THE EIGHTH ORDER

The agony of Advancement was too much. If Sage could have her way she would delay the process indefinitely. She would be happy to never go through the experience again.

The sad thing about life though, was that it would not stop for her to overcome her apprehension. The only choices she had as time went on and Aran spun was to either confine herself to this cave until she somehow got over her hesitation; or to suck it up and get on with the process and leave with the confidence that she had grown stronger.

Obviously she would choose the latter, it was by far the better choice. It was just that the trepidation of going through with the Advancement was nowhere near as comfortable as the thought of getting lost in a book. Unfortunately-

What choice do I have?

It was not like she had decided to come here simply to hide. If that was really all she wanted any city would do. All she would need to do is change her attire, keep Nyx out of sight, and- with the amount of money she now had on her- live in luxury for several decades. But a stagnant life was not one she wanted, at least not with latent threats nipping at her heels. The duke and his whole endeavour to avenge his son was a joke; however, if someone like Leah learned of her existence and came after her she would be fucked. That was not a situation she wanted to find herself in.

"Fine!" she said, trying to psych herself up as much as telling her Familiar to lay off.

Instead of reaching for another tome on the table, she stopped using it as a support and stood up straight. Then she went into the pocket of her coat and came out with a sheet of paper; it was the model for the spell she had chosen to Advance with, [Dark Domain]. It was similar to the 6th Order [Dark Field] with the exception that, as a domain spell, she was always at the centre of the field no matter where she went. It was not the most useful spell, but at least it was better than the shitty [Raise Undead VIII] or [Summon Undead II] and other necromantic spells the Cryptmaker had recorded.

Seriously, why did all necromancers have the same boring spells?

She left her current room and moved to another site in the myriad caves. This one was much larger and had a bed with a carpet laid on the ground. It had most likely been that half-dwarf woman's room. The bandits had gone out of their way to make the caves feel like home. Unfortunately they were gone now and she was reaping the benefits of their efforts.

Aware of the damn cat trailing her, she walked to the bed and made herself comfortable.

The previous times when she Advanced she had always been standing somewhere in the open or sitting in Bori's study. Back then whenever the process began she would always get lost in the pain and when it subsided she would find herself on the floor. She was not eager for such an experience again.

The bed was made from straw with an animal hide cover, it was comfortable; her rump sank right into it. Taking off her coat, she turned it into a makeshift pillow for her head.

It was only when she had laid down and had gotten comfortable that she raised the sheet of paper to make certain of the spell pattern. The process did not take long; she had stared at it numerous times during the past week. Having confined its entirety to memory, she determined that she was ready. First she set the sheet down off the side of the bed, then she pictured the spell model for [Dark Field] and imitated it with her mana.

The process went smoothly. The spell was cast and a pool of darkness burst beneath the bed. Sage did not take the time to observe it however. The moment she saw the effect of the spell she immediately pulled back onto the bed and rested her head on the makeshift pillow. Then she closed her eyes and waited for the hell that was to come.

It did not keep her; and did not disappoint.

Although she had expected it, somehow it still caught her by surprise. Like a freight train it hit her, forcing all the air from her lungs. Although the air was not needed, its rapid expulsion still caused her lungs to burn. She gasped, though not from it. The reason was something else.

Every part of her body felt like it had been poked with hot needles that had been haphazardly shoved in before she was unceremoniously shoved into a furnace where the heat was cranked up to maximum. She was no Shadrach, Meshach or Abednego; although her skin did not catch fire, the heat she felt from her mana transformation was still there; and there was no God to protect her from it.

Despite the pain being unbearable, she tried to hold back a scream; and she succeed… for a second.

The heat spread to her lungs and internal organs, exposing her to a new world of pain; there was no way she could remain silent. Although she was too preoccupied to hear her own scream, amidst the pain a small part of her brain registered the violent vibrations of her throat and the subsequent ringing of her ears.

The thing about suffering- she had experienced it a few times now- was that it always seemed to last forever. This time it was no different. The transformation of her mana and the pain that accompanied it seemed to last for an eternity.

She did not know when it ended, she had probably blacked out somewhere during the process. What she was certain of was that when she came to, the transformation had stopped. However, even though the metaphorical needles had been extracted, her body still remembered the pain because it would not stop shaking.

I-I do-don't wanna ev-ever do this again, she thought as she brought her quaking hand to wipe away the tears pooling down the sides of her face.

She opened her eyes and found the roof above blurry. After wiping tears away a few more times her vision fully recovered and she was treated to the sight of the room, particularly the rocks covering where the door had been.

"Wow Master. I didn't know you could scream so loud," she heard Nyx's voice from her side. She was too sore to crane her head in his direction. It did not mean she did not snarl as he uttered his next sentence with his mocking tone. "You even collapsed the cave."

Tuning his voice out, she closed her eyes and cast [Repair Mortis]. Fortunately she had thought to inscribe the 7th Order spell before she decided to Advance. As she released it, its effect washed over her. It did not alleviate the phantom pain, but at least it calmed her body so it would no longer convulse. She was now confident enough to get up without falling ever.

This is the second worst thing I've ever experienced, she thought angrily as she stared at her hands, willing {Index} to show her status.

Race: Phantom (Undead)

Physique: Grade 4

Mana: SS (Blue)

Title(s): Darkborne

She was now in the 8th Order, like Sylphia. Unfortunately she was not in the celebratory mood.

This time the pain had been truly agonising. No wonder humans took yearly intervals to move through the middle Orders and decade pauses between Advancements among the upper Orders. It was sheer fucking madness to climb the Orders like Sage had been doing. If she were human she probably would not have survived this ordeal.

Although she complained a lot about being made undead, this was one of the blessings she counted for the change; along with the inability to hunger or tire.

With the pain all but departed- except from memory- she got up from the bed and reached for her makeshift pillow, turned it back into a coat and put it on. Then she {Blink}ed to the cave where she had been carrying out her experiment. The cave-in could not hinder her.

She walked over to the corner where she had flung her books and rummaged through them until she found the one she was looking for. After that she made her way to the stone table, set it down and cracked it open. There was a large rock to the side she sometimes used for sitting; using [Telekinesis] she brought it to her and made herself comfortable before peeking into the tome.

The page she had opened depicted the model for the 8th Order spell [Regeneration], which was probably the best healing spell in existence; if one did not included whatever spells existed beyond the 9th Order. Unlike other healing spells that healed a set amount of injuries instantly, this particular spell healed over time. If the spell was active long enough, even severed limbs could be grown back. Such was the might of a spell worth coveting.

Unfortunately the spell was meant for the living. Its effect was different from the other healing spells because it contained more of the earth and water elements than the light element. However, even that small bit of light included could still harm Sage if she tried to engrave it into her core. Luckily she had planned around it. Next to the page with the model for [Regeneration] were a couple of sheets with modified versions of it.

The Cryptmaker's books on enchanting had come with instructions on how create magic scrolls. The process involved tempering a sheet of paper or similar item with mana for several hours or longer, allowing it to absorb the residual mana. After that, one only needed to jot down the spell pattern with an arcane medium, most often blood. Whoever would use the scroll need only tear it in half while running their own mana through it to release the spell.

Unfortunately the spell released from a scroll was nowhere near as powerful as that cast by an actual person, no matter how good the quality of the paper was. Also, since it was an enchantment of sorts, the potency vanished over time; so it had to be used as soon as possible.

There were those who had tried to use Theo Grant's method to prolong stored spells. However, a paper could not possibly hold an elemental; the idea failed miserably.

Sage used this method for the reason it had been invented.

At the dawn of the age arcane progress suddenly halted when everyone stopped trying to create new spells. With the arcane beasts as their reference, the innovators of created many spells, most of them so useless they had been confined to history. Unfortunately, since they cast the spells without using a medium they were engraved into their being, causing them to deplete their slots with these useless spells. In the end everyone became too scared to try their hand at creating magic and subsequently having all their slots taken up by dud spells.

The inception of magic scrolls saved sorcery from being snuffed out in the cradle.

She grasped her most recent interpretation of the modified [Regeneration]. What she had basically done was substitute the light element for darkness before putting in a few touches to let the other two elements mingle with it like they had done the light.

It had not been easy. Darkness did not mingle too well with the two elements and, considering her non-existent affinity for Water Magic, the initial attempt had been a disaster. It had taken over a dozen tries, starting with switching the water element with ice- before she got a satisfactory model. She had tested it hours prior was satisfied with the result.

Since she had been the one to modify the spell, it was no chore to engrave; she did it instantly. As the spell was now catered to undead, she renamed it [Dark Regeneration]. Not creative- but who cared?

After she was done her gaze drifted across the room and landed on Nyx. The cat was staring at her with large eyes, looking as if she had kicked him. One thing she had learned about him over the past week was that he took her inattentiveness as an affront; pouting at her as if expecting her to give a fuck.

Race: Familiar (Elemental-Dark)

Physique: Grade 5

Mana: A (Blue)

As always, he had improved with her. His abilities had also gotten much stronger, including that one she did not want to think about. She made sure to occasionally ask him whether it remained inactive… just to make sure.

Getting up from her seat, she {Blink}ed to him and scooped him in her arms. Then she threw him in the air and caught him, repeating the process several times. Her Familiar's dissatisfaction disappeared shortly after that. He was quite easy to please.

She stopped throwing him and held him at eye level, staring into his large emerald pools.

"Let's go get you that corpse you've wanted for a while," she said.

This caused him to meow in excitement.