Chapter 88: CHAPTER 88- SOUL BOUND

Alaster earned [Magic Resistance] in just twelve hours. His improved Health and [Regeneration] significantly sped up the process.

“Congratulations Alaster!” Aila cheered, throwing up her hands, which seemed to tip her over and cause her to flip midair.

Meanwhile, Alaster looked up at her from his knees, with tired eyes as his [Regeneration] healed the hole in his stomach.

“How you feeling kiddo?”

Alaster fell to his back as his legs lost all energy.

“Considering you just sent a beam of pure energy through me, just peachy.”

“Oh, come on! It wasn’t that bad!”

“Only because [Regeneration] kicked in! I don’t people are supposed to see their internal organs.”

“You spent so much time with the Knight, you must have seen your insides a ton!”

Alaster groaned but didn’t look up at her, “No, that jerk seemed perfectly content to just bludgeon me an inch from death repeatedly.”

“Well that’s boring.”

Alaster looked up to see her hanging upside down again, her long hair draping below her.

“Boring? Are you some type of blood thirsty woman?”

“No, I just like to keep things moving. If they stay the same, it grows boring.” She slowly spun around like a top.

“Seriously? That’s why you used so many different types of Magic?”

For the last twelve hours, she had bombarded him with more magic than he thought existed. Everything from Elemental Magic, to pure Mana attacks, to powerful blows that Alaster struggled to even understand.

“Of course!” She said in a tone that completely did not match her words. “Besides, I was also teaching you how those different Magics worked and could be used.”

“You just made that up right now, didn’t you?”

“Maybe.”

Alaster stared hard at her, but she seemed to find a nearby tree very fascinating.

“I have the Passive. What now?”

She smiled brightly, “First, [Magic Resistance] is a powerful Passive, but it isn’t all encompassing. You should still try your best to avoid receiving damage at all. Especially because you are not the Knight. Because he can’t use Magic at all, the System changes what it does for him. His [Magic Resistance] is going to be much more potent against magic than yours. Even then, he is not immune against magic.

I tell you this cause I don’t want you to get a big head. Not only do you still have to level it up to get any actual use out of it, but you should still avoid getting hit at all.”

“I understand that. He beat that belief into me, even if I was rarely able to avoid any of his blows.”

She chuckled, “Even if he weakened himself to your level, avoiding any of his attacks is impressive. Magic or no, I don’t know many who could last even exchange ten blows with him. At least no mortal. He is very skilled in close combat.”

She flipped upright and lowered her floating body to only a few inches off the wet snowy ground.

“Earlier, you said you wanted to learn Necromancy. At least, you wanted to learn more about it.”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Yeah, and you said there were three ways to go about it.”

“Let’s see what you remember.”

“First, and most known, is raising the dead. Higher levels will allow the Undead to keep some of their stats and Abilities from when they were still alive. But it requires corpses to be of use.”

“Good, next?”

“Then there is Material Undead. Which is what I primarily use. So long as I have Bone, or Flesh, if I level it enough, I can create Undead suited to my needs. This method tends to focus more on few but powerful Undead.”

“Yes. Go on.”

“Finally, the most commonly used method is using pure Magical power to create Undead Minions from Mana. These tend to be weaker than the other two methods, but has plenty of Minions, preferring to overwhelm the target through numbers.”

“Why is that?”

“Because each Spell has its own Minion Limit and levels and increases individually.”

“Yes! Good job. Nice to see nearly dying a dozen times didn’t effect your memory.” She cheerfully clapped, much like Alaster would expect a child to do.

“So what method are you going to teach me?”

“All of them obviously. You already use all three. Any somewhat intelligent Necromancer does. [Raise Undead] is part of the first method. [Skeleton Creation] is the second method, and the one you mostly use. And [Raise Mage] is the third method.

I am simply going to teach you more about them, as well as teach you the Spells, and how to use them.”

“Wait, can you just touch me and implant the Spell into my soul?”

She laughed, “No! Well, not without killing you. Which would really defeat the purpose. However, there are ways. For example, a God is capable of doing so, but they haven’t interacted with the Mortal Realm for a few centuries.

Come to think of it, with your [Soul Seal] Bonus, you might be able to tamper with the Soul, giving it Abilities, but that would be some really finicky work and would likely cause the destruction of dozens, if not hundreds, of souls before you get it right.”

“Do you know why the Gods haven’t interacted with the Mortal Realm?”

“Yeah, some type of war. Not that it involves us. Even the weakest of the enemy requires a dozen Experts to work together to defeat. We can’t help them, and if they break, we are doomed. So just live your life and don’t worry about the war. Not even the Knight and I would be much help.”

Alaster stood up, brushing off some of the snow. How could he possibly not worry about it? He needed to get stronger, and quickly.

“What are we starting with?” He asked, ready to begin.

“The third method. It’s the most simple.”

“Will I be able to use the second method to change them?”

“No. You are certainly not the first one to think of that. Once you do, the Minion will stop being classified as part of one of the Third Method spells and be considered as one of the [Raise Undead] Minions.”

“If they are different methods, why does the Second Method use the Minion Limit of the First Method?”

“Because the Second Method is really only a method of modification. The reason it doesn’t work with the third method is because the Spells of the third method summon the Minion out of your Mana. They aren’t quite physical. By modifying them, you make it physical, which then no longer falls under the Third Method.” She explained, slowly spinning around Alaster, causing him to keep turning.

“Then is it possible for another mage to dismiss the Minions or even take control?”

“Many have tried, and while yes, it is possible, it is only just. Even I would struggle to take control of your Undead, I could, but not without spending a moment to do so. And once you level up a few more times, I won’t be able to do so.” She said, still spinning around Alaster, but not also flipping head over feet as she did.

“What about dismissing them?”

“Much easier to do, but also much more complicated. To take control, its simply a matter of overpowering the owner’s soul, forcing it from the Minion, and replacing it with your own.

But to dismiss them? There are plenty of spells for dismissing Minions, but each one is reliant on being of equal power to the Caster.”

“So Novices can only dispel Novice Summons and so on?”

“Nope! Kinda. As a person levels up, their soul grows stronger. However, to various degrees. Each person is different, and each soul is different. Willpower is also extremely important, and I don’t mean the Stat. I’m talking about how much they are willing to fight. Because if it comes down to a fight between souls, you will to fight will be required, regardless of how powerful you are.”

“Is that it?”

“Mostly. For stupid Minions who can’t think for themselves, that is all that’s needed. But for Intelligent Minions who do think for themselves, no. When its dismissed, the soul of the owner loses control. Without a soul controlling them, the Minion can do what it likes.”

“So it could decide to keep serving its original master?”

She laughed once more, but it was not cheerful.

“Doubt it! You think the Minions enjoy being enslaved to you? Nah! They are likely to prioritize killing their former master than anything else.”

“Got it, be careful of Dismiss Spells. Anything else?”

“One last thing before we begin. Some Dismiss Spells are better suited to removing the owner’s soul from certain Minions than others. So if you ever make enemies of some holy folk, just be aware of that. Now then, first up on any Third Method user, [Skeletal Warrior]. Similar to your Blackguards, except more lightly armored.

However, you should know, it will require complete focus, plenty of Mana, and great control over it. You ready?”

“Yeah!”