59 Call of the Void (1/2)

Rainer finished connecting Mira's body enchantments to her Aura Rune as another Fae joined the group. She had the same red hair and blue eyes as Mira though was significantly younger and smaller in stature. Though as a Fae, she still had lived longer than Rainer by three centuries. She wore a simple white mage's robe tied with a red belt and with a slit up her leg.

Nervously performing another example of Spirit Magic, the Fae spared another glance toward the violet glowing [Archon] before finishing her spell. A small tornado of wind appeared in front of her before she quickly squashed the spell. A feat far easier than normal magic when done so as far more controlled spirit variety.

The [Archon] merely said nothing to her display, before waving her to go on with her magic. She shuddered a bit at his eyes, the magic behind them appearing to her extraordinary magical senses a bit more clearly than anyone else. She felt as if there was nothing his eyes couldn't see.

”I-I shall be casting Gift of the Giants on you now,” She said.

Rainer listened to the words and watched the magical formula rapidly forming within her Mana. He also detected an additional power besides Mana that he attributed to the so-called Spirits, but concentrated on other matters.

Just like with creating a Body Enchantment for the Gift of Lightning, he required some knowledge of the Spirit Magic spell it was based on, to then later enchant Kara. Most importantly, the magical formula Fae unknowingly created when casting the spell.

Just like the Fae viewed Body Enchantment as impossible for any other than the Fae, even more so could be said about Spirit Magic. There Fae were positive anyone without the Talent for Spirit Magic could gain nothing from learning about it.

It helped that a popular fantasy story, that the Fae enjoyed, involved a Fae Mage capable of casting any magic after seeing it once. Any reality approaching such a situation made it hard to believe for most Fae, especially Court members.

The Courts still put some restrictions on their books on Spirit Magic for the [Archon] but said nothing about demonstrations. Little did they know, no number of tomes or books on Spirit Magic would help Rainer as the Fae themselves had no idea they created a Magical Formula within their Mana naturally, at least as far as their books went.

The demonstrations by the poor nervous Fae went on for hours as she repeatedly exhausted her Mana pool, only to be replaced by another Fae recruited by Mira for this. But as the most talented one here, she had no choice but to cast the more difficult Spirit Magic for the unnerving [Archon].

The spells went on, leaving Rainer's eventually bored party members to start an impromptu discussion on meditation as well as practicing it. In his focus, he missed the depressed sighs coming from Gunthar as even Kara with a high level in her meditation skill demonstrated her usual lack of theoretical knowledge on the subject.

”Mira, can you show me that weapon storing Enchantment again?” Rainer asked. As he was connecting all her enchantments to the new Aura Rune, he asked her to demonstrate some as well. On top of the recent showing of Spirit Magic and the books given earlier, there was only a single enchantment of hers that escaped his grasp.

While he certainly didn't have confidence in recreating many of her stronger and more complicated Body Enchantments without practice, he had a defined goal in sight. But when it came to the spatially related storage enchantment, he was clueless.

He repeatedly watched as two curved and enchanted axes appeared and disappeared in a flash of Magic in her hands. His focus so high, and confusion so large, he didn't even bother apprising the clearly powerful weapons.

Suddenly, his eyes narrowed as he activated an additional skill, [Void Detection]. And with this, he suddenly sensed a strange connection between the two enchantments on her wrists to a separate space. Quickly looking down at his own Spatial Ring, he suddenly realized that it too had that same extra space. Without the focus attention of [Arcane Sight] combined with [Void Detection], he would have never noticed this. It wasn't the Void he came to know, but a similar existence and incomparably smaller in size.

”That should be enough for today Mira. Thanks,” Rainer said, before giving a goodbye to his newest Fae ally. He now had many ways of altering his [Arcane Awakening] and looked forward to learning new a Body Enchantment in-between his experiments on adding [Arcane Invigoration] and [Arcane Rage] into [Water's Gentle Touch].

But above all else, his excitement over his discovery about a small Void within his Spatial Ring and the possibilities for understanding the true nature of [Sleep Learning] space filled him. But, in the end, he still needed a solution for Akhor's Sickness and to properly practice future Body Enchantments for Kara as a priority.

He headed back to the Mansion to check on Lilia, wondering how she was doing as she got over the initial shock and adrenaline of her new situation.

As Rainer flew back with his party toward the mansion, he looked over the book he had received from Mira. The light of his flight spell providing more than enough brightness for the current night that hung over the Fae Realm.

Blood Tracking Magic

All forms of tracking magic were off-limits to Rainer. At least, in an official measure. Elru was already organizing a secret meeting with the Fae she originally used to track down Rainer when he was her target. Added on to that were the few spells given by Maya to Rainer, though the better ones were still held back until he could keep his promise.

Rainer glanced over the book as his thoughts drifted towards his family. With this, he could try to reach across the Void and find a pathway back home. He had no intention of taking that route at this time, but at the very least hoped he could use the tracking magic in tandem with [Void Detection] and [Void Seer] to see how they were doing.

Arriving a short time later at the mansion, Rainer headed toward Lilia's room. He passed by Furtak who, apart from watching the set of rooms held by Rainer's party, was talking with Laneth's Niece.

He was, of course, a bit surprised at the genuine interest shown by the Niece, before he remembered an interesting point about the Fae. To them, one's Mana could be more attractive than actual appearance. Furtak looked better than most Goblins but was still, in the end, a Goblin. An older one at that. But his Mana, which was tinged in Fire and massive in size, presented quite the interesting prospect for any Fae.

Added on was both seemed to enjoy their long conversations and chattiness and it was almost a perfect match.

He noticed a small girl sitting across from them listening to their current conversation on the Fae's habit of taking and mixing numerous customs they've found over their lengthy years. Rainer smiled a bit as he recalled the strange presence of rules for Necromancers in their political landscape. They seemed to be talking in the common language of the Northern Continent, as Lilia appeared to understand them.

Neither of the two seemed to mind the extra guest and likely spoke that language intentionally.

”Rainer, your apprentice is quite well-behaved. I'll be off for the night then?” Furtak said, though as he walked away with his Fae companion, Rainer could tell he was in a bit of a rush. He smirked at the Goblin, before waving him off. While Rainer himself didn't believe that just because you were with more than one women meant you can see more as you pleased, he understood Furtak was far closer to a King than anything else. In fact, given the general weakness of his tribe, Rainer imagined Furtak was more akin to a Demi-God amongst his fellow goblins.

The part where swords and arrows passed through as if he was a bout of Flame certainly assisted such a notion.

Lilia seemed a bit disappointed at them leaving though her mood brightened up a bit when Rainer sat next to her. The rest of his party already headed out to the Courtyard to continue a more physical discussion on Aura, Theodore too now struggling to believe Kara's abilities with how little she actually understood about them. He demanded practical demonstrations.

”So how are you liking the Fae Realm,” Rainer asked.

Lilia only smiled and gave a slight nod. She could sense from her new Lord that he meant no ill will, but she couldn't help but be a little nervous. Added on was that she was originally so focused on his Soul she didn't notice how he looked up close. Were it not for the beautiful Fae she witnessed numerous times; her reaction may have been far different when she first came across this fact.

”I mentioned earlier; you are the Apprentice of an Archon. Do you know what I meant?” Rainer asked her, and after she had shaken her head, he brought out Luna to tell the legend that most in her world knew.

Lilia looked amazed at the little Fairy that seemingly appeared from nowhere, ”So pretty…” She whispered and Rainer swore he saw a proud smirk on his Fairy even from behind Luna.

She did not even notice the Flames that now danced across her hands, doing away with a few of the cuts the learning chef acquired. But when it came to old scars or calluses from her time in the mine, the Flames didn't have much effect beyond reducing their size. Removing that would require either pain or time. Rainer, of course, chose the latter.

”For tonight, we'll start with something simple…learning to read,” Rainer said. He could see the girl look a mixture of disappointment and shame. The former being for not yet learning anything related to magic and latter being her lack of reading ability. He didn't bother even asking if she knew how as he didn't want the girl worry that he'd suddenly abandoned her if she couldn't.

In fact, he was in general a bit at a loss how to interact with her. Their relationship was one similar between a Master and servant, even if Rainer didn't intend for it to actually be that way. Seeing the quiet girl nervous at the silence he decided to start with the teaching. He couldn't think of anything else to do but act as if they were already on friendly terms and just treat as he would his own sister.

Rainer started with the alphabet of the language most common in the Northern Continent, a leftover of their empire long since past, Imperial Standard. While having seven more letters than English, it wasn't particularly difficult to learn, having been designed for commoners to master with ease. He guessed part of this was to create a more working populace, capable of mastering their language and buying a skill from the store.

For, in the end, even a rarer class like [Chronomancer] only gave, as Rainer would see it, a pitiful skill point every three levels.

With Luna's shared language skill, he easily was able to pronounce each letter and help Lilia learn. The two continued until the green-eyed girl fell asleep leaning against the [Archon]. She had struggled to stay awake as to not displease her new Lord.

”Ah, I was hoping to introduce to Tiamat today,” Rainer whispered, looking forward to her reaction to the cute little dragon, who was currently happily sitting on his head. She had left his coat shortly after Lilia had fallen asleep.

”How come Rainer never taught Luna to read,” The Fairy quietly complained, squeezing in on Rainer's head with the dragonling.

”Because you can already read?”

”So?” The Fairy questioned leading to Rainer's eventual silence as he then stealthy tried to grab the Fairy. Luna fluttered, hiding behind his new apprentice, not before puffing her cheeks at him.

Out in the courtyard of Laneth's mansion, Theodore had several questions about Kara's ability to make her blades weightless.

”So how does one start the skill?”

”You cover the blades with Aura.”

”And?”

”You wrap around your weapon or intended limb…”

”And?”

”And then you leverage it with your Aura…”

”And….?” Theodore asked a bit longer drawn out as to just how one simply leveraged something with their Aura.

”And…then you make them lighter?” The Wolfkin said as if that was all the explanation needed.

Theodore rubbed the bridge of his nonexistent nose, not even realizing he did not have one in his confusion. He looked over at Gunthar and swore his son was enjoying this. He recalled Gunthar's enjoyment over Elru's shock and confusion when she first joined the party and couldn't help but feel a little setup.

”How do your blades retain their sharpness?” Theodore asked hoping to find some reason within all this. Gunthar's skill that he created from Rainer's [Arcane Blade] solved many of the issues weapon users like him faced. Mainly that, even with the enchanting prowess of Nalmar, they still had to be careful when using weapons with their tier 2 strength.

But the more cladding one applied to their weapons, the less sharp they became and started approaching a blunt instrument, though even weaker in terms of effectiveness. It was a careful balance of the right amount of cladding in the right places, requiring careful usage of other Aura skills as well to be fully combat ready. Yet, Kara did not have this issue with her seemingly ordinary steel blades.

With the Aura cost of the Aura Blade skill, and its strength not reaching Rainer's [Arcane Blade], it wasn't perfect.

Kara went into an explanation on how the Aura melded with her blades and only enhanced their sharpness. Were the undead men capable of facial expressions, they would be looking at her with a mix of confusion and envy.

”But-”

”Here, I'll show you again,” Kara said as she wondered if maybe it was Gunthar, her mother, and everyone else she ever met who were the strange ones when it came to Aura. She hoped to get through to Theodore.

But repeated demonstrations and further questioning took away that fleeting hopeful thought.

The undead [Holy Guardian] had also recalled a conversation with his son on whether Gunthar planned to take an Apprentice as well, given Rainer's recent acquisition. With the addition of Kara's abilities to Rainer's, he finally understood his son's request, that he misunderstood as a joke, to have the most willing yet average student possible.

Later that night, Rainer went to sleep after a usual night with Kara, though as his eyes closed he recalled her grumbling something about undead not understanding anything.

Entering the white void of [Sleep Learning], Rainer instantly formed a Demon's body in front of him. After preparing the usual amount of blood, he formed Mana Crystals by his side. He saw no reason not to improve the skills related to transferring Mana from objects given that either way his Mana was limitless within this space.

Hours passed as he tried to recreate the numerous enchantments he viewed. He alternated between trying to create them with his [Arcane Awakening] and onto the Demon corpse in front of him.

Suddenly his body started cracking as he felt a great change come over him. Just before he was about to refresh himself and start over, he noticed a message pop up in front of him.

[Skill Gained: Arcane Awakening: Might lvl 1/10]

As he stared down at his now far more muscular and longer arms, engorged with Arcane Energy, the only thing that slightly dampened his excitement was the lack of a level for [Arcane Awakening], and that he couldn't combine the Enchantment for Gift of Lightning and Gift of the Giants into one like the Fae had it.

He laid down and compared himself to the Demon corpse, and noted he grew over a foot taller. He could feel the strength surging through him as he leaped into the air. He ran back and forth a few times as he started questioning why his increased height or strength didn't feel unnatural to him.

But he immediately redirected himself back to his goal.

Resuming his normal size, he returned to his experiments now focusing on the weapon storage enchantment.

He decided to devote this entire night to Enchantments so that Kara could gain more levels and power, before going back to his study on [Water's Gentle Touch].

Next, he paid attention to an enchantment he viewed as important not only for Kara but in the future for Luna as well. The one-time use Shield Elru used to protect not only herself but her companion in the past from his [Pillar of Arcane-Fire].

Not only had he carefully looked over the enchantment on Mira, he took out the book devoted entirely to this single enchantment. Compared to anything else, this book was by far the longest among the Body Enchantment ones.

It described the numerous past uses and stories of which the Shield Enchantment known as the Fae' Savior was crucial in battle and life. All these stories combined into what not only annoyed Rainer but had confused him about Nalmar's Magic, the importance of emotion and intent. The Fae's Savior was even intentionally enchanted as slowly as possible, with Mana going to waste even, to try and bring out the feelings from its [Fae Enchanter]. It's even recommended that the enchantment was done by one who desires your safety the most.

Rainer frowned for a moment before changing his thought process. All this time he had avoided the more emotional side of Magic. But he then remembered just how he created [Arcane Blade]. While he ventured, he was already approaching level 1 of [Arcane Energy Manipulation] when creating the spell, in the end, it was almost entirely created from his own will and with some help from his newly level 10 [Arcane Bolt].

So, he suspended his disbelief and once more dived back into the recreated book. He took in the tales slowly instead of relying on his memories. Each story, he tried to think over just what each Enchanter and Enchantee felt. Whether it was a scowl or a groan, he avoided complaining about this method of using Magic until he fully understood it. He also didn't ignore the practical as he repeatedly practiced on the deceased Demon in front of him until his session in [Sleep Learning] came to an end.

Morning soon came, and he achieved a few less notable enchantments, along with a useful one to assist in flight and combat for both Kara and [Arcane Awakening], with the beginnings Fae's Savior as well. But his most sought after Spatial one escaped him the same as before.

Walking in the Fae capital, Rainer's party all stared at the various colors and the construction of its buildings. Some seemingly grown in equal part stone and wood while were others meticulously built brick by brick. Everything covered in seemingly random designs from Fae magical constructs.

Rainer suddenly looked to his left and right and realized the new member of their group was missing. Neither Theodore or Gunthar mentioned anything as they wondered if this was part of her exercise to keep up with them. Turning around, the Archon saw Lilia trying to catch her breath as the group walked on. He kneeled down in front of his would-be apprentice before speaking.

It was easy to forget the nature of his party made walking even vast distances an easy task.

”Do you want a ride?” He asked, and after a moment of surprise, she regained her usual calm. When she was picked by the Lord Magus weeks ago, she certainly hadn't expected such treatment. As it was now, she couldn't understand how to react. This wasn't how she expected to serve the Lord Magus. Just being considered his apprentice already confused her after she struggled desperately to learn to cook better, let alone being treat so familiarly and nicely.

Eventually, she nodded, not knowing what else to do in this strange situation. He helped her onto his shoulders as she let her worries fade a bit enjoying the Fae city from her new higher and less exhausting point of view.

He couldn't help but remark at how light she was for her supposed 12 years of age. A product of her life, he sadly thought. But his thoughts turned better as he realized how much of her future he had just changed. While being around him was nothing close to safe, he knew her life likely changed for the better.

He never desired to go out and perform heroic deeds. His understanding of the possibly limitless worlds out there kept him from that, among other issues. But he didn't mind providing any amount of happiness to those he cared for and those in his path. Just as he knew, if he came up with a re-usable cure for Akhor' Sickness, he'd likely try and cure every currently infected Fae, as there weren't too many compared to their population.

He glanced over to Kara for a moment as he contemplated who would discuss any issues that occurred during her age. Recalling his time with Kara he never once noted any changes in mood nor interruption in nightly activity and started in a slight panic to wonder if he alone would have to bear the burden of discussing a monthly time with his future apprentice.