Chapter 17

For next bodies, Dezen has to wait 4, or 5 days. He stayed at a flat given specially to him by theChurch of Alen.

He could go and take some assignments during this time, but he already has a lot of money, thus, he doesn't fell any need to earn more, as for now.

Instead, he bought more knowledge and focused on attempts to create soul magic.

Bodies he got were in incredibly good state. Seeing them, Dezen assumed, that they think he needs them like that to examine. To make their lives easier, he told to Derek, who was responsible for delivering them.

- You don't have to bring me bodies in such good state. As long as they are not entirely destroyed, they are enough.

- So necromancy is not tightly limited by states of bodies you are using to create undead?

- No.

Dezen waited, wanting to see if Derek will ask more questions, before he took one step forward, and used Revival.

Green fire fell on the corpses, which absorbed it, before rising.

- Is there something else you want to buy? Knowledge, items, or magical resources? Or maybe normal resources?

- No, but... What would I have to do for Church of Alen to make you built place to teleport near my village?

- Teleport station? Hmm, we already have one, relatively close, but to build it in your village you have to do a lot more assignments. Maybe 6 more creatures, but information about them, and the 4 you will be examining have to be more accurate, what I mean, more, much more than anatomy. Without it, you will have to examine the anatomy of 21 more creatures, but in both cases it will cost some money, I am not sure how much.

- Thank you. Can I leave my money here? Can you store it as a bank?

- Yes. Normally we charge fees, but I will see if I can make it free for you.

- Thank you, Derek.

Luckily for Dezen, Derek managed to make for him storing money free.

After coming back to village he focused on cultivation, creating soul magic, making new spells, and examining living beings. He was also modifying his undead, trying to make them stronger.

He wasn't doing researches and tests with Royal ants or undead, because he lacked ideas for them. Nastecs still needed recovery, so he had to wait. Thus, he had more time for said 5 activities.

Theoretically, he could try to create more enchanted items, but he doesn't need them now, nor he wants it. However, he will surely do this, in the future.

As for now, he plans to start it, after he makes Church of Alen build a teleportation station in his village.

He will be developing in that aspect both by himself and with knowledge he will buy from church. Dezen wants to do this in this way, because he believes that researching something on your own, from nothing, can bring you much more possibilities.

It came from his conviction, that some mages could hide the best parts of some aspects, such as creating enchanted items, from the rest of the world. Besides this, he assumes that during development, when people found one good way to do something, they didn't look for another, thus he might discover something new.

To make it more clearly, let's use comparison - development at some aspects of magic, such as creating enchanted items, is like creating magic at the beginning of humanity. Everyone was trying to create magic, and one of them created a powerful one, one of the peak. Seeing it, other mages want to learn this magic, because it's wonderful. However, Dezen wants to learn this magic, and try to create new ones. He doesn't have to succeed, and results doesn't have to be outstanding. He knows this, but he is still trying.

Examining them took Dezen 2 months. Assuming that Church of Alen wants this knowledge to know how to easier kill these creatures, he specially made test and notes regarding it.

He was doing it one by one, and when he ended with a creature, he began attempts to modify it.

Dezen was also, trying to take one good thing from one creature, and give it to another, similar to the situation when he wanted to give his other undead wolves stronger bites.

Unluckily, these modifications didn't succeed.

On the other hand, the rest of his modifications, these Dezen does by trial and error method, are successful. Now he knows how to make tree's branches stronger, tree itself more durable, wolves more agile and a few more. The best part of them, is that they don't have downsides, such as making undead slower, what was Dezen's purpose from the begging.

His researches and test with cells were successful too. He doesn't know about cell organelles yet, but he knows about other important thing, like that random cells took from body, cannot survive alone, and they change their sizes in water, depending on water itself.

His spells making undead more alive wasn't yet completed. Dezen didn't really pay too much attention to it, because he believed, that Church of Alen won't be too interested in it. However, he managed to create spells, letting him examine himself and other people.

During such examinations, Alex was often helping him, describing something belonging to his brother's body, that Dezen couldn't see, or by being his test subject.

Surprisingly, creating souls magic was incredibly successful. Dezen was close to making the first spell, which will be used for examinations.

He didn't know why it goes so smoothly, but he has assumption, that it is caused by this magic's nature.

Now, he will go to the Aren, to deliver his examinations results.

Before setting out, he wanted to look at undead, and how he changed them.

Undead trees didn't undergo any visible changes, except becoming a little thicker.

Enslavement undead tree became white, and it started growing countless thin new branches, what costed Dezen a lot of mana. It happened independently of him, but he didn't want to stop it. Instead, he gave it more corpses of Royal ants, making that undead stronger.

Surprisingly, Royal ants felt kind of bond with it, and started living on and in it. Dezen let it happen, and even helped with it.

It was the right choice, because he discovered that enslavement abilities of that undead tree are getting stronger with Royal ants in, or on it. However, Dezen doesn't want to lose Royal ants, so he won't be using them in battles, as for now.

Wolves, normal, enslavement, and with changed shapes became bigger, due to adding more muscles.

Dezen wasn't modifying bugs, so they looked the same.

The bear he got was enormous, and his size stayed the same. However, he got rid of his fat tissue and replaced it with muscles.

Suffocating Tree was looking the same, tall tree with many "tentacles", which it uses to strangle. However, it wasn't wrapping them around necks, but forcing into mouths, blocking throat, and then cutting itself with special elements on them. This way, it is harder to regain access to the air. The only visible change was in his roots, he made them thicker. Besides this, now they're stronger, faster, and a little more durable.

Wendigo underwent the biggest changes, from the 4 corpses he was given by Church of Alen. Then, it was looking it was starving, now it's high on over 2 metres creature, with muscles like he was working out for years. Unluckily, his antlers weren't changed yet, so they didn't fit to the rest of his body.

Giant crab was probably the most precious of these 4. It is around 0.6 metres high, around 1.1 metre long, and 1.4 metres wide. His carapace was red and convex, due to Dezen's modifications. The reason why he was so important is that Dezen couldn't just add more muscles, to make it stronger. Thus, he had to find a way to improve them. This alone was hard, but combined with their complicated arrangement in crabs bodies, the task became incredibly hard. Therefore, he has gained more and new experience, making his modification abilities visibly better.

*

To travel, Dezen specially focused on speed, during modification of one of the undead wolves. Thanks to it, his travel was shorted to 3 days.

As before, he went to the church salesman, with him, he could go to Derek, since Dezen alone would be stopped by guards and defence system.

Dezen sat at a big and comfortable armchair, and handed Derek results of examinations. He then said.

- Besides descriptions, I wrote about my discovery, from what our bodies are made.

- You discovered cells?

- Cells? You mean that small, too small to see with naked eye things, with many shapes, which live in enormous groups or alone?

- Yes, we call them cells. You discovered them with necromancy?

- Yes... I made a spell belonging to necromancy, which lets me see them.

- Interesting. Does necromancy, or rather, did you manage to create a spell from necromancy, letting people do further researches.

- Yes. I did.

- Tell me, are you interested in selling this magic?

-No. Not yet, at least.

- Not yet?

- I would like to sell it for a high price, really high, like magic for magic, but it is not worth the one I want right now. I know you can create necromancy by yourself, but it will take time, and I will be almost a year ahead of you, so it is still better to buy it from me.

- But we have many talented and powerful mages, resources you can't even imagine, and incomparable to yours knowledge.

Dezen wants silent for a few seconds, before he replied.

- So why do you want to buy necromancy from me?

Derek laughed lightly.

- You are right. What magic do you want? Space magic?

- Yes. I understand that there will be some limits, could you tell me about them?

- You can create space magic by yourself, but it normally takes years. To teach you this, you have to give us necromancy, knowledge about it, you possess, examine more creatures, what won't be counted to creating teleportation station at your village. Their number depends on efficiency of your examinations. And the most important, you have some way or idea to get rid of that flaw? Or weaken it?

- No. But I believe examining souls will help with it. However, I cannot do this now.

- Okay. Never mind. If you want knowledge about space magic we have, you will have to give us more. For instance, taking our assignments, such as these with examining creatures, or killing criminals. It will count only to buying knowledge, but you will be paid. What I mean is that you will receive payment, but if there is something more, like creating a teleportation station, it will be counted only to it. The same task won't be payment for both building a teleportation station and receiving more knowledge. It will be payment for only one. You understand?

- I think I do.

- I will give you some time to absorb the information.

Derek waited a few minutes, during which he started reading results of examinations made by Dezen.

- I assume I gave you enough time. I will add that if you discover something new, or your examinations will be deeper, it can be counted to goals such as obtaining more knowledge about space magic. Thus, the better your researches are, the more we will pay you.

Now I have to read these results and price them to give you an adequate offer. It will take a few hours. Also, you can check how much money you already earned. Zan, our salesman, is responsible for this.

Dezen nodded and said.

- Goodbye.