Dark Lord: Rise to Power

Arin had lost count of how many hours had passed in this library. This castle was probably built in such a way that sunlight would not enter directly inside. This was because, Arin had not realized passing of days in the library. Or, maybe, he was so engrossed in browsing the vast library, which was surprisingly intact in this crumbling ruin of a castle, that he did not notice the passage of time.

As soon as a Specter had found this library in the castle, it rushed to Arin; and guided him to the library. He was astonished to see the vast room, filled with forest of racks, and each rack filled with big books. Arin, like a Kid in comics store, started shuffling all books. He had found various Books on Advanced Destruction, Creation and Light magic; but to his frustration most of them were not readable to him. Still, he decided to know about everything as much as he could. Before delving himself in his pursuit of knowledge, he had ordered his revenants to clean the rubbles in the castle to help it regain its original condition as much as possible. He had also ordered the specters to patrol the vicinity of the castle for security. They were commanded to immediately inform Arin at any sign of invasion or intrusion by unknown beings nearby. After delegating roles and responsibilities to all of his minions, he had dedicated himself in gaining knowledge as much as he could.

Arin did not know that three days had passed since he had started reading the books. Being an undead he did not have hunger or sleep or even any necessity to take rest. So, being an avid reader, he was reading nonstop. But, after three days he felt a mental fatigue. He found himself being overloaded with too much knowledge and information. Therefore he decided to take a breather and process all the information he had collected.

He had found out that every skill and spell in this world are categorized in ten tiers, depending on their level of mastery; Novice being the Basic and Supreme being the Highest tier. Every tier becomes successively harder to reach, making the Highest tier literally impossible to attain for most beings.

Also, there were numerous spells but all of them belonged to four skills or schools of magic- Destruction, Creation, Light, and Dark. Each of these school worked on different principles, and each needed different types of mana core to access and process.

To cast spells belonging to Destruction, one needed to possess a turbulent mana core which would spin from North to South or downward. This school of magic would involve harnessing all the abundant natural energy around the caster and manipulating them to unleash huge destruction- the scale and precision of which would depend on mastery of each spell as well as the overall Destruction Skill.

Creation Skill on the other hand required a fast mana core which would spin from South to North or upward. This skillset was more about manifestation of abundance of nature and summoning various creature or otherworldly entities. The spells would suit more defensive battle strategy and withering the enemy slowly instead of directly obliterating like that was case with Destruction Spells. The magnitude, again, depended on expertise of each individual spell as well as the overall Creation Skill.

The Light Skill could be harnessed with a calm mana core which would spin from East to West. It was more about blessing the allies to increase both of their offensive and defensive capabilities. Also, Arin came to know from a Basic Book on Light Magic, that, contrary to popular belief Light Skill had some spells whose destructive capability could rival the Destruction Spells.

The Dark Skill however required a slow mana core which would spin from West to East. It was about putting various curses on enemies to weaken them, which could be even fatal if applied strategically by an expert and intelligent Dark Magic Caster.

Arin realized it was near impossible in natural way to master all four skills. This was specially applicable for the skills whose mana core would spin in opposite direction. Unless one had multiple mana core, they would not be able to wield different schools of spell. For example, a mana core for Dark Magic could not be used to cast Light Magic; for both of them needed the mana core to spin at completely opposite direction. Same was the case with Destruction and Creation Magic.

Also, although theoretically trying to cast Dark and Destructive, or Creation and Light magic with same mana core could be possible, but, practically the disturbed spin of mana core would reduce effectivity of both spells. Therefore, Arin decided to develop his original mana core for Dark magic only, unless he could find way to develop another mana core, or a method to bypass this current situation.

It was not only about spells and skills that he gained knowledge about.

He also got a rudimentary ideas about this world he was now part of. But to his disappointment, he could not find many books about geography or history of the world. He kept his hope alive in vast part of the library which was yet to be explored by him.

From the few books he had found in the library regarding geography or history about the land, he had come to know that this World was popularly called Nyxoria. Also, there were various Gods and Divine Beings as well as some Godly figure whose description sounded pretty questionable. Arin's old world would rather tag them as Devilish rather than Divine beings, let alone Gods. Arin had found this very interesting.

Arin was tired at that moment. But he decided to finish the book in hand first and then only he would get up. This was because it was an interesting book which was discussing about a cyclical cataclysm of this world. But his pursuit of knowledge came to a halt as a Specter attracted his attention with a sharp shriek.

Arin felt sorry for them and wondered if there were any way for his minions to gain ability to speak. Then at least he could communicate with them better. For example, in this current scenario, he knew that there must had been some invasion or intrusion, or the Specter would not draw his attention right now. But there was no way for him to find out the nature of the invasion. So, he decided to proceed with caution.

Arin gathered the four Revenants and decided to follow the Specter. While passing the hall, he noticed that the Revenants had done a great job in cleaning the Hall and the alleys. But there was no time for him to appreciate their handiwork. Rather, right now it was time for him to use these Revenants for their real purpose- which was to fight for him, the Necromancer who had raised them. As they arrived in the courtyard, this was the first time Arin saw the sky. It was the same like the sky he had seen in his previous world. There was only one moon to be seen, although its size was bigger than the moon he was used to witness every night in his past life. The constellations were unknown as well. Anyway, it was no time for stargazing either. He kept following the Specter till they arrived at the forest. Arin did not need to follow the Specter anymore, for he could hear voices of Human from nearby. He decided to go slow.

Arin commanded the Revenants to wait there for his command and sneaked ahead alone to get better idea of what was happening there. He got closer to the noise and hid in a bush.

There were four people and two kids. The four had surrounded the kids, and the kids were trapped like little mice in corner.

"Stop running you urchins, you have made us run too much" said one burly man while huffing.

"We had rescued you from certain death, treated you, and that is how you are repaying us?," said another.

Suddenly, under the light of torch held in hand of one of the pursuers, Arin noticed all of the four men were wearing a uniform.

"Whaddahell…." Arin exclaimed, making all of the six people look at his direction.

The one with torch in one hand walked towards where Arin was hiding. His three companions switched to alert mode and became ready to jump at him at moments notice. The kids, baffled and scared, hugged each other tight.

"I will not ask twice!" shouted the one with torch in hand, "Vireon, shoot at the bush, if the rat does not surrender himself on count of three"

"Right, Miliean" the fat guy with crossbow in hand acknowledged the command and pointed the crossbow towards the place where Arin was hiding.

Arin realized it was no more possible for him to stay hidden in the bush, as his cover had been blown. He wondered if there was any way for him to know more about his enemies before he could engage. "Wish I could know their levels" Arin thought. As if, his 'Scrying' skill was waiting for him to make that wish only, he saw floating texts mentioning respective level on each of the enemies.

The one called Milean, most probably leading the other three was of level 8. The one with crossbow, probably named Vireon, was of level 6. Rest of the two, one with a great sword; another with a sword and shield, both were of level 7.

Arin got notification-

['Scrying' skill progression 5/50]

Arin was yet to understand how the progression actually worked. However, he was not in mindset to worry about that. This was because, Arin had suddenly recalled the fact that he was still level 1. He gulped. There was too much level difference between him and his enemies. And he felt it was his last in this world.

Milean counted "Three..., Two...."