Hungry Necromancer

"My arms, they're healed!"

Kaylin wakes up with a start and gasps at her arms which she rightfully expects to be clawed to shit. But truly, they've been healed.

It turns out, the caveat of the Healing Dire spell, one of many variations of the Summon Spirit spell, is to limit the movement of the summon entirely.

The wolf would basically function as a healing spot for anyone within range and it's range was terribly limited as well. So anyone wanting to get healed or have a feeling of tranquility wash over them would simply have to walk over or petition me to summon the wolf closer to them.

Still, this is one of the best times to have found such a spell, a veritable hidden gem right under my nose, hidden under my most used spell.

With such a discovery, I set out logically to look through the other spells in the list, noting what other gems I could find underneath.

Soul Drain also has a rather useful upgrade, now, if I wanted, I could tune the spell to suck out mana instead of HP, a problem I think I'll be having in the future if my battles with the Cult are to continue.

Animate Animal of course had the upgrade to fill in the empty shells of the animal corpses I use the spell on. But so, did all my other transformation spells. Create Undead and Raise the Dead both had the same upgrade as the first available to me.

But this doesn't mean their uses are interchangeable. Strategic thinker that I am, I find great use taking possession of smaller, undead animals to carry out reconnaissance. 

The use of this Upgrade on Raise the Dead cannot be ignored however, it'll very well allow me to be at the frontlines of my horde battling without actually being there. Information gathering during the heat of battle can and will change the tide of battle.

For Create Undead, it's quite simply attacking the right person with the right ferocity. With a Ghoul, flexible limbs wielding terrifying blades on each digit of its fingers, I can be much more creative with such a body.

Unfortunately, I still haven't used any of my transformation spells to the point where I can upgrade them. Animate Animal more to my own negligence than anything really.

However, there are still Sprit Summons's upgrades. With my constant and unending use through the months of being in this world I've managed to unlock three other variations of the spell.

Still, as always, there's a problem. A problem I'm hoping Kaylin can help me with.

"Welcome back, Kaylin. How are you feeling?" I give her a hand to hold onto as she gingerly gets back on her feet.

"Ugh," she groans, "I feel like my head has been stabbed, kicked and thrown like a ball several times. What was that back there?"

I can only shake my head at her question, "I don't know, but it's obviously some kind of mind power the Cult is using now."

"How- I mena, I didn't think we'd ger out," she gasps, her thoughts forming slowly and the memories of whatever she saw out there coming back to her no doubt. She chokes on her voice as she speaks, "I saw…Someone, someone that wasn't meant to be there, here…anywhere."

"I'm not quite sure how we got out, but since I kinda…" my face flushes up thinking about it, "I think it has something to do with mana anyway…let's not get into details."

She gives me a weird look at this but doesn't pay me much mind as her eyes trail around her, "Where's Anselm? Did he make it out?"

I nod, "Yes, before you woke up, we were talking about how to get through the…mind field if you will." She snorts but nod nonetheless, "I have a spell…a ritual more like and Anselm is scouting me some materials."

She blinks, tilting her head to the side, "A ritual?"

Under her stare I get a bit nervous, this ritual would prove to be a bit…offensive to her. Hopefully she mindlessly does as I ask of her and nothing else but in the time that she was unconscious it seems I forgot how chatty and nosy the woman can be.

"Yes." Is all I answer.

As expected, she gives me another look, wiggling her eyebrows and jerking her lip to the side, plainly asking for more information.

"Look, all you need to know is that it summons some spirits that will help and protect us and but really want some of your hair in exchange."

She does a doubletake before screaming, "My what?"

Suddenly I feel a familiar shiver come run all around me. Ah! Anselm is back!

In his physical form it seems he becomes susceptible to the influences of the Mind-Field. In his complete ethereal form however, he reports he moves about fine and dandy.

Lobing a ball of mana close by, Anselm soon takes form and is ready to save me from Kaylin's hounding question.

"I found salt and vinegar pretty close by, there's a building that isn't completely destroyed by whatever battle happened here. Around that area I also found some skulls, it looks like they were running to the village."

"Is the village intact though? Is Carbina in one piece?"

He nods, "I couldn't get any closer though, I began to feel that same pressure on my mind if I did, but I can see that Carbina is intact…but it's also the epicentre of whatever this thing is."

Nodding grimly, I figured that would be the case. The five totems that loomed over head in the distance all seem to pump out a certain power. To and fro from the centre, Carbina itself.

I'm sure this is the old magic Leriva spoke of in that briefing. Just as she said, they are trapped.

"You need a skull, salt and vinegar…and my hair?" Kaylin's shrill voice cuts through my thoughts. "What sort of…spell is this? What are you going to do to me?"

Anselm groans, "Relax woman. We're not doing anything to you, the spell just needs your hair and those other items to work. Else we'll be forced to spit out mana around us just to push back on the Mind-Field."

She blinks, slowly digesting what Anselm has said, but I don't think that's the end to the explanation, "If this is one of those virgin girl spells then…" she scoffs mildly, "I'm sorry to disappoint but, I'm not your girl."

Inhaling I find myself on the cusp of an angry outburst. "Your…status has nothing to do with this. And we're only being polite, Kaylin." It's true, if she keeps on being difficult, I'll simply reveal the lock of hair I borrowed from her while she was asleep.

As it stands, I'm really only asking her permission because of how personal to her this spell-ritual is. 

"If you really want to be polite, you'll treat me as a part of this team." She punctuates this accusation with a masterful and excessive hair flip, "Don't you think I notice how you don't bother with me? And Anselm always seems like he'd rather be doing something else than talk to me."

"That's not true, you're a welcome break from Ash here, at least when you're not bothering me with questions."

"You want to know what this spell is? Why this ritual demands some of your hair?" I say this while pulling out the bundle of white, soft locks from one of my pouches. 

"The ritual calls on the suffered souls of the fey, the elves to protect the caster- me. It needs your hair, an elves hair as proof that their kind still lives on in this world and that the caster is worth protecting."

All through my explanation and reveal, Kaylin stands in shock. 

"You're not worth protecting." She spits, glaring daggers at me.

"Maybe not, but surely the people in Carbina, victims of the Synagogue's contempt like you and me, are worth protecting, are worth saving."

Her face dawns with realization, then she struggles with her pride and the value of helping others. Her emotions are so easy to read it's that it's annoying that I can't put a pin on her personality.

"Fine, but this is the last time I agree to this."

I shrug, that just means I'll have to keep a pile of her white hair aside for rainy days like this.

"Great, but first, we've got to get the other items."

"And?" she grunts with her arms folded, "How do you plan on getting that?"

"I suggested dropping him from above." Anselm starts again with his ridiculous plan, "He'll only break a few legs but now he can heal himself with wolf so, it shouldn't be a problem."

"A few legs! I have two! That's all of them!" I shake my head at his silly suggestion, "The Healing Dire is a costly spell, it takes up far more than I expected but I suppose that's the price for such a useful spell."

"If you're afraid of being ambushed by Cultists while crippled, there are some bottles in the batch of potions we stole that can help." Kaylin seems all too content with herself imagining me crippled on the floor.

But there is worth to her baseless jab, "What bottles?" I ask, she looks surprised but gets her forced aloof attitude back on just as quick.

"Just some of the purple ones. If you break them on the floor you can create an explosion of condescend mana that'll tear anyone nearby to pieces. Just be sure not to throw it too close to you…or else."

I feel a grin take residence on my face. "Why, thank you Kaylin, that's exactly what I need."