Chapter 109: Plunging into Water (3)

Rainer’s days were filled with basic blood rituals using his own blood and the occasional monster he brought back from hunting in the morning. The focus, however, was on self-sacrifice as Rainer had no intention of heading down the darker paths of blood magic, for in reality monsters were not good sacrifices at all and were instead practice for different ones.

Another surprise for Rainer truly made this decision for him.

“Don’t bother,” Amer said as he watched Rainer use Magic to heal himself, not that he could really tell what he was doing beyond feeling a surge of power and watching the cut on his palm vanish.

“What do you mean?” Rainer asked, using [Arcane Invigoration] all around his body to replenish lost blood by focusing on his bone marrow.

“Even if your healing can replenish your blood, you still need a few days for the Mana in your body to saturate it and make it magical once more. In the end, a Mage like you would slowly become wholly unmagical if you ever lost your Mana.”

Rainer stared at him confused, never once dealing with this problem when Body Enchanting. Now he understood why being able to infuse one’s blood with Aura might have advantages, not that he was willing to test in reality the effects of that on rituals.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes I’m…” Amer paused for a moment recalling all he’s learned of the Mage thus far, “No I’m not sure, let’s test it out.”

Deciding to test if he could make his blood even more powerful he flared [Arcane Invigoration] to its maximum, focusing on infusing the healing energy with his blood. He noted just a slight dip in the power of the skill before nothing else happened. He imagined if he weren't paying attention so closely the drop in strength wouldn’t have even crossed his mind.

Amer ignored Rainer for a bit as he used his healing magic once more. He looked annoyingly to his left at the little Dragon trying to fly once more. Tiamat was jumping in place as she flapped her wings and small bursts of Mana let her hover for a moment before she went back down. For the life of him, he couldn’t understand the powerful Mage’s interest in this little Dragon.

He could understand wanting to train it and end up with a powerful Familiar and Mount. But treating the monster as a baby and a precious child had bothered him.

To his horror, he even witnessed the Mage using a high-pitched voice in a whisper to denote how cute the thing was, unaware of Amer’s ability to hear him most likely.

He then watched as Rainer struggled to reopen the wound, once more making the Devil Mage remark at the toughness of this Human race that received no experience penalty even with such a feature.

A simple use of [Magic Detection] left Amer quite sure not only was there no loss in power in Rainer’s blood, but it seemed a little stronger than usual.

“Well then, looks like we’ll be cutting you up every day,” Amer transferred his shock to enjoyment while Rainer could only sigh as he continued his practice, filling in an engraved wooden board on the floor with both his blood and then activating it carefully with his Mana.

The only reason he wasn’t doing it in [Sleep Learning], yet, was Amer teaching him how to flow his Mana better.

This work is hosted on mananovel.com

The teaching session ended soon after, with Amer teleporting Rainer to one of his favorite hunting grounds as they both sought to level an extra class.

The days varied little from here apart from Rainer reading from his library and copying down spells Amer was interested in. Nights were filled with an alternation between seeking as many easy titles as possible, practicing his Blood Magic, and trying to figure both Amer’s [Far Sight] spell, his own [Void Seer], and finally [Void Grasp].

No matter how he did it, [Far Sight] didn’t seem to allow him to Void walk wherever he watched with the Magic. A mystery for another time, as Amer seemed tight-lipped on teleportation, and had given him a subtle version of: I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.

Something he later learned was that many stronger Devils knew it themselves and used it to resist various Void-related abilities. Though, their skills could only do so much against a truly powerful Void Lord.

Rainer never did get an explanation on how Agmar dragged him from supposedly so far away, for Amer did not have a clue either.

Time passed, with little change in schedule.

--

Rainer awoke in the middle of the night with a start. It had been over a month since he started under the tutelage of Amer and nothing of issue had yet been transmitted across the familiar bond. Until now.

Concern? Fear?

He couldn’t place the emotion flowing through the familiar bond with Luna. For all he knew with the time difference, even more clear as he felt the emotion across the bond, Luna could have stepped on a nail or tripped. He sat, deciding to focus on [Void Grasp] as he waited. Thanks for reading on ManaNovel!

An hour passed and Rainer noted the emotion only growing stronger.

He grimaced. There was no chance he could reason it away now, even if he was correct and it was nothing.

But It had been two weeks since his last class change. Meaning he had nothing holding him back from switching to [Voidwalker] and taking the Trial, beyond of course the likely obscene difficulty.

“I’ll be counting on you Jor,” Rainer said before rushing out of the room. He’d need to leave Tiamat behind for the Trial itself, no matter how little he wanted to do that. Viewing it as extra motivation to return, helped in the end.

Rainer rubbed his forehead. Just as the possibility of losing his companions could occur if he didn’t hurry to take the Trial and try to go back, the chance of him dying and leaving Kara to face the Demons after her could be a far worse fate.

Minutes passed, and the emotion across of the Familiar bond only got stronger. Concern from Gunthar as well sealed the deal that it wasn’t a minor thing.

He rushed out of the room and headed toward Amer, prepared to ask the Devil to teleport him there immediately.

--

Amer stared at his partial student with consternation, wondering if he should put a stop to this through force. The Mage was clearly unnerved by something and said something was pushing him to take his second Trial far earlier than even the most talented would take their first.

Earlier…

Amer thought recalling the utter confusion he faced when Rainer told him his age. He wondered if whatever magic the Mage used to translate had failed and misspoke, but according to him, measurements were translated perfectly thus far.

That had been a huge shock to the Devil. Also, as large as the one that such a powerful being held no racial penalties what so ever. Devils had numerous ones, especially more sentient ones like him. Even if there was a wide range of beings considered as Devils, the bonuses and penalties were not exactly the same. They only shared their ability to use Miasma.

As much as he’d like to say these were feelings of worry due to friendship, he’d rather grown quite entranced with the idea of leaving this place if even a tenth of Rainer’s stories were true. The simple concept of sleeping on something soft already intrigued him even if he would likely have to hide his race and appearance anywhere they ended up.

But alas, it was too late as he watched Rainer vanish. He could only hope the boy had another surprise in store. He was at least glad they spent a decent time figuring out what items to create, after Amer got over his annoyance at the number of points the Mage expected to have, having learned his would pale in comparison.

He glanced at the Dragon now on his shoulder. Apart from being a little distraught at the separation, she seemed fine. That, and the little creature seemed to almost huff at him when he looked her direction. As if not finding her precious and cute was a deplorable insult.

Now only to wait the few minutes that would pass outside of the Trial.

--

From a plane of devils to a world of water. Rainer found himself submerged the moment he accepted the Trial.

Darkness and water all around him, Rainer wasted no time Void-walking to the sky. All around him a sea raged in fury as rain poured down.

He hovered in the air, but a distinct lack of wind showed a difference to his usual flight. It was by far the most efficient form of flight he’s come across yet, one he mimicked from Tiamat even as she still couldn’t do it. At most she could hover for a few seconds before plopping down and losing control of the spell.

A flash of [Arcane Sight] revealed the likely location for the trial, a sort of undersea temple, somehow hovering far above the sea floor, but still several hundred feet below water. The same skill revealed Miasma present in the air, likely a product of taking his Trial at an Abyssal Dungeon instead of the World Tree. He now knew at least one item he’d be creating, a tether he could leave here.

Something he planned on anyways, to come back for Amer having grown slightly fond of ancient Devil.

In a few seconds, Rainer hovered above the supposed Trial location and prepared himself. Hands clasped together he sought to end the Trial before it even started. The risk involved in trying to get a second familiar from this Trial wasn’t worth it to him.

Minutes passed as the sea continued to rage on. Yet slowly the falling rain seemed to bend around Rainer. The very strength of the raw Mana and Arcane Power condensing to such a high level that it created a field around him.

He charged for far longer than he had in the past, having no immediate threat to account for.

Rainer knew why [Absolute Frost] was a tier 8 spell. It was Absolute in more than name. So long as one had the required energy, of course. No other spell in his arsenal, nor any other spells he read or heard of was like [Absolute Frost]. In that, it had no upper limit to the power that could be poured into the spell.

It was inefficient when compared to the same level, but [Frozen Sun], even in a powerful Ice Mage’s hands, couldn’t hold anywhere near this much energy.

Such was the meaning behind his choice of words in activating the spell. Ice that could freeze hell itself. So long as it’s caster was willing to pay the price.

More and more time passed and then, with his body all but numb from the influx of Miasma, Rainer spread his hands as a fluid of condensed and shining Arcane-laden Mana spread around him in a ring.

His arm pointed down as he focused his will on the temple beneath him. The rain avoiding him entirely as if a veritable god declaring war upon the element of water itself. The ring of magic shuddered and pulsed as it seemingly begged to be unleashed.

“Absolute Frost.”

A wave of magic exploded across the small world of the Trial. The rain fell not as liquid but hail. The raging seas calmed to a frozen stillness.

And before the challenge had even begun…

It ended.

[Magic Beast Killed: First Trial Complete. Teleportation to Second Trial will commence in: 02:00:00]