Undead Training

Unfortunately, the memories I received after studying the spell only gave me a general direction, but not detailed step-by-step instructions. Just like when I learned the "Small Fireball" spell, most of my success came from trial and error.

I also want to express my gratitude to my physics textbooks. If I hadn't crammed physics to get a passing grade, my physics teacher would have left me for summer school, or worse, taught the same class again, like half of the class. Many of the school's students hated him and even drew horns on his school photos, like a demon.

From my memories, it follows that to control the undead, one must train the mind, concentration, and control the threads that bind me to the undead. If I want the undead to do something specific, I can make about 11 summoned creatures perform various tasks and create a small army to give collective commands. This is no different from the undead created by runes during my unexpected Blessing driving. I've already mentioned that the blacksmiths tried to fake necromancy, and I think these idiots were reborn, like me. They couldn't become necromancers, so they created something similar. Where did I get this information? I got it from an old woman and a book.

Pulling out a pile of corpses, I started creating undead one by one. I can create more of them, but I have problems with concentration and experience. What can I do?... I can spend a lot of mana.

Creating one undead at a time, he immediately sent each one into the ring. This resulted in the connections between them being blocked. This made it easier to manage the parts of the undead while the rest of the army was in the ring.

When he finished animating the last corpse, he heard a strange sound, very familiar. Slowly, the spider approached the house, looking at Vallynor. Behind him were three more spiders, but they were slightly smaller. They were all about the size of a German shepherd, and their bodies were black with a touch of sadness. He warned of potential danger.

The biggest spider lunged at Vallynor, moving very quickly, it would reach him in 5-7 seconds. If it weren't for the small fireball that pushed it towards its brethren. The other three spiders split up and began shooting webs from all sides.

Three small fireballs blocked the spiders and destroyed them with flames. While the spiders were shooting webs from different sides, the spider that was slightly larger approached the enemy from a blind spot. Or so he thought. At that moment, one undead and nine other types of undead attacked him.

The spider realized how much danger he was in. And, shooting a web strand into a tree, he jumped. His body was pulled straight onto the tree. All of this happened so quickly that all ten undead couldn't do anything. When the spider reached a distant tree, he looked at the remaining three spiders and saw only their corpses. He was ready to run as an invisible force pulled something from inside. But in the last moments, before his soul was pulled out, something blocked it, but not for long. After that, the spider fell lifeless onto the sand.

"Hmmm. What was that?" - thought Vallynor, trying to take the soul of the last spider. In the last moments, he felt something interfering with him. Or, better to say, trying to interfere. But thanks to his experience, he was able to ignore this force and take the soul.

Taking the bodies and souls, Vallynor returned home, where he began to gather mana from the array using his abilities. He became too dependent on the array, so his abilities to gather mana with his body were weak.

While gathering mana, he didn't spend it on training, but left it for studying a new spell - "Necrotic Sphere." This spell creates a sphere of necro energy, which is very destructive and dangerous for living beings, as well as for inanimate objects. The latter requires even more necro energy.

This spell requires both mana and necro energy, just like the "Small Fireball" spell, which requires fire energy to give fire characteristics.

Mana is needed not only to create the spell itself, but also to set conditions such as size, shape, etc. Fire or necro energy fulfills these conditions. If fire energy is needed to create the spell, then a lot of mana will be required. While for necro energy, a small amount of mana is sufficient, as it is taken from a book, which reduces costs. But where does mana get so much energy from?

Having accumulated enough mana, he went out into the street and began practicing the creation of "Necrotic Spheres". He already had experience creating magical spheres, specifically a small fireball for a month, so it was not difficult to learn the new spell.

Two things helped him in this process. Firstly, he already had experience working with fire magic and knowledge gained through the use of the fire spell. Secondly, he already had experience working with necrotic energy, which accelerated the process of learning the new spell.

According to the data he received, Mana is created from seven types of energy: fire, water, air, earth, darkness, light, and necrotic. While the first six types were understandable, the last type suggested that Mana was not so simple, but a mixture of all types of energy. He wondered if there was an energy of lust, looking down between his legs.

He looked at his "Necrotic Sphere" in his hands, then threw it at a tree where the sphere began melting stone structures, resembling acid that dissolves everything in its path.

At the same time, new memories came into his consciousness, and he saw new ways of using this spell. After fifteen minutes, he stood up and was ready to continue training when he heard:

"You already know the 'Necrotic Sphere'? You are growing fast, but not fast enough to survive if you meet someone like that girl, let alone the Lion," the old woman said, watching Vallynor.

"Can you tell me who they were?" Vallynor asked.

"I have said it and will say it again, you are still too weak. When the time comes, I will tell you everything... For now, keep practicing," the old woman replied in a drowsy voice and fell silent.

Creating the "Necrotic Sphere" again, he tried to reduce its size by memory. The sphere shrank, then flew into the tree where the radius of damage was reduced but the acid's strength increased.

Perhaps it may seem strange to you that he learned the spell so quickly and all that. However, these spells are not difficult if you have enough time and no one interrupts you. But creating a spell takes more than a minute, so all his achievements may seem empty since no enemy will give you enough time to create a spell.

And Vallynor understood that just one successful spell wouldn't get him far. That's why he recreated the same spell again and again, changing its shape and size. He not only trained and looked for mistakes but also experimented with it so as not to waste his gift.

Slowly, day by day, Vallynor trained with weapons, restored his body in the pool of his chamber of the mind, and practiced spells. Sometimes he ran out of mana. Vallynor trained with various types of weapons and found that he had the most affinity with the katana and kusarigama.

After finishing his weapon training, he started looking for someone with whom he could grow. He began reading the "Red Book," trying to memorize all the types of weapon movements and use them on the Threads of Fate. To Vallynor's surprise, they memorized the movements and no longer turned into random beasts. They became copies of Vallynor with weapons in their hands, attacking with memorized movements.

This helped him greatly in training because the slightest mistake could cost him his life. Several times he was saved by Anin when Vallynor was almost killed.

At the same time, he learned a new spell, "Earth of the Dead." It summoned bony hands in the chosen area that caught enemies and did not let go. While practicing this spell, a crazy idea came to his mind about how to move quickly across the battlefield. And here was the answer.

If bony hands come out of the ground, it means that there must be a remaining body or another dimension in the ground, at least.

Creating "Earth of the Dead" and stepping into the center, he chose a target and ordered himself to fully immerse in the ground. There was no need to be afraid because it was his spell, and suffocating from a lack of air was impossible.

As expected, the sand became so soft that Vallynor began to sink. And the bony hands caught him and dragged him into the sand. When he reached his head, he stopped and, considering the reason, repeated the order. But nothing happened, so he added more necro-energy, but again with no results.

Then he directed mana and fully immersed himself as if in water. Thanks to his ability to see in the dark, he could see thousands of skeletons sitting next to each other, like matches in a box.

He tried to look around and realized that he had accidentally joined the army of skeletons. Panic seized him for a moment, but then he ordered them to release him. The next moment, Vallynor woke up outside and, standing up, looked around. He realized that he had accidentally entered another part of the spell zone. If he entered from the center of the spell, then he came out next to the place where the spell was supposed to end.

From fear, he turned to joy, realizing that he could now move from one point to another to make the spell work.

He was inspired by the prospects of this spell and looked back at his memories, hoping to see something new. But because of impatience, he postponed everything for later and started creating the spell again, to study and understand all the limitations, and possibly find new interesting perspectives.

***

Watching the Little Necromancer, the old woman couldn't believe that he was once an ordinary human. What he did for this world was nothing special. What he did was not a talent for us. He only had one thing in common with a genius - madness and the desire to put himself in danger.

He doesn't think like others, which makes him a madman. Sometimes, watching his actions, she wondered: what would have happened if he had come to this world earlier?

And now she watched again as he turned a simple spell intended to slow down the enemy into a teleportation or used it as a prison for enemies.

It was not strange that a simple spell could have so many functions. After all, magic is a very unusual art, and to achieve the desired result from a spell, you need to know the principles and tricks. But this is the problem - Vallynor can use such functions without knowing the principles on which they are based.

Her head began to ache from the antics of this little prankster. Suddenly, she was engulfed in pain, and a few seconds later she fell asleep.

***

Watching as the spider was completely buried in the ground and moved here and there, Vallynor realized that he had completely mastered the spell. All he had to do now was to practice in order to reduce the time it took to cast the spell.

After killing the last laboratory spider, he felt a strange feeling, as if something was approaching. Every day, more and more spiders appeared near the house, in an area where there were no living creatures before. They had turned into walking targets that Vallynor used for his magic and sword training. However, they quickly fled when powerful beasts appeared in the vicinity.

But the army of spiders that suddenly appeared caused a lot of problems. They prevented Vallynor from engaging in his enjoyable magic and sword training. Of course, without training, the body cannot be in good shape. He hated these insects, even though he had been practicing for several months.

But is it possible to eat spiders and what can be cooked if it is possible? Because he already has an army of spiders in a ring.

Done. The last spider was sent into the ring. Vallynor turned to enter the house. Suddenly, a strong cry from the forest caught his attention. Although he had heard such cries many times before, this cry was particularly close.

Vallynor was already planning to run into the house and hide, as usual. But then something white, resembling a bullet, flew into the house and completely blocked the entrance. It was a wet and sticky spider web that did not allow him to either escape or turn on the lights.

Slowly, spiders emerged from the cover of darkness and trees, emitting faint sounds. They came from all directions, and the faint rumble grew louder with each passing second. Until a huge spider appeared before Vallynor. But where there should have been a head, the body of a woman was visible. At first glance, it was clear that she had once been beautiful. But now her blackened skin and gray hair, like that of an old woman, turned her into a terrifying figure.

Her hands, resembling the clawed paws of an old woman, reached for Vallynor, and she let out a loud scream. All the spiders responded to her with a strange weak sound, and, as if agreeing, they lunged at Vallynor.

Seeing the spider-woman pointing at him, Vallynor immediately began to cast the "Land of the Dead" spell. When the spiders pounced on him, their movements slowed down by bony hands, and only when they were already five meters away from their target, the undead appeared out of nowhere, surrounding them.

Ordered to attack, the undead rushed at the spiders, and at the same time, Vallynor continued to summon his army, feeling how these spiders could catch or kill his undead.

Spiders began to emerge from the forest, more than before, and others had a strange shape, their armor covered with spikes like a hedgehog. They lunged at the enemies and tore them apart, or dissolved them as if they had landed in acid.

But thanks to the expansion of the borders of the "Land of the Dead" and the increase in the affected area, the balance between them was somehow maintained.

All thanks to the fact that Vallynor had pulled the undead out of the ring and collected necro-energy from the corpses, directing it straight into the spell. Bony hands caught the spiders while the undead did not kill them. But while the undead killed some, other spiders pounced on it and destroyed it, creating a vicious circle. Slowly, the spiders began to gain the upper hand over the undead.

"Fool, you should have run," Vallynor heard the voice of the old woman as she pulled the undead out of the ring. "The ring is a cool weapon," he thought, "I'm beginning to understand why she doesn't use it in battle."

"How can I escape? They surrounded me from the very beginning," replied Vallynor, without taking his eyes off the battle. He didn't want to die, knowing that even if he was killed, it wouldn't be the end. But dying had a lot of downsides. It was not advantageous to die at all, and the old woman understood that.

"If you want to survive, you have two options: first, to escape, second, to kill the Spider King Arhan. From what I see, you only have the second option," the old woman said, sadly.

Looking around, Vallynor was surprised. All the trees were covered in webs, and new types of spiders were emerging from them. He didn't even notice when he was completely trapped in their web. Now, he was like a fly caught in a web, and the spiders only had to reach him.

"You're right. I have no choice, but I won't give up," Vallynor said, sadly. Then, his sadness turned into determination.

He created a fireball, intending to throw it into the webs, but quickly realized his foolishness. Enemies and undead were fighting for their positions, and there was no place on the battlefield to reach his goal.

Thinking about what to do with the fireball, he felt a new thread break, which connected him to one of his soldiers. This made it clear that another undead had been destroyed.

Remembering about these threads, a crazy idea came to his mind: what if he directed the created spell on the undead through the threads? Having done so, one of the zombies began to burn alive. Without hesitation, he ordered the hot corpse to run straight towards the web.

The fiery undead made it to the web with its last strength. Before collapsing onto it, the fire that was devouring the undead began to spread across the web. But before the web caught enough fire to become a problem, the Spider Queen noticed it, and one of her huge legs descended onto the spot where it had caught fire. After completely extinguishing the fire, she began to wrap the trees with her web. It was clear right away because the web was stronger and would be difficult to ignite.

And the other spiders that had previously covered the webs attacked the enemy, and the undead fought as best they could. But every movement, every attack was amateurish. They were no better than ordinary citizens who had never held a weapon in their hands.

Only boundless endurance and the loss of the sense of pain and hunger made them better than an army of ordinary people. But the enemy's strength increased while the strength of the undead decreased. Vallynor realized that if nothing changed, he would be killed.

"Damn ring! The undead can't attack anymore at once. And soon the supplies will run out. And then I'm done for," he said. He already saw his soul leaving his body and heading for the heavens with wings. He just didn't have a musical instrument.

As if one of the invisible hands from the Soul's Hand spell understood the soul and brought it back - the real soul. It was as if exactly 50 hands had pounced on the enemies, taking their souls, and their bodies fell lifeless onto the sand. And the undead ignored them.

Killing and surveying the battlefield, he saw something moving in the sand. And it wasn't just one creature from the look of it. They were all approaching the Dead Land, where a scream sounded as they entered the spell zone. At the same time, the crack in the sand increased by half a meter, revealing how the skeleton army pulled out their hands like matches from a box.

Their bony hands understood the spiders, and they even tore apart the wounded. Seeing the crack, Vallynor felt a sting and realized that the spell was slowly collapsing. At the same time, his instinct screamed of danger, and he used the Dead Land to teleport. Immediately falling into the sand, he felt a strong explosion.

Appearing in another place, he found several spiders nearby. Taking a scythe from the ring, he made a few strikes and attacked the undead again.

The spider queen, looking at the place where he was before, saw a small crater. She instinctively understood who created the spell and looked at the human part of herself. She saw her hand remained pointed at the spot where Vallynor had been.

Frowning, she began to look around until she stopped at Vallynor. Seeing that he was still alive, she angrily began to stomp on the sand with her large paws.

After calming down, she left him and began to spin webs again.

Killing spiders with the scythe or his hands, as well as pulling the undead out of the ring, Vallynor realized that he only had a minute left to collect more undead. In the process of killing and pulling out the undead, he thought about what to do.

"One of us must attack the Queen to distract her from us while I deal with the spiders. If you attack Arhana, then all the other spiders will leave the undead and attack me. Running away is not an option. But what to do?... Soon there will be no undead left. If only I could create new undead."

A crazy idea came to him at the most opportune moment. He created a spell to create undead and sent it through the threads that connected him to his servant. At the same time, one of the spiders fell dead next to the chosen undead. Touching the corpse, the undead stood up the next second and attacked the other spiders.

"Success!!!.. But it's too little and too slow. If only I could send the spell to all the threads at once. Wait..." - an even crazier idea came to him.

Creating the spell, he sent it to all his undead through all the threads that connected him to them. Meanwhile, the undead fought, trying to reach the corpse through which the spell that created the undead came. One huge new thread connected Vallynor and the multitude of newly created undead.

A wave of spider undead stood up, and receiving the command, attacked their former brethren.