Vals sat by his forge, he and Paul had gotten to know each other a bit more since they'd met the previous week, which greatly benefited the Remnant, who now had a name.
Vals had learned about all kinds of things from the necromancer, least of all being the fact that he was a veey special undead.
Vals now had a general understanding about the world he lived in. He was in a region called the Great Desert of Ruins. The region was on the continent of Galvnit, in the world of Mithos (my-th-os). According to Paul there were about 20 landmasses that qualified as continents, and many more that didn't, but the necromancer never said anything about their names or otherwise, which didn't bother Vals too much as it wasn't too important.
Paul informed Vals about the order as well. He had mentioned men in holy plate mail before, but he later explained that the order used magic given by the gods to kill undead and dark magic practitioners.
*-*-*-*-*-*
"Dirty Bastards, the lot of em. They kill any Dark magic users, and also decide what constitutes as dark magic. If they said it, fire magic would be considered dark arts, same as necromancy." Paul had said.
"But why do they consider it dark arts? Necromancy, that is?"
Well, you see, Necromancers raise the dead, and dead bodies need to come from somewhere, right?"
"Yeah, I'm following." Vals gestured for Paul to continue.
"One of the easiest ways to obtain bodies is from a cemetery..." Paul noticed a confused look on Vals' face, "Which is a place bodies of dead people are stored. But! Most people don't like it when people they know are brought back from the dead, so us necromancers get persecuted for bringing back someones grandpa, or dog."
"That's stupid. If the creature is dead anyways, why not let someone get something out of it?" Vals shook his head at the stupidity of others.
"Well... It's not like I don't get it really." Paul stared at the ceiling for a bit. "It's just... It isn't my fault that this was the magic I was blessed with." Paul murmured, though Vals still managed to hear him with his good stats.
"I don't know much about society, but I think you should just do what you want. I mean I do it, and I'm just fine!" Vals grinned.
"Perhaps they have a point then..." Paul gave Vals a look.
"Hey! What's that supposed to mean? I bet it's an insult!" Vals yelled.
*-*-*-*-*-*
The man chuckled to himself, remembering the words he spoke with Paul. Paul was a strange man from Vals' perspective, though Vals was sure it was the same for Paul.
Vals had a pretty good Idea that he wasn't normal based on the fact that Paul had never seemed to hear about the system in Vals' mind.
Vals was cryptic about it, but he managed to get a general consensus that the system was his, and his alone. Paul was confused about it at first, but decided to ignore it, dismissing it as something related to the gods, as it had made no sense to him.
Vals received a message shortly after that saying not to discuss the system to others again.
With a sigh, Vals decided to work on some metal working, he was sure he had plenty of resources, even more so because Paul kept sending him more via undead transport.
Getting the forge going in no time flat, Vals got to work, he was starting to get more interested in multi piece works, things like hinges tended to be pretty good for training this particular aspect as he had to be careful and make sure to get the measurements correct. It was good for him to get better at more delicate workings, and would later help when he wanted to make smaller more precise and delicate works, such as jewelery, if he eber decided to do that.
As Vals was working next to his forge, he suddenyl got an alert from the system.
[User has obtained the passive skill _Heat resistance I, it reduces damage taken by fire by 2.5% and damage taken by heat by 5%]
[User has learned passvie skill _Precise, it assists in making smaller and daintier works, making it as if the user's dexterity was 10% higher when working on smaller pieces of work]
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[Status]
Remnant - Lvl 3 - exp 10 | 250
Title - °Embracer
Class - null
Health (con x 2 x 10) 330
Mana (Will x 10) 220
Strength - 17
Dexterity - 19
Endurance - null
Constitution - 15
Intelligence - 11
Wisdom - 12
Charisma - 6
Will - 24
*Free Points - Null
SKILLs
-Passive
_ Aviary Expert
_ Phoenix Born
_ Holy Resistance I
_Heat Resistance I
_Precise
-Active
_Mana Perception I
_Mana Circulation II
_Metal Working II
"Wow, two skills at one time? Sweet." Vals whistled a little as he looked at _Precise.
"How come _Precise isn't numbered like the rest of my obtained skills?" Vals asked the system.
[Precise can grow over time, but unlike other skills, is based on milestones.]
"What does that mean? What's the difference?"
[The numbered skills grow over time with Experience, meanwhile the non numbered skills would grow with milestones, meaning that they will experience sudden and rapid growth once you achieve certain things.]
"I think... I understand? I'll definitely know better once I see the difference myself anyhow." Vals gave up on understanding for the time being because it would merely waste his time to try to do so.
Vals put the rest of the world to the back of his mind once again as he continued to work on his craftsmanship. He made the two sides of the hinge, and now neesed to make a rod to fit the set, then fix it to the set by flattening the ends to prevent it from falling apart when held.
The rod was somewhat difficult for Vals to actually get correct, as it was less of a simply hammer something, and more of an active thought process of how he needed to hammer and in what ways to get the precise size and angle of the small piece of metal. In the end he needed to redo it about 12 times. The first few were because it was just too thick, or thin when he finished, and the rest were because he kept geting the angle wrong, although one time it was because he didn't make it long enough because he hadn't been paying too much attention.
The hinge was completed in the end, however, and it was usable. Although it was about a quarter of an inch thick, which wasn't great. It was also a very rough shape for the hinge, so Vals decided he would just melt it down and try again.
He did this for quite a while, and eventually managed to get something he was satisfied with. It was a plain hinge, and there was nothing special about it, but it was leagues better than the first one.
It was shortly after he had finished that he heard a small knocking sound on his door. Opening it, he found Paul looking at him, with worry visible on his face.
"Hey, what's up Paul?"
"Vals, I saw the Order on the horizon, they managed to find the city."
"Well, that's a problem isn't it?" Vals began to try and think up a solution
"Shit!" The necromancer began to panic, and cursed while pacing around the still hot room. "What the fuck do we do man?" Paul looked at the Remnant with a pleading glance of hope.
"Well, it's pretty risky, but I can try to pretend to be a homunculus. Ut, before you start, remember that this city belongs to an ancient civilisation that had great magitech. I can try to say that I'm an advanced humunculus designed to protect the temple on the mountain, so long as I keep my clothes on, it won't be a problem I think." Vals came up with an idea that he got by reading about alchemy in the Library. He wasn't certain of it, but feasibly, if the civilisation had the capabilities to build a temple that size, and maintain such a large city, it isn't entirely out of the question to have a very well made humunculus, right?
"I'm not too sure man..." Paul was very nervous
"Why? What's so scary about this Order anyhow?"
"I've told you before, The Holy Order, or the Order, is an entire order of paladins devoted to mage slaying. They are masters of killing mages, necromancers like myself in fact. The only good thing is that they lack the common sense to bring a proper priest with them, and can't track me via magic, although that may not be entirely true if anything has changed among them." Paul explained once more.
"Well, I don't see many options Paul. It's either run, have me stall them while you run, or turn you in." Vals looked at Paul, "I personally think the second option is best, unless you want to try the 1st one."
"Vals... ugh." The necromancer put his head in his hands as he crouched down. Vals watched as a couple beads of sweat trickled slowly down the forehead of the man, down to his chin, and then slowly condensed before falling to the stone floor of the room with a light splap.
"..." Vals simply stood and waited.
After a few moments, the necromancer simply sighed, and looked at Vals for a bit, and closed his eyes. "Vals, I want to run if I'm being perfectly honest. I want to leave, and get to safety, away from this blasted order. But... what about you?" Vals widened his eyes a slight amount.
"I mean, I guess I can go with you, although I wish I had time to create my own weapon." Vals looked longingly at the forge, "Honestly, according to the books I've read about magic, necromancers, like yourself, are usually a lot more cruel and cold." Vals turned back to the man who was still crouching on the floor.
"Well, I didn't intend to become a necromancer. I kinda just happened into it, believe it or not." Paul chuckled a bit, his mind going back to his life before.
"We have a fair amount in common, I wonder if that is why we get along so well." Vals stretched and grabbed a few things he wanted to take with him, a couple hammers, his wooden sword, a few sharp blades that he had made for throwing, and his magic book.
"So, when do we leave, Paul?" Vals looked at the man who was just looking at him with a vague sense of shock.
"A-are you sure you want to go with me?" Paul looked at Vals.
"Of course, why wouldn't I? I'd say we're already friends, wouldn't you?" Vals offered his hand to his friend who was crouched on the floor.
"Ah..." Paul took his hand, as some tears appeared in his eyes. "I haven't had anyone call me that for a long time. Thank you Vals."
Vals pulled his friend up. "No problem. Now which side did you say the order was coming from?"