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Chapter IV

Chapter IV

The sun had just risen as Azrael stood there staring at the mage that was now a bloody, withered corpse. Clasped to his chest in his hands was a thick book. 'Hmm, what's that?' He reached down and pried the thick book from the dead mage's grasp. He opened it up.

On the first page was some weird language Azrael had never seen before. He flipped through some pages and noticed some strange drawings. He even came across a very familiar pentagram. 'Hmmm, I can't read any of this. Guess I'll hang onto it until I can.' Is what he thought as he stored the thick book into his interspatial ring. After doing so, he glanced around the village.

The house that was previously burning from the Infernal Flame was now reduced to nothingness, not even ash remained. 'Wow, that Infernal Flame is amazing. It burnt away even the ashes...Incredible.' He couldn't help but praise the god of death's magic. 'I wonder if I'll ever be able to cast spells of that level on my own...Hmmm, now then, what should I do next? I suppose I need to learn some magic. The mana that the god of death infused into the ring should completely dissipate soon. I'll be defenseless after that.'

Azrael noticed  the skeletons that were created from sacrificing the other caravan members were still standing in ranks unmoving. He approached them and looked them over. 'Hmm, why aren't they moving? Before it seemed like those mages were giving orders to them. Can I do it too?' Looking at the thirty-nine skeletons that were standing in ranks, Azrael called out, “Form a line!”

Nothing happened. He tried to command them again, “Obey me and move over there!” Once again nothing happened. 'Huh. Odd. Maybe there's some magic I need to learn in order to command them.' He shrugged then walked over to the corpses of the two charred mages. He inspected their bodies but didn't find anything useful. Next to their bodies were their staves. He picked one up and gave it a closer look. 'Just a wooden staff, why were they using these?'

Azrael knew nothing of magic or how mages used it. He had only seen some mages that were adventurers or travelers that passed through his village. He tossed the staff back to the ground. 'Well, guess I'll find a place to call my own for the time being and check what's in this interspatial ring.'

He looked around and chose one of the inner houses of the village at random and went over to it. He opened the door, 'It was unlocked, based on the state of these houses, I'd say those mages must have sacrificed the villagers some time ago.' He closed the door behind him as he entered. Walking into the house, there was a simple wooden table and two wooden chairs. Behind them was the kitchen, where a pit for an open fire was located.

'This must be the living room.' He thought to himself. He looked around and noticed there were two windows along with another door that was to his left. He went over and opened it. Inside was a plain room, with a single bed and window. At the foot of the bed there was a trunk to store things in. Across from it was a slightly tarnished mirror. 'This house will do.' Azrael was satisfied with this house; before he started to learn magic though, there was still one thing he had to do.

Azrael was extremely curious about what he had become. He walked up to the mirror and looked at his reflection. Currently he was wearing a black hooded robe. His face was completely obscured by darkness. 'Hmm, well here goes nothing.' He thought as he pulled back his hood.

When he saw his reflection he was slightly startled. “E-eh! That's...me?” He uttered out. Looking back at him from the mirror was a grey skull with two vivid purple orbs of light where his eyes should be. He turned his head to the left and right checking each angle. 'I suppose it could be worse. At least I'm alive now...er I guess technically I'm undead now? Haha well whatever.' He was rather relaxed now though compared to before his transformation.

He looked down and noticed the robe covered his entire body. “Hmm” he took off his robe and stared in the mirror. “Hmm, I look pretty ghastly...haha.” He looked over his whole body in the mirror. “This is odd. How do I talk? I don't have any vocal cords. Huh, what about my eyes? Are these orbs of light my eyes?” As he muttered to himself, he lifted his hand and covered the left orb of light. When he did so he couldn't see from his left eye anymore. 'Yep, guess these are my eyes. Haha, I like them. They're a good color.'

Removing his hand from covering the orb of light, he tried closing his right eye. As he did so the orb of light vanished and all that remained was the dark eye socket. 'Alright, so they disappear when I close my eyes. Well I guess I don't really have eyes to close anymore. Haha.' He pondered as he observed his reflection. The skeleton in the mirror was 1.8 meters tall. It was grey in color with two small vivid purple colored orbs of light for eyes. 'Well I suppose I won't have to eat or sleep. This could be a pretty amazing blessing.' He thought as he admired his reflection. “Hmm, I'm even pretty calm. Is this the benefits of being undead?”

'Well enough of this, I need to start learning how to use magic. Now that I'm undead, most likely everyone I meet will want to destroy me.' He thought to himself as he picked up his robe. He looked at the robe in his hand, “Hmm, I suppose technically I'm naked right now. Eh, might as well.” He put the robe back on and walked into the other room with the table.

He ambled over to the table and sat down on the chair that was facing the door. 'Alright. Time to check what's in this ring.' Closing his eyes, he focused on the ring and guided his soul into it. Doing so he was able to see all of the ring's contents. 'Wow, there's so many things. Let's see...Novice guides to every element. Intermediate, Adept, Advanced, Expert, Master and even Grand-Master guides? So those must be the different ranks for mages?Hmm...What's this?'

Inside of the ring there were countless scrolls, books, tomes and many other items. Currently he was looking at one tome in particular. Unlike the others that were labeled as guides this one was slightly different. This tome was rather thin, it had maybe twenty to thirty pages and it's front cover was blank. 'Hmm interesting.' He thought.

He then focused on this tome and one other. They both appeared in front of him right above the table. They then dropped down onto it creating a loud slam and causing the table to shake. 'Hmm, I'll need to get the hang of this a little more. I'll have to practice so I can make items appear exactly where I want them to.' He pulled the tomes towards him. He chose the thicker one first. On the front cover of the tome it read: Novices' Guide to Fire Magic. “Fire Magic huh?” He uttered as he read the title.

Azrael turned to the first page and on it was the exact same as the cover. Thus, he flipped to the second page. This page explained how mana worked and had the description of the method to sense mana in the environment. It then went on to explain how to absorb that mana into one's own body to allow it to be used by them.

Having read it all, he decided to give sensing mana a try. Sitting on the chair at the table, he closed his eyes and attempted to sense the mana in the environment. One breath of time passed, then two, three, four and when the fifth breath of time passed, he suddenly opened his eyes. 'Wow. I can't believe it. The tome said that on one's first try it could take any where from half an hour or more in order to even feel traces of mana in the environment. Yet, I was able to feel mana almost immediately. Is it because I'm undead?...Wait, the god of death said that I would have the potential to reach unimaginable heights...maybe this has something to do with that?'

Once he finished his thoughts he looked at the tome again and read about the process of absorbing mana. Surprisingly it was rather simple, all you would have to do, was enter into a meditative state and compel the mana around yourself to enter your body. It also stated that the easiest way to do so, was to picture something in your mind that represented an empty object being filled and completely focus on it. This would then assist your body in absorbing the mana as it would influence it unconsciously.

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He closed his eyes again and calmed his mind which happened almost instantaneously. In his mind he pictured an empty bucket being filled with water. Almost as soon as he imagined it, he suddenly felt the surrounding mana start to swirl around himself. After which it flowed directly towards him and started to flood into his rib-cage. As it did so he started to feel a warm sensation swell up from inside of him.

“Incredible” he uttered out. As soon as he did so, the feeling disappeared. “Eh?” He was surprised for a moment before realization struck him. 'Ahh, right, I left the meditative state so the process stopped.' Although the process had stopped he still felt a little different before. He felt like he was refreshed and had extra energy. 'Meditation is amazing' he thought to himself before re-entering into a meditative state.

Azrael remained seated in that chair meditating until the afternoon came. “Wow, I feel so full of energy, this is ridiculous. Is this how mages feel all the time?” He mumbled to himself as he awoke from his meditation. He got up and walked to one of the windows. Looking outside he said, “It's noon already?” As he was looking outside he could see the skeletons were still standing there in ranks. He shook his head then returned to his seat. 'Alright, so I can meditate now. I think this body assists me with it. The tome said that for beginners it should take much more time than it took me. My body is definitely aiding me.' He pushed the Novices' Guide to Fire Magic on the table aside and pulled the thin tome towards him.

He examined the tome, flipping it over to check the back of it as well. 'Hmm, nothing. It's entirely blank.' He thought to himself. Flipping it back to it's front, he opened it up. The moment he opened it, a black colored mist seeped out from the tome and engulfed him. After a few moments passed the mist was sucked back into the tome.

Azrael was still sitting there unfazed. “Just...what was that?” He looked down and examined himself, noticing there wasn't a change and that he felt just fine, he shrugged it off. He looked back to the tome and checked the first page. When he saw what was on it he was slightly confused. There were various purple colored glowing runes on the page. He was curious as to what these were.

He flipped to the second page and saw more runes, except these ones weren't glowing. 'Huh, I wonder if...' Thinking to there, he flipped back to the first page and ran his finger across the runes. As he did so a violet light erupted from the runes. The light only lasted for a second before it faded. Once it had completely vanished Azrael let out a surprised gasp. 'This...it directly transferred knowledge to my mind...this...'

The god of death had thought that it would take too long for an ordinary human to learn certain magics on their own. Thus he created this tome specifically for Azrael. In it there were 27 pages. Each page except the first contained a single spell in the format of runes. In these runes the god of death infused some of his mana along with the knowledge of the spell.

Once Azrael reached a certain strength or stage, the runes would glow indicating that he was ready to acquire the spell and knowledge. This first page of runes Azrael had touched, transmitted the knowledge of two spells directly into his mind. These two spells were called Soul Drain and Life Drain. The knowledge of the spells Azrael received, told him what they did and how to use them.

Soul Drain was a spell that once cast, would need to be continuously channeled in order to have an effect. If the you didn't maintain the spell once it was cast, then it would immediately cease its effect. Soul Drain would assault an individual's soul. It would steadily drain it away, damaging it in the process and transfer some of it to the caster of the spell. If it was maintained long enough, it could even completely drain an enemy's soul away rendering them dead. In Azrael's case, draining an individual's soul would strengthen his own soul and heal any damage his soul had taken.

Life Drain had the same requirements for casting in that once it was cast, it would need to be continuously channeled. This spell would drain the life force from a person and transfer it to the caster healing any wounds. If there were no wounds, it would instead bolster the caster's life force. This spell was also capable of taking an enemy's life if it was channeled for a long enough time. In Azrael's case, this spell would take the enemy's life force and convert it in to negative energy. It would then transfer this negative energy to Azrael. Any damage he had sustained would immediately be repaired and if he hadn't taken any damage then it would instead increase his body's durability slightly.

'Th-this is incredible! I can't believe the god of death did this. I'll need to thank him if I ever talk to him again.' Azrael was ecstatic, these two spells would allow him to be able to defend himself somewhat should he be attacked and if his soul or body were damaged, these spells allowed him to heal himself. 'This is great. Now I have at least some self-preservation abilities. Now I don't need to be in a blind rush to learn magic to defend myself.' He thought for a moment but then shook his head.

'No, I shouldn't be so conceited. These two spells could be considered strong but they have a serious disadvantage. I would need to continuously focus on them in order to keep them active. It would be best if I learn some other magic as well, as soon as I can.' Azrael turned his attention back to the tome that was in front of him. The previously glowing runes had now stopped glowing. 'Hmm, guess I can only use them once?' He flipped through the other pages of the tome to see if there were any other runes glowing. Unfortunately there were none. He stored the thin tome back into the interspatial ring and then grabbed the Novices' Guide to Fire Magic.

He flipped open the tome and continued to read where he had left off on the second page. A quarter of an hour passed and he managed to read a decent amount of pages. The pages that he read gave a basic explanation on magic. Thanks to this he had now gained a basic understanding of magic and mana. What he learned was everything that had a soul, had mana. The total amount of mana an individual had access to was referred to as a mana pool. The total capacity of the mana pool could be increased by a few methods.

Method one was to strengthen the soul. Method two was to continuously use all mana that you had and then replenish it. This would function similar to the way in which humans build muscles. By applying a load of stress greater than what your body or in this case mana pool had previously adapted to, would end up stimulating growth. Thus, the mana pool would increase. Method three was to meditate for long periods of time.

If one meditated enough they would begin to take in more mana than they have and forcefully expand their mana pool. This method is somewhat painful, but if you can endure, it is a surefire way to increase your mana pool's capacity. Method four was to use external sources. As in special medicines or treasures that boosted the size of an individual's mana pool. There were also enchantments that could increase the size of a mana pool, but these were uncommon.

He also learned that mana fueled spells and mana could be replenished by taking in the mana from the environment through meditation. According to the tome, that feeling he had earlier where he felt as if he was full of energy was actually just the feeling of his mana pool being full. The final thing he learned was that in order to cast a spell an individual would need to say a chant followed by the spells name.

The chant was supplementary. It would stabilize the mana required for the spell and using a chant made some spells easier to be cast. Each magic element had a staple chant. All though there are chants, there are some mages who do not use chants. This is known as Chant-less magic. 'Wait...strengthen the soul to increase your mana pool? Then...Soul Drain will strengthen my soul...so if I use it, I'll end up increasing my mana pool? Amazing, I really need to thank the god of death.' He was pretty happy to have learned all this. Before he knew absolutely nothing about magic, but at least now he has a basic understanding.