I... hate... healing. No, seriously, try that once. I tell you, it takes way more mana than it should have, and effects are less than satisfactory. Yeah, of course, you can use wand or staff to make it easier, same with any other magic really, but true magicians don't need no shitty item to do magic, hell, you should do magic with nothing but a weirdly shaped rock, or plastic, and not rely on some legendary artifacts, that are few and far between, and probably worth quite a lot of credits in the first place. Though I don't understand how the hell some little gem could become a mana focus.

Still, can't say no for another source of mana, that finally got there after the city of Knightshade was sacrificed for a little blood gem. Well, I say little, but it's actually a 'greater' blood gem, that has rather lame magic regeneration, as it needs twelve hours to fully recharge, give or take, and it's capacity is utter shit comparing to all the deaths there happened. Also the ritual produced a few of those, but the biggest one was this.

Blood Gem (Greater)

MP: 225'000/225'000

MR: 19'000 MP/H

Which makes me think that the bigger the ritual, the less efficient it becomes. Which means, I need to force all people into a tiny spot, and then sacrifice them, if I were to make another blood gem. But let's be real, this item I have, is the size of my fist, weights about a kilo, and is currently being in my inventory, until I decide to do something with it, while for the others, way smaller gems, I decided to make some sort of jeweleries, as I seem to have got myself a few levels in blacksmithing. Joking, I am using mana to manipulate the gems here, and I managed to make a small mithril necklace, that houses one bigger, well, small sized blood gem, and a few smaller ones around it, in a classic pentagram pattern. What? I can do dumb stuff if I like.... fine, it is of heptagon shape, as I couldn't place more, with all this interference. Honestly, seven pieces was already pushing this thing to the limits of it's conductivity, well, eight, but whatever. I just dislike the seven pointed star, so I made eight, even if the eighths gem didn't provide any of the benefits for the whole necklace. Oh, I also made a ring from the medium sized gem, which I had to give away to Soph, as it is uncomfortable to wear under gloves. Also, the blood gem is rather fragile, so the necklace had to be engraved with durability and self repair. Still, necklace now provided me with about sixteen thousands worth of mana, which recharged in twenty hours. Yeah, that's the thing, the more you add to the necklace, or other jewelery, the less beneficial it becomes, unless you manage to either fuse them together, or you are dumb enough to waste some of it's recovery and capacity, by drilling through it, and making it into intricate form of a snake eating it's own tail. Like you would keep the gem without adding ornaments to it. Just as my necklace, it was engraved with common durability, self repair, shapeshifting, and two lesser durabilities. Not effective use of durability, I know, but blood gem is actually important. And little snake will be able to siphon mana from it after I teach her how to, if I decide to teach her anyway. Maybe she might even learn how to do that herself. Anyway, I got one greater, six medium, ten small, thirty five tiny gems out of this city, with one small, seven tiny and one medium stones being used up.

Now to the other news... it's boring. I want to go and have fun killing people that try to attack me, but no, I'm no longer even been able to heal the bandit, after I decided to try the ressurection magic on him, which is a thing, but I don't know it, and neither does Sophie. Well, at least I managed to level up summoning from the deaths that happened in Knightshade, but... I could only level up darkenss to level 69 after all the killings that happened. One hundred thousand dead people is not enough to level up my affinities. Well, there were a bit less than that, but nevertheless, it's close to a hundred. That didn't mean I would start making other elementals that would replace current ones, oh no, not even with the extra stuff mana I have now, even if I can now summon two elementals per day, occasionally. Well, lesser elementals, but whatever... wait, can I summon regular ones? Hm... Nah, better to do that later, when I get higher affinities. Though... I still haven't summoned an elemental today, so let's try that.

I move out of the carriage, which is still moving, and go on top of it, much to the surprise of two bored out of their minds lamias, a coach, and a few guards. I smile as I unleash my mana into a summoning spell pattern, because, duh, it's a summoning, and chant.

“[Summon Elemental: Fire]” because why the fuck not? Well, because fire elemental appears right in front of my face, and sears my brows with the heat. “Uh... shit.” I order it to move out of the carriage before it burns it, but surprisingly, the heat was only in the beginning, and the flames were actually hot only during the summoning process. Anyway, neat. I gobble up mana from my necklace and look at the elemental, which is currently floating besides the carriage with... fifteen thousands of health? That's actually quite cool.

“What is that?” I hear how adventurers start talking amongst themselves, while coach just shrugs and continues controlling the carriage, horses, or both.

“Fire elemental. I finally managed to summon one.” and it's true, I finally summoned a 'proper' elemental, not lesser one. Still, it only cost ten thousand mana. “Okay, go back to the carriage.” Nobody even cares that much about my actions anymore, except occasional gossip by the campfire. Well, better than to be constantly bothered.

By the way, the destination is a place aptly named Duskville, because it was build underground, or inside the mountain, hence dusk, maybe? I mean, there wasn't much reason to call Knightshade as such, was it?

After we finally stopped at another campsite for the night, I started playing around with a few corpses I gathered from the bandit attack. You see, I'm quite curious in how to actually summon undead. Of course I wasn't as dumb as to try that at the campsite, no, I just placed a beacon there so I could teleport back if necessary, while in the meantime, I just played around with my darkness affinity and switching between dark possession and wind possession. Darkness is fun to use as the means of transportation. It's fun, you disappear into the darkness and then can move... basically wherever you want, as long as there are shadows connected, and it's relatively cheap. On the other hand, air requires nothing of the sort, well, I guess it requires air, but other than that, there are no requirements. It's just that unlike darkness, you just make the air currents aid you in your movement, you can even fly if it is used correctly, or hover, which is easier, cheaper and a bit faster comparing to the proper flight.

Anyway, necromancy. Yes, it is interesting, as according to one book I got from system, you can either create or raise undead. You can't 'summon' them, it will instead make them, from either mana, or corpses around you. I like the idea of making them from mana, but it's way more costly than if you were summoning elementals. So, for my first trick, I will try to make a skeleton out of mana. Because I hate zombies. They rot, they smell, they are slow, easy to kill, even if they are somewhat tough, they are still easily killed, at least the ones I encountered on Earth. Though you could say that they were virals, and not 'zombies' in a proper sense, but in my opinion, zombies are zombies, and they suck.

Anyway, the first thing to do before summoning undead, is to check the surrounding area for nosy peasants. If there are none, you can proceed. If there are some, you kill them and raise their corpses. My map doesn't show any signs of life, except a couple of animals down the road... need to check if they are actually animals... yep, just two deers. Alright.

“By the power of gray skull, I command you to... wait, I have the power, it wasn't a command. Hm... Whatever, [Raise Dead].” I say that out loud, like a common japanese eight grader, and feel like about two... three... four? Four thousands of mana needed to conjure a skeleton? Why?! Anyway, mana glows, it gives shape to bones, and soon enough I see a skeleton standing in front of me. Well, of course the undead won't be conjured with a weapon, so it's nothing weird. Let's see...

Skeleton

A human skeleton that was created by a necromancer from ambient mana. A mindless peon that follows simple commands.

Level:

0

HP:

650/650

MP:

300/300

Strength

30

Constitution

20

Vitality

20

Agility

20

Dexterity

20

Perception

10

Focus

10

Willpower

10

Attunement

10

Erm... Human skeleton? Seriously? Why? Nevermind, ignore that question. I get the body from my inventory and drop it on the ground. Now, arise my minion!. And... it becomes a frigging zombie. Shit. At least it takes a bit over 200 mana, and not a few thousands.

Zombie

An undead that was once a human. He lost all his ability to think, but his strength and constitution, as well as perception were enhanced, to a degree.

His name was Clive.

Level:

0

HP:

2000/2000

MP:

150/150

Strength

50

Constitution

80

Vitality

30

Agility

40

Dexterity

30

Perception

30

Focus

5

Willpower

5

Attunement

5

OK? Why the fuck is his name Clive, and not, I dunno, Bob?

Would you like to rename Zombie (Clive) to Zombie (Bob)?

No, I don't want to. Damn system, didn't you notice that it was rhetorical question? Hm... I wonder... if I make skeleton from something else, will it work?

I get another corpse from inventory and use magic to remove bones from flesh. Then I start combining bones into... well... something. After some time, I decide that only one body is not enough, so I get another one, and then second, just in case, and start working on my joke of an undead.

It takes time, but eventually, I manage to finally make a six legged, six armed, bone palted, three headed skeleton that looks funny. I wonder if it work?

“[Raise Dead].” I cast the spell and look how this thing starts moving, only to stumble and fall. Well then, you can't just do anything, cast magic spell, and it will work. A pity... oh, it gets up. And falls down again. Funny. Let's see...

Skeleton

A weirdly efficient, yet grotesgue, art, that was made by combining bones of recently deceased humans, and then given the spark of unlife. This skeleton is well protected against most attacks, but it lacks in offensive power and speed, despite having six arms and legs, but his dexterity is surprisingly high.

Level:

0

HP:

1125/1125

MP:

300/300

Strength

30

Constitution

40

Vitality

35

Agility

30

Dexterity

55

Perception

10

Focus

10

Willpower

10

Attunement

10

OK? So, any type of undead will get different description? Cool. All have low mana though... I wonder if there is a way around it. Guess I'm reading more of the book, eh, Kyle? Or not.

I think I'm again in this... weird dream I had a while ago. Same campfire, while I know that I fell asleep in the carriage, no access to system, or anything. Guess some shit is going to happen soon.

“Hello, maybe come out and start lecturing me on how killing is bad already?” I don't hear anything in response. To be fair, the only other sound, besides crackling campfire, are the sounds of footsteps.

“It's time.”

“Yeah, yeah about-” As I was going to reply, I saw how something comes out of me, or the place where I was sitting at, and stands up near the fire.

“Are we really doing this?” I hear oddly familiar voice... wait, isn't it that prick that said killing is bad? Though now he is wearing white robes and some weird gnarly staff.

“It's the last chance for us.” the white prick sighs and nods.

“I understand.” And they move out. Guys, what about a campfire? You need to extinguish it before moving away, or you will just burn the forest to ashes. Oh well... I guess the campfire is a nice place as any to rest. Well, I would like a penthouse suite to be honest, but this is fine as well. If only I could read a book I purchased in this dreamworld.