Arcanist
‘Who on earth is he? He’s just a minor noble of Silverymoon City on the surface, but secretly he possesses the power of a Legend. Besides, he seems to be very familiar with this place... So why did he lie to me earlier?’ Helen was completely puzzled, but she carefully hid all her thoughts. After all, Leylin now held the right of life and death over her.
The core of the control room was unexpectedly small, and it only had an area of 5 or 6 square metres. At the centre was a strange hexagonal prism with all sorts of strange screens next to it. Some of them had already lost their glow or were filled with a grayscale static, while others were working.
“Open!” The outer shell of the hexagonal prism opened with Leylin’s command, revealing a blue crystal structure within.
“This is...” Helen looked at the splendid and magnificent blue crystal which sparkled beautifully, it was like she had been bewitched.
“This core port controls half of the laboratory and is also a communication terminal. Many resources can be downloaded here,” Leylin said lightly, unconcerned as to whether Helen understood him. He pressed his palm to the surface of the blue crystal.
[Beep! Spiritual force interface established.] In a split second, Leylin seemed to have become a demigod, and nothing in the pocket dimension could be hidden from him anymore.
‘Weapons, live specimen libraries, database!’ Various images and words appeared before him, and it was only at that moment that Leylin realised how fortunate he was to grasp it all.
‘Its energy reserves haven’t even reached 2%, and its powerful weapons cannot be activated at all. The magic and spell formations are also damaged, and half of the golems have been destroyed. It looks like I can only send out one or two defective items...’ Leylin sighed. He believed that this pocket dimension would have been able to hinder even high-ranked Legends at its peak. Now however...
Of course, it would have been very difficult to seize control of the entire core back then. Whether it was a legendary wizard, thief, or even an elf, they would not be able to attack the lab’s intelligence core through the communication terminal. After all, they were on completely different planes.
However, Leylin was different. He was very familiar with this type of structure in the ilk of those made by Magi, and the A.I. Chip supporting him had even more knowledge reserves. It was purely because of this reason that he managed to seize the entire core unharmed.
[Beep! Laboratory’s power source reserve has reached its critical point, and is unable to absorb more energy from the abyss. Time before collapse: 1h 13min.]The A.I. Chip displayed yet another message in front of Leylin.
‘As expected, the demiplane has deteriorated with age and is about to collapse. Is it too late to stop it? If it’s like this, then the most valuable thing here is...’ Leylin’s eyes were filled with regret at first, but then his expression brightened considerably.
‘A.I. Chip, record all the information from the terminal.’
[Beep! Mission established, initiating download program.] The A.I. Chip executed Leylin’s task immediately. The magnificent light shining from the hexagonal prism was projected onto the walls all around him, as well as onto all the screens.
Leylin was bathed in its light, and a multitude of data and characters flashed across his eyes. The most important bits about the arcane arts and spell models, various alchemic experiments, research, improved meditation techniques, and anatomical records were presented to him. There were also diaries and other useless news from the terminal, and that too was fully copied by the A.I. Chip.
The extensive library of data was transferred in a split second. Compared to this, the tiny little bit of information Helen had almost given her life for to obtain was worth nothing.
[Beep! Information about the arcanist profession has been collated, and overlaps with the host’s wizardry. Combine?]
“Yes,” Leylin replied without the slightest hesitation. Afterwards, his aura began to change. An arcane flame began to burn, and powerful force poured into his sea of consciousness and began to remodel and process his profession. Leylin soon saw his status change from that of a wizard into that of an arcanist.
*Snap!* Leylin almost blacked out at the acute pain that came from his very soul. He felt his connection with the Weave instantly break off.
Fortunately, this severed state lasted only a moment before it reconnected once again. However, the connection was now somewhat different. In this split second, there seemed to be a pair of golden eyes focused on him. However, it was immediately deceived by Leylin’s grasp of the first 4 layers of the Weave.
The A.I. Chip’s reminders continued to ring out.
[Beep! Host has become an arcanist. Profession changed.]
[Beep! The host has gained arcane specialties: Energy Detection, Amplification.]
There was a detailed description beneath each of the specialties.
[Arcane Energy Detection: Arcanists are able to supercede the Weave’s restrictions and directly perceive the arcane energy in the environment, drawing it in to form arcane spells.]
[Arcane Amplification: Arcane energy is amplified by 10-20% when an arcanist casts a spell.]
[Beep! Host’s spiritual force has broken through, Spirit +1. Host has advanced to become a rank 15 arcanist.] Leylin’s mind suddenly jolted, and afterwards his spiritual force directly made contact with the 7th rank of the Weave.
Looking at the Weave from an arcanist’s perspective gave him a completely different feeling. The feeling of jumping out and watching the Weave from afar increased the speed at which the A.I. Chip analysed the Weave.
Leylin’s stats had also changed.
[Leylin Faulen, Age: 21, Race: Human, Rank 15 Arcanist. Strength: 13, Agility: 11, Vitality: 12, Spirit: 15, Arcane Energy: 150, Status: Healthy, Feats: Sturdy, Erudite, Elementary Perfect Body, Specialities: Arcane Energy Detection, Arcane Amplification.]
‘As expected, the greatest benefit of becoming an arcanist is to break away from the Weave’s method of performing magic. Additionally, arcane energy has replaced my spell slots,’ Leylin nodded. Moreover, his separation from the weave affected only that aspect. This meant that Leylin could now also prepare rank 7 spell slots, and wait to use them the next day.
Naturally, due to the restrictions of rank, he only had 1 rank 7 spell slot.
‘Using arcane energy to cast arcane spells would perhaps consume more energy than using the Weave to instantly cast low-ranked spells. However, it will use up fewer spell slots,’ Leylin stroked his chin in thought. After fully analysing rank 0 to rank 3 of the Weave, he could instantly cast low-ranked spells. Overwhelming his opponent with a torrential number of spells had always been his killing move, but it was of course established within the authority of the Weave. It was equivalent to stealing Mystra’s power for himself.
If he only used arcane spells, then he wouldn’t have this benefit anymore. However, the greatest benefit of being an arcanist was that he could retain wizard spell models instead of forgetting them, and at the same time he could use the Weave!
‘As a result, I’m now outside the system but I can still enjoy the system’s benefits. Just using its power without any of the obligations, it’s so straightforward...’ Leylin sighed, ‘It’s a pity that if more people like me are born, then the Weave would fall apart.’
“You’ve broken through?” Although Leylin had only taken an instant to advance, Helen distinctly felt that something was different.
“Mm, I have,” Leylin smiled. What he had gained today couldn’t just be described as a breakthrough though.
‘I’m now an arcanist, and I have a great number of arcane arts with me. My improvement from now will be rapid. As a rank 15 Professional wizard, I’m of the highest class...’ Leylin was turning the idea over in his mind. He was a genius who had advanced to become a high-ranked wizard at the tender age of 21. Apart from the gods’ chosen or demigods, he was near the peak of the prime material plane.
“This place is very dangerous, it’s best that we leave as quickly as possible,” Leylin furrowed his brows and took Helen away from the core database.
The trip had gone fairly smoothly, and he had obtained resources from the arcanists as well as many arcane arts. It all saved him a lot of effort, but he hadn’t accomplished his most important goal yet; he didn’t get the inheritance of those Magi who had comprehended laws!
The A.I. Chip hadn’t found anything related to such Magi amongst all the resources it had scanned, and it filled Leylin’s heart with disappointment. The direction and experiences of the ancients would have been of great help to him.
‘It’s a matter of course. Not every arcanist can receive the instruction of a being like the Distorted Shadow, and even if he left an inheritance it wouldn’t be here...’ Leylin comforted himself, ‘The profits this time are sufficient. Just what the A.I. Chip has stored in its database would be enough to fetch an extremely high price.’
“Let’s hurry up, there isn’t much time before the pocket dimension collapses...” Leylin suddenly stopped in his tracks and turned his head in astonishment. He discovered that Helen had disappeared into thin air without his notice.
‘Impossible! I’ve always paid attention to my back, and I even have an arcane mark on her. How can the A.I. Chip’s sweeps not discover her?’
‘A.I. Chip! Sweep the entire laboratory and find Helen!’ Leylin immediately ordered. He had seized the core authority in this place, and even if most of the equipment was depleted or damaged a basic search was still possible.
Very quickly, the results were sent back to him. However, Leylin’s expression turned even more unsightly at the information.
‘Nothing! There isn’t a single trace left of her, and she didn’t even leave a corpse. It looks like she just disappeared suddenly...’ He had not felt such a powerful sense of déjà vu for a very long time.