After our lessons we continued our work on the spellblade vampire project. My friends and I met in one of the labs. All the tier three undead were here as well. Besides working on the project there was also some homework to be done.
Cassie was busy mixing something. Kasai sat next to a cauldron on the table, breathing some fire at it. Skadi was summoning some sort of blood orb into her hand and Helena was perfecting her ice armour.
I had a book with undead enhancements in front of me. The idea was to figure out what runes might work for a vampire spellblade.
"Let's start with a generic strength enhancement." I said. I studied the runes in the book, then prepared to cast the spell. Hatsumi stood in front of me, waiting patiently. The basic spell needed me to touch her, although an advanced version existed which made use of the link.
I touched her hand and began casting. The basic spell completed without a problem and I felt the magic entering her body.
"How does it feel?" I asked.
"Hm. Not too different." She studied her arms. "Does it only increase the strength in my hands, or does it improve the entire body?"
I scratched my head. "The book does not specify. Only says it increases the strength of an undead."
"If it enhances the muscles shouldn't it also increase your speed?" Helena asked. She had formed an ice gauntlet and Yoru was currently scratching it, testing the durability.
"I am not sure how muscles work but magic often differentiates between speed and strength." Skadi chimed in. "Like my runes allow me different combinations of durability, strength and speed. However, you have to be careful to not neglect any of them. As a spellblade all three have base enhancements that you can't control for that reason. Only some of the mana can be freely distributed. If you hit hard your fist needs to endure the impact or you are going to crush your own bones."
"Do you think undead enhancements take that under consideration?" I wondered, looking at Hatsumi.
"Shall I punch something to find out?" She asked.
"Don't crush your fist!" I warned her.
"We want to know if we can use those runes. My fist will heal, don't worry." Hatsumi assured me.
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"I do have some blood potions if we need them!" Cassie added.
We did have some metal ingots for the Iron Beaks. So Hatsumi punched them as a test. We found out that the enhancement mostly increased her strength and did little for her durability. Also, her speed was only slightly increased.
"Not an ideal spell…" I said, looking at her bleeding hand while casting an undead heal. Her bones had taken some damage too but she seemed confident that they would heal quickly. Especially with Cassie's potions.
"At least not by itself. We would need to combine it. Are there any speed or durability enhancements?" Hatsumi asked.
"Let's see…" I looked at the book again. "Hm. There is speed but not much about durability. I can only find a specific bone enhancement meant for skeletons."
"I think necromancy focuses more on either healing the undead or making new ones." Kaito added. His serious and refined tone was slightly undermined by Nyx. She was on his shoulder trying to squeeze her paws under his neck to play with the frostfire. He seemed amused by her antics, slightly raising his head for her paws. Somehow a piece of frostfire stuck to one of her front paws. Then she managed to roll off his shoulder and fell to the floor while trying to chew the frostfire on her paw.
I ignored her and pondered the topic. "I think preventing damage to your undead would make more sense than healing them."
"Not necessarily. Reinforcing everything might require more mana. Undead are not as complex as the living and therefore easier to fix. We do not require all those organs and squishy bits. As long as the spell keeping the undead together is not failing we are easily repairable." Kaito pointed out.
"And you would not care if your frontline undead lost an arm as long as it was still fighting." Hatsumi added.
"I would care if you lose an arm!" I protested.
Hatsumi patted me on the head. "We know you care. But those books were not written by you. And you would not care about your tier two goblins losing an arm."
She did have a point there.
"Speaking of those goblins, they look dreadful. We should invest in some sort of uniform. I had them clean all their equipment and made sure to have it oiled. I suppose rust can be a weapon and cause trouble inside wounds but it would not be fast enough to matter on a battlefield." Kaito said.
"That sounds expensive. Let's focus on the spellblade project for now…" I replied.
"Are there any vampire specific enhancements?" Helena asked.
"Not in this book." I replied.
"Very few necromancers have vampires under their command. I do wonder if there are vampire organisations with more extensive knowledge." Hatsumi mused.
"Maybe. They would have to be well hidden though. Vampires are not legal here unless they are bound. I am not sure how other nations handle them. I guess Ilestria would just exterminate them." I said.
"Maybe you should try some blood magic?" Skadi suggested.
I shrugged. "Sure, what do you suggest?"
"There is a spell that increases your blood regeneration." Skadi said.
"But humans make blood differently than vampires. Can vampires even make blood or do they have to drink it?" Helena pointed out.
"I can generate blood through mana." Hatsumi replied.
"I am not sure how the body makes blood." Skadi said. "But it's not that fast and needs liquid and food. Blood magic is not just using your body and speeding up the process. It's more like summoning water. However, it's modelling it after your blood. Not all blood is the same."
"Let's try it! But that is not something I can cast." I said.
"I can do it myself, can you show me the spell Skadi?" Hatsumi asked.
After a bit of practice Hatsumi managed it. "Hm. This might be more effective than what I am doing when I create blood claws. It makes it a bit easier to do blood magic but it does also consume mana itself."
"An increase in blood regeneration might be worth exploring though. It would not hurt to add that to the spellblade runes, if possible." I mused.
"Indeed." Hatsumi replied.
It was a small step but we might have found something useful, assuming Mary could incorporate it into a spellblade rune.
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