Vol. 1 - Chapter 39 - Learning the basic Arcane Spells

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"So you guys also are blessed in a way by Rebecca. Until all your health is removed, you will not die totally, with maybe a small chance of getting killed. So the last try."

With his mana gathered in his right hand, he swamped grasped Ragnius that had the thug pinned with his left hand that still had some white-purple light similar to gunpowder being discharged.

"[Arcane Missile]"

"Arghhhhh!" cried the man who had his head blasted for the second time, and this time he was dead, turning into gray light particles that scattered in the world.

[You have killed the Clark Gang thug, Antelmo, after successfully triggering the instant death for the enemy because of reaching a low percentage of HP]

[You earned 14500 experience.]

[3 gold has been earned]

[You have acquired "Clark Gang Medallion"]

[You have acquired 10x "Silk Fabric"]

[You have earned 20 reputation with Saharan Empire]

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Getting past the notifications, he drew Ragnius back from the ground and escaped from the attacks that followed suit, with the two thugs targeting his legs. He looked at his MP, who was in the most pathetic state since starting this instance and calmly said to himself.

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Health: 1410/2040 / Mana: 23/768

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"[Mana Hunger]"

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The moment he said that, his mana core began pulsing and giving off white-purple light inside of his body, close to where the hearth was situated.

His mana began recovering in a rapid rhythm even though he was in a fight, his mana kept coming back, and thanks to the 'Mana Recovering' effect increased by 'Midnight' at a staggering 150%, his MP climbed up each second with 16 MP, doing a rapid recovery.

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Turning his gaze at Fayrene, he saw that she was breathing a bit exhausted, but with both thugs being at 20-30% HP with her HP being still in the healthy gauge, being at 1030/1260 and with her mana being 650/2200

As he continued his fight, only using his basic attacks and hurting the thugs using his still sprouting skills, he kept himself dominant, blocking and dodging attacks.

"Stop running, you motherfucker!" roared the thug leader, feeling exasperated by how many times Mathias noticed his skills and moved out of range.

Hearing this, Mathias gestured an indifferent smile as he activated 'Raven's Movement' and stepped inside their range like a phantom with a spear and sword in hand, respectively, Ragnius and Saharan Sword.

"[Piercing Rain]" said Mathias, delivering his skill using only his right hand using extra Stamina, he had plenty because of Rebecca's good graces.

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[Your attack has been blocked.]

[Your attack has been blocked.]

[You have dealt 271 damage to the target.]

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With two attacks being blocked by the thug leader benefiting from how Mathias was holding his spear and was easily predicted, his last one managed to connect clean on his leg, making him cry out in pain, and soon with his stop, he noticed Mathias thrust his sword into his teammate stomach, eviscerating him.

[Critical]

[You have dealt 383 damage to the target.]

Successful in his endeavor, he was stabbed back by the thug who gnashed his teeth, enduring the pain, dealing [270] damage to him. This made Mathias also frown, gritting his teeth in pain, and before the thug leader could get to him, he drew back the sword and stabbed the thug right in his heart.

[You have dealt devastating damage to the enemy hitting the vital organ, causing 894 damage]

Following that, he sent a kick that caused [76] damage yet managed to distance himself from the one he stabbed, causing him the 'Bleed' debuff.

Stepping back, he began channeling 'Arcane Missile' and waited for all the 200 MP required to cast it.

"Ohh, no. You will not be able to pull that spell on me again! Die!"

Mathias took back the sword in his inventory and blocked it with Ragnius, receiving only 120 damage.

"Good attempt, but my growth is evident. I am not even that great with my magic spells, but I will get there with time. Practice and training is the king of all talents."

"[Arcane Missile]" said Mathias, sending flying a white-purple projectile toward the thug he sent backward with his kick that didn't even know from where the missile came from.

The speed of the spell was so fast that it was like a blink, and you were into Tartarus, agonizing.

[Critical]

[You have dealt 2309 damage to the target.]

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'This is it, another one finished if this following combo lands.' thought Mathias seeing the thug only having 451 HP, activating 'Raven's Movement' and getting past the thug leader, arriving in front of his prey and unleashing a 'Piercing Rain' that turned the criminal into the gray light.

[Congratulations, you have defeated a respected member of Clark Gang, Taavi, and earned the following rewards]

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Ignoring these notifications, he quickly saw another one concerning Fayrene, who managed to end one thug but with heavy losses of mana that made her 'Arcane Barrier' to slowly lose in energy, suddenly collapsing under the brutal attacks of the criminal who entered a final phase.

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"Use 'Mana Hunger' Fay!"

"I don't have such ability! Don't worry about me. I will be fine since I have another ace up my sleeves that I have been holding, ready to use. [Arcane Barrier]!"

Shielding herself with the remaining 250 MP she had, Fayrene gazed with a slightly exhausted expression with a sweaty face, resisting the attacks of the criminal as she said to herself.

"[Envocation]"

Mathias would feel that the mana around himself and Fayrene's surroundings started to gather in her direction, beginning her own mana regeneration process. Each second Fayrene endured the thug assault, her MP would recover 105 MP.

Sensing that this woman in front of him started regaining her own powers back, he roared and smashed himself into the barrier that pulsed back, sending him backward, a reflection of his own attack.

With only 1940 HP left, he charged back, suffering another reflection that dealt 80 damage, roaring and cursing in a nasty manner Fayrene.

"Whore, you are shielding yourself so much even in bed? Come, let me see if you like my touch compared to that wimp of man you got. He will die anyway against the boss. If you surrender, I will let you off."

Fayrene, who had half of her MP recovered, heard all this nonsense which annoyed her, something the thug wanted, breaking her concentration on the shield. Nevertheless, he failed miserably because the way Fayrene gazed back at him with her violet eyes shining with a slightly darker purple light told enough.

Raising her hand as the thug attacked the barrier and 15 seconds later, she called out with a frigid tone that sent chills down the criminal spine.

"This is enough of your ramblings, brute. No one of you bastards can even compare to a strand of hair belonging to my Mathias. Say your useless comments in hell."

"[Arcane Blast]"

With that spell, inside the body of the thug, a rune of white-purple light formed before an intense ray of purple light charged in his direction, making contact with the rune before exploding it, turning the thug's body into gray light particles.

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[Your party member Fayrene defeated the Clark Gang thug, Manel, earning the justified rewards.]

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Ending the second thug, Fayrene looked exhausted at Mathias as she dropped on one knee, holding herself up with the staff.

"Thanks to the stars, I was able to execute the 'Blast' for the first time. I have to help Mat in his fight with the remaining mana I have."

As she said that, she used her remaining strength to get on her feet and start channeling her mana for a missile.

While she was doing this, Mathias, who was dueling the thug leader, kept his advantage, constantly having him guessing what he would do, attack with the spear, bring the sword and stab him from an unexpected spot, or use his magic.

"Hah, hah. You really are a pain in the ass fighting against." commented the thug leader, who was at 25% HP, bringing his remaining energy for the last push.

Mathias, who stepped inside his range using 'Raven's Movement' brought his 'Saharan Sword' and stabbed him on the stomach before escaping damage with his superior movement speed.

"Actually, I still have a long way to go. Once I master my powers, I could be synonymous with the Devil in regards to fighting. Yet, I said more than enough for a dead person."

With his body fully channeling his mana in all his hands, he dropped Ragnius and the sword to the ground, propping them vertically on the ground, and with the freed hands, he casted a double 'Arcane Missile' getting his MP once again to a low [145].

The mana was still refilling thanks to 'Mana Hunger', but its timer was also running up.

"So this is my end. I guess my luck finally ran out." said the thug leader who was struck by those two missiles.

"No! I will take you with me!" cried the thug leader, Ademir, who had only 5% HP, surviving the combo and charging at Mathias, who was empty-handed like a crazed person.

"Dieee!"

Mathias, who quickly placed his hands on Ragnius, heard that cry and gritted his teeth to bear the pain that was about to come. However, he heard the flying sound of something passing past his ears and later saw the thug leader being struck by the white-purple missile.

[You and Fayrene have defeated high member of the Clark Gang, Ademir]

[19500 experience has been acquired.]

['Letter for Clark' has been acquired.]

[15 gold acquired.]

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"Phew, I made it on time. Mat, are you okay?"

Seeing the thug leader turning into gray light with a shocked expression, he could only smile bitterly, replying to her as she was enveloped into light similar to someone leveling up.

"I will be okay after some recovery. What about you, Fay?"

"Same. I am tired. I think a massage would be fine after getting back home."

"Anything for my Grand Arcanist."

"But, no perverted touches allowed." said Fayrene as she walked slowly to Mathias and supporting herself on him.

Wrapping his hand around her delicate body, which was sweaty, similar to himself, he walked home, chuckling and saying to her.

"Just a tiny bit."

She pinched his skin but didn't comment on his remark, from tiredness or agreement, she wasn't, but after the two got home, Fayrene told Mathias to help her bring some water for her bath."

He nodded to what she said while entering inside, and as they got home, Mathias walked uninvited to Fayrene's room and went straight to bed, faceplanted.

"Mat, what are you doing in my bed?" asked Fayrene finding Mathias in her bed.

He tried saying something, but because of the pillow in his face, it exited as only mumbles.

"Relaxing."

"Relaxing?"

"Ahha, tigredd." mumbled Mathias again, feeling so lazy he didn't even want to turn over and speak normally.

Fayrene nodded her head and got next to him spreading her arms and legs around that they were planted on Mathias's back and legs.

He mumbled something once again, but Fayrene just giggled before yawning, tired.

"We really should wash before we take a nap. Right, Mathias, you never told me you managed to learn 'Arcane Missile'. When did you do it? Also, that spell you mentioned, what was it, Mana Hungry? Mana Hunger? Ahh, yes, that one. What is that?

Mat, do you hear me?"

*Snore*, *Snore*.

It seemed like he snored, making Fayrene gaze at him sharply and jump on his back and laying on his back.

"I am talking with you, you imp. Fine, if you are so tired to even talk, I'll take care of you first." saying that, Fayrene began to braid his long raven hair.

'Wait, what is she doing with my hair? Braids? Hell no.' quickly thinking that he turned his body, picking Fayrene and letting her sit on his stomach while he was gazing at her.

"I learned that spell one week ago. I just wasn't able to cast it properly."

'Ehh, so he doesn't like it when I braid his hair? How adorable.'

"Congratulations, dear. I knew you would be able to do it."

"Obviously. Would I be a failure if I couldn't even learn those basic spells? Ahh, my bad, I think I am half of a failure since I only learned the missile." laughed Mathias sarcastically at himself while Fayrene was playing with his long hair.

"You should start reading the tome more often so when we go to the forest, you have the basic spells ready."

"That is my intent. Sigh, I will have you unbraid my hair if you keep doing that."

*Giggling* "If I remember."

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Spending their time recuperating from the fight, with Fayrene braiding some strands of Mathias's hair, they then took on themselves to bring some water from the fountain they built in the courtyard with some help from the citizens. Following by boiling the water, Fayrene was first to take her bath, cleaning herself from the sweat and dirt, also sealing the bathroom completely using her magic, so Mathias could never possibly enter and see herself.

She had everything prepared, along with a long white cloth fabric that she would wrap around her right arm. Taking a deep breath, she started to unravel the wraps on her right arm and reveal a burning scar running from her shoulder and ending straight with her forearm.

The wound seemed to have been healed, only leaving the scars as an aftermath of what happened in her inexperienced days, believing that arcane magic was some child's play.

Trembling when looking at the arm, she entered a wooden bathtub filled with warm water and closed her eyes, not wishing to see the arm as she cleaned herself.

Nevertheless, the only "defect" on Fayrene's body was that scar which was shaped like thunder strikes because the rest of her body was akin to a well-blessed woman, not missing anything that the creator didn't offer.

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When it was Mathias' turn to enter, he didn't change much of the water, combining Fayrene's water with newly boiling water as he cleaned himself.

"That trauma of hers, I need to fix it for good. I managed to see some of her scars as she walked away from the bathroom, and I saw no problem. Like it is a spiderweb, or maybe I didn't get the full image. However, I can't either force her and take off her bandages because it would simply aggravate her trauma."

Relaxing in the bathtub, raising his legs over as if he was in some jacuzzi, he received a message from his friend, Vlad, who seemed to whine about his old man.

&Malakai: Brother, this old man is creepy. He sent me to kill people, he called them "mission targets" that he was too lazy to complete and placed them on my shoulder.

&Mathias: What about it? You sound as if you suffered the worst injustice.

&Malakai: I already got killed by the target I am supposed to eliminate. That sadistic motherfucker wanted me to kill a level 295 NPC. I got wiped instantly from one of his spells. What was the name? Yea, Ashur, Great Magician Ashur."

Mathias, who was in the bathtub, started laughing like an idiot at his friends' misfortune, asking the latter in a sarcastic tone.

&Mathias: You couldn't put the 1 and 1 together to figure you were outclassed from the start when you heard "Great Magician"?

&Malakai: Fuck you! I contemplated on that after getting myself killed and sent to the afterlife. Anyway, this time I will squeeze the old man out of all his skills and make myself disappear. I'll go to the Saharan Empire before the reset happens, so I could get the main idea of what it is like."

&Mathias: Do you have money to take the caravan all that way here?

&Malakai: I'll use my skills to make myself invisible as I jump into a caravan. Anyway, what are you doing right now?

&Mathias: Literally, I am washing my balls.

&Malakai: Fuck you, you lucky bastard! Having it all nice and dandy. I even saw you hit level 25 from nowhere in only two days. We'll talk later, you bastard. Enjoy your nice days while you can. Maybe I'll even go to some witch to spread some bad luck on you."

&Mathias: Don't. You'll just get scammed.

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Getting out of the bathtub and cleaning the mess he did, he later turned back to his usual activities by starting to write on the book he was supposed to give Juander's while Fayrene was reading the Magic Tome where the workstation was located.

The two didn't disturb each other as they minded their own business, and with each hour it passed, Mathias could see he had about 30 pages of paper written down. Stopping for a while and looking at the stash of paper he placed on the counter, he noticed Fayrene standing next to him and reading his work.

"Did you got tired of the magic tome and shifted, reading my book?" asked Mathias with a sarcastic voice, while Fayrene just cutely nodded her head.

"No problem, I'll leave what I've written to you, so enjoy. If you find some mistakes, point them out. Right, where have you put the magic tome? I have some basic skills to learn."

"Back to my room, same place as usual. Now stop disturbing me. I really want to see what Petrus does in his early childhood." replied Fayrene, not taking her eyes off his work.

With Fayrene focused on his still uncompleted book, he walked to her room and taking a seat at her small table, he opened the magic tome that started to release gentle white-purple light with his touch, and slowly he turned the empty pages until he reached the [Arcane Missile].

Moving past what he already knew about the arcane missile, he turned the page and began reading about the [Arcane Barrier], taking a pen quil and empty page writing around formulas similar to what the Archmage was instructing him to do.

Minutes passed, and he was stretching his head trying to figure out the path to activate the skill until he contemplated the activation for the [Magic Missile], finding out that it required him to concentrate on guiding his mana according to the map drawn out by the master.

"Yes, it has to be similar. I just have to follow the nodes and burst out."

Saying that, he stepped out of the chair and began gathering his mana, turning his 'Mana Core' switch on as it also started to shine in his chest, and step by step, Mathias focused on bringing his mana toward 3 locations of his body, his mind, chest, and legs. Yet such a process proved out to be strenuous for him, failing 3 attempts that drained him of mana.

Another ten minutes passed, recovering himself from his drained mana, restarting his trail.

Gathering his mana in the specific points, he suddenly waited for them to stabilize and energizes. Only after one minute of waiting, as if he was a deadlifter he pushed his mana to the outside, turning out in a barrier shape.

[Congratulations, you have learned the spell 'Arcane Barrier']

"Finally! After one month, I finally understood the scheme to learn those spells. At least the basic ones, since I don't know how the advanced ones look like." rejoiced Mathias at his success, quickly opening his skill windows and taking a look at the description of the spell itself.

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[Arcane Barrier]

Rating: Epic (Growth)

An ancient spell dating from times immemorial when life was still in its first evolutions. A spell that uses the mana inside of you to shield you from harm and also cause damage against your enemy.

Shields you for five minutes of 25% of all incoming damage with a 10% chance of reflecting the damage absorbed by the shield against the attacker.

Skill Consumption: 250 MP (Will change according to the user Mana Core and resources)

Skill Cooldown: 5 minutes

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"Can't expect less from the Archmage skills. Once this skill grows to its limit, it will prove to be the absolute shield. Let's move and learn the rest of basic spells while I am still on the zone, and my inspiration is at its maximum for the spells."

As Mathias said that, while being surrounded by the white-purple barrier, he sat back on his chair and turned the page of the tome, he arrived at the spell 'Arcane Intellect' that was a buffing skill which would amplify his intelligence and also boost his spell damage.

Reading the Archmage description and usage for the buff, reminding Mathias of the high potential of this spell, he turned to see the map and figured out what nodes the spell targeted for the activation.

After another 30 minutes, with another sheet of paper inscribed with formulas and some sketches of a human body with different circles, as if it was a map, he marked with 'X' three locations of his body, all being inside his head.

"Well, I hope I don't blow my head by overclocking my brain in mana."

Giving a small laugh, he got away from the table, and with a serious expression, he started to gather his mana, bringing it from the 'Mana Core' and forcing it to move to his head.

Sweating a lot as he concentred his mana on two spots of his Cerebral Cortex, the Parietal Lobe and Temporal Lobe. He felt he had entered a state never experienced in his life. His hearing and vision started to fluctuate, where he also began seeing weird shapes, visions.

"Fuck, I am screwed."

As Mathias said that to himself, he started losing his balance, and so he wouldn't fail on the ground, he walked to Fayrene's bed and laid there with his eyes closed, experiencing something unworldly, before he quickly stopped placing mana on those brain spots and cutting his trip short.

Breathing haggardly, he felt his heart beating fast, slowly opening his eyes that were shining with a white-purple light.

"Phew, I thought I got trapped inside that realm."

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Taking a while to recover, he was still affected by the amplification of his senses using the mana and could hear Fayrene walking toward his direction.

"Mat, is everything alright? What happened to you?"

Raising his body from the bed and gazing at Fayrene, he could still see some weird geometrical shapes around the room, quickly shaking his head.

"I am trying to learn 'Arcane Intellect' but I stumbled into a block. My mind is connecting to some blasted realm."

"What realm are you talking dear? There's is nothing that would send you to a different realm when using 'Arcane Intellect'."

With big eyes staring at Fayrene, he began pondering if he hasn't mistaken the nodes.

'It could be another place in my brain, not that spot. Let's try again. Maybe I was wrong.'

"Hah, I'll try again. Let's see if I nail it without going to some crazy realms."