The Liberomancer [Isekai Progression LitRPG]

I paused. "A Liberomancer…?"

In response to this he stuck out his tongue (one of the few things he could still do given all the webbing), and created a small flame as if there was an invisible lighter attached to the tip.

Yeah, that was definitely [Create Flame]. This man was a Rank One Liberomancer at the very least, and given the fact that he couldn't free himself was likely just that - Rank One.

"Yes, I'm a Liberomancer," he said. "I had gotten lost in the woods and was just looking for a place to stay when I was assaulted by… this monster!"

I frowned. There was definitely something off with his story. He didn't look like a guy who had just wandered too close to me by accident - he had to wander pretty close to set off the Tyrant Arachnea to attack him. I had asked it to only strike if it felt that someone was coming too close. "If that's true, why is your friend running away then?"

"Probably because he saw a giant monster!" the man said.

I was considering the fact that this might be a big misunderstanding and that perhaps I should let him go when I felt something tug on my consciousness.

The Tyrant Arachnea clearly disagreed with what I was thinking at the time - and began sending me images of what had happened. Given its compound eyes, and the fact that it relied on its other senses more than sight at times, it was all a bit disjointed - but I understood what had gone on.

"If that's true, why were you sneaking towards me like that?" I asked. I saw images of him crawling along the grass slowly towards me, deliberately making as little noise as possible. "From what my spider saw, it looks like you were trying to kill me." Something then struck me like a bolt of lightning. I leapt back from him instinctively. "You! You're a demonic Liberomancer, aren't you?" It was the only reason I could think of that another Liberomancer would behave in such a way. I began charging up a spell.

"AIYEEEEE - no, no, fine, please hold your fire! I'll come clean, but I was never going to kill or hurt you I swear, I was just seeing if I could steal something valuable!" he yelled out.

"Stealing? Why?"

"For money of course! Why else do people steal?" he sobbed.

It still didn't add up. Why would he have to resort to such measures if he was a Rank One Liberomancer?

A strange stench permeated the air - it looked like he had wet himself.

Given the way he was struggling to get out, it did seem that my assessment of him being a demonic Liberomancer was incorrect. My mind went over the other likely possibilities.

"Did you by any chance rob a lizardman a few days ago?" I asked him.

"No, no, I didn't," he said. I wasn't sure whether to trust him or not; nearly every single word he spat out was suspect. "Please, we are both Liberomancers, right? Shouldn't we treat each other better than this? As a fellow Liberomancer, please let me go!"

I frowned. "You have some nerve - first you try to steal from me and then you pull the 'we Liberomancers need to stick together card after that?' You're not very smart you know." Then again, as he was in this state despite being a Rank One Liberomancer, that was quite apparent the more I thought about it.

What to do with him though?

There were several things I could do.

I could go and hunt down the rest of his gang - starting with that man who had run away and then finding out if there were any other people involved, but that came with its own risks. I didn't know how many of them there were - they could have other Liberomancers with them, and although this man didn't seem to have any demonic spells with him I couldn't be sure about the others.

Back in Arconia, when I had bumped into that demonic Liberomancer by accident, I had not confronted him directly - and a good thing at that, as multiple people had ended up dead in the following confrontation. That very well could've included me if I had been more daring.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Dealing with demonic Liberomancers was different from dealing with monsters.

Demonic Liberomancers had spells and skills which were difficult to counter - I had mostly written off such a scenario though as I'd been reassured that the odds of running into a demonic Liberomancer were very low. Most Liberomancers went their whole lives without encountering even a single one. And yet, with my luck, I had run into one back in Arconia within months of getting to the city…

"Alright, we're leaving," I said, making my decision.

"Leaving? Where?"

"You already woke me up, and we're close enough to the capital now that we can reach it quickly," I said. I kept him tied up and motioned for my Tyrant Arachnea to get ready.

It did not make any attempt - unlike the red fox or the bear - to try to appear cute or whatnot before the trip, probably because it realized that I thought it looked rather hideous and wouldn't appreciate such an endeavor.

That honestly made me feel a little bad though - it had done quite a lot to help me out, and was part of the reason why I was so famous in Arconia, after all, I wouldn't be called the 'Spider King of Arconia' if I couldn't summon it.

"Ah, you did good," I said to it.

It was a summoned creature, which meant that it didn't need any motivation and honestly it didn't matter whether I praised it or not - but after all the good work it had done it seemed downright ungrateful not to give it some words of appreciation.

Even if someone else watching me do so would say that it was ultimately meaningless - to that all I could say was that, they were right, but it did make me feel better, and I thought that was what mattered.

The Tyrant Arachnea didn't really change much of its expression - but it was much harder to read emotions and expressions with something like a spider. I wasn't even sure how much spiders could feel emotions like gratitude or attachment. I did feel… for lack of a better word, some kind of warmth from its thoughts that hadn't been there before, so maybe it did appreciate it.

"Wait why don't we talk things through-" the man I had captured said as the Tyrant Arachnea tied him up to its back.

The Tyrant Arachnea could still remain active for about another nine hours, after which I could summon the bear and the Elephant Frog, which combined could move for eighteen hours. After that I could summon the Tyrant Arachnea again. Switching mounts in that fashion would allow me to travel continuously with very little breaks.

I hadn't done so until now because traveling like this was extremely tiring and you really couldn't do it for too long, but now that we were almost at our destination…

...I realized I didn't have a saddle to grip onto the Tyrant Arachnea, much like I didn't with the Elephant Frog. I had quite a bit of stuff to carry as well.

There was a quick way around that though, and without me even needing to open my mouth to ask, it had already begun tying me up in a thick web, as well as the rest of my stuff.

It then placed me, my stuff, and our new prisoner on its back.

"Don't try escaping," I said to him. "Otherwise I'll have it inject you with paralyzing venom."

He shuddered but made no attempt to escape - I wasn't really sure if he could. The issue with rogue Liberomancers - and demonic Liberomancers in particular, was that there was no real way to stop someone from casting magic. Casting magic did not require saying the spell out loud, or the use of one's hands - it just required you to think of what you wanted to do.

Nothing as convenient as an anti-magic field or some sort of talisman that took away someone's magic power existed in this world.

The only real thing you could do is knock them out cold or place them under some kind of sedation.

This made imprisoning Liberomancers quite difficult as well - you would have to essentially rely on them cooperating with their jail sentencing for that to work. Those that cared for their reputations would, but if it had gotten to a point where they might've considered their reputations irreparably ruined already they might just decide it was best just to go rogue and escape anyway.

Most of them ended up being killed - which was the other way to stop someone from using magic, but again, that left people in the awkward position of there only being two possibilities to deal with them.

One was to just let them go, and the other was to kill them. There was a reason that the sale of high-ranking grimoires, and Rank Three grimoires in particular was monitored so closely by the Guild. It was much harder to pull a fast one when there were people who knew your trump cards.

With us on its back, the Tyrant Arachnea then launched forward. The cold wind blew through my hair, but given that it was a rather hot night this was more pleasant than anything.

It was faster than either the bear or the Elephant Frog, but I had not used it for the purpose of traveling because with it being my strongest summon I wanted to save it for a rainy day. When I had heard what had happened to that lizardman though, I had felt the benefits outweighed the risks of bringing it out early, and didn't feel like the red fox was enough for the kind of security I wanted.

The Tyrant Arachnea could almost move as fast as a truck on flat ground, but with it carrying us as passengers and me not wanting to vomit from motion sickness, it moved slower, not to mention the brush impeded its locomotion to some extent.

Still, we charged through the night regardless of my discomfort. I really hoped that we didn't run into anyone - not because I was afraid of someone attacking me, but because I was afraid of nearly frightening them to death with my summon. The sight of a giant monstrosity of a spider running along the road in the dead of the night would've well caused me to have a heart attack if I happened to look at it. I wanted to afford other people the same consideration, but I had very few other options at hand right now.