While Toril was briefing the students, I was on the shores of Corvus lake. Putting a couple of theories to test.
Namely, I tried and tried again to increase the water tension on the lake as much as I could with water manipulation before carefully stepping onto the surface. But no matter how much I tried, my feet simply slipped under the surface each and every time. Resulting in a sopping wet shoe that started to dry the moment I pulled my foot above the surface.
After a bit of insanity, I moved on to essentially attempt the same feat with air. Though as I fully expected, walking on water or stepping on air was an impossibility with elemental manipulation alone. Not that I thought it was possible in the first place, I simply needed to confirm the skill's limitations with my own eyes. And once I had, I fell into a sort of trance practicing mana manipulation until the sun began to set.
At which time, my Grandfather suddenly stepped into view from behind a tree and lunged at me. Swinging wide.
With the distance between us and the fact that I was in relatively pristine condition, it was easy to draw my weapons and seamlessly duck under his hook with a swing of my own. Slamming the dagger hilt-deep into his heart.
If he even had one.
"Rejoice, Amun." He grinned, death mana suddenly leaking from his mouth. "You can soon rid yourself of those sticks of yours. And this too." He grunted out a chuckle as he withdrew the blade, then effortlessly tossed it and myself aside. "You and your subordinates will be accompanying me to Odissi this weekend. It's time you receive your royal arms and armor."
'Armor?' I internally cringed as scrambled in the snow to my feet.
Even early in my past life, I hated wearing body armor. Sure, it could stop a round from making a mess of my insides, but the lack of mobility that came with it was something that never sat right with me in the back of my mind. And though that issue had been solved in the later parts of my life, recreating such things in this world required both infrastructure and magic that I wasn't even close to accessing at the moment.
Leaving me with quite the dilemma.
'We'll burn that bridge when we get to it, I suppose.' I shrugged the matter aside, then lunged at my Grandfather.
We fought much the same as we had before over the last couple of days. And once midnight rang, I once again followed my Grandfather to his expansive 'office' to mend his wounds with recovery magic and begin my nightly classes.
"Necromancy." Grandpa peered deep into my eyes after swinging his feet off the stone slab. "What do you know of it?"
"I know that we have control over death." I shrugged. "We can commune with the dead and raise them. And our undead use shadows as a medium."
"While true." Grandpa nodded while he paced across the room. "There are other forms of necromancy that many seem to ignore.
"Death Magic; or Necromancy, revolves around all things affiliated with death." He paused at the center of another spacious module. One that contained nothing but a relatively small alchemy desk placed at the center, and large material display cases set between the supports that made up the 'corners' of the space; forming 'walls' made of stone and glass cubes that contained everything from vials of liquid to live plants.
"Poison. Disease. Decay. Curses. Hexes, or freakishly accidental deaths caused by 'bad luck.' Nearly anything that can cause death, and everything that happens to both the soul and flesh of the departed, are all necromantic arts." Grandpa Explained. "We'll be going down the line until your grimoire is suitably filled with spells." He paused to pull out a diamond-shaped vial from his pocket and held it between our eyes, hardly occluding a mildly sadistic grin. "Starting with poison."
"Does our necromancy give us immunity to poisons and toxins?" I asked, scanning the cases surrounding me.
"A resistance." He subtly shrugged. "You'll feel the effects, but it won't kill you. Today, you will be learning the Poison Mimicry spell." He held out the vial for me to grab it.
The vial itself looked more like a fang of pink, transparent bone that was as girthy as both my hands put side-by-side. Laced with gilded accents along the long axes to anchor points for a chain that reached up to an intricate, yet simple lock at the top.
"Fill your finger with death mana and dip it inside. Or you can taste it if you like." Grandpa Lich ordered.
I did as instructed and pulled a bit of death mana into my finger before dipping it inside, then brought it up to my mouth for a taste.
Quite unsurprisingly, it tasted like… water. Completely tasteless. Yet Grandpa Lich made a grim rumble from deep in his belly, and I turned to see a maniacal grin spread across his face.
"That was wyvern venom." He sneered.
My brows perked up at once before I turned back to him, blinking madly in surprise. "Like a dragon?"
"Close." He quickly said as if to dismiss the talk of dragons entirely before asking. "How do you feel?" In the next breath.
"I feel…" I paused to focus on my body, my heart rate, and my senses before looking back to Grandpa Lich, shaking my head. "Nothing. Physiologically, at least. But." I gestured to the finger I'd brought to my lips. Specifically to the death mana imbued into it, changed in both color and phase to resemble the colorless liquid held within the flask, dripping from my finger to disperse in a thick carpet of white smoke across the stone tiles.
"Nothing!?" Grandpa spat, completely brushing aside my success at the spell. Then brought his hand up to scratch his beard and squint at me intently in the very next moment as if nothing had even happened.
"I keep forgetting, you're hardly human." He turned away, muttering under his breath.
"That makes two of us," I muttered back.
"You'll spend as long as it takes to sample these poisons and toxins." He gestured to the sole seat in the space and the massive cases surrounding it. "Some will require you to ingest them, others simply need a bit of contact or inhalation. Sample them all. Once you're done, we'll move on to the next step."
With a nod, I approached the case and used my Umbral Hand to open the first glass door in the top left of the structure to begin.
"Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?" I asked after sampling a bit of arsenic.
"At this point, I'd be concerned if you weren't asking questions." He chuckled as he leaned against the pillar beside the shelf. "What's on your mind?"
"About the nature of grimoires." I simply answered. "You once told me that they'll allow my spells to evolve over time. What did you mean by that?"
"You can consider your grimoire as a visual representation of your abilities. As for spell evolution." He shrugged. "Spells will become more powerful while requiring less mana as you gain proficiency in them over time. Such things can translate to a larger radius, after effects and rarely, effects that were previously unestablished."
"Such as?" I chewed through some Belladonna.
"Well." He shrugged again. "My first time was with my doppelgangers. Essentially, they were much like Roger." He gestured to my shadow. "One clone could become two. But no more."
"Interesting." I nodded while bringing a bit of black adder venom to my tongue. Then pulled out my grimoire. "And only I can see this? Even if I wanted someone else to?"
"There is a way." He vaguely nodded. "But it has costs."
"Costs that you're not going to explain to me, are you?" I sighed.
"Not yet!" He boisterously bellowed in as he so often did before regaining his composure just a few seconds later. "Take some time to look it over while you sample." He threw his chin at the desk. "As it seems you haven't even done that."
I winced in both annoyance and disgust as I took a bit of cyanide and opened the abyssal, white-lined cover page of my spellbook.
It was true that I'd rarely checked my grimoire since my first study of it years ago. Naturally, the pages had since been filled with specific details of each spell I currently held in my arsenal; though it was much more than mere words 'printed' on the pages. Fascinatingly enough, each page was dedicated to a single spell and contained diagrams for body movements, summaries of the effects, step-by-step instructions on how to cast spells from scratch, and even stats on my progression with some spells.
Amun: Initiate Void Sorcerer.
Half-Drow/Human Male
Hereditary Affinity: Void Magic
Mana Well: 13th Grade, Diamond.
Pore Radius: .74
*Domain of Darkness*
[Shadow Pocket] - Is the gelid, infinite subspace found within your natural shadow. Used for storing inanimate, dead, or; at the cost of mana, living beings.
[Shadow Step] - Allows you to step through the Shadowfell and appear through a natural or magical shadow in the physical realm.
[Shadow Bullet] - Is the result of a mass of shadow mana that's been gathered in the fingertips and flicked at a target. Blinding and deafening them with the cold embrace of darkness, often invoking a state of fear. Effectively stunning them.
[Shadow Cloud] - Is a released mass of condensed shadow mana, creating a domain of magical darkness that cannot be seen through; even by someone possessing darkvision. The domain itself imbues the same effects of the Shadow Bullet into anyone standing within its radius. Largest spread to date - 30 meters.
[Doppelganger] - Is an umbral clone, spawned from mana being poured into the shadow of a living being and the will of the caster. Creating a duplicate that is capable of both mimicry and independent action. Doppelgangers Spawned - 4.
[Solid Shade] - Is the result of umbral energy condensed to a degree to induce phase change, creating a semi-amorphous, rubberized solid that inflicts cold damage and blinding effects on a target.
[Wraith Form] - Is the infusion of shadow mana throughout the entire body while outside of direct light. Allowing you to assume a complete ghostly or gaseous form that renders you invisible to the naked eye; permitting you passage through solid objects at an unabated pace.
[Semi-Wraith Form.] - Is the infusion of shadow mana throughout the body while in direct light. Rendering you visible to the naked eye while retaining your spectral form and a slow-paced phasing ability at the cost of mana.
[Shadow Scry] - Is the art of peering the eyes and ears through shade or casted shadow to eavesdrop on another.
[Flames of Moil] - Are cold, umbral flames created from shadow mana poured into a fire, snuffing out light with radiant darkness.
[Black Bones] - Is the infusion of shadow mana into the skeletal system. Giving your bones the qualities of solid shade that yields a far denser and more flexible material in proportion with an increase in mana.
[Black Armor] - Is the infusion of shadow mana into the skin, resulting in an aura that gives the flesh the same rubbery properties of solid shade, negating blunt damage
[Black Muscle] - Is the infusion of shadow mana into the muscles, allowing the buildup of lactic acid and other toxins to be banished to the Shadowfell.
[Shade Tendril] - Is a dexterous tentacle of solid shade that remains placed at an anchor point, but is capable of stretching up to ten meters in any direction.
[Umbral Hand] - Is a less-malleable mass of solid shade, incapable of elongation, but dense enough to inflict blunt force trauma.
*Death Domain*
[Frighten] - Is the passive effect of death mana being pulled from your affinity core. Eliciting a primal fear from anyone who feels its energy.
[Death Bullet] - Is an aggregation of death energy that's been gathered at the fingertips and flicked at a target. Killing it on contact.
[Death Cloud] - Is a dispersed mass of death energy, forming a domain of necrotic energy that saps life from anyone within its radius.
[Communion] - Is the act of sitting on your Necro Throne and summoning a soul from the Underworld for conversation.
[Leech Hand] - Is the result of death energy infused into the skin, creating an armor that saps the life force of anyone who comes into contact with it.
[False Life] - Is when the life energy gained from Leech Hand is used to heal oneself or another.
[False Strength] - is when the life energy of Leech Hand is used to increase one's strength, speed, or stamina.
[Poison Mimicry] - Is to analyze and recreate the effects of a poison or toxin on a human body with death mana. Samples analyzed - 32.
*The Void*
[Void Bullet] - Is a mass of void mana concentrated in the fingertips and flicked at a target. Completely obliterating anything it comes into contact with.
[Void Egg] - Is a dispersed mass of void mana that annihilates everything within its radius.
[Void Rifle] - Is a beam of shaped void mana that bores through everything in its path.
[Void Scythe] - Is a sweeping arc of void mana that can cut through anything.
[Void Shield] - Is a solid 'plate' of void mana that negates all that touches it; bet it physical or non-radiant magical attacks.
"I assume this is how we; as you said, adopt the power of our ancestors." I looked to my Grandfather after disappearing my grimoire. But he only looked at me in a way that hardly gave away the answer; if at all. So I wordlessly turned my attention to sampling the rest of the poisons.
***
"I'm done," I called over my shoulder to my Grandfather, who'd disappeared to somewhere in the office about twenty minutes prior.
He appeared from behind the shelves not a second later and approached the front of his desk, the gilded accents of his twin-tailed coat shining brightly in the indirect glow of the coming dawn.
"There's not yet an opportunity for you to practice these spells, but I'll tell you anyway; of the Contagion Spell." He paused. "It is to spread the mimicked poison from your breath or touch, and have it passed along through others in a similar manner."
"Like spreading disease?" I nodded in understanding.
To which my Grandfather quickly nodded in both pride and affirmation. "Aye. Which is our next lesson. So get some rest, Amun. You have a long day ahead of you, no?"
"That I do." I quickly bowed out of my seat. Then assumed the Wraith Form after excusing myself and descended down to my 'room.'