Chapter 53: The Mana-Well (2)

Moments before the [Arch-Lich] perished, wings of Holy Light formed on Theodore’s back as he took to the skies. At a blazing speed he tore through the air, the light of his form burnt the [Ghoul Wyvern]s as he approached. In an instant, his shining sword cleaved the 2nd Tier undead leading them. He hurried downwards, aiming for any [Lich]s.

Every second burned his powerful soul, and he would spend the last of it fighting the [Arch-Lich]. He had no fear of being controlled in this form.

He then flew quickly through the Enchanted Hall and reached the very end, yet the view that entered his eyes, and the message that followed, left his wings to fade and sent his mind into confusion.

Rainer sat feeding a sleeping Fairy, healing her entirely.

Rainer looked up at Theodore and the messages across his screen.

[Main Quest Completed]

[Teleportation will commence in 24:00:00]

[Calculating Rewards]

[Main Quest: Retake the Fallen City of Nalmar Completed]

[Experience Rewarded: 400% Static Experience Gained]

[Small Party Bonus: 400% Static Experience Gained]

[Archon has leveled up to lvl 7/25. Standard Attributes have been distributed. 2 Attribute and skill points have been rewarded]

[Archon has leveled up to lvl 8/25. Standard Attributes have been distributed. 2 Attribute and skill points have been rewarded]

[Archon has leveled up to lvl 9/25. Standard Attributes have been distributed. 2 Attribute and skill points have been rewarded]

[Archon has leveled up to lvl 10/25. Standard Attributes have been distributed. 2 Attribute and skill points have been rewarded]

[Having reached level 10 in your primary class related Skill Store and Hidden Attributes have been unlocked]

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[Hidden Attribute Unlocked: Arcane Alacrity]

[Arcane Alacrity: Increases the speed of which Mana can be converted to Arcane Power. Increases the speed of which Arcane Energy can be used.]

[Archon has leveled up to lvl 11/25. Standard Attributes have been distributed. 2 Attribute and skill points have been rewarded]

[Archon has leveled up to lvl 12/25. Standard Attributes have been distributed. 2 Attribute and skill points have been rewarded]

[Chronomancer has leveled up to lvl 9/25. Standard Attributes have been distributed. 1 Attribute and skill point have been rewarded]

[Chronomancer has leveled up to lvl 10/25. Standard Attributes have been distributed. ]

[Having reached level 10 in your primary class related Skill Store and Hidden Attributes have been unlocked]

[Hidden Attribute Unlocked: Gravity Control]

[Gravity Control: Improves one’s ability to influence the fabric of space-time around them in the form of Gravity.]

[Final Rewards shall be given 1 minute prior to Teleportation] Thanks for reading on ManaNovel!

In the stream of messages, Rainer did not see any experience gained for killing the [Arch-Lich]. In distress, he used [Soul Detection], but detected nothing except for his and Theodore’s. He could only assume it was part of the quest. He appraised the corpse of the [Arch-Lich] before breathing a sigh of relief and appraising Theodore as well.

[Human, Male, Deceased]

No longer a member of the undead but simply an unmoving corpse.

[Undead, Male, Holy Guardian(2nd) lvl 9, Magic Scholar lvl 13]

“Looks like you were too slow,” Rainer said with a grin.

“So I was…” Theodore responded as he walked over to what resembled the former [Arch-Lich].

No longer having their connection to the Mana-Well or the [Arch-Lich] the undead collapsed in a wave. The entire city shook as tens of thousands of souls departed. Seeing the messages flash by them Gunthar and Kara ran into the Enchanter’s Hall.

They found Theodore standing over a burnt and mangled corpse and Rainer with Luna in his lap.

Kara hurried over to Rainer while Gunthar headed to his father. She shifted back to her wolfkin form.

Kara and Rainer’s lips found each other as he stood to meet her, cradling Luna in his arm. She had reached level 25; Rainer noted as he then appraised Kara.

[Half-Demon/Wolfkin, Female, Blade Dancer lvl 21, Demonic Werewolf lvl 18]

Rainer looked over at Theodore and Gunthar for a moment before cutting the victory short.

“We only have 24 hours, we need to gather as much as we can,” Rainer spoke out.

“We are in luck; your monstrous magic hadn’t destroyed his Spatial Ring, Sorcerer. It seems we have him to thank for protecting himself well enough from…whatever caused that,” Gunthar said shaking his head as he looked at the massive hole in the ceiling. Rainer was inwardly thankful for Gunthar focusing on the task at hand even as their city finally escaped the [Arch-Lich]’s grasp.

“Gunthar and Theodore, go out and gather whatever you need from the city, you can use my old Spatial Ring,” he said tossing it over to them as Gunthar, in turn, threw the [Arch-Lich]’s. Theodore stood unmoving.

“We don’t need to look for armor anymore, though,” Rainer said as he looked out over 3 of the 4 armor and weapon sets that had survived from the 2nd Tier Undead.

“Let’s go, father; it will be good to have a proper look through the hidden library and our home,” Theodore said nothing but followed his son out of the room.

“I’ll help gather the armor and weapons,” Kara said. She understood that while they had 24 hours, Rainer likely wished to visit not only the library but the other mage towers. Time was of the essence.

“Luna, wake up,” He reluctantly woke up the Fairy, wanting her to appraise the [Arch-Lich]’s spatial ring.

As he awaited the fairy’s awakening he looked at the new options in his skill store with much excitement, even if he currently lacked the 100 skill points for the [Archon] ones.

[Archon Class Skills Currently Available]

[Arcane Revival: Cost 100 Points: The Arcane is the true origin of magic, and its uses are far reaching.]

Rainer stared at the first skill, assumed it was for healing, and not in the slightest understanding how Arcane could do that. He knew as the supposed origin of magic; healing spells would be included. But he did not know where even to start at getting this skill on his own.

[Time Manipulation: Cost 100 Points: The very nature of Arcane energy is to be drawn from beyond one’s current world. The Energy is closely intertwined with the nature of space and time.]

He knew right away his original hopes of [Chronomancer] having [Time Manipulation] were dashed. In fact, he now understood how false such hopes were given the power of manipulation skills and the rarity of which they were described in tomes of magic he’s read.

He paused, not seeing the third skill. Whether he already had it or had yet to unlock for some reason, Rainer wasn’t sure. He moved on to his [Chronomancer] skill store as Kara moved part of the second set of Armor up the stairs. Given the hole in the ceiling, this underground room wasn’t the safest place to gather.

[Chronomancer Class Skills Currently Available]

[Temporal Resistance: Cost 10 Points: To grasp both Space and Time, a [Chronomancer] bends the very fabric of the universe and can peek into its secrets and resist its power.]

A rare skill, Rainer understood, for anyone but him. He was, however, impressed with the selection even if he had no plans on buying it. He could only assume [Spatial Resistance], something he already had, was the other skill. And seeing no third, Rainer knew at the very least he’d be choosing a different class when the time came.

“I’m guessing we’ll be heading to the mage towers?” Kara asked while carrying the last piece of the last armor set up the stairs.

They didn’t need a guide, given the height of the towers.

“I’ll be up in a moment, take Luna with you,” He said handing the Fairy who refused to get up, over to Kara. Rainer’s own appraisal of the [Arch-Lich]’s Spatial Ring was no different than Yalin’s.

[Spatial Ring: allows the user to access a small pocket dimension outside of normal Space-Time for storing and retrieving objects.]

But given the curse that was on one of the [Lich]’s robes in the past, Rainer would wait until Luna awoke. She had been hit quite hard, he noted and decided to let her rest. His powerlessness to defend her had the [Arch-Lich] spared her another thought entered his mind.

Leading him to the very purpose of this fight.

He walked over to the Mana-Well. A black cube that would occasionally pulse with blue mana laded runic lines. It floated, held in place by a strange enchantment in the very air around it. Runic lines surrounded it and pulsed out. Opening his [Arcane Sight], Rainer quickly shut his eyes and reeled back in pain.

“Fuck.” He swore aloud as he rubbed his head. It was not a blinding flash but instead the enchantment he saw contained simply too much magic. He couldn’t comprehend the amount in the slightest, and his sight drew into the Mana-Well right after and caused him severe pain.

Compared to the enchanted books of the 2nd Class Advancement the Mana-Well was a bottomless ocean to a droplet of rain.

He walked over and placed his hand around the cube. He used what little mana he had remaining and recharged to fill up his Arcane Power, and he began lightly assaulting the enchantment. He noticed a slight weakening of it, only for it to immediately return to its original form.

“The Mana-Well is constantly empowering it…” Rainer noted. He now understood why the Mana-Well was the quest reward. He was confused, seeing it, as he thought he could simply take it and it would hardly be a quest reward then.

He’s now not sure if even all his Arcane Power poured fiercely into it would disable the enchantment. At the very least he didn’t wish to risk damaging it and possibly causing an explosion.

He turned and headed up the stairs after appraising it one more time.

[????]

The [Appraisal] did not even give an [Unknown] like it did with the former [Magic Beast] Rainer had tamed.

Kara already shifted back and sat near the pile of armor and weapons. Rainer decided to take inventory of it later, far more interested in trying to reach every tower possible and visit the libraries. Though he recalled, he had no idea where the Libraries were and would have to use Luna’s connection to them to track Gunthar and Theodore down.

Kara took a long gaze at him as he walked over. His original Lifespan was more than recovered and the improvement of his Charisma made her inwardly curse at the timer given to them. She knew nothing would distract him from exploring as much of this city as possible.

Grabbing the sleeping Luna from the floor, Rainer jumped on Kara’s back as she moved forward.

“Where to first?”

Rainer looked out around and noted which tower he had already visited and looked in the opposite direction.

“Head to our right, toward the tower that is the farthest from us,” He said pointing in the distance before realizing that Kara, could not, in fact, see him pointing.

Kara dashed forward as Rainer held on. With both of them at a higher level, Kara not only had her speed increased by a large margin she also could move faster with Rainer on her back.

Reaching the first tower, Luna finally woke up with a stretch and appraised the ring for Rainer, finding it a normal spatial ring. He entered his second tower, took what he saw of value and moved on. Luna fashioned him a bag to carry things outside of his rings. Given his improved Strength, it was an easy task for him.

They quickly went between the towers, Rainer focused purely on grabbing spells of use and then moving on. The city was massive and the distance between towers long. Kara could not keep running forever, and he still needed time to properly search through Nalmar’s library and enchanting library.

As Luna gave directions to Kara toward Theodore and Gunthar, Rainer looked over some of the contents of the [Arch-Lich]’s ring. The Idea of teleportation excited him, but he found no notes on the subject, only the [Arch-Lich]’s necromancy research.

His mood, however, brightened when he found the research on the [Arch-Lich]’s immortal body. Whether or not Gunthar himself could tolerate it Rainer didn’t wish for him to be stuck forever in a skeletal body, his father as well. He felt a little strange about hunting unicorns, given the mythology of his world, but, in the end, he viewed them no different as any other monster.

He heard Luna’s voice in the background.

“You see She-Wolf, that’s why Luna is the best. I mean look at Luna, Luna has 8 things, She-wolf only has 5,” She said moving her wings, “If She-Wolf could fly we would already be there. That’s what Luna expected when she told you to go that way.”

“But even if I could fly that would still be in a different direction…”

“She-Wolf still doesn’t understand. Let Luna explain again…”

“Rainer…are you using a riding skill on me?” Kara growled in her werewolf voice interrupting Luna’s directions.

“Huh?”

Kara coming to a halt nearly threw him from her back. She had thought of the possibility before but given the difficulty of beast riding she put it away, only now fully considering Rainer’s ability to easily gain skills. As such an unreasonable ability, it was often easy to forget how the impossible becomes more possible.

“I said, are you using a riding skill on me?”

“If, hypothetically I was, is that a bad thing?”

“…so you are,” She said while turning her head to glance at him from the corner of her eyes.

“Yes…”

“And you didn’t think to tell me?”

“Well, you kept hitting me with branches whenever we went through the forest, and I thought it best not to distract you with such…trivialities,” Rainer said scratching his cheek.

“You’ll carry me…”Kara spoke quietly.

“hmm?”

“You’ll carry me the whole way back to town after we leave Nalmar. You’ll fly too.”

Rainer chuckled as he answered, “Alright, deal.”