Dancing with the Dead. Elemental Theories.

//And another chap just to make your hearts explode from joy Haha!!!//

//A few day after the Tomb exploration//

"The Barrier is active. Your Orichalcum coated cage seems to be working perfectly. Alright Octavia let's open it and see what we are here against!" Proclaimed Konrad as they stood in the center of the Necromantic Laboratory.

In front of them lied the ornate sarcophagus containing the Undead Mummy of Pharaoh Cheops. It was placed inside of a cage made out of titanium coated with Orichalcum. The cage was made by Octavia and made with the usage of Titanium provided by Konrad through buying ingots online. She couldn't absorb it all at once so she made the cage as her idea of protection, in case the barrier failed.

Octavia was really a godsend for Konrad as she could make a lot of stuff that he would struggle with otherwise thanks to her metamorphic and absorbing abilities.

Around the cage, there was a transparent barrier that acted as a special type of protection. It was a mix between a physical barrier and a slightly tweaked Mana Expulsion barrier, that he used while healing that Shadow Creature back in his home country.

The barrier basically stopped anything from passing through it and if something actually managed to push through it by force, the barrier would actually push the Mana out of it and absorb it by turning said mana into it's own energy.

This basically meant that if the Mummy somehow managed to pass the cage, it would be stopped by the barrier and if it actually managed to push through the barrier, all the Magic keeping it alive would be sucked out killing the monster instantly.

It took Konrad a lot of time to figure out how to make the barrier ineffective against him and Octavia but he finally managed to do so by making the barrier recognize and ignore his bloodline. He suspected that this way Octavia would be also allowed to pass as he had to use his blood while "Hatching" her and he was right.

The duo was now ready to open the sarcophagus, so just like Konrad said, he guided his Magic to open the top of the coffin with levitation.

*THUD*

The heavy stone lid landed on the ground beside the Sarcophagus and the duo watched it while holding their breaths, waiting for anything to happen.

There was nothing for a while, but then there was a slight sund of movement and a hand tightly wrapped in old bandages grabbed the side of the coffin, then another, and soon enough a bonafide Mummy stood Inside the Sarcophagus looking towards them even though it had no visible eyes to actually look with. It actually surprised him because as far as he knew, most mummies were usually wrapped differently, usually covering their entire bodies in what he would basically call a cocoon... But this one had its arms and legs wrapped separately from the rest of the body, like your typical Mummy in popculture. It took him a while to realize that there was a number of broken straps falling of the mummy that must have been doing jus that not too long ago.

The sight was slightly menacing, but suddenly, the Mummy tried to move towards them... only to trip on the side of the Sarcophagus that it was yet to get out of...

Surprised, Konrad didn't even try to stop it from falling and as the ragged body crumpled onto the ground, a thought struck him that that was it and their undead research was already finished...

Thankfully, the Mummy turned out to be more resistant than it looked as it tried to collect itself from the ground before standing up once again.

"..."

*..."

"Right....I think we went a bit overboard with the safety measures..." Konrad muttered looking at the pathetic excuse of an undead...

*You think?* Octavia asked trying and failing to hide her amusement.

"...I guess I'll just check it's statics. Who knows it might be stronger than it seems..." He suggested with a wry smile.

| Pharaoh Cheops ( Undead ) |

| Rank - F

| Race - Human/Undead

| Status - Deteriorated/Energy Malnutrition

| Statistics:

Strength - 4

Perception - 5

Agility - 2

Intelligence - 1

| Skills:

- Undead

- Life Detection

- Life Consumption

- Necrosis touch (Dormant)

| Description: The Mummy of Pharaoh Cheops that turned into an undead through the long term exposure to a relatively strong Source of Mana. It's particularly weak because of receiving little to no Mana and because of it's body's natural deterioration due to time and insufficient Mana needed for reinforcing it. Mark the word 'relatively' While speaking about the source of Mana as it was barely enough to sustain this Undead 'alive'.

__________

*...*

"...Nope...It's even weaker than I expected it to be... Hahaha!" He laughed after reading the description of the monster.

"I think it would be enough to wrap it in a fresh bandage for it to be secured." He added and Octavia was also giggling now.

*Giggle**So...what do we do with him? He doesn't seem to be the... talkative type.* she said, looking at the Mummy that tried to rip the cage open with little success. The metal mesh that formed the cage was particularly dense so the Undead wasn't even able to put a single hand through it.

"Well..." Konrad started while exerting focus to levitate the Undead."...We can probably strap him to a table and do some experiments regarding Mana and healing potions. Do you think he would be damaged by the potion or actually get healed?" He proposed as he was strapping the struggling Mummy to a surgical table he levitated into the cage.

*I think that even if the potion worked you would have to use the Great Health Potion to restore his body and there would be nothing we could do about his soul or the lack of it thereof.* Octavia replied getting into her scientist persona.

"Huh...i guess you're right... Ok, then let's start with a drop of Lower Health Potion onto it's body... actually maybe we should first remove the bandages?" He said curious what was hiding underneath them.

He obviously expected to find bones, but would there be some dried up body or is there only dust like it was showed in some cartoons...

Turns out that there was a dried up body alright. It was very fragile and it must have been a miracle that it wasn't broken when the monster tripped on the coffin... It continuously tried to get out of the straps holding it to the table but there wasn't much it could do with it's strength at four points... it was weaker that a twelve years old child after all...

Another surprising discovery. The health potion actually worked! The immediate area where the drop of the potion landed instantly showed signs of getting less like a dried up twig and more like elastic gum....It would need a lot more potions or a higher grade one to actually recover it's body but it was a proof that the target didn't have to be alive to be healed but it would still not return the soul. That was a somehow useful information if he ever wanted to delve into soul magic or Necromancy for real...

He honestly expected the Death Elemental Mana to be harmed by the healing potion but surprisingly that was not the case unlike with the healing spell he designed. That one make The Undead Pharaoh screech like a banshee which was surprising considering that it didn't make any sounds until now. Of course the Death Mana was also slightly damaged so Konrad ceased that immediately. He didn't want his only experimental subject to die now.

That made him question what were the health potion really and how were they actually healing? The only conclusion he came up with was that they actually lacked any intent or Life Magic Element but that also doesn't exactly feel right to him. He could only sigh in frustration as nothing came up under a microscope either...

//Present Day//

The improvements in his physical resistance were tremendous. Konrad was extremely satisfied with the Dragon Skin Technique because it became one of his most powerful abilities. He even tested a gun on himself and man! "You can call me The Man of Steel now!" He said with amusement clear on his face and Octavia snorted hearing him.

*And what steel pray tell me has purple spots when it's shot with a bullet?* She asked, making him since involuntarily.

He might have been almost bulletproof but that didn't meant the impact of a small bullet flying faster than a racing car didn't leave a nasty bruise. Also his bones weren't as much strengthened as his skin even though it was a surprise that they were strengthened at all. After all it was the Dragon SKIN Technique so you would think it only applied to the skin, but surprisingly after reaching the second stage the Technique actually sinks deeper, strengthening the muscles and slightly improving the bones upon reaching the third Stage. All those parts are supposed to only get stronger as his Technique progressed further...and apparently his meat would become more delicious as well? That's not something he wanted to know but whatever...

In the end though, the skill still focused mostly on the Skin and the rest was only a positive byproduct. Nonetheless he was very happy about the skill and apparently that was the reason for his stats improvement. Oh and let's not forget about the improved sight. Seems like it was only a singular occurrence but it still awarded him with three points of perception.

The research on the Pharaoh Cheops brought a number of discoveries. For one, the body of the undead was different from the normal human body and the health potion in this case actually tried to repair the damage caused by the deterioration of time that couldn't be stopped because of the lack of Mana. It didn't recover it to a healthy condition though but left it in this deformed, husk like and withered form that could only move thanks to the Death magic inside of it.

The Undead couldn't generate Mana so it had to absorb it from the air or from its prey which seems to also give him more strength. Konrad couldn't really tell whether there was a difference between life force and Mana but whatever the case was, the Undead had a much easier time absorbing whatever he absorbed from a living target than from the Ambient Mana. It looked quite gruesome to see it rip a rat to pieces with it's broken teeth, but it did confirmed that it could suck up this little bit of Mana inside of the rodent as if it was a Caprisun...

From the more disturbing discoveries...Konrad found out how to imbue his Mana with the death intent successfully recreating the magic inside of the Pharaoh. Even more disturbing was when he pushed this Mana i to the body of a partially eaten rat, only for the rat to stand up and look at Konrad as if it awaited an order...It turns out that it was disturbingly easy for him to make an Undead, but he quickly incinerated the rat, confirming that fire was their weakness...

He decided to forget about the fact that he could now easily rise an army of undead and focused back on his research...

_________

The Mummy of Cheops was left strapped to the operation table as it was yet another safety measure, and the duo left to take a break.

Most of their discoveries only left them disturbed and Konrad classified Necromancy as an evil art, there was no arguing about that. It was very easy to use it and he could see the Death Element having an almost addictive feeling to it. Only his great sense and control over Mana allowed him to figure it out though. A normal person would probably continue to delve deeper into it and transform into who knows what monstrosity if he wasn't careful enough. This was different from the darkness element he accidentally summoned in the past while experimenting With elemental orb formations. While the darkness element felt clearly evil and wrong, the Death element was subtle and somehow inviting. It tried to entice you into wielding it so it could corrupt you and make you do stuff that you wouldn't normally do. It was honestly quiet shocking. While normal elements never had something like this. They never affected the user or at least not in such a blatant way, the 'Dark' elements were basically Narcotics. There was no 'Magic is just a tool' here. If you were to delve into those elements, you would soon found yourself rising dead or sowing destruction in the world.

It only gave him more reasons to find proper ways to fight this elements. He remembered how he spend an hour basking himself in his prototype healing magic in order to make sure he wasn't in any way tainted by using the Death Element to make an Undead rat... He would have to make some formations specifically to extract and destroy or converse the Dark elements into normal Mana and he was glad to find it out to soon. If he were to let his Mana spread in the world and cause the accumulated Mana to arise more Undead without having a proper contingency plan there would be a lot of problems that he preferred to avoid...

All those experiment though, gave him yet another surprise that came to him when he remembered that Shadow Creature which he healed from being tainted by whatever that was back then. It was some kind of magical Shadow Car so it made him think whether Shadow actually belonged to the 'Dark' Elements.

The answer was a surprising No! The Shadow element belonged to the neutral elements just like fire and water. Even light element belonged to the neutral elements even though it was the weakness of the 'Dark' Magic. Konrad classified Neutral Elements as basic elements with little to no effect on the user.

He believed that just like the 'Dark' Elements, that is Darkness, Death and probably more, had a negative effect on the user, both mentally and even physically, there should be a counterpart to them which he assumed to be something akin to Holy Magic.

He had also spend a long time on pondering how Shadow Magic differed from Darkness Magic but he came up with only the fact that they differed in wording and the meaning of the intent. Shadow as in the simple lack of light, the presence of the fact that you can't see as there is no light to bring you the image. It had a potential to make a different type of invisibility magic that worked on the reverse principle to his current one. Darkness as if the blackness of the unknown, the void that strucks fear into the person and a mix of simple dark emotions.

So basically Shadow magic is neutral. It's just a basic element, while Darkness is the element of fear and dark emotions.

At the end of this research, Konrad almost wanted to write a book. He even already thought up the title. 'The True Face of the Elements.' He would call it. He snorted realizing that there was no one who would even read it beside him...but on the other hand, it would be quiet cool to make himself a personal library of knowledge he compelled in the years of his research. He would have to really think about it. He would be like some kind of an old Sage haha!

But that was something for later. Konrad realized that they were once again swimming in research while the main purpose for them building their Base in this desert was still buried a few kilometers underground. They really needed to start digging!

But first he should check up on the Broken Sword. Poor thing was completely forgotten after he put him on the top of those two magical ingots. It was high time he actually tried something to speed it's recovery... He honestly completely forgot about it in all this excitement...

____________

Current Status

[• Konrad Caster •]

| Race - Human

| Class - Magic Swordsman

| Status - Healthy

| Mana ~ 3020/3020MP

| Mana Regeneration ~604/min (4x5%/min)

| Blood Capacity - 6500/6500ml

| Blood Replenishment ~ 1000ml/day (500ml/4daysx8)

________

| Stats:

Strength - 40

Perception - 40

Agility - 36

Intelligence - 34

________

| Skills:

- Language Comprehension:

- [@π&¥@&€#∆££#&∆¶$

- Language Of Birds

- Health Regeneration: x8

- Mana Regeneration: x4

- Lesser Mana Affinity

- Space Storage: 24 m^2

- Observe: Basic

- Status Deterioration Block

- Mana Sprint

- Dragon Skin Technique (Stage - 3 • Spiritual Connection Stage) - 2%

- Ambidexterity

- Lesser Fire Resistance

- Lesser Frost Resistance

- Medium Chaos Resistance

- Poison Immunity

- Shock Immunity

- Blink Affinity

________

| Equipment

- Ring of Arcana (200/200)

- Bracelet of Hecate (2000/2000)

________

| Soul Bonded Artifacts:

- Cooking Grimoire

________

| Familiars:

- Octavia [ Slime ]

________

| Description:

Konrad is a...

.

.

.

...Hard.

________

//Konrad's inventory list//

- Food!

- Water/Drinkables!

- Enchanted Orichalcum Broadsword

- Steel Broadsword

- Steel Gauntlets

- Steel Armour

- Compass Of Random Journey

- Map Of Revealment

- Medium Health Potion

- Floating Ice Prison formation

- Teleportation Formation (->Greece)

- Teleportation Formation (->Gacha Space)

- Teleportation Formation (-> School)

- Smartphone

- few changes of clothes

- Konrad's favourite knife

- Konrad's personal Grimoire:

- Fire magic

- Light magic

- Wind magic

- Mind magic

-Water magic

- Gravity magic

- Space Magic

-Combination magic

- notepad for quick observations.

- • Fey Language Dictionary •

- bunch of different trinkets he thought might come in handy someday...

- Spelunking equipment

- Diving equipment

- Hiking equipment

- Climbing equipment

- Prize orbs:

[} User targeted Summoning (Another World Hero) {]

[} Common Gemstone Draw {] x6

[} Rare Gemstone Draw {] x2

[} Lesser Mana Potion +5 {] x17

[} Medium Mana Potion +50 {] x3

[} Lesser Health Potion {] x20

[} Medium Health Potion {] x5

[} Great Health Potion {]

[} Chosen Language Comprehension {]

[} Pure Iron Dagger {]

[}Mana Capacity +1{] x15

[} Mana Capacity +10 {] x3

[} Steel Gauntlets {] x2

[} Pure Iron Broadsword {]

[} Medium Health Potion {] x2

[} Steel Helmet {] x2

[} Steel Armour {] x2

[} Steel Boots {]

[} Steel Shield {]

[} Basic Weapon Manual (User adapted) {]

[} Broken Sword {]

[} Ambidexterity {]

[} Lesser Frost Resistance {]

[} Observe {]