The next day was spend piercing together a new spell, decay move something that should have come naturally.

The merging of runes was more comfortable than the dreams that followed me when I wasn’t busy crafting a spell, and even as I awoke the next day, I was slowly getting used to the headache.

When I finally finished, the spellcraft skill filled me with information I didn’t even consider at first.

I could choose the Arcana the spell worked in, and after the other two spells made it clear that necros only destroyed things, I chose spatium for this spell, the color it took on a vibrant purple.

Waking u the next day was accompanied by a familiar window, a new spell joining the list, and a new category opening up.

Arcana

Spell list

Notes

Necros

Purify (Decay infection)

Weakens or destroys debuff and illness.

Necros

Afflict (Infect decay)

Infuses a creature with insidious Necros, weakening their immune system and natural regeneration.

Spatium

(Decay movement)

I cast this on the cat, prompting a very confused look as it suddenly slowed down.

A feeling like straining a muscle filled my head.

Other spells were like throwing a ball, requiring a short moment of focus and action before releasing it in the runic structure on my soul.

This one felt like holding a barrel, and as long as I held it, the effort didn’t diminish.

Next, I cast it on myself, feeling the air around me seem thicker than before, though the strain was less of a problem while holding it on myself.

As a test, I threw my pillow up and cast slow on it, and for the split second I managed to hold it, it slowed down as well.

Then, the exhaustion caught me once more and left me falling asleep.

Arcana

Spell list

Notes

Necros

Purify (Decay infection)

Weakens or destroys debuff and illness.

Necros

Afflict (Infect decay)

Infuses a creature with insidious Necros, weakening their immune system and natural regeneration.

Spatium

Slow (Decay movement)

Decrease the target’s speed, as long as concentration is maintained.

The thought that this is about right passed through my head.

The next week was mostly a blur of me babbling any words my mother used, making a note on any word I managed to pick up and creating a bit of a dictionary in my head, translating English to this new language.

Every morning, I would attempt to push me upwards, though a baby physique wasn’t suited to any type of movement, especially with my wobbly head.

Following this pathetic excuse of a training, it was cat time, which meant either casting slow on it or simply making loud noises in its direction.

Don’t think of me as an asshole though, because it would always reciprocate, sitting on me when I was attempting something or meowing when I tried to meditate.

Meditation was something I attempted after my evening spell tests, casting afflict and purify on anything I could see.

The picture I had of my soul had grown more and more clear, the gaseous orb now visibly bubbling at all times, with my spells burned into it.

Every six days, there would be a market, which my parents now started taking me to every time, using the opportunity to teach me new words and show me off to their neighbors, who tended to comment something or another.

I had learned the words for baby, man, woman, not and life so far, mostly because I was referred to as ‘Baby man’ by some, ‘Baby not woman’ by others, which seemed like the people using it were particularly upset about that fact.

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One grandma calls me ‘Baby not not life man’ all the time. Not life meant death, which I knew from the times my mother still freaked out about the mouse corpses. I was unsure whether not not life referred to undead or was some cute way to say living, because while my pulse was a little slow, and my skin had a bit of a pale coloring, I was very much alive.

She was in the room when I was born and held my mothers hand during the time, so it might be a reference to the fact they thought I was dead because of the not breathing thing.

Thus, the weeks passed, with no one to test my spells on, I decided against creating any others, the feeling of holding an unnamed spell was not something I wanted to hold for longer than absolutely necessary.

During the third week, I finally convinced my mother to let me crawl a little, slowly building up my motor control as I explored the house, the three rooms we had not quite baby proof, though that didn’t stop me from boldly marching forward, dragging me along my pathetic arms to the ultimate goal.

The cat had made it’s bed on top of the shelve, and as it slept, I started meowing towards it.

After another week of this regiment, the cat and I met in the door between my room and the kitchen, it held a dead mouse for me, and I pet it’s head, thus ending the meow war with a mutually agreed peace treaty.

With a corpse to work on, I decided on a spell I wanted to test a long time ago.

‘Infect, move.’

I had to hide the corpse for the night as I learned the spell, deciding to make it a necros version.

Arcana

Spell list

Notes

Necros

Purify (Decay infection)

Weakens or destroys debuff and illness.

Necros

Afflict (Infect decay)

Infuses a creature with insidious Necros, weakening their immune system and natural regeneration.

Spatium

Slow (Decay movement)

Decrease the target’s speed, as long as concentration is maintained.

Necros

(Infect movement)

When I tested it the next day, I decided to be very careful on where to cast it. The other three spells seemed like common afflictions or debuffs, but this thing was a nightmare to behold.

The corpse twitched in ways that should not have been possible, it’s movement turning a whole different type of fucked up when the spell finally relented.

Arcana

Spell list

Notes

Necros

Purify (Decay infection)

Weakens or destroys debuff and illness.

Necros

Afflict (Infect decay)

Infuses a creature with insidious Necros, weakening their immune system and natural regeneration.

Spatium

Slow (Decay movement)

Decrease the target’s speed, as long as concentration is maintained.

Necros

Seizure (Infect movement)

Causes the targets external muscles to twitch uncontrollably,

“That’s crazy, I hope others didn’t think of this too often, I don’t want to end up like that.”

Another week passed, with another visit to the market, and me still struggling to achieve my first steps and actual words.

The moment my Parents saw that I was making progress, they decided to take me to work, my father talking to me while he and an elderly man managed the forge, the guy introducing himself to me as something I couldn’t quite understand, though it did involve the word father and another that sounded similar to the group of family related words.

His work was quite impressive, the sound of iron pounding on steel great for me to flow into meditation, finally understanding everything the skill told me to do so far.

Trait:

Description

Persistent 1

Your body can last longer without sleeping, eating and breathing, also slows down the aging process.

Skill:

Description

Spellcraft 1

This skill guides you in the art of Spellcraft, granting you knowledge to create better spells.

Meditation 2

This skill guides you in the art of meditation, helping the user relief the pressure spells put on your soul supports the refinement of the soul.

Rune

Description

Move

Move

Decay

Decay

Infect

Infect

Finally, new knowledge filled my head, guiding me to start concentrating on the glob that was my soul, pulling and prodding it with my senses to not merely see, but also feel it.

Thus, the next step had begun, though I was pulled out of my thoughts by the day's end, my father carrying me home, where I continued to move around, almost regretting that I didn’t take cultivation. Though that only lasted until I started casting again. Magic was fucking epic, and it’s not like having a headache every day is something I wasn’t used to. I lived in a world where even the walls seemed dead set on annoying you.

I was getting used to this world, and slowly approaching the peak of what I could do so far. The difference between casting a single rune and a tier zero spell was gigantic, and I instinctively knew that the one between tier zero and one was too big for me. Spellcraft warned me of that too, which I assume meant I should get it to level two before proceeding.