Lee Han returned to the tower. He was imagining himself as the Emperor’s most trusted advisor, throwing Headmaster Skull into the dungeon.
‘Hmm.’
A normal student would have cried, ‘I can’t study this even if you beat me to death! Just send me to the punishment room!’ But Lee Han was the type to try his best, even when things seemed impossible.
He didn’t know it, but this trait would cause him trouble later.
‘Hmm…’
Lee Han went to his room and opened the heavy book. It was called ‘Basic Ancient Necromancy – How to Summon Real Undead.’
It was a mix of old writing, different languages, and codes, but the book was organized in a standard way. Because of this, he could understand the general idea.
‘…No. Two-thirds of this book is useless to me.’
Thump!
Lee Han closed the book, surprised.
The old book about necromancy explained the third way to raise the dead, the one Professor Mortoom talked about. It taught everything from the very start to advanced magic.
Instead of just summoning undead, it was about using powerful magic on dead bodies to bring them back to life.
This type of magic was not used much anymore. It was very hard and used a lot of mana.
So, one-third of the book was about how to get more mana for black magic, and another third was about how to save mana when using magic.
In other words…
Two-thirds of the book was unnecessary.
‘Good thing there’s less to learn.’
Lee Han was relieved. He already had a lot to study and didn’t want more. Plus, he had seen that some of the methods were not very nice.
Mixing dirt from a 17-year-old grave with powder from 11-year-old bones, putting it in Krangten solution, and drinking it three times a day would give you more mana…
‘Ah, that’s why black magic isn’t popular,’ he thought about the training methods.
Lee Han was happy to have a lot of mana for once.
He didn’t have to do things like that!
The last third of the book had useful information.
It talked about all kinds of dead bodies, what happens when you use necromancy on them, and what to watch out for.
A knight’s body has pure mana in its bones, which makes it good for raising. Knights don’t like to give up their dead friends, so try to get them when they are not paying attention during the new moon each month…
Lee Han looked around his room without thinking.
…No one’s here, right?
‘This old book has some crazy ideas.’
But he understood why. Necromancy that summoned things from other places depended a lot on the ingredients used.
The stronger the bones or bodies, the stronger the things that were summoned.
So, necromancy that used dead bodies completely would be very affected by the body.
So, wizards should get used to carrying some bone pieces in their pockets, belt bags, sleeve pockets, and boots. That way, they won’t be in trouble if something happens. It’s more common than you think to not find dead bodies when you need them…
‘There are more good things about this than I thought.’
Old-fashioned necromancy, or classical necromancy, had more advantages than he first thought.
Necromancy that summoned things had limits to how strong the summoned undead could become.
Since it summoned beings from other dimensions, there was only so much a wizard could do to make them stronger.
Unless they summoned something even stronger.
But classical necromancy, which made them directly, could be made as strong as the wizard’s skill allowed.
For example, if you cast a spell on a pile of bones to make them fight as a skeleton warrior, you could make it stronger in many ways, like using better bones or adding magic spells.
Also, it was much tougher.
Necromancy that summoned things wouldn’t be able to come back from the other dimension until it healed if it was hit and sent back.
But with classical necromancy, the wizard could just wave their wand again to fix it as long as they had mana.
‘I see why Headmaster Skull told me to learn it…’
Seeing the good things about it, he understood why he was told to learn it.
Of course, that didn’t make him any less angry.
‘…But the rest are all bad things.’
It used a lot of mana.
It had a complicated magic structure that had to be made for each undead (like making an artifact for each one).
It needed the wizard to focus and give each one orders.
As the magic got better, mana use could be lowered, magic could be cast more easily, and commands could be given more smoothly, but…
He thought it was just too hard to start learning this magic.
‘The >Skeleton Warrior Summoning> that this book starts with… is 4th Circle.’
Saying it was 4th Circle meant that a wizard outside the school would be praised and called a ‘great Archmage.’
There were so many good wizards in Einroguard that things like ‘Master 4th Circle magic’ were said all the time.
Lee Han was really angry again.
‘Professor Voladi and Headmaster Skull are going too far, aren’t they?’
If it was around 2nd or 3rd Circle, he would have acted like he couldn’t win and studied it early, but he was shocked by the 4th Circle magic.
Lee Han sighed and took out the bone pieces he got from Professor Mortoom.
“The spells that can be cast on the left arm are as follows… Levitation, Rotation, Binding, Striking…”
What else could he do?
It was homework, so he had to do it!
The students of the Blue Dragon Tower were confused because Lee Han hadn’t left his room, even though it was the weekend and he had only eaten a small breakfast.
It didn’t matter if Gainando slept in or became an undead in his room, but Lee Han worried them even if he wasn’t seen for a few hours.
His friends were eating sandwiches with jam, cheese, smoked meat, and eggs on toast. They started to worry when Lee Han still didn’t come out.
“Didn’t you make Lee Han angry yesterday?”
“Ah, no! Lee Han suggested it, but I said I didn’t want to go to the Undead Realm. And I bothered Lee Han, who has a lot to study, to play card games! But I can do that, right?”
“……”
“You trash. It’s your fault!”
“Go apologize quickly!”
“Ah… it’s not!”
Gainando grumbled and knocked on Lee Han’s door.
After a moment, Lee Han’s voice was heard.
“The door’s open. Come in.”
“Lee Han, these guys are saying mean things… Lee Han! Help! Headmaster Skull is attacking!”
“!!!”
“Everyone, come here! Lee Han is being attacked!”
The students had been attacked by the undead in the tower before, so they rushed over.
Just when things seemed calm, Headmaster Skull had snuck into Lee Han’s room with an undead team because it was the weekend.
It was a sneaky trick.
“Go up righ-“
Thump!
The Princess stopped her friends with a serious look, holding her wand.
“Why?!”
“Wait! Don’t go in yet! We could be attacked. Stay low and use magic from here!”
The follower told the Princess’s plan to her friends.
It sounded like a good idea, so the friends stayed low under the stairs and got ready to use their magic.
“Lee Han! We’re coming to help you now!”
“Now!”
The Princess ran out and cast Magic Missile.
A blue light flashed and a ball of mana flew quickly.
Clang!
But the attack was stopped by a water shield. Lee Han pulled on Gainando’s ear, who had fallen over, and said.
“Everyone, stop. I’m not being attacked.”
“Wo… Lee Han!!”
“…No. He is being attacked!!”
The friends were shocked.
Lee Han’s room was full of skeleton warriors.
“Headmaster didn’t send them. I raised them. They’re not ready to move yet, but…”
Lee Han tapped his wand. The skeleton warriors didn’t move.
‘Still a long way to go.’
Lee Han had already learned >Bone Hand Summoning Magic> and >Bone Restraint Summoning Magic>, and was good at changing and controlling the elements.
“Bone, be fired.”
Thwack!
“Bone, become armor.”
Crack!
“Bone, become a wall.”
Crack crack!
These were simple necromancy spells using bones, which the book showed for basic training.
Spells that changed or fired bones in different ways were easy for Lee Han.
‘…Still, isn’t it too easy?’
Lee Han wondered. He remembered how worried he was about the fire spreading when he used the fire element. Bones were really easy.
‘Are bones just easy? Maybe it’s because I practiced with other elements first.’
If Professor Mortoom was there, he would have said, ‘Black magic is never easy. You’re just very talented.’ But Lee Han was alone in the room.
The dark elements, yin energy, bones, and poisons used in black magic were hard, not easy.
If you said, ‘Bones are easier than the fire element,’ people might think you were crazy, like a black magician.
“Then now… come out.”
Now that he had finished all the basic training, he had to start practicing skeleton summoning.
Before that, Lee Han summoned the skeleton warrior he had made a deal with in the Undead Realm.
The summoned skeleton warrior knelt in front of Lee Han to show respect.
Because of the difference in their mana, it was natural.
Sharkan, who had been summoned before, yawned and tapped the floor with his tail.
He was saying, why summon such a weak summon when he was there!
“Okay. Nice to meet you. What’s your name?”
The skeleton warrior was surprised and refused, even though he wasn’t very smart.
He meant that he wasn’t good enough to have a name.
“No. I need a name to call you. You are… Gonadaltes.”
The skeleton warrior refused as if he couldn’t accept it because he was so grateful, but Lee Han insisted.
“Gonadaltes. I called you because I want to practice classical necromancy. I need to create undead using bones and bodies, and it would be good to have a textbook to look at.”
Just like you learn by looking at a finished artifact when making an artifact, it was good to look at a skeleton warrior to create a skeleton warrior that moved on its own.
Gonadaltes, the skeleton warrior, stood up straight.
“Thank you. Shall we start then?”
Three hours later.
Lee Han frowned and sat on the chair, looking at the piles of bones.
‘It’s not easy.’
Making the shape of a skeleton warrior wasn’t hard.
It was like making a slightly harder shield or armor.
But making the warrior move well was different.
Crack!
Another skeleton warrior broke while trying to make it shoot an arrow on its own.
‘Fixing them every time they break isn’t easy either.’
Lee Han paused.
‘I can just make a few from the start, right?’
It seemed better to make a few from the start than to break one and fix one. It would use a lot of mana, but that didn’t matter. The mental strength and focus…
‘I could make dozens of water orbs, so I should be able to make about a dozen skeleton warriors. If not, I can make less later.’
“You know? They’re failures, so they’re not very impressive.”
“…Lee Han. You know that normal wizards don’t carry around fifteen summons by themselves, right?”