When Alaster woke the next morning, the fire was down to embers. He sat up and tightly wrapped his furs around himself before he opened the small bone shelter. What greeted him, was certainly not what he was expecting. He had expected that some of those weak dog monsters would try to attack him overnight, and that his Undead would protect him. What he did not expect was an actual mountain of their corpses.
Alaster absentmindedly stood up while he stared at the large pile. Sensing that he was awake, the Black Guards jogged over to him. One from the other side of the pile, and the other from behind the Dungeon. Both were covered in the dog monsters’ blood. But not nearly to the extent the Night Children were. They peered down at their master while they clung to the underside of the thick branches overhead.
“What the actual hell? Did you guys wipe out the entire species?” Alaster mumbled to himself, “Should be good EXP at least.”
Alaster quickly peeked at his status.
[Class: Death Mage
Level: 12<13
EXP: 12%<54%
Health: 355/355<365/365
Health Regeneration: 8/min<9/min
Mana: 330/330<340/340
Mana Regeneration: 5/min
Spells: Necrotic Bolt, Raise Undead, Bone Crafting, Mana Manipulation, Death Touch, Skeleton Creation, Meditation, Necrotic Heal
Strength: 44<46
Dexterity: 39<41
Constitution*: 49<51
Wisdom*: 54<56
Intelligence*: 51<53
Free Points: 5]
[Constitution Bonus Unlocked]
[Constitution 50 Bonus: Blood Price
Level 1: 0%
Capable of using Health in exchange for Mana.
1 Health= 5 Mana]
[Raise Undead, Level up]
[Raise Undead
Level 14<16: 56%<61%
Raise a corpse to serve as your servant
Max Minions: 2/2
Max Skeletons: 2/2
Mana Cost: 30]
[Evolution Available]
Alaster was stunned, but he couldn’t keep the smile out of his face. He had finally gotten the CON Bonus, and in essence, had significantly increased his Mana Pool. Of course, it came at the cost of his Health, but it made him much more flexible. He could exchange nine Health for forty-five Mana, and in a single minute, have that regenerated. If he exchanged one hundred health, he would get five hundred mana, more than his Mana Pool could hold.
‘I need to be careful with that.’
Alaster had heard of those who had pushed their Mana Pool past what it could handle. The Mana Core, which held the pool as well as condensed the mana and distributed it to the rest of the body, was meant to gradually grow in strength, allowing it to hold more. It wasn’t meant to be pushed like that. Some were lucky and only received repairable damage to their Cores. But most had their Cores shattered.
That was the worst nightmare for any Mage. When a Core was broken, it released all the Mana within, violently. A Fire Mage would be consumed by fire so hot that it would reduce them to ash in moments. A Water Mage would drown from the inside. Even if they managed to survive, which very few could, it was impossible for them to use Magic again, not even Enchantments would respond to them.
The new [Blood Price] Ability was amazing, but it was a double-edged sword. If he wasn’t careful, it was likely that he would break his own Core. Alaster had seen a [Necrotic Bolt] melt the flesh off a Monster. And he could, all too vividly, imagine his Mana lashing out and melting him from the inside out.
However, in Alaster’s mind, the Ability certainly had more Pros than Cons. First and foremost, he had nearly unlimited Mana for a Novice.
‘This is making more sense.’ Alaster thought.
Classes tended to steer a certain way with their progression. The user could personally push it in a certain way, but the Class had its own disposition. It had confused and annoyed Alaster as to why the WIS Bonus would allow him to raise more Undead than he could supply with Mana. Same with why a Mage Type Class would use CON as a one of the Prime Stats. Now it made sense.
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The Death Mage Class was the basic Class for the use of Necrotic Mana. The users could take that anyway they wanted. Some focused more on the [Bone Crafting] Side of it, eventually even becoming capable of molding Flesh. Some focused on [Necrotic Bolt] Strengthening it, and gaining more abilities that used pure Necrotic Mana as a weapon. Alaster, as well as most Death Mages, had chosen to focus more on the [Raise Undead] Spell.
That did not mean that Alaster was ignoring the other two parts of being a Death Mage. But it did mean that his Bonuses would respond to his thoughts and beliefs and aid in the creation of Undead.
Shaking his head, he focused on his new level. He had five stat points to distribute, and now had the Bonuses of all his Prime Stats. Looking back at his Stats, he chuckled to himself.
‘This is a good day already.’
With the new level, his STR had naturally risen to forty-six. Meaning he could put four of the Free Points into it, getting the STR Bonus, and putting the last Free Point into DEX, his lowest Stat. Of course, he could also put those four points into WIS, raising to sixty and granting him another point of Mana Regen. However, with his [Meditation] That simply didn’t feel as impactful. Every point mattered, but a Bonus was simply much more valuable than a single point.
Alaster put four points into STR and one into DEX, raising them to fifty and forty-two respectively.
[Strength Bonus Unlocked]
[Strength 50 Bonus: Imbuement
Level 1: 0%
Infuse the body with Mana to strengthen it
Mana Cost: 100/min]
Alaster had heard of this Bonus. It was the foundation of many Mage-Warrior Hybrids. Anyone who used their Magic to fight like a Warrior Class. They were very powerful in close quarters, and typically nicknamed Mage Hunters, as their Magical abilities made them very suited to killing other Mages.
Imbuement sounded like an Enchanting Ability, and in truth, Enchanters could get a very similar Ability that focused more on Items than themselves. Imbuement allowed the user to spend Mana to strengthen their own body. In every case, it made the user faster, stronger, and more durable, so long as they kept it active. However, the type of Mana the User used also played a role.
Fire Mages would be even stronger. Water Mages would be much more flexible and agile. Earth Mages were damn near unkillable. And Wind Mages would very incredibly quick. Each type of Mana effected the User differently during the use of this Ability. However, Alaster had no clue what his particular type of Mana would do. At the very least, it would make him stronger, faster, and more durable. That alone made it a great Ability that he could imagine himself using quite often.
But he still wasn’t finished. He still had an Evolution available. An Evolution for one of his most valuable Abilities. Alaster pulled the selection up.
[Raise Undead
Level 14<16: 56%<61%
Raise a corpse to serve as your servant
Max Minions: 2/2
Max Skeletons: 2/2
Mana Cost: 30]
[Evolution Available]
[Raise Undead Evolutions:
1. Bond. Be able to take direct control of an Undead Minion.
2. Numerous. Increase maximum minions by one.
3. Twin. Be able to raise two undead with one cast.]
‘Same choices as last time.’ Alaster recalled, scratching his back, ‘Except for Bond. That took the place of Mindful, which I chose last time.’
Alaster automatically discounted Twin. Not that it wasn’t valuable. Especially when he was using the Horde Bonus. Then, it would save his a lot of Mana by only half the Mana required to raise them. It simply wasn’t as valuable.
From the description, Bond would allow him to share the senses of one of his Undead. That was amazing, not only because it would allow him to learn more about the Undead, which in turn would allow him to make better modifications and use them better. But it would also allow him to scout around with a disposable Undead, and would also allow him to command his undead personally, while his real body was hidden away.
But Alaster was leaning more towards Numerous. It would raise his Undead limit by one, but the [Skeleton Creation] Legion Evolution would add another, if it was a Skeleton Undead. That seemed a bit overpowered to Alaster, who had still not learned how to create any other Type of Undead. All he knew how to raise were Skeletons.
He could currently raise two Undead, plus another two Skeletons. This allowed both the Night Children and the two Black Guards, who were still more of a dark gray. But if he chose Numerous, he would be able to raise two more. The only hesitation was that Alaster didn’t have any more weapons, so he would have to create more Night Children, or something similar. And he simply didn’t need more Night Children.
Alaster facepalmed himself. He had completely forgotten that he had Evolved [Bone Crafting], allowing him to create crude and fragile weapons, but weapons nonetheless. He would have to repair them quite often, possibly after every battle. And what if the weapons broke during a battle? Alaster stopped himself there before he thought too far. It was pointless unless he actually chose Numerous.
While He absentmindedly began to remove the bones from the pile of Dog Monsters, a slow and mana intensive task, but a mindless one, He ran through every possible situation he could imagine where he could use either one. However, in the end, while Bond had potentially vastly greater strategical value. He simply didn’t have the numbers to use it effectively.
The greatest use for Bond that he envisioned was hiding himself away from the battle, depending on if there was a distance limit, and commanding his Undead from afar. However, he only had four Undead, three if he took control of one. And he doubted that he could maintain [Meditation] while he was controlling an Undead, so that limited him to just the four. Four had done great things before, but the Skeletons were too weak to do much in the grand scheme of things.
Plus, Alaster wouldn’t leave his body defenceless. He would leave at least one of the Black Guards with himself, which would severely weaken the already weak force of Undead, as the Black Guard were, without a doubt, the strongest Undead he had.
Alaster chose Numerous, and brought up the Status.
[Raise Undead
Level 16: 61%
Raise a corpse to serve as your servant
Max Minions: 2/3
Max Skeletons: 2/3
Mana Cost: 30]
Grinning to himself, Alaster glanced over to the pile. While his second mind worked on removing the Bones, the pile was growing obviously smaller. Without the bones keeping the corpse's structure, it was gradually becoming a large pile of flesh, which was incredibly disturbing to Alaster. He had little issue with watching a [Necrotic Bolt] melt the flesh off someone’s face, but he did have an issue watching a pile of flesh taller than he was, just giggle around.
Instead, Alaster turned around to face the gradually growing pile of bones as his second mind added to it. He had two more Undead Slots to fill, and while he could use the Bone Cubes in his Ring, it was much easier to use material already in the shape of a functional bone and make the changes there. Instead of having to start from scratch.
At this moment, he wished he had the Blueprint Evolution.