While I did enjoy the training, it was exhausting. And it was not the only extra class we had from now on. Skadi got blood magic training, Helena had a special course in ice spells that affected an entire area and Cassie, to her disappointment, had to learn more fire magic. Although there were benefits to her alchemy. Fire magic could be used to empower certain potions.

Myself? I had more necromancy lessons focused on controlling my undead. Knowing battle tactics was one thing, but I had to make sure my undead actually did what I wanted. Visualisation was important when ordering your undead. Instead of just sending a mental command it helped if I had a clear picture in my head of what I wanted them to do.

While it was hard work it certainly showed results. Over the next few weeks, I could see clear improvements in my abilities to control undead. While my friends were still unhappy about the additional work, they were quite pleased with the results as well.

“I have started getting control over blood.” Skadi announced at dinner. “It made me think about the mana circulation technique. We observed the flow of blood and now we pump our mana the same way. Maybe we can actually infuse our blood with mana?”

“You are the only one who has the right elements for blood magic.” I pointed out.

“Sure, but maybe we can use the way you taught us how to circulate in the first place. It’s not like your blood should be infused with my elements. It’s more about the idea of bonding neutral mana to the blood.” She explained.

“Is that even possible?” Helena asked.

“Bonding magic to a liquid is part of alchemy.” Cassie said.

“Wait, you want to turn our blood into a potion?” I asked.

“No.” Skadi said.

“Ohhh, that is a great idea!” Cassie said.

“No, it is not!” Helena protested.

“I don’t want to turn blood into a potion.” Skadi clarified. “Right now, mana is simply flowing parallel to our blood and is somehow enhancing our bodies, right? That means our body is absorbing the mana and improving us. What if we helped that absorption along? What if we improved the natural process that is already happening?”

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“When you put it like that, it does sound like an interesting idea…” I admitted.

“Isn’t that what spellblades do? They use mana to enhance their bodies.” Helena asked.

“Sort of. I talked with one of them. They use runes to permanently put a spell on their body. That spell uses part of their mana to enhance them. But our technique does not rely on an active spell. If we can teach our body to have mana circulate, maybe we can teach it to use it better.” Skadi theorised.

“You should come to the lab with me, I can teach you how to better infuse mana! We could try to make a blood potion, or something.” Cassie suggested.

“What is a blood potion?” I asked.

“Alchemy has many ingredients, blood is one of them. As you should know, you have advanced alchemy too!” Cassie pointed out.

I blushed. “I uhhh… I haven’t done much besides necromancy related enhancements.” I admitted. The class was pretty free and allowed you to pursue the alchemical topics you wanted.

“Could you make a blood draugr?” Helena wondered.

“A what?” I asked.

“What if we copied the technique we used to make Frank? But instead of water we use blood.” Helena suggested.

“Hm. I have never heard of such a creature. Blood magic is usually earth and water and I don’t have earth. I am not sure if I could create something like that. You might need three affinities.”

“What if Skadi controls the blood? Creating Frank was teamwork.” Helena suggested.

“It might be a good trial run for my idea.” Skadi mused. “I could try to put magic into the blood of a corpse. Actually, we would likely need to collect fresh blood. Maybe from a butcher.”

“That sounds like a fun experiment! We get some blood and I will help you infuse mana into it in the lab. Once you get the hang of it we try creating an undead. And if that works, maybe you can enhance Koyuki’s technique!” Cassie suggested.

“It does sound like a fun experiment. We have been rather busy lately. Maybe we can do it on Solday? I think we have the day off.” I mused.

“Hm. I was hoping for some relaxation but I like the idea.” Helena said. “But I do have one question, where are we getting a corpse from?”

“Oh. Yeah, that seems to be an issue.” I admitted.

“It doesn’t have to be human, right? Why don’t we visit the adventurers guild?” Cassie suggested.

“I got a note that we have a bounty waiting for us at the guard station. We were just too busy with training lately. It is for the seeds we found from the bandits. Well, and the bandits themselves.” Skadi said.

“Cool, how much?” I wondered.

“It did not specify but it should be enough for a corpse or two, I think.” Skadi responded.

“Hopefully they have a fresh one. We need more than just bones.” I said.

“If not we can commission them to get us one. It might increase the price but we could specify what we want.” Helena suggested.

“Or we could leave them a note with our criteria and tell them to inform us when they have something suitable. Might take longer but it would be cheaper.” Skadi said.

I shrugged. “Let’s see what they have, maybe we get lucky.”

“If we are lucky someone tries to assassinate you and we get a fresh corpse.” Cassie joked.

“I do prefer not getting assassinated.” I said.

“They would fail, obviously. You are protected by Nyx after all.” Skadi said.

“Meow.”