Milo and The Horde marched out in front of me while Vaeda flew above. The big guy was serving his duty as a bodyguard and staying close to me in case of any sudden attacks. We decided to continue to hunt the Draugrs since they’d give more experience than the Skeletal Grunts and Zombie Grunts from before.

We ended up walking for about thirty minutes before we finally found a Knight to fight. We made quick work of it but a problem had arisen during the fight. Both Milo and I were ordering the undead which made them pause and since my orders trumped his they would eventually listen to me and that almost led to us losing The Horde. Vaeda suggested to us to let Milo control The Horde while I focus on providing magical support. Once that happened we fell into a routine and we swept the surrounding area of the mansion of all enemies. We stayed clear of the mini-boss’ mausoleum by about a mile just to be safe. It would get its comeuppance but not yet, not until I was strong enough to demand my pound of flesh.

Luckily for me since Milo is considered one of my minions any kills feed me a little bit of experience as well. When the fifth Draugr fell and the golden light faded from Milo for the fifth time he looked at me and spoke.

“My lord, I’ve done it. I’ve reached level 5 and I can finally pick a class. I have three options; Warrior, Leader, and Commander. Warrior and Leader are both just common classes, while Commander is uncommon. What do you think I should select? As my life is now yours it only seems right for you to pick for me.”

“Well uncommon is clearly better than common, what are the stat bonuses it gives?” I asked.

“It gives me +3 to both Wisdom and Perception every level.”

“Wait why are your class bonuses less than mine? That seems weird.”

“Well, Greg that's because of your class being an Exotic class. The higher the rarity of a class the more stat bonuses it gives. Common classes give four, uncommon give six, rare give eight, exotic give ten while mythic and legendary give twelve and fourteen respectively” Vaeda chimed in.

Shit almost forgot Vaeda was here.

“In that case Milo you should pick Commander and tell us what kind of skills it gives you”.

Milo selected commander and then the changes began. Where before he just looked like another one of my undead grunts now Milo looked sharper and had an air of authority to him, that hadn’t seemed to be there before. He also appeared slightly taller to me but that could have been my imagination.

Wow, that looked cool as hell, shame I passed out when I picked my class.

Milo looked at me and saluted the golden irises burning brightly within the darkness of his eyes.

“My lord, I have received the skills; Rally, Telepathic Command, and Pierce. Rally is a buffing skill that provides increased attack and defense for anyone that is considered under my command. Telepathic Command allows is a passive that lets me issue commands to anyone I’m in charge of. Finally, Pierce is an attacking skill that provides allows me to use mana to empower my next attack that pierces. I really think that the best-”

I stopped him before he could ramble on.

“That’s enough Milo I trust your judgment on your skills. Feel free to distribute your stats as you see fit, I’m not interested in micromanaging my allies. Unless something really strange happens to your class, level, or skills I will leave it all to your discretion.”

“Thank you for the trust mas- I mean My Lord.”

When we got back to the mansion I realized I hadn’t even gained a level from the five undead we killed, while Milo gained five.

Ah, the bliss of being a lower level.

I wanted to practice some ideas I had been thinking about so I told Milo to take The Horde out to the zombie and skeleton area and try to sweep up the stragglers for some easy experience. I decided I would stay at the mansion practicing my skills and magic with Vaeda to keep an eye on the surroundings and the big guy to protect me. Milo set off with The Horde and I was finally alone. I sat on the floor crosslegged and began to think about what I wanted to accomplish.

The skill I wanted to experiment with the most was obviously Frost Shard, my sole form of attack now that I was unable to really fight close ranged anymore. I could tell I wasn’t using my huge control stat for anything other than controlling my minions. From the description of the stat, it should help me be more precise with my skills but I wasn’t taking advantage of it. So first things first I tried summoning a Frost Shard and holding it there in the air without firing it. It took a couple of tries and a couple of holes in the ceiling later I had managed to have one just hover and I found it didn’t cost me any mana to just have it hover above my palm. It seemed like the only cost was used to form it and then it just existed without needing further mana. I sat there and just stared at it, trying to get a better idea of what the skill was. From the knowledge I had gained when I picked the skill, I knew that the skill was formed by using mana to cool an area down very quickly turning the surrounding water molecules inert and creating solid ice.

Now, what does knowing that do for me? I don’t know enough about chemistry to change the skill in terms of temperature or anything like that. But what I do have is creativity. I’ve always had a very active imagination from reading so much growing up.

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The shard continued to spin in my palm and I began feeling how cold it truly was. I knew if I touched this shard it would hurt. This thing was freezing cold no wonder getting hit with it could freeze the afflicted area. I kept staring at the crystal-like structure and inspiration came to me.

What if I changed its shape? I could make it sharper so it pierces more easily. I could make it jagged so if it does go through an enemy it rips out pieces of flesh on its way out.

Ideas were spinning in my head. I began tugging at the mana in my core and trying to coax it towards my left hand. No matter what I did it would not work. What was missing? I know for a fact that my core is where mana comes from because I can feel it leave the core when I use a skill. I closed my eyes and focusses inwards visualizing my core. From my core, I could see strands snaking away in multiple directions. I recognized these strands as the connections I had to my minions. I could count all thirteen skinny strands connecting me to The Horde and then I noticed a slightly bigger strand that looked braided flowing from me to Vaeda. It was a much stronger strand than that of me and my minions probably due to him being my oldest minion and my familiar. Then there was a very large strand snaking off of me to the big guy. It was easily four times the size of my connection to Vaeda but it somehow didn’t look as strong. It must be so big due to how much mana the big guy requires.

I began to gather the mana present in my core and tried recreating one of those threads I saw attached to my minions. It took several tries and a couple of hours but I finally accomplished it and was rewarded with a skill.

Congratulations to Host for discovering skill Mana Manipulation.

Mana Manipulation Rare Active Allows the host to manipulate their mana. It has infinite possibilities. Cost: Varies

As soon as I gained that skill it became so much easier to manipulate my mana. I created a thread of mana and carried it from my core all the way to the palm of my hand. From there I began to use the mana I gathered in my hand to start shaping the Frost Shard. At first, it was quite difficult but once I got the hang of it began to be able to truly control the ice comprising the skill. My Control stat was no joke. I was creating complex shapes after thirty minutes. I kept practicing and refining the shard making it sharper and sharper till the tip was almost like a thicker needle. Then I began pulling the end out and looping it back creating small jagged hooks at the end of the shard. Now if this hit something the tip would shoot through it quickly freezing the wound as it penetrated and the hooks at the back would rip the flesh from the wound. I kept refining it and then I realized I had done this for almost nothing. No enemy was going to give me the time to create this in a fight. Then a blue screen appeared.

Congratulations Host has created a new Frost Shard form. Would Host like to make this the default form of Frost Shard?

Warning new form of skill will cost more mana for the skill to be cast.

“Hell yeah I do” I exclaimed

That was so much easier than I thought it would be. I was afraid I’d have to figure out a way to create that on the go. But this is significantly better.

I experimented with creating a new Frost Shard and sure enough, as soon as I said Frost Shard my new and improved shard appeared and began spinning in front of me.

God magic is SO FUCKING COOL.

I noticed the skill had gone up to 15 mana per cast and also gained 2 skill levels. I called Vaeda over and showed him the new skill. He seemed quite impressed in it as well as the fact I had acquired Mana Manipulation. He told me that many people don’t get Mana Manipulation until they’ve been exposed to the system for a while. My stomach started grumbling so I sent Vaeda out to find food. He came back after 20 minutes with a small bird in his claws and the news that Milo and The Horde were on their way back. I started a fire in the courtyard and waited with the big guy and Vaeda for Milo to get back and report on his day.

Milo came back and sat down by the fire with us as I slowly cooked the bird. The Horde and the big guy all stood around us in a circle ready for the first sign of danger.

“Hello My Lord, I’m ready to report.”

Sigh “Alright report Milo.”

“I have gained 5 more levels after hunting all day. We vanquished around 30 of the undead in the area you sent me to. Also, forgive me for asking My Lord but are those my elemental crystals?”

“Mhmm why you want them back or something?”

“No, I would never be so bold sir. I was just being curious. What's mine is yours My Lord.” He said nervously.

“Milo RELAX. We’re on the same team now and I don’t want any weirdness between us. If we’re all going to make it out of here alive - errr - safely that is then we need to be in sync. If you ever have something to say to me just say it. I’m not so arrogant I would dismiss the concerns of others.”

Milo seemed to visibly relax after I said that. I didn’t realize how tightly wound he had been. God how bad were the people before me that he served? After that, we continued talking about our various days and what we did. Milo also thought my new skills were impressive. We chatted for a little bit longer before Vaeda and I decided to hit the hay so to speak. Milo said he didn’t need sleep since he was undead so he would just be practicing his new skills while we slept. I bid him good luck and then promptly passed out.