Mage of Ragnarok

Daniel Black Series

Black 01

By BigTofu

The floor didn't really greet me, it was more like I greeted it after a burst of multicolored light. My arms pushed out, but the world froze for a pico-second, or it should have felt like a pico-second. Everything grayed out and lost its color as information flooded my mind. It was as if a hot liquid was poured into me as the memories of Daniel Black combined with my own. Dates, faces, and events all flashed within my mind.

That would have been fine, but it all took a turn as power, unlike anything I knew before, filtered to the fore. Magic and more magic sparked from my fingertips and I loved every second of it. Ohh, how I loved every moment of it; and eventually the bubbling magic underneath my skin settled down.

One second things were grayscale and the next the color returned and my hands finished meeting the floor. This allowed me to not smash my face into the wooden basement floors. I knew this was the basement because a name came with the memories and it was the name of a character I read about so many months ago, Daniel Black, and now, I was him.

The Daniel Black story was a nice little series that I came across while browsing Amazon one late night. All of this flowed out of my mind as the color returned along with the memories settling into place. Sound came to my ears along with me being able to push myself up from the ground.

"Thank you Lady Hecate," a female voice spoke excitedly. I turned and found what was clearly a murder witch staring at me with stars in her eyes. "I hope you're ready for a fight, Champion. I don't think Avilla can hold off the goblins much longer, let alone the troll."

Well shit….. I wanted to say no, but the adrenaline was kicking and my fight or flight options were only set to fight. I knew enough about the setting but I also knew that canon was tossed right out the window when I showed up instead of Daniel. That, along with the fact I didn't have fire magic. I had sorcery magic which was funny in a way as it gave me the knowledge to put all the parts of magic together without being taught it. Combine that with Daniel's original mana magic and it was absolutely busted on so many levels. 

"Lead the way," I stated in an even timber as my hands glowed with arcane telekinesis. Earth sorcery was summoned to my fingertips on one hand along with force magic on the other. Earthen spears formed in one hand while cones of concussive force formed in the other.

If I remember correctly from the story, her name was Cerise and she was the last worshiper of Lady Hecate along with her girlfriend, the house witch, hearth witch I think. Basically with super house magic that makes her a super housewife along with other things.

Cerise rapidly dashed up the stairs and I followed close behind while getting used to this new body. I was not pleased with it. I didn't really care about the race change but what did piss me off was the damn height and weight change. I went from 6'5 to 5'9 and my decently muscled frame was now that of a dad bod attached to an office worker. Yeah, I was gonna have to fix a lot of things with biomancy when I got a chance.

When we got to the top of the stairs, Cerise went right and I went left. Before I could throw out my magic, I noticed the gingerbread men fighting and I had to shove down the loot goblin that was surprisingly hiding inside of my soul. I swept a hand out blasting a few goblins off their feet then followed that up with the earth spikes from my other hand.

"RRRRAAAAGGGGHHHH!!!" The Troll roared and I gotta say that's a big beefy boy.

I gave it no chance as I aimed directly for the knees while the gingerbread men were attacking the body and its legs. Using a combination of earth spikes and force blades, I ripped one of the troll's legs off while blasting it back out of the hole it had made.

Walking towards the hole in the wall, I had to duck low as a stone arrow came flying through the opening. Taking a peak, I could see the troll outside thrashing around, but what drew my attention was that its leg was already healing, damn. I then counted four magic-type goblins, six more archers, and a bunch of little warrior types all ready to rumble.

Shifting my aim, I flicked an earth magic spell towards the ground, this caused the ground to ripple a bit before spikes flew out. Three thunks next to my location were all the warnings I needed to find out that my ass was in the wind a little too much. Pulling back behind cover, I tried to crawl to another spot, only to get reminded that I was naked as the day I was born.

That wasn't good, no, that wasn't good at all.

Well, since going commando on these goblins was all out, then an all out assault would have to do. Loading my left hand with earth magic, and my right with concussive force, I dashed around the wall that was protecting me and stepping out and into the cold. I did a hard rising motion with my left and pulled an earthen slab up to create protection. Then reached out from behind the wall with my other hand and blasted the arrows aimed at me. The goblins scrambled out of the way but I wasn't paying them any attention. No, my attention was on the big one.

The troll had recovered enough to have figured out its bearings with the help of a shaman since I had killed the magic users. Grabbing the side of the earth wall, I ripped it off and threw It at the troll. It nailed the troll in the head but I was actually going for the shaman. That was fine, though since I was loading earth magic within both hands. With a hard yank towards myself, the earth underneath us both turned to swampy mush, I kept walking though on hard patches of earth because, well, magic.

With a hard push, I leaped up high off a flat earth spike, I went up and over the troll as hardened force magic swirled between my hands and the only sign was the snow spinning around. When I landed, I landed on the chest of the troll then focused and blasted all of my fathered magic into its neck. The head didn't even go pop, it just went flying far out into the forest.

The goblin shaman jumped back in fright as I went for him next because fuck that little bastard. My hand lashed out in a rain of force blades, then with a wild look in my eyes. I turned towards the other goblins who then shook in terror, I loaded earth magic around my body before I jumped off the chest of the troll. When I landed, I sent out the earth magic in a wave that coiled the land with spikes and cresting peaks.

I didn't even get a chance to pat myself on the back for a job well done before Cerise appeared at my side with a cloak. The cold wind blew and I shriveled right up.

"Come on, my Ladies' Champion, Avila might have some pants for you." Cerise stated with mirth in her voice.

"Yeah, sure, lead the way," I said before the cold started to set in. It was really biting at all of my bits. When we got back to the little cabin, a smoking hot hearth witch was holding up a coat for me, her bodacious bosom very much on clear display with that plunging neckline of hers. I didn't sigh or show signs that she had already got me with one of her little magics.

Instead, I took the large pants and threw it over my shoulders, then I did a half turn towards the murder witch, "Mind introducing us, Cerise."

"Ohh, Daniel, this is my honey bun, Avila." Cerise stated with a smile on her lips while going over to hug the other witch. "Avila, this is my Lady's Champion, Daniel of the Blacks."

Avila did a little curtsy, "Well met Lord Daniel of the Blacks."

At first, I wanted to correct her, but thought better of it, the title would go a long way to open doors for me and instantly put me in places of power among certain groups. That was one thing that Daniel didn't understand from the books. There were times when in Rome you did as the Romans do, or better yet you faked it until you made it. Plus, it wasn't like he didn't become a Lord in his own rights by the end of book four.

With my pants on, I took a look around and took in the place, it was a nice old cabin with a very rich homie feel to the place. There was even sage hanging from the ceiling and I could even smell a little lavender in the air.

Turning, I gave her my full attention. I wanted to ask about her wounds, but I had to not only take care of myself first but also create Daniel's iconic mana tap. The nearly unlimited mana would do great for all the things that were now revolving inside of my head.

"The deal I have made with Lady Hecate also extends to you Avila, so don't stand too much on ceremony while we are in private." I returned with a nod of the head, then shivered a bit as the cold air came in through the hole in the wall.

Avila went down in that little bow and curtsy thing people did back in the day. "Thank you, Lord Black."

My hand went up to wave her away, but I stopped as I noticed the little gingerbread man walking around and helping to clean up some of the mess. "Is that little golem yours?" I asked with interest in my voice.

Avila looked at me and smiled, "Yes, mi'lord, they can't do much but they can take simple commands and follow orders enough."

Bringing a hand to my chin, I gave it a rub as a crazy idea went off in my head. "huh… Do you mind if I examine it?"

If this was able to give me what I think it could, I would have a far more stable foot on this world's magic along with some very important implications.

"Of course, Daniel," Avila replied before doing something with her magic that sent another five of the little things over to me. "And I'll be right back with a pair of boots and shirt."

"Thank you," I replied with a little smile before I took a position near the hole in the wall. Then with a flick of a finger, one of the little ginger-bread men levitated upwards and before me so I could start my examination.

Before all this, I was by no means even close to being called a genius and neither was Daniel, but what he had was gaming knowledge in spades while I had my common sense and the abilities to connect the dots. Mana-meta magic was breaking it all down rapidly for me while Sorcery magic allowed me to absorb it all quickly. I could say that I didn't know any magic even though I was brute forcing everything before. Now though after a little examination of the gingerbread, I could say that I knew magic, that and the fact the sorcery magic latched onto a lot of my thoughts and ideas with ways to accomplish them in a structured way that was, actually, magical in nature.

I took it all in, from the way the gingerbreads were animated, its abilities to perform orders and even its abilities to coordinate with other gingerbread men. Then before I finished my examination of the little golem, I stumbled across the golden egg. The little things had the abilities to retain orders in a style while they go dormant with activities.

There was more than enough inspiration here for me to start and get to work. I was an out of weight man in his early thirties with a lifestyle that had me at a desk for the last few years. No way Daniel's body which was mine now going to get anywhere quickly. I was here and couldn't go around relying on plot armor to make it to certain places and I wasn't gonna risk an arrow to the back getting through this forest.

Bringing my hands together in a clap, I took a moment to look around until I found something worth a bit of my time. Off to the side of the house and just outside, there was an old style cart covered in snow. It was perfect for my plans, so with a bit of magic I brought it to the hole in the wall.

"My Lord, Daniel, I have a shirt and a pair of boots that should fit." Came the soft caress of Avila's voice.

Stopping what I was doing, I turned towards her with a raised brow and a little smile on my features. After a quick little change because of course the hearth witch would get all my sizes correct, I went out into the snow. It was time to build us a little getaway vehicle.

It wasn't much but my plan was to create an advanced cart with a quartz crystal working as its brain. The animation spell used on the ginger bread was far more useful than people realized. How simple things could be taken for granted was going to work wonders for me

Bending down, I placed a hand through the snow, onto the ground and let the earth magic flow through me. Quickly minerals shifted underneath my hand as it gathered and compressed into a crystal the same size as the first generation iphone. With the quartz on hand, I started to layer on the enchantments as I strolled over to the corpse of the long dead troll.

With a sniff, I gave the body a swift kick to get it onto its stomach. It already had a lot of the musculature, bones and all sorts of things I was looking for so there was no point in starting from scratch. When I placed my hand on its upper back, I nearly gagged from the rush of Information my biomancy was feeding me. biomancy was far too eager and I had to keep myself from throwing up a few times as my mind was bombarded with information. Taking a moment or two to center myself, I pushed forward my magic to quickly repair the troll's mangled body.

Then, I went about boosting the heart to get it to beat and circulate the flow of blood, the big issue that wasn't really an issue was that the troll had been down long enough for it to be brain dead which is crazy since it had no head. Biomancy helped me grow a whole new noggin, but I wanted a lot more control over it.

So I carved out a section of its back over the spine right underneath the neck. I placed the chunk of enchanted quartz there before forcing it to grow and embed little tendrils around, and through the spine as it jacked into the monster's body.

The other issue I discovered was that I only had limited control over the troll golem with limited commands. I didn't have any meaningful way to control my new minion but I think I had more than enough knowledge on how to link the controls to something. I solved that by picking up a branch, using fresh crafter to not only trim it but turn it into a simple braided bracelet. Crafting another crystal core, I placed it into the braided chain of the bracelet before linking it to the command core stuck in the troll's back.

Instantly things became a lot clearer as I took control of the monster.

After taking a few steps back, I had the beast grab one of the broken tree trunks and move it over to the side and into the road before commanding it to go back and grab two more. These weren't ordinary small tree trunks, no these things were massive things that a man could barely put his arms around and even if he did. He still couldn't get his fingers to touch in the middle. 

For the first of the three trunks, I grabbed it with a telekinetic force magic and then molded it into armor around the troll with my flesh crafting magic. The tree bent to my will and magic as if it was clay while wrapping the feet of the troll into massive stomper boots with spike tips for traction.

Pauldrons, thigh coverings, and even the chest plate were all made out of hardened magical wood. Then I topped off the head with a minotaur-styled helm with massively curved horns. Leaving the massive minion to stand guard, I went about gutting another one of the tree trunks and turned it into a sleigh. Standing back, I grimaced at the ugly thing and cringed at the idea of the open design. The current sleigh was about the size of a modern SUV but without any of the features. It was missing a roof and the doors were barely even there.

Luckily, I had one more tree trunk that could cover the parts I needed, like space for the stuff the girls were taking outside of the little cabin. This time, when I gutted the tree trunk, I used the outer casing as a trailer as I smoothed out the underside and extended out struts for snow skis. A hood was added to the sled before I reached into the ground and pulled up more sheets of quartz to work as a glass. While the troll minion was helping me sort out the sled, Avila and Cerise came out of the house and were both standing to the side.

"Lord Black?" Avila called out while Cerise was still working on the gear that they had gathered.

Turning towards them, I raised an eyebrow, "Yes?"

"Is that necromancy?" Avila asked as she looked from the massive troll to the sled that was closer to a bus than anything else.

For a moment, I stopped what I was doing as I gave her my full attention, while also noticing the stiff posture. Then I thought about what I actually had done, even if it wasn't raising the dead, it was damn close. Along with the fact that I wasn't even nearly as squeamish as I should have been, or as the original Daniel had been when he first arrived in this world. 

Huh, that was interesting, other than gaining a new body, I had just been me, compartmentalizing things as survival or death. And I'll be honest here, I refused to fucking die by not using all the tools in my toolkit. 

"No, Avila, it's not necromancy, it's a combination of magics, but not playing with souls or anything like that," I replied with a shrug, then motioning towards the back of the cart. "Load up all that you can, we will be leaving soon.

Cerise gave the massive troll a look. "So since it's not necromancy, what are you doing with it then?"

I shrugged, "Pack mule to pull the sled, but I'm also thinking of a species change into what my people call an Orc."

"Huh, and what type of magic is that?" Cerise asked with a tilt of the head.

"It's a combination of biomantic, and meta magic," I stated while doing some finishing touches. I had even woven some thick and powerful cordage of vines to tie us to the massive troll.

"I've never heard of any of those Daniel," Cerise stated a little breathily. And I had to do a lot to ignore that moan and what it did for her chest.

My mana supply was running really low and channeling all that magic was starting to give me a migraine. Deciding to finish things up, I tossed a quick quartz lever that could slide up and down for the windows while also placing one of the dashes as a control point. With a clap, I dusted my hands and opened one of the side doors, it was time to get this show on the road.

When I had finished, I gathered the girls and had them board the large sleigh as I also got onto our little transport. The control crystal on my wrist glowed with power as I commanded the troll to start off at a walk, before picking up pace and getting into a jog. 

"Lord Black, are you okay?" Avilla questioned as she noticed how out of it I was. 

This body was nothing like my own, not by a mile and it was really coming back to bite me in the ass in how rushed I had to be to get us on the road. I knew that at the end of this path was a clearing with knights and we had to get moving a lot sooner than later. That was good and all, but it was also clear that this was the body of a man within the middle of his life and clearly didn't exercise or even knew what that word meant. The upside was at least he wasnt a smother or morbidly obese because I would have been fucked if it was either. 

After gathering my breath, I pulled off the control bracelet for the golem and gave it to Cerise, "I'm alright, just a little winded from all the magic use." Then I motioned for Cerise to take the bracelet. "This is the control for the golem Cerise, just keep us on the path." I then motioned towards the other quartz crystal built into the dash. "That one is to control the carriage that we are in."

The girls shared a look, and Avilla did a little head bow, "Thank you, Lord Black."

"Daniel."

"Huh," Avilla asked with my response. 

"Call me Daniel, no need for titles." I replied as fatigue hit me once more. 

Avilla cocked her head to one side, then shot me a smile. "Alright, Daniel," I could feel the magic tingle at the edge of my senses as the top button to her shirt suddenly started to strain before popping and giving me a very nice view of supple peaks. 

Instead of saying anything at her little temptation, I shot her a smirk before leaning back into my seat. The carriage barely shook as the springs I had included into the support base compensated for the motion. Placing one hand on the seat next to me, I closed my eyes as I focused the biomancy into the wood. The wood of the seat grew out with a little push from my magic before molding itself to my hand like clay. 

Crossing one leg over the other, I paid no attention to the shifting of the bodies around me as the girls watched me work my magic. Taking the wood in hand, I split it into two halves, the first was molded into the model of Ceasar's civic crown. I even took the time to let little leaves grow on its surface. In the back portion of the crown, I crafted a space for a lead coin insert before covering that over with more wood. 

The lead coin took a bit of work, but I already knew what to do along with having actual sorcery magic at my fingertips. It was a lot of work, but I was more than able to capture the energy produced by molecular decay. My hands worked furiously to get the energy conversion magic sorted and when I did, it was like lightning had struck me. 

My eyes shot open wide, the reaction was as if multiple espresso shots had finally made it into my system. I blinked, flexed my jaws, and stretched out as my limbs flexed and my back popped. Using my newfound clarity, I wove myself a braided necklace made of vines with a lead core wrapped in jade. My unlimited mana tap was copied onto that before pulling back the power output of my new Cesar crown. 

The trouble started when I went to craft myself a gauntlet and a pair of rings. It was the cold air that drew my attention from what I was working on to know that something was wrong. My eyes widened as I heard two thunks and looked up to notice that the golem is pockmarked with arrows. 

Cerise had the golem bullying its way through the forest, knocking down trees and anything that dared to get in its way. Cerise was slinging some type of shadow magic around, but I was more worried about the arrow that was sticking out of Avilla's chest, it was a fucking mess. She wasn't even bleeding ordinary blood, no, it was some sort of golden thing that smelled like sugar, spice, and everything nice. 

Thinking fast, I took the bit of wooden mass in hand, created a quick gauntlet out of it, then generated a tube into the palm of my hand. I had plenty of magical options, but not alot of magic to use on assailants at a distance. So instead of going for broke, I went for what I not only had on hand but also knew how to use. 

So with the tube in hand, I used my now unlimited magic to create a sphere of wood, that I then pumped full of magic. The seat underneath me raised upwards even as I created a hole in the roof of the carriage. As I popped out the top, I got an even more mad idea as I pressed a hand onto the roof, crafting a stabilizer for my tube which quickly turned into a cannon. Handles grew out from its sides even as I shoved the wooden sphere into the back and sealed it shut. 

Magic pooled into the cannon before shooting outwards, with force magic being the amplifier. The wooden sphere launched out with such force that I couldn't even track it, but it was easy to tell its effect. The sphere connected with a tree next to one of the goblin shamans and exploded on contact. Wooden shrapnel flew everywhere. 

"HA! Take that, you little bastards!" Cerise yelled with joy.

With a shake of my head, I loaded up another shot, and charged it. Then with a mighty thwump, blasted apart another section of forest. 

Thwump! 

Thwump!

Thwump!

They came and died like the little bastards they were as I introduced this world to my country's version of warfare: fuck everything in that general direction.

I almost screamed as a shaman was able to get a spell off. The branches that hung overhead came down with whipping force. Letting go of the cannon, I dropped down into the carriage as the tree overhead destroyed my mounted weapon. None of that though stopped the golem from bursting through the edge of the forest as it carried us into the clearing.

My blood was pumping in my veins even as Cerise had The golem bring us to a full stop. Getting out of the carriage, I felt the welts on the side of my face and when I brought my hands up and then took a look. Blood was all over my hands, and the side of my head stung from the pain. With my mind made up, I grew the vines that wrapped around my arm into a staff, then jammed it into the ground.

A pulse of magic shot down the staff, into the ground, and traveled across the distance before sharpened thorns exploded out of the ground. The goblins, the kobolds, and the magical shamans were all ripped to shreds before I felt satisfied enough to turn away and pay attention to the others in the clearing and what was happening with a ready stance.

I found a troop of knights standing a ways back all alert, my carriage with multiple arrows sticking out all over its surface, and my giant ten-foot-tall troll golem standing to the side with more arrows sticking out of it. With a grunt, I pulled my staff out of the ground, and gave it a hard shake before then using biomancy to wrap it around my chest. 

Since I didn't have time to get a mirror or even look to see if there was one in all the stuff we brought, I just placed a hand on the side of my head and focused my magic to scan and fix all the things wrong with my body. Seems like the scan was a little too much because I almost tripped up from the amount of information being fed back to me. Stopping, I took a moment to pull off the crown of Cesar, then placed my thoughts in order. 

My meta magic and sorcery perks leaped to do my bidding as I placed a buffer enchantment on the front four leaves of the crown. The inspiration for this was Ravenclaw's diadem, but since I didn't have the time to sit down and work out all the enchantments. Quick and dirty was all I had for now, so with a little bit of work, the enchantment would handle the flow of information instead of allowing it to overload my mind. 

Later, I would need to sort out some type of enhanced neural plasticity, parallel thinking, and many more enchantments that would help me in a situation like this. With the enchantment set, I placed caesar's crown back upon my head and tried once more. This time when the flood of information struck me, I was not only able to slow it all down, but I could isolate what I was looking for a lot easier.

The lacerations along the side of my head rolled through my mind as biomancy fed me the ways to not only repair, heal, but also improve myself. Letting it all flow through me, I fixed up the side of my head within moments while I met the girls by the carriage. 

"Hey, Cerise, were you hit?" I asked as I looked her over. 

Cerise had a small frown on her face, but she shook her head anyway, "No, but honeydew was hit."

I blinked once, then twice as that little memory came back to the surface. Then when I turned to look at Avilla, I noticed that she was a bit shy about the entire situation. With a full body shake, I dismissed the previous situation as I made my way over to the carriage and took a seat on the second bench, and patted the area next to my location. "Avilla come here so I can heal you and get that arrow out, Cerise. Get us over to those knights, we might as well see what their deal is."

"Okay, Daniel, you take care of honeydew, and I'll drive the carriage," Cerise stated with a minor frown on her face. I noticed that her gaze had shifted to Avilla, but I was already working my magic on her. The only thing I could say about Avilla's biology was, WOW.

Mana magic was revealing everything that made her body while sorcery was allowing me to understand it all. Avilla was very much made of sugar, spice, and everything nice, but the granny that had made her had also included a little bit extra. Avilla had some sort of small spark from divinity that just wanted to bundle me up and have me breed her till the end of days. The other sense of magic I was getting from her was also weird in a way. It wasn't tickling my barbarian senses to capture, conquer, and rut like a bull. No, this was tickling my over-protective senses. 

I had to shake them both off to focus on what was before me. When I refocused myself, I almost fell into the valley that Avilla called a cleavage, it was magnificent. Well, it was, but not in the sense of flesh, no, what had me nearly salivating wasn't the caramel nipples that crinkled under my warm hands. No, what had me in a tizzy was the fact that she could store monstrous amounts of magic within her mammaries. Her tattas were a wondrous marvel that also doubled as a magical reserve tank and I couldn't help myself. 

With my eyes closed, I kept one hand on Avilla while I turned the other upwards, the vines that were wrapped around my arm shifted as wood grew out of its sides. Slowly a gauntlet made out of wood formed around my hand, but that wasn't the important bit. No, that was what was happening inside of the little pockets. In a replication of one to one, I was building a mana battery replicated off of Avilla's biology and how she was able to store such astronomical amounts of magic. 

A moan drew my attention back to the moment as I noticed her skin getting a little flushed to match the blush on her cheeks. Then, I noticed that I had not only healed her, but also been feeding her magic this entire time.

"Ohh honeydew, you're such a mana slut, let the poor wizard go, we need him to meet with the captain of this mercenary troop." Cerise called out a little after Avilla let rip a toe curling moan. 

With a shake of my head, I descended the carriage to see who could only be the leader of the mercenary group. Leaving the girls in the carriage to my back, I walked a little distance to the group of men at arms. Reaching up, I pulled the vine from my chest, flexed some magic through it before tapping the butt on the ground, "Who is in charge here?"

The mercenaries shared a look between them before a large figure pushed his way out of the group and offered a hand to shake, "Marcus Rain, Captain of the 5th Margold Foot."

I shot the man a smile and clasped hands with him in a shake, "Well, met Captain Rain, Daniel Black Wandering Arch-Mage."

One of the Captain's eyebrows went up in surprise, "Are you heading towards the Kozalin to join the conclave?"

After taking a moment to think about it, I shook my head. "Not at the moment, no, but I'm not above trading knowledge with them." I then took a step to his side and looked at a few of the injured soldiers holding their limbs. "Now, it's known that numbers are better for survival than anything, and I'm a good enough of a healer to pay my way."

The Captain shook his head, "I couldn't ask that of you, sir wizard."

I shook my head at him, "You were hired by the Baron right?"

"Aye sir, we are heading back right now to the town of the Baron," Captain Rain answered with a nod of the head. 

"Good, then we can travel together until and I can then take the river down to Kozalin." I spoke with a smile, then made a hand motion. "I'll set up a healing station here while you circle the carts."

The Captain took that as marching orders and went about delegating people to form a line, while also moving the carts around. I also noticed him sending off a few to stand guard and keep a lookout. Shifting my focus, I grew the vine wrap from around my hand into a ball, before having it extend outwards into a couple of beds, no more than five at a time. I then gave the beds a slight curve and shifted them into a more leaned-back seated position.

With two indents into the structured healing pods, I then conjured a lead rod before throwing a quick and dirty mana tap enchantment on it. The second rod was a thick block of wood which had a basic healing spell. Once I was happy with both, I placed them on the beds within inserts. After creating a vine to snake back and wrap around my hand so I could control it, because just pushing out unlimited healing just might lead to cancers. I gave the first soldier the go-ahead but they were all standing off a little worried. 

Getting annoyed, I had some vines grow out like a grass Pokemons vine whip, grabbed the five, and put them forcibly into the healing seats. After a few seconds of squawking, they stopped as they noticed how much better they started to feel. When the others noticed this, they all calmed down but had excited looks on their faces. While I left them to get themselves healed, I only periodically looked up to fix a bone or two. 

What really had my attention was the Caesar's crown on my head along with the staff in my hand. Now that I had the time to take a look, I could honestly say that the enchantments were shit. I know it was a quick and dirty slapdash attempt and it did what I wanted but now that I had the time to look at it all properly. I could see the crazy flaws and tell how easily it was to break from any hard contact. 

After erasing the enchantments on the crown, I applied a forcefield enchantment around it to protect my head. Then tied in a mental clarity and visual assist enchantments, biomancy was really showing its capability when it gave me an acoustic control enchantment. The real kicker was the neural enhancers that improved upon the signals fired within the brain. It allowed both parallel processing and increased levels of neural plasticity. 

When I placed the thing back onto my head, it was like I had a brain floss and received my glasses for the first time in my life. I breathed deeply as the minor healing corrected a few issues my body had but I still had to put my own personal upgrades off till later. What needed to happen next was to fix myself a proper wizard staff and amulet. 

Ignoring the staff for the next bit, I conjured some gold with my earth magics with a nice thick lead core. The outer casing that was made of gold turned into an upside-down pyramid as I carved a puzzle into the outer surface. I had to stop half-way to fix a limb, but it didn't take me too long before I had my own version of the millennium puzzle. The core received a refined version of my unlimited mana tap for starters. Then I installed a big healing enchantment coupled with a few of the blocks working as mana batteries and capacitors. It wasn't just about unlimited healing, it was about being able to move alot of magic all at once and I wanted to be a big enough powerhouse that it scared others just to think about fucking with me. 

It wasn't if push came to shove, it was if I was bored enough or not because I had enough magical output to bust a city or two with just a snap of my fingers. There would be no chanting, no long wind-up up, and no grand show. Just a snap of my fingers and enough magic to fill an Olympic-sized pool moved at my whims. 

Anyway, once the healing enchantment, batteries enchantment along with a variable toggle including an on and off switch plus a self-repair. I went ahead and tied the puzzle to my very magic so it couldn't be separated from me. It was time to work on my staff, I started with a giant diamond cut like a cylinder with floating diamonds around it in a protective formation. I then grew the staff in a half circle around the core and shaped it like a dragon's maw. My earth magic flexed as a textured steel core traveled down the center of the wood. 

Happy with that, I then had the smart idea to create a little gold pinkie ring with basic telekinetic enchantment on it. My finger twitched and I watched as a twig zoomed by at speed. The smile that spread across my face was the joy of a small child.

"Are you finished, Lord Black? I brought your meal," Cerise questioned from the side. I didn't flinch; flinching would mean that I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings. 

Nope, didn't flinch at all.

Blinking, I looked at her with a smile but it was the slow darkness that drew my attention. Turns out, I was at this far longer than I should have been. In the distance, I could already see the sun close to setting past the horizon.

With that thought in mind, I stood and stretched before taking the bowl of stew from Cerise. "Come, I need to set up our camp before it gets dark."

Cerise shot me a sly smile, "That's alright. Avilla and I have already set camp."

Pausing at that, I shot her a look with a raised brow, "Really?"

"Come now Lord Black, even two young fair maidens can set up camp." Cerise stated even as she skipped ahead of me and towards where the carriage was stationed. 

And I shouldn't have been surprised because it had a nice tent over the top, but you can still tell that it was wholly a cart and coverall. Shaking my head at it, I finally had some of the stew and nearly creamed my pants. Her food was damn near divine, I was never going to give that girl up.

It was a cute attempt, but the little camp tent wasn't even close to my standards. What did surprise me about things was that Avilla was to the side talking with a group of women. Turning with a spoon in my mouth to shoot Cerise a look, I raised a brow.

"They think Avilla is the god of house care." Cerise stated with a smile on her lips. By that time we had gotten close enough for Avilla to hear both Cerise and I.

"OHH Lord Black, I found some women willing to be maids," Avilla replied sweetly with a smile.

Returning the smile, I gave her a nod before going back to complete bowl of divine stew. Leaving her to organize the maids, I walked around the little tent that she sent up with the use of the carriage then shook my head at the entire thing. It was a solid attempt by them so I wasn't going to say anything, but I was going to make a lot of improvements. It didn't take long for me to finish the meal so I could get to work. 

One of the first things I did was tap the carriage with my staff then project my magic outwards. The wood within the carriage responded to my biomancy magic as it grew out as magic was fed into its structure. As the wood grew outwards, I went for a ten by fifteen-foot area, then went downwards. Earth vanished as the carriage was lowered into the ground. A sloped roof was added to keep the snowfall out, and a set of stairs was set before the door with a L turn. Ignoring the commotion around me, I stepped onto the roof of the quickly made underground cabin while also using a plank of wood thicker than my chest to lower myself down into the dark. 

Since this was only going to be a temporary shelter, I only had things lowered to about twelve feet underground, I was using the two sleigh rails as a bracing station since I had logs shooting off at all four corners of the building into the surrounding ground. The far left got a small fireplace. I placed a hot griddle station before it, with a chimney going out the back. After walking the space, I took a five by ten section and turned that into a bedroom for some privacy. I would need that for the conversation that I would need to have with the girls soon. 

The deal with Hecate was to protect Cerise for a year and a day, or until she gained a second follower, Avilla was just a bonus. Yet, I didn't have any of those conversations when this all started, I was too much on the go. Then again, our lives are still currently on the line and I had to make command decisions to get our asses out of dodge. Now that we had more people to be decoys and meat shields, along with halfway decent shelter. It was time for that conversation. 

Shaking those idle thoughts away, I pressed a hand to the wall and drew upon my biomancy as I grew glow-in-the-dark illuminating moss. The moss didn't even do anything even close to what I wanted. Rethinking things, I questioned my earth magic about crystals that could absorb light and then project it outwards. My magic fed me back three different types of crystals. I selected the second variant since it could grow from magic and wasn't the exploding type like the first. I went about growing it around the moss. Within seconds I was able to see my hands waving before my face. 

Taking that as the right choice, I then proceeded to grow the crystal moss combo all around the shelter. After that, I added a few funnels for air circulation, then went to let the girls in. Standing by the door, I held it open as Avilla led her gaggle of maids into the little shelter. I could see the amazement on a few of their faces. 

"Ohh Lord Black, you shouldn't have," Avilla swooned as she looked around the bare room. 

I shook my head at her, "I'm not going to let us sleep under open air, not with Ragnarok in motion." I replied, then stopped mid-speech as I noticed the Captain of the troops approaching. With a sigh, I looked at Cerise and told her to guard Avilla and the girls. 

Leaving her to do her thing, I met the man halfway to my little camp section, "Captain?" I questioned with a raised brow. 

"Sir Wizard, I know you have done alot, but is there anything you can do about helping with the perimeter?" Captain Rain asked with a little worry in his voice. 

That honestly wasn't a bad request, so I gave him a yes in reply, and before long, I found myself following behind one of his Sargents and a few soldiers. As I walked along the perimeter, I dropped down some seed pods made of wood that then grew into brambles until we completed a full circle around the camp of refugees. 

As I was walking back to my own little shelter, I trailed a vine behind me from the perimeter and then connected it to the walls of the shelter. After brushing apart some of the snow, I placed my hand on the walls of the wooden shelter and focused as I sensed the life from the wood. This action was followed by multiple other vines shooting out of the shelter, snaked their way across the camp-grounds, and tying themselves into the surrounding brambles and thorns. Pulling my hand away once that was completed, I let out a sigh, then smiled as soft warm light washed over my form.

Turning a little bit, I could see Cerise standing there waiting for me, behind her, the door to the little shelter was open and the light poured out behind her. Framed in gold stood the young lady who was the center of why I was here. 

Taking a moment to look up and gaze at the last of the suns rays, I then smiled at her as an arm touched my shoulder. "Alright Cerise, I think it's time we finally had that conversation."

Authors Note's Here is a new idea I have been playing with. I still need a name for it, so leave suggestions down below. They are trying to survive Ragnarok.