Chapter 16 Dark Magic

"A beginner mage needs to use signs and runes combined to create certain spells, I'll each give you a tome of beginner spells that anyone should be capable of using. Study this in your free time. Let's stop here for today, I'll see you all next week, try to practice with the spells a bit."

'So darkness is something that we can't learn officially, but if Venion used it during his experimentation, he must know something.' Lucas thought while waiting for Robert to leave the room.

'That's obvious, question is how are we going to get him to give us that info? Plainly asking will result in denial, he's a mage, he would want something in return.'

'What do we have?'

'Our body? If he wants to experiment he can use our body?'

'No! Not in a million years will we do that again, there has to be something else.'

"I'll get started right away master, I'll show you who is truly a good pupil!" Robert left after saying that, trying to establish his position as the better student. Not that it mattered to Lucas. Now that they were alone, Venion was back to scribbling on his notes.

Pondering on how to bring this topic forward, he tried his best to seem as naive and oblivious as possible.

"Euhm master, we learned only 5 beginner runes, but aren't there 6 elements?"

Venion looked up from his notes with a questioning look, like he was bewildered that there was someone that actually was this stupid. "Lucas, dark magic is forbidden, I can't teach you that even if you have a special core."

"Is there really no other way?" Lucas seemed like a little kid again with puppy eyes. This didn't have any effect on Venion, only his mouth was visible, but it didn't look like he had moved a muscle.

'I told you that trying to reach out to his sympathy would result in failure.'

'You never know until you try.'

"Lucas, are you truly willing to learn dark magic? Do you realise what will happen if people were to find out?"

'If passively asking doesn't work, we should try to be a little more aggressive.'

"Aren't you scared of what would happen if I told everyone that you can use dark magic?", the atmosphere got heavier the moment he was finished talking. The pressure increased at every second. "Aren't YOU scared of the consequences IF you were to do so?"

The pressure started to force him down on his knees, looking up he could see 2 purple lights coming from Venion's hood, his face still wasn't visible even with the supposed light. Lucas tried his hardest to keep the conversation going.

"Hahaha, why should I be scared, I have nothing to lose and everything to gain, if this is where my story ends then so be it.", the resolution in Lucas' eyes bewildered Venion, not that he let that show in any way.

Suddenly the pressure vanished like it was never even there to begin with. "Hmm, you are quite an interesting kid. I've seen you train every now and then, and I must say that I'm impressed by the determination you have. If you are truly willing to study dark magic, I'll teach you, but before that, I would need you to sign something."

Seeing that his front wasn't the best, he went back to his normal demeanor, "What would I have to sign?"

"The contract of conditions, if you break a certain condition, your heart will explode. The conditions will be that you can never say that I taught you darkness magic or that I know anything about it and you can never actually use it. Lastly I'll need you to do a favor for me. Are you still willing?"

"So you'll teach me theoretically, but not practically? What's the favor?"

"I have a few potions that I would like to test out, but I don't have anyone to experiment with."

"Can you promise me that it won't cripple me or kill me?"

"Not really, like I said, I can't say exactly what they do yet, hence the reason I need someone. You have a very strong body for someone your age, I don't think they'll be strong enough to kill you if that's what you're worried about."

'See? In negotiations we can't try to play with their feelings, we need benefits and deficits to be pitted against each other and see what we and the other party can gain from it.'

'While that would work most of the time, humans are emotional beings, we need to be capable of both.'

Feeling the determination that Lucas gave off, Venion took out a scroll from his desk. "This scroll is less powerful than the life contract that the baron wants you to sign, this contract will only activate its effects if you break one of the conditions, don't forget this. I don't want to lose you because you use some darkness for fun."

Signing the contract with his blood and magic, the contract went up in flames before flowing inside his body applying a bunch of strange runes on his heart. This signified that the contract was now active.

Now that he was prohibited from leaking where he learned from, he could get some insight into the darkness. Venion used some strange spells to seal the room to make sure that no sound could escape. After making sure only the ones present could listen in to the conversation he started his explanation.

"Lucas, do you know what darkness is? Most people see it as the absence of light, the dark in the corner, the shadows that follow us every day. Even with a much brighter sun, the darkness will not fade, it will even grow stronger. Darkness magic is a powerful, corrosive magic. It means death, decay, and the destruction of everything no matter their affiliation. Using dark magic is taboo for a reason.

A long time ago when monsters still ruled the planet they were ruled by a God, The God of Darkness. Us humans were fighting against them with all we had, but it wasn't enough. Sent from the heavens came the Goddess of Light, she defeated the evil God and made the humans prosper.

Since the evil god used mostly Darkness magic, all dark magic was banned from the world. The Goddess created the Order of Light to make sure that her commands stayed in place and were followed. Thus if you use darkness magic in public you'll get the strongest mages of the Order of Light chasing you. Trust me, you don't want to fight against them. They are the most powerful wizards in the entirety of Aurora. Next to that, every human town or city will hate you and leak your location if you even dare mention using dark magic.

Still, you want to learn it, knowing it would be your end if they found out? How strange."

"Aren't you doing the same thing?" Lucas asked with a small grin.

"Hahaha, you're right, I don't care much about the Order of Light, they just want to stop any research of magic and are complete hypocrites. I see that you're determined to use it even though I forbid you, but I can give you the beginner rune; E̴͓̅k̶̝̟̇̍ĩ̵̙̀d̷̻̈́̋͜ȗ̷͈̽, let's stop with that, shall we? After the following lesson, I'll teach you a bit more about the dark, but I'm also quite busy, so keep yourself entertained with that."

After Lucas heard the beginner rune, he didn't feel like he learned something, it felt like he just forgot and now remembered again. Same with the beginner rune of light, it felt like he would never forget it again, it was ingrained in his being. This should be impossible for any other mage, after all, his core only had a tiny speck of black. This shouldn't be enough to get a perfect memory of that element's runes.

'If he can never use dark magic, he'll never be capable of beating me, so if he is useful enough after my teaching I'll just enslave him. He'll be a useful subject for other experiments.'

With that Lucas returned to the training grounds, but Liam had already left. With no actual room for his accommodation, he went back to his familiar shed. Laying in the hay he started to think about what he learned. The single word didn't mean much, but his plans were greater than some simple runes. He couldn't do anything until his contract was made void again, which could only be done by the mage or by breaking a condition. 'I guess I should try that.'

The next morning

The next lesson would be the following week with, so all he had left was his combat training and the tome from Venion. Before diving into the tome and studying he went to visit Liam for his usual combat training. Lucas grew more accustomed to fighting with weapons after each training to the point he could almost hit Liam. For now, he was always deflected or hit on the head. Liam was taking it very easy on Lucas by only using a single hand, but he was still too skilled for Lucas. After the training, he normally would have to drink a potion, but since the experiments were done, it wasn't a necessity anymore. Still, Lucas kept drinking them.

"You know that you don't need to drink those anymore, right?"

"I know, but they help me grow a bit faster, so I'll gladly take it. Don't you want to try it out?"

"Oh no, are you joking? Those potions were made specifically for your body, I don't want to know what would happen if I drank it."

"How many of those potions are left?"

"About a single crate, so 24 in total."

"Can I get them all right now?" Liam didn't know why but gave them to Lucas since they likely would be thrown away anyway.

Now that the training was done and he had his crate of potions he could only wait out the day in his shed. With his extra time, he started to forge his plans. 'If darkness can destroy everything it should also destroy the contract, but if I try to use dark magic, my heart explodes.'

'So using darkness to void it is impossible, we need to do something else, also, those potions...'

'I know, these will come in handy, just a good way has to be forged.'

After some more pondering, he figured out a way to get rid of the contract. It would hurt a lot and he would need a steady hand and mind. The steady mind has already been accomplished thanks to his time in the torture chamber and the fact that he could focus on the task with one part of his mind before changing if it would be too difficult. A steady hand can be achieved through rigorous training but that would come naturally in a few more days.

'I guess it's time for some studying.'

He didn't immediately study the first spells he could find, he searched for the different kinds of runes. He didn't achieve his goal but got through at least a third of different runes. The thing was that you would need to remember every single rune to actually use them, which was extremely difficult. 'I just need to find the right ones, tomorrow I should be able to find them.'