77 White Void (1/2)

Over the course of the day, Sarah had gone over the notes Rainer had made for her the same way he had made notes for Lilia on the runes of [Arcane Bolt]. Except the spell this time was [Mana Shield].

As he manipulated the wind once more, helped by the natural current, Rainer had continued to write more and more notes, greatly helped by his attributes to churn it out far faster.

He had also recently discovered a way to improve his writing speed using his new [Medium Enchanting: Body] skill. With a single thought, he could form mana within himself and use it to instantly write a page from his memory onto the magically created empty books Luna made for him.

He had written anything he could think of that might interest Sarah relating to magic, aura and anything else in this world. At the same time, Rainer occasionally mixed in more leisure reading for others, using his Sleep Learned knowledge of various stories. Time on a ship, with little else to do and little change in scenery, would prove stifling sooner or later.

With their Spatial Rings taken up by supplies, Lilia had only been able to bring a few of her favorite books to read in her free time. Though now, she spent most of that time playing with Tiamat or memorizing the shapes and information of more runes as she prepared to actually learn them.

Rainer was working to make something entertaining not only for her, but for Gunthar who spent his nights alone. No matter how used to and unbothered by such loneliness the undead seemed to be, Rainer didn't want him bored.

As the sun set, the party gathered around Rainer to discuss current affairs and their plans for when they made it to the Dragon Isles.

”First things first, we need to get information on the Seven Kings and see which ones would be most amendable to our cause, and which would most want the things we would be willing to part with. From there, we only need 1 king in our favor to contact and deal with the rest. Undoubtedly, he'd know more than we could ever learn otherwise.”

”You are trying to become a lord then, and use that land for the Academy?” Sarah asked.

Kara's wolven ears twitched and she raised an eyebrow at Rainer, ”So you are going to follow someone else's orders?”

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”Shit,” The very idea of having a King as his liege made him feel...displeased. And the thought of him having to rule a country was a close second to that.

”It's not as if you actually have to rule,” Sarah said, guessing his thoughts,”It just needs to be a sovereign state containing the Academy. Like the Vatican. Actually, that would be far better than trying to hook yourself to one of the Kings of the Dragon Isles even ignoring your apparent problem with being sworn to a King.”

”There would be no issue of playing favorites...and it would also protect me from the Kings by being equally allied to each,” Rainer added.

”Then Luna gets to be Queen!” The small fairy chimed in from Rainer's head.

”Not for a long while,” Rainer added. Establishing the Academy itself was a goal for the far future. Bringing up an actual Arcane Order with Rogue Mages and others was a first. He needed to establish himself.

”Oh, what about me?” Kara asked, jokingly. She'd actually prefer not having such an official title.

”You'll both be Queens.”

'I don't think that's how it works Rainer…” Sarah responded.

”And I think you'd be considered a Duke in any case, Sorcerer,” Gunthar added.

”I'll be a Ruler. What I say, is how it is. If I want ten Queens then I'll have ten Queens,” He added jokingly, mixing a bit of Arcane in his voice. But he quite liked Sarah's ideas. In fact, he had little interest in political goals beyond not being under anyone's rule and the establishment of his academy, and providing a safe home for a Half-Demon, a Fairy, an Undead, and the family of an Arcanist.

But there was a problem. He wasn't creating the school to train an army but to raise this world's level of magic and enjoy the future progress for himself. Being dragged into pointless conflicts was far from his ideal, so letting himself be anything less than an equal could be problematic.

He couldn't care less if the kings wanted their own mages to train at his Academy and go to war, along with himself at times when it came to outside invasions that threatened his school, but anything else wasn't on the agenda.

When it came to any Body Enchanted Aura users created and taught by the Academy and Gunthar however… a system of military service in exchange for free tuition was a smart model quite common on Earth.

Rainer suddenly realized that with most of the Dragon Isles' inhabitants being magical non-humans, he had quite the bargaining tool in the form of Body Enchanting. He could even say it required Magicite or something else to extort out of the Kings, all the while pretending he was doing it cheaper than normal. After all, how would they know?

He could have tricked the Fae in such a manner, as prior to him, no one other than the Fae had ever used Body Enchanting, to their knowledge.

And then there were the rogue mages of the Dragon Isles and the numerous spells he gained from Amer, the Fae, and Nalmar; the perfect recruiting tool. Even before he managed to get a source of Magicite to truly seal the deal and take away mages from the guilds.

Yet at the end of it all, no amount of political maneuvering would be enough to protect his school, even if it could help.

He needed power. When it came to personal power, he ventured few were actually capable of killing him or his with [Void-walking] at the ready. But defending an academy? It wasn't something he could do alone.

”Your perverse Charisma is at it again, why did that sound so convincing?” Sarah grumbled.

”You'll have ten Queens?” Kara asked Rainer, her voice somehow not having any of the hostility very much visible in her eyes.

”Two Queens it is.”

As everyone got ready for bed, Rainer Void-walked back to Gunthar at the helm.

”Sorcerer?” The undead asked, curious.

”I wrote this down for you. I figured you might enjoy it,” Rainer said, tossing the first book of a certain trilogy to the Undead. The trilogy which was technically one book, but after writing the long first part, he didn't want to transcribe the rest unless he knew Gunthar actually enjoyed it.

He knew the theme of a certain item of power being the downfall of a civilization might be a sore point for the undead, but Gunthar never seemed bothered by that part of the history of his city. And the comparison wasn't entirely too close, either.

Though, Rainer thought it might even help him deal with some of the issues relating to it.

Above all else, it was his favorite book. He dared Gunthar not to at least enjoy it.

Gunthar looked curiously for a moment before he realized it was a work of fiction written in a language he did not recognize but could read nonetheless, rather than any sort of instructional tome.

”Hmm...I shall give it a try,” Gunthar responded, never having much interest in any form of entertainment, let alone reading fiction. But being unable to stay in meditation the whole time he manned the helm at night, he decided to give it a try. Above all else, the Sorcerer had bothered to waste time writing such a thing, so he thought it might at least warrant his attention.

”Good night, Gunthar,” Rainer said before [Void-walking] away.

”A good night to you, Sorcerer…”

Rainer sat in the white void of [Sleep Learning] as he thought over his future goals and his recent discovery with [Soul Trace]s.

He had realized a huge problem with the [Void-walking] Body Enchantment he planned for Kara; nothing like it had ever been done. Even if he technically performed a successful Body Enchantment on a Demon's corpse, it only confirmed the actual enchantment was safe. Not that Kara could use it safely.

Of course, he would, as usual, get the enchantment to work with [Arcane Awakening] before using it on Kara, but even then he was familiar with the Void and Kara was not.

So the result for her might deposit the wolfkin directly into the Void with no return, if not something far worse when playing with such magic. He needed her to test it afterwards somewhere safe. And what could be safer than his White Void now connected to a fake Void? His original thought was to Void-walk in tandem with her but this seemed far more promising.

But playing with souls was not the safest of things. He needed to do it in stages. And first was the [Soul Manipulation] skill he witnessed in use by Amer during the Avatar ritual.

Using [Soul Detection], Rainer paid attention to his own soul as he tried to will it with both mind and magic in various ways. Only to find himself unable to affect the incorporeal entity at all.

As of right now, lacking knowledge on how to get [Soul Manipulation] apart from Amer's suggestion of centuries of Soul and Ritual magic practice, he needed to depend on his [Archon] class bonus.

Seeing just willing it, accomplished nothing, Rainer went a different direction.

He repeatedly used [Devil's Soul Language], aiming not at the empty void in front of him, but at himself.

Wincing as the pain surged through him, he forced himself to ignore it and watch his Soul heal as the endless Mana surged towards it at his command.

The resilient Soul soon became as perfect as it always was. Rainer carefully monitored every facet of that regeneration before beginning anew.

With every vile sounding word, he watched carefully. A damaging and healing process that continued unceasingly, all for a singular purpose. Now, his eyes glowed entirely violet as he stared at his own Soul.

[Soul Detection has reached level 3]

The sensing became clearer and the process of healing more understable with every painful attempt.

[Soul Detection has reached level 4]

This time after damaging his Soul, he instead tried to manipulate both [Arcane Invigoration] and Mana to heal it faster than usual. Having studied his soul to such a degree, he knew the direction it would heal.

[Soul Detection has reached level 5]

With the constant improvement in [Soul Detection], Rainer saw the incorporeal thing inside him with greater clarity, and even thought he could slightly discern its own strange connection to the attached White Void, and copy of the omnipresent Void alongside it.

Even [Devil's Soul Language] saw an improvement as he sought to minimize the damage done to himself, and subsequently improve his control over the magic language. He had hit a barrier at level 5, back during his month with Amer. Yet seeing its effects so clearly, and controlling it so tightly, moved him forward once more.

[Devil's Soul Language has reached level 6]

Another assault later, Rainer opted to just force Mana into the Soul now, while he himself tried to heal it directly. With a twist of Mana and power, and aided by his [Archon] class, he controlled his Soul to absorb the Mana quicker.

[Skill Gained: Soul Manipulation lvl 1/10]

[Title Gained: Manipulator of Souls]

[Experience Gained: 0.1%, 22%]

Ready to continue his practice based on Amer's writing on controlling the Soul itself and how the resilience of it made it quite safe, he prepared himself to go into Auto-Pilot to further solidify those memories.

But a sudden noise awoke his body after hours of sleep.

”Sorcerer, how could you do such a thing!”

Gunthar's voice rang out as he knocked on the door. Utterly confused and a bit worried at his choice of novel for Gunthar, Rainer grabbed his pants and overcoat before [Void-walking] into the hall.

”Gunthar wh-”

”I demand the next book, Sorcerer. Even your joking needs to have it's limits. To leave me only with the first of the series...Oh no...Sorcerer...It can't be…” Gunthar mumbled as he placed his hands on Rainer's shoulders, ”this is the only book isn't it? There is no sequel…”

”As funny as that would be, and I'm now seriously considering it, there is another book. Just give me a couple minutes, I'll write it out for you.”

With the recently aquired method of writing a page at a time, it was only a few minutes later that Rainer presented the book.

”Much obliged, Sorcerer. I shall apologize to little Wolf and the Lady of the Fae in the morning for my rude awakening,” Gunthar added, now calmed down a bit.

Rainer laughed at a bit, before heading back to sleep. He now Auto-piloted as planned, enjoying the blissful darkness of a regular night of sleep.

The next day, Rainer sat in his earthen chair as usual, the curse-riddled scars and the fatigue and pain that came with them almost faded from the constant attentions of his fairy.

Kara, curious about what he planned on writing next given Gunthar's impromptu wake up, looked over his shoulder to see a drawing of a stone tower.

”What's that for?”

”Our future home, once we get some land and decide where we'll be building the academy, and solve the whole problem of most of the world being out to get us for one reason or another,” Rainer said as he mused how to transport all the stone he envisioned. [Void-walking] combined with their group's 3 spatial rings perhaps made him the best provider of building materials in the whole world.

”Rainer...I'm not living in a cold damp tower…”

”Luna doesn't mind!” The small fairy, currently messing with Sarah, was quick to add.

Kara rolled her eyes at that, earning a stuck-out tongue from the fairy. Luna wouldn't even mind staying in a cave; she spent more than half her time living in Rainer's coat and hair, after all. What it did it matter to her? Kara found herself envious for a moment at being able to lay in Rainer's soft and silky hair. Her strange musings were interrupted by the man himself.

”So no tower then?”

”The tower's fine, you need somewhere to do...whatever it is you plan on needing a Mage's Tower for, given all your spellcasting is done in [Sleep Learning], but a regular old noble's mansion would be nice too.”

”Good point…” Rainer remarked, crumpling up the piece of paper and letting it fade with a input of extra Mana. He didn't need a place to do magic or research, ”But what about smiting people from the top of my tower?” He suddenly thought.

Sarah answered that, ”Ah, then build it. There's always a need for smiting,” She sat off to the side as she practiced her recently learned [Mana Shield] with glee. Rainer's notes on the spell, one she had never been able to learn, proved he may have some ability as a teacher.

Luna enjoyed using it as target practice for her flame, much to the younger Nvos's displeasure as she watched her carefully constructed shield made useless no matter how she reinforced it.

”Well, Sorcerer, you do need to hide your work with the Mana-Well. It wouldn't be a bad place either, to set up the Mana-Well safely so that all other enchanters could draw on it, as Nalmar had done in their underground safe house.”

”A Mage's tower it is. Maybe I'll build it from metal…” He remarked to himself, earning strange glances from the rest of the party. They had, after all, not seen the metal towers of that forsaken mountain city.

Just before bed, Rainer let out Yulia's soul and, after a few words of the [Devil's Soul Language] to prevent her escape, added a [Soul Trace] to it.

With Amer's notes fully ready, Rainer began his practice. As a general rule, the Soul itself seemed to be around one's Mana Pool in the center of the body, not that it could be found in a physical manner.

The first training began with moving the Soul around in relation to one's body. An apt method for protection against weaker casters of curses.

And with the [Archon] bonus, the first level wasn't hard to gain. Further practice in tandem improved his [Soul Detection] as well.

[Soul Manipulation has reached level 2]

[Soul Detection has reached level 6]

Seeing even clearer now as he looked at the connection between himself and the white void, Rainer sought to do his first test with Yulia's soul.

Focusing on the [Soul Trace] with his new found familiarity with the Soul, he tried to replicate the same connection he had with the white void, only far weaker. The connection formed, only to snap midway.

Rainer went back over his memories of the Avatar ritual as he found another similarity. His connection to the white void seemed almost the same as Amer's connection to his Avatar.

With the new knowledge in hand, and a ready example of the forming of that connection, Rainer attempted again and again, getting closer each time.

A leveling of [Soul Manipulation] signaled his success.

[Soul Manipulation has reached level 3]

The moment he drew part of the Soul in, the body of a Fairy instinctively formed. Emerald hair and eyes with a matching dress. The Soul coming from his storage ring was unable to resist.

Without a word, Rainer forced her into a chair and removed the Mana from her pool. He couldn't alter her body, he found out, but something like this was possible. It was only a incredibly powerful and distant application of [Drain Mana].

He waited for a confirmation of a level up, but had received none. Instead knowledge of the first level of a skill filled his head. And he realized that result may be far better.

With a use of [Soul Detection], he realized rather than pulling her soul from the ring, he connected the White Void to her soul. She was in a strange duality of being both here and not here. No different than his own body currently asleep.

Which meant it was likely safe to do this with anyone else. Or rather an advantage compared to leveling or even just improving the original [Sleep Learning] was the knowledge of the first level filling his mind. Rainer knew for almost a fact it was safe.

[Skill Gained: Sleep Learning: Soul Connecting lvl 1/10]

There was no need for further tests. He could even send any occupants into the Auto-piloted version, letting them avoid the negative effects of staying aware in [Sleep Learning].

His fears over Kara taking her trial early finally had an answer. As did how to safely use Body Enchantment on his sister. But he didn't know how to feel about that.

A small thought over why he couldn't learn the Soul Empowerment skill due to the permanent presence of the White Void in his soul entered his mind, but he wasn't sure how to solve that issue. Or if he even could.

The Fairy across from him gasping in shock brought him back to the present.

”Hello...Yulia.”

Rainer woke up while the sky was still dark. He had spent the rest of the night, after his conversation with Yulia, auto-piloting with [Draconic Enchanting]. A quick glance at last night's messaging and he thought back to what he learned from Yulia.

[Draconic Enchanting has reached level 4]

He had used [Mana Reading] to verify Yulia's claims as he asked numerous questions about not only Luna but the whole process of making a [Homunculus]. Noticing the similarities between that and the Avatar ritual, he had turned more and more interested, gradually losing the dull flame that burned within him at the sight of the Fairy that had been in front of him.

He sighed as he ran a hand through his hair, and woke up Luna sleeping next to him.

Explaining the ring with her soul and the conversation he had, Luna responded mostly with disinterest.

”Let her go then,” Luna said as she lay back down, dragging Rainer with her as she snuggled her head into his chest again, ”Waking Luna up for something so silly, Luna will get Rainer for this,” She mumbled as she quickly fell back to sleep.