Pestering my teacher for her secret technique took up a whole week before she finally gave in, an explanation of my problem finally wearing her down somewhat.

“Ok, so you fear that next years ritual will kill you, or the priest will somehow find out that you aren’t entirely human. Remember that he probably knows this already and is just waiting for some way to confirm his fears. What we need to do for you is much different to the ritual I underwent back in the day, we want you to still be part of the kingdom, but be immune to the rituals to destroy the impure. You need to finally create your focus for any of the methods I have in mind.”

Her explanation excited me, though I was unsure why that was the case, prompting me to ask her about anything I needed to prepare.

“Little one, just be ready to leave your home and head to the carriage. Your parents would probably object to my plans, so you need to disappear secretly. Come to my place in seven nights, and be prepared to not return until you are done with this mission.”

Of course I agreed, the prospect of my first quest and the hope of proving myself to my mentor were both things anyone would jump at, especially when there was no other way of leaving the village for another six years.

She proceeded to teach me what she considered to be the most necessary things for my mission.

“We need to understand that a focus is a crystal of highly concentrated arcane power, which means that you will have to create the black hole effect so big you can barely hold it back, followed by some attempt at dispelling it or decreasing the amount it can consume. You better create any spell you can think of to stop it from expanding during the next seven days, though I recommend to use tier zero spells for it, as you will probably end up holding quite a few at the same time.”

And thus came a week of arduous training, creating any spell I thought might help.

Tier 0 runes

Rune

Description

Move

Spatium

Decay

Necros

Infect

Necros

Corrupt

Necros

Projectile

Null

Gather

Null

Bright

Lumen

Dispel

Null

Opacity

Lumen

Tier 1 runes

Rune

Description

Consume

Necros

The first spells I created were ‘Dispel consume’ and ‘Decay consume’, the first of which simply stopped someone from eating more for six seconds, though I quickly noticed that this spell would only affect the black hole up to level four, becoming completely useless beyond that. ‘Decay consume’ weakened the holes integrity and made it easier to affect with other spells, meaning I could get a level five effect out of the focus.

‘Corrupt gather’ was a spell that weakened the hole, allowing me to make sure I would not loose total control on the spell.

Then, I made ‘Dispel gather’ a type null spell that did anything I could have wanted from it, dispelling my black holes up to level two, level for if dispel consume and decay consume worked at the same time.

Necros

Spread (Move infection)

Force the target to release infected breath, creating a small area in which the rate of infection is increased.

Necros

Protect (Decay projectile)

Destroys a Projectile

Spatium

Evade (Move Projectile)

Moves a projectile in a random direction.

Necros

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Eldritch lance (Projectile corruption)

Forms a dart sized construct of necrotic energy, prevents healing.

Spatium

Force projectile (Projectile move)

Forms a dart sized projectile that pushes the target away.

Null

Redraw (Gather projectile)

Pulls any projectile nearby into the hand used to channel the Spell.

Lumen

Disco (Corrupt bright)

Chaotically change the coloration and brightness of something.

Lumen

Flare (Bright projectile)

Create a bright projectile without any effect.

Necros

Rad (Bright decay)

Causes radioactive light. Do not cast.

Necros

Sacrifice (Consume decay)

Consume anothers decay to return their body to a better condition.

Necros

Sip miasma (Consume infection)

Drains another creature of diseases.

Necros

Black hole (Gather consume)

Creates a spell structure that consumes everything, increasing it’s own mass indefinitely.

Necros

Speed steal (Consume move)

Increases the casters speed at the cost of a different creature.

Necros

Drain impurity (Consume corrupt)

Drains a material of impurities and funnels them into the caster.

Necros

Diarrhea (Infect consume)

Causes severe digestive issues in the target.

Necros

Thrown digestion (Consume projectile)

Consume a thrown object close to the caster.

Necros

Hyper consumption (Consume gather)

Consumes a highly concentrated target within close range.

Spatium

Collect (Projectile gather)

Throws a projectile that gathers loose objects in it’s way.

Necros

Manners (Dispel consume)

Stops the target from consuming something

Necros

Indigestion (Decay consume)

Weakens someones method of digestion.

Necros

Delude (Corrupt gather)

Mixes a gathering with a nearby material not yet inside.

Null

Counter spell (Dispel gather)

Stops the gathering of arcane power.

It felt weird to watch counter spell take effect, simply stopping any spell it was cast on, reminding me why nobody wanted to mess with null mages, and everyone put some effort into these spells.

The days after these spells were created were spend on disassembling the villages rat population, leaving me to run around at night and kill any rodent that dared to come to my attention, to the point that Nemo decided to simply follow me around and smack my legs for destroying its primary source of food. Hannibal ate whatever was left behind from my spells, often deliberately taking the most infested creatures so Nemo would not eat them on accident, their teamwork incredibly cute to observe.

Every night would end with me casting clean and purify on all of us, the dirt coming off gray fur and pink skin alike before I slipped into my bed again.

On the seventh night however, I went straight to my mentor, Nemo following closely and Hannibal already waiting near the carriage prepared for us, the hag standing beside it with a ring in her hand.

“I need you to find four moon leafs and a wolfsbane for the ritual, though it would be best if you could find some monster parts for me, those will increase the strength of the ritual, and maybe allow for a ritual I did not yet consider.

If you push any of your Spatium attuned runes to target this ring, I will know and be with you. Know that my interference should be avoided unless you are in mortal danger. The driver is someone indebted to me, and he should not have any chance to hurt you, just don’t trust him with anything beyond transporting you.”

I took the ring and put it on, my companions jumping onto the carriage right after me.

“And, if you plan on spending some time around these two, I recommend forming a familiar bond. All you have to do is feed them a small focus of any kind, though the speed at which hannibal ate them probably means he is already your familiar.”

I smiled at that, the driver remaining quiet.

Once we were outside her hearing range, I began caressing Nemo’s head.

“But you are more the spatium type, right? With your tendency to dash and hide, you couldn’t do much with necros, and I don’t think giving a cat the power of death has ever been a good idea.”

At first, the ride was quite interesting, seeing the village and its fields pass by as we headed for a direction I could not quite pinpoint.

Twin moons shone upon me, illuminating the otherwise starless night.

Casting ‘Gather light’ on the ground prompted a quick twitch to my right, warning me just enough to use move light, allowing the small wisp to evade the gray paw of doom from crushing it.

As Nemo chased the erratically moving light, Hannibal and I had our fun watching, the normally graceful and vain cat now jumping and rolling around to catch the light.

At some point, I let her catch it and dispelled the light right after, feeding into her pride as I leaned against Hannibal and stared tiredly into the sky.

Pondering the mission ahead of me was a wondrous action, ideas of incredible creatures forming, some the lichs memories, some ideas the author parts added or thought up all on his own.

I swore that this life would be a good one, and nobody would be allowed to take it from me.

Hannibal closed his eyes, and as Nemo rolled together on top of me, I decided to follow their lead, falling asleep alongside them despite the many bumps in the road below us.