New Life As A Level 0 Undead Mage

As the green lit vortex of mist expanded, and the winds raged, a dark red silhouette coalesced in the centre of it. The green mists converged at the vortex's centre and the silhouette took definition of an old man who looked to be in his seventies, wearing dark red, long flowing robes that gave him a regal look.

The Old Man's robes swept around chaotically as the winds blazed, and along with the wind, the tall grass in the garden rolled in waves in sporadic directions.

As the Old Man's body fully took shape, the winds gradually died and the overflowing mana in the surrounding nature gently lulled into calm again.

Mat sat there, caught gawking at the Old Man's blatant but effective attempts at showing off. Maybe he should also try to announce his presence and absence like the Old Man someday—by appearing out of flames, and disappearing into flames.

Mat shook the thought out of his head, and stood up to walk closer to the Old Man. He needed to talk to him about what had been going on and why he pushed him into all this trouble.

Seeing Mat approach him, the Old Man made no attempt to move in his direction, and instead of tuning out his showing off, he doubled down. A whiff of green misty mana emerged from the Old Man's mage staff and circled around him before coalescing into a cloud. As it became seemingly solid, the old man jumped onto the cloud, and floated on top of it casually like he was some sort of god who just appeared to grant some peasant's wishes.

Mat lightly bit the inner side of his right cheek, in an attempt to stop his face from twitching at such ridiculous antics of this flamboyant old man, only to realise he had none. No cheeks, no face, no expressions. He was glad for once. The incredulous behaviour of this old fuck was really taking him to the heights of vexation.

First he had the gall to appear in front of him out of nowhere, forced him to fight an enemy multiple times stronger than him, and then forbid him from using his strongest method of attack.

Mat took a deep breath to calm himself in case he said something wrong or stupid, and greeted the man with a high bow, not bending down any more than fifteen degrees.

The Old Man put his hands in his lap, and while floating up and down on the cloud like a video game character, said to Mat, "Colour me impressed, little fire lord, you did way better than I expected. The way you fought almost made me think that you actually had your memories back from the past.. but you do not, do you now?"

The Old Man's face was coloured in amusement, as if he'd just paid five bucks for a really satisfying boxing match, and on top of that won five hundred in a bet. Certainly not the face of a man who's won jackpot, but somewhere in that direction.

Mat closed his eyes for a moment, calming himself and making sure to control his tone when speaking to him.

"Only some of them.. that Lich, he used to be the guard captain of the castle's defensive garrison. I don't remember anything else beyond that though." Mat sad in a solemn voice, making sure to add a healthy dose of a caring prince' personality for his subordinates—though there wasn't much of it available in the first place, because he had no memory of the prince beyond a few snippets of the undead he fought.

Maybe he will recover them as time passed, or maybe he'd have to find ways to recover them. He didn't know. He would try though.

The Old Man nodded at his answer, and blinked his green eyes behind wrinkled eyelids feathered by grey eyelashes. The Old Man took a moment to ponder, before he started speaking, "There are a few things you need to know before you can proceed ahead. It is simply imperative that you understand these things if you want to survive in this world."

Mat nodded in response, making sure to keep his face neutral.. or he would need to, if he had one. Since he didn't, he simply just nodded.

The Old Man raised his hand, and pointed out three of his fingers before he began speaking, "First thing—if you were to approach any civilised area as you are right now, you would cause a havoc and be hunted for being.. for looking like a 'monster'. Second—I have already given you two gifts, one is the staff, second being some of my strength which you earned by the medium of that Lich, and now, the last: here, take this grimoire, it has a few spells you may find helpful, but most important of all, it has the Life Incorporation Spell that would allow you to look like a normal person and exist in the secular world without any problems. It solves your first problem."

The Old Man spoke at length as he first pointed at the staff Mat held in his hand. After a brief moment of uttering more words, he summoned a thick tome—wide as Mat's body, bound in brown leather-skin, and looking like it belonged to a dilapidated corner of some ancient library—and threw it at him. Mat caught it the last moment before it hit his chest, but the unexpected weight of the book almost made him sag to the point that he had to enforce his body with mana just to stand straight.

Mat secured the book, and then expectantly looked at the man in question again, in anticipation of the third thing he had to say.

The Old Man took a moment to think before he nodded to himself, and pulled out a bracelet out of thin air. The bracelet was an ordinary looking hoop of black iron that absorbed all the light it faced. In every way it looked like it was ordinary, seemingly having no obtuse feature, or magical signature.

Orren Kael twirled the hoop between his fingers with the deftness of a habituary, just like he had been with his pipe before. He took a long look at the article in his hand before he spoke in a more serious tone, "Do you know why the House Noxleigh self immolated?"

Mat squared his shoulders at the sudden question. He'd had doubts, he'd interpreted signs, and he'd come to conclusions, especially from that latter.. but to have it be given to him straight, Mat had to take a moment to digest the confirmation. He took a little breath to calm his thoughts, and answered, "No. Unfortunately I have no memory of the past. I have some clues, I know it involved some generational prophecy that the House worshipped, and they needed to do this for some reason.."

Mat chose not to voice out his personal thoughts on the tragedy. He wasn't going to show if he had any opinion on the matter.

"Good, so you know half of your glorious purpose. At least we have a starting point then." Orren Kael heard his answer and nodded in approval. He took a moment to throw the bracelet to Mat, before he settled his hands again, and continued speaking, "You see, there is somebody who is on a hunt for you, and the likes of you to gain immense power, and your house foresaw it long ago. They also foresaw your awakening, hence why you are alive again today. Your simple goal now should be to get stronger, and then figure out the answers behind The One Who Hunts, and how you can stop that entity of the Second Epoch. You can stop him, do always remember that."

Mat nodded him head in recording, trying to remember all the info dump he'd just been given. That was some lore exposition, albeit unexplained it was.

The Old Man watched him carefully before he pointed at the bracelet Mat held in his hand.

"That is a simple device, it will tell you immediately, when he, his people, or anything with his signature of magic is around. That is all you need to know for now. The rest you must figure out on your own." The Old Man said as he shrugged his shoulders and magically manifested his still burning pipe in his hands.

Taking a long whiff, the Orren Kael gave Mat one final look, and before Mat even had the chance to answer him anything, or ask anymore questions, he disappeared in an instant. No more flashy teleportation this time for some reason, one moment he was here, and the other, he was just gone.

Mat was dumbfounded again, at the vexing behaviour of this old man.

Mat took a few deep breaths to calm himself down, and digest all that he had learnt.

It hasn't even been a day in the new world, and I've already been told about the big bad of the story.. I just want to live a peaceful farm life.

"Glorious purpose," Mat lampooned at the old man as he thought about the whole situation that he had been given enlightenment of, mere moments ago at that.

"Ugh," he groaned before deciding to put it all behind him for now. He would get to it all later. First thing, he had to see exactly what the old man had meant by sharing some of his strength.

["Status"]

Mat spoke aloud in anticipation.

+++

Mordain Noxleigh

[First of the Graveborn]

Age: 10 (154)

Level 4 → 12 Undead [Mage]

VIT: 4 → 12

STR: 9 → 21

AGI: 13 → 23

INT: 15 → 25

MAG: 17 → 37

+++

I see, so that's what he meant.

Mat wasn't sure whether to be happy, that the old man gave him a little training arc before he went out in the world, and even gave him a reward for passing a test; or be upset at the fact that he had to die so many times just because of that man's whims.

He decided to go with the more positive and constructive emotion, and keeping in mind that having a cordial relationship with a seemingly strong person like that old man seemed to be a good idea.

We aren't friends or anything, but who knows, I might just need his help later on.

In this moment, Mat decided to give himself faux respect by trying to believe that he had a choice between making friends or enemy out of that man.

In his past life, Mat had moments where he accidentally attacked NPCs in Dark Souls, and when he had to eventually kill them, he would cope by telling himself and everyone else that making enemy out of them was a conscious decision on his end.

It didn't work often.

…

"Anyway… now that all of this is done, I can finally get out of this renounced house of old stone."

Mat engaged his mana with the bracelet given to him by the old man. On its own volition, the bracelet slipped onto his wrist, and disappeared into a black circle on his wrist, which gradually faded to nothing as well. Interesting.

Mat next looked at the thick tome of parchment paper he had put down on the ground once the old guy left. It was a heavy book, and he had two options.. he could either learn everything it had right now, or he find a way to carry it without exerting himself.

Mat wanted to try something with it, like he had with his staff. Maybe he could make it go inside his 'inventory' too? He wasn't sure it was an inventory like storage though, but it could certainly just be.

Taking a breath, Mat injected some of his mana into the book's cover, and suddenly the plain cover lit up into a hexagonal figure covered with foreign symbols he couldn't understand. A moment later, the figure dimmed down, and gradually disappeared again.

Mat could now feel a sort of connection with the book. He imagined it disappearing somewhere inside his mental space, and in a blink it was gone, now only present in his thoughts. With intent, Mat willed for the book and his staff to appear again, and in an instant, they both took shape right in front of him out of thin air as a vortex of cyan mana ejected them from some sort of spatial realm.

Mat sighed in relief, knowing he could put away and bring out objects at will when he wanted. He was uncertain of his storage's maximum capabilities, but that wasn't a topic of concern for him yet.

Making the two objects disappear again, Mat was now free to leave. So without waiting any more, he walked straight across the great tree, and reached the giant arch fitted with a wooden door enforced with magic infused metal. He could almost hear the mana flowing through its metallic lattice.

Since there was no key or lock on the door, Mat simply injected a hint of Noxfire into the door, and suddenly, it lit up in a yellow light.

Instead of it opening though, a green mist of mana converged a few feet away from Mat, and from it fell several pieces of armour and clothes, and they seemed oddly familiar.

Taking a closer look, Mat realised it was the same armour the Lich had wore, and the same rags it was covered in… but on top of that, it had some extra pieces that the Lich was not wearing, which was a welcome surprise.

Mat only realised now, that he was walking naked from head to toe this whole time.

Mat guessed this to be just another gift by the old man, because he doubted anybody else would do that here, and decided to finally suit up.

A moment later, he was covered in black iron like armour that lightly hummed with mana, covering him from neck to feet in an seeming uncomfortable outfit. It was anything but uncomfortable. On top of the armour, Mat wore the thin, black garb which hid it's design from eyesight.

Feeling satisfied with the situation, and not so angry with the old man, Mat was ready to finally leave this place. Walking up to the door, he gently pushed it out in an attempt, and it offered no resistance, opening itself to the outside world.

A fresh breeze hit his face as the smell of lively flora flowing in night's ambient, gentle wind wafted through the air, filling his lungs with mellow sweetness of the nature.