Ch 105 – A Genius of Magic

On an open plain of emerald grass, and below the cloudy blue sky, filled with cold and refreshing wind, stood three humanoid figures including a green pig rolling around on the grass.

"Uwah! Grandpa's super cool! He has his own, eh… World!" Raiden shouted, his body rolling on the grass just like Porky as the two played around.

Chuckling, Lute gazes around the area with an admiring grin and said, "Yeah, that old man's got his tricks. Is this an ability one can gain if one reaches a certain level? Eric did have this ability before, though his memories got fragmented so I wasn't able to find the cause of him attaining the ability to open a dungeon."

"What do you think, Kira? You think you can open your own world like this, a soul world of sorts?" Lute turned his head to the side, to see Kira crouching down on the ground and admiring a small patch of colorful flowers. His eyes remained apathetic, yet Lute can see how it was sparkling in joy at the beauty of the flowers.

"… I think I should be able to do it if my soul is strong enough. Maybe I can connect it to a dungeon or something," Kira said with a soft voice, one of his eyes suddenly turned an eerie white and he materializes an exact replica of the yellow flower he held in his left hand. Yet the replica held an otherworldly feel to it as if it was a spiritual creation.

"Huh, maybe we can make our own house in our personal world in the future. That would be pretty nice, gone from any worldly problems and just us four in our own little world," Lute muttered absentmindedly while glancing at the open blue sky above him.

But all of a sudden, they heard the sound of something being torn apart, causing their face to turn to the side and be greeted by a blue portal opening, a portal eerily similar to a dungeon entrance. Walking through it, they saw a wrinkly old hand poking through as Aldrich—the Sage—appeared.

Widening his eyes, Raiden hastily stood up with sparkly eyes and rush forwards, shouting loudly, "Grandpa! Welcome back!"

Taking him into a tight hug, Aldrich chuckles and patted Raiden on the back before turning his eyes to Lute with a wide grin, raising a set of papers held by his right hand. "It's official."

"Huh, who would have thought that I'm now officially your…"

"My son! You three are now part of the Stolas Family!" Aldrich laughed loudly, causing Raiden to cheer before suddenly stopping.

"What about Porky! It should be us four!"

"My bad, my bad, Porky is also a part of the family."

"Yay!"

Groaning, Lute waves his hand, and a wooden staff of spiraling wood that holds a red stone appears in his grasp. "Come on, old man. We still need to test out my new spell! I'm pretty confident it's a spell you haven't seen yet!"

"Fine, fine. [Gate]!"

Beside them, a dark purple gate appeared, the section inside its borders was starry and colorful as if it was leading into the vast cosmos seen under the night sky. Nudging his head, the three followed Aldrich to the portal to find themselves standing in an area filled with large mountains, some were even taller than most mountains in the outside world.

"Uwah! Did Grandpa make all of these mountains?" Raiden asked with an agape mouth. On his chest, he held the tiny Porky in a tight hug as it "oinked" excitedly as well, influenced by how Raiden was so excited. It was like the two were brothers of man and beast.

The cold wind hurling at them caused their breath to be misty white. Not only that, the snow dropping from the air caused patches of white to appear on their hair and clothes.

"Old man, I think you'll have to create a very strong shield right now, the spell I just concocted would be pretty strong if my estimates are correct, though it was only mental so I think it would have a relatively wide margin of error," Lute said as Aldrich nods his head, causing a series of colorful magic circles to appear one by one and an invisible barrier appeared around the five of them, and of course, Porky included.

Walking forward, Lute grins and points his wooden staff at a faraway mountain, and shouted, "Bear witness to the birth of an Archmage of Magic! [CREATE DIRT]!"

With a flash of brown light, the people behind Lute watch as a large chunk of dirt appears floating in front of Lute.

"That's it?" Raiden asked curiously as he peeked his head to the side, only to see nothing else happen.

"That's only the first act! Now, see the power of Alchemy!" With an explosion of mana, they saw the floating chunk of dirt shoot forward at sonic speeds to the distant mountain while it started to radiate a flickering white light.

'What spell even is he going to cast with Alchemy? I am a bit of an expert at it already, but it's not really for destruction and more so for creation.' Aldrich thought while theorizing what Lute was planning to do, but his eyes soon widens as he senses the unstable light the chunk of dirt exuded with an agape mouth.

"BURST FORTH THE WRATH OF GODS! [EXPLOSION]!"

*KABOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM!!!*

A burst of blinding white light appeared as Aldrich opened his mouth wide, shocked and full of disbelief at the grand scene he saw. A sphere of white light appeared, encapsulating the relatively large mountain whole as he sensed the absurd amount of energy the white light exuded.

Shielding his eyes, he felt his heart palpitating in excitement as the light slowly receded and dwindled. Opening his eyes fully, he was greeted with a flattened mountain and didn't know how to properly react.

'A-an A Rank Mage caused a whole mountain to be destroyed with just the spell Create Dirt?! H-how?!'

"Interested? Told you, old man. Alchemy holds secrets that allow one to directly control the building blocks of reality!"

Not being able to hold back his curiosity, Aldrich asked loudly, "H-how?! How did you do… that?!"

"Well, after many days of research and increasing my control to a level, that is frankly, divine, I was able to directly control the binding force between the smallest level of stuff I was able to sense on an object after fiddling for a good while. Then, I just pressed the mental trigger and cause the object with an unstable structure to explode," Lute explained while demonstrating it himself on a miniature scale by creating a small droplet of water to appear, and the transmutation circle on his right palm lit up a blue light and caused the water droplet to explode brightly.

'Tsk, even with my current mastery and multiple brains, I won't be able to catch up with that monster in years in Alchemy! Sigh, I guess I can only nurture him well, and hope he sides with us when the time is right.' Aldrich thought with a strange glint in his eyes.

But his eyes soon widens when he heard Raiden curiously asking him something, "Grandpa, what's that weird temple over there?"

Turning their heads into the distance, they saw a white temple in the distance located on an open field of grass. Enhancing his eyesight, Lute even noticed how a blue glob sat on a golden throne in the middle.

"Eh? What's that temple for, old man?" Lute asked curiously.

"Oh, I almost forgot to answer your question yesterday."

"Yesterday? Oh, you mean how you attained Z Rank?"

"Yeah, well that secret is related to the slime you saw in that temple."

Now catching Lute's interest, Aldrich summons a gate once more in front of them as they walked through it. Appearing directly in the white temple, they found themselves standing in front of the wobbling blue slime in front of them with curious eyes.

Not only that, they saw that as Aldrich waved his hand, the blue slime in front of them turned a rainbow color.

"Master, your disciple is back," out of nowhere, Aldrich kneeled down to the ground in front of the rainbow slime causing the others to be shocked out of their wits.

"You three, including Porky, kneel down!" Aldrich shouts loudly, with confusion, the four kneeled down in front of the rainbow slime as it wriggled around happily.

"It's time to explain it to you, Lute, my disciple."

Slowly, they watch as smoke started to erupt from Aldrich's body and obstructing their vision. When the smoke finally receded, they opened their eyes only to be greeted by somebody that made their eyes widen.

There he stood, a young boy with dark blue hair and golden eyes, wearing the overly large robe of Aldrich Stolas that desperately hung on his shoulders to not make him go buck naked. The boy's appearance was far from the old man Sage, yet his astute eyes made their eyes widen in disbelief.

"Bear witness to the true appearance of your old man!"

""EH?!""

"Indeed, your old man is an immortal bastard!"

"Not that, I know that you didn't use any magical disguise, so how did you do it?!" Lute interjected, his fist slamming down to the ground as his curiosity was fully piqued.

"Well, I have my master here to thank. When I was desperately trying to find a way to reach the mythical Z Rank with Tier Magic, I realized you will need to have a strong body that can inhabit a strong soul. And so, that's how I met Master, after using my Knowledge Attribute to connect my very mind with him, I learned the secrets to fully controlling my body! Now, immortality is an easy chore!" Aldrich smugly announced as they watched a pair of arms appear where his eyes were supposed to be. His mouth turned monstrous and jagged. His skin became pink and so on at rapid succession.

"Now, Lute, the human I encountered with the greatest talent in both magic and mind, I believe you are destined to reach a height far above mine! So I shall allow you to become Master's second official disciple! After linking your mind with him, you shall attain control over your body like-"

"Done."

"Eh?" Turning his head, Aldrich who was in his kid form saw his Master sitting on Lute's lap as it wobbled around. Not only that, he saw a thread of mana connecting from Lute's forehead to Master's rainbow body. And in disbelief, he watches as Lute raises his arms to the sky and his fingers became arms themselves like a monster.

"WHAT?!" Aldrich can't believe it, the changes on his body returned back to normal as he rushes forward and tightly grabs Lute's wrist. Inspecting his finger-arms, he let out a disbelieving gasp and was shocked to see Lute did attain full control over his physical body.

"It's pretty easy to learn if you just change your perspective. Imagine your brain is the true you, while your body is just a vessel you inhabit, like a golem. After that, I just hypnotized myself into thinking I'm a machine and went on from there, now I can be a tentacle monster!" Lute grinned, and his fingers rapidly elongated and formed into multiple tentacles dripping with a gooey liquid.

"Hmm, you're not wrong there, I did do something similar. Sigh, you're truly a monster."

"No, not a monster, the right term is a genius."

Standing up, Lute plopped down Master back on his red pillow situated on the golden throne and walked forward with a wide grin. Not only that, but Aldrich also sensed a burst of mana erupt from Lute's body causing his eyes to widen.

'7-7th TIER! He's already an S Rank mage!'

"Oi, old man, I think it's time for me to show you my greatest spell yet."

"Sure, you need me to open a gate?"

"Yeah, and it's better if it's far from any sources of life, maybe on a rocky terrain or something. Though it is not an attacking spell, it would rapidly change the landscape, and I don't want to accidentally make a land of death or something."

"Oh? So it would be fine if we had some spectators?"

"Yeah? Why?"

"Good! It's because I'm gonna invite the other council members for your introductions considering school starts in a week! You better wear your special uniform and mask, we don't want to endanger your lives because we stupidly reveal your true identity to the public, considering you already have a son and all," Aldrich said, tossing a pair of black clothes and a featureless white mask to Lute. The mask, in particular, looked exactly like the one Kira was wearing.

"Yes, yes. Be quick, because that spell would really be a spectacle."

And with that, Aldrich's body disappeared from his personal realm after a flash of white light, for the meeting between the student council members is about to commence.

AN: This chapter has 2191 words.

Writing? It's hard. Power stones? Good.

(August 2, 2022 – 251st day of writing)