The Arcane Emperor

Chapter 168: A Changing of Soul

“How’s your progress?” Rainer asked Art, noting the previous failure. Delilah had already headed over, and was currently standing by while giving Tiamat a look that was somewhere between reverent and resentful.

Rainer’s Avatars were elsewhere committing the variety of spells he’d gained to memory and testing them out as a way to try and push his [Avatar Control] higher. Though all it was currently doing was giving himself a headache from switching between them when reading or practicing a certain spell became too complicated.

[Spell Gained: Take Root lvl 1/10]

The level 24 [Ice Wolf Queen] was at the cusp of reaching the next tier in strength, and would be the equivalent of a 3rd Tier—with a soul to match—once she reached level 25. So the feeling of inferiority towards Tiamat only felt that much worse. Reaching level 25 with such a class was the equivalent of the Monster taking a step forward with their bloodline. The greater step being to reach the next class, something that would likely never happen for most of the few who even reached that far.

“The retrovirus I combined with my living poison, seems to be correct. The only issue is that at the very start of the change the Draconic part starts colliding with the Human, and the result… is as you can see.

“Whether you need to borrow the method of Monsters, or if your Void and Arcane can keep it in check, perhaps a mixture of both, we’ll have to see. The goal of my method is to act as a bridge for your [Archon] class to take over as well as the fact you are, in fact, not a Monster. By this world’s definition at least,” Art finished, with a toothy grin.

Rainer nodded before glancing at the nearby Wolf.

“I don’t have to absorb anything in reality, do I?” Delilah said, speaking normally rather than through the Druidic tongue for Art’s sake nearby. It was a recent advancement compared to her past self that let her do so.

“No. But why wouldn’t you want to?”

“I fear Furtak would no longer be able to keep me as a Familiar if I advanced.”

Rainer sighed, knowing that would likely be the case. It was a pipe dream to try and use a higher Tier monster as a Familiar in a Trial. Too large of a difference in Souls between the Familiar and the Master and the Familiar Bond would break. Though the Master could surpass the Monster or otherwise as much as they wished.

In fact, one of Rainer’s plans for passing the 3rd Tier was somehow getting a 3rd Tier monster bonded to him. The prerequisite being that his Soul needs to reach the equivalent of the 3rd Tier. But that was a gap that even after all his improvements he barely closed in on.

Luna’s shadow Familiar was an exception, likely to due the modification her flame did to her Soul or perhaps the way Rainer helped connect them. The little hair-eating thing was already reaching the end of the 2nd Tier with how many of his fallen brethren he absorbed.

At this point, only Rainer’s request of Luna leveling up two rare subclasses kept her from passing the Trial. He knew even without the shadow it would be a sure deal already, especially with the two tattoos and her recent passive gains and item gains. But he wasn’t willing to bet on anything less than 100% with Luna. More importantly, because she listened to him in that regard.

“Tiamat, can you absorb some?” he asked, the little Dragon flying over to him. She sniffed the vial of a [Fire Dragon’s Concentrated Draconic Marrow] in his hand before rolling over on her back and shrinking to her smallest size.

Her eyes seemed to say you had to feed me. Rainer just chuckled taking the small Dragon into his arms and beginning the process. He drew on [Arcane Revelation], hoping the recent acquirement of Magical Perception would help him out. He watched the process carefully. Her nearly complete Draconic body seemed to barely take in the essence, much of it going to waste as that last portion refused to convert.

But there was still some absorption. Her blood and then the Magic in her body almost seemed to come alive as it merged with that tiny bit of power.

“Again?” he asked and got a pleased purr from the Dragon. It seemed he hadn’t been pampering her enough recently.

“I don’t suppose you want me to feed you too?” Rainer asked the nearby Delilah. The growl he got in return told him that wasn’t a good avenue to joke on. Though he’d swear to any who’d listen that he saw some longing in her eyes.

It was an hour later that a tired Tiamat left [Sleep Learning] and he went on to watch Delilah’s own process of consuming the Draconic Essence. Different from Tiamat, Delilah wasn’t becoming any more Draconic but was instead enhancing her bloodline with a far stronger Monster’s source.

Both had their uses, and if Rainer was honest, he wouldn’t mind just enhancing his ‘Humanness’ without having to deal with the experience penalty something like ‘Draconic Human’ would undoubtedly carry. Not to mention whatever his race would change to once he finished with Arcane and Void. Combined with Draconic, he might experience a truly fearsome penalty.

Delilah absorbed something from an Ice Dragon in front of him, her Aura growing a bit in strength. Different from Tiamat, the Draconic part of the resource seemed to lose it’s Draconic nature and instead the raw strength of it melded and bolstered her own innate bloodline.

If he could manage this type of thing on his Human self, what would that even look like? Or if he could help someone like Kara who depended so much on bloodline to do the same…

Rainer shook away errant thoughts as he focused on the process, planning to use the rest of [Sleep Learning] to just watch and then eventually experience a few failures with his grandfather’s method.

“Woo, this place is creepy,” Sarah said, excitement hiding under her faux fear. They were in a long dark corridor, lit up by Rainer’s armed [Arcane Bolt]s.

Rainer rolled his eyes, though silently agreeing as Kara retold their first Dungeon experience, where they would later be sent to Nalmar. And Gunthar’s clacking feet did make it a bit more creepy. Of course, him happily playing with Tiamat while having a young girl on his shoulders reduced that to nothing when you looked at him.

This was one of the ‘opportunities’ within this remaining Dungeon. They had long since split up into smaller groups. Given his need to act as a ‘savior’ he had no choice but to keep [Harbinger] equipped. And therefore couldn’t enjoy, like the others in his party, the variety of classes that their rewards had unlocked. So such an opportunity that would provide bonus experience was next to meaningless for him.

Unlike Sarah, Kara, and even Luna, who switched out their classes. Nearly everyone in his party did the same as well, knowing that he would be there to help him. He would feel resentful if their extra work on future subclasses didn’t mean that his Arcane and Void Tattoos would be safer when taken into Trials. Not to mention they themselves. Rainer knew he had a far longer journey to 3rd Tier than any of his fellows.

[Female, Half-Demon/Half-Wolfkin, Greater Fel Werewolf lvl 25(2nd), Aura Burster lvl 3, Warrior of Aural Haste lvl 3]

[Title: Aura Depletor]

Rainer briefly glanced at the Arcane Tattoo on his hand, noting why she was able to resist a 250 point version of Final Arcanum. She could use large amounts of Aura quicker. To an impossible degree that would have rendered her nearly useless afterwards but that was of course better than being dead. She had guessed that she received such passive skills and items relating to Aura speed due to her Fel Werewolf class abilities. Likely to make them work faster and the final attack come out stronger with less time.

Of course, when considering her double Aura pool and her ability to convert Golden Aura to Demonic, it meant she had around 5 chances to expend her Demonic half completely in normal circumstances. Truly an unfair creature she was.

[Weightless Blade Mastery has reached level 3]

“Oh, I leveled up a skill,” Rainer said in surprise, briefly checking his currently auto-piloting Avatar, practicing by himself. His Mana-Well guarding Avatar was doing the same, taking a break from mass-producing enchanted items. Why it was Weightless Blade rather than Magic Blade, he wasn’t sure.

Perhaps it was because he was using an underpowered version of [Arcane Blade] during the spars. That was a test of his manipulation skills. Making [Arcane Blade] not deadly.

“Those Avatars of yours are really unfair,” Sarah complained, knowing the odds of her ever learning that ritual in even ten thousand years was next to none. While some rituals acted as a medium without complicated runes or spells, the Avatar Ritual was the complete opposite.

“I think I might be able to make a 3rd one soon.” The amount of Soul he needed increased with every Avatar to generate enough ‘useless’ parts to be split off into a new Avatar. Especially when considering the control needed to manage it was related to the Soul’s strength.

Rainer suddenly paused, feeling a stirring in his Soul as his mind switched more and more rapidly between his Avatars. He extended [Soul Presence] to try and feel what was happening. As he felt the mutation start and then subside, he instead pushed it forward with [Soul Presence] and [Soul Manipulation].

[Avatar Control has reached level 8]

[Experience Gained: XX]

As the piercing headache passed Rainer suddenly realized that he was controlling all three of himself seamlessly.

His grin threatened to permanently expand his face. Oh how long he’d waited for this. If before he thought he could only beat a 3rd Tier in an ambush with [Blade of the Void], now he wondered if he might put up a real fight. One of himself using the deadly close combat weapons with the other letting out a literal storm of Magic. And that was just by himself.

He stared down at the [Cosmic Map] in his hand soon after. Every time he had rescued someone from another party over this past two weeks he added new places to his collection. Eventually he figured out that all he had to was knock someone unconscious and his powerful Soul was more than enough to empower the orb.

It took only a casual conversation with the Nature’s Walkers’ leader to figure out which of the many collected planes and planets was the City of Wealth.

The magnificent scenes of it he saw in the copied memories were hard to mistake. As soon as this dungeon disappeared, he knew exactly where his next destination was.