Dull murmurs echoed in the dark world without light.

“Hello.”

“....”

“Can you hear me?”

“.........”

“Can you understand me?”

“.......”

The small unintelligible murmurs started to grow with clarity.

[Can you hear me now?]

[.... Who are you?]

[Someone interested in you.]

[What have you done to me? Why can I not see anything but darkness?]

[I borrowed you, and the reason you can't see anything is because your eyes are closed.]

[....]

[No matter how much you struggle you won't be able to open your eyes, just focus on the conversation with me. I'll free you from this soon enough.]

[Are you a magic user!]

[In a way, yes.]

[What do you want from me!]

[Your desires.]

[What!]

[What does your kind long for? For what purpose do you exist?]

[To serve our guardian deity.]

[And what do you ask of this deity?]

[Are you mocking us?]

[Just answer the question.]

[Survival.]

[Survival? Do you lack food? Do you lack safety? Or does your kind seek something more?]

[Our people are weak, our kind is prone to disease, and we die everyday hunting for scraps of food. Our numbers drop by the day. Our ancestors were enslaved, and those that escaped were driven off our native home land. We know very well that we are all a dying race.]

[Has that deity answered your wishes?]

[Do you seek to humiliate us?]

[It's a simple question.]

[..........]

[Silence is also an answer.]

[......]

[Power, do you want it?]

[What?]

[I'm saying if you follow me instead of your god, I'll offer you power.]

[Why me? What proof do you have that you can change our lives?]

[Whether I can or not, will come out eventually, right now I want an answer. Do you, or do you not want power to change your lives?]

[I do!]

[Heh, talking to your soul really makes any creature more honest.]

A brilliant flash of light drowned out the darkness, as I opened my eyes a young human child was staring at me with his domineering aura, and mature eyes that did not belong to a human child.

Two days later.

Acacia stared at the bumbling gremlin sub-species. After the soul communication, Acacia fed, and properly clothed the creature. He could not verbally communicate with it due to the different language used. Therefore he forcefully communicated with it's soul where the language can be converted into something beyond language, that resonated with the souls in order to form a median understanding.

A form of soul magic that Acacia could not actively cast, but can do so manually by drawing magic circles on the ground, and placing his body on one of the two relays to communicate. The creature grunted, and made chattering sounds.

Acacia communicated with him, using the soul bond they now share.

[Come with me, I'll be teaching you the finer points of alchemy, and basic magic.]

For several months, Acacia spartan drilled the floppish creature into what plants to pick, what to be wary of, and how to mix ingredients. He brought the creature into learning magic the way sages follow. However he found the creature incredibly cowardly, and prone to run away from danger. It was only after a few threats did it break down, and endure. Occasionally he would teach Grimlok how to use a knife defensively.

During this period the emotions in Acacia slowly came to a compromise, and his mood grew more tolerant, and mature. His emotions did not reflect his age, but the calm unity of his soul.

Right now Acacia was monitoring the creature sitting down in meditation, in the room of fire.

“Unexpectedly your kind has some affinity with this element.”

A few more months have passed, and the creature was now dubbed by Acacia as a senior alchemist, and it was given a name called Grimlok. He now wore leather armor, a veil to cover his face, goggles given by Acacia, and belts strapped all over his body. He was carrying a wooden casket filled with herbs, and mixtures filled in cheap metal canisters decorated his body. On his waist were a few small knives, used as defensive measures, and could be thrown.

Grimlok walked to where one of the wolves lay, and hurled a canister at it. The canister leaked out a thick gas, that caused the wolf to drop to the ground twitching.

Acacia smiled at the sight, and told Grimlok.

[Showcase what you learned from me, towards your kin, tell them the same message I told you. But if you in anyway betray that trust..]

Silver streams leaked from Acacia's feet, eventually forming a large shallow lake of silver, that emitted a chilling mist.

Grimlok shivered uncontrollably at the ghostly silver lake surrounding him.

[O-of course.]

[I'll give you a week.]

Acacia no longer worried about Grimlok as the figure disappeared in the distance, while making his way back to the tower, he sensed a strange malleable something in the atmosphere. As he walked in the tower he saw flecks of black snow floating in the air, the animals residing on the first floor were covered with strange black patches, and lay dead on the floor.

With a small glare, a magic circle formed beneath his feat, and the image of a silver lake formed. The lake was ethereal, and did not touch physical objects, it resembled a ghost. But the cold mist that floated out started to freeze the black flecks, and turn them into ice particles. Small pieces of icy hail fell down on the floor.

When he went up to the second floor, the colony of pixies staying in that room were all collapsed, and covered in that black substance. Once again Acacia repeated the process of cleansing the room.

“Black death disease spawned by the western region's undead necropolis ruled by the lich king, to think it came so soon, heh..... Heheh..... HAHAHAHA!”

Acacia walked up to the pixies, they were around two feet tall, had pointy ears, small bluish butterfly wings, and were fairly androgynous, while some developed female traits, others developed male traits, even though they reproduced asexually. They looked like short elves, with wings attached to them in a way.

He walked up to the lead pixie slightly larger than the rest. During their stay in the same tower, they had pretty much ignored one another, aside from some playful pixies interacting with him. There was a wordless agreement to tolerate each other.

He didn't perform the soul connection like he did with the gremlin sub species, pixies could understand human language, and had an interesting racial trait in which they could communicate telepathically with all species.

[H-human boy....]

[What happened pixie queen?]

[Human boy, is that you? My eyes cannot see very well anymore...]

[Yes, It's me]

[A strange disease has spread through the forest, and infected my kind, I cannot suppress the decay. Can you please help us?]

[Sadly your kind seems especially weak to this disease, I am afraid I cannot save them.]

[Is that so........]

Acacia watched small tears leaked from her emerald eyes, as she covered in black patches scarring her face, and wings.

[Human you should leave, it might infect you too.]

Acacia merely ignored the warning, and continued a different train of thought.

[I can't save your entire colony, but I can still help you. If you survive, then your colony can be rebuilt.]

[Please...]

[But if I were to do this, I wish you will lend me your aid for my future.]

The pixie queen coughed violently.

[Anything...]

[The verbal contract is accepted.]

Acacia started to draw two large magic circles, with runic symbols that related to the body, and the image of a pixie was carefully drawn out, as well as a list of characteristics on the magic circle. It resembled a pixie spreading out her limbs in a pentagram, with many variable listed on the edges.

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Acacia carried the pixie queen to one very complex magic circle, and the rest of her kind on the other.

[Pixie queen, what type of magic does your kind specialize in?]

[ ...... Light magic.]

Acacia left the room, and climbed hurriedly to the warehouse. There were many types of elixirs, materials, and preserved body parts of mysterious origins. These were the   legacies left from his master.

He grabbed a few bottles, and made his way back into the second floor.

He placed specific items, on specific parts of the magic circle. Near the area the represented the soul he placed an item called the holy amber, a condensed crystal of syrup spawned from the holy tree in a far off Island.

Near the wings he placed an item call monarch dust, said to belong to an immortal butterfly that caused whirlwinds with each flap, and released strange golden spores. Near the body he placed a skull, said to have belonged to a a distant cousin of the pixie called a black kin pixie.

[Pixie queen, I will start.]

Acacia slow poured his mana into the idle magic circle, the pile of pixies started melt away into particles of light, the pixie queen, turned into a giant ball of light, absorbing the other smaller lights. One by one the items that Acacia placed on the magic circle disappeared.

Now a large ball of light, with a mixture of gold, black, and blue colours swirled around in a vortex. Acacia remained perfectly still with his eyes closed, as he slowly poured in his mana.

The process lasted a good hour, Acacia coughed violently throughout the process, and blood leaked from his lips. Finally when it was over he collapsed on the floor, and concentrated on suppressing the black scars tearing open in his body.

After a long struggle Acacia got back up, and watched over the large ball of light, after awhile the ball exploded, and a figure flew out.

The pixie in front of him was now about five feet tall, she had four large butterfly wings coloured in black, and gold. Specks of gold light leaked from every flap of her wings, and a crown of black light floated above her head. Her hair still remained a deep red, but traces of black could be seen. Her child like looks, now looked more mature, and exotically beautiful, and her emerald eyes, had a hint of darkness to them. She now wore an elegant dress made of red, and green petals.

[My apologies pixie queen, it seems the dark attributes of you cousin, overpowered your light attributes.]

[I do not know how you did it, but thank you for saving me, and my kind. As for the contract, I will promise to aid you in whatever you desire.]

[What I desire leads to war, will you be fine with that.]

[As long as I am alive, I can restore my kind, what you desire no longer worries me.]

[Thank you.]

Acacia remembered in one of his lives as a monster researcher, alot of the current species were offspring of more powerful primal species, that diverged into separate weaker branches due to hybrid breeding, and less hostile environments. Hidden in those genes lies ancient bloodlines of mythical creatures. It could be said the missing genes, could be found in other similar creatures to compensate. If one were to theoretically combine the two relateable species, a new species would potentially be born.

[Pixie queen, your kind are no longer simple pixies, it is best I give you, and your kind a new name.]

Strands of light flew from the pixie queen's wings, and attached themselves to Acacia. Acacia lifted an eyebrow.

[You want to form a magical contract with me?]

[Please accept it.]

[I gratefully accept, I hereby name your kind black light pixies, and I will grant you the name, matriarch Lumina.]

[Thank you master.]

Immediately later, she began to spread pollen with her wings to the soil, and started to cast magic on each seed that was magically formed by her pollen.

[How long do you expect them to grow to maturity?]

[My instincts tell me a month.]

[Is there a way to speed up the process?]

[If we manage to get better soil nutrients, more condensed mana, healthy seeds to cultivate into flowers, or if I personally had more magical power, the process can speed up.]

[Roughly how many of your kind can be born?]

[My current limit is ten a week.]

[I see, thank you.]

[It is my pleasure, master.]

Acacia stumbled away with his exhausted body as he calculated the growth rate of the black light pixies. If he wanted a higher growth rate he would need to choose a larger, healthier, and more mana dense area compared to his tower. He would also need to increase Lumina's strength as well.

While leaning against a wall, a telepathic message reached him.

[Tree it is I Grimlok.]

The term Acacia did not exist in Grimlok's vocabulary, so he was called Tree by Grimlok. The reason the sentence structure was legible was because the words translated into the soul auto-corrects itself to the hosts understanding.

[It is terrible! A strange disease has spread to my village, it is said to have reached many other distant tribes, and villages!]

Grimlok rushed in the tower, followed by his kin, among them he could see one dressed fairly well, for a gremlin sub-species anyways. They all talked to each other in what could be described as nails to a chalkboard. Grimlok relayed the message.

[Please help us Tree, we will follow your desires, just save our families!]

Unlike the pixies, the gremlin sub-species were not as vulnerable to the undead disease, but over time they will definitely feel the effects, right now they should feel weaker, and duller. The cure was either a powerful resistance inborn to a race, powerful magic resistance, or a set of herbal mixtures that killed the early symptoms caused by the black death.

[Grimlok, gather all the chieftains of all the villages to meet with me, if they offer themselves to me I will help them. Know that once you all form a magic contract with me, your lives will be tied to mine.]

[But if we don't cure it now...]

[Nice try, but the symptoms are only the early stages. Only animals, and  magical creatures are affected instantly, the lives of your kin are not in immediate danger.]

[But how do we know you can even cure it?]

Acacia glanced at the ten sub-species in his room.

[Have those in this room right now form a contract with me, I will cure them first.]

The creatures talked among themselves, but finally came to a decision.

[Tree, we accept.]

Acacia sent a communication to Lumina who was nearby, she rushed into the room releasing specks of light that covered the creatures. Only Grimlok seemed unaffected since his face was covered.

[Ooops, I am sorry master, my pollen accidentally paralyzed them.]

Acacia couldn't tell if it was an accident or not, but did not care. He had Lumina form a magic contract for him. Then brought out an elixir of his own making, and forcibly had the creatures swallow it. The effects were instantaneous, and the black patches covering their skin disappeared.

He stood in front of the gremlin sub-species.

[Well for now I'll have you follow my orders. Take off your clothes, and take a shower, you guys stink.]

Later that day, Grimlok had left as a messenger for the other villages. Meanwhile, nine of his kind were now dressed in similar brown uniform. Their nose, and mouths were covered in a black cloth soaked in a type of liquid, covering their face like a veil. They each had a small casket made of wood on their backs.

[Well before Grimlok comes back, I'll teach you simple alchemy, and methods for choosing, and collecting plants.]

A wicked smile formed on Acacia's face.

[You guys will no longer call yourselves anything else but alchemists, I hope you are ready to devote your entire lives to this.]

The new alchemists gulped in anxiety.