“So you do know him?” Sage said.


    Vanus’ reaction to Bori’s name was less subdued than his previous interactions with her. He practically leapt out of his seat when she mentioned the geezer’s name, his open maw emphasising the gap where his front teeth would have been. Such was the contrast between his current and earlier behaviour that- for a moment- she almost thought the rapid shift would cause his old heart to give out; or maybe the last locks of hair on his head to fall off. The man had practically jumped out of his seat.


    “Bori ith an old friend,” he replied animatedly. “We go way back; even had the thame teacher. It’th been yearth thinth I’ve theen him. How ith he theeth dayth?”


    So that it? Sage only deigned to hear the first part of his answer, filtering out the rest.


    While skimming through the recently acquired research, she had been unable to help picking out the similarities between Vanus strengthening ritual and Bori’s summoning ritual. It mostly lay in the type of runic symbols involved to certain materials such as Aether Grass and Dark Orbs. The two ingredients, which were core materials in the Netherkin Summoning Ritual, also played a pivotal role in the strengthening ritual created by this old man. The fact that the two of the had the same teacher made sense why their rituals shared similarities.


    “Wait a minute,” Vanus’ smile took an upside-down trend. “You thaid departed. He’th dead? When?”


    “Two months ago,” she replied. There was no need to withhold information in this situation. “Sheans did him in. Tracked him down to his tower. I barely escaped with my skin.”


    “Tho that’th what happened,” he seemed to contemplate for a moment. Then his suddenly perked up and looked at her, fixing her a stare very different from the ones before; one rife with fascination. “If you know Bori then you mutht be… did hith ritual actually thuctheed? Are you-” The last part went unfinished.


    “Yes, his ritual worked,” she confirmed regardless. “Very well in fact.” A little too well… or maybe it was the Netherkin wraith chasing me. “I am Netherkin.”


    Never Darkborne. That title was the harbinger of disaster. The last thing she needed was the entirety of Aran on her heels for nonsensical crimes like being a potential risk. No one ever need know what she was, no matter how well meaning or friendly they were. In her opinion, the old adage held true: If more than one knew, everyone knew.


    “Bastard be damned,” the balding man muttered. “He actually did it. At leatht he died accomplishing hith life’th work. I on the other hand…” the frown returned to his face.


    Yeah, she agreed nonverbally. Even if she had just been skimming through his notes, the issues with his ritual were clear to her. Every attempt on strengthening the undead was successful, but the effect only lasted a couple of hours before the zombies’ gradual degradation over the next couple of months. No wonder his zombies appeared to be wilting even more than regular zombies. The thought of those repulsive creatures caused an involuntary sneer; they really disgusted her.


    She returned to the notes, this time intending to read them more thoroughly. When she had left the bastard with the child, she had stated that she would be gone for a day at most, so there was still time left before she goes to meet up with them. Hopefully, Isaac took her words into consideration and did his utmost to stay out of trouble. Io was not the type of city they could start trouble in.


    Vanus, it seemed, was not done with his enquiries.


    “What happened to the Sheans who attacked you. How are you thtill in the Main Plane?”


    “The Sheans are dead and I found a new anchor,” she answered simply before returning to the notes.


    That seemed to set the message and he left her to go through his notes while he sat back in his chair.


    Time flew by in which Sage managed to comb through the entirety of the notes. In that time, the problems became obvious to her. There were certain symbols in the magic circle that did not go well together and the placement of ingredients likely affected the ritual as well. She cast a glance on the owner of the abode before returning her eyes to the papers and pages.


    If she wanted to, she could probably solve the flaw in his ritual, and she would; just not now. Not here. There was nothing to gain from doing it here. She already had the what she came for, there was no benefit in helping old fart Vanus iron out his ritual…


    … or at least that was what she had initially thought before contemplating a little more.


    She might be a more accomplished magician than he was, but she was still a newcomer to these lands. Magic was something she had picked up a couple of months prior, a time range that was but a fraction compared to how long the old necromancer had spent on his spellcraft. Considering the decades, or centuries, he had spent on sorcery, he must have acquired quite a bit of knowledge; knowledge that might not be useful to him but could mean the world to her. Besides-


    “The ritual uses a Dark Orb and Aether Grass,” she slipped the notes in her shadow and asked. “How much do you have here?”


    The question seemed to catch him off guard, causing him to take a while before answering. “Er…” That was all he said.


    Of course he was hesitant considering how rare the materials were. One was from the realm of a God while the other was a crystalised piece of the Primordial Plane; not really items that could be replenished on a whim.


    The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    “How about I help you fix the ritual if you share some of it with me?” she asked. “There is also something I want to inquire about.


    That got him thinking.


    “Well…” he still sounded hesitant, but then his eyes suddenly fell on her, serious. “Can you do that?”


    “Of course,” she replied, getting up and removing Nyx from her shoulder; the fact that he had remained there all this time, silent and unmoving, was impressive. She put him on the ground and approached the stone table. Vanus’ original notes and those placed down by her for the bargain where shifted to the shelves using [Telekinesis]. With them gone, the view of the magic circle on the table was unobscured.


    “The biggest problem with this circle is the imbalance between the Darkness and Earth,” she began, pointing at the symbols depicting the two elements. “Sure, undead have a lot to do with the Dark Element, but strengthening is an Earth attribute. First off, we need to find a good equilibrium between the two, and then find a way to incorporate the materials to optimise the ritual.”


    “Okay,” Vanus came on board, also coming to stand on the edge of the table. “Where do we thtart?”


    “First off, we need to draw a better circle,” she stated while wiping the stone table and frowning. “And with something other than chalk. There are much better magical conductors out there. Seriously, don’t you have ink in you possession?”


    “I do,” he replied, a little self-conscious. “But it’th troublethome to cleanup afterwardth.”


    That’s why you half-arsed it? This part she did not say out loud, though she still wondered why he had not gone with the better options. After all, between cleaning up ink stains and using more mana than necessary, which was the bigger pain?


    “Fuck it,” she muttered, shifting her gaze towards her comatose former companions. “Let’s use blood. There’s no better conduit.”


    Having caught onto her intentions, he gave the unconscious trio a once over before his gaze returned to her. “You want to use them?”


    “Why not?” she responded. “Unless you were actually considering letting them go.”


    He was a necromancer who had lived a long time, so he would not have considered something as careless as letting witnesses go, would he? She shook her head at the very thought. They were less than five kilometres from the Lethian capital, a city in which dwelled combatants with Grade 1 physiques, likely fire-chucking Vestravans and worst of all, a Transcendant ruler. No amount of loose screws would make a necromancer commit such an act of idiocy.


    “Of courth not,” the old man’s vehement denial proved as much.


    “Great.” She removed the [Nether Chains] from Jarris and brought him to her, producing a dagger from her shadow. Despite the fact that he had never learned magic, he had an aptitude for it. Meaning his blood was the best conduit out of the three.


    She drew a cut along his left wrist, allowing the blood to spill out and quickly catching it with [Telekinesis]. When she felt she had gathered enough, she looked down at the paling mercenary before gazing at the silent Vanus.


    “You know healing magic, right?” she asked. “Unless you’re fine with him bleeding all over your floor.”


    “I don’t. Few outthide the Sheanth are capable of it,” he replied as he moved over to the shelves, searching. “But I have a few Vigour Potions here. Catch.”


    Sage caught the thrown potion and applied it to the open wound. When the wound had closed, she dropped the drained form onto the floor before moving on to recreating the magic circle with a few alterations and additions.


    “Done,” she heaved after a dozen minutes. Turning to him, said. “Now to see how well it works. You still have a zombie that has yet to undergo the ritual, right?”


    That was another downside. The ritual would not work a second time on the same undead. There was nothing she could do to change that part.


    After the necromancer’s confirming nod, she groaned as she prepared for what would come.


    The next part she was not looking forward to. As an undead she could stop breathing whenever she wanted, which was exactly what she did as she raised her hand to open a Door connected to the grotto’s exit. Then. shifting her gaze back to the old man, she began to use her hands to indicate her intentions. No way in hell was she going to talk and whiff those vile creature’s odours again.


    Vanus seemed to get her message as the next moment an undead stepped through the portal. It was the one that had been laying on the table when she entered. The necromancer directed the ghoul to lie on the table while she closed the Door to make sure the others did not come through. Then she moved from the table and cast [Mystic Eyes], indicating for him to do his thing. This was his ritual after all.


    Vanus nodded and scrambled once more for the shelves, coming off with a small black shard and a patch of dried grass. The ingredients were not in the best condition it seemed. But I guess all that matters is that they work.


    Before he could place the materials, she quickly intervened; holding up her hands in an asking manner and causing the wrinkling man to frown. He relented though and gave the ingredients to her. Enclosing the materials in her hands, she began to exert pressure on them, using as much strength as she could muster to crush them. When she was satisfied with the result, she scattered the powdered ingredients around the circle while making sure they fell in the blood. After that she once again moved back and used her hands to indicate the old fart continue.


    Vanus raised his hands and powered his mana into the circle, causing it to flare up. Sage attentively watched as the blood moved towards the corpse, into its gashes. This scene elicited a gasp from the withering necromancer, which she deigned to ignore. Her focus remained on the body; watched its veins become more pronounced and darken; saw the energy of the Orb shard along with the fading energy of the grass merge into the undead. The process took the better part of a minute, but eventually it was done. The zombie that had originally spotted a Grade 4 physique now boasted a Grade 3 one.


    The transfixed Vanus finally regained his voice. “Amathing. Thith is different from all the other timeth before.” Entranced eyes fell on her. “Did it work?”


    Sage shrugged. “I- fuck!”


    The moment she opened her mouth, a nauseating stench flooded it, causing her eyes to sting. With a glare towards the offending individual, she opened another [Dimension Door] and telekinetically tossed it into the portal before turning back to a perplexed Vanus.


    “As I was saying,” she disregarded his expression. “I think it did, but to be sure we will have to wait a few hours and see how it holds up. If the degradation doesn’t occur, then it’s a success… probably.”


    “Okay.” He was practically leaping at the prospect, clearly unable to wait for the time to pass and see the results of the modified ritual. He flashed her a gaping smile that was ruined by his wrinkles. “Even if it doethn’t thucceed, the ritual ith clearly better than the one I had previouthly devithed. Meaning, it might take longer for the degradation to show. Either way, you’re welcome to the materialth.”


    “Thank you,” she responded with a nod. “Now, about the other thing...”


    Her shadow widened and elongated, allowing her to pull the item she wanted to inquire about and dump it on top of the dried circle. With the appearance of the object, the temperature suddenly plummeted. She did not find it a bother though, as she returned her attention to Vanus, who gapingly stared at it; a block of ice encasing a body.”


    “Have you perhaps heard of a method that could bring him back?” she asked.