The Arcane Archer - Chapter 52 Escape

Magic is very limited at 1mp. I could cast basic things like spark, gust which created a very light breeze, and a few other things which weren’t helpful one bit. The system did work however which means that I wasn’t completely limited on how to escape and bring everyone back with me.

My inventory didn’t cost any mana which allowed me to infer that whatever was causing me to not be able to cast anything costing more then 1 mana was limited to only reducing casting abilities. This didn’t mean I could just break out with brute strength however as even our Barbarian tried bending the bars without anything happening to them. I’m definitely not as strong as them so I won’t even be able to do anything.

In my inventory, I didn’t really have much except for some spare arrows, books, a bunch of food, 92 tiny mana crystals, a magic book holder, a potion from the hobgoblin that I assume is a growth potion, a disguise kit, unknown red potion, and 47 small mana crystals.

The potion was potentially useless as I’m pretty sure that it would only double my strength and endurance or something. Food was good for eating which I immediately started doing cause its free food. The magic book holder is only useful for a full-on wizard who needs a grimoire to cast spells. That only leaves the mana crystals left

Pulling out a tiny mana crystal, I cast a quick inspect on it and saw that it only had 1 mp stored inside of it and a small mana crystal had 5. In total, all these crystals gave me 327 mana. However, who knows if I’ll even be able to do anything with these crystals? For all I know, there could be the same effect on them as there is with me.

Deciding that an experiment would do good, I grabbed a handful of tiny mana crystals and started casting a spell with them. As I did, two small sparks came out of my hand as one of the tiny mana crystals dulled into an ash gray color. Trying again but with a small mana crystal instead, 6 sparks came out of my hand with the mana crystal once again dulling into a dull ash gray color.

I tried some more things here and therewith the crystals until I came to the realization of something while trying to enchant a book. When trying to enchant, it would first consume the crystal in hand before my own mana. If I had multiple crystals, it would instead drain them one by one before it would drain mine. This means, I could enchant something to get out. But then that brings up the question, can I use magic items here? I assume but I won’t know till I try.

Pulling out the artifact that I got just a few hours earlier, I put it on and attempted to teleport directly to where I was standing. The did the usual with a large bright light appearing and then a few seconds later the light disappeared, and I was a foot in front of where I was earlier.

Now before you ask why I don’t use this to escape, there are a few reasons. First, the guards will be rushing over to my cell like they are now, then probably scream and yell at me asking what that bright light was. Kind of like they are now but with a lot more threats mixed in.

Another reason besides this is that I want to bring everyone back safely and I have to go to each individual cell which would definitely give them enough time to find a magic user who can cast counter spell or something like that.

With the experiment done and the helm of teleportation back in my inventory before the guards even arrived, I now had to actually deal with the guards.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I said without even knowing what they were saying as it was probably what you would expect.

“Everyone saw that bright light! What did you do?” Guard A asked

“Told a really bad joke.”

Guard B slammed on my cell bars.

“Stop lying heretic! We know you did something and will not leave till we find out what.”

“Oh really?” I asked with a smile.

Once they confirmed that they definitely would, I walked over to my bed and laid down while staring at them. After a few minutes passed I started watching a movie through the system but made sure to keep an eye on them the entire time.

The best part about this was that for them, they wouldn’t be able to see or hear the movie so to them it would look like I was just staring at them. Almost 4 hours passed with them yelling and banging on my cell walls before they stopped and left. Though not before spitting into my cell and calling me names like a thug or gang member.

After all that happened, it was not around 5 am in the morning which didn’t leave me much time as they would probably come and take me to an interrogation room when they’re all awake. I do not want to be here when that happens.

Buying a cheap item from the system store, I quickly placed it on the ground and started enchanting it while constantly pulling out mana crystals. Taking around 10 minutes, I was eventually able to enchant the item to be able to cast misty step 5 times per day.

After all the enchanting, I was left with a total of 8 tiny mana crystals and 3 small mana crystals. During the process, I was entirely surprised that the item didn’t break from how much mana I was forcing into it with enchanting. I’ll also have to be careful with it as it might explode if used to much in quick succession, dropped, or even looked at the wrong way. The item is a literal ticking mana bomb that is detrimental to escaping with everyone, but I’ll have to do it carefully.

Taking a deep breath, I took out the helm of teleportation and put it on my head in preparation for when I needed to use it. Then, I carefully picked up my item of misty step and walked to the bars of my cells and focused on one of my companions’ room.

Pushing 1 mana into the item to activate it which put a crack into the item and nearly frightened me to death. Immediately after seeing the crack, my body turned into mist and within a second moved over to one of my party members cages. At the moment, they were all asleep which was weird as there was people just yelling for 4 hours straight just a few minutes ago.

Shaking them awake, I got a startled reaction before quickly calming them down and telling them the plan. They nodded and asked some quick questions before allowing me to continue on my way to the others.

Waking up the rest and telling them the plan, I was eventually able to gather everyone within 10 feet for the plan to work. Then, teleporting outside of all the cells, I stood directly in the center of where everyone was and used the helm of teleportation to get us out. The guards noticed us and started running towards us while one started casting a spell.

Just as I the helm was about to finish and teleport us away, I felt a resistance trying to keep me in place and not allow me to leave. Taking a quick look around while also trying to concentrate on forcing my way through the spell, I eventually spotted what I appeared to be the magic user.

They were staring me down and had a massive smirk on their face as if they successfully ruined my entire life. Which I must say, felt like they did as shortly after the helm of teleportation failed and didn’t teleport me away like I wanted. But I still had more charges!

Immediately using the helm again, I focused on using the helm while also using taekwondo to keep all the guards away from me. Once again, I felt the resistance and tried forcing my way through the counterspell and eventually successfully broke through the resistance. And just in time too as just as I finished using the helm of teleportation, Marth walked in through a hallway with his sword out, staring me down.

Giving him a smile, I flipped him off with both hands as some of the guards jumped onto me and tackled me to the ground. Just as Marth was a few feet away and I was dogpiled to the point of being unable to move, the helm finished its job as we were teleported into the regular hideout of the resistance.

The others, being free and not on the ground like me, bounced around in joy and quickly ran out of my room to find their superiors to tell them all that happened. I just spend a few moments on the ground enjoying the nice hard floor with silence in the presence of no one before getting up and leaving to find Ava and report to her the abomination (Author’s Note: or clusterfuck as my friend said as it works even better) that was the mission as almost nothing went correctly after a certain point.

This morning was going to be a long and tiresome time of people (Ava) yelling at me. But this time I’m going to yell cause I’m tired and want to go to bed.