40 Death
"Char! what is this? Why do you need so many bones? Are you trying to move a graveyard to our academy?" Anne asked him in disbelief.
"This is for my skeleton's evolution. Anyway, help me with that pile over there. We need to arrange this before midnight!" he told the girl.
"You told me it's going to be an easy job helping you! Why do I need to carry mountains of bones?" she complained.
"What mountain? This is barely enough! If I have more money, then I would have bought more bones!" he remarked.
"Come on, Anne. We will make a team and it's better for our team if my skeleton can evolve into something strong!" he tried to convince her.
"What are you trying to make anyway with all of these bones?" she asked.
"I'm making a throne and altar made of bones! If my bet is correct, then I should have got some kind of royal skeleton! And what is stronger than the king of skeletons?" he explained.
"And based on what did you make this? Is there any book or reference that you used on this idea of yours?" She asked in doubt.
"Err... there is no reference since I'm trying to make a new path! There is no use following all of those records as no one ever finds what I need! I will make my own path!" he declared.
That gave the girl a headache. She nursed her aching head as her imp was busy helping Char build a throne out of bones.
"You know about the legend about the goblin that becomes a goblin king, right? It had a hundred goblins doing some kind of ritual on its evolution! There might be a chance that skeleton can do the same!" He explained.
"That's a legend, Char! And those goblins were alive and have ritual things which I believe you don't have! It's better that you try to make a skeleton mage, so it can evolve to be a lesser lich someday! I believe with your luck you can find a way to evolve it once more and overcome the bottleneck no one ever surpasses!" she tried to smack some sense to him.
"No one ever succeeds because no one ever tries!" he argued.
"What makes you think no one ever tries what you do today? Others out there must have tried this!" she reasoned.
"They might have tried it, but I bet they try it on the second or their evolution! What if you can only go to this path on the first evolution?" he insisted.
"You are delusional, Char! This all is a gamble! What makes you believe you are better than everyone else?! Can't you just try something guaranteed?!" she lost her temper.
"Yes, this is a gamble! So what? At worst, I will end up with a skeleton warrior! And if I don't gamble anything, then I will also get a skeleton warrior! Do you see? I got nothing to lose!" he lost his temper too.
They finished the rest of the work in silence, Anne felt like she should apologize but her pride did not allow her to so she just stayed silent.
After she finished helping him build his so-called altar and throne, she left the room in silence, leaving Char alone, waiting for the night to come.
"Am I wrong? Is this desperation instead of innovation?" doubt haunted him.
"No! Innovation comes from desperation, innovation comes from needs! What kind of genius am I if I fear innovation?" he thought in conviction.
"Ritual! In legend, they have rituals! Since I don't know any ritual, I will just make my own ritual!"
Char ran out of the building and brought back candles. He arranged them around the altar and channeled some of his mana into them.
Although the mana despite the moment it left his body, he believed the thought was the important part, not the result.
He pulled out his sword and started to draw runes on the bone altar and throne. It becomes more and more like a dark ritual than evolution preparation.
Midnight passed, but Char did not start his ritual yet. It was then that the moon started to dim and turned blood red.
"Total lunar eclipse! The calendar is correct!" he grinned as he had read about the rare event in the library, and coincidentally it just happens to be that day.
The moment the lunar eclipse started, Char lit up the candles and let the skeleton sit on the altar. He did not give it mana crystals as the skeleton could just absorb the mana from the surrounding.
He instructed it to activate the mana absorption magic; it was slow at first because he wanted it to reach the maximum saturation at the peak of the lunar eclipse.
Char pulled out his black sword and cut his left palm. Blood started to flow out, but he did not heal it just yet.
He positioned his palm on top of the skeleton's head and let the blood drip; it dyed the skeleton red in his blood.
The surrounding mana started to be sucked to the skeleton, like a vortex, the candle flickering from the turbulence.
The room turned red from the blood moon and at the peak of the lunar eclipse; the candles died out.
Blood seeped into the skeleton's and its white bone started to crack, Char could not see it because he was behind the skeleton, but red glows appeared on the skeleton's eye sockets.
Mana seeped out of the crack and enveloped the skeleton, creating a small shock wave.
The moment Char recovered from the shock, he found the skeleton was enveloped in an astral body.
He commanded it to turn at him and he saw the glowing red orbs in its eye sockets, staring at him without blinking.
"Apparition? How can this be possible? Apparition is supposed to be spirits in nature! It should not have a physical body! How can a skeleton have an astral body?" he looked in amazement.
The skeleton apparition had both a physical body and an astral body, Char did not know what to make of it because it was the first time he even knew about a creature that was both an undead and a spirit at the same time!
