“How did you still mess this up? Were you even listening?”

“Yes! I know what I’m supposed to do, but it’s still tricky!” Alaster felt himself growing irritated, both due to his repeated failures, and his teacher.

“Instill the Necrotic Mana while holding it back from consuming the body. Carve out a space for pure Mana to reside! Only then can you begin to weave it into the body! We have been over this!”

Alaster turned to his mentor, “If it’s so easy, why can’t you do it?”

“Because I’m dead you moron! I can’t improve my own control over Necrotic Mana. You not only can, but already possess enough control to do so! But you keep handling the Mana like you are a toddler playing in the mud!” Lezrem countered.

Alaster glared at the Lich but didn’t argue his point. He knew he had greater control over Necrotic Mana than he had the current skill to use. He was just frustrated about it. The only reason he kept trying to make his idea work was the promise of what he could do with it.

Despite the difficulties, Alaster was actually making very good progress with Lezrem’s teachings and guidance. Sedall had great knowledge about the System while Belgroth knew plenty about Magic in general. But neither of them had detailed information about the Magic of Death.

The old Lich’s memories were spotty, but Alaster suspected that when he still lived, he was an Expert who had dedicated his entire life to studying Necrotic Mana and its uses. Alaster learned from him that there was more to Necrotic Mana than he ever thought possible.

Of course, knowledge was not the only thing Lezrem offered. He was still a Lich, a very powerful Lich. He could still summon vast hordes of Undead, or if given time, he could even summon higher forms of Undead, such as the Zombie Hulks or even Generals.

Alaster could not command them, but with Lezrem, he did have them under his banner. A banner that had yet to be made. A banner that Azemar kept pressuring him to create. After all, every Noble House had a Banner and crest.

However, he had been putting it off in favor of his project. If it came down to it, he could just slap a random design on a piece of paper and call it good. Though if he did that, Azemar would face palm and Lunaria would punch him. And despite being an Adept, her punches were quite painful even for a powerful Expert such as himself.

Azemar asked him about how the Banner and Crest project was going after every lesson, and Alaster lied every time, saying that it was going well, even though he had not even begun. And of course, Azemar knew that, but he didn’t push. He was there to teach the boy, not mother him. Besides, he still had a month to make a design.

He was more interested in finishing his project. Before, he had hoped, but doubted, that he could finish it before the year time limit ended. Now that he has Lezrem helping him, Alaster estimated that he would finish the project in just another week. At least, if he could figure out how to fuse Necrotic Mana into itself and a material form at the same time without it blowing up in his face.

It was a difficult and confusing problem that was counterintuitive, but Alaster was steadily making progress, even if he couldn’t put it into words how he was improving.

Since Lezrem was not one of his summons, the Lich could not enter Alaster’s Domain, nor was he an option for many Abilities, such as [Swap]. That had made it impossible to sneak the Lich into the city. Not that Alaster would want to.

While Lezrem had sworn himself to Alaster, he was still a Lich, a Monster. He still felt the desire to kill, just as all Monsters. But as a member of the Undead, that feeling was enhanced further to a desire to kill everything, even other Monsters. They just prioritized Humanity.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Lezrem was able to suppress his innate desire due to his intelligence. The Undead both of them could summon were magically bond to their Masters’ wishes. But either way, Alaster did not want to risk it. It would be like offering hard drugs to an addict.

Bound not to end well.

Instead, Lezrem had constructed a small log cabin roughly fifteen miles away from Galmore. In actuality, Lezrem ordered his Undead to construct it. Alaster learned that Lezrem could not manipulate bone as he could. Lezrem’s capacity was solely in magic. Manipulating Necrotic Mana and summoning Undead.

Alaster traveled to the cabin everyday after his lesson. Lezrem would watch as Alaster worked on his project while offering guidance. The old Lich was not a forgiving mentor. But it was seeing results.

Lezrem had helped Alaster fine tune his Weave until it was time to begin infusing it into a material body. The body itself was a masterful creation that Alaster had been working on and off on since a little before he came to Galmore. However, the problem was connecting the immaterial to the material.

Before, the System had either helped him, or the Weave itself had created the body. Neither would work this time around. A Weave that created the body was limited in many ways. Each item could only have a Weave that fit into it. Skilled Weavers might be able to stack their Weave onto itself, making use of all the space available, but Alaster was far from that.

To create what he wanted, he needed all the space he could get, meaning that the Weave could not include making the item it would reside within.

Lezrem sat back in the crude wooden chair and continued to observe Alaster’s work. To the naked eye, Alaster was just moving his fingers randomly through the air. But to those that had Mana Sight, or similar methods, they would see him Weaving the Mana around them in intricate ways.

It was almost like Enchanting. But while Enchanting used Runes created out of Mana, with each Rune having a defined use, Alaster was using Mana itself to create what he wanted. Weaving was much more flexible in that way. While the Weaves were very specific and had rules, the user’s thoughts and feelings drastically affected its effect.

“Good. Watch the eighth strand, it’s becoming loose.”

“Got it.”

“Put more Necrotic Mana into the twelfth strand.”

“I need to put more Pure Mana into the third strand first.”

“Nice catch.”

They went on like that for several hours until it was time for Alaster to return to the city. While Weaving was not physical, and the Mana cost was minute even for the common Adept, it was mentally exhaustive. Alaster dragged himself out of the cabin and was greeted by Lezrem’s horde of Undead slowly, but steadily, creating a wooden fortress.

The Lich could not remember his death, but he had a strong repulsion to staying in one place without creating adequate defenses. Alaster suspected that he was hunted down by something and hadn’t prepared well enough before stopping to rest or continue his studies.

From what Alaster’s tired eyes could see, it would be a small fort made entirely out of logs. Only large enough for the Cabin and all his Undead to move and fight should the need arise. It would be a fragile creation compared to any threat willing to confront a Purple Lich. Alaster doubted anything would dare to attack Lezrem.

He would have been certain had the Lich been a Black Lich. A Black Lich was the strongest Lich ever recorded. There had only been a single recorded existence of a Black Lich. Its Undeath had barely lasted a month, and yet it had devastated the continent.

Numbers ruled supreme in war. Strength was important, but not even a thousand Experts could defeat an Undead army numbering in the millions. In truth, the army of the Black Lich had not even been defeated. Instead, all of the Nations banded together, and sent their Experts to pierce through the army and target the Lich directly.

Thousands of Experts had died, but the Lich was defeated. However, not before it razed a dozen cities to the ground and decimated the population of the continent.

Of course, this happened many centuries ago. Alaster only knew so much about it because Sedall had been directly involved. He had been able to keep the strongest of the Lich’s army focused on him, allowing the thousands of Experts to struggle through the weaker ones.

While Lezrem was only a single-color rank behind this infamous Lich, he was drastically weaker. Purple Lichs were incomparably stronger than Red Lichs. Red Lichs could only summon a few hundred Undead at a time. Purple Lichs could summon a few thousand Undead.

According to Lezrem, it was possible for him to rank up into being a Black Lich, but he was still far from doing so. Something that was both disappointing and relieved about.

Lezrem had sworn himself to Alaster, meaning his Undead were also at Alaster’s command, though not directly. If Alaster could command millions of Lezrem’s Undead, then all of his goals would easily be accomplished, but it would also mean that Lezrem was a force comparable to all of Humanity.

As little as Alaster cared about others, he did not wish to see his entire Race exterminated. Well, maybe just a little bit?