Chapter 1

22 years old, tall farmer visible muscles and black hair was leaning on his fence and looking in the sky, thinking about his future. In the past week he discovered, that he is one of those "lucky" people, who possess magic abilities. Now, theoretically, he can sell his farm, leave this village with his brother and have a comfortable, safe life, full of pleasures as one of the mages. At least, this is how churches, kingdoms and lodges describe this to the masses. However, he has been to war, he saw mages being killed in first place, due to them being the most dangerous and deadly troops. Of course, they have many layers of protection, but hearing about them, then seeing their dismembered bodies, made him reluctant of becoming one of those wizards himself. And from what he knows, they always take part in wars, which are not so rare now.

He, Dezen, also has one more reason, to not join forces of churches, kingdoms and lodges - there are only few kinds of magic they would teach him and none of them suits his desires. What he craves, is magic which will let him do whatever he wants, roam the world freely, not caring about basic needs, fight with whoever he wants or need to, even armies and lengthen his life. Well, he doesn't have to obtain it using 1, he can use even 10, although it will take much more time. However, even if he could destroy armies by himself, didn't need to eat nor sleep, he is still a single person. He cannot be at many places at once, he still can make mistakes and become tired. So instead of focusing entirely on his own strength, he also needs magic, which will let him create his own army. I guess telling that no one will give Dezen those magics is not needed.

As for now, he thought of three ways, of obtaining his own army. First is to create golems, they don't need to sleep nor eat, they are entirely devoted to its creator, but the stage of production is long, hard and cost many resources. Also, he would have to do this by himself, until he creates a golem able to make other golems. The second way is to enslave creatures, he could breed them or find in the wild, but they won't be entirely devoted to him, at least not at the beginning, also they have their own needs, which fulfilling may be hard and not always possible. In addition, there is a danger that someone might be able to release them. It alone would put him in life-threatening danger, but if it happened in a middle of a fight, he will probably die. The third option, which he likes the most, is kind of fusion of first and second. He will create something similar to golems, but their vessels will be bodies of dead beings. The main difference between them and golems, that he wants to create is the ability to regenerate, which golems lack. Thanks to this, he won't have to spend time and resources to repair them. He plans to obtain it by creating magic able to recreate bodies, but which doesn't make them work like they are living.

He wants to do this in this way, because of two reasons: first, with that "life" would come needs too, and they are something he wants to avoid, second is that it would be too hard for him to create and too long - humans are not immortal and he doesn't want to spend his life just for this.

Some might think using dead bodies is unethical and even that he is disturbing slumber if dead. However, Dezen sees living creatures more like souls, and their bodies as their vessels, so there is nothing wrong for him to use them, since they remain unused. About disturbing slumber of dead, he didn't even think about calling it like that, because he is too weak to summon souls from afterlife, so it can't happen.

Unluckily, he hasn't made much progress yet. This magic is still at first stages of production, what is not strange. As for now, Dezen expect to create his first "golem" in a month, but it still will be one aspect of this magic, later he will have to find out what it is truly capable of. It would be easier, if he had resources, like magical creatures, who are more susceptible to magic, in some cases, like during, researchses.

What he is currently thinking about, as it was mentioned at the beginning, are other possibilities. His researches and attempts to create new magic may not be successful, if so, he will try to obtain wanted result in another way, but to start trying, he first needs ideas. Also, he considers becoming bodyguard of some rich merchant, since it can make his life quality better and give him more opportunities to develop, in case he couldn't do it by himself.

While he was thinking, another man, looking exactly as Dezen, came out of their house and yelled. - Dezen, chicken is ready!

- I'm coming.

****

While eating, Dezen spoke to his twin brother with annoyed tone. - We shouldn't have killed that fox so fast, we should have cut off his balls for killing 2 chickens or even better, his tool.

- You complain too much, at least you have better test subjects. And, to be honest, I'm a little thankful for him. I know it's a loss, but we haven't eaten meat for months. And I really like it, really.

- Yea... I understand you. About my tests: Not really. I'm still too weak to use my "magic" on such large animals. I'm still stuck with insects. Not that I can change them into "golems".

- Are you going to always refer to them as "golems"?

- No, I thought about naming them undead, since they are not alive, but can't be counted as dead, at least not for me.

After being silent for a while, Dezen's brother spoke once more. - I've been lately thinking, after ending our work, we could go to the forest and try to find some weak magical plants or animals. They would help, right?

- It's... Not a bad idea. But I'm not sure If I can sense mana in them. I'm still a beginner, and I don't even know how to do this. By this, I mean that I can't sense weak magic creatures and we will probably meet only them. But we still can try, it is better than nothing.

After 2 hours, they can finally leave their house empty. They both live in it alone, Their mother died 6 years ago due to disease, father fought in war with Dezen, where he was killed, trying to protect mages.

For the walk, Dezen and Alex took with them baskets, to gather plants and mushrooms.

Since they know outskirts of forest well, because they live close to them, Dezen and Alex walked straight to its center. Whenever they saw unknown plants and mushrooms, they first examined them, then Dezen tried to sense if they have mana. Besides this, they also talked.

- Dezen, expect doing whatever you want in life, is there anything else you want to do?

- That's the same thing?

-Eh... What?

- If I have some great goals, which I want to obtain, isn't it the same to "I want to do whatever I want"?

- But, is there something else than fulfilling your every desire?

- You speak like you didn't know me. Of course there is not. I want to not have to work most of my life, not have to fight for kingdom which doesn't care about me, and destroy things I hate or despise.

- That's all?

- Yes! That's all. Other people want to live to the fullest, so why should I be different. Or maybe I should be some kind of savior, bring people peace and make their lives better? I have no reason for this. I just want to live as I want, but for this I need strength. Otherwise, I can be killed, forced or something.

-...

- Part of my dreams is also keeping you safe. We lost parents, and I can't lose you... If it can be counted as something extraordinary, I also want to destroy those who caused the war in which dad died.

They both went silent for a few minutes, and then started to discuss, what they will eat tomorrow.

****

This walk brought no results, what wasn't surprising to Dezen and his Alex. In fact, they would be surprised if they found something at the first time. At least they gathered food, which will make their diet more variated. Apart from that, they also found some dead trees, which Dezen can use in his researches in the future.

After some rest, he started to train as a mage. What he did, was concentrating mana in his hands, focusing on it and imagining the wanted result. Then he improved it, in every way he could. It is the simplest and worst way to train (as a mage) and create spells, but the only one he currently possesses. The only advantage of this, is that he is also training the primal way of fighting with magic. It uses no spells, just mana alone in different shapes to attack. Dezen plans to use it for now, but he will learn or create and use another fighting style when he has a chance, since he doesn't really like it.