Chapter 25 Offer

'Venion is a first circle mage, how much more powerful can he possibly be?'

'He said that he could handle 10 of us at once, so his full power must be even stronger than that. If every rank has such a big gap, there's no way for us to handle Venion on our own.'

Lucas was questioning Venion's power but stayed quiet for obvious reasons. Lucas' wounds were healed so his body was fine. His core was empty and it would take some time before he could use powerful spells again, he could only find shelter behind Venion's back.

His heat vision also went out after following Venion for a while, so the torch he had with him was a necessity. Venion looked so at ease walking into the darkness like he was going to the bakery to pick up some sweets. The creepy mood and the tunnels filled with green webs and the tapping that they could hear in the distance didn't break his mood in any way.

'Is every mage so...strange?'

'I think it's because of his strength, if you were to walk in a room that held a few ants, would you be scared?'

After walking for a while they reached another cavern, but there was something different, the entire floor, walls, and ceiling were covered with webs. "Looks like we reached an important area. I'll handle all the fighting from here, so just stay back and watch. If you want you can come to fight with me."

Lucas wasn't even thinking about helping out in that fight. He was imagining how Venion would perform, and he didn't have to wait for a long time.

Their entrance into the room warned all the spiders in the cave, after all, the webs were connected to each other. They were at their nest so it would only make logical sense for the habitants of this place to come protect it. So when Venion peacefully strolled over them he awakened every spider. They came running in hordes, the scene was terrifying for Lucas, to see a total of almost twenty of those creatures rush towards them. He was completely exhausted after fighting two, he would be dead if he had to fight against twenty.

This still didn't make Venion show any frown, he had a smile plastered on his face like he was playing a game. Lucas could only watch in awe as his companion started to float before shooting a mass of fire all around him. It looked like he was engulfed in a flaming ball of fire. The ball released an enormous heat and created smaller offspring fireballs. Like a volcano bursting, the smaller fireballs homed in on the spiders.

The spiders tried to get to him by crawling on top of each other or climbing to the ceiling and dropping on him, but nothing worked. Venion blocked the tunnels by creating stone walls and just kept creating heat and warmth by conjuring massive balls of fire. The room started to almost melt from the heat, the spiders were already trying to escape but didn't have any way to.

Lucas was also in that room, so while he could see the overpowering magic that Venion could use, he also experienced it. It got so hot it felt like he would start to spontaneously catch fire, luckily it only felt like that. Venion made sure that the fire was targeted at the spiders, but he couldn't hold back the spreading of heat. After about ten minutes of sitting in an extremely hot sauna, the room started to cool down again.

When he looked at the aftermath, he could only see a bunch of charcoal corpses. They didn't even look like spiders anymore, just burnt flesh. "This is what it means to be a mage. Overwhelming power! Spiders like this are just a bunch of little ants in the face of a true mage. Now tell me did you notice anything?"

Faced with a question, he had to think for a beat. He was still cooling down, but couldn't sit there, letting Venion wait for an hour. He started to think and then noticed something was off. "You didn't say any words!"

"Hahaha, good, good, it seems you are truly destined to become a true mage. For you to remember details during a fight is fantastic. Indeed, I did not say a single rune aloud."

"Is this the Advanced magic you once spoke of?"

"Incredible! Yes, this is the power of advanced magic!"

As far as Lucas knew he learned that speaking runes aloud while using hand signs is seen as Classic magic. You made the spell out of runes, created the fitting hand signs, and then anyone could use that spell. What Venion did was something else, it was better than Classic magic, he didn't say a single rune. "Did you create those spells with willpower?".

Lucas had only seen two other examples of using magic without runes: body strengthening and the spider conjuring a water ball. He could only assume that they had similar ways of working. Venion looked slightly surprised but quickly realized why Lucas would come to such a conclusion.

"You're right, or at least almost, I would love to explain how Advanced Magic works, sadly Advanced magic is a secret in the mage society and I can't just give such an important thing away."

The heat had gone away and now a cooling effect started to occur, giving Lucas a feeling of relief. He looked a bit down, knowing that he wouldn't be allowed to learn about such a power. "Is there no way for me to learn about that?", advanced magic was a lot more powerful, he wouldn't have to speak during fights, spells couldn't be interrupted and so much more. Lucas could already see tons of improvements ahead of him.

"Hmm, normally no mage is allowed to teach another about advanced magic, but there is one exception. Followers of mages can be taught anything without limits."

"That will be difficult, I'm already under a life contract."

"If you want me to, I can get rid of that contract, you know? I can make you a free man again, but I would love it if you were to follow me. You have a lot of potential and you're core will make you a target anyway, you need protection."

"Can you really destroy that contract?"

"Of course, I don't have any reason to lie now, don't I? I can't use a follower who's already under someone else's control."

Lucas had to genuinely think about Venion's offer, it looked extremely tempting. Even if he was a follower, he would probably have a lot more freedom and chances of escaping would increase tremendously.

'Don't you dare think this is a good idea, what do you think he'll do when we become his follower, I can guarantee we'll be worse off than with the baron! We have a plan with the baron, let's not ruin it now.'

"For how long would I need to be a follower?"

"In the mage world it is regular for a follower to serve at least a fifty years of their life."

"What?! Fifty Years?"

"Hmm, oh don't worry about that, I'll make you a Rank 1 mage. For a first-circle mage, we live a lot longer than normal humans, so don't worry about the years of service, those fly by. If I become a lot more successful in the future I'll even make you a Rank 2 or higher."

"What do you think, would you like to learn how to harness this power and so much more? I offer all my knowledge to you. Or would you rather stay under a life contract with the baron, making you his permanent slave for all eternity?"

Venion's intentions were obvious, he didn't even try to hide it, because it wasn't even necessary. Lucas didn't have much of a choice, 'Be a slave for half a century or my entire lifetime, what amazing options'. While the advantages were bountiful, and he could learn advanced magic and any other thing Venion knew about alchemy and such, he knew that he could eventually figure that out by himself.

'How hard could it be?'

'I agree, even though I think it'll take a lot of time and it will be difficult, we can do it ourselves.'

"I'm sorry, but-", "Say no more!" Venion had a nasty look on his face, but Lucas could only see the mouth turn downwards in disgust. "It seems you aren't destined to become a great true mage if you think you'll grow with the baron as your master. Do you really want to waste that potential, a light core is already quite rare, yet you're too stubborn or scared to turn your back on him? I have a contract under the jurisdiction of the Order of Light with the baron, so I need to do certain tasks. But if you become my follower, I would leave immediately, go back to my family and they'll deal with the repercussions of the breach of contract. Are you really going to give up on such a chance?"

Lucas only nodded, to Venion this only signified his desire to become a slave. 'If he really doesn't want to come with me willingly, I guess I should kidnap him, although that would make him despise me. If I want to create the follower I need, both sides need to be willing, I need him to come with me of his own volition. If he signs the follower contract willingly he'll be stuck with me for eternity.'

"Fine, if that's your choice then so be it. My offer will always stand, if at any point you feel like you want to escape, come to me. We're done here, let's go back to the mansion.". Lucas was surprised that he didn't get berated or even punished for not following Venion, he was prepared for another lesson, yet nothing happened.

'I guess it'll happen when he asks for that favor.'

They went back to the cart, leaving the soldier's bodies behind.