The Arcane Emperor

Chapter 8 The Arcane Elementalis

Seeing the glowing red eyes hone in on him from the darkness, Rainer prepared at a moment's notice to unleash his 4 armed [Arcane Bolts]. Two [Arcane Bolts] were formed into his hands, ready at any moment to strike. The moment he could see them clearly, he nearly released all his [Arcane Bolts] at the first one he saw. Spiders...and large ones at that.

He, however, wasn't afraid of spiders. To the point where if one was too high up to reach in his room he'd just ignore it.

Though, the spiders having a size slightly larger than a dog startled him. His only hope was that the size reduced their abilities as spiders. For in terms of a size-to-speed ratio a spider this big could kill him before he realized what happened. He used [Appraisal] on several of them keeping as much attention as he could on any movement. Though, he already set his armed [Arcane Bolts] to fire one the moment they got within 10 feet of him.

[Naramien Spider, Male, Young Arachnoid lvl 4]

[Naramien Spider, Male, Young Arachnoid lvl 1]

[Naramien Spider, Male, Young Arachnoid lvl 5]

[Naramien Spider, Male, Young Arachnoid lvl 3]

"Luna," Rainer whispered, "Start casting [Gift of the Wind]."

The spiders reacted to the outflow of mana. The closest of them launched towards Rainer. Fast the spider was, but not fast enough. An armed bolt of Arcane slammed into the first one sending it back, though most certainly not in the state it came as a message filled Rainer's view. Pandemonium ensued.

All the spiders rushed in towards Rainer. The remaining 3 of his armed bolts jutted out in different directions as Rainer released the two already prepared in his hands. One after another a total of 6 spiders had fallen yet compared to those at the ready it was just a drop in an ocean.

They did not have the full abilities of spiders nor could they stand before his Arcane magic, but even if he killed more would he have the mana to survive? Yet there was no panic in Rainer's eyes as he stared out. After the first wave had died more spiders took their place and charged in towards him. He slowly raised his palm containing nothing but a [Candle Flame]. And then, it erupted.

Arcane energy pulled out of thin air into the flame and melded into one as all his manipulation abilities synergized. While Rainer had not yet reached the point where he could easily pour mana into the [Candle Flame] he only needed to point it in the right direction.

The flame changed from a timid orange to a radiant white and violet flame, as if a vengeful sun formed within the cavern. A cone of fire released itself outward as Arcane-Flames spread amidst the spider's ranks.

The moment the Arcane-Flames landed on a spider it combusted in a fury sending a burnt spider back in pieces and damaging those around it. As messages flashed by Rainer 3 spell formulae entered Rainer's head. The magic improved in every way. He unleashed the Arcane-Flame continuously now as he moved forward. Another wave could not be allowed; he would be the next wave.

Luna just now reaching the end of her chant only waited for Rainer's cue to release the spell. The flames scorched the charging spiders into unrecognizable forms almost instantly. Sounds of combustion radiated throughout the air. Rainer himself could feel the massive heat and without his resistance, he was not sure he could bear to keep focus.

Soon Rainer noticed the spiders became frantic running in the opposite direction, rightfully fearing the destruction upon them. Rainer canceled the spell, his mana had been quickly consumed and now he saved as much as he could.

In a show of bravado, he kept a small [Arcane Candle Flame] lit in front of his outstretched hand as he unwaveringly walked forward. He positioned himself in a way as to head deeper into the cave. The spiders themselves seemed to have come from a higher cave entrance in the nearly 100-foot tall cavern.

Rainer noticed recently that the temperature had been getting colder. At first, that worried him that, he was in fact, getting deeper into the cave. But when Luna had told him that the mine was in the far north and that it was the middle of winter, he had become alight with hope.

The spiders who had remained nearby and had not yet retreated slowly backed away as Rainer moved forward. He needed to get as close to where he planned on making a break for it as possible. The spiders may have had the intelligence to understand the concept of fire and fear, but mana pools, most likely not.

Rainer stopped in the perfect spot and merely looked towards the still retreating spiders. They moved back slowly, their long legs clacking on the rock floor. Rainer took this moment to look through his messages.

[Spell Gained: Arcane Candle Flame lvl 1/10]

[Spell Gained: Cone of Fire lvl 1/10]

[Spell Gained: Cone of Arcane-Fire lvl 1/10]

[Title Gained: Arcane Elementalist]

[Experience Gained: 1374%]

Rainer couldn't help but look on in shock at seeing the amount of experience gained from the title this time. Though Luna herself wouldn't be surprised. Manipulating mana and elements in such a manner was not something a lvl 3 mage class could do in the first place. Let alone even some higher level ones. Who could learn a skill like [Fire Manipulation] from using a basic fire spell in a single afternoon like Rainer could? She might even complain the reward was slightly too low were she aware.

Even Rainer who had been unknowingly trained by a powerful and ancient mage struggled to learn [Mana Manipulation]. How would a normal mage compare? And now three different types of manipulations at that. Adding on to this was his [Arcane Bolt] which had reached a level of absolute mastery.

Rainer added up all the experience gained from killing 31 Spiders. Most were killed by the combustion effect from [Cone of Arcane-Fire], though using that spell for even a few moments had drained his mana by nearly 10 points. Most had been less than 1% of experience though the few that were higher leveled than him gave nearly 5% each. The system had automatically added them at his thought of wishing it to be so.

[Experience Gained: 51%]

[Calculating Excess Experience]

[Arcanist has leveled up to lvl 4/25. Standard Attributes have been distributed. 1 Attribute and skill point have been rewarded]

[Arcanist has leveled up to lvl 5/25. Standard Attributes have been distributed. 1 Attribute and skill point have been rewarded]

[Arcanist has leveled up to lvl 6/25. Standard Attributes have been distributed. 1 Attribute and skill point have been rewarded]

The exp had been large but given the nature of the exp increase per level wasn't three too many? Rainer couldn't help but ask that to himself. He could only conclude that certain level gaps had barriers to entry. Meaning most would be stuck at say level 3, which required 5 times as much exp to get to level 4 than going from level 2 to 3. Assuming they even get that far…

In the first place, how would a normal person kill even a single goblin let alone even come close to killing that many goblins? Arrows perhaps? Skill training sure...but other than the first couple initial levels how long would it take to actually master said skill when using normal means?

Titles? Maybe, but I don't think there are more than a handful on this planet that could gain a title like the [Arcane Elementalist] at a low level if any. The whole premise relies on my ability to learn skills quickly, though perhaps if there are more Arcanists out there then I'm not as special as I'm assuming. I've got a long list of questions for Luna now…

Rainer gave a small prayer to the World Tree, as he had grown used to doing, for letting him be an [Arcanist] in this world. Soon after he told Luna to be completely ready to finish her cast of [Gift of the Wind] at a moment's notice. It cost a bit of mana to stay right before the completion of a spell, but Rainer could get a general sense of her mana pool and wasn't worried. Now that he paid attention, hers seemed to be decently larger than his.

He looked at the spiders crawling back up the wall for a moment before turning and with as much poise as he could muster confidently walking further down into the cave, and hopefully to an exit.

If they had concepts of fear perhaps they could tell when someone wasn't afraid of them. Rainer only had some assurance in scaring them one more time as he could only maintain a [Cone of Arcane-Flame] for half as long as before at most with his low mana. Though the increase in his stats would increase the damage.

[Primary Classes: Arcanist lvl 6/25]

[Titles: Arcane Scholar, Fae Contractor, Arcane Elementalist]

[Exp: 65%]

[Sub-classes: None]

[Race: Human]

[Skills: Sleep Learning lvl 9/10, Appraisal lvl 2/10, Goblin Anatomy lvl 1/10, Fae Anatomy lvl 4/10, Long Jumping lvl 2/10, Sprinting lvl 1/10, Bare-Fist Fighting lvl 1/10, Muknar Language 3/10, Faaran Runic Language lvl 3/10, Fae Language lvl 1/10, Mana Manipulation lvl 2/10, Arcane Energy Manipulation lvl 4/10, Fire Manipulation lvl 1/10]

[Toggled On Skills: Pain Resistance lvl 1/10, Physical Resistance lvl 1/10, Burn Resistance lvl 1/10, Fire Resistance lvl 1/10]

[Toggled Off Skills: None]

[Skill Points: 4]

[Talents: Excellent Arcane Affinity, Human Growth, Gift of the Fae(Luna)]

[Stamina: 10/12]

[Stamina Regen: .1% per second]

[Mana: 5/23]

[Mana Regen: .0026 per second]

[Spellbook: Arcane]

[Tier One: Arcane Bolt lvl 10/10, Arcane Bolt Armament lvl 2/10, Arcane Candle Flame lvl 1/10]

[Tier Two: Arcane Blade lvl 1/15, Cone of Arcane-Fire lvl 1/10]

[Spellbook: Fire]

[Tier One: Candle Flame lvl 2/10, Cone of Fire lvl 1/10]

[Constitution: 11]

[Affinity: 23]

[Vitality: 10]

[Endurance: 12]

[Strength: 12]

[Dexterity: 12]

[Intelligence: 24]

[Willpower: 13]

[Attribute points: 5]

He found looking at his stat screen helped keep himself from showing weakness, so he put most of his attention on that. The spiders weren't exactly the silent types with their large legs making noise on the ground.

He contemplated what he would use his skill points and attribute points on. For skill points, he had already determined exactly what he would do with them: increase his resistances. But which one? He hadn't decided on that exactly yet but given Luna's explanations and how he couldn't exactly use sleep learning to train them meant they were the best candidates.

He'd still wait for now until he and Luna had some downtime for him to learn more.

Attribute Points? Almost certainly they were going to go into Dexterity. Being twice as tough as an ordinary human, that didn't mean too much. But twice as fast? Combined with Luna's buffs that was a difference between life and death. More importantly, even if he could cast spells instantly he was still limited by say if an enemy was behind him. Could he turn around fast enough without enough Dexterity? He still needed to ask Luna's input on too many things to finalize his decision.

Finally, he inspected all his new acquirements.

[Arcane Candle Flame lvl 1/10: Creates a small flame of the size and heat of a candle.]

[Cone of Arcane-Fire lvl 1/10: Generates a Cone of Arcane-Fire that combusts violently to all it touches.]

[Cone of Fire lvl 1/10: Generates a Cone of Fire.]

[Arcane Elementalist: To mix the unleashed power of the Arcane with the elemental magics is to advance leagues above ordinary elemental magic. 5% Experience bonus. 5% Decreased Mana Cost of Arcane-Elemental Spells and Skills.]

Rainer continued to walk farther and farther away from the spiders that had not retreated fully back into their caves. Once he was a bit away he had Luna cancel the casting of the buff.

"Phew, Rainer makes Luna work too hard," she complained while playfully wiping away non-existent sweat from her forehead.

"Oh that made you tired, I think I've been too lax in not having you train. From now on instead of sitting on me you should fly instead."

"Rainer is so silly, Luna only make joke, Luna has so much energy that Luna doesn't know what to do with it!" she exclaimed with a bit of nervousness.

"Good you can answer some questions of mine…"

A different set of red eyes watched the departing Rainer. He had not been entirely correct in saying that the spiders had feared his flame. At their low evolution stage, they lacked such a capacity. Instead, it was the fear of the one leading them.

Her top half had a mostly human appearance and the bottom half the legs and body of a spider. She was the "Queen" Gognar had referred to, though in actuality she was merely one of the outer leaders of her Colony.

Two eyes with red pupils and black irises, along with gray sclera. Long black hair flowed from her head all the way down her back. Red silk partially covered her body, wrapping around her torso, crossing at her back, and then hanging down in front of her.

She looked angrily at the human that had just left her eyesight. There were few who did not understand that this was not a place to tread. Humans especially understood this. The last time an army had entered the Naramien Colony in the name of leveling their soldiers an entire kingdom collapsed in a wave of venom and the spiders who unleashed it.

What irritated her even further was that a human who barely had the mana to be called a mage had killed nearly half of all the spiders she had in her outpost. Spiders already had an innate weakness to fire, yet that blinding white-violet flame of his had caused utter destruction. Several promising males had died: she would not be let off scot-free.

Yet even though she knew her strength technically surpassed this low mana mage, she had been unable to move. The sight of that deadly flame had seared into her mind.

Left with no choice, she needed to go and report the intrusion of a human to the colony and accept punishment for her failure.

Rather, such a talented yet likely low-level mage, she couldn't understand what guild or country would allow him to walk alone in such a place.

She hoped to instill as much fear of this mage as feasible when she made her report, partially negating any punishment on the basis she "avoided" antagonizing a possibly powerful Mages Guild. Noting that the Naramien's had long ago only been so successful in their retaliation after bribing the country's strongest Mages Guild.

Before Rainer questioned Luna anymore he asked her to take a thorough look through his Status Screen. The assortment of reactions that appeared on Luna's face throughout the experience proved remarkably entertaining for Rainer. Combined with her mumbling he wished it would go on for hours.

"What does this even mean…."

"This is stupid, how is this even fair…"

"Why the hell does such a class exist…"

"Hehe to think I picked someone like this as my master…"

"To defy the World Tree in such a manner, no he is loved then?"

"Ah...Luna's head hurts, she doesn't want to look anymore…oooh what's this?"

".1 to all, .1 to all, .1 to all. Luna says life isn't fair."

"Though if Rainer's life is unfair then Luna gets to be unfair…"

"Hmm, this is good for Luna. Rainer lets Luna sleep all day and keeps Luna safe, Luna stay here forever."

Her range of emotions ended with a smile as she looked towards Rainer with bright eyes as if he was a prized horse. Rainer was a little annoyed but seeing the ring still on her finger and her willingness to go home if he were in danger was enough not to have too much apprehension. He didn't doubt that part of her strangeness was a result of whatever she was avoiding back home.

"So...where should we start?" he said as he turned a corner. A bright light shone in on him along with an icy wind.