3x Cloning System: The Fleshmancer's Undead Army is full of Heroes-Chapter 34: Dark Mana, Demonic or Godly?
Clayton, his friends, and his ten undead slaves were on the move.
Quite frankly, he was happy to get his plans back on track. That attack from the Basher Basilisk staggered his progress more than he could ever imagine it would, or predict, for that matter, but he got the best out of that horrid situation already, so from this point onwards, he could only keep moving, and hope for the best.
Odds were that they weren’t going to be attacked by another monster of legends anytime soon, not a summoned monster, at least, as Maria the Summoner had promised them, and Clayton had lived up here in the mountain long enough to know that monsters were rare around here.
A few hundred years ago they had been more common, he remembered reading something about it within the Chapel’s library, before it got recently destroyed, and he was quite sure that monsters were not supposed to roam the rocky mountains. Not many of them.
The few monsters that he could run in, assuming he had the bad luck to cross paths with a monster that popped up once in a blue moon, would be easier to handle. He was quite certain that he could kill them, as they were closer to being considered animals, rather than unusual, powerful freaks of nature. He wasn’t worried.
The City of Fik was hundreds of miles away, and he considered that to be his main challenge. He needed a few horses, for himself and the team, which in turn would shorten the duration of their trip by half, at least. For that matter, he was hoping that the village that was the closest to them, had a few horses that he could buy.
At the moment, he was uncertain what he was supposed to do when he arrived at the village. He could kill them all, of course, but right now, he didn’t see how that would be productive, other than draining a few points away out of a handful of villagers. He wasn’t so keen on killing the innocent for a few points, so he was trying to think of alternatives.
Thankfully, he had a few days to mutter it over. They were on the move, yes, but the village was still almost a week away.
Anyway, around the crack of dawn, the system decided to break a conversation open with Clayton. She hardly cared about the fact that the constant movement, or the lack of sleep has made him more irritable, and just broke open a perplexing topic.
[So I heard you mention Mana a couple of times. I noticed that you have no clue of what you’re talking about.] 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶
’Well,’ He tried to be silent, and not speak his thoughts out loud for the sake of the general secrecy that he tried to practice. ’I’d be a fool if I didn’t admit that I don’t have the faintest clue how mana works. Well, that was a lie, I have a good understanding of how mana works, but I don’t see how it applies in the Branch of Fleshmancy. There weren’t exactly a lot of books that I could’ve read about the matter. The one book I found that mentioned Fleshmancy throughout a few pages, was burned along with the rest of our family home.’
Clayton was honest, because he didn’t see the benefit in doing the opposite. The system was implemented in his body, and brain quite thoroughly, and considering the fact that he was nearly convinced that she wasn’t a demon, he felt more comfortable sharing his perspectives with her.
Thankfully, the system was patient with him too. She wasn’t a human being, but then again, just like a normal human being, in an appropriate setting, she was willing to listen, and cooperate, as long as the other person, in this case, Clayton, did the same.
[I understand that you’re confused, especially considering the fact that there are more than one types of Mana out there, but nevertheless, Mana works nearly the same for everyone, regardless if you were a Fleshmancer, Necromancer, Fire Mage, or otherwise.]
[As the quality of your Mana increases, you get more efficient at using whatever Branch of Magic you were born with.]
’I thought as much,’ He admitted, ’Though, Fleshmancy seems quite complicated to me, and you haven’t mentioned Mana at all up until this point, so I figured it was nearly unrelated to Fleshmancy.’
[It’s very well rooted in Fleshmancy, just not to the cloning abilities I offer.]
After that point, she opened the black book in front of him again, and showed him some statistics. The letters within the book didn’t need to light up this time around, as they were past the crack of dawn, and he could very much see what was written on it. It also helped that he was no longer suffering from double vision.
Anyway, the statistics on the pages were simple enough. They were up-to-speed with what he mostly knew about mana in general.
[Branch of Magic = Fleshmancy]
[Mana type = Dark]
[Mana Realm = Ragnor’s Disciples]
[Mana Level = 3/10]
[Mana Quantity = 3,100]
In hindsight, these statistics were simple enough, but as he had another look at the page, and tried to shake away the light headache that started from his eyebrows, and stretched out across where his sinuses were positioned as the glare of the morning sun tampered with his irritability, he noticed a couple of inconsistencies on the pale page.
’Ragnor’s Disciples?’ He was quick to add, ’So those who are born with Dark Mana, share the same Gods as those who were born with Blue Mana? That doesn’t make much sense to me, and I assumed that my mana was rooted in the influence of some demon. Hell, even I can admit that my magic appears demonic.’
[Unlike what the religious stigmas across this backwater Empire encourage, Mana of any sort comes from the Gods. I’ve observed reputable Scholars making such claims quite often, and so I can tell you with certainty that it’s the case. Mana comes from the Gods, no matter what its color is.]
’Interesting,’ He rubbed the bottom part of his forehead, and looked at the page again, prompting the system to chirp in his ear furthermore. ’So by that standard, does that mean that I already crossed the Devout Apprentices Realm of Mana? The first Realm?"
