Chapter Eleven - From the Observation Logs of Fenfang

Fenfang Fang's Observation Log | Day ninety-nine

It's weird that it's been almost a hundred days since I met Master. It feels longer, and shorter, all at the same time.

I think I've been making good progress over all, all things considered. My spell repertoire isn't where I want it to be, but from the books Master has given me, and from the stories he's told, it'll probably be a few years before I'm as strong as I want to be.

Still! I can't complain too much. I'm making actual, tangible progress. I've become quite good with some of the easier spells. I can cast Prestidigitation without the somatic gestures now, though I haven't figured out how to completely cut out the incantation yet.

Note: I can cast Prestidigitation without the incantation, but it's significantly weaker, with far worse results. With both incantation and gestures, I can now summon up to twenty-two distinctly shaped and coloured objects moving in unique ways. Without the somatic component but with the incantation, that drops to twelve. Without the incantation but with the gestures, I can manage about eight, if the spell works at all.

I can almost manage to cast the spell on a single small illusion (as long as it is as simple as I can make it) without either incantation or gestures. The problem is that this usually fails outright, and it causes a slight headache and I think it still drains my magic reserves, even with a failure.

More study and practice is required.

Note end!

I'm still pushing myself to become a better caster every day, and my repertoire of spells that I've 'mastered' is growing.

From some discussions with Seventeen, I think I'm firmly in the 'first tier' of spell casting.

Out of something like ten tiers, with each one being exponentially harder to master. That's a little discouraging, but I didn't expect to be strong with no work, so it's fine. I'm out of the zeroth tier, which is a big step already!

Master left me a couple of books to study before he left on his mission to the west. I also have a small collection of spell books to re-re-re-read! I think at this point I just need to look at a page to remember every word written on it.

So far, my spell-list looks something like this:

Fenfang Spell List:

Zeroth level

Chill Touch - Mastered (Working on gestureless)

Prestidigitation - Mastered (Working on quick casting)

Frostbite - Mastered (Working on gestureless)

Spare the Dying - Mastered

Sapping Sting - Mastered

Eldritch Blast - Practising

Mage Hand - Practising

1st level

Detect Magic - Mastered (working on gestureless)

Cure Wounds - Practising

Inflict Wounds - Practising

Cause Fear - Mastered

Some spells are easier to practice than others. I can use Cure Wounds and Inflict Wounds on the undead, but I don't know if that's super useful, and it requires dedicated training time to do. That's not as easy to get nowadays.

Some of the other spells I'm learning I can practice whenever I want.

I'm particularly proud of Mage Hand. It's not a spell that Master showed me, but one that I picked up from watching Rem and Mem trying to figure it out! I had to work backwards from basic principles to get it to work.

Spellcraft is... a lot more complex than I initially imagined, and I never thought that it would be easy to begin with.

It'll take a lot more reading and learning before I can start making my own spells. Maybe I should hold off for a while?

The spell that I'm currently having the hardest time with is, annoyingly, a zeroth level spell.

Eldritch Blast.

Master gave me a mission to learn this spell!

Note: Master said that if I had mastered it by the time he returns, he'd let me pick a second level spell to learn. That's... such a massive opportunity! I need to work extra hard here!

Eldritch Blast, according to the books that Master left, is a relatively simple spell to cast. You concentrate magical power borrowed from a patron into a simple form, then fire off the spell. The gestures are all very simple. The incantation... isn't.

The spell doesn't have a universal incantation. Casting it is more about begging a patron for help, then releasing the energy.

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And it's so easy!

I can fire them off like a rich cultivator raining gold on peasants. I can make them twist, and change directions, split to hit two targets.

Eldritch Blast is like... the prestidigitation of killing things.

Master expects me to fully master this? In just a few weeks? That's... well, maybe not impossible, but there's so much potential here that really getting to know this spell could take ages.

Note end!

Maybe if I wasn't so busy.

I need to work out a better schedule for my day-to-day stuff. Master has only been gone for a couple of days, and already things are getting complicated.

I'm now, currently, something like the provincial leader of Yu Xiang. An entire city.

I never expected to ever be in charge of a city, but here I am, and I really have no idea what I'm doing.

Thankfully, I have Seventeen to help. He's been promoting some of the smarter undead into administrative roles already, but he says it'll take weeks for them to be trained up. In the meantime, I have to handle all of the army's logistics myself.

An army that doesn't eat or sleep, so it's not as bad as it could be, but I still constantly have things to worry about.

Yesterday, the city council sent a very politely worded and rather long letter asking me to move the more... odorous undead out of the vicinity of the city. So I had to set up a second camp further out for all of the zombies and wights and such.

Fortunately, Seventeen's willing to help. Those are now our long-range patrols, so they're not staying close to the city or roads anymore.

The skeletons are being paired up with local guards for policing work, and we have a whole aerial surveillance system in place.

I have so much more on my plate now than ever before.

It was hard enough when Master was around, and I just had to worry about magic, the undead, and maybe the occasional cultivator. Now I have to worry about everything. The city's council is asking for my help with irrigation, deciding the location for farmer's plots, splitting funds for the newly-freed conscripts, transporting them back to their villages, tax reforms, and what to do with the dead.

I don't know how to address any of that!

But I'm not going to fail.

Or, maybe I will, but not without doing my best!

I'm not sure how long I'll be able to keep it up for. Cultivators will come, sooner or later. They already knew about Master being here.

I'd discovered some forms and letters in the Hungering Inferno sect building, specifically in their administrative wing. I don't have much time to look into that kind of thing, but I do have some. They've known about Master for a while. Maybe even since I met him. Or a little later? It's hard to tell, exactly.

They were charged by the Jade Throne to seek him out and try to kill, or if not capture, him.

Now that Master's acted more openly, the Emperor will certainly find out, and then we'll all be in a lot of trouble.

Well, Master might not be. I think he could maybe take the Emperor on. But I'm nowhere near ready for something like that.

I'll have to see if we can prepare the city some more. I'm sure we can set things up so that if a cultivator does visit, and they're not too strong, we'll be able to scare them off.

Maybe.

I really don't know what I'm supposed to do. I'll just have to trust in Master and everything he set up, I guess.

Note: Master says that worrying too much is a waste of time, so I should try to stop worrying about it, or at least focus on productive things.

Note end.

For now, I'm trying to work out a way to get some studying in between dealing with the city and the undead army and exploring the sect compound's records for anything useful.

I think I might need to ask Seventeen for more help, this is too much work for one apprentice to handle all on her own!

Yeah, that's a good idea! I should see what he can do to help out. My job should be to improve myself, not... do all of the work of running a teeny-tiny empire.

I'll approach the city council tomorrow. Some of them seemed very reasonable.

Right, day ninety-nine record over. Back to work for me!

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