The Ruined Death Knight

"What I gave you all is the knowledge that a powerful Lich has given me that even I haven't fully mastered yet. So my guidance of magic is all but limited, albeit there is a person from who you can request guidance. Though that person isn't exactly here now but..."

'She is sleeping instead of being here.' Danzel decided to not explain further.

The Anabast stared at the cover of the book with great interest and all except the two one-eyed ones also had the emotion of awe. But at the same time, there was still some confusion left.

"Do open your books." Danzel said with his cold voice and the Anabast did exactly that.

"Now pay attention as I will explain it only once. The book that you are holding has 3 parts. First are the basics and general knowledge, which I recommend you start with, second is focused on elemental magic with the last part to death magic. Keep that in mind when you study it."

"Though more importantly, it's the content behind each page. There, you can find I small circle which I will require that you all put bits of your mana inside. Once done so far for each page, I will explain further."

The Anabast turned to look at each other before staring at the other side of the page and giving bits of their mana to the designated area.

It took them only a few minutes to imprint their mana inside the rune to activate the contract.

Though Danzel knew that they already read the content of the contract, most of them were still confused by it so he went ahead and explained what they just did.

"With that out of the way, let me explain. Each page has my runes carved into them to create a contract that if broken, the contract itself will break. So if any of you were to activate the contract in some kind of way, the books that I gave you all will burn to ashes." Danzel said with a grin on his face.

None of them expressed how they felt to the outside, but the two one eye ones felt as if they were holding a bomb in their hands while the others had a mixed reaction.

'Weird that those two have the same kind of reaction...does similarly altering their bodies make them have similar personalities? I will have to potentially test this in the feature.' Danzel thought as he made a mental note to write this on his to-do list.

Of course, the contracts were as simple as sharing the content of the book with others without his approval or being 10 meters away from the book for longer than 5 minutes will break the contract.

Though there were more details, that was the basic idea of it.

"If you have any questions to ask me, do so now."

Danzel stared at them as they stared back at him.

It was only after a few seconds before someone took the lead to satisfy his curiosity.

That being the "blind" Anabast.

"Creator, you mentioned something called "Mana Aptitude". If possible, can you explain what exactly it means?"

Danzel nodded at him before starting to explain.

"Mhm, simple put, Mana Aptitude is an affinity of magic that is built from one aspect of 2 different elements that becomes accustomed to your mana."

Raising his hand, Danzel let out his dark green mana to come out.

"For example, my Mana Aptitude holds the elements of life and death, though that doesn't mean that I combine two elements to achieve one single result...my own mana has changed to reflex that Mana Aptitude and it holds quite unordinary effects compared to other types of mana."

"Though, aiming for the same elements such as those doesn't mean that you will create the same Mana Aptitude as I. For example, the Lich that I mentioned and a dark elve have the same kind of elements, but their aspect is different. The dark elve that I knew made his Mana Aptitude for blood magic."

"An extremely powerful type of magic. I was "taught" a few spells of blood magic directly by him, but for me to learn on my such magic will become extremely difficult without his Mana Aptitude." Danzel said as he hid the part that he learned from his scroll and not directly by him.

"In short... Mana Aptitude isn't a combination of two elemental magics to make a spell. I heard that there is a magma affinity that uses aspects of fire and earth to create a mana that fits that type of magic. A Mana Aptitude is creating magma itself and not directly melting rocks to create magma."

Danzel explained as he stared at the blind one.

"And I expect all of you to reach such a point and become strong magic casters. And in case someone asks, a magic caster has the potential to learn 2 Mana Aptitude, at least that's what I heard. But from you all, I will be expecting only 1."

Although he said that all though, the truth was that he severely lacked knowledge about this topic. The most that he knew was based on his experience and what Velkir said to him.

Back then when Velkir mentioned Mana Aptitude, Danzel didn't go ahead to ask for specific details as he already reached his Mana Aptitude which was soul affinity. And since he wasn't a fully focused magic caster, reaching the second aptitude was probably impossible.

And in his case, he was of the rare cases born with his aptitude.

Which for natural-born undead wasn't all that impossible.

Though for him, the type that he gained was never seen by Velkir himself.

And in most cases, such Mana Aptitude is awakened much later down the evolution part of the undead.

A skeleton mage might have Mana Aptitude, but it might only awaken once he reached the next level of existence.

Though such a unique feature was unfortunately unavailable for created undead.

Which was the case for those Anabast.

"Creator...to achieve our Mana Aptitude, what kind of aspect of element should we aim to use?" This time the tallest among them said.

Danzel looked at him and felt a mix of caution and respect from him.

He stayed for a few moments silent before gazing at all the other Anabast, gazing at him with some expectation.

"...Well, though I can't directly point you towards what type of aptitude you all should aim for. I can tell you what in what affinity you all a talent in, which if you choose that affinity to be a part of your aptitude, it should make it easier to achieve Mana Aptitude." Danzel stopped for a moment before continuing.

"But that doesn't mean that you have to choose that affinity to be a part of your aptitude. I am giving you 5 total freedom of the Mana Aptitude that you want to build."

Although choosing their affinity that they were talented would had be better in the long run, Danzel didn't want to take away such freedom of choice.

'Heh, you hypocrite.' Danzel said to himself internally.

Yes, he was a hypocrite.

Creating undead, at least to this level wasn't just making mindless puppets. At least the Draugrs and Anabast weren't.

And what he was doing was nothing but enslaving them in a sense and using the excuse of him being their creator to control them.

Although all of them held gratitude for being created and would because of his connection to them, gladly sacrifice themself for him. That didn't mean that they were puppets.

For a brief moment, Danzel touched Skull Claws dagger that was behind his waist, before refocusing on the Anabast, who by now he saw bending their backs to make a 45-degree bow. Which made Danzel freeze for a moment as their action felt somewhat familiar in a way he couldn't explain why.

"O Supreme Creator, we beseech for your knowledge." The tallest one said, with the rest soon to follow.

"We beseech you."

"We beseech you."

"We beseech you."

"We beseech you."

'Though that isn't kneeling, well, whatever...' Danzel shook his head internally as he walked closer to the tallest one.

"You have a talent towards dead mana affinity. Which is used in Death Magic, you can find all types of death magic in the third section of the book..."

Walking towards the next, Danzel arrived in front of the bone armor Anabast.

"You have a talent towards earth affinity. Though earth doesn't just mean stone and dirt, it can be metal or sand. Make sure to look for details in the second section of the book..."

Walking towards the left one-eyed Anabast, Danzel continued.

"You have a talent for air affinity. It's a versatile element that can be used both offensively and defensively while also having great mobility potential. There is all kind of air type of spells with different types, read carefully about all the types in the second section..."

Next was the right-eyed Anabast.

"You have a talent towards dark affinity. Which compliments most of your existing abilities. There are many paths on such, both offensively and versatile. There should be something in the second section..."

Lastly, he went towards the "blind" one and he similarly waited to learn his talent.

Though what he heard wasn't what Anabast expected to hear.

"You...have no particular affinity that you are more talented on.-"

Hearing those words made the Anabast by reflex raise his head to stare at his creator frozen in place.

Though Danzel did amply that he had all the other affinities that the other Anabast had. Having an affinity on its own is seen as a talent.

To the "blind" Anabast, it was no different from calling him talentless.

Feelings of disappointment and despair started to fill Anabast's mind.

Though his creator next words quickly prevented that.

"-Though compared to the others, you have an arcane affinity that the others don't have. Quite a rare type of magic that can change to a different kind of magic. Albeit the book might lack advantage knowledge, there should be some..."

Those words alone made Anabast feel conflicted.

Though he wasn't talented, he was special among the others and could learn magic that the others couldn't.

It will be hard, but he was obsessively determined to not disappoint his creators and regret his creation.

"We thank thee, creator, for sharing his knowledge." All said in unison.

"Mhm, now go study the books that I gave you. In a day or a few, I will introduce you to someone with more "experience" in magic. Now if there aren't any questions to ask, I have experiments of my own to do."

He waited for questions, but seeing none of them speaking up, Danzel turned around and was about to use [Phantom Phase] when the left-eyed one suddenly spoke.

"Creator, do we...have any names?"

Danzel was taken by surprise by this question as he didn't expect it.

As his body was turning into a dark green mist, Danzel left a few words before leaving them.

"I will think about them..."