While all the other students are on their way home for vacation, you're planning a murder…

You're in this all the way now. You've decided that you can't live life as you have been. You have to take this chance, regardless of the consequences. You're just wondering how the hell you're going to go about killing Big Red. He's not going to be a push over and is probably more than a match for most college students, let alone one who can barely cast spells competently in first place.

Still, you must try. You get one of your oversized back packs and begin stuffing it with rocks. The only plan you have is when he asks to see the money, you'll tell him you got it in gemstones, throw it at him to catch it and then unleash a blast of lightning in his face.

After that you're going to hope for the best.

You head down to the location given to you by Big Red. Even though Nuro is a prosperous city, it still has its "bad parts" and right now you're walking in one of them. You half expect to get mugged by orcs at any moment; you almost wish your sister was with you.

Eventually you get to the location, you're already nervous about all this and walking through this neighborhood just made you more so. However, this dilapidated house that you're currently standing in front of looks like its shown signs of battle recently. The door is smashed open and there's a whiff of charred flesh coming from the broken windows.

"Heeeeeey….(hic!) youz ain't goin' in dere is ya?" some drunken goblin lying by some trash cans nearby utters.
"This is Big Red's house isn't it?"
"(hic!) Nope, his girlfriend lives here, well one of 'em anyway."
"What happened here?"
"Shit. (hic!) Fuck if I know. I was passed out for most of it, but I heard some screams a couple of magic blasts and well…(hic!) a whole buncha shit really."
"Is Big Red in there?"
"Dunno, I think I heard his voice…didn't sound good either. (hic!) Guess it all caught up to him. Here's to Red! Demon Bastard! (hic!) Hope dey didn't kill his pretty little girlfrien' doh. She was swee-eet!" the goblin says and takes another drink out of his pocket.
"Nobody's come out here, to investigate?"
"Har har! Datsh a good one boy! Come out here? Man those mage guards like us poor folks killing each other. Ain't nobody gonna show up here probably for like a few days. (hic!) fuckin…no good (mumble mumble)"

As the goblin wino lapses back into an alcoholic coma, you cautiously enter the house.

The house is a wreck. Though you get the impression it wasn't a palace to begin with. You look on the floor and see Big Red. You also see him on the walls and even the ceiling. Whoever wanted him dead, made sure of it.

Of course this doesn't exactly help you get what you wanted to get from him. Not knowing what else to do, you begin to search the house, but you're not finding too much, but for some reason you sense you aren't completely alone in this house. Someone is still here.

You stand completely silent and listen carefully, then you see a blood trail leading to the bedroom closet…

"Alright, I know someone is in the closet, I can hear the stifled cries. Just come out, and I won't hurt you. I just want to know what happened to Big Red and some information." You shout.

The closet slowly opens and you see a young human woman crawl out, she's hurt badly and you don't think you can help her in time. She looks up at you with tears in her eyes.

"I've nothing more to give…they've taken everything…I am dead…I have nothing else…" she sobs.
"Who came? What's going on?"
"That damn college professor and his Dark Order that's who! Mr. Demar! He and Big Red have had dealings for years in forbidden tomes and the dark arts. Well Mr. Demar said since their business was nearly at an end he demanded that Big Red just hand over all the rest of his collection. Violence soon followed. It was horrible what they did… I only lived this long by playing dead (sob)…but then I just wanted to crawl into a dark place and die."

This bit of information is very interesting, but you still have to figure out how it can serve you.

"What does Mr. Demar have planned?"
"I don't know! Something about restoring the rightful place of those who practice the dark arts. I don't care! They took my whole life away! Maybe it wasn't much, and maybe Big Red was a demon asshole…but I loved him and in his way, he loved me! I'll never know!" the girl cries.

You feel slightly bad about coming here to try to kill Big Red now. This girl's feelings while most likely misguided seem to be genuine. Just proving that even the lowliest of scoundrels can be loved. Your mind briefly thinks about Serena before addressing this situation again.

"Okay, look shhhh. I'm sure Big Red probably did love you. He was a demon though, you know he had to put on a show and act tough." You say.
"…(sniff) yeah…You're absolutely right. You are right….mmm I'm sleepy…" She says as her eyes begin to start closing.
"Hold on, before you go to sleep, I need to know something. Big Red was holding a book for me too, a book on necromancy. I was coming to pay him and pick it up here. It sounds like Mr. Demar was trying to rip the both of us off and that ain't no way of doing business. I mean to get revenge on the lot of them that killed Big Red, but I'll need the help of that book, you don't happen to know where it is, do you?"
"…oh…yeah, you must be the one that Big Red briefly mentioned before they came…I dunno, they searched the house, maybe they got it, but it would be in a small hidden floor safe behind the toilet. Ha ha…nobody searches behind a toilet Red used to say…I love you Big Red…" The girl says and then closes her eyes and stops breathing.

Poor girl, you think as you leave her to search the bathroom. You curse as soon as you look behind the toilet and see a small panel open. You're so frustrated you nearly miss the false bottom of the safe…



Jackpot. You pry up the false bottom and greedily grab the tome you were looking for, in fact there are a few other books there too, but you only keep the necromantic ones, and destroy the rest as you have no interest in demon summoning. (And not going to let anyone else use them either!)

You pour out the rocks in your backpack and place the books inside; you're now ready to go back home. Or are you?

In your last minute peruse you search the remains of Big Red, and as luck would have it, you find his infamous pad and paper still somewhat intact. You briefly glance through it and make out one other address, not too far from here. It could be his real home or maybe just another place where he stashed stuff. Either way it could be lucrative.

You go to the address

Thirsting for more possible knowledge you head to this new address. This time you're not in a residential area and more in a warehouse district, still not a safe area though.

When you get to the warehouse, once again the signs of battle abound, except this time it would appear that you arrived in the middle of one still going on.

"Don't just stand there, the fucking thing, damn it!"
"Shit! Thing's too fucking tough!"
"Well summon another…arrrggh!"


You enter cautiously and see a huge stone golem battling a couple people in robes. One lies on the floor dead. Given the dead imps that also litter the room, they're probably demonologist. Some of Mr. Demar's no doubt.

You stand back and watch the battle from the shadows, staying hidden the whole time. While keeping an eye on the battle you take out one of your necromantic books and quickly glance through it. You come across a spell that allows you cast a bolt of pure negative energy. It seems pretty easy, so you decide to try it.

You come out from behind the boxes you were using as cover and blast the golem in the face with a powerful beam of dark energy. Its head explodes into several stone pieces, but it doesn't stop. Such a hit will not automatically kill a creature like this. The demonologists look surprised to see you and even more surprised when you bark orders at them.

"Get it now! While it's blind! Take its legs!" you shout.

They do exactly what you say and cast super hot blasts to the golem's knees burning right through them, causing the rest of it to collapse and shatter. It's definitely dead now.

"Whew! Good thing you came along. When Mr. Demar sent us to search this address we didn't expect to encounter a golem guard. How did he know to send help?" one of the demonologists asks.
"He didn't." you say and blast him.
"Hey…" is all the other manages to utter before you blast him as well.

You're now left alone in a warehouse with multiple dead bodies, and as a certain goblin wino once said, the mage guard probably won't be coming around here anytime soon. You see this as a perfect opportunity to practice some REAL necromancy.

You open the page to the appropriate spell and begin the cast it. Soon one of the dead demonologists begins to rise. It doesn't even take you much effort to control him. It's very easy actually. You've never had such an easy time at any kind of magic before, but this feels so right to you.

You summon the second one and then the third one. You command them to do various things for you just to see how well you can control them. It barely takes you any concentration at all.

You spend the rest of the night practicing, before making a search of the place which as it turns out contains nothing, but banned pornographic writings. You then head to your apartment where you sleep for the entire day.

When you wake up you write a letter to your family saying that you're going to be staying at Nuro for vacation since you have some extra curricular studying to do and a big opportunity could be opening up. You mostly study your necromantic books and absorbing the knowledge within.

You keep up with local news and the deaths of Big Red and his girlfriend are barely mentioned, and nothing is mentioned of the warehouse. You gather that you're in the clear.

Next week you get a letter in return from your Mom who says she's disappointed you won't be coming to visit, but pleased that you're doing well and your grades are back up. (At least Big Red came through for you on the nature magic thing before he died) She also mentions how proud she is of you.

If she only knew…

A month passes and you've almost finished the books you acquired. You can't really do too much practicing though, which is something you desperately want to do again. You know you've got all this power within you yet you can't use it.

The problem is dead bodies aren't exactly something you can just come across. Oh sure you could go to the graveyard, but that would most likely attract a ton of attention given that most of them are always monitored to prevent such things from easily happening. You wonder if you should approach Mr. Demar and join his Dark Order. While you typically don't work with groups, but if it gets you some practice maybe it would be worth joining. Plus you'd get to find out what's going on with all that, since it seems like something you should worry about.

Then again large groups tend to get targeted first. So maybe you could try summoning spirits. It's not like they're as obvious. Though from what you've read controlling such incorporeal dead requires more experience and you haven't been able to practice a lot.

You join the Dark Order

As they say there is strength in numbers.

You head over to the campus to seek out Mr. Demar. You figure he'll be in his office. You knock and he tells you to come in and shut the door behind you. When you do, he's surprised to see you.

"Hello. This is bit of a surprise. You took my class two semesters ago and I would've thought that you'd be on vacation now instead of here. So what brings you to my office?"

You decide to get straight to the point.

"Mr. Demar, I want to join the Dark Order. I'm skilled in necromancy and I want to learn more. I think I'd make a worthy addition to your class."

Mr. Demar says nothing for a minute and just studies you before speaking.

"I see, and how do you know that I am the head of such an…organization."
"Well, uh I've heard rumors that's all…" you quickly say.
"Rumors eh? Such rumors going around about me would be very dangerous to my well being. Hope this isn't a common rumor."

You're silent to this statement, as you're unsure of what to say. Mr. Demar continues for you though.

"And tell me, if I was head of such an organization, you say I would want you? How is it that you are skilled in the ways of necromancy? How have you managed to train? Do you have access to the dead and possession of necromantic texts? How did you come across such things?"
"Well uh…I don't like to mention this…but I have an ancestor who served under the Great Lich Lord and a couple of books of his have been in my family's possession for centuries."
"Well now, necromantic tomes from the era of the Great Lich Lord himself! I am impressed. And you say you had an ancestor who served under him eh? That's even more impressive considering the Great Lich Lord eventually grew to loathe anything alive and only associated with the dead. That was why he was bringing death to the world in the first place. Such an ancestor would've had to been undead an unable to have children."
"Uh…well he had 'em before becoming undead."
"Okay, but his family would've had to join his fate and hence they also would've had no children."
"He…uh…liked prostitutes and…"



At this point Mr. Demar raises his hand to you. You instantly feel yourself paralyzed. You can only watch helplessly as he stands up from his desk.

"Stop. While this is amusing watching you squirm, I am a busy man. You want to know what I think? I think you recently stole those books from Big Red. I also think you recently killed three of my students in a certain warehouse in your attempts to gain more. While I might've considered you as Dark Order material if you'd come in here and told me the truth, I can't abide by liars, especially someone so poor at it. Such a pity."

With those final words, Mr. Demar causes your heart to explode.