《Memoires of a Necromancer》


 Introduction

    Greetings mortal


    If you are reading this then you have somehow managed to enter my castle, kill my minions, find my hidden room, killed my guardian, found its key, used said key to enter my basement laboratory and even found a way to not get killed by the touch death curse placed upon my memoirs.


    Congratulations, I think you¡¯ll find that the things gathered from my former laboratory will be enough compensation to dismiss any anger or negative emotion directed towards me, should it not¡­ then it would frankly insult me.


    In the unlikely case that you don¡¯t know my name, My name is Zaltarisch Zinrel. If that does not say anything to you perhaps some of my titles can remind you of former glories.I¡¯ve been known as: Harbinger, Lord of the Zinrel, Betrayer of Mankind or in my earlier days as Graves the Necromancer.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    Born as an elven noble I was given a status higher than most races could gain within a single lifetime. Now mind you, that does not mean it was easy for me to gain the achievements and titles that I hold now. In fact for most of my life my family regarded me as the black sheep of the family because of my lack of skill compared to my older (and younger) siblings.


    Can¡¯t say I didn¡¯t enjoy the feeling of stabbing my dagger in the hearts of those old fossils when I finally had the pleasure to do so but I digress.


    Now that the simple introductions are out of the way (by which I mean of course my introduction) it is time for me to start telling parts of my life story and for you to either quietly read it or pass it onto someone else who is interested in my writings.


    For whichever mortal is still with me, let us begin.


    Chapter 1. Escape from the beast

 Chapter 1.1: Escape from the beast (1)

    I was around a hundred and eighty years old when I started my first solo experiment in the private library of our house.


    I won¡¯t bore you with the details but I was constructing a magic circle to summon a lower Feywolf. My plan was to trap this summon and absorb its magical power through necromancy to increase my innate amount of mana.


    Good plan and it worked, sort of. I summoned a Feywolf and I did manage to gain positive results from it in the end.


    But not without consequence.


    Standing close to the summoning circle I felt my magic draining and arcane power flowing towards the circle at a groundbreaking speed. Turns out I made a mistake when drawing the dwarf runes into my circle (I found out later when travelling with dwarves that you are supposed to write their magic runes hollow, who knew?).


    What stood before me in my circle was a ferocious looking wolf almost touching the ceiling of the library. Fangs as thick as my arm and a feral aura that could make any brave man feel like they were hit by a greater fear spell.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    Of course me as a youth, with my already immeasurable amount of wisdom, had the bright idea to take as much distance as I could the minute I looked into its glowing eyes. With the serenity of a sage I sprinted about 12 or 13 steps (opposite direction) before the next thing occurred.


    You see¡­ summoning the beast (although an accidental feat not easily replicated) did not do much for the amount of ambient mana that was continuously sucked into the circle itself.


    A small note for the reader in case he/she knows little of magic: Any mage/wizard with a beginner guide on summoning could tell you that a circle or ritual can only have a certain capacity of mana.


    Second interesting thing to note: The mana will continue to gather into the circle until the creature is fully summoned. Usually the amount gathered is exactly enough with possibly a small excess due to variables.


    Have you guessed the situation already reader? If you guessed that there was an overcharge of volatile mana due to an incomplete summoning, you¡¯d be right.


    But what happened then?


    Well, I gracefully blew up

 Chapter 1.2 Escape from the beast (2)

    Now, because this next part is not one of the best moments in my glorious past. I¡¯d like to remind you of the fact that I am one of the greatest necromancer to ever walk this mortal plane.


    I was young and things back then were in the hands of fate. Just as a reminder.


    So the scale of the explosion I caused was pretty big, real big in fact. It was big enough for a large portion of the mansion and surrounding buildings to be in complete rubble. Turns out that the blast happened to blow a decent chunk out of the city¡¯s sewer system.


    When I woke up after the Incident I was¡­ floating on a layer of¡­ filth in a stream of¡­ of excrement mixed with flowing water. This of course was less than appreciated. So much so that I struggled through the post-explosion pain and crawled out of it the moment I had the awareness to do so.


    Back then I suffered from several pain attacks, couldn¡¯t smell anything (except for the lovely combination of sewer filth and burnt meat) and worst of all, this constant pain on my face as if thousands of tiny insects we¡¯re clawing at it.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    After this unfortunate wake up I must have taken around 2 to 3 weeks to recover decently and in that period of time I went in and out of conscious for most of the first week.


    Week 2 and 3 were the ones when I was physically stable enough for me to wander around and mentally strong enough to cast a few minor spells like Firebolt.


    Desperate for food and longing for water, my options were limited. So I did the best that I could at that time. Can¡¯t say I¡¯d like write much about it but I do want to mention that having a fire spell was a godsend in this situation.


    After these weeks of hard struggle I felt confident enough strength-wise to finally go topside and leave those damn sewers.


    I waited till nighttime underneath the exit leading up to the street. After climbing up, I ¡°persuaded¡± the nearest beggar for direction to the closest town well. Reaching this well was like heaven to me back then and I sat close to it for several hours, drawing water and getting the stench out of my clothes.


    When day arrived I started to think it was as good a time as any to check my body for damages done because of my failed summoning. After checking my body and seeing it still in decent enough shape, I started walking towards the well, expecting to see my sharp, proud looking high-elf face.


    I did not see it

 Chapter 1.3 Escape from the beast (3)

    There is a price for everything. Throughout life I¡¯ve had to sacrifice many things in accordance to this principle. Often more difficult than the sacrifice itself though, is the knowledge that most others will not understand. Why?


    Xxx: Graves the Necromancer, Harbinger, Betrayer of Mankind


    Much was sacrificed after my plan to gain power. Before the explosion I was a chosen noble. Zaltarisch Zinrel, third son of Carmyar Zinrel, and the brother of Valstina, Elldor and Elledane. Before this event my power over magic was average, nothing to mention.


    After it, I started my journey as Graves, a man with no title, looks, money, family or any of comforts of his former life. I lost my given path but in return gained more power and freedom to decide my own.


    Naturally I couldn¡¯t stay in this city. The person reading this might be unaware of the consequences connected to my little incident (including the ¡°explosive¡± deaths of several nobles). I however had a solid grasp on what would happen once I returned to my families (partially) blown up mansion.


    I have already mentioned to you my bad relationship with the elders of my house. As a house consisting of low morals and many skilled wizards, It wouldn¡¯t surprise me if those old corpses used the incident as an opportunity to deal with unwanted trouble.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.


    No, it was better if they though me death, for now.


    Luckily I managed to obtain a mutually beneficial deal from one of the lowborn after a day or so roaming the streets. He ¡°coincidently¡± happened upon my magical skills and wanted to use said skills to deal with a supernatural problem occurring on his boss¡¯s turf (the dumb fool probably wanted to use me and take the credit for solving the problem of his boss by himself). In return he would provide me with travelling supplies including a decent pouch of gold, a dagger for self-defense and enough food to last me about a month. This Deal was accepted.


    It was the easiest job in my life. The problem turned out to be a large amount of thugs disappearing in the night and I was asked by my employer to try and find out what did it, where it was and to estimate how dangerous the situation was. I knew what was going on, the dates of the disappearances and the date of the explosion were easy to match with each other. Knowing that creature was successfully summoned into our world and healthy enough to hunt, the speed of my ¡°investigation¡± became absolutely incredible. I soon proceeded to explain what I thought it was, where I thought it was (it was likely to have been found after the explosion unless it has had similar circumstances to mine) and how dangerous I though the situation to be.


    After that, whilst taking one last look at my soon to be dead employer, I took my supplies, acquired a mask to better obscure my grotesque appearance and bought my way in as a passenger with the next ship leaving city harbor.


    In the end. Not a bad departure all things considered, knowing the ship was making more distance between both my family and the beast was a huge relief. In fact I was starting to be cautiously optimistic about my situation.


    Thinking back on it now, I am extremely embarrassed with how positive I was