A few days had gone by after Tirus had sold his first-ever strength potion.
"I have to say, potioneering is the best way to get rich fast!" Tirus knew that potioneering could get him a lot of money, but he was still a bit overwhelmed by the wealth he currently possessed.
"The materials cost 1 magic crystal, and I can sell a strength potion at 15 magic crystals, which leaves me with a profit of 14 magic crystals. This is my earning from just one potion."
'For now, I'll focus on buying potions to increase my spiritual energy while also saving money to be able to buy an incomplete recipe for a different one, an incomplete recipe can be bought at a cheaper price and the A.I. chip can easily develop the recipe on its own. That's settled. One step at a time!' He thought.
…
After 3 months,
In his dorm, Tirus was sitting on his bed, staring at something in the air after his meditation session.
[Name: Tirus Van Elrod, Occupation: Knight, rank 2 acolyte, strength: 3.8, agility: 4.2, vitality: 3.8, spiritual force: 5.4 (magic power is in sync with spiritual force) status: Healthy]
'Hm, like this I can become a rank 3 acolyte in 1 and a half year, and if I keep taking potions for my knight cultivation, then I'm quite confident that I'd be a grand knight by then.' Tirus thought.
'When the A.I. chip calculated the time needed by me to reach the grand knight rank, it didn't take into account the potions that could speed up the process, that means that there's also a chance of me being able to reach rank 3 acolyte within a year!'
'But I have to focus on my cultivation first, if thinking about plans is what I do all day, then I can say goodbye to the tedious process that is cultivation.'
He kept his face expressionless as he looked at his pet eagle, Hawke, which now had most of its feathers withered away. It looked ugly. Its eyes had lost their shine and one could tell that it was going to die soon.
"Come on buddy, don't be sad, you'll be of great use to me even after dying!" Tirus said, and it was as if Hawke understood his intentions it started to flap its wings cheerfully.
Seeing his pet like this, Tirus felt a tinge of emotion in his heart, ever since buying Hawke, he hadn't spent much time with it but over the years, he had formed a connection with it.
"I swear, I'll relieve you of your pain soon." He whispered while caressing its head.
He knew that the academy was filled with radiation and so, normal beasts and people couldn't possibly live a long life, the radiation, even if it was miniscule, it was still enough to give anyone a slow, painful death.
….
Another 3 months passed by quickly,
Tirus focused most of his time on his acolyte cultivation as well as learning more about necromancy and beast contracts.
'Today is the day.' The thought flashed through his mind as he closed the doors of his dorm.
There was a pentagon with tens of eerie symbols drawn with blood of a human on it. In the center of this small eerie formation was lying the corpse of the now dead Hawke.
This was a necromancy formation used to refine dead beasts into their contracted beast. These undead beasts could share their senses with their owner and had a very limited level of intelligence. And since it was a necromancy formation, there was no way it could betray Tirus after becoming an undead beast.
Necromancy touched upon the subject of souls.
Actually, souls are just a very complicated form of energy, when someone who was alive dies, their souls leave behind residual energies in their belongings or their body.
Through necromancy, it was possible to replicate the personality and intelligence of the previously alive being. But it was, undoubtedly, to a very limited extent.
Magi of the crimson bone academy had researched for several decades to create a ritual called undead contraction. This was creating an undead from a previously dead being, just giving it enough intelligence to do the basic things and have it share their senses with their owners which could allow for a much more efficient intel gathering. The only drawback was that a magus could only have one undead contracted beast at a time.
And this process also required one to have a lot of knowledge about transmutation and necromancy, but for Tirus, it was easy.
"I knew that there would be rituals to create undead in the academy, but I didn't know that I'd get such a ritual!" Before Tirus entered the academy, he had planned to use Hawke as an experimental subject for his necromancy and transfiguration. But he never expected to find a ritual just for that.
After a few seconds, he made a cut on his right palm and smeared blood on the corpse of Hawke.
"Oh dark abyss, I summon thee
Oh dark abyss, lend me thy strength
Oh dark abyss, I summon thy power to create life
Answer my call, oh the one who rules all darkness!"
The formation started to glow in a blood-red light, soon the light filled the entire room. Dark energy particles could be seen even with the naked eye.
[Beep! Warning host's spiritual energy is being drained at a rapid speed due to a connection with an outside force]
[Sever the connection Yes/No]
"No." Tirus said without a second thought. He knew this was the most important part of the ritual, why would he sever the connection?
—Shriek!!
Sounds of a bird shrieking could be heard, it was an unpleasant sound.
After the blood-red light in the room vanished, Tirus looked at the now undead Hawke.
[Name: Hawke, species: Eagle (undead), strength: 0.2, agility: 3.4, vitality: ??]
[Target's vitality can't be calculated due to not having enough data on undead]
[Proceeding with the available information….[Name: Hawke, species: Eagle (undead), strength: 0.2, agility: 3.4, vitality: 0.1]
"Vitality of 0.1!" Tirus exclaimed "isn't it too low?"
[Target is immune to fatigue and radiation caused by rank 3 acolytes but can easily have it's body destroyed] The A.I. chip loyally intoned.
"Come here!" Tirus ordered his pet as it flapped its wings and jumped on his shoulders.
It still looked like a decomposed corpse of an eagle.
"Seems like I'll have to modify your body a bit." Tirus was feeling ecstatic upon seeing his ritual to be a success.
…
Another 6 months passed, Tirus was close to breaking through to rank 3 acolyte. But he had a feeling that he could reach the level of a grand knight soon, so he stopped his acolyte cultivation to wholeheartedly focus of his grand knight cultivation.
During this time, he studied transmutation, making great progress in it. His master was quite impressed by his advancement speed, but it only made sense since Tirus had a grade 5 talent and potions to back it up, but even so, he was rewarded a magical item.
It was a scarlet colored ring named "the sunlight ruby". It was a ring made of a material which resembled silver due to its gray color with a beautiful red ruby embedded in it.
[Item: Sunlight Ruby
A mid-grade magic artifact with defensive properties. It can create a red translucent shield around the user for protection manually with a thought. Spells with a power of 5 degrees and below can be defended against.
Daily usage: 4/4]
He had also made several modifications to Hawke's body and learned several new spells.
Today, he was going to join Rick and his other teammates to go on a hunting mission to gain some battle experience to stimulate his life force in order to break through to the realm of grand knight.
To be continued....