Jareth called on his sorcerer's chart.
The panel, which resembled an ancient and futuristic piece, flickered in his face.
–––
SORCERER'S CHART
[Name]: Jareth Idren
[Race]: Human
[Body]: ⟨5% Mana | 95% Oblivium⟩
[Source]: [Oblivium Forge], [Caniblaze]
[Spells]: [Weeping Ward], [Grieving Echo], [Quagmire], [Infernal Torrent], [Quintessence Claws]
[Core]: 0/200
–––
"I really have two sources. I can vaguely remember getting the second when I passed out in that cavern, so it must be from Duke."
He thought of something and swiftly ran to the door and bolted it before returning to his former spot.
'I have to be careful since I have an oblivium source. But from what I read yesterday, others can't trace my source just from seeing it apart from smart deduction using what they saw and felt, like Liana has a fire source because I saw her fire spell. Well, that's how I understand it.'
Jareth didn't waste time and focused on his first spell, and the panel changed.
–––
[Weeping Ward]
[Description: Grief heard your prayer. Grief listened to your plea. Grief answered your prayer. A gift from Grief that passively shields the mind from attack.]
–––
'This sounds ominous. Is this from oblivium? I don't think it's from caniblaze. And the opening lines are… majestic. Is this why I appeared in Arkados? Because of my grief? I never knew grief bore this much power. How do I test this spell now?' Jareth thought while rubbing his stinging nose.
Then he turned to the static robot. "Can you attack me with a mental attack? Power level of an untrained awakened arcanist."
"Negative."
"I guessed so. I'll just let it be since I can't test the limit, even though I'm itching to see what it does. Let's check the second one."
–––
[Grieving Echo]
[Description: Grief heard your prayer. Grief listened to your plea. Grief answered your prayer. A gift from Grief that turns an opponent's inner sorrow against them, weakening their attacks in proportion to their sorrows.]
–––
"Again? I guess grief is a good emotion."
Jareth activated it with a guided thought.
Green aura flickered on his body in that instant, swaying gently like a solitary green flame dancing in a gentle wind.
'Is this grief?'
His eyes roamed over the green aura.
He opened his mouth to command the robot but shut it when he recalled that machines are emotionless aides.
'First limitation.'
Jareth dismissed the spell and went to the next.
–––
[Quagmire]
[Description: A surge of raw oblivium from your core that transforms the surroundings into a viscous fog.]
–––
Seeing the description, Jareth didn't feel like testing it, because it sounded like a spell that would blatantly point out his connection with oblivium.
But something abruptly rushed from within him.
Thick violet fumes surged from his palm, swiftly expanding and transforming the vicinity around him into a violet fog but it didn't impede his vision. He could clearly see the robot standing idly with its red eyes.
He could feel a subtle connection between him and the violet fog, like he was holding it like an object.
'T-This is an oblivium spell. And it activated without my command. I never planned on activating it as it is directly linked to oblivium.'
His heart beat faster, from the unconscious spell activation and displaying an oblivium-based spell.
He had previously dismissed the warning on the arcanist nexus about unconscious spell activation, even though he adhered to the instructions as he was trying to play safe due to his oblivium source. But now? He felt fortunate.
Suppressing his fears, he thought, 'Well, since I've already activated it, why don't I see the function?'
"Come at me with the strength of an untrained awakened arcanist," Jareth commanded.
"Order received!"
But the robot remained still after replying.
"Huh? Didn't you hear…" Jareth's voice trailed off before he palmed his forehead as he realized what happened.
"Since you can't move with that strength, use the strength of a trained awakened arcanist."
"Order received!"
Jareth suddenly heard a vibration accompanied by miniscule trembling of the robot, but it remained still.
"Make it a mid-level awakened arcanist."
"Order received!"
The robot began arduously walking towards him, like it was walking through a mire.
"Increase your strength to Peak awakened arcanist."
It paused.
"Order received!"
It suddenly began running towards him with a sharp speed like a trained arcanist.
"Stop," commanded Jareth.
As the robot halted, he dismissed the spell with a thought, and it was very easy.
"Sprint towards me with the speed of a peak awakened arcanist."
Jareth decided to see how much his spell reduced the speed of a peak awakened arcanist.
"Order received!"
That was the last he heard before he saw a streak and the robot was in his face, his hair and clothes flapping for a short moment as a strong breeze hit him.
Jareth's jaw slacked a bit.
Taking a deep breath, he thanked his guts for avoiding testing the strength of mid-level and peak awakened arcanists.
He distanced himself from the robot before checking his next spell.
–––
[Infernal Torrent]
[Description: A violent expulsion of caniblaze from the palm, unleashing a torrent of ravenous flame.]
–––
'This looks like my first destructive spell.'
Jareth stretched his two palms forward and commanded with a thought, 'blaze'.
Blood-red flames erupted from his palms like a flamethrower, dyeing the room red.
He stopped it, afraid of burning down the building, but everything the flame touched remained unscathed, still in its dull ash color.
"No wonder Esta said I should test my skill in this room," Jareth mumbled.
Then he turned to the robot.
"Can you handle my fire?" He questioned with a smirk.
"For safety, I can handle every physical attack spell below the Elite arcanist rank, and some Elite arcanist spell," it replied with its robotic voice.
Jareth's cheek twitched.
He stared at the robot for a good while.
He finally decided.
"I will test the fire on you. I never wanted to destroy her robot, but she wouldn't blame me as you're the one that assured me."
"You can."
Jareth stretched his palms.
"Ready?"
"Ready."
"Blaze!" Jareth roared, like it was going to affect the intensity, and the blood-red flames returned with a maddened ferocity.
It drowned the robot in a few seconds.
After a few seconds, Jareth's face twitched when the robot remained standing like it was bathing in warm water.
Jareth was just about to push the intensity with everything he had but was hit with a sudden headache. The flame went off with it.
He felt his vision spinning.
Holding his head, he slowly laid down, his eyes fixed on the white light on the ceiling that looked like it was moving and pulsating. His breath came laboriously.
It took about thirty minutes before he recovered enough to move.
'I forgot about mana exhaustion that they wrote about.'
He laid down even after he shook off the disorientation as he could clearly feel something entering his body.
It took another thirty minutes before the sensation stopped.
He stood up and decided not to use his spells like he had a big reservoir.
Stretching his palm, Jareth activated [Infernal Torrent] and quickly halted its output when a meter-long flame appeared in his palm.
He felt a connection, now that he focused on the flame. It was a very clear connection, unlike [Quagmire].
Jareth shaped it into a spear, before changing it to a big sphere. He tried compressing it. It compressed until it reached a palm-sized flame ball before it exploded in his face, sending him flying. He quickly patted his half-burnt pajamas as he rolled to his feet
He then busied himself with the spell before he finally checked the last spell.
–––
[Quintessence Claws]
[Description: *** abhorred *** error ***]
–––
'This spell feels like it has everything to do with oblivium. Even the sorcerer's chart can't fully interpret it. But it sounds super ominous, after all, the unknown is most times very dangerous.'
Jareth shook his head.
'Why am I becoming a sissy now? I've even tested the oblivium one. I want to test all my skills. Who knows if I'll survive tomorrow? Maybe I might be mad, corrupted, and finally, dead by tomorrow.'
Jareth chuckled at his last statement.
With that, he activated the spell.
A cooling sensation washed over his lower arms.
Dropping his head, he saw black mist spiralling around his arms. It swiftly contracted, sheathing from his elbows, down to his hands, in a black substance ending in sharp claws on each finger.
He first touched it, but felt nothing. Then he clapped his hands but no noise came out.
He squatted and ran his right index claw on the floor, drawing a surprisingly thin line.
A knock jolted him.
He squinted his eyes at the door.
Then he dismissed his spell before walking to the door.
He opened it with his hand ready to burn anything in his path but found an empty passage. Just as he poked his head, a silver arc descended and a sharp pain seared his skull before his vision faded to black.