Chapter 9: Bioremediation

I stumbled, nearly falling, before I was able to catch myself. My Life Sense swam as I staggered from the circle of ash.

Skull throbbing, I made my way to Dante - who was still frozen in shock. Sitting next to him on the steps, I rubbed my sphenoids.

This was probably the worst case of mana sickness I had ever experienced, frankly I was surprised my current form was able to feel the same sensations.

What the hell just happened? I thought to myself, my sluggish mind trying to puzzle its way through the problem.

That spell, when properly performed and with the correct inscriptions, should - at most - paralyse one's enemies. Granted I intended it to use only about five percent of my total mana, then I had upped it to fifty. Still given the inaccuracy of my method, more than half of that should have been lost to the environment.

“Ah, of course.” I tutted. This world seemed to react rather unpredictably when mana was just left floating around. Now that I looked back, I had felt a brief portal to that mysterious plane of magic.

Tasting the air, I found it lacking in power, twenty feet from the crater. Examining myself, I found the reason for such severe mana sickness; I was completely out of magic. The spell had sucked all the energy out of me, no wonder it had had such a dramatic effect.

Really, with my experience, I should have been able to feel it but such a loss of mana muddled anyone’s mind. I wouldn’t be able to cast any spells for at least a few hours, and for the next week it was gonna hurt like hell to even use the most mundane evocation.

Absently, I looked through my System for something that could help me out. Looking through the seemingly endless list of acquirable Skills I unlocked Identify for all three of my SP. I was just looking at my class abilities and spells when Dante interrupted, finally out of his shocked passivity.

“You didn’t leave any for me,” he half complained and half sighed in relief.

“There wasn’t even any point to you learning to resist my singing, you were just making me feel useful,” Dante continued, a malicious gleam in one eye and an uncomprehending look in the other.

“First off,” I interjected before he could start ranting, “you will recall that; when we were planning the attack, if we were to find any silver the spell I could make would stun our opponents... not this. Second, that spell stole all my mana, we’re going to need you to help clean up the remaining undead on guard.”

Dante looked slightly mollified. So, resting my skull on my palm I continued, “the undead will start to roam looking for life and will need you to round them up.”

“Why would they start roaming?” Dante asked. His innocent-half seemed to have taken back control.

“Because I killed the necroma…” I intended to snap-back, but trailed off on the last word.

“What?” Dante asked, looking in the direction I was staring.

How could I have been so blind? The second I saw Pater I knew he wasn’t a mage, his mana pathways were too underdeveloped. With a thought my System notifications appeared before me.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

* You have killed a Lv.23 Zombie Commander 430 Xp rewarded

“Damn it.” I spat, Dante looked at me funny, so I went on. “Have you seen that woman? The one who was stuck to Pater’s side?”

“No?” Dante half-said half-asked.

“Crap!” I said, putting my thoughts quite eloquently.

“I don’t understand.” Dante said, some annoyance slipping into his tone.

“Sorry but she’s the necromancer. A clever one at that, she put all the focus on Pater or maybe that was my fault. Getting too caught up in the plan and not seeing the forest for the trees.”

“Oh,” Dante replied, “maybe she’s still here?”

“Ha,” I chuckled drily, “seeing a display like that, even the Archmagus of the black tower would make a strategic withdrawal.”

“What?” Dante again asked.

“Ahh,” I sighed in apology, “I’m saying she’s long gone by now, and even if she’s not; I can’t cast a single spell at the moment.”

“Ah,” he replied, seeming to calm somewhat, “you know, a spell like that was probably seen for miles, definitely worth writing a song about.”

My bones lightened slightly, “you’re right, we should get the cleanup over with quickly and get gone.”

Putting my hands on my patellas, my bones creaked as I got to my feet. Wobbling for a second, I regained my balance - before offering Dante a hand.

As I had feared, the undead were still following orders - fortunately that made our job much easier. Unfortunately that meant, once again, Dante’s talents weren’t needed. Nonetheless he picked up a mace from one of the skeletons and started the grisly process of dispatching the undead.

Thankfully, even after sending a number of them to their graves, so long as no undead saw us slaying, the horde would remain non-hostile.

We started by clearing out the outer walls, working our way inwards to the castle; small as it was, it had few postings.

Even with all the killing, I failed to increase in level. Dante on the other hand had made it to level thirteen.

When I asked him about it, he replied that “everyone knows levelling slows down dramatically after level twenty.”

After we had cleared the area, without finding that mage, Dante asked what I planned to do next.

I reminded him that my goal was to research magic and to do that I would need money, subsequently, I would be headed for the nearest town, disguised - of course.

Searching the relatively barren castle, I found only a few things of use. A brown robe that appeared to have belonged to someone of a religious bent, who was demonstrating their piety with their lack of wealth.

The robe was the only thing I could find that wrapped my bones without just falling off, as a bonus it covered most of me.

I then found some linen sheets, which I used to hide my arms, legs, and head. Blindfolding my eyes was no problem, as I didn’t really use them to see; and being seen as a severe burn victim was better than appearing as I truly was.

In the stable’s, I managed to find a knapsack and leather gloves. In the lord's quarters I found a surprising lack of wealth, there were a total of two rather small gold coins and a bag of silver which I requisitioned.

I also found, a mostly empty, leather bound book and quill, ripping out the first few pages; which consisted of tax ledgers, I took those as well.

Returning to the kitchens, I found the other three silver items of cutlery. As it turned out there were only two sets of silver silverware, my guess was that they were for the lord and lady.

Given the relative poverty of the fort, they must have placed quite some importance on eating; perhaps it had some religious implications. Asking Dante, he didn’t know. On my way to find him; I passed the armoury, inside I found it mostly bare. I took a crossbow and a quiver of bolts. I also found a hand-and-a-half sword, with okay balance. The best armaments had been used by Pater and his retinue but they had disintegrated along with them.

While I was doing this Dante had somehow found new strings for his lute and a gaudy burgundy hat with a green feather stuck erect from its crown.

Given how happy he seemed, cradling his lute, I chose not to comment. Searching the slums outside the walls which Dante called a village, the only thing of use I found was a bottle of mostly pure alcohol in the public house.

The stables were sadly empty, the horses either dead or fled, so with half the night still ahead of us and Dante trying to fit lyrics to an ungodly tune; we set out, along the only road that led down the hill, into the forest, and away from the wilds.