The Arcane Emperor Chapter 142: Transformation

Chapter 142: Transformation

Sarah barely dodged a claw from Kara as she became lost in thought, temporarily putting a stop to their spar. Even with [Sleep Learning], it was sometimes nice to have a causal fight in reality. If only to reinforce that killing your friends wasn’t a normal and usual thing.

She remembered dying. Remembered her helplessness. And now more clearly thought of the future. Her brother clearly planned to use this Dungeon as a gateway to other worlds. As if Rainer would be capable of playing well with others for any other reason than something Magic related. To mark those he managed to charm or force and use them as jumping points to their worlds. Worlds that might contain people far stronger than theirs.

Worlds she might never be able to visit. Despite being quite sure that at just level 3 with one Tier 2 cla.s.s she was in the top 10% of any Tier 2s, she was aware that this Dungeon featured people beyond that. And that other worlds could be far worse. And it didn’t help that [Sleep Learning] had made everyone in the party even stronger than her. Even the two weakest, Fae Prince Laneth and her aunt, Elizabeth, had huge strength increases.

Laneth had taken his abilities as a [Spellsword] along with a spatial ring, [Metal Manipulation] - learned with the help of Rainer and [Sleep Learning] itself - and the sheer amount of enchanted weapons he had access to from the Enchanter’s Guild to become a powerful figure. He could draw bonuses from many weapons because of an only-recently-advanced Tier 2 so long as he manipulated them. He was a deadly storm of weapons. Even if the number of weapons had diminishing returns.

And Elizabeth had taken the otherwise useless and suicidal laser spell of Earth, and turned it into a fearsome and deadly weapon with her talents and cla.s.ses based on Light Magic. She may still be weak in actual combat, but with enough support she was a dangerous weapon. From what she remembered, Rainer was trying to teach her [Deliverance]. The non-arcane version at least.

But Sarah herself… she was a well-rounded combatant that could fight Mages especially well. She had little chance of killing far above her level when there wasn’t a Mage involved. Even then, she needed to catch them off-guard for her mana-stripping ability to really matter.

Ever since she had killed her first man, tearing his Mana from his Soul and taking his life with it, she gave up a normal life. She wanted to travel to new places with Rainer. To fight, conquer, and explore. But she wasn’t selfish enough to be willing to be a burden in this wish.

“What‘s wrong?” Kara asked, an alarming vibration and growl of a voice that lingered somewhere between frightful and deep while being weirdly s.e.xy.

Demons were weird creatures.

“Aren’t you ever worried Rainer will leave you behind when he goes to explore the universe?” Sarah asked and immediately regretted it. At least the answer should be interesting.

“No. I’m certain in my ability to keep up with him. I’m sure we’ll have plenty of fun tracing the [Soul Mark]s of whoever he befriends in this Dungeon. He better takes me somewhere nice for an eventual honeymoon.”

Sarah, for some reason, completely believed in that statement. And was not surprised Kara had the same conclusion as her. She got the feeling Kara’s idea of a honeymoon involved blood and battle.

“Alright you love-and-battle-crazed Wolf, let’s get back to sparring.”

Rainer wasn’t so foolhardy to tackle the party of Mages with just the two of them. While people like Art and Tian couldn’t leave their defenses, and others would be at risk for losing lives, there were some obvious choices for a raiding party. Furtak, in his incorporeality, and Fredrick, for him living his entire ancient life being hunted just for being born a certain way. It was hard to beat his survival skills.

[Void-walking] alone, Rainer appeared beside the exhausted Spatial Mage. [Arcane Awakening: Surge] covered his body with it’s Arcane-Lightning infused speed. A [Blade of the Void] swung down. The Spatial Mage wisely attempted to dodge as opposed to blocking, but his path had long since been closed by [Arcane-Spatial Domain]. His mana was far too low to overpower it.

Rainer vanished the moment the cleaved body fell to the ground. He reappeared instantly with a Fire-Touched Goblin in tow. The two split up, immediately beginning to receive cover fire from Frederick in the distance.

And then a Talvara-possessed Aurora appeared.

They never stood a chance.

Rainer picked up the dropped resources as he glanced over at a now normal Aurora. It had been a harrowing sight. Talvara had described her strength while possessing Aurora as ‘Infinitely approaching the strength of a Tier 3 Void Lord’. She was of course limited by Aurora’s body, even in skill. Though luckily for her, Aurora had always had an innate gift and drive towards fine manipulation of the Void.

He had never been so thankful for Talvara risking Soul and limb in destroying the enchanted gates of the Void Lords. Their recent encounter showed just how terrifying any Tier 3 could be. Let alone something like a Tier 3 Lord of the Void.

Despite the seemingly quick and easy win versus the Tier 3, Rainer knew how much luck was involved. Art had done a light sacrificing of flesh to empower his poison, using his exploded body to spread it. And even with the wound Rainer caused - only made possible with Talvara’s [Void Hold] - the poison had almost been cleared in under 10 seconds. In all likelihood, the Tier 3 High Elf could have blocked the [Arcane Blade] had he not been so focused on escaping the hold and all the other attacks. Not to mention dodge it.

Only Art’s recent learning of spatial teleportation and innate link to his living poison saved the day.

In a real fight, Rainer was well aware how outmatched they were. And that Soul…

It was horrifying. He had been quite proud of his recent gains in Soul Strength. Clearly, the Tier 3 advancement made his gains seem lesser in comparison. He didn’t for one second believe that Tier 3 Mana-fighter had achieved such a Soul through his own abilities.

Rainer knew he rushed into things too easily. His recent bout of anger proved that. He needed to learn to resist his Arcane if he ever hoped to survive in a wider universe. To control his temper. Something that might have existed long before he had Arcane flowing through his body. It wasn’t a flaw to be blamed solely on his Arcane.

Not to attack a foreign invader so higher leveled and so alone simply because they might become enemies eventually. He couldn’t rely on luck forever. Just because it came out well, didn’t mean it was a smart decision.

His flaws may be a part of him, but they should never become him. His revenge was never for the people he loved; they wouldn’t want that for him, it was for himself.

“Who's next?” Aurora said with a bit of undisguised excitement, bringing Rainer out of his thoughts. You didn’t collect, and therefore sacrifice people, as much Void Will as she did without a certain l.u.s.t for battle or strength. And every time Talvara possessed her body, Aurora learned more and more of the Void. The being whom she worshipped was teaching her personally. Aurora, of course, ignored that this came about because Talvara had no other followers. Aurora’s children would repopulate the true race in any case.

“I believe that question is on you,” Rainer said, knowing her abilities with [Void Sense] were far beyond his and gave her a better view than just [Void Seer] alone.

“How lazy,” she huffed, but with no real vehemence behind it. Given that it was he who sacrificed such a lovely thing to her master resulting in her current enhancements, she had softened quite a bit. Such a shame that so powerful of a mage would have terrible fertility. If only there was a powerful male Aura user amongst their number. The Void Affinity would be handled by her side, and the blood of the Void would run strong. She only wanted someone of great skill and mind.

“I’ve found another,” she said, smiling predatorily.

Having just come back from chasing down a party that wasn’t yet gathered, and extorting from them everything they had in exchange for their lives, Rainer ran out of targets. He supposed all that was left was searching for resources normally until more joined the [Leaderboard].

As it was now, several of his party members surrounded Tiamat as he prepared to help her with the Dragon-related resources. Delilah wasn’t far, waiting for her own turn. Her usual distaste for being in Tiamat’s presence was suppressed. Despite having nothing Draconic about her, it was still the essence and marrow of a monster far stronger than her.

Rainer knew it was a poor idea to bring Tiamat here, but he had expected a far easier Dungeon. It was based on an a.s.sumption that he himself was in the Tier 3 of strength - and so perhaps some of his party members were too - and that such a dungeon could never pose a risk. The High Elf proved him deeply wrong, and the compet.i.tion style of the Dungeon still had yet to reveal just what kind of foes he might face in the future.

[Blade of the Void], [Absolute Frost], and [Deliverance] were certainly capable of killing those of the 3rd Tier, but that didn’t mean Rainer was anywhere near as strong as them in normal combat. Just as a normal man with a rocket launcher wouldn’t necessarily defeat a trained combatant.

He kneeled next to her, remembering Theodore’s instructions. He would be helping her absorb the resources, something that oddly enough didn’t require much anatomical knowledge. Mana would simply need to go where Tiamat’s body had less of a magical quality to it. In other words, it was being borrowed in the process. The real work was done by her and her instincts.

[Arcane Revelation] even made what was once a careful and arduous task a simple one.

He watched as she sucked the concentrated marrow straight from the vial, licking essence they put into a bowl for her soon after. Parts of her body quickly dimmed, her magic nature borrowed to incorporate the new bloodline. It was nothing like the [Draconic Essence] she was fed as part of growing up. Mana flowed and for the first time Rainer truly looked.

She was his familiar and likely a companion in the future as her intelligence grew, so he never really tried to ‘experiment’ and try and gain an anatomy skill. Now, it was for her benefit and he was in a position to do so.

Hours went by as she went through dozens of resources belonging to Dragons and only after constant attention and use of Mana in her aid did Rainer finally feel his [Archon] cla.s.s give him a better understanding.

[Skill Gained: Draconic Anatomy lvl 1/10]

[t.i.tle Gained: Scholar of Dragons]

[Experience Gained: Deferred, Deferred]

Tiamat no longer looked like a blob of varying levels of magic intensity and magical flowing liquids, but rather he could start making out the different parts of her far closer. What he found, and the knowledge he gained from the skill, astounded him.

She truly was a magical creature. Her organs made no sense logically. But what interested him most, and explained quite a bit, was that she wasn’t a pure Dragon. Simply ‘Draconic’ enough for the system to label her as one. Not that her Draconic half wasn’t likely to be abnormally strong.

Given her origins that fit, and it now explained her quick increases in strength. Any regular monster quickly grew stronger shortly after birth and slowed the further they grew. Dragons were one of the few that were the opposite. Being ‘children’ for ages before their power endlessly grew to unfathomable levels.

At least according to the legends of Nalmar and of the Fae as well, per Elru who spent the largest portion of her life in the library. Though given how far back Fae records went, that might not be a legend so much as old history.

But that was changing. Tiamat became ever more the Dragon she was born as. He knew it would likely slow her growth in the immediate future, but if there was one thing he had, it was time.

Where she was once just barely more Dragon than not, that changed quickly. Aided by his Arcane-laden Mana, the effect was far more than they predicted. As she fell asleep, done with her efforts for now, Rainer had a new goal in mind.

To strip this Dungeon clean.