Chapter 3: Rattling Bones

The next morning I woke up to the sound of banging on my door and insults being thrown my way before the door opens and Im hit in the face by something big and hard and the door slammed shut. I held my nose as it had started bleeding but wasn't broken so I took a tissue that I had at my bedside table and wiped the blood off before waiting for it to pass. Once the nosebleed passed and the pain was gone I checked to see what hit me, it was a large black book with a screaming face on it, and one in its eyes had my family's emblem on it which was a skull with a dagger through the forehead; it was the grimoire my father promised me. I finally remembered what my sister, Delores, said before throwing it at me; "dad wants you to study freak!" then slammed the door, I was of course elated by the prospect of trying out my first real spells so I got dressed and skipped on over to the training room where I saw my brother training his swordsmanship.

I flip open the book and see a small note inside, so I of course pick it up and read it, the note is as follows:

'Dear Varien, this grimoire is a rather special one made through techniques passed through the family for generations and thus is an undead in of itself, it is a being with intelligence and it will link its mind with the first host that puts a drop of blood in its mouth (see cover). The book bound in flesh will bind itself to you and will allow you to progress to the next chapter of study once it detects you are ready.

Sincerely, your father.'

I was surprised by the note but as I read I started to understand and close it "Hey Percy" I called out "can you help me with something?" Percy who was swinging away at a test dummy looks at me with confusion "Depends on what it is" he replied before I came waddling over with the book as big as me "I need to put my blood in the mouth of this thing" I explain and my brother's face scrunched up "I see father has taken a liking to you, I always hated it when he would bring one of those things around" he sighs "but fine show me your hand and I will help you" he took out a dagger from his belt as I reached out my hand, I winced as he pricked my finger and let it bleed into the mouth of the book.

The eyes of the book glowed and when I opened it the first pages were revealed and the first spells I could learn were "Necrotic bolt", "Raise Weak Abomination", and "Mold bone" the last of which was a death magic affinity spell, the book explained that pure necromancers worked with bones of all sorts while blood necromancers dealt with zombies parasitic beings, and spirit necromancers deal with spirits and curses. The first one I decided to try is 'Necrotic bolt' since I do not have any bones.

I held my hands up in a triangle formation and started channeling my mana through my body, soon enough black energy seeped out of my hands and while it gathered I took one of my hands back which allowed me to form a large round spear-like object but it has no points, it's just a large pole of black cold mana. I aimed towards a target and brought my hands back into the triangle formation with my right hand slightly in front of my right sending the necrotic bolt to my target and-

*BANG*

I hit my target and successfully cast my first spell! It wasn't my first time though, I had done this several times and it either backfired sending me backward causing my brother to laugh at me or shot off in a completely new direction. Once I practiced for a while longer I was starting to practice the spell without saying the incantation.

My brother was stunned since usually only after being very familiar with a spell could you cast it with no incantation, instead I just did the hand signs and visualized it in my head, thinking about how it caused rot and decay to cover a target. Speaking of rotting target, I had to switch my target out several times because it kept melting, thats how strong death magic was. The rot had caused the color to drain from the material and melt into a puddle of rotting goop that let out this horrid spell.

A few hours had passed and I had taken a few mana potions, I was just now taking another one to refill my energy when my father came in, his cloak fluttering behind him as he marched over "Varien." he said in a stern voice "come with me" he commanded before simply turning away and marching off and I, of course, follow him because I didnt want my father to be mad at me for not following his orders.

Pretty soon he brought me to the basement where I saw a swirling blue portal, from this body's memories I instantly recognized this thing: a gate. Gates were basically the dungeons from video games that gave resources to whoever cleared them, the most valuable being mana stones of course. There were 3 gates in front of me, all of which were artificial gates that were ranked 'Novice' 'Apprentice' and 'Adept'. To put it into video game terms a Novice gate would be for levels 1-10, Apprentice would be 11-20, and Adept would be 21-30. "You will learn how to properly take control of undead that arent yours" my father stated "The gate on the left is the Novice gate with only basic undead such as zombies and skeletons. You will learn to take control of them and clear the dungeon or you will die. You will then learn how to raise your own undead."

I knew my father was ruthless but I didnt expect him to throw a 6 year old boy into a gate just to make sure he learns how to control undead. He points to a bag" take the survival kit and make your way in there, if I see you come out without the gate being cleared then I will throw you back in there without it." he then shoves the bag into my hands and stands by the door. This is it, I officially hate my father.

I simply sigh and head inside the gate and suddenly I was cold, it was as if I was suddenly submerged into cold water. I realize that I had closed my eyes tightly and once I open them I realize that Im inside of a tomb. Coffins lined the walls but there seems to not be any undead right in the entrance, at least none that are awake. I quickly flip open my grimoir and flips through the pages before finding the thing Im looking for that read: 'Forcing your will onto undead'. I smile and read through it, taking my time since there was no undead until… I heard the sound of rattling bones.

The sound got closer slowly and when I look up from my book I see a skeleton, it has a sword in its right hand and an iron shield in the other. I immediately begin the process before it gets too close, I concentrate and allow my will to connect to the skeleton before I reach out my hand and speak in a commanding tone "OBEY" the word seemed to of shocked the skeleton before I felt all its senses come to me

"AH!" I collapse to the ground, all the things the skeleton sees and hears I can see and hear, of course Its not like I cant see through my own means but it was at the very least shocking! It took almost an hour to get used to but I slowly got up, I felt dizzy and disoriented, I didnt even try to control it until I had my feet firmly on the ground. "Protect me." I command and the skeleton came to my side, giving a protective stance. Rather than the shambling mound of bones that was waddling toward me earlier I realize that the skeleton seemed to have gained some intelligence from being connected to my mind. Obviously it cant act without orders but it seemed to understand how to do things better, almost as if it had my experiences inside it. I shake my head at the ridiculous idea and stand up, I was slowly getting used to the feeling now.

"Stay by my side and only defend me" I commanded the skeleton, it didnt move but when I moved it did aswell, it really was protecting me. Soon enough another rattling skeleton shambled over to me as I walked deeper into the gate. "Attack" I command and the skeleton immediately started attacking, the skeleton fumbled seemingly not expecting one of its own to attack it and it dropped its sword, only holding up its shield to block. It seemed that the skeleton actually learned from my experiences and was attacking with a sword and shield how I would.

Soon enough the skeleton stopped moving and my skeleton, who had not even a scratch on him returned to me. As I walked into the further into the dungeon I came across a two more skeletons and so while my skeleton attacked one I tried controlling the other. The moment the connection was made I was shocked once again by all the information flooding into my brain and it caused my skeletons to hesitate for a moment before continuing. Now two skeletons attacked the third before coming to me.

"Protect me" I told them before I sit down and tell them "kill all those who come too close" I commanded and sit back, the mental strain I was feeling was intense, I dont think I could cast a single spell and at most I could only control one more skeleton. If this was how I was then how did my father feel controlling as much as 200 skeletons in the name of the crown? Yes I found out that my father had an army sanctioned by the crown which I guess wasnt surprising and soon I began to get into deep thought. How was he doing it?

I thought for a while and came up with an idea before grabbing a magic quill that was in my pack, yes even though it had survival items in my kit it also had a magic quill since my father suspected Id need to write stuff down. I inject magic into the quill and it starts writing whats on my mind. What if I took the control technique and direct it to one skeleton? Then that skeleton could be a commander. It didnt take long for me to start trying my theory on my first skeleton after another skeleton came along and got under my control.