It wouldn’t do to disappear into the cellar for an extended period immediately after he arrived, so Tyron forced himself to postpone. Instead, he got to work ensuring the store was well stocked and supplied.

Which meant he had to take the time needed to go through Flynn’s work and correct his mistakes.

“You haven’t properly accounted for the shape of the core,” he said, indicating the malformed rune. “As a consequence, the matrix isn’t functioning properly; there’s leakage.”

“I’m sorry, Master Almsfield.”

His apprentice wore a hangdog expression, as if he were being scolded.

“I am not criticising, this is instruction. This is the only store in the province which makes such extensive use of low grade cores, and I’m perfectly aware just how difficult it is.”

Engraving sigils onto the uneven surface of only partially formed cores added a layer of difficulty to an already complex process. It was a skill Tyron had cultivated over thousands of hours of practice, but not one most high-end Arcanists would ever make use of. If a core wasn’t a well-formed sphere, they would reject them out of hand.

“If you can do this well, you can purchase cores rejected by other enchanting workshops at a massive discount, even though they’re only a few percent less effective.”

“You always think about the bottom line, Master Almsfield.”

That made him sound like he was some sort of penny pincher.

“It’s about being efficient,” he frowned. “There is no reason to use a core any larger than is necessary for the work.”

This was something Master Willhem lectured his students on frequently. Although the Master was a penny pincher who hated wasting good cores on bad students, Tyron had taken the lesson to heart. His personal focus had been achieving close to lossless conduits to squeeze every drop of power he could out of himself and the cores he used to fuel more and better minions, so there was overlap.

“Of course,” Flynn hastened to agree.

“Even with higher grade cores, Arcanists will reject any that are too uneven. Cores naturally form a spherical shape, but you’ll pay ten times the price for a perfectly smooth one.”

Tyron shook his head.

“You’ll never see one of those cores in this shop, I assure you. Working around uneven surfaces is a necessary skill.”

He took apart much of the merchandise on the shop floor, reworking the cores and correcting the flaws, or throwing them out and enchanting new ones from scratch. By the time it was done, Flynn looked as though he’d been dragged over hot coals, but Tyron didn’t really understand why. As far as he was concerned, he’d delivered a thorough and detail-rich lesson that his apprentice sorely needed. After all, the time to consolidate the basics was after every qualitative leap in Skill.

Basics, basics, basics. It was the mantra of Master Willhem and Tyron saw no reason to disagree with the man. It resonated heavily with how Magnin and Beory had approached their professions.

When all was said and done, it was late afternoon and he sent his apprentice home early, asked Cerry to handle the store closing with Wansa, who remained on duty by the door, then slipped into the spare room. He undid his enchantments, went through the hidden passage and down the stairs before he found himself safely ensconced once again within his study.

He took a deep breath of the stagnant air before a soft smile settled on his lips as he began to unpack his things. Ordering his books, sorting through his notes, making neater copies of the mad scrawl he’d generated, all of it would take days and nights to complete. For now, he created several neat stacks for himself to look over later before he found a clean, blank sheet of paper and placed it carefully in the centre of the table.

“I’d better be level forty-five at least,” he murmured.

He knew that levelling speed dove off a cliff once a slayer reached silver rank, and somehow found another cliff to dive off at gold, but after all that he’d done, surely he had enough. The real limiting factor was the weak kin which emerged from the Cragwhistle rift. It was common knowledge that stronger kin meant greater reward, not just financially in the form of cores, but from the Unseen. This was the reason Magnin and Beory had been able to continue fighting despite being banned from growing any further. Without passing through the most dangerous rifts and battling the terrors only found on the other side, there was nothing they could fight which would allow them to progress.

It must have been so galling for them….

“Enough stalling, Tyron. It is what it is.”

Pushing all the distractions from his mind, he sliced a small cut in the meat of his thumb and pressed it to the page. He spoke the ritual and watched as the red letters formed, staining the white paper with a record of his achievements.

His proficiency had increased in a long list of Skills, Spells and Rituals, but he only glossed over those. The real meat came with the Class notifications.

You have raised skeletons and they have fought on your behalf. Lord of the Ossuary has reached level 45. You have received +6 Strength, +9 Constitution, +9 Intelligence, +6 Wisdom, +6 Willpower, +6 Manipulation and +9 Poise.

You grow close to the point your patrons will be able to call in their debts. Soon, you will be useful to them. Make ready, and await the call. Forbidden One has reached Level 27. You have received +2 Manipulation, +4 Constitution, +4 Intelligence, +4 Willpower and +2 Poise.

Name: Tyron Steelarm.

Age: 23

Race: Human (Level 20)

Class:

Lord of the Ossuary (Level 45)

Sub-Classes:

Forbidden One (Level 27) Focused Enchanter (Level 40) None

Racial Feats:

Level 5: Steady Hand.

Level 10: Night Owl.

Feat Selections Available: 2

Attributes:

Strength:

72

Dexterity:

129

Constitution:

171

Intelligence:

293

Wisdom:

196

Willpower:

150

Charisma:

66

Manipulation:

96

Poise:

105

General Skills:

Arithmetic (Level 5)(Max)

Handwriting (Level 5)(Max)

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Concentration (Level 5)(Max)

Cooking (Level 4)

Sling (Level 3)

Swordsmanship (Level 2)

Sneak (Level 3)

Butchery (Level 5)(Max)

Engraving (Level 5)(Max)

Skill Selections Available: 5

Necromancer Skills:

Corpse Appraisal (Level 20)(Max)

Corpse Preparation (Level 20)(Max)

Advanced Death Magick (Level 20)(Max)

Enhanced Minion Commander (Level 11)

Undead Control (Level 10)(Max)

Minion Modification (Level 9)

Bone-Soul Melding (Level 10)

Death Infusion (Level 4)

Bone Forging (Level 12)

Anathema Skills:

Abyss Tongue (Level 4)

Spell Concealment (Level 10)(Max)

Arcanist Skills:

Expert Magick Scripting (Level 30)(Max)

Channelling (Level 10)(Max)

Pliance Control (Level 10)(Max)

Expanded Sigil Formation (Level 16)

Core Linking (Level 10)(Max)

Advanced Fine Motor Control (Level 16)

Expert Network Formation (Level 27)

Advanced Conduit Magick (Level 20)(Max)

Advanced Core Sense (Level 16)

Expert Power Control (Level 26)

General Spells:

Globe of Light (Level 5)(Max)

Sleep (Level 5)(Max)

Magick Bolt (Level 5)(Max)

Magick Eye (Level 5)(Max)

Necromancer Spells:

Raise Dead (Level 33)

Bone Animus (Level 25)

Commune with Spirits (Level 10)(Max)

Shivering Curse (Level 8)

Death Blades (Level 8)

Empowered Bone Armour (Level 6)

Minion Sight (Level 10)(Max)

Spirit Binding (Level 10)(Max)

Death’s Grasp (Level 5)

Anoint Dead (Level 5)

Black Miasma (Level 3)

Death Bolt (Level 6)

Summon the Ossuary (Level 2)

Anathema Spells:

Pierce the Veil (Level 8)

Appeal to the Court (Level 4)

Dark Communion (Level 1)

Advanced Suppress Mind (Level 19)

Repository (Level 8)

Fear (Level 3)

Glamour (Level 10)(Max)

Invasive Persuasion (Level 10)(Max)

Crone’s Shade (Level 5)

Bewitch (Level 10)(Max)

Necromancer Feats:

Skeleton Focus III

Magick Battery II

Bone Mastery

Spirit Mastery

Undead Specialist

Anathema Feats:

Repository

Wall of Thought II

Drain Life

Stormwise

Arcanist Feats

Magick Thread Control II

Compact Sigils II

Conduit Seal II

Core Networking II

Mysteries:

Spell Shaping (Advanced): INT +20 WIS +20

Words of Power (Advanced): WIS +20 CHA +20

Essence of Death (Initial): INT +3 WILL +3

Soul Magick (Initial): WIS+3 CHA +3

Lord of the Ossuary has reached level 45. Choose an Additional Feat:

Ossuary Extraction I - Increase the amount of Death Magick available to the Ossuary.

Ossuary Expansion I - Increase the size of the Ossuary.

Ossuary Infusion I - Increase the efficacy of the bone receptacles.

Awaken the Altar - Allow the Altar to be utilised in the creation of undead.

Class Focus I - Choose two Class Skills or Spells and raise their cap by 10.

Skeleton Focus IV - Improve the quality of Raised Skeletons.

Bone Mastery II - Empower all Bone related Skills, Spells and Minions.

Half-Dead - Allow your own bones to be infused with Death Magick.

Bone Sculptor - Improve your ability to mould and shape bone.

Bone Animator - Empower your constructs.

Lord of the Ossuary has reached Level 44. Choose one additional Skill or Spell:

Spells:

Bone Lance - Extend a spear of hardened bone.

Skeletal Sacrifice - Detonante a skeleton to shower your foe in shards of bone.

Forbidden One has reached level 26. Choose an additional Skill or Spell:

Skills:

Corrupting Presence - Subvert the Will to resist from those around you.

Spells:

Advanced Invasive Persuasion - Replace Invasive Persuasion and Increase the maximum level by 10.

Advanced Bewitch - Replace Bewitch and increase the maximum level by 10.

Blood Shield - Draw essence from your opponents to form a protective barrier.

You have qualified for a new sub-class:

Death Mage.

Do you accept?

There was much that pleased Tyron about his updated status. His control over his minions had substantially improved after a month of remotely directing battles on the mountain. He continued to make gains in his fundamental Skills, which was always a priority.

He’d even improved a few of his enchanting Skills, which was a nice surprise. Sometimes, working on something new was worth a hundred times the progression that grinding away on the same old patterns would provide.

Other things, he was a little disappointed over. Despite everything, he’d hoped to get more than just three levels after all the fighting he’d done. It seemed, if he really wanted to progress using the Cragwhistle rift, he would need to spend more time through the rift hunting for powerful kin.

At least he’d reached his goal and gotten a look at the Feat list for Lord of the Ossuary. A few things caught his eye immediately. Three separate, multi-level feats that empowered the space itself, rather than him. This was… unusual, but not unheard of. Even his father had possessed some abilities that strengthened whatever blade he had in his hand. If he thought of the Ossuary as a tool, then it made a little more sense.

A second level in Bone Mastery was beyond tempting. He used bones for everything at this point, and this feat caught all of that, giving another boost from the Unseen. The next level of skeleton focus had appeared, as he’d suspected it might. Currently, he had Skeleton Focus III, and that number, odd, was displeasing in the extreme.

Class Focus was not to be looked down on either. He could pick any of his Class abilities and raise the maximum level of two of them by ten. That was enormous, and could be a considerable boost if he were to make the right choices.

Then there was the Altar… that intrigued him greatly. The lack of information provided was extremely grating, as usual, but he was almost overcome with curiosity. He’d inspected that altar minutely, using every trick at his disposal to determine if there was something he could do with it, and he’d come up with nothing.

This feat would enable… something. It would be a risk to choose it… but could he afford to pass it up?

Other feats relating to Bone Constructs were also intriguing, though one of them sparked a thought. Bone Sculptor? Tyron had experienced difficulty when shaping bone from the very beginning, and though he’d gotten better, it was still hard. If sculpting would improve it…

He had selections to burn anyway, so Tyron decided to use a general Skill slot and wrote ‘Sculpting’ in his own blood on the sheet. With any luck, proficiency with the general Skill would help him shape bone as well.

The Spell and Skill selections were a little more straightforward; at least he’d been offered two this time. Bone Spear was the clear favourite in Tyron’s mind. Sure, there would doubtless be times when shattering one of his own minions would be the correct, tactical decision, but Tyron hated the thought of wasting his time and effort. His skeletons were to be masterworks, not cannon fodder!

Masterwork cannon fodder, at the very least.

After contemplating, Tyron shook his head and committed, placing a bloody thumbprint next to Awaken the Altar and Bone Lance.

Turning his attention to the next set of abilities his sub-class provided, Tyron could only grimace. Anathema and Forbidden One only seemed to offer him things that he found distasteful, even if they later proved to be useful.

Advanced Invasive Persuasion was the clear standout, in his opinion. He’d never wanted to use the ability in the first place, but now he was turning it against the Magisters themselves. He would need all the proficiency he could get.

Then he came to the last, puzzling notification. He had qualified for a new sub-class, seemingly by training himself. This was… unusual, though not unheard of. Normally, one gained proficiency by working with an expert, or someone who already possessed the Class. With that guidance, it was much easier to reach a level of skill or ability that the Unseen was prepared to acknowledge.

It had taken Tyron a few weeks working under Master Willhem before he’d been able to accept the Enchanter sub-class. Though that had been more than a month faster than any of the other apprentices who’d joined at the same time.

Apparently, he’d now worked enough Death Magick spells that the Unseen considered him qualified to take up the mantle of Death Mage, and Tyron wasn’t sure how he felt about it. He’d never made a firm decision as to what his final sub-class would be, and now one had been thrown at him out of the blue.

In reality, there wasn’t really any reason to refuse it, he could abandon the Class at any time if he wanted to take up another, so he marked his acceptance with a trace of reluctance.

The status ritual was complete, and the moment Tyron ended it, his eyes rolled back as a wave of information pounded into his brain.

You have received the Sub-Class: Death Mage.

Just as there is energy and power in life, the same exists within Death. You have taken steps along this path and shall now reap the benefit. Use your abilities to spread death, and reap your harvest.

Class Attributes per level:

Constitution +1;

Willpower +1;

Poise +1

Skills granted level one:

None.

Spells granted level one:

None.