Chương 32: Chapter 28 - Final Magical Experiments

We woulda lost the war right then and there if it weren't for a few things. First, the [Demon Lord] was too much of a coward to face off 'gainst the [Hero]. That meant we always had at least one front winnin'. Add in the Demon Slayer and that made two. Two battlelines ain't much, but it was 'nuff to keep the hope… and also 'nuff to make room for some unconventional allies if ya can even call 'em that. A [Retired Soldier's] account of the war

"{Raise Zombie}," I intoned as I looked over a pile of slain undead.

"No, not quite right," I muttered. One of the zombies got back up, unfortunately not due to my failed spell. A quick slash with Herobane restored some SP as it fell back to the ground, defeated once more. Maybe if I go with something like…

"{Raise Zombie}!" I tried again.

"Still not it," I grumbled as I quickly slew a pack of zombies that were coming up behind me.

"Maybe I should just practice with [Death Bolt]?" That was at least progress, as said zombie immediately got back to its feet, but not as much progress as I had hoped since the zombie was still hostile.

"I really should have paid more attention to what Tim and Cameron did with their death magic," I frowned as I cut down the zombie again, and this time, its head came off. At least that isn't the only school I can practice here. I thought as I fired off a [Cure] at the next unlucky undead that tried to attack me. Despite my relatively low level in that school of magic, it still instantly evaporated. I get a distinct impression that my healing magic will level faster if I use it offensively.

I thought with a shake of my head. Maybe that's just because I can't see myself as any form of healer.

"And all this would be easier if zombies had mana I could steal," I grumbled. Either way, I continued murdering zombies over and over as I tried to work out death magic. Then, I eventually got bored and decided to take a quick break to check my skill levels since I never did see what I gained from the fight with the angels.

Skill Type Level Reflect Attack Active DEMON LORD Disrupt Active DEMON LORD Martial Arts – Way of the Adaptable Fist Passive 8 Flash Step Active 8 Elemental Strike Active 7 Athletics Passive 7 Sneak Toggle 6 Pack Mule Passive 9 The standard skills. I thought as I looked them over. None of those are likely to move ever again, even with more experience gain. At least, that was what I thought until I saw the last entry. My eye twitched.

"I know that it's helpful for carrying magicite chunks," I muttered.

"But did I have to gain another level in [Pack Mule]?" I absentmindedly cut down a few more zombies and continued looking at my levels. Detect Passive 3 Survivor Passive 4 Temporus Passive 10 Spatius Passive 7 Swordsmanship Passive 4 Cast From SP Toggle 7"Hey, [Swordsmanship] got a level," I said as I scrolled.

"Nice, I was worried I was capped at 3 for that. Oh, and wasn't [Cast From SP] at 6 before?"

"Fire, strike my foes. [Fire Bolt]," I cast at an unsuspecting zombie, and it burst into flames and flailed.

"1. 5 cost multiplier instead of 1. 75." I nodded.

"Not bad. Not bad at all." I moved on to the next row. Electricus Passive 8"I'm at 8 for [Electricus]? Huh. Thought I was capped on that one. That's good news." It was good for two reasons. One, I really enjoyed electric magic, drawbacks notwithstanding. Two, the more levels I pumped into [Electricus], the fewer I needed in [Magnetismus] to get [ElectroMagnus], and I was still struggling to make just about anything with [Magnetismus]. Well, anything except for one spell that was saving me trips to an [Alchemist].

"[Lure Monsters]," I cast while I was thinking about it. To keep on my schedule, I pretty much needed to be in constant combat for the remaining 35 years, though I was already seeing the benefits of my new perks, even just in the next few skills. Overchannel Active 5 Ignis Passive 6 Frigis Passive 4 Aeris Passive 5 Terris Passive 6"Wish [Overchannel] counted as a spell school so it wasn't stuck at 5," I muttered.

"Oh well, other elementals looking good. Ice could use a bit more work, though." That's why, as I heard the next group of shambling monsters, I directed an [Ice Shards] in their direction instead of one of my other spells. One of them survived because it wasn't a run-of-the-mill zombie. No, it was a monstrosity. A flesh horror. A high-level monster that could kill dozens of low-level [Soldiers] by itself without breaking a sweat. And I still didn't need to pay it any mind. What next?

I thought as I easily dodged its swings, even with a stat window in the way. Spell Scholar – Temporus Passive 5 Communicatio Passive 6 Deprendio Passive 6 SpatialTemporus Passive 8 Obscurio Passive 6 Discernerio Passive 2 Some minor gains there, still need to practice my… whatever the opposite of [Communicatio] skill is. I blasted the [Flesh Horror] with an [Overchannelled] [Ice Bolt] and then followed it up with a wordless cast [Cure].

It tried to tackle me, or maybe it tripped and fell in my direction, I couldn't really be sure. Either way, I just cast a quick [Strengthen] and shoved the abomination off me. Animae Passive 4 One level from offensive healing magic already. I thought as I finished the monster off with Herobane to regain some of the stamina I'd spent killing it. So, coming here was the right choice even if I don't figure out death magic. I sighed.

"I really do need to figure it out, though. [Mortae] is important." There were a few reasons for that. First, it was another magic skill, and my biggest goal was to grind all of those as much as possible. Second, it was another way that I could balance the never-ending war to keep it going. The undead were their own faction, so if I could control them, I could use them to stymie the advance of my demon army. The demon army is definitely too strong for Placeholder in general.

I thought, my mind caught on that brief tangent. It doesn't need supplies, rest, or shelter. Its units respawn after they die. It doesn't have a home base that it has to defend unless you count the portal which… I guess that could kinda work if you pointed some ballista at the entrance or something? And then I remembered another reason it was so strong. And most importantly, its leaders are the strongest combatants, so you can't just try to assassinate the leader.

That was doubly true once I took full charge of the army. I snorted, imagining Gram trying to assassinate me.

"For leadership, even the undead have- oh, there it is," I muttered as the flesh from the zombies on the ground slowly combined into a heart of undeath. I gagged a bit. Still just as gross, no matter how many times I see it. I shook my head and returned to my stats as the boss formed. Evalescae Passive 5 Remolliae Passive 5 Temperis Passive 2 Stabilitis Passive 1 Modulae Passive 1 That's… buff magic, debuff magic, fire/ice, earth/wind, and… What the frick is [Modulae]? I asked.

"Ooohh," I stated as the heart finished forming, and all the undead around me suddenly roared back to their facsimile of life.

"That's buff/debuff. Huh. Weird name, maybe it means that I'm… modulating people's stats or something?" Either way, it turned out that buffing an entire demon army and debuffing a full angelic one had been excellent for experience. I went from barely having [Evalescae] and not having [Remolliae] all the way to unlocking the 2 nd tier skill.

"I have all the tier 1 skills at 5 except for [Frigis], [Animae], [Mortae], [Magnetismus], and… whatever the anti-communication one is," I said as a horde of zombies shambled in my direction.

"At least I can work on the first three," I stated as I closed out of my window. I started off with an [Ice Shards] that pelted the enemy with a slew of tiny ice lances and followed up with an [Ice Bolt]. Then, for kicks, I shot the lead zombie in the chest with a [Death Bolt]. It staggered back and then cocked its head at me as some of its flesh seemed to nit back together.

"Oh, that heals zombies," I muttered.

"Makes sense." Then, after thinking a moment.

"Eh, I practice my healing magic by hurting them. Why not practice death magic healing them?" A day-long magic practice session followed as I fought the constantly respawning horde of zombies. I practiced ice spells, healing spells, [Death Bolt], and even got [Raise Zombie] working once I figured out what I was doing wrong. Meanwhile, my spells were all paid for by the stamina of the zombies that I continuously slew. It was a never-ending battle, and it was sure to be good experience… but it was also boring.

It was not an exaggeration to say that I could "rest" during most of it. So, that's when I started experimenting. First up on the chopping block was ice magic. I figured it needed one more solid push to hit level 5, and I couldn't think of a better method than creating a new spell while in combat. Let's see. I thought as I fought a flesh horror that the heart had created in desperation an hour earlier. In the same vein of taking a spell and scaling it up there's [Air Bolt], [Air Cutter], and [Hurricane].

So, [Ice Bolt], [Ice Shards], and… I knew what I had to make. Unfortunately, despite my literal centuries of experience, it wasn't quite the case that I could just snap my fingers and manifest a new tier 3 spell. No, it took time, trial and error, and I even retreated into the MindScape during combat a few times just to tweak a few things. The resulting effort took about a week.

I had to take quick breaks every day to send out my [Messages], or I probably could have cut the time down even more, but running secret organizations and demon armies is difficult. Oh, and that was, in fact, armies plural. I had split them up so that I could better handle things. Anger's group is getting a bit too close to civilization for comfort. I thought as I finished up my final spell preparations. I don't want him fighting without me because that's a lot of experience down the drain…

I could have continued that thought, but I had a spell to test. And there was no time like the present.

"I call forth the icy gale. Send forth your frozen spears and scatter the enemy," I chanted, using the best words I could come up with, even though I was sure I would cringe about them later.

"Break their ranks and destroy them with the power of frost. [Blizzard]." I cast. The mass of magic coalesced into dozens of icy lances above my head. And as they shot forward and slammed down into the horde of zombies, I couldn't help but notice a similarity. If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it. It's kinda like a [Hurricane]… but diagonal instead. I thought as the frozen spears did their work.

It cut through a swathe of the undead army, and I belatedly realized I had made a mistake.

"Oops," I muttered as the spell killed, froze, and shattered every zombie it hit.

"Looks like overkill with ice can destroy bodies just as well as fire," I muttered. That led to a marked decrease in the number of zombies attacking me, but it was worth it. [Frigis] made it up to level 5. Spamming [Raise Zombie] randomly also resulted in a [Mortae] skill at level 3. Decreased experience gain was holding me back a lot more than I thought. I mused as I looked at those gains. With [Frigis] taken care of, it was time to focus on more [Mortae], [Animae], and then [Magnetismus] if I could figure it out.

I still don't have the skill. I thought as I made some lackluster attempts at using [Attract] to pull zombies off their feet and then had to resort to chopping them down. If [Aeris] is an indication, I'm usually stuck on a spell school when I'm missing something obvious, and I don't have anyone to correct me since I'm mostly self-taught. The good news was that [Attract] wasn't something I taught myself. It came from the obelisk. That meant I just had to pay more attention as I cast it.

I used [Suspend Spell] on my next cast to look closer. Seems pretty straightforward. It's attracting the target. Like a magnet. Then I groaned.

"Like a magnet. Which has two poles. And that also can repel things, not just attract them. Like this. [Repel Monsters]!" I cast, shoving as much mana as possible into the inverted spell. It worked so well that for a moment, even the zombies right in front of me were suddenly confused as if they weren't sure about attacking me. Either way, it was a success, and I nodded in satisfaction at the [Magnetismus] skill that appeared on my skill list. All it took was reversing the polarity…

and unlike most of the time in Star Trek, that actually makes sense in this case. Level 1 to level 2 wasn't a big leap and, if my understanding was correct, that was all I needed to unlock [ElectroMagnus]. So, after a few more hours of derping around with [Attract], [Repel Monsters], and [Lure Monsters], I got the level… and also a surprise. Magnetismus Passive 2 ElectroMagnus Passive 1 Gravitus Passive 2"[Gravitus]?"

I asked, and I was so dumbfounded at the entry that the horde of zombies actually managed to get ahold of me for the first time. They dogpiled me, and I was soon covered by a gross mass of decayed flesh.

"[Hell Blaze]," I cast… and then immediately regretted it.

"Oh god, that's worse. That's so much worse," I gagged through the smell of burnt zombie as the entire pile was immolated. Luckily, I can teleport, and I didn't have to breathe in those noxious fumes a second more than necessary. The distance also bought me the breathing room to regain my train of thought. [Gravitus]. Why now? Is it because I unlocked the others? I frowned and started cutting down zombies again. I have [Temperis] and [Stabilitis], but no explosion magic school, so that's not it.

I blasted a flesh horror with an [Overchannelled] [Cure] and stared off into space for a moment since I had a reprieve.

"Oh," I muttered.

"I haven't cast any explosion magic. All I've done is make enchants for it." I furrowed my brow.

"All I have for [Gravitus] is [Invert Gravity]. Maybe you just need the one?" Fortunately, the science for that was easy enough. Slap together a starter explosion spell, and then…

"[Boom]," I cast, pointing Singularity at the unlucky test subject. An explosion about 5 feet in diameter detonated at the location after half a second… and the zombies seemed mildly perturbed at best.

"[Boom], [Boom], [Boom]," I cast repeatedly at various zombies around me. Then I killed them all with Herobane since they all survived.

"Nope, still no explosiv… us? No, it's an element. Explosivis?" I muttered as I looked at my skills. My next instinct was to scale the spell up and make a tier 3 version akin to [Hurricane], but I didn't think I had the time for that before Anger and his troops would be in position. It would be nice if I could just teleport the heart right on top of them. I thought. Then I shook my head. No, that would be a waste of experience. They would kill it too easily.

Besides, it would be even better if I could find a way to fight my own demon army without instantly turning them against me.

"And maybe I can," I murmured as I looked at the heart. I mulled over my plan for a moment and then shrugged.

"Yeah, I guess I don't have to personally fight the demons, and if this works like I think… this should be really good [Mortae] experience." And so, I whiled away even more time, attempting to figure out yet another spell. It took long enough that Anger and his wrath demons were chomping at the bit, waiting for my signal to attack a moderately fortified Gram town on the west side of the nation. However, I did it.

"Being of undeath, I revoke the call of the grave and bind you to my will," I chanted.

"[Command Undead]!" My first target was a zombie because I wanted to start out small. It was a good thing I did. Commanding the undead was… weird. Despite my command spell lacking any sort of communication component, I was still somehow receiving a vague… awareness of the zombie. And further to my shock and delight, I was able to command the monster with a simple thought, and it turned on the zombies nearest it.

Six other zombies immediately beat it down, and it revived outside of my control, but it was still a good test case. That was good enough for me, so I immediately [Blinked] over to the heart and used the same spell. I expected more resistance. What I didn't expect was a fight. As soon as the spell made contact, the heart went on a counter-offensive, bombarding my mind with thousands of voices. Consume the living. Remake all in our image. Devour the world!

I grit my teeth, shoved more mana into the spell, and pushed it back. It was a real struggle until I remembered I was right beside its body. And I had a sword. One quick stab was all it took to jostle its concentration, and then I was in control. At least, mostly. It was still making murmuring whispers in my mind. Stop that! I ordered with a mental growl. All I got back over the link was confusion, but then I remembered.

"Oh, yeah," I said aloud, looking at the sword in my right hand. The sword that I had grown so used to whispering ominously in my mind that I had tuned it out. I quickly stowed it in my inventory, and the whispers died down. Probably not a good idea to expose myself to two sources of insanity at once. Speaking of…

"[Restore]," I cast. System: Condition Lesser Madness has been removed My mind instantly felt a bit clearer, and I also realized that my free hand had been softly petting the heart, likely since I had cast the spell.

"Eww," I grimaced as I jerked my hand away and shook it. Note to self. Put [Restore] into rotation when fighting. Just like that, I had my army to fight against Anger and his troops. The only problem was getting them there, but I figured that getting the heart over was the biggest piece, and anything else was just a bonus. So, I had it gather as many undead as I thought I could take and began casting an [Advanced Teleport].

I didn't have enough mana or stamina to do so, but the good news was that the heart was only mildly irritated as I continuously cut down zombies to steal their SP. If anything, it seemed more irritated that we weren't currently devouring the flesh of the living, and as I mentally promised it "soon," it was appeased. The "appeased" feeling didn't last once the teleport was completed. What followed was confusion and fear.

"What?" I asked it aloud.

"I thought you wanted to devour the living?" Blind! It practically shouted across our link. No death! Can't see! That indicated that it needed the death in the deathlands, or I supposed more creature deaths, to actually see. That, in turn, made me really curious about what its sight actually looked like, and though my immediate thought was probably a bad idea I was in an experimenting mood.

"[Link Sight]," I cast, placing my hand on the undead abomination. In response to the cast, it's safe to say that I got both the answer to my question and a massive headache. The undead heart didn't have vision per se, but it did have a 360-degree detection of living and undead. At that point, it had a pitiful range of just a few inches around every zombie and a few feet around the heart itself.

The spell apparently figured that was close enough to vision for my purposes and immediately pumped all of that info, from every zombie, directly into my brain. The monster apparently fared little better. I don't know what part of my full-spectrum vision upset it. It could have been color, the directionality, or just the fact that it finally got to see its own ugly mug. All I know is that it was sending very distressed feelings over the link.

Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee I was about to cut the spell off when I heard the sound of Placeholder's most common enemy. I looked over at the howls, and every undead being present staggered at the sudden shift in my view. The bad news was that the zombies were completely unable to respond to the incoming attack. The good news was that they were expendable, and the wolves would themselves be an addition to the army.

I walked over to the attacking wolves, fighting hard to maintain my balance with all the weird sensory info I was getting, and then quickly cut them down. They were raised in just a few seconds, and the undead vision improved. Huh. So that's how that works. I thought as I examined myself through their eyes. Wait a second… I stepped out of range briefly, entered [Sneak], and then walked back in. They couldn't detect me. It was as if I wasn't there.

"Well, that's ridiculous," I scoffed. And then I remembered that the skill made it so that I could be hidden in broad daylight, crouched right in front of someone. Okay, fine. I grumbled. I guess evading supernatural detection isn't that much more of a stretch. Testing done, it was time to get back to business, though there wasn't actually much change there. The goal was to get some more undead before sending them off against the demons but to attract more monsters, I had to wait. I did have a problem, though.

Maintaining control of the heart was a constant mana drain, and that was before I also added in the [Link Sight] that I was maintaining since I was planning on using it to control the army. Add in the fact that I also wanted to do some [Scrying], and [Message] Anger, and I wouldn't have the zombies free to farm for SP… This is gonna be expensive, isn't it?

The only way I could handle the cost was the magicite crystal, so I pulled that out and began using it and the extractor to power the myriad spells I was upkeeping. Then, I had the bright idea of adding a magic-infused song into the mix. Because I obviously didn't have enough spells to maintain. This is an awful idea. I thought as I tried to have the heart make the zombies humm along just a few notes.

The song I was thinking of was the one that immediately came to mind when I thought "funeral," but it's safe to say I didn't really know it. All I could do was kinda go, "Dun dun dundun, dun dundun dundun dundun" and have the heart try to mimick it. The result was… horrifying as all the zombies did it at different delays and with nowhere close to the pitch… but it was still able to transmit [Mortae] magic, so I infused it with that and kinda just hoped it worked.

And then it was time to settle in and play my very own RTS [1] of zombies vs demons… except I would be playing both sides. I moved the crystal a decent ways away from the heart so Anger wouldn't stumble on me, spun up an [Advanced Scry] to keep track of the fight, and then fought my growing headache as I maintained the growing list of spells. Yup. Bad idea. But I'm committed now. I grumbled as the spells started flickering in and out based on my concentration.

The good news was that the undead army was moving, and things would settle down a bit soon. I mean, demons disappear when they die, so they should be a good counter to the undead. I nodded to myself as the demons first noticed the incoming horde and I sent Anger a Message telling them to engage. The demons were much stronger than low-level zombies, and Anger especially started tearing them up. Dozens of zombies went down in just the first few seconds, and against a normal army it would have been a rout.

But that's why I held back the zombie wolves for a flanking maneuver. They charged in, fast and low, and the demons at the edges never knew what hit them. And while zombie wolves were also low-level mobs, it didn't matter as much when 5 of them teamed up to knock you onto the ground. I was satisfied with the results. I figured there would be enough casualties that Anger would see the wisdom in pulling back for a bit but not a full wipe since it was still clear that the demons had the advantage.

Until the first wrath zombie staggered back up to its feet. I was so shocked by the existence of a zombified demon that I nearly dropped my [Link Sight]. Fumbling to get that back cascaded and I had to scramble to restore my [Command Undead], then my funeral song, and then finally my [Advanced Scry]. The scry didn't make it. I had to cast it again from scratch. Not that it mattered as much when I was still seeing what every zombie was seeing, and the number of eyes I had was growing instead of shrinking.

"[Message] Anger," I cast as I looked over the battle once more and saw zombies getting back up to their feet.

"What are you doing? You need to loot the bodies!" Anger called that out to his subordinates, but only a few heard.

"Want something done right," I grumbled as I put together a [Transmit Sound] targeting a large area around the scry, not even sure it would work.

"Loot the bodies, or they'll get back up," I stated once the spell was in effect. [Link Sight] cut out again and… I let it go. I had enough to deal with. Especially since the demons were having a harder time following my order than I expected, the bodies simply weren't staying down on the ground long enough for the demons to loot them. They would only still for a couple of seconds before they roared back to unlife and tried to bite or hit the demon that tried to loot them. The culprit was pretty obvious.

Guess that janky song is doing more than I expected. I thought as I pondered what to do. On the one hand, this was undoubtedly fantastic experience for my [Mortae] skill. I was churning through thousands of points of mana keeping this all up. If the magic teachers of Dryadal were correct about the scale of the effect also determining experience gain, then I could ask for few things better than taking down a demon army.

On the other hand, the demons were useful as mana batteries, and I wasn't quite sure what I would do if I zombified the whole army. As hilarious as it sounded to have a zombified Anger running around doing my bidding, I wanted to ditch the undead army sooner rather than later. I had other experiments I wanted to run after I unlocked the tier 2 skill for life and death magic. That meant intervening on behalf of the demons, but I wasn't sure what form that should take.

If I abandoned my magicite crystal and charged into battle, I wasn't confident I could drain enough stamina with Herobane to offset all the spells I was running. The other option was some kind of spell, but I initially didn't see how that would fix that problem. … Until I realized what I had just done a few moments ago. It was a bit awkward trying to juggle Singularity, contact with the mana extractor, my mirror, and the iPod, but I somehow got it set to the fighting playlist I'd made.

Then it was just a matter of sending the sound through with a [Transmit Sound]. It was mana intensive, especially with all the other spells I was keeping up, but I was barely breaking even with the extractor and my natural regen. And so, with extra strength and speed on Anger's side, the demons started making a comeback. At least, I kinda gathered that through the haze I found myself in mentally. It took every neuron I had to maintain all the spells, so neither side got any new orders from me.

All I knew was that the horde of red was pushing back the horde of lifeless grey, and that was a good thing. I don't know how long I kept that up. All I knew was that it seemed like quite a while, but I eventually returned to my senses when all the spells suddenly snapped off. What happened? Am I under attack? I asked myself as I looked around wildly. Interestingly, the answer to that was "yes."

About a dozen hostile wolves surrounded me in various states of growling, prowling, and hanging off pieces of my armored body since their bites weren't damaging me.

"That could have been dangerous," I muttered as I saw that I was sitting on empty mana and stamina. The hand mirror and iPod went away and were replaced by Herobane. A few quick slashes and I at least had enough stamina that I wouldn't be afraid of a strong breeze. Then, I took a look at my surroundings. Wolves shouldn't be able to stop spells. I thought. Maybe they made it so I wasn't resting? I stowed Herobane and put my hand on the extractor to get some of my mana back… and got nothing.

I dumbly pulled my hand away and put it back, kinda like pressing harder on the remote when the batteries are dead, before I realized that was exactly the case with the crystal.

"Oh," I muttered.

"I ran it out of mana." That hadn't been the outcome I'd expected from the battle, but I was willing to accept it as long as the skill levels were good. I liked what I saw. Mortae Passive 6 3 full levels. Nice. I thought as I continued scrolling. And, as expected, closer to the bottom was the new entry… followed by an unexpected one. Mortalitae Passive 1 Creae Passive 6"[Creae] of 6?" I asked.

"What the frick? I just unlocked it. How does it have so many levels?" The obvious answer was that any experience I would have gotten was held until I was eligible for the skill, but that left me with more questions. I haven't been training my summoning at all, though. I thought. Basic recall immediately called me a liar. Ten thousand memories of "[Summon Dave]" flooded through my mind as I remembered taking down trash mobs, bosses, and even dragons.

"Never mind," I mumbled.

"Isn't that a bit low then?" I asked my status as if it would somehow jump up to 7 purely from my complaints. About then, the wolves I'd slain started getting back up, and I remembered that I had an undead problem.

"[Summon Dave]!" I cast with the stamina I stole from them. I wanted to see if there was any difference, but unfortunately, the dave seemed the same. On the upside, he cost me less than I expected.

"Mana cost of 35 instead of 50," I said aloud as I looked at the spell in my status.

"Well, not the buff I wanted, but I guess a 30% discount isn't bad." The zombie wolves attacked the dave and paid the price for it, and I ordered it to destroy any bodies as I started walking toward the heart. While I went, I took stock of what I'd learned. Two tier 1 schools at a total of 10 levels allow unlocking the tier 2 school. Having both tier 2 schools allows unlocking the tier 2. 5 school like [Creae]. I frowned as a pack of zombie wolves charged me. But then why do I have [Gravitus] and not…

the explosion one? I asked myself as I sliced a leaping wolf in half. It must be number of spells used. I thought as I slew the next leaping wolf. But I only ever learned [Invert Gravity]. I never used- The thought ran through me like a thunderbolt.

"Comic-Con," I muttered, using a [Fireball] to incinerate all the zombie wolves near me instantly.

"The [Gravity Ball] at the Comic-Con, that must have counted." That made the answer simple. I just needed another spell to go with [Boom] since it was by its lonesome. So, it was swiftly joined by its brother-"[Bang]," I cast at the next set of wolves, instantly blowing them apart and getting some chunks of zombie on me. Right. Forgot how little HP they have. I thought. However, that didn't stop me from spamming both spells and hoping the skill would show up. It did…

but only after a few hundred mana, or I guess stamina in this case, worth of spells. Fragoris Passive 1"How the heck does fragoris [2] mean explosion?" I asked.

"I guess there's a frag grenade, but the grenade is the explodey bit, not the frag." While I could have spent even more time faulting the System for its naming sense, I would have to face up to the fact that I had created two spells in that school called [Boom] and [Bang]. I decided discretion was the better part of valor. I also decided that the heart had served its purpose and killed my once-minion. That was hardly a fight. I pretty much just stood there and hacked at it as zombies tried in vain to stop me.

And then it was just clean up, which took long enough that Anger and his troops showed up.

"About time," I scoffed as he arrived.

"Finish clean up here. I have other things to do." I paused and decided I needed to be more threatening.

"And next time I have to clean up your mess, I won't be as lenient. Understood?" Anger fell to one knee.

"Yes, your lowliness! Understood, your lowliness!" And then it was time to throw him off my trail even more.

"I don't know how the humans managed to partner with the undead, but you'll need to be more cautious here forward," I stated.

"Even the imps would have been useful here to loot the bodies if you hadn't left them behind and charged ahead. I'll be reorganizing the armies here soon." I paused as I remembered the magicite crystal.

"And you'll all have some new duties."

"Yes, your lowliness," he replied. I had gained dozens of skill levels in the span of a few weeks and unlocked all of the tier 1 schools… with one notable exception. The good news was that I had an idea who could help me get it. Let's see what you're up to, Secondavia. I thought as I turned a scry on her and then prepared to teleport.

"Why if it beeth not our most favorite interloper!" Secondavia said as I appeared right by her in the middle of the fey forest.

"Mine court did wonder if thee finally shuffled off thy coil for eternity. We art gladdened by thine presence." She smirked.

"Though, thine death would hath saved me one favor." I shook my head.

"Yeah, good to see you too, [Queen] of the pranksters," I replied, and I couldn't help but smile a little.

"So, what hath brought thee to mine abode? Hath thou decided thine final favor?" she asked.

"I have," I replied, and her smile brightened.

"But I'm not calling it in yet. I want to trade instead." Her countenance crashed.

"Foolish miscreant! How long wilst thou keep me in torment? Thy final wish hath hung 'pon my head for decades like the sword of Damocles!" I squinted.

"Wait… How do you know about the sword of Damocles?" I asked. She cocked her head in turn, and then I remembered. Oh. Right. Auto-translate. Probably a different phrase in fey. I coughed and continued.

"All I'm looking for is some training in anti-communication magic, mind magic, and then some help with an extra-special project I'm planning." She scoffed.

"Ah. That beeth all?"

"I figured you'd say that, but what if I told you I brought something of equal value to that trade?" I asked. She frowned.

"And what price doth thou offer in exchange for such multitudinous services of the fey?"

"Primavia," I stated simply. Secondavia's gaze turned dead serious.

"If thou art jesting, I shalt-""Nope, no jesting here," I replied.

"I've gotten a lot better at healing magic, and the enchantment will probably take a while to do its work, maybe 50 years, but I'm dead serious."

"With me! Immediately!" she shouted as she flew off at top speed to the briar where Primavia lay, still asleep in the middle of a pink crystal… that hadn't grown any since I last saw her. I mentally pat myself on the back for my enchanting work lasting centuries and then got to work.

The hardest part about curing Primavia over 50 years was… making it seem like I was only competent enough to do that. To be honest, [Restore] was grossly overpowered, and even without the enchantments I was making, I probably could have cured her in an afternoon with enough mana. However, Primavia coming back would be a… complication. So, as promised, I whipped up a better version of my previous enchant that would slowly cure her over the next 40 years. Yeah, 40, not 50. I could only sandbag so much.

Secondavia was over the moon once she confirmed by truth stone that it would "cure her over the course of about 40 years if not interrupted." She was more than willing to help me practice and attain the skill for the aptly named school, [Confusio]. The spell school was… fun. It wasn't just for scrambling [Messages] and other [Communicatio] spells. No, [Confusio] could also be used to scramble normal speech. It was too bad that none of the major threats in my life were mages.

I could only imagine the look on their face as they were halfway through a spell to annihilate me, only for it to blow up in their face because I cast the almost-starter-level spell [Stutter]. Anyway, the practice was good but horribly slow compared to the blistering pace that I had set the previous days. It didn't help that I often took breaks to deal with dozens of different things. Rout an army here. Deploy an undead heart against the demons there.

Defeat more Crystalline calamities for their giant rocks in the Below. My schedule was demanding, but despite all of that, after a few months, I finally picked up the remaining schools. [Sermio], which was [Communicatio] and [Confusio], and then the last 2. 5 school. [Animio]. The school of magic relating directly to the mind. And that was the last ingredient for the spell I was working on. I didn't know the specifics right then.

I just knew that the recipe would be one mostly filled magicite chunk of mana, one truckload of mind magic, and an entire tanker of [Creae] magic. Secondavia called it "near-blasphemous," and an "affront to nature," but I could tell she was mostly just jealous she could never cast it herself due to the material requirements. Either way, she was still grateful for the help with Primavia, and so she helped me put it together anyway, even though I had to do the actual cast far away from the fey forest.

And then, perhaps the greatest spell I had cast to date was complete. And that meant it was time to test it out.

As Alder found himself surrounded by greed demons, he was beginning to regret his plan. It had seemed sound. Launch a preemptive strike on Avarice with just him and his party. They could cut off the enemy leadership before the [Demon Lord] noticed and tilted the battle in their opponent's favor with his otherworldly music. Otherworldly music that Alder might have actually come to enjoy had it not become associated with dread and the loss of fellow [Soldiers]. Anyway, his plan immediately went awry.

No sooner had they infiltrated the camp than the music started up, and the demons surrounded them. The [Demon Lord] was a step ahead of them, as he always was. Alchemist tossed smoke, and the battle began.

"Knight! Get the [Hero] to safety!" Leader shouted as she danced her usual dance around the enemies… but was impeded greatly by the slow.

"I wouldn't deal enough damage to get him through!" Knight called in return as he blocked blow after blow for Shadow Healer.

"You'll have a better shot! You take him!"

"I'm not leaving anyone behind!" Alder shouted as he defeated foe after foe with his fists.

"We can take them! We just have to hold on!" Or at least, that was what he said. On the inside, he was much less confident. While his armor normally made him immune to most attacks, with the greed demons activating their own buffs on top of the song they were capable of dealing just a few points of damage to him. Alder was well aware that against an army, he would be dead eventually.

"Our oath is to protect you!" Leader shouted as she took down one demon and tripped another.

"You have to go!"

"I'm not leaving!" Alder shouted back.

"And that means it's against your oaths to die, hear me!? You all have to live to keep protecting me, just like always!" He punctuated his statement with a [Thunderstrike] that took down 4 demons near Shadow Knight and Shadow Healer, and the demons all backed away in fear. The shadows took that brief reprieve to gather back to back.

"I always knew that this kid would be the death of me," Knight quipped. Alder was about to reply that he hadn't been a kid for twenty years when a pair of paladium swords burst out of the chest of the demon in front of him. As the demon faded, a cloaked figure took its place.

"He will be, but not today," came the distorted voice. He slowly walked towards Alder's party, and everyone, including the surrounding demons, froze.

"Who are you?" Alder asked.

"You can call me-" the figure's swords began glowing, one faintly blue and one faintly green as he turned towards the demons.

"-Demon Slayer." [1] RTS – Real Time Strategy. Usually refers to games where the player has a top-down view of different units and gives them commands in real time [2] Fragor – Latin - 1. A breaking, shattering. 2. A crash