The night before the actual Fae Monarch Trial, the first thing Rainer did in [Sleep Learning] was head over to his grandfather. There was one major issue when it came to casting [Deliverance]: he knew too much.

He knew full well what it took for light to be noticeably affected by gravity, the collapse of a star. So long as he had that notion, to him, [Deliverance] seemed too impossible. Even with the knowledge that the Light Magic was altering the Spatial Magic to concentrate all its power to only affect light, he couldn’t shake that feeling in the back of his mind. Especially after not only Frederick, but his other grandfather, Art, said it was a nonsense series of Runes.

He needed to get into the mindset of a Nalmar Magus. And that meant altering his memory. Once that concept was proven, it wouldn’t matter if he later regained that knowledge.

At least, that was the theory. Though the way his grandfather was looking at him after he explained it all...

“You want me to what?” Frederick asked, yet again.

“Seal my memories of what a black hole is.”

“And this will help you learn that jumble of runes you insist is a working spell?”

“Probably.”

His grandfather mumbled something under his breath before finally agreeing.

“You can be the first test subject for it,” Rainer grinned.

“Sure, sure. Sit down and start Attuning your Affinity. That’ll get your mind ready. And don’t resist. I could suffer some serious backlash with how strong your Soul has gotten. Something as simple as sealing scientific knowledge should be easy enough without any adverse effects.”

It was a few hours later that Rainer sat alone in [Sleep Learning], missing a large portion of ‘common’ physics knowledge.

Even though he knew he was missing some knowledge, and why he was missing it, [Deliverance] looked better and better to him.

Yet the result stayed the same. The Gravity Locus would barely draw in light, and then merely redirect it. And any attempt at using raw manipulation only produced a light orb, rather than truly gathering the massive amount of natural light pouring down.

Rainer had used part of this spell to create [Absolute Frost]. Had that not been the case, he might have agreed with everyone else. But he wasn’t willing to give up on it. The passion in the notebook was clear. This Magus had believed in this spell, and so would he.

With a flash of his Soul, he easily undid the seal placed by his grandfather and the memories came pouring back.

He frowned, trying to think over exactly what he was still missing. While it might not be a talent for light and space, [Excellent Arcane Affinity] gave him a 50% bonus - equivalent to a [Medium Light Affinity] - in all schools of magic. So it was unlikely to be that, especially since the unlimited resources in [Sleep Learning] space should make up for not having an Excellent or True Affinity that the Nalmar Magus likely had.

But could he have ever created anything like [Blade of the Void] without Francis’ talent? Without Francis’ empty Soul that left him more open to the Void?

Without the pressure of tens of thousands of Undead killing all that you loved? And the need for a spell of light that would smite them and their creator from existence?

Rainer started rewriting the Magic Formula. If getting into the mindset of the Nalmar Magus did not work then he needed to adjust the spell to be unique to him. And what better way to do that than to merge it with Arcane? And just like the light of the sun, he had his own source for near limitless Arcane Energy: the Arcanium.

From his experience with [Arcane Frozen Sun], Rainer knew simply slapping Arcane into the spell formula of high-tier spells wouldn’t do it. He was far more likely to create a weak useless spell in that sense. Already, he could draw Arcane Energy from the Arcanium with [Arcane Energy Manipulation] and create a dangerous ball of energy. But that wasn’t the goal here and such a thing would be of little use for him.

He wanted to keep the initial premise of the spell. And that was altering how Gravity itself worked so that it only drew in Light, or rather in this case Arcane and Light.

Starting the Gravity Locus part of the spell, Rainer watched how it slightly affected the Light. He left that part in and instead added to the formula. From Arcane he brought out Arcane-Spatial; the Locus seemed to gain in strength, pulling on more light. But it was only barely enough to slightly darken the immediate area. The power gathered increased quickly. That was a good sign.

Now, he focused on the Arcanium. With a brief flash of [Arcanium Detection], he started getting the Gravity Locus to add one more thing to the alloted list. The space seemed to twist as Arcane was pulled from nothingness.

Rainer focused, bringing out the Arcane-Light from that swirl of Arcane Energies and in turn using the Gravity Locus to pull the natural light towards the Arcane. And then the resulting Arcane-Light itself weakened space. The Gravity Locus only became stronger, and Rainer watched in awe as his shadow shortened.

Moments later the Locus collapsed, resulting in a pitiful dispersal of energies in the form of a bright flash of light.

Rainer grinned as he thought it over. It was mostly pure manipulation as opposed to relying on the runic formula, but he had his answer.

Use the Gravity Locus to pull on the Arcanium, weakening the space, then transforming it to Arcane-Light. FInally it merged the light gathered by the Locus into the Arcane-Light, further weakening the space. All which strengthened the now Arcane-Gravity Locus’s ability. So long as Mana and Arcane Power were provided, he’d have an endlessly strengthening loop.

A loop that would let him command his very own [Deliverance].

Rainer sat down, determined to get the formula to work without overreliance on manipulation. And when that happened, it was time to unleash an unstoppable descent of Arcane-Light.

Using his Avatars, he set the two to testing the formulas, while he focused on altering. Since they were specifically not using Manipulation Skills this was within their abilities. But this still stretched his level 7 [Avatar Control] to the limit, and he even felt a painful tug on his Soul. Thankfully, such pain wasn’t beyond the capabilities of his [Arcane Invigoration].

On the ground, he already had several Avatar Rituals prepared in advance for when they inevitably killed themselves.

Every cast was another test. And every test brought him one step closer to perfection. He knew skipping the theory of Runes would stifle his progress in the future but for now he needed power. His Guild was recruiting plenty of people knowledgeable in Runes anyways. There would be plenty of great minds for him to borrow from in the future as his Enchanter’s Guild expanded their focus.

Hours later, he stared at the formula before him. He didn’t even bother to have his Avatars cast it. He felt this was the one.

He reached upwards, a packet of Mana soaring into the sky before transforming into an Arcane-Gravity Locus. It tore through space as it pulled on Arcane. It pulled on the natural light coming down, bringing everything together as Arcane-Light.

The sky darkened, and Rainer watched in reverence as his shadow drew to his feet and then started creeping towards the direction of the Locus rather than away from the fake sun in the sky.

The Arcane-Light twisted and left a sight that bewildered him. From any direction he looked, it was as if there was a violet eclipsed tiny sun. It was truly gathering light.

“Deliverance.”

With a single Arcane-infused word, a beam of violet light descended. The energies rippled through the air as it burnt and tunneled through the grassland beneath. Moments later, the final burst exploded in a wave of violet.

[Spell Gained: Deliverance lvl 1/10]

[Title Gained: Arch-Magus]

[Experience Gained: Deferred, Deferred]

[Arch-Magus: A Magus who has transcended the bonds of ordinary Magic and created a multi-faceted work of Magic of great power. Their mighty spells are not limited to a single spellbook or even two. 30% Experience Bonus. 20% General Bonus to all Elemental Spells with greater than two elements.]

Rainer had only a moment to admire the gained title as a wave of Arcane-Light overtook him.

After finally casting the spell, he headed over to help Sarah prepare for her Trial. After reforming his body, he noticed he had received the [Master of Light] title as well.

He’d deal with the problem of not actually being able to survive the casting of it another time. Due to his own limitations involving Mana-packets, he didn’t know how he would cast it far enough from himself and others.

[Mage-Fist: A powerful Mage who has mastered the art of Mana-based close-combat. Their body sings with enchantments and their core is strengthened with spells of great measure. Their Mana is endless, and their fist indomitable. 100% General Bonus to all Passive Spells and Body Enchantments. 75% General Bonus to All Mana related Skills and Spells. 50% General Bonus to all Fist-related combat. Allows one passive spell to be free of cost. +3 Affinity, +3 Intelligence per level after 1.]

“In other words, the Tier 2 Trial accounts for all your extra advantages besides your raw Mana abilities, Enchanted items, and maybe your [True Mana Affinity] Talent?” Rainer asked, having looked over the class she shared with him. Despite the simple sounding name, it was a class that likely required significant achievement in both Body Enchantment and Passive spells, along with a high enough Mana Talent.

He had been less worried for her [Manaborne] Trial precisely because of those first two aforementioned advantages. Yet this class threw that out the window. It was only her massive mana pool granted by [Manaborne] that gave him any assurance. No normal Tier 1 [Mage-Fist] should have this much Mana and therefore this many passive spells.

“Yes. Which is why I was hoping you could figure out how to level [Passive: Zan Haste], while I level up the class skills. I got this class presumably after the passive spells, but it only showed up on the list right after I got the Void-Step body enchantment to level 10. I’m guessing that’s an important part of it since that Body Enchantment is technically Tier 7 by the skills rating. I was actually hoping for a class relating to Mana influencing the Void, which was why I checked then,” she pouted.

“Thankfully, the class skills are easy ones that should be maxed out with just a massive amount of use and Mana. And then with that enchanted armor and bonus from the class, I should have enough Mana leftover to fight with.”

Only in the [Sleep Learning] space could such skills be considered ‘easy’.

“I’ll try,” he offered. The other passive spells had technically no room for growth. You could only improve the speed and efficiency of the turning ‘on’. Something easy to do in the [Sleep Learning] space where you could take half a day's work and compress it to a single second with enough Mana and no fear for your life. But the passive cost and the use of the passive spell itself was static.

Rather than the effect, perhaps this was why [Passive: Zan Haste] was the only one that was Tier 6. And the only one not leveled by this method. The ability to turn it on quicker certainly increased, but it didn’t affect the spell level.

If he had more time, he’d try to alter the runes itself. But Sarah was intent on reaching Tier 2 before the Dungeon meet and no one could convince her otherwise. His [Sleep Learning] space gave him the ability to change spells through trial and error rather than research after all. But for now, trying to figure out how to level the total speed passive seemed the best.

Rainer extended his [Avatar Control] again as he had both his Avatars engaged in a clunky [Arcane Blade] fight. With [Arcane Revelation] covering his eyes, he watched the two of them as they utilized [Passive: Zan Haste] alongside their blades. The extra speed seemed to only make them more clumsy. He winced as he watched ‘himself’ cut off a chunk of his own thigh after a missed swing.

Unfortunately, Avatars themselves couldn’t use a passive spell as they drew from the same Mana Pool as he did. So he had to equip [Passive: Zan Haste]. The passive spell appeared no different in his Avatar’s bodies than it did his.

As he tried to make them focus on speed and fight better, he felt another painful tug on his Soul. Perhaps it was best to ask Amer exactly how he got to level 8? He healed the damage with [Arcane Invigoration] and continued to push the limits of [Avatar Control].

His thoughts were interrupted by someone shaking him awake. He had been sleeping in after all.

It was time to crown a Queen of the Fae.