The Arcane Emperor

Chapter 179: Runes of Mana

Rainer returned to his manipulations as Kara headed off on her own. An [Arcane-Spatial Domain] spread out around him, reminding him how useful this spell might be now that he could use Void and Arcane in concert, even when combined with an incredibly weak [Void Hold]. The [Arcane-Spatial Domain] itself became far more deadly with this combination. Not to mention the double dose of restriction an ally or an Avatar could easily take advantage of.

Following with his success with [Arcane-Lightning Manipulation], he focused on something where the consequence of failure was pain. The goal being to resist his own [Arcane-Spatial Domain]’s force with [Arcane-Spatial Manipulation]. After a few tries on his own, Rainer realized that having his Avatar to pressure him with [Arcane Spatial Domain] would be far more effective. In fact, he wondered if fighting against himself might be a way to improve [Arcane Energy Manipulation] even further.

Several hours passed and a ragged Rainer, despite the constant refreshing of his body, finally saw the message he was looking for.

[Arcane-Spatial Manipulation has reached level 9]

Something he achieved through both pain and limitless Energy. A shame he hadn’t seen any gains in [Soul Consolidation] during the attempt as planned.

He found himself waking up a few minutes later.

With the rest of the Guild hard at work, and now having an unoccupied Avatar, Rainer opted to see if he could squeeze out more Trial sets. His visit to the Abyssal Planes had been long overdue, and hopefully the Void Lords had long since taken the offer of the Divinities to head to a new place free of Talvara’s ‘control’.

The moment his Avatar appeared, Rainer’s main body felt a surging pain in his Soul, and nearly collapsed. It seemed operating in two different times was beyond the current him. Thankfully, abandoning the senses of his main body and putting full focus on his Avatar bought him some respite. Just enough to head back the way he came. And just in time to see a violet Elemental appear in fury. The Elemental could only watch the target they had been waiting for disappear.

Rainer let out an annoyed breath. What were they chasing him for? And how did they find him so fast after he appeared? Or was it fast at all… He wasn’t sure exactly how long his confusion had lasted. And at a 1:60 time differential that could mean quite a bit of time passing.

Shaking off the time-whiplash he now so named, Rainer opted to go start his lecture on a few of the Dungeon rewards and their runes. As he thought over how to lecture and gave out a sigh to how no one else could use [Arcane Revelation] with the tattoo, he suddenly came across an idea. Something made even more possible with his recent acquisitions relating to the Soul. Having Lilia and someone else there, like a 3rd Tier Aura user with the tiniest bit of Mana, would be ideal.

And how perfect, their guest had already been waiting an hour outside of their Guild. Recentering himself to this time-zone with a bit of meditation, along with mixing Arcane and Void into his body, he left his Avatar to watch the Mana-Well.

“Hello,” Rainer said, appearing behind the Aura user, enjoying the way he jumped. Of course jump scaring a 3rd Tier Aura user wasn’t exactly smart. But he had seen the man had already sealed his Aura as if he was trying to avoid detection. It was both mildly entertaining and an easy way to see if he had a way around that issue. Kara did after all, even if her way involved having two seperate Aura pools.

His Aura showed no sign of coming alive even as his body tensed and readied for battle itself. He wondered just how strong his plain physical body was, or if he was more like Ling Yun, who put his attention purely on Aura strengthening. Of course, even the most Aura focused classes seemed to give some stats relating to Strength and other physical measures.

“Your way of teleporting is certainly… quiet,” the man eventually said after composing himself.

“You’ve encountered other teleporters?” Rainer asked, inwardly growing quite impressed with the Mages of this world.

“Ah,” Ren started, as if understanding the look on Rainer’s face, “not of the Human sort I’m afraid. Though they’ve studied the Monsters with the ability and their bloodline quite religiously. I’m sure they would give their firstborns in exchange for the knowledge of teleportation.”

“Monsters in the Not-Good Place?”

“That’s an odd way of calling the Not-Good Place, but yes, there.”

Rainer pursued his lips. He really needed to ask his grandfathers who managed to learn part of the language to figure out that name. Still, far be it for him to complain. Fairy translation was hardly something to scoff at.

“I’m guessing it’s ‘Not-good’ for you either?” Rainer asked of the Sixth Emperor.

“Especially for me. The monsters tolerate infighting and hunting in certain sections with certain tiers. If I appeared… Well. There’s a reason the First Emperor only has a single eye and a metal leg. And that was only because all seven of us fought together and helped him escape. I got the feeling the 3rd Tier Monster coming after us got bored rather than cowed. It is terrifying to be considered not interesting enough to kill.”

Rainer had noticed the eye patch one of them had, but the leg he couldn’t tell the difference of given it had been covered and shoed.

“The leg is Soul Inscribed to function. The effect isn’t as good given there isn’t a Soul inscription that even works well for 2nd Tiers, but it’s better than nothing and it functions with a bit with Aura. Could you…”

“Regrow a leg? Yep. But it’s a bit more involved and would require quite a bit of trust on my side.”

[Arcane Invigoration] in a tattoo could do it. Whether or not [Absolute Rebirth] could, he wasn’t sure, especially if it mattered that it was an older injury. Either would require Rainer to trust them enough. It would be quite embarrassing to hand over the tattoo and have the user run away and hold it hostage. He wasn’t sure how fragile it was in its orb form now that he thought about it.

“Any reason he hasn’t done the same thing for his eye?”

“Soul inscriptions don’t play well together. I’ve never seen two that took well to being used by the same person.”

That was a good thing to know, given his and Gunthar’s plans.

“Is there a source of Mana Crystals on this planet?” Rainer suddenly asked. He was more interested in Magicite. Perhaps it was time to visit the Arachne finally and see if there was a way he could get a steady supply from them and perhaps learn some of their secrets related to the supply they guarded so closely. Nothing about the Mage Guilds told Rainer they would tolerate having someone with so much power over them, yet they obviously still kept the Arachne around and autonomous for an important reason.

Now that Rainer thought of it, there was no evidence of the Arachne heading to the 2nd Tier Dungeon… Were they scared, or perhaps had a far different reason?

“Barely. Only consistent source I know of is in the Not-Good Place. Are you low?” he asked with some clear worry.

“Not at all. But there are other things produced by Mana Crystals that I could use.”

“Ah. The substance that lets those Mages extend their lives?” Ren guessed.

“That’s right,” Rainer confirmed and then dashed the Aura user’s hopes, “its effectiveness tends to match a person’s Mana Affinity.”

“Heh. And here I thought they told us that just to keep us away.”

“How would they keep you from testing it yourself?” Rainer asked. He didn’t believe the Aura user was so good natured. No matter how well they got along on the surface, the man clearly wanted something from him. No one except a saint took losing an arm as well as he did, especially with no evidence he’d be getting it back. And a ruler of the world who let the world fight and war could hardly qualify as a saint.

“As if their Monster allies would tolerate us acting against them,” Ren said with some annoyance.

Rainer’s eyes widened. That at least explained how a world with so few Mages and a lesser culture of Mages could produce a party of 2nd Tier Mages capable of defeating a Rank 6 Dungeon. He couldn’t wait to meet them. Though Elelaria’s advice for this planet was to let anyone they wanted to meet come to them. He wasn’t that impatient to ignore her words. Not to mention any parent who loved their children would have to visit him eventually. Assuming they could afford it. Such was the value of what he could produce.

“Would you like to sit in on an Enchantment lecture?” Rainer asked, eyeing his Mana pool with [Arcane Revelation]. Lilia alone wasn’t enough for what he planned. Besides, it didn’t hurt to get closer with their new neighbors. For whatever reason this Ren seemed amicable enough. He likely needed Enchantments or something else only a world-traveling Enchanter’s Guild could provide.

“Does it matter I don’t know Runes?” While Ren didn’t like how the Mage was looking at him, that was too fascinating to pass up.

“Nope.”

“That’s good to hear,” Ren said. Now, he really didn’t like that look.

Rainer stood in front of a group of Enchanters. A few were wide-eyed and raring to go. Most had bags under their eyes that spoke of long days of working, a type of drowsiness that could be physically visible in their every movement. But deep within those varied eyes was the same passion for the tiny little orb that made up the [Arcane Tattoo of Storage].

It was here Rainer realized that they likely were not motivated by the rewards he offered for helping with this rush to auction but rather by their own love for enchantment. To support the guild that let them focus on their own dreams and goals that had been pushed so far to the wayside. It was not an ordinary person who chose to forsake the path of power and magic to focus on enchanting, as the talents for both were quite intertwined.

He didn’t think there existed a grandmaster Enchanter in his Guild who couldn’t have been at the top of the 2nd Tier had they chosen a different path.

Rainer went rune by rune as he explained and sometimes used a quick Mana manipulation to display a rune they had never heard of. The only break he took was when his own mind tired from reading runes, which was a rarity these days, unless he was looking at a Tier 7 spell.

Looking at both Ren and Lilia in the room, he decided to give his idea the full test. He stared at the tattoo and looked for the rune he was most familiar with: the most basic rune representing Arcane. It was modified and entangled, given it was Enchanted into the object, but it existed nonetheless.

Slowly but surely, he delved his Soul into [Mana Manipulation] as he copied it exactly as he saw within the enchantment. It was more than just a rune within the enchantment, a world he was likely among the few in even a cosmic scale to be able to see so clearly. The Magical Perception attribute he gained in the Dungeon didn’t hurt either, as he saw and felt it clearer than in the past.

What he produced soon after, floating in the air, wasn’t just the Arcane rune, but how it was applied within an enchantment. How it was connected to the material not seen and other runes. But it wasn’t perfect. He sank his Soul deeper with [Soul Presence], matching it in every way, even as his Soul started approaching dangerous levels from using [Soul Consolidation] to assist him. The only thing that let him continue without issue was the Soul Resilience attribute combined with [Arcane Invigoration].

Mana alone wasn’t enough to display what he saw. It lacked the same texture. [Arcane-Wind Manipulation] and then even [Arcane-Spatial Manipulation] were used to alter the vary air he manipulated Mana upon. He even unsheathed his Soul to gain that boost and used [Arcane Awakening]. A violet light filled the room but few took notice of it as they stared wide-eyed at the manipulation of Mana.

The cycle of healing his Soul and letting it break back down repeated several times. And just as he was about to call it quits he heard a quiet and cute ‘ow’ ring out in the silent room.

He stared at his apprentice and then looked towards Ren, who himself had a scrunched up face like he had just eaten something sour. Neither of their reactions, or rather Rainer paying attention to their reactions, went unnoticed by the other Enchanters in the room.

Laughing uproariously, and soon joined by the others, Rainer went over to lift Lilia into the air, who only managed to whisper out a sorry before being picked up and being utterly confused why her headache made him so excited.

It was only moments later she realized what it meant.

Ren wasn’t faring any better in his confusion, so he asked the Enchanter next to him.

“Why’s everyone so excited?”

“You don’t know?” She looked at him oddly. Wasn’t this the reason Rainer brought him here, for his experiment?

“If I knew why would I ask?” he grumbled. It was hard to get used to being treated so ordinarily when he was a literal emperor of the world.

“The pain you felt is something only those who have learned [Faraan Runic Language] can feel when they overtax themselves reading Runes.”

“But I don’t have the skill?”

“Exactly,” She said, and Ren wondered if her eyes shining so brightly might even be magic.

Ren just stared at her blankly, still not understanding. He had awoken Mana accidently after a freak encounter with a certain Monster. While he had a cursory interest in it, that ended once he learned the life-extending methods barely worked on those without Mana talent. All he had was a [Low Wind Affinity]. Of course ‘barely’ was far better than nothing, but that wasn’t something he needed to worry about for at least a few hundred more years.

“Wait, how can you understand me?” Ren asked, now confused. Besides, wasn’t this Enchanter a bit too young? Other than the [Archon], a creepy looking redhead, and a uglier and older version of Rainer—which wasn’t saying much when said standard looked like a Deity of beauty incarnated—no one else spoke the language.

“The Magic of Fairies,” The Enchanter said, and now that Ren thought about it, she looked related to Rainer; the same blue eyes and black hair.

He just sighed, figuring that was the best answer he’d get.

It was towards the end of the day, that Ren would finally be leaving. He stared at the [Archon] as he was walked out of the mystical metal structures that made up the Guild. And the little grey people who were responsible for them were just as ‘mystical’. His attempt at talking with them quickly turned into a job interview as they asked if he needed something built. With the [Archon] translating. He might have taken them up on the offer if he had the Mana Crystals to provide for it.

“When do you think you’ll start selling?” Ren asked, doing his best not to seem eager. Especially after he saw the so called ‘Trial Set’ and wore it. It took quite a bit of willpower to not run away with it. Not that he could have reasonably escaped with his Aura suppressed. The Mage version was still a work in progress but Ren was hardly concerned about that.

“At minimum two weeks from now. We are preparing for an important auction in another world.”

“Any chance I could visit there too?” Ren said, curiosity piqued. Apart from the mention that getting another 3rd Tier class would extend his life even further, Ren didn’t have much in his life outside of his family and teaching Aura to a select few. Something like visiting another world wasn’t a chance he wanted to pass up.

The [Archon] looked at him again in such a way that made him incredibly uncomfortable.

“I’d be happy to gift a set if you are willing to make your visit a bit longer,” the man replied, his grin deepening.

“I’m not exactly busy,” he eventually answered, figuring with the [Archon]’s, as the Enchanters often called him, favor he could get far more than a Trial set to ensure his two children’s success in the Trial. Along with his wife.

He’d worry about why the man seemed so excited about him visiting later.

With a way forward in teaching Runes, Rainer needed to figure out a way to display it without his direct attention. After all, even if he managed to level [Mana Manipulation] enough, using his Soul every time in such a manner was likely a requirement and something that wouldn’t be useful on a large scale.

Remembering the books in his 1st Tier Trial that he managed to learn [Draconic Runic Language] from, Rainer figured he’d try to do the same thing with this recently gained knowledge. Somehow enchant that modified Rune into an object to display it in that manner. Perhaps even the Soul Inscribing, or Enchanting, however they wished to call it, would be the perfect vehicle for it.

His plan to spend the first hour or so of [Sleep Learning] attempting to defend his mind from one of his grandfathers was interrupted. Some of his [Soul Mark]s on the various Dungeon parties were still in play from back when he was protecting them for payment. And he had just received a call for help from a surprising source.