As soon as he answered Silvio felt a wave of dizziness overcome him. Waves of information flooded his mind, indistinct whispers began to fade in and out of his brain.
[Trick magic is the crutch that will serve as your starting point...Natural mana is the foundation for all beings living in this world...The world was born from the 6 primal elements...Death is the true beginning.]
As the knowledge flowed, his mind began to fervently absorb it like a sponge. If one looked closely they could see a tiny blue flame jumping madly inside his phylactery. The soulfire burned bright dancing with joy and the elements seemed to respond to its joy. Tiny drops of water, sparks of flames, and small shadows began to dance around the necklace as if they were celebrating.
[Impressive, subconscious elemental control. Your soul is truly amazing.]
Unfortunately, Silvio couldn't hear Theo's complement since his mind felt like lava. Having thousands of words forcefully stuffed into your head wasn't a pleasant feeling. His thin bones clicked and clacked as the lich wobbled around trying to ease his mind. He shook his head so hard that it actually broke straight off from his neck. Despite quite literally losing his head the pain didn't stop at all. Only 30 minutes later was he able to put back a good head on his shoulders.
As his mind cleared he began to feel the new knowledge that appeared in his brain. Despite not having a shred of magical knowledge 30 minutes ago, Silvio now felt as if he had been reading these books for years. He knew the books so well now that he could recite them word for word.
"Okay, what the hell was that?"
[That was library host.]
"Yeah, I know that smartass! I meant what the hell did it just do to me?"
[Oh, what just occurred was an advanced feature of my library function. The library is the storage of everything I've seen and read through my hosts throughout the years. The advanced function allows me to forcefully transfer these memories to your mind.]
Silvio's jaw literally dropped when he heard the ability from Theo. On the surface, this ability didn't seem too great at all. But after experiencing it for himself he could easily see the abilities' potential. The 4 books that had been transferred to him were easily the size of a thesaurus. But what would've taken originally weeks or maybe even months for him to memorize took barely 30 mins. After gaining fundamental magic knowledge Silvio understood how many hours mages wasted away studying magic formulas, chants, and textbooks. He fantasized about how he could immediately leap from being a bony carp to a mighty magical dragon with this skill. He picked up his jaw from the floor and was about to ask Theo to do it again. But Theo rained on his parade once more.
Giving the mental equivalent of a head shake he spoke.
[I can guess what you're thinking based on your reaction. Although my library function is powerful it's not almighty. First of all even with your powerful soul forcefully injecting more memories could kill you. Secondly, memorization does not equal knowledge so even though you've memorized it doesn't mean you've mastered it. Thirdly the number of magic books I currently have is limited you'll still need to seek out more resources to learn magic.]
"You're literally a talking ancient magic book and you're saying you don't have enough magic books?"
[This form of mine is merely a temporary vessel. My true body is ethereal, in the past, I've taken the shape of many other things as well. The problem is the number of hosts that I've contracted with who studied magic counted up to only 2. The 5th host was a magic warrior who only partially relied on magic. While the 8th host was a lich like you but died early. Most of my hosts were warriors so I didn't come in contact with enough magic books for apprentices. The ones I gave you were the most important, you'll have to just read the other apprentice-level books normally until your soul recovers from the stress.]
Silvio sighed as his dream to leap through the dragon gate in one go faded away.
"Alright, any other miraculous abilities that I should be aware of?"
[I currently have two other abilities my dimensional pocket and inspect status.]
"I have a general idea about the dimensional pocket. But what's "inspect status" do?"
Instead of answering him, a blue window appeared in front of Silvio.
Name: Silvio Morell
Level: 4
Race: Undead(Lich)
Class: None
Innate Skills: Sixth Sense(Intuitive ability to sense danger), Mana Sense(The ability to perceive Mana)
Talents: Unique Soul
Traits: Cunning, Rational, Ambitious
["Inspect Status" is the ability to view the general information of a person. It was a skill used to help me determine who was fitting to be my host by looking at their strengths and talents.]
"Neat, but how are levels determined?"
[Simple, your level is determined by your estimated combat prowess. For a frame of reference, an average adult male has a combat level of around 5-8. While your ice mage companion had the highest level in your former party sitting at level 50.]
The magicless lich could only shake his head and sigh in sadness after Theo's explanation. Despite becoming a lich his level was lower than even an average joe's. It goes without saying as an undead he couldn't use his divine arts. While the smidgen of knife skills he had, disappeared due to his flimsy bone body. He barely had a fifth of the strength he had when he was human. Even so, his eyes were still ablaze with the hope of embarking on the path of magic.
[Your party's disappearance could bring us unwanted attention. For host's safety, I suggest you master trick magic as fast as possible. It's almost been three days since your team's disapperance people could get suspicious and send a search party. Before the days over we should relocate to a safer place.]
Lerwick's surroundings were well-known danger zones filled with monsters, bandits, and beasts. Although the woods he was in were a relatively safer area. With his bony fists, he'd easily be overwhelmed even by the weakest of animals. On top of that if he ran into a search party with his skeletal body he'd be attacked on sight. Without magic, his phylactery would be defenseless making traveling a herculean feat. Silvio's expression became serious as he realized his dilemma.
"Your pocket is like the space rings merchants wear right? Is it possible to store my phylactery?" Silvio asked.
[My dimensional pocket is superior to these space rings. But I can't create a powerful enough pocket to preserve an item with a soul.]
"Fuck." Silvio let out a deep sigh as he cursed.
[There is nothing to worry about host although I can't transfer more memories to you. I have stored the experiences of both magicians within my library. Using it I can easily serve as a temporary magic teacher for you. With your talents, it won't be too difficult to master trick magic.] Theo replied.
Hearing Theo's response Silvio clapped his bony hands together and his soulfires blazed even brighter with determination.
"What are we waiting for then. Let's get this show on the road."
With his silver-blue soul flames ablaze Silvio embarked on his first study of magic.