《Shadow Emperor》


 Spell Ideas

    Alright so I have a good idea for the character as well as a general development path but the one thing i am having trouble with is spells for him to learn. I have two or three but i would simply like more, for variety\ies sake. So if any of you have an idea for a LOW LEVEL (aka not world destroying or over powered spell) for darkness type energy i would appreciate it. Darkness energy revolves around acid, corrosion, decay, negative energy, shadows, undead, and curse/hexes. I would also like any ideas for space type spells that are reasonable in power scale. Like i put in the description this is the first time ive tried writing and I would like this to become a novel that i can write for a long, long time making a lovable anti-hero or just straight up self absorbed villain. I have been a long time reader of RoyalRoad (though ive had to remake an account) and i love the supportive community here. So any and all help is greatly appreciated.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

 Chapter 1

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    In a dark descolate forest filled with mist and a heavy scent of decay. A permanent cloud covering enshroud the forest below allowing very little light to fall on its surface.


    Within the forest there were various areas of danger sown about. One area was a swamp filled with foul smelling ponds filled with a myriad of strange creatures and dangerous flora. Giant alligators, Shadow Crows, Swamp Hags, Gallow Trees. Each a deadly creature who feasted on the blood and flesh of any who traveled into their domain.


    Another area nearby is filled with various undead. Shambling Corpses and Wights roam about searching for any form of life.


    But right in the center of all of these areas lies a tower roughly 50 meters in height carved from some form of black stone.


    From its base a strange grey colored vine grew along its sides, protruding silver colored thorns each a foot long.


    As night fell over this tower in one corner dim candlelight leaked through a small narrow window.


    A 15 year old boy with raven black hair was sitting at a desk hunched over a large leather bound book. His emerald green eyes glared at the pages under a furrowed brow.


    Savani, once Alex, arrived in this world 5 years ago. Once a normal college student, Alex ended up being kidnapped while on a foreign exchange trip with a sister college in another country. There he was taken to a lab and experimented on. The organization who kidnapped him were apparently trying to develop a chip using nanobots that would help boost a humans senses and use the feedback to spot potential dangers in the area. They also designed it to be able to store a vast amount of data and help soldiers process information for missions.


    Sadly during one of the experiments Alex died due to his mind stroking out from the sheer amount of information. However strangely he found himself reborn into a new body in a strange land.


    Savani sighed and rubbed his head. Ever since being reborn into this world he would have frequent headaches. Whenever they appeared he would get flashbacks to that time when the chip was implanted into him and the overwhelming amount of information that his mind couldn''t handle.


    Sighing waiting for the pounding behind his brow to end, Savani looked out his window onto the desolate landscape. He couldn''t help but lament that this was no longer the Earth he knew. Reborn in the body of a small time nobles son Savani quickly learned this world was far different from the one he once knew.


    This world was a world of magic where mages, demons, and monsters roamed freely. Where the elements could actually be absorbed and manipulated and where the strong prevailed. Where things like souls and voodoo weren''t just myths and theories but proven facts. For several years Savani used his status as a noble to get an understanding on this world.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    In this world the population could be broken down into three categories: the mortals, the apprentices, and the Sages. The mortals were by far the most common, as well as the lowest class. These were those not destined to be able to sense any of the elements, or those that didn''t have the body capable of absorbing them.


    The apprentices were those lucky enough to both have a good affinity with one or multiple elements that reside in the world as well as a physique that was capable of absorbing them. These apprentices were those who could begin to wield the powers of the world and begin the journey to true power.


    Finally there were the Sages. These were the true rulers of the world. Apprentices who had managed to absorb enough elemental energy as well as modify their body enough to evolve into a higher form of life. They were those that had begun to understand the laws that govern the plane of existence that they lived on and could wield absolute power.


    Six months ago Savani was taken to be tested like all other noble children. It was found that he had a high compatability with the darkness element as well as a body that could absorb the elements. When the local Sage Association found out that they had a potential apprentice on hand they welcomed him and assigned him to the tower he currently stayed at.


    This tower was run by a Sage named Lance who specialized in Necromancy and who converted the area into an area where the darkness elements were rich. Currently Savani had been staying at this tower for a month while he learned the basics of magic.


    To others becoming an apprentice would be a thing of envy but to Savani it was far from enviable. An apprentices world was a world of self interest and danger. After a months training period where the apprentice was given the minimum understanding of magic they were left to their own. No resources would be given beyond a bed to sleep in, and even that was in cramped rooms. If they wanted anything else they had to find some way to pay for it.


    Often times this meant going into the surrounding areas to gather magical ingredients for the tower. However doing so would be increadibly dangerous. The influx of darkness energy into the surroundings made many demonic and undead creatures roam the woods. There were often times when apprentices would die at the hands of a zombie that grabbed them from behind or from some creature that surprised them.


    Looking back to his book Savani began to frown. His month of free education ended tomorrow with him getting to choose one free spell module. After that he would be left to his own devises. If he wanted to browse any other spells or learn a profession he would have to pay for it. Sadly Savani had no money beyond a few gold coins and some gems his father gave him. To others a few gold coins could last them years but here that level of money was almost worthless!


    Sighing in frustration Savani tried to get back to reading but suddenly his head began to feel like it was tearing in two! With a scream Savani crumpled to the floor as his mind betrayed him. His body began to sieze as his mind began to throb with a pain so piercing it couldn''t be described. But as quickly as it came the pain went followed by a strange beeping.


    *Beep* [Intigration has completed. Assistance chip Serial number XVR4387115 now online. Begining to calibrate to host. Gathering data from hosts mind. Connecting to neural pathways. Neural pathways connected. Now establishing database for host...]


    Groaning Savani sat back up into a sitting position as a strange robotic voice appeared in his head. Shaking off the residual pain Savani opened his eyes as the impact of what happened hit him. That blasted chip that killed him somehow followed him to this world!

 Chapter 2

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    After a wait of several minutes there was another beep as the Assistance Chip finished its first scan and configuration. It then projected all of Savani''s basic attributes into his mind.


    According to his studies Savani found that this world had broken up a persons body into several different attributes from years of research and experimentation. These results were found after hundreds of thousands of years of research done by the Sages in an attempt to better understand how to gain more power as well as help their descendants. These attributes could be categorized into five different types: Strength, Physique, Vitality, Agility, and Spirit. These five attributes would determine an apprentices and an Adepts strengths and weaknesses.


    Strength was primarily used to quantify a persons physical strength and was the most important attribute for close combat Sages, otherwise known as Warrior Sages. This attribute would determine ones base damage when using close combat techniques, both bare handed and with a weapon. It also affected ones explosiveness and accuracy when dealing with close combat. An ordinary commoners Strength would be capped at 5, with the average being around 3.


    Physique represented a persons endurance and fortitude. With a high physique one could have a stronger body and be able to withstand various forms of harm like poison or diseases. It would also improve a persons stamina allowing them to last longer in battle so it was concidered a very important attribute. Most humans only had a Physique of 2 or 3.


    Vitality represented a persons life force. In essence this was how hard it was to kill a person as well as how quickly they could recover from damage. A person with a high Vitality could recover from injuries far faster than those with a low Vitality. A person with high Vitality could also withstand far more injuries than one with low Vitality making it a very sought after attribute. This attribute for a normal person was a 2 showing how weak a normal person truely was.


    Agility represented a bodys dexterity, speed, reflexes, balance, and flexibility. This attribute was vital for those who focused more on fast paced combat. Those with a high Agility prefered light or medium armor and tended to a more quick footed fighting style. Agility was also very important to those who used long ranged weapons so it was also sought after by bow users. Usually a commoners agility was around a 3.


    Spirit determined a persons learning ability as well as their capability at holding essence. This attribute was the most important for Sages as it decided on the number of spells they could use while in battle as well as make it easier for them to understand newer spells. A higher Spirit could also augment the power of a spell allowing the spell to be far more deadly. This attribute was also the reason there were so few Sages and apprentices around.


    An average animal would have a spirit of 1 or 2, while for humans it would be normaly around 3. However to become an apprentice the minimum Spirit attribute was 5! And to evolve to a Sage an apprentice must gather over 20 Spirit!


    *Beep*


    [Host name: Savani


    Race: Human (beginner apprentice)


    Affinities: Darkness, Space


    Attributes: Strength: 2.91 Physique: 3.02 Vitality: 2.14 Agility: 2.46 Spirit: 5.04


    Status: Healthy


    Skills: Magic Language Proficiency (Basic)


    Spells: None]


    Glancing at his status Savani sat up straight in shock! Space affinity!? From what he could gather apprentices could only get in touch with the most basic of elements. Namely those of Earth, Water, Wind, Fire, Light, and Darkness. From these elements, along with some external stimulus and modification, is how Sages developed more complex elemental affinities.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    For instance if a Sage wanted to develop an affinity with plants he would need to develop an affinity for both Earth and Water, with a smaller affinity with either Light or Darkness depending on the type of plant life he wished to attune with. And even then the Sage would have to start with one of these affinities and slowly augment their body while they were an apprentice before reaching the point of being able to control the desired type of plant life.


    However unlike other apprentices he seemed to gain access to a higher tier element at the very beginning! The chances of this happening were so rare that most magical organizations didnt even test for them. Only the bigger organizations that stretched over hundreds of smaller ones would waste resources to look for all elemental affinities on a mere beginner apprentice.


    Of course there were those who were born with a high affinity with a higher tier element in which case the testing orb would show that element, but if there were more than one element it would only show those that were the most basic.


    Still reeling from the shock Savani looked at the rest of his status. Overall they were fairly average which made sense since a fresh apprentice wasn''t allowed to start their journey until after the first months training. They weren''t even given any form of meditation until the time they picked their first spell module. This was to help the apprentice get a small foundation and not rush into things they didn''t understand.


    The fact that he had two elements, and one being a higher tier element made the road he could travel far grander than if he only had one element.


    From his studies Savani learned there were mainly four ways for an apprentice to become a Sage. They were Body Modification, Elemental Baptism, Bloodline Modification, and Soul Transference.


    Body Modification was the path of augmenting the apprentices body with various external stimuli. Some Body Modification Sages used metals and plants to augment their bodies while others used monster organs. Some even went so far as to turn themselves into undead! These bodies could handle a stronger Spirit allowing them to break through the wall between that of an apprentice and a full blown Sage. However they were severely limited by their augmentations and would have to be very careful to leave room for them to augment themselves down the line or they could find that their journey would come to an end.


    Elemental Baptism was the path of attuning ones body and soul with a particular element. Due to this their body could handle greater stress from the element the Sage was attuned to. Not only that but the cost of spells from that element would be reduced while their strength would be increased. They could also absorb that one element far easier than they could before their baptism. The tradeoff though would be that elements opposed to this would hurt them twice as much while also stripping the wielder of the ability to wield other elements.


    Bloodline Modification was similar to Body Modification. It used the blood of magical creatures to boost and mutate the Sage into a hybrid style human. These Sages could weild multiple elements as well as usually have high physical attributes allowing them to be quite strong. They could also sometimes gain abilities unique to the creature whose blood they fused with. However there was a major trade off. The blood would modify the Sages body into a hybrid, sometimes deforming them into monsters. The Sages mood would also be affected by the bloodline making them irritable and tempermental which was a large problem as a Sage was suppose to remain clear headed to better learn magic and understand the laws governing it. But the biggest problem is that the Sage would be bound to the rank that the creature could grow to! If they hybridized with a creature that could only become a low level Sage then that is as far as they would ever go on their journey.


    The final road a Sage could take was Soul Transference. This road was similar to Bloodline Modification except instead of modifying their own body the Sage would transfer their soul into the body of a creature or construct. There they would grow until they reached the peak of their bodies capabilities. Whats more the body that they transfered into would have to be that of an infant or egg to properly allow the Sage to keep their conciousness while binding to the foreign body. Otherwise they could find their soul and memories devoured by the creatures and instead allow the creature to benefit.


    With a sigh Savani looked at the book he was origionally reading before closing it and heading to bed. Tomorrow he would be given his first spell and meditation technique and he needed a clear mind to help him determine what to choose. Before heading to sleep though, he sent a message to the chip to sort all knowledge gathered over the last month in his memories into different categories and to start extrapolating an appropriate plan to maximize his growth.

 Chapter 3

    The next morning Savani was in a small group of fellow apprentices in the main hall of the tower. In front of them on a raised podium made of bone was a man who looked half mummified. His skin was grey and gaunt. His eyes were sunk into his head and flickered with a strange blue glow. This mans hair was fine and the color of dried hay. However despite his weak appearance the air he portrayed was filled with might and danger. This man was Sage Lance.


    Sage Lance looked over the crowd of apprentices gathered before him. Inwardly he wondered how many would actually last a year as well as if there were any seedlings actually worthy of transcending. So few truely did. Amongst the various organizations it would be lucky to have one apprentice transend to a Sage in a group made of 500 individuals let alone the thirty or forty in front of him. Slowly he opened his mouth and began to recite the speech he had been giving every time new apprentices finished their month of basic training.


    "Congratulations on you all for finally becoming true apprentices. This marks the beginning of your journey to power and truth. As of this moment you are all on your own. You may use the towers resources only if you pay for it. You may pay by either trading in resources, agreeing to help with research experiments, or by earning contribution points by doing tower missions. You will be given one basic spell module to study and master as well as a basic meditation technique. If you wish for more spell modules or higher grade techniques you will have to earn them. Just like everything else in life. If you want true power and true wisdom you must earn it yourself! Welcome to the world of Sages where truth and power reign above all. Work hard....for your own sakes."


    With that he waved his hands and a shroud of darkness descended before disapearing. In the place of the stage was 6 tables each with an undead behind it. On each table was a sign stating one of the basic elements.


    Savani quickly got into the line that was labeled Darkness. When he got in front of the undead creature it took from under the table a crystal ball and a scroll with some spells written on it.


    Negative energy blast. Description: A blast of negative energy can be shot in the form of a wave from the wielders palm to a target. Distance 30 feet.


    Acid Shot. Descritption: Creates an acidic ball with immense corrosive properties that can be shot at single target. Distance 60 feet.


    Ghostly sounds. Description: Creates screams and cries in a designated area. Sound has mild hypnotic effect to attract attention. Distance 120 feet.


    Chill touch. Descrition: Make a hand out of negative energy that deals necrotic damage to creature touched. Range 100 feet


    Negative energy weapon. Description: Create a weapon out of negative energy that deals necrotic damage. Melee spell.


    Looking over the spell list in his hands Savani began to think. After staring at the list he eventually chose Acid Shot. The reason was simple. Some of the monsters outside were undead in nature, which made them resistent to necrotic type damage. Besides that the only other spell, Ghostly Sound, was only good for distractions. There was no way for Savani to defend himself with such a spell. Acid Shot was the only spell that could be used on both magical creatures and undead amongst the spells given.


    After pointing to the spell he chose the undead reaches under the desk and places a scroll next to the crystal ball placed previously. Picking both up Savani quickly returns to his room locking the door behind him.


    Savani took the spell scroll and crystal orb and placed them at his desk. "Finally I can start my journey."This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Reaching forward, Savani grabbed the crystal orb and placed it on his forhead. He stimulated his spirit in the way he was taught to and gently connected it with the orb. Once it connected his mind began to throb as he felt his conciousness fading ever so slightly.


    [A data trancference has been initiated. Proceed with transfer?] The chips voice sounded in his mind.


    "Proceed!" At Savani''s command, the throbbing in his brain got worse and his conciousness faded even further as information flooded his mind. Pictures and stances flowed into his memories as words and paragraphs explaining energy absorbtion and refinement appeared out of nowhere.


    After some time Savani sat up groaning, the lingering pain of the transference still causing his head to throb in pain.


    [Elementary Meditation Technique has been added to archive. Folder for meditation techniques has been added to Memory. To refine technique to better suit your constitution please gain more knowledge on the Darkness and Space elements.]


    Focusing through his newfound headache the information that the chip told him made him estatic. Since the Meditation Technique was only a basic version the chip could upgrade and customize it!


    "Chip create long term project of improving and refining meditation technique and create folders based on the knowledge of the Elements prioritizing Darkness and Space as well as a folder on Magic in general and how it functions."


    [Confirmed. Creating folders on Elements and Magic. Transfering all current knowledge into respective folders from memories.]


    Savani felt his head throb once more as memories over his life in this new world flashed past his eyes. Once it was done the neutral voice of the chip resounded in his mind yet again. [Knowledge extraction complete.]


    "Good. Auto extract any knowledge in real time from now on. Have you formulated an appropriate path of advancement?"


    [According to modules learned the most suitable path is that of Blood Refinement.]


    Curiously Savani asked, " What made you come to this concusion?"


    [Elemental Baptization would cause user to loose one element in favor of strengthening the other. As host wishes to keep both elements this path is unsuitable for you. Body Modification would require a constant influx of resources and modification to the body. As the host does not have access to higher forms of knowledge the host cannot perfectly plan a road that would lead to the peak as the host wishes. Soul Transference would transfer the hosts soul to an unfamiliar body and leave the host weak, forced to regrow in strength and leave their humanity behind. This method can only be done once so if the host is unable to find a strong enough creature to transfer to this method is seen as a last resort. Therefore only Bloodline Refinement is left as valid option.]


    Looking at the chips logic Savani conceeded it did make sense. Having both Darkness and Space means that he could be far stronger and more versetile than others of the same grade. Of course the trade off is that he would need far more knowledge and spells which means spending more money and resources. Because of that Savani didn''t also want to spend money on modifying his body, especially when modifying it in a way that would support his Space affinity would most definitely not be cheap. And as much of an introvert Savani was, he still didn''t want to throw away his hummanity, at least not at this stage of his development.


    "Do you have any reccomendations on how to proceed?"


    [It is reccomended that the host learn both the art of Alchemy as well as Necromancy. Alchemy can be used to generate income while also giving the host knowledge on how to refine bloodlines. Necromancy will give the host knowledge of anatomy as well as increasing the hosts power base and understand of the Darkness element.]


    "Which do you reccomend learing first?"


    [Host should learn the art of Necromancy first. It will allow user to create undead minions to protect the host as well as gather ingredients needed to learn and practice Alchemy.]


    Looking at the chips reccomendation Savani began to think. Currently he only had one spell, Acid Shot. While good for long range, the downside was that Savani would have to rely on others to protect him in battle. But from what he learned of this world Savani would need to be as self sufficient as possible. History was full of Sages that were supposedly friends for years only to turn on each other when the benifits were too good to pass up. That, along with his natural unease of people in general cultivated between both his past life and his current one, made trusting his safety to others just felt wrong and foolish.


    However, with an undead he wouldn''t need to worry about that. The undead could be a shield while he flung Acid Shot from behind!

 Chapter 4

    Once Savani decided on a rough route to advance down he looked over to the spell scroll on the table. After deciding his path and learning the Basic Meditation Technique it was time to learn his first spell!


    Unrolling the scroll Savani began to read its content. On the page were various diagrams showing hand positions and a strange runic language written on almost every part of the page. This was the language of the Sages that all apprentices were required to learn in their first months training. It was also a way that Sages kept the secret of magic from falling into commoners hands. For some reason the runes on the page could not only be used like normal letters but also store some kind of intent inside to better help the reader understand the magic they were learning.


    By putting ones Spirit into the scroll while reading it, the reader would gain more understanding to the type of magic and how to mold it to shape the spell. In fact if one could understand this molding process one could forgo the need to chant and use hand signs to better help shape the spell. However doing this required far more knowledge about that particular element than a simple scroll could give. It would require years of experimentation and practice to get to such an extent.


    While sitting in front of the scroll Savani had the chip copy its contents as well as the strange influx coming from his spirit. After about an hour of reading and re-reading Savani closed the scroll and leaned back in his chair.


    [Spell module Acid Shot recorded. Placed into new folder named Spell Modules. Information on creating acid from Darkness particles extracted and placed into appropriate folder. If user wishes to create permanent instant cast spell module more information on Darkness element and its relation to acid is needed.]


    Looking at the chips prompt Savani frowned. He was hoping with the help of the chip he could simply make a spell module that would let him forgo the process of chanting and spell weaving. Sadly it looks like his knowledge was simply too lacking. No wonder Sages were called that. The amount of knowledge needed to reach their rank was something that couldn''t be ignored.


    Getting up from his desk Savani went and sat on his bed. He quickly crossed his legs and got into the stance mentioned in the Beginners Meditation Technique.


    "Chip record the following meditation practice and extract useful data. Record changes to body and after give a full diagnostic."


    Closing his eyes Savani slowly delved his conciousness deeper inward as described in the technique. In the dimly lit room it looked like he had fallen into a deep sleep. Instinctively his breathing began to follow a strange pattern.


    To Savani it seemed like the world had become black and filled with different colored particles. The vast majority were either a grey or yellow color but there were flecks of green and blue. The colors that were the least were a red and white color. These colors were so few there might not even be one to a thousand of the other four.


    Strangely Savani could also sense another particle, though he couldn''t see it. Nevertheless he knew where each and every one was. These particles were far smaller than the rest but they were also far more numerous. In fact, many empty parts of the blackness were filled with these particles.


    Reaching forward Savani grabbed a grey particle. Once it came in contact with his hand the particle merged into him and a cold feeling spread through his body. Strangely this cold feeling didn''t feel invasive or wrong but instead made his body sigh in comfort.


    Curious Savani reached for a yellow colored particle. This time the particle took longer to merge with him and gave him a feeling of distaste. Reaching for a white particle his body instinctively jerked. It felt like this particle would end up harming him more than helping. Still to learn more Savani grabbed the particle and tried to absorb it. Once absorbed his body felt like it was buring as pain washed over him.


    Now slowly figuring out each particle Savani now reached for the particles he couldn''t see. Grabbing at where his senses told him a particle should be he felt the same comfortable feeling as the grey particle except instead of feeling cold he felt a kind of rich heavy feeling instead.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.


    Over the next two hours Savani grabbed as many particles as he could that were either gray in color or the ones he could percieve but not see. Sadly after those two hours were up his body began to feel full to the point of bursting. Once he felt that absorbing more particles wouldn''t benefit him, Savani started to come out of his trance. What welcomed him was a flood of notifications from his chip.


    [Host has entered into meditative state, recording process. The host''s brain cells have entered a strange state of stimulation.]


    [Host''s Spirit has gained 0.01 increase.]


    [Host''s Spirit has gained 0.01 increase.]


    [Host''s Spirit has....]


    [Host''s Spirit has seemed to reach saturation point. Host has left meditative state. Scanning host now.]


    [Host has gained 0.13 Spirit after 2 hour meditation state. Host body affinity has slightly increased with Darkness and Space. Host''s experience with meditation has been recorded and copied into appropriate folders for analysis.]


    Looking at the notifications Savani felt a strange contentment for the first time since arriving in this world. The feeling of absorbing those particles satisfied a hunger he didn''t even know he possessed until this point.


    Looking over the experience it was obvious the grey particles and the invisible particles were Darkness and Space. Since this was a tower run by a Darkness Sage it would make sense that the area would have more Darkness particles than the rest. As for Space he doubted there would be a shortage of such particles anywhere as they were what made the dimension as a whole. However there was one particle he was wondering about.


    "Chip what were the red and white particles that my body seemed to reject?"


    [After extrapolating data from training and your experience there is a high chance that those were Fire and Light respectively. As Darkness runs on the negative energy spectrum it is countered by those on the positive energy spectrum. Both Fire and Light reside on this spectrum.]


    "And the other particles?"


    [Those were of Earth, Water, and Wind. These three elements do not lean to either spectrum. Fire also is more neutral in nature but with its close affinity to the Light element your body still seems to feel some discomfort from this element. However there are forms of negative energy fire. Once the host can discover the connection between the two it is possible the host will be able also absorb this element.]


    Hearing the chips deduction Savini had to agree. "Chip show new status."


    [Host name: Savani


    Race: Human (beginner apprentice)


    Affinities: Darkness, Space


    Attributes: Strength: 2.91 Physique: 3.02 Vitality: 2.13 Agility: 2.46 Spirit: 5.17


    Status: Healthy


    Skills: Magic Language Proficiency (Basic)


    Spells: Acid Shot(beginner)]


    "Wait why did my Vitality decrease?!"


    [During experimentation the host absorbed an element of Light. More than likely absorbing elements that are counter to yours will result in bodily harm.]


    Hearing this Savani frowned. If that was the case he would have to be careful where he meditated in the future. If a place was too heavy in the Light element it could actually end up hurting him, possibly even down right killing him!


    Looking back to his status the beginner next to Acid Shot stuck out to him. "Chip is there any way to increase my proficiency with my spell?"


    [Chip can create a virtual training ground and analyse hosts spell casting. With each cast the chip can send feedback to host to increase efficiency.]


    "Proceed with the training ground."


    Savani felt himeself go into a state similar to his meditation. However instead of ending up in a world of particles he ended up in a large white room with a row of white dummies along one wall.


    [Host has entered virtual testing ground. Please begin to cast spell.]


    After looking around a bit Savani started to try and cast Acid Shot. First he started manipulating his Spirit in the way the scroll mentioned before chanting the spell while weaving the Spirit with his hands using the various hand signs mentioned.


    Focusing on so many things at once was a definite strain on his mind which led to the spell failing. Instead of shooting out a shot of acid toward the target it instead conjured acid above Savani and doused him. Luckily it was just a virtual range or else he would have been severely injured.


    After removing the acid that covered him Savani tried again. This time he managed to get a bit farther before the magic backfired and shot him backwards in an explosion of acid.


    For the next hour Savani tried again and again to fire the spell before a headache began to form. Suddenly Savani found himself back on his bed.


    [Detecting a draining of Spirit. Spirit has been lowered to below 3. Signs of Spirit Exhaustion have begun to appear. Ejecting host from Virtual Training area. Data recorded. Virtual training area takes 1 Spirit for each half hour of use. Reccomend that host increases Spirit for prolonged use of Virtual Area. Experience while training has been recorded.]

 Chapter 5

    Over the next week Savani entered into a routine. First he would check his status then meditate and absorb as many particles as he could. After he would take a break and spend a few coins on food in the local kitchen. Luckily a basic meal was only a few gold so he could afford it. Once that was done he would go back into his room and enter the Virtual Training area where he would practice Acid Shot over and over until he was ejected. Once he was ejected he would take a nap before wandering around the tower trying to learn more about the social hierarchy as well as any infromation that could help him discover what to do next.


    From what he learned during the week there are roughly 200 apprentices in the tower. Most of those have an affinity for either Darkness or Earth with a few Water and Wind apprentices spread around. However out of those 200, only 4 have mananged to get to the level of Pseudo-Sage. With those four as the core the entire apprentice body can be broken into two factions, the Earthen Court and the Shadow League.


    The Earthen Court is headed by two of the Pseudo-Sages. The first is the Metal Lord Griff who has found a way to modify a normal Elemental Baptization and have it refined into a sub-branch of Earth magic focused on metal. This has given him a body made out of metal making him a powerful close-combat fighter. Whats more any metal object he uses can be strengthened to withstand more damage or increase the damage he can inflict on others.


    With him is his lover and partner Flower Queen Kiana. Origionally she had a high affinity with Water but by using the large amount of Earth essence in the area as well as some knowledge on the Light element, Flower Queen Kiana modified herself into a half-plant women capable of controling various flora she grows. One of her most deadly flowers is a rose that releases a kind of poisonous pollen spread through the air.


    Opposite the Earthen Court is the Shadow League run by Crow King Victor and Shadow Wielder Mary. Like Metal Lord Griff, Shadow Wielder Mary is an Elemental Baptization pseudo-Sage focused around the Shadow aspect of the Darkness element. Whats more she managed to get her hands on a spell that lets her merge into the shadows making her a powerful assassin.


    Her partner in the court is the Crow King Victor who is following the path of Bloodline Enhancement. Supposedly he found a way to refine a stronger version of the bloodline of the local Shadow Crows which has given him the ability to control the local crow population. Along with controlling crows it has also increased his eyesite to be as strong as a bird of preys. With that he is the most feared apprentice when it comes to weilding a bow. Between the two many fear the intelligence network and assasination potential of the Shadow League.


    When not collecting information on the social heirarchy or training, Savani browsed the prices for the local knowledge available to him in the tower. In order to get a lesson in Necromancy or Alchemy it would cost 20 contribution points or resources of the equivalent value. If he wants to self learn it would cost 1 contribution point to borrow a book out of the library for an hour. From what he gathered there are roughly 10 books on beginners Necromancy, another 10 on anatomy, and 15 on Alchemy along with 30 or 40 on the apprentice level knowledge of the Darkness element in the library meaning he would need at least 50 contribution points to create a proper foundation for himself just from self-studying. And that was excluding the books focused on magic as a whole or those focused on bloodlines. As for the Space element, sadly there were no books in this particular tower. Savani would have to travel to find that information. Luckily he had the assistance chip or it would cost probably double that amount, if not triple!


    * * * * * * * * * *


    Like every other day Savani awoke and opened his status. Looking at the progress he made Savani couldn''t help but smile.


    [Host name: Savani


    Race: Human (beginner apprentice)


    Affinities: Darkness, Space


    Attributes: Strength: 2.91 Physique: 3.02 Vitality: 2.13 Agility: 2.46 Spirit: 6.08


    Status: Healthy


    Skills: Magic Language Proficiency (Basic)


    Spells: Acid Shot (Proficient)]


    Over the past week Savani increased his Spirit while also raising his skill in Acid Shot. Not only that but he raised it two grades! Before it was beginner and when he finally stopped causing it to backfire on him the skill was raised to Adept. With this he could actually fire the Acid Shot, though sometimes it either wouldn''t go as far as it was suppose to or would deviate away from its target. It was only last night when the proficiency upgraded once again after hitting the target correctly several times in a row.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    This finally gave him the courage to start going out and accepting Tower Quests. From experiments he had done during the last week, after getting to the point the spell would not kill him once it was cast, to fire one shot of Acid Shot would take one Spirit. At 3 Spirit he would begin to develop a headache and at 2 Spirit it would feel like someone was plunging a spike into his brain. With that as a warning Savani could at most shoot 4 Acid Shots max while out in the field. At that point he would have to return and rest for several hours until his Spirit had recovered.


    Once he finished breakfast Savani went and looked at the local Tower Quest board. On it ranged a large number quests that encompassed the surrounding thousand miles around the tower, many of which had to deal with monster problems in various towns far away from the tower.


    "Chip scan data on tower quests and give the best quests for the contribution point value vs danger level. Only show quests that can be done in immediate area around the Tower. I''m not strong enough to be leaving the Tower''s influence yet."


    [Scanning quests and extracting appropriate quests based on parameters set. Sorting and extrapolating quest information. Based on hosts current aptitudes and requests there are 5 quests suitable for the host.


    1. Hunt Giant Centipedes in the nearby caves. Needed for Alchemy project for a local visiting Sage. Reward is 1 contribution point for every body delivered up to a maximum of 5 points. Please note that Giant Centipedes are roughly a meter long and can blend with the shadows of the cave.


    2. Herd the local zombies back into the appropriate area. 3 zombies have left the area they were assigned had have started heading to the area designed for plants and Alchemy ingredients. Please herd them back to the proper area. Reward will be 3 contribution points.


    3. Catch some poisonous frogs from the local swamp. Poison from frogs is needed for Alchemy experiments. For every 5 frogs captured you will be rewarded with 1 contribution point. If you capture 20 you can ask for one beginner level potion instead of contribution points.


    4. Need Alligator for Necromancy Experiments. If someone can bring 1 relatively undamaged body of one of the local Giant Alligators to the Tower you will be given 5 contribution points. I only need 3 bodies though so first come first serve.


    5. Alchemy plants need cataloguing. Go out and catalogue all Alchemy plants in the appropriate zone. Every group will be given 1 point for every 10 types of plants catalogued. Warning: Data will be cross referenced with data from other groups as well as past data. If your data is deemed tampered with there will be consequences.]


    Looking through the list of quests Savani ended up choosing the first one. With his only spell being Acid Shot and with no funds left to buy capturing equipment Savani didn''t think that any frogs would survive. As for the Alligators, he doubted he could actually bring a body back with his low Strength. Those Alligators weighed several hundred pounds! And the herding the zombies quest would have Savani act as bait. One has to realize that though a zombie is concidered slow, thats only relative to an apprentice. For a fresh apprentice like Savani who hasn''t started refining and strengthening his body, those zombies may as well have been jungle cats.


    As for the cataloguing quest Savani simply wouldn''t be able to know what plant was what or what it was used for. He had yet started learning Alchemy so the various plants couldn''t be catalogued just yet. That left the Giant Centipedes the only quest left.


    Quickly grabbing the quest from the board Savani went over to a young man with curly red hair behind a nearby counter.


    "Hello I''d like to register this quest. Is it still open?"


    The young man took the quest and placed in on a nearby crystal ball. Once the ball glowed white he nodded his head. "The quest is still active. Looks like it hasn''t been claimed yet. Makes sense all the new apprentices are still learning meditation and the point value is too low for the older ones."


    Looking over at Savani the red-headed apprentice starts studying his appearance. "You''re one of the new ones right? Thats a surprise. Usually it takes a month for a new apprentice to get the hang of meditation." With a nod of his head the red-headed apprentice holds out his hand. "The names William. Glad to see we finally got some decent fresh blood in this tower."


    Reaching over and giving the hand a shake Savani replied, "Nice to meet you William. I''m Savani and I just happened to be a bit lucky. I''ve always found it easy to clear my mind. My father often called me scatter brained because of it."


    With a laugh Willian took out a pen and wrote Savani''s name on the page before placing it in a folder. "Alright Savani the quest has been recorded under your name. If you don''t finish it in the next two days someone will come looking for you. If you can''t be found it will be assumed you were killed and the quest will be reopened. Good luck."


    With that cheery note William turned to the next apprentice who brought him a quest. At the mention of death and how casually William mentioned it, Savani remembered just how cruel the world of Sages was. Death was a common occurence. No one would even blink if he died while adventuring.


    With that cold reminder Savani headed toward the door. His first foray into the wilds of this world was about to begin.

 Chapter 6

    Stepping out of the tower Savani was welcomed to a landscape of trees and a permanently clouded over sky. The trees were a dark brown, almost black in color with leaves that were red as blood. There was a clearing between the forest and the tower that spanned about 50 meters, giving the tower room to see any who would come to the door.


    In front of Savani laid a road 10 meters across made out of cobbled stone. From the information he had gathered this road marked the only safe path through the forest to lands outside. As long as someone stayed on this road they would not be attacked by the creatures of the forest. Of course that was only if the travelers had an appropriate trinket to show they were a friend. No Sage would leave such a blatent hole in their towers defences. In fact, the road purposefully weaved through some of the more dangerous areas, one of which was the home to the Gallow Trees a sentient tree that would drop vines over its victims that would constrict and hang them until the victim suffocated before cocooning them for later consumption.


    Still it was this road that apprentices often used to get to certain parts of the forest for missions. When they were accepted to the tower every apprentice was given a badge that worked as a form of identification. This would protect them from some of the defence mechanisms placed, so long as they were in an approved area. However danger was part of the trials of an apprentice so once they stepped off that road they were concidered free game. Though there were a few creatures trained to not outright attack a student.


    Savani began to walk along the road towards his destination. The cave that held the Giant Centipedes was near the swamp where the Giant Alligators resided. If he followed the road for a half hour he would get to the part of the forest that he would have to enter to begin his quest.


    As he started to walk down the trail Savani noticed some of the plants along the side of the road seemed to start to move toward him before stopping and return to their original position. Glaring at the plants along the path Savani had an idea. "Chip can you scan the surroundings?"


    [Affirmitive. This chip can use your Spirit and bodily senses to make a map of the surrounding area.]


    "Perfect. I want you to keep a scan up of the local area and convert it into a map focusing on resources as well as creature territories."


    Since the surrounding areas were meant as both a resource site and a protection of the local tower Adept Lance would not allow maps of the area around the tower to be sold. At least not officially. Unofficially there was a black market amongst the apprentices where those that went out and explored would sell crudely drawn maps of the different areas as well as information on where certain resources could be found. The only rule was that these maps and information could not be given to visiting apprentices or traders who would sometimes be allowed in the tower.


    The problem was these maps were often increadibly expensive while also being rather vague. Still with the information those going out would have at least some idea of the area they were going to. But with the help of the assistance chip Savani could simply scan the area around him and construct his own private map that was much more detailed than anything he could get elsewhere.


    With the chip scanning the area Savani continued his walk down the road. Along the way he saw the Gallow Trees that would snatch adventureres and several zombies just stare at him from between the trees. Savani also thought he saw some Corrupted Dryads, creatures Adept Lance created from infusing negative energy into dryad slaves. Their purpose was to keep the forest healthy while also acting as scouts. They wre also one of the most deadly creatures of the forest, able to blend with the trees and surprise unsuspecting apprentices.


    Finally Savani reached the part of the road that he would have to get off and travel into the wilds. Farther down the road one could see the trees start to rise out of a swampy foul smelling water. The cave should be roughly another 10 minute walk through the brush from where he was standing.


    "Chip any lifeforms in the area?"


    [No sentient life forms detected in surrounding 100 feet in all directions.]


    "Good."


    Carefully Savani began to creep through the woods keeping his senses trained on his enviroment. The gloom of the forest mixed with his anxiety made it seem like he was a protagonist in some horror film trying to escape a terrifing monster.


    Covering the ground was a thick misty fog that made navigating through the trees difficult. Several times Savani almost tripped over a covered tree root or stepped on a twig creating a loud noise that echoed into the forest. Farther away from the main road Savani noticed several Shadow Crows residing in the trees watching him as he advanced through the woods. "Chip scan those crows and show me the data."This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    [Species name: Shadow Crow


    Affinities: Darkness


    Attributes: Strength: 2 Physique: 1 Vitality: 3 Agility: 5 Spirit: 2


    Abilities: Minor Hypnosis]


    [Data on new species recorded. New folder named Lifeforms created. Data stored in new folder]


    Looking over the data Savani couldnt help but swallow. The speed of these crows was no joke! At least to a fresh apprentice like himself. Not only that but they had the ability to hypnotize their prey, though in what way Savani didn''t know. However with its speed the Shadow Crow could slit someones throat while they tried to fight off the hypnotism. Luckily the crows wouldn''t try to kill you if they weren''t hungry. Though that couldn''t be said to hold true for all the species of the forest.


    Still the fact that they were even here and that it took so long for Savani to notice startled him. He realized that though he asked the chip to catalogue any creatures he came across he didn''t ask it to give him any form of warning. And when he was on the road he had only asked if there were any creatures in that particular area.


    "Chip from now on when a creature enters the area that looks like it could be a danger you are scanning you are to send me a warning. No need for normal animals. Also send an alert if there are any resources that seem like they could be useful in Alchemy."


    [Affirmitive. Will now send warning for any creature that could post danger to host.]


    After getting the confirmation from the chip Savani sighed. It looks like unless he gave a specific order the chip would only go about its own buisiness. He couldn''t take for granted that the chip would actively try to keep him safe. While it was an increadibly helpful tool, at the end of the day that''s all it was. A tool for him to use to help himself survive and grow stronger.


    With that out of the way Savani continued his journey to the cave. Several times the chip informed him of plants in the area that could be potentially used in potions. Savani started to wonder if he should instead of starting with Necromancy like the chip suggested he should start with Alchemy. Though Necromancy would make him safer and give him several servants that would make exploring and resource gathering easier it also wouldn''t allow him to strengthen himself as a whole. Just remembering that a simple Shadow Crow had speed that doubled his was worrying.


    Noting down the area of these resources Savani finally managed to find the cave where the Giant Centipedes resided. A large hill with a jagged hole in it stood about 30 feet away. Savani knew that this cave was one of many that would lead to the large cave system that stretched under the tower.


    Savani sat outside the cave enterance for several minutes to make sure that no creatures would enter the range of the chips scan. Once he was sure the area was clear he started to edge his way inside. While he began following the cave path Savani made sure to keep the wall to one side as well as remind the chip to instantly let him know when a creature entered its range.


    Finally what seemed like an hour, though Savani was sure it was only several minutes as he could still see the light coming from the enterance of the cave, the chip sent him a signal. A creature was crawling on the roof of the cave 100 feet away from him. Whats more it seemed to be trying to sneak up on him, slowly moving in his direction. "Chip scan that creature and highlight it for me. I can barely see anything in this light."


    [Species name: Giant Centipede


    Affinities: Darkness,Earth


    Attributes: Strength: 3 Physique: 3 Vitality: 2 Agility: 1 Spirit: 1


    Abilities: None]


    After sending the information to Savani as well as saving it away for later the chip created a highlighted glow around the Giant Centipede. Savani waited until it was 60 feet away and then started casting Acid Shot. Once the spell was ready to be fired Savani aimed it to hit the Giant Centipede right in its head. With a woosh a small ball of acid formed before shooting toward its target.


    With a splat the ball hit the Giant Centipede behind its head, not quite where Savani wanted to but it still was a deadly shot to the creature. With a shriek it fell off the ceiling, the fall causing more injuries to its body. Wriggling on the ground the Giant Centipede continued to shriek as the acid melted its way inside it. After several second it finally laid dead on the ground.


    Despite it not moving Savani couldn''t help but be paranoid. "Chip is there any form of life?"


    [Negative there is no form of life from the creature.]


    With the chip confirming its death Savani let out a deep breath. With a grin he walked forward to get a better look at his first kill. The Giant Centipede was a full meter long as as thick as an arm. Hundreds of legs lined the bottom of its body that was covered in a black carapace. On its head were two feelers each about a foot long with pincers that were easily several inches and as sharp as a knife. Behind its head was a hole still smoking from his Acid Shot. The hole was so large it almost completely disected the head from the rest of the body.


    Once the remainder of the acid stopped eating through the body Savani grabbed it and flung it over his shoulders like a scarf, making sure that the sides with the legs were facing away from his skin. With this he could take the body with him while he continued his hunt.Looking deeper into the cave Savani couldn''t help but frown.


    "Chip is there anyway you could help my vision with this darkness?"


    [Afirmitive. Chip can module sight into a rudementary form of dark vision using Spirit. Will take 1 Spirit for one hour of activation.]


    "Do it. Also let me know when a half hour has gone by from activation so I can start heading back to the surface."


    With a sudden burning feeling in his eyes Savanis vision turned into a world of black, white, and grey. However now he could see farther down into the tunnel as well as see the uneven ground ahead of him. With a grin he started to stalk deeper into the earth to continue his hunt.

 Chapter 7

    Coming out of the cave Savani took a deep breath. Around his neck were the bodies of four different Giant Centipedes. Savani also had a large gash on one of his sleeves.


    Shortly after going deeper into the cave Savani came across another Giant Centipede. Just like before he took it out with a single Acid Shot however the commotion brought from the battle caused another two cenitpedes to race toward his location.


    Savani was able to take one down with an Acid Shot just like the previous two. However that gave the other time to get close and lunge at him. Savani was lucky that he managed to dodge part of the attack but in the process one of the mandables of the Giant Centipede cut his outstretched arm. Luckily it only cut his robe so Savani flung the centipede against the wall and backed up as quickly as he could. When the creature started charging towards him for a second time Savani managed to fire another Acid Shot at its torso. Once that was done Savani simply dodged and ran until the creature used up its Vitality and died. After killing three such creatures in a row, along with his splitting headache from the low Spirit thanks to the constant spell use, Savani decided it was time to head back to the tower. However first he needed to meditate to gain back some Spirit.


    "Chip let me know the second anything dangerous comes within 100 feet of me."


    Savani went back into the mouth of the cave and found an alchove near the enterance. Fitting his body into the alchove he began meditating. Over the next fifteen to twenty minutes Savani absorbed as much Darkness and Space element as he could. When the throbbing in his head went away Savani figured he would be ok to get back to the road.


    Quickly Savani headed back to the road, only stopping to pick a few of the alchemical ingredients he found along the way. Just as his foot hit the safety of the cobblestone he heard a shriek behind him. Looking at where he came from Savani saw a women made out of vines and bark yet at the same time her body seemed to have been lit on fire. The bark was a dark black and the vines were burnt and smoking. Her mouth was far wider than a normal mouth and filled with thorns making several rows of small sharp teeth. Her eyes were black with a ghostly white in its center. But the most worrying thing is that this women was only 30 feet away from the road!


    "Chip what happened! I thought that you had a range of 100 feet?"


    [Affirmitive. The range of the scan is 100 feet.]


    "Then how did she get so close!"


    [Reviewing scan data. Judging from data compiled from sensor the creature emerged from a nearby tree.]


    Hearing the data presented Savani felt a cold feeling run down his spine. If he had even been a fraction of a second late then this creature would have been able to get him! "Scan it!"This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.


    [Species name: Corrupted Dryad


    Affinities: Darkness


    Attributes: Strength: 15 Physique:15  Vitality: 20 Agility: 18 Spirit: 16


    Abilities: Forest Merging, Animal Control, Poisonous Vines]


    Looking at the Corrupted Dryads status Savani felt even more scared than before. If this creature had managed to grab him there would be nothing he could do. Quickly Savani ran back down the road toward the tower, all the while the Dryad was screaming behind him.


    Once he got closer to the tower Savani began to slow down. Looking around the road he saw other apprentices coming and going, sometimes in a group but most were alone like he was. Savani waved to a few but after several times not getting any response beyond a glare he started to mind his own business. After another 10 minutes Savani arrived back at the tower. Quickly Savani went back to the quest board area and got in line to submit his results.


    Reaching the front of the line Savani took the Giant Centipede bodies and placed them on the table in front of him. "Hello I''m here to turn in the quest for hunting Giant Cenitpedes. My name is Savani if it helps."


    The attendant at the desk, this time a girl with a strange third eye placed in the middle of her forhead, looked up at Savani. " One moment please." After that she grabbed the crystal next to her and placed it on her forhead. Once several seconds passed she took the crystal off and placed it back in its origional place. "Alright Savani that will total 4 contribution points. I just need your tower badge to register the points."


    Savani took out his badge and handed it over. The three-eyed girl took it and held it to the crystal which glowed once more before handing the badge back. "There you go. Now you badge will act as the counter for your points. You can take it to any of the obsidian pillars in the corner of the hall to use them as well as check on your account. These pillars can also be used to instigate a trade of points between two parties. You can also give it to any apprentice assigned at different places throguhout the tower like the library or the alchemy rooms. Just hand it to them and they will take off the appropriate amount of points."


    Taking back the badge Savani thanked the girl before walking quickly over to the nearest pillar.  Watching a few other apprentices place their badges on the large obsidian pillar Savani found an unoccupied corner and placed his badge on its surface. Suddenly a shocking sensation went up his arm to his head as a list of various posts appeared in his mind. "Chip scan and catalogue all requests."


    Savani figured even if he couldn''t complete any of them now, with the help of the chip he could at least get a general trend of what was needed. If it led to an easier form of points then there was no reason to not do it.


    [Copying and cataloguing requests. Several trends found. Points are used to purchase ingredients, the aquasition of kowledge, increasing your living standards in various ways, borrowing various labs that the tower possesses, and hiring guards to accompany you on missions. Points can be earned through tasks such as tower quests, trade, tutoring other apprentices, taking posts throughout the tower, or magical duels where two parties put points on the line. The tower also keeps tab on point acclimation, affinity tendancies, and overall standing in the tower.]


    Looking at the variety of functions the tower gave Savani got the impression that he was back on Earth looking at a chatroom. He really had to hand it to the Sages, even though they were in different worlds some ideas still managed to be shared. "Chip save the data for later. It could be useful."


    After retrieving his badge Savani headed over to the library. It was time to learn some magic.

 Chapter 8

    After several minutes walking Savani finally managed to get to the library. Looking around there were only a small handful of people inside. The library was a simple stone room with a large window in the back to let in what little light leaked through the clouds outside. Inside were rows upon rows of bookshelves made out of polished stone. On these shelves were books of various sizes bound in leather and beastskins.


    On one wall next to the enterance was a wooden desk made out of some kind of red wood. On it was piles of books as well as a few other nick-nacks. Behind this desk was a middle aged man with a long beard reading a book. With one look you could tell he was an apprentice with little chance of breaking into the realms of a Sage.


    From what Savani had gathered almost every Sage had broke through by 30 at the latest, with a few rare exceptions who managed to stumble across fortuitous encounters. Sadly the man behind the desk was clearly older than 30, maybe closer to 50. Add that to the fact that instead of exploring and looking for such a fortuitous encounter this apprentice was sitting behind a desk in the library one could instantly tell that his advancement had come to an end.


    Looking around Savani started leasurely browsing through the various books. Taking one from the shelves he noticed that the books couldn''t even be opened unless one purchased the privledge to read them. Not only that but when he tried to have the chip scan a book it replied that there was some kind of interference that would not allow it to scan beyond its covers. However his browsing wasn''t completely useless. Savani found that the library not only contained various knowledges on magic and proffessions, it also held the spell modules for the various elements!


    For a while Savani wondered why these modules would be placed here of all places. Then he realized that to most people these modules would take at least a day to learn, perhaps two if you were less talented. Even to the most talented apprentice it would still take between 10 to 12 hours to memorize these spells. So the price for learning a new spell could range anywhere from 10 points to 50! Add to the fact that there were probably multiple layers of protection on them then placing them with the rest of the books made some sense. This way if an apprentice had questions or was missing some form of knowledge to cast the spell the resources were all in the same place.


    Savani on the other hand had the chip! Whereas it would take others dozens of times renting the same spell to learn it, all Savani had to do was scan it once and he would have a permanent copy! For an instant Savani almost bolted towards the spells to copy them before shaking his head. These spells might be helpful but right now his Spirit was simply too low. Later after he had grown some more he would start learning them but for now it was more important to build a foundation to earn the points he would need later.


    After browsing a bit more Savani finally stumbled on the section that held the books on Necromancy. Grabbing one call Beginners Guide to Raising the Dead he headed over to the old apprentice he saw before. Once in front of him Savani cleared his throat before saying "Hello sir, I was wondering how does one check out a book?"


    Looking up from the book he was reading the older apprentice gave Savani a glare. "To check out a book you need to place your badge on it. After that you will have one hour before you will have to renew your right to read the book. Also books are not to be taken out of the library." Pointing to one wall filled with doors he continued, "There are private reading rooms over there. Once you are finished with the book bring it here for me to put back. Sage Lance hates when books are placed on the shelf in random places so its just safer to hand them to me. Last person who placed a book in the wrong place was taken away for experiments as punishment. He is still in a coma."


    Thanking the apprentice Savani went over and found a vacant room. All that was inside was a desk, a chair, and a light source coming from some kind of green glowing algea placed in the corners of the ceiling. Sitting at the desk Savani placed the book down and put his badge on the cover. Once the badge was placed a shimmer appeared over the book before disapearing. Taking back his badge Savani found that now he could open the book. "Chip scan the book and copy all information from it to your databanks."


    [Initiating scan. Scan interupted. Unable to scan the book. Some form of interference is stopping scanning ability. Reccomendation. Host must physically read the book while chip copies information from memories in real time.]


    Rolling his eyes Savani opened the book and started reading. "Scan all information in real time and save to databank." Without even comprehending the words Savani trailed his sight word by word as quickly as he could. For the several minutes Savani used himself as a human copy machine reading the words while the chip stored away the information. Finally after a half hour was almost up Savani managed to read the final word and close the book. "Chip has all data been stored?"Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    [Affirmitive. Data on basic Necromancy has been stored and compiled. Would the host like to recieve information?]


    "Yes please." Feeling the now familiar throb of pain in his head Savani winced as a flood of information entered his mind. Looking through the information it seemed the art of Necromancy required two spells. Raise Undead and Control Undead. Raise Undead was needed because it converted a body into an undead puppet using darkness energy. The caster would create a control node that held his spiritual signature in the creatures skull. This node would then bind itself through spikes into the skull and start infecting all the bones in the body with darkness energy. First the energy would engulf the bone before seeping through the tiny pores the bone posessed refining it until the darkness essence coagulated in the area where the marrow use to be.


    The caster would do this bone by bone until the entire skeleton was refined. Once that was done the Necromancer would then cast Control Undead using the node he built earlier as a control station. After that the Necromancer would divert some of his conciousness to manipulate the bones in a way that would have the skeleton move and attack while they stayed back out of harms way. It seemed that the reason why a Necromancer rarely got involved with battle was that they diverted the majority of their conciousness into the undead. The stronger the Necromancer the more times they could divide their attention. However the drawback was that for each undead a Necromancer possessed, the undead would take up a part of the Necromancers Spirit. At least until the control over it was extinguished.


    Once Savani realized this he began to laugh. While it is true for others Necromancy would be a difficult occupation, for Savani all he had to do was give control over to the chip! Savani was quickly realizing how many advantages the chip would bring him in the future. Just today he discovered it would save him a large amount of time and resources as well as taking a load of the difficulty off battling with undead. Simply these benifits were enough to go mad over.


    Calming down Savani readjusted his plan. Origionally he was going to get a few books on darkness energy with his remaining points but now it seened like he needed to use two of his points to get Control Undead and Raise Undead. This left him one final point to use. Thinking it over Savani decided to get a book on herbology. With that the chip could start identifying the plants he came across in the wild. There were also the several herbs he already picked up on his way back to the tower. Hopefully there was something decent he could trade for a body or two to experiment on.


    Quickly Savani went out and collected the books he needed. For the next two hours Savani copied both spells and a book called One Thousand Herbs and their Various Usage which, as the title suggested, was a list of one thousand common magical herbs and their various properties. It was this book that took the longest and Savani was only just barely able to finish it within the allocated hour.


    Finally Savani spent all 4 contribution points and managed to increase both his knowledge and his arsenal. Now all he needed were a few fresh cadavers to practice Necromancy on. Taking all four books Savani placed them on the table with the old apprentice before heading out the door. While walking to the cafeteria Savani asked the chip to identify the herbs he had picked up.


    [Scanning now. Host has picked up 2 instances of Bloodweed, 3 instances of Lullaby dasies, and one instance of Demons Dream.]


    As the names of each of these herbs was said the cooresponding traits were sent over. Bloodweed was a magical grass that grew on blood. First the seed would need to be bathed in blood of a victim and then the weed grows using blood found in the soil over the course of 24 hours. In order to grow the dirt surrounding Bloodweed must be bathed in at least several pints of blood. Whats more this blood has to be from the same source as the blood that first soaked the seeds. From this information Savani could gather that someone was killed in the spot he picked the herb from within the last twenty-four hours. Its main use was in potions that stimulated the blood and was very important to body refiners.


    Lullaby dasies were a kind of flower that absorbed Earth essence from the ground. These dasies produced a kind of pollen that could send various types of creatures to sleep and was often required for smoke bombs apprentices would use to explore areas filled with large number of creatures.


    Finally Demons Dream was a type of mushroom that feasted on the souls of those who died. These souls would be trapped in its head and become resentful demons. Anyone who ate this mushroom would find their soul torn to shreds before becoming a type of undead that would destroy everything around it in a rage. However if an alchemist managed to get their hands on it they could refine the head into a potion that could be used to temper an apprentices Spirit.


    Looking at the spoils he managed to grab while out in the forest Savani couldn''t help but sigh. It was no wonder despite the danger some apprentices would explore the forest. Each of the things Savani found would be extremely useful if he were an Alchemist. Sadly he would have to wait for now and trade these spoils away in order to get the resources he currently needed.

 Chapter 9

    In the public dining hall Savani used a few gold coins to purchase a basic meal before finding an area in the corner to start eating. Looking around one could see the various apprentices grouped into different sitting arangements representing the various forces inside the tower. Those who were loners like Savani being the minority were either too weak for others to want or strong enough they could work on their own. Even the vast majority of fresh apprentices had starting forming small groups based on their shared interestsv over the last few weeks.


    Savani however never liked these kind of groups. It was a leftover trait from his time on Earth as an extreme introvert that was only compounded by the fact that he was a soul on a plane he didn''t originate from, which only added an extreme case of paranoia to the mix further isolating him. So alone he sat in a corner with his back to the wall watching the other groups eat in peace.


    The largest of the two groups were clearly the Earthen Court and the Shadow League. Each faction took an entire side of the dining hall with the more core forces toward the walls and the auxilary forces branching outwards, almost like a protective barrier. In fact the forces closest to the others side would send dirty glares, almost like they wanted to start a war right there to prove their loyalty. The entire dynamic seemed so pointless to Savani. Why try so hard to impress others when the best thing to do would be to increase your own strength.


    Quietly Savani continued to eat his food in the corner. At least until some familiar faces arrived. Looking at the enterance Savani saw both William and the three-eyed girl enter the dining hall. Whats more they seemed to know each other, but not in a good way. Savani saw the two look at each other and glare before William said something to the girl which seemed to make her angry. The girl retorted and Williams face scrunched up into a look that spoke quite clearly that he wanted to perform some kind of unspeakable act on her. The two argued back and forth while getting their food in a way that if Savani didn''t see the initial argument, as well as the increasing bloodlust on the twos faces, he would think they were doing a sketch about those arguing couples he use to see on tv.


    After all this arguing the two actually ended up going into the two biggest groups. William entered into the Earthen Court and the three-eyed girl went to the Shadow League. Though they didn''t enter the deeper areas of their respective groups the two did end up farther in than half-way. This made Savani a bit surprised as this showed that both had a decent standing in either group, though from how much farther the three-eyed girl went into the Shadow League Savani could guess she held the higher position of the two.


    Watching these two go to their respective camps Savani figured it was time to put the herbs he gathered up for sale. So he grabbed his tray and headed over to the drop off area. Unbeknown to Savani both William and the three-eyed girl noticed him getting up. Recognizing him as the first fresh apprentice to take a quest, and more importantly come back alive, they sent a message to the leaders of their faction. Figuring that Savani could be a useful seed for their respective factions both side sent over a representative to gauge his interest in joining their faction.


    The Shadows League sent out a women roughly 20 years old and with golden colored hair while the Earthen Court sent out a man that was over 6 feet tall and looked like he was literally chisled from stone. Seeing that a representative from the other side also went out the man and women quickly walked up to Savani and managed to get to him just as he was leaving the dining hall.


    "Excuse me handsome I was wondering if I could ask you something." A pleasant female voice drifted into Savani''s ears from behind catching his attention. Turning around slightly Savani was startled that two different apprentices seemed to be walking towards him while glaring at each other. Startled by the strange situation he found himself in Savani quickly replied "Are you talking to me?"


    With a smile the women continued, "Yes I was handsome. My name is Elizabeth and I was wondering if you would be interested in joining the Shadows League? You returned a quest to one of our members who informed us not only are you the first beginner apprentice to complete the quest, but you also seem to use Darkness magic based on the acid marks she saw on the bodies. As you know the Shadow League is the best choice for Darkness attributed apprentices."


    After listening to Elizabeth''s speach the stone man couldn''t helpbut grunt and reply. "Don''t listen to the blonde vixen, boy. Someone strong enough to go out hunting after only a week is worthy of joining out Earthen Court. The names Erik and I was told by the higher ups to extend an invitation to you to join our brotherhood. Though we may not have as many Darkness style resources we do have more ways to strengthen your body so you can earn those resources on you own. Not only that but Queen Kiana is an Alchemist that can make you various potions on request if you contribute enough to the Court."Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    Elizabeth sent a glare towards Erik. Savani saw the hatred between the two groups in the dining hall but seeing it in person he was even more amazed. Clearing his throat Savani looked at both of them. "I appreciate it but right now I still want to experiment and determine my path on my own.  However I will certainly keep in mind both of your offers but for now I would like to increase my strength on my own before joining any group."


    Judging from the looks both sides gave him it seemed that neither thought Savani would be brave enough to reject both of them. With a grin Elizabeth leaned in a little closer and said "Are you sure you don''t want to join our Shadow League. I promise it''ll be very....beneficial to you." As Savani looked into her eyes the chip in his head sent out an alar.


    [Warning. Low Level Spirit attack has been detected trying to influence the hosts mind. Mental defences have activated. Used 2 point of Spirit to cancel out influence.]


    Hearing the warning from the chip Savani quickly stopped looking at her eyes and focused behind her. "Thank you but no. I want to at least spend a while exploring and researching the different paths I could take. Thank you though."


    From the shock in her eyes it was clear that Elizabeth wasn''t expecting to be rejected again. It didn''t help that Erik the stone man was laughing near her from her being denied again. Now looking at Savani more seriously she thought for a bit and reached into a bag on her hip before extracting a small scroll. "Well since you have set your mind on exploring on your own at least take this small gift. Its a spell one of our apprentices managed to make after researching poisons. Its called Poison Sting and it coats your fingers with a magical poison. It should help if anything gets close to you. And I do hope you end up choosing the League."


    Seeing that Elizabeth was handing him a spell to entice him Erik quickly reached into a pouch he had and took out a book, one that if Savani had been paying attention to should not have fit into the bag it was drawn from. "Hey now Elizabeth it''s not good to go bribing the newbies. Here kid take this book. Its on the basics of body refinement. Use it to put some muscles on that skinny frame of yours. And when you decide to get stronger remember to join the Earthen Court.''


    Recieving gifts from both sides made Savani a little apprehensive. However he couldn''t figure out a way to reject the gifts after already turning down an invitation from both sides. So thanking them both Savani took the scroll and book and placed them under one arm as he fled the scene.


    Walking back to the table Elizabeth was stopped by another member. "Hey Liz, why did you give the newbie a spell? From what I saw he wasn''t really all that special. I''m sure we could have gotten stronger apprentices later after they''ve grown a bit."


    Looking at the member Elizabeth responded "The boy was able to not be influenced by my Dark Fey Gaze. That shows that he has some actual talent and that his Spirit is stronger than most at this stage. If giving him a weak low grade spell can earn us some good will why not? Plus it''s not like the spell was any use all it does is coat a persons finger in a mild poison. Doesn''t even harden it to make it useful in battle."


    After leaving the dining hall Savani quickly went to the Obsidian pillars and put the Demons Dream and the three Lullaby Dasies up for trade. What he asked for was several well preserved humanoid bodies for the Lullaby Dasies and some knowledge on the Darkness element for the Demons Dream. Savani decided to keep the Bloodweed for himself since it could restore blood if eaten.


    Returning to his room Savani first opened the book that Erik gave him. "Chip initiate scanning." Opening the book Savani employed the same trick he used in the library and once more became a human copy machine. After only twenty minutes Savani closed the book and leaned back in his chair. "Chip has all information been recorded?"


    [Affirmitive. Folder named Body Refinement has been created. All information used for body refinement and stimulation of the body will now be stored in this folder.]


    "Good. Now begin to copy a spell module." Placing the book on a corner of his desk Savani now unrolled the spell given to him by Elizabeth. Like she said the spell only created a type of poison using Darkness elements to draw in and corrupt water in the air before binding it onto the casters finger. The spell seemed useless but Savani was interested in the corruption aspect of it and how it used Darkness particles to influence other elements. So like when he learned Acid Shot Savani injected his Spirit into the spell and began to copy it into the chips databank. However something unexpected happened when he finished the spell.


    [Relevent knowledges to begin hosts strengthening plan have been catalogued. According to information on Body Refinement one way to refine a persons body is to bathe in baths filled with poisons or acid. This combined with alchemical potions the user drinks stimulates the bodys potential and causes their bodies to become stronger. Host has gained knowledge in both creating poison and acid using spells. Chip can now create an appropriate spell module using information provided.]


    Staring at the newest notification Savani couldn''t help but swallow. Finally he found a way to strengthen his weak body. By complete accident the Shadow League and Earthen Court gave him the keys he needed to start down his path as an apprentice. "Chip start making the spell now! How long will it take to complete?"


    [Analyzing. Spell module will take 132 hours 37 minutes and 14 seconds.]


    Five and a half days. In only five and a half days Savani could start training his body to a higher realm.

 Chapter 10

    The next morning after his daily meditation Savani went and checked to see if anyone responded to his herb placement. Luckily it looked like he had several offers, primarily thanks to the fact both herbs were increadibly useful if properly processed. For the Lullaby Daisies the other party was offering three fresh cave goblin bodies, one for each Daisy. As for the Demons Dream it looked like the highest offer was 15 knowledge points! Savani had no doubt it was because the person offering the points was an Alchemist. They were probably going to try and refine it into potion for the Spirit.


    Savani went out and met both parties before lunch. After some negotiating Savani got the buyer of the Demons Dream to throw in about 100 gold coins after promising to tell him where he found the mushroom. With this Savani refilled his coin pouch making his finances more stable for the time being. As for the bodies of the cave goblins, Savani had the apprentice help him bring them to his room.


    The cave goblins were all in relatively good condition. They were all around 3 feet tall and had thick builds with long arms. Their normaly grey skin was increadibly pale in death. One had a wound in its chest around where its heart should, another had its throat slit, while the final one was gutted. Still none had any broken bones like Savani asked when he put the Lullaby Dasies up for trade.


    Once that was done Savani went back to the library and used his new knowledge points to borrow every book on necromancy left along with a book on underground humanoid anatomy that had the cave goblin in it. While he was at it Savani went and got the spell Preserve Corpse so the bodies he aquired wouldn''t start decaying in his room. With that Savanis points dropped from 15 to 4 over the course of the day. However now he was far more confident in raising his first undead minion.


    After a good nights rest Savani meditated and ate a hearty breakfast before locking himself in his room.  Lying on his desk was the body of the goblin that had its stomach gutted. Savani took out some thread and a sewing needle he bought to close the wound. In all honesty it was more messy than it should have been and Savani needed to clean himself after but the goblin finally had everything shoved back inside and the wound sewn shut.


    Next came the hard part. According to the knowledge that the chip had managed to gather, it would probably take multiple castings of Create Undead to fully convert the goblin into an undead minion.  The important thing would be to finish whatever bone he was on before canceling the spell. That way the Darkkness essence would stay contained and not disipate into the flesh rotting it even further. Sadly Savani couldn''t practice in the Virtual Training Room like he could with Acid Shot. The chip may be able to simulate acid eating through something but it had no data on how Darkness magic affected a body.


    Savani''s plan was simple. He would use the first body to experiment casting the spell, all while the chip scanned the body and gathered information. Then if he failed Savani could simply use the chip to practice until he was able to do it properly on another of the bodies. This would leave him a third body as a back up in case anything happened. After positioning the body Savani had the chip start recording the process.


    "Adaru Vortuk Codelaras!''


    Chanting the spell while weaving his fingers over the corpses head Savani felt the Darkness elements in the air start to form little strings that began to dance along with his spell weaving. Slowly these strings fell from his fingers before piercing into the skull of the goblin. Once inside Savani felt them weave together to form a kind of core that began to pulse to a strange rhythm. This rhythm began to echo in the back of Savani''s head distracting him slightly.


    However this distraction is all it took. The previous threads that were once bound in a sphere began to unravel and pierce the sides of the cranium randomly. Once these threads got into the actual flesh of the corpse Savani saw, through his connection to them, that the threads started to cause any flesh they came across to start to rot at a speed visible to the naked eye. Savani could tell this was another aspect of Darkness magic he hadn''t come across before, and he made sure to make a note to have the chip help him research it at a later date.


    Once the spell started to rot the flesh it was over. Somehow the decaying flesh strengthened the strings so that even after Savani cut his connection with the spell the flesh on the goblin continued to rot before the entire head of the corpse was a half melted mess. Quickly Savani took the corpse and shoved it out his window. Since he hadn''t spent any points on upgrading his living arrangements Savani still lived on the first floor. He knew he would have to take the body and properly dispose of it later but for now he simply wanted that disgusting smell out of his room.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.


    "Chip did you manage to get all that?"


    [Affirmitive. All details of previous spell casting has been recorded. Based on data the host can now practice raising the undead in the Virtual Training Area.]


    "Good."


    After fanning out his room Savani went to properly dispose of the body he had been experimenting on. Since climbing out his window was against the rules, while also being slightly humiliating, Savani went out the front of the tower and began to circle around it before coming across the body slumped over outside his window. Dragging the body to the wood Savani decided practice casting the Preserve Corpse spell on this body before throwing it into the woods.


    Savani quickly had the chip scan his attempt at casting the spell before throwing the corpse into the tree line. With the various creatures roaming thru the trees he was sure that the body would be taken care of.


    After gathering information on two different spells Savani spent the rest of the day as well as the next in the Virtual Training Room practicing Create Undead and Preserve Corpse. Once he was profficient in Preserve Corpse Savani quiclkly cast it on the two remaining bodies. Then he once again tried to raise one of the goblins. This time he used the body that was stabbed through the heart.


    When Savani cast Create Undead this time he managed to stay focused through the strange throbbing that appeared in his head. Focusing he managed to bind the threads of Darkness energy into a solidified core. Once this was done he injected more energy through the threads into the core causing spikes to emerge and slowly grow till they pierced the skull. This time instead of detatching from the skull the Darkness energy began to coat it completely. Eventualy the skull had completely turned black.


    Once the skull was done the Darkness energy began to trickle down the spine coating each vertebrae. Once the vertebrae was covered the energy would seep inside before coagulating into a half liquid half solid energy in the marrow. Then the energy would seep out and re-cover the bone turning it as black as the skull.


    This went bone by bone until the entire spine was finished. By this time Savani had to stop the spell as his Spirit had been completely used up. Lying down on the bed accompanied by that throbbing headache that an apprentice who overdrew their Spirit always got Savani passed out. Once he awoke Savani went for a quick meal and meditated until he could try again.


    The next time Savani cast the spell he managed to coat the entire chest region as well as the beginning portion of the arms and legs. And finally the following day Savani managed to coat the goblins entire skeleton in Darkness energy converting it into an undead puppet.


    According to the knowledge on Necromancy he had collected now all Savani had to do was cast Control Undead. This spell didn''t even need any hand gestures. All he had to do was point his hand at the undead he wanted to control and say the incantation. Having the chip record the results like usual Savani pointed to the goblin on his desk and cast the spell.


    Savani felt the same throbbing in his head as he felt another string of Darkness shoot from his palm and pierce into the core he had created previously. Once that was done Savani felt his conciousness actually connect to the other body. Curiously Savani focused on that weird connection and tried to send a command to get up. On the table all the body did was twitch ever so slightly.


    Frowning Savani focused more on the connection between the body and him. This time he sent an image of the body bending its limbs pushing itself into a sitting position. This time the bodys arms slowly bent and pushed itself up into the same position that was sent.


    Looking at the results Savani realized why Necromancy wasn''t that popular amongst Darkness users. Just focusing on the connection enough to get the body to move was enough to get him killed by a sneak attack in the wild. Looking back at the now sitting body Savani tried to give control of the connection over to the chip. "Chip have the body get off the table and stand by the door."


    Nothing happened for a bit before the goblin stood up and swung its legs over the desk before sliding off and standing. For a brief moment all it did was stand as it swayed from side to side trying to find its balance before slowly walking towards the door. Seeing this Savani couldn''t help but feel elated. it seemed his plan now had some chance at success!


    Quickly Savani started converting the other body into another undead. By the time he was finished turning both bodies into undead the chip had completed its new spell module.


    [Spell module Water Corruption is complete. This spell will corrupt up to 6000 fluid ounces of water into a mildly acidic poisonous substance. The substance will increase in toxicidy the more Spirit the host uses when casting the spell.]


    Looking at the new spell and his two new goblin undead Savani decided tomorrow he would go out and find some herbs to help him begin to refine his body.

 Chapter 11

    The next morning Savani once again headed to the Tower Quest board. This time behind him walked one of the undead goblins. After some experimenting last night Savani found that each goblin would take up 1 Spirit to control. That meant that Savani''s overall Spirit capacity was reduced whenever he had an undead with him. With that being the case, Savani decided it would be smarter for now to only bring one unded with him while keeping the other as backup. Looking back at the undead minion following him Savani reviewed the data the chip gathered on it last night.


    [Species name: Undead Goblin


    Affinities: Darkness


    Attributes: Strength: 7 Physique: 8 Vitality: 1 Agility: 3 Spirit: 1


    Abilities: None]


    Thanks to its undead nature the goblins Strength and Physique were both increadibly high, and due to the freshness of the corpse it still managed to retain a decent Agility. However, since it was essentially a walking corpse being controlled by Savani both its Vitality and Spirit were absolute garbage. This firmly cemented it as a tank and gopher in Savani''s eyes. After looking at the goblin Savani reviewed his own status.


    [Host name: Savani


    Race: Human (beginner apprentice)


    Affinities: Darkness, Space


    Attributes: Strength: 2.91 Physique: 3.02 Vitality: 2.13 Agility: 2.46 Spirit: 7.01 (6)


    Status: Healthy


    Skills: Magic Language Proficiency (Basic)


    Spells: Acid Shot (Proficient), Create Undead (Proficient), Control Undead (Adept)....]


    Thanks to the constant draining of his Spirit followed by meditating as well as his rigorous daily absorption of Darkness and Space essence Savani managed to gather another point in Spirit over the last week. However, he felt a strange sense of unease. His Spirit was starting to feel like it was being restricted. Worried about the implications Savani had the chip start trying to diagnose the reason. Sadly due to lack of data the chip couldn''t figure out the reason for the strange phenomena.


    Pondering what he could do to fix the problem he was having Savani found himself in front of the Tower Quest board. Having the chip scan for anything suitable Savani saw that the quest for collecting frogs from last time was still up. Whats more the point contribution had been increased substantially.


    Urgently need some poisonous frogs from the local swamp! Poison from frogs is needed to continue with some experiments. For every frogs captured you will be rewarded with 1 contribution point. I only need between 20 and 30 frogs though. If you capture 20 you can ask for two beginner level potion instead of contribution points or one potion and 10 points.


    Looking at the posting Savani decided he would take this quest. His main purpose going out was to gather data on the surrounding areas and to get some more herbs to trade or stockpile. However Savani figured if he was already going out and exploring he might as well grab a quest or two along the way, so long as they didn''t clash with his origional objective.


    Savani took the quest and registered it before going out to the local apprentice bazaar. Since the apprentices had to essentially earn everything on their own after their first month of training the Tower only had the obsidian pillars to purchase things like rare herbs or lab rental. For more mundane and day to day equipment the tower instead allowed traders to come in and set up a bazaar in the back of the main hall. Here both traders and other apprentices would barter trying to get whatever resources they needed that the Tower didn''t offer.


    Walking into the bazaar Savani was amazed at all the different things he could buy here. In one stall there was a variety of odd looking fruits and meats being sold by a trader. In another there were all kinds of body parts preserved in various jars with an apprentice sitting behind the desk fiddling with a test tube. Looking farther down Savani could even see two stalls selling potions across from each other trying to both insult their competitor as well as trying to draw customers to their stall.


    Savani activated the chips scanning function as he roamed around looking for supplies. With the large influx of data the libraries of the chip were quickly being filled. While wandering around Savani quickly understood the trading system in place. For the most part low tier supplies like nets and cages were traded using gold. These mundane objects weren''t really worth apprentices trading rarer magical ingredients for. Anything magical in nature was either bartered for or, more rarely, was traded for magical crystal shards.


    Magical crystals were rare gems that contained a large amount of neutral magical essence. These made them saught after by Sages everywhere for their experiments. When mining these magical crystals some of the crystals would be destroyed and turned into crystal shards. These shards were useless at the Sage''s level but to an apprentice the ambient mana in them could still be extracted and used for their lower tier experiments. Since Sage''s hated wasting such a resource one Sage decided to take these shards and implement them as currency for the apprentices. Over time this system began to be used by apprentices everywhere and an economy was built around the crystal shards. This economy was purely based on magical objects, be they equipment, herbs or animals. Anything mundane and non magical still used the coin system for common mortals.


    Savani purposefully browses through the entire area until he managed to come across a mortal trader who sold cages and other hunting equipment. After bartering for a bit Savani managed to get a backpack, a few butterfly nets, some bags to keep herbs in, and two glass cages small enough to fit inside said backpack. After paying the man Savani loaded up both himself and his minion and headed out the door.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    As he walked down the main road Savani had the chip scan the surroundings like last time for any danger. He couldn''t help but remember last time when he was almost grabbed by a Corrupted Dryad. This time he was going to be far more careful.


    Savani kept walking along the road past the point he previously left until he came across the swamp. Finding that nothing was on the chips radar Savani hefted his backpack and began to slowly walk off the road. Keeping the undead in front of him Savani slowly started to explore the area around the road. Sadly it looked like anything useful so close to safety was already taken long ago forcing Savani to explore deeper.


    Slowly Savani encroached deeper into the swamp, making sure to stay on the dry land surrounding the murky water. After several minutes of delving deeper, the chip detected a Giant Alligator hiding in the water. Luckily it seemed to be at the edge of the range the chip could scan.


    [Species name: Giant Alligator


    Affinities: Water, Earth


    Attributes: Strength: 10 Physique: 8 Vitality: 6 Agility:5 Spirit: 2


    Abilities: None]


    As expected. The Giant Alligators were creatures of immense Strength. However due to their large size the alligators were slow. They were still creatures Savani couldn''t handle, for now at least. Savani quickly put more distance between himself and the shore.


    After a while the chip began to detect both the poisonous frogs as well as various magical herbs growing around. Some were in places he would never have even thought to look. Savani quickly had the undead go and collect each herb while he slowly walked along the shore collecting the frogs.


    Savani explored the area surrounding the swamp for several hours collecting a large amount of herbs. If it wasn''t for the chips ability to scan the area and the undeads ability to ignore some of the more dangerous effects Savani was sure that his bounty wouldn''t even be a fraction of what it was.For instance there were some herbs that grew inside the trees or underground. There were numerous times where Savani would have to climb up a tree and reach into a hole or between some branches.


    There were also several instances where a particular herb could only be collected by the undead. One such instance was with a flower called Dreamweaver. This flower released a pleasent odor that caused a euphoric sensation in whoever smelled it. Often those who smelled the scent of the flower would be drawn to it. The problem was that Dreamweaver was also accompanied by another plant called Bloodvine. This plant was a long red vine covered in vampiric thorns that would hang from trees and reach down on bewitched prey before binding them and draining them of all their blood. The bodies of these creatures would then become fertilizer for the Dreamweaver.


    However thanks to the undead both not being able to smell as well as not having any blood Savani was able to aquire both the Dreamweaver as well as the Bloodvine. He was sure that both could be sold for a high price. Savani also managed to collect over 30 frogs during his exploration as well as map out a good chunk of the swamp. Several times Savani had to hide in the trees or run away because the chip picked up on various creatures.


    Just from the scans done by the chip Savani was able to catalogue several dozen different plants and herbs as well as eight or nine different animals not including the Giant Alligators or poisonous frogs.


    After filling both his bags with herbs and getting enough frogs to complete the quest Savani started heading back to the road. However on his way back Savani heard the sound of fighting. Curiouse he asked, "Chip what''s going on?"


    [Detecting battle ahead. Two apprentices are fighing one of the Giant Alligators. Both apprentices seem to be beginner grade. More than likely these apprentices decided to explore the swamp after some form of breakthrough.]


    Looking at the chips message Savani began to question whether or not he should intervene. On the one hand these apprentices were foolish to come into the wild without any form of preparation. The only reason Savani did in the first place was he had the chip to keep an eye on the area as well as trained enough to hit a target with his spells. On the other if he ignored them and went on his way Savani would have to bear the guilt if anything happened to them. Despite reincarnating in a much crueler world Savani still held onto some of the ideals from Earth. One of which was to help someone if you noticed them in trouble.


    Thinking it over Savani decided to help the other apprentices. Quickly loaded all of his bags onto the undead goblin and had it follow him at a distance. This way Savani wasn''t burdened if he needed to run as well as could hide his spoils.


    Walking towards the noise Savani saw the two apprentices fighting against the Giant Alligator on the shore of the swam. Savani also noticed that there was a body of a young man already on the ground. Both of the other apprentices were flinging spells at the Giant Alligator while trying to gain some distance. One of the apprentices, a young boy with freckles and curly brown hair, was flinging ice shards at the Alligator. The other was a girl with black hair who was weaving underneath trying to pierce the Alligators hide with a sword, her lower half covered in some form of swirling wind.


    Watching the chaos before him Savani began to cast Acid Shot. Having an idea, Savani had the chip calculate the distance as well as the angle needed to strike the Alligators mouth the next time it was opened. When the alligator went to bite at the girl running beneath it Savani let loose his spell. The ball of acid flung itself directly into the creatures gaping maw eating away at the top of its mouth into its brain.


    With a roar the Giant Alligator began to thrash and attack everything around it, almost crushing the girl in the process. Quickly Savani conjured up another ball of acid, this time firing it into the creatures eye. With acid eating it both inside and out the creature began to charge towards Savani''s location. Savani flung another spell at the charging creature hitting it on the same spot as before. With the two different shots of acid eating away at its flesh the Giant Alligator finally colapsed just 15 feet away from Savani''s location.


    Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves Savani turned and looked at the two apprentices now walking in his direction.

 Chapter 12

    Watching the two apprentices walk towards him Savani subtly commanded the undead to get closer. Even though he couldn''t yet abandon those he saw in trouble that didn''t mean he was so foolish as to trust random strangers. There were plenty of people both among apprentices and mortals that would easily stab a savior in the back if it meant more benefits.


    Seeing Savani''s warriness towards them the female apprentice stopped the other one and said "Thank you senior for helping us. My name is Myra and my compatriot is Arren. We along with our other friend all came from the same region during the apprentice recruitment. After all three of us managed to master our beginner spells we decided to come out and explore. Who knew that one of those Giant Alligators would be so close to shore and surprise attack us!"


    Making sure to keep an eye one both of them Savani replied "I was just passing by when I heard the commotion. I saw you two were having some trouble and decided to help."


    Myra bowed her head a bit. "Thank you. If it weren''t for you the two of us might have ended up like Jake." Myra then looked over at the body that was left by the shore. " Poor Jake. Just on the walk down here he was going on about how he was going to be a great Sage. Sadly this world doesn''t care about wishes."


    Savani nodded at that statement. The world truely was a cruel place. "Well I must be on my way back to the tower. I''ll leave the body for you two since it was origionally your hunt. I am sorry about your friend."


    Hearing that he was leaving Myra quickly replied "Could you stay with us? You don''t have to do anything, we just want some protection while we bury our friend. You can have the Giant Alligator and the two of us will even help you bring it back."


    Hearing that Myra was offering the Giant Alligator to Savani, the boy Arren couldn''t help but frown. True Savani had saved them but he and Myra had also wounded the creature. Arren was sure between the two of them the Giant Alligator would have died either way. Seeing Arrens scowl Savani replied "Im sorry but I do have important things to get done back at the tower. But I wish you luck burying your friend. Hopefully he won''t come back and be a problem."


    With that reminder Savani quickly headed off towards the road to catch up to his undead minion. As they watched him disapear Arren couldn''t help but ask Myra "Why did you try to keep him here? Wouldn''t it have been a problem if he noticed anything?"


    Myra looked over at Arren, her face now cold and aloof. "Don''t worry. Judging from how paranoid he was I figured there was a good chance he wouldn''t stay. Besides if he didn''t notice anything this was a good chance to get in touch with someone powerful. You may not have recognized him but he was in the same recruitment group as us. Its only been a few weeks since we learned our spells and he is already able to take down a Giant Alligator. With that level of talent theres an almost guarantee that he will become a Peak apprentice. Maybe even another Pseudo-Sage!"


    Hearing Myras strong appraisal of Savani, Arren was shocked. "Isn''t that a bit over exaggerating? Most apprentices can only ever make it to Peak apprentice in their entire lives. Becoming a Pseudo-Sage takes a lot more than mere meditation."


    Myra couldn''t help but roll her eyes at her foolish companion. "Even if he made only to Peak apprentice that would still be a powerful ally. Either way hopefully we left a good impression on him. Now quickly we have to dispose of this body and begin dragging this thing back to the tower. Im sure we could get some points for it from someone!"


    As the two apprentices went back about there buisness Savani had the chip go over its scan of the situation. Ever since he emerged from the trees he had the chip scanning everything around him to get as much information as possible.


    [Apprentice name: Myra


    Race: Human (beginner apprentice)


    Affinities: Wind


    Attributes: Strength: 2.43 Physique: 2.52 Vitality: 2.64 Agility: 4.16 Spirit: 6.27]


    [Apprentice name: Arren


    Race: Human (beginner apprentice)


    Affinities: Water


    Attributes: Strength: 3.16 Physique: 3.22 Vitality: 2.29 Agility: 2.60 Spirit: 6.04]


    Glancing at the information the chip was able to gather on the two apprentices Savani noticed something "Chip were you unable to gather the spells they were using?"


    [Databank does not have either spell module used or have any information on the two elemental affinities. Therefore a list of spells was unable to be generated.]If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.


    Hearing that Savani scowled. It looks like unless he managed to get information on the other elemental systems the chip wouldn''t be able to give him a list of spells of a target. This simply increased the number of contribution points he would have to earn in the future. However Savani refused to spend points on such knoweldge until after he broke through to an Adept level apprentice.


    Savani managed to catch up to his undead just a few minutes before they got to the road. This time on the way back Savani got a lot more stares as he had an undead goblin covered in various bags following him. These stares followed him all the way back to the registration counter where Savani turned in all the frogs he had collected.


    This time after he turned in his quest the apprentice behind the desk asked him to wait a moment. Shortly after another apprentice came running towards the desk before reaching out and examining the cages Savani brought. After inspecting the frogs the apprentice turned towards Savani. "You''re the one who brought these in?"


    Seeing Savani nod the apprentice continued "My name is Nick. I''m the Alchemist who asked for them. Since you brought me 30 frogs you can ask for either 30 contribution points or up to two beginner level potions. Each potion will reduce the total points by 10 so its up to you how you want to split them."


    Hearing he could ask for two potions Savani asked "Do you have any potions that can be used for Body Refining? For instance if someone was using either acid or poison to refine their bodies?"


    Listening to Savani''s question Nick began to think. "If it''s using poison or acid baths then you would want a Plague Draft potion. If you drink it before immersing yourself in the bath it''ll help protect your body from being destroyed while helping it refine the bath. It''s not the strongest Body Refinement potion though so it''ll only be useful up to a Physique of 5 or 6."


    Hearing that Savani asked for two such potions bringing his reward to two Plague Drafts and 10 contribution points. Once he turned over the frogs Savani went back to his room and began to store the various herbs he collected in his desk. Looking around at how small his room was as well as the lack of furniture Savani thought soon it would be time to upgrade his abode. In fact it cost 10 contribution points to rent a better room for a month.


    Seeing how he didn''t even have room for a bath to cultivate in Savani controlled both his undead and packed all his belongings, luckily there wasn''t much beyond some sheets, books, and some writing supplies, onto the two goblins before heading over to an obsidian tower to rent a better room. Browsing through the selection Savani came across one that was closer to the library. Renting it Savani quickly gained the rights to the room through his badge before taking all his belongings to his new abode.


    Stepping in Savani saw that the room was easily 5 times larger than his last room. Inside it besided a desk and a bed was also several bookshelves and a bathroom. No more would Savani have to use the communal rest room when he had to go. Besides these ammenities there was also lots of room for Savani to bring in his own furniture.


    Savani quickly put away his belongings as well as organized the numerous herbs he gathered on his trip to the swamp. Grabbing a few of the more valuable herbs Savani went back to the market and began looking for a tub he could use that was acid proof. Searching around a while Savani came across a large barrel that could handle powerful acids. After haggling Savani traded away one of his magical herbs for the barrel and had his two undead bring it back to his new room. He also managed to get several buckets while he was there to fill the barrel.


    Once the barrel was situated neatly in a corner Savani had the undead fill it with water. Once that was done Savani put his hand inside and cast Water Corruption. Quickly the water near his hand went from a clear color to a strange light greenish purple. This color began to spread until the entire barrel was filled with this strangly colored liquid. Looking at it Savani couldn''t help but ask "Chip are you sure that this is safe?"


    [Afirmitive. Spell cast only used 1 Spirit from host. At this level, the mixture of poison and acid should be at the level described in the book for Body Refinement. What''s more the mixture of both acid and poison will bring about increased benifits than if the host used only one or the other, though pain host must go through has been increased as a byproduct.]


    Listening to the chip Savani couldn''t help but swallow. He had never been a fan of pain. In fact he actively avoided it if he could. Sadly, judging from what the chip told him he would have to experience an immense amount of pain while refining himself. It took Savani several minutes to gather the courage needed to strip off hsi clothes before downing one of the Plague Draughts.


    As the potion slid down his throat Savani couldn''t help but gag. The potion had the consistency of mucus and burned in a way Savani couldn''t begin to describe. In fact this burning sensation began to spread through his body the longer time went on. Once this burning sensation covered him completely Savani quickly jumped into the barrel. Once inside he couldn''t help but scream.


    The burning sensation mixed with the feeling of the acid eating him from the outside in along with the poison agitating his nerves almost caused Savani to black out. Savani had no idea how long he spent in the bathtub all he knew was that he was in hell. His own body was being destroyed and forcefully regrown over and over. The origional green and purple liquid was quickly being dyed red from his disolved flesh and blood.


    After who knows how long Savani heard the chip send him a notification to get out. Mustering up the last of his energy Savani dragged himself out of the barrel before lying on the flood. Once he made sure that nothing had been destroyed on his body he quickly passed out welcoming sweet oblivion.

 Chapter 13

    With a groan Savani began to regain conciousness. His body felt strangly numb, like every cell had been exhausted and drained of any energy the previously held. Which made sense since he did just bathe in acid and force his body to regenerate over and over for who knows how long. "Chip how long was I out?"


    [Host was unconcious for one hour and twenty seven minutes.]


    Hearing that he had passed out for over an hour Savani wasn''t sure how to feel. On the one hand an hour was relatively short and it could have been worse. On the other spending over an hour on the floor naked with a healing body was not a good feeling to wake up to.


    Shakily he stood up and walked to the bed to properly rest. As nice as his new room was, the floor was still a floor and not very comfortable to lie down on. With another groan, Savani lied down on his bed. His body was filled with a tingling sensation as it slowly regained feeling. That was the worst form of pain Savani had ever felt, across both worlds. The only thing that made it worth it was he could sense that as his body shook off the numbing sensation brought by the whole process his body was filled with a newfound strength. Curious Savani asked the chip to bring up his new status.


    [Host name: Savani


    Race: Human (beginner apprentice)


    Affinities: Darkness, Space


    Attributes: Strength: 3.12 Physique: 3.37 Vitality: 2.04 Agility: 2.68 Spirit: 7.01


    Status: Healthy


    Skills: Magic Language Proficiency (Basic)Spells: Acid Shot (Proficient), Create Undead (Proficient), Control Undead (Adept)....]


    Looking at his stats Savani noticed that he gained roughly 0.2 in both Strength and Agility with another 0.35 in Physique. However he lost about 0.1 in Vitality from the stress and the toxicity of the solution. Glancing at that Savani couln''t help but feel worried. From what he gathered during training Vitality was directly tied to lifeforce. The smaller the stat the shorter his life would be. Not to mention that it made it easier to kill him. Not only that but he felt a strange sense of danger.


    Waiting until his body was able to walk without swaying Savani quickly went to the library. There he used his last 4 contribution points to look up books on general knowledge for an apprentices advancement. From what he found Savani''s face went pale. According to the books he read, during an apprentices journey to a Sage it was very important to balance the various attributes as closely together as they could. At most that apprentice could have one or two leading attributes, but these attributes could not exceed five points over any other attribute. This was because the human body was meant to be balanced, and though an apprentice had stronger abilities than a normal human, they still had to keep within a certain range before the body started to tear itself apart.


    Looking back at his status Savani saw that he was right at this range. His Spirit and Vitality were almost 5 points apart. Any increase in Spirit or decrease in Vitality would result in catastrophe! No wonder he felt a sense of danger the last few times he trained himself. With an increase in Spirit meant an increase in Savanis sixth sense, and this sense kept warning him about the impending danger! "Chip is there anyway to increase Vitality quickly?"


    [Searching databanks. Results found. Quickest way to alleviate the problem is to drink a potion designed to forcefully increase an apprentices Vitality. Such potions are often increadibly expensive based on data derived at the bazaar.]


    Hearing that Savani''s eyes glinted. "So there are such potions at the bazaar?"


    [Correct. From data gathered from background conversations a potion called Gaia''s Tears. This potion costs about 10 magical crystal shards and is in short supply. From gathered data this potion has a small chance of appearing for sale.]


    Hearing that it only had a small chance at appearing Savani frowned. He couldn''t gamble on a mere chance. The lack of a constant supply would slow down Savani''s advancement. From what he found out the age an apprentice transformed into a Sage directly tied in with how easy the process would be and their talent afterwards. Savani knew that even Sages had different tiers and he had no wish to mearly be on the lowest rank. It was the main reason he had been working so hard the last few weeks.


    Savani spent several minutes trying to think how he could get a constant supply of Gaia''s Tears. Naturally the best way would be to brew them himself, however even with the chip it would take several weeks to become a decent Alchemist. The complexity of potion refining was leagues ahead of simply using one spell over and over to refine a corpse. So while he was learning he would still need an external supply from somewhere.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    Suddenly Savani remembered someone who might be able to help. However he wasn''t sure how he should go about asking for assistance. Apprentices were taught to be pragmatic above all else. The only way you would find one willing to help without anything in return was to either catch them in a good mood or to call in a favor. Looking around the room Savani''s eyes stumbled across the pile of herbs he had gathered. Seeing them gave him an idea.


    Savani quickly packed up the herbs and loaded one of the zombies before heading back to the quest registration booth. Luckily only about two hours had gone by at this point so he was able to find the same apprentice that registered his quest completion.


    "Hello. A few hours ago you registered a quest complete for me do you remember?''


    The boy looked startled at Savani rushing up to him before asking him such a question. Looking Savani up and down the boy responded "You were the ones with the frogs right?"


    Putting on what he hoped was a friendly smile Savani replied " Yeah I turned in the frog quest for a senior. I was wondering if you had that senior''s contact information? I managed to stumble on some alchemy ingredients and was curious if he would be interested in purchasing any?" With that Savani took out a herb from one of the bags and placed it in front of the boy.


    Hearing Savani ask for information on another apprentice, whats more a powerful senior, the register apprentice couldn''t help but go pale. "I''m sorry sir but we are not allowed to give out any information on other apprentices. If you want I can send a message to him."


    Smiling again Savani agreed to the compromise, sliding the herb over to the boy. "Here is a token of my appreciation. I''m sure you could sell it for something useful. Sadly I don''t have much else to express my graditude." Seeing Savani give him a herb for his troubles the apprentice quickly too the herb and hid it under the desk.


    Savani waited by the registration desk for about a half hour before Nick came walking into the room. Spotting Savani he quickly walked over and asked "I got a message saying you had some herbs you wanted to sell?"


    Seeing Nick was interested Savani started his sales pitch he had been working on. "Yes I do but I was wondering if instead of selling them to you we could work on a different arrangement?"


    Hearing Savani''s pitch Nick began to frown. "What kind of arrangement?"


    Waving his undead over Savani continued, "Well as you may have guessed I''m one of the new apprentices that were admitted into the tower a while ago. Because of that I am in dire needs of resources but don''t really have the assets to trade for much. With what I managed to get I began to learn Necromancy and found I have a decent talent for it along with herbology. Using my new toys I have gone out and started gathering a large number of herbs from the surrounding area. I was wondering if you would be interested in buying these herbs using potions?"


    Hearing Savani''s suggestion Nick went over and inspected the various herbs. He was surprised by the amount Savani managed to gather. Some of them were even rather dangerous to pick. With the amount here Nick estimated it would be enough to practice several new potion recipes he had managed to get his hands on. "I''d be willing to trade for these herbs. You were looking for Plagues Draught right? I''ll trade 10 of them for these herbs."


    Hearing Nick was interested Savani inwardly cheered. "While it''s true I need Plague''s Draught I have come across some problems with my advancement and need something that will increase my Vitality. I heard of a potion called Gaia''s Tears that could be useful. Do you perhaps know how to make this potion?"


    Nick couldn''t help but stare at Savani after hearing he wanted a bottle of Gaia''s Tears.  This potion was often used to distinguish average potion brewers from true Alchemists. Not only was it increadibly difficult to make, but the advantages one got drinking it also made it increadibly valuable. Looking back over the amount of herbs Savani brought Nick replied "Thats a rather valuable potion. In all honesty I can make it but it requires a vast number of magical ingredients and my sucess rate is only about one in five. If your asking for a vial I can only offer you one for all of this."


    Hearing Nick could actually brew Gaia''s Tears Savani couldn''t help but become excited. Quickly he said "I would be happy to trade these herbs for a bottle. In fact that is only part of the reason I wanted to innitiate this trade. I was hoping since I often go out and gather such herbs perhaps we could come to some form of arrangement? I could go out and gather herbs you need for your potions and in return I get paid in potions. This way you don''t have to worry about your supply of ingredients and I have access to the various potions and elixers I''ll need to get stronger. You could even tell me herbs you particularly need so I can keep an eye out while I am out gathering."


    Listening to Savani''s suggestion Nick began to think. One of the biggest problems with Alchemy was the intense need for resources. Simply to become competent at a new recipe an Alchemist would have to go through a small room full of herbs. If he managed to get access to a continuous supply of ingredients his Alchemy could grow and he would be able to accumulate more wealth.


    Nodding Nick agreed to Savani''s proposal. Why wouldn''t he it was a win-win for the two of them. Nick would get access to a large number of resources he needed to continue practicing and Savani would get access to potions he would need. Shaking hands on the deal Nick had Savani wait while he went back to his room to get a vial of Gaia''s Tears.

 Chapter 14

    Watching Nick go off to get a bottle of Gaia''s Tears Savani couldn''t help but release his breath. He was increadibly glad that his idea had paid off. By entering a trade agreement with Nick he had managed to complete three different objectives. The first and most important was that he managed to resolve the danger of his Vitality being too low. Even if Gaia''s Tears only boosted his Vitality as much as his refining did his Physique that would still put Savani in the clear. What surprised Savani was that Nick was actually capable of brewing the potion. Savani had figured he would simply get one from another Alchemist. From his experience in watching various groups Savani noticed that those with similar interests would often stay in communication, trading information to benifit both parties. That is so long as it didn''t give the other party an advantage.


    The second objective he had was a continuous access to potions. Savani didn''t like the idea of having to stake out the bazaar hoping to come across a potion he may need. Since Nick could get access to both the Plague Draft and Gaia''s Tears it made more sense to form a relationship with him. Savani was still weak enough that both potions were useful to him. This way while Savani saved points and practiced Alchemy on his own he could still manage to get his hands on potions he needed. This would allow him to practice even while he experimented and made it so he didn''t have to stop to master the art of making potions first. Who knows, perhaps Nick might be able to get him access to other potions he may need.


    The final objective Savani had was to get into contact with more Alchemy knowledge. The books in the library would be useful in understanding the art of Alchemy and some common tricks however Savani would still need to find a way to get his hands on recipes. By trading with Nick, Savani might be able to ask for some beginner level recipes and possibly some hints. If it meant simply trading away a few doen herbs for some tips from a proffesional Alchemist Savani would be more than happy to do it. Of course if Nick wasn''t willing to share his knowledge then Savani would concider taking up the Alchemy tutoring.


    While waiting for Nick to return with the potion, Savani began to browse both the quest board and the obsidian trading post. It had become a habit for Savani to gather various information for his chip to sort and analyze. While he was doing this, Nick finally returned. Walking up to Savani by the pillar he took out a potion from his robe and handed it over. Unlike Plagues Draft this potion was a vibrant green and felt warm to the touch.


    Completing the trade Savani went to the cafeteria for some food before heading back to his room. Once there instead of taking the potion right away Savani had the undead empty the vat he used to refine himself before taking a long nap. Once he woke up Savani then took a shower in his new bathroom before finally taking out the potion.


    Holding it Savani could swear he felt a weak pulse coming from the potion. Once he opened it his sense of smell was overcome by the fragrance of dozens of different herbs. Just smelling the potion sent his body into a state of hunger. Quickly he put the potion to his lips and drank. Unlike the Plagues Draft this potion had an herbal taste that bordered on sweet. Every cell in his body screamed in delight as the energy held inside the potion flowed through his body. For several seconds it felt like Savani was floating on air as his damaged Vitality healed.


    [Detecting strange energy in host. Energy is deemed beneficial to the hosts body. Hosts body has increased its Vitality by 1.04]


    After Savani finished absorbing the potion he was shocked to see such a massive increase. No wonder Gaia''s Tears was so sought after. The increase it brought to the person who drank it were immense. Of course Savani knew that the more someone took a potion the less effects there would be. The human body would build up immunity to any potion taken too often. Still with such a large increase Savani was sure he could raise his Vitality to a decent level before he could no longer gain any use out of the potion.


    *??*??*??*??*??*??*??*??*


    Inside one of the Alchemy labs Savani was slowly measuring out a portion of black colored powder before mixing it into a beaker filled with a bright red boiling liquid. Once the powder was added Savani fiddled with some runes that ran along the front of the alchemy station and stared at the boiling concotion, occasionally stirring it gently.


    As time went on the black powder disolved into the solution making the liquid darker. Eventually the strange liquid became a deep crimson. Seeing the liquid get to this color, Savani quickly took out a container filled with a misty white concoction before dripping 5 drops into the red solution. After several minutes of continous boiling Savani removed the liquid and poured it into three quartz vials.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    [Congratulations. Host has suceeded in concocting 3 vials of Blood Regeneration Potion. Successful chemical reaction has been added to the databank. Host can now practice refining Blood Regeneration Potion in the Virtual Training room.]


    Wiping the sweat off his brow Savani couldn''t help but grin. It had been six months since he started trading with Nick. With the help of the Gaia''s Tears potion and the Plague Draft potion Savani was able to slowly increase his strength over the last several months. By trading with Nick while also occasionally putting some of the herbs up for trade in the bazaar Savani was able to slowly gain enough points to not only learn all the Alchemy knowledge in the library but also managed to finish off all the anatomy books along with a good portion of the books on Darkness magic and general magical knowledge.


    Once he had all this knowledge Savani managed to bribe Nick into getting him some entry level potion recipes by gathering some more hard to find herbs. With these recipes Savani finally began to practice Alchemy. Of course the journey wasn''t all that peaceful. During the last 6 months Savani had lost 8 undead creatures. Not to mention he himself almost died several times while exploring.


    Not only did having to remake his undead several times over slow down his plans but Savani also learned that because potion making also frequently required the Alchemist to use his Spirit in some of the more powerful potions the chip was only able to gather information on the various reactions between ingredients. It was only after Savani made a complete potion that the chip was able to record the appropriate result and create a simulation of it. With this Savani had to practice potions using real ingredients and could only practice his skills in refining after he sucessfully refined any particular potion. Still this increased his Alchemy ablility far faster than his pears.


    While the new potions cooling Savani looked over his status with a trace of pride.


    [Host name: Savani


    Race: Human (adept apprentice)


    Affinities: Darkness, Space


    Attributes: Strength: 5.24 Physique: 6.02 Vitality: 7.39 Agility: 5.61 Spirit: 10.07


    Status: Healthy


    Skills: Magic Language Proficiency (Basic)


    Spells: Acid Shot (Crystalized), Create Undead (Crystalized), Control Undead (Crystalized)....]


    Savani had managed to finally break through to the level of Adept apprentice just yesterday. Sadly at this point the basic meditation technique he was given had become useless. With each increase in his Spirit attribute the meditation technique would provide less and less of a boost. The plus side to this was that it gave room for Savani''s other attributes to grow stronger.


    Looking at his new status Savani couldn''t help but look at his Acid Shot and Create Undead spells. With the influx of knowledge relating to both the Darkness element as well as the various knowledge on anatomy and necromancy the chip was able to make a permanent spell module of the two spells. Now Savani no longer had to chant and spell weave when casting these spells, all he had to do was point and will the spell to be cast. This had greatly improved his combat capabilities.


    Pocketing the new potion he made Savani left the Alchemy room he had rented. Nodding to the apprentice in charge of assigning the rooms Savani went down to the obsidian trading post and put his newest potions up for purchase. This had become a habit of his. Savani would always sell his first batch of potions in order to regain some contribution points or magical crystal shards. Once he managed to sell these potions Savani would then refine some for his own personal use.


    After putting his potions up for sale Savani went to the cafeteria to get something to eat. For the last 3 hours he had been refining several batches of Blood Regeneration Potion and had only managed to succeed on the final attempt. Refining for that long had made Savani famished. While walking through the cafeteria Savani nodded to several other apprentices he had become associated with over the last six months.


    By now both the Earthen Court and Shadow League had learned that Savani wasn''t really keen on joining either faction. However with his new ability to create potions, along with the name he had made for himself in finding a large amount of herbs in the wild, the two sides decided to treat him with a more civil approach than one would expect. His increase in power over the last several months was visible to everyone and no one wanted to anger a potential new Pseudo-Sage. So instead the two factions let some of their outer memebers trade with Savani for various herbs and some of his potions trying to build a work relationship with him instead.


    As usual Savani grabbed his food and went to sit in his corner. Now that he was an adept level apprentice Savani now had the ability to leave the tower for missions that were outside the forest. Still Savani wanted to learn some new spells before he left. The focus the last few months had been on building a firm foundation for himself so Savani prioritized gaining practical knowledge over learning new spells. However now that he had the power to explore the world Savani knew that the few spells he had mastered were far from enough.


    Thinking it over Savani had a few ideas for spells he wanted to get. The first would be some form of crowd control to make either hitting the target or fleeing easier. Since Darkness didn''t really have any spells to augment the body like Earth and Wind did, Savani''s only other choice was a spell that would allow him to go unnoticed. Finally Savani would need a spell that would allow him to heal himself if he got injured. Though he prefered to use his undead to attack, the last few months had taught him to always expect the unexpected. Finishing his food Savani headed over to the library to begin browsing for new spells that could potentially help him.

 Chapter 15

    Once Savani got to the library he started browsing through the various spell modules. Now that he was an adept level apprentice Savani could now use spells that had a greater drain on his Spirit. After comparing several different spells Savani finally ended up choosing several that he felt more inclined to. Whats more Savani wanted to see if with the knowledge he had accumulated if the chip could modify stronger level spells.


    Negative energy weapon. Description: Create a weapon out of negative energy that deals necrotic damage. Melee spell.


    Life Drain. Description: The spellcaster can drain the life energy out of a victim in order to regain stamina and heal the users wounds. Distance Personal.


    Shadow Bind. Description: The spellcaster creates several tentacles made out of shadows that bind a target. Spellcaster can increase the number of tentacles and targets by using more Spirit. Distance 250 feet.


    Shadow Meld. Description: The spellcaster can cover their body in Darkness essence and merge with a nearby shadow. The effect of the spell will disapear when the shadow the spellcaster is hiding in disapears. Distance Personal.


    Acid Shroud. Description: The spellcaster creates a shroud of acid surrounding the caster that will hide the caster from sight and harm any who get close. The acid can harm any below a Physique of 15. Range 15 feet radius around caster.


    Looking over the new spell modules he had chosen Savani felt now he was better able to defend himself. With Acid Shroud melee fighters would have to keep their distance and ranged fighters would have a hard time seeing him. With Shadow Meld Savani could hide and wait for opportunities to either flee or attack. With Negative Energy Weapon he could create a magical weapon so he could also defend himself if others got close. Life Drain could help him heal and Shadow Bind could be used to either make it easier to hit something or if he really needed to bind something for him to flee.


    Now that he had gained some new spells in his arsonal Savani decided it was time to upgrade his undead. Sadly over the last few months no matter how he tried Savani just couldn''t make his undead stronger. He even had the chip try and take all the information he had accumulated and try to discover a way to make his undead more usable. "Chip have you discovered any way to strengthen the undead?"


    [Accessing data files. According to the information gathered stronger undead have energy refine their muscles and skin as well as the bone. By imbuing these with a particular type of Darkness energy the resulting zombie will become different. For instance if one uses just negative energy you will get a normal zombie while if you imbue the aspect of contagion into the zombie the final result will be a plague zombie.]


    Listening to the chips explination Savani decided before he left he would refine two undead to take with him. At this point Savani''s undead collection had grown to ten leaving him plenty of options to choose from. "Chip begin simulating a full body refinement of undead. Use shadow energy and acid energy and compare the two."


    [Affirmitive. Undead body refinement task will take 22 hours and 19 minutes to complete.]


    Listening to the chips time frame Savani decided to look at available quests in the nearby region before creating a few more potions just in case of an emergency. On his way back to the quest board Savani ran into an old acquaintance. It was the three eyed girl that had reported him to the Shadow League. Over the last few months she had become his lin with the League as she was the one that was sent to buy various potions and herbs from him. Savani had found that her name was Amanda and that she was from the group brought in before Savanis.


    Walking up to her Savani said, "Hello Amanda. How are you doing today?"Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    Looking over at his approach Amanda responded, "Oh hello Savani. I''m doing fairly well today. What brings you over here? Do you have any new herbs or potions to sell?" Since Savani had developed a reputation for being anti-social Amanda believed that he had come over to sell some products like in the past.


    Hearing her reply Savani slightly blushed. He knew when it came to people he didn''t really have much experience beyond observing them and had gained somewhat of a reputation. Carrying through his embarassment he continued "Actually I was wondering if I could talk to you. I''ve decided to take on a quest outside the tower and was just curious if you have any experience traveling?"


    Having Savani ask her something other than if she was interested in potions threw Amanda for a moment. Once she recovered and seeing Savani stare at her waiting for her to reply Amanda quickly responded. "I''ve done several quests outside. Nothing major. Usually it''s just hunting bandits or collecting resources from nobles to remind them to stay in line. Sometimes you have a tougher mission that deals with apprentices from other factions sneaking into our turf but those are few and usually retained for the stronger apprentices. Of course once you get to the peak apprentice level you can travel between towers in the alliance and do quests in various towers."


    Listening to Amanda, Savani realized that even the quests one could accept were tiered. Beginner apprentices would do quests near the tower as basic training near a familiar base of opperations. For the adept level the apprentices would be spread out and explore the region under their towers control, solidifying its influence while collecting resources and gaining experience. Finally for peak level apprentices and Pseudo-Sages they would travel between the various towers in the Sage Alliance that their tower belonged to, building a social network and helping the Alliance as a whole.


    Savani was curious if this was by design or accident. Still, understanding the various tiers let him plan his future accordingly. Now that he had broken through to adept level his meditation technique had begun to stagnate. If he wanted to strengthen it Savani would need to gather some data. Sadly the types of experiments he was planning on couldn''t be done in the tower.


    Savani wanted to use this chance to not only explore the region but also to find a quiet place for him to set up a private lab. As wonderful as the towers assets were, they were all under the watchful eyes of Sage Lance. Over the last few months Savani realized that the Darkness element had the closest relationship with death and the soul. Due to him dying and somehow appearing here Savani began to develop an interest in exploring what exactly a soul was. Of course that was research for the future. For now Savani simply wanted to find somewhere isolated as a back up location.


    Savani spent another several minutes talking with Amanda about her experiences while heading towards the quest board. Once there he consulted her and decided on a quest that would have him go to a nearby town to gather some resources that a noble had been charged with gathering for the tower. The apprentice would have to leave in the next three days in order to collect the resources in time. The apprentice could either go alone or as part of a group so long as the resources were brought back to the tower.


    Looking at the quest Savani decided that he would probably need to buy a cart. Otherwise he wouldn''t have any way to transport the resources back to the tower. Plus it would be nice to have a way to travel around whenever he wanted. Thanking Amanda for her help Savani went out and put a notice that he was looking for a horse and cart along with enough feed to get him to the next town before heading back to his room.


    Once there Savani began sorting though his things to find anything useful for the journey. Over the last few months he had managed to gather several different articles of clothing along with a decent supply of potions and medical supplies. "Chip please play some music while I sort through all of this."


    During the last six months Savani had developed a habit of playing music from his memories when he wasn''t experimenting or training. Back when he was on Earth he would spend entire afternoons just sitting around listening to music. Sadly ever since reincarnating to this world Savani never got to hear anything even close to the music from Earth. However he discovered that the chip could create and project songs he had listened to in the past into his mind. Ever since Savani took time each day to have an old favorite play in his head.


    Humming along to Beethoven, Savani packed and sorted his belongings. He decided on taking half his medical supplies and a few potions along with some odds and ends and several changes of clothes. Savani also decided that he would take 5 of his 10 undead as laborers. Once everything was settled Savani turned into bed excited to finally being able to leave this forest of gloom.

 Chapter 16

    Savani woke up refreshed and eager. He would be finally be leaving this dark tower and exploring these lands. After a nice shower and a change of clothes Savani double checked that he had everything he would need. Once that was over he went out and got a nice large breakfast. While he was eating Savani got a notification from the chip.


    [Simulation of undead refinement complete. New profile for undead created.]


    Seeing that the simulation was done Savani had the chip download the two profiles into his head. After the initial pulse of pain signalling the forced download Savani began to review the two types of undead while downing a glass of juice made from one of this worlds fruits.


    The first undead was called a Rot Zombie. This zombie is what would happen if a necromancer used acidic alligned Darkness energy to refine a zombie. This undeads body was half melted in appearance, showing bone in various parts of its body. This decreased its overall Physique however the trade off was that the zombie was faster and could spray acid out of its mouth. Whats more the undeads fingers were melted leaving bone claws in their place. These bone claws secreted an acidic fluid from its tips making any scratch done have increased damage.


    The second undead was called a Shadow Ghast. This zombie used shadow aligned Darkness energy as opposed to acidic. This zombie was very similar to a normal zombie except that it was faster and stronger. Whats more because it used shadow energy these undead had the ability to merge with shadows and could even travel through the Shadow Plane. This made them excellent for espionage and assasinations.


    While Savani ate some sausages he thought about the two new forms of undead. The first was more useful in a straight out battle. However such a style of combat didn''t really appeal to Savani. Even back on Earth he thought that those that fought in a straight up brawl were foolish and that feeling only increased since he reincarnated. Savani would rather fight in a way that would minimize any potential of damage at all, well at least any damage to himself.


    Finishing his meal Savani decided that during his travel he would turn two of his zombie puppets into one of each type of undead. Although Savani leaned more towards the Shadow Ghast, it would be foolish to dismiss the increased power of the Rot Zombie. Whats more the Rot Zombie could be used in other ways. Looking at the description it would be wonderful for intimidation and part of the request he took was to intimidate the nobility and remind them that they are in the towers lands.


    Savani finished eating before heading over to the bazaar. Once there he headed over to the part that specialized in large animals and vehicles. This part of the bazaar was run by the traders who would occasionally make it to the tower. Savani was heading to one of the better known apprentices in this part of the bazaar, Warren Rickmond.


    Savani located Warren in the crowd and began to walk over to him.  Warren was about 8 feet tall with broad shoulders and scaly green skin. He had eyes that looked like a hawks and two antlers growing out of his head. On his back were two large bat wings and a row of spikes down the center of his spine, which in turn made it so Warren would only wear pants with suspenders leaving his top half shirtless. On the end of each hand were claws roughly two inches long and sharp enough to cut metal like it was paper.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.


    Warren was somewhat of a cautionary tale. Originally he was a rising star of another tower in the Sages syndicate and was born with a rare single essence affinity, that of Animus. Animus was similar to Nature however it dealt with animals as opposed to plants. By having a large affinity with animals Warren had raised a large number of trained combat and utility creatures and had even learned how to speak to them. Sadly with his talent Warren had become somewhat arrogant which led to his downfall.


    Another apprentice at his old tower got jealous of Warren and had tricked him by giving him a manual that would allow Warren to mimic traits of various animals by injecting their blood into himself. At least to other apprentices that is what would have happened, the blood just enough to create a minor change that would have worn off after several hours. Sadly with Warrens increased affinity with all things animal instead of mimicking these traits they actually became ingrained in Warren polluting his bloodline, and by the time Warren realized it was too late. The pollution in his bloodline from the various animal traits he accumulated made it so his talent which should have allowed him to at least become a pseudo-Sage was locked at the peak apprentice level.


    After killing the apprentice that tricked him Warren fled going from tower to tower trying to find a way to resolve his bloodline. Eventually he ended up at Sage Lance''s tower and had been staying here the last few years. During that time Warren had become a large seller of various animals, some for transportation and some for combat. He also became the apprentice you came to if you were looking for one kind of animal in particular.


    Savani walked up to Warren and waved, "Good afternoon Warren. Buisness doing alright today? I heard that you got your hands on a pair of Mist Foxes that I''m sure will sell well."


    Hearing Savani speak to him Warren grinned, showing off a mouth filled with sharp teeth." If it isn''t the up and coming Necromancer Savani. What can I do for you? I don''t currently have any sick or deceased animals but if you don''t mind doing the job yourself I''m sure I can find you something of interest."


    Savani actually had never considered turning creatures into undead. Looking back there was never anything that said he couldn''t but the vast number of zombie films on Earth he use to watch had left Savani thinking only in the terms of humanoid creatures. Filing away the idea to try an experiment later Savani looked at Warren and smiled replying "Not today. I actually need a horse and cart sturdy enough for a lot of travel. Also any information in the surrounding areas would be helpful. Your one of the most well traveled apprentices here so I would certainly appreciate any tips you might have."


    Hearing that Savani was leaving the tower Warrens eyes focused for a second. Thinking over what he had available Warren told Savani that he had a horse and cart available for purchasing. The cart even had covering allowing privacy. The two haggled and eventually Savani payed using 3 Blood Clotting potions along with some cream that healed scars. In return he managed to get a horse and carriage, several traveling cloaks, along with two weeks of grain for the horse as well as some riding equipment.


    Now with a proper mode of transportation Savani had Warren bring it towards the front of the tower. He returned to his room and used Control Undead to take over 3 of his undead puppets before starting to move everything he would be taking with him over to the cart. Over the next hour he packed and sorted the various equipment he would be taking with him. Once that was done he had one undead get in the drivers seat while having the others sit in the back before releasing control of all his undead besides the one he would have driving the cart.


    Savani put a cloak over the driver in order to not scare the civilians when he reached a town. After double checking that everything was tied down Savani had the undead drive the cart down the main road and out into the lands beyond.

 Chapter 17

    Savani had the undead drive the cart down the main road. Along the way out of the forest he saw different apprentices going into the different hunting zones the tower had set up. The forest that surrounded the tower Savani had been staying in had a radius of 10 miles. This radius was under direct control and influence of the tower. Savani took the winding road through the forest until he finally got out of this radius and the cloud cover disappeared. For the first time in almost a year Savani was under sunlight.


    Savani saw that the forest was next to a large plains filled with tall grass and several hills off in the distance. After traveling forward another several minutes Savani looked back and noticed how the clouds stopped directly over the treeline. It truly was a peculiar site and Savani couldn''t help but be impressed. The site fueled his desire to become a Sage even more, having the power to manipulate the environment to better suit their needs was something most people craved but few would get to experience.


    Over the next few days Savani quickly got bored with the monotony of travel. Though the landscape was certainly far beyond the view of the cloud overcast forest he had become use to Savani got bored with the lack of activity. The town he was going toward was called Forest Grove, called such because it was the closest town to the Sage''s forest and even then it was a 5 day travel. Savani found that such a distance was actually quite common. Due to the large number of more powerful creatures Sages generally kept around their permanent residences, normal mortals would put a large buffer zone between where they lived and where the local Sage resided.


    During his travel Savani had gone back to the virtual training room the chip designed. With his increase in Spirit he could spend more time inside experimenting with various spells. The primary focus was on the creation of the two new forms of undead he could create. Savani found that in order to turn a normal undead into these newer forms he would have to do it all in one try, otherwise the magic would go haywire and destroy the body. This means that Savani needed to either have a very powerful Spirit or more practically find materials he could use to help lessen the burden of the spell.


    For the Rot Zombie it wasn''t that difficult. Savani already had a spell that let him corrupt water into a magical mixture of acid and poison. All he would have to do is have Preserve Corpse before lowering it into a vat of acid created with the Water Corruption spell. Then while the body was half submerged Savani would begin to use Create Undead to draw in energy from the vat to refine the undead. Not only would this create a Rot Zombie but it would also give the acid the zombie used a poison attribute increasing its damage.


    The problem was the Shadow Ghast. Savani would need something that held a large amount of shadow essence in order to fully refine one. If he could manage to find such an object Savani would be able to create his very own assassin. This made Savani very eager to enter the town and begin to search for the local Sage Mart.


    From what Savani had gathered over the last few months with the help of the chip every major town would have a section designed for traveling Sages and Apprentices. This section would allow them to mingle with their own kind while also protecting normal mortals from the powers these traveling forces would often project. Inside these areas would be a market where Sages and Apprentices would sell various wares they gathered on their travels. Of course the Sages and Apprentices could still enter other areas of the town. No one would be foolish enough to stop them.


    Besides practicing spells Savani also began to use the training room to learn some of the instruments from Earth. Savani had always been a fan of classical and instrumental music and not being able to hear the familiar songs had really saddened him when he first transitioned to this world. But now that he had the chip he could have it play any song he had listened to before, and since Savani was an introvert who loved music that was certainly a large list. Savani decided during this travel that since his learning capability had increased with his Spirit and his fingers were far more dexterous than before thanks to his Agility it would be fun to play some of his more favorite instruments as a way to relieve some of his stress.


    Besides experimenting and learning to play instruments Savani also went over what he knew about the world. Savani learned when one broke through to the level of Sage each rank was dictated by stars with the lowest being a 1-star Sage. Even these stars were further broken down into ranks, though Savani wasn''t sure what they were. From what he had gathered the tower he was apart of was part of a small Sage Association that held ten 1-star Sages and one 2-star Sage. Several of these Sages were in charge of a tower that protected a particular resource as well as trained new Apprentices for the Association. The rest would travel inside the Associations territory either acting as back-up to the different towers or dealing with threats from other Associations.


    The Association Savani was conscripted into is called the Thunder Legion. It was named this because the leader of the Association was a 2-star Sage named Ludvig that had fused with the blood of a Storm Giant. This not only gave him monstrous strength but it also gave him the ability to manipulate the weather and create lighting. All the other Sages in the Association had pledged allegiance to Ludvig and using his power managed to claim an area that covered 2 mortal kingdoms.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    The tower Savani belonged to had been built over an entrance to the Hollow, a giant underground realm formed between two tectonic plates. This realm was filled with all forms of odd and powerful creatures along with other sentient races that the Sages would either enslave or conquer. Due to the fact that it was underground Darkness essence was the most prominent making it the perfect place to station a Darkness aligned Sage.


    When he was still a day away from Forest Grove Savani was writing in one of his books when an arrow was shot from a nearby hill striking the undead driver in the chest. Startled by the sudden attack Savani quickly used the chip to scan the surroundings. Thanks to the increase in Spirit the range the chip could scan had increased from a radius of 100 feet to 150 feet.


    Savani found that there was a group of men on the other side of the hill armed with swords and arrows. Finding that it was just a group of bandits Savani began to laugh. With his increase in power such a small band of thieves was child''s play. Savani had the undead stop the cart before casting Shadow Bind using the chip to locate the unfortunate group. He then took control of two other undead he had brought along and had all 3 undead he controlled go and bring the bandits to his cart.


    Savani sat inside while he listened to the screams and pleas that came from on top of the nearby hill. Savani realized that listening to such pleas no longer bothered him. During the time at the tower it was repeatedly hammered in to him that kindness was weakness and that only the strong had any rights. Since these people thought it would be a good idea to try and rob him, and probably kill him if the previously shot arrow was any indication, then he wouldn''t show any mercy.


    Once all the bandits were outside Savani got up and parted the curtain covering the back of the cart and looked down on his new captives. On the ground were five bandits bound in a shadow like tentacle. They all wore leather armor in various levels of disrepair. Off to the side one of the zombies had piled the various weapons that were on the unfortunate group.


    One of the bandits spoke up and began to plead "Sir mage, I am so sorry for offending you. If we had known that it was someone as noble as you we would have not dared to attack. I swear if we are let free we will immediately leave. We can even pay you!"


    Hearing the bandits pleading Savani was inwardly disgusted. These bandits would let him off yes but he knew it was only because they couldn''t harm him. "Im sorry but I don''t have the habit of letting off those that attack me."


    Realizing they were about to die the bandits began to curse at Savani. Ignoring them Savani walked over to one of the bandits and placed his hand on their head. The bandit tried to shrink away but Savani had an undead walk over and hold him in place. Once the bandit couldn''t escape Savani cast Life Drain on the poor man. Savani had decided that he would use these bandits to practice Life Drain before turning them into undead. The shortest bandit was still over 5 feet which made him larger than any of Savani''s current undead. Whats more Savani knew that a good necromancer would always have a surplus of undead. It was rumored that Adept Lance had an entire floor of undead under the tower, just waiting for someone to be foolish enough to attack his tower.


    Once Savani cast Life Drain he felt this sickening suction feeling come from his palm. The bandits face instantly became pale as he began to plead and curse Savani. The man even tried to bite him, but the undead held the man in such a way that his actions were futile. Savani felt a form of energy enter his body from his palm and spread to the various parts of his body. The soreness Savani had developed from sitting in a cart all day slowly faded as he began to feel like he had just woken up from a restful nights sleep.


    Once the spell was over the bandit had looked like he hadn''t slept in a week. His eyes were surrounded by dark rings and his skin was as white as paper. Savani took a dagger from the pile of weapons and stabbed the bandit in the heart before moving on to the next bandit. Savani repeated the process over and over until all five bandits were dead. On one bandit Savani cut his arm before casting the spell, on another he took a minor poison he had brought and had the antidote for. On each bandit Savani would experiment to find out the extent of the spells capability.


    "Chip did you manage to gather any data from the experiments?"


    [Affirmative. All data has been recorded and added to spells archive.]


    "Anything of use?"


    [Affirmative. If host is able to gather more data a new spell module may be constructed.]


    Hearing that the chip could potentially make a new spell module Savani was surprised. Quickly he asked about the spell as well as what the chip would need.


    [Due to hosts constant intake of Vitality increasing substances, use of magic on humanoid bodies, knowledge of anatomy, and host''s need for viable way to increase Vitality a spell can be created that would allow the host to increase their Vitality by draining the Vitality out of others. However more data is needed to finish the project. It is recommended that the host use Life Drain on a wide variety of creatures of different species and elemental affinities to gather enough data to allow creation of spell.]


    Looking at the information the chip gave him Savani couldn''t help but pinch himself. Vitality was one of the hardest attributes to increase. If Savani developed such a spell then he couldn''t tell anyone. If they found out that he could drain the Vitality out of other to strengthen himself he would be hunted to either stop him or torture him for the spell. Loading the bodies of the bandits along with the rest of his spoils into the cart, Savani began to plan how to get his hands on a large variety of creatures while still being able to keep it hidden what he was doing.

 Chapter 18

    Once the undead finished moving everything into the cart Savani had one begin driving the cart again while releasing control of the others. Savani then found an empty area and lied down rubbing his head. While he found that he could handle a small band of bandits with ease, the use of Spirit almost drained him. Each undead took one Spirit to control, added to the 3 Spirit to create enough shadow tentacles using Shadow Bind along with the Spirit it took to activate Life Drain several times the entire endeavor took the majority of his Spirit. It would have taken even more if he didn''t have the chip to control each of the shadow tentacles and if Life Drain didn''t depend on the targets strength.


    Still Savani was happy with the outcome. He managed to get some more corpses that he could experiment with and he managed to get some useful data. It also comforted him that he now had the power to protect himself, at least against mortals. It was hard to believe that just over half a year ago he would have easily been killed by this band of thieves and now he could kill them all without needing to move. As the cart swayed Savani drifted off to sleep content in the understanding of his strength.


    After another day of travel Savani was able to see fields off in the distance. Nearby was a large windmill with several houses that could just barely be seen in the horizon. Savani smiled looking at the first bit of civilization in months. All food at the tower was brought in through traders and was cooked by slaves in the kitchens. These slaves were from different races that were subjugated by different Sages, usually in wars over resources. Savani was uncomfortable at first when he found this information out but the longer he lived in this world the more he became use to such situations. In this world the strong made the rules, and it wasn''t like those races didn''t enslave humans for their use. It was a sad fact of this world.


    As he traveled Savani saw more and more fields filled with farmers and occasionally there would be children running through the fields. Savani traveled through the farmland for a half hour until he could finally see a large stone wall with a large gate off in the distance. Various grey buildings and rooftops could be seen rising behind it. Savani noticed as he got closer to the wall the road went from a dirt road to stone. As he got closer Savani saw several carts and carriages entering the city through other roads that merged into a large main road leading to the gate. Savani also noticed several armored guards along the wall with a few checking those that were entering or leaving the gate.


    Once it was Savanis turn to go through the entrance his cart was stopped by a guard. Coming over he began to talk to the cloaked undead driving. "Halt. State your purpose. If you are here to trade show your traders license." Hearing this Savani handed the undead up front his towers badge. This badge acted as a form of identification. Anyone who saw this badge would know that he belonged to the local tower. These badges were formed using a special medal and were attuned to each apprentices magical frequency making them nearly impossible to replicate.


    Seeing the badge the guards face paled. Those that lived in the surrounding lands  knew of the local Sage tower and how its owner was a powerful necromancer. It had even become somewhat of a folk legend that the Sage would take people who didn''t give the tower respect and turn them into undead slaves. The guard quickly moved aside letting the cart enter the city, all while apologizing profusely.


    Riding down the streets Savani was able to see various people entering and exiting shops or dining at various restaurants. The whole town had a vibrancy that was missing from the tower, a kind of atmosphere you could only find in places with large crowds. Savani could sense kids playing and parents chasing after mischievous children who ran in the crowds. He could sense bakers cooking in their stores and couples flirting or walking together. Judging from the amount of people he could sense in the chips scanning range Savani estimated that there should be close to 100,000 inhabitants in this city.The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    As Savani traveled inward he could see that the architecture slowly changed. From rural two story stone houses there became shops that were several stories and inns that were elegantly decorated. The feeling went from that of lively commoners to that of refined nobility and decadence. Savani continued traveling until he came across a large building in the center of the city.


    Before becoming an apprentice Savani had been reborn in a small noble house so he had some experience with mortal cities. The general layout had the nobles closer to the center of the city with the city hall in the very center. This made it a universal landmark for anyone going to a new city, along with allowing the seat of power to be the most defended spot. Surrounding the city hall there was also usually the various guilds and other organization headquarters, along with the jail and the area dedicated to apprentices and Sages. With all this power centered in one spot the middle of the city was the most well guarded area and often the area that would shelter others in the time of war.


    Savani exited the cart and had it go off to the side so it wouldn''t block the flow of traffic before walking into the city hall. Looking around he could see a large number of people in expensive looking clothes walking about. He eventually saw what looked like a reception desk that was helping various people. Walking up to the desk Savani directly said "I am looking for the governor. I am here on tower business."


    Hearing he was from the tower the receptionists face paled. "I''ll have someone get him right away sir apprentice!" The receptionist quickly got up and scurried into the back. Not even ten minutes later she came back followed by a large doughy looking middle aged man in an expensive suit. Reaching Savani the man began to bow and say "Greeting esteemed tower apprentice. My name is Gissel Hordif. How can I help the tower today."


    Savani looked down at the bowing nobleman. "I am here on the account that the shipment of resources for the tower is due soon. Now I am sure that your noble self wouldn''t do something so underhanded as to try and take that which belongs to Sage Lance, however in order to make sure others don''t have such ideas I was sent to help escort them back to the tower. I am informing you that I am going to leave in the next few days so that you have time to collect everything I am to be taking."


    Hearing that he was here for the resources promised to the tower, Gissel couldn''t help but release a breath. He had thought that something had happened to anger the tower. Being so close Gissel feared what would happen if anyone was stupid enough to anger a mighty necromancer. Luckily it was just a routine delivery. He placed his hand on his chest and said, "Don''t you worry sir apprentice. I will make sure that everything is gathered over the next few days. In the meantime I will set up a room for you in one of our most prestigious inns."


    Hearing that his accommodations would be taken care of Savani nodded to the governor. While the resources were being gathered he wanted to check out the local Sage market. Savani was never able to enter back when he was just a nobleman so the experience was something he was curious about. Hopefully he could find something useful. After chatting with the governor for a few minutes Savani was led to an extravagant looking inn. After putting the wagon in the stables, Savani noticed several of the workers faces became pale when they noticed the undead wander into his assigned room. Savani ignored their discomfort. Even if the city was a safe place he thought it was better safe than sorry. It also helped scare away any potential thieves.


    Savani entered his room and was surprised by the amount of luxury it contained. The bed was easily a king and the pillows seemed to be as soft as the ones on Earth. There was a lovely red rug on the ground and a pair of armchairs next to a desk. A door to a small terrace was next to a table that Savani could unpack his trunk on. There was even room under the table to store whatever chest the occupant brought his belongings in.


    Savani looked around the room before having the undead move the trunk with his clothes up from the wagon to his room. Once that was situated he lied down on the bed, groaning in comfort as he sunk into the mattress. If he was going to begin to explore and do quests that had him leave the tower for long periods of time Savani vowed to find a way to make sleeping in a wagon more comfortable.


    Looking up at the ceiling Savani gave himself time to rest before getting up and putting on one of his cloaks. It was time to visit the local Sage market.

 Chapter 19

    Savani donned his cloak and made sure that his undead was covered so that it wouldn''t scare the local populace. While he was ok letting the undead wander around the inn to stop those that would think about breaking into his room, Savani didn''t like the idea of making a spectacle of himself for the entire town. Besides if anyone did attack it would be useful to have an element of surprise.


    Once that was done Savani left the inn and began to explore. The inn he had been assigned was fairly close to the area of the town that Sages and apprentices would visit. Savani doubted it was by accident, assuming that the governor set it up to better accommodate his status.


    After several minutes walking down the busy street Savani saw a walled off section of town. In the wall was a large gate opening with runes written in the stone above the entrance. Using the chip to probe the gate Savani saw that the gate was covered with a film of essence that acted similar to the books back in the library.


    Looking at the words Savani noticed they were written in Sage script, the same writing that spells were written in. In fact, the writing was actually a low level spell. After reading it for a bit Savani realized it was less a spell and more of a way to manipulate a persons Spirit that would resonate with the door, acting as a key. With this only Sages and apprentices could open the door, thereby limiting access to them or their followers.


    Savani quickly used his Spirit in the way described above the entrance before directing his Spirit at the door. With a creak the gate began to open inward, allowing Savani and his undead minion access to this part of the city. Immediately Savani noticed a difference with the surrounding buildings. For one thing there were far fewer of them. Every store had a gap of at least several feet between them with these gaps acting as smaller roads for apprentices to wander down. Whats more Savani could see in the distance a large open market where people had set up stalls,


    "Greetings new traveler! Welcome to the Sage Exchange. Would you like some help finding what you need?"


    Spinning around Savani noticed a middle aged man wearing a collar appear out from a gatehouse near the entrance to the market. He noticed that on the collar was a symbol he saw in the governors office along with the symbol of Sage Lances tower. Curious about his identity Savani asked, "and who might you be good sir?"


    The middle aged man smiled. "You can just call me the Market Guide. I''m employed by the government to help wandering apprentices who are new to the market find what they are looking for. I''m also the person who will let you know if you are breaking any rules set up by the local tower in order to stop fighting between customers. This way hopefully no spells will be cast and no one gets injured. Several of these stores are run by either the government or apprentices who have decided to make themselves home in this city so its best to avoid causing any trouble."


    Savani looked at the guide and began to think. In order to make sure that the various apprentices didn''t attack each other the government apparently sent in some mortals to keep an eye on things. The collar was probably meant as a warning, saying this person both represented the local government as well as the local tower. This way the apprentices at least would think twice about how to act, though Savani severely doubted that it would stop a Sage from doing whatever they wanted. Still since only one out of a million could become a Sage this system seemed to be useful.


    Looking at the man Savani asked "So you can show me around?" Hearing his question the guide nodded his head. "Very well. If you could help me sell some of my products I would appreciate it."


    The man nodded again and began to lead Savani through the market. He told Savani what each shop sold and would buy along with which stores were better at selling what product. For instance if there were two potions shops the guide would tell Savani the difference between similar products.


    Savani wondered why he would get such preferential treatment then remembered that the man was also under the influence of the same tower he currently was registered to. After leaving his room Savani had put his tower badge on his waist and the man must have noticed it.


    As he walked Savani noticed how the majority of the other shoppers wore cloaks. Some, like Savani, had a badge with a Sage tower crest on it, but the vast majority had no form of identification. From what Savani could gather they were either rogue apprentices, those that never went to a tower for training or were excommunicated for some reason, or they were apprentices who didn''t want to show their affiliations.


    With the help of the guide Savani managed to trade several of his alchemical creations for a decent number of crystal shards. With his purse now filled with a currency that could be used among the magical community, Savani began to look through the market for any merchant who sold magical knowledge.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Savani wandered through the marketplace before coming across one shop that sold antiques. As apprentices traveled they often collected items from ancient Sages or collapsed Sage Associations. When that happened the items would be sold if the apprentice didn''t know how to use them or if the object was of no use to the apprentice. There were two ways of selling such an item. One would be through an auction where the seller would be able to sell it while giving the auction house a part of the profit. The other way was to sell it to an antique shop and state a price you want to sell it for. If the object isn''t sold you can come back and try to sell for a cheaper price. However, the object can only be inside the store for 5 years before the shop would send it back and charge you for the shelf space.


    Most apprentices would sell through the auction as it would net them more money and took less time. However over the years the auction houses became more stringent with the requirements leaving apprentices with less impressive items to either sell them themselves or to consign it to an antique shop.


    Since Savani didn''t have anything better to do at the moment, he entered the shop with the guide and his undead. Entering the shop Savani could see shelves covered in glass with various strange items on them. Strange warped skeletons, broken weapons, half destroyed books, and weirdly shaped stones were arranged in different areas of the shop leaving the center bare. Along the back wall was an apprentice sitting behind a counter. Instead of hair, this apprentice had dozens of small green tentacles covered in scales sprouting from the top of his head. Sprouting from his back were several much longer tentacles, a few of which ended in stingers or strange pincer claws similar to that of a crab.


    Savani had the chip begin to scan the store as he wandered around. Thanks to the chip along with the pressure coming off the apprentice behind the counter Savani knew that the shop owner was a late stage apprentice, bordering on peak level which made him twice as strong as Savani at the very least. However apprentices of such a level had far more knowledge and skills than those of earlier levels making them far tougher opponents.


    [Large amount of wind energy found inside stone structure.]


    [Armor fragment has unknown runic fragments on left inner chest.]


    [Cauldron has fire runic circle underneath. Possibly to help with alchemical purpose. Runic circle has large gap into cauldron running through edge of circle.]


    [....]


    [Book on wall has aura pertaining to space magic on it.]


    As he browsed the chip kept sending Savani information on the various objects. Some of the objects were useless, having no magical auras around them either due to time or they were counterfeits. Some had runes or partial runes that would be helpful if Savani was an enchanter instead of an alchemist. However, when Savani heard the last message he quickly did a double take.


    The book the chip scanned was old. Its leather cover seemed to be half eaten away and the edges of the pages were yellow. Honestly if there wasn''t the slightest bit of magical aura on it Savani would have thought it was pulled out of a fire. The fact that it held the aura of Space made it incredibly valuable since that was an essence most didn''t come into contact with until they broke through to a Sage.


    Seeing this Savani collected it and another book that the chip said had an aura of darkness along with the cauldron with the fire rune. After collecting the three items he brought them to the apprentice at the counter. The apprentice smiled at him showing Savani a mouth filled with pointed teeth as the tentacles on the back began to lift up the items.


    After appraising them for a bit the apprentice turns to Savani "two ancient books and a destroyed alchemy cauldron. The total is 104 crystal shards."


    Hearing the price Savani frowned. Selling the mixtures before only got him about 300 shards and in an instant he had to spend a third of them. As he goes to pay for the purchase the door behind them opens.


    In walks a male with blonde hair in a blue robe. On his hip is a crest from a Sage''s tower along with a pouch that looks full. The man looks around for a second before seeing Savani''s tower badge. Instantly his eyes narrow as he walks toward the counter. "My my if it isn''t one of the apprentices of Sage Lance. How is the old corpse puppeteer?"


    Savani blinks as he can''t believe anyone would actually dare disrespect a Sage like that, especially when in that Sage''s sphere of influence. Taking a closer look at the crest on his hip Savani realizes why he acted this way. The Sage Association that this person is a part of was a rival Association called the Crimson Mist that bordered the Thunder Legions territory. In fact several times over the last few years there have been disputes between the two that have led to casualties.


    Seeing that this man was from a rival faction Savani frowned before turning back to the counter. As much as the mans attitude annoyed him Savani didn''t want to start something while in the Sage Market. Sadly the man seemed to not share the intention.


    Reaching forward he grabbed the cauldron and took it towards himself. "To think this shop had an alchemical cauldron from the Darkwing era. Even with such a flaw it is still worth a pretty penny." The blonde man reaches into his pouch and takes out a large number of crystals. After counting he places a small pile on the counter. "Here''s 70 crystals. The cauldron is only worth 60 but concider the rest a tip. The Thunder Legion is known for being one of the more poor Associations." The man grins as he looks at Savani.


    Savani acts like he doesn''t even notice what is going on. He reaches out and produces 50 crystals before placing them on the counter. Then without a word he takes the two books and puts them in the pack on his hooded undead. The blonde mans face falls as he watches, angered he didn''t get a rise out of Savani. His hand twitches before stopping, even though he can try and instigate the other person into attacking the blond man isn''t stupid enough to be the one to throw the first strike. Especially with a Market guide watching the whole ordeal in the corner.


    The man glares at Savani''s back as he leaves the store with his undead and the guide. Once the door closes he huffs before looking around the shop for anything else of interest.

 Chapter 20

    Once they leave the store Savani exhales. He couldn''t understand why that blonde apprentice would try to start a fight on enemy turf. Savani could tell what the man wanted was for him to attack. THough he couldn''t understand why, he knew that if he did there would be repercussions. Still Savani wouldn''t take that lying down. He knew from his experience on Earth that for loud mouth people like him the worst thing he could do would be to ignore him and treat him like air.


    Savani chuckled as he remembered the mans face as he left. He could tell that his ego was hit. What made it even better is that the Market Guide being there made it so that the man couldn''t do anything else without getting in trouble. After having a quick laugh he turns to the Market Guide. "I''m surprised that an apprentice from a rival faction is allowed into the market."


    The Market Guide nods. "It is a standing rule that the Sage market in each city will allow any and all Sages and apprentices inside, so long as they aren''t wanted criminals. Any Assosiation that doesn''t follow this rule becomes embargoed by all surrounding Associations. Even ones they are allied with.  Though that''s not to say that the apprentices aren''t watched or that they aren''t discriminated against. From what I understand, it was made this way after several ancient Associations wanted to monopolize rare resources that were in their area at the expense of their neighbors."


    Savani nods after hearing the explanation. With how the power structure of this world worked he wasn''t surprised that some Association tried to monopolize resources, and how this act could anger everyone around them. Putting the arrogant apprentice out of his mind Savani heads back toward the entrance of the Market. "Since I am going to be here a few days is there anything of interest that you can recommend?"


    The Market Guide thinks for a moment. "In two days there is the weekly auction. Every week there is an auction to sell off the more interesting items that the traveling apprentices bring in. Originally it was every month but the auction house lost several high end sales because the seller wouldn''t wait an entire month to sell."


    Hearing that Savani thinks. He really didn''t have much to do the next few days as he waits on the mayor to collect the resources for the tower. Thinking it over he turned to the Guide. "Is there anywhere around here that I can rent for alchemy? I''d like to earn some extra income before the auction."


    The Market Guide shakes his head. "I''m afraid not. There is a shop that sells portable alchemy labs along with ingredients though."


    Savani nods as he asks the guide to bring him to the shop. After purchasing the portable kit and enough ingredients to make a decent number potions Savani leaves the Sage Market and returns to his room at the inn. Once there he puts away the various things he bought before heading down to get some food after a long day.


    As Savani sits in the common area eating his meal he has the chip scan the chatter before refining it and repeating anything of note. Most of the chatter was just general going on of the town but one thing that stuck out was that trade out of the Thunder Legion seemed to be slowing down. There were also some reports of villages being destroyed and that there might be a powerful magical creature that has migrated to the area.


    Savani files the information away as he finishes his meal. The last thing he wants is to be attacked by a beast on his way back to the tower. Luckily it seems that the villages attacked were all in the opposite direction of the tower.


    After eating Savani returns to his room before taking out the two books. He focuses on the one that had the aura of Space magic before gently opening it, all the while having the chip scan the pages. Inside was a strange language filled with a winding script. As he slowly reads the pages the chip beeps.


    [Language has 87% correlation with elvish script. Translation possible. Drawing on internal storage for translation materials. Elvish dictionary found. Translation successful.]


    Hearing that Savani grins. Earlier when he was scanning books at the tower Savani spent a few points on several dictionaries for some of the more common races of the world. This included ones for draconian, elvish, and dwarvish along with undercommon the language most species use in the Hollow. He thought they would come in use later but had no idea they would be useful this early on. Savani reminded himself to scan more books when he returned in case he came across another potential treasure.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    As he read Savani realized this was a journal of a Space apprentice. This apprentice lived,at least according to the book, roughly 800 years ago. Unlike Savani who was from a mortal family this apprentice had family who were apprentices as well. With this he never needed to learn from a Tower as he had connections in the community already. This gave him more freedom to travel.


    Besides the various tales of interesting places and adventures, the apprentice also put several spell modules inside the book. It was hard to decipher as they were enchanted to only be able to be read by those that possessed an affinity for Space, however by using the knowledge he had learned along with the way to influence his aura from the nearby gate Savani eventually managed to get his hands on several Space spell modules.


    Spacial Shield. Description: The spellcaster can fold space around them as an impenetrable shield cutting them off from the dimension. However this cuts off all air supply and the spellcaster cannot cast any spell outside the shields area. WARNING HIGH SPIRIT COST. Distance Personal, shield covers 5 feet radius.


    Blink. Description: The spellcaster connects two points of space before teleporting between the two. WARNING HIGH SPIRIT COST. THE LONGER THE DISTANCE THE MORE SPIRIT NEEDED TO CAST SPELL. Distance: Eyesight.


    Spacial Nook. Description: The spellcaster creates a small separate dimensional space 5ft by 5 ft by 5ft that is centered on the spellcaster. They can place objects inside the space and extract items by thought. NOTE: the space lacks any source of heat or air so items placed inside will be cold to the touch on extraction. Living things cannot survive inside said space. Distance: Personal


    Spacial Blade. Description: The spellcaster folds space into a razor thin edge. This edge can either be wielded by the spellcaster or shot towards distant enemies. The more Spirit injected into the spell the wider the blade will be. Distance: Either personal or 200 feet.


    Looking at his newest spells Savani grins. With this he now had 11 different spell modules allowing him to be able to have a variety of tactics he could use in battle. The new Spacial Shield and Blink were especially exciting. Before Savani had plenty of attack spell modules but never really had any for movement or defense. The closest that he had before were Acid Shroud and Shadow Meld, but neither really helped defend him or enhance his ability to move.


    After reading that book Savani reached out for the other one he purchased. Unfortunately this time he was less lucky.


    [Language has 34% correlation with undercommon script.  Drawing on internal storage for translation materials. No translation material found. Translation unsuccessful. Script seems to belong to ancient dialect of unknown origin.]


    Hearing that he was unable to translate the book Savani sighs before putting both books away. While he would have enjoyed to know what was in those pages it was not important at the moment. Once they were put away, Savani takes out the portable alchemy kit. Inside he finds numerous vials and beakers along with several runic circles used for heating and cooling. In several spots there are indents for Savani to place crystal shards to act as power sources to run the inscriptions.


    Savani puts in the crystal shards and begins to concoct several recipes he has learned. Since he would be selling them to travelers Savani focused on healing salves and repellents to various types of vermin. Although they wouldn''t be the most expensive products, they were both cheap and easy to make with a good profit margin.


    Savani spent the whole night and the entire morning on alchemy. By the end he had roughly 20 healing salves and 15 repellent for 3 different types of vermin. Though each individual alchemy product was only worth between 5 to 10 crystals the amount made up for it. Based on the sales he did yesterday with similar products this should net him over 500 crystal shards! The portable kit cost him 50 shards and the various ingredients cost him another 100 leaving him only 100 shards but now after roughly half a day of nonstop alchemy he had made 5 times his net worth.


    Savani yawns as he packs away the various products before cleaning up his room. After going to get a quick bite to eat he returned to his room for a quick nap. Using the chip as an alarm Savani only allowed himself an hours sleep so it wouldn''t ruin his sleep schedule. After his nap he wrapped himself in his cloak before taking an undead with him back to the Sage Market.


    For the next few hours Savani wandered through the market selling his products to different vendors. After finally selling the last one Savani ended up having 587 crystal shards, slightly less than he originally thought but still a hefty sum. With a grin Savani returns to the inn as the sun sets looking forward to the auction tomorrow.


    As he returns to the inn Savani can feel his tower badge begin to heat up. Looking at it he begins to wander around the area surrounding where he is staying going in the direction that heats up his badge. After a while he comes across an alleyway. Going down it a person emerges from the shadows. It was one of the four psuedo-sages of the tower, Shadow Wielder Mary.

 Chapter 21

    Savani stops in place seeing Mary there. The four pseudo-sages of the tower were all goals that every other apprentice strives for, and for some reason one of them was currently in front of Savani. Quickly Savani crosses his arms across his chest while bowing, "Greetings Pseudo-Sage Mary. What can this apprentice do for you?"


    Mary looks around for a while making sure that no one else was nearby. While Savani kept his bowed position she sent out several shadows that went out and scouted the area before returning letting her know that there were no forces of interests nearby. Only then does she turn and look at the still bowed Savani. "I am here on tower business. By order of Sage Lance all apprentices on missions outside the tower are to return. I have my own mission in town I must attend to so hurry up with whatever your task is because we will be leaving tomorrow before sunset."


    Hearing that he had to leave a few days early Savani frowns as he keeps his position. He had never heard of a tower recalling all of their apprentices before. With this he had to put more pressure on the governor to gather the supplies for the tower. "Yes senior apprentice."


    Hearing that Savani understood Mary nods her head as she walks into a shadow on the wall disappearing from sight. Savani holds his bowed position for a few more minutes before straightening his back. Seeing he was alone now Savani turns and heads back to the inn.


    With Sage Lance recalling everyone Savani had a feeling that something was wrong but he couldn''t put his finger on it. Still it was imperative that he get the governor to gather the resources the tower requested. Seeing as the sun was still setting Savani ran toward the City Hall determined to meet him. Savani managed to get to the building just as the governor was leaving, escorted by a large body guard in a full suit of armor. Seeing Savani run towards him Governor Hordif stops and bows. "Greetings Tower Apprentice. How can I help you today?"


    Savani slows as he gets close, straightening his robes. "Something has come up at the Tower. I''m afraid you will need to hurry up gathering the resources. You have till tomorrow at noon. Once the auction at the local Sage Mart is complete I will be returning to check to make sure everything is in order before leaving with a senior apprentice."


    Hearing that the deadline has been moved up a day the governors face cant help but flush. "Sir apprentice I''m not sure if that is even possible. Many of the resources will be gathered during the auction when outsiders sell their supplies for currency. We simply..."


    Listening to the governor lecture him, Savani frowns and snaps his fingers silently casting Shadow Bind. Three tentacles appear one binding the Governors throat and the other two holding his guard in place. As Savani watches the guard unable to break free and the Governors face redden from the lack of oxygen he speaks in a firm voice. "I do not want to hear excuses. The time limit has been set. As Governor you are responsible for maintaining the town and gathering the supplies that the Tower needs. Failure to do so will lead to dismissal and a new Governor will be placed. One that will remember their duty and who they serve."


    With another snap of his fingers, Savani silently ends the spell. The guard collapses on the ground as the governor bends over and gasps for air, his face now pale from fright. Looking up at Savani he stutters "Yyyy....yes Tower Apprentice. I will have my men work through the night to meet the deadline don''t you worry."


    Seeing that the governor understood Savani nods and walks back to the inn, the sun finally setting in front of him casting the governor and the rest of the city in darkness. Seeing him disappear into the night, the governor rubs his throat and straightens up. Glaring at the guard he barks "you heard the Tower Apprentice. Even if you have to double the price gather everything the Tower has asked for. We don''t have a moment to waste." Still rubbing his throat he looks back towards where Savani vanished, fear still hidden in the depths of his eyes.


    Once Savani returned to the inn he immediately went up to his room before locking the door. Knowing that he has to leave tomorrow, Savani begins to pack up everything in his room leaving just a pair of clothes for tomorrow out. After running downstairs for a quick meal before returning to his room, Savani sits on his bed and enters into his Virtual Training space. Now that he had some Spacial Spell modules, Savani decided to spend the night practicing.


    Looking over his new spells Savani decided to first practice Blink. He had enough attack spells in his arsenal, but if a situation ever went south Savani wanted to have a way to escape. After going through the Spell Module Savani began to practice Blink over and over. He quickly realized that spacial spells were going to be the most costly. Just to cast a Blink cost him nearly 5 Spirit, half of what he currently possessed. Savani also found that for Blink every 20 feet cost an additional Spirit with the minimum cost being 5, even if he only blinked 20 feet away. From the chips analysis it seems the majority of the Spirit went to folding the space he could blink across, and the nearest 100 feet was just the easiest and least costly to jump to.


    Luckily in the Virtual Training space spells didn''t really cost anything since it was just a simulation. This allowed Savani to get a good grasp of the spell as the night went on. By the time morning came Savani was proficient enough in the spell that he could pick any point in the surrounding area and actually blink to where he wanted to.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    Leaving the Virtual Training space, Savani saw that the sun was just rising. The strain of casting spells all night made Savani fall asleep after having the chip set an alarm for an hour before the auction at noon.


    Waking up to the chips alarm Savani groans. He can still feel a mild pounding in his head from the strain but it has lessened enough for him to be able to function. Savani quickly splashes some water onto his face before getting changed. After casting Control Undead on the zombie and putting cloaks on them both, Savani heads back into the Sage Market.


    As Savani goes deeper into the Sage Market towards the Auction House more and more apprentices can be seen. Various people are running into nearby shops to sell items for last minute crystals, and Savani can see no less than 5 different Market Guides wandering around trying to keep an eye on things. After dodging through the various crowds Savani finally manages to get in front of the Auction House.


    Looking it over Savani is mildly impressed. The Auction House is three stories high and feels like an old time theatre. Columns line the outside as a large Arch creates an opening for others to enter. Outside there are numerous staff members creating lines, each wearing a collar with the local towers symbol. Behind them Savani noticed several apprentices in green robes with the logo of the auction house on their sleeves, each watching the lines for trouble makers.


    Standing in line Savani waits for his turn with his undead. Once he gets to the front of his line the staff member smiles at him. "Greetings apprentice. Today is the day of our respective Forest Grove''s weekly auction. Does sir wish for a regular seat or a VIP seat? A normal seat costs 5 crystal shards and a VIP seat costs 100 shards."


    Hearing that he had to pay to enter Savani flashes his towers badge. "Do apprentices of the local Sage Tower get any form of discount?"


    Seeing the badge, the staff member bows, "of course sir Tower Apprentice. All apprentices of Sage Lances tower gets a seat for free and only needs to spend 20 crystal for a VIP seat."


    Hearing that he got a hefty discount on a VIP seat Savani takes out 20 crystals and hands them to the staff member. With a grin the staff member hands Savani a golden ticket. "If you take this to the reception inside they will bring you to the VIP section. Thank you and enjoy the auction."


    Taking the ticket Savani nods toward the staff member before heading inside. As soon as he passes through the arch Savani can feel the hot temperature of the sun be replaced with a cool feeling. Looking around the interior, Savani is impressed. Inside are more columns with artificial vines winding from the ceiling down to the base. The floor is covered with a red carpet that is soft to the touch. The entrance way is wide and open, with an area off to one side with a bar and several tables for apprentices to sit as they wait. On the wall closest to the entrance is a reception area with several beautiful women manning the counter.


    Savani heads to a receptionist that currently has no one in front of them, his undead following a step behind. Looking around he noticed that all employees seemed to have a uniform. All the males were in black pants with leather boots and and an emerald shirt. Each wore a brown vest with a golden ivy running along the edges. As for the females, each wore an emerald top with a leather corset in the same style as the men, along with a long skirt that went to midway down their calves. Instead of boots they wore simple shoes with long stockings to cover their feet.


    As he gets to the counter Savani hands the receptionist the golden ticket. "Hello my dear. I was told to give this to one of you so you may bring me to my seat."


    Seeing that the ticket handed her is gold in color, the receptionist looks him over before noticing his tower badge and what she believes to be a guard standing behind him. Believing him to be an important figure the receptionist flashes him a smile. "Of course sir apprentice. If you do not mind I will have one of the staff show you to your room." Turning she calls out into the doorway behind the counter. "Alexis we have a VIP from the Sage Lances tower. Would you please take him to his VIP room."


    After being called for a young red headed beauty comes walking out. Seeing Savani she smiles and bows. "My name is Alexis sir apprentice. I will be in charge of serving you for this auction." Straightening herself she walks to Savani''s side and proceeds to lead him up a nearby staircase. "The auction will begin in about ten minutes. There will be a total of 48 items for sale. If sir apprentice has anything he wishes to sell to the auction house I can arrange for a line of credit that can be used."


    Hearing the various services Savani shakes his head. All of his potions had already been sold the day before and he didn''t particularly have anything worth selling on his person. Seeing him refuse Alexis continues to lead Savani up the stairs and through a hall before opening a door. Inside is a small lounge with a chair facing the stage. Covering the opening is a large sheet of glass whose borders are covered in runes.


    Alexis steps inside the room before turning to Savani. "This room has been enchanted by an inscription master for privacy. The window is one way and the walls are inscribed to prevent any form of spying from an apprentices Spirit."


    Looking it over Savani sits in the chair overlooking the stage, his undead taking a guard position at the door. "Thank you miss Alexis."


    Alexis comes up and stands next to Savani. She leans over giving him an ample view of her full chest. Smiling at him she whispers. "is there any other services I could do for you sir apprentice?"


    Seeing how she acts Savani raises an eyebrow. While he knew it was common for mortals to try and entice an apprentice this was the first time Savani had witnessed it. Looking her over he had to admit that Alexis was beautiful. Since she seemed ok with providing an extra "service", Savani figured he would take her up on her offer.


    With a grin, Savani pats his lap as he looks into her eyes. "I would be a fool to pass up the opportunity to have such a vision as yourself serve me. However what service are you suggesting?"


    Seeing Savani agree Alexis face turns slightly red as she kneels in front of him. After fiddling with his robe soon Savani groans as she begins her service, his hands reaching forward and gripping her hair. For the next several minutes he sits there as Alexis serves him before the lights dim in the auction house as a spotlight shines on the main stage. Gripping Alexis hair to keep her going Savani looks over at the stage as the auction begins.

 Chapter 22

    Gripping the beautiful redheads hair as she continues her task Savani looks out onto the stage. Under the spotlight a man in a green robe came out before opening his arms wide. "Welcome ladies and gentlemen. Traveling apprentices who have come from miles around to our dear city. Let me welcome you to the Forest Edge''s weekly auction. Today we have 48 items from various reaches of the land for sale. As a reminder there is to be no fighting in the Sage Market. Any and all disputes are to be settled outside the city limits."


    Hearing the rules of the auction Savani can''t help but frown before shuddering at Alexis actions. According to the rules, so long as it wasn''t in the city anyone can attack and steal from another auction goer. Savani was grateful that being a member of Sage Lance''s tower came with so many benefits in Forest''s Edge.


    On the stage the man continued his speech. "My name for all of you newcomers is Mirek Vordell, and I have the honor of being your auction host this evening. Our first item for sale is a chunk of Blue Cobalt ore." Waving off stage a chunk of ore with blue and purple flecks was brought onto the stage by a female assistant. Once the item was next to Mirek he continued, "If it is melted down by a master smith you should be able to get enough metal to form a short sword. Beginning price is 10 crystal shards."


    As various shouts came from the other participants Savani looked at the head sized chunk of ore on stage. Chip do I have anything on the uses of Cobalt metal?


    [Affirmative. Cobalt when properly tempered can be used to create weaponry and armor stronger than steel. The metal also has a decent magical conductivity allowing it to be enchanted. While not one of the stronger metals, cobalt can be used to make low to mid level apprentice items.]


    Hearing that Savani shakes his head. While the metal might be useful he had no access to a master smith or enchanter. Whats more he had several spells that would allow him to make weaponry making the need for a physical one less important, though he decided he should probably pick up something for just in case.


    Watching the other apprentices bid Savani groans as he presses Alexis head deeper into his lap, finally giving her ''payment'' for the last 20 minutes of service. He grips her head holding her in place, as she continues to accept his ''payment'' using her tongue to milk out more. Just as the ore was sold, Savani draws Alexis head back allowing her to breath again. "Well miss Alexis I have to say that was some service. I do hope that your payment was enough?"


    Alexis remains kneeling as she gasps for air before looking up at Savani. "Of course sir apprentice. I am glad that i could enhance your time at our auction." She looks at him and purrs, "is there anything else I can do for you?"


    Seeing how she was ready for more, Savani grins as he looks down at her. For the last year the only activities Savani has done was practice spells and focused on growing stronger. During that entire time Savani stayed to himself, and only interacted with other apprentices in passing. While this allowed him to grow quickly, Savani did have to admit that it left certain urges unfulfilled.


    Savani yanks Alexis into his lap, enjoying the feeling of having a girl in his arms for the first time since being dragged to this strange world. Reaching down he begins to lift her skirt before his hands explore underneath. As she squirms in his lap Savani can''t help but chuckle, finding he rather enjoyed the feeling of tormenting the lovely lady.


    After teasing her enough, Savani went ahead and slid aside her undergarments before easing himself into her. He couldn''t help but groan as he felt her heat surround him. With a slap to her rear, he whispers to her, "Now be a good dear and entertain me thoroughly won''t you?"


    Nodding Alexis begins to move on his lap, wrapping her hands around his neck and pressing herself against Savani''s body. Savani leans back into his seat, doing his best to try and keep part of his attention on the auction going on.


    For the next hour Savani watched as various strange resources pass across the stage. From rare ores, to body parts of magical beasts, even a few higher end potions were put up for sale. Savani made sure that the chip recorded everything along with the prices they were purchased at for future reference, all while enjoying Alexis attempts to please him.


    Several times Savani had to extract himself before shoving his member down her throat to properly ''pay'' her. As much as he enjoyed her services, Savani was still of enough mind to not allow any unforeseen consequences prop up down the line. After each ''payment'', Savani would swap to a different position before continuing. Thankfully his increased Vitality showed a surprising benefit in this situation, allowing Savani to continue for so long. In fact thanks to his Vitality he was currently in a much better state than Alexis. Several times she had collapsed from a mixture of pleasure and exhaustion only for Savani to pull her back into his lap.


    As Savani enjoyed his time with Alexis, the auctioneer wheeled out the next item for sale. "Item 29, a mid-level Dark Elf Martial Manual. For those of you who don''t know, this manual was designed by the Dark Elves as an alternate form of meditation. Instead of refining the Spirit, the moves in this manual take the elements and use them to refine your body increasing your Agility and Strength instead. However I must tell you that the process will be incredibly painful. Whats more you will need to complete the move set in the manual before you stop or you will suffer a backlash. As it is from the Dark Elves those with Light affinity cannot use it, though it can still be used for reference. Bidding begins at 50 crystal shards."


    Hearing the uses of the manual, Savani stops his current round with Alexis. Currently he had found a way to increase a variety of his stats, all except Strength and Agility. Though they got a minor increase from his acid refining, it was quickly becoming obvious he needed to find a way to increase these two stats. Originally Savani was going to use some of his tower points to purchase a way to increase these two stats, but now he could simply purchase a solution. Not wanting to waste any time Savani presses a rune on the window before bidding. "100 shards."This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    As he hoped would happen, instantly doubling the price quieted the crowd somewhat. He could hear the whispers coming from the main room wondering who it was in his room. Unfortunately doubling the price didn''t fully work. After several seconds another VIP room also bet. "120 shards.''


    Savani frowns before slapping Alexis ass out of annoyance, earning him a squeak in response. Leaning over he presses the same rune before saying "140 shards."


    Once again several seconds pass before the same room calls out "145 shards."


    Savani growls as he slaps Alexis''s ample rear again, her resulting moan calming him somewhat. Betting again, Savani this time raised the price to 155 shards. Unlike before after several seconds the other VIP room did not continue betting. Seeing there were no other offers, the auctioneer began to count down from 5. After failing to entice another bid Savani finally won the Martial manual.


    Grinning Savani grips Alexis by the hair and yank her back into a sitting position on his lap before giving her leg a swat. As she began to bounce on his lap another employee came into the room. Seeing what was going on a blush forms on her face as she looks down and presents Savani the book. "Here you go sir apprentice. That will be 155 crystal shards. You can pay now or after the auction when you are less....busy."


    Seeing the new employees embarrassment, Savani felt a slight rush of satisfaction. He never took himself as someone who had sadistic tendencies, often doing his best to be as logical and careful as possible. However his trip to the auction house was showing him a different side of himself. Feeling Alexis try to stop with the arrival of the other employee, Savani reached around and slapped her on the leg again, signaling to continue.


    Once he was sure that she wouldn''t stop, Savani snaps his fingers as the undead walks to the employee and proceeds to give her 155 crystal shards from his pack. Seeing Savani continue his activity despite her presence, along with the half rotten hand that gave her the crystal shards, the female employee thanks Savani quickly before gathering payment and hurriedly walking out of the room, doing her best to not slip on the various wet patches left on the floor from their actions.


    Chuckling at her embarrassed response, Savani continues to indulge in Alexis services as he watches the rest of the auction, enjoying the sounds of her moans. The next half hour passes like the first, with Savani playing with his attendant while keeping an eye on the auction for anything of use. Finally near the end of the auction Savani stops and focuses again as he spots the next item for sale.


    This time the item is surrounded by a crystal casing. Inside is a crystal roughly 10 inches long and blacker than night. Something about it screamed out to Savani, and listening to the auctioneer he vowed to use every crystal he possesses to get it. "Ladies and gentlemen, this is one of our final 5 items for sale. As is customary we have kept the best for last! This here is a genuine Shadow Crystal! Inside is raw Darkness Essence from the plane of Shadows! While such crystals are common in the Shadow Plane, the chances of them forming on our own is rather low! What''s more these crystals are only found in places filled with high amounts of Darkness Essence, like the Hollow or the far off Forests of Midnight. Opening bid is 200 crystals!"


    Hearing the opening bid many of the apprentices in the main seats gasp. Even though crystal shards were the main currency of the apprentices, 200 was still a sum that most below the late stages of an adept apprentice or a peak level apprentice would have. During the entire auction up to this point the highest price had only gotten to 184! Savani''s earlier bid had actually been on the higher end of things.


    Seeing how the auction house was quiet Savani decided to try again to knock out as much competition as possible. Shifting Alexis leg, which was currently flung over his shoulder, Savani leans down and puts a hand over Alexis mouth to muffle her groans before he presses the rune on the window before stating his bid. "300 crystals."


    Instantly the entire auction house went quiet. 300 crystals was more than most of the apprentices here had at any one point. Savani saw several of the runes on the window light up as it deflected  several attempts to find out who was in the booth. The auctioneer looks out over the audience and says "The current bid is 300 shards! Anyone else willing to try and get their hands on this rare and elusive treasure?"


    Shortly after being instigated the same VIP room as before sent out a bid. "350 crystals! This item is going to be bought by my Crimson Mist!"


    Hearing that the buyer was from a rival faction, and whats more one that has already antagonized him just a few days prior, Savani couldn''t help but pound himself into Alexis harder eliciting several gasps from the force before  he leans down silencing her again and pressing the rune. "Excuse be but is this the territory of the Crimson Mist or is Forest''s Edge still under the domain of the Thunder Legion? Don''t think you can use your influence here! 375 crystals!"


    Realizing that using his influence may have backfired, the other bidder quickly calls out "390 crystals! Whether or not this city belongs to Crimson Mist or Thunder Legion doesn''t matter. I want that crystal."


    Savani glares out the window at the other VIP room, Alexis pinned to the wall under the window as he picks up his pace keeping her leg over his shoulder. Not sure how much longer this bidding will commence Savani looks around before taking her discarded undergarments and shoves them into her mouth to muffle her. Pressing the rune again Savani says, "This is an auction. Those with more crystals gets the item. 400!"


    Unbeknown to Savani, in the other room was a familiar blonde haired man currently gripping the arms of his chair to the point his knuckles were white. Looking at Savani''s room he can''t help but begin to yell, "First you manage to get the Dark Elf manual I wanted to buy for senior apprentice Maxwell, and now you are trying to take the crystal I was going to plan to entice senior apprentice Scarlett with?" Looking into his pouch, the man can''t help but frown.


    Originally coming to this city he had a little over 500 crystals. However after purchasing supplies and spending some to humiliate that tower apprentice, the man was left with only 407 crystal shards left. Looking back at the room he growls, "I will let you off this time. But if I ever find out who you are I will rip out your soul and refine it into puppet!"


    After the other room failed to call out any more bids, the auctioneer tries several more times to entice another bid before counting down. Sadly his attempts were in vain as no one else was interested. Savani couldn''t help but grin as he thrust once more into his attendant feeling her tighten and gush over his member for the unknown time. As the next several items were sold to a flurry of bids, Savani sat back and enjoyed the feeling of accomplishment from winning the items he wanted. Along with the feeling of Alexis tongue cleaning him one more time.

 Chapter 23

    Savani walks out of the auction house with his hood up. Behind him follows his undead, with the book and crystal securely placed in its pack. Looking up at the sky he can determine it is roughly 2 or 3 in the afternoon. Savani pulled his hood forward as he and his puppet went back to the inn.


    Once there, Savani has the undead pack all of his belongings into the wagon before driving it to the city hall. Outside was the governor, looking at Savani''s wagon with a light layer of sweat on his head. Surrounding him is a small group of people along with a large pile of crates. After Savani stops the wagon in front of them, the governor has them start to load up the crates.


    As the workers load everything, Governor Hordif comes up to Savani nervously. Rubbing his throat he stammers, "Sssss...Sir apprentice everything has been accounted for. Please let Sage Lance know that I am always willing to help out both him and the Thunder Legion."


    Looking at the man, Savani nods. "Of course Governor. I will be sure to pass your message along." With a grin he looks into the governors eyes "I do hope our last interaction didn''t upset you."


    Governor Hordif''s face pales slightly as he remembers being lifted in the air and unable to breathe. Quickly he shakes his head. "No no Sir apprentice. It was nothing to be upset about, honestly. I would never hold such a simple thing against you." Seeing his reaction, Savani smiled and turned away to watch the workers load up the various crates.


    It only took a half hour to get everything on board. Looking into the back of the wagon, Savani saw that there was still enough room for both himself and Mary to sit in the back comfortably. After thanking the workers and giving the governor a quick bow, the undead drove the cart back to the inn to wait on Savanis senior sister apprentice.


    As he sat there waiting, Savani entered into the Virtual Training room. This time around he began to practice the Spacial Nook spell. Now that he had a way to flee, Savani wanted to have a way to keep his more important resources on him safe from other apprentices. So for the next hour or two he practiced the spell over and over, making sure that the chip kept all data of his various practices.


    From what he found from the practice is that the spell would create a small pocket dimension that was somehow anchored to Savanis Spirit. In order to make the dimension Savani had to use practically all of his Spirit initially, however once it was formed he would only need to use a single Spirit to retrieve or store anything.


    As Savani was practicing creating the Space Nook, the chip sent him a warning that someone was coming. Quickly leaving the training space Savani got out of the cart and looked around. After a few seconds he saw Shadow Wielder Mary walking towards him from a side street. In one hand she held a cloth sack that was filled with something Savani couldn''t quite make out.


    Seeing Savani standing in front of the covered wagon, Mary starts heading toward him. "You had better have finished everything you needed to because we are leaving."


    Savani bows and replies "Yes senior sister. Everything is done and accounted for. I was simply waiting for you." Savani then opens the back of the wagon for Mary to get inside. Nodding at him, she goes in and finds a spot next to the crates before leaning against them and closing her eyes. Savani notices that she keeps the strange cloth sack next to her.


    Crawling inside himself, Savani decides to sit next to the spare undead puppets he brought along with him. As the active undead begins to drive them out of the city, Savani looks over the ones he is next to. Chip with this crystal would it be possible to form a Shadow Ghast?


    [Affirmative. The energy inside the Shadow Crystal holds enough energy for three Shadow Ghast refinements.]


    Savani can''t help but grin when the chip replies. Having three personal assassins would be a great boost to his power. Thinking for a moment, Savani has an idea. There are many creatures that have innate spell like abilities in this new world. Could it be possible to make an undead that has the same traits? Chip take all data we have stored on Necromancy. Is there any mentioned of undead with spells or special spell like abilities?


    [Checking data. Confirmed. Higher level undead can sometimes possess special abilities. The most noticable of this is the Spell Slinger. This undead is formed from converting the body of an apprentice into an undead. High level Necromancers can keep some of the apprentices spell modules intact for the creatures use.]


    Listening to the chips reply, Savani sits there and thinks. After about 5 minutes have passed he thinks to the chip, Chip start a new project. Using the Shadow Ghast as the base, use all data to create a plan on giving the undead spell like abilities that best fit with that of an assassin. Use both Darkness and Spacial spells along with any other way to increase the Shadow Ghasts attributes. Aim for at least peak level apprentice lethality if possible.


    [Understood. Creating new project profile now. Estimate time to create project is 127 hours 46 minutes.]


    Looking at the time it would take Savani nods. The time it would take to create the project would be just slightly longer than the trip back to the tower. After taking a quick peak at Mary, Savani once again enters into the Virtual Training room.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Over the next few days Savani entered and practiced both Blink and Spacial Nook. When not practicing spells he would instead either listen to or practice various instruments from Earth as a way to unwind. When not in the Virtual Training space, he would instead sit and sleep in the wagon. The entire time Mary would stay in her spot, only leaving when they stopped for the night to either relieve herself or eat.


    Savani would occasionally hum himself one of his favorite songs from his past life. During this time Mary would look at him but like always would refuse to talk. What''s more no matter whether it would be in the cart or when they camped, she refused to let the cloth sack she brought leave her side. Savani figured that the sack had to be part of the task she mentioned and did his best to ignore it.


    A day away from the forest of the tower Savani has finally brought both the Blink spell along with the Spacial Nook spell up to Mastered. Now all he has to do is either speak a single word or spell weave a quick rune in the air in order to activate either spell. After mastering them both, Savani goes off into the distance the next time the two take a break before finally casting the Spacial Nook spell.


    Immediately he feels all of his Spirit disappear somewhere he can perceive and yet not perceive at the same time. His affinity for space letting him know that some strange square shape void is being built around him. As the spell goes on the space gets larger and larger before Savani can feel some kind of limit has been met. After the strange square has finished increasing in size Savani can feel his Spirit starting to solidify into walls, bending...something into shape.


    After several minutes the spell finally finished. As Savani gasps and grips his head, feeling the effects of Spirit fatigue. Through the pounding headache he can feel a strange connection to a space that is somehow both surrounding him yet completely separate. With a groan Savani begins to walk back to the cart, doing his best to put on a normal facade despite the painful throbbing in his head.


    As he walks he can feel that space following him, somehow keeping him in the very center of it. It takes some getting use to but Savani is able to finally push the feeling aside as he returns to the cart. Now he is aware of the space but it isn''t as prevalent in his consciousness.


    As he goes and sits in the wagon, Mary looks up at him before ignoring his presence as usual. Despite being with her for so long Savani had no idea if she was simply as introverted as he is or if it was her pride at being a Pseudo-Sage that kept her from talking to him.


    They continue to travel for the next few hours before stopping for the night. During their travel Savani rested some to get back some of his Spirit. Once the sun fell, Savani began to set up a camp just like every other night. Off in the distance thunder could be heard as the wind began to pick up. Looking up at the clouds that started to accumulate Savani couldn''t help but swear. The only time he ever enjoyed storms was when he was inside. Being trapped on the road in one with only a tarp covered wagon was not an experience he was looking forward to.


    The storm hit just as both Savani and Mary finish tying down the horses and eating a quick meal. Looking out from under the tarp covering the wagon, Savani could see the rain whip and twirl. After just 10 minutes it was so thick it was like a white sheet. Thunder clapped in the sky, occasionally sending a streak of lightning through the clouds.


    Savani edged farther inside the wagon away from the back opening in order to avoid getting wet. Looking over at Mary, Savani noticed she seems to be watching the rain fall. Closing his eyes, he begins to hum Singing in the Rain from an old movie he once saw back on Earth. Despite years, and even the beginning of a new life, it was a tune that would always pop into his head any time Savani sees rain falling.


    Unbeknownst to him, Mary turned away from the rain and watched him as he sings. She had noticed during their travels how strange this junior apprentice was. Unlike others who would try and suck up to her whenever possible, this one would simply bow and smile but ultimately leave her alone. She also noticed how he had the habit of humming strange tunes, one she had never heard before from her travels. Since becoming a Pseudo-Sage, Mary had started to travel all over looking for a way to break through that final barrier. During all of that travel she had never heard a single tune that this apprentice would hum.


    Mary also had come to notice how cautious he seemed to be. This apprentice would go out of his way to stay as far away from her as possible, whether that was due to respect or fear Mary had no idea. Not that it was saying much being trapped in such a confined space. Looking at the packed alchemy station along with the undead slumped against the wall, Mary guessed after observing him for a while that this strange apprentice was the star of the newest batch of apprentices called Savani.


    Despite being a known recluse to the other apprentices in the tower, Savani had started making a name for himself. Having skills in both necromancy along with alchemy was an unusual combination, one that could lead to a variety of options once he grew into power. It also indicated that he had a rather powerful memory, further confirmed by the amount of books he would borrow from the towers library. Both necromancy and alchemy had a high threshold when it came to knowledge, one on the various anatomy and how magic interacted with the body and the other with the thousands upon thousands of magical reagents and how they interacted with one another. It was because of all of these traits that the various apprentice powers started to pay attention to him.


    The Shadow League in particular was interested in Savani, which is how Mary had the information on him in the first place. Sadly both the Shadow League and the Earthen Court found that Savani didn''t show any interest in joining their side. Discovering who it was she was traveling with Mary had taken on an observational role. If she could somehow learn something about Savani, it might make recruiting him easier.


    Even as a Pseudo-Sage the politics between apprentices were vicious. Despite the well known fact that she and Crow King Victor had a benificial arangement running the Shadow League, the subtle power struggle between them still existed. Neither wanted to be subservient to the other leading to both sides trying to gather a following. Unknown to Victor however, Mary had also recruited several followers from the so called ''neutral faction''. This was her private force, one that she had done her best to hide from Victor.


    Mary continued to watch Savani hum away, the rain falling in the background. Reaching down next to her to make sure her bag was still with her, Mary began to think about everything she had observed about this strange apprentice while trying to figure out what she could offer to have him join her, or at least the Shadow League so she could have more opportunities later to get him as an underling. She was sure that he had the talent to become a powerful peak stage apprentice, that is if he lived long enough to reach that phase.

 Chapter 24

    As the sun set on the following day Savani finally returned to the Tower. The moment the wagon stopped, Mary got off holding her cloth sack. Looking back at Savani she gives a quick nod before saying, "You have some potential. The Shadow League would enjoy having you among its ranks. Whats more if you are ever interested I am always looking for capable people to join me." Having finished what she wanted to say, Mary turned around and went into the tower.


    Walking inside Mary went off to a corner of the first floors main atrium. In the corner was a staircase leading upward to the higher levels of the tower. Walking through the doorway, Mary felt a slight pressure on her skin. This pressure was put into place to stop lower level apprentices from advancing higher in the tower. It was only after they gained enough strength that they could advance.


    After walking up one flight of stairs, Mary stepped onto a small flat area. In front of her was another staircase leading to the third floor. To her left was a doorway leading out into the second floor of the tower. Ignoring it she continued forward up the third flight of stairs. Like before a pressure began to press down on her, one far stronger than before. However like before she simply walked through it until she reached the third floor.


    Going through the doorway Mary was greeted by the site of the third floors atrium. Unlike the first floor, the third floors atrium was far grander. The walls were made out of marble and the ceiling was enchanted to look like the night sky. The floor was covered with a dark red beast skin carpet that covered the entire area. Off to one corner was a raging fireplace with a dark sapphire blue flame surrounded by several luxuriant sitting chairs.


    However the biggest difference is that there was no one there. Each floor had a strict requirement before being able to enter. The first floor was for beginner and early adept level apprentices. The second floor was for those who had transgressed to late adept level and early peak level apprentices. The third floor was only for those that had managed to break into the late levels of peak apprentice, along with the few who managed to enter Pseudo-Sage.


    While there were hundreds at the beginner and adept level, Sage Lance''s tower only had roughly 20 apprentices capable of entering the third floor. This in turn made it rare to see others while wandering the floor. Seeing there was no one else here, Mary walked over to a corner of the atrium where an undead was sitting in an alcove with a table in front of it. Since there were less apprentices Sage Lance simply had one of his undead man their mission counter. Walking up to the undead Mary placed her sack on the table Mary simply stated "I have completed my mission."


    Back at the front of the tower, Savani quickly placed his undead into his new Spacial Nook, along with his new travelers Alchemy kit and the various belongings he had brought with him. While he was doing this, he had the undead go inside and get one of the helpers from the first floor missions area to come out and check to make sure that Governor Hordif had indeed managed to get everything required.


    During the travel back Savani had tried to use the chips scanning function to see what was inside. Sadly it seems the inside of the crates held some form of inscriptions that stopped others from being able to tell what was inside, along with some form that stopped any smells from leaking out. During his time in the town Savani had learned that the chips scanning function was far less useful than he had originally thought.


    While it was true he could scan for magical creatures and plants, Savani had learned that if a person had a higher Spirit than he did, the chip would only be able to tell that they were there. However, if they had a lower Spirit, Savani found he could scan the person and be able to get a basic graph of their abilities.


    Luckily this means that the stronger Savanis Spirit grew, the more information he could gather. He also noticed that the range that he could scan and control his undead would grow exponentially with his Spirit. Strangely despite this limitation on other apprentices, Savani could still gather data on the various creatures he came across. Neither he nor the chip had an understanding as to why this was the case, though the chip had a theory it had something to do with the soul of an apprentice.


    Noting to try and find more information on the phenomena, Savani was finally given the all clear by the mission helper. After confirming that everything was there Savani was awarded 500 points directly! All the previous missions Savani had done only ended up giving him between 10-30 points. This one mission was worth over 10 of the others! It is no wonder some apprentices would leave the tower, not only were the points more lucrative but the chance of getting other rewards were higher as well.


    After recording the points into his badge, Savani first places his horse and wagon in the stables that were nearby the tower. This stable was meant for those traveling merchants as well as common mounts that the apprentices may have. For the more exotic or dangerous mounts, there was a separate stable on the opposite side of the tower.


    Once his horse and wagon were taken care of Savani enters into the tower. Looking around, he can''t help but raise an eyebrow. Previously there were only ever roughly 200 apprentices wandering around, but now there was closer to 500. As Savani looks over the crowd, Savani sees a couple of people he was acquainted with.


    Walking forward Savani smiles as he walks up to a hulking figure covered in green scales with a large pair of bat wings on his back. Waving at the monstrous figure, Savani shouts out "Warren! How have you been?"This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.


    Turning around Warren grins at Savani, showing a row of razor sharp teeth. "Savani welcome back. How was your first foray out into the real world?"


    Savani shakes his head. "Honestly it was rather dull. It was simply over to Forest Edge to gather some resources. Still the points were rather lucrative." Seeing a strange expression on Warrens face, Savani can''t help but ask "What?"


    Warren looks around before putting an arm around Savanis shoulder. The simple weight of the limb reminded Savani of weight lifters doing squats back on Earth. Just his arm had to weigh roughly 40 lbs. Leaning over, Warren whispers to Savani, "Something is going on with the tower. Not only was there a recall of all traveling apprentices, but any mission that had to deal with either supplies or exploration had a massive increase in rewards. The tower also released a statement that in the next few days Sage Lance is going to have an announcement."


    Listening to Warrens information, Savani understands. It isn''t that outside missions are more lucrative, he had just been extremely lucky to pick a mission that had its rewards increased for some reason. Going over the rest of the information that Warren told him, Savani can''t help but frown.


    Just like when Mary came to retrieve him, Savani had a feeling that something big was going to happen. Sadly, it looks like it would still be a few days before everyone found out what was going on. Still with the points Savani now had, he could try and prepare for whatever was going to happen. Worst comes to worst, Savani could simply flee.


    Savani spent the next half hour talking with Warren learning all the gossip that had happened the last few weeks he was gone. According to him, the message to recall all apprentices happened just two days after Savani left toward Forest Edge. The tower had sent all apprentices from the peak level as well as all four Pseudo-Sages out to collect the various apprentices. These apprentices had more powerful mounts that would allow them to travel much farther in a shorter amount of time.


    Savani spent the next few hours getting some food after a long days travel as well as catching up with a few other apprentices he had more of a relationship with. Like Warren, they all told him of various oddities that were going on. One even told him that all the apprentices were forbidden from killing anything within the forest.


    Hearing all of this Savani frowns as he returns to his room. Looking around it was just as he left it. Glad that he paid for the month in advance, Savani starts to gather everything before putting it all into his Spacial Nook. Besides the giant tub he used for refining his body, Savani had a collection of various alchemy ingredients, monster body parts, and books on magic. Thankfully all together, all of Savani''s belongings only filled a quarter of the space. Once he finished packing everything that was his and wasn''t an original furnishing of the room, Savani got a notification from his chip.


    [Undead Assassin project complete. Requirements for higher tier undead with inborn spells generated.]


    Hearing that the project was complete Savani quickly had the chip share the requirements it had generated.


    [Requirement 1: Body used for undead must be from higher tier creature or humanoid. The subject must have had some affinity with Darkness essence. The higher the affinity with Darkness essence, the lower the decay in status from conversion. Body must also have as little damage as possible both externally and internally in order to get full results.]


    [Requirement 2: Any spell used on undead must be known to the host and reach the level of Crystallization. Only then will the rune for the spell be known. Undead must also have affinity matching that for any crystallized rune. Host must then find some way to copy this rune onto undead in some fashion.]


    [Requirement 3: User must find some way to have undead either be able to gather or store Spirit or essence in order to activate runes. Body modification before conversion is acceptable but will result in lowered status of undead.]


    Reading through the various requirements, Savani frowned. These requirements were rather high, both for the body used and Savani. If he wanted his undead to have a spell, he himself had to master it to the point of getting a spell rune. It had to be known that for a normal apprentice this would be nearly impossible.


    The creation of a spell rune meant that the caster mastered it to the point where they not only knew every spell weave and chant needed, but also the very essence of the spell itself. It also required a very high attunement to the spells element making it even harder for those with middling talent.


    Most apprentices would have to spend nearly a decade simply to get one rune. The only reason Savani had so many is that he had the chips help. Every cast would be recorded and analyzed before feedback was returned. Anything from finger placement to even the pitch of his voice would be modified in order to perfect the spell. It was only when everything was 100% perfect and resonated with the world that a crystallized rune would form.


    Yet the chip had told him that any spell he wanted to place on the undead would need that rune. This meant that Savani had to crystalize practically every spell he had. Then again the benefit of a spell rune was that Savani could cast a spell without any indication of what was going on. Savani sat on one of the chairs that remained in his now bare room and began to think about what to do next.


    *               *                 *                    *                     *                 *                     *


    Several days later, Savani finds himself in a large group of apprentices gathered outside the tower. The various factions gathered in their respective groups, with the Earthen Court and Shadow League being at the two ends of the crowd. Most notably was that the large crowd seemed to contain every apprentice of the tower besides the four Pseudo-Sages. In total there seemed to be close to 800 apprentices overall, spread out among the various factions.


    Savani could feel the tense atmosphere in the air. Like him the other apprentices realized something strange was going on. The towers movements were simply too bizarre causing them all to understand that something big was about to happen. As they whispered among themselves the doors to the tower opened. Behind it stood Sage Lance, followed by the leaders of both the Earthen Court and the Shadow League.


    Sage Lances gaze rakes over all of the towers apprentices callously before he begins to speak. "One of the towers of our Thunder Legion has fallen and its Sage injured. Over the last few days we have tried to negotiate with our attackers and failed. As of this morning, the Thunder Legion is at war, and all of you will be sent to the battlefield. Good luck."