It was crazy to see the amount of claw marcs increase, with more of them appearing the more I followed them.

The markings were made at about two meters in height, from claws that seemed to be only slightly larger than my fathers fingers.

To not come of as too threatening, we slowed our travels a bit, and spend more time searching our surroundings.

After about five minutes of walking, the claw marks were joined by bone figurines and symbols I was unfamiliar with.

It took another five minutes to find the culprit behind these declarations of territory, a collection of wooden structures standing in the waters before me, with slimes sprouting from the river in seemingly endless tides, a lot of ‘Hyperconsumption’ casts supporting what I presumed to be the residents.

I ran everywhere I could to kill more of the slimes, their magic almost making me barf as they fell before my spell, which I at some point changed for ‘counter spell’, which basically weakened the slimes enough to be easily killed by spears, a revelation that led me to double casting the two spells and coming closer towards the settlement.

A weird song came from the center of the village, and suddenly, the slimes stopped approaching.

Finally, one of the Inhabitants began to approach me, a reptilian body with a vaguely anthropomorphic shape, making them fit the description of a lizardfolk.

“Hello there.”

I opened the conversation, a bout of sadness rising within me as I realized no one here would ever get the reference unless I somehow forced it.

Against my expectations, the scaled man before me seemed to have understood my words, nodding before he answered in a grumbling tone.

“Be greeted, speaker of the murderers tongue and slayer of slimes. Who are you and what brings you into our territory during these trying times.” He greeted me, remembering me of the weird culture of referring to others by titles or their family name only.

“Guard of the riverside, I am here to build a focus for my spells, and find the material for a ritual my teacher wants to conduct upon me. How are these troubling times, when you have pushed back the slimes so valiantly?” The manner of speaking was mostly stolen from some of my memories in order to impress my two meters and fifty centimeters (8’2”) tall conversation partner.

“Follow me, and we might know how to help this ritual of yours in exchange for support against the plague of water blobs.” He announced before and proceeding further inside, his tail almost hitting me in the head at his swift turn, which Hannibal and nemo didn’t like.

We followed him anyway, even though following strange lizard guys was pretty high on the list of things parents don’t want their one year old doing, I simply hoped that the witch would somehow distract them from my absence while I was here, another train of thoughts I repressed to focus on the slime apocalypse befalling the village of indigenous lizards.

The deeper we got, the more obvious this places unusual nature became apparent.

Inside a small hole, children fought against one another, proving themselves with claws and maw.

Another dwelling sounded like two people were having fun together, but most dwellings were empty, three highly decorated lizardmen gathered in the center, stopping their chanting once we approached.

“Elder of the mind, elder of body, elder of runes, this hero has slain more slimes than most of our soldiers combined, wielding magical powers. He has come to ask for guidance on his quest to form a focus and find materials for a ritual his mentor wants to conduct.” He said, his arms in the air as he talked with arms and tail. “He rode upon his mighty hog through the enemies ranks, his spells reducing everything he touched to powerless puddles, also, he seems to be allied with a feline, which is a feat all on its own.”

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Nods followed his recounting, the elder of body quickly agreeing with his assessment of the situation and baring his fangs, the elder of mind sighing and the elder of runes eyeing me skeptically.

“What are your affinities and powers?” Now, I knew this was probably a trap, but as the elder of mind stared at me like a walking lie detector, I decided to be honest.

“I am a tier one mage with affinities for Lumen, Necros and Spatium. My soul and mind have reached the first refinement.” I answered, forcing a grin as the elder of body suddenly sighed.

“I can teach you, but my brothers in title can train you better, should you ever want to learn from us. My expertise would help your hog turn into a mighty fine warrior.”

He offered, the other two nodding sagely.

“First though, you should complete the quest on which you have been send, what is it that you search? If you plan on investigating the source of water for us, we will send someone to gather what you need.”

I had a hard time hiding my teeth at the offer, nodding the way they did.

“I need wolfsbane and four stems of moonleaf, aswell as the material of a powerful magical beast.”

The elder of mind quickly began nodding and hissing, followed by a quick baring of his fangs.

“Plants are no challenge for us to find, but magical parts must be take by yourself for the strongest effect. We do agree to have you hunt in our turf however, so long as your quest remains unfinished.”

I nodded, though Hannibal was starting to exhaust from the days travel, and I was beginning to feel hungry once more.

“May I rest with you tonight? My travels have been long, and my path to the rivers source will be even longer.”

They agreed, sending a white lizardfolk to guide me towards the empty hut they held for prisoners and guests.

“You are the first of your kind that I see in a colore other than brown and green.”

I say, quite curios, even as they seemed annoyed at my question.

“I was born during a total solar eclipse, and the necros ravaged my body until I looked like this, I just hope to avoid the others gaze, as my weakness always disturbs them on their goals. I have grown quite sneaky as a result, though that doesn’t help with a lot of things.”

I pondered it and realized that she probably had the same mutation I had, which made me realize that most probably don’t go around eating ghosts and slaughtering rodents while hoping for the necrotic mutation inside them to have some effect other than aggressively clawing at their humanity.

“This body of mine is infected by Necros as well, but I found strength in the clutches of death.”

I told her, the skepticism in her gaze quite obvious, until I took a blade and sliced it across my forearms, my form changing to look a bit more dead than before.

“You need a lot of deaths to progress this path, and it comes with a hunger that will be harder to suppress the further you go. I can help you on this rotten path, if you swear to always hold on to yourself. If you can’t, I am sure you can come with me on my quest, that way I can teach you the power ahead of you to the points I have reached.”

She seemed conflicted. “I will ask the elders if I am allowed to leave and prove myself alongside you, then I might gain some honor and you can teach me how to turn this darkness into some form of light.”

With that, she left me before the hut I assumed to be the empty one they talked about.

The day probably still had five hours of daylight as I focused on what I knew would help to some degree.

I needed to combine gather, dispel and projectile into a spell that would sound somewhat useful.

First, projectile was chosen, forcing the effect into a missile like shape.

Next, gather was introduced, the mixture pulling on my head as the spell took a shape I knew well.

The third ingredient was dispel, and it changed the formula as much as I suspected.

When it snapped together, I quickly fell asleep, floating through the between with a creature of pure black floating before me and offering his power as Necros had done before.

The rejection was immediate, as I called upon my eldritch ancestry, passing through and tearing a small fraction out of the primordial titan before returning to the waking world, the suction cup part of me delighted that I had taken even a piece of the titans nail before disappearing.

Tier 1 Spells 3/4

Necros

Fester (Infect corrupt decay) (1)

Create a curse that turns soft tissue into puss, before expelling it and spreading the curse further.

Lumen

Disco flare (Corrupt bright projectile) (1)

Create a burst of ever changing color.

Null

Magic missile (Projectile gather dispel)

Throw a projectile of nothing at the target, consuming matter until its non existence is balanced out.

The notes were filled almost automatically as I fell asleep once more, dreaming of the great between.