Thorin woke up, his head hurt like hell and he felt nauseous. It was like a hangover but much worse. He leaned over to the side and threw up. He looked around and found himself in a small cave. It was quite large, enough room to hold fifty people. There was a small puddle with water from the ceiling, which made the cave damp and musty.

Thorin noticed his three crimson skeletons standing a bit away and Cynar floating over to him.

“About time you woke up.” Cynar said.

“Wish I didn't. What the hell happened to me?” Thorin said trying to clear his head.

“I learned what happens from Roland. You have mana sickness from trying to create two crimson skeletons. You burned all of your mana and injured your mana pool by casting an incomplete spell. You could have completely destroyed your mana pool leaving you magically crippled. What were you thinking?” Cynar badgered.

Thorin looked into eternally and saw that his mana pool was empty. Mana from the world was sucked

in, but disappeared through the fractures.

“Wait, I should have had enough mana though. Why did the spell use more than it needed?” Thorin said defending himself.

“You were an idiot and broke one of  the necromancers important rules. Never cast without the proper materials. If you don't you will burn extra mana and use your own body instead.” Cynar said continuing the lecture.

“I had my skeleton and the corpse though it should have worked.” Thorin said as he stood up swaying.

“You said the spell uses blood to empower the skeleton. When you attempted to cast the spell without the proper amount of blood, you used up the rest of your mana. Eventually you ran out of mana and the spell used your blood to fuel the spell.” Cynar explained pointing to the gash in Thorin's arm.

It was caked with dirt and dried blood. A leak of blood continued to flow out steadily. He willed out his med kit and began to clean up the wound.

“You were lucky I remember a colleague of mine once tried to create a skeleton with low mana and didn't realize it was missing a foot. The spell forcefully rip his off as a substitute. He earned him the nickname peg leg.” Cynar said chuckling, before becoming somber.

“But he is dead now and you would have been to if I didn't use small amount of mana I painstakingly gathered to shock you awake. You were completely defenseless and your mistake costed you the majority of your forces!” Cynar yelled his grief changing to anger.

“Alright, I am sorry. I was an idiot and passed out due to not having enough blood for the spell. I was just excited by the prospects of this new spell and wasn't thinking straight.” Thorin said feeling ashamed.

Cynar sighed and and floated next to Thorin.

“I should have taken more time with you learning about the spell before letting you use it without safety precautions. I was just as excited as you were about the creation of an entirely new spell. I should have warned you and made you test it first.” Cynar said taking some of the blame.

“No it's my fault I have been treating this way too casual. I have been going about all of this like it's some sort of game. I can't continue to make mistakes like this.” Thorin said in a steady voice.

Thorin felt determined, he wasn't just out here to test out his new spells. If he died he wouldn’t just be dead, but all of the villagers would die.

“Alright enough wallowing we need to figure

out what to do next.” Thorin stated standing up and moving to leave the tunnel, while stumbling slightly.

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“Not so fast, you aren't going anywhere before you recover. Why are you still trying to fight the goblins. The town can fight for itself.”Cynar said blocking Thorin's way.

“No! I will not have the first place I have been met and treated well be destroyed.” Thorin said moving through the shade who was dissipated before forming again.

“Stop for a second and think. Going out there in your condition is a death wish. At least wait to recover. You can send out your crimson skeletons to slow down and harass the goblin army while you rest.” Cynar said trying to calm Thorin down.

Thorin struggled to walk the short distance to the exit of the cave. He felt a wave of dizziness and fell to the ground.

“How long will I be out like this? How long must I wait.” Cynar said sitting up and bang his head in defeat.

“You just need to wait until the cracks in your mana pool are gone. If you try to cast any spells before it is repaired it would be catastrophic.” Cynar said floating to Thorin's side.

Alright I'll wait, but I want you to figure out how the goblins knew we attacked their groups. We hid the traces of our previous battles and didn't let anyone escape. So how did they know we were there?” Thorin said trying to figure out where he made a mistake.

“I don't know we hid the traces of the other battles and made sure none of the goblins escaped. Perhaps they just noticed the missing scout groups and sent forces to the remaining two.” Cynar said while shrugging his shoulders.

“I still feel like they wouldn't have noticed so soon it was only a day with them missing.” Thorin said while shaking his head.

“Either way I will figure it out and keep track of their movements you stay here and recover.” Cynar said as he began to glide out of the cave.

With Cynar leaving Thorin turned his attention to the three crimson skeletons on the other side of cave.

Opting to avoid conversation due to his head ache. Thorin just mentally commanded them their assignments. Lauros would begin to hunt and kill Goblins who strayed from the army while Roland would come along to carry their corpses back. Hopefully he be able to gain back some of the normal skeletons lost using these corpses. The new crimson skeleton would stay here at the cave to protect him while he mediated.

While giving out orders Thorin realized he didn't get a chance to name the third skeleton and called him over.

“Your name shall be Talon the protector. Do your job well.” Thorin proclaimed while taking one of his two wooden shields from his inventory to give to Talon.

“Of course my Lord.” Talon responded while taking the shield.

Finishing everything he wanted to do Thorin dismissed the skeletons who turned to leave.

Roland and Lauros left the cave while Talon stopped at the entrance alert for enemies.

With a sigh Thorin took out his bedroll and laid it on the stony group. He say in the middle and began to breathe in a slow rhythm while letting his mind clear.

It took a while due to the headache and nausea, but eventually Thorin found the state of mind that allowed him to meld with the world and absorb its mana. He felt like a black hole sucking in all of the surrounding mana. A small wind current flowed through the cave and pulled at his hair and clothes. The mana was absorbed into his body and filled his mana pool. For a second he thought that everything was fine before all of the aculated mana started to leak out.

Not knowing what else to do Thorin once again absorbed large amounts of mana, before watching it all trickle away through the holes in his mana pool.  

‘This is going to be a while’ He thought while groaning internally.

Name:  Thorin Black      Class: Necromancer Lv 9 65/90 XP Health  130/260 Mana 5/1560 Stats:       Strength: 28 Vitality: 26 Stamina: 16 Endurance: 9 Intelligence: 56 Willpower: 68 Agility: 12 Dexterity: 11

Skills   Summon Familar Rank S Skeletal Fusion Rank C Life Siphon Rank D Summon Skeleton Rank D Blood Lust Rank D

    Talents   Affinity with Death Dimensional Storage Head Start Magic Reserves Strong Soul  Blood Lord

Thorin's Forces   Skeleton 0 Crimson Skeleton 3