"I don't need a bunch of indifferent gods, I need allies. Luckily, I know where to look for them."
***
Later, during the Necromancy class, Lith knew that something was wrong. Phloria had suddenly become incapable of looking him in the eyes without turning beet red, even choosing to sit as far away as possible from him.
- "I really hope that mom was joking when she talked about having dad preparing a betrothal gift for Lith. It would be the second most embarrassing moment of my life. Today would still get the first place."– Phloria thought.
After Professor Zeneff entered the classroom, she clapped her hand, Warping several rows of rat skeletons along the walls.
"As I told you last time, during our lessons I'll teach you how to animate lesser undead. By definition, lesser undead are all those reanimated creatures that do not have a mind of their own.
"Creating greater undead is either a crime, since it involves sacrificing someone's life, or ethically controversial. It's the closest thing to slavery, because the undead will have feelings and thoughts of its own but will be completely at the necromancer's mercy.
"That's why advanced Necromancy is a well kept secret. In case some of you gets too curious, be aware that researching advanced Necromancy or creating what basically are sentient slaves without the Crown's approval is a major crime.
"Now let's get back to our lesson. Among the lesser undead there are skeletons, zombies, crypt crawlers, and many others. Skeletons are the weakest and easiest to reanimate, yet we will start with something small. Each of you has to pick at least one rat skeleton.
"You'll soon discover that this exercise has two major hurdles. The first is to mark your creature before it becomes fully formed, otherwise it will eat your face. The second and most difficult one is controlling it with your will.
"Hopefully, by the end of the day ,you'll be able to make them move in the direction of your choice."
Another clap of her hands and a hardcover book with only two pages materialized on the students' desks. One was the Reanimating Skeletons spell, while the other was the Life Mark spell.
"Unlike other courses, I can't allow you to practice without supervision, it's too risky. Luckily my subject is simple, so our lessons should be plenty enough. I'll provide you new pages during the following lessons, they will self attach until the book will be complete.
Practice Life Mark first. Failing to animate the dead is not a big deal, giving undeath to a raving mad one is though."
While all his class looked at the skeleton with disgust, Lith read the spells a few times until he was sure of having memorized them.
- "She is right, these spells really are simple compared to the others I studied so far. Probably because fake Necromancy is the closest thing I ever encountered to its true magic counterpart. It requires will and imagination."–
Lith reanimated the rat on the first attempt, the problem was that the creature just stared dumbly at him. Lith furrowed his brow, squinting his eyes while concentrating until they were almost closed, but nothing happened.
"Excellent job! Ten points for mister Lith." Zeneff said.
"You are doing it wrong though. You can't control an undead with your mind, because it does not have one of its own. You must feel the mana residing in the carcass and manipulate it."
Cursing at his own stupidity, Lith did as instructed. Thanks to months of healing and dimensional magic, his mana sensibility had improved by leaps and bounds, but he was still lagging behind the others.
They had needed a few attempts to succeed, but now their rats moved without limping or staggering, unlike his own.
- "I still suck at mana sensitivity, but my mana control is in a league of its own. Let me try a new trick."–
Lith emitted an almost invisible tendril of darkness, directly connecting him and the skeleton. He wasn't using true magic. It could be barely classified as a trick using first magic. The moment the trick and the spell interacted, something unexpected happened.
Lith was now able to control the undead at will. The connection allowed him to bypass the sensitivity issue, like plugging a controller in a console without needing the batteries anymore.
"Fetch!" Lith ordered the rat that brought back a second skeleton that was promptly reanimated. Zeneff was surprised by the speed of Lith's progress. According to his file, his real talent lied in his open mind as a Healer and his rich battle experience.
None of them were supposed to help him in learning Necromancy. While most of the students were still trying to make their rat move, Lith was now controlling two undead at once, making them stand on their hind legs and performing the new world's equivalent of the minuet.
- "There is no reason to hold back anymore." Lith thought. "Either because of Phloria's mom's report or because those three b*astards will spill the beans on me during their trial, I'm going to have more enemies than ever.
Also, this is but a simple trick, there is no risk in sharing it with the academy. I need dozens of thousands points to afford some decent equipment."–
Along with many envious gazes, Lith received a few admiring ones. Professor Zeneff's was among those.