Second World

When Jack became an Archmage, he received several inherent skills, same as when he became the Blade Dancer. These inherent skills were a 10% increase in his Intelligence and Mana recovery. The range of all his Magician and Mage's spells is boosted by additional 20 meters, and all elemental resistances are increased by 5%.

For the spells, apart from Call Familiar, he received another spell which was the standard spell acquired when someone became an Archmage. The spell was called Mana Beam. It was an offensive spell that shot an energy beam that traveled in a linear line. At level 1 it dealt 300% magical damage to all within its path. The spell's range was 50 meters with a 1-minute cooldown.

After he became an Archmage, he set his exp setting back to 50:50. So both his Blade Dancer and Archmage class received an equal amount of exp points.

At this time when he was heading to the Mage Academy, Peniel was awfully quiet along the way. Jack didn't bother her.

"It's not that I'm not willing," Peniel suddenly said. "I'¦"

"No need to say anything," Jack cut her. He smiled at her. "You are already extremely helpful the way you are. There is no need for you to do anything more. I'm happy as it is. I believe I will get a better familiar."

"Oh? So you think there is one better than me?"

"Uh, I mean, I will get a great familiar second to you. There is no need for you to worry about it. I don't like to force people into doing something they don't want to. I believe you have your reason and it's fine by me, either way. So, don't worry. I'm cool. I truly am."

After that, the journey continued again in awkward silence.

Jack felt weird with the silence. He was just about to randomly say something when Peniel beat him to it, "all right, I will be your familiar."

The statement was rather unexpected so Jack just watched her with a weird expression. When he managed to make sense of what she had just said, he soon replied, "no, no, I don't accept. Janus mentioned the familiar having HP, which means if you become one, you can be attacked. I cannot accept the risk of you dying."

"A Familiar has HP and yes, can be attacked. But it didn't die for real like archer's pets. If familiars run out of HP during combat, they will simply phase out. Similar to me hiding in my hidden dimension. After some time has passed, you can call the same familiar out again. So there is no worry of losing a familiar. You will only lose a familiar if you decide to replace it with another one."

"Oh'¦ Then why did you hesitate about becoming one just now?"

"Becoming someone's familiar is not something simple. It means you are bound with that person. It is not something to be taken lightly."

"I am confused. Aren't we already bound by such a thing?"

"What we have now is the Goddess' order, I have no say in it. If I sign a familiar contract with you. It will be a deliberate action. Being bound to someone out of our own free will is something of huge importance to us high fairies."

"Hm'¦ so it's more like a customary kind of thing. Why get so tie-up with tradition? It's not as if we are having a marriage or something."

"Moron!" Peniel scolded as she stormed off.

"Hey, hey! Did I say something wrong?" Jack called as he chased after her.

Peniel remained quiet as they arrived at the Mage Academy. Jack didn't know what to say. If he said something, he was afraid that he would just annoy her again, so he also kept quiet. 'Understanding a woman is never really my forte,' Jack lamented inside.

When Jack entered the Mage Academy. It was the same as he came the first time. There was no one except for a single old mage reading a tome by the bookshelves. Jack was sure now he must have entered a separate dimension. There had been lots of players who became Mage class, no way no one else was here whenever he came in.

Jack came to the old mage, "Sir, I'm told that I can use the magic furnace here to bind a contract with a familiar. I like to ask for permission to use it."

The old mage looked at him before gesturing for Jack to follow him. "Come. Take you to choose familiars."

"Wait!" Jack called out. "I already have a candidate. I just need the magic furnace to proceed with the contract."

The old mage turned back. Jack turned to Peniel and asked, "you are still okay becoming my familiar, right?"

"Whatever, let's just go through with it," Peniel replied.

"Hm? Thought you were unwilling?" The old mage asked.

Jack was slightly confused by the old mage's response. How did he know about Peniel's reluctance to be his familiar before? He also felt something familiar about this old mage. Of course, he had met this mage before, but that was not the reason he felt the familiarity. As he paid attention, he noticed several unique characteristics. Neatly combed long white hair but there were traces of purple in it, a face that was sure to be handsome during his young age. This old mage terribly reminded him of someone he just met not long ago. Jack used Inspect on the old mage.

He had tried to inspect this old mage before, but he failed to gain any info. It was the same this time. Since his Inspect was not working, he decided to just use an old-fashioned information-gathering tool.

"Uh, um'¦ Are you somehow related to the Janus that was watching over the Order of Magi?" Jack asked. "Are you his dad probably?"

"Not dad," the old mage replied. "Same. Only older."

Same person? Jack was both surprised and also kind of expected this answer at the same time. That young Janus had multiple copies everywhere. So having another copy here was not that far-fetched. But apart from the age, their personalities were also very different. The young one was very chatty, this one liked to use a minimal number of words in a sentence.

"Um, if you don't mind me asking, how many of you are there?" Jack asked.

"Many."

Damn! Perhaps he should just reserve his questions for the young chatty Janus the next time they met again. But Jack still asked one more question as he could not hold his curiosity, "Which one of you is the original Janus?"

"You not meet, yet. Leader," old Janus answered. "Come."

'Leader? Did he mean the leader of the academy or leader of Order of Magi?' Jack wondered. But he didn't ponder about it long since the old Janus was already on his way. Jack chased after him.

The old Janus took him to the basement where he last came to make use of the Orb of Disguise.

"Have magic stone?" Old Janus asked.

"I have," Jack said as he fished out an uncommon magic stone.

Old Janus shook his head. "Needs rare magic stone for Familiar contract."

Jack took out another magic stone which was of rare grade. He had bought several for stock. Although it was classified as a rare grade, these rare grade magic stones were abundantly sold in the shops. They were ammo-refill for magic-user's weapons, after all.

Old Janus nodded. He then left, leaving Jack with Peniel to work out the magic furnace themselves.

'Definitely different from the young one,' Jack thought. The young one would have stayed and accompanied him through the process.

Jack didn't mind though, he had Peniel to guide him. He approached the Magic Furnace. "How do I do this?" Jack asked her.

"You don't need to do anything. Just put in the magic stone. I will work on the magic furnace. Afterward, you just establish a link with it as you did with the Container of Souls or the Lightning God Sphere."

Jack interfaced with the magic furnace and then inserted the magic stone. He then stepped back as Peniel took over. Several runes appeared around Peniel and the magic furnace. They spun around and enveloped her. Soon Jack received the notification asking him if he wished to enact a familiar contract with Peniel.

Jack agreed. He felt a prickling sensation within him for a brief instant. He then heard a notification congratulating him to have successfully bound with a familiar. He didn't feel any different but he noticed there was now an HP bar above Peniel when she flew back to him. Jack used Inspect on her.

Peniel (Mythical Familiar, High Fairy), level: 32

HP: 1,025

"Good heaven! You are a Mythical grade!" Jack exclaimed.

"Hmph! Are you impressed now?" Peniel gave Jack a proud expression. "Do know that I'm not just any High Fairy. Normal High Fairy is only a Rare Elite grade. The Fountain of Knowledge given by the creator is what elevated my grade. However, I don't have any battle capacity despite being a mythical."

"Ah, no wonder. Your HP is too low for a Mythical grade," Jack added with a disappointed expression.

"That's because a Familiar HP is always tied to the one she is bound with!" Peniel exclaimed. "Blame your own self for having a low HP!"

"Low HP she said, try finding another outworlder with HP as high as mine," Jack grumbled. "But there is no need to worry about your HP, you can just hide inside your hidden dimension."

"If I do that, you will not get any buff from me. I also cannot aid you with spells. A familiar has to be present with the partner to be useful," Peniel said. "Open your skill page. The description of your Call Familiar spell should have been updated."

Jack did as told.

Call Familiar: Peniel - High Fairy, level 1/20 (Special spell)

Summon a High Fairy with 50% HP of bound partner's max HP. Cooldown if killed: 1 hour.

Passive skill to Familiar: Reduce all damage by 50%, Regenerate 10HP every second, become invulnerable for 5 seconds when HP falls below 30%

Passive skill to Partner: Regenerate 5 HP every second.

Active skill 1: Fast Heal = Recover 50% HP and remove negative status effects to partner.. cooldown: 3 minutes.