Garath was not inspired by her ‘throw shit at the wall and see what sticks’ advice, but the little girl’s approach had resulted in the title of Archmage. He shrugged and then tried to pull in his focus with a deep breath as Daisy moved past him to check on her other students.
Trying to push Mana through his veins while casting Death Bolt didn’t have any tangible result as far as Garath could tell. He tried to force the Mana into his heart through sheer strength of will, hoping that it would then be forced to move through his veins, but in the end, the Mana just followed the predetermined path up to his shoulders and unhindered down his arms to form a Death Bolt between his hands. Frustrated, Garath released the black orb of magic into the sky and watched it fly.
Discouraged, he decided to try Daisy’s second suggestion. He spent long minutes meditating and focusing on his Mana core in order to will it into the neon green color he was going for. After a few minutes of trying and failing, Garath sighed dramatically. When he opened his eyes and reoriented himself, he heard Maimon exclaiming that he’d just unlocked Spell Design. Garath almost screamed in frustration. Forcing himself to calm with deep breathing and a maturity that was frankly beyond himself, the Necrologist closed his eyes and continued his efforts.
Instead of focusing on the color or route of his Mana, Garath took a few seconds to simply clear his mind of the frustration of his repeated failures and jealousy. It was there, in the deliberate quiet of his mind, that Handsome’s terrible voice scratched a silent word of advice into Garath’s thick skull.
*Hate.*
Garath’s eyes sprang open. The unexpected and horrible sound of Handsome’s voice in his mind shredded his focus to ribbons. For only a second, Garath was furious with the winged demon. Then he realized that Handsome was trying to help him, and he felt his Mana pool slowly returning from a bright neon green to its regular sapphire tint. The anger he’d felt when the demon had so rudely interrupted his focus must have been exactly what he’d needed!
Thrilled to bits, Garath closed his eyes again and fixed a portrait of Maimon’s smug-ass face in his mind. He imagined the Rabbi taunting him with deeply personal insults. It only took a second or two before he felt the rage swelling within himself, and then, success! Garath’s Mana pool brightened, intensifying into neon green. Again, Handsome offered a word of advice within his mind.
*More.*
Garath let himself dwell on the growing hatred, feeling it build like indigestion after a night of tequila and enchiladas. As his hatred grew, Garath’s Mana pool churned and bubbled at his center. Within a few seconds, Garath felt the burning-acid sensation he was now correlating with Felfire Bolt as it spread throughout his chest. It hurt, but it was bearable.
*More,* came Handsome’s terrible voice once again into Garath’s rage-filled mind.
Garath didn’t know how much more hatred he was capable of generating, but there was only one way to find out. He wiped away the image of Maimon hurling insults at him in his mind and replaced it with one of Athios telling him that she could never be with someone like him, a murderer and a monster that didn’t care about anything or anyone except fulfilling his own lust for greater power. Warrion joined the self-imposed, made-up mental-abuse by telling Garath he wasn’t a leader worth following. Just another piece of shit with delusions of grandeur that was going to get everyone killed.
The once calm, blue Mana pool at Garath’s center was now blindingly green and pounding in time with the furious rhythm of his heart when Maimon made his second appearance in Garath’s masochistic fantasy. This time, the Rabbi was taking a baseball bat to the bloodied forms of Athios, Auto, Warrion, and even Sharon, mercilessly killing all of Garath’s closest friends. That last bit put the Necrologist over the edge, but it seemed to do the trick.
The wildly churning neon-green Mana pool in Garath’s center condensed in a flash, coming together to form an insanely concentrated ball of boiling green Mana. Instead of staying in his center as his Mana pool always had before, the concentrated orb of green Mana was situated in his chest, right where his heart was.
For long, panic-inducing seconds, Garath’s heart stopped beating entirely. He grew suddenly and uncontrollably dizzy. In a merging of body and Mana, Garath’s heart started beating again, sending tiny slivers of the neon orb throughout his body with each pump.
A notification appeared, visible to the Necrologist even with his eyes squeezed shut in a hate-fueled rage. Instinctively though, Garath opened his eyes to read the system notification.
His vision was a hazy vignette. Despite the too-drunk feeling of dizziness and nausea threatening to overtake him, Garath could make out the blurry forms of Athios and Sharon behind the semi-transparent words in front of him. They both looked scared and deeply concerned. He hoped for a second that nothing terrible had happened while he’d had his eyes closed, and then he passed out.
Chapter Twenty-One – A Cuddly Demon?
When Garath’s consciousness returned, his eyelids felt heavy, and he had to lay there for a time. Even with his eyes closed, Garath could tell that he was lying down, face-up in the grass outside the Guild Hall. The same place he’d been when…
Garath remembered what had led up to his sudden loss of consciousness and his mind’s eye turned frantically to inspect his Mana pool. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw only calm, sapphire energy pooled at his center. When he refilled his lungs through his nose, the familiar and welcome scent of Athios tickled his nostrils. The scent reminded his still-swimming mind of the moment he’d shared with the dark-haired beauty earlier that day, and the happy memory granted Garath the strength he needed to finally open his eyes.
Athios sat a few inches away from him, her dark eyes staring into the sky, nervously removing braids from her hair. Garath watched silently until Athios’ hair once again hung loosely around her shoulders. She leaned back and shook her head lightly before carefully separating her hair into even thirds, and then began to weave it into a braid once again. Garath watched three full iterations of her braid forming and reforming in silent appreciation of her features before the gig was up.
“About time you came back around,” came the accusatory tone of Sharon’s voice from somewhere to his right. “You had us worried.”
Garath didn’t look away from Athios. She turned quickly to check on him, dropping a half-formed braid to hang unfinished against her back. Athios flung herself onto him, wrapping both arms around his neck to cradle his head. The obvious relief that swept across her face upon seeing him conscious again had to have been the sweetest thing Garath had ever seen. He knew that Athios returned his feelings for her, but there was something honest in her expression at that moment. Garath did his best to record this memory in all of its oh-so-touching detail, then slowly pushed himself into a sitting position.
“What happened?” Athios asked. “The glowy thing your eyes do started doing a strobe light, like on/off thing under your eyelids, then…” Athios didn’t finish the sentence. Instead, she motioned at Garath lying on the ground.
“I was trying to unlock Spell Design, then Handsome started giving me advice,” Garath said, realizing then that he’d just taken advice from a demon without even thinking about it.
“Handsome? You took advice from a demon that takes naps in corpses after eating their hearts?” Athios asked, incredulous. “Is that how you got these new tattoos?”
“I did that,” Garath admitted, scratching at the back of his head sheepishly. “Tattoos?” He looked down and sure enough, a tangle of twisted, neon-green ribbons branched up and down the length of his arms. Garath stood up and lifted his shirt up to his chest, revealing more tattoos, all branching out from a central location on his chest. Curiously, Garath pulled the front of his jeans out a bit to inspect his parts. Thankfully, there were no neon-green tattoos on his man-bits, but they did wrap all the way down his legs.
“Probably,” Garath said. He was sure that Handsome hadn’t been trying to do anything that would hurt him. A
t least he was pretty sure. After Handsome evolved into a Cambionic Flayer, the system prompt said that the little winged demon would no longer be looking for opportunities to harm him. Or something like that. Then Garath remembered a prompt had appeared seconds before he passed out. “Whatever happened, I think it worked. Give me a second to read my prompts.”
Athios and Sharon stared at Garath with the exact same expression over folded arms. The look said it all. Are you seriously this stupid?
Garath noticed, but didn’t care—he was excitedly opening his notifications. There were a lot more of the informational system messages than he was expecting but, thanks to a change he’d made in his MENU settings, they appeared chronologically.
Congratulations, Garath! You have unlocked the Master Necrologist Ability, The Demon Within.
The following changes have taken place:
A Tainted Soul partition has been added to your MENU panels.
Your spells with the additional cost “Tainted Soul” now provide two stacks of Tainted Soul instead of one.
In your natural form, Tainted Soul now… Error.
Know this, Garath:
Through no fault of your own, a system error has occurred, due to the blessing placed on your natural form by the Cait Sith, Tarzan. The Necrologist Ability, The Demon Within, has been rendered ineffective.
Please remain patient while a solution is prepared.
Know this, Garath, Leader of Man:
Again, you are truly blessed. Use wisely the gifts you have been given.
Congratulations, Garath!
Your Master Necrologist Ability, The Demon Within, has been converted to a new Master Necrologist Ability, The Demon Without.
The following changes have taken place:
You are now in command of an Onikasha.
A Profile has been added to the Summoned Creatures partition of your MENU panels for your Onikasha.
Your spells with the additional cost “Tainted Soul” now provide two stacks of Tainted Soul instead of one.
In your natural form, the additional spell cost “Tainted Soul” will be transferred to feed and nourish your Onikasha.
*Note: Often found in graveyards, Onikasha gain solidity and power by consuming the darkness tainting the souls of the dead. Though your Onikasha is currently an infant, incorporeal and helpless, it will follow you as it matures. Your Onikasha has imprinted on you and will see you as its parent.
**Additional Note: At a personal Level of 30, your Onikasha will be fully matured. Once fully matured, an Onikasha is capable of summoning and controlling demons of its own.
Garath was speechless. He just stood there in front of Athios and Sharon with a stupid look on his face for long seconds until, finally, Sharon slapped him across the face. The slap only inflicted a single point of damage, but the stinging sensation on his cheek brought Garath back to the here and now.
He blinked rapidly. “Sorry,” he said. “I just, I was just trying to…” Garath stopped talking and his brows drew together as he tried again to understand the prompts he’d just read. It wasn’t until he saw Sharon winding up for a second bitch slap that Garath shook himself out of his stupor and relayed the information he was puzzling over.
“So, you have an invisible demon that follows you around now too?” Sharon asked, nose wrinkled as she looked all around the Necrologist suspiciously.
“I guess so,” Garath confirmed, also looking around to see if he could catch a glimpse of this Onikasha. “I’m not sure I really understand it myself. Listen, both of you, thank you for watching over me while I was passed out or whatever. Seriously, seeing both of you when I woke up was… well, it meant a lot to me. So, thank you. I’m feeling better, but I really think I need to go lay down. I think I’m going to call it an early night.”
“I think that’s a good idea,” Sharon agreed. Her deceptively youthful face was lined with concern for just a fraction of a second before she once again had the look of someone accusing Garath of some heinous crime.
“If you’re sure,” Athios said softly. “See you in the morning?”
Garath gave a noncommittal nod as he headed back to the Guild Hall. He had plans with Auto for the following morning, but the Necrologist was in no mood to explain that to Athios at the moment. He walked past chatting groups in the main hall of the old brick building, past the restrooms, and then opened the door to the room he’d been sharing with Warrion. The Necrologist hadn’t been spending his nights there lately, preferring instead to stay under the stars on his clifftop, but the quiet, safe place was just what Garath needed to process all of the information that was just dumped on him. He was glad, but not surprised, to find the room vacant. Warrion had made some mention of working on making poisons earlier that day although, Garath couldn’t be sure the Assassin wasn’t just sleeping with Stealth active. He guessed it didn’t really matter.
The Necrologist was interested in this Onikasha, and accessed his MENU panels. He navigated to the Summoned Creatures partition and opened his newest demon’s Profile.
Onikasha
Race: Demon
Level: 1
Station: infant
Soul Taints to next Level: 0/10
Health: 10/10
Mana: 10/10
Attributes
Vitality: 1 - Each point of Vitality provides +10 to maximum Health.
Wisdom: 1 - Each point of Wisdom provides +10 to maximum Mana.
Regeneration: 1 - As an Onikasha, each point of Regeneration increases Mana recovery rate by +.65 per second; Health recovery rate by +.375 per second; and recovery from injury by +3%.
Strength: 0 - In addition to making one stronger, each point of Strength increases physical attack damage by 1% and reduces damage received from physical attacks by .25%.
Dexterity: 0 - In addition to making one more agile, each point of Dexterity improves the critical strike chance of physical attacks by +.3%; the critical strike damage of physical attacks by +3%; and improves chance to dodge by +.5%.
At least it would only take him five spells with the additional cost of Tainted Soul to get his little baby Onikasha up to Level 2. He couldn’t wait to see what it looked like, but wasn’t sure when that would happen. Having a creature under his control that could summon and control more creatures almost sounded too good to be true, and Garath couldn’t wait to get to that point. Maybe Tarzan eating my Celestial Wisp wasn’t such an awful thing.
Garath slumped into an empty corner. His neck and back relaxed as he leaned against the joining of two walls. His thoughts drifted from the failures of his lesson with Daisy to the new Summoned Creature that was supposedly following him around, though he couldn’t see it. There was certainly a new presence occupying a small portion of his mind-space, but it was so small and weak that Garath hadn’t even felt the addition when it had happened. More tired than he felt like he should be, the Necrologist closed his eyes and knew that sleep was near.
Then, so faintly that he couldn’t be sure it wasn’t just his imagination, Garath felt something tiny nuzzle into his chest. He opened his eyes briefly, but the only indication near the area he’d felt something was a small indentation on his black cloth robe, barely more than a fold in the fabric. He watched the spot on his chest with sleepy eyes until the strain of keeping them open became too much, and then he fell asleep.
Chapter Twenty-Two – Crikey, Mate!
The next morning, Garath left the Guild Hall to meet up with Auto. Once outside, Garath found that Gary’s boys already had a fire going. The smells of wood smoke and coffee paired wonderfully with the brisk early morning breeze. Unsurprisingly, Auto had yet to find his way out of the tent he shared with Maimon. Garath had spoken to Gary about setting up rooms for the group of guys from Wyoming, but the Guild Hall was nearly at capacity already. Auto, Maimon, and the twins had all insisted that it was not a big deal, stating that they'd been sleeping in tents since The Culling. Gary insisted in turn that they at least set up camp within the ten-meter perimete
r of the 'inviolate' Guild Hall, and that's exactly what they did.
Garath made a right after exiting the building and hugged the west-facing wall. For a moment he considered getting back at Maimon for the hit-like-a-girl slight the day before by willing Handsome into existence inside of their tent without explanation and giving the demon instructions to scare the shit out of the Rabbi. The Necrologist entertained the idea for a long, gleefully sadistic moment until the opportunity passed when Auto unzipped the door and staggered out, bleary-eyed.
Together, the Necrologist and the Chimerist lethargically filled a few cups with the aromatic brew provided by Gary's boys, then took a seat in the outdoor dining area. It didn’t quite stack up to the Crystillium-Infused Coffee that Garath would have made, but who was he to refuse?
Gary had done a great job with the place, Garath noticed. The bearded man had erected a sturdy pipe structure and then repurposed an oversized flag, which was draped across to form a tent. Gary and his boys had brought couches, and had even constructed a few new tables and matching chairs. Overall, it had something of a white-trash lawn display feel, but it was comfortable and shaded from the sun and rain.
The Tree of Ascension: A LitRPG Apocalypse (Peril's Prodigy Book 2) Page 24