Reborn with a Necromancer System - Chapter 93

Chapter 93: Life Admin and a Proposal
Kai spent the early hours of morning in his dimly-lit workspace. His workspace being an abandoned shed on the academy grounds that he loaded with protective barriers while inside. Nobody was coming in.

Sleeves rolled, hands dusted in powdered bone and charcoal ash. Bone chalk was notoriously unstable to make, and Kai had gone through three ruined batches before finally perfecting the latest mixture. The thick white dust shimmered faintly with residual necromantic energy as he drew precise curves and angular runes into thin obsidian slate.

“I go through these things way too quickly. And I only have so many spare bones that aren’t connected to my minions. I should collect more soon.”

He muttered under his breath, repeating the sigil formulae as he reapplied each to the ribcages, skulls, and limbs of his undead. The chalk fused into the bone like glowing tattoos. Their hollow sockets flickered with new intensity.

When the first enhanced skeleton moved, its speed tripled. Another snapped a heavy stone in half with a single strike.

Kai blinked. “Whoa… I wasn’t expecting that much power.”

The upgrades continued, each sigil augmenting a different function, some increasing resilience, others reinforcing the mana-threaded tendons that held the undead together. After the last one rose to its feet, perfectly silent and still, Kai leaned back, drained but satisfied.

Then came class time.

He didn’t go.

Divine Magic was on the schedule today. He had no interest in being sermonized by High Lecturer Lysander, their usually-scheduled lecturer, a man who referred to Kai’s inability to touch the divine at all as “prolonged blasphemy.”

Instead, he spent the afternoon holed up in his room going through the loot he’d found during his and Kleo’s night raids. Piles of magical weapons, scrolls, and artifacts surrounded him.

Kai picked up a small orb carved from silvered jade. It vibrated in his palm.

“Any idea what this does?” he muttered, hoping his system would respond.

Kai sighed. He didn’t have some sort of Identify spell, nor any similar spell in his arsenal. Just raw instinct and trial-and-error. He tried applying minor sigils to a few weapons, noting how some hummed in response and others cracked or blackened immediately.

“Damn it. How do people even figure this stuff out?”

Nothing offered an answer.

Later, Kai wandered the training fields, finding Mari, Willam, and Naia clustered near some levitating platforms.

E-class was quite restricted with their use of the simulation rooms for practicing with things like the Arcane Crucible. That privilege was saved for the upper classes.

Instead, when they had no time left, Naia raised thick wooden platforms for Willam and Mari to stand on.

Between classes, they trained with a religious intensity that left the grass scorched and the air thick with residual magic.

Mari spotted him first. Her long braid bounced as she turned. “Skipping Divine Magic again?”

Kai shrugged. “Had important things to do.”

“More shadowy business?” she asked, folding her arms.

He smiled, half-charming, half-smug. “Actually, yes. For our team. Strategic advantage for the Crucible.”

That wasn’t completely true, but not entirely false either.

Willam, who was seated under a conjured umbrella, waved a stack of glowing scrolls. “I’ve been calculating the rotational velocity of platform clusters and the storm cycle intervals. The Crucible changes patterns every three minutes. Probably tied to the arena’s mana pulse. If I could alter that pulse, I could throw off the other team’s pattern or strategy.”

Naia hovered five platforms at once, her arms trembling, face glistening with sweat.

Kai gave a slow nod. “Nice.”

Mari eyed him, suspicious but amused. “We’ll see if all that ‘important work’ pays off. I still think you’re just playing around. Is there a girl?”

Naia’s ears pricked up and the platforms dropped to the ground with a loud thud.

After diffusing the situation between the girls while Willam crept away, Kai left them to continue with their training.

Kai went to his illusory magic class. Bendletimpt, their lecturer spoke at length about how glass can warp the way we see light.

“Why, it can move it, distort it, bend it, enlarge it, and shrink it! Fascinating. Think about glass next time you try to alter light particles, students!”

As the day dimmed, Kai made for the forest.

He still needed to try something else.

Out there, beneath the twilight canopy, he summoned a few of his undead, lesser skeletons, hunched and rotting, still etched with fresh sigils.

He raised both hands, pouring mana between them, attempting to force a fusion. Runes flared, bones twisted, and both skeletons disintegrated with a puff of ash.

A warning blinked in his mind:

[Without using a soul of adequate value as a catalyst, merging undead will fail.]

Kai tilted his head. “Oh? So it is possible.”

He didn’t hesitate.

He turned to the forest’s beasts, deer, wolf, spider, and began harvesting their souls one by one. But each attempt yielded the same error.

[Inadequate value.]

“Fuck! Seriously?”

And when he tried fusing the souls directly, the result was catastrophic.

The forest lit up with an explosion of purple flame.

Kai lay in a crater, half-burnt, blood pooling beneath him.

He groaned and dragged himself to his feet.

With a thought, what little life essence he had diminished to heal his wounds. Bones snapped into place. Skin stitched over. He coughed violently but managed to stand.

[Without a soul forge, you will not be able to combine souls.]

He blinked. “A soul forge? That sounds exciting!”

He glanced upward, smiling through the blood. “How do I get one? What is it?”

Silence.

The system, as usual, gave no response.

‘I thought you were supposed to be more enhanced now. You’re almost as bad as when I had that limiter on.’

Kai felt like it scoffed, but he could neither hear nor see it.

—

Back at the dorms, dusk had settled in. Kai stepped inside, rubbing at his mostly-healed side.

The room was quiet. Willam’s bed was untouched, but Naia stood by the window, arms crossed.

He froze instinctively.

Naia laughed. “Relax, shadow-boy. Not here to fight.”

“You’re waiting for me?”

“Yes. Wanted to talk before the games start.”

Kai narrowed his eyes. “Why?”

“If we win the Arcane Crucible,” she began, stepping forward, “I want you to do something for me.”

“We didn’t make any deal.”

“Well, we should.”

“Why?”

“What if I just so happened to get… sick during the finals? Or fumbled a few spells? Maybe an incentive would keep my mind and body sharp.”

Kai stared. “What do you want?”

“You.”

His face blanked.

“Not like some pet or slave or whatever,” she added, rolling her eyes. “I want to date you. Go out with me. Give it a real shot. If you don’t like me after a month, you’re free to act like it never happened.”

Kai blinked slowly. “Like… dating.”

“Yes. Like dating.”

A pause lingered between them.

“Let me know before the preliminaries,” Naia said, turning with a soft smirk. “No pressure.”

She walked out.

Moments later, Willam burst into the room, panting and pale.

“Sorry, man,” he wheezed. “She threatened… things.” He collapsed onto his bed and yanked the blanket over his head like a terrified child hiding from a monster.

Kai stood in place, still processing.