The Ruined Death Knight

"Shiro, continue holdings those in place till I say otherwise." Velkir the Lich said with a cold tone.

Far from getting distracted by the sudden cold words, the small girl that eat 3 whole adult meals with ease not long ago had her hands opened and on top of them were each a different ball of some elements.

The elements which were that of water and electricity circled constantly in a form of a ball. And if one looked closely at those balls of either element, they would quickly notice that both were unstable and ready to go rampage.

Not only that, but the balls were only half a meter away from Shiro's small pale hands. Though the top half of her face was hidden with the hood, looking at her clenching teeth and a few drops of sweat, one could guess that the little girl didn´t have it easy controlling the two balls of dense elemental mana.

Compare to the ball of dead mana which was one of the lowest graded necromantic spells that the Lich showed Danzel, the two balls of elemental mana were different.

Be it their density and amount of mana, not to forget the much greater technique, it was closer to a spell that 3rd-tier mages would use.

And managing to hold not one but two of such spells at the same time while keeping them at full power was something only geniuses or those with true talent could achieve,

Though with enough practice, anyone competent mage could achieve such results. Doing as such was considered extremely dangerous for those who barely kept the two spells stable.

Only a small misstep or a loss of concentration could result in the spell blowing in their face.

Knowing this exact fact, Agares was staring at his granddaughter with intense focus. Reading himself to jump and save Shiro at the first notice of trouble.

The Lich in comparison stood only a few meters away and watched her perform without any worry showing in his tattoed bald face.

`To be able to become a 3rd-tier magic caster at such young age. If one looked outside of her childish side, that kid is extremely smart and learns from me like a dried-up sponge. I would even make that child my true discipline if she were an undead. Too bad.´

Noticing the elemental going away, Velkir snapped his finger and made the two raging balls of elemental mana fade away without any sort of violent energy being released.

"For your first time trying to control two different spells of a different attribute, it wasn´t bad. But don´t get cocky as of yet. If I weren´t there to cease your mess, your left arm would have been exposed from the water pressure while your right arm releasing the lighting ball would have fried you alive. If you were lucky, the pressured water would have hit your skull and granted you a quick death." Velkir said mercilessly to the little girl who fell on her knees to the ground out of exhaustion.

As she wasn´t used to hearing such harsh words, her eyes showed signs of tears building up but none of them fell actually to the ground.

"Yeah, Vel teacher. I will try my best next time." Shiro said with her childish voice.

Agares who saw that put an awkward smile behind his silver mask before glaring at Velkir in anger for making his granddaughter sad.

The Lich who noticed Agares staring at him scoffed internally before ignoring him completely.

He simply stated the truth of Shiro's actions.

Her being sad for not being able to accept the truth was something that Velkir didn´t put an inch of care about.

"Shiro my dear, what the old man Velkir is trying to say is that you did well. He is just too shy to say it out loud." Agares patted gently her head.

"*Sniff, did Shiro do well?" She said as he turned her head and looked at a certain figure.

"Compared to bad fish, Shiro is lacking...he does the same but much better than me. Am I doing something wrong?" She asked, gentile confused if she was doing something wrong or just lacked the talent for it.

Before Agares could reassure his granddaughter, the Lich Velkir was a second faster.

"No, you have the talent for it, and as I already said, for your first time you done well. Danzel over there is just practicing a tier 1 spell."

Hearing that, Shiro felt much more confident and Agares didn't miss the chance to spoil her granddaughter with praises.

Because of that, Agares didn't realize the significance of Velkir's word.

Turning his head, Velkirs blind-like eyes landed on Danzel's figure with a solemn yet solemn face.

'Though tier 1 spells have their own uses, the fact that they require the less amount of strain in mind and mana to use makes them easy to use, yet that also reflects on the spell strength.'

"But..."

*Brough!

Starting at the distance where Danzel was with his hands open up, the dead man that was flowing through his body flowed towards his hands before rising from his hand.

And in just a few seconds, two balls made out of dead mana materializes.

Pointing his hand towards some stone targets, the two balls of dead mana flew towards their target.

And soon enough, they made contact.

*Brough! Brough!

The result was similar to Velkir's own demonstration except for the fact that the dead mana balls were much slower and lasted much less on top of their target.

Although their spell was the same, the difference in power was like heaven and earth.

The problem was that Velkir taught this spell just a few hours ago!

'I would even understand how a magic caster of the same level as I could learn a mere tier 1 spell in such a short amount of time. But for someone who doesn't have the basics done...it's too fast.' Velkir thought to himself.

By teaching him, Velkir became quickly aware of Danzel's lack of knowledge in magic.

What he was most confused about was how he knew of some more advantage stuff while still lacking the basics in him.

Similar to a cloth filled with holes.

It was still usable but the missing parts were apparent.

'Based on his dead mana...he should even recently come to bring. Maybe he has risen a decade or two ago. Considering that I would sort him among the genius, but learning two spells is something that only a true monster can achieve.'

"Maybe if he achieves the next stage, I could even..." Velkir's mumbling never was put to an end and his stare on Danzel change ever so slightly.

***

Danzel POV.

`This spell isn´t that bad` Danzel thought to himself.

Pointing his hand towards one of the stone targets, his dead mana formed a ball.

`[Death Blast]´ Casting the spell silently, the ball of dead mana was shot out and crashed on its target, resulting in a similar result as all his other tries of his spells.

`The mana cost is insignificant, though it lacks speed, both casting speed, and mental effort are quite low. For being level 1, it´s alright.´

At first, when Danzel started the lesson with Velkir the Lich, many holes that were building up in his knowledge of magic were showcased and closed up. It felt like getting the answers to a question that was bugging you for months of end.

But even he, who had over 600 worth of intelligence wasn´t capable to replicate the spell that Velkir showed him.

After all, putting what you learned into practice was easier said than done.

He was able to make his dead mana ball denser with more corrosive powers and last longer, but it wasn´t enough to be called a spell, specifically called [Death Blast].

It was enough though to unlock the option to learn the spell [Death Blast] by using XP!

Some may call this cheating, while all other magic caster´s who spend their entire whole life learning the arts of magic might right off start cursing him to die in a hole or something.

Danzel of course would even laugh at all such complaints.

Why cripple himself when he can achieve the same results much faster?

Alas, even his method had some limitations.

The more obvious one was that he needed XP to buy such knowledge from his status. If he was broke, then even he had to surrender himself to learning the traditional way. Though he didn´t dislike such a method, it would be stupid for him not to use the more convenient option.

The second problem was learning enough of that knowledge for it to be unlocked as a skill option to be learned. And the bar for such an option to appear was quite strict.

Nevertheless, thanks to the spells that Velkir taught him being of the 1 tier, they weren´t that hard to learn and they didn´t cost that much XP.

With his remaining 10 700 XP, he managed to learn both spells that Velkir taught him in a matter of 5 hours.

One being the ball of dead mana, [Death Blast]. Costs a total of 3000 XP and the other is [Restore Death] which cost 5000 XP in total.

Though he didn´t have the chance to use [Restore Death], it basically repaired his body from receiving damage.

`Maybe I should break a rib or two and test it out?´ Danzel thought to himself.

Alas, before he could put such thought into practice, he felt a small tremor coming from the ground. The next moment through the distance, the sand rose as if a huge explosion accrued.