It had been a few days since Grobert’s visit. Norman spent most of that time working with Grobert’s replacements. While he knew it was necessary, it really annoyed him. These new people, while competent, didn’t have the same understanding that Grobert had. They also didn’t realize Norman had made a deal with Grobert upon accepting this position. One that allowed him time to work on his magic.

Norman could have just told them but he didn’t want to discourage their efforts. Instead, he just locked himself away in his workshop when he got too annoyed with their pestering. It was an acceptable compromise for him until Grobert returned.

He even got to have a bit of fun with it. Norman had told his assistants that they could knock on the door to alert him of anything. But the force-absorbing enchantment on the door would ensure no sounds would get through. Leaving Norman to work in peace until he was ready to emerge again.

It didn’t stop someone from teleporting into the room though. Something Grobert had done many times after the door had first been installed. Was it bad that he lied to them, sure. But he would do it again for a few hours of peace. He wasn’t some robot, he needed time to work on his own stuff. The town wouldn’t fall apart in his absence in those few hours. At least he hoped not.

And that time had been well spent. He first worked on the pendant. As he had told Grobert, that pendant wasn’t anything special. The spell circle and symbols were made from gold and the rest was ceramic. The only thing interesting about the item was the tiny hole at the top to fill it with magical powder.

That meant it wasn’t a permanently enchanted item as he had first assumed. He had tested it and when the spell ran out after its hour, it would automatically reset, using some of the stored powder. Based on its design, it could function for an extended time. How long that time was, Norman couldn’t say for sure. Certainly long enough for Anna and Grobert to cross the fog lands though. Norman had relayed that information to Grobert along with whatever else he knew about the item.

He was annoyed with what Anna had done when she arrived in Ashvale, but he didn’t want to see her hurt. He hoped this trip back would allow her to find her purpose in life.

After he finished his study of the pendant, Norman worked through the spells in the book he recovered from Vincent.

Most of them were complete and utter garbage. Seriously. They were the type of shit that he would have cobbled together back when he first started.

Which he realized was exactly what they were, cobbled together. It was clear by the notes added to the spell pages that Vincent had gotten these spells from multiple necromancers. Hell, the man had gone out of his way to kill every single one that had his grimoire along with the merchant that sold the copies. He even documented his exploits.

At last, I have tracked down the merchant that sold me the book so long ago. Once I deal with him, all of the copies of this book will be accounted for.

Norman assumed since Vincent was still around, that he had successfully killed the merchant. He would have thanked Vincent for doing his job for him if the man hadn’t come here to try and kill him as well.

How Vincent had located the books wasn’t apparent, but it did mean Norman wanted to dispose of this copy as soon as possible. But first, he had to memorize the spells.

And as he stated before, they were shit.

Even Vincent’s spells weren’t anything groundbreaking. His reverse aging spell was simply a twist on the Orb of Decay spell. Although it wasn’t one Norman would have likely stumbled across any time soon. It added a few symbols that Norman didn’t immediately recognize. Thankfully this grimoire held the answer.

When Norman went to the page that contained all the bits and pieces of unfinished spells, he found a segment that contained the two symbols that had been added to the spell. Norman spent a full day copying down all of these symbols. Adding a further sixty to his already large collection. And he hadn’t even cataloged all of the ones he had so far.

The added work only excited him though.

Norman finished cataloging the new spells. Even the Control Undead spell, that disgusted him, went into his notes. If Norman wanted to find other ways to fight against the spell, he needed to understand how it functioned. And it was a weird one, using a few symbols that didn’t exist anywhere else in the book. Norman wondered if this was a case of Vincent’s intent being strong enough to force meaning onto a symbol of his own creation. Similar to how Norman created his potions. Or if the man had not included all of his notes in the grimoire.

Norman figured it was the latter. He was starting to lean away from his theory of intent being correct. It just didn’t fit properly with most of what he knew now. He wasn’t mad about having guessed wrong. Progress was progress. This just allowed him to invest his time in another theory.

Reverse Aging and Control Undead were the only two spells Vincent had not claimed to have come from someone else. Norman moved to the next one up, which was the Bone Horror spell.

That one was interesting simply for the fact that you could combine multiple skeletons to form a sort of bone golem. It didn’t contain a soul, which was why Norman was able to trap the two he had in his spell anchors. He was curious as to what gave the golems their autonomy though. The spell design wasn’t one that Norman had ever seen before. It was still clearly necromantic in origin since his magical intuition let him know the spell was fully functional. Norman had learned that his intuition didn’t trigger when he used non-necromantic spells.

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The Bone Horror spell was probably the one he looked forward to playing with the most. Simply because he could picture dozens of ways to improve or change the spell, assuming it was possible. And why wouldn’t it be?

The rest of the spells were simple modifications of Norman’s original spells. Like the necromancers had played around with one function until they got a different result and left it at that. He was almost disappointed with the laziness of those necromancers until he remembered what Grobert had told him about how extremely difficult it was to create new spells. And even Norman had experienced that bit when messing with his phylactery. He had failed over a hundred times even with his intuition aiding him.

One of these modified spells was called Flash Blindness. It was a modification to Norman’s Plague Ray spell. As this was one of the spells Norman had worked with extensively, he immediately spotted the changes that the necromancer had made.

The name of the spell was a bit misleading. According to Vincent’s notes, while the spell did cause blindness, it did so by melting the eyes out of anyone that looked upon the flash of malignant light.

Why anyone would want to make a spell that permanently crippled someone was beyond Norman. Most of the spells Norman designed were specifically made to kill. He didn’t enjoy fighting or watching people suffer. And while Plague Ray did cause suffering, it was short-lived.

If he ever figured out a way to eliminate the build-up time that the spell required he would likely modify the spell. But from what he knew, it was likely something he could never truly eliminate unless he changed the function of the spell.

While not the last spell added to the book, the last one of interest was one called Bone Protector. The necromancer that had created it had spent a lot of time researching Norman’s Bone Wall spell. Which seemed like a waste of time to Norman. But then again, maybe not. They did create an offshoot spell. It seems the necromancer had stumbled upon the same issue with the wall coming apart as Norman had so long ago. Only they chose to weaponize that trait.

Now instead of an inanimate wall, it was almost like a living creature. It wasn’t a golem as far as Norman could tell. There certainly weren’t any of those same spell structures or symbols in the Bone Protector spell that he saw in the Bone Horror spell. But according to the notes in the book, the wall could react to external stimuli. It would lash out with spiky appendages at anything that got within a few feet of it.

That certainly made the Bone Wall spell much more useful than the simple obstruction that Norman had originally used. It still wasn’t a spell Norman was all that interested in. But he would get to it eventually.

Norman finished copying the rest of the spells and information from the book into his notes. The notes he used were temporary. Once he was satisfied he had the spell form and function memorized, he would burn the notes. But he wanted to be rid of the book as soon as possible in case it was being tracked.

He could certainly create a new grimoire but he chose not to. While encoding the notes to prevent people from figuring out what each spell did was a possibility, he couldn’t exactly encode the actual spells. And all someone had to do was copy the spell form and conduct their own research to figure out what it did. So it was safer not to have anything written down if he could help it.

That being said, Norman had recruited the help of the stone mages to create a record of his findings on each individual symbol. This record was molded into the underside of the floor tiles in his testing chamber. The massive stone blocks that made up the floor would prevent anyone from simply stealing them. Assuming they even knew where to look in the first place. The whole room was also hardened against magic, simply for its purpose as a testing chamber.

After testing, even Grobert couldn’t sense the symbols. This was by design. If Norman had just had them mold the symbols and notes into the stone, it would have been easy to detect by another Stone Mage or someone like Grobert who could sense things around him. So Norman had them Hide the symbols and notes amongst other randomly formed bumps and indentations. Norman figured if someone as old and experienced as Grobert couldn’t pick them out, it was probably safe from most people.

Norman would have to have the Stone Mages come by again to transfer more information into the floor once he had time to work out more symbols and their uses.

He was about to dig into the issue with his spells in his undead form when the room shook. It was a slight thing but enough to get his notice.

Norman unlocked the heavy security door with his armor on and a spell at the ready, but what greeted him outside was only Eugene.

“You really need to install a bell or something,” the man complained.

Norman glanced to the side of the door and saw a cracked stone from where Eugene had punched the wall. Well, that explained the shaking.

He turned back toward Eugene. “I assume you needed to get my attention for something urgent?”

Eugene nodded. “You have a visitor outside the front gate.”

A visitor? Norman quirked an eyebrow. “Who?”

“Says he’s Vincent’s father.”

“Huh… and he hasn’t attacked?”

“Nope, showed up alone about twenty minutes ago and is just waiting there. Said he wished to discuss the return of his son as well as some other things with you.”

Norman rubbed the back of his head. He hadn’t expected anyone to show up so soon. Let alone someone willing to talk. It had only been a week since Vincent’s attack. Then again, it could be a ruse to take him out.

“Very well, have the Death Knights escort him to the castle. We can have a chat here.”

“You sure that’s wise? What if that’s what he wants so he can kill you?”

Norman shrugged. “Then he will have shown his hand. But if this man came alone, I assume he isn’t here to try and kill me. But if it makes you feel better, pack as many Death Knights as you want into the other rooms of the castle and outside. If he does attack, at least that will be the last thing he does.”

Eugene nodded and hurried off, leaving Norman to ponder. This man obviously knew his son had come here. Does he know Vincent is dead? He must. Then again, the man probably knew that didn’t matter. They could bring back the dead, so they likely assumed Norman could revive Vincent as well.

Norman hurried to the vault. It was much more secure than their first vault. After he passed a series of checks, he opened the door and ensured the soul trap was still secure in its little bag. He then resealed it and made his way upstairs to change.

He found Stewart waiting outside his room. “I heard about your visitor and have laid out appropriate attire for you to wear for this meeting.”

Norman paused. “You’ve met Vincent’s Father, right?”

Stewart nodded. “He is a very stern man. And he tends to be rather blunt. Although, he is perfectly capable of changing his demeanor to fit the situation.”

“And do you think he’s here to cause trouble?”

“I find that unlikely. The man may go to extreme lengths to get his way sometimes. But he prefers mutual cooperation over forcing his agenda.”

“Thank you. Can you prepare the throne room for one guest?”

Stewart nodded. “I have already spoken to the cook to have drinks and snacks prepared.”

Norman thanked the man and hurried into his room to change and get ready.