//**Author's note, there's now one early chapter a day on my Patreon, starting on the 26th.**//
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I quickly put my back to the library. A drone! Since when are libraries monitored like this?
Trying to maintain my composure, I watched with small steps and keen eyes as the drone flew by, making a flapping sound. It was bound to move somewhere else, wasn't it? Now was the time to pray I wouldn't be caught in the midst of premeditated flight - it wouldn't be good for new business.
He seemed to be staring at the exit door, so I crouched down and grabbed my rectangular energy bar from my bag, one good throw and I was free. When I thought that electric mages could fry circuits with the snap of a finger, I told myself I'd try to learn this magic one day if I didn't end up locked up in a cell.
I aimed for the corridor juxtaposed to the drone, all I had to do was attract its attention. With a jerk, as if I were playing bowling, the energy bar flew at an angle and landed with a sound of crumpled plastic.
An opening opened up, and the drone went to see where the sound was coming from, lighting up a second headlamp and a small orange siren light.
With a smooth movement, like a dancer, I opened the door and followed a cold corridor covered with pipes and building emergency plans. Once outside, I breathed a sigh of relief - outside at last!
After scaling a fence, I set off in the direction of the house, a smile on my face.
It was 4 a.m. when I found my room in the basement. I'd played a knight at the beginning of the round, and I'd taken the whites in this chess game.
Exhausted from my research, and my mind filled to the brim with information, I nevertheless took the time to note down the pages to be studied from the book I'd stolen, as well as the information I'd accumulated. My note went something like this: "Necromancy, ability to raise the dead, animal gift therefore risks mysterious death in theory, magic complicated to master, two spells linked to this magic on pages 45 and 64.
Done, I dozed off.
During the night, Nizé, who had followed his master's order to the letter, had placed the letter elsewhere in the city, in a sparrow's nest. He then returned to his own nest in Anoir's bedroom through the holes in the garage without alerting the family. He knew how to be discreet. The next day was Saturday, so Luania and Charles stayed at home. Anoir's mother prepared roast beef using concentrated fire magic, and Charles Junior watched his father make a term chart in the living room. As for Anoir, he diligently studied the first spell in the book, which, among other things, had no title or page number.
"So let's see, bone magic..... Multiple applications, linked to necromancy, mastery is linked to the bone structure of the different species that possess it, attack and defense magic....Commence with control over a bone other than those of one's own body for the first trials, because according to this theory...."
My relaxed emotions allowed me to quickly learn the chapter on this form of magic,after eating a bite, I cleaned a chicken bone that had come from the last meal.
"You're cleaning a bone?" my brother asked.
"That's right, it's for a magical experiment."
"Can I come and have a look? I can never get into your room these days, you're so busy" he continued.
"Okay, if you like, but don't make a mess, I've just tidied up".
Back in my room, closely followed by my brother, I made sure to tell him that I had "bought" a book of magic.
Together, we practiced bone magic, him reading me the passages on magical possibility and concentration and me remembering the theory. Since I had mastered another form of mana, I had to invent a new spell from the one described in the book to adapt it to my magic. Or so I assumed.
After two hours of experimentation, all kinds of notes on blank A4 pages and now 3 pieces of broken chicken bone, I succeeded.
My hard work had paid off, and by manipulating my store of magic, which I'd come to describe as etheric magic, I could weld the chicken bones back together, and reform them into different shapes. I could also break them, but this required an enormous effort, even though the bone was thin. I thought this was due to the nature of a bone.
Charles Junior was happy to see a smile on my face. Then he left the room to get some whipped cream.
Continuing my momentum, I was now trying to spread my bones over my skin, like a form of armor. It would be like a kind of exoskeleton in my mind. Soon, my phalanges were covered with a thick layer of thick bone. I could shape them to be more resistant to shock, and to absorb damage. It was 2 p.m. when I felt an intense pain in my chest. I had to absorb a mana crystal, and fast!
Nizé leapt onto my shoulder and spoke to me in runic language.
I had to find a bigger crystal, so I needed a bigger corpse. I made a mental list of animals bigger than a rat, and that way I remembered that we'd had a dog when Charles Junior was 1. The poor beast had contracted a magical disease, and we hadn't been able to detect it before the symptoms. I remembered that my father liked him.
We buried our dog at the back of the garden, near the old oak tree and the round stones. I headed for it, in a hurry, as the pain was building to a crescendo. I'd probably used too much magic to be in this state when it wasn't evening. There was a small sign: "Bobby Blanc". I sincerely hoped he wouldn't turn into a goblin or worse. I positioned myself over the sign, and as I couldn't touch him without digging him up, I did my best to cross the earth.
That's when I felt all the underground riches, the bones, the magical energy, and streams that run deep into unsuspected depths. Slightly dazed by the profusion of violet color that dazzled me, I managed to make a necromantic mana crystal. My reserve of etheric magic absorbed it and I felt the power invade me.
Suddenly, a flash of light from a semi-flying car illuminated me momentarily - I'd just been photographed!
The car made a U-turn and gained height, but Ratvert had seen the flash and his eyes turned blood-red as a giant hemoglobin hand sprang up from the ground and grabbed the car in mid-air. Ratvert's power at that moment shone brightly. He managed to capture the driver and tie him up in the street opposite the garden.
"So we're looking to blackmail someone, mate?" Ratvert asked in a straightforward voice.