A bit more relaxed now he wasn’t filling up with the grey mana, he watched as the mana in the skull completely rotated through his body. He started to feel a pull towards the pile of bones, it was weak enough that he wasn’t sure about it, at that point though he had stopped controlling the mana and was just watching it. He hadn’t been able to work out how to sever his connection beyond maybe smashing the skull but he wanted to have exhausted all options before doing that. He followed the pull, bringing the skull to the pile of bones and digging through before he found what he believed was a vertebrae as soon as he picked it up he felt it was the right one, he brought it to the base of the skull and held it there. Nothing happened, he could see the grey mana in the vertebrae and the same grey mana in the skull that was still cycling through his core, except as he looked he realised it wasn’t the same mana the mana in the skull was a slightly darker grey. Curious Gar picked up several other bones at random and they all had the same slightly lighter grey mana as the vertebrae.
He had obviously done something to the mana in the skull something about cycling it through his core had changed it in some way. Gar wondered whether he could do the same with other bones, he didn’t however want to start a second cycle running through him. Instead he took a hold of some of the mana in the skull, which to his surprise he found he could do with ease, and pushed that mana from the skull into the vertebrae, this seemed to link that bone into the cycle because soon the mana from it was being pulled through the skull through Gars core then back into the vertebrae. Gar sat and waited watching closely, this time he noticed as the colour in the bone slowly changed, once it was complete he let go of the vertebrae and it stayed in place. Feeling the pull of another bone after that one was changed, Gar knew he was going to see this through, his earlier panic and worries washed away in a wave of fascination and wonder.
That is what he did; adding bone by bone to the cycle, some bones took longer than others and some bones particularly those with chips or fractures seemed to drain some mana from his core, but each bone was in pristine condition by the time he was done with it. At numerous points he had options as to which bone to do next, he had focussed on working from the head down to tail last. All which left him sat where he was many hours later in the dark of night with a single bone left at the tip of the tail. Gar watched with bated breath as the last piece was added, he felt when it was complete; there was no more pull to add another piece or to really do anything. Gar sat watching waiting for something to happen, nothing did and the mana just kept cycling like it had for a while.
He just let out a sigh of exasperation and laid back thinking to himself he would just take a few minutes to relax and lay there for a while, when all of a sudden he heard the clatter of bones. He immediately sat back up and looked over the badger skeleton which had been standing on its feet since he finished adding the legs, it was on the ground. Not having fallen apart but more like it had lain down. This was too much he hadn’t known what would happen when he finished but he wasn’t expecting this, needing to take a minute Gar decided it was time to read the notifications he had been ignoring. The first couple where expected.
“Mana control levelled up mana control level 7”
“Mana control levelled up mana control level 8”
Then things got interesting
“New skill acquired death magic level 1”
“Death magic levelled up death magic level 2”
“Death magic levelled up death magic level 3”
So it seemed the grey mana was some form of death mana and in controlling it he had done death magic, it sounded ominous but he was too overexcited by having his own magic to care at that moment. The notifications still weren’t done.
“New spell acquired skeletal puppet level 1”
A spell an actual spell Gars excitement was building, the next notification was done all in gold lettering with fancy golden curls around it
“Achievement earned: Self-taught arcana”
“Self-taught arcana: through perseverance or dumb luck you have learnt your first spell with no outside help. For this feat your first spell shall be improved.”
As he closed this notification he was almost blinded by a grey flash it lasted a moment but after it was gone his badger skeleton looked bulkier and thicker. It was all too much for him to deal with right then, he stood and walked to his shelter barely registering as the skeleton followed him, it was late and he would deal with everything in the morning.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“New stats added to status: + 2 willpower”
The next morning Gar was surprised by the pile of bones curled up by his feet, if asked he would deny that he screamed when it turned to look at him as he sat up. He got up and lit a fire for some pine needle tea; he was going to have to see about getting some more pine needles soon as most of the ones he had where going brown. He made his tea and started cooking some of the strips of dried badger in a frying pan. It was a little disconcerting frying the badger meat while its skeleton stood behind him and seemed to watch. It did bring his focus to what he would be doing that day, investigating his new skeletal companions’ capabilities.
As he sat and ate his breakfast the skeleton just stood behind him. First thing was to have a good look at it Gar turned around where he sat and looked at the skeleton, it appeared slightly larger and all around thicker than the original skeleton, it was low to the ground topping out half way up his calf, but would reach his hip if stood up on its back legs. Activating mana sight he could see it was filled with what he now knew to be death mana and even more interesting there was still a string of the death mana cycling through his core despite him no longer touching the skeleton, it seemed to be a string of mana floating in the air connecting himself and the skeleton, Gar thought to himself that he would have to test and see how far that could stretch, but be careful because now he had made a puppet he didn’t want it to break the string and destroy the skeleton or worse just break a control of it. Shutting of mana site the next step was observe and inspect he was unsure which was correct to use on the skeleton puppet so activated both simultaneously. He was glad he did because both gave back results, floating above its head were the result of observation.
“Skeletal puppet (badger) level N/A”
Useful and it was good to be able to keep it marked but the inspect results where what really held his interest.
Skeletal puppet badger
The skeleton of a badger animated by Gar through the use of the basic death magic spell skeletal puppet, improved by the self-taught arcana achievement, slightly smarter and tougher than normal.
Uses: Puppet
Quality: Great
Rarity: Common
Durability: 200/200
This one was the first time he had seen his name in an inspection result he couldn’t help but wonder if others would see it when inspecting his puppet. He was happy to find out his achievement had made it both tougher and smarter he had no base line to go off but more was only better. The other thing the inspect did was to remind him he had gotten a spell to do this, he could do it again if he wanted. It solved what he was going to do next because he almost felt a need to look at his spell and see what it did so he opened his status
Status
Race: Gargoyle
Name: Gar
Level: 2
Experience to next level 138/150
Health: 145/145
Stamina: 152/152
Mana: 72/72
Constitution: 12 Endurance: 12
Strength: 14 Agility: 6
Dexterity: 6 Willpower: 11 (10)
Wisdom: 7 Intelligence: 7
Charisma: 3 Perception: 9
Luck: 5
Free attribute points: 3
Abilities
Racial
- Grotesque: The Grotesque of a gargoyle is its strength, add monster parts to you to truly strike fear into others
- Dark vision: As a creature of the dark born to stand guard in the night you have excellent vision in the dark
Personal
- Mana sight: Able to see the mana flow in the world
Skills
- Observe, level 4: Allows the user to see details of the world around them
- Fire starting, level 3: learning the basics of getting fire going, makes the process easier
- Inspect, level 3: allows a closer inspection of many things to see more information about them, dependant on other skills and knowledge
- Climb, level 3: Improves ones climbing ability’s reach for higher heights and you might even get there.
- Traps, level 4: Improves your skill with traps whether they be for prey or enemies.
- Basic spear, level 1: The skill of knowing which end of a spear is which, the pointy end goes in the other guy
- Knot work, level 2: Knowing the difference between a clove hitch and a sheepshank, joining things with some rope
- Swimming, level 1: Improves as you swim as you improve how you swim. An improvement to your swimming
- Hauling, level 5: Can haul more, faster and easier as you level it up. Hauling to pull or drag with effort or force
- Cooking, level 3: Learn the culinary arts become one of the greats, or not just have good food.
- Woodworking, level 4: How to use a bit of wood to do many things. Well some things for now.
- Felling, level 1: See that tree standing there, cut it down, well done now you are felling.
- Throwing, level 1: Use your body and your physical strength to propel an object through the air, throwing things.
- Butchery, level 2: The art of taking apart a corpse and breaking it down into useful parts.
- Mana Control, level 8: Mana that ephemeral base of magic, just make it do what you want.
- Sharpening, level 1: change things from blunt to sharp.
- Sewing, level 1: with needle and thread anything can happen.
- Cartography, level 1: Draw maps.
- Death magic, level 3: The energy of death itself is yours to command.
Free skill points: 1
Spells
- Skeletal Puppet, level 1: Bind a skeleton to you and use it as you will, boosted. Reserves some willpower for the skeleton
Achievements
- Self-taught arcana: Through preservation or dumb luck you have learnt your first spell with no outside help. For this feat your first spell shall be improved.