The Liberomancer [Isekai Progression LitRPG]

We were making good time on the Tyrant Arachnea, and it was comfortable enough on its back that I actually dozed off for a couple of hours before being awakened by the shining rays of dawn.

There were still around two hours left for the Tyrant Arachnea to remain in the world, and I gave it a mental command to try to stay off the main road now that it was daylight and we were far more visible. The odds of us running into someone was also much greater now just because traffic would be greater in the daytime.

When the time of its summoning was about to run out, it removed the two of us from its back, and then untied me before it vanished from this plane of existence.

"Alright, how are you?" I asked the man.

The man's face was several shades paler than what I remembered, as if he'd exsanguinated quite an amount on the journey here. I was willing to be that unlike me, he had not slept a wink during our journey. He turned towards me weakly, as if he had undergone several decades of misfortune and torture within the short span of time we had taken to get here. Looking at his sorry state, I could safely conclude that he didn't have a way out of those binds, even with magic, else he most certainly would've used them already. "C-Can I have something to eat please? I'm starving…"

"Alright," I said. I looked out in the distance - I had never been here and had never needed to navigate things out in the wilderness before, so I couldn't be completely sure where we were but if we were still on track, I thought that we could reach the capital by tomorrow morning.

I would have to ask a local village for directions though, as we had gone somewhat off the route I had initially planned.

I decided to use [Fish Haul] to make us a quick breakfast, because then I wouldn't have to get the food I had stored out of my packs which was still tied up in several rolls of spider silk.

His eyes widened, and he seemed to forget about all of the horrors of our journey coming here when he saw what I had done.

"Is that… can you make food with magic?"

"Yes, didn't you know that?" It was a bit easier to guess his age in the sunlight, and he seemed to be quite a bit older than me.

I was almost certain that he was only Rank One at this point though, which meant that there was something seriously deficient about the way he approached Liberomancy or some other family factor or the like going on which was hampering his growth. Given what he was doing - it was most likely the latter.

[Fish Haul] was not a mainstream spell but I'd expect that most people would be able to recognize it when they saw it or knew of it. Meaning his knowledge and aptitude were both bottom-of-the-barrel.

"No…" he said weakly. "If only I knew how to do that… things would be much different…" He started tearing up again. "I've been on an empty stomach for a while now… but if…" He then stopped crying and turned towards me. "Master Liberomancer! Please accept me as your apprentice!"

Of all the things I had expected to come out of this mouth, that was the last one.

"Apprentice!? You tried to rob me!" I retorted incredulously. The nerve on this guy!

"Yes, and I will bow to you a thousand times and apologize over and over if that is what it takes!" he said. "I will do any job that you ask of me, teacher! I only have one request - teach me that spell!"

"Which spell?"

"That one right now, that you made the fish with! If I had that, I would have never gone hungry a day in my life, and I wouldn't be in this situation in the first place," he said. "I'm willing to change all of my earlier ways, just please accept me as your student!"

"I have no desire to take in an apprentice," I told him. "Especially not one who is going to use what I'd teach him to rob other people."

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"Please, listen to reason," he said. "Think about it - what will happen if you drop me off to the city guards? They'll go ahead and imprison me for a year or two - or if you place great pressure on them, perhaps five years depending on the charges. Then once I get out, I'll have no means to support myself, and will have to resort to stealing to support myself, and we will find ourselves in the same spot yet again. Do you not see how this cycle of negativity will only lead me nowhere? But if you teach me how to keep my stomach full at all times, I won't have to resort to such means ever again. I might even be able to use my other powers for good."

My brain was reeling - some of what this guy was saying made sense. And yet, knowing what all he had done up till now, I just knew that he was playing me somehow. What he had in mind was most definitely not limited to just feeding himself.

He was also surprisingly eloquent, now that he wasn't shaking in fear I noted; given the fact that he seemed to have received very little formal education.

I found it odd that he hadn't used these skills to more of an advantage - he would make a great salesman - or conman. At least being a conman could give him plausible deniability in certain situations, and would have less risk than wandering out in the wilderness trying to rob people.

"Alright, tell me upfront, what's wrong with you?" I asked.

"Eh?"

"I mean, why are you in this situation in the first place? You shouldn't be going around stealing things like this- are you just a kleptomaniac?" I asked.

"No sir," he said. "I just fell on some bad times - as anyone in any position can. Look, perhaps someone like you can't understand - I doubt you've gone hungry a single mealtime in your life - but I really would want to avoid continuing upon this path of crime-" my face darkened at his remark, and he seemed to notice and pause. "I'm serious, I truly am!" he said, once again trying to convince me of his sincerity, not understanding what part of his speech had angered me.

I looked off into the distance. At least some of what he was spouting seemed to be true.

And yet, my sympathies for him were rather limited. He had tried to rob me, and was clearly something of an experienced thief. That meant he had robbed people before me - did he have any sympathy for them such as the fact that those he stole from would remain hungry instead?

I still couldn't trust whether he had stolen from that lizardman I had met on the road or not.

The victim and the robber - I understood both of them to some extent, but it was clear which side I supported.

Once again though… I didn't think he was completely lying. And he did somewhat have a point.

"I… It doesn't matter whether I want to or not, I can't teach you this spell," I told him.

"Why not?"

"For one, it's a Rank Two spell," I told him. "And two, it's a lizardman spell."

"Rank Two?" he asked. He looked incredulous. "Why would something that… does something so simple need Rank Two magic?"

Most 'lifestyle' spells were Rank One, like [Create Water] or [Create Flame].

That was one of the reasons that [Fish Haul] was not very popular - because it was one thing to fill in a Rank One spell slot with something that wasn't too useful (most people had Rank One slots that really weren't contributing much anyway) but to use a Rank Two slot for such a thing? When you could instead fill it with a summoning spell or something far more useful like [Fireball] or [Invisibility]? Why would you do it?

Right now, as I was planning to specialize in summoning and potentially one other thing, I could feel the pressure of having a limited set of slots to work with. And it would be so easy to decide that [Fish Haul] was no longer necessary in the future. Why keep it?

Most people wouldn't - but I had chosen to learn it and also keep it for a reason. Much like this man, I didn't want to be hungry at any point in the future ever again, even if it made me slightly weaker otherwise.

It also did have another slight benefit - I could reduce the amount of stuff I had to carry while traveling. And given that I hadn't yet come upon an inventory-like spell in this world, where I could just stash my stuff in some sort of pocket dimension until I needed it, this aspect couldn't be entirely disregarded.

"Can you read the lizardmen language?" I asked him.

"I can barely read the human one," he said, and for once, I thought he was being completely honest.

I used [Summon Bear] and it began to approach him.

"Wait, wait, wait, I'm sorry if I offended you in some way - please don't have the bear eat me!" he began to scream and squirm.

"Calm down and stop moving, the bear can't cut open your restraints otherwise," I said. "Or it might end up cutting you by accident." The silk that the Tyrant Arachnea used was strong, and I had no hope of cutting it myself even if I had something like a pocketknife. The bear's claws, on the other hand, were accompanied by its immense strength. Breaking through the silk wasn't the issue - it was doing so without hurting the man.

Once he realized this he did his best not to twitch too much, though I could tell it was still difficult for him. Then again, any person who could be so close to a bear and not be twitchy probably had something wrong with him.

"That's it?" he asked when he realized I had only opened him up to his arms.

"Yes, I'm not going to spoon feed you now then, am I, now eat, we need to get going," I said, tossing him a fish after I had been done cooking it.

He polished it off quickly enough, but before I could pack up to leave, he asked: "...can I have another?"

I sighed and tossed him another one.