84 - Girmoire of Darkness

Victor reached out towards the trapped Darkness but his hand paused half way, as the realisation that it probably was best to not touch it appeared in his mind.

So he let the trapped ball of pure Darkness be pulled towards the eagerly waiting Girmoire.

The pages turned once more only this time it stopped of a page the same colour as it's flames, and when the trapped ball was close enough the Girmoire slammed shut, went quiet and back to normal.

Almost like nothing happened in the first place, picking up the Girmoire he looked it over for any physical changes.

But he only found one, which was that in the cold white blue flames now had a small tiny black coloration in the centre, although bearly noticeable.

Seeing no other changes, Victor opened the Girmoire's information looking for answers.

| Grimoire Of Undeath & Magic (Iron/???): A mysterious book full of knowledge of Death, Undeath & Magic, holding the very secret knowledge of ???????, After absorbing a trace of Darkness Origin from an Ancient Girmoire of Divine Darkness has restored some of the book's ability.

| Intelligence & Spirit + 10% |

| Abilities: Magic Knowledge, Rune Apprentice, Alchemy Apprentice, Origin of Darkness, Locked... |

| Magic Knowledge: Consume magic Skill Books to unlock the ability to learn them |

| Rune Apprentice: Unlocked after learning 10 Tier 0 Basic Runes |

| Alchemy Apprentice: Unlocked After learning 10 Tier 0 recipes & making 10 from each recipe |

| Origin of Darkness: Increases the strength of all Darkness spells & Skills, the Girmoire can passively create or record Darkness Skills & Spells |

| Advancement Requirements: Tier 1 level 25 |

And answers he found, Victor's eyes widened he even reread the the whole thing to make sure he wasn't wrong.

As this was a huge upgrade to the Girmoire, not only this as a massive secret was revealed to him.

That the unknown withered book was actually a super rare Girmoire without any calculable value.

As a title like Ancient Girmoire of Divine Darkness, isn't by any means a normal name for a Girmoire, combined with the fact no one could read it or find any information about it.

So this gave Victor a hint of the background of his own mysterious Girmoire, but what brought emotion to him was the new ability.

It was at this moment he also noticed he had a new skill as well, a passive skill that would massively mould his focus going forwards.

| Darkness Novice (Level 1): Darkness abilities are easier to learn, are slightly stronger & cost less Mana |

This wasn't all, as Victor had also learnt two new class spells, Dark Spike and Dark Cut.

Two combat spells that'll increase his offensive strength, and allow for him to make up for some of his current weakness.

Standing up Victor grabbed his staff as he wanted to try out his new spells, raising his staff.

In his mind a black Magic Circle began to form, with strange magic runes within it, Victor's mana began to flow automatically in accordance with the spell.

"Dark Spike." The chant came out of his mouth like a whisper, a cold whisper.

Following his chant his mana spread into his staff and feet, startling Victor as he didn't expect his mana to flow into his own shadow from his feet.

Not hesitating he followed through with the spell as a spike shot put of his shadow before dissipating.

"Interesting, it uses shadows as a conduit to attack from... Does that mean that higher versions of this spell will use actual shadows and darkness to attack?" Victor used the spell a few more times before coming to the conclusion that the spell didn't actually attack with his shadow but used it as a base point to form the attack.

"It's actually quite strong, especially for sneak attacks or catching someone off guard to attacks from behind or underneath..." Victor was quite pleased with this new spell especially considering that it held considerable room for growth.

"If Dark Spike has the ability to transport my mana through my own shadow before forming the attack then Dark Cut should be similar."

Once more Victor began to chant only this time to test Dark Cut, a new black Magic Circle began to be drawn in his mind only this time the runes within it were different.

Following through with the chanting method, Victor once more felt his mana flow into his staff and feet.

"Dark Cut." The words once more were as quiet as a whisper, his mana took shape hidden in his own shadow before a small arc blade rapidly shot out of it.

It had considerable speed and was small, making it barely noticeable in dim light, but it didn't have much rang as it dissipated after only flying for half a meter.

"It's a really fast cast, with practice and more use I could easily half the cast time making it perfect for a great trump card if I need a fast attack to catch someone off guard within close proximity.." Victor's mind ran with thoughts, as joy although small filled him.

This was what he was currently missing, as until now his strongest means of attack has been Undeath Flame, Darkness Bullet and Bone Fang.

But each of them have glaring weaknesses, Undeath Flame does high damage but requires quite a lot of his mana and time to cast, not to mention it's range and speed of the spell.

Darkness Bullet isn't actually for damage, as it's main purpose is to dissolve and decrease armour, weakening targets.

And Bone Fang, although has amazing potential for killing and damage uses too much mana and is easy to be dodged or blocked.

Before he was desperately in need of a close range spell that could protect him when enemies got too close, and these two spells have relieved him of some of this glaring flaw in his abilities.

Now feeling relieved Victor unknowingly let out a deep worry he'd be holding for a while.

Left with nothing else to do, Victor got up off the ground before deciding to have a nice spar with Michael and work up a sweat.

As even though it might not suit his class, it's still a habit his had for years and who doesn't want to be healthy.

"Huh, What's up?" Michael stopped mid swing and asked Victor, standing up straight again Michael wiped his brow.

Victor didn't say anything as he instead through over a wooden sword to Michael.

"Ahh, what the hell!" Caught off guard, Michael stumbled to catch the training sword, accidentally dropping his own real new sword.

"A wooden sword?? Why'd you throw this at me?" Michael let out a sigh of relief at catching it but upon closer look figured out what it was.

So still leaning forwards, hunched slightly from trying to grabbed the sword he turned to Victor and asked.

But what greeted him was Victor now standing in front of him now longer wearing his new robes or holding his staff.

As he was once more only wearing his work out gear, while stretching Victor spoke.

"I thought you needed an actual sparing partner, as even though I'm not the best fit, I'm still better then a bunch of bones and nothing..." Victor's joints cracked and popped with each stretch, but his cold eye were locked right on Michael's, almost creepily with how much focus was held within his eyes.

Blinking slightly, Michael absorbed his words before realisation struck him and a large grin overcame his face.

"Oh, Here I thought that the fun days were over and behind use, but here you are refusing to let it die! Ha ha, yes! This is what I need, the best sparring partner for me in the world.

The one person who can push me too far higher heights than anyone else! Come on , Let's do this!" Like a raging bull excitement welled up within Michael, as his emotions boiled with happiness.

Victor could only genuinely smile at his exaggerated words, as he too felt not only warmth and happiness but reminiscence.

"Don't get all cocky just because you've got a physical combat class and I don't, I'll still beat your ass." A rare child like emotion over took Victor as he entered a battle stance.

"Ha you've never won against me, what makes you think you can now!" Michael played along as both boy's adrenaline pumped, quickly taking off his own gear and putting it away.

Mich raised his wooden training sword in his own power based stance, before slamming his foot down and shooting forwards to steal the advantage.

"Bang!" Not to be out done, Victor took a step into Michael's swing and used his own sword to guide away the slash.

Then followed with a punch towards Michael's gut, seeing this and knowing he couldn't dodge properly Michael changed his footing as he put power into an upward slash.

Forcing Victor to stop his punch and lean back to dodge the slash that narrowly missed his nose.

Victor used his momentum to fall backwards and reform backwards somersault onto his arms as he kicked Michael's chin.

Stretching his head up and back as far as it would go, Michael watched Victor's show miss him just.

Michael knowing that he needed to keep the offensive going to stay in the advantage, turned his head when he dodged the kick so that he could go on the attack quicker.

Which he did as he used his awkward but sturdy stance to pull back his weapon for a strong but precise thrust.

Perfect to hit Victor, Invicta was too overextended to dodge but this window wouldn't last long, so still with his head back Michael thrust forwards towards Victor's back.

But as if sensing the hit, Victor's free hand holding his own weapon thrush up at an incredible angle which most wouldn't have been able to.

But it missed the on coming attack, failing to block the strong thrust. But this was what Victor wanted to distract Michael and force him on his own sword.

Making it so the Michael wouldn't be able to adjust his own thrust, as Victor stopped fully supporting his weight on his other hand when he did the failed block.

Making his body lean to the side just enough for Michaels attack to miss, scraping by his side.

Now with his body uneven and unable to continue with his backwards somersault, Victor rolled to the side before trying to trip Michael with a leg lock.

But Michael had already recovered so he stepped back creating distance between the two.

"I know I'm holding back but damn your slippery, how the hell didn't you awaken a thief or assassin class?" Michael joked as Victor pushed himself back onto his feet.

Victor was covered in sweat as his breathing was uneven, a complete contrast to Michael who was breathing evenly.

"Well.. 'Breath' unfortunately, I'm.. 'Breath' not or I would... won already..." Tired breaths left his lungs as he spoke but he still didn't drop his stance, his eyes glued on Michael.

All the while a clueless skeleton in old broken armour watched on, not knowing what was happening or if it should do anything....

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What do you guys think? I was planning for something else to happen in this chapter but as you can see I changed my mind and moved some stuff planned for later to this chapter. (Although I did plan to do this all be class started and not after...)

As I didn't want to draw out a ton of chapters on stuff that can happen later. (Unintentionally, there's a few things in need to set for others still)

After all I really want to start the story and give more substance to this book, as so far I've only really been laying the groundwork for the world and abilities/how our main cast will fight in the future, with a bit of story work.

But I haven't introduced any of my big or small planned villains yet, or story arcs.

Which I will be honest I'm having a little bit trouble starting, but I've already re-done my notes and it shouldn't be too much of an issue anymore.

But I'll probably skip over the last day before class starts and get right into the story next chapter so I can do what I really want to do.

What do you guys think?