Looking around, I saw the geos tournament was already in full swing, Ember and Sine standing with me, waiting for the second to last mission to conclude.
“How does it feel to only be tenth in something?” Ember asked, and I grinned viciously at him.
“Disgusting, but I lost my patience, I just can’t believe I actually used those spells, overtaxing myself like that was a stupid idea, I might have won in any other circumstance.”
It was no complete failure, tier zero light magic having been integrated into my elemental aspect even with my weak presentation of control.
“Don’t worry, it happens when you can’t stop competing, at least you are now ready for the necros tournament, aren’t you?” Sine asked, and I nodded, a round of pep talk commencing, until the smell of decay washed over everything, and the necros applicants were asked to enter a gate that looked like a crypt.
A small exchange of high-fives was my goodbye, before I entered this arena of decay, feeling necros begin to settle on my body. It was already a part of me, the core of my power, and probably the biggest reason I was not yet a smear on some pavement.
Soon, The arena was revealed, willows and leafless oaks stood tall, shattered gravestones standing in a layman's interpretation of straight lines.
Occasionally, gazebos or pillars decorated the landscape, and undead shambling across this place.
Fill the altar with corpses.
There is a large altar in the center of this graveyard. Every corpse you sacrifice there grants 100 points, different methods of transport grant different modifiers.
I expected this trial to be easy, and I was not disappointed.
Tier 1 runes
Rune
Description
Decay
Necros
Infect
Necros
Corrupt
Necros
Tier 2 Runes
Rune
Description
Exhaust
Necros
Corpse
Necros
Consume
Necros
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Tier 3 runes
Rune
Description
Specter
Necros
The moment I entered, zombies started shambling after me, some aggressive, others just following the most powerful undying one in the vicinity, the darkness in our hearts was almost the same, and as my hunger concentrated all the local necros on me, I felt like a fad man at a banquet, gorging myself with everything I could.
To anyone with the arcane gaze ability, I was a vortex, sucking in power greedily and without concern for my well-being, and the undead followed the greatest concentration of power.
I lead them to the center like some sort of rattenfänger, the crowd growing ever bigger as we approached the place that was called an altar.
It looked like a skating bowl of pure white crystal, the eery lighting reflecting through the twisted fog covering the ground, other people bringing small groups of undead to the center, only for them to instead join my congregation.
Then, I spun magic, the notification implied I needed to sacrifice the corpses, and there were only two spells suited for that.
The first, decay corpse, looked promising for a while, until the corpse turned to ash, and was then turned into a ghostly grayish figure. A problem I countered with a simple ‘Consume specter’ my skin turned a bit more ashen as I did so, the targets weak soul force absorbed by mine, enhancing my own decay.
You sacrificed a corpse, the zombie it belonged to willingly followed you to the central ring.
100pt *3
Total: 300pt
Next, infect corpse was unleashed, the natural decay increasing in speed, and the ashes spread with a gust of light wind, infecting other corpses with the same rot, until my army of zombies had become one of skeletons, this spell not quite as potent as the first.
Then, I ran, the skeletons much more aggressive against me, gathering their own necros similarly to me.
I then began casting consume corpse, my skeleton becoming more and more refined in a twisted perversion of everything my lizardfolk mentor had taught me about advancing my body.
Everything inside me popped and twisted as a steady stream of notifications and skeletons joined my chase, my body beginning to decay as flesh was burned to keep me from getting too exhausted.
When it was done, I saw others hacking away at my skeletons, probably gaining nearly no multiplier for killing what I lured, but their spells and use of weaponry was quite impressive, the new tactic favoring people much different from those this trial was probably supposed to weed out.
At some point, one of my fellow necromancers decided to attack me with a ‘Corrupt decay’ Which I quickly went on to dispel by consuming the Necros rallying to the runes command, instead casting ‘Corrupt specter’ on the attacker, who seemed to have a mental breakdown of some sort following this exchange.
You sacrificed a corpse, the skeleton it belonged to was trying to hunt you down. (*11)
100pt *2 (*11)
Total: 2500pt
I remained here, an outer ring forming, a group of people who killed every zombie that shambled into the ring, though a few kills of mine convinced them to leave empty space for every third zombie to pass through.
I was the king of the bowl, lord of the dead and center of attention, my spells continuing to turn zombies into skeletons, and then consume them to feed my own hunger.
The zombies continued to swarm us for what felt like hours, the twelve of us surviving this long slowly losing concentration.
“Comrades and temporary allies, our situation is nearly hopeless. I recommend every second soldier goes to sleep in the circles center, while the others form a ring around them. I will try anything to draw them towards us slower, and disassemble them at a larger distance. This is a trial of endurance, and with only a total of thirteen of us left, I think it’s time to work together, rather than compete.” They obeyed quickly, the ones who didn’t having been executed by me during the last two hours of constant casting, or were killed by a zombie after they wasted a first or second tier spell on killing it.
To say the fight became easier after my order was issued would be the understatement of the year.
The other students slept for two hours, before exchanging with their neighbor, my position in the center being mostly that of a beacon, casting infect corpse and the occasional consume corpse, while necros flooded my mind and body, tearing at the gate in my soul, carefully, I called upon my meditate skill and tried to channel the power, making it seep along my blood stream, decaying my life force and turning it into something different.
As the night progressed, I even partially slipped into the unbound skill, piercing just a bit behind the demi planes membrane, and getting a taste of deaths ultimate power, which I of course continued to absorb.
After hours of fighting, my body becoming closer to my soul, I snapped myself back to reality, the sheer power almost drawing me to become another part of the barrier.
When I opened my eyes next, it was to the first light of dawn shining upon the graveyard, my skin like a sheet of paper against my bone, everyone around me grinning wide at their survival.
“Hail the bone eater.” One of them screamed, and the others joined in, a warmth blossoming that I had not known I missed. It reminded me of days as a hero, some previous life where I lead an army of desperate soldiers.
“There is a reason the dead rarely walk alone.” I state, my grin probably incredibly creepy as I watched the feverish glee of surviving a war torn nigh wash over most my new comrades.
“When you are anathema to life, it is hard to find friends among the living. We are the future of death, the new generation among the ones who understand death as a tool. Whatever our professors will throw at us, we will handle together. Together, we are strong.”
The moment that this dimension let us go, we still stared at the ranking, the fight mostly good-natured, with people discussing strategies for similar situations.
For me, this moment was different. I had been so close to becoming a specter of death myself, the darkest necros still lingering in my bones, threatening to destroy me, a part of this realm had remained within me, and as Ember, Sine and Noel came towards me, each of us started to light up, a total of sixteen teenagers and children laughed at the same time, a notification coming through that made this, and many other corners of the place cheering with us.
You have qualified for: Necros, Lumen, Aqua and Spatium.
You have been assigned to the following courses: Restraining your power, Ego and how to handle it, Why we do not mess with the realms, Dinner table manners (Advanced).
My groan made many people look confused, before I showed them the second entry, sparking a laugh so loud it might have been a bit embarrassing.
Exhausted, all of us stumbled towards the dorm, tomorrow would be the semester begin, and I had a lot of work to do.