B5 Chapter 61- Beyond Golden

So far, Tyron had selected six of the ten abilities he would be able to take as an Imperator of the Endless Horde, which meant there were six options he’d seen but passed over still on the list. In addition, there would be eight more for him to choose from that he’d never seen before, a veritable smorgasbord of choices, including the level eighty selections, which should be potent, considering most that came at the Class threshold were.

He was glad to reach this point with a full four choices up his sleeve, something most Golds could only dream of.

Turning his eye to the list, he eagerly read through, considering each as he went. There were a number of Skills offered that would be useful, including ones he had passed over before.

Spectral Forming would, according to the description, Form Temporary Minions of Spectral Bone.

He was no stranger to the material, almost all of his bone magick conjured spectral bone, forming spears, lances and pillars from it. Created of magick, it had no real grip on the tangible world and soon dissipated back into energy, meaning it couldn’t be kept to create weapons or minions from. However, this skill promised the potential did in fact exist, though it was far in the future.

Any such minions would be very temporary, especially at first. Created during a battle, almost like a summoning, rather than carefully crafting them beforehand. It had potential, certainly.

The next option, Spirit Hold, also had promise. Maintain a retinue of maddened spirits was an interesting description, but not one large on detail. It likely involved holding a certain number of spirits around him that could be used for defence, or perhaps even in magick. If he were to guess, the crowned ghost he’d battled had a highly advanced version of this Skill, enabling him to keep hundreds, if not thousands of ghosts bound to him.

All of Tyron’s magick revolved around Death Magick in some way, which made Master Death Magick a very tempting selection, to put it mildly. Upgrading from expert and raising the cap by another twenty, it would empower literally everything he did. This was something he could only afford to pass over for a very good reason.

Spirit Flesh Crafting – Replaces Spirit Flesh Formation and Raises the max level by twenty.

Another choice that felt almost mandatory. Improving his ability to create wights and perhaps other forms of advanced undead. The creation of spirit flesh was taxing, along with its maintenance. If he could gain efficiency here, along with power, then his wights would get stronger and more numerous.

When he saw the next option, Tyron paused for a brief moment, then reread it, unsure if it made much sense.

Impart Spirit – Grant a minion a portion of your ability.

Now why would he want to do this? Was it permanent, was he literally giving away skill levels? Or was he copying them to the minion, granting insight? The more he thought about it, the more he considered the possibilities. In Granin, the newly Awakened had taken over large chunks of the minion creation process, forging bones, preparing corpses and remains. Even if they hadn’t matched his own Skill, they had the Classes and abilities that would push them much higher, given time.

But those people wouldn’t always be available for him. If he used this ability, he could impart that knowledge and those skills to his demi-liches, having them prepare the corpses and bones just as well as he could.

Truth be told, Tyron would be quite pleased if he never had to form another finger or toe into an arrow. He couldn’t count the thousands upon thousands of times he’d done it.

Arcane Hand promised to improve the spellcasting capacity of his undead, whatever that meant. His skeletal mages and demi-liches had proven to be a powerful edge during his battles in the Realm of the Dead. Empowering them wouldn’t be a bad thing, but could he find another way to achieve the same result?

Tomb Script – The True Language of the Dead, was the exact sort of description that caught Tyron’s eye. The possibility of it was luring, even if he had no way of knowing exactly what he would get if he chose it. What he hoped it would do is provide him with clues to sigils related to Death Magick that he didn’t know, unlocking vast possibilities and hastening his research.

For all he knew, it would give him some skill in an actual language used by ancient ghosts.

As it was the final skill option provided, that meant it came from the level seventy eight or eighty selections, which meant it should be powerful. Still, he was hesitant. Not having any surety at a time like this was infuriating. He couldn’t afford to waste even a single selection!

To prove that point, the new spells were even more appealing than the skills!

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Bone Fall – Conure a rain of spectral bone shards was an option he had passed over several times, and he didn’t hesitate to do so again now. It didn’t sound nearly powerful enough to warrant selection.

Tide of Darkness – Blanket a wide area in curse miasma. He could produce a cloud of miasma, centered on himself, but this spell suggested it would roll that miasma forward and over the opposition. As useful as it sounded, he had the cauldron constructs for that.

Pool of Nightmares – Shake the souls of your foes with this battlefield magick. Instilling fear in his opponents was obviously good, but it wouldn’t help against the undead, and he knew he’d be fighting them again before the work was done.

His eyes moved to the next option, the first of the new selections, and he read it with great interest.

Soul Leech promised to be very useful. Draw Soul Energy from your foes. Tyron didn’t know what it felt like to have the vitality of one’s Soul drained from their body, but he imagined it wasn’t pleasant. Again, this spell tantalised with access to a branch of magick he knew so little about, yet he was hesitant.

If his experiments continued to go well, then it was possible he would have access to enough soul energy for his purposes, at least for now, that tearing it out of his enemies wouldn’t be necessary.

Spirit Shields – Grant your minions stronger defences.