Alan handed me the book and I took it in both hands. It was larger than your average skill book, and definitely looked like a bit ‘more than’. The weight, the texture, it was all of a higher quality and I flipped the cover carefully.

  Everyone was staring at me as I read, but I didn’t know what to say. It was a skill book, but at the same time, also not? It was described as a , but I didn’t quite understand what that meant in the context of the game world. I flipped the golden-edged pages carefully and started to read.

  That was all the description I had to go on as I flipped the first page. On the second page there was a spell listed there. I only had so many skill slots, so how could I use this? I didn’t try to learn a spell as the book wasn’t mine… yet. I started to flip faster, and there were more spells.

  In the end, I flipped a dozen pages, and saw three spells and a few incantations for ancient sorcery. After that, the pages became blurred, as if there was something there but for some reason – a level or stat requirement? – I was blocked from reading them.

  “It’s a spell book,” I said.

  “What spell does it have?” Anna asked. Besides the healers, we were the only two casters

  “It’s a collection of spellsdescribed as ancient,” I said, “itmight containdozens of spells.” There were hundreds of pages beyond the point at which I could read them. I passed her the book to let her have a look for herself.

  “Corpse Feast?” Anna’s face soured as she read the first skill. “Tumor Worms? Why are they all so disgusting sounding.”

  “It’s a necromancers skill book.” Rebekah said. “Seems it was made for you Mike.” I couldn’t disagree with her, but why would a demon be holding the grimoire of an ancient necromancer? I guess loot didn’t necessarily have to make sense when our captors seemed all-powerful. Rebekah handed me back the book.

  I currently had one open skill slot, and in about half a level I would have a second. Did the Grimoire even work in that way? I flipped the cover again and willed the intent to learn it.

  An unfamiliar message appeared. It wasn’t ‘learn’, but instead ‘Bind’. It didn’t mention anything about learning a skill, or my skill slots being full, nothing. It was all very vague, but once I indicated ‘Yes’, there was a new notification in one of my character sheets.

  (Grimoire: 1/1)

  “What skill did you learn?” Anna asked. She was the only one who had gotten to read the three spells and, like me, has assumed I could pick one as a skill.

  “None of them, it isn’t a skill book,” I said, “and honestly I’m not sure exactly what it is yet.”

  There was no skill slot for Tumor Worms or Corpse Feast in my skill tree, I hadn’t taken up the skill slot at all. In fact, I couldn’t see any benefit at all from binding grimoire, so what was it good for?

  “Was there anything else to distribute?” Marcus cut my thoughts short. “If not I think some of us would like to rest.”

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “Just some crafting materials.” Alan held out his hand and showed a sparkling gem and what looked to be shining ores of metal. Rebekah and Nicole knew about crafting, as we had told them about it when they arrived, Marcus hadn’t had the same treatment as they had been much moreguarded.

  The question Marcus wanted to ask was stuck in his throat, and honestly, I didn’t think now was the time to speak aboutthese materials anyway, “Let’s think about crafting another time. There’s nothing to do for the next few days if we want, so everyone get some rest.” I just wanted to study the grimoire.

  I took my leave immediately after, most people did. No one else but our group had any crafting professions, so there wasn’t a need to discuss the distribution. I made it back to my room and laid in bed and prepared for a good read.

  The grimoire felt no different in my hand than before I had bound it. I couldn’t feel a special connection to it, or even the urge to learn a skill. It was just a book in my hands. I flipped the cover again carefully. The inside was the same with no changes, and so I turned the first page to reveal Corpse Feast.

  That was all that the spell said. There were no system stats, no MP cost, no HP heal amount. The critical information was all missing.Disappointment hit me first as I realized I couldn’t just will myself to learn it, but then shock.

  Profound shock held me for a dozen seconds. Under the advanced description of the skill, about halfway down the page, was something new. There were instructions: instructions on how to learn the skill.

  My shock turned to confusion as I tried to wrap my head around what it meant. Every skill I’d ever learned, or anyone I knew had learned, was a simple yes or no question. Skills could advance through use obviously, but the initial understanding and grasping of the skill was innate.

  This… suggested otherwise. If I could learn a skill this way, from following instructions to ‘train’ my undead in such a fashion… then could I create my own skills? I flipped the page again and began reading Necromancer Crowrot’s discoveries.

  Each skill he had listed had a back story, and none of them were as simple as they sounded on the surface. Corpse Feast, for example, required you to kill enemies and then have your minions consume them. Only after so many enemies had been devoured, and through a special type of magic bond with your minions, could you then turn that into life steal.

  As I read the requirements more carefully, I suddenly had an even more insane understanding. Corpse Feast specifically was a skill that I was almost destined to learn. I myself had almost a rudimentary ability in it already. My own sustenance was derived from defeating my enemies, and while that wasn’t necessarily eating them the concept was the same.

  According to Crowrot, the way the skill worked was quite simple. The undead devour their enemies, and in doing so the necromancer collects a form of energy through that consumption, usually via a magical chant or incantation, and then turns that energy into healing power for his own summoned troops.

  I didn’t need to learn how to turn their consumption into energy, the system already did that when converting it into my sustenance. I only needed to learn the last little bit of his spell, which was a special chant and hand sign that would allow me to transfer that energy back into my undead. There was still the issue of training my minions to devour their enemies, but I could work on that slowly.

  The more I read the more engrossed I became. There was even more to learn from his discoveries. In fact, it didn’t seem like the first three skills were even the biggest harvest of the pages I could read. It was the basics of how those spells operated.

  While Corpse Feast was a skill I could probably shortcut my way to learning, I realized I still needed to understand the basics of his spell system, because every skill was going to require some form of it. Once you could harness that energy efficiently, it could do marvelous things.

  I wasn’t sure if the descriptions Crowrot left here were of the future skills inside his book, but I was nearly salivating. He could make his minions explode with devastating power at the snap of a finger, send them into a frenzy that increased their damage and attack speed, swap places with them at will, see the world through their eyes, and even fight from within one of the undead soldier’s minds as if I was in his own body.

  By the end of my reading, I was overwhelmed completely. Just the small amount of information listed changed my viewpoint completely. I didn’t realize just how powerful the connection between me and my minions actually was.

  And just how much stronger it could become.