Next day I continued my exploration far away from the spot, where I met dullahan. It was my tenth day in the dungeon, but I still gathered only magic stones worth around two gold coins. Geez, the adventurers of previous generations, searched every mausoleum and tomb here, and took everything that had any value and could bring them even a single copper coin. No wonder no one ever came here.

Week later I encountered second floor guardian. I was hiding behind the stones watching it suck the bone matter from bones of a zombie that this second floor guardian just killed. It ripped zombie apart, as easily as I would rip apart paper page.It was a ghoul, almost human like, but with sharp ears and mouse full of sharp teeth, and dark green skin. Ghoul was wearing pants. His upper body was muscular and his every move was flexible, precise and full of wild beauty. I sighed. Another monster that could solve my money problems, but was way too much for me to handle. I used Teleportation spell to get far away from him.

Eight days later I was chased around by lugat. Undead vampire-like being, with long fingernails that looked more like lion claws, ability to fly and hide in shadows. He jumped me from behind using mausoleums shadow, and only my chainmail and armored vest saved me. I got lucky, since he tried to cut my back, instead of going for my head. After first strike he retreated to the shadow that gave me time to cast Hast spell. I tried killing him with my sword, but his skin was almost as good as armor. After few cuts he retreated to the shadows. I decided not to risk and tried to retreat, avoiding shadows, and he started to chase me, flying above the ground. I again used teleportation and managed to lose him.

My map started to show me some order to Cemetery dungeon. As far as I could tell it was separated in areas that had a strong monster, ruling their territory. I tried to confirm my theory and searched next possible location. I found one of the bigger mausoleums, and peeked inside through one of the cracks in the wall. Monster was lying on a catafalque. If I had to guess I would say that it was draugr.

A revenant - undead brought back to life in corporeal body, whose task was guarding the treasure. Or a magically created copy of a draugr. A very good copy, that was guarding actual treasure. A pile of gems, gold and silver coins, sword, dagger decorated with jewels and golden helmet.

My mouth filled with saliva. That was biggest pile of treasure that I had ever seen in my life. Also only pile of treasure, but that's beside the point. There was only one thing to do. Be brave adventurer, kill the monster safe the princess and get the treasure. Don't make me laugh! Rob him!!!

I stepped away from the mausoleum and used Haste and then Magic arrow spells. Mass of magic energy hit the wall of mausoleum and created head sized hole in it. One more Magic arrow near it, threw which I saw angry face of the monster. I aimed another Magic arrow at him, but missed when he disappeared from my view. Mausoleum door that was located inside next wall opened and draugr run outside. He looked at me hissed and started running towards me. His claws were near my neck when I disappeared. I used teleportation and appeared inside the building. A hole made by my magic arrows allowed me to see inside it, and it was all that I needed.

I squatted down to make sure that draugr could not see me and started showing all the treasures inside my magic bag. Draugr probably went looking for me, because I had enough time to clean him out. By the time draugr opened the door and saw me inside his holy place I was already pushing last coins in my bag. He let out loud haul, that sounded beyond angry and run towards me with outstretched hands. But I again disappeared from his view.

I started running and preparing my spell. Draugr run outside, without bothering to open the door, and went right threw it, smashing it to pieces. He started chasing me, but I again used teleportation, this time choosing the roof of one of the mausoleums. I hid from draugr's view, and prepared another spell. Fourth spell was my limit. I used mana potion, and regained enough of my mana to use one more spell. By that time I lost the draugr and run out of Cemetery dungeon. Hope he will not follow me to the capitol, but even if he does, then let some high ranking adventurer take care of him. Or guards. They are paid to protect innocent people from bad monsters. Well, I was innocent. It's not like stealing from monsters was a crime, at least there was no law that forbid it. Just in case, I left Cemetery dungeon and returned to the capitol as fast as I could. Most of my way I looked back, fearing to see angry monster running after me, but it worked out. I kept running until I finally reached the capitol. After going through the gate I finally calmed down, and started breathing more easily.

My mission for the winter break was accomplished. I got the treasure. I went to Adventurer guild and asked the receptionist where I could sell the treasure that I found in the dungeon. It turned out, that adventurer guild, did not had anything against buying treasure, as long as they kept their twenty percent probably.

Familiar bunny-girl took me to the private room and I took out all my loot. I also took out the coins, since most of them looked different, older, with animal heads chiseled on them. I also asked her to appraise sword, helmet and dagger, and paid three silvers for the appraisal service.

Soon she returned with familiar guild master. Donar bowed to me and took a seat in front of me.

- I see that luck smiled on you, - he smiled and put the appraised items on the table.

- Yes, I got lucky in the dungeon.

- Even more lucky than you probably think. I have Identify item skill, and work as guilds appraisal master. Cannot delight you about the dagger. The gems on it are valuable of course, but it is ordinary weapon. The helmet is different. It is low level artifact that can increase users Defense stats by one. It will get you four gold coins. The sword is actually a named artifact. King Gorragod blade, it is called. I never heard of a king with such name, but my skill cannot tell me the artifact's age, so it is possible that it is the name of a king that lived long ago. Or it is just a name of an artifact. But more importantly is the sword's abilities. It can increase your Strength, Defense and Spell power stats by two. Each of them. It is very powerful mid ranking artifact. I could offer you two orichalcum coins for it, or we could sell it in auction. You could get more money that way.

I thought for a moment. Two orichalcum coins would solve my money problems, for two semesters that I will need, to learn Life magic skill.

- I would like to receive the money now.

- As you wish. Since you decided to sell everything to us, you total amount will be five orichalcum coins, sixty three gold coins, twenty silvers and six coppers.

I managed to hide my surprise. That was way more than I expected, but I should have remembered that gem stones are valuable even in this world. I nodded, not trusting my voice, and bunny-girl put heavy looking wallet on a table. She also added two more orichalcum coins, and I put them inside the wallet. I did not count them, but opened the wallet, and after seeing three orichalcum coins among the other coins, put it inside my magic bag.

- My I also ask you something? - stopped me Donar.

- What is it?

- The magic stones that you brought. They a bit unusual. They look like magic stones, that you usually get from undead monsters?

- I prefer to keep hunting details to myself.

- I understand of course, - nodded Donar. I thought that he will mention Cemetery dungeon and the rule that only B rank adventurers were allowed to go there, but he just smiled: - Please be careful then. We will also make sure, that no one founds out, from who we got these items. As you asked our guild in Grimsburg. Unless you changed your mind?

- No, I prefer to be anonymous.

- Very well. Pleasure to do business with you. Please don't hesitate to sell us any monster materials and treasures that you find in a dungeon, and be sure, that we will not disclose your name to anyone. Even the king.

- Thank you, - he nodded and I left the guild. I visited professor Doranius and paid for the rest of my semesters, included private room during all three of them. It costed me three orichalcum coins and fifty gold ones, but I finally could afford them.

During next month I stayed away from the dungeon. Fear that draugr will come after me or chase me around the dungeon kept me inside the capitol's walls.

Instead I used my rest days to learn new spells in Mage guild. I learned Fire ball, Conceal to hide myself from draugr, Blindness, Paralysis and Petrification spells. Only downside of Blindness, Paralysis and Petrification spells was that they could have been used only on a single opponent.

My lessons in Fire magic skills were similar to previous elemental magic skill lessons. We learned more deeply about fire magic spells. Spend hours just watching burning fire, and learned the history of Fire magic school.

After a month I finally convinced myself that draugr will not be coming after me and resumed my dungeon exploration. Except that now I was constantly using Conceal spell, that helped me hide from monsters and launch surprise attacks on them. The spell did not made me invisible, there was no such spell, I already asked about that, but it hid sounds of my footsteps, and helped me use natural hiding spots like shadows, more effectively.

I continued mapping the dungeon, and searching for the rest on floor guardians, trying to figure out their territories. Monsters became stronger, the deeper I ventured into Cemetery dungeon. I encountered undead animals and revenants, but there were also the same ghosts, zombies and wights.

By the end of semester I successfully acquired Fire magic skill, and after using leveling crystal reached level twenty three and increased my Intelligence skill to basic level. I hoped to get a warrior skill, but my other choice was to increase Mana rapid recovery skill.

Two weeks between semesters I spend continuing my dungeon exploration. And finally the beginning of my last two semesters and learning my last magic skill begun.

* * *

My first lesson was magic history. I entered the classroom, and was surprised by the fact that I was alone. My teacher was the oldest looking professor in academy. His name was Farnos. He had wrinkled face, bent back and moved very slowly using a walking stick. Professor Farnos thought magic history, including magic history of all elemental magic schools.

- Welcome, welcome, young student, - he greeted me: - Take your seat. So you are the one, who decided and also was allowed to learn Life magic. Good, good choice. Very interesting magic with its own history. A shame that it is almost forgotten now. Since you did not have lessons in basic studies, you will have to catch up. But today we will start with history of Life magic school. You may know it already, but roots of Life magic began with elves. The beginnings of Life magic started when elves came out of their forests and shared their knowledge with humans about their Nature magic.

I did not know that, and wrote down his every word. Mentioning of two magic schools captured my attention, and I forgot professors boring tone, that usually made students sleepy.

- Your ancestors, just like you, have natural abilities in Nature magic. Even in these days some elves are born with Nature magic skill. It is used to help trees grow and make elves lives easier in forests. Helps them to become one with nature. But humans were always more interested in war. But in ancient times battle spells were few, and humans relied more on gods. Priestesses who worshipped goddess of light, as legends say, with help that they received from the goddess, created several spells that could have been used in battles. Mostly they relied on holy power and could be used to heal people, or protect them from harmful magic. They were also using spells, that could made their life easier, not relying on rulers from that time. Sisters of light, as they were called, valued their independence so they created such spells as Create water on Start fire. By combining their goddesses teachings, Nature magic and magic that their used in their everyday lives, they created a new magic school - Life magic.

Now let us learn more about sisters, who helped the Life magic to evolve and helped to shape magic to its more advanced level.

Next weeks professor told me about more famous sisters of light and other magicians who created new spells, modified them and most powerful and famous Life magic users. That was boring, and even after writing down the names and histories, I did not exactly bothered with memorizing them. That was similar to all other magic schools that I already learned, and I was not afraid anymore, that not knowing the name of every famous magician will affect my ability to acquire magic skill.

I also had lessons in high elves language. As an elf I was little embarrassed that I had no idea that such language even existed. It was like no any other language that I knew, but grammar was easy, and I never had problems learning new languages. These lessons I attended along with several other students. Apparently it was one of the courses that first year students could choose to learn.

Four weeks later I finally had lesson with professor Doranius who was in charge of teaching me Life magic spells.

Unlike my usual lessons, we did not go to classroom instead my lessons were outside, inside the training grounds.

- Today we will learn Life magic. First you need to forget everything you learned until now. Especially everything about spell circles. Are you ready.

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- No, - I answered honestly.

- Good, - Doranius smiled and pointed at wood sticks arranged in a pile that was usually used to start bonfire: - We will start by using Life magic to light a fire. You will need to use mana to do it.

- Don't I need spell circle to do it?

Doranius sighed:

- What did I just say. Forget about spell circles. Life magic predates all that. Do you know how magic resistance and artifacts that grant you magic resistance work?

- No.

- When you use spell circles, they transform your mana into magic power. Magic resistance and artifacts grant your body ability to disperse harmful magic power aimed at you. The more magic power is used, which is requirement for high ranking spells or used by mages with high Spell power stat, the more difficult it is for your body to disperse that magic power. Do you understand.

-Yes, - I nodded. That was easy to understand.

- Good. By the way what level is your Wisdom skill?

- At basic level.

- I talked to your teachers. Your drawing skills are less than impressive. So when you will have time you will attend lessons in which students learn to draw magic circles. That will include, basic lessons, and lessons that involve elemental magic.

- But why? - it's not like I hated those lessons, but not my favorite too. Besides he was right, I was not good at them.

- Because I can teach you only low level spells and beginners use of Life magic. Next semester I will arrange for you access to Life magic grimoire, which is kept in Mage guild. You will need to copy the whole book. And I mean exactly - copy. Once you increase your Wisdom level you will be able to use high ranking spells, and you will need to learn them from that spell book.

- I see. Thank you professor.

- Now let us start our lesson. In order to light a fire, you will need to channel mana directly into the wood and light it up. Life magic is unique in the mana use. It makes useless any magic resistance skill or artifact, unless someone has Life magic or some similar, like Nature magic, resistance skill. It would be great asset for magicians, but the problem is, that life magic is not battle magic, and has no battle spells. At least not ones that can be used against living beings. And more importantly, learning Life magic spells is much more difficult than learning magic that uses spell circles. You need to accomplish the same result using just mana without help from spell circles, that were specifically designed to help mages to use magic more easily and much more efficiently. It also uses more mana to achieve the same result. People with low mana, would be able to use only few basic Life magic spells.

- How fast did you learn Life magic professor?

- I never did. I tried to learn it. When I was younger I was fascinated by different way of using magic, and learned about Life magic spells and theory of using them. I was fascinated by the fact that Life magic creates actual physical objects not magical constructs. But I gave up on trying to master them, after a month. Learning magic that use spell circles turned out much more fun, and much easier.

- What do you mean by actual physical objects?

- How should I explain? When you use magic circles to create a wall of earth, you use magic power that is created by magic circle in which you channel your mana. After a while the magic power disappears along with the earth wall. But when you use mana directly to create for example water, then you transform your mana and it permanently stays in a form of a water. That is why if you use spell circle to create water you will not be able to satisfy your thirst, but Life magic can be used to create water that you can drink. That is what you must learn to do. To use mana directly and shape it into physical objects or phenomena without the assistance of magic circles that transform mana into magic power. Also your Spell power stats will not influence your Life magic in any way because of it.

- Cant I learn these spells after I get Life magic skill?

- That is the problem. Currently there are no mages in academy, who can use Life magic. Mostly because no one practices Life magic spells. And you cannot get Life magic skill, unless you learn basic use of its spells.

- That sounds complicated.

- Yes, that is right. Now, like I was saying, in order to start a fire, you will need to channel your mana into firewood and imagine the firewood to start burning.

- That's all?

- Yes. You will practice this spell every free period. Find me when you will master it.

- You will not be staying professor?

- No. At your level you should have enough mana and it will take you a lot of time. But if you will fail to do that during this semester, then you will never master Life magic.

- How many students succeeded in learning it?

- As far as I now, in our academy, during last fifty years, around twenty students decided to learn Life magic. Nineteen chose different magic disciplines.

- So, one of them succeeded?

- No, he had to leave the academy, because of family matters.

- I see.That was "encouraging".

- Good luck student Avone, - Doranius smiled and returned to his cabinet, thinking about Mesmer's letter and his description of Avone's character. According to academy's records. there were plenty students who tried mastering Life magic. Doranius was one of them. Some were talented, other stubborn and hard working. Doranius lied, because two of them succeeded. But he did not tell that to Avone. Part of him wanted for Avone to choose another battle oriented skill, but another part of him wanted for the girl to succeed.

After Doranius left and I started my lesson.

Two month later I got used to my new lessons and schedule. I attended spell circle drawing lessons, started slowly understand high elf language and learned all kind of boring stuff about Life magic history. During rest days I visited Cemetery dungeon and continued killing undead monsters and searching for floor guardian locations. And during free periods I tried to start a bonfire. Two month later I felt that some of the wood pieces were warm. Or, their just warmed up in the sun. I started to lose my patience, but thoughts of warm bath and shower continued hunting me.

Imagine, imagine - I continued telling myself trying to set these wood pieces on fire. I had enough mana to try creating the fire for one period, but when I had two, I always run out of mana, and spend the rest of the time lying on the ground and waiting for my mana to replenish itself. I considered using mana potions, but my earnings in Cemetery dungeon were low, and I needed to save money, to pay for my lessons in Adventurer academy, where I was planning to go after Magic academy.

Then two weeks later the firewood started burning. It was great. But I was so tired and tried using my mana and imagination in so many different ways, that I forgot what exactly I was doing. I needed two more weeks until I finally figured it out, and was able to light bonfire at will. Tuned out that I had to channel mana using only the surface of my palm, and not fingers. I also could do it using both of my arms, of just one of them.

- Good. You finally did it, - congratulated me Doranius after I demonstrated him my abilities: - We have only month and one week, before the end of semester, so you will need to work harder. You still need to learn at least three spells, in order to pass this semesters requirements of learning Life magic. Next spell will be the opposite of fire. You will need to create a ball of water, by transforming mana into water. Use your mana to gather it in front of you and create a ball of water in front of you. It needs to be big enough to fill this cup.

He placed a cup in front of me. Great I will learn to create water.

- Just create a ball of water. Once you do, it will fall on the ground. Create it directly above the cup, to make sure that water falls inside it.

- What about waters temperature? You said that it is possible to create cold or hot water.

- That is easy part. All you need to do is to imagine cold water or hot one, when you create it. But first concentrate on creating just water. Do not make it more complicated, or you will not succeed at all.

One week later I managed to create few drops of water. Another week took me to create big enough water ball, but it always appeared in random places. Another week I needed to perfect my water ball's location and make sure that water fell inside the cup. Doranius was right. Learning how to create fire ball took me two days, and the spell used at least five times less mana, than I needed to start a fire. The same was with water. I needed at least twenty percent of my mana to create a single water ball. But I finally succeeded. I wanted to learn how to create a hot water, but semester was coming to an end, and I still needed to learn two spells. I demonstrated professor Doranius my success and he nodded satisfied.

- I decided that next you will need to learn level two spell. That will count as two level one spells that you still need to learn. But I should warn you that it is difficult to learn. It is one of two battle spells used by Life magic users. Second spell is actually more powerful variant of the first spell. Both cause damage to undead creatures. So as battle spells they have only limited uses. It is called Holy word. In order to cast it you will need to actually say the spells name in high elf language. And also channeling your mana towards the target and imagining holy energy hitting it. Mana feels the same as magic power that is used by Cure spell. Should I demonstrate it to you?

- No, I can use Cure spell myself.

- Good. Then you know what I mean. Use the target doll for your aim. If you succeed, the area around its heart will start to glow. Good luck and practice hard.

I sighed and aimed at my target.

Using this spell took me less time that the others. Until the end of the semester was only one week left, and Doranius ordered me to continue practicing the Holy word spell, until the end of semester, aiming it at different places on the doll. I could not imagine practice use of it, but did what he ordered.

* * *

Doranius entered principal's room and old man greeted him.

- How are your studies with our special class?

- She managed to learn Holy word spell and perfected it by aiming the spell at different places on doll's surface.

- Oh! Could you tell me about your teaching methods? Maybe we should change our approach to life magic teaching.

- I did nothing different. Started with using mana to light a fire. She tried it for the first month with no success.

- I know the feeling. I tried learning it myself. Did it in forty days, but then decided to concentrate myself on more rewarding disciplines.

- I changed my mind after a month with no successes. Almost all students do. Talented ones stop trying after several weeks, when they realize, that their talent won't help them advance faster. Hard working ones start losing hope in a month after week after week with no advancement. But she continued learning. Week after week. Every free lesson she spend in training grounds. With no rest or breaks from it. Well, technically she did rest. After running out of mana she waited until her mana reserves were restored and them continued again and again until running out of mana again and continuing the circle. Month after month until three month later, after countless tries, she finally learned how to channel her mana directly.

- Unusual, and little scary. Don't think I met anyone who would not stop, after so much time without success and support from the teacher.

- Neither have I. I considered offering her to change her discipline, after a month, but got a feeling, that she would have refused, and would have continued trying even if would have taken her both semesters.

- Did she managed to learn some other spells too?

- Just create water, as our program dictates.

- I see. Well, she is on her way of getting the skill that she chose at least. Continue with your job.

- Yes, principal.

* * *

I spend a month continuing with the dungeon exploration. I also tried using Holy word on the undead. It was useful against both type of undead, weakening them regardless of physical body or its absence. Spell was not powerful enough to kill them immediately, but after some experiments I discovered that aiming the spell at their body parts I can damage the specific part of their body. That turned out to be more useful than I thought in the beginning.

Most of the time I was distracting, spending all evenings, by perfecting my water ball creation. At the end of a month my dungeon exploration did not progress by much, and I did not earn much, but I was able to use my magic to create both hot and cold water. I was able to create warm ball of huge water ball above my head, and enjoy the resemblance of shower. I also tried to create ice ball using Life magic, but it turned out to be impossible.

After the winter break I returned to academy and resumed my lessons. This semester I had lessons in magic history, Nature magic, church of light teachings, basics of Light magic and continued my lessons in high elf language, which was used to cast spells in Life magic school. Two days a week I spend in Mage guild. I decided not to buy one more grimoire, instead using my own to copy the Life magic spell book that was part of Mage guild collection. I was allowed to use one of the rooms, that students in Mage guild used to draw spell circles. There I spend hours and days copying every single word and drawing from the ancient magic book.

Spell book did not just contained the spells, but also the explanations about other uses of magic. I also learned the answer to the question, that was bothering me for a long time. I was always surprised by the fact, that undead monster could be used to level up. Since leveling required gathering other creature life force. According to spell book, necromancers who resurrected the dead, during resurrection changed some of their mana into life force, that was given to the undead, as part of resurrection ceremony. So undead also had life force. They did not needed it to move or live, but apparently mana only could keep them alive, so to say, only if they also possessed life force.

There were also many spells, mostly protection spells against physical and magic attacks, but also healing and some enhancement spells. During my free lessons, I was allowed use training grounds, and from the Life magic spell book I learned Healing spell. Unlike Cure spell it did not remove spell effects, curses or status ailments, but could heal diseases and even plague, and also was helpful against poisons. Unlike elemental magic spells, Life magic spell effects did not change after increasing Life magic skill, but it made possible to use more high ranking spells. There were many spells that had similar effects, but at higher level were more powerful. More powerful variant of Heal was Regeneration. I really wanted to learn it, but it was high ranking spell and I needed to increase Life magic skill to at least advanced level to learn it.

Second spell that I learned during second semester was Exorcism. I chose that spell, because it had an ability to remove any curses or negative effects from artifacts. It would allow me to safely us any dark artifact, that I could get in Cemetery dungeon. Exorcism spell could also be used on people, to help with all kind of possessions and curses.

I was able to learn Heal spell in just one month, but needed the rest of the semester to finally master Exorcism. Even using guidance from the book, I barely mastered it before the end of semester. I also was able to copy the Life magic spell book, and during last weeks, had more time to practice Life magic spells.

Five and a half month after the beginning of semester I graduated from Magic academy and learned Life magic skill. Professor Doranius led me inside the room and pointed at the Life magic orb. It had warm yellow color. My use of it was successful and we went outside.

- Congratulations on getting this skill.

- Thank you. I am grateful for all your lessons.

- My the gods bless your journey forwards. Hope to hear many great things about you.

- Don't count on that professor. I prefer to lead quit life.

- As you wish. My I satisfy my curiosity and ask why did you chose Life magic skill?

- The warm water. I really missed bathing.

Doranius laughed:

- That is the first time someone chose a skill for that reason. And, did you succeeded?

- Please extend your palm.

He did as I asked and I created small waterfall of warm water over his palm. He looked at it surprised.

- Impressive, I guess.

- Thank you, - I bowed and left the academy. I had many things to do.