Necromancer

A Royal Road Fan Fiction

By: Halosty

Chapter 93

At home, Mortimer was having some conflicts with his parents. His bad attitude was somewhat constant. The one thing that kept him from getting into too much trouble with them, however, was his academics. If he’d just had perfect grades, it might not have been enough. However, he was even putting in enough outside study to skip classes. This barely kept him in his parents good graces. Or at least, their not-too-upset-graces. As for Solara’s hospital bills… they did fully support him on that. Especially since she seemed to be a motivating factor for his current progress.

In fact, Mortimer was devoting so much of his time to his education… that he started playing Royal Road less. Not none, but less. He wasn’t leveling much, but he did have some things he could do in short amounts of time. He had more Destroyer undead now, and they were smarter than the others. Thus, they served as something like captains in his growing army. Though they couldn’t make many tactical decisions, they could follow a plan he had and give orders to the less intelligent minions.

He would log into the game and bring his minions to less traversed areas, and have his minions level up there. Then after they reached a certain level or had cleared enough of the area, they would leave the area, or burrow underground. They were under standing orders to flee from players. After all, they would otherwise be killed. Of course, many of them even died fighting monsters, or they had to be in zones with low experience. However, it did still help to raise the average level of his minion horde.

Mortimer’s determination to continue his studies was partly just to distract himself. He didn’t have to think about life when he was immersed in his, admittedly difficult, studies. However, he also had the hope that he could help Solara if he became a doctor. Could he? Well, he didn’t know that. However, the sooner he became a doctor, the better. Of course, Mortimer thought it would be best if someone else found a cure before he could even become a doctor. After all, he wasn’t sure how long she could be kept stable. That was another thing that kept his mood bad most of the time.

He was unpleasant enough that even Alex stopped hanging out with him. Mortimer knew it was entirely his own fault, though. However, he didn’t want to be a pleasant person right now. Mortimer had basically always been alone before that, so the return to his former status wasn’t particularly unpleasant at first. Over time, though, he found that he missed having friends more and more.

Master Valarao didn’t care if Mortimer was in a bad mood. He still trained him ruthlessly either way. Mortimer also found the training to be a useful distraction from reality. During the next year, Mortimer immersed himself in learning, training, and a little bit of Royal Road. Mortimer didn’t really think about what he was doing, and just went through life. The passage of time wasn’t particularly in his thoughts, but it still happened. That is why he was surprised when Master Valarao told him his training was done.

“Done?”

“Yes. At least for your purposes, I have nothing left to teach you. Though, if you ever take up an interest in my… profession, I have more things you can learn.” Master Valarao knew Mortimer wasn’t interested in becoming an assassin. Not that he thought he wouldn’t be good at it, or didn’t have the right temperament. Just that he didn’t want to. Master Valarao didn’t particularly care about that. At first, he had come here for a job. Easy money, get paid to teach a kid how to fight with a knife. Master Valarao had really expected him to give up, but he would have gotten paid a decent amount anyway. Then he found Mortimer was determined, and had the aptitude to learn what he could teach. Thus, he thought of Mortimer as something like an unofficial successor. The act of teaching him had been interesting enough, he didn’t really care if Mortimer would go on to teach someone else. “Though I say it’s done, I still expect you to keep up practice. I’ll be testing you in the training program occasionally. I’ll be disappointed if you slack off.”

“Of course, I’ll definitely keep it up.” Mortimer had learned that he actually liked being in good shape. He was able to make his body perform as he wanted, and that was a good feeling. It also wasn’t as grueling to maintain his fitness as it was to get it in the first place. Mortimer was very glad of that.

After Master Valarao left, Mortimer was reminded that time moves on. Certainly, his advancement through various classes had given him some idea of that, but it really became just a blur. Master Valarao was the last person Mortimer now spent time with regularly, so with him leaving, Mortimer was back to being almost completely solitary. Not counting his driver James, anyway.

“Hey, James, is that your real name?” Mortimer asked him one day.

“Yes, sir. Why do you ask?”

“I vaguely remember asking my parents for a driver named James, and I thought maybe that was why they hired you back then. Either that, or everyone just called you James because I asked for it.”

James smiled. “Actually, sir, I changed my name to James to get this job.”

“Really?” Mortimer stared at him. James had on a face that looked very serious, but Mortimer knew he was very good at doing straight faced jokes. “I doubt it.”

James laughed. “Well, I must say at the very least, there were some applicants who would have been willing to change their name to get this position. That’s the truth.”

“Why do you put up with me James?”

“Well, it is my job.” This time, Mortimer was certain he was joking.

“Nobody wants to be around me now. How do I fix that?”

“I think you have just made a very good start. I think you just didn’t want anyone around you lately. If you start wanting to be around them again, and stop being intentionally unpleasant… Well, it won’t be quick, but your friends would certainly be willing to return to being with you, if you act more like the person they know. I’d suggest you start with Angela, though, since the dinner table has been exceedingly awkward recently.”

“Yeah… You’re right. I’ll do that.” Mortimer made his determination to repair his relationships… with those he actually cared about, anyway. He was still determined to keep progressing through his coursework, however. After all, it wouldn’t do to have one friend missing for too long. Could he even do anything about Solara? Mortimer decided he didn’t care whether it was possible. He would do it anyway.

//End Chapter 93