By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 13 - Chapter 8

Chapter 8, Episode 8: First Brush with the Undead

As Sever had warned, our path through the valleys became more difficult as we progressed after our lunch break—it was an endless, winding stretch of cliffs that seemed to never change. Without his guidance, we could have easily lost our bearings. The farther we progressed through the valleys, the more frequently we encountered monsters. Most of them were small and easily chased away, but that still warranted caution. Even a small monster could kill you in a moment of complacency, not to mention that fighting on unstable terrain was dangerous on its own.

That being said, being on high alert all the time would’ve been more taxing than productive, so we made sure to relax when we could. All while keeping a watchful eye out, of course. Eventually, I felt a strange presence and noticed the stench of rotting flesh.

“Do you smell that?” I asked.

“There’s an Undead ahead. A zombie, most likely,” Sever predicted.

Sure enough, after twenty seconds or so of waiting, a rotten corpse turned the corner and came into our view, shuffling in a meandering manner. From what I’d read about them, Undead monsters preferred nighttime and dark locations, but could withstand daylight. They could also move as fast as an average person could walk, but they were far from agile. Compared to most other monsters, they weren’t considered much of a threat, but they did leave an unpleasant stench in your nostrils.

“Let’s go over the characteristics of the Undead,” Sever said, then darted to the walking corpse and slashed it through its shoulder and across its waist into three pieces with his halberd. “That was just a normal cut—no magic. Not very effective. It’ll regenerate soon enough and continue attacking.” And indeed, the pieces of the zombie were already crawling towards each other to reconstruct the body. “Most Undead monsters can regenerate, so taking them on with only regular weapons—especially blades—is inefficient, though not impossible. If you really need to take one out without magic, the fastest way is to pummel it to a pulp with a blunt weapon. However, some species can withstand even that. Attacking them with magic is going to be the most straightforward solution.”

At this point, the zombie had merged itself back together and started to approach us again. This time, Sever cast Wind Cutter to slice the zombie in two at the waist. Although the zombie began regenerating, the process seemed slower than before.

“As you can see, magic slows its regeneration, making it easier to take out. The theory behind this is that Undead monsters are powered by Dark magic, and any spell cast against them scatters some of the Dark magic. Certain forms of magic are more effective against them, others less; the most effective is Light magic,” Sever continued. “You said you can cast Light magic, didn’t you, Ryoma? When the zombie’s all regenerated, try hitting it with Light Ball.”

I did as instructed. “Light Ball!” The ball of light flew straight from my palm to the zombie’s chest. The spell went straight through the monster, taking out a huge hunk of its flesh. The zombie groaned as if in pain, and its wound showed no sign of regeneration as it collapsed to the ground.

“Remily?” Sever asked.

“Strong and fast. He’s got the basics down,” she replied before turning to me. “But some could survive a hit or two like that, unless you find their head or chest like you did just now.”

“Got it,” I said. “I didn’t expect Light Ball to obliterate its flesh, though... I read that the Undead were once human corpses. Light Ball wouldn’t do that to an ordinary corpse, would it?”

“No, an ordinary corpse would not disintegrate with Light magic,” Reinhart said. “It is thought that corpses undergo some physical change when they become Undead. I do not know whether this theory is true or not. Some Undead come into being without a corpse. Many questions remain unanswered on the subject.”

“Another theory is that the Undead monster itself is made up of Dark magic. Then again, some cursed objects can change into or become haunted by Undead monsters, so there’s no clear-cut answer,” Remily said.

Another zombie had appeared during our Q and A session. When I readied myself to cast a spell against it, Remily stopped me. “You know how you cast spells without incantation yesterday?” she asked. “Can you show me that again? The best spell you can, with whatever element you’re most comfortable with.”

“Okay.” I decided to go with Wind, and I sent Wind magical energy into my hands. In the next breath, I’d shattered the zombie’s head and chest with balls of compressed air that I’d fired from my fists.

“Air Hammer,” Sever noted. “And two at once.”

“Again, it’s powerful and fast enough, at least as much as the Light Ball,” Sebas added.

“You’ve always been good at magic, but it seems you’ve been practicing diligently,” Reinhart said.

Not too shabby, as far as I could tell from their reactions. Except Remily looked like something was troubling her. “Is something wrong?” I asked her.

“Nothing wrong—except that I need to figure out what to teach you next. If you didn’t have the basics down, we could have started there. Looks like we can skip that, though. You’re pretty much self-taught, aren’t you?” Remily asked.

“You can tell,” I said.

“I was once a royal sorcerer. Spellcasters who’ve received formal training—at an academy or in the military, or even from a tutor—fit a mold, for better or worse. No tells in their casting. While you have the bare basics down, like releasing magical energy and converting elements, I can see you’ve developed spells with your own technique and imagination from there. The one you just cast just now without any incantation absolutely did the job, but it was more like you’d punched the zombie than fired a spell at it.”

Wow, a professional sorcerer can tell that much from a couple of spells...? Or can everyone see that? Either way, Remily was correct.

I had only just recently learned how to cast spells without incantations. It had started with the slime magic I’d developed at the end of last year. Through the process of giving the synchronized slime directions—according to how I envisioned the spell I wanted to cast—via magic, I’d never made any incantations, though I hadn’t realized that at first. Once I’d noticed what I was doing, I’d started with the sensation of casting slime magic and focused on spellcasting myself, based on the instincts I’d developed—and it had worked like a charm. I had practiced casting magic without incantations for a while, but this newfound mindset drastically improved my success rate and my magic’s effectiveness. As part of the instinctive casting process, I started to work in martial arts movements that had become second nature to me in my previous life. For example, for a spell that shoots something out—like Air Hammer, which uses compressed air to damage the enemy—I cast as if I’m just throwing a punch. Spells like Earth Needle, I cast with a low kick.

“Normally, that intuition is gained gradually through years of repetition. But you combined two skills you excelled at—martial arts and...slime magic?” Remily noted. “It reminds me of the arcane sword-fighting style knights practice. If you were a regular student, I’d just have to assess how many of the skills in the curriculum you’d mastered...but I need another approach with you.”

“Miss Remily, I believe the best course of instruction might be to show Master Ryoma the spells you can cast and then have him try them. Master Ryoma has always created and cast spells by himself. Once you explain the nature of a spell, he will find a way to make it his own,” Sebas said.

“Even when Sebas taught him Space magic, Ryoma managed to learn up to intermediate spells that way,” Reinhart pointed out.

“Then it’s settled,” Remily said. “We can always try another way if it doesn’t work.”

As the adults settled on my educational plan, yet another zombie turned the corner, dragging its feet on the ground.

“Another one...” Sever noted.

“Is that unusual?” I asked.

“They could have been drawn to the sound of combat, but three seems a little too many to see consecutively when we’re only half a day’s walk from the main road,” he said.

“Maybe the number of Undead here are increasing like the other monsters in the area,” I suggested.

“It’s perfect for your training, at least, Ryoma. Here, I’ll show you an intermediate Light spell.” Remily lifted her staff and began her incantation. “Exorcism!”

A basketball-size orb of light appeared at the tip of the staff, and flew into the zombie. Instead of piercing the monster, the ball exploded and enveloped the zombie in light before obliterating it in its entirety.

“Like that, this spell envelops a targeted Undead with Light magic. A weak one like a zombie will just disappear, and it’s very useful to detain faster or higher-level Undead. This will come in handy more often than you think. It expends about 1,500 magical energy per cast. It’s a bit overkill to take out zombies or skeletons one by one with this, so I’d use Light Ball against those and save this for when I really needed it. Fire magic works well against Undead too, so it can be more effective to burn up a larger horde than cast Light magic...but that all depends. Practice makes perfect.”

And so I began practicing my magic against the zombies and skeletons as we came across them.