The First Archmage

(Gavin)

"What are you doing?" Tristan asks.

I look over at the old sage, who accompanied me, Michael, and Soren to the entrance of the caves that will lead to the spider's mother. She's too large to leave, as their kind apparently never stop growing, but Soren mentioned that she could probably just open a path out if she wanted.

He also mentioned that he's different from most Giga Spiders in that he's a male with a more advanced, less-primal mind. It seems that all of the ones in the fields were males, which explains why they all seemed so primitive.

The females, on the other hand, tend to be sapient, and his mother is a Giga Spider Matriarch, a more powerful female Giga Spider. Naturally.

And she's not one, not two, but three Tiers of Species above me. How the fuck did something as powerful as these two exist, and word of it never reach my ears.

Considering how powerful she is, I need to be prepared, especially mentally. So I'm… preparing.

"Adding becoming stronger than is probably safe," I answer.

Probably made no sense to him, but whatever.

Scaled Wyvern is Now Level 25!

+1,200 to INT, STR, CON, LIF, ARA, +600 MNA, OFV, RRN

Remaining Experience: 40,448

Should I take on one of the more powerful ones, too? One of the First Five I don't already have? I might need it, based off what Soren told me of his mother, and how much more powerful she is than me. Considering a monster's natural level of power, and how much stronger every Tier is than the past, her have not one but two Tier IV Species is bad for me.

Yeah, I'll take on another.

Which one, though? I already have Void Mage and Dekami. I can take on Kratus and Dirsoor. Dammit. I wish I had Kurew, for that powerful bonus from Dragons. Then again, they're all massive bonuses.

Dirsoor is probably the better bet, but I mostly need the extra INT and Resources, which both provide, and Kratus boosts my OFV as well, while Dirsoor doesn't. In addition, taking it on now means I'll be able to work on those Enchantments easier as well.

I accept the Subspecies of Kratus, then pause.

Maybe I should advance Ascendant Fairy, first. Increase my limit, as pushing through Kratus might push me past what's safe.

Looking at the options, I grin. Luck truly works for me, doesn't it?

I can take on Eternal again. And since its Quest acts retroactively, that means I don't need to do anything special.

You Are Now an Eternal (III)!

Eternal is Now Level 25!

+240 to All Attributes, +240 LIF

Remaining Experience: 10,448

Enough for me to push Scaled Wyvern to the top, I determine as I feel my body grow more powerful, yet doesn't change. Probably because of me already being an Eternal, and thus, receiving the 'changes'. I suppose?

Wait. There was something. It was so subtle, I didn't notice it with the other changes.

My zierna changed again, both of them. Examining the runes, I smile, Reij unwrapping himself so he can examine them. He can't protect me against mental attacks. If he could, I wouldn't be so worried.

The new zierna, however… with them activated, I can resist mental attacks much, much better.

Speaking of Reij…

"Michael," I stroke the back of Reij's head, sending a quick message to him. "I want you to take Reij, while I'm in there."

"Why?" He asks. "Wouldn't Reij be able to stop any magics she throws at you?"

"Yes and no," I answer, and he takes on a look of confusion, even moving his head back a little. "Reij is good against magic, but not things like spatial spells, which their species of spider can harness, and he's also susceptible to mental magics over a certain level. It's possible that she'd be able to command him to consume my magics while she attacks."

"Oh," Michael holds out his arm, and the Ouroboros slithers off of mine and onto him. "He's so soft."

"Don't be fooled," I tell the Wolfborn. "His scales are nigh-impenetrable. It's likely soft in feeling to make it more comfortable for him to be around."

Soren watches the Ouroboros curiously, fidgeting nervously when it bites its tail and vanishes again.

"What?" I look at the giant spider.

"Reij's mind doesn't exist to me," he answers. "Not unless he's visible. Most curious."

"Would still be useless," I sigh. "Unfortunately, he can only eat magic if he's not biting his tail, and he's only invisible if he's biting his tail."

"He's a magic-eater?"

"Among other things."

"Like what?"

"Spiders."

Though Reij has confirmed that he's pretty sure a spider their size is too big for him to just up and eat. He did mention he thinks he could eat at least most of Soren, but he's not so sure he can eat a spider that's a hundred feet tall.

Reij is able to convert magics back into raw magic, which is the power he feeds on to survive. He prefers magics formed of Aether more than anything, though he accepts others as well. He really is just an anti-magic creature, though.

He's still useful as fuck.

I stroke the back of Reij's neck, and he detaches himself for a moment to look at me, then bites his tail once more. Then I remember that I hadn't finished with my Experience yet, and finish that.

Kratus is Now Level 25!

+2,400 INT, AGI, CHA, PER, LIF, Resources, RRN

Remaining Experience: 2,948

Done. In all honesty, none of this is necessary. I could take the Grimoire by force, and not give a damn about the consequences. Even kill Soren, if necessary. But it'd probably piss off Tristan, and fighting something this strong will probably benefit me. With my INT now resting over ten thousand, that, combined with my Mental Resistance sitting at Level 10, means I should be fine and able to resist her mind-control powers. Or at least, detect them and fight against them.

However, she's not just a mind-controlling spider. She's a fucking bitch, according to her son. She'll use others around her, create powerful illusions, and is a master of shadow magics and psionic spells, and is highly resilient to magics.

She'll probably be susceptible to Aether and Void, though there's a chance that, being as old as she is, she has some resistance to those. And possibly use them. The Aetherial Sword would be nice to use, but her chamber isn't large enough to use that.

I seriously do need a lot of open space for it.

After doing some last checks, I decide to take on Timeless One again, even though I can't just spam it to maximum. I do add in the last of my free Experience, though. All 2,948 General Experience. It bought me up to Level 4, granting me seventy-five to my Attributes, Resources, and LIF. Not much of a boost, but that's fine.

Fighting and killing this thing will benefit me well. This is going to be one thing that actually can give me Experience naturally, instead of being such a small amount, it'd take hundreds or thousands of kills.

Combining that with a bonus – just from having Wizard available before having Access – of 6,561x to Experience.

So I'm gaining probably a few Levels from killing her, if I succeed. And that's before factoring in all other bonuses I have that affect my Experience gains.

"Alright," I look at my companions. "I'm going in. I'll see you once I'm finished. And Soren? I'm holding you to your promise. As the Hero of the Origin of Blood Oaths, I take violating them very seriously."

If Soren could gulp, he probably would have right then, judging by the way he shifted and his eyes moved.

Without further delay, I make my way inside, keeping a firm sense within my mind for its state, in case she does somehow manage to get through my defenses.

With my powerful senses, I can still hear them even after ten minutes into the cave, and based on what Tristan says, I can guess at Soren's question.

"Yes, he probably did go up a couple of Species Tiers," Tristan responds to the question. "That's one of the reasons I tried getting you to not antagonize him. He's friendly if you're an ally, but he's devastatingly powerful – enough that he can slay full-grown Dragons on his own. He probably didn't even think about powering-up when he faced you back in the ruins, but had you two gotten into a full fight, he'd have probably quickly made the changes. Had he done that, we'd have been standing in a crater."

"Well," Michael says. "He would have been standing in a crater. Soren wouldn't exist, and you and I might or might not."

I'd kill Soren, not you, Michael. You're an ally, up until you aren't. And you haven't done anything to make yourself not.

After an hour of descending deeper into the mountain and the ground, I find myself sensing entities poking at my mind. The moment I detect it, I perform a psychic blast. It's crude and unrefined, but considering how powerful I am, it doesn't really matter right now.

The beings – probably a variety of female spiders – stop their prodding.

For the next two hours, I continue to sense them, though I never see them. They've stopped attempting to read my mind or take control after that burst, which tells me that they possibly see me as stronger than them.

Finally, I arrive in the massive chamber containing Soren's mother, and fuck, is she massive.

Over a hundred feet tall, with dark grey skin and fur. Scales a darker grey than the rest of her sparsely line her legs and body, giving her a touch of armor as well. Fucking fuck, she's strong, especially with her Aura of Power active.

Isulta Giga Spider Matriarch (IV) 25 Mind Rat Queen (IV) 25 Shadow Wyvern Matriarch 8

Fucking fuck. A Tier IX Species thousands of years old. She won't be as powerful as the Dragon, but she's still got to be powerful as fuck.

And she only gives me a few moments to gaze upon her before the mental assault begins as she attempts to gain control over me. I push back against her, fighting with all my mental strength, and she starts using other spiders in the attack, having them attack me.

Males and females, the males for strength, the females for psychic powers. I summon up the Violet Dragon and the Void, and begin my offensive and defensive as I push back against her mind. I need to kill the others before I can even think about fighting her, she's too powerful.

The difference between even just Tiers is just too much.

Even after an hour of just fighting, I can't hurt her. She and her minions are capable of casting curses and manipulating shadows and psychic energies, while also able to Teleport around.

Thankfully, I've already taken out those she's thrown at me, but she's just too powerful, her body too tough, even as just a spider. My spells are stopped by her magical defenses, her natural resilience, and those damn scales! The difference really is that-

STOP!

With that single mental shout, I blast her out of my mind, a wave of psychic energy radiating out of me in a sphere, forming a shimmering, fluid-like violet barrier around me.

New Skill!

Psychic Sphere: A gathering of pure psychic energy turned physical, this sphere forms a strong barrier around oneself – or one's target.

The moment I've created the sphere and the blast that cleared her from my mind, I calm down a bit. She had managed to get in my head just a little bit, but not with her psychic powers.

Her damn Aura of Power. The sphere's protecting me from it right now, but as soon as I let it up, the assault will begin again. That's fine, though, because now I'm thinking about what the Aura of Power does to others, the better I can resist it.

Reading through the notifications I ignored while fighting her, I notice several notices giving me more Levels to my resistance to it. It's now at Level 5. Damn, the difference between Tiers really is huge, if it was still affecting me at Level 5.

With me actively resisting it now, though, it'll go up faster, I'm sure. Formulating a battle plan, I release my barrier, dozens of Voids forming as the Violet Dragon lashes out.

She might be tough, but she's nothing against a triple Timeless One Dragonslayer.

Isulta raises her defenses as my spells soar towards her, and I open my mouth, unleashing a Roar much more powerful than any I've ever achieved before. Part of it's boosted by my innate powers from increasing my Species by two Tiers, but part of it's boosted by other means.

An experimental adjustment to my normal Roar, powered by magics I've only observed in the past. Before I can see her react, I know the adjustment worked, the Skill notification appearing in my vision.

New Skill!

Dragon's Roar: Unleash the anger of a Dragon upon your foe, terrifying them and stilling them where they are.

The Mind Spider Matriarch freezes the moment she hears my Dragon's Roar, her defenses going down. She recovers, but I timed it just right, not giving her enough time to recreate her barriers before my Voids devour parts of her legs, my Violet Dragon weaving around and slamming into several of her eyes.

She screeches in pain, and it resonates with a part of me. The Scaled Wyvern Subspecies. A sense forms within me, and I open my mouth, letting out a screech of my own.

New Skill!

Wyvern's Screech: The screech of a wyvern is shrill, able to disrupt the thoughts of those who hear it and freeze them where they are.

I dismiss the notification as I follow it up with another Dragon's Roar, then several more Voids and assaults by the Violet Dragon. Every time she attempts to attack or defend, I unleash my Screech and Roar to disrupt her thoughts and fill her with the fear of a Dragon.

Using that combination, I manage to whittle her away bit by bit, until eventually, she's weak enough for a Blood Smite.

The crimson spell blasts from my hands, slamming into her and boring through her as the Violet Dragon returns to its coiled state around me. As my final attack finishes, the damn bitch explodes into a shower of blood.

Using a Psychic Sphere, I stop it from actually touching me as I sort through the various messages I received through the fight. Several of my Skills became Mastered, particularly from my Tier I and II Skills. Threat Detection and Magic Voice both went up to max, my Spatial Detection went up to Level 4, Species Dominance Resistance hit Level 8, and Curse Resistance hit max.

I guess that explains those prickly feelings I kept getting. Didn't even realize she was using curses.

Summon Void reached Level 10, granting me 16,000 Experience, since it was at only Level 3 when I started. Teleport went up to Level 4, though I can't blame it, as I didn't really use it much here. Blood Smite went up a Level, reaching Tier IX.

Oh, looks like Divine Appraisal resistance and Appraisal Resistance both went up as well. That's pretty nice. I'm probably missing some, as I did dismiss a few notifications throughout the fight.

There are a lot of Experience notifications for me to sort through, so I have the System just add them all up and total it to me.

All in all, killing the bitch put me up from Level 4 to level 25 just from the raw Experience earned by fighting and killing her, and I'm a bit glad it was worth a ton of Experience at its base.

The extra little bonus is even better.

Slayed a Species of a Higher Tier Than You

+15,000 Experience per Tier

Slayed a Species of a Higher True Tier Than You

+20,000 Experience per True Tier

That's 195,000 more General Experience, putting me up to 211,000 General Experience just from this fight alone, on top of all of those Skill Levels and maxing-out my Fairy Timeless One.

Exhausted, I collapse onto the ground, into the only part of the room without the bitch's blood covering it.