“Alright…” Alistair speaks. He quickly draws a heavy book from a bag, and begins flipping through it. “I am mostly a carnimancer. You will probably end up learning from me, so that's how you’ll end up, but the best start is always necromancy. Unless you want to be a Hemomancer, but I don't know anything about being a Hemomancer so I'm the wrong guy. Now, there are a couple ways to get bodies for use as undead spirits. Some people, rarely will put in their wills they want their bodies to be used by necromancers after death. This is fine, but most people don't do this, and the ones that do, usually and in things like saying they have to be a high level, sentient undead. If you join the army, you can raise anyone you kill. You can also just use animals. If you find a dungeon, you can quickly infect the corpses with your mana which will stop the dungeon from eating the corpses. Now some illegal methods are grave robbery, or murder. But generally I'm going to try to steer you away from those.”
Eli nods along.
“Also, this is almost always frowned upon. But when making undead you only use their corpses, and your mana sort of takes the place of their soul. But if you so choose, you can start manipulating souls at higher levels making smarter undead, and even stuff like wraiths, or specters.” Alistair explains.
“Alright.” Alistair quickly slips the book back in his bag, and grabs at Eli's shoulders. “So, i'm going to show you how to do this spell by using my mana to move your mana. It should only take 20 minutes or so.”
True to Alistair's words it only took 15 minutes for Eli to feel like he had a grasp on the spell, being ingrained in him.
Alistair smiles. “So this specific spell is purely necromantic with nothing else. It is a low level version of the spells that high powered necromancers can use. Now the reason this one is low leveled is because at max it can raise something as big as a human. Max. Also, the summoned creatures will be weaker than they were in life. Higher level, or rarer spells would allow you to keep, or even augment the strength of the creature, or summon larger stronger creatures. Also you are going to want to start keeping a spell book, because that knowledge will slowly start fading from your mind, and as you get more, everything starts fading faster making a spell book necessary.”
Eli nods. “I don't have a spellbook.”
Alistair nods. “Yeah, have this one. It's blank.” he passes Eli a large blank book bound in sheep skin.
“Thanks.” Eli quickly turns, and starts to head into the dungeon.
“Wait Eli.” Alistair says. “Let's go back to my wagon first.”
“Why?” Eli utters?
Alistair chuckles. “Im, a carnimancer who specializes in the creation of minions. Did you think I'd go into a dungeon with a newbie, and nothing to protect myself with?”
“Uh… I…” Eli stutters. “I don't know. I guess not.”
Alistair guides Eli to the dark knight's encampment, where Alistair actually has multiple wagons, but he opens one, and reveals a giant fleshy golem. It looks like when you're a child, and you try to make a person out of play-doh, and it ends up in a vaguely human blob. That's what this is, and its skin is clearly stitched together patches from a variety of different races, and species. The arms even have some skin of ashen gray coloration.
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Alistair beams. “One of the first real flesh golems I've ever made. Crude but effective, and most likely when, or if you get to the point of carnimancy, this is what you’ll make.”
I shudder. “Freaky as hell, but ok.”
Alistair chuckles. “How rude.” he quips good naturedly.
They turn, and begin the trek to the dungeon. Once they get there, they enter the line, pay the clerk, and quickly begin the delve. Eli watches in awe as Alistair's golem quickly tramples every last piece of vegetation in the room, and everything within it dies quickly.
Alistair stops. “Normally we would have you raise, one, or a couple of these for your first minions, But I heard they have Goblins down there, and those, with a little assistance from me, will be perfect first minions! Now if you were any other class I would have made you fight just now. But you must understand for necromancers, it's less about experience, which dont get me wrong can still be very useful, but more about tactics, numbers, and the design of your minions.”
They once again descend a floor, and find themselves wading through a sea of little copper raccoons. Which the Golem once again slaughtered easily, leaving quite the hall of copper coins.
They step through to the boss room, where the Golem gets ambushed but still wins with not a single wound.
They go all the way down to the third floor, and find a branching pathway. They pick one, and find EVEN more of the little copper bastards.
Finally they enter the boss room. “Oh, my goodness, Eli, this will be a perfect first minion!”
With one blow from the Golem the little Possum man is thrown against the wall, and killed. “Quickly touch him Eli!”
Eli complies, rushing forward to fall to his knees, and place both hands on the corpse.
Alistair grabs him by the shoulders. “You are just barely too weak to raise this yourself, so I will lend you a small amount of power. Quickly perform the spell I taught you!”
Eli without any resistance begins the spell, finding it required every last drop of mana he had, and then some, which Alistair loaned him. But in no time, at all the little Possum man rises to his feet, and Eli. Instinctively know.
“His name is Bob.”
“What?”
“His name is Bob.”
“I heard you, but thats just such a stupid fucking name for a boss monster.”
Eli shrugs. “I don’t care.”
Alistair gives Eli’s new Mob a quick appraisal. “He is an F-6. That's good, he's even a couple levels higher than you. I'm surprised you got that to work.” He nods approvingly. “Now sit down, and start cultivating. This Dungeon is awesome in that it is almost completely neutral, so it's perfect for you to cultivate in.”
Eli nods, and quickly begins cultivating.
Alistair smiles, and waits… And waits… Wand waits… Patiently as Eli uses his sub-par F ranked cultivation technique to slowly but surely gather mana. Finally Eli is done.
Alistair smiles. “Spectacular! You’ve broken into F-4! Pretty much all of the F ranks is just gathering mana, so it shouldn't take too long until you break into the E ranks. That's a little more complicated, but don't worry about that.”
Eli smiles. “yay.”