Learning

"Ouch!" I turned to my right and saw someone yelp in pain as a fireball blew up in his hand.

All around me people were practicing their magic in preparation for the exam.

Everyone was given 3 hours to try out their magic. This is the royal academy after all, learning a spell in 3 hours is the expectation.

To my right a man clad in the 4th year uniform came to grab a few participants.

"Come with me, times up." The man said.

"B-b-but I'm not ready yet!" A young women with teary eyes said.

"Times up." The man repeated himself with a stern expression.

'Alright, better get to studying.' I reached my hand out and opened the pages of the Death Spell.

[System has detected a Death Spell Tome, do you wish to learn?]

[Yes/No]

I was frozen in shock. Most mages had to study the spell from scratch. Decipher the meaning and then practice controlling the spell. Could it be that this "system" of mine can skip the process?!

"Yes"

As I spoke the words a dark energy left my body and covered the whole spell tome. It began giving of purple wisps of energy and then decayed into nothingness.

[Spell - Summon Skeleton: Summon a skeleton from the land of the dead and bind it to your control. Cost: 10 Mana, 1 Authority]

Glee and satisfaction wrapped my whole body. As the spell entered my mind I felt a mild headache. But that mattered not, I learned a spell!

"Yes!" I yelled in excitement and glee.

A few vampires turned to look at me with crazed looks. What was the crazy human telling about? To them it looked like I was speaking to myself.

"Weirdo." One vampire whispered.

"Livestock must think he's going to make it." Another said in sheer disgust.

It didn't matter to me. I would show them all why you don't mess with me.

Next I grasped the frost spell from the ground.

I flipped open the first page and was greeted by a title that side "Ice Bolt"

[System has detected a Frost Spell Tome, do you wish to learn?]

[Yes/No]

"Yes." I was more conservative with my reactions this time. Although I'm not exactly self conscious I don't want to be labeled as insane.

[Spell - Ice Bolt: Conjure a bolt of ice to hit a target. Chance the target will experience mild frostbite in the affected area. Cost:10 Mana]

I didn't say a word but instead stood up and began channeling my Mana into my arms.

'Ice Bolt.' As the thought of the spell entered my mind I recalled how to use the spell. It seems the system uploads the information to my head, so that I can recall it anytime.

A light blue shard of ice suddenly appeared in-front of my hands.

'Now I have to push the mana forward.' I began sending my mana into the Shard.

*shatter*

The ice bolt fired off and left a indent on the ground. Ice shards laid all around the impact site.

The vampires turned to me with shock in their eyes.

"How can a weak human cast so fast! He just got here!" I imagined every vampire has that same thought right now.

I ignored the voices of the people around me and proceeded to test my death spell.

'Summon skeleton!' I immediately felt my willpower weaken. This must be the authority cost.

A cold energy seeped out of my body. The ground in-front of me turned black and sickly. A skeleton popped his hand out and crawled to the surface.

It was white with purple fire burning in its eyes. It held a chipped steel sword that looks like it's seen some combat.

"…" the entire courtyard, including some 4th year students stared wide eyed at me.

"Oh Haema he's a death elemental!" One vampire muttered. From there the rest of the students began to developed fearful looks on their faces.

"I'm so sorry for mocking you!" One women yelled.

"Please forgive me!" Another man screamed.

"How pathetic, you mock me and then go asking for forgiveness the moment you see I have powerful. Have you no pride as vampires?" I asked with a slightly mocking tone.

I turned and shut out the rest of the vampires.

I put my attention on my magic and tried something more challenging.

"Summon skeleton!" This time I spoke aloud, for what I wanted to try I imagined it would be harder to do with silent casting.

Suddenly a large plot of land turned dark in-front of me.

I waited yet no skeletons appeared as I used more mana.

I suddenly rose my hands up, as if calling out to the heavens. My arms experienced a gravity that wanted to pull me to my knees.

"Come forth and serve!" I yelled out, blood streaming down my nose.

Suddenly six skeletons began to claw their ways up the dirt to serve.

At the same time as this…

[User has shown a tremendous amount of skill, as such a quest is being issued along with a skill upgrade to (Skeletal Summon)]

I first decided to mentally look at the new improvements.

[Spell: Skeletal Warrior - Summon a skeletal warrior to come and serve from the land of the dead. Cost: 10 Mana, 1 Authority (Skeleton) Or 25 Mana, 1 Authority (Warrior)]

'Awesome…' I was in awe at the new spell. With such high costs the new servants are bound to be loads better.

I used up 90 Mana despite only summoning 7 skeletons total.

I decided to try my luck with a warrior.

'God, I already feel so weak…' the use of so much of my mana left me feeling empty. Despite this, I was eager to see the improvements from skeleton to skeleton warrior.

"Skeletal Warrior!" Suddenly the plot of dirt in front of me turned black. All the life on it shrivelled and died like the rest, but this time something else happened.

"Woah…" I couldn't help myself but mutter aloud.

Black and purple wisps gave off from the ground as a skeleton clad in seemingly ancient leather armour and a sleek iron sword came from the ground.

*Poof* once my mana drained completely down to five I dropped to the floor.

"You will be the Captain." I was addressing the Warrior. "Form a defensive formation around myself." The skeleton stared at me confused.

"Make a circle around me." I clarified.

'It seems upmost specification is needed for these boney servants of mine' I thought with a sigh.

The skeletons fell in line with relative ease. The skeletal warrior gave no commands clearly not understanding "Captain" but they quickly formed a circle.

'Time to regain my mana.'

Mana doesn't regenerate when you use it. As far as I understand it, when you force your mana core to work, it can't multitask. It's either regenerate or cast.

'While I'm here might as-well take a look at the quest.'