Chapter 130: Of Enchantments and Dragons

“Your little game is over, Aurora. Time to go home,” a cloaked man said as he harshly grabbed onto Aurora's shoulder, only for his gray eyes to bulge in shock.

“Nice theatrics, father, but I’m guessing you can’t reach home either,” she responded, “Now stop scaring the townspeople and sit down.”

He glanced around the room where the rest of the patrons were staring in shock. He had Void-Traveled directly into a small Inn, not that he would know that.

“What is going on,” he intoned harshly, hand still squeezing her shoulder.

Aurora sighed.

“Sit,” she said. Her father was a lot less scary without the support of their family. Here, he was barely stronger than her. But that was raw power. When it came to manipulating various Void skills, Aurora had confidence in her superior ability. In fact, even now she wondered if she should take the chance.

Perhaps realizing the shaky ground he stood on, her father, Varren, sat across from her.

“Enough of your staring,” Aurora looked out at the room with a pointed use of [Void Presence], causing the small inn to take on a stifling and dangerous air before she retracted it. They all understood her threat perfectly.

With the Overseer’s hatred of Divinity, she found it fitting to grant her Lords both the all-language translation skill that the favored races of Divines often possessed, and a grossly strong and twisted version of [Appraisal Resistance] that caused a painful reaction.

She had expected a bit more surprise at her appearance given how she’d never seen a race like theirs, and it was likely the same for them. Instead, she got half-glazed looks from most of the men and a few women despite her current hair situation. And she lost her cowl during her first day here.

“What is go-“

“Eat,” Aurora interrupted, “I assure you even the food these peasants eat will be better than anything you’ve ever had.”

Aurora ran a hand over her fuzzy head of white hair as she waited on Varren.

“This…” Varren remarked taking a bite of the drumstick on a plate in the center of the table. Salt, he tasted. Such a luxury on such common food…he couldn’t believe it. And the meat tasted inordinately good.

Waiting a few moments for her father to regain his bearings, Aurora spoke, opting to explain her circumstances.

“I’ve been stuck here for a few days after following a [Void-trace] I left on the bounty. I assumed he went to the edge of a plane given the strange distance…but instead, I awoke in a field of snow and these odd looking…trees, I believe. The [Void-Trace] was gone at that point. I’m not even sure if he was ever here.”

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“What do you mean, ever here?” Varren asked, questioning the only subject he could even begin to understand. The concept of not being able to Void-Travel back home made little sense to him.

“When following the [Void-Trace], I bounced off a barrier and, just barely, managed to land here rather than end up torn apart.”

Varren frowned deeply and rechecked several of the places he knew well enough to travel to on demand. All of them were too far away to reach without an Enchanted Doorway. Something they most certainly did not have here.

And being incapable of magic, they could not create one by themselves in the first place. Training other mages to understand the Void well enough to remake these gates would take substantial time.

“Why have you come for me, father?”

Varren responded with what happened in her absence.

The knowledge of the bounty had spread over the months after Aurora’s fight. She wasn’t as alone as she had believed. And now, even the Elementals sought after “The Arcane Mage who stole the Void.” Though, it was more them seeking him to protect and keep him from the Void Lords. The bounty was no longer so simple. Not that it had ever truly been.

“What do you mean a few months…I’ve only been here for a couple of days.”

“A time difference? Just like in certain spots on the edges of planes? Where exactly are we?”

Aurora merely shrugged. How could she know where she was? Thanks for reading on ManaNovel!

“What are your plans?” Varren asked. His daughter seemed too unperturbed with the situation.

“Did you know on this plane exists quite the special country,” Aurora said with a secret grin, having almost broken her legs when she [Void-Traveled] a long distance, only to find herself in the air. It seemed the rumor of spherical worlds was true. The concept boggled her mind as to how a world could be spherical, but the evidence proved it to her. Now she hoped to see her father suffer the same fate. And if he truly got hurt, all the better, “The largest and strongest empire is under a Divinity…”

Varren’s eyes opened wide as Aurora continued to speak.

“It has been a while since we’ve had true channelers of Divine power in easy reach, not knowing nor fearing the Void Lords. Nor prepared for our coming. Without barriers and counters or treaties with the Elementals. They even shun magic in this empire. How laughable.”

“Then…” Varren said, surprise visible on his face.

“Shall we sacrifice them to our Overseer?” She added. But inside her mind, she already planned on how to kill her father. This was her power to gain, not his. And any family that came after would meet with a Void Lord enhanced by a quantity and quality of sacrifices not ever known to their kind.

She returned his smile as he realized the implications of having so many Divine followers at their disposal.

Let’s see how much longer you can smile, old man.

--

Rainer sat in his earthen chair, on the last legs of his Mana Pool, converting the last of it to Arcane Power. The sun neared the horizon, but the seas were calm. A potion from Yazir’s spatial ring later, and he was already recovering at three times his normal rate.

But it wasn’t the Mana or Arcane Power that would limit this type of travel; it was the sheer exhaustion. He couldn’t recall when was the last time his mind was so tired except for after he raised [Arcane Rage] to [Arcane Awakening].

So long as they met with no storms, Rainer planned on using these sails for all they were worth despite the toll it took on him. All the while he thought over his planned enchantments and the various ways he might get the ship to move under the Mana-Well’s power.

Luna stood behind him, less healing him with flame and more playing with his hair. The Void had left it quite soft along with the darker shade.

Gunthar sat on the deck with Kara, Lillia, and Sarah nearby. Tiamat flew off to the side, achieving no more than a few seconds of airtime on each attempt. Running back up to a higher deck to jump off from it again afterward.

Rainer held in a laugh after seeing Tiamat huff at Sarah for not being so discreet with her mirth.

The undead was explaining the basics of the [Lothfane Soul Empowerment], as his father’s Soul strengthening skill was called, to the group of three girls, all of whom planned on learning it. Afterward, Rainer guessed, he’d start teaching Sarah and Lilia about Aura.

After all, until Rainer solved the problem of Lilia’s lack of a Mana Affinity or she garnered a class with enough of an Affinity boost, her magic practice had a huge barrier.

Turning back to his current task, in his lap lie various notes. He wrote down everything he could think of in short order for Sarah to learn.

“I never did ask what you gained, Luna,” Rainer asked, appraising the Fairy behind him. Even without the recent assassins she burned with her flame, she leveled automatically from random bursts of experience. Her Sacred Faerie Fire proved an ever-growing mystery, in more ways than one, granting experience as it grew in strength.

[Fairy, Female, Holder of Arcane Faerie-Fire lvl 19]

[Title: Homunculus]

“Arcane Faerie-Fire Control, [Enriching Faerie-Fire], [Consuming Faerie-Fire], [Empowering Faerie-Fire],” Luna said before explaining both the attribute and three skills.

The attribute was self-explanatory and also reminded Rainer that he never asked what Sarah got.

The others, rather than features of the flame, were enhancers. The flame already did everything those skills claimed, and instead they boosted those effects and allowed greater concentration of them. Causing the flame to only consume, or to only empower and do nothing else.

Empower allowed her to feed Mana to her fire more efficiently and improve whatever task the fire currently focused on. Consuming allowed the flame to consume any magic with more focus and ignore the more fiery parts of its existence by becoming a pure entity of devouring. And enriching gave a small but general boost to anything she healed.

Which was what kept Rainer awake right now, despite his injuries and exhaustion.

“Shall I make some armed [Arcane Bolt]s for you to practice your flame on?”

Luna let out a deep sigh as she rested her chin on his head.

“Rainer said he wouldn’t leave me, even if I was useless. I don’t want to train sooo much…”

“So much?” Rainer asked. She had been hardly training at all.

“Yup. It will take over a month to reach the Dragon Isles. So if I train now, I’ll have to train all that time. I’ll set a precedent. That I’m not a lazy Luna.”

Rainer smiled as he spoke, “And that can’t be done. Once Luna sets a precedent she must meet expectations. Of course.”

“It’s good Rainer understands the majesty that is Luna. Luna knew he would.”

Rainer chuckled, “And you don’t want your own strength?”

“Why would I want such a thing? Luna has Rainer’s strength at her disposal. But Luna also decided to be useful…” She grumbled the last part, “Make [Arcane Bolt]s for me…”

Agreeing, one by one, [Arcane Bolt]s were armed around Rainer, numbering eight. The very first one Luna targeted caused the flame used to nearly backlash onto Rainer.

“Take it easy, Luna,” Rainer said, though inwardly surprised at a task that was a struggle for her just some time ago, instead becoming something she has to struggle not to do.

Luna let out a giggle and went back to consuming the others. Albeit at a much more controlled and slower pace.

Rainer closed his eyes, returning full focus to the [Arcane-Wind Manipulation] and [Arcane-Spatial Domain]. At least it was time to head to bed soon. And the water was quiet, with nary a wave.

--

Back on the deck, as Rainer planned on stopping soon, the group had split up.

With Lilia having an almost instant success in strengthening her soul she got a more direct lesson from Gunthar as Kara and Sarah went off to the side. Tiamat moved to be held tightly in the little girl’s arms. It seemed Lilia was having a bit of an issue with sea sickness, though with Luna occasionally flying over and healing her with her flame fixed most of it.

“Let’s spar again,” Sarah offered, wanting to take it more seriously as they moved away from the talking pair of undead and little human.

She knew her surprise attack was a bit unfair earlier. Not because of the surprise, but because there was no way for Kara to know how strong she was. Which meant the wolfkin had to be careful or else she’d end up killing her boyfriend’s sister.

But now Sarah wanted to see where she stood. When it came to fighting other mages, she only fought well in a surprise attack. But in a battle situation, no mage would allow her to get so close. And when it came to warriors she doubted in a real fight the current her could truly compare to even the normal forms of Gunthar and Kara, let alone their true abilities.

Especially given many of her skills could be changed to non-lethal, whereas the strongest of their Aura skills, the [Aura Blade], was anything but non-lethal.

Kara, still tired from dealing with the Group Spell and everything after, immediately shifted to her wolven form to make it quick. Even if Rainer had taken the brunt of the cursed lightning, it wasn’t a pleasant affair enduring that attack.

“Your move,” The growling voice responded.

Sarah moved forward. The sheer amount of aura daunted her, but she believed she might still prove at least an opponent needed to be taken seriously. Yet before she could even react, a clawed paw pinned her to the deck floor. Only her newly modified robe stolen from Yazir stopped her from losing her breath.

Kara yawned, before laying down, a paw still pinning Sarah to the ground who despite any struggles was unable to do anything. Even a burst of Mana was merely shrugged off by the Demonic Kara.

Letting off a bit with the weight of her paw, but not moving it, Sarah could talk again.

“I suppose that’s fair, given my surprise attack. Any chance of letting me back up?”

“Perhaps.”

“And the trade-off?”

Sarah could swear she just saw a wolf blush as the request was whispered to her. No matter how impossible that biological response on a wolf’s muzzle seemed.

“Done. Also, how are you going to explain why you damaged Rainer’s precious ship.”

Kara looked behind her, and saw the wood scratched from when she quickly moved to reach Sara, along with a faint crack beneath where she pinned the girl.

“I...don’t think he’ll mind,” Kara said a bit confused.

“You have a lot to learn about men and their boats.”

--

A few hours later, with Rainer exhausted and night fallen, the party headed below deck, except Gunthar. They all picked out different rooms, with the exception of Rainer, Kara, and Luna sharing the captain’s, and Gunthar opting not to have one. Sarah and Lilia, with her dragon, each took one of the guest quarters on the ship.

With Luna magically creating bed spreads, it wasn’t an uncomfortable place. Though, she’d have to recreate them every night, given she lacked the skill to create so many on a more permanent basis.

Just before heading to bed, Rainer opted to run his ideas by Sarah. She could enchant her body as an object, so he ventured she knew something about enchanting in general. That, and her recently gained skill to modify enchanted items. Though in this case, ‘item’ extended to her own body.

As of now, she had altered the robe Yazir wore into something more fashionable after only an hour with Luna’s and Kara’s help. After having Luna repeatedly clean it with her flame, much to the little Fairy’s annoyance who just wanted to sleep.

While not on the level of manipulating the enchantment to something else, she could maintain the enchantment as she made alterations to the clothing with help from Kara’s [Aura Blade], and Luna’s magically created stitching in certain places.

Different from the black robe the [Cursed Lightning Magus] once wore, the modified version was tighter fitting. Along with the end of it being more akin to a short skirt just above her knees as opposed to the traditional mage robe of this world.

[Robe of Magical Defense: A robe which channels one’s Mana into physical defense. 70% of physical damage absorbed instead by Mana.]

It’s what allowed Yazir to withstand the secret hit befitting at least an average level 25 tier 1 Aura user from the enchanted Sarah.

“Say that again?” Sarah asked, after hearing Rainer explain his enchanting plans for the ship. She wasn’t sure which part to be more surprised about.

Rainer nodded and explained once more the enchantment he planned for first strengthening the ship, and later to serve as a base for anything else. It was an idea based on the building-wide enchantment of the first part of the 2nd Tier Trial. One single enchantment influenced the entirety of that underwater tower, different from the countless ones that made up buildings in Nalmar.

And then finally, the whole thing would be done in [Draconic Runic Language], just like the trial tower, something he later realized. Given how the Draconic Runes were made, through one’s body and blood, it made sense that an entire building could only be enchanted under something that worked so intuitively.

Sarah looked at him like he had grown another head. She, of course, studied enchantment heavily after discovering that her body differed enough to be enchanted as if it were an inanimate object. Most of it related to theory as she had little interest in the actual craft that was heavily rune related for the more complex enchantments.

The exorbitant time and cost required to train an actual enchanter steered her away as well. More so the time rather than the cost of Mana Crystals and other similar resources as her grandfather held quite a bit of wealth.

Enchanting an entire building filled with numerous separate parts, with a single enchantment, just wasn’t done. Even strengthening both a blade and its hilt with the same enchantment was reserved for better enchanters.

“You…can use dragon magic?” That part of his plan stuck out the most. If there was a Mage more legendary than an Arcanist on Earth, it was a Dragon Mage; known for their absurdly efficient spells of great power.

Only two were known in recent times. One was an old recluse who avoided society, and the other had been killed by their grandfather close to seventy years ago, after he took on a contract for capturing an Arcanist.

Though their grandfather mentioned that, had the other side not been trying to capture him alive, he may have lost.

It was the closest their grandfather had come to dying.

There were records of others, but a well-accepted theory equated them to Dragons who took on human form, rather than mages who learned Dragon Magic. Though, as far as anyone could tell, Dragons had long since disappeared from Earth.

“Yeah, my flight spell is copied from Tiamat,”

“But…she can’t even fly yet,” Sarah said, focusing on this point rather than her brother’s use of dragon magic.

Rainer shrugged, “I guess I’m better than a baby dragon.”

Sarah shook her head, trying to focus on something she could understand.

“Can that ring of yours really hold so many Mana crystals?” She then asked. Already she performed mental calculations in trying to figure out how many were needed for a normal enchantment, let alone whatever her brother planned.

Rainer smirked, before taking out the Mana-Well into his hand. He had already planned on sharing this with her. If it was his choice, only he would know about the Mana-Well, but with Gunthar, Kara, Luna and Theodore already knowing about it, bringing in his sister wasn’t a problem.

And given her recent display involving Yazir, he found it a promising idea. Despite the flaws of her abilities, she was a talented mage. Though, before he’d let her really take a look at it, he’d need to explain his theory involving the Quest that descended upon the [Arch-Lich].

Sarah recoiled as if in fear, her senses completely overwhelmed by the sheer amount of Mana radiating from the tiny object.

She was wrong. Focusing on this turned out not to be something she could understand.

“What the fuck is that?”

“Watch your fucking language young lady,” Rainer said in a mimicry of their mom, whose idea of reprimanding them for curse words involved swearing. The reminder of her being missing stung for only a moment as he remembered that their grandfather was with her.

Sarah’s sigh seemed to relay her admission that she had walked into that one. Rainer had left out the little detail of just what they got from Nalmar that attracted Divine attention in the first place.

“So, this is the ‘Object of Great Power’? That the Divine tried to steal from you along with Gunthar?” Sarah asked the first part almost mockingly. ‘Great Power’ seemed insulting to the cube glowing with blue runic lines.

Sarah held in a gasp as Rainer threw it up and caught it in his hand.

“It’s not a ball,” She practically hissed out, only to huff in defeat when she saw the smirk on his face.

“What’s your [Appraisal] say about it?” Sarah asked, doing her best not to let Rainer know how much he just got to her by throwing that thing around. Perhaps he couldn’t sense what she sensed, Sarah thought. But the younger mage doubted that. That strange sight of his was too pervasive.

“Question marks. It’s also nigh indestructible. Its original finders didn’t understand it’s uses in the beginning and were a bit… harsh with it.”

The Nalmar mages had all but declared war on the object in their battery of tests and they could do nothing to it. That was of course before they discovered the bonus of being able to enchant with it. The [Arch-Lich] likely tried to do even worse to remove it from the self-sustaining enchantment. And then there was whatever the hell he was doing that attracted the Quest on him.

“Where are these original finders…” Sarah mumbled dangerously.

“Long gone,” Rainer decided not to mention that Gunthar was technically affiliated with these finders. He put the Mana-Well back into his ring.

“Well, I’m off to bed. I can look at it in the morning... You have any reading on the Mana-Well?”

“Theodore told me everything he knew, and I compiled other stuff that might be useful for you while I was manipulating the wind,” He included the [Mana Shield] spell he knew, hoping this world’s version might be more learnable for her. Or at least the version he created with [Mana Manipulation].

“Thanks,” Sarah happily received the stack of papers and walked into her chosen quarters.

Rainer void-walked to the deck and saw Gunthar, the steady guard he always was, on watch. Going back to his own quarters to sleep, he planned to focus on enchanting this vessel during that very act of rest.