"Not a lot of people can get the better of me the way you just did, I would like to congratulate you"

He's offering me a handshake, somehow I don't really believe that getting the better of this guy is a difficult thing to do, but it would be rude to refuse his handshake.

As soon as I get close to him, a multitude of spikes emerge from his body and attempt to impale me, however, they are not able to pierce my skin at all.

"..."

"..."

"So now I suppose that you'll want to try to stop my companion from unleashing the monster"

"Don't try to act as if you didn't try to kill me just now!!!"

Let's just take care of him right now...

He seems to start panicking when he sees me getting ready to cast a spell, he then quickly transforms back to the form of the baron.

"Wait! Wait! Think about this! I still have a hostage!"

A hostage? Oh, that's right, for a shape-shifter to take the shape of a specific person, they first need to come into physical contact with them, then they'll be able to transform into them for as long as that person is still alive, which means that the real baron must be locked up somewhere.

"Then release him now"

I'm starting to get the hang of using 'intimidation' it seems like it activates when I make a forceful demand of someone, and I can hold back the intensity by controlling the tone of my voice. This way, I make the target afraid without having them faint.

"I can't! The only one who knows where he's hidden is my companion, maybe you should go to the ruins to see if you can find her"

"You are not just telling me to go there because you are hoping for me to get killed by the monster, are you?"

"No... maybe"

Well, I should probably take care of that monster anyway... but how do I make sure that this guy doesn't run away until I come back? If I tie him up the guards will just untie him...

"I just placed a curse on you, if you try leaving this town before I come back, you will die"

"What!? A curse!?"

A curse like that does not even exist, but he doesn't know that, eh eh, it seems like I'm smarter than usual today.

---

 

"We're here mistress"

I didn't want to come here with the dragon, but I also didn't want to bring Nera to a dangerous place and if I had come alone, I probably would have gotten lost...

"It would have been a lot faster if you had agreed to ride on my back"

"Absolutely not"

With 'mana sense' I can detect a person somewhere at the center of the ruins, I think it's a demon, but more importantly, there's an incredibly powerful monster less than 50 meters ahead.

However, I cannot see anything there.

"Hey, can you see anything over there?"

"Uh? What do you mean? I don't see anything unusual"

That's strange, if there's no monster, what is this immense concentration of earth mana I'm sensing?

While I'm still trying to figure this out, a rock is sent flying at a high speed and hits me in the head.

"Ouch"

That actually hurt a little, wasn't it an earth spell?

It wasn't much, but for a magic attack to hurt me at all, it must have been very powerful, after all, the magic stat is supposed to make a small contribution to toughness against magic.

"Mistress! Watch out!"

'Black wall'

Another dozen rocks are sent my way, but now that I have my guard up I can easily stop them.

I sense the monster quickly move to our left before firing another barrage of rocks, but I still cannot find it.

'Black wall'

Since it's an earth-based monster, maybe it's hiding underground? Let me test that.

'Shadow lance rain'

I fire a few dozen of shadow lances on the air, they all fall around the area where I'm sensing the monster and penetrate over fifty meters into the ground, and yet, none of them seem to hit anything. The only thing I seem to have accomplished is to make the monster run away with amazing speed.

"It's going that way, try to see if you can find it"

"Right away!"

As for me, I think I'll try to see if that demon over there knows something.

---

 

As I approach the demon I get attacked by a group of dead animals animated with the spell 'corpse puppet', there's wolves, bats, and snakes, but they are all too weak.

'Shadow dagger'

I won't even bother to use a strong spell to deal with them, but if they are here there must really be a dark mage controlling them, this is my first time meeting one, I'm really curious to see the uses for dark magic that she has, dark magic is a very unresearched field of magic after all.

"Who is there?"

Oh, there she is, a woman with a pair of short horns, sharp teeth, silver hair, and gray skin... if I'm not mistaken she's something called a 'gray demon'.

"Are you the one who took the 'horn of the earth'"

"Ufufu, I see, you are here to stop our plan, but you are too late, I already created an invincible monster and soon the humans will know true terror!"

"Erm, may I ask what exactly you are trying to accomplish with this?"

"To remind everyone that demons are meant to be feared! Long ago, our ancestors used their greater power to stand above the flesh-born races, the way that the demons of today try to coexist with your kind is shameful, we will remind all of you of... "

Ugh, I was hoping that she would give me some useful information like the other guy, but instead, she started giving me an evil speech...

To be honest, I don't think she knows anything about that monster either, it just seems like she just used that relic with no plan in mind, I can only hope the dragon can figure something out, he seems to be serious about wanting to become my underling.

"... and then our power will once again... "

But there's no way I'll let him come with me, if he goes around telling everyone about how powerful and terrifying I am, he's only going to make things worse for me, and I already have enough with Arana.

Speaking of her, I wonder when she'll show up again.

"... so that the weak will learn that we are... "

Even if she causes a bit of trouble sometimes, the truth is that I would be completely lost without her, maybe I should forgive her after all...

No! That's what she wants me to think! I need to at least give her some kind of punishment, but what should that be?

"... no matter how much you resist... "

Maybe I'll forgive her in exchange for making one of those strawberry cakes of hers, I have not had one of those in a long time.

I should actually learn to cook one of these days, I cannot always depend on Arana for everything.

"... THE DEMON LORD KALROTH!!!"

"YES!!! I WAS LISTENING!!!"

"..."

"..."

"So... I believe that you are a dark mage, could you show me what you can do? I'm interested in that field of magic"

"It seems like you think that you can make a fool out of me... very well, let me introduce you to my servant"

The wall behind me collapses and I'm grabbed by the corpse of a large man with bear ears on his head.

This is not just 'corpse puppet', this body seems to be able to move of its own accord, choosing the best way to follow orders, and it seems like he retained the strength from when he was alive.

"Did you use 'zombify' on this man?"

"Indeed, what you see now is the true power of a necromancer"

'Zombify' is probably the main reason why necromancy is forbidden, it turns a person into an undead servant that retains their status from when they were alive, the only limit is that if the caster is a lower level, the level of the servant will be reduced to match, and controlling more than one is difficult, other than that it is very powerful magic, but there are a few reasons why it should not be used.

The first is that using it in the first place requires the caster to kill the target, that alone already makes any use of the spell questionable, to say the least. In addition to that, many people believe that doing this prevents the target's soul from moving on until the spell ends and that the target remains conscious during this time, while there's no way to confirm either of those things, there's a good chance that they are true, and just the possibility is enough to make me not want to ever cast that spell.

"You call that the true power of a necromancer? Don't tell me that you are one of those who believe that necromancy is just making the dead follow your orders"

"What else could it be if not that?"

"And do you also believe that 'corpse puppet' is a form of necromancy?"

"Of course, is it not?"

"Maybe it's my fault for getting my hopes up, but this is very disappointing"

It seems like there's a reason why dark mages have such a bad reputation if there's many more like this one.

"Let me go, also, you can die for real now"

Following my orders, the zombie releases me and then drops to the floor.

"What... how?"

The demon looks like she cannot believe what she's seeing.

"I overrode your magic, nothing special"

"Don't be ridiculous, my dark magic is rank 9"

She's understandably confused, to take control of someone else's magic it's necessary for your rank in that attribute to be twice as high, since the highest rank is supposed to be 10, it should not be possible to do it to someone who's rank 6 or higher.

For that reason, someone is only considered to be a 'real' mage when they reach rank 6 in their primary attribute, after all, if an enemy can override your magic, you'll end up doing more harm than good in a fight.

I didn't really think about this before, but being rank 20 means that any users of dark magic will be powerless against me, maybe that's the reason why that title is called 'Queen of darkness'.

"Just so you know, it's possible to use 'corpse puppet' to control people who are alive as well"

"What?"

Before she can react, I rush to her and place my hand on her shoulder.

'Paralyze'

My spell numbs the nerves in her arms and legs causing her to lose control of them.

'Corpse puppet'

"What is this!? I'm moving against my will!"

"The reason why 'corpse puppet' does not work on the living is that the orders sent by the brain take priority, but if the connection between your limbs and your brain is weakened, I can control you"

And so, I make her walk away from the ruins.

I'm starting to think that teaching people the correct way to use dark magic might be more difficult than I thought...