"Sir, this all really was just a long series of unfortunate events."
"You killed 98 people, not including Mark who you also killed!"
"Be reasonable now sir, would the ruler's mark really allow me to do any of this intentionally? Surely my value is less than that of 99 of your students, so clearly it must have been either an accident, or I did it in service to the rulers. Either it was an accident, or those 99 were traitors!"
Negotiations with Mr Otran were well underway, since taking advantage of all 98 new corpses was impossible without waiting for his mana and death mana to recover somewhat.
As before, only 25 death mana was necessary for the minds of his minions, however it was possible to push it further than that. Obviously, at base level tier 2, a significant change had taken place.
The change in question was a matter of quantity, it allowed Bokan to simultaneously imbue or raise several undead at once. The result, was that his 515 death mana and 2150 normal mana he was comfortable using could be rapidly deployed and then recovered.
As his skill levels changed with each undead he raised, he was better served first imbuing all of them as much as possible, raising 1, and then imbuing all the rest again. With 2 corpses to work with, that was not a massive deal. With 99, it was a massive deal, and being able to work on all of them at once was a huge boon to Bokan's skill levels.
Another thing, was that by bringing one of his undead into range of his death mana manipulation, he was able to absorb their death mana and regular mana reserves, though doing the latter left them exhausted and weak. Still, if a fight against Otran broke out he would die no matter what, so he didn't really need combat ready undead. To be specific, he did need them, but he needed so much more than he had available that there was virtually no point.
Initially, the plan had been to kill all 98 fellows and then hope that no one investigated for at least 1 day. However, after realizing how much progress he could make if he just maximized his gains on these 98, Bokan decided to focus on getting the maximum amount of skill levels from them.
Additionally, he had a feeling going up to the 2nd floor with an undead horde in excess of the number of people on the first floor (including the lesser skeletons his stronger minions could summon) would draw unwanted attention, so he had a feeling he needed to get strong enough to deal with Otran before moving on.
So, Otran tried his best to get Bokan to say something that would allow him to kill him, meanwhile Bokan tried his best to frustrate his efforts while appearing compliant, and raising his skill levels.
Otran, he had learned, was a fire warlock, a higher tier class than a witch that still relied upon intelligence to allow him to rarely cast extremely powerful spells. The moment Bokan made a mistake, he would die, but if Otran failed to kill him before he reached rank 3, there was a very reasonable chance Otran might die and they both knew it.
Fortunately, Fabien had some experience dealing with courtiers as a noble, and Bokan was able to draw on that experience in order to partition a tiny part of his mind to holding off Otran while he worked.
3 days had passed before anyone investigated, most likely because no one took count of how many people showed up to things, as the 98 missing people had been spread out amongst several classes. Additionally, the greatest catastrophes that had taken place in the tower in the past 5 centuries were a chicken being lost and Egro managing to subtly warn a new arrival about the predatory nature of the geas he could expect to be inflicted upon him. The idea that a whole group of people had simply been wiped out, without any sign of invasion, by someone under the same geas as them, was simply preposterous.
Yet so was the idea that he had somehow avoided the geas, the rulers had banned any thoughts of rebellion being possible in order to discourage even the hardiest of hearts, so when it happened, no one understood.
What Otran did understand, however, was that his career and life were both likely over due to some jumped up idiotic novice who seemingly did whatever they wanted. Had it not been for the geas telling him rebellion was impossible, he would already have dragged Bokan before the rulers in their castle by his hair, with his arms and legs burned off.
Instead, he was forced to engage him in a long and frustrating debate over whether or not killing him would be a service to the rulers.
Bokan had not slept for those 3 days, and by now had been working on the corpses for 80 hours. Every hour gave him 196 mana, although that improved as he levelled up and increased his willpower. He also gained mana and death mana from his minions, he started with 3 of them and gained another at a varying rate, dependent upon his mana and death mana reserves.
Each time he raised an undead, he imbued into them the strongest possible death link spell.
The result was that, after 80 hours of consistent effort (roughly 8 of which were spent simultaneously keeping Otran from killing him), he had managed to increase his number of growing undead to 102.
He might have risked dying, he might still be about to die, but when he flashed his status page he decided that it was worth it.
Name: Fabien
Race: Human (tier 2, +2 to every stat every year)
Class: Dark mage (necromancer) (1) (+5 to all magic stats every level) (The ultimate magic archetype, grow by creating a powerful undead army.)
Profession(s): novice enchanter (5) (+1 to all magic stats every level) // novice alchemist (5) (+1 wisdom and willpower) // novice clerk (5) (+1 intelligence) // novice warmage (5) (+2 intelligence) // novice researcher (5) (+1 intelligence and wisdom)
Level: 50
Intelligence: 353 (You have the intelligence of a powerful magic user.) Note! This stat can be evolved. Warning! doing so will reset it to 25.
Wisdom: 327 (You have the wisdom of a sage.) Note! This stat can be evolved. Warning! doing so will reset it to 25.
Willpower: 310 (Your willpower is like iron, you are relentless.) Note! This stat can be evolved. Warning! doing so will reset it to 25.
Strength: 25 (My grandma's stronger than that!)
Dexterity: 25 (You are more dexterous than any humans who have never been reinforced by magic)
Stamina: 25 (You would make a great punching bag, for grandmas maybe!)
Charisma: 25 (Peak human charisma. Still less than that scaly car salesman, I'm convinced he was an alien.)
Manipulation: 25 (For humans unreinforced by mana, your manipulation borders on mind control.)
Poise: 25 (Peak human poise, the super human element being so insignificant it isn't worth mentioning)
Skills:
Fine magic control (Level 5)(MAX)
Spells:
Display status (Level 5)(MAX)
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Raise dead (Level 16)(16/20)
Death link (Level 5)(5/20)
Death mana conversion (Level 6)(6/20)
Death mana manipulation (Level 1)(1/20)
Masteries:
Wraith's wrath (Initiate) +5 wisdom, +5 willpower, +5 intelligence
Available skill points: 36
Available attribute points: 105
Congratulations! You can evolve some stats. You can evolve the following stats:
Intelligence: 1 mana per intelligence, 1% faster learning rate per intelligence => 1 radiant mana per 10 intelligence, 1% improved IQ per intelligence
Wisdom: +1% mana effect per wisdom => +1% mana per wisdom. Can be used to combat mind-altering magic, so long as your wisdom is greater than the sum of the charisma and manipulation of the person attempting to control your mind.
Willpower: 1-e^-0.001(willpower) % spell resistance, 1 mana per hour per willpower and +1% mana push per wisdom =>1-e^-0.01(willpower) % damage resistance, 1% mana regen per hour per wisdom, regenerates all forms of mana the user can wield.
Level U...
...
Skill shop:
...
Congratulations! You have evolved all 3 magic stats, you are rewarded with the "magic incarnate (initiate)" mastery.
Masteries:
Wraith's wrath (Initiate) +5 intelligence, +5 wisdom, +5 willpower
Magic incarnate (Initiate) +5 intelligence, +5 wisdom, +5 willpower
Your updated magic stats are thus:
Intelligence: 35
Wisdom: 32
Willpower: 31
Do you wish to spend 7 points to upgrade intelligence and 3 points to upgrade wisdom?
Intelligence: 35=>36
Wisdom: 32=>33
Willpower: 31
Available attribute points: 95
You have spent 40 attribute points to upgrade Intelligence to 40
You have spent 20 attribute points to upgrade Wisdom to 35
You have spent 30 attribute points to upgrade Willpower to 34
Available attribute points: 5
Due to being evolved, your magic stats now display additional information:
Mana: 0 (0/hour)
Radiant mana: 294 (103/hour)
Death mana: 5150 (1800/hour)
Damage resistance: 28.8%
Unfortunately, Otran also obviously saw the status.
"Oh ho, can be used to combat mind-altering magic? It seems someone is trying to rebel against the rulers!" fire was all Bokan could see, and in an instant he could see no more, his eyes having been melted from their sockets.
However, the fire died rapidly, the collective death magic of 102 growing undead being put to good use as his minions leapt forward to protect him. Each point of an evolved stat counted for 10 when it came to rankings, and thus Bokan was now easily past the 600 required rank points to be allowed to defend himself.
Each of his three main skeletons had cast death bolt, not that it could do a massive amount, however Bokan himself had taken on an almost ephemeral quality due to his damage resistance, he looked as though he did not entirely belong to this world. Otran's fire split its damage into magical and physical, however Bokan was now able to resist 28.8% of both. Additionally, he struck out with his radiant mana, which was far denser and more powerful than regular mana, which allowed him to survive for the instant required for his minions to close the distance and strike Otran down with death magic.
Bokan himself had lashed out with death magic like a whip, but he was unable to determine how much damage he had done, as his entire face was currently melting into a pool on the floor.
As you can no doubt imagine, he was thoroughly unimpressed by this, even more unimpressed as he felt the minds of 50 of his new undead winking out in the face of Otran's terrifying power.
A fire magic user tends to benefit from combat lasting longer, as they could do exponentially more damage to their target by slowly raising their temperature to intolerable heights using sustained heat. Death magic was a natural counter, as it killed immediately, and yet Bokan's mind struggled to even understand how he was still alive.
28.8% magic resistance, however, acted across every part of his body, such that 28.8% was resisted by his skin, but then a further 28.8% was resisted by that which was behind that, and so on and so forth. As a result, almost all of Bokan's outer layers were currently melting off of him, yet for now he lived.
Unable to speak, but still able to send thoughts to his minions, he set in motion the second part of his back-up to the back-up back-up.
Fred, get a- AAARRGHHH MY NOSE- I need healing, get someone who knows healing spells here!
Master, I and every undead capable of motion is already seeing to it, however most of us are half-melted and won't be able to move without recovery.
How long will that take?
No idea, but another issue is communication, how do we communicate to them what we want?
Bokan supposed this was a bit of a problem, but he had a feeling if he tried taking a step his leg would fall off. All he could do for now was try to survive, so he began to focus on whatever he could to keep his mind off his pain.
Focusing his full mind on his mana, he observed the strange radiant mana that had replaced his previous mana. Reaching out to touch it with his will, he noticed immediately that it seemed like a flame. In comparison to the "blue light" impression he had gotten from normal mana, this rather seemed as though a great conflagration had begun within his mana and burned with a strange power. He was reminded somewhat of the stories of dragons breathing fire, as the mana they used to cast spells was fire-like. Evidently he had indeed gotten the mana of a dragon, so he set to trying to determine the differences, perhaps it would allow him to level up his proficiency as a researcher.
Due to his current context, he found the flame-like properties of the mana distasteful, although he was sensible enough to recognize that as simply an emotional response to... well, to something he was not going to think about right now. Deeper and deeper he fell into focus as he pushed the radiant mana around, trying to see what difference it could make.
Egro POV
"Just, one more step, if I can get outside the building I can try express distress, perhaps someone will come..." Egro desperately fought to push onwards, even as the cursed fire warlock's magic burned around him, fusing his bones together and destroying his mana.
All around him pandemonium reigned, but a thought repeated itself through his entire being with enough force he thought his bones should shatter.
THE MASTER IS DYING
So it repeated itself, endlessly, and the notion of that occurring somehow caused more fear in Egro than the fear of being destroyed by the fires surrounding him.
His legs finally stopped functioning, and he fell.
Grabbing in front of him, and infusing his arms with death mana, he continued to pull himself forward. The chances of someone helping were miniscule, but he had to go on, he couldn't stop now.
All around him, 51 other undead pushed themselves with everything they had, just as the 50 that had given their lives to help block the fire from destroying the master had, relentless but weak, their powers spent.
Suddenly, Egro's eyes fell upon the one corpse that wasn't destroyed by the flames. Ortan lay with a snarl of fury plastered all across his face, but for all his fury he was still dead. Behind him, Fred suddenly stopped moving, most likely receiving instructions from the master. Egro contemplated for a moment, but when he saw the master's nose fall off, along with a sizeable portion of his face, he decided he needed to take a risk.
Fred! Tell the master to raise Otran, Otran is undamaged, he could bring a healer by force if needed!
The master has gone into a deep state of focus to ignore his pain Egro. It is too late to tell him, we can only hope our efforts are sufficient.
What nonsense! I have a way!
What? EGRO STOP
Before Fred could stop him, Egro had pulled upon his last vestiges of death mana. All the skeletons had used all of their death mana to destroy Otran as quickly as possible, and if they hadn't Otran would no doubt have killed the master, but Egro knew there was another potential source of death mana to be used.
He drew upon the mental construct that formed his mind, tearing it to pieces, leaving behind only as much as was necessary to carry out the next stage of the spell he planned, and successfully cast his own, inferior model of "raise dead", thus summon a lesser skeleton.
As he began to finish the spell, he began to question some things. What was a spell? Who were all these people? How did he get here? Who was he?
In the end, his consciousness faded as he invested the last of his conscious into the lesser skeleton, giving it a single mission. Save the master.
POV Bokan
I take 5 seconds of me time and my oldest undead kills himself to summon a pathetic lesser skeleton? Are you kidding me?
Bokan felt sincerely hard done by, first he had lost his favourite (and only) nose, now he had lost his least favourite (and only) Egro, and all that simply because Otran managed to cast a channeling spell for less than a second?
The joy over his stats were beginning to feel more and more distant. Regardless, drawing upon his now much easier to use death mana, he imbued Otran, raised him and gave him a mental construct. Vastly better than the poor work he had done in that dark tunnel months ago, Bokan had a nearly inexhaustible supply of death mana by converting the precious radiant mana into it using his death mana conversion spell. It may have lost some of its value due to him gaining the ability to naturally regenerate it, however its true value lay in giving him a better understanding of what death mana is, so that he could better utilize the related skills.
Otran's corpse rose, holding no particular advantage over any of the others except that it was undamaged, grabbed up Fred, one of the most powerful minions Bokan had, and rushed out. Shortly after, a traumatised looking druid was brought (by force) and after a bit of difficulty and a lot of hand gestures, they managed to convey that she needed to heal the still-melting Bokan, who managed to hold out 3 fingers which looked more like melting strawberry popsicles.
The druid quickly ran out of mana but it was enough to stabilise him, barely. In incredible pain with his skin and fat pooling around his feet on the floor, but he would live. Pulling deep into himself, he turned his focus once again to the radiant mana within him as he waited for his magically enhanced stamina to heal him.
Several hours and druids later, he had healed enough to be able to lie down without almost killing himself, and he finally rested, protected by his force of 53 rapidly recovering skeletons.