Mark retreated back inside his pocket plane for safety once he ran a good distance away. He put a considerable amount of distance between himself and both of the trees. Though the one at the start appeared dead, he didn't know if it was because he hadn't allowed an undead to come into contact with it.

His eyes fell onto the lump of tree blood in his hands.

Identify (Uncommon) -> Identify (Rare) - The pinnacle of rudimentary divination magic. A spell that analyzes objects and reads magical energy, retrieving the fundamental information of most items.

[Concentrated Plant Essence] - The lifeblood of higher-tier magical plants, containing a dense amount of life energy. Substance can rapidly promote the growth of other plants.

There should've been some more of this essence on the wooden dagger's blunt blade, but it had already absorbed all of it. Now, he could try carving into the tree at the start.

But first, Mark looked at his pocket plane's portal. For the first time, his magic successfully touched it and read its information.

[Splinter of Menagerie - Life] - A fragment of a shattered world. Attuned to life magic.

Mark's brows rose, and his mind wandered for a moment. Life attunement? From the looks of it, his portal was only a small part of a whole, and there should be other splinters out there. But there was still a ton of information missing in the description.

He looked over all his other artifacts. Indeed, their descriptions had all been updated to provide more accurate information.

[Lifedrinker (Rare)] - A dagger which hungers for life. Siphons health, vitality, and stamina to the user on the condition that they can control the dagger's power.

[Core of Animation (Rare)] - A crystalline vessel containing the bound spells Turn Undead and Animate Dead. Can control up to three bodies at the same time.

[Spinal Thrum (Rare)] - A mace that hums with necromantic energy, emanating from within its core. Passively withers flesh, explodes bone, and emits a sickening noise against metal. Currently sealed. When powered and unsealed, greatly amplifies its passive effects, and enables the bound skills Razor Hymn, Mournful Wail, and Crimson Song.

[Life Extraction Dagger (Rare)] - A wooden dagger with authority over plantlife. When powered, it easily slices through plants and extracts their essence.

Interestingly, the Uncommon version was able to discern the names of the first two artifacts, probably due to the tutorial buff. Now that the skill had reached some kind of a limit, the buff was no longer necessary.

[Magical Coin/Gems] - Magical artifacts containing an immense power, enough to tear open space. Built to socket into a similarly-shaped receptacle, but these pieces are not enough.

Mark's brows could rise no further. From what it looked like, these things were able to open another portal, as long as he found that receptacle. They weren't valuable, unless someone managed to collect them all. He'd have to keep a lookout.

For now, Mark returned to his magical studies. With Identify able to study magical energies in greater detail, he returned to casting his repertoire of spells, while making sure to pore over what he actually did. His knowledge was growing each time.

Botching a necromancy spell always did damage to the corpse. Usually, they withered, or exploded outright depending on the amount of mana he used. But the hydra's body was able to handle a lot more punishment than the others. It was prime material for his necromancy experiments, and although Mark had no idea what to focus on, he was able to glean small insights from just throwing whatever he could at it.

He entered a state of zen. Magic flowed like water, spilling onto a hydra head. Interspersed between his spells were constant pings of Identify worming their way back to his mind, fuel to drive his next spell forwards.

His necromancy was visibly improving, becoming faster, smoother, and more efficient in every way. The hum of his magic grew louder and louder as the flood of spells continued.

A thought flickered, and his skeleton mage rose up against him. Mark caught a Black Ray on the edge of his Death Bolt, disrupting the energies with his own. Three more shot his way and he deflected them one by one. Finally, a jagged chain of fractured energy lashed out, crumbling bit by bit to his barrage of energy, before splashing against his Aura of Undeath.

Enhanced Magic Manipulation (Uncommon) -> Magical Mastery (Rare) - Magic clings to your essence like cloth, ready to shift at any moment.

Mark emerged from his haze and took a deep breath. The world felt a lot more comfortable than before.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Like the description said, a single thought was all he needed to invoke basic spells. One look was enough to destabilize lesser magicks, allowing him to unravel them before they struck. Still, this new ability was not without reason. The countered spell had to be within the range of his other spells, including Aura of Undeath.

Now, he could give the connection between him and his pocket plane another try. This time, he would commit to the end.

Mark returned to the gray space and looked at the orb of light. He began to slowly funnel the energy from his magical spark into the orb. Before he gained Magical Mastery, his magic refused to enter, flowing back out at the same rate he pushed it in.

But now? His magic began to clump around the orb. Bit by bit, it seeped in, and as Mark continued to pour more and more mana, it started to tremble. A huge shell wrapped around the orb, where it would've fallen apart earlier without the skill.

Mark continued pumping mana into the ever-growing shell of magic. Power continued to build, and build, until finally, a crack formed on the orb of light and his mana coursed through it. The shell of magic slowly disappeared, combining with the orb into a new shape - one resembling the point of a star.

"Is this the pocket plane's true form?" Mark mumbled to himself.

Whatever it was, the connection between him and the Splinter had increased to a much deeper level than before. He could summon the portal in an instant, even faster than casting Magic Missile. And there was another feeling too - the mana in the druid plane somehow felt more palatable.

Gaining Magical Mastery had already allowed him to bypass most of the restrictions the plane's energy had on his necromancy spells. His Aura of Undeath could move outwards, and a Death Bolt was able to dig into the dirt when he willed it. But he didn't dare take it too far, or another tree monster might come for him.

Instead, Mark returned to his pocket plane and began to practice diligently. It did not take long before he managed to wield his first spark of life affinity mana. With help from two druid artifacts, he gathered a good amount into his hands, forming a life magic orb.

This wasn't a skill, though. All this ball of mana could do was slightly stimulate the grass around him. Not enough for a qualitative change.

He needed to figure out a way to imbue his spells with a tinge of this life magic. Starting with Magic Missile, Mark refocused his efforts on altering the structure of the spell. It was easier said than done, however.

Mark was unable to figure out a solution even when his mind became exhausted, and he had to sleep. But practice made perfect, and time was not what he lacked right now. So after a short nap, he immediately returned to his experiments.

Eventually, after two days total, Mark's Magic Missiles carried a hint of life within them. Though they tore apart the grass when striking the dirt, it grew back only a few minutes afterwards. There was definitely an effect.

Mark took those principles behind this phenomenon and started to graft them onto his necromancy spells. He expected this to take even longer, but after the first breakthrough in weaving life magic, it took only a few hours to produce something tangible. When casting Raise Dead, he could make the grass around the body grow wildly in the short period of time the body was propping itself up.

Not a very practical effect. Yet that was a complicated enough spell, allowing him to immediately transfer his knowledge to the next spell, Repair Corpse. Strangely, the difficulty in meshing life magic with Death Bolt was more difficult than the others, probably due to the wildly conflicting effects.

His first attempts went awry. Though he did manage to create a growth spurt in the grass, the magic also happened to drain its vitality, withering it away. His necromancy still had too much influence. Leveling up and being taught a skill by the system would solve this problem immediately, but Mark wanted to rely on himself. He knew the benefits it would bring.

A dab of Concentrated Essence restored the grass' vitality, allowing it to cover the patch of soil once again. To clear his mind and approach the problem from another angle, Mark walked out the portal, feeling a lot more emboldened after a nights' rest. He approached the dormant tree monster and pressed his hands against it. Life magic bubbled around it, letting him know there were strong signs of life.

Unfortunately, this magical detection only affected where he touched, and getting close to most monsters was often disastrous. But this was still useful on some occasions. He could try walking back to the starting tree to see if that was alive as well.

Mark pressed his hands again into the trunk and sensed...something different. It resembled life, but was quite different from the monster tree's response. More...mundane, like the rest of the plants in his pocket plane. This tree was as normal as a tree could get and completely unlike the monster which guarded the gate's exit.

He began to cut it apart with the Life Extraction Dagger. Mark no longer needed to use Concentrated Essence to fuel the artifact, letting him carve into the tree without wasting the precious material.

The blade sliced through the bark like butter and came out holding a droplet of Concentrated Essence at its tip. Tree sap dripped down its sides, but the essence stuck to the tip like glue, until his life magic dissolved it. It was slightly different from the tree monster's Concentrated Essence. Mark considered what had happened.

This dagger had the ability to draw out the life force of living plants and condense it into Concentrated Essence. There was nothing extraordinary about this tree, and it immediately started to sag seconds afterwards. Perhaps the glue-like structure was its dormant form, and plants became magical by making good use of this essence.

With more of the substance at hand, Mark felt no pity experimenting with it. He returned to his pocket plane. Though his new affinity with life magic allowed him to activate the druid artifacts, it was still better to use Concentrated Essence as the fuel, albeit costly.

After the staff had almost fizzled out, Mark finally managed to acquire his first druid skill. It was twisted. It resembled necromancy more than druidism. But he'd done it. Fused life and death together.

Corpse Growth (Uncommon) - A spell which consumes a body to fuel the growth of nearby plants.