Savani walks out of the auction house with his hood up. Behind him follows his undead, with the book and crystal securely placed in its pack. Looking up at the sky he can determine it is roughly 2 or 3 in the afternoon. Savani pulled his hood forward as he and his puppet went back to the inn.
Once there, Savani has the undead pack all of his belongings into the wagon before driving it to the city hall. Outside was the governor, looking at Savani's wagon with a light layer of sweat on his head. Surrounding him is a small group of people along with a large pile of crates. After Savani stops the wagon in front of them, the governor has them start to load up the crates.
As the workers load everything, Governor Hordif comes up to Savani nervously. Rubbing his throat he stammers, "Sssss...Sir apprentice everything has been accounted for. Please let Sage Lance know that I am always willing to help out both him and the Thunder Legion."
Looking at the man, Savani nods. "Of course Governor. I will be sure to pass your message along." With a grin he looks into the governors eyes "I do hope our last interaction didn't upset you."
Governor Hordif's face pales slightly as he remembers being lifted in the air and unable to breathe. Quickly he shakes his head. "No no Sir apprentice. It was nothing to be upset about, honestly. I would never hold such a simple thing against you." Seeing his reaction, Savani smiled and turned away to watch the workers load up the various crates.
It only took a half hour to get everything on board. Looking into the back of the wagon, Savani saw that there was still enough room for both himself and Mary to sit in the back comfortably. After thanking the workers and giving the governor a quick bow, the undead drove the cart back to the inn to wait on Savanis senior sister apprentice.
As he sat there waiting, Savani entered into the Virtual Training room. This time around he began to practice the Spacial Nook spell. Now that he had a way to flee, Savani wanted to have a way to keep his more important resources on him safe from other apprentices. So for the next hour or two he practiced the spell over and over, making sure that the chip kept all data of his various practices.
From what he found from the practice is that the spell would create a small pocket dimension that was somehow anchored to Savanis Spirit. In order to make the dimension Savani had to use practically all of his Spirit initially, however once it was formed he would only need to use a single Spirit to retrieve or store anything.
As Savani was practicing creating the Space Nook, the chip sent him a warning that someone was coming. Quickly leaving the training space Savani got out of the cart and looked around. After a few seconds he saw Shadow Wielder Mary walking towards him from a side street. In one hand she held a cloth sack that was filled with something Savani couldn't quite make out.
Seeing Savani standing in front of the covered wagon, Mary starts heading toward him. "You had better have finished everything you needed to because we are leaving."
Savani bows and replies "Yes senior sister. Everything is done and accounted for. I was simply waiting for you." Savani then opens the back of the wagon for Mary to get inside. Nodding at him, she goes in and finds a spot next to the crates before leaning against them and closing her eyes. Savani notices that she keeps the strange cloth sack next to her.
Crawling inside himself, Savani decides to sit next to the spare undead puppets he brought along with him. As the active undead begins to drive them out of the city, Savani looks over the ones he is next to. Chip with this crystal would it be possible to form a Shadow Ghast?
[Affirmative. The energy inside the Shadow Crystal holds enough energy for three Shadow Ghast refinements.]
Savani can't help but grin when the chip replies. Having three personal assassins would be a great boost to his power. Thinking for a moment, Savani has an idea. There are many creatures that have innate spell like abilities in this new world. Could it be possible to make an undead that has the same traits? Chip take all data we have stored on Necromancy. Is there any mentioned of undead with spells or special spell like abilities?
[Checking data. Confirmed. Higher level undead can sometimes possess special abilities. The most noticable of this is the Spell Slinger. This undead is formed from converting the body of an apprentice into an undead. High level Necromancers can keep some of the apprentices spell modules intact for the creatures use.]
Listening to the chips reply, Savani sits there and thinks. After about 5 minutes have passed he thinks to the chip, Chip start a new project. Using the Shadow Ghast as the base, use all data to create a plan on giving the undead spell like abilities that best fit with that of an assassin. Use both Darkness and Spacial spells along with any other way to increase the Shadow Ghasts attributes. Aim for at least peak level apprentice lethality if possible.
[Understood. Creating new project profile now. Estimate time to create project is 127 hours 46 minutes.]
Looking at the time it would take Savani nods. The time it would take to create the project would be just slightly longer than the trip back to the tower. After taking a quick peak at Mary, Savani once again enters into the Virtual Training room.
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Over the next few days Savani entered and practiced both Blink and Spacial Nook. When not practicing spells he would instead either listen to or practice various instruments from Earth as a way to unwind. When not in the Virtual Training space, he would instead sit and sleep in the wagon. The entire time Mary would stay in her spot, only leaving when they stopped for the night to either relieve herself or eat.
Savani would occasionally hum himself one of his favorite songs from his past life. During this time Mary would look at him but like always would refuse to talk. What's more no matter whether it would be in the cart or when they camped, she refused to let the cloth sack she brought leave her side. Savani figured that the sack had to be part of the task she mentioned and did his best to ignore it.
A day away from the forest of the tower Savani has finally brought both the Blink spell along with the Spacial Nook spell up to Mastered. Now all he has to do is either speak a single word or spell weave a quick rune in the air in order to activate either spell. After mastering them both, Savani goes off into the distance the next time the two take a break before finally casting the Spacial Nook spell.
Immediately he feels all of his Spirit disappear somewhere he can perceive and yet not perceive at the same time. His affinity for space letting him know that some strange square shape void is being built around him. As the spell goes on the space gets larger and larger before Savani can feel some kind of limit has been met. After the strange square has finished increasing in size Savani can feel his Spirit starting to solidify into walls, bending...something into shape.
After several minutes the spell finally finished. As Savani gasps and grips his head, feeling the effects of Spirit fatigue. Through the pounding headache he can feel a strange connection to a space that is somehow both surrounding him yet completely separate. With a groan Savani begins to walk back to the cart, doing his best to put on a normal facade despite the painful throbbing in his head.
As he walks he can feel that space following him, somehow keeping him in the very center of it. It takes some getting use to but Savani is able to finally push the feeling aside as he returns to the cart. Now he is aware of the space but it isn't as prevalent in his consciousness.
As he goes and sits in the wagon, Mary looks up at him before ignoring his presence as usual. Despite being with her for so long Savani had no idea if she was simply as introverted as he is or if it was her pride at being a Pseudo-Sage that kept her from talking to him.
They continue to travel for the next few hours before stopping for the night. During their travel Savani rested some to get back some of his Spirit. Once the sun fell, Savani began to set up a camp just like every other night. Off in the distance thunder could be heard as the wind began to pick up. Looking up at the clouds that started to accumulate Savani couldn't help but swear. The only time he ever enjoyed storms was when he was inside. Being trapped on the road in one with only a tarp covered wagon was not an experience he was looking forward to.
The storm hit just as both Savani and Mary finish tying down the horses and eating a quick meal. Looking out from under the tarp covering the wagon, Savani could see the rain whip and twirl. After just 10 minutes it was so thick it was like a white sheet. Thunder clapped in the sky, occasionally sending a streak of lightning through the clouds.
Savani edged farther inside the wagon away from the back opening in order to avoid getting wet. Looking over at Mary, Savani noticed she seems to be watching the rain fall. Closing his eyes, he begins to hum Singing in the Rain from an old movie he once saw back on Earth. Despite years, and even the beginning of a new life, it was a tune that would always pop into his head any time Savani sees rain falling.
Unbeknownst to him, Mary turned away from the rain and watched him as he sings. She had noticed during their travels how strange this junior apprentice was. Unlike others who would try and suck up to her whenever possible, this one would simply bow and smile but ultimately leave her alone. She also noticed how he had the habit of humming strange tunes, one she had never heard before from her travels. Since becoming a Pseudo-Sage, Mary had started to travel all over looking for a way to break through that final barrier. During all of that travel she had never heard a single tune that this apprentice would hum.
Mary also had come to notice how cautious he seemed to be. This apprentice would go out of his way to stay as far away from her as possible, whether that was due to respect or fear Mary had no idea. Not that it was saying much being trapped in such a confined space. Looking at the packed alchemy station along with the undead slumped against the wall, Mary guessed after observing him for a while that this strange apprentice was the star of the newest batch of apprentices called Savani.
Despite being a known recluse to the other apprentices in the tower, Savani had started making a name for himself. Having skills in both necromancy along with alchemy was an unusual combination, one that could lead to a variety of options once he grew into power. It also indicated that he had a rather powerful memory, further confirmed by the amount of books he would borrow from the towers library. Both necromancy and alchemy had a high threshold when it came to knowledge, one on the various anatomy and how magic interacted with the body and the other with the thousands upon thousands of magical reagents and how they interacted with one another. It was because of all of these traits that the various apprentice powers started to pay attention to him.
The Shadow League in particular was interested in Savani, which is how Mary had the information on him in the first place. Sadly both the Shadow League and the Earthen Court found that Savani didn't show any interest in joining their side. Discovering who it was she was traveling with Mary had taken on an observational role. If she could somehow learn something about Savani, it might make recruiting him easier.
Even as a Pseudo-Sage the politics between apprentices were vicious. Despite the well known fact that she and Crow King Victor had a benificial arangement running the Shadow League, the subtle power struggle between them still existed. Neither wanted to be subservient to the other leading to both sides trying to gather a following. Unknown to Victor however, Mary had also recruited several followers from the so called 'neutral faction'. This was her private force, one that she had done her best to hide from Victor.
Mary continued to watch Savani hum away, the rain falling in the background. Reaching down next to her to make sure her bag was still with her, Mary began to think about everything she had observed about this strange apprentice while trying to figure out what she could offer to have him join her, or at least the Shadow League so she could have more opportunities later to get him as an underling. She was sure that he had the talent to become a powerful peak stage apprentice, that is if he lived long enough to reach that phase.