New Life As A Level 0 Undead Mage

Mat's eyes danced across the landscape, taking in all that it gave him.

Right out the door, a wooden bridge of old and worn out, but still strong-standing timber led him across a small river. Mat turned his head left, and then right to see, and found the 'river' going all the way around the circular walls of the castle and disappearing along with the walls.

*So the castle is surrounded by water on all sides, huh? Colour me impressed, a good defensive tactic.*

Mat though in his head as he concluded why it was the way it was. Taking a deep breath, he walked forward a pace, and officially stepped out of the castle. Just as he did so, the archaic gates behind him—that looked so simple and plain from outside, but were covered in arrays of magical sealing hexes from the inside—slowly starting swinging back and closed on themselves.

Mat stood there awestruck for a minute, taking in and digesting the sheer functionality of the magic that this world employed. He couldn't help but wonder just the sort of genius it would have taken for this world to figure out all of this.

He was curious, he was hooked, he was quite literally crushing on this *teknique de magika*. He wanted it for himself, and he would stop at nothing to get it.

An obsessive sort of light flickered in existence deep inside Mat's soul, and suddenly he wasn't satisfied with just creating light bulbs and cremating undeads with magic anymore.

He wanted to learn! He wanted to discover! He wanted to devour all sorts of magical secrets this world had to offer like he once obsessed over world's tallest mountains, and then hoard them to himself until he could grasp their entirety!!

Then he would be the most charitable man in the world ever, and distribute them secrets among the normal folk in this world for the totalitarian good of the society. He would be master of arcane arts! In all of heaven and earth, he would be the *Man Who Open Sourced the World!*

The master of magic!

The Lord of Heaven's Feel! The Sovereign of All Things Arcane!

He would be the ass cheeks that clamped down on the Throne of the Magical Arcana! The Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth born to take over the world! The Exalted Thearch of Heaven and Earth thrown here to nurture this world into a new age of wisdom and prosperity!

Mat already felt like a god… he was hyperventilating at just the thought of being the most well know man everywhere! It was like a dream of the lifetime to him this moment, and he didn't even used to have dreams.

Taking a few deep breaths, Mat calmed himself and collected his thoughts by lightly slapping both his cheeks. He had to get his thoughts together, there was no point in passing out because he went overboard dreaming his magical ascent.

Finally feeling calm, and ready to move, Mat swept the garb he wore over his shoulder in style, and stood there for a moment just to appreciate how it flowed in the wind.

"Too cool for this world, I am."

Something seemed to have happened to him, Mat wasn't sure, but it was possible that Old Man Orren's self obsession with dramatic entrances and exits had been contagious, and now it was turning him into a narcissistic, self absorbed idiot too.

*It's not so bad though, in the end it's just positive reinforcement for me to grow into a better person.*

Mat self justified in his head.. indeed, he was a serial *copium huffer* in his previous life, only ever coping or escaping from the truth of the matter.

Turning around, Mat finally looked back again at the bridge that would let him out of this place.

His path to freedom, and the wide, all encompassing open world.

Mat felt like he'd just finished the first necessary quest of an RPG game, and now he was free to roam around anyway, and anywhere.

Moving his body forwards, Mat walked ahead and passed the bridge to reach the other side of the *river*. Indeed, it was a short stream, barely 20 feet in width. He suspected that the architects and builders of the castle had decided to make a distributory out of a nearby river, and rolled it around this castle to protect it from probably all sides. Maybe, he could only guess.

Once across the bridge, Mat looked back at the castle and its decrepit walls, and gave it a low bow. No matter what he thought or felt, it was still the grave site of *his* family.

"Thank you, father, mother, everyone.. I know I'm not your Mordain, but I shall fulfil his destiny if I can. It will not be my life's goal, I'm sorry, but I will do everything in my power to make sure it goes right."

Mat felt an alien sense of *hiraeth* for this place, even though he had never lived here.

Suppressing his nostalgia for a place he's never lived at, Mat turned around to look at the way ahead of him.

Across his eyesight, the world stretched end to end into a green meadow covered in crimson veil of the moon; flowers of different shape and myriad colours sprouted once in every few paces of the *ad infinitum* seeming grassland.

As he looked up at the sky, Mat saw the crimson moon slowly descending down on the right of his direction, while on the left he saw a reddish glimmer barely escaping into the horizon.

"So the sun is finally rising, huh?" Mat said aloud to no one in particular. He was now ready, free of the castle and its chains.

*I am going to be the explorer who enraptured this world in his tales!*

Mat gallantly announced in his own head, and started walking ahead on the dirt path that cut through the fields of green and led him straight ahead in the direction which he guessed was south, if this world functioned in any way that the earth did.

The walk ahead was a peaceful experience for Mat, finally away from all the *clicking and clacking* undead, from the walls of confinement that made a free spirit like him feel chained.

Mat gradually cut through the meadows, passing hill after hill, all covered in thick Savannah like grass that reached his kneed in most places, but at certain areas, it reached his chest and went beyond the height of his eyes. It would be scary to get lost in that tall grass, so Mat made sure to stick with the trail.

It was a long, uneventful walk in the twilight as Mat noticed the vegetation gradually changing. The long, plain fields of grass turned dark green, and some taller, more functional shrubs started appearing in the way.

What was once a dark field covered in crimson veil of the moon was now an expanse of plethora of small vegetation, with some occasional thick and large trees to accompany the journey, now all lit well under the rising sun.

Mat truly felt like he was the greatest adventurer in this world, slowly trudging his way to the final boss's lair.

*There was some romance in this.* The idea of being a lone hero saving kingdoms. It made for a good story, that much was certain.

The landscape kept changing the more he walked, the previous gradual shifts now feeling more drastic under the rising sun that was now fully out and shone through the *East*—Mat guessed—like the everyday routine.

Mat walked among the woods, heard the morning chirping of birds, and was entrenched by cicadas singing loud into the ambient atmosphere of the world around him. The short shrubs were now everywhere, but on top of them were large, thick, old trees of oak, pine, and spruce surrounding his vision in all directions.

It was truly intoxicating, to see the world around him be so beautiful.

Mat was truly a sucker for good views. In his entire previous life, his living depended upon how, and where he went to hike, or climb. He was truly proud of the fact that before he passed away, he'd seen some of his favourite views in his favourite countries.

In fact, one of the things that truly motivated him to do all the alpine climbing was the views he could see from the summits. It was a privilege reserved only for the few hundred that scaled these mountains in the world, and got to see those views.

Mat loved riding that sort of dream, and as it was, so far he wasn't disappointed by this world, and he hadn't even climbed a mountain yet. Nature was truly beautiful.

The wildlife flora, and the occasional fauna that his eyes landed on were all creature of the nature, creatures shaped by the god. It was truly a beautiful experience for him, slowly trudging through the length of the mud path that lead him out of castle, taking him all the way through shrubby grasslands to deep woods of conifers.

The path now landed him straight into the beginning of another meadow, which was marked by the lines of trees which officiated the end of the who woods had stayed with him for some time now.

In the distance, Mat could see the yellow walls of a city, covered in indiscernible banners of red that he could only guess for now. But it made him stop and think.

If he was finally here, in a civilised part of the world, it meant he had to make plans about how he was going to enter the town. He to cook up a good story and a role for himself if he wanted to do the things smoothly.

Thinking of the spell that the Old Man had said might help in this sort of situation, Mat pulled out the grimoire which contained those spells. He sat at the edge of the grass covered forest ground, and opened the thick tome to finally learn the way of the necromancer, to learn how he could fake a body and prevent freaking out normal people in a city.