A True Genius Worries

by Sophia Schmidt

  "By the Great Mother, how could your parents let you walk alone in this world being so

  ignorant?" It said shaking its huge head in desperation.

  "Based on what Nok told me, you used higher necromancy, turning someone that was still

  alive.

  It wasn't a mindless corpse, but someone that died cursing you with his final breath. Even if

  your attempt failed, the creature was bound to carry with itself the deepest emotions linked

  to its death.

  Not having a mark, its primary instinct was likely to exact revenge. Are you finally starting to

  understand the foolishness of your actions?"

  Lith nodded, recognizing that being so powerful and yet so ignorant in the ways of magic was

  a terrible combination.

  "Do you at least know how to raise a single undead?" She then asked.

  "No. What happened earlier was an accident." Lith didn't like admitting his incompetence, but

  having worked in the science field, he knew that knowledge could not be faked. Either you

  accepted your ignorance, or studied to fill the gaps.

  They walked up to Rodimas' corpse, then Kalla started explaining.

  "If you were to simply use darkness magic on a corpse, it would rot and disappear. What you

  need to do, instead, is to let the necromantic energies fill the body or the skeleton, like this."

  The Byk placed its claws on Rodimas' hollow forehead, while Lith used Invigoration to see the

  stale blood turning black because of the dark magic, the veins bulging out.

  "Once it's saturated, add a speck of light magic, even first magic is fine. That will be your

  mark, the only life force the undead will respect and obey to."

  Rodimas' corpse eyes opened again, the chestnut colour replaced by the bright red. Kalla was

  about to withdraw her energies, but Lith asked her to wait a bit. That way he was able to

  notice that the creature had no blood core, just a red one striped black like the skeletons did.

  Chapter 116 Necromancy Lesson 3

  "I'm starting to suspect that higher necromancy requires a living subject. To properly turn

  Raghul, I would have needed to fill his whole body with dark magic, not only his core. And of

  course, add my mark.

  Probably the reason why Kalla can't master necromancy isn't because it can't use light outside

  of first magic, but because has no knowledge of the cores."

  "Makes sense." Solus concurred. ¨C

  With Kalla's guidance, Lith managed to raise his first skeleton after a few tries, destroying

  some of them in the process. When he felt sure to have grasped the basics, he even managed

  to raise Rodimas' ghoul.

  Before following Kalla to receive her final gift, Lith went back to put the two badly burned

  mercenaries out of their misery.

  "A part of me would love to experiment on them with higher necromancy, but honestly, I

  had more than enough for today. Also, if I manage to turn them into sentient undeads, I

  would feel responsible for their lives.

  I would be either forced to kill them, and that would be a waste, or let them roam free, and

  that would be plain madness. I'm done playing with powers I don't fully understand. Guess

  now I have one more thing to research in the library." ¨C

  After walking for a bit, Lith started to feel a headache growing, his desire to go back to the

  academy and rest was almost unbearable.

  "Where are we going?"

  "To my cave." Kalla explained. "Since I'm leaving, feel free to pick whatever you like from my

  trophies' pile. That will be my thank you for saving Nok's life."

  "Teaching me necromancy is a great gift already. I don't need more. By the way, where are

  you going?"

  "I don't know either. I have reached a bottleneck. All my instincts tell me that either I

  overcome it or my talent will rot. Now that all my cubs are big enough to be self-sufficient, I

  can finally set off to explore my limits."

  "Have you tried talking to the Lord of the forest, first? Maybe the Scorpicore could help you."

  Lith didn't dare offer his help directly. He had no idea how men would react to him teaching

  true magic, let alone magical beasts or monsters.

  Yet if the academy was to be in any danger, he would much prefer for someone like Kalla to

  be present.

  "I already did. Scarlett tried to explain to me many times about things like 'cores' and 'world

  energy', but they are only empty words to me. So, it advised me to travel outside the forest

  and search for enlightment."

  After a while, they reached a small hill. It was about ten meters (33') high, covered by tall

  green grass, with tilted saplings growing on its sides, fighting with the nearest forest trees for

  the sunlight.

  Lith could see many small animals, squirrels and birds alike, moving around in the vicinity,

  without care for their arrival. Like a mouse on the back of a lion, they weren't afraid of

  predators, the presence of the powerful Byk was their lifeline.

  The cave was deep, and had an entrance big enough to let two creatures the size of Kalla to

  move freely in and out, probably to allow her to move with her cubs.

  The so-called trophies' pile turned out to be just trash. Weapons, tools, clothes, were

  amassed together in a random order. Most of them were damaged or broken, making them

  useless.

  "I took those things from humans and creatures that invaded my territory, trying to kill me or

  my spawn during the years." She explained.

  After a little search, Lith could see there wasn't anything interesting in the bunch.

  "What about rings or amulets? Didn't they have any?"

  "Those I took for myself, silly one. They will be especially useful once I'll be away from here."

  Lith sighed with annoyance, thinking how he could have already been resting back home,

  instead of junk hunting.

  "But there are some I couldn't figure out their use nor throw them away. I feel they are too

  dangerous to be left in clumsy hands. Feel free to take them, if you wish."

  Kalla touched the left side of the cave, revealing a small secret chamber, holding a pile of

  small wooden boxes, all identical to the one Rodimas had given Lith.

  Suddenly he felt a chill running down his spine, his vision blurring making the headache

  almost unbearable. This time he saw groups of armed soldiers fighting and destroying entire

  cities.

  "Not the vision again! What does this mean? Is the war really this close? And what does it

  have to do with me?" ¨C

  Lith saw several envelopes scattered among the boxes, their wax seals still intact. After

  checking with Invigoration that there wasn't any magical trap, he opened them, discovering

  that all of them were written in a code he couldn't figure out.

  Reading those apparently random words, other images flashed before his eyes. The last thing

  he saw was an image of his house in Lutia, burning. The barn was open, the animals dead or

  escaped, while the fields in front of his house seemed to have been trampled upon.

  His point of view moved inside the house, allowing to watch the dancing flames, the walls

  splattered with fresh blood. His father lied on the floor, his head cracked open by some heavy

  blunt weapon, the brain almost visible.

  His expression was of pure despair and terror, his clothes were drenched by his own blood,

  coming out from multiple deep cuts. His bruised hands still clenched
to form fists. He seemed

  to have died fighting.

  The vision moved to the kitchen, where the corpse of his mother, Elina, rested. Her eyes were

  wide open, a pool of blood was under her head, a huge chunk of her tongue was visible

  among the blood.

  Her clothes were ripped to shreds, not even death had stopped her aggressors. Lith could see

  human bite marks all over her breasts and genitalia, a pool of white sticky substance defiling

  her legs and mouth.

  Anger was raising inside Lith's chest, a thirst for blood like he had never felt since his days

  back on Earth.

  Then, he heard his sisters' voices calling for help, Rena was calling her husband's name, but

  Tista was calling for Lith.

  He tried to force the vision to show them to him, but suddenly he felt pulled up and away

  from the ground, watching everything in miles of radius from the sky.

  The whole village had been razed to the ground.

  Once Lith regained his senses, the headache was suppressed by the killing intent he could

  barely contain.

  "Where did you find them?"

  "Most come from the dimensional items of the hunters that I recently killed. In the last

  months, lots arrived believing themselves to be predators only to end up as prey." Kalla snout

  deformed into a grin.

  "But others I took from the white-furred pups that live in the man-made mountain."

  "The students?" Lith was shocked, not at the idea of their death, as much at the implication

  such event had.

  "Yes. It happened when I was chasing the hunters who had killed one of my cubs. They had

  escaped me the first time, yet days later dared to return in my turf."

  Anger overloaded her eyes with mana, turning them in pitch black holes.

  "I stalked them, and when the opportunity arose, I exacted revenge. From that moment

  onward, every time hunters arrived, I would follow closely to kill them along with their pups,

  to let them know what I felt."

  "How did you manage to do that?" His interest was piqued. He doubted to be able to cleanly

  kill a group of mercenaries and students at the same time, without any of them escaping.

  Even with all her undeads, being unable to fly made Kalla weaker than himself in Lith's eyes.

  "Clackers, that's how." The Byk's laughter was like stone grinding against each other.

  "I know how they communicate, via earth magic. I lure them with their feed call, and when

  everyone is busy fighting with the spiders, my undead sweep the field. The Lord prohibited us

  to kill the white-furred, but Clackers do not answer to its orders.

  I only take care of the hunters. It's not my fault if the little b*stards don't know how to fend

  for themselves."

  Chapter 117 Reborn

  There were still many things Lith wanted to ask Kalla, like how she managed to perceive the

  Clackers' calls and how to manipulate them, but as his bloodlust receded, he could feel that

  something was wrong with his body.

  The headache had returned worse than ever, and no matter how much he used Invigoration,

  his energy was leaving him like sand slips between fingers, no matter how hard one clenches

  his fist.

  Soon he wasn't even able to stand, his eyelids were drooping, forcing him to fight just to

  remain conscious.

  "You seem to have a fever." Solus warned him.

  "Impossible. Except during my first years of life, I never got sick. Not even a flu." ¨C

  His breathing turned ragged, Lith lied on the cavern's floor, feeling the comforting coldness of

  the rocks ease the heat waves ravaging his flesh.

  "I think I need to rest for¡"

  Lith fell asleep even before finishing the sentence. Both Byks had no idea what to do. Even

  with their limited knowledge of humans, they were capable of understanding that Lith's

  constant shivering and sweating bullets wasn't normal.

  "Mom, do you know anyone capable of using light magic?" Nok lapped Lith's cheeks trying to

  comfort him.

  "Outside of the Lord of the forest, no. Maybe Scourge is just exhausted¡"

  A snapping sound from Lith's body cut Kalla short. The Byks stretched their ears, sniffing the

  guest. Another snapping sound occurred, this time louder. It was akin to a fresh log thrown

  into the fire, cracking because of the heat.

  Snap and pop sounds came one after the other, if an earthling happened to be there, he

  would think that someone was making popcorns. From the inside, Solus could see his bones

  cracking and heal continuously at an alarming rate.

  Sometimes it was just a fissure, other the whole bone would shatter in small fragments

  before they assembled again. When it was the skull's turn, Nok jumped backwards out of fear.

  Suddenly a porcupine seemed to have slipped under Lith's face, sharp ends bulging under his

  skin, barely able to contain them.

  Each time a bone would crack, impurities would ooze out of them, finding their way out

  through any of his orifices. Most of it flowed out from his eyes, ears and mouth, forming a

  pool beneath his head.

  The stench was unbearable, Kalla was forced to destroy the tar-like substance with darkness

  magic, fearing it could harm them.

  "Is he going to become an undead?" The events unfolding in front of Nok remined it what had

  happened to Raghul just a few hours prior.

  "Unlikely." Kalla replied. "I don't sense a massive amount of dark energies surging."

  Nonetheless, she closed Lith in the secret room, leaving just enough space for the air to flow,

  strengthening the cave walls in case of attack, just to be safe.

  Thanks to Invigoration, Solus perceived the world energy flowing inside Lith's core, the body

  was finally able to withstand its growth, surviving the changes necessary to wield the new

  power.

  "The unconsciousness is actually a blessing in disguise. The pain would be excruciating if Lith

  was still awake." ¨C Solus thought.

  Hours later, he finally woke up, feeling like the Walmart doormat after the Black Friday. Every

  inch of his body ached, his already tattered hunter suit was soaked in impurities beyond

  saving.

  He managed to cancel the smell with darkness magic, but removing the stains would destroy

  the leather as well.

  "What happened?" Lith shook his head, trying to remember where he was.

  "Good news! You have finally got past your bottleneck. Your mana core is finally halfway

  through the cyan. Probably the constant strain and healing cycles of this last few months did

  the trick." Solus words made little sense to him.

  "It's not my first rodeo. Why did I faint? And why do I feel like cr*p instead of refreshed?" ¨C

  It was too complicated to explain, so Solus just showed him her memories.

  "What the f*ck? All that pain just for a shade of cyan?" ¨C

  Once Lith managed to get up, even opening the stone door with earth magic proved to be a

  challenge.

  "Rise and shine, sleepyhead. You have slept for three days. I was starting to get worried." Nok

  trotted to him, rubbing his snout strong enough to make him fall.

  "Three days?! Sorry Nok, I have to run!" Lith yelled in desperation. He didn't care for the lost

  lessons, as much for all the time wasted doing nothing. If the vision was correct, he hadn't

  even a second to spare.

  Nok laughed at him.

  "I was joking, it's bar
ely sunset."

  Cursing the Byk's ancestors and doubting the morality of their mating choices, Lith punched

  the nearby wall with the feeble strength he could muster.

  "It's not funny!" He yelled, striking again.

  "My family is in danger, who knows what could have happened to them in three days? You

  scared me to death!"

  "That makes the two of us." Nok took two cautionary steps back, keeping its gaze on him,

  ready to run away.

  "Why are you scared?"

  "Don't want to end like the wall just for a stupid joke."

  Lith looked at his punch, discovering that it had created a small socket in the wall. A

  spiderweb of small cracks originated from the impact point.

  "What the heck?" Lith and Solus thought, still in a daze.

  "I didn't feel anything. How can I be this strong?"

  "It must be because of what happened to your skeleton. Your mana flow is completely

  different from before." Solus pointed out.

  "The quality of your mana has barely changed, but now even at rest, the energy that your

  core passively produces is able to reach every inch of your body. I have seen something like

  this only in magical beasts like the Protector." ¨C

  "What's happening?" Kalla rushed back to the cave after the first pounding sound, expecting

  the worst.

  When it saw both cubs alive and well the Byk sighed in relief, but then an odd smell reached

  its nose. Not beastly nor human, it was something lost in between.

  "Scourge, you have changed." It was a statement, there was no shred of doubt in her voice.

  "Your smell is even less human than before. It's akin to the one the Lord of the forest emits."

  Its eyes gleamed with comprehension of the true nature of their guest.

  Before leaving, Lith asked Kalla how to perceive and lure the Clackers. Sadly, the former

  required a high earth magic sensibility that he lacked, while the latter was far simpler.

  The spider's feed call sounded exactly like the human heart rhythmic beat, only it had to be

  emitted via magic through the ground.

  On his way back, while flying through the air, he activated Life Vision, searching for more

  changes in his abilities. Lith discovered that now it didn't just show the life force and mana

  simply through colours.