Seeing how obediently Mutt was sitting when he arrived, Rino nodded. At the very least, this beast was trainable. He might not be the smartest, but he was useful.
Mutt wagged its tail when he heard his owner's praise. Rino frowned. This summoner and summoned bond was a little inconvenient. He wished there was a way to restrict the thoughts and feelings from his end from reaching his minions. Maybe it was possible. Rino just didn't know how to do it yet.
At first, it was too dark to see anything more than just a cave. However, once Rino brought up a fireball big enough to light the area, he understood what a gem this was.
"Goblins?" Rino mused.
These creatures were usually weak, but they were numerous. If the entire den of goblins was wiped out, Rino could only imagine how many free slaves he could have with this village massacre.
"Are there more inside?" he asked Mutt, who howled in acknowledgement.
Thrilled, Rino wasted no time. He focussed on the same feelings of domination and desire to unite everything under his shadows, sweeping up the dead goblin guards. Almost at once, Rino saw his daily quest mark itself as completed.
Ping!
===
Daily Quest #5
Objective: Acquire 10 more helping hands
Time Limit: 24 Hours
Tutorial here.
Reward: Soul Splitting Magic.
Claim your reward here.
Penalty: NA
===
Rino did not wait. He wanted the Soul Splitting Magic.
An influx of information assaulted Rino's head, and the lich groaned, throwing his back backwards in an unusual angle that made Mutt worried for a while.
Then, the lich slowly laughed a soundless laugh. His teeth clattered disturbingly, and Mutt shivered. It was a horribly sinister sight as those empty eye sockets were now filled with purple soul fire, boring right into his.
Something did not feel right. Mutt wanted to run, but he was bound by the summoning magic. Rino owned his soul and, now, his body too.
"A worthy first sacrifice," Rino mused as he looked at the shadow wolf monster.
Casting a net and chanting something that sounded dangerous, Rino let the magic take its course. The ancient soul splitting spell activated, and now, Rino had a part of his soul planted in his first slave's body. Compared to these goblins, the shadow wolf was a lot stronger. Rino did not need to empty this summon's body to infuse a larger piece of his soul. This was sufficient for now. As this dumb dog grew stronger, that fragment of soul would also become more significant. At the same time, the slave with a part of his soul was gifted with a fraction of Rino's power.
Mutt felt his intelligence evolving and was finally able to attempt human speech for the first time.
"Thank you, master. This humble one will take care of your soul fragment."
Rino was pleasantly surprised by the evolution of the dumb dog. He did not know imparting a fragment of his soul into his summons would trigger a power-up ability. Yet, it wasn't a bad thing.
According to the Soul Splitting Magic, a dark magician can only use this spell a limited number of times, depending on their mana capacity. Each fragment of soul would require the caster to be able to hold a divine tier ritual.
In his previous world, there were only a handful of magicians who could host divine tier rituals single-handedly. Dark cultists usually offered living sacrifices and formed ritual circles consisting of ten or more magicians. Even Rino needed a long time to recover after holding a single divine tier ritual in his previous life. The number of times he did that could be counted on one hand, and Rino swore never to use that sort of magic recklessly after the first time he tried it. A mage's mana was their life force. There was simply too much risk involved in performing one.
However, Rino was now a lich with magic several folds more powerful than his human body in the previous world. Mana recovery for liches was not the same as humans. He could easily recover a huge bulk of his mana reserves in a few hours by wallowing in self-hatred. Splitting a fragment of his soul was something Rino could do once a day at ease. In fact, Rino thought it would be good to do it once a day from now on. The more soul fragments he had, the faster he could grow as a magician in terms of mana capacity. At the same time, it would make his minions a little less irritating to talk to. No matter how he saw it, Rino didn't think there was any loss in doing so.
"Are there more inside that cave?" Rino asked after he checked the number of souls he had in his shadow.
Mutt nodded and stood up to lead the way. Rino followed with a fireball in his hand. This cape from Noir was very fireproof, and Rino did not have to worry about it burning.
Corpses lined the cave's entrance, and Rino slowed his pace, allowing his hungry shadow to devour everyone. The goblin village was not very big, but the cave made a very good fortress. Rino wondered if he could make this his private dungeon in the future. If he ever needed rocks, this would be a great inconspicuous spot. All he had to do was set up another teleportation pad in the lower parts of the cave so that his minions could work more efficiently.
After rounding up the number of villagers and harvesting their souls in his shadow, Rino counted a total of forty-eight goblin shadow minions.
"Kneel," Rino commanded, summoning all forty-right new slaves when the strangest thing happened.
His vision doubled, and the world tilted on an axis before the fireball in his hand fizzed out, leaving behind complete darkness. Yet, the last thing he heard was the annoying yapping from his dumb dog.
How noisy!