Secluding himself in the practice room turned out to be more beneficial than Jake originally had thought. He didn’t notice at first, but he was learning very well in the silence. By stacking the two books- the Seraphym original on the top and the translated Common language on the bottom, he was quickly becoming comfortable with the new language. His mind was grasping it extraordinarily well. It was to the point that by the time he’d reached halfway through the book, he almost didn’t need the translated copy. Most of the basic words were easy to read now and the only hiccups he came across were either new words, or longer words.

After the first third portion of the book, Jake had established the grammar rules and the syntax that the majority of the words followed. The context was key in the Seraphym language, and the rules changed depending on the subject of the sentence. It made things confusing at first, as pinning the subject wasn’t always easy or obvious. But as Jake went along- he learned that the sentence structures tended to follow only a limited set of rules. It made picking everything apart much easier. Once he developed the rhythm of the language and picked up on some of the vocabulary- he just needed to fill the holes.

By the end of the Seraphym book, Jake only needed to check on a few words. He began to use the dictionary rather than the Common language text, so as to disconnect himself from relying on the other book. He went so far as to push the Common language version off the table and out of reach. If he wanted it, he would have to get up out of his chair to fetch it- which required more effort than he was willing to spare. Thus, with no translated copy to save him, Jake did it on his own. In doing so, Jake subconsciously made use of another gift from Ferynith.

His affinity for magic was one thing, but not all magic was restricted to the Common Language. In order to become a true master spellcaster, one needed to learn multiple languages. And Lady Ferynith recognized this requirement when she bestowed Jake with her gifts. Jake learned how to partially control four elements so far. While he was nowhere near the level of some very powerful mages, this was certainly a good start. And with the language of the Seraphym being added to his toolkit, he was slowly dipping his feet deeper into the waters of Magic. The possibilities would be endless…

Just so long as he remained focused.

After finishing the book, Jake closed it and stared at the back of his right hand. The scar from where Chul’s leg had cut him was still fresh. The wound itself had mostly healed but the color would take time to fade. He never felt the pain from the wound, as he’d passed out shortly after receiving it, but it certainly hurt to look at. The thought that he could have done more, that he should have tried to fight sooner, crept into his mind. If only he had helped Chul more proactively then maybe, just maybe, his friend would still be alive. Jake would still be in that cavern meditating, or they would both be crawling out of the ravine and heading back to the village. If they were lucky, he might even be eating paia’s made by his Auntie.

But they weren’t lucky. No, they weren’t anything close to that. Instead of being warm by a small fire and sharing the adventure with his Auntie, Jake stared at the evidence of a fatal mistake. One that was sure to never, ever, stop haunting him. One day he might come to terms with his choices. For now, he could only do so much to keep the pain at bay.

“I’m sorry, Chul,” he whispered as he curled his fingers into a fist. The hand throbbed and ached. But, even more so, his heart hurt quite a bit. Yet his pain meant the world still ticked on. He was alive, which meant there would be more adventures, more opportunities, and other painful moments ahead of him.

Pushing the two finished books out of the way, Jake pulled open the Seraphym spellbook. He had familiarized himself with the written form of Seraphim, so now he needed to build his Magical vocabulary in the language. By focusing on the necessary words and directions, Light magic wouldn’t be so far out of reach. While learning Seraphym would allow him to open up Dark magic as an option, then learning Light magic to protect himself from any mistakes that might occur was paramount. If the book the Phantom gave to him was true, then the only true counter to Dark Magic was Light Magic.

Preparing for the worst, Jake began to study the new element. He had made a few assumptions about Light magic before and Yir had explained it partially, but the books went even more in-depth. Light magic at its core focused on the Life Force of the individual. It was the highest level of what “Magic” truly was. Light magic could restore injuries by converting mana into the life energy of the target’s body. It could eliminate curses, diseases, and invalidated constrictive spells. Light magic could indeed restore vitality, and doing so was the basis of the Seraphym’s long lifespans. Unlike Elves and High Elves who naturally lived long lives- the Seraphym lived long through artificial means.

By using Light magic, one could also increase their own strength, speed, reaction times, and one could even increase the user’s ability to cultivate mana. The proper use of Light magic made the Seraphym one of the most powerful Races when it came to magic simply because of the large mana pools they could gain by utilizing the positive effects of Light Magic. Though, their downfall was their lack of an affinity with other elements. Light magic could be used offensively, but the spells didn’t work that well against Creatures of Light. For obvious reasons.

But, against Creatures of the Dark- it was highly effective. Maedra, Demons, Demihumans, Dark Elves, Goblins, Ogres, Hobgoblins, the Myr. Creatures which thrived in the dark, beneath the surface, and out of the sight of the Light were fragile when it came to the power of Light magic. Just the weakest of spells could bring doom upon these individuals without the proper protections. Dark magic was terrifying because of the power of curses and the costs of using the spells. Light magic was even scarier for how violent and indiscriminate it was with its damage. Dark magic could be focused and aimed- Light magic spread and covered a wide area, touching everything in its range. There were no focused spells in Light magic, aside from healing and restorative spells, and internal enchantment spells.

Which is what made fighting the Seraphym rather dangerous. There was no way to get a Seraphym to focus on a sole individual, and their ability to fight multiple foes at once with ease was hard to counter. With the ability to dispel any binding curses and restrictive spells as well- containing the Seraphym was nearly impossible. The only chance an individual had to beat a Seraphym would be to either eliminate their Magic capabilities entirely, physically bind them, or attack them from out of the range of their magic. Anyone who dared close-quarters combat would find themselves on the wrong end of the advanced race’s skillset.

Those facts made Light magic that much more appealing. It was a powerful element and Jake would be able to quickly eliminate threats like the Maedra without much effort. If, he could master the element. He struggled slightly with Rock magic, and Fire magic proved to be highly unstable without the right mindset and focus. If Light magic was at an even higher level, he needed to be cautious. Having his mana backfire and explode on him while trying to handle the new element would be fatal. There was no healing damage caused by Light magic, and the effects wouldn’t just wound his physical body. They would hurt his Life Force as a whole. Damage to that would result in a reduced life span, paralysis, deafness, blindness, and even sterilization. While Jake was certainly young, there was the dream of teaching his own kids about his adventures. Becoming sterile would definitely make that a difficult dream to have.

To keep himself from suffering those potential side effects right away, Jake flipped to the Restorative spell chapter of the book. As Yir had instructed, the basis of these spells required knowledge of the anatomy of the individual being aided. However, that only was important for larger and deeper injuries. Simple cuts, bruises, and slashes could be healed without that knowledge. Most top-level injuries were only to flesh and meat, rather than organ and bone. Flooding these areas with mana and accelerating the healing process would do the trick for most cases of injury.

Handling diseases, poisons, and basic sicknesses were also fairly easy to treat. One could even use herbs and alchemy to treat these ailments if the recipes and ingredients were available. However, when using Light magic- simply knowing the type of dysfunction as well as being able to pinpoint where the ailment was focused at would suffice. Once again- using mana to accelerate the healing process would help with sickness. To counter poison, the user would use their own mana to either eliminate the poison from the affected patient, or the user would use mana to push the poison back out of the body. For disease, it was a bit more complicated.

Due to the individual structures of the various diseases in the world, countering each and every one required the minimum understanding of how the disease worked, what it targeted and affected, symptoms, visible effects, and how the individual was personally reacting to the disease. If caught early, diseases could be handled in a similar way to how poisons were handled- isolate and eliminate, or isolate and repel. If the disease had already set in, however, then the Magician needed to focus on the affected areas. Accelerate the healing process, isolate the disease, develop the body’s ability to fight against the disease, and restore the affected individual’s strength and vitality.

Light magic wasn’t a cure-all. It couldn’t just snap things out of existence by dumping mana into the patient. It was used more as a way to strengthen the affected patient’s own natural ability to fight disease. By focusing on the natural process, once cured the individual wouldn’t fall victim to the disease again. Natural Immunity would be developed. And, the lack of external mana wouldn’t result in mana poisoning. By keeping the healing magician’s mana presence small within the patient, the patient wouldn’t be burdened by a long recovery time after the procedure. Of course, this required a high level of mana control by the magician. Anything less would cause damage to other parts of the patient. Damage that likely could never be fixed later on and would become permanent, even fatal.

Understanding this, Jake took learning the element seriously. Being known as a Light magician would be a heavy burden, and people would expect a lot of things from him. People would likely ask him to do things he couldn’t do, and things he could do they’d expect perfection from him. Killing a patient, or failing to properly heal someone, would likely result in him gaining a poor reputation. While he didn’t mind not being pestered often for healing tasks, he also didn’t want to be looked down upon for being bad at magic.

Then again- he could just not use it. Just like when he conducted the assessment in his village, Jake could conceal his proficiency with Light magic. By hiding his affinity with the element and not openly using it, he could minimize that burden on his shoulders. Though, in doing so he would have to come to terms with watching others get hurt. A difficult balance, especially if he came to find others to be important.

He kept that future problem as such, a future problem, and continued with his studying of the new element. After learning the Seraphym language, learning Light magic was actually fairly easy. There were only a few words he needed to say to trigger certain spells and after that, it was all mana control. The spells themselves would cause his mana to change into a certain consistency and would make the mana more malleable. Afterward, Jake needed to use his own mana sense to fix the problems. He would have to manually stimulate the patient’s own mana and Life Force, manually convert his mana into theirs to stimulate faster recovery, and he would need to be able to “feel out” the disease and poison within the patient.

There wasn’t a spell that would make the two just go away, but the spells allowed his mana to harden against the two and would turn his mana into a sort of “glove” specifically made for grasping the ailments. Once he’d grabbed ahold of the disease and poison, then he would either be able to pull it out, destroy it, or convert it into a less deadly version that the body could fight on its own. Using Light magic for healing would prove to be very complex, but with practice and experience- Jake had faith he could become proficient in the task.

In terms of offensive capabilities, Light magic had few but it was very streamlined in its use. There was a simple light ball spell that could be used to illuminate a space, a flash spell which could be used to blind an area, a spell that created a barrier against other spells, and there was a sort of solar spell. Casting the spell would cause light to spread out into a wide area, with the light shooting outwards in an array of spear-like rays. Anything of dark nature that was penetrated by the light would be burned, severed, and potentially pinned in place.

Aiming this spell was thought to be impossible, as light spread in every direction from its source. However, the Seraphym developed tactics and technologies to direct the spells only in one direction. The objects were called ‘Light Cannons’. By casting the spell into the base of these ‘cannons’, the rays of the spell could be pointed in a certain direction, rather than everywhere. While the idea of the cannon was fairly simple, the Seraphym found that only high-grade materials could be used for the weapons. The spell was powerful. Containing it required a similarly strong material, one that the Seraphym could only find in the high peaks of the mountains. No wonder they lived in those places.

But, after reading over the spell, Jake found that it wasn’t actually necessary to contain it in order to direct it. The spell generated a large orb of light where the rays would originate from. If he wanted the rays to only go in a specific direction, then why not just cast it that way? Why couldn’t he just cast half of a sphere, or encase the spell in a barrier to keep the rays only focused in one direction? The answer was easy, and it made him feel rather foolish.

“Lir.” Jake held out his hand and cast the light ball spell, causing a small white orb to appear above his hand. It floated there, spun slowly, and glowed brightly. As Jake stared at it, he realized just exactly why the solar spell couldn’t just be narrowly cast. The orb used as its base was essentially a light ball or a small sun. Light radiated in every single direction from the core. No matter if he put his hand on one side of the orb or not- light still went in that direction. The only way to truly focus the spell wasn’t to direct the rays but to stop them.

The cannons weren’t directors- they didn’t cause the spell to be focused or accurate. They simply restricted the light and allowed only a portion of the rays to exit, and those rays only went out in the direction the cannon was pointed. This also explained why only certain materials could be used for the spell. The material used had to be able to not just resist the rays, but it had to withstand the damage caused by the spell. Less able materials likely could only do so in a limited manner, making them expensive and inefficient. Jake found this fascinating. The Seraphym likely searched all over the Overworld to find this material. To think they’d seclude themselves around it and bar everyone else from using it.

Jake searched the spellbook for the name of the material but it was omitted. Every page that referred to the Light Cannon failed to elaborate on its construction. The only reason the writer mentioned the location of the material was likely to dispel any notion that the cannons could be made elsewhere. A little snub towards the other Races, likely to tell them that the Seraphym’s magic wouldn’t be replicated easily, if at all. Jake certainly got the feeling that the Seraphym considered themselves better than the other Races. However, knowledge didn’t make you better. It was good to know things, but Jake found practical ability to be more important.

He could know every spell in the world. However, it wouldn’t matter if he couldn’t actually cast those spells. Whether he lacked the mana, affinity, or just couldn’t withstand the weight of the spell itself, it didn’t matter. Understanding and knowing magic didn’t mean you could use it. And being able to use it well was even more important. It was why Jake wanted to learn the foundations so desperately. If he could maximize the efficiency of his minor spells, then the major ones would be even more powerful.

“Light magic, light magic…” Jake muttered to himself, refocusing his attention back into the spellbook.

As he thumbed through the pages, offensive and utility magic changed to barrier magic. The spells here focused on countering specific elements and nullifying them at their cores. By using certain runes and sigils, and empowering them with Light magic, a magician could cancel out incoming spells. At its highest level, a magician could even stop a target mid-cast. By dispelling the mana at the core of the spells, or converting incoming mana into power, barriers could easily protect small and large areas. The barriers could also be used to contain physical things. By using mana to build formidable walls, magicians could block incoming swings from swords, fists, and even trap targets in place. In addition- light magic could dispel these barriers. By attacking the sources of the barriers, light magic could easily dismantle the runes and sigils powering the protective walls, rendering them useless.

The only thing Jake needed to do was memorize the respective elemental runes and sigils. Combining them was possible by layering the runes, but doing so required a lot of control and practice. Physical barriers were fairly easy. The hardest barriers were those protecting the user from Rock magic. Rock magic used physical objects to attack. Blocking these incoming objects required the barrier to either destroy the object, repel it, or stop it in place. This made blocking larger objects painfully difficult and would require multiple layers to the barrier.

The text focused heavily on countering Rock magic and physical attacks. There were several different barrier types available to counter these two. While each had a different rune or sigil set, their purpose was all the same; slow, stop, or disintegrate. There were even small personal barriers that could cover the Magician’s body to protect them from direct attacks. Wrist shields could even be made out of the barriers for those with less mana. The versatility was almost endless. Runes and sigils were marked up for everything.

And Jake found himself amused by the anatomy example provided on some of the pages. The Seraphym were a six-armed race with large heads, wide ears, and very long legs. They looked frail, fragile. Which was likely why they put such a focus on protecting themselves from physical attacks. If they were capable of dispelling the elements of the ‘lower’ Races, then their only worry was likely close-quarters combat. A fair assessment, one that Jake himself was a bit worried about.

With a reliance on Magic, Magicians would likely fall short in physical combat. After living amongst the Gods for so long and having developed Magic to a high level, the Seraphym likely abandoned the need for strong muscles and stiff bones that physical tasks required. Thus, after coming to the Overworld, they likely discovered the requirement to defend themselves, as most of the lower Races hadn’t quite been able to use Magic to its full potential.

The rest of the spellbook went on to cover Enchantments and Physical Enhancing spells, Dispel spells, and also covered the Life Force Recovery spell, but Jake only memorized a few pieces and a few spells within each chapter. He couldn’t practice most of them without being in combat, so he would need to wait until he came across the Maedra again in order to test it all. However, the final chapter was what he really needed- Curse Recovery.

Curses, Hexes, and Debuffs were all potential problems when Dark Magic was in the mix. They were hard to contain and even more difficult to dispel. If the Magician wasn’t careful, they could cause the dark spell to backfire and trigger it to explode or exacerbate the ailment. By failing to properly break up a dark spell, the individual with the curse on them might be put through even higher levels of pain, which could be irreversible. Most curses were placed with traps and triggers in place should a Magician with Light magic begin to fiddle with them. The traps ranged from causing the curse to explode, to instantly killing the patient, to even causing the curse to hop to the Light Magician. The traps had a wide range of ugly potential effects attached to them, making it quite scary of an ordeal to handle the dark spells.

To dispel a curse required the magician to essentially dismantle the Curse Rune and replace the removed pieces with condensed Light Mana in order to keep it stable. Maintaining the balance of Light and Dark mana in the Rune required a playful balance, one that would remain dangerous until the Rune broke apart on its own. Until then, the Magician would need to contain it and continue to pull the Rune apart. In the case of a multi-layered Curse, the Magician would need to dismantle the Runes in a proper order, or the curse could collapse and cause further damage. These Curse Runes were the most advanced and the most dangerous to handle.

If it were any solace, the only ones who could use multi-layered Curse Runes effectively were the Myr. After the Angel War, the number of Myr had been greatly reduced, so coming across such a curse should be rare and unlikely, but the spellbook still recommended studying them just in case. With the probability of coming across such a curse being low, Jake turned the page. He wasn’t about to waste time on something that might possibly come up during his travels. He would rather spend time learning more common curses and hexes, so as to protect himself from the majority. Later on, when time wasn’t so precious, he would put more effort into the advanced levels.

By the time Jake reached the back of the book, his mind was spinning. The Seraphym language was a difficult read. Switching between the dictionary and the spellbook was a draining experience, even though it was necessary. The book he had originally read had barely touched the vocabulary required for him to actually study Light magic, so Jake had to spend a lot of time checking words, memorizing them, and familiarizing himself with them before he could move on. It made reading and learning Light magic painful. The upside? Jake could easily remember a lot of what he had read and translated. While he hadn’t practiced Light magic at all, the contents of the spellbook were fresh and he could easily remember a lot of it.

Thus, it was prime time to head to the sixth floor. He didn’t want to lose the chance to continue his studies. He was feeling more and more lightheaded as time went on. If he hesitated or spent too much time on just learning the language, he would lose out when it came to learning Dark magic. On top of that, Yir was around and she was aware of what he was doing. If he needed help or came into trouble, she likely would be there to help him.

However, when he returned to the room, Yir was waiting for him. The fairy fluttered inside of the dark room, her eyes gliding over one of the books within. It was a fresh sight, seeing her reading rather than buzzing around the shelves. Maybe she spent her downtime studying as well?

“Have you learned anything interesting so far?” Yir noticed him walking in and the book infront of him snapped shut. It was the Necromancy book Jake was interested in.

“I’ve become familiar with Seraphym and I started to read up on Light magic. It’s really neat but I think it’s too advanced for me right now,” Jake said. He let out a sigh and scratched at his arm as his head and shoulders drooped. Indeed- Light magic was a bit beyond his skills. He had just gained his control over Dragon’s Blood and so far, his magic was just coming into power. He needed to become more comfortable with the basic elements before stepping into the advanced ones.

“At least you’ve noticed that, but that isn’t what I was asking for.” Yir fluttered down to him and the Necromancy book was lowered into his hands. Jake started at the cover, his jaw tensing as he felt a chill run down his spine. He waited for a moment, expecting her to either nag him or provide advice. When he looked at her, she was staring back- waiting for the same.

“Necromancy. The magic of the dead…” he muttered, trailing off slightly. “I lost Chul, Yir,” he finally admitted. The Fairy didn’t flinch. “I’m a bit lost without him and I’m scared to continue, but I know he wouldn’t want me to stop learning magic. Dark magic is another element, it’s strong and it could help me. But part of me wonders, what if I could bring him back? If only just to say goodbye, just for a little bit. I know I told you before that I wouldn’t, but in this book…” He paused, swallowing a lump in his throat before taking in a breath.

“What if there’s a chance that I can?”

Yir stared at him, her expression stiff and unchanging as she listened to him. He felt uneasy beneath those red eyes of hers. However, if she was going to scold him she likely would have started to already.

“I warned you before, but it is also not my place to restrict you. I can only guide you. What magic you learn and how you learn it is up to you.” Yir fluttered a bit closer and placed a hand on his cheek. It was small, tiny, but warm. Her eyes peered into his as she lowered her voice. “You won’t find the answer you want, little one, and I am sorry for that. There are no miracles in this world, none like your heart wants right now.”

With that, Yir rose up and placed her hand gently against the center of his forehead. It lingered, then she turned away and fluttered out of the Dark magic room, leaving Jake with the Necromancy book in his hands. His jaw tensed up again as he sat down in the corner of the room.

He cracked open the book on Necromancy and began to indulge in its contents. Jake wasn’t quite sure what he was about to find or learn, but he was certain at least in one thing. He wasn’t going to be happy with it. The Phantom had mentioned sacrifices being required to cast most Necromancy spells. If that were true, then it likely would cost quite a bit in order to effectively restore life to the dead. Jake didn’t know what that cost would be. However, he doubted it would be so easy to pay.

The Necromancy spellbook was full of some deadly texts. Poison and miasma spells were at the forefront- allowing the caster to spread plague and disease over a wide space. Those affected would die in all manner of ways, depending on the make-up of the gas. The weakest could cause coughing, nausea, disorientation, and weariness. The worst could cause rot, bleeding from orifices, organ failure, and quite possibly near-instant death.

Poisons were the basic component of Necromancy. Using them allowed the Magician to weaken or slow their opponent. It also allowed the Magician to affect a number of people in creative ways from put disease into the air, poisoning water supplies, to even causing food to decay and rot away. Miasma could be formed by mixing certain materials together and using magic to send the diseased air over a targeted area, causing discomfort, sickness, or death.

The next category for Necromancy was dealing with the Undead. The beginning pieces focused on being able to see Spirits and communicate with them. A strange asset to have, but one which the Necromancer would be able to use in order to pick out specific souls to use in their spells. These chosen souls could be placed into corpses, reanimated, and used as soldiers to fight for the Necromancer. Or, they could be used as scouts to perform reconnaissance over an area for the Necromancer.

Such a topic made Jake uneasy, but he continued to read anyways. Reanimating the dead was certainly a choice for a Necromancer wanting to build an army of undead, but for someone looking to bring back a friend- it wasn’t what he was looking for. Souls could only be bound to nearby bodies, and Jake didn’t quite have one of those. Though, the spellbook did mention that a natural body wasn’t entirely necessary. Artificial bodies could be used, but a different style of Necromancy was necessary and a different set of materials were necessary for it. On top of that, certain Runes needed to be drawn out of blood onto the artificial body- the blood of the Necromancer.

The blood rune would act as the anchor for the soul, and bind the soul to the artificial body. Until the rune was destroyed, defaced, or the soul forcibly torn away from the rune by other means- the soul would remain bound eternally. This was certainly an idea, one that Jake found the most interesting. But, using the technique required the soul to be bound quickly after death. Since souls don’t particularly like to hang around for very long, the technique of binding the soul to the artificial body required the ritual to be conducted quickly after death.

Reanimating a body was far easier, as it did not require a specific soul. The Necromancer could pluck any soul nearby and forcibly bind the soul to the body. In doing so, the rune would act as a control rune, giving the Necromancer full control over the soul and the body. If the soul ever tried to go against the Necromancer, the soul would be destroyed as a safety precaution. One certainly could remove that safety net by modifying the Rune used, but doing so would return Free Will to the soul. If the soul wasn’t particularly fond of being turned into a mindless puppet, then they could easily turn on the Necromancer. The only benefit to removing the safety on the rune would be to allow the reanimated undead to be autonomous, allowing them to wander and fight on their own without direction.

However, as Jake turned the pages, he was suddenly provided with a tier list; the ranking of souls. Apparently after death, a Soul would continue to hold on to some form of mana presence. Those with more mana would linger for longer, and their soul would retain more power within it. Reanimating these stronger souls would give the Undead Minion a portion of the Soul’s strength. The fresher and stronger the soul, the more power the Minion would have. If the soul knew magic- the Minion would be able to cast certain spells as well. However, this would deplete the mana within the bound soul. Upon exhausting this mana reserve, the soul would disperse and the Minion would die.

However, it was possible to feed mana to the soul to extend its life span. If the Necromancer could establish a connection with the soul, or a contract, then a constant flow of Mana from the caster to the Minion could be established. On top of that- the Necromancer could also connect the Minion to a mana source outside of their own which could also feed the Minion the mana needed to survive.

Weaker souls tended to be feeble and rarely had mana reserves within them. Higher tiered souls were not only powerful because of their mana reserves, but there was also a chance of lingering intelligence. Such souls were rare and required large amounts of mana to restore them. Not only that, but proper containers were required. If the body wasn’t large enough to contain the soul, the spell would fail and the soul would be lost. Thus, proper preparation was required in order to bind souls to the proper bodies.

The concept of it all was fascinating to Jake, and he found it all very interesting. Animating the dead certainly went against all he knew about life and death. Ever so slightly, he was beginning to believe in the possibility of bringing back Chul. Chul was certainly a strong individual- Guardian level. And Chul’s amount of mana was quite high. So, if Jake was lucky, his soul might still be lingering around the Dragon Vein. And with the Dragon Vein constantly filling the air with dense mana, Jake had a feeling even in death, Chul would certainly take advantage of that to extend his expiring life span. That is, if Chul even wanted that for himself.

Still, Jake would need a container- a proper body for Chul to fit in. This would prove to be the true challenge. With Chul having such a large mana source, finding a big enough container was going to be near impossible… unless there was already a large enough body nearby. Something that a Guardian-level entity could fit within.

When he returned to the cavern, Jake hadn’t found the Maudrake. He also didn’t find the Maudrake’s mana crystal lying on the floor. He had never seen the Maudrake’s core during their fight. With it being a large beast and also being able to use magic, Jake could only assume its mana crystal would be massive. Maybe even bigger than Chul’s. The other smaller crystals were scattered about, but not a trace of the Maudrake’s. Either Chul had shattered the crystal, or the Maudrake was still out there. If Jake could subdue the creature, kill it, and then bind Chul to it- there was certainly a chance Chul could fit inside the body.

Then again, Jake once more didn’t feel too keen on that outcome. Chul hated the Maedra. If Jake brought his friend back using the body of a creature Chul hated, then there was no telling how Chul might feel. He could only assume nothing good would come of it. Chul might even be angry with Jake. Other than the Maudrake, though, there were few options he would be able to take advantage of in such a short amount of time. Chul’s power was terrifying and the Arachkin was at the peak of evolution within his Race. Even the Goddess of the Arachkins acknowledged him. Chul was a force of nature, and bringing such a force back to life was borderline impossible without a similarly large container.

It was this understanding and thinking that caused Jake to frown. Necromancy. The magic of the Undead. The dark magic which could allow one to reanimate the dead, control an army of mindless souls, and allowed a magician to defy the laws of nature. Even with that power, Jake would be unable to bring his friend back. But, reanimating the dead wasn’t the only way. There was still one more chapter, and it was a gruesome topic that made his skin crawl.

Jake turned to the last few pages of the book and found himself coming across a mostly blank page. In its center, Seraphym words were written in blood- “RESURRECTION DOES NOT MEAN LIFE”.

A chill ran down Jake’s spine as his eyes registered the words, and he flipped the page once more. A massive rune, once more inked in blood, covered an entire page. The words on the next page began to explain the rune- it was a curse rune. Using it, a Necromancer could provide sacrifices to fuel a massive spell that would bring a bound soul back into existence. The sacrifices, all living, would be used as fuel to bear the burden of the spell. Rather than mana, the curse rune would use the life force of the sacrifices to bring the soul back to life. It would recreate the soul’s body, reconnect the soul to the body, and even recreate a portion of the soul’s personality. The sooner the curse rune was activated, the higher of a chance there would be for the full personality to return. Wait too long and the curse rune would only bring back a fraction of the bound soul’s mind.

The catch, of course, was the sacrifices required. On the next page, there was a similar tier list to show how many sacrifices would be needed for the different tiers. A small footnote explained the numbers were simply estimations, as the number of successful attempts were less than twenty, and all were conducted only on the lowest tiers. Jake’s eyes slowly slid down the rankings, and the required number of sacrifices climbed steadily for the first few tiers.

One. Five. Ten. Twenty Five. Fifty. One Hundred. Five Hundred. One Thousand. Five Thousand. Ten Thousand. Twenty Thousand. Fifty Thousand. One-Hundred Thousand.

The number of zeroes behind the digits increased and increased until finally, he was at the highest tier- One Million Sacrifices to resurrect a God-tier soul. For Chul, it would only cost One-Hundred Thousand living sacrifices to bring back the Arachkin. Only. The number was beyond Jake’s reach and even if he had the choice, he doubted he could live with such a number weighing on his conscious. He initially believed that any soul would do, but the requirements were specific. In order for the sacrifice to be used, there was a mana requirement that needed to be met. Thus, the spellbook ruled out the chance of Jake running around, gathering insects and plants to use as sacrifices for his ritual. He needed much larger sacrifices. Mice, rats. Animals.

Other humans.

Jake closed the Necromancy book and set it down on the floor in front of him. His stomach twisted at the thoughts he was having and he felt uneasy. His skin crawled with the idea of making such a choice. In exchange for a few thousand people, Chul could come back to life. It was certainly possible if he gathered people up like cattle, herded them and then butchered them all at once. Such a task would be painfully difficult and slow, and he would suffer a lot of pain and hardship as he would ruin all of those lives and even destabilize regions.

But… it was possible. That didn’t quite bother him. What did bother him was that inside his head, the thought had crossed his mind. He could hear a whisper telling him that he should do it. He considered how, what he might do to make it happen, and he even remembered the curse rune which he would need to make it happen. That was why he felt goosebumps. He considered sacrificing all of those lives for his friend. If even for a moment, he truly believed that it would be okay to conduct the ritual and activate the curse rune, even if it gave him just a few more seconds with his friend.

That single thought made his stomach twist.