《Necromancy For Dummies》 Balthazar: Lord of Death Liev sat in the basement of his friend Jake¡¯s house, rapping his knuckles on the wooden table in front of him with impatience. Today marked the second night of summer break after his first year of college, and he had chosen to spend it playing Dungeons and Dragons for some reason. Not that he didn¡¯t enjoy Dungeons and Dragons, it had its moments, but sometimes he just wanted to start pulling out his jet black hair at the monotony it was prone to. He glanced at his friends, and seeing them all thoroughly engrossed in creating their characters, his gaze shifted down to his own sheet and he chuckled. It was perhaps one of his best works to date, a necromancer by the name of Balthazar with a backstory as dark as obsidian. Liev had tried to make the character as evil as humanly possible, chronicling Balthazar¡¯s rise to power through sacrificing puppies and children in order to grow his hordes of undead. In the limited amount of room available on the character sheet, he had also included how Balthazar had killed his family only to raise them again to add them to his swarm. He ignored the fact that in no way would a level 1 character be able to summon more than a couple skeletons, let alone a veritable swarm of undead. The backstory was just for fun after all, and it had been created with the help of more than just a couple beers. After sharing Balthazar¡¯s past with his buddies he had been met with not a small number of groans and snide remarks about the character. Liev had a penchant for making annoying characters that almost everyone loved to hate, and Balthazar was just as promising in that aspect. Max in particular seemed to have an aversion to having fun in the role playing game, demanding that Liev change his character to something reasonable. Liev had simply ignored him. ¡°Alright Jake, are we ready to start? Cause I¡¯m all done rolling for my character and everything.¡± Ashton questioned to Liev¡¯s left, drawing him out of the drunken admiration of his character. ¡°Just a sec, gotta make a couple adjustments to the first boss.¡± Jake, the acting dungeon master replied. ¡°It was a little too easy, and you guys look like you need a challenge, after all you have ¡®Balthazar: Lord of Death¡¯ on your side.¡± He mocked, adding air quotes to the chagrin of Liev. ¡°You¡¯re just jealous you haven¡¯t been able to come up with a character quite as cool as mine,¡± Liev countered ¡°This makes for a fourth slam dunk character creation in a row, and now you¡¯re concerned I¡¯ll take over your spot as dungeon master due to popular demand.¡± ¡°HA, you wish,¡± Max snorted to his right ¡°your characters are about as interesting as my left pinky toe nail, and about as imaginative as it too.¡± Obviously Max did not comprehend the genius behind Liev¡¯s newest masterpiece. Balthazar: Lord of Death might have to teach Max¡¯s dull, bland character, Stritus the Warrior a lesson in minding his words and his deeds, Liev thought. ¡°Oh whatever.¡± Liev waved him off. ¡°Let¡¯s just start already, you can make the adjustments to the boss once we get there, Jake. I¡¯m starting to get bored, and when I get bored I grab another beer and I don¡¯t think you want me more drunk than I already am.¡± ¡°Fine, Fine.¡± Jake submitted, and after a pause he began ¡°Let the Journey into The Endless North Begin! We start with an injured Balthazar slowly making his way into the town of Cless in search of a healer. After encountering the mightiest warrior in the kingdom, Balthazar has fallen from a feared foe to a meandering mess incapable of casting even the most basic of skills.¡± In one moment Liev was listening to Jake with interest as he began the campaign, and in the next he felt the most excruciating pain he had ever been subjected to. Not even when he had snapped his forearm in two pieces when he was younger, or when he had cracked a few ribs in a car accident a couple years ago had he ever felt a pain quite so intense. It was akin to being burned alive while also experiencing the worst migraine in human history, or atleast Liev assumed as much. He didn¡¯t notice the panicked voices of his friends as he screamed, nor that he had fallen out of his chair and curled up into a fetal position. He only caught sight of the world spinning around him before he blacked out. *** Nabit looked down at the most recent summon in disappointment, the edges of his lips curled downwards in a frown as he took in the pitiful sight. It was a man in pitch black robes lying next to a short staff with a miniature skull affixed to the top of it, what purpose it might serve, Nabit had no idea. The man convulsed in the center of the stone-walled room, pillars rising all the way to the expansive ceiling formed a circle around the heart of the chamber. The three other magi who had assisted Nabit in the conjuring also sported looks of disappointment as they peered down at the robed man. This marked the 28th failure in their quest to bring a Champion from another world to fight for them. His lord had tasked him with this purpose nearly two cycles ago, and he had yet to have any successes. He wondered for the umpteenth time how in the name of Groeter had that blasted Deebius, Head Mage for the Coramian Empire, managed the feat. After her summoning nearly two and a half cycles ago, the Empire¡¯s Champion had brought the Aldareen Kingdom to which Nabit belonged, to its most reduced state in 500 cycles. Katarina: Empress of Fire was perhaps the most powerful being in the entirety of the continent of Guinart, maybe even in the entirety of the world.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. And the Empire had full access to those awe inspiring talents for destruction. On the floor where the summon continued writhing, the intricate design of the summoning circle slowly faded, losing the blue light it had emanated throughout the process. Nabit could sense just faint traces of mana within the body of the robed figure, and he scoffed at the weakness, this was Balthazar: Lord of Death? In no land that Nabit could imagine would this man be anything more than a peasant, a piece of shit that he would scrap off of his shoe. What a ridiculous name, Nabit thought. The spell that he and the other magi working for the Aldareen Kingdom had just performed announced the name of the Champion right before they would appear in the center of the intricate summoning circle. 27, no now 28 times he had been given false hope by the epic nature of the titles, and the foreign sounding names that had preceded them. Nabit reflected on some of the past ones, Poppy: The Paladin Who Reaches The Heavens, more like barely reaches my knees. Karin: Bringer of Fear, if by fear you mean laughter. Ep¡¯oook Nasarri¡¯i: The Sea God, turned out to be a god of puddles. Even after the endless amounts of time that Nabit and his fellows had spent meticulously crafting and re-crafting and honing the spell, this was the result, and it angered him to no end. A baby had more power coursing through its channels than this Balthazar, how he had even survived to what looked to be around 30 cycles old was a mystery. Nabit examined the man more closely, who was still rolling around on the floor, and now producing slight whimpers as he moved back and forth. The hood, falling from its place on his head revealed long blond hair, a slightly crooked nose, and very pronounced cheekbones that highlighted his gaunt features. And then slowly, as Nabit scrutinized him, Balthazar began to open his eyes. *** Liev regained consciousness a little bit at a time, the pain that had been all consuming before, now just barely becoming manageable. Oh god, am I on the floor? He thought as he felt his surroundings. What the fuck was that? Why is it so cold? Why is the floor so hard, didn¡¯t Jake have carpeting? Am I somewhere else? It was only then that Liev finally thought to open his eyes, and when he did he was greeted by unfamiliar purple ones staring straight into his own. He gasped and started scrambling backwards in a sort of crab walk, his heart thundering in his chest. ¡°Who the hell are you!?¡± Liev screamed at the man, now in a full-blown state of panic. ¡°Where am I? What happened to me?¡± His words coming quickly and without much care for the sharpening gaze of the purple-eyed man right in front of him, he continued. ¡°What kind of sick joke is this? I promise I can pay money if that¡¯s what you want, my parents are rich, like super rich, yeah they can give you money if you just let me-¡± ¡°Welcome to the Kingdom of Aldareen, Balthazar: Lord of Death,¡± the purple-eyed man cut him off with a sneer. ¡°You have been summoned here with the purpose of being our Champion, but you are one of many in a long line of my failures.¡± Liev¡¯s thoughts raced as he tried to figure out the implications of what his supposed summoner was telling him. Am I dreaming? Yeah I¡¯m definitely dreaming, but what kind of fucked-up dream is this, my brain sometimes I swear, man I come up with some weird shit when I go to sleep drunk. Being summoned into a world as my DnD character? ¡°My name is Nabit, Mage Supreme in this Kingdom,¡± the man continued, ¡°and you my sad, sad friend are not in fact dreaming, and no I am not reading your mind, I have simply been through this mind-numbing process enough to know where your primitive minds will immediately jump.¡± ¡°Wha-¡± Liev tried to cut in but Nabit either did not notice or simply did not care as he proceeded with what seemed like a well rehearsed speech ¡°You are currently inside the Royal Mage Association building within the capital city of the Kingdom, Hodloren. These fellows surrounding you,¡± Nabit motioned at the three other people encircling Liev ¡°are all respected members of the Royal Mage Association who have assisted in your summoning. I mentioned before that you are a failure, and this is true, you are our failure. Our spell has failed yet again to bring a Champion of any mentionable strength, and out of 28 attempts, you are the weakest yet. You call yourself Lord of Death and yet your power could not topple a toddler. There is no refinement of your channels, and the moul running through them is unimaginably thin.¡± Liev sat there dumbstruck. He had no clue what this Nabit was talking about, nor what in the world moul was and what it meant when he had talked about channels. He pinched himself on the cheek, and when that did nothing but get a blank look from Nabit, he picked up strange the skull staff lying next to him and started whacking his head with it, clinging desperately to the hope that this was all a dream. ¡°What is he doing?¡± The woman standing next to Nabit whispered in a concerned tone. ¡°Still thinks he¡¯s dreaming I suppose.¡± Nabit replied with a hint of exasperation. ¡°Listen,¡± he said, now addressing Liev again ¡°I do not have the time nor the desire to hold your hand as you explore your new world. Although I harbor no ill-will towards you, I do not see any benefit in speaking to you any longer. My position comes with many responsibilities and I would be remiss if I insisted on neglecting them, so I will be taking my leave. Hiriea, please dump him in the city.¡± And with that the man simply vanished. The woman who had questioned Liev hitting himself with his staff started towards him, and Liev resumed the panicked crab walk back away from her. She raised her hand and somehow he felt the power concentrate within the tips of her fingers before, once again, he passed out. Butians Emporium of Magical Texts Chapter 2: Butian¡¯s Emporium of Magical Texts Liev woke up dazed and confused, and for the second time in the day, lying on a cold stone floor. Except this time, instead of in the center of a creepy summoning chamber, now he found himself in a dark alleyway littered with trash and excrement. The skull staff laid right next to him. He groaned as he slowly made his way to his feet, the previous events of the day coming back to him in a trickle. He cursed Nabit as well as the woman who had knocked him out in what seemed to Liev, to be a very magical fashion. He had forgotten her name, and didn¡¯t care much at the moment to find out what it might be. Bitch, he thought, if I ever see those mage idiots again I¡¯m gonna smash their faces in. He decided to put aside the fact that he likely had no way of doing harm to any of them, and fantasized about the grizzly demise of all four of them for a solid 10 minutes before his mind returned to the current situation. So this isn¡¯t a dream. What kind of person rips another from their reality and then decides to dump them on the city streets? What kind of game is that? Liev thought like that for a moment, and then he ran his hand through his hair. His long hair. But he knew he had gotten a haircut just a week ago, and the barber had unceremoniously butchered the lucious black locks, leaving him with barely an inch on the top. Pulling a strand in front of his eyes he saw that it was blond, the color of hair he had assigned Balthazar. Panicking he reached up and touched his face, feeling unfamiliar features that did not belong to him. The nose was slightly larger than his and now had a distinct bend, leaving it curved marginally to the right. He realized with horror that not only had those damn mages cleaved him from his world, they had also taken his body and replaced it with what he imagined was Balthazar. The 30 year old necromancer that he had created in DnD the night before. In just one night he had lost all that he had ever lived for, his life, his body, his friends, and most importantly, his family. He wondered if they thought him dead, he wondered if his old body had stayed on Earth, sitting in Jake¡¯s basement. Then as it all hit him, he started crying. Letting out heaving sobs as the tears rolled down his cheeks, the only thing he could think about was how much he wanted to go back. To be playing Dungeons and Dragons with his friends again instead of sitting in this nasty alley. To be sipping on a beer as he annoyed Max with a stupid character. Ahh the good ol¡¯ days before I became the world¡¯s most pitiful necromancer, he reminisced. Then suddenly he was knocked out of his reverie by a child that looked to be 13 years old running past him. She was so swift that Liev only barely caught a glimpse of her before she was beyond him. Then the child stopped halfway through the alley, turned around, and charged at Liev. The girl wore a tattered brown tunic, black pants, well worn boots, and had dirt and grime smeared all over her face. As she charged at a speed Liev could not comprehend, she pulled out a dagger hidden within her shirt, and within one second she was upon him. He scrambled and quickly whirled around to pick up the staff the mages had apparently dumped him with. He turned back around just in time to block the incoming dagger strike with the body of his staff, jarred as the force of the blow buckled his arms. Countless questions crossed his mind at that moment: How does a little girl have so much strength and speed? How did I manage to react quickly and accurately enough to block that stab? Am I not as powerless as I assumed? Does this have to do with that moul Nabit talked about? Then Liev voiced the most important question he had, ¡°what the fuck?!¡± He exclaimed it with such volume that the girl looked a little taken aback before he continued. ¡°Why are you attacking me? What did I do to you?¡± ¡°This is my alley, old man, go pity yourself somewhere else.¡± The girl replied angrily. ¡°Otherwise I kill you.¡± She wrenched the dagger from the wood of the staff and held it menacingly above Liev. Not one to be told twice when someone threatened his life, Liev ran away as fast as his legs could carry him, clutching the staff tightly to his chest as he did so. He once again cursed the violent people in his new world. After a couple of seconds he emerged onto a larger street bustling with people moving around in the early morning light. Wiping off the tears still rolling down his cheek, he caught his breath and took in the sight of the capital city, Hodloren He had to begrudgingly admit that it was pretty impressive. From where he stood, he could see what he assumed was the center of Hodloren, full of towering buildings reaching just as high as any skyscrapers on Earth. They were constructed from colorful stone and glass windows that reflected the blue-ish sun as it slowly rose into the sky. People flowed all around him in carriages pulled by creatures with four muscular legs ending in large paws. He stared intently at one of the creatures as it pulled past and saw a glimpse of squared off teeth in its squashed face. What the heck are those things? A man yelled a curse at Liev, and it was only then that he realized he was blocking traffic while marveling at the strange sights the city had to offer. He mumbled a quiet apology and meandered towards the sidewalk where other pedestrians shuffled about, getting strange looks from a large number of them. Black robes and a staff with a miniature skull on top of it aren¡¯t quite normal attire here I suppose, he thought as he noticed the strange clothes of the passersby. Most of them wore shirts of vibrant colors, almost neon in the way they reflected light. The cloth was layered around the shoulders and neck, making the wearer appear bulky, and the fabric was strangely thin on the other areas of the shirt adding to the contrast. Their pants, however, seemed uniformly dark in color with a pristine white belt in stark contrast, and even the women all donned the same dark pants and silvery belt. Liev ignored the odd fashion sense of the city for the minute and committed to finding out more information about his new world. He walked beside the road for a time, stopping occasionally to gawk at one thing or another that he had never encountered before. In front of a smaller, red building, a man roasted the body of a large animal in a way reminiscent of kebab meat. It slowly rotated around a pike, heated by a fire which glowed brightly from its place in a crevice etched into the outer wall of the building. The scaly hide of the now roasting beast was up for sale, and apparently it was a hot commodity, because dozens of men and women circled around it in a heated bidding war. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. As Liev looked up to the sky, he could see not a small number of people flying about. When they flew directly over the crowds of people hurrying to their destinations, a large gust of wind would rip through them and ruffle the lustrous clothing they all wore. Again Liev wondered about the nature of the magic that was so prevalent, and if he too could learn to use it, if he too could learn to glide through the air like a bird. Approaching a man playing an unfamiliar stringed instrument, back up against the wall of a building, Liev felt his heart wrench at the stimulating tune. It affected him more than any song on Earth had, and when he finally passed out of earshot of the man it took a couple of seconds for him to regain his bearing. Focusing on the task at hand, Liev carried on. Only after about an hour of walking did Liev finally find the place he had been looking for: a bookstore. Strangely, although the characters on the signs of the shops were unfamiliar to him, he could still comprehend their meaning. Liev glanced at the billboard plastered right above the bright green stone building. Butian¡¯s Emporium of Magical Texts. A fine place to start, he decided, and stepped into the store. ¡°Welcome to Butian¡¯s Emporium of Magical Texts!¡± A plump, short haired man greeted Liev with a smile. ¡°What can I do for you today?¡± ¡°Just.. browsing,¡± he replied, noticing the man¡¯s curious look at his clothing and staff, the latter of which he had fashioned into a cane. ¡°I¡¯m new to the city.¡± ¡°Ahhh a tourist. Haven¡¯t had too many of those these past couple of months. Not much time for sightseeing with the war going on I suppose. Where are you from anyways? I don¡¯t know if I¡¯ve ever seen anyone dress quite like you do.¡± The man regarded him intently, waiting for a reply ¡°Far to the east, a land called Iowa.¡± Liev answered in a half truth. ¡°We don¡¯t have much in the way of magic there. I¡¯m curious to learn a little bit more. The name¡¯s Balthazar by the way.¡± He chose his words carefully, not sure how the man might react if he found out that Liev was actually the result of a botched summoning. He did not entirely know why he chose to introduce himself as Balthazar, it just felt right to him in the moment. ¡°Interesting name, and I can¡¯t say I¡¯ve ever heard of this Iowa you talk about. Must be pretty far huh.¡± The man mused, ¡°I¡¯m Butian, owner and proprietor of this store, a pleasure to meet you Balthazar. I don¡¯t mind if you want to look around for a little bit, always nice to have a new face in the shop.¡± ¡°Thanks, don¡¯t mind if I do.¡± Liev smiled and turned away from the man and walked towards the considerable amount of shelves filled with books lining the floor and walls. He looked superficially at the varying titles, noticing some that might be of interest to him. A Brief History of Magical Development, Wind Moul: The Engine of Flight, Attunement To Different Aspects of Moul, Strengthening Channels for More Effective Magic. All of them contained something that Liev thought he could benefit from, and just reading the titles, more questions continually popped into his mind. They seemed too advanced for him to actually make practical use of, though, what was the point of learning about magic if he couldn¡¯t do it himself? He needed something that would be given to little children, a beginner¡¯s intro course to performing spells and the mysterious moul. As he browsed, he made mental notes of more texts that he might circle back to later, some looking promising. The first thing that really caught his eye, however, was a thick, dark blue book, the silver engraving on the spine of it reading Necromancy for Dummies. Remembering how forbidden and looked down upon necromancy was in the popular fictions he had read on Earth, Liev thought it strange that a book about it would be displayed so openly. Perhaps the dark art was viewed as another form of magic by his new society. But his confusion at the open exhibition of the book was not the only reason that it had caught his eye, he became a necromancer named Balthazar when Nabit conjured him after all. Leaning into it with all he had couldn¡¯t be a bad idea right? Quickly snatching the book from its resting place, Liev turned back to the front of the store and approached Butian, book in hand. The plump man, when Liev went to browse his wares, had picked up a book and began reading it. Glancing at the cover, it read Love Magic and Seduction. To each their own he supposed, Butian looking up from his perusing of the love magic text as Liev stopped in front of him. He suddenly realized at that moment he had no money, nor any way to pay for the tome he had just picked up. He hadn¡¯t noticed any price tags that would indicate how much the book would cost either, not that a price tag would mean anything to him should he have seen one. ¡°Find something you like?¡± Butian asked, and upon seeing Liev¡¯s selection of book added, ¡°that one¡¯s been lying around the store for ages, death attunement is pretty rare around these parts, so I suppose not many people have much use for it.¡± ¡°What do you mean death attunement?¡± Liev inquired, curious. ¡°What, you don¡¯t know what an attunement is?¡± When he shook his head in response, Butian continued. ¡°Must be from pretty far away then, aren¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Yeah. Like I said I¡¯m new to magic, there¡¯s not many people where I¡¯m from that have any talent for it.¡± Liev sincerely hoped that his lies were at least somewhat convincing. ¡°Mhmm, I can see that, most people here have surpassed your current power by the time they reach five cycles old. Oh well, I¡¯ll humor you. Basically a person holds an attunement to multiple aspects of moul, usually three or four attunements, although I¡¯ve heard of people with as many as 7, and some rumors say that the Mage Supreme, Nabit, has 8. Not sure if there is any truth in that, though.¡± Liev stiffened at the mentioning of the name, but ignored the anger that boiled beneath the surface as he asked ¡°And how do you know what attunements you have? And how could you tell how weak I am?¡± He was unable to control his curiosity, regardless of how stupid he may have looked asking those questions. ¡°The easiest way to determine a person¡¯s attunement is to see the color and form of the moul they expel from their fingers when pushing it out from their core. Technically each finger could expel a different aspect, but typically, in an average person, the same aspect will be expelled from multiple fingers. For example,¡± Butian held up his left hand and stuck up his thumb, pointer, and middle finger. ¡°These three represent my attunement to the water aspect. As for how I could tell how weak you are, I can sense just how small the amount of moul running through your channels is. Any person could sense your weakness. You should be able to sense the moul inside of me as well, you should be able to feel it. If you can¡¯t try focusing inwardly first, that is what is taught to children when they are first learning to control their magic.¡± Liev nodded, pleasantly surprised at how helpful the man was proving to be, and took his advice as he attempted to look inwardly, towards where his moul, core, and channels supposedly lay. He closed his eyes in focused determination, remembering back to when he had felt the power at the tips of the mage lady¡¯s fingertips. He stood there for a considerable amount of time, fixating on the sixth sense that he knew he now had within then. Suddenly, his mind felt like it was being overloaded as he finally awakened all of his senses. Not letting go of this newfound sight, he dove deep within himself and saw wisps of energy curling around a deep black core. Then he shouted in exhilaration, he had taken the first step of many towards his goal in killing that damned Nabit.