The Little Necromancer [LITRPG]

Enya knelt down a meter away from the edge. Pell's hand was on her shoulder, just in case he'd have to fling her backward if something went wrong.

She held out both hands, facing each other. Between them, a large spell circuit made of mana that only she could see appeared. Five spell patterns, some short, others cornered and sharp—long and stubby—each were distinct from one another.

A dashed pattern was used here, and in her bone spears spell, which only consisted of three total patterns. By now, she had full proficiency over these spell circuits. She could cast them in a fraction of a second. However, her mastery over the circuits wasn't the problem here.

Enya focused. She filled each pattern with the requisite mana. In her mind, she imagined a bridge. A constructed bone bridge, layering over one another, piece by piece. The circuit shattered and activated as she thrust forward toward the cliff.

Ethereal bones began to appear, materializing out of the air. However, nothing would connect. The bones that appeared failed in the formation. After just a few large bones, the entire spell fizzled and shattered. She scowled, and quickly reversed the change. With a flick of her wrist, she recycled the dissipated mana, reverting it back into spell circuit form, holding it steady once again in front of her.

"I think we gotta try something else, kid. Doesn't look like that's gonna work."

Enya looked back up at Pell, then back toward her spell.

"I'm not sure if a bridge made of bone is the most trustworthy thing either. Too dangerous for you to just walk across, even if you do make it," Pell continued. With his free hand, he opened his marketplace interface. Surprisingly, but also, not surprisingly—it didn't open.

"Tch." He ground his jaw, imitating a click of his tongue. "I can't access the marketplace down here. Maybe not even down here, but in this village in general. If this place is a pocket layer, then it would make sense that my skill would be isolated. Was damn hoping that this wasn't the case…"

Elria fades out from behind him, swimming in the air with leg kicks, before floating in front of him without a care in the world. "Must suck being isolated from the rest of the world, huh?" She cackled.

Pell swiped at her, but she dodged his hand. "No touchy-touchy," she said. She then promptly swam back in front of his face—a bit too close. "Unless you'll let me do what I want with that body. I'm quite… the possessive woman."

A chill ran down his spine.

Although Elria was this annoying, sealed spirit—she was probably sealed down here for a reason. She'd been irritating and rambunctious, but mostly harmless. But the way she spoke just now, something about it frightened Pell. Like she could simply reach in and rip his soul out.

He hesitated for a moment. Elria however, backed away a second later.

"Just kidding," she said, shrugging with her palms faced up. "I can't possess anything that's conscious or already inhabiting a soul. Only an empty husk is suitable."

Pell's soul flames tightened. "How about you stop making jokes and help come up with an idea for how we can cross this stupid ravine."

Elria rolled her eyes. "So bossy. You're never going to get any undead women like that." She placed a finger underneath her chin. "Well, actually—I think some girls are into that."

Pell and Elria continued to argue, while Enya continued to fumble around with her spell.

Think… think… Sable said that he invented this spell. A way to summon skeletons from their remains, or even by using your own mana. This was a combination spell he came up with. Yet it also contains a pattern from bone spears. What makes the other three patterns inside Summon skeletons, and the two patterns inside bone spears—different?

It had been several months since she focused so hard. Her eyes glew a dim yellow, before gaining intensity. She began to mutter under her breath, her words drowned out by the infighting going on behind her. She formed a second spell circuit—the one for bone spears, and set both spell circuits side by side in the iar, layering one above the other.

Slowly, she began to channel mana into different sections of each pattern, watching how the spell circuit reacted. Then, she began to mix-match patterns with each other. What happens if you replaced a pattern inside from one into the other? What if you used all the patterns from bone spears into summon skeletons?

Time seemed to slow as her mind worked through the possibilities. One by one, each permutation of spell patterns, which to which, each to each were being tested.

The Grim Pullet appeared in front of her, pages flying open to a clean blank slate. As her mind worked, the pages filled with ink, drawn without pen. First, the spell circle. Next, the spell patterns. Each drawn with perfection, coming straight from her imagination. One permutation down, then the next; the pages continued to flip and flip, fluttering wildly as she examined the effects of each. Any failures were recycled, then jotted down inside.

Skill: Sage's Insight [B] [Passive]
You have an enhanced understanding of all things related to magic, mana, and the arcane. Your baseline talent for the understanding of concepts, theory, and memorization of related subjects is increased by 40%.

After ten minutes of working, several pages were now filled.

"How about you climb to the bottom then climb back up?" Elria suggested.

"I'm not stupid! You just said two minutes ago that it's practically a gateway to the afterlife down there!" Pell rebutted.

"Oh, such small details—are you really going to let that stop you?"

"Yes! Unlike you, I actually value my life! I'm not some dumb prisoner who got themselves killed for bewitching an entire city!"

Elria rolled her eyes. "Hey—I actually did something significant." She poked a ghostly finger onto his ribcage. "You died in some stupid dungeon and a little girl had to save you. Who has the sadder life, huh?"

Pell and Elria were raring to fight against one another. If not for the fact that neither could touch the other. Somewhere along the way, Elria had asked about how Pell had died. He was already regretting letting her know.

Enya began again.

Two spell circuits now hovered before her—one for Bone Spear, one for summon skeleton—each rotating slowly in the air.

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Her eyes narrowed. She adjusted the patterns—swapping one here, combining two there. At first, it was like jamming puzzle pieces into the wrong board. Some combinations flared and collapsed instantly. Others sparked strange results: a skeleton arm that crumpled in on itself, a malformed ribcage that hovered midair before evaporating like mist.

Nothing held together. Nothing moved the way she wanted it to.

The problem, she soon realized, was deeper than just structure.

It was intent.

Sable's summon skeleton spell required a template. It was a mixed combination spell. One that could work with a skeletal corpse. A bone from a real creature—dog, rat, goblin, bunny, human—anything so the spell could lock onto its physical structure. After that, the pattern would remember it. Let her re-summon the creature without the catalyst.

But there was no such thing as a "bone bridge" monster.

She couldn't summon something that didn't exist. To recreate what she hadn't already sampled.

"Oh! Poetry now! Say that again, slower—I'll carve it into my tombstone," said Elria.

"Already looks like you did it yourself, you self-absorbed—"

Their voices blurred behind her. Enya blocked them out. She raised both hands and merged the circuits again.

This time, she deconstructed the patterns. Each curl, each line—what did it do?

Bone Spear had momentum, rotation, piercing.

Summon Skeleton had form retention, mana reassembly, stabilization.

She hovered her fingers over one of the thinner spiral glyphs.

Structure Repetition. It told the spell how many parts to copy.

Another, thicker curve—the core joint. That one defined the main pivot point in the construct's design.

Her lips moved soundlessly as she sketched in the air, one glowing line at a time. Her mana pulsed harder, and her vision sharpened with it. Time stilled even more as sage's insight continued to work behind the scenes, flaring like a lantern in a fog.

As she worked, the Grim Pullet hovered in front of her.

"Huh?"

She was recording down all of her notes this entire time. Keeping a record of what she had already tried. Information on what each permutation—what each combination did.

<Grimmy> The following spell circuit would need a different configuration of spell patterns if your goal is to create a bridge. I would recommend you use the hopped-pattern alongside the flow-pattern first to stabilize the base.

Her eyes went wide. The crafting assistant perk. She had gotten this alongside the original sin and harvester perks.

You can even help me come up with a new spell? she thought.

<Grimmy> That is correct. I can assist in crafting anything that is within my knowledge. This includes spell circuits. While the records of spells recorded in me is not as numerous as crafting recipes, it should be sufficient for this current task.

Alright! Let's do this Grimmy!

"Let's start with the two you mentioned," she whispered, fingers tracing the air. "Hopped-pattern. Flow-pattern."

With Grimmy's help, the changes came faster. The circuits snapped into place without collapsing. Whenever one flared too bright or pulsed too slowly, Grimmy highlighted the unstable regions with a faint ripple of ink-like shimmer across the page.

<Grimmy> Replacing the secondary spiral in the reassembly section with a curve from Bone Spear will allow for momentum channeling. It may help guide direction.

She tried it. The circuit didn't shatter this time—it flexed. Responded. Like it was unsure, but willing to cooperate.

She grinned. "That's better."

<Grimmy> The current circuit lacks proper termination. Without an endpoint, your creation will continue until it consumes your mana or collapses. Try using the stop-pattern here.

"Got it."

She didn't necessarily have it. She didn't know the names for the patterns. Whenever Grimmy suggested something, she just tried every spell pattern she knew until Grimmy told her to stop. Trial and error.

She reached out and rotated the bottom circuit slightly, then began adding to it—a new glyph with interlocking prongs, almost like vertebrae in a spine. A kind of magical hinge.

<Grimmy> Anchoring successful. Form retention at 46%. Suggest adding the compression-fold from the spear circuit to strengthen projected support structures.

She was beginning to understand. The spear spell was all about movement. Piercing, force, follow-through. The skeleton spell was about form, memory, and cohesion.

What she needed was both.

Grimmy began marking permutations directly in the air beside her. Ethereal diagrams, notes, tiny spell-loop sketches hung in the air like glowing chalk on glass. Each one tested some new combination of bone-magic theory—spanning from real-world constructs like ribcage lattices and femur arches, to wildly experimental ones based on symmetry, load bearing, and metaphysical weight.

She didn't know what half of these words meant. Things like metaphysical were tough for her to even pronounce. But she just followed along with the instructions and tried her best.

"Then this… here. This should be…"

She continued working, adding more, removing more. Eventually, she even had to create two custom spell patterns. Of course, with Grimmy's help.

<Grimmy> Introducing adaptive progression glyph. This will allow bone generation to extend in any direction with your design in mind. Recommendation: include mana-conversion pattern to reduce total cost over time.

"Right—right, got it."

Eight patterns now pulsed together. A new, never-before-seen circuit. It didn't shimmer like the old ones did. It glowed. Pale violet—not white. Unfortunately, only those with mana detection could see mana like this. It was a shame Pell couldn't see how pretty it was. She was now holding the bones of a spell that had never existed until now.

Pattern one: anchoring. A hopping dashed mark embedded at two ends.

Pattern two: stop formation. Spaced evenly along the projected structure.

Pattern three: recursive flow, tied to mana input.

Pattern four: mass repetition. How many bones and joint vertebrae, how often, how thick.

Pattern five and six: direction and balance—drawn like wings with curved hooks.

Pattern seven: stabilization glyphs—split between gravitational balance and arc rigidity.

Pattern eight: final override. A command rune. One that let her steer the whole process like a puppeteer pulling threads. A modified formulation of the summon skeleton's most complex pattern.

Her breathing quickened. Her pupils flared gold. Even Grimmy paused for a moment as the final circuit rotated in place, spinning like a clock made of light.

<Grimmy> …Confirmed. New spell circuit is viable. A summon-type construct. No template required. It will drain mana continuously until stopped.

Her hands trembled. She pushed it forward.

The air cracked.

From the ground before the cliff, two massive bone spikes erupted—anchoring themselves deep into the rock. One at her edge, the other across the chasm. The spell reacted immediately, like it had been waiting.

Spinal segments began to form. Thick vertebrae, jagged and spurred, clicked into place one by one, creeping outward like a serpent made of ivory.

The bridge wasn't instant. It grew organically, slowly, as though feeling its way forward across the void. With each segment formed, Enya had to will it to stay intact—her mana threading into every inch of the spell, bones groaning under invisible pressure.

Behind her, Pell's voice dropped low. "…You've got to be kidding me."

Elria floated over his shoulder, slack-jawed in gleeful disbelief. "She actually did it," she cooed. "She built a bone bridge. A real, creaky, terrible-looking, completely functional bridge made of bone."

Enya's knees buckled as she tried to force herself to remain standing. Sweat clung to her back. Her mana had been used up until one point—and now she was burning through the reserves of her soul-energy. And it was depleting fast.

However, she didn't stop. Each segment needed her attention—like threading a needle over and over, except the needle was twenty feet long. Stopping it now would make the entire thing collapse. And there was no way to recycle that much soul-energy.

"…Kid?" Pell said slowly, watching as the bridge kept building, extending far into the thick foggy mist.

Elria floated beside him, mouth agape. Then she burst into a fit of howling laughter.

Pell stared. He didn't move. Didn't speak.

Enya's jaw clenched. Her hands shook. But she held the circuit steady.

Because this spell wasn't simply learned from an instruction book.

It wasn't Sable's. Not entirely.

This spell—it was hers.

Quest Complete:
Construct your own summon spell circuit.
Crafting and experimentation are the necroblood of all smiths. Construct your own signature summon spell circuit by combining and experimenting with different spell patterns.