As the little girl ran away I realized that I was slower than her. I will need to do some serious training later. She stopped in front of a river. I caught up to her and put my hand on her shoulder to try and comfort her. At moment I saw my hand for the first time. It looked slightly different from everyone else's, but I paid it little mind to it. When the girl turned around to look at me I saw more flashes. They were of the identical girl crying and me handing her a handkerchief. I tried to look around for a handkerchief, and when I couldn’t find one I settled for a leaf.

“HAHAHAhaha, @^&% am &$% doing here. I’m $%^#%^* only one in this &^**^ situa$%& there is also you. Ok we are in %$^#$%pot right now, but at least %^& here together…you. First$%^& business will be giving you a name!” [Little Girl]

As she spoke parts of it seemed to be in a different language. I understood the basics so I nodded my head to try to indicate that I understood.

“Ok &^w about Skelrad, ...Morat, ...Drache.” [Little Girl]

I didn’t like any of these names so I continued to shake my head no.

“Hmm... I know how about Sephtis.” [Little Girl]

I didn’t like this one too much, but I could tell that this girl really likes it so I guess I’ll just go along with it. Besides its not like we chose our names. I nodded my head in agreement, and Sephtis became my name.

“MIRIA!”[Older woman]

So thats the name of this little girl, Miria. Miria and this older woman talked for a while and I was barely following along. After a while we left and walked to a cemetery. After a bit more talking the older woman left. She had given us instruction to kill the Undead in this cemetery so I entered it. There were small black pillars of smoke coming up every once in a while. After touching one it didn’t hurt so I figured that it was normal. We started to look around for some Undead to fight. After a while I spotted an Undead and pointed it out to Miria.

“Ah! Its a Zombie Rat. Sephtis you kill it you could use the practice.” [Miria]

I slowly walked up to the Zombie Rat. It was looking away from me so I wanted to get the drop on it. Unfortunately when I got too close it noticed me. Before it had the chance to run I jumped forward to catch it. I caught the Zombie Rat by the tail, and it turned around to bite me. There was no pain, but it looks like a bone was broke. I started punching away at the rat, and after a while it died.

“It was just a rat but it looks like it broke your hand. Do you know if it will heal?” [Miria]

I shook my head no. Miria promised to find a way to heal me later. We kept hunting Undead for a while. Only one was able to escape from me and Miria had to kill it. One of my arms broke from all the fighting; I will need a weapon soon.

“Its about time we...Sephtis protect me!” [Miria]

I quickly looked around and saw something to my left. I took my position between it and Miria. There was a Zombie Wolf in front of me. It felt like it was looking through me at Miria. It started walking in a circle and then rushed Miria. I knew that I couldn’t stop it in time so I threw my broken arm at the wolf hoping for something. The wolf was going so fast that it shattered my arm. After that it splintered and cut into the back leg of the wolf pulling me along and stopping the wolf.

I saw Miria glow with a faint light and start running away. I felt relief that she would survive. The Zombie Wolf then turned around and began tearing me apart. It was pissed off at me and just started crushing each of my bones. I tried my best to damage its legs so it wouldn’t be able to catch Miria. In the end the wolf brought it’s mouth around my skull and bit down.

Everything went white and I thought I had died. Then I realized that I could still move so I looked to my left and saw a blue screen. Further to the left was some odd black matter. I decided to check the blue screen first. It said

SephisLv: 1Ancient Skeleton Warrior???Miria’s Familiar, ???StatsVIT: 8Light:Ultimate Weakness(-10)STR: 8Fire:Ultimate Weakness(-10)AGI: 7Earth:Ultimate Weakness(-10)END: 7Water:Ultimate Weakness(-10)DEX: 8Wind:Ultimate Weakness(-10)WSD: 4Nature:Ultimate Weakness(-10)INT: 3Dark:Ultimate Weakness(-10)

I wasn’t sure if my stats were good or not, but Ultimate Weakness doesn’t sound like a common thing. The ??? seamed odd to me and when I concentrated on it another screen appeared.

???A class obtained by??? and ???

Elemental release(passive): loss of ???

Elemental Concentration(active):focuses all elemental ???

Self reliance(active): Use mana to directly???

Looks like I can’t see most of this information. I guess its worthless to me for now so I didn’t bother checking the other one. Thinking that I moved over to examine some of the dark matter. It was floating around in mid air not keeping a definite shape. When I touched some it was hard but malleable. After a few hours of messing around with it I figured out how to make weapons out of it.

At first I wanted to make a sword, but then I remembered what happened just before I came here. I need to be able to protect Miria. So I started making a shield. Judging by how much I had to work with I made a Kite Shield. It was a rather basic design with extra material on the edges to help stop attacks. I made a cross shape in the middle of the shield where the different angles came together to make the shield more sturdy.

(like this but pitch black http://www.outfit4events.com/runtime/cache/images/productFull/120328.jpg)

Shortly after I finished I heard Miria’s voice again.

“Come back to me ,please, SUMMON!” [Miria]

There I was a flash and I was standing in front of Miria with my new shield.

***

Miria woke up in her dorm room. Confused for a few seconds trying to remember what happened.

“Looks like you're up. Now then could you tell me why you were unconscious in the lobby this morning?” [Landlady]

Miria told her what happened yesterday. When she talked about Avia leaving her the Landlady rolled her eyes.

“Go and get yourself some breakfast I’ll go get Miss Avia.” [Landlady]

Miria went to the cafeteria and started to have a light breakfast. Shortly after she was done Miss Avia came running into the cafeteria.

“Miria! I’m so sorry I should have never left you at the cemetery by yourself. I never would have thought you'd meet a Zombie Wolf.” [Avia]

Miria just stared at Avia with disappointment. Its not a good idea to show your weak side to kids.

“Look I’m sorry I won’t make you do something that dangerous again. Also since you left early you didn’t hear some important parts of Familiars” [Avia]

Miria continued to stare at Avia it was obvious that she had forgotten to mention it.

“First, so long as you don’t die you're Familiar can’t die. If they receive so much damage that they ‘die’ {Return} is auto used. Otherwise you can just use {Return} to let your Familiar rest and heal by using your spare mana. Second, you are not allowed to have your Familiar in the dorm. Most people don’t even let them out during classes, but you can leave them out to let them train. Finally, your Familiar most likely had a forced {Return} so wait as long as you can before using {Familiar Summon} to give it time to heal.” [Avia]

After giving advice to Miria Avia left in a hurry. Miria was relieved that Sephtis wasn’t dead. She left the dorm and headed to her classes. All of them were uneventful until Mixed Combat Class.

“Ok listen up maggots! Today’s Combat Class will be with Class 1 & 2, and consist of magic training. Come up to me if you need to know where to go otherwise get into groups.” [Combat Instructor]

Many kids lined up to know where they would go. Most of these kids were Warriors and the like; kids who never thought they would learn magic. The school requires classes like this to make students well rounded. Most would end up using magic for odd things in their adventures so magic classes were required for everyone. The same goes for mages learning close combat.

“Hey Miria! What are you doing over there!” [Combat Instructor]

Miria turned around confused she had joined up with the Light Magic group, but ran over to the Combat Instructor when he called.

“Normally I would have to let you in the light group even though you can’t use it for combat. However, since you have an Undead Familiar you will train with the dark group instead.” [Combat Instructor]

Miria went over to the dark group without complaining. It’s not that she didn’t want to complain but the last person who complained…. Anyway its not like Light Magic doesn't have offensive spells it's just that those spells are super high level spells. When she arrived at the dark group there were three other people there. One was Alexia and the two others were from Class 2.

“Oh Miria, I’m glad you decided to come here to.” [Alexia]

Alexia was always friendly with the entire class, but since this morning she was even more friendly with Miria. It was because she considered them to be in the same boat. She wanted a cute Familiar to dress up and pamper. Alexia was happy when she got a Flame Salamander since it had its own charm. As soon as the students had bonding time with their Familiars Alexia tried to dress up Princess Fluff (pre-decided name). At first she was shocked since the dress for Fluff went up in flames. Alexia kept on trying with different kinds of material in different places, but all ended up melting or catching on fire. Her last attempt was using nail polish. This ended in a disaster with Fluffs’ nails becoming black. Since it was impossible to make Princess Fluff cuter Alexia was disappointed and compared her Familiar to Miria’s. Alexia also wanted to paint Miria’s Skeleton like a mexican skull with bright colors.

“Thanks Alexia, but why are you here I thought you were a Fire Mage?” [Miria]

“I am, but look at the fire group. Its so crowded that I wouldn’t learn much from my seniors. Besides most mages learn three types of magic.” [Alexia]

“I’m just glad that we actually got some people to teach. Now then I’m sure you already know but we are from Class 2 so we’re your seniors. I’m Miguel, a Dark Mage, and that's Randall, a Necromancer. Seeing as we match up I’ll teach Alexia, and you can teach Miria.” [Miguel]

With that the dark magic group broke up into two groups to teach. It may seem strange for students just half a year older to be teaching, but most students need in depth instruction and an attentive teacher to learn magic for the first time. There aren't nearly enough teachers to do this in an effective manner so they have seniors teach the basics of elements to start the process. It's also a chance for older students to brush off their basics so this style of class is always used at the start of the year.

“So I'm Randall a Necromancer. Why don't you tell me your name and why you're in the dark magic group.” [Randall]

“I'm Miria a Priestess, and I'm in the dark magic group because my Familiar is a Skeleton.” [Miria]

“Ah so thats why you were at the cemetery yesterday, but I think it's still a bit too dangerous for you; considering what happened.” [Randall]

“Wait, you saw me there?” [Miria]

“I guess you didn’t see my face or maybe you just forgot. I was the one who saved you from the Zombie Wolf.” [Randall]

“Ah! Thank you so much for saving me.” [Miria]

Miria said this with a bow.

“Don’t mention it. Now then to start with training how much do you know about magic and Dark Magic?” [Randall]

“For magic, you manipulate the world around you based on one of the seven elements. Not all spells aren't definitive, and you can make up spells with decent mastery of an element. The better you get with each element the less mana you have to use to manipulate that element. As for the dark element I know nothing.” [Miria]

“Ok, the only thing you missed from basic magic is that different elements require different ways of thinking to use, but that isn’t too important. Now then why were you in the cemetery if you know nothing of dark magic?” [Randall]

“Miss Avia told me to train there to make my Familiar more powerful, but neither she nor I knew how it works.” [Miria]

“I see, well while in places like a cemetery dark mages and Undead can collect dark matter to make themselves more powerful. You can use this to strengthen yourself or cast powerful spells. I use it often for Necromancy so I am often at the cemetery.” [Randall]

“I don’t think I got any dark matter. What should I have my Familiar do with it?” [Miria]

“He probably will have already absorbed it to make himself more powerful. What type of Skeleton is he?” [Randall]

“Miss Avia’s {Identify} said he was an Ancient Skeleton Warrior.” [Miria]

Miria decided to omit the rest of the status out of embarrassment.

“Ok well since he is a Warrior he probably can’t use magic well. Oh, don’t worry too much about the Ancient part it really only means that his soul has been dead for a long time. Oh yeah this class is for you. We should get to learning some dark magic.” [Randall]

“Right.” [Miria]

“Ok lets start with the basics. Watch closely.” [Randall]

Randall brought one of his hands forward. A small ball of darkness concentrated in his palm. He then fired it at one of the target dummies scattered about.

“Ok now you try. Put your arms out in front of you, and think of collecting darkness in front of you. Some people think that taking it from their shadow makes it easier others say thinking of dark thoughts other than anger is best.” [Randall]

Miria raised her arms up and thought of collecting darkness. She kept her fingers open so she could see that it wasn’t working. After she thought of taking the darkness from her shadow little bits of darkness started to gather.

“Don’t fire it. If you can take it back in to replenish some of your mana otherwise just release it.” [Randall]

Miria doubted that she could properly absorb it back for a mana refund so she just released it around her. Miria felt winded. She knew this was because she was still bad at using Dark Magic so she used a lot of mana.

“It was good for a first try. When you can fire it off it's often called {Necro Bolt}. You can use it to deal decent damage or heal your Familiar. Practice it whenever you get the chance….Do you feel up to trying something more advanced?” [Randall]

“I can always try.” [Miria]

“That a girl. I’m pretty sure that a priests’ {Weak Blessing} will work on Undead, but you’ll have to check. However, I know that normal light buffs won’t work on them so you will have to use dark curses instead.” [Randall]

Randall thought to himself for a little bit wondering if this was ok.

“Well the idea for curses is simple enough. What you do is force dark energy into your target to debuff them. You get different effects by doing this in different ways. Most Dark Mages only use one or two sets of curses since they take a lot of...experiments.” [Randall]

“Is there anything else I should know?” [Miria]

“Yeah, for now only use curses in emergencies. Come see me or another magic instructor after you have the hang of {Necro Bolt}. So that you can start learning curses for real.” [Randall]

Miria and Randall continued practicing Dark Magic; until their Instructor blew the whistle to come in.

“Ok, Class 2 get out of here and get to your next class. Class 1 summon your Familiars it's time for some light sparring.” [Combat Instructor]

Everyone started to use {Familiar Summon} the familiar magic circle appeared at their feet along with the glow.

“Come back to me ,please, SUMMON!” [Miria]

Sephtis came out of the black shining circle carrying a kite shield. At first Miria was happy that he had already applied his dark matter, but then she realized that a shield with no weapon would be near useless for sparing. Meanwhile Sephtis was just happy to see Miria again.

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Authors note: The story is about Miria and Sephis(name may change when he remembers more), but since Sephis didn’t have much going on in his head when he first came in it would have been awkward to have his little nonsense intermissions. So I put his perspective of the last chapter at the start of the next one. However since he is now caught up and has some knowledge the two characters sides will simply be told together for the most part. Unless you guys really want me to keep going with the style I was doing up until now.