Chapter 13

The Art of Manipulation

My head rocked back as Sir Trent’s fist collided with my cheek, shattering my skull and jawbone. The blow redirected my line of sight to the ceiling of my private training room, so I didn’t see him sweep my legs. My body spun and I ended up on the ground, facing the ceiling.

Again.

Like my first training session with Sir Brandon, the fight didn’t stop. I rolled to the side to dodge a heel strike and threw myself to my feet, barely dodging the massive fist going for my head. My injuries had already healed, and I was back in fighting form.

Sir Trent grinned at me as he threw a dozen quick punches in a mystifying combo. “This is as fun as I imagined.”

We were training my unarmed combat skill and he was enjoying his chance to beat me around the training room. Considering, I was responsible for his death for a short period that was fair. “What level am I at?”

He threw a series of high and low kicks. “Somewhere around eighteen. You need to focus on your footwork and dodging to reach nineteen.”

“It would be easier to do that if you didn’t keep kicking me in the face.”

He laughed. “Where’s the fun in that?”

Sir Trent was a master brawler and a better swordsman. With items, his agility was slightly above mine which made him the perfect training partner. He wasn’t even out of breath.

“It would be faster,” I pointed out.

“I want to get my money’s worth after training your men to kill me.”

“If you’re that upset with how quickly I’m progressing, I’ll let you help me train my parry skill. I won’t even wear armour.”

“You’re not my type.”

“I’ll wear pants.”

His foot connected with my chest, breaking every rib. “Tempting.” He followed it up with a dozen vicious blows that all broke bones before I managed to headbutt his nose.

I followed the headbutt with several punches to his ribs which he barely noticed. Sir Trent had his own bloodline and it made him stupidly tough when it came to blunt force trauma. I put some distance between us.

He closed that distance. “Will it hurt if I cut you?”

“It might itch a little.”

“So, you won’t object to me using my sword then?”

His sword was almost as dangerous as he was and would hurt a lot more than a regular one. “Why do you want to use it?”

“I’ve got a few skills I haven’t been able to master.”

“Active skills?”

I only had two active skills: impale and heavy blow. But that was still one more than Luke had when I met him. Warriors with enough attributes, became more than just the sum of their parts. They developed an aura and were able to use it to direct mana. It wasn’t like the way sorcerers manipulated mana. It was blunter, less refined. Impale was like a command that all the mana nearby get out of the way and take everything with it. It made whatever you were thrusting against weaker and was how Luke was able to thrust through solid stone.

“I wouldn’t need your help if they weren’t.” I ducked under another kick, while delivering a punch to his thigh. “I’ll let you train yours, if you help me train mine.”

Sir Trent didn’t slow his attack. “Which skills?”

“Impale and heavy blow?”

“Amateur.”

“Is that a yes?”

“Answer one question for me and I’ll say yes.”

“What question?”

“Did you know who they were?”

He was asking about the royal family. “I was half mad from hunger and all I knew was I was meant to eat any Unseen inside the palace, and they were in the palace, so no, not at first.”

“Would you have held back if you knew?”

“I would have been less obvious about it, but I would have gone out of my way to kill them. They had too much power and influence to let them live.”

He tried to kick me in the face. “I pledge my life and my soul to the Hero. Let his path be my path and his fate be my fate.”

Sir Trent glowed with a holy light as he finished the pledge and continued to try to beat the stuffing out of me. I felt a bond form between us and then snap into place. He didn’t stop fighting.

A foot flew past my chin.

“You heard the call,” I said, honestly surprised.

“A lot of us Old Monsters do. It’s hard to turn down a call that wants you to make the world safe for our children.”

“Why answer?”

“Because if I’m in trouble you will come for me, and I will always be with the princess.”

“So, if you’re in trouble she will be too.”

“And here I was thinking you were slow. Now stop rotating your foot so far, your footwork is appalling. It looks like you’re trying to swing a sword.”

For the rest of our training session, Sir Trent taught me how to fight, rather than let me figure it out while he whaled on me. He adapted the memories I had from other fighting disciplines showing me how they could be incorporated into what we were doing. By the end of it, I’d seen a lot of progress.

You have mastered your footwork skill.

You have mastered your block skill.

You have mastered your dodge skill.

You have mastered your unarmed combat skill.

***

“Did you seriously have to destroy my shirt?” Luke complained.

“You were fighting sloppy,” I replied, swiping his towel and storage pouch from the table in the training room and walking to the door.

“Where the hell are you going? You promised me you’d help me train all night.”

“Don’t swear, Son. And I’m going to let your magic tutor in, so I expect you to be on your best behaviour. I went through a lot of trouble to arrange this tutor for you, and you won’t find a better one in Murdell.”

I unlocked the door and pulled it open.

Princess Carolyn was standing in the hallway all alone, wearing a new dress. Her eyes widened as she looked past me and saw my shirtless son. A big smile spread across her face as she blushed.

“One shirtless hero as promised.” I handed her Luke’s towel. “He’s a little sweat. Do you mind giving this to him for me?”

She took the towel without taking her eyes off him. I stepped out of the way, and she walked past me in a daze.

“Have fun.” I gave Luke my biggest grin, holding up his storage pouch filled with clothes. The look he was giving me promised retribution. He’d get over it when he figured out that I’d managed to find him a teacher that understood his new bloodline. His chest would keep her so mesmerized that she’d spill all of her family secrets to him.

I closed the door and sealed it by triple casting the deathlock spell, before heading for my classroom. Personal guards and servants weren’t allowed into classrooms or clubrooms while lessons or activities were taking place, so separating Carolyn from them was as simple as signing her up for my Undead Enhancement Club.

I left Luke’s storage pouch in the workshop, next to my latest experiment. It was significantly less grotesque than my previous ones. I no longer needed entire zombies to study the aspects I wanted. I could get by with a single limb or organ which allowed me to develop my skills a lot faster. My living dead project remained under a pair of sheets waiting for Professor Fergus to finish replicating my results, but now that my library was here, I didn’t need them to keep me occupied.

I was the last person to enter the classroom, so I saw a room filled with students. They all had a skeleton standing patiently at the back of the room. There was a nervous energy in the air as I passed the three inanimate skeletons lying on the tables and took a seat at my desk. I’d prepared them for today’s club meeting, and they were different from anything we’d created before. Davina was seated front and centre, with a notebook in front of her.

“Sorry, I’m late everyone. I hope you used my brief absence to familiarise yourself with the handout for today’s activity.”

Baris raised his hand. “Sir, are we really moving on to creating undead skeleton warriors?”

“Yes. Does anyone know why?”

A dozen hands went up.

I pointed to Lidia.

Mr Bity hiss at me, looking far healthier than he had several months ago. “We’ve exhausted all nonfinancial enhancement techniques that can be performed on an undead skeleton.”

“Correct. There are many financial avenues that can be explored to craft stronger undead skeleton. Barring a handful of these techniques, they don’t teach you anything you can’t learn from expending time and mana to craft undead skeleton warriors. That doesn’t mean an undead created from butchers’ scraps can outperform undead created with financial investment. It only means that the techniques can be learned at little expense.”

It also meant that students couldn’t buy their way into winning Undead Fight Club, only win it with hard work and skill. Only the uber wealth hated this rule. Everyone else accepted I was making an even playing field.

“Baris, can you tell me the three basic forms of skeleton warriors?”

He grinned. “Spearman, knight, and mage.”

“Can you also tell me what’s special about an undead spearman?”

“They have much higher mobility and the strongest ability to regenerate.”

“Correct on both accounts. Which of these three is the strongest?”

Davina’s hand was the only one to shoot up.

“This isn’t a hard question people?”

Davina waved her hand more vigorously.

I’d never ignored a student, so my students found it amusing that I was ignoring one now, especially one so young. Envy was prevalent among sorcerers, and they thought that might be something I suffered from.

“The answer is related to common combat.”

I saw several faces light up with understanding, but they didn’t raise their hands.

I sighed, rolled my eyes, and then glared at Davina.

She lowered her hand.

Baris raised his. “Sir, why aren’t you letting her answer?” He was a good young man.

“Davina is not here to participate in club activities today. She’s here to assess my skill at creating undead.” This causes a stir of interest, which derailed my lesson. “Davina, please stand up and introduce yourself.”

She gave me the biggest smile as she stood and turned. “Hello everyone, I’m Davina. I’m a master practitioner of death and necrotic magic, and an expert practitioner of life and holy magic. I’m attending Darksmith to further my understanding of the other branches of magic, so if you have any questions about death or necrotic magic feel free to introduce yourself.” She sat back down.

Baris raised his hand again, as everyone sat dumbfounded. “Sir, will Davina be joining the club?” The way he said club, told me he was referring to Undead Fight Club.

“That’s up to her. Now, the answer to my question was it depends on the circumstances.”

“No, it doesn’t,” Davina blurted out. “The mage is significantly stronger.”

“Please ignore Davina’s outburst. When undead warriors are created by a master, mages are significantly stronger than the others. This is still a circumstantial situation, the circumstance being you have mastered death magic and making undead warriors. You may correct me if I’m wrong, Davina?”

Several people chuckled.

Davina however tried to correct me. “At any stage of skill, skeleton mages are the strongest of the three. They’re destructive power in superior in all ways.”

“So, you would put one in a child’s nursery to protect them from assassins?”

Davina blushed and shook her head.

“Strength is circumstantial. What can be a benefit in one situation can be a hindrance in another. You need to always think about what purpose your creations serve and how they will act. If you need them to fight in groups, spearmen are the best. If you need them to fight inside a building, knights win. If you need them to fight at range or on a battlefield, mages are clearly going to get the job done. Davina would you please step forward and assess the skeleton’s I’ve created for today’s demonstration.”

Davina gathered mana as she walked to each skeleton and touched the skull, casting an expert tier holy spell that caused several students jaws to drop, despite her earlier announcement. “These are what I would describe as working failures. Every enhancement is expert tier and functions correctly, but they’ve been created with the minimum amount of mana that you could personally perform the spell with. One of the greatest benefits of using enhancement techniques that only require mana is that you can overcharge the spells you use, strengthening the enhancement effect. However, these skeletons are made with dungeon monster bones, so are not something you’re looking to invest in long term. Having said that, you need to practice these techniques. You’ve only mastered the basic tier and the number of inefficiencies and inadequacies I see, increase with each tier. However, you meet the minimum requirements for what is necessary to master each of their related skills.”

I turned to the other student. “Mastery of low advanced magic is all that is required to master the create undead skill, mastery of high advanced magic will allow you to master the create undead skeleton skill. Mastery of expert tier magic and investing in your agility is required for mastering the create undead warrior skills. Mastering anything above this requires financial investment as the attribute costs become too high. I will now demonstrate how to multicast twelve spells at once. Do not attempt this because the backlash will kill you.”

Davina’s mouth dropped open. “What!”

“Is there a problem?”

“That shouldn’t be possible. Six is the theoretical limit.”

“I’ve seen him do nine,” Baris said.

Everyone in the class nodded.

Davina stared mouth open for several seconds, before coming to her senses. “Show me.” She cast another spell and her eyes began to glow with a gentle blue light.

I walked over to the nearest skeleton and held my hand above it. I accelerated my perception and then multicast the first twelve ranks of the create undead skeleton spell, weaving them together to form a single complex spell. Black flames filled the eye sockets as it took effect. I went to the next two and repeated the process.

When I was done, Davina raised her hand, holding her palm up, and began gathering mana. The class stared in awe at the speed she gathered mana and the way she stored it in her body to use. When she had enough, she replicated what I had done, except with a death bolt spell, creating twelve complete layers. She then looked around and realised she didn’t have anywhere to send it, so ate it. Her skin took on a slight mummified quality for a second, before returning to normal.

The entire club lost it, not understanding what had just happened. Several people jumped out of their chairs and ran down to investigate, while others raised their hands.

I ignored them, focusing on the prompt that had appeared.

You have mastered your Educator skill.

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That skill had been sitting at level 9 for two weeks, waiting for someone to display a higher technique that I’d taught them to push it to 10. To jump to mastered was absurd. What kind of technique was I using?

Davina walked over to me, and the room fell silent. “That was surprisingly easy. Where did you learn how to do that?”

“It’s obvious if you understand multicasting, layering, anchoring, and spatial theories.”

“Do you mean you created this technique?”

I shook my head. “The Vampire Lavire did. He used it in his enchantments. I just adapted it for creating and enhancing undead.”

Baris injected himself into the conversation. “What’s so interesting about this technique?”

Davina turned. “That depends on what you’re using it for. With spells, it makes it more difficult for someone to counter spell you. It also increases the power output, but this is negligible for the mana cost. For creating undead, it drastically increases the amount of mana that is available to the undead. These expert tier undead skeletons have twelve ranks of mana crammed into them. They will continue fighting long after a normal undead would collapse from mana expenditure. This is not normally how you are taught to create undead. However, it will become the standard practice from now on. This is completely revolutionary.”

“We’re getting off topic,” I said, to regain the clubs attention. “Can anyone tell me the greatest limitation of skeleton mages?”

Lidia’s hand shot up. “They aren’t intelligent.”

“Correct. While undead skeleton warriors are more skilled than their undead skeleton counterparts, they aren’t truly intelligent, making them unable to learn and grow. This means that skeleton mages are essentially only mobile weapons capable of throwing out a handful of spells. Which is important why?”

Baris was the only one to hold up his hand. “It’s important because you have to always remember that no matter how skilled they appear, they aren’t capable of thought. This limits how they can be used.”

“Correct. Undead warriors are just a more powerful version of the basic undead skeleton. While this is useful, direct oversight is still required. This changes when you move onto advanced undead warriors. Advanced skeleton warriors can be summoned directly but are more powerful when crafted from two regular skeleton warriors. Death knights are crafted from a knight and a mage. Sorcerers are crafted from a spearman and a mage. Lancers are crafted from a spearman and knight. These can be modified further by sacrificing more than one of each type, but that is another entire lecture, so I won’t go into it today. Instead, I’ll demonstrate what’s required to master the three create undead skeleton warrior skills.”

I held my hand above the spearman I’d crafted and multicast the required spells, layering the new spell over the old. The bone spear and armour I’d created, moulded into its form, as the black flames in its eyes became a deeper black that drank in the light around it. I moved onto the knight and repeated the process, before finishing with the mage.

A notification appeared as I finished.

You have mastered create undead skeleton spearman skill.

You have mastered create undead skeleton knight skill.

You have mastered create undead skeleton mage skill.

I turned to the club. “Now that you understand what is required to master these skills, are there any questions?”

Davina’s was the first hand to go up.

***

The club meeting was over, and everyone, except Davina, had gone to bed. She walked around my creations examining them with various spells, before taking a seat beside me.

“What do I need to practice?” I asked.

“You’re spell work is your biggest problem. It’s sloppy. I’m assuming you’re leaning on what you learned from the other practitioner’s memories to grow faster, rather than learning the techniques yourself.”

“Is that a problem?”

“Yes. Master tier death magic doesn’t allow for errors in technique. The peak of expert is the furthest you can go cheating the way you are.”

“Are there any drawbacks to continuing things my way?”

“Normally, I would say yes, but you aren’t normal. Finish mastering expert magic your way and then I’ll teach you how to do it properly.”

“Anything else I need to be aware of?”

“Nothing that will help you now.”

“Good.”

Davina took a seat on my desk and turned to the lokked at the desks. “I liked your club. Everyone was attentive and friendly and you’re a better teacher than I expected. Have you done it before?”

“A long time ago.”

She smiled because I rarely talked about myself. “Why did you stop?”

“I was given the opportunity to practice what I was teaching in a way that did a lot more good.”

“What did you teach?”

“Law and ethics.”

Davina giggled. “You were a lawyer.”

“Yes. Why is that funny?”

“Angelica always talks about how evil is in her blood because her father was a lawyer. I’m willing to bet that she’ll think she is twice as evil when I tell her this.”

I chuckled. “She’ll probably use it to justify her bad behaviour.”

“I probably shouldn’t tell her then.”

“Are you going to join the club?”

She shook her head. “You’re not teaching anything I don’t already know or can’t learn in a fraction of the time alone. And I’ve seen enough undead destroy themselves for necromancers’ amusement for one lifetime. I think Angelica would benefit from it though.”

“Why?”

“These people aren’t evil. Angelica hasn’t spent any time around necromancers like them. It warps her views of what necromancers are like. Also, she’s competitive, she has the necessary skills, and they are only slightly more skilled than she is, so she’ll enjoy it.”

Angelica and Davina had leveled drastically, before I went to sleep and there hadn’t been time for me to assess these changes. “Speaking of enjoying it, I need to go give my son a shirt. Get me a list of both your skills by tomorrow morning, so I to assess your progress.”

She reached into her storage pouch. “I’ve got the list on me.”

I took the list and scanned it. I then pulled a pen from my storage pouch and began placing numbers next to their skills, before handing it back. “I suggest you and Angelica prioritise training the skills in this order.”

Davina frowned as she read. “Mine are all holy skills.”

“All my people have access to death and necrotic magic. You are by far the most talent, but that isn’t what makes you special. You’re the necrosaint. You need to work on your holy skills.”

“Is that a suggestion?”

I nodded.

She smiled. “And if I were to ignore that suggestion?”

“You’ve both made more progress than I expected, so I’m not going to tell you to stop what you’re doing. If that should change, my suggestions will become orders, but for now you’re both doing well enough that I won’t interfere.”

“Then I’ll continue what I’m doing.”

The smile on her face sat at odds with the turmoil coming from her scent. She didn’t want to practice holy magic and was happy I’d let her off the hook. I knew why she didn’t want to practice it and felt she needed know that I knew.

“Davina, you can only put off becoming powerful enough to kill me for so long. I won’t hate you for putting me to rest if you need to. I trust that if you have to do it, you’ll have a good reason.”

She dropped her gaze to her feet. “You’re a good man, your Dark Eminence. I’m not sure if I can live with your death on conscience.”

“I won’t have a soul. I won’t be me.”

“You and I both know how monstrous your impulses are and how closely you tread the line between hero and villain. I can see you crossing that line while still having a soul and if I have the strength to end you, then I’ll be the one who has to bring you down. I’ll be the one who has to watch your soul be dragged down to hell.”

“I’ll do my best to make sure that doesn’t occur, but I can’t promise it won’t happen.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of.”

“Which is why I want you there to stop me.”

Davina didn’t promise anything, before heading out. She was too conflicted. That was fine. She knew that I knew why she was shirking her duties and she was mature enough to come to terms with what she needed to do if I gave her enough time.

She also wasn’t the only person I was relying on to take me out if it became necessary. I had plans for a lot of people.

The moment she left, Sir Trent and Carolyn’s other guards walked in. They followed me to the training room, where I removed the barriers sealing the door. Sir Trent used the doorknocker but didn’t force his way in. Opening the door on a sorcerer in training was a great way to cause accidents, and the sound from the knocker would enter once the wards didn’t sense magic being actively used.

He folded his arms and leaned against the wall. “You know Rupert is furious about this.”

“What did I do?”

“You went along with it?”

I chuckled. “Yeah, that was pretty funny.” I reached into Luke’s storage pouch and found a shirt. I began to alter it with magic, causing it to shrink just enough to be tight against his skin. It would expand in an hour when the spell wore off, but it would be funny while it lasted.

Sir Trent chuckled as he watched it shrink. “That’s mean. How did you get him out of his shirt to begin with?”

“Told him we were going to train and then cut it off just before she arrived.”

The guards laughed.

A minute later, my son opened the door brandishing a sword, when he saw it was me, he glared.

“I found you a new shirt. Sorry, it took so long.”

He yanked the shirt out of my hand and pulled it on. Behind him Princess Carolyn was staring at his butt. He immediately noticed how tight it was. He didn’t say a word as he stalked back into the training room and said goodbye to the princess. He escorted her to the door like a proper gentleman, then he tried to yank me into the room.

I ducked around his hand, and stepped inside, kicking the door closed. “How was your first lesson?”

He pointed to his nipples poking against his shirt. “Cold, very cold.”

I laughed. “How do you like your new instructor?”

Luke rolled his eyes. “When she’s not staring at my butt, she’s a very good teacher. She understands her bloodline in a way that no one else does. I made more progress with her in one lesson than any of my other teachers. How did you convince her to teach me? And please don’t tell me I have to be shirtless for every lesson.”

“She wanted me to sign a betrothal contract. I negotiated her down to private lessons four nights a week and the first one being shirtless.”

“She what?”

“She wanted to see you without a shirt on.”

“No, the betrothal part.”

“Yes, that probably would have required you to be shirtless at some point too.”

“Dad will you be serious?”

“Not while your shirts that tight.”

Luke groaned.

“I believe you said I need more humour in my life.”

“I’m beginning to regret what I said.”

“That’s very big of you, unlike that shirt.”

“Dad, I’m over this. Can you please be serious.”

“Hi, Over This, I’m Serious. So, you can trust me when I tell you, that princess wants to marry you.”

Luke finally chuckled. “So, you used that to convince her to teach me magic.”

“Which is something no one in her family would have done if I had asked. You’re welcome.”

“I’m not saying thank you for treating me like a party favour and handing me out to a hormone addled teenage girl.”

“I mean I didn’t betroth you to a teenage girl as well, so you could be a little grateful...unless your upset I didn’t go through with the engagement.” I turned and started walking to the door. “Don’t worry, I can fix this. And I’ll make sure you get to wear a shirt for a few hours every day.”

Luke grabbed my collar, stopping me cold, forcing me to walk in place.

“How many children are you capable of fathering. Should I say twenty or twenty-five?”

“Thank you for not betrothing me to a teenage girl. I understand that this must have been difficult for you to comprehend how this is socially unacceptable, with how you seem to collect them like Pokémon, so I do appreciate the gesture.”

“I would say that’s rich coming from someone who spends their evenings alone in a room with one, but Davina says she needs to teach me to perform death magic properly, so I can’t really talk.”

Luke chuckled. “You still owe me a training session?”

I activated the training room’s barrier, completely cutting us off from the outside world, and drew Slaughter as I followed Luke to the middle of the training room floor. “How does the Sorcerer Sovereign skill work?”

Luke drew his longsword and made a two-handed slash. “It allows us to bond with people the way we would bond with magical equipment, so we can draw on their mana without needed to be in contact.”

I knocked aside his blade and tried to kick his knee.

He dodged the kick, while striking my ankle with his palm, to throw me off balance. “The further away you are from the people you’re bonded with, the less efficient the mana transfer is, and you can only bond with people who practice the same schools of magic you do. When they’re not training, the royal family predominantly uses the skill to strengthen their cores and the cores of the people who bond with them.”

I blocked several quick slashes. “How do you level the skill?”

“By becoming more efficient at drawing mana from the people you’re bonded with. The royal family use the skill to practice magic as much as they want without having to refill their cores. It’s why they’re so much more talented than everyone else. They don’t have to stop training to meditate.”

“I imagine it also helps that upgrading the skill, upgrades all their magical skills.”

“That helps, but additional practice is more important. It allows them to reach archsorcerer by level 20. You should bond with Gregory and his men. If you can draw enough mana from them, you will be able to form a perfect core.”

“I’ve already got a perfect core.”

“How?”

“I went into the Abyss. Higher ambient mana makes it easier to form a perfect core.”

“Well, you can still help them form a perfect cores.”

***

I was holding Kathrine’s hand and using the healing palm technique, while reading the books from the Northern Royal Library, when Gregory walked through the door. He nodded to Davina as he picked up an armchair, and carried it over to the bed, taking a seat beside me.

He folded his arms and sighed dramatically. “My wife told me to tell you, that if you get me killed, you have to march down to hell and bring me back.”

I chuckled. “If I have to come and get you then its counting as your holiday.”

“Seems reasonable. What do you need, Boss?”

“Why did you bring two hundred death lords with you?”

Davina told me, that the moment I’d gone to sleep, Gregory and his men had thrown themselves into training, with an intense ferocity. There skills had exploded and being stuck at level 80, they were able to advance.

“I got the impression we were going to walk into a mess.”

“What gave you that impression?”

“We always walk into a mess.”

That did seem to happen a lot.

“I need your help to train one of my skills. It will involve bonding our cores, so I can draw and send mana to you.”

“I have a very weak talent for magic, Boss. It makes it harder for me to cast spells. You should get someone else.”

I frowned because what he said made no sense. “There’s no such thing as a weak talent for magic. There’s only a weaker magical talent which is the ability to gather mana.”

“Isn’t that what I said?”

“No. They’re completely different things.”

“Does it matter?”

“You said it was effecting your ability to cast spells, so yes it does.”

“Davina said it’s perfectly normal.”

“It’s not. If you and your wife had the same number of points in your strength attribute, which of you could lift more?”

“Me.”

“A weak magical talent just means that your mana regeneration attribute is less effective than other peoples which is more common for men. This has no effect on your ability to cast spells, but it can make it incredibly difficult for you to build a proper mana network, which would definitely make it harder for you to cast spells. Give me your hand.”

Gregory held out his hand. I grabbed it and cast a basic scanning spell. There were holes throughout his mana network, and it barely spread through a third of his body.

“Davina, get over here.”

She put down the book she was reading and walked over. “Why do you sound upset?”

I scowled at her. “You failed my men.”

She frowned back. “How?”

“Have a look at his mana network.”

Davina took his other hand and cast the same spell I had. “I don’t see the problem. Gregory has a weak magical talent.”

“That just means he’s bad at gathering mana.”

“Which is what a mana network is built from.”

“Which can be overcome with a high ambient mana environment.”

“Which is why I made one.”

“This is with a high ambient magic environment?”

She nodded. “The environment I created was as concentrated as the second floor of the Abyss. Gregory’s talent is just that weak.” She turned and walked back to her chair.

Gregory shrugged. “Like I said. You should find someone else. My core can barely hold anything.”

“Let me try with you. You should be able to draw the mana I give you from your core to refine your mana network.”

“Will it hurt?”

“It shouldn’t.”

“Go ahead.”

I drew an unbroken cord of mana from my core, through my mana network, and out of my mouth. The cord wriggled through the air, before entering his mouth, moving down his poorly established mana network to enter his core. Then I cast the spell, Luke had taught me. The mana cord became a permanent connection, creating a straight line between our cores. The small amount of mana inside his core was yanked from his core through the cord and into mine. Wherever the mana touched the edges, it broke free spilling into the air.

I let go of his hand, no longer needing to see his mana network.

Gregory frown. “Did you just take my mana?”

“Not intentionally. My core’s different to most peoples and it emptied yours on its own.”

Davina blurred across the room and appeared beside me. “Can I see?”

I nodded.

She placed her hand on my head and scanned me. “You’re core is completely stable. You’re not leaking any mana.”

While Davina continued to scan me, I pushed mana from my core, through the cord, and into Gregory’s core, being careful not to touch the side. It only took a few seconds to refill his core.

Gregory immediately noticed the change. “Do you want me to draw the mana from my core and circulate it through my mana network?”

“Draw as much as you can, I’ll keep supplying you.”

“Tell me when you’re running low.”

Davina giggled. “That’s not going to be an issue. His Dark Eminence has the biggest core I’ve ever seen. How did you make this?”

“Eighteen floor of the Abyss, using liquid mana, and enough monster cores to fund a kingdom for a century. Creating my core caused me to master the magic skill. Improving my core made me master death and necrotic magic. It’s strong evidence that the magic we practice is just a reflection of true magic.”

She pulled out paper and a pen and began drawing the structure of my core. When she was done, she began adding notes and calculation.

The calculations grew more and more complex until she looked at me and smiled. “My calculation say you can create your core without liquid mana. It would require a master tier spell that aligns with the type of magic a person practices, which is probably why you mastered the different magic skills when you created and grew your core.”

“Can you create the spell?”

“I’m not sure, but I’m going to try once I’ve mastered life and holy magic. This type of core won’t interfere with my constitution.”

She picked up her notes and returned to the couch.

A few hours later, Gregory opened his eyes. “I think I’m done, Boss.”

I grabbed his hand and scanned him. His mana network had spread through his entire body. “Circulate your mana.”

He did as I said.

There were hundreds of spot where his mana didn’t move smoothly. “You’re not done. Keep going.”

Gregory went back to work.

When it came time for the morning risk assessment meeting, I left him guarding Kathrine, continuing to feed him mana. It was significantly more difficult to maintain my efficiency over that sort of distance, but by the time lunch had rolled around, I had the hang of it. The walls between us were a major problem, but the mana I sent him didn’t leak through anywhere else.

I returned to the bedroom at lunch to check his progress, and then again after the school day was finished, before finally returning after the Undead Enhancement Club meeting.

I let go of his hand after my scan. “You’ve refined your mana network. Do you know how to actively channel ambient mana into a spell?”

Gregory grinned. “I’ve more experience channelling ambient mana than anything else. It’s an important part of doing a proper death or necrotic strike.”

“Practice channelling mana into the core spell. Once you get the hang of it, we’ll reform your core.”

He held out his hand and muttered the incantation, forming a core spell above his palm. He held the spell in place as he continued to channel mana into it. The more mana he channelled the more the structure of the spell improved until it was flawless.

He grinned the entire time. “It’s so much easier now.”

“That’s still impressive.”

He shrugged as he dismissed the spell. “The core spell is the only spell I know, and I’ve had a lot of practice.”

“You ready to reform your core?”

He nodded.

“Hold as much mana outside your core as you can, and I’ll break your core for you.”

“Done.”

I placed my hand on his stomach, scanned his body, and cast the core-breaking spell. He hadn’t strengthened his core, so it was a simple matter. He released a small grunt of pain and leaked a little mana but held on to most of it.

It took a few minutes for the mana structure of his core to completely dissipate, because he didn’t know how to force the magic from his body. “You can cast the spell now.”

He took a slow breath and then muttered the incantation.

I watched the structure of the spell come together as he slowly feed it more and more mana. When it was stable, I reached out with a cord of mana and connected my core to his, forming the link to his core through the same point where he was feeding mana into the spell. Then I cast the spell that made the connection permanent.

The moment the connection formed I took over the spell, becoming the sole source of mana. I flooded the connection, giving the spell all the mana it could possibly need. Unlike when I’d formed my core, the process wasn’t instantaneous. The spell slowly strengthened over the next few minutes, until it couldn’t strength anymore. Mana began to leak from places in the spell, as the leaks spread, Gregory began to groan.

I waited until the strength of his core had been evenly distributed throughout and then cut of the flow of mana. The spell snapped together.

“Congratulation, you’re now the proud owner of a perfect third rank core.”

“I think I’m going to pass out.”

A moment later he was proven right.

A prompt appeared as he slumped into his chair.

Your Sorcerer Sovereign skill has reached level 3.