The Death Mage that doesn't want a fourth time

2 Hard mode begins, insanity takes over

Even when Vandalieu opened his eyes the next morning, there was no sign of Darcia.

『This is strange... I have a bad feeling about this. Maybe I should go out to find her.』

Normally, it would be reckless for a six-month-old infant to go outside by himself, but if Darcia didn't come back by the end of the day, Vandalieu would have to venture outside either way.

There was still the one rabbit that Darcia had caught alive, but its blood would only last him until the end of today. He would have to make food suitable for an infant to eat by himself, but he was still only six months old. His stomach found it difficult to cope with food other than blood and his mother's milk.

『Infants eat a lot more than you'd expect. I need to eat five or six times a day, since I'm doing magic practice and physical exercises, so my energy expenditure is quite high.』

Because of this, Vandalieu needed to eat considerably more than a normal infant. If he simply stayed here like the infant that he was, it was possible that he would starve to death in a few days' time.

Because he was a Dhampir rather than a human, he wasn't sure how long it would take for that to happen.

『Well, I guess I'll start getting ready.』

Though he wanted to go out to find Darcia, his body was still unable to walk, let alone run, so he had to make various preparations. First, he had to secure a method of moving around.

『The first thing to do is... Get up.』

As Vandalieu gave this command in his head, the rabbit that he had killed by consuming its blood twitched and began to move.

He had not granted it life. He had used his magic to have the various spirits floating around nearby to possess the rabbit's corpse, turning it into an Undead.

It was a death-attribute spell that created Undead.

『Looks like it worked. I wasn't sure if I could do it or not, since my skill is still only level 2, but it seems it works fine if I use a bit more Mana to compensate. I guess it's because my skill level is low; I can only make a moving corpse. But I can still use it to move around.』

The rabbit didn't have any of the agility that it had when it was still alive; it simply moved. In Origin, he had planned to use this spell to escape. But he could only create these weak servants and they would be of no use against the strict security that he had been under, so he had given up.

The amount of Mana that he had needed to create this single Undead rabbit was far greater than the amount he needed for spells like Sterilization and Bug Killer. When Vandalieu checked his status, he found that his Mana had decreased by 10,000.

Using Sterilization once only cost him a single point of Mana, so the Mana cost of 10,000 was enormous in comparison.

『But one rabbit isn't enough. More of you, get up. You, you and you, get up. You as well, hurry and get up!』

The ivy that Darcia had used instead of rope began to crawl around like a snake.

The small knife that she had used for cooking began lightly floating in the air.

The shabby bed made of wood rattled as it began to shake.

Vandalieu could have spirits possess more than just corpses. He could make them possess inorganic substances such as ivy, wood and metal. The idea came from fantasy and occult works that he had seen on Earth – evil spirits that possessed weapons to move on their own without a bearer, cursed gems or vases and Poltergeists that that caused furniture to move on its own.