Walking is hard, but I did manage to do it during my third month of developing, the words I knew slowly accumulating and my babbling became more and more coherent, though my lack of teeth was quite the problem with pronunciation.
My parents were overjoyed as I walked with their help, my own muscles not yet developed enough to carry me the whole way.
This month was beautiful, my parents celebrating whenever I walked in any way, though the development they couldn’t see was much more impressive, if I say so myself.
My knowledge on my soul was quite extensive at this point, and I felt my work pay dividends.
Spells I cast were becoming less exhausting, my dreams were somehow less horrifying and it became harder to break my calm. I was approaching the final stages before I could initiate my first refinement, and I was prepared to get my spellcraft to lvl two at this point.
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,
There were technically six spells I could still make, and I had taken the last month to make this decision.
My parents let me crawl along the market when they were there, the Purify spell quite helpful in cleaning off any trace of disease I carried on me, and I decided to go with move decay next just because the village was filled with decaying things anywhere.
As the runes finished converging, spatium filled the spell form on my command, leaving me with the newly created spell, which I found to quite literally expel any source or product of decay from my body the moment I used it.
This one was like a natural fit to my beloved purify, and made me certain that wherever I went, I at least looked clean.
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,
Spatium
Clean (Move decay)
Expel substances of the decay category from the target
Something was still missing for spellcraft to level up, a basic thing it warned me about, while insisting I had to do it.
Thus, I Infused Infect movement with spatium the next day, and finally understood what I was missing.
Pain like I never before Imagined burned through my body, making me scream in agony as the spatium flooded my form, the world swimming before my eyes, my vision slowly fading to black .
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
[Failure to create spell. Reason: Spatium: Infect movement does not have an effect.]
I cursed the skill that led me to this, especially as the old women who had called me 'not not alive baby' stood over my bed, shoving a weird drink town my throat I could only assume to be some type of potion.
Following that, she played with a little stone above my head, prompting me to grab for it in order to keep up my disguise, though it started acting weird the moment it touched my hand.
“That’s what I thought.” She mumbled, her brows furrowing in concern while she stared at the orb, making me confused as I took a look myself, absolutely horrified to see an image of my soul projected into the air before me.
“Now, you should never have left this room, given what I assume to be necromancy and space magic, you are basically a dead baby walking, though not in the way I thought the last few weeks.
I know a spell that can transcribe the things you want to say in a way that I can read it. Now, given that most people have never seen necros or spatium, you should be safe unless you find another one like me,
Answer my questions and I’ll decide whether you get to live, understood?”
There are a lot of ways things could go wrong in this life, but this was not what I had expected, the crones black and gray hair falling around her weirdly kind face.
“Now, go on and create a new spell for me, to see whether there is some method to the madness thats wriggling through your soul.”
I was not normally an obedient guy, but given the situation, I decided to quickly create the ‘move infection’ spell, the 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
Seizure (Infect movement)
Causes the targets external muscles to twitch uncontrollably,
Spatium
Clean (Move decay)
Expel substances of the decay category from the target
Necros
(Move infection)
“Good, this one is normally called spread, and the basis for every plague wielder. Don’t go that route though, vitus-necros combination are highly instable, and the only thing hunted down more often than necros-spatium practitioners, and everyone understands their brown for what it is. Now, why are you in this world?”
She asked, confusing me as she did so.
"No one should be born with more than one affinity, and given that you have spatium and necros, I assume it was some messed up attempt at immortality. Is that right so far?"
I simply nodded, content to keep her in her delusions if they somehow helped me stay alive.
“Now, those powers should best be kept hidden from anyone but me, until you can prove to some academy that you are in control of this power and do not plan on abusing it. You have a great future ahead if you follow my training. If you reject, I'll have to kill you, though,”
She offered, prompting a quick agreement from me.
“Given that you are my apprentice now, I will tell you what your new spell does. It infiltrates the body with necros, until the naturally occurring Arcana resist it and force it out, which mostly happens through a cough. The tendency of necros to draw diseases to some point make this cough particularly infectious.”
We went home as I thought about the spell she mentioned and realized that there was probably someone that knew what all my spells did so far.
After giving me this information, she brought me outside and presented me to my parents.
“I cured him, though he has a lot of magical talent that needs to be watched closely. I will take him in as my apprentice from tomorrow on. That way I can monitor him while you are busy, and at the same time give my knowledge to a probably worthy inheritor.”
As my parents looked upon me, I decided to cast clean on dad, leaving his work attire to look as good as new.
My cover was blown this easily, and I needed to rebuild it as fast as possible.
Troubling times were ahead of me, now that I actually had to learn again, though the promise of knowledge excited me.
My parents celebrated that evening, telling me about the great harvest festival that would come up in another two months, and how everyone would be happy for another somewhat useful mage in the village.
I was a summer child, of course, which is quite amusing considering that all the runes I knew apparently belonged to some type of forbidden magic.
The new spell was incredible. When I cast it on a mouse the cat had brought me, I finally understood the importance it had for plague casters.
It made the rodent cough once, though I knew that the surrounding air was infected as I drifted into sleep, a question blossoming on my mind as I hugged the cat. The fur ball needed a name quickly, and it didn’t seem like my parents had given it one so far.
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 target's external muscles to twitch uncontrollably,
Spatium
Clean (Move decay)
Expel substances of the decay category from the target
Necros
Spread (Move infection)
Force the target to release infected breath, creating a small area in which the rate of infection is increased.
The next few minuted were spent meditating and tinkering with my soul, before I finally managed to fall asleep, once again dreaming of the impossible vastness of space.
My previous lives were beautiful, but the author would have killed to get an opportunity at magic. This was the life I always wanted, and today I came dangerously close to loosing it.