The Night Demons' words stopped Ojero in his tracks.
'Another one? Another what, exactly?'
"Another ancient beast, master."
'What do you mean ancient beast?'
"Some familiars manage to gain enough power to cross over to your domain without the need to be connected to a mage, master. Although this is a very rare occurrence, it does happen, and only the strongest are able to achieve that. It is only after they travelled to this domain that they bonded with a strong warrior of their choice. This was a matter of great importance many years ago, however they were thought to be wiped out."
"It appears that ancient forces are at work to bring them back, master. I would urge caution of the highest degree with these forces at work. You are not near the strength level needed to be a threat to them."
'So there is another worry added on top, great. Are any of them near Riote?'
"Not at the moment, master, but in the ancient times those who controlled the ancient beasts were most often strong leaders who wished to expand their empire's territory and power. We must prepare for the possibility they threaten you in the near future."
Before Ojero could respond, he noticed both Roger and Litany were staring at him.
"You are really weird, Ojero. You just sat there for a full minute constantly shaking your head and mumbling under your breath as if you were talking to someone." Roger pointed out with a smirk.
"You do realize I have a mythic familiar too, right?" Ojero responded with.
Roger turned red out of embarrassment at this blatant flaw in his argument.
"I, uhm, might have forgotten that slight detail."
Just as Ojero was about to respond, Litany interjected.
"Wait, you BOTH have mythic familiars?"
Roger was quick to respond to her.
"Yep, we both have mythic familiars! I have a Phoenix and Ojero has a… what exactly is your familiar Ojero? You never told me."
Both of them now turned to look at Ojero, who was struggling to come up with a believable lie.
"Claim I am an Imperial Shade, master."
"He is an Imperial Shade." Ojero said boastfully.
Both of them looked confused for a moment, but Roger quickly seemed to grow scared.
He looked at Ojero and spoke cautiously and slowly.
"Hey Ojero, I don't know how to tell you this exactly, but my Phoenix says to be very wary of that familiar. Imperial Shades are very deadly familiars, used almost exclusively as assassins. They are masters of shadow magic, and have one of the strongest affinities for shadow out of all familiars."
Roger still seemed to be very cautious in his telling of this, as if he expected Ojero to start shouting and yelling at him for this, which confused Ojero.
"Why are you so nervous? If anything, that's good news. I am a shadow mage, so having a shadow familiar makes sense. It seems pretty useful to have a good assassin if I am to be fighting the Knights in my future."
"No, you don't understand. Imperial Shades are not good familiars. They only do jobs for evil aligned familiars, and relish in the killing. It's the first time my Phoenix has never even heard of one considering to bond with a mage, let alone actually doing it."
"Well maybe it just thinks Ojero will be strong in the future?" Litany interjected.
"It's possible, they are attracted to power, but I still believe you should be very cautious with it."
"Don't worry, I won't start randomly killing people just for the fun of it, I am not insane!" Ojero said with a laugh.
"Just be careful, ok? My familiar is very worried about this. Apparently very little can stop an Imperial Shade from claiming its kill."
"Okay, okay. I promise that I will be careful with the Imperial Shade."
During this, the gray ring on Ojero's finger was glowing a little brighter than usual.
"If you two are done caring about Ojero's shadow monster, why don't we finish our food?"
Litany brought them back to reality, and all three of them started to dig into their food, eating quickly due to the hunger they had after a long day of school.
As they ate they spoke of random facts about their life before they went to the academy.
Litany was the daughter of some small noble near the outskirts of the kingdom, and was able to get into Lumenbecs thanks to a scholarship due to her powerful plant magic. Her familiar was known as a Thorn Scream.
It looked like a giant rose bush, but the flower part of it had razor sharp teeth inside it. It has the ability to grow vines rapidly with thorns on them to quickly cut through and entangle enemies. It was a Legendary familiar, which was pretty impressive.
Whenever Litany spoke about her magic, she grew very excited. Magic seemed to be one of her passions, which Ojero had noticed was a pretty common theme in Lumenbecs.
Roger was from a more prominent baron who owned a good amount of land near the North of the kingdom, and used fire magic as seen by his Phoenix familiar.
Similarly to Litany, he really liked magic and was fascinated about growing stronger with his own, hoping he can grow his families prestige and maybe even become a Duke within his lifetime.
They all seemed to get along great, but during the whole affair the ring on Ojero's finger grew brighter and brighter though no one seemed to ever notice.
Once they all finished and decided to go back to their dorms to rest and study, the ring started to grow dimmer and dimmer until it was as if it had never changed at all.
***
The Book of the Known Undead
Chapter 11: Reformed Bones
The Reformed Bones were given their name by their enemies for their strange ability to completely reform themselves into warriors even if they were dismembered. This has led to them being used as traps, as many Necromancers will purposefully pull them apart and litter them all across a field, only to reform them once the enemy is walking among them.
These creatures take little mana to maintain, but are instantly destroyed if their skull is damaged in any way.
Element: Undead
Class: Warrior
Family: Skeleton