Looking over a goblin’s corpse stripped of its muscles, veins, and all other parts which stood in the way of the skeleton. Damon proceeded to remove the bones’ residual mana. He then cast the reanimation spell, poured the conservation liquid on the skeleton, and activated it with a spell. This whole process cost him one hundred mana points.

The little undead goblin started to walk around. Damon wanted to test its strength, so he slapped its skull. The head flew away and the pile of bones crumbled. Well, it certainly wasn’t fit for battle. However, he was only at the fourth level and couldn’t enchant ligaments nor muscles for such a large a creature. He’d need to at least be a sixth level black mage to make a combat worthy undead.

Damon reassembled the skeleton and recast the reanimation spell for fifty mana points.

He then instructed his new goblin undead to pick up a book and bring it to him. Although the goblin struggled to carry it, he managed to place it atop the table.

A waste of space. Thought Damon. The undead couldn’t be used for anything more than a decoration. He wrapped his fingers around the goblin’s skull, palm pressed square on his ethmoid, his claws dug into the back of the parietal bone, and crushed the skull. Unlike small rodents, goblin skeletons took up too much space when intact.

Next, he turned his attention to the new curses. Although the required materials weren't uncommon, he needed body parts of the target. The more he had, the faster the effects took hold of the victim. He practised making the potions, memorized their formulas, and cast the spells for a few days to engrave their magical schematics into his head.

There were also a few alchemical potions he could learn thanks to his earth magic; however, they were mainly used to increase crop yield, reduce the melting points of metals and other blacksmithing tasks. He read over the recipes, if he remembered any of them then that was fine, but he didn’t need them. Even with the memorization skill he wasn’t Wikipedia, nor did he need to be one.

In these few months of repose, Damon went outside every day, and on the odd ones he underwent flying lessons.

“To start you must beat your wings quickly and gather some lift. When you gather some speed and height, you should put more strength in each flap. And ehen you’re in the sky and with a good amount of speed, keep them open to let the wind support you.” Said Stolas.

Damon’s wings beat furiously, feathers fell from his wings, and the sand around his turned created a sandstorm. However, he couldn’t even separate himself from the ground.

“Your claws are holding onto the ground,” yelled Stolas in his mind. Even though telepathy transmitted sound directly to the brain, the ambient noise still mixed with it and made it hard to hear the telepathic words.

Damon looked down, his claws had dug into the earth, he had to make the conscious decision to let go. His body took flight. However, a few seconds later he started to fumble.

As such Damon’s days consisted of alchemical study, getting used to his new body, and his new magic spells.

#

Five months later Damon flew down and landed on the ground in front of the tree. He released the goblin from the clutches of his talons. Unlike Stolas, he was big and couldn’t fly into the labyrinth, so he still had to dirty his hands in order to carry his material. Out of boredom Damon had started to test different preservation spells for his undead. Unlike others who might have to work and worry about everyday life, Damon only needed to increase his magic skill level and perfect his potion making skills.

He could now make low potions out of what used to give him lesser quality potions. However, he couldn’t make the jump from low to medium quality. And his preservation spells could now preserve an undead for five days from the previous two.

Today Damon wanted to try out a new potion he’d concocted the other day. If it worked out, it might even increase the duration of preservation by ten minutes. Damon walked into his room with a large smile; however, Stolas seemed to have other plans for him.

The owl placed a book on the main table and Gargano snuck up behind Damon to take the goblin’s corpse.

“What do you want?” asked Damon displeased by the interruption.

“This time I’m the one who’s going to say that you’ve been locked up here for too long. You are too invested in little potions and corpses. Anyways, in two weeks you’re leaving for your new job.”

“Yes, that’s true, I’ve been too focused on the potions.” Damon entered his room. He had now installed more appliances, and the walls of the room were plastered with shelves where goblins blood, troll eyes, giant earth snake bones, and other alchemical materials were preserved in glass jars. The room probably smelled of blood and humidity, however, Damon’s sulfur filled lungs couldn’t detect anything. “Is this to teach me how to summon a lesser demon?”

Stolas nodded, “Although you already know how to do it, I don’t think you’ve ever actually done it.”

That was true, although he’d become a demon and lived with one, he still held reservations at the idea of summoning others. Somewhere deep in his heart, he still held a certain amount of prejudice towards demons, even though he was half of one now.

“This book lists different lesser dark spirits, their skills and the ingredients required to summon them.” Stolas opened the book to a random page. “Here a spirit of confusion. You just need goblin blood and troll innards. You should try it.”

Damon took the two jars from his shelves, removed the book from the table and used a large pipette to take some blood. This was used to draw the schematic required for the demon summoning. He then placed the innards around the schematic. After a deep breath, he injected mana through the blood schematic. Soon after, the rich scent of sulfur reached his lungs and a small ghost appeared above the blood. Damon turned to Stolas, “What do I do now?”

“Since this isn’t a demon but just a dark spirit it doesn’t need additional payment. You can either tie it to an object, tell it to go directly to its target by giving it a part of the target, or grant it to someone else as a familiar.”

“That’s easy, and a bit too convenient, wouldn’t there be an abundance of demonic items if they are so easy to make.”

“Well, first off, if you don’t have the dark spirit communication skill you need to pay them in souls and mana. You don’t need to do this because they’re dark spirits of a lesser rank than you. If you were a human, it would cost you two points of mana per day, low dark spirits cost five points per day, medium ones cost twenty-five points per day and high dark spirits will go for one-hundred and fifty mana points per day. They will also require five, twenty-five, fifty, souls respectively.

Damon cut the mana line between him and the dark spirit. It disappeared into the void. “Then this isn’t the most powerful magic out there.”

“It’s still very powerful for people who don’t like to move and can’t fight. Unlike curses, there are no backlashes possible. It’s a rather convenient weapon if your aim isn’t to kill the other person.”

“What other uses are there if not to kill.”

“Extracting information through dream demons, cause a spike in lust in a person, or play with a guard’s vision to make him accidentally open the gates to the city.”

“That does sound rather dangerous. So, I guess I must memorize this book.”

“Yes, it’s not a good idea to be caught with that book, who knows, the bag might just break when you pass in front of a church.”

Damon nodded and placed his chin on his palm. “This is the last thing I memorize for the next month at least.”

Stolas laughed and patted Damon, “It’s fine, after this you have to leave for Tarangino.”

Damon sighed and started to memorize the book and practise the summoning a few times for each dark spirit.