Stygian Mage

Soren kept practicing his spells and slowly his mastery also increased. He also repaired the Spell Vessels while practicing. After a while, he took a rest for filling his stomach.

He also checked out his soul space during that time. He noticed that his Mana Core was now much denser than before. The black mist was slowly getting denser and denser as his cultivation increased.

After practicing for a while, he got the notifications.

“Spell Mastery increased. Ice Arrow – Level 5/10.”

“Spell Mastery increased. Cold Touch – Level 3/10.”

“Spell Mastery increased. Acid Splash – Level 4/10.”

“Spell Mastery increased. Shadow Chain – Level 4/10.”

“Spell Mastery increased. Create Undead - Low Tier – Level 3/15.”

After checking the notifications, he closed them. He spent his whole day practicing and cultivating.

When his undead ‘died’, he would create another for keeping watch.

He had some ideas about his ‘Create Undead’ spell, but first he had to recover to enact those ideas.

Soren continued his routine even after night came: Sleep was a luxury to him right now. He kept practicing as he received a notification again.

“Skill Mastery increased. Mana Manipulation – Level 2/15.”

He knew that as his ‘Mana Manipulation’ skill level would increase, the mana cost for his spells would decrease.

It was not that obvious now but as his control over mana would increase further, the mana cost would keep decreasing.

As morning came, Soren finally decided that it was time to move. He was much safer in his cave than on this tree. He opened his status to check everything once.

The ‘Rotten Zombie’ picked up Soren and carefully climbed down the tree. It then put down Soren on the ground slowly and stood aside.

Soren struggled and stood up, fighting the pain running through his body—it was now time for him to move.

While moving he carefully checked his body; he had become quite skinny compared to before.

He clenched his fist hard but couldn’t muster any strength. Maybe it was because of his injury or maybe because of his reduced physique; he didn’t know.

He was also having trouble walking and felt tired after moving only a small distance.

The consequences of the actions Isaac took to save his life were starting to show themselves now.

……….

They kept moving in the direction of the cave; Soren had already memorized the map that was created by Isaac so they didn’t get lost.

Soren had trouble walking so they took some rests in between and sometimes he made his undead support him while walking.He was truly glad he had this spell as without it, he would have been dead by now.

…………

The ‘Rotten Zombie’ supported Soren as they moved on, through the jungle. They were moving through an area with dense trees as suddenly at that moment…Soren heard some rustling sound from ahead.

He made his undead stop as they both went forward with suppressed steps.

Soon they saw a Goblin, moving around while mumbling something.

From the looks of it, the Goblin seemed to be a scout.

Soren frowned slightly upon this discovery as he didn’t want to meet a bunch of Goblins in his condition. His only option was to silence this little green one in one shot—which was not that difficult for Soren.

Although Soren was heavily injured, he was still powerful enough for this one.

The Goblin also seemed to be a very shitty scout as it never noticed Sored closing in. After Soren reached a proper distance, he quickly released his Soul Form and used ‘Acid Splash’.

A big blob of acid formed and floated in front of his palm which he then hurled towards the Goblin. The blob, the size of an adult fist, flew quickly towards its target at a high speed.

Swoosh!!

A small splashing sound came when the acid blob hit its target but was soon suppressed by the sound of the jungle.

No scream came from the Goblin. It was a silent kill. His upper body was not even recognizable anymore. It had been thoroughly corroded. This was the first time Soren had used this spell in combat and the result was perfect.

One-hit kill!

This was also the advantage Spell Casters had. Even if they got injured physically, they could dish out their full strength without being affected.

Soren made the ‘Rotten Zombie’ collect the core and then moved on towards his destination.

……………

He took turns moving and resting and then moving again. The ‘Rotten Zombie’ was still following him as it still had quite a bit of lifespan left.

Soren found a fairly open place which was surrounded by big trees and decided to take a break there.

He sat on the ground with a tree on his back, supporting him and took out his water bottle. His undead was standing by his side on guard.

Suddenly, he heard some noise as he was trying to drink some water.

He put down his water bottle and looked in the direction of the sound.

Soon, one wolf, that seemed to be female, together with 3 small wolf pups came out from behind the trees while glaring at him.

From their attitude, Soren could tell that they were looking at him as their dinner.

The female wolf bared her teeth, growling and snarling at Soren, with her pups copying her while staying behind her.

Growl!!!

Soren quickly got up, ignoring the pain, and created a Skeleton Soldier, ordering it to fight together with the Rotten Zombie. The two undead moved forward at their own speed and soon clashed with the female wolf.

The female wolf herself was very strong and such, the result became obvious very soon.

Although the wolf was fighting while protecting her kids, she was still too much for his undead to handle. The undead minions kept clashing with the wolf while the pups howled in a weak voice from behind.

Howl!

The Rotten Zombie had high defense but low speed and the Skeleton Soldier was fast but had low defense.

Soren kept adjusting their tactics according to their strength and weakness during the fight.

The fight between the female wolf and the undead minions continued as suddenly…..a blob of acid came at the wolf at high speed.

Swoosh!

Although the wolf was occupied with the undead, she still dodged it and glared at Soren angrily.

GRRRRR!!!!!!

A threatening growling sound came from her throat as she glared at Soren.

She had wanted to rush towards Soren multiple times during the fight but was always stopped by his undead minions who fought without any care for pain or death. Their only purpose was to stop the enemy from harming their master.

Soren knew that the there was no way for his undead to defeat the female wolf so he had used ‘Acid Splash’ as a test and as expected—the wolf had dodged it.

He also knew that if they fought head-on, he would lose so he had to try something because if the situation stayed like that, the one to die would be him.

He then thought of something and turned his eyes towards the small pups. A cold and evil smile formed on his face as an idea suddenly came into his mind.

Soren didn’t know why the female wolf had brought her kids to the fight but neither did he care.

He quickly used ‘Ice Arrow’ and aimed it towards the pups.

Swoosh!!

Seeing her kids in danger, the female wolf became indignant. She quickly dodged the attacks of undead and moved in front of those kids, swiping her claw at the incoming ice arrow.

Soren smiled mockingly at her action and snapped his finger, making the ice arrow explode.

Boom!!

The ice arrow exploded, sending shards in every direction at a high speed but it did little damage to the wolf: The small pups though, were another story.

As the pups howled in pain from getting pierced by the shards, the female wolf got distracted and without missing the timing, a rotten claw slashed at her neck.

The blood squirted from her throat and fell on those kids. A momentary silence followed as the female wolf fell on the ground with a weak growl.

Thud!

Her eyes had anger in them. She was dying yet she was glaring furiously at Soren but soon it turned into a pleading expression as she looked at Soren.

Her eyes seemed like they were saying: ‘Spare my children. Please!’

Soren looked at the scene with cold and calm eyes.

He then slowly moved towards the dying wolf and looked down at her body soaked in her own blood.

A hint of emotion flowed through his eyes as he gazed at her. Maybe it was empathy, maybe it was sympathy or maybe it was just pity, but as soon as they flared up, he killed them.

He didn’t need those emotions.

He took out his knife and slashed those pup’s throats in front of the female wolf as his undead minions held her down.

She howled in anger and hate…..

Gurgle!!

But all that came out was a gurgling sound because of the blood.

She watched Soren’s cold knife taking her children’s warmth away with sadness in her eyes as the Rotten Zombie pierced her throat and pulled out a part of her windpipe, killing her.

No mercy!!

If he had lost the fight, he would have been the one getting his throat pierced, maybe even by one of the pups as practice.

It was the law of jungle here: If he didn’t kill, he would be killed.

………….

Soren reached the cliff where his cave was after quite a while. One rotten zombie was behind him, carrying a dead wolf.

They soon climbed up the cliff and entered the cave after removing the vines from the front.

Soren blocked the cave again and sat down, putting his backpack aside.

He then took off his shirt and bandages and checked the wounds. Although the wounds were healing, they would still take a few more days to heal completely.

After wrapping his wounds again with fresh bandages, he ate some food and drank some water. He then started his next part of the experiment.

He started researching on the wolf’s dead body. He dissected the body, slicing, cutting, doing all kinds of an experiment on it.

He repeated his routine for the day: Experiments with the dead body, mana-control practice, and cultivation.

Soon, night came as Soren casted ‘Create Undead’ spell.

Black mist flew around him as a black magic circle formed under his feet.

As he pushed his palm forward, the black mist surged forward and magic circle dissipated as a wolf with black fur, dead white eyes, rotten skin and the smell of dead, formed in front of him.

Soren grinned at the success of his experiments.

The form of his undead was not fixed. He only had to have enough knowledge about the anatomy and he could create it using his spell.

Perfect!

Soren stood in front of the zombie wolf, praising his own work. He did not have to worry about transportation for now. Although it could not replace a proper transport, it was enough for now.

He spent his next few days practicing in the cave and sometimes going out to hunt beasts and gather the herbs.

He was constantly using the zombie wolf as a transport, in and out of combat.

………………..

It was early morning.

The day had just started and the cold dew drops on the leaves had yet to dry. A black shadow was moving through the jungle at a high speed.

Soon, it reached the exit and slowly came to a stop.

That shadow was a black undead wolf.

A young man with black hair and black clothes got down off the zombie wolf. He then took a glance at the jungle behind him and waved his hand. The black shadow turned into black mist and dispersed into thin air at the sweep of his hands.

The young man then started moving in the direction of the town named ‘Eastwood’.

This young man was Soren—obviously.

It had almost been a week since he arrived in this jungle. Now he was returning to the town.

His injuries had still not healed properly. He had stayed in that cave for around 3 days after returning before deciding to go back to the town.

He had gathered all the herbs he needed for the job and had also accumulated quite a few of the Beast Cores. In those three days, he had again improved himself.

While moving, he opened his status.

He focused on the new addition in his status.

“Dark Bolt: Hurls a bolt of mana infused with ‘Darkness’ element at the target, explodes on contact doing physical damage. ‘Darkness’ element infused in the bolt does withering and decaying damage over time. Mana Cost – Low”

When he was practicing his ‘Mana Manipulation’, he thought about producing a bolt made of mana.

But a bolt made of mana only did some physical damage—it was like throwing a rock at someone. So, he tried to infuse the element with which he had high affinity and the result was ‘Dark Bolt’.

When this ‘Dark Bolt’ hit the target, it would make the target wither and decay—this was its effect.

Though, in a weird way, his raw mana bolt and his Dark Bolt spell both were identical in the way they looked—black colored bolt. It was because his mana itself was black in color. The way they worked though, was poles apart.

……….

After gaining the ‘Mana Manipulation’ skill, he had started thinking about different ideas to produce new spells.

But he was being very thorough with the ideas. He didn’t want to spend time creating any useless spell that he would never use.

And although the Grimoire only had 5 pages open right now, those were for Spell Vessels. When he had created an Innate Spell, a separate page had opened up for that spell.

His ability as a Spell Caster had increased quite a bit since he went into the forest; though, his other stats were pretty average; maybe even lower than average.

Physically, he was no better than any normal human being; maybe even weaker than some.

……….

Soren walked slowly on the road towards the town. He was still injured and any hard physical activity made his wounds worse, so he moved slowly.

“Young man, you don’t look too well. Do you need a ride to the town?”

A cart driver stopped his cart on the road and asked Soren.

Soren looked at the driver and then the cart. It was an open cart that was carrying dry straw grass.

“Yes please, if you don’t mind. I was injured when I was gathering herbs in the forest.”

Soren smiled politely and accepted his help.

He climbed on the back of the cart and sat on the straw. He lay there and looked at the sky while the cart moved towards the town.

…………

It took them around 90 minutes to reach the main gate. Soren got out of the cart and thanked the driver for his hospitality. He then entered the gate after greeting the guards.

He was exhausted from his trip to the forest, so he decided to take a rest for now. He went towards his hotel without stopping.

As he entered the hotel, he spotted the person sitting behind the reception desk.

It was a guy who politely stood up and greeted Soren upon his entrance. Soren returned the gesture and proceeded towards his room.

He cleaned himself up, checked his wounds, ate something and went to sleep after returning to his room.

He had not slept for a few days continuously because of his experiments and even when he could rest and sleep, it was on the hard ground. He had missed the soft bed. Giving rest to his mind and body, he slept peacefully.