Upon seeing the sad face of Annino, Vallynor thought that he might have said something wrong. Upon reflection, he realized why Annino had become so sad. "The boy is still a wolf and a dog and has his own leashes. When he hunts, he entertains himself and brings me prey. And now I stopped him," thought Vallynor.
"Hey, don't be sad. If you want, you can continue to hunt and kill, and drag the corpses to another room. If the room fills up, leave the bodies at the entrance. Can you devour souls?" asked Vallynor.
Annino became happy again. Upon hearing the question, he nodded in response.
"Then devour them, because we don't want one of the corpses to suddenly come to life, do we? Good boy... Go!" said Vallynor, standing up and leaving for the mana gathering center. Annino happily disappeared on the hunt.
Looking at the red book, Vallynor wanted to resume his training. However, the emotional pain began to grip him again. Because of this, he decided to postpone his thoughts for later. He even left the book, which told the stories of this world.
Sitting in the center of the array, he resumed his soul magic lessons. Gathering mana and processing it, he continued to create his foundation for the future as a full-fledged mage.
The foundation of his path slowly began to grow, and the mana he had collected was depleted. He began to use necro-energy that was in the book. Occasionally, he also took other types of energy that were available to him before the book began to deteriorate.
More than a month passed, and during this time, Annino began to appear less frequently. He came several times injured, and because of this, he had to stay in the house for several days. During this time, he filled the second room. The owner remained in the center of the array, sitting with his eyes closed. Annino did not know what the owner was doing, but he felt that he was becoming stronger.
One day, Annino, as usual, dragged a new corpse to the house. Several piles of different animals had already gathered at the entrance. Annino became noticeable and attracted animals to himself, but before approaching the house, they became prey for Annino.
The monsters that were stronger sometimes tested their strength at this place. But not feeling any strong souls and ignoring the pathetic souls, they were not worth eating, as too much energy was wasted for a drop of low-quality soul.
Leaving the new corpse at the entrance, Annino entered the house. Recently, he had become sleepy and felt tired. Before, he would get tired too, but a few hours of sleep always helped. But this time it was different. Even after a whole day of sleep, he didn't feel rested. On the contrary, he felt like he could faint.
And it happened: he sat down and fell asleep until this abnormal state passed. But nasty beasts sometimes came where he was hunting. Annino was forced to kill them so they wouldn't disturb the owner. And such an incident happened recently.
While Annino sat down on the floor to sleep a little, strange sounds reached him. Thinking it was some kind of beast again, he opened his eyes and realized that the sounds were coming from the owner.
Vallynor had been building the foundation for his soul for over a month. Every day, he converted energy into material for building the foundation. At first, he made a ball of his soul's energy, and then mana connected, forming a large ball that he extended to form a platform. Every day it became longer and thicker.
To do this, he used the mana he had collected and necro-energy. When the first ran out, he switched to the second. And when the array collected enough mana, he switched back to the first. While he was creating the foundation, he had a question: there are so many different types of energy, which all together are called mana, but does it have a source? In my world, in the games and books I know, there is only one Mana. And only those who use it can turn mana into a spell with some attribute. And here, there are already seven different types of energy.
While he was thinking, he never stopped for a second. At some point, he instinctively felt that the platform he had created was becoming too heavy for his body, mind, and soul. If he continued to create the foundation, it would simply destroy him. He wouldn't be able to withstand the pressure that this platform would bring.
Realizing that everything was ready and the first step was taken, he began to remember what he needed to do next. He felt the presence of the Necronomicon and entered its inner world, where he created the platform.
The platform opened, and a stream of necro-energy flowed out, devouring the foundation for its path like fire. The foundation, which was soft like earth, burned with three blue fires, as cold as frost. Instead of warming it, the blue fire took it, bringing a cold, terrifying chill to the bones. Where it burned, everything turned into a frozen, dead wasteland. The green fire emitted neither heat nor cold, but was a terrible poison that ate everything that came into it, leaving a disgusting, toxic ground. And in the center sat a small tongue of purple fire, calmly doing nothing while its brothers greedily converted the labors of Vallynor.
The foundation, which was like raw and soft earth ready to crumble at any moment, became stronger with each passing minute. However, the terrible feeling that the energy that had become a part of the foundation for the mage's path, the soul, was ready to break at any moment.
And in such cases there will be consequences. In the best case, I will no longer be able to progress on this path, and the soul will receive a magical handicap, mutilating it. In the worst case, it will explode, destroying the soul.
When he first saw what the book was doing with his work, he was scared. But she reassured him and informed him of what she was doing. She was strengthening his foundation, though she overdid it a bit.
"I didn't know she could send data straight into my mind... Then why does she make me read if she can just send the information straight to my mind?" he thought.
The book quickly answered his mental question: [The owner must learn and develop himself. If you want to receive information right away, you must pay 1,000 souls. And for help with your foundation, you must pay 1,000,000 souls].
"What?" He was shocked. From such insane numbers, he had to pay one million pieces for helping his owner. And he also had to donate energy or, thank God, part of his soul. And his enemies' souls, he realized.
[One soul equals one vessel of the soul that resides in monsters. It doesn't matter if it's a human, a dog, or a bug's soul. All souls are equal, only the quality has value. As a first service, you can pay with low-quality souls], the words of the book rang out.
These words knocked him off his feet. It wasn't a necromancer's book but a book of Jews and the embodiment of a value devourer. She didn't want his death, but to become his debtor.
[All whims for your money], he was ready to swear he heard a greedy miser speak in Jewish.
He lost all his strength. He was even ready to go out and open his eyes, but the lights had not finished processing his recently slender foundation. While he painfully contemplated his future of hunting and exploiting Annino 24/7, he heard a strange sound coming from the foundation.
Looking towards the source, he noticed how blue and green fire processed the earth and then began attacking each other. She was trying to take the processed earth from the opposite side.
However much they fought, they always ignored the existence of Malenkov's language and violet fire. With every passing second, the fires grew stronger, emitting waves of cold and poison accompanied by groans and other sounds.
In one moment, when the fires became so big that they were ready to reach his soul, the violet fire increased to unimaginable sizes and even touched his soul. However, it completely ignored his soul, and even a small flame tongue did not touch it.
Instead, the violet fire began to enslave the other two fires. As a lord, he subdued them, after which all three fires were attracted back into the book, leaving behind a huge, clean platform that now firmly sat at the bottom of the owner's soul. It was entirely black, except for the violet circle in the center where the soul itself resided.
"Here's the first stage complete. If only my soul wasn't wounded, I could start the second stage - drawing the runes. But now I can only draw a few. If I draw another one, my soul will be wounded again under pressure."
Vallynor felt pity for himself and his choices, but he knew there was no point in crying over spilled milk. He began to draw the runes that the book had shown him. Right now, he could only draw two runes - one for restoring his soul and another for gathering energy.
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However, before he could draw the runes, he needed to do three things. Firstly, draw the rune itself. Secondly, carve out the platform for the drawn rune. And thirdly, fill it with the pure energy of the soul. Each of these stages was difficult in its own way.
The first stage required Vallynor to think about where it was best to draw the rune so that it would be synergistic with the other runes in the future.
Fortunately, the book helped him accomplish this stage with him. According to the book, it was insanely difficult because the platform was too large to examine, which increased the difficulties several times.
The second stage presented a problem with carving. To make a cut, a powerful soul was needed, which could be turned into a tool to carve the rune into the platform and withstand the resistance of the base.
The third stage was simple in theory but long in practice. Vallynor had to gather the energy of the soul and process it, purifying it from impurities. It turned out that all this time he had been working with unprocessed soul energy, which polluted his soul, but fortunately not so much.
Thinking about all these details, Vallynor closed the book and stood up. He decided to leave this moment for later because he couldn't draw two runes right now.
He took all three books out of the ring. Looking through the book on magic, he threw it right at the Necronomicon. The book opened, and there were teeth in it, similar to the teeth of a beast. As he held it, it began tearing apart the book on magic, and a few seconds after it entered his mouth, a terrible beastly scream came from the book. The owner of the scream could not escape from the teeth that were destroying the cover of the book.
When the book finished its meal, it opened and on its pages was written: [Congratulations! You have received a copy of the book 'Basics of Magic' as well as a damaged soul. With its help, you will be able to create the first rune of your foundation.]
"I didn't expect this. What a nice gift..." he didn't finish his thought as he choked and nearly suffocated, continuing to read on.
[Due to the owner owing 1,000,000 souls, this soul will be sealed. The owner must return 1000 souls before it can be unsealed.]
This put an end to his happiness. He returned to reality and pondered on what to do next. Remembering that he had become an official soul mage, he realized that he could use spells related to soul magic.
Taking the book and studying the spells for soul mages, he fell into a daze. They were more complex than spells for the mind or body. But he didn't give up. After inspecting all the spells available at the moment, he settled on the spell "Soul Hands." This spell allows the soul to be connected with the surrounding energy and used to attack the enemy's soul, affecting non-material objects. If more energy is added, it can affect the material world.
It is very similar to telekinesis, which belongs to the category of mind magic. Each spell is good in its own way. Telekinesis can influence the material world in a large radius but cannot attack the souls of living and astral bodies.
On the other hand, the spell "Soul Hands" attacks the soul itself, but its ability to influence the material world is very small. So both spells are good in their own way. After studying these two spells, he noticed some similarities in the form of runes and magical words. Leaving the book on the "Soul Hands" spell, he began to memorize the runes and words. He didn't just choose this spell for nothing. He had to gather 1,000,000 souls and he had to do it quickly.
He didn't want to be in debt and not receive such surprises. It is logical to assume that the soul will become a currency in the world of books. Perhaps a shop with many services will appear where one can pay 1,000 souls to remember selected information.
The Hand of Soul spell will be my first tool for extracting souls. Before I can use it, I need to try to create threads and, by controlling them, extract the soul from the body. It's not that simple, and I'll only be able to do it for one purpose.
But the Hand of Soul can create as many hands as your soul can withstand, and only your mind can control them. If your mind is weak, you can have a hundred hands, but it will be very difficult to control them.
Secondly, the Hand of Soul is an improved version of my thread, which means I have some experience, and it will be easier for me to cast the spell.
I repeated the spell in my mind, which was very short, and memorized the runes that would be created every time. I needed to memorize the magical runes that would be created at the base with mana and turn into the spell itself.
The words were not difficult to memorize, like most of the runes. Only a few of them I saw for the first time, which made me remember every curve. When I was sure I had memorized it, I closed my eyes and entered the inner world where the foundation of my soul mage path was located.
Controlling energy, whether mana or necro-energy, they are all energies in essence. With their help, I began to draw each rune. When I drew more than three runes, I felt it becoming harder to control them.
Only three and already difficulties arose. Although it's gratifying that I only need to draw five runes for the circle. When I started drawing the fourth rune, I began to lose control. One of the runes became larger and brighter, while the other became smaller and dimmer. Explosion.
"Damn it! Failure," I began to swear. When I created undead with runes, it wasn't that difficult. I just drew them with energy and made them standard size, and then connected them.
But here the runes, as if alive and under pressure. With each passing second, I feel like I'm losing control. Maybe I should have acted faster.
I repeated it again and again, but on the fourth rune, there was an explosion. This proved that the problem was not in time. I didn't know what the problem was. I made the stupidest choice - to create the runes again and again.
Yes, it was stupid. But when you have no ideas, it's better to repeat your failures over and over again and observe your failures each time until you understand your mistake.
Annie watched me all this time. From the moment I started making strange noises, and then threw one book into the mouth of another. Then I looked at her and stopped again.
All this time, he stared at me, but at one point, he unconsciously closed his eyes and fell asleep, leaving me alone with my difficulties.
***
Opening her yellow eyes with vertical slits, like a snake, she watched Vallynor and Annie all these days.
She knew that Vallynor was in a very important moment, and in order not to disturb him and not to interfere with creating the foundation for the soul, she did not need to talk about what she was doing. Because she could read what was written in the book, but not information about magic. This showed that she allowed listening to their conversation. So she knew what the man in black wanted to do, although he was no longer so black. He was some kind of dark gray.
Even without knowing their conversation, she would still understand what he wanted to do by the vibration he emitted.
She just watched him, not interfering. And when she became too bored, she shifted her gaze to Annie. The little wolf always hunted someone.
But now he was sleeping, and she could see his body growing. His body increased by 1.20 times.
"The little wolf has become stronger. I wonder if his owner will notice the difference?"
Closing her eyes, she fell asleep again. In the silence, you could hear the faint rustling of chains.
***
Crossing his arms, Vallynor considered what he was doing wrong. He read through the spell several times. But no matter how hard he tried or how much he repeated it, nothing worked.
He thought about how he could reduce the pressure on each rune even a little bit. But they were all so separated from each other that they had no connection.
"What if..." Quickly drawing the first rune, he did not leave the energy still, but instead drew a new rune with a different thread of energy. Instead, he drew a second rune that was immediately connected to the first.
Second, third, fourth, fifth... He managed to draw all five runes, connecting the first to the fifth. Vallynor was already ready to jump for joy. The circle lost stability, the runes began to move, striking each other, emitting white sparks until it finally collapsed with a crack. In the end, there was a small explosion, like the icing on the cake.
The happy face quickly turned into an ugly grimace. After this, he shouted from the bottom of his heart: "Fuuuuuuuck!" Taking a few deep breaths, he began to think again about what was already wrong.
At first, he created each rune separately, as he did when creating the undead. After that, he had to connect them in the form of a circle. But it turned out that all the runes had to be created from one thread, which meant that they had to be immediately connected as soon as they were created.
After creating the circle, he began to emit sparks, and the runes moved. Thinking that something might already be wrong, he looked again at the circle from the book. He carefully examined each rune, looking for more than ten minutes, and then it hit him.
"What a fool! How could I not understand that I had to place the runes in proportion to each other so that everything would be even."
Creating the first rune again, he began to create the second. When he was ready to complete the second, he stopped, but after a few seconds, he placed his finger between the first and second. After that, he created the third and again placed his finger between them, and so on with each rune until he created the circle.
This time the circle did not spark, and the runes remained in their places. He felt satisfied with his success and stood waiting for a few minutes. Realizing it was a success, he shouted and jumped for joy, like a little girl.
After coming out of his inner world, he spoke out loud, "Manibus umbraticis." The circle he had recently created began to spin, connecting his will with the mana that surrounded him.
He immediately felt two hands moving according to his desires, as if they had no bones, but he felt they were not fragile. Looking at the book lying on the floor, he ordered both hands to close it. The hands slowly approached and closed the book. Then he ordered them to pick it up and raise it half a meter off the floor.
When the book was raised half a meter off the floor, Vallynor began to slowly move away. At a distance of two meters, he lost the ability to influence the materials of the world, and the book fell to the floor, raising quite a bit of dust.
"So, about two meters. Not much, but it'll do for a start," he finished his thoughts and cheerfully continued, "What a cool feeling... And now let's try it on a living object."
Approaching the entrance to another room, where a mass of monsters was located, he ordered his hands to take the enemies' souls. Both hands pounced on the nearest enemies and took their souls in a matter of seconds. Then they returned, holding the soul of the victim, who was trying to break free from captivity.
"What the hell? Is this spell specifically created to work with other souls? Because I don't know how to explain why they somehow interacted with the book. And I'm already so strongly connected to the soul that I have to say that control is not as difficult as I thought. I need to conduct a few more tests, but first..." - Looking at the book, he approached. And behind him were those two, holding the hands created by the spell. - "How to repay the debt?"