The items from Vumbeldor had arrived, which also meant that he got his hands on the Dark Tome. The book was made of thin vellum, it was bound in gold string and had a symbol of the black hand on the front cover. And by no means was it an easy book to read. It contained various diagrams and other magical formulas, plus it was full of technical language.

He went through the introduction which detailed the existence of elemental magic of Fire, Air, Ear, and Water, then it touched on more exotic variants of Nature, Ice, and Lightning. The Light and Dark magic was rare and something like Chaos, Time and Space was in the realm of legends only. Obviously, this book focused mostly on Dark Magic and the aspects of it.

Also, the book mentioned that mages are born with one or the other affinity, meaning that they have been locked from certain paths at birth, that is why Magic Essence was so precious. Mages were also born with a set capacity of mana, some had more while others less, the regeneration also differed from man to man. But there were ways to expand the mana stores: a magus could put himself in life-threatening situations and defeat monsters or hardened foes, he could also consume various alchemical solutions, or undergo some obscure and secretive ritual reserved for the select few only.

As a side note, he still had Fire Essence, but that would not allow him to become a Fire Mage; he had locked himself to Dark Affinity. Well, there was a ritual for such cases, but he would lose all his Dark spells and Magic+ progress.

The tome described how to obtain various Dark spells, but there was a big but, many of them were locked to level and as far as he knew his Magic+ was still level 1. By the way, using spells and even crafting scrolls gave him some experience, but clearly, it wasn’t enough to level it just yet.

In the Dark Tome he found the dark equivalents of [Claim] and [Spirit Seed], those were [Soul Steal] and [Reanimate]. His Devouring Spear granted him Soul Steal as a temporary perk, well or at least to the spear itself, after all the book explained that souls need a container to inhabit, preferably a Crystal and the Blood Crystals were the best. So the spear was indeed a legendary weapon being able to do both, take and contain.

“So if I ever want to make an abomination I just need to figure out the [Reanimate].” He remembered the haunting image of the vine dear, it was definitely a monster. “But I wonder if I can make something similar to Sprigans?” But such thoughts had to be put to his tomorrow self, he wasn’t at that level yet. He knew that he will need to read the tome again and again until he fully grasped the magic theory detailed in it, not to mention all the practise he will need to do.

He didn’t make himself too busy with his studies, because he had an alchemical workshop to build. The humans had sent him the various pieces of equipment which came in disassembled parts. He and his spiders had to spend a good few days assembling it. He had started with a large room, but by the time they finished, it looked quite tight and cramped, but also cosy and welcoming. In a corner, there was a huge alchemical vat. The metal container was there to hold the alchemical reagent he was going to process at the industrial level, in this case, it was PurpleM juice. The juice was boiled, and the water vapour was separated from the rest. In the end, it was the enchanted vapour he was after and not the sludge the juice left behind.

The waste sludge was no waste at all! It was edible and tasted like sweet berry-flavoured toffy. He and the helper spiders approved of the new treat immediately.

The resulting purple vapour dripped into the vials, filling them up with nothing else but [Mana Potion]. He tasted the liquid and it tasted like nothing, there was just no taste at all, so he quaffed the vial. It gave him a whooping +100MP and +1 Toxicity debuff. A 100MP was enough to fill his mana from empty to full. But the nicest thing was the message:

[Congratulations! You have reached Alchemy lvl. 1]

[Perk Extract: Reagent obtained.]

Extract was very similar to Harvest Material, in the sense that both destroyed the item in order to magic its valuable component right to his inventory space. And obviously, the perk didn’t work on all plants, only on the ones with alchemical properties, which happened to be his plants of Fire Agave, PurpleM, BlueDust and surprisingly TomGrape. All four produced powders.

Fire Agave – Fire Resistance Powder.

PurpleM – Mana Powder.

BlueDust – Sleep Powder.

TomGrape – Fertility Powder.

Interestingly, he could Harvest Material the BlueDust flowers too; which gave him something very similar to Sleep Powder – [Blue Dust], but apparently dust wasn’t powder and the alchemical perk refined the most prominent feature of the plant while the crafting perk provided with materials for crafting. However, there was some overlap between the two perks.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Obviously, him being the one with Enhanced Poison Immunity he had to taste the powders to see if they had any effects on his body. To say the least, the tastes were interesting, but no, they didn’t affect his body at all so he figured that he had to turn them into potions first. After all, the powder naming provided by the system made sense and he already could guess what potion he will end up with.

Dissolving the powders in Mana Spring Water produced the equivalent potions. The Magic Inventory told him that they were only of lesser quality. He tried drinking the potions one by one to see their effects.

Fire Resistance Potion > Fire Resistance: Lesser.

Mana Potion > +50MP.

Sleeping Potion > Debuff: Sleep.

Fertility Potion > Buff: Fertility.

And at this point, he gained another +2 Toxicity. Meaning that Enhanced Poison Immunity was not protecting him from potion toxicity. And be it the toxicity or the effects of Sleeping Potion he found himself tired and struggling not to fall asleep.

He yawned. “Let’s call it a day. Goodnight!” His head dropped heavily on the workstation, the thud spooked the nearby spider helpers.

…

The sleep was pleasant and his body felt light and relaxed; he felt completely at peace. The bed and sheets were warm and enjoyable; he didn’t feel like leaving this heaven. He hugged his body pillow stronger, relishing in the soft comforts it provided.

“SSS!” The body pillow hissed in a sultry voice.

He remembered he didn’t have a body pillow. He opened his eyes, the white hair could mean only one person. “Queen Lamia, what are you doing in my bed!?”

“SSS!” She squirmed around his arms.

Indeed, he had them wrapped around her body, so he pulled them back to his side making the lamia roll and face him.

“No… Don’t let go! It was sss-so warm.” She complained.

Needless to say, she didn’t wear clothes to bed, nor did he. He panicked for a moment unable to remember the yesterday. “What happened?”

“You fell ill yesterday, sss-so the spiders carried you to your room.”

The memory was coming back. “But then how di we…”

“Then Lamia get ill, sss, they need warmth to help heal.” She nuzzled her head to his chest.

He was plenty hot, he didn’t need more of that and, “I’m not a lamia!”

“Oh? I guess-sss you’re not…”

“You were watching me sleep again and then just decided to crawl in my bed. I know it!”

“No! SSS.” She slithered closer to hug him. “You’re sss-so warm and enticing. I want you for a pillow, sss!” Her tail began to wrap around his body.

If he didn’t do anything he would end up trapped by this naughty predator. “You know what you are doing now, don’t you?”

“Maybe? S-s-s.” She laughed it off. “I’ll make you submit to me and then all the jelly will be mine. S-S-S!” She laughed again.

And here was the real motive. “I knew it! You’re evil!” He failed to react in time and now his legs were wrapped by her tail.

“There is no escape. [Charming Gaze]!” She looked at him with red mesmerising eyes.

He was trying to escape but his legs were feeling weaker by the second, there was this ‘fog’ clouding his mind ever so slightly. “Help!” He shouted helplessly. He never knew that Queen Lamia had such skills or intentions to use them against him.

He couldn't take his eyes away from those red sparkling jewels, Queen Lamia was inching closer to his face, but just before it could happen, he heard the door being shattered to pieces. A friendly voice reached his ears. “SSS! You! What do you think-sss you’re doing to the King?”

Two hands grabbed Queen Lamia by the white hair and pulled her head away thus breaking her Charming Gaze. He felt the strength return to his body.

“You! SSS! Let me go, I command you!” Queen Lamia flailed her hands backwards trying to get back at her attacker.

“You’re our Queen, yes-sss, but he’s our Hero and Benefactor.” She put the much smaller Queen into a chokehold. “I sss-shall not allow this to be done in sss-such a dishonest way.” She began choking the Queen. “I am your sss-sister! And I know that The Late Queen taught us better, SSS!”

“Beh!” The Queen was clawing at friendly Lamia’s hands and gasping for air.

The tail binding his legs loosened and he managed to wrangle himself out. However, the violence between the siblings was unsightly. “Can you please stop fighting? I’m alright now.” They weren’t listening. “I mean it, STOP!”

The friendly lamia let her sibling go, but it was done in a very reluctant fashion. “I’ll be watching you.” She slapped the Queen on the back of her head. “Now, put your clothes-sss on.”

“Okay…” The Queen replied defeated.

He did that too, get quickly dressed that is. “I think I was too harsh on not giving her any jelly.” He lamented.

The eyes of Lamia Queen shone brightly with hope, the friendly lamia was the opposite: her eyes cold as stones.

“You are too sss-soft on our Queen. She thinks she can do whatever she wants.” Friendly lamia hissed.

“Rebelion! A rebel!” Queen Lamia accused.

This was quite a situation, one where he was partly to blame. “Look, I will give you Slug Jelly, but only if you’ll make up with your sister and…” he paused, “will not assault me, or anyone again. Charm Magic is forbidden!” He emphasised.

“Okay…” Queen Lamia nodded apologetically.

The friendly lamia slapped her again, making him raise his eyebrows, but before he could say anything, “She’s young, sss, too young to be a proper Queen. I apologise for her youthful indiscretions.” She bowed in apology and pushed Queen’s head to do the same again.

“Sss-sorry.”

“It’s Okay, we all were young once, ha-ha!” he laughed fully aware that he himself is still in that youthful category. “Now then, I’ll give you your portion of jelly, but please stop the mischief.”

The Queen Lamia poked the serpentine tongue to lick her lips in expectation. He pulled a small container out of the inventory and handed it to her.

“Yes! Finally! It’s mine! S-S-S. My precious!” She rubbed her face to the container.

“I just fear it’s too addicting, and we may be past the point of no return…” He said what must be said.

“What? No, I eat it too, sss. It doesn't make me go this crazy.” Friendly lamia looked judgingly at her younger sister. “There is just sss-something wrong with my sss-sister. She’s always been different.” Then she looked with pity. “Magic has its burden.”

That was right, the Lamia Queen not only was an albino lamia but she also knew how to do magic; likely the reason why the Late Queen named her a successor.

His thoughts were interrupted by the scary realisation. “Why did you eat it all already?!” He looked at Lamia Queen’s face smeared with blue jelly and told her coldly. “You ain’t getting another portion today.” After all, the supply was limited.

Queen Lamia looked at the empty container and then back at him. She stared at his eyes for a few seconds and then… “[Charming Gaze]… Bah!”

The friendly lamia began choking the Queen again.