NOVEL NEXT 93 - Rot Magic
Since selecting Facet of the Rot Mage, Div had expected swift progress in his study of rot magic, but reality had other plans for him.
He thought he had everything he needed to succeed: three skills dedicated to this pursuit, and ample mana reserves generated by his Rot Heart bloodline.
Magic, however, was never a simple subject.
It turned out that moving attuned mana was only the beginning. Casting a spell meant shaping that mana into exact patterns, refined structures that could hold and express intent.
Under Theaphilia's guidance, Div had learned a lot, but his progress was slower than he'd like.
Spells were the basic form of all magic. The construct took mana and refined it into something more. In theory, it was simple: spells were patterns. Shapes to sculpt mana into to bring forth fantastical effects.
Theaphilia used water magic as an example. Elemental magic was often more grounded, easier to understand. With Vedovessa demonstrating for them, Div got the idea very quickly.
The most basic water magic spell was called condense. The mage simply had to gather as much ambient water-attuned mana as possible and condense it to create real water.
Water magic made sense. Condense, form a stream, control pressure. It was all physical. But rot wasn't physical. It wasn't a thing. It was a process.
Luckily, Theaphilia was an expert in sky magic. Similarly, the sky only existed in opposition to the ground. On its own, the sky was nothing.
It gave Div another perspective. But, ultimately, sky magic was all about flying, and detaching anchors. It wasn't rot.
Every magic had its own peculiarities and, without a teacher, Div would have to figure out rot magic on his own.
Not long after En's departure, Div walked alone in the forest, outside the walls of Camboaci. Now that he was Evolved Rank and had graduated, he was officially an adult. No one stopped him from leaving Camboaci's walls.
Alone in the forest, he hunted. Not for food, but for something to rot.
At first, he had used cheese to test his rot magic. But after one too many batches ruined by his lack of control, he had kindly been asked to stop.
Roaming the forest on his own took him back three years in the past when he had just been exiled. When everything around him was rotting so fast.
Nowadays, his hold on the Rot Heart was enough that very few rot-attuned mana leaked into the environment.
That was until he tried using magic.
His mana reserves were so large that he had issues reaching the level of precision required by most spells.
This was the other reason he had chosen to hunt. He remembered vividly his first cyclops. How its corpse had rotten, and throbbed with worms, insects, and mold so soon after it died.
He needed to see that again. To experience it under the lenses of Rotlife Sense, Rot Magic, and Mana Manipulation.
Hoping to find inspiration for his first spell, Div followed the tracks of a stonehide bear. After years of learning, he had finally learned the basics necessary for hunting.
Although, stonehide bears were not known for their discretion. This one was small, but its colossal weight left deep traces for each step it took.
The trail was fresh, he should be able to catch up quickly.
Spear and shield at the ready, he advanced through the woods, expecting the bear to show up behind every tree.
A few minutes later, he spotted it in the distance.
The beast was rolling itself in the mud. Something stonehide bears did to maintain their rocky armor.
The fight was short. Div had mostly recovered from the strain caused by his split with En. With his Evolved Rank body, the Basic Rank bear didn't stand a chance.
Still, he made sure to hold back the rotting effect from his spear. It would defeat the point if the bear was infected like that.
He planted his weapon in the beast's mouth, swiftly ending its life.
The bear's corpse collapsed with a thud. Div stood over it, spear still buried in its maw. He exhaled slowly, now he needed to focus.
He ripped the spear away from the beast and let the weapon fall to the ground.
Div watched the corpse with Rotlife Sense. It was still fresh, still warm.
Life was always in flux, a balance of decay and renewal. But now, with death, that balance had shifted, tipping fully toward rot.
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He extended one hand above the beast and released rot-attuned mana into the area. It was wild, and uncontrolled, but he wasn't trying to cast a spell. All he wanted was to see the corpse rot. To really understand what would happen.
As if attracted by his mana, countless insects, and worms crawled and flew over, along with other organisms. Fungi, mold, and all kinds of rotlife were rapidly congregating and taking over the stonehide bear remains.
He stopped the flow of mana from his bloodline.
There was something he needed to try.
Flexing his Mana Manipulation, he gathered as much rot-attuned mana as he could and concentrated it on the bear's front-left paw.
As expected, the rotlife followed.
Not all of it, the rest of the bear was still rotting naturally and Div could not stop new rot-attuned mana from being produced by the decaying corpse.
Still, it was confirmation that rotlife, in the various forms it could take, was attracted by rot-attuned mana.
Div waved his hand in front of his face, swatting swarms of flies. He squinted, wiping sweat and gnats from his brow, eyes locked onto the paw.
The rotlife there was denser now, more aggressive. Worms burrowed into the cracks in the bear's stone-plated hide. Fungi ballooned and ruptured skin. Even the microbial haze, normally invisible, pulsed with eerie vibrancy in his Rotlife Sense.
All of it was drawn to the mana he had concentrated.
He adjusted the mana flow. Not its quantity, but its shape. Smoothed it. Curled it inward like a coiled root. The response was immediate. Mold colonies retracted slightly, while the insects thrashed and surged forward, faster, more chaotic.
Another adjustment: a straight line of mana from the paw to the arm.
The rotlife stuttered, then aligned. Fungi grew in synchrony, almost patterned. Worms halted, then redirected to softer tissue.
Fascinating.
He wasn't casting a spell yet, but this was proto-magic. It was rough, his control barely holding the shape he wanted together. But the rotlife followed his mana.
Div released his hold and mana, letting it spread over the corpse once more.
With the low levels in his magical skills, maintaining control for longer than a few seconds was draining.
He sat on a nearby rock and watched as the bear carcass decayed. His magic was raw, aggressive, and particularly efficient at accelerating post-death rot.
It lacked the subtlety required of a true mage. Making a corpse burn wild with rot wasn't exactly useful. It was already dead.
Of course, the wyrmrat incident came to mind. Those had been alive and consumed by rot. However, it was mostly due to the complete disregard those beasts showed for their safety. Had they not eaten their infected brethren, it wouldn't have been this effective.
At the moment, Div was forced to rely on Rotten Spear to infect his enemies. Rotten Shield could amplify the effect, but it wasn't as potent.
Without the tip of his spear piercing his opponents' defenses, rotlife didn't have a way in.
Div felt stuck, lacking inspiration.
Maybe trying to make a living being rot simply by casting a spell was out of his reach for now.
No, he couldn't allow himself to feel defeated like that. If rot magic was split into creation and destruction, the former required too much precision for Div to master at the moment.
Destruction was the way to go.
He slapped his head, remembering his earlier findings. Rotlife already existed inside every living being. In their stomachs, in their guts, in their muscles, skin, and organs.
Rotlife wasn't monolithic, some were beneficial, living in symbiosis with their host. The rotlife consumed their host's damaged tissues so that they could be replaced.
But wasn't magic a force of transformation? The power to change the existing?
What if he could turn symbiotic rotlife into something else? A force that would devour his targets from within?
"But how?" Div whispered.
Still not sure how he would proceed, he picked a flower and brought it to his eyes.
There was rotlife inside.
Not much, it was barely noticeable, a trickle of rot-attuned mana.
But it was there.
Div observed how it behaved, how it broke down and regenerated the tiniest fraction of the plant. He concentrated, etching the pattern into memory
He watched as the process slowly altered itself.
It wasn't chaotic. The existing rotlife continued to work their decay, but the plant was gradually running out of nutrients to sustain its regeneration.
Div took mental notes and continued his observation.
Starting from the stem Div had ripped from the root, then going up to the petals, foreign rotlife began infiltrating the flower. It was more aggressive, and less caring for the flower's health. At least, symbiotic rotlife had a vested interest in keeping their host alive, but the newcomers didn't care.
Once they ate everything, they would find another victim.
It was at this moment that the rot-attuned mana changed. From slow but steady emanation, it turned into a swirl, constantly accelerating. as soon as they sensed the shift, the symbiotic rotlife behavior shifted.
No longer were they concerned about keeping the flower alive. Now, they rushed to consume as much as they could before it was too late.
They knew it was over for their host.
Div snapped his fingers. That was it. The signal. The trigger. Not brute force, but a shift in how rotlife perceived the host. When the host was doomed, they turned on it.
If he could reproduce this swirling pattern…
He dropped the flower and moved to another. This time, he didn't pluck it. To practice, he needed to make sure the flower was still alive.
First, he discarded the idea of using mana from his Rot Heart. There was simply too much. Flowers weren't the hardiest plants in the forest, so exposure to this amount of rot-attuned mana would destroy it. Even without harming it otherwise.
No, Div wanted to master rot magic, and he saw the opportunity to use the ambient rot-attuned mana present in all living things to reach his goal.
Carefully, he molded the mana inside the flower, turning it into an approximation of the twirl he had observed. It wasn't exactly the same, but close enough for a first try.
Some rotlife reacted, increasing the rate at which they were consuming the flower.
It wasn't quite enough to overwhelm the plant, but it did weaken it. The flower had to spend more energy and nutrients to regenerate itself.
Div kept up his focus, fiddling with his nascent spell.
He was doing it. His first spell. A whisper of decay, shaped by will. And the flower, once whole, began to rot.