Every individual with enough mana can theoretically cast a spell, all one has to do is compress his own mana into the right shape. What separates mages from others is the ability to compress and shape their own mana, like few others. Mages can form complex magical constructs and patterns that enable them to unleash powerful spells.

Most people can still cast small spells but will never be able to shape mana to the degré necessary for high-tier spells. But be aware that even the dumbest warrior could sling dangerous spells at you. Magic isn't hard to learn, only hard to master.

Lena walked through the bright green forest with a smile. She had parted ways with Eshen a few hours prior. After six years in this forest, she was eager to leave.

She wore her new elegant armor and a new cloak in order to get used to it. The armor didn't hinder her movements in any way and fit snuggly all around her body. If she had still been human, the additional weight would have made it impossible for her to actually wear such a piece of equipment. Black steel was extremely durable, and even thin plates could protect against direct sword strikes. But it was also extremely heavy.

The fact that her legs and arms up to her fingertips were all covered in hundreds of thin steel plates required time to get used to. Lena's gauntlets ended in pointed spikes, almost like claws. It was an entirely new experience. But she liked it.

Eshen had advised her to register herself as an adventurer in Knightfall, and maybe take a few missions to secure her mana supply. As it would be necessary for her to farm for cores as soon as possible. Her actual stock might be enough for a month or two if she was careful, but her reserves wouldn't last forever.

Lena had other things in mind first tho.

She wanted to go home, to Maryda. To return she had to pass through the Bone shredders Lair. She wouldn't leave them alive after what they had done to her, she would slaughter them like the mindless monsters they were. She would tear them into pieces. Lena felt a bit bad that one of her first thoughts after leaving Eshen was about slaughtering something. But revenge was a necessity.

Finding her way back to the pond near the cave entrance wasn't hard. Taking a look at her reflection in the water Lena couldn't deny that she had changed again. A few years ago she had seen a young girl covered in blood, frightened and lost. She had only seen the monster, not the person that still existed behind her inhuman appearance.

Now, the reflection showed a powerful warrior in elegant black armor with a masterfully carved mask picturing the face of a beautiful elven woman. The Long black hair shimmering under the bright sun only improved the general picture of a noble adventurer. Gone was the frightened girl from before, replaced by a new and far more powerful Lena.

But even the monster hidden underneath had changed. Before Eshen found her she had been scared, lost, and hated herself for what she was. She had been a newborn monster afraid of her own nature and the world around her. Today she was a powerful undead, ready to face every danger that she faced. She wasn't afraid anymore. Lena was still a monster but she had learned to accept it, to live with it.

Lena still hated her nature, her sick-looking skin, the inhuman silver eyes, and the general loss of her old body. But she would live with it, even if it meant hiding behind a mask and armor. Her nature wouldn't determine her life. Nobody would take away her future.

With a last glance at herself, she walked towards the cave entrance. She entered the dark tunnels without looking back at the forest. Finding her way back through the tunnels would take days, days during which Lena thought about one of the first lessons Eshen had given her.

Lena sat on a chair inside the tower's library while looking at the strange elf. He was rushing from shelve to shelve, picking up books and murmuring silently about the things he read. It was still strange to live with him, but it pleased her that he didn't run away each time she asked him a question.

"So, what kind of undead am I?" she asked. It felt strange to ask about her nature, but the more information she got the better.

"Well, I think you are some kind of zombie but it will take time to categorize you." He answered without looking up from his book.

"Isn't zombie already a category?" she asked with a fleshy slurp sound at the end. The elf looked up from his book and sat on a chair in front of me.

"How much do you know of the undead?" he asked.

"They´re disgusting corpses that kill people and have a death mana affinity. Also, they make people sick, corrupt animals and crops, and they eat children." The last part was more general knowledge than her own but it had to contain at least some truth. Apparently not.

Looking at Eshen's face she felt the urge to jump out of a window out of shame.

"I will try to ignore your backwater villager talk. First of all undead monsters are made of undying or already dead matter. This is their biggest advantage compared to all other monsters. Most undead are made from corpses or other organic lifeless matter, like bones for example. They are entirely kept alive by their cores. They are basically just a core powering a body for most of them. And as long as the core is intact and filled with mana the undead is alive, even if his body is sliced into hundreds of pieces."

"Does that mean that I can't die even if someone cuts off my head?" she asked in disbelief.

"Technically yes. But you would just be an unmoving head. To defeat the undead, people often incapacitate them by cutting off the arms, legs, or head in order to prevent them from causing more damage. After that, they slowly run out of mana and die, not capable to supply themselves anymore. Or they destroy their bodies entirely, fire apparently works really well." he looked at her, his expression becoming serious.

"Keep in mind that even if losing your head doesn't directly kill you, it is still dangerous." Lena nodded and sought how it would feel to lose her head.

"Next thing you should know is that there are more or less three general undead categories. First are zombie-type undead, they take over corpses and use them as a sort of puppet. Their abilities are incredibly vast and come in many different forms. They are usually born in areas with high death affinity mana, like battlefields or graveyards. Most of them are weak but others like yourself can be extremely dangerous given enough time to accommodate their bodies." he handed her a book with hundreds of pictures of zombies.

She quickly looked through the different pictures and realized much to her pleasure, that she was the most beautiful zombie in the entire book.

"And the other undead?" She asked, pleased by her new discovery.

"The second type is the rarest. Incorporeal undead are basically just a great amount of condensed death mana. They are vastly different from one another, are incredibly hard to kill, and have powerful magic. Liches are the most feared of them due to their additional ability to control other undead. If you ever encounter one of them I would advise you to run." He said in a serious tone.

"Nearly unkillable, can control others and super powerful magic, running away. Got it." she nodded. Lena wasn't keen on becoming a mindless slave to some weird ghost.

"The last type are abomination undead. The difference between zombies and abominations is that abominations don't take over other bodies, they make their own. They are born from large amounts of dead matter, like a pile of bones for example. Compared to other undead they can be killed without destroying the core. Normal beast-type monsters and abomination undead are often hard to discern from one another."

Lena walked through the dark tunnels, following six years old footprints and bloodstains on the floor. She already missed the forest with its green leaves, singing birds, and colorful insects. After an entire day of dark tunnel exploration, she finally entered a small cavern with familiar wolf-shaped skeletons. The way back here had taken much less time than before, only another proof of how much she had changed.

This time however she wasn´t the only one who had changed. Much to her surprise the skeletons slowly rose from the ground and eyed her with lifeless eyes. Before Lena, five skeleton wolves took form and slowly made their way toward her. After six years she finally had the opportunity to fight them.

"Finally we meet." she said and unsheathed her swords from her back.

Before any of the skeletons could react, she dashed forward and sliced through the first two wolves leading the group. When the thin blades sliced through the bones without much resistance, she decided to change her approach. She needed to test her fighting techniques with her new armor after all.

Putting her blades away again she dodged the trashing leaps of the remaining wolves. Even dead, their blunt claws could be a threat. Not to her life, but she didn't want to ruin her new cloak.

Clenching her hands she waited for the next attack. Then, as one of the wolves leap at her with open jaws, she powered up her arms with a little bit of mana and punched the incoming wolf right in his skull.

When her armored fist connected to the hard skull of the creature Lena was reminded of her first mana control lesson with Eshen. But this time she wasn't rewarded with wood splinters but with thousands of bone splinters. Just like the tree, the skeletal wolf disintegrated in an explosion of bone splinters and dust.

One punch and bone-shattering kick later the fight was over. Lena could only grin as she stared at her armored fists. She had shattered these monsters with ease. Granted, skeletons are only rank two monsters at best, but still. It filled her with pride to know how powerful she was compared to them. Her joy quickly faded as a new creature emerged from a crack on the other side of the cavern.

It hadn't changed, eight long skeletal limbs, green hide-like skin stretched over a four-meter long body. The Bone shredder was standing on four of his eight limbs and scanned the cavern with black eyes from his bony skull. His limbs and skull reminded her of a skeleton, with nearly no muscles or skin. Quite the opposite to the rest of his body, which seemed to be made entirely out of thick muscles that moved sickly under green skin.

Looking at the creature Lena felt the cold inside her core spread through her mind like a freezing wind. A torrent of pure rage exploded inside of her mind. And without proper thought, she attacked. Her blades flashed in bright silver as they sliced through the creature's side, shredding each limb with hundreds of cuts. She didn't stop, she didn't dodge, all she could do was slash at the creature in a wild frenzy.

Deep down in her mind, she understood that her reaction was inappropriate but her body only knew her rage. And so she sliced into the huge body of the creature, completely ignoring her surroundings. Until a giant skeletal limb slammed into her side and flung her away. A second Shredder had emerged.

The first lay on the ground missing half of his limbs and his torso covered with deep cuts that dripped dark blood. The new Bone shredder completely ignored its wounded companion and attacked Lena with its large fists. This time she jumped back to dodge another wild swing from the creature.

Her mind still blinded by rage, she pointed her swords at her new enemy and channeled her mana into dozens of spells. When the creature jumped towards her it was greeted by a torrent of crackling thunder. The dark bolts impacted stone and creature alike, shattering both.

After a few moments, the spells resided and Lena stood before a small crater with a smoldering pile of flesh and bones inside. The first creature had also been hit by multiple bolts and lay on his back twitching.

Lena's rage subsided as fast as it came. She looked at her defeated enemies, her magic slowly decaying their bodies. Lena had lost control over herself for a moment, she knew that. Otherwise, she wouldn't have wasted so much of her mana for magic. The cold was always a part of her, but she rarely even noticed it.

"I need to get a hold over myself." she said. If she lost control over herself against more dangerous enemies in presence of other people, the consequences could be deadly.

The mana inside of the two defeated Bone shredders began to dissipate and was slowly absorbed by Lena's core. It wasn't nearly as much as she had used to kill them but still better than nothing. Sadly none of them formed a core, not that she had expected it.

After finishing her meal, she made her way toward the large cavern with the monster's Lair. The cavern in which she had died. Lena had still one enemy left and wouldn't leave without taking his head. Entering the large cavern she saw two familiar shapes lying on the ground. She tried her best to ignore them for now, she needed to suppress the cold. She would take them away from here, but first, she had to face her killer.

It didn't take her long to spot the last creature. It was still holding the same sword which had killed her. Lena could feel the cold spread through her again but she fought against it. She wanted to fight with a clear mind.

Swords in hand she slowly walked towards the waiting monster. It still didn't attack her. Just when Lena thought she could attack, the creature moved. With lightning speed, it brought his sword crashing down on her small frame. She managed to deflect the large weapon and quickly dodged the next attack.

It was fast, faster than the others, and his attacks were much more precise. But it wasn't enough, with a few swift steps she stood beside it. Bringing down her glowing blades she sliced through muscles and bones alike. Within a second she had cut off two of his limbs and left deep cuts on his upper body.

Just when the creature made a wild horizontal swing Lena jumped back. The damage she had caused was big, with two missing limbs the creature was unable to move correctly. If it wanted to fight her correctly, it had to let go of his weapon. And without the weapon, his attacks were no threat to her thanks to her armor. Lena smiled coldly under her mask.

"Drop your sword and die" She said in a calm voice.

But the creature didn't drop the weapon, it gripped it even harder. And just when Lena asked herself what it was doing the sword began to glow deep red, with crimson mist enveloping not only the weapon but the entire creature.

"Fuck." was all she could say before the creature jumped right onto her.

It was even faster than before, which seemed impossible due to his missing limbs. She blocked his first strike with both of her swords and would have had a hard time without empowering her entire being with her core. The monster didn´t stop tho and unleashed a flood of frenzied attacks.

She managed to dodge most of them until one of the strikes made her stumble over a rusted helmet lying on the floor. She didn't manage to dodge in time and the tip of the massive sword sliced over her chest and the impact flung her backward. But she wasn't hurt.

Quickly glancing down at herself she saw that the giant sword had only left a long superficial scratch on her armor. Lena grinned. She knew Eshen's armor was good but she didn't know how good it really was. Any normal metal armor would have been sliced through like paper.

"Even with your blade skills, you can't kill me. It's your own fault that you have to die today. You should have destroyed my head as you did with my friends." she said and attacked.

She danced through the torrent of strikes from the creature, letting them harmlessly glance off of her armor after deflecting the brunt of the attacks with her swords. Lena danced around the creature like a wild storm, leaving hundreds of deep cuts all around the creature. The creature's attacks slowed down rapidly, and his wild sword strikes lost all their force when the monster's skill ceased. After one last strike, she cut off one of the limbs holding the sword and the large weapon escaped the creature's grip. With a loud metallic Klang, it fell on the dark cave ground, but Lena ignored it.

Infusing her swords with her mana she activated another blade skill. She jumped and brought her glowing swords down onto the neck of the creature. Her thin blades sliced through skin, muscles, and bone without a sound.

The creature slumped down on the ground and stopped moving, the head was lying a few meters away. Lena felt the mana inside the creature condense and regroup in the chest of the creature and she knew that it was dead. Lena walked towards the large corpse and sliced the now unprotected chest open. After the mana fluctuation stopped she reached inside and took out a small grey pearl. A monster core.

She had seen many of them during her alchemy lessons with Eshen and knew that they came in multiple shapes and colors. Each core contained the remaining mana of the defeated creature, the type of mana inside the core was determined by the monster. The contained affinity could be infused in other materials to craft weapons, armor, or potions. A fire affinity core could be used to create an armor that resisted fire attacks for example.

For Lena, the affinity contained inside the core wasn't important, as she would transform it into raw mana to create her liquid mana potions. In the end, all that mattered for her was the amount of mana contained inside the core. Much to her annoyance, the creature hadn't much mana left, and the core didn't contain as much as she would have liked.

"Stupid beast must have been low on mana for a while." she grumbled angrily.

Nonetheless, she had gotten a core, which was good. During this fight, she had used up more mana than necessary and she would be forced to eat sooner rather than later. But she decided that avenging her own and the death of her friends was worth it.

Leaving the corpse behind she walked towards the remains of her friends and a cold mist seemed to press down on her mind. She fell to her knees.

"I'm sorry that I wasn't able to protect you. I'm sorry that I left you to rot in a place like this. I wish I could turn the time back and stop us from ever entering this cave, but I can't." her voice echoed through the silent cave as tears streamed down her face.

"I hope that you can forgive me for leaving you here for so long and that you can accept what I have become."

She didn´t know how long she stayed near her friend's destroyed corpses, but when she got back to her feet she felt relieved.

"I will take you back home." she said with a soft voice. With a swift motion, she stored the remains of her friends inside her storage ring.

"We will return together." With that said she walked away and towards the cave entrance.