The Arcane Emperor

Chapter 167: Copying Memories

Taking the best of his party with him, Rainer switched focus to his main body currently in the Dungeon and Void-walked towards the distress-calling Soul Mark.

He was a bit surprised when it was an offshoot of the Flameborne that called him, but the attire of the opposing party cleared away any errant thoughts. The extra eyes and the robes made it clear just where these special Humans came from. Even if the Golden Aura user’s party only had a single three-eyed Mage.

As if reacting to the group of strong people who appeared without even a fluctuation of space, the mixed group of Aura users and Magi teleported away under the power of a three-eyed Mage in the center.

Rainer only smirked as he picked one out of the group to use [Void Grasp] on. It was a few seconds later that the only person who remained found himself confused and more than a little scared.

“Wait-”

Rainer rushed forward, Art by his side. An overpowered [Void Hold], along with a physical one, ensured the Mage was unable to fight back, and a round of living poison later, he was unable to function at all. The Mage currently in a waking coma could only stare up at his captor.

“Just to clarify, they tried to rob you?” Rainer asked the stunned red-robed Mages and a few Aura-using guards.

“Y-yes, Lord [Archon],” one of the Flameborne Mage’s mumbled out despite trying to look stately.

A quick check with [Mana Reading] and that proved true.

Rainer pointedly looked at his captive, before shrugging.

“Sucks to be you.”

With constant chanting of [Devil’s Soul Language] and a use of [Soul Presence], Rainer easily tore through the captive Mage’s Soul, leaving him completely vulnerable. Yet he stopped before forcing a [Soul Mark] on the unwilling subject. Not out of a moral quandary but rather at the appearance of a better idea.

He had been waiting until he could trust the Nature’s Walkers to try it out but quickly realized the folly in that. He could have just asked his own party. But with such a ‘willing’ and ‘open’ Soul, one that belonged to an aggressive robber, in front of him, how could Rainer resist?

He placed the black crystal orb that was the [Cosmic Map] on the Mage’s chest before focusing deeply. Just as he had helped people form Familiar Bonds in the past, he reached out towards this Mage’s mana pool and Soul, drawing them towards the orb.

The item seemed to react, and not only did it ignore Rainer’s attempts, it made its own connection to the man’s Soul, borrowing the strength of Rainer’s Soul. Rather than his own ability, this seemed a function of the item. And with no chance of resistance, the memories were copied over.

It was a few seconds later that he found new knowledge in the orb.

Looking at the comatose person beneath him, Rainer took the few enchanted items on him, and took the distress-calling party back to the Dungeon Entrance with a Void-travel. He hadn’t bothered with the High Elf’s items due to the restrictions on them, but he wasn’t above robbing useful ones from someone who made themselves Alvra’s enemy. And there was no permanent damage done. He’d likely be recovered by his party and his Soul would take a few weeks to recover normally.

It was a few minutes later he returned to his party, some Draconic resources heavier.

Rainer spun the [Cosmic Map] in his hand with a bit of [Wind Manipulation] as he looked over the new additions. Neither of the two planes seemed to be the plane of the so-called City of Wealth, but that didn’t mean the information was useless. They were planes after all, one of which contained the Golden Aura user and perhaps the source of his ability. And one of those planes was roughly only an Earth-to-Alvra distance away from Fai’Etah’s. At least, to the Drifting Isle’s current position.

The memories added to the orb functioned a bit like satellite images, though partly real time when it came to cosmic location. He got a free—if inaccurate, lifeless, and time lagged—view of all the places that four-eyed Mage had ever visited.

This, with some proper searching, included a few Dungeon-looking structures. Given Rainer’s strength, and that of his party members, he fully planned on trying said places as 5-man parties—for the small party bonus—once he got some proper information on them. Assuming any of them would even be Rank 6 Dungeons or Dungeons at all. 

He glanced over to his mother who was speaking to Gunthar. They were taking a short break, acting as guards, as the rest of the party explored deepered into a once guarded cave.

“Gunthar…” Sophia started.

“Yes?” the Undead asked, taking a break from entertaining Tiamat.

Their leisurely attitude put the Wolf King’s party, who they were traveling with, completely on edge. Sophia had to admit her son’s talents made this Dungeon seem far too safe, when in reality, a single wrong meeting could be anyone else’s death. Unlike Frederick who still pulled his hair out over [Void-walking] and it’s creation, she was content just being proud of her son’s immense ability.

In fact, much of her party had already used Luna to switch out one of their classes, having no need to keep two level 25 classes equipped.

“Were you perhaps playing with Tiamat during the entire meeting?” Suddenly, much of the strange glances made sense. She had thought they were in awe, given that the information that they won the Dungeon had spread. But now she thought of another source. An Undead happily playing with a baby Dragon would no doubt raise some concern.

“N-no?”

Sophia barely kept from laughing when she heard the sigh from the Undead father of this poor liar.

“Oh? I wonder why they were looking at us so strangely then...” she added, enjoying how she could still feel the guilt radiating off him even as an Undead. How magical.

“Mom, stop messing with Gunthar.”

Sophia raised an eyebrow at her son, and the Undead himself seemed almost touched.

“I’m better at it.”

And there went the ‘almost touched’.

Their attention was quickly drawn as their party returned. It was time to continue exploring.

The next two weeks were spent exploring the Dungeon, or Rainer changing his body as he was flown by another’s power, while the nights were spent in [Sleep Learning].

His Avatar in the Nature Plane, as he had taken to calling it, spent his time reading through their library or sparring with the leader of the Nature’s Walkers—who happened be quite the expert in single blade use. When considering the weight of her weapon and her own personal strength, it was quite close to his own weightless style. It seemed whatever decision they were making on him would take time to reach a conclusion.

Rainer wasn’t sure if it was related to some unknown ‘side effect’ of [Soul Perseverance], but his Soul grew more rapidly than usual as he practiced [Soul Presence]. And after expressing his worry about what Lilia might suffer trying to learn this skill, he had recreated [Soul Sheath] for her in [Sleep Learning]. An obvious answer. A less obvious answer was to try and equip more than one on himself.

While only the reduction to Soul pain bonus stacked, it meant that after a maximum of 11 [Soul Sheath]s equipped, the originally brutal process became far more manageable. At least if he hadn’t used this manageability to push himself further than before, evening it out at the benefit of rapidly increasing his progress.

So it was after two weeks he managed to reach level 9 with [Soul Presence], pushing his Soul to nearly twice that of what it was prior to entering the Dungeon the first time; the resultant growth in his changed Soul increased the rate his body changed. [High Void Affinity] came to him far quicker than earlier improvements, along with 36 Points in both Strength and Constitution.

It was at this point he wondered if he had jinxed himself. His earlier prediction of his normal Human flesh not being a strong enough buffer seemed to be coming true. The issues were light at the moment, only requiring him to heal himself after a session of conversion, but he had no doubt he’d reach a wall sooner or later. It was likely without a way to change or massively strengthen his ‘humaness’ that [Strong Void Affinity] would spell the end of conversion. For now, he had to test any future changes in [Sleep Learning] before continuing to change his body in reality.

It was possible that putting points from the system into Constitution could help, but that might mean an instant death if he ever lost access to the system. Or the strengthening would be too broad, and change nothing by changing everything. The Arcane and Void parts of him would still be too much.

As his strengthening Soul would likely even grow stronger in the future, Rainer knew he couldn’t give up this avenue of strength if he ever hoped to reach the 3rd Tier. Even without conscious effort, his Soul would still be strengthened by his body as it changed his body in return. Such was the process in becoming Touched by an element of Magic, even if his had a Void twist.

And so it was with that he went to seek out his red-headed grandfather to see if he made any progress with the Draconic resources in [Sleep Learning].

With a thought, he found his grandfather in [Sleep Learning] and Void-walked to him.

He watched as, with a swell of magic, his grandfather injected something in his arm. And it was with a surge of Draconic magic later that the arm bulged in size before exploding violently.

“Ouch,” Art monotoned, just now noticing the visitor, “Oh good. My test subject has arrived. There is little point in doing these tests on myself, as I feel your changed self may be far better suited to contain the Draconic portion.”

Not far from him was Tiamat, who with her powerful Soul was easily brought in without issue, practicing her abilities with Gunthar. While her intelligence remained somewhere between a 6 or 7 year old, she managed to understand quickly what sort of place this was. Whenever asked, she would consume more Draconic resources so that Art could monitor the effect. With her body reaching a point of being 99% Dragon, there wasn’t any progress made, however. That last remnant of her Wyvern heritage remained.

“I’m ready when you are,” Rainer said casually, not at all intimidated at the prospect of painfully exploding various parts of himself. He was more concerned over Tiamat being bored as he repeatedly watched her consume Draconic resources with [Arcane Revelation]. Perhaps asking Delilah, the [Ice Wolf Queen], might be a better answer, and a different take on said absorption?

But exploding body parts... that was par for the course in [Sleep Learning].