"Please, come on down, don't leave us hanging in suspense." Professor Kal goaded Clerance, taking pleasure in his discomfort.
The young boy's inaction was all the proof Professor Kal needed to know that he was not the one to brew the potions he turned in. Still, he wasn't about to cease his actions. He was deriving great enjoyment from watching the adolescent human squirm in his chair.
Even after a full minute, Clerance still had not left his seat, making Professor Kal lose his temper. "Get down here, NOW!" He shouted, the mana powered lights inexplicably dimming.
Seeing the wrathful glare of the Professor, Clerance, on trembling legs, slowly made his way to the front of the class. Just moments earlier, the whole student body was reveling in Clerance's plight, but now, seeing Professor Kal's dark face, felt cold sweat run down their backs. There was also a seeming thickness to the atmosphere that had settled on them, weighing them down, making it difficult to breathe.
Once Clerance had made it to the front of the class, Professor Kal's scowl instantly transformed into his uncanny smile. With his smile, the heavy atmosphere was also lifted instantly, much to the relief of the students. Professor Kal waved his hand, causing the once barren table to become an oasis of alchemy equipment.
"Now that you've made your way down here, please, show us your technique." Was all professor Kal said before stepping aside and allowing Clerance to work his magic.
Clerance had never been so lost, he didn't even know where to begin. Professor Arckroft was just like many of his other Professors, taking his father's 'bonuses', allowing him to easily sail through the class. With his passing all but guaranteed, he hadn't paid one bit of attention throughout the year. He was regretting that decision now more than ever, he didn't even know the proper way to clean the ingredients.
Not wanting to give up, Clerance forced himself to muddle through. Professor Kal had given him a very low level potion, something that any beginner alchemist should be able to complete. He wasn't trying to completely humiliate the young man, giving him a chance to redeem himself. As long as his wayward student had paid any bit of attention to the previous Professor's lesson, he should be able to pull it off.
Clerance timidly plucked the petals off of a corpse flower Professor Kal had set aside, stealing glances at the Professor as he did so. Professor Kal's face didn't betray a single emotion, although the recipe called for the pistol to be pulled from the plant, not the petals. He began to crush the plant in a mortar and pestle, mixing in other ingredients as he went.
After what felt like an eternity for Clerance, but only thirty minutes for everyone else, a finished product was presented to the Professor. Clerance was drenched in sweat, some dripping from his round nose. He was holding his breath as Professor Kal scrutinized the potion he had made for him.
"This is absolutely…..disappointing." Professor Kal finally said, breaking the echoing silence.
"It would take the rest of our precious time to explain to everyone what you did wrong. I was holding out hope that I was wrong about you, but it seems that was foolish of me."
Clerance started to stammer, his face ashen white. "I..I..I c..can make a..a..another one. I w..w...was just nervous, that's all."
Professor Kal waved his hand, his face in a scowl. "There's no need, have you ever attended class before I started? From the looks of this…..mess, I would say you could barely make a decent cup of tea, let alone a viable potion."
"B..b...but I made…." Clearance started to defend himself.
"DO NOT LIE TO ME BOY!" Professor Kal shouted out, his eyes flashing an iridescent red.
Clerance tensed up, adrenaline pumping through his body. He felt like a small animal staring deep inside the gaping maw of a relentless predator. His fight or flight instinct kicking in, Clerance bolted for the classroom door, leaving his peers and the Professor behind as his rotund figure disappeared from sight.
Like a switch flipping, Professor Kal replaced his ire with jovial laughter. Causing much distress for the students, they would have to be mindful of the Professor's seemingly whimsical mood swings from now on.
"Learn from this. I do not require perfection, only effort. If one of you only brought me five failures, as long as it was your whole hearted attempt, I would have accepted them. To cheat, to slander the profession of alchemy by claiming others' work as your own is unacceptable. Remember that." Professor Kal said, after getting over his laughing fit.
The students all swallowed hard, taking what they just witnessed to heart. Although they would have never imagined plagiarizing their work, they now knew what would become of them if they did. They all nodded, indicating to the Professor that they understood.
"Good, now let's continue." Kal said, moving on to that day's lesson.
.....
Before they knew it, the lesson was over. After Clerance embarrassedly exited the classroom, everything moved along smoothly. Professor Kal taught them the many environments where you could find several of the rarer materials. At the end of the class, he told them all to prepare for an outing in two days. Professor Kal would be taking them into the forest surrounding Lenova, teaching them the proper way to gather herbs.
This caused a stir in the classroom, field trips were a rare occurrence, making many of them excited. What also made them excited was the fact that tomorrow, they wouldn't have class, giving them two extra hours to sleep in. As the clock struck ten, they began packing up their things and walking towards their next class.
"Go on without me, I'll catch up." Ryan said to Ben, hanging back as they walked to the front of the class.
Ben gave Ryan a questioning gaze, but didn't interrogate him as to why. He just nodded, leaving his friend behind.
Ryan waited until the classroom was empty, only leaving himself alone with Professor Kal. Professor Kal had already tucked away all the equipment into his storage ring, only sticking around to hear what his potential apprentice had decided.
"Professor, sir, I've made up my mind." Ryan bravely said, after taking a deep breath to steady himself.
"Please, tell me, I am all a flutter with anticipation." Professor Kal said with a whimsical expression on his face.
Ryan must not have appreciated Kal's joke, not reacting to it in the slightest. "Sir, I'm willing to learn n...necromancy from you."
"Are you certain? Once you begin there is no turning back." Professor Kal asked seriously, wanting the young boy to fully understand what he was getting into.
"Yes, I'm certain." Ryan said, his expression stoic.
"Great, here, take this." Professor Kal said, tossing a silver ring up into the air.
Ryan rushed to catch the small object that was tossed to him, fumbling, dropping it on the floor. Embarrassed, he scrambled to pick the ring up off the ground.
Professor Kal ignored the antics of his new underling."You know how to use that right? Just slip it on your finger and allow your mana to seep into it, you'll find all the material you'll need to get a grasp on what I'll teach you."
"It's a storage ring?!" Ryan said in awe.
Many mages had storage items, so they weren't all that rare. They were still rather expensive though, so a student getting their hands on one was almost unheard of. He caressed his newfound treasure with the utmost care, afraid to blemish the antique patina.
"Of course it is, I wouldn't hand over a mountain of books to you, now would I?" Kal stated rhetorically.
"A mountain, sir?"
"Oh yes, a veritable mountain. There is much to understand about necromancy, it's best to have an understanding of the fundamentals before we get more into the practical side of things. Don't worry though, it won't be all bookwork. I'll be sure to teach you spells and the like as we go along." Kal said, trying to ease the youth's mind seeing the look on his face when he mentioned the amount of reading to be done.
"Ok, Professor, when do we start?" Ryan said, his face awash with relief.
"A week after our little field trip, that will give you plenty of time to go over some of the materials I've given you." Professor Kal said, activating a Warp Gate behind himself.
Ryan nodded, already anticipating his exciting new life that was waiting right around the corner.
"Just remember one thing, don't try to practice any of the spells in those books without me to guide you. They can be very dangerous without the proper precautions set in place."
With those words, Professor Kal vanished into the portal. Ryan watched on as the portal phazed out of existence, eager to try on his new accessory. He slipped the silver ring onto his finger, focusing on the snugness, trying to send his mana into it. After a few moments, a connection was made, allowing his mind to access the ring.
It was a strange feeling, as soon as he connected to it, he was able to know exactly what was inside the ring. Wanting to test it out, he focused even more on an individual book that was titled 'A Guide to Dark Magic', causing it to materialize before him, falling onto the ground. He bent over and picked up the fallen book, brushing off its black and gold cover.
"Apparently, this will take some practice if I don't want to keep dropping things." He said to himself, before focusing once more, placing the book back into the ring.
.....
It was late into the evening, Kal was currently engaged in some light research, nothing too serious. He was currently investigating how the energy from the chaotic dimension that he sent his phylactery into, interacted with his phylactery that he had sealed away there. So far, he's had some measure of success. He'd found that the red and black energy were two separate sides to the same coin, perfectly counteracting each other.
Throwing his phylactery into the mix upset the perfect balance of that plane, causing the natural laws to try and correct the imbalance. During this correction process is where his phylactery gathers the boundless energy of that hidden plane. He didn't know exactly why yet, but as time moves on, the laws continue to try and stabilize the plane, which in turn feeds Kal more power, increasing the imbalance. With the imbalance increasing, the plane spends more energy in trying to correct it, it's a never ending cycle that only seems to benefit Kal.
His hypothesis is that his power will continue to grow indefinitely, although it may be on the scale of eons. He didn't think there would be a limit to his power, as long as the plane continued to feed him its energy.
As he scribbled down in his notepad, one of his wards indicated that he had a visitor standing at his front door. Activating the surveillance array, he saw a woman standing there, looking as if she was debating on knocking or not. To human standards, the woman that was milling around his doorstep was extremely beautiful; but to Kal, an undead lich, all humans, be them male or female, practically looked the same. Although he could tell the difference between an ugly human versus an attractive one, he didn't bother treating any of them differently.
Curious as to who this person was, Kal pushed himself up from his chair, and made his way to the door.