“As I mentioned before, it might take some time for you to master the control of dark magic. But like the basic elements, dark mana can be accessed through emotions. However, unlike them; it requires an object related to it to be properly used. At least for anyone who isn’t a necromancer. Now that you have the Dark Iolite, you have the means to learn how to do it.”
Lucas nodded, just another thing to add to his to do list.
“Since you can’t do that right now, I’ll talk about what you need to do once you’ve managed to learn how to properly control dark mana. I’ll start with the undead,” Faruk said in a very professorial tone. “The undead that necromancers control are basically dead people brought back to life by the powers of dark magic. Simply put, we find an appropriate corpse, one that isn’t too deteriorated, preferably with strong bones, and then proceed to reanimate them using a technique that I’m going to teach you, gaining control over their bodies.”
Lucas listened, thinking that was definitely the most bizarre class he had ever been to, but he didn’t let the weirdness of the situation distract him from listening to Faruk’s teachings.
“The technique is simple enough; the hard part is the execution. That’s why I’m able to teach in such a short amount of time, but if you are able to use it afterwards or not, it is entirely up to you.”
Lucas nodded, it would probably be expecting too much to start using such a powerful technique in a matter of hours after learning how to do it.
“Basically, what you need to do is split your dark mana in two. The larger part stays with you, and the other goes to the corpse. You need to have pretty good mana control for that. Once your dark mana is touching the corpse, you need to make it stick to it. That’s probably the hardest part of the process, as it’s hard to explain how that comes to be. In my experience, it helps to visualize the dark mana as a sticky substance. Once it reaches the corpse nervous system, it sticks there. When that happens, the larger part of the dark mana that is still with you gains some control over the other part, which reanimates the corpse, turning it into an undead. Essentially, it becomes one with the corpse, replacing the lost soul. So, basically, what you’ve placed on the corpse becomes some sort of remote control.”
“How many times can you split your mana like that? Doesn’t it have some bad repercussions?” Lucas asked, intrigued by the technique. When he threw a fireball, it wasn’t mana that he was throwing, but literally a fireball. However, what Faruk was talking about was literally splitting the mana in two, and then controlling the smaller part to do something for him. That sounded crazy.
“Yes, it does. It decreases your overall mana pool. But just like with anything else, you have to consider the costs and benefits. The cost will increase the stronger the undead is too,” he explained, and Lucas thought that it made sense. Making an analogy: a more potent car would naturally require more fuel. “I only managed to have four with me at the time you arrived. Maybe I’ve acquired more afterwards; I don’t know. But it was enough to help me travel on my own without being pushed around by others.”
“Where are they now?”
“Right here,” he said, showing Lucas a ring. It didn’t take long for Lucas to notice that this ring was different from the one he had acquired from his skeleton back in the Dark Forest.
“Is that a spatial ring?” Lucas asked, with an eyebrow raised.
“No. Living things can’t be placed in a spatial ring, and despite the undead not being exactly living beings, they aren’t dead either. This is more commonly known as a pet ring; it can contain living things, usually people’s pets or plants, and it can also contain the undead. Unfortunately, it will be a little hard to gift this to you, but you should find one for sale in one of your city’s stores; it isn’t so rare.”
Lucas nodded in understanding and afterwards was shocked when Faruk presented him with his undead. There were four of them, apparently three men and a woman. Lucas could still see their former characteristics on their faces from when they were alive, despite the flesh being too deteriorated by now, giving them that gruesome aspect one would expect from the undead.
“To control the undead is only the first step; if you want them to become strong, you have to take care of them the proper way. Like us, the undead can level up, and for that, they need to kill. With the level-ups, they will become stronger over time, especially their bones, which are their main weapons. There are other things that can make the undead strong as well, like curses that you can apply to them, poison and many other things. It will all depend on your creativity and resources.”
“Also, the most important thing—their coordination—is entirely dependent on the person controlling them. You’ll find out that it’s pretty hard to control an undead, especially when you are also fighting, let alone four. More experienced necromancers are said to be able to make the undead slightly independent, but I’ve never reached this level,” Faruk said and sighed, shaking his head.
It was obvious that he had spent a long time trying to improve his technique, only to find out that he was already dead.
“Well, there’s a lot more I could teach you, but we are short on time, and we wouldn’t be able to make any significant progress in that regard” the necromancer said, putting the undead back into his ring. “I’ll wait until your staff is ready and you are able to place it in your ring before leaving.”
Lucas nodded, but then he thought of something else, something he had been curious to ask ever since he heard the man mention it.
“Before I start, I would like to know what exactly the Second Chance Program is.”
Faruk seemed taken by surprise by his questioning but promptly answered. “I would be glad to answer your question, but first I need to say that I don’t know much; the majority of what I know is based on mere speculations.”
“Go on,” Lucas replied. Speculations from a man as smart as Faruk had to be better than anything he could come up with on his own anyway. It was at least worth hearing it.
“You probably already know this part, but the system “rescues” people from dying planets and offers them the possibility to join the multiverse through this Second Chance Program.”
Lucas nodded, and the necromancer continued.
“Well, I believe the planet we are transferred to after being rescued is like…” Faruk paused, as if searching for the right word, “a playground.”
“A playground?” Lucas asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Precisely. A place where immigrants from different planets can safely develop and get used to the system before entering the real multiverse. On these planets, we are protected from exterior forces until we are ready to join the real multiverse.”
Lucas nodded. That would explain why they hadn’t received any visitors since arriving or why there wasn’t a way to switch planets as of yet.
“The planets that hold the Second Chance Program are different from the multiverse in several aspects, and one very obvious is the existence of NPCs. The NPCs are there to give us, the immigrants, a proper place to develop. Otherwise, we would have to live in a barren land, and our progress would be much slower.”
Lucas’ eyes brightened at hearing this. He had always wondered what the NPCs meant to be for, considering many of them simply went on with their lives, not participating in any quests as far as he knew.
“So they are like extras, and we are the protagonists,” Lucas suggested, but the necromancer shook his head.
“I’ve spent a lot of time trying to understand the NPCs, and as far as I know, they aren’t so different from us. They have dreams, ambitions, family, needs, desires—everything it takes to be a person. But I suppose you can consider them as extras if you like.”
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“What differentiate the NPCs from the real people, then?” Lucas asked, confused.
“The NPCs have their fates decided from the moment they are born, and even if they want to break free from their destiny, they can’t. We humans, or other sentient species, have a choice—a free will—while they don’t.”
“Like robots, then?” Lucas tried again, but once again Faruk shook his head.
“Robots do as programmed; they don’t question their commands. I’ve seen cases where an NPC was really miserable about what he did, but he still did it anyway, almost subconsciously. And besides, they are made of flesh and bones just like us.”
Lucas thought about the necromancer’s words for a while, and the more he thought, the more he hated the concept he presented.
“I know what you are thinking; it’s natural for us not to like it. We aspire for power, to rise above for whatever reason, but what would that matter if we were an NPC? Isn’t that it?” he asked with a smile.
“Yes,” Lucas agreed.
“You have to understand, the system doesn’t share our morals, nor should it. It’s pointless to think about what something like that has as its principles, if any at all,” Faruk said. “Instead, your energy would be best spent on things you can control. Once you reach the multiverse, who knows? You might have the power to change that reality if you still care about it.”
Lucas didn’t know what to think. He hadn’t gotten too close with the NPCs apart from Hilda, but the very idea of someone being bound by fate irked him. However, the alchemist seemed to be doing fine after Lucas had helped her out, so he decided not to think too much about it for the moment, instead focusing on another thing he wanted to know.
“Why did you say you still had a chance when you found out I was still in the Second Chance Program?”
The necromancer looked at him for a while before replying. “The second chance goes beyond those who were rescued; it entails all beings that managed to be on the planet of a Second Chance Program. But by second chance, it can mean all sorts of different things. I thought this was a chance for me to regain my life and continue my previous efforts, but now I believe it is my second chance at revenge.”
Lucas could hear the profound hatred the necromancer carried in his voice, so he decided to drop the interrogating and focus on his task at hand. Faruk had made it clear for him that he needed to be the one to make the staff, or the system wouldn’t let him place the object in his ring later on, and he was fine with it.
It had been a long time since he crafted a weapon, and he was curious to see how his first staff would turn out. He went deep into the forest, accompanied by Faruk, who kept adding more details to his technique while both searched for the right material to make his staff. With the necromancer’s help, it didn’t take long for Lucas to find what he had been looking for, and he soon began to work on it.
He was almost finished with the staff when Faruk reminded him of his mission. After putting his things away, Lucas jumped on the turtle’s back as Faruk drove him to the spot.
“I feel two souls on the first floor this time. It seems they are prepared against your sneak attacks,” Faruk said when they arrived.
“It won’t be a problem,” Lucas said. “But I might have to kill both of them; is that okay?”
The necromancer had said that in order for Lucas to stay longer on that floor, he should kill his opponents one by one, but it would be a little difficult to do that when two were waiting for him.
“The decision to stay longer on this floor is up to you. You can use this space, where time moves slower to train on dark magic. Or you can finish your objective in one go, and move on to the next floor,” Faruk said, shrugging. “Just make sure you come back after killing those two to finish your staff. There’s a couple of things that I want to do before everything disappears…”
Nodding, Lucas dove right into the dungeon.
There was a man and a woman waiting for him down there, with very ugly expressions on their faces.
Human — lvl 11
Human — lvl 12
“So it’s you that have been killing our men?” the woman who was level 12 asked.
“What if it is?” Lucas asked in return.
“Have you been hired by the king?” It was the man’s turn to speak. “You know he doesn’t hold any power anymore, right? He’s just sending you here to be killed, and you were stupid enough to fall for it,” he said with a laugh, but the woman’s gaze made him stop.
“Right… are we talking or are we fighting? Because I have better things to do,” Lucas said, bored of their shenanigans. He wanted to go back to crafting his staff. The woman’s expression turned grave when he said that.
“I’ll make you regret going against Sultan,” she said, and she went to attack him with a sword. The other warrior who was accompanying her also joined the fight.
Despite Lucas’ talk with the necromancer, on some level, he still felt that these people weren’t actually real. They might have been at some point, but now they were more like echoes from the past. Either way, it was a good opportunity to train his blades and heart. Lucas dodged the woman’s first attack, and soon his glass blades were out, surprising both of them.
“What’s that…” the man spoke, and Lucas took advantage of his surprise to attack him. Lucas moved fast, faster than both of his opponents expected, and soon he was punching the man’s chest, but he was stopped by the woman’s sword that shattered his blade. Lucas took a few steps back, feeling the pain of having his blade broken, and looked at both of them from some distance.
This situation was a little similar to his last training with the Vodyanoy, where he had to face more than one opponent at a time. There were fewer opponents this time around, but they had received training, which made things a little more complicated, but not by much.
Pretending that he was still analyzing them, Lucas conjured a fireball and threw it at the woman, running towards her right after. The woman dodged, as Lucas predicted, and his blades were there to pierce her chest when she did so. She didn’t even have a chance to retaliate, and her body fell limply to the ground.
*You have killed Human – lvl 12. Experience earned.*
Lucas then turned to the man, who had a pretty spooked look on his face. “Ho-how?” he stuttered, but Lucas didn’t reply. The mental effect his companion’s death had over him was great, and he could barely defend himself when Lucas’ blades pierced his neck.
*You have killed Human – lvl 11. Experience earned.*
Lucas sighed, seeing the bodies on the ground. He was still not completely okay with what he was doing. But despite that uneasy sensation, he could feel, to his surprise, that he was slowly getting used to it. Those deaths didn’t weigh on his mind like the previous times, and he didn’t know if he should be happy or scared about it.
When he realized the woman was the biggest threat, he decided to kill her first. Even if he hadn’t test it before, he knew his fireball was much better than the first one he had produced back in the tutorial, simply because his control over mana was much better after his last training in the tower waiting room.
After killing them, he went to check his status with expectancy, and had a nice surprise: his level had finally raised after all that time!
Status:
Lvl: 11
Name: Lucas Romano
Race: Human
Class: Glass Warrior
Health Points (HP): 410/410
Mana Points (MP): 295/310
Stamina: 210/210
Stats:
Strength: 34
Agility: 43
Toughness: 10*
Perception: 26
Vitality: 29*
Magic: 17
Distributable points: 3
Achievements: Special Unique Constitution. Survivor.
Abilities: Beginner Craftsman 1. Disembowelment. Beginner Skinner.
Skills: Flying Axe. Stealth (Common). Death Aura Manipulation (Inferior). Fireball (Inferior). Bone-blade (Unique). Beginner Pugilist (Common).
He thought that his stats were looking pretty decent after the level up, and so he decided to place all his spare points in magic, as it seemed he would be using his mana much more frequently with the addition of the undead to his arsenal later on. Satisfied with his progress, Lucas went back up, and found Faruk shocked expression once again. “How could you defeat two opponents at a higher level than you so fast?”
Lucas smirked. “It’s partially thanks to your money,” he said, and explain to him on the way back how he had used the money he had found on the necromancer ring to practice, leaving out the part about his blades.
“It was wise of you to focus on improving your battle abilities; there will be many weapons to find still, but being able to properly wield them is essential,” Faruk said after a while. He was pretty surprised with the Training Room as Lucas described it to him, but after a while, he commented that it was similar to the arenas he had in his world, though his were way less refined.
After arriving at the spot where they were staying in the forest, Lucas went right back to his crafting. Since he was nearly done before being interrupted, he finished in the next ten minutes, and he looked at the results with a proud expression on his face.
It was true, the material he found was largely responsible for the success of his craft. According to Faruk, not all wood was good for conducting mana, but the one he had found was pretty good, and on top of that, it had a darkened aspect that made it look pretty cool.
On one end of it, a few twigs were sticking out, resembling a gripping claw. That too was pointed by Faruk as a must; it would be the spot where the stone would go. At first, Lucas didn’t understand how the stone wouldn’t fall when placed in that not-too safe spot without any sort of bindings. But as soon as he placed the stone there, the twigs enveloped it, almost like it was their lost sibling, and fixed the rock there. The whole thing was pretty fascinating, and looking at the finished weapon, Lucas felt pretty proud of himself and immediately went to identify it.
Dark Wooden Staff (Common)
A magic staff made with a fine wood with a good level of mana conductivity, combined with a rare dark-affinity stone, making it optimal for the use of dark magic.
Required level to use: 10