn’t hurt to have a good relationship with at least one Mage Guild. His Avatar’s encounter with the Farseer made it an almost certain plan he’d be raiding their Guild and taking everything of worth.

“Consider it a gift.”

All three of his ‘meetings’ seemed to end at once. His meeting with the blacksmith would be tomorrow morning, at the man’s request.

Elelaria had a good handle on the Enchanter’s Guild thus far. The general agreement was that any enchanter who borrowed the Guild’s Mana would have to gift a recreation of whatever they used it for to the Guild. If they wished to just use the Guild’s resource for practice or instruction, they needed to gift knowledge. Rainer had the job of filling up their library, though thankfully Elelaria could hire people to recopy magically constructed books.

Those, he could write up quickly with [Mana Manipulation] and the memory granted by both [Sleep Learning] and his high [Intelligence]. Remembering a page word-for-word was far different than being able to recall the entire page instantly.

The Guild rules were far more complicated than that to account for research and other purposes, but that wasn’t something he needed to bother with.

Rainer planned on focusing on getting the Werewolf tribe armed with necklaces, and they would eventually serve as enforcers of the Guild, both against Enchanters and defending them. Their enhanced senses and access to Rainer through a [Soul Mark] meant there was little anyone could truly do. Rainer could even put his ‘life’ on the line in the form of an Avatar against any attackers. A normal him was hard enough to handle, let alone a him with nothing to lose.

So long as the necklaces worked, their current tribe leader, Kara’s Grandmother, welcomed the idea. No doubt it affected her pride to owe so much to him. Even if Rainer himself was doing it for Kara and not the tribe itself, and therefore wanted for nothing.

Rainer would have his first Avatar as a permanent guard to the Mana-Well, staying with it 24/7. His Avatar slept when he did, but he could keep them awake with simple orders, even more so with his recent level up. When the Avatar wasn’t working on Enchantments, it’d be studying Enchanting. He’d have the first Avatar he made when in [Sleep Learning] do the same thing.

He still wasn’t sure how that worked separately. When it came to [Sleep Learning], he entered with all his Soul despite pieces technically in use elsewhere.

His second Avatar would take the role of meetings he absolutely needed to be at, otherwise it would serve as a tool to practice [Avatar Control] until it reached level 8 and he could send it to the Abyssal Planes to practice Aura and other miscellaneous things that benefited from a timelapse. He wasn’t sure how that would affect his lifespan, but assumed it wouldn’t.

And his own body would be left to do as he pleased, likely much of that time devoted to further changing himself with Arcane and Void. The impossible light flashed through his mind. That wasn’t power he could let go of.

But now it was time to hunt down his enemy.

Rainer couldn’t understand how exactly Neutral City got this information. Truly, he lacked knowledge over most forms of information gathering in this world. In fact, it was a bit too convenient they were able to locate the Ambassador's ship so easily. Then again, his own method of [Soul Mark]s was more convenient than even modern communication.

Was it a trap, or was he just being paranoid? That was something he didn’t enjoy gaining from Francis. His accident in summoning down a Divine Avatar, and then indirectly killing 15 innocents, affected Rainer even now. If not guilt, then extra cautiousness that he didn’t have before.

With the fastest Void-walk he could manage, he went in and out of the opulent hotel with the ambassador before appearing cities away towards a random [Soul Mark] in another port.

Rainer held the petrified man with a single hand around the back of his neck as ambassador wobbled and tried to bring up his Magic to fight back. Given that Rainer was already draining him, it was doomed to fail. [Mana Drain] was another of his many skills that had to have benefited from his Soul becoming much, much stronger.

A quick look with [Arcane Revelation] showed some sort of connection on this man, but it was easily severed with [Arcane Energy Manipulation]. Arcane proved itself a bane to regular magic as usual.

A quick manipulation of lightning, and the man was both manaless and unconscious. Time to bring him back to his family to extract languages from.

While a bit exhausted from the day, Rainer still entered [Sleep Learning] as usual. The new strength of his Soul meant he never had an excuse to just enjoy the nothingness of sleep.

Looking through his spellbooks, the level 9 [Arcane-Spatial Domain] seemed the most obvious choice to practice. Of tier 1-6 spells, he only hadn’t leveled a tier 5 spell to it’s maximum. The first-time bonus was still there for the taking.

But the issue he had last time that stuck him at level 9 was still there. He had used [Void Descent] to level [Void Domain] to level 10, and while he had gained [Arcanium Descent], it may not be enough given the spatial connection. So Rainer focused on a much easier avenue for now.

With his Avatar in front of him, he disconnected from it as much as possible, and began his [Arcane Revelation] aided dissection. He could still feel a sort of strange pressure in the back of his mind when he damaged his now laying still Avatar, but it wasn’t painful.

While no doubt this would leave him with unpleasant memories, both [Arcane-Water’s Gentle Touch] and [Human Anatomy] had a chance to level from this.

Rainer went about his task with every method he could think of, using both magical and physical before patching up his Avatar with an overpowered [Arcane-Water’s Gentle Touch]. He had no need to worry about resources here after all.

[Arcane-Water’s Gentle Touch has reached level 2]

[Arcane-Water Manipulation has reached level 2]

Healing a variety of injuries proved one of the best methods for leveling such a spell.

[Arcane-Water’s Gentle Touch has reached level 3]

But trying, and failing, to reattach limbs or fix severed nerves seemed to be the best method.

It was towards the end of his [Sleep Learning] session that he managed to improve the spell enough to reattach limbs, if incredibly slowly, that he finally reached the last level. And brought [Arcane-Water Manipulation] to level 5. The crossover from his [Arcane Energy Manipulation] made the skill level quite quickly.

[Arcane-Water’s Gentle Touch has reached level 10]

[Reached the maximum proficiency of a Tier 5 spell for the first time: Rewarding 70 skill points.]

Rainer paused as he thought over which to buy from the skill store. While [Void Harmony] could provide a way for him to use [Blade of the Void] more than once, after seeing what his family did to that captured ambassador... Rainer got a larger urge to choose something that could protect his mind.

While his Soul provided general defense against mental intrusions, he didn’t want to put it up to chance. Especially when his greatest foes were of Divinity. And no doubt there were experts of the mind in this world. He still remembered when his attempt at using the bathroom almost got him lost and killed in a forest. If it wasn’t for his natural aversion of wandering alone in forests, it could have ended far worse.

And in the end, he’d be getting both before the Dungeon Meet.

[Skill Gained: Void Insulation lvl 1/10]

[Void Insulation: Uses one’s Mana to naturally connect to the Void and protect one’s mind. Can be toggled on or off.]

Rainer raised an eyebrow as his Mana Pool had 30 points taken from it, in the same way as the cost of Gunthar’s existence. He had never heard of a skill like this whatsoever. His only passive skills thus far were resistances, and they didn’t cost anything. And he couldn’t feel the effect either, so replicating this with something else wouldn’t be easy. Very likely he had to have someone attack his mind. But given it’s similarity to [Mind of Void], that probably wasn't safe.

But the skill only made him that much more excited for [Void Harmony]. With Arcane Power, it wasn’t as if the size of his Mana Pool mattered all that much. He could always dump his attribute points into it if needed

He rubbed his temples, feeling the weight of all the work he’s been doing on [Avatar Control] alongside his usual training in [Sleep Learning]. It was a sort of fatigue that persisted through everything. Goofing off with Kara and Luna, like Francis sort-of suggested he do with an amusement park, sounded pretty good right about now. Or, trouncing Kara in games would likely be just as entertaining as it was with Talvara.

He blinked a few times, realizing he felt just a bit better than an hour or so ago for seemingly no reason. So the passive skill had such an effect too?

“Rainer,” he heard his grandfather’s call from afar. His mom was standing next to him but her face looked pretty strange.

Ah, he still had a mutilated Avatar of himself nearby…

Rainer coughed awkwardly before vanishing the Avatar with a [Void Call], the piece of Soul naturally rejoining with him. He had himself been so into practicing magic, he really didn’t register what he was doing. A good thing for his mental health.

“Yeah?”

“It’s the perfect time to see just who's the stronger one of us, no?”

Rainer returned his grandfather’s grin. That sounded like just what he needed.