Andius flexed his how reattached arm cautiously, the muscles and tendons all felt incredibly sore and achy, but he was whole again and that was all that mattered. He looked over at Charla who was putting away the healing salve she had used to fix his arm and asked, “I remember you saying that you had something to show me when I got back?” He said, sounding just a bit too excited.

Charla looked up from what she was doing and squinted at Andius like she was about to chop his arm back off, but then her expression softened as she realized what he was talking about. “Oh right, that…” She stuck her hand into one of her pockets and produced what looked like a modern pair of reading glasses. “These will let me look at your mana paths, but I will need your verbal consent to do it. The world values privacy when it comes to internal magic systems.” She said, already putting on the glasses.

“I consent.” Andius said simply, standing up straight once again.

Charla nodded and looked close at Andius, starting from his chest down to his legs and back up to his head. When she took the glasses off again her hands were shaking and her face was pale, she looked like she had just seen a ghost. “Y-you… What are you!?” Charla said, her voice a bit too loud and causing Herald and Raizus to look over, who had been chatting off to the side up until now.

Andius couldn’t help but laugh, looking down at Charla with a stupid grin, “You have a way with compliments, you know that?” Herald burst out laughing, earning both of them a glare from Charla.

Charla reached up and smacked Andius on the back of the head. “Now is not the time for jokes boy! Do you even realize what’s going on inside of your body?” Andius just shrugged unhelpfully, causing Charla to sigh and pull out a scroll from her counter. The scroll showed a human body with channels moving throughout, a circle at the head, stomach and hips, as well as one in each hand and foot. “This is the mana-gate system, everyone has one but most people’s are dormant. There are ways of unlocking one’s mana-gates, but it takes training or luck… And usually most mages don’t get more than three open in their entire lives.”

Andius nodded a few times, this was all making sense to him so far, it was like an internal energy circuit with generators built into the loop. “So I’m guessing the more gate’s you have open, the stronger your magic is?”

“It’s more than that! Just by opening one gate, your life span goes up by fifty years! When you get three open, it’s like your body evolves, it becomes harder, faster-”

“Stronger, better?” Andius cut her off, getting a snicker from Raizus and another smack to the head from Charla.

“Do not interrupt me!” She was getting a bit red in the face now, so Andius decided maybe messing around any more was a bad idea. “As I was saying, the mana-gates improve your body with each opening, but one has to be careful not to open too many at once. Like I said most people only get three open, but well trained mages could get five or more if they really tried… Problem is, you have to be of a certain level in order to open them safely. Go beyond that and-”

“You explode into a brilliant pillar of light? Dissolve into nothing but a scorch mark on the ground?” Andius said, cutting her off once again. Instead of being mad though, Charla looked at him with her jaw open, completely caught off guard by his words and rolling up the scroll once again.

“You really are an immortal then. This proves it.” Andius winced as he realized his words gave him away, but he was pretty sure she realized before this conversation anyways, so he wasn’t exactly changing anything. “You have all ten gates open, something that hasn’t happened in many, many years, centuries even!” She paused for a moment and stared at Andius’ chest again. “This is the only one that’s working right now though, the other nine are sealed… It’s sloppy work honestly, but the power needed to seal one of those gates is a lot to begin with. These may have been rushed but I can tell they were all done at the same time. Who did this?”

Her questions were getting more and more blunt, and Andius was having a hard time thinking about a proper way to explain it, “Uh… well, I don’t really know? After I popped a few times, a shadowy figure helped me by sealing them.” Of course he knew that it was a elemental that helped him, but he wasn’t going to reveal everything he knew, even if Charla was a wizard who could do a lot to help him. “I don’t really know much more other than that, honest.”

Charla seemed to get more from his words than he had intended because she started to take notes, “A shadowy figure, you now have a massive affinity for shadow… Add onto that the gear you’re wearing, it sounds like some outsider helped you. A demon, an angel or an elemental lord.” Andius winced, and Charla grinned at him, “Knew it, you were given gifts from an outsider! No wonder you have such strong magic and even magical items!” She paused for a moment and looked at Andius dead in the eyes, “One more thing, your mana looked different from before. Did something happen while you were out?”

Andius tilted his head to the side at her, he wasn’t really sure what she was getting at. Then it donned on him, “Oh, yeah I got my specialization while we were out there! I actually used it on the Bloody Blades when they came after us.” This got surprised looks from everyone aside from Raizus, who just looked confused. “Uh… is that… not normal?”

“No, just most people don’t get their specializations until level 10 unless they meet some secret requirements for a higher tier one.” Herald said, explaining how the system worked for him. “What exactly is your Specialization anyways? I didn’t see you do anything unusual out there.”

Andius blinked, he hadn’t checked any of his notifications since the fight with the Bloody Blades! “Oh, um… right. My specialization isn’t that flashy, I had to pick it to get us all out of that situation. I wanted to take one that was focused on assassination, but with only one arm and only a handful of HP, it would have just gotten us all killed.” He pulled up his character sheet and looked at it for a second.

——————

Name:Andius

Title: Reborn

Level: 8

EXP:228/800

Specialization: Shadow-Caller

HP:160/160

Stamina:260/260

Mana:112/112

Strength:11

Dexterity:27

Constitution:16

Intelligence:12

Charisma:23

Wisdom:11

——————

“My specialization is called ‘Shadow-Caller’.” Andius said, immediately regretting his words as Charla went as pale as a ghost. Herald nodded a few times but when he noticed his wife’s expression, his own got more serious and he took a few steps back from Andius.

Charla composed herself, but the look of fear on her face stayed as her hands went into her pockets slowly. “Andius… That is a very ancient and dangerous practice. Shadow-Callers are to blame for the genocide of the gnomes.” Even Andius recoiled in horror at the revelation, his specialization is that hated? “Some consider them even greater threats than Liches or Vampires. Andius,” Her voice took on a grim and serious tone that Andius could tell was not good, “I need you to take an oath, right now. Swear before the lords that you will not use this power to enslave others.”

Andius was completely taken aback by this, Charla had never acted like this before, but that was serving to make him take the situation serious for once. “I-I swear before the Lords, I will not use my powers to enslave others.” The words came unbidden to him, like he had said them countless times, almost like someone else was speaking through him.

“Say it twice more.” Charla said, the anxiety slowly leaving her voice. Andius said the phrase two more times, and with the last word a pressure filled the room, like something being locked into place. As soon as the pressure left Charla let out a long breath of relief. “By the lords, I thought we were going to have another Elemental war on our hands!” Andius had already tuned them out as he found himself swimming in notifications.

——————

Ability Minion Possession unlocked!

Sometimes a situation calls for a personal touch, one where mindless minions simply wont cut it. Shadow-Callers all gain the ability to possess one of their summons and control it directly, while losing the ability to control their own body for the duration. The possession last until dispelled by the caster, or the target is destroyed. WARNING: Death of the target while caster is possessing it may result in backlash.

——————

Spell Summon Scout(Shadow) Level: 1

If a shadow-Caller is a tactician, then this spell is their most useful addition to their arsenal. This spell allows the Shadow-Caller to summon a small monster with the ability to fly and enhanced senses for gathering information. The summon itself is mindless, but paired with the correct abilities, makes for the perfect scout.

Cost: 10 Mana Reserved

——————

Spell Summon Lesser Beast(Shadow) Level: 6

——————

Hidden Skill Shadow Summoning Level: 4

——————

Congratulations on gaining your first specialization! As a Shadow-Caller, your role has changed from a back line DPS to a tactician and summoner, which is going to be hilarious since you show almost no aptitude in leading. By gaining a rare specialization, you’ve been granted 2 Specialization Points(SP) instead of 1. From this point on you will generate 1 SP every level, which can be spent in the specialization screen to gain new skills and abilities.

——————

As soon as the slew of notifications vanished, Andius’ perception shifted and he found himself standing in an endless void of nothing, the only thing in the room was a star-like object that when he focused on it, realized branched off into three different dark points. The points were all completely blank, but somehow he knew exactly what they were. The point heading up was the summoning node, which would give him 10% higher chance of controlling his minions, The one to the bottom left was subjugation, which would allow him to grab other people’s shadows 10% easier, and the last point just opposite of that one was labeled stealth, which would give both him and his summons a 25% boost to stealth while in shadows.

Andius looked at the points in the void with a huge grin, this was a skill tree! He immediately selected the one for summoning, and it started to shine just as brightly as the one before it. A trail of light spread to another point, which widened and broke off into three different paths; Might, which was about powerful single summons. Mass, which seemed to be about summoning groups of weaker summons for a lower cost of individual summons, and Malice, which seemed to be units with unique and strange specializations.

For a while he debated what he should do, dipping into the other two kill lines below wouldn’t offer him anything unique right now, but they had the potential to offer something incredible further on. Meanwhile he could get one of these three choices right now, who’s rewards were just marked as question marks. He decided to throw caution to the wind and selected Mass.

——————

(S)Spell Summon Pack(Shadow, Lesser) Level: 1

The first mass spell any Shadow-Caller learns, this unique spell summons a small pack of monsters that are native to the area of their summoning. While the units will be weaker than their individual versions, strength in numbers is a fact that cannot be denied.

Effect: 100% chance to summon (3) lesser monsters that are native to the area you cast it in. 10+X(1)% chance to completely control the creature that you summon. Summoned creature will be a shade of it’s form rather than organic. Size of pack increases with ranks in this skill.

Cost: 50 Mana reserved.

——————

Andius nodded in satisfaction at the new skill gain, this would make fights against groups far easier, and might even be useful in overwhelming a single target. The question was how much weaker these summons would be compared to the single summon, but that was something he could worry about later.

“Andius! Are you listening?” He was yanked back to reality by Charla’s voice, the sudden transition giving him an instant headache. “I said we had a problem!”

Andius blinked away the pain in his skull and looked around, “Sorry, I was sucked into my Specialization tree, what’s going on?” The look of irritation from Charla kept him from making any more witty remarks and instead just paid attention.

“You were in the tree for that long? What kind of-” She let out a low groan and shook her head, “It doesn’t matter. Herald just got back from the Goblin camp, he wanted to scout it and see if he could find any stragglers. He said he found human and Gnoll footprints all over the campsite. I don’t think I need to tell you how serious this is.” The intent look on her face was his invitation to speak up, but he waited a moment to think on the words.

“So hold on… Gnolls don’t normally get along with Goblins, do they?” Andius asked, getting a shake of the head from Charla, “But Herald would probably have noticed if there was signs of fighting… That means that for whatever reason, the Gnolls and Goblins in this area have teamed up?” He paused and thought about another thing he had learned, “Wait, you said human? The only humans I know that would work with Goblins would have to be the Bloody Blades, right? I can’t think of anyone who would want to work with them other than those murderhobos.”

Charla nodded her assent and moved over to her counter, pulling out a map of Astrala. What Andius saw caught him completely off-guard; Astrala was a Pangaea! There was another small continent not too far from the main island that was barely a quarter of the size of the main one, but that part lacked any sort of detail to it. Charla pointed to the center of the map, “The map is split up pretty well in a way that’s stopped war for the past twenty or so years. In the center is the human territories.” She drew a circle with her hand that went pretty far from the center. “To the west we have Elven lands, humans aren’t allowed there obviously. Woodsdale is dangerously close to the Elven border, which is why almost no one travels west of here without a good reason.”

Her hand went north, which looked like a massive mountain range, “The northern section of the world is ruled by the dwarves, the oldest race in the world. The Dwarves are friendly to us, but only because of our trade.” Charla grimaced as her hand went to the east, which looked like a massive swamp on the map, “This is Skavi territory, they’re completely neutral when it comes to alliances, but don’t think they’re pushovers. Not a single human war-party has made it back alive.”

Andius frowned and looked down at the map, “Hold on, I know what Elves and Dwarves are, but what the hell are Skavi?” He’d never heard that word before, nor had he seen anything that could have matched that kind of name.

Charla blinked at Andius in surprise for a moment, but just carried on, “They’re rat people. Really good engineers. Anyways.” She moved her hand down to the south part of the map, tapping it for a moment. The area was poorly detailed, but it looked like a desert mixed in with some hills and canyons. “These are the dead-lands. No major race has a foot-hold here, but it’s filled to the brim with monsters and less civilized races… Like Gnolls and Orcs for example.” She looked up at Andius to make sure he was following along, getting nothing more than a nod in return. “Gnolls all obey their ruler, so there is only one clan. The fact that they’ve left the dead-lands and made it this far west is a serious worry Andius. Even worse if they’re working with the Goblins and Orcs.”

“So… basically they’re looking to start a fight?” Andius asked.

Charla shook her head, “No Andius, they’re looking to start a war.” Her words stuck like a hammer to Andius, he’d seen what war could do, it would completely collapse the lives of normal people just trying tog o about their lives. He was one of those people.

Andius let out a long, drawn out sigh, “Okay… why are you telling me all of this?” Andius said, starting to feel more and more like he was being drawn into something he wanted no part of.

“Because Andius, you’ve got power this world hasn’t seen in hundreds of years! Ignoring the fact that you’ve got powerful Umbramancy, you have all ten mana gates open, even the Arch-Mage only has seven.” Charla said, her voice filled with urgency and just the slightest bit of desperation. “I know people who can train you, in Arcanis. If you can get strong enough to raise an army of shadows, you could fight off entire sections of the Gnoll army by yourself!”

Andius had a lot to think about, he wanted no part in a war, but if his race was wiped out or enslaved in a war because he did nothing, the guilt would eat away at him forever, possibly literally. With a sigh, Andius said, “Look, I’m definitely not a hero or anything like that, I’m completely new to this world and I know next to nothing about it. Not to mention getting that kind of power would take forever, and who knows how much time we have?” His words tang hollow though, and he knew it. Charla looked ready to explode on him before he cut her off and said, “But if you think I can really help? Then fine, I’ll do what I can, but I make no promises that I’ll really be able to do anything.”

Charla’s mood switch like a light and she immediately dove into one of her many drawers, making Andius wonder just how many she had under that desk of hers. She produced a strange looking disk of crystal framed in gold, which distorted his vision whenever he looked directly at it. “Take this to the Mage’s College in Arcanis, say you want to study directly under the Arch-Mage. Don’t answer anyone’s questions except for his, and make sure you only give this to him.”

Andius took the disk and turned it in his hands, trying to look into it’s surface when Charla put her hand over it, shaking her head. “Right, I’ll do that then. I just need to clean up some loose ends here first, then I’ll head over, sound alright?” Charla nodded with a hopeful smile. “Where is Raizus anyways?”

Charla smirked and motioned to the door, “Whipped him up a disguise while you were in a trance. He said he was going to go to the tavern and have a few drinks. Oh, and here.” She handed Andius a small backpack, “Your cloaks in here and so is a few travel rations, it’s a long ways to Arcanis.” She pointed to a small city on the map that was a good ways north east of his location. “Good luck.”

Andius thanked Charla one last time, gathered his gear and walked out the door. “What did I just get myself into?…”