Supreme Magus novel Chapter 194

Lith didn’t know if to be more surprised by the discovery of how ignorant he was about necromancy’s true potential or by seeing a rat’s skeleton standing on its hind legs, talking with Professor Zekell’s voice.

Despite the distance, he was able to notice that the light in the eyes of the creature had turned from deep red to bright blue.

"As you have seen when I reanimated this carcass, I left an imprint on it by using my life force to bind our essences." The Zekell-rat tapped its head with a paw, making the mark visible again.

"The bond allows necromancers to temporarily transfer their consciousness inside their creations. Students used this skill mostly to cheat during written exams. By using a small undead mouse, they could communicate between them or simply copy the answers of the most brilliant students.

Undead were also a very popular tool for pulling cruel practical jokes and peeping through windows. There is a reason that all academies have removed windows from their dorms. Even magic can’t beat the enthusiasm of a bunch of horny teenagers.

No matter the protection, they would always find a loophole." The rat laughed.

"Keep in mind that the transfer is not without risks. The mage’s body is left completely helpless for the entire duration. Someone could simmer you and you wouldn’t even notice.

"Also, in this form I don’t have the perceptions of a rat or of an undead. I can see and hear as if I’m on your desk, but all my other senses are lost. I can’t use magic and if something happens to this body before I return to my own, the resulting shock could incapacitate me for hours."

The creature’s eyes turned red again and Professor Zeneff snapped her fingers a third time, taking out a third rat’s skeleton from her dimensional amulet. When she cast the necromantic spell, the black fog engulfed the carcass for a while before disappearing.

"This is what happens when attempting to reanimate a long-dead corpse: a failure. To date, the phenomenon is still unclear. What we do know is that if a corpse it’s not reanimated at least once every five days it becomes useless."

- "I wish I could use Life Vision to collect data. Solus, what did you see with your mana sense?" Lith thought.

"Her spell seems to fly blind. Fake necromancy has no concept of mana core, so the darkness energies scanned the whole body before forming the blood core. My guess is that when a living being dies, its mana core leaves behind some kind of echo that disappears after about five days.

Fake necromancy seems to be heavily reliant on those lingering energies. Without them, the spell loses focus and becomes ineffective."

"Kalla isn’t an Awakened one, yet she knew on instinct what to do." Lith pondered. "Magical beasts’ natural affinity with the elements is simply terrifying. No wonder there is still no dominant species on this planet."–

"During the following lessons, I’ll teach you how to safely create all the lesser undead, how to transfer your consciousness and how to recognize when you are pushing your limits.

Necromancy is all about control and self awareness. Unlike all other kinds of magic, it can backfire. It will help you build your character, make you realize that your decisions, your spells have consequences on yourselves and others.

We have still a few minutes before the gong. Any questions?"

Lith raised his hand and Professor Zekell nodded to him.

"How long does an undead last?"

"Depends on the tier of the spell and the strength of the creature." She was happy to hear a relevant question instead of one about ghosts and curses.

"Let’s say that after this course you will be able to keep a simple skeleton for up to fifteen hours or a skeletal knight for one."

- "I take back everything I thought. The only kind of necromancy I know needs me to constantly infuse mana into my undead servants, while hers can provide them an energy reserve.

Not to mention that my knowledge about the undead is limited to Dungeons & Looting and George Romeno’s movies. There’s a lot I can learn from her. I tend to forget that unlike magical beasts, humans have legacies.

I can merge their hundreds of years of experience with what Kalla taught me to create my version of necromancy, something stronger than the sum of its parts."–

"Another question: you mentioned small rodents. Why not insects? They are smaller and are more likely to go unnoticed."

"Excellent question!" Professor Zekell didn’t like playing favourites, but seeing genuine curiosity in her field was as rare as flattering.

"For two reasons. The first is that if the body is too small, instead of getting infused by darkness magic it gets destroyed by it. The fine tuning it would require makes such a spell too expensive and leads to reason number two.

Even if one manages to succeed, the stored energy would last only for a very short time, making the creature useless."

Lith still had more questions, but the gong resounded forcing him to stop.

"That’s all for today. Dismissed."

Since they had yet to receive the books for the third trimester, Lith’s group split once outside the classroom. Everyone went back to their rooms waiting for the delivery.

"Mind if I accompany you for a bit?" Yurial asked.

"I want to talk to you about Phloria."

"Don’t tell me that you liked her in secret all this time!" Lith joked about it, hoping to avoid getting schooled about relationships by a single-minded hormonal teenager.

"Gods protect me, no." He laughed.

"She is too tall and definitely too strong-willed for me. I prefer petite, well endowed girls that don’t threaten to turn me inside out like a sock. It’s just that since I never saw you with a girl, I wanted to give you an unsolicited piece of advice."

Lith inwardly cringed, while keeping his poker face and nodding.

"If I were you, I’d return the Ballot to Linjos and let her have it."

Lith was left in a daze. This wasn’t what he had expected from Yurial.

"After the second exam, Phloria is second guessing her life a lot. I know it because I lived under her roof until the academy started again. I don’t know if Rudd will manage to get Lukart expelled, his father is a powerful and well connected man.