When we returned to the academy, we decided to spend the remaining day with homework and training. With all the extra classes we had, there was always work to do.

I went to a training room and decided to work on some necrotic spells. Nyx, Chariot and the two cats were with me. I was hoping Nyx would train as well. While I focused on raising minions, I did have offensive magic as well. My basic necrotic bolt had been useful in the past, but I wanted something better.

Necrotic ray. The spell conjured a black beam that would cause things to wither and decay. It was most effective on living, or at least organic things, like most death magic. I had small balls of straw as targets. It was something cheap that I could destroy.

The ray was fired from my fingertip, which I had to use to aim. If you conjured a projectile with your magic, a lot of your targeting was done mentally. But a ray simply erupted from your finger and hit where you pointed at.

I focused on forming the runes in my head, then I filled them with mana…

“Ahhh!” I exclaimed as the ray shot into the ceiling. I had been so focused on my runes that I forgot to point at a target…

Thankfully, it was a sustained spell. It would be active as long as you fed it mana. The surprise broke my concentration.

I looked around, but I was alone. No one saw that failure. Except Nyx. Who was staring, judging. I stuck my tongue out at her. Then I tried again. This time I made sure to keep my finger pointed at the target.

I missed when the ray first appeared. Then I tried to keep the ray active and move it onto a ball of straw. But by focusing on aiming, I lost concentration of my spell and it stopped. It took a few more tries until I was able to properly hit something.

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I was getting tired. I needed a lot more practice to use that spell effectively. Right now, I was being very inefficient with my mana. But I managed to reduce a ball of straw to dust. So there was that. Nyx walked over and sniffed the dust. Then she looked at me. I knew that look.

“You have been rather lazy. Do you really think you deserve a treat?” I asked her.

“Meow.” She tilted her head and looked at me.

“Oh well…” It was hard to resist her cuteness. I pulled a small bone from my pocket and gave it to her. She jumped on my head and started munching.

I sighed. There would be bone dust in my hair now. Well, it was getting late anyway. I should just call it a day and have a shower. First, I had to clean the room though.

I left the training room to fetch a broom and other cleaning supplies. I did not need to scrub the floor but I wanted to make sure I left a clean space for the next student. While I walked down the hallway, Nyx poked my left ear with her paw. I pulled out another bone and gave it to her. She was such a glutton. Then again, I did enjoy food as well.

I was in the storage closet, getting supplies, when I felt something through my links. I was not sure what. Nyx had also stiffened on my head. She jumped down and grew in size, looking back towards the training room.

I put down my supplies and conjured a water shield. Anything that got a reaction from Nyx was worth taking seriously. We carefully walked back to the room. Nyx entered first. I followed close behind.

My eyes widened. Chariot and the two cats were still here, but next to them was a body. A person was lying on the floor.

I carefully walked over. The man was dressed like a servant. He had black hair and looked really pale. He was not moving. The smell told me he had voided his bowels, likely he was dead.

I looked for a pulse and confirmed my assessment. I also noticed his hand. It looked like it had been pierced by countless needles. And clearly he was missing blood. Did my vampiric cat do this? Or Chariot?

“What happened here?” I asked my undead. I tried to compel them to report.

“Meow.”

As expected, they were not able to. I needed to inform a teacher. But I also did not want to leave the scene alone. Was anyone else down here, training? The rooms had good soundproofing, because a lot of spells were loud. Simply shouting would not get anyone’s attention. I could just randomly knock on the other training rooms. Or…

Helena was practising her ice armor! She should be in our room, since the spell was not dangerous and could be practiced anywhere. Frank should be there as well. I could command him to relay a message. I ordered Frank to tell Helena to come to the training area, with a teacher. Sadly, there was no way to know if it worked. For now I decided to wait and have a closer look at the corpse.