Hayseed village

Beyern was making some of the finishing on the corpse, all it took were a few hours of hard work, though he may have taken a break in between to catch a fish by making a wall of mana infront of the fish, making them believe they were stuck.

Such was the destiny of small critters, too end up in a smart human's gullet.

Beyern found it sooooo sad, but what could he do as a small human? Fate had powerful means, ones that he could not mess with. It was definently not because it benifited him, nooooo, that's impossible.

But enough with that- There were a few differences in how you make a 'Undead' as demanded by lvl 0 <Necromancy> compared to his previous training. Such as anchoring, you anchored and then linked mana only after it was inside the item you wanted to manipulate, and then you made a spell out of only the linkage.

Though it was still possible to manipulate due to the linked mana being a string passing through the bone of the corpse instead of a giant ball of mana, and the link being basically just the two ends, with no string inbetween, really helped in maintenance savings.

With an added star by {Spell-craft}, he was able to finish the carcass' medieval fantasy equivelent of embalming.

He put all his remaining mental energy allowance to make a tide, trying to pull on the string in the arm, it went up, the arm following along.

But then it fell to the ground, Beyern lacking the amount of mental energy he could rally at one time, forcing him to use tides, which weren't that useful for battle.

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Congratulations, Beyern, due to your blind fumbling, using only your class' initial skill, you have created the most basic facsimile that used some of the same base features as actual necromancy, 'Necromancy' has leveled up; lvl 0 -> lvl 1

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You have properly used your class' initial skill, and have been proven to be worthy of the class title 'Novice necromancer'.

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Yes, every time the pre-fix 'Novice' was used, that was not just saying they were innept or new. Amazing isn't it?

Beyern nodded proudly, and then instantly used the remaining connection with the linkages, to use mental energy with some mana, to break the mana free from it's prison, using the freed mana to free even more mana.

Then he used all the mana, a good chunk of it being channeled out of the circuit additionally to the original 22 units, coming out to about... I believe around 35 units.

Then all what was left was to start another campfire, and throw the corpse on it along with even more dry leaves, sticks and grass.

Then even more, and more, and more, as much as Beyern could get, constantly feeding more and more, until a good bonfire was created, and he saw the grass around the campfire also spreading the fun.

All what was to run to the hills, as the high-noon sun accompanied him in his journey, a few screens popping up in support for his forest fire.

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Congratulations, Beyern, due to your application of the manipulation of magic on a scale you have never before reached, 'Mana-manipulation' has gained 6-star mastery.

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Congratulations, Beyern, due to your continuous application of the shaping of mana, 'Mana shaping' has gained 4-star mastery.

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Congratulations, Beyern, due to your creation of a large spell-like construct, 'Spell-craft' has gained 3-star mastery.

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Beyern wasn't one to refuse free stuff, so he graciously accepted both the praise and advancement while running away from the scene of a crime.

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About half-an-hour later, Beyern faked a bit of fright, though not to an extreme, as he walked into the entrance of the wooden stockade fashioned with great proficiency, along with the spiked barricades made of the same materials.

At said entrance was a single man, with a single wooden long used the same way as a toll gate, the man was wearing some chain-mail along with regular clothes, wielding a pike and a sword at his waist "Well if it isn't our resident ord, what's got your ass on fire?"

Beyern took a deep breath, as if steeling himself "Well, there's a forest fire a bit that way-" He said, making an expression of both annoyance and still a trace of being frightened, pointing his hand in the vague direction of where he came from "And I almost got caught up in it, so sorry if I'm a bit off my game."

The guard laughed amiacably, probably amused by the whole situation "Well, that's a big suprise, is it close by?"

"Nah, it's about an hour off." Beyern said, down playing how close it was, ic it was close enough, then someone would be sent out to look at it, and someone like that may be a investigator, but he also couldn't lie his ass off and get caught.

"Well, as a guard of Vanawan, I should thank you for your service of reporting a wild fire," He said with a smile, putting his hand forwards "I should waive the toll."

Yep, there was a toll to enter the town, it was quite a large town, though not even close to the size of a city. Beyern quickly rummaged through his pockets, and took five brown coins out, probably made out of copper, and placed it in the out stretched hand before.

The guard smiled brightly "Come on in."

Each one of those coins weighed the same as one Jeralli of copper, named after the current king's last name, though people just say 'One copper' instead of 'One Jeralli of copper', same with the other precious metals exchanged on a regular basis.

Exchange rates often vary based on the city and it's supply of each currency, but it's, on average, it was something like; 100 copper : 10 bronze : 0.1 silver

Though Beyern didn't really know about exchange rates for gold, since he never even had the chance to see a piece of that, he heard of platinum too, though that's basically only for large factions, and dukes or higher.

Normally the toll was 1 bronze and 5 copper, he had to pay 1/3rd of that, going from a day of sub-par room and board + 5 copper to just a hearty meal.

Corruption at it's finest!

He had about 30 bronze in savings, so, if really wanted, he could live in an inn for 30 days. But that would be a waste of money, since he usually only made a few coppers per day.

But now, since he actually had a class, he could go to and enter the mage's guild, which will help with knowledge and finding some jobs. Though he had just overheard it from the village head when he, who apperantly put in a request for a tutor for their own son by the mage's guild.

But to do that, he had to get to Bacallu, and that was a day away on foot.

If he wanted to get there just as much of a human as he was before, keeping his hands, and or legs, attached, he had to make a plan.

Well it wasn't really that complex, he just had to use a mix of money and connections.

Now, he had arrived at his first destination of the day, if this this part didn't work out, then he would need to change a few aspects of the scheme, and spend some more money while also allowing for some leeway for failure to catch up to him.

He opened the door of the store "Hey, shopkeep, do you have Neyder herbs in stock?" He said, in a rude tone, as if he had never met this person.

The receptionist, and also owner, frowned slightly "I think we're sold out on Neyder herbs, though there may be some in stock in the back though, sir."

"Well, what are you waiting for? Go grab it!" Beyern said, irritation on his face, taking out five bronze on holding it infront of the shopkeep's face.

The shopkeep looked at the coins for a moment longer than normal, all of them facing heads towards him, though that's probably just a coincidence "Right away sir!" He quickly yelled, hastily walking to the back with a smile.

Though around a minute or two later, the male merchant holding a brick and mortar shop in the village came back with a frown. After he returned to the front desk, he said "Sorry, sir, but there seems to be no Neyder herb in stock."

"What? Are you certain?" He said with a worsening frown "You were only back there for like a minute, there's no way you could find it in such a short time!"

The shopkeep took slight offense to that, raising his eyebrow "If you don't believe me, then go into the back and find it yourself!"

Beyern, offended himself, was about to spark an argument, but paused, smiling slightly "I think I will," Snapping his finger forwards "Let's do it!"

The shopkeep's eye's flickered slightly at the snapping finger, then smiled too "Don't be dissapointed when you find nothing, follow me."

The owner of this fine establishment walked away, Beyern following behind with an arrogant smile, they walked through a door, passing by a recroom made for relaxation, entering another door, that was locked by key, the shopkeep locking the door behind them.

Through the staircase was a winding stairway, leading about 5 meters underground, at the end was a room, a few misscelanious items strewn about on shelves, a table with two chairs in the middle.

The two smoothly sat on one of the chairs, as if they had done it many times before "As smooth of an actor as always Beyern."

"I couldn't let my skills get rusty, can I?" He chuckled amiably, the shopkeep was one of his major connections in the darker sides of the world, and the one who taught him how to avoid seers and investigators, though that'd been years ago now.

His class was just your regular 'Merchant', but since young he had connections with the underworld through his family who had fallen into deep debt and were harvested for anything of worth, joining the gang that held his parent's debt afterwards.

Fun fact, did you know that avoiding taxes and laundering money counted as a mastery for merchants? It's called 'Tax avoidance' and 'Money laundering' respectively "So what do you need from me?"

Beyern took out the five bronze from before "When's the next caravan coming?"