Heavenly Magic Academy.
Eluard immediately teleported them away to the medical area of the academy. It was located near the training yard where an array formation was installed to automatically heal any light to severe injuries to those who were stationed here.
Once Eluard tidied up everything, he left the students on their own.
The atmosphere suddenly turned awkward and silent. Nobody was eager to start a conversation.
After waiting for some time, Olivia couldn't hold on to her anger and lashed out, "So much for impressing the academy master!"
Solordo, knowing that it was him being talked to, retorted, "Huh? I didn't invite you to join me in any way! You were the ones who consented to go with me, how is that my fault?!"
"Obviously because Jinmu isn't the type of guy to leave us alone! So guess what, we joined him in case you drag him into a helpless situation! And there it went!", Olivia didn't back down.
Their replies became more aggressive the more they debated against one another. Emi tried to comfort the two parties but their angry expressions frightened her.
Lucan wasn't in the right condition to meddle either. His mind was too exhausted to do anything. It was splitting his consciousness into many layers making him unable to comprehend what exactly was happening in the room.
"You guys are too loud. If you want to start shouting at one another, leave us alone.", Jinmu calmly rested on his bed.
He wasn't concerned that they failed. What he was more concerned about was the disagreement of parties after everything that happened. They might instigate an opposition between Olivia and Solordo.
In order to prevent the bomb from ticking off any further, Jinmu had to de-escalate the situation.
"I for one, don't blame anybody for what happened. I just blame myself for being too weak to help out."
Olivia and Solordo stopped arguing against one another. They looked at Jinmu and continued to listen to his words.
"There's no else at fault here except ourselves. We just deny that fact because our egotistical mind couldn't dare to accept it.", Jinmu closed his eyes to rest.
His bitten shoulder was a bit numb and lacked weight whatsoever. He was also feeling light-headed due to the amount of blood he lost earlier.
Unbeknownst to him, his calm voice seethed the hot-headedness of Olivia and Solordo. They ignored one another instead.
As the students rested in the medical area, Eluard was rather excited about the reward of the main task.
[ Main Task: Hunting Party Completed ]
[ Rewards: White Magic Crystal x5000 ]
[ Additional Note: Your items in the inventory can be optionally added to the academy's resources. ]
[ Additional Note: You cannot withdraw any items you have deposited to the academy's resources. ]
[ Checking optional requirements completion ]
[ … ]
[ Optional requirements met. Distributing additional rewards ]
[ Optional requirements rewards: Blue Magic Crystal x 2500, Book of Necrophology x 1 ]
Eluard blinked his eyes several times. Ignoring the rest of his rewards, Eluard took out the book of Necrophology from his inventory and checked its contents.
The texture was soft to the touch but it was emitting a weird foul stench. On the cover embedded a small skull of an unknown being. It has hollowed eyes, a wide forehead, and a long jaw.
Eluard didn't recognize to which species this thing came from.
He opened the book and the foul stench worsened.
"Can't my mask block this? I feel nauseated just by smelling it. How could I even read the entire book at this point?", Eluard complained.
The system remained silent, further darkening Eluard's expression. He waited for some explanation but was offered a cold shoulder. He put up with it and started reading the book.
After a while, Eluard understood what the concept of the book revolved about.
It was more or less on the topic of undead beings.
They were categorized into two.
The first type came from darkening a sentient being's mind before putting them in an illusionary state where their main consciousness was driven elsewhere while another one, darker and more vicious, would take over the mind and instigate insanity.
The other method includes killing the person before using the dark element to invade and manage their minds. It would fill their thoughts with only the most chaotic of sorts such as killing or depending on the wizard who controlled them.
'Wait, if I remember, I casted some spell months before and created some undead beings, right?'
Eluard thought that they were zombies but the definition stated in the book revised his previous insights. He was beginning to think that something bad might've happened to the undead he had summoned.
If his guess was right, then this book might've come at a very convenient time. He continued reading with a worried look on his face.
There, he understood that if an undead being was created using the first method, it would undergo several darkening states until the corrupted mind fully takes over its body.
First was the nurturing stage. The corrupted mind would feed off the host as it readies to take over it. Its memories are completely blank so people, particularly those who are close to the person, could easily spot something different and treat it easily.
The main consciousness could fight it out if they have a very strong mentality. It could also be purified with basic formula 5 purification spells and remove the corrupted mind in the process.
However, once it was left to nurture for days, the corrupted mind would ascend to the amalgamation stage. The new consciousness could think for itself and even cultivate without anyone noticing the slight difference.
To remove it at this stage would require a radiant knight or any other person imbued with the power of divinity in their hands. The original consciousness still exists but compared to the nurturing stage, it was powerless to do anything at this point.
If nothing else was ever done to stop an undead being during its amalgamation stage, the corrupted mind would increase its control and sovereignty over the body, slowly absorbing the memories of the previous consciousness before tearing it apart and finally reaching the mind retraction stage.
At that point, the new consciousness would have all the memories of its previous user. Nobody would know that the one controlling it was no longer the same person a long time ago.
Eluard shivered just at the thought of reading the final page contents of the darkening stages. He went back to the book's table of contents and saw that there was much more interesting knowledge stored here as well.
There were actually many methods to cancel out the mind corruption of an affected person. Eluard wanted to read more but he noticed that it was already nighttime. He hadn't realized that time passed that quickly when he was reading the book.
His nose twitched, "Wait, the foul stench isn't that smelly anymore."
He thought for a while and concluded, "Although the contents are really interesting, I might just waste my efforts reading more of it for the time being."
The matter with the Creed arriving at his doorstep was rather more important than the problem of undead beings that might be plaguing the Morning Star Empire and the volcanic grassy plains for now.
How could he forget that there was the League of Wizardry, the Knights of Aludia, and the Creed of the Morning Star to deal with such problem, assuming that it ever existed?
Each one of these factions was strong enough to handle any chaos that arises, probably even the demonic invasion from the Otherworld.
Not that he was irresponsible of the mess he created but Eluard was powerless to revert his spell at this moment. He would have to be an adept wizard and also re-learn that particular spell he used before. Instead of mulling much over it, why not make use of the available helping hand here in Aludia?
He was planning to get on good terms with the Creed and 'hire' some of their workforces if possible. Eluard was that shameless, yet would go for an easier path if he could get away scot-free.
"I don't think I should be enrolling more students unless I have some staff like teachers around to help me with the educational responsibilities in this academy."
There was much for him to do such as reading the books in the public library to gain more knowledge, cultivate his power to a higher realm, and master the art of elemental change that was provided by his divine-grade magic root.
If he was also busy overlooking every action of his students, it could be a pain in the ass to deal with in the long run and would waste precious time in the process.
After all, he was still a greenhorn in the field of magic. Even though his students saw his performance back at the forest earlier as if he was a god, a real expert could see through his inexperience and call him a fraudulent academy master.
Eluard knew that he has a lot to catch up on before becoming a legitimate academy master of the Heavenly Magic Academy not only in title but through power as well.
With additional staff to help him around, things will become easier and he could then fully dedicate himself to knowing more about magic.
This content is taken from free web nov𝒆l.com