[Hollow King] Chapter 6: Runecraft & Grimoires (Patreon)

Before Lucas could return to studying in the library, he wanted to make sure Kyle had really gone.

Stalking down the corridor, he passed a few more studies and storage rooms before stepping into a massive mess hall. Three stone tables long enough to seat a dozen people each stretched through the middle of the room.

Did the Archmage have staff? Lucas wondered as he wandered through the eerily silent room. Or was that before he turned himself into an Elder Lich?

A few goblin skeletons littered the room, making it feel like a horror set.

Honestly, I'm surprised Kyle kept exploring. It's pitch black in here, so the only light he had to illuminate this massive room was that flickering torch. Either he is more hard-headed than I gave him credit for, or a tomb filled with skeletons isn't out of the ordinary in this world.

Lucas found little else of note in the mess hall, so he entered what he assumed was the kitchen, where the pantry shelves held nothing but black smears. He was about to move on when he noticed dulled writing in the same strange hook-and-slash language etched into his bones on the shelves.

Tracing his finger along the words, Lucas tried feeding it the faintest sliver of mana he could. The words lit up with violet light briefly, before fading into a silver sheen.

"Wait, I can read it now," he said, squinting at the words. "Cold, stillness, dryness, seal, hold. Is this talking about food preservation?"

[Skill learned: Runecraft (I)]

"Ah!"

The sudden ancient voice echoing in his skull startled him so badly he almost fell over, but he steadied himself by grabbing the shelf.

Ew, Lucas frowned as the black smear stuck to his fingers. He tried his best to wipe it off onto his black robes. I'm far too jumpy. Relax, Lucas—if you find a goblin, you can win, and the humans of this world seem more scared of me than I am of them.

Lucas left the kitchen feeling a little more relaxed and returned to the mess hall. Taking a different corridor, he passed rooms with stone beds that seemed to be the servant quarters, and on a lower level he found a dungeon equipped with rusted chains and something else far less pleasant.

A human skeleton. Lucas crouched before the broken-apart skeleton that was lying on the ground, its wrist still held up by a rusted clamp. The bones didn't call out to him—the ghost and soul having long moved on. Just what happened to you to end up like this?

Lucas shook his head and left. Even as an undead himself, this part of the tomb was far too creepy. Returning to the mess hall, he found a long corridor that he assumed led to the exit since sunlight spilled through the keyhole of the rusted doors.

Kyle really did leave. Lucas concluded.

Back in the library, he inspected the shelves and found faded wards he'd overlooked before.

"Dryness, endure, repel, seal, hold," Lucas read as he traced the runes. "This must be the book-preserving ward that Kyle mentioned."

Lucas didn't feed the ward any of his precious mana—the books were already rotten, and he didn't see any runes mentioning restoration. His mana was better spent elsewhere.

Stepping back, he scanned the large library and sighed.

"Let's see how many grimoires I can find between these rotting books."

This was going to take a while.

***

Days went by, or at least Lucas believed they had, but he had no way of checking.

Sunlight didn't reach any part of the tomb besides the throne room. He did not tire, grow hungry, or feel the need to sleep. All the biological functions humans used to measure time were absent, and without them, Lucas felt time pass in a blur.

In the end, after turning every book to dust, he'd found nine grimoires in total. After skimming each one cover to cover, he could sort them into four categories.

The first was books authored by the mysterious Archmage Au. There were four in total, all with black covers and similar titles. He spread them out on the reading table.

A Study on the Folding of Distance.

Lucas had found this one before running into Kyle, and it covered ten tiers of spatial magic.

A Study on the Art of Magic Protection.

This one covered the basics of one of his inherited disciplines, Abjuration. It focused on conjuring magic shields and seals. Useful for survival, but all of the skills were terribly mana-intensive. He set it mostly aside for now, for when his Soul Level was higher.

A Study on Seeing.

Covering skills from his inherited discipline, Divination, this one interested Lucas almost as much as the spatial one. Its opening chapters explained how he could see without eyes, how he could sense the magic in people, and then went into grander skills. It included a way to peer into the future and the past, and spy on foreign nations. For someone with no information about this world, Divination skills seemed like a solution.

A Study on the Nature of Matter.

By far the most confusing, this one covered Transmutation. Even with it being one of his inherited disciplines, Lucas struggled to make much sense of it. However, it seemed vital if he ever wanted to create superior undead from scratch, and if he had enough mana, he could even turn stone into gold.

Setting aside Au's grimoires, which were clearly written by and for an Archmage, the next ones covered lightning, frost, and mental magic. Besides the terrifying implication that mind control might exist, none of them covered his inherited disciplines, and he noticed how much of a difference that made, since he could barely understand them at all.

Besides, as an Elder Lich, I'm resistant to Mental Influence, which should include mind magic.

Setting them aside for when he had a stronger grasp of magic fundamentals and mana to experiment with, he found the last two grimoires far more interesting for completely separate reasons.

Litanies of the Ascending Sun was a hefty grimoire of white leather, rimmed in gold. What made it special was its author, Lambert Pennock, who was apparently a member of the Zenith high council. The other special part was that holy light spilled out the moment Lucas tried to read the first page. The light burned to look at, so he slammed it shut.

Ow! That hurt like hell. I swear, if another human comes here, I'm going to make them read it to me before I let them leave.

The final grimoire, and arguably most useful, was far easier on the eyes. It had a plain brown cover and cheap binding. Everything about it felt mass-produced, like the textbooks he used in math class.

But that was perfect for Lucas, because A Primer for the First Circle covered basic magic skills.

Unfortunately, because of the cheaper materials and failed preservation wards, most of the pages were rotten. But a few precious ones had survived, giving Lucas the chance to learn five new skills: Mana Sense, Candle Light, Lesser Barrier, Unseen Hand, and Mana Bolt.

The moment he finished studying the page for Mana Sense and believed he understood it, the ancient voice in his head confirmed his thoughts.

[Skill learned: Mana Sense (I)]

It's how I sensed Kyle had no magic, so it makes sense I'd learn it once I realized it. But now I can rank it up through use, which is good.

The next spell the book recommended he learn was Candle Light. After trying for a few hours to concentrate his mana into a tiny point, he finally did it.

Ugh! I haven't studied this much since university. Lucas collapsed against the table, but proof of his efforts floated above him as a tiny ball of magical light.

[Skill learned: Candle Light (I)]

[Mana Sense (I) -> Mana Sense (II)]

He felt his vision grow slightly sharper as his Mana Sense upgraded. The Candle Light fizzled out a few seconds later after he fed it minimal mana, and frankly, he had no use for a light.

Lesser Barrier and Unseen Hand took half the time to learn, likely because they were under his inherited disciplines. With a mere thought, he could conjure a palm-sized barrier at his fingertip and pick up small objects with nothing but his mind.

It's like I can use the Force, Lucas mused as he used Unseen Hand to carefully stack the books atop the back of his undead goblin, whom he had reanimated for this task.

[Unseen Hand (I) -> Unseen Hand (II)]

With the books stacked, all that was left in his hand was A Primer for the First Circle, which he held onto as he wanted to practice the Mana Bolt skill, but not here, where he might damage something.

"Follow me," he told the goblin and made his way through the library. A thick layer of dust from the disintegrated books covered everything, and with the shelves empty, he had nowhere left to hide his books. He reached the stairs that led to the throne room and passed through the archway.

Will it be okay climbing the stairs? Lucas wondered as he glanced over his shoulder at the goblin crawling slowly behind him while carefully balancing the tower of books on its back. He was about to move on when something caught his eye.

Wait, what are those wards?

Lucas took advantage of his height to trace his finger along the top of the archway. To his surprise, under a layer of grime, he found runes.

"Veil, show, stone, seal, hold," Lucas muttered as he deciphered them. "Is this some kind of illusion ward?"

Deciding to feed it mana, he lit the runes with violet light, and his goblin servant suddenly vanished behind a stone wall.

[Runecraft (I) -> Runecraft (II)]

What the... Lucas reached forward, and his fingers passed through the stone wall as if it were nothing but air. The wall rippled slightly as his goblin servant and tower of books passed through too. A stone wall illusion? Is this why there are no goblin corpses past here? Because they never knew there was a staircase behind the wall?

Lucas decided to feed the ward some more mana.

"This should keep it active for a few days," he muttered as the violet light faded and the runes gleamed silver.

As he continued climbing the stairs, Lucas used Unseen Hand to stabilize the tower of books for his goblin as it almost fell over. Once they reached the throne room, he searched for a while and found a small nook in the wall to hide his grimoires.

Wait, is there a way I could make wards? Runecraft is a discipline I'm supposed to be good at. Lucas gathered mana at the tip of his finger and considered using it like a pencil to etch runes into the wall. This feels right, but where should I put the runes? The preservation runes for the food and books were clearly etched into the shelves for all to see, but the illusion runes were hidden inside the arch. I don't want this nook to be obvious, so I'll do the runes on the inside too.

"What was it again? Veil, show, stone, seal, hold—yes, that was right." Lucas let intuition guide his finger as he carved the runes into the nook's inside with his mana. It definitely wasn't done perfectly, but once he finished, the voice in his head seemed to approve.

[Skill learned: Ward Inscription (I)]

Feeding mana into his ward, he noted it used as much mana to hide his tiny nook as it did to obscure the entire archway behind a veil of illusory stone.

Lucas stepped back and admired his handiwork.

My ward inscription definitely needs some work, but this will do for now.

"Come with me, goblin. We are leaving the tomb," Lucas decided, and left the throne room with nothing but A Primer for the First Circle grimoire in his hand and his goblin in tow.

I've already spent days here, and while it hasn't been a waste as I've learned a few skills, the truth is I need to level up. I'd hoped that studying would net me a level up, but it seems an Elder Lich can only grow stronger by harvesting souls.

Which meant he had to go find something to kill.

***

Lucas had chosen the dead of night for his first outing. With Mana Sense, the darkness didn't hinder him. Instead, it helped shroud his movements. Or at least Lucas hoped it did. For all he knew, everyone had Mana Sense—except Kyle. That man had no shred of mana in his body and was no more capable than a human from his world.

The tomb's hefty iron doors groaned as Lucas pushed them wider. He then peeked out. Beyond the tomb lay a beaten dirt path coated in frost and a forest of evergreen trees. The dirt road was lined with white-leaved bushes with cherry-red fruit that he had never seen on Earth.

Well, if it wasn't obvious before, I'm definitely far from home.

He scanned the treeline, but he saw no signs of monsters... or people.

I have no idea which I should be more scared of, Lucas considered as he inspected the dirt road more closely and saw small footprints in the frost. Either way, this forest seems infested with goblins.

Lucas stepped out fully, and his goblin servant followed closely behind. Their steps made the frost crunch underfoot.

I would say the night air is refreshing, but I have no nose... or lungs. Lucas shook his head and stepped down the steps onto the dirt road. Now, which way should I go? I have no idea where Kyle's town is.

He chose left, but he didn't make it three steps before he heard an intense rustling in the leaves off the beaten path.

"Goblin, go investigate," Lucas commanded his undead as he opened the grimoire and began re-reading the correct sequence for Mana Bolt.

His undead valiantly dove into the bushes, followed by a dull crunch, and Lucas's connection to his undead was abruptly cut.

That's not good, Lucas thought. He backed toward the tomb, his finger pointed toward the bush. Violet light crackled through his bone markings as he fired up the spell and unleashed it.

Whatever was lurking behind the bushes let out a pained snarl as the thin beam of violet mana tore a hole through the white leaves and struck his foe.