{Current progress: 0%}

{Time limit: 100 years}

{Failure will result in the destruction of the host's soul.}

After reading through the mission, he mentally sighed with relief, 'A hundred years should be enough... assuming the system isn't expecting me to turn this world into an intergalactic empire! Hopefully? Surely not...'

Mentally closing the ominous quest, Kieran focused on his status screen.

[Name: Victor de Koschei Noctus]

[Race: Lich]

[Position: Deceased Grand Elder of the Noctus sect (300 years ago)]

[Cultivation: Peasant (0/100)]

[Spiritual roots: None]

[Dao: None]

[Magic: LOCKED]

'Not looking too good... peasant cultivation? No spiritual roots or Dao comprehension? How can I even cultivate in this state? Also, what's with that overly long name? Wait! None of this is important. System! Where am I right now?'

<You are currently located in a tomb below the Noctus sect.>

'Right... so why can't I move?'

Kieran could naturally see through the dark as an undead, yet there was nothing to see except blank grey walls. He tried to move his head, yet he felt nothing, just a constant emptiness as if he was paralyzed.

<Lichs are magical beings.>

'Yes, that is correct... so why can't I move?'

<Your Magic is locked.>

Kieran checked his staus, and his magic was indeed locked.

'...Why?'

<You have become a Lich but do not possess any magical knowledge.>

If Kieran could facepalm, he would be smacking his forehead in frustration. 'So... I am simply a skeleton in a coffin right now?'

<Correct.>

There was a long silence between the two.

After a few minutes, Kieran decided he would go insane if he stayed inside this grey stone box for another second, 'How can I unlock my magic?'

<Do you wish to unlock the Lich inheritance?>

<Estimated download time: 438300 hours>

Kieran stared at the floating message in pure anger, '438k hours? Hello? How many years is that?'

<50 years.>

'Why the fuck does it take 50 years to download a darn update?'

<The system uses mana for data transfer, and the current mana density in this tomb is 0.01%.>

<This tomb was originally at 1% mana and 99% Qi.>

'So where did all the mana go?'

<Spatial transfer and binding of your soul.>

Kieran desperately reevaluated his position. 'So I am trapped underground, unable to move or perform magic? What about cultivation? How does one cultivate?'

<You do not possess spiritual roots. Cultivation is deemed impossible.>

'So I cannot cultivate in a cultivation world, and magic is locked behind a 50 year-long update? System! Can I partially download the update?'

<It is possible, but there is an 80% chance of soul damage and a 73.4% chance of madness.>

'So basically, I'm fucked.'

The system stayed silent.

Kieran was starting to question if picking a Lich was the correct choice. Cultivation is all about tempering the body and mind with the world's energies. 'So how the hell would I be able to cultivate with only bones! Why didn't I think of this before! fuck-'

<Do you wish to unlock the Lich inheritance?>

[Yes/No]

The question took up his entire vision. With a simple press of a button, Kieran's problems would vanish, and he should be able to escape his stone coffin. 

 'Will I be awake for these fifty years?'

<Yes. You will witness a condensed version of the last Lich's life>

'And how long was this Lich's life?'

<8500 years.>

'For fuck sake-'

A large part of Kieran screamed, 'There must be another way!' To spend fifty years watching a person's life sounded truly miserable! But another part of him was bubbling in excitement. 'Magic! Real Magic! I get to absorb eight thousand years of knowledge in a mere fifty years?'

Kieran metaphorically grit his teeth in frustration, 'When I get out of this dark prison, I am going to any % speed run civilization, get this mission done in a week and live out the rest of my days in peace!'

With his mind, Kieran gestured at the glowing Yes button.

<Beginning inheritance download.>

[...]

In a flash of colour, Kieran found himself floating on the shoulder of a white-haired man. Metal shackles bound his arms to a wooden table, yet he didn't seem disturbed. 

A middle-aged woman with brown hair and a black robe was tiredness concocting a potion. She would walk across the stone room and retrieve a potion from a wooden shelf on the far wall every few minutes while muttering random numbers to herself.

Kieran could easily mistake this for a medieval hospital if not for the enormous glass tubes containing naked bodies floating in a viscous brown liquid. 

After what felt like hours, the woman finished creating the potion. It shone a brilliant neon blue. "Master! I have completed the elixir of immortal starlight!"

The white-haired man strapped to a table like a mental patient grinned, "Excellent work, my disciple! Quick! Begin the ritual!"

The middle-aged woman faltered for the first time, "Master... are you sure the numbers are correct? The equation clearly states the need for lifeforce, and I highly doubt you have a sufficient amount with your condition to power this ritual..."

The old man's grin vanished, but he quickly recovered his facade, "Silly disciple, I am an 11th circle mage! How could I get some simple calculations wrong? Give me the potion and conduct it quickly! Those darn inquisitors will knock down my door any moment now!"

The urgent voice of her Master caused the disciple to discard their suspicions. Kieran could see a blue glow as she poured the blue elixir down the man's throat.

For a minute, nothing happened until the man suddenly opened his glowing blue eyes. Then, with insane strength, he shattered the metal chain and lunged at the bewildered disciple.

The woman screamed and kicked with all her strength, but her skin was visibly ageing in the man's hand. "Master! Please! It's me! Stop!!!" 

The 11th circle mage had a sinister grin, "I know my disciple, and you have outlived your purpose."

The old Mage would have died a thousand times if a glare could kill. "YOU BASTARD." She howled with her dying breath, "You abducted me, used me, experimented on me, and THIS is how you repay me?!"

The old man frowned and then tightened his monstrous grip. Finally, there was an audible crack as the woman's neck broke in half, her head rolled to the side, and her screaming ceased. Everything then went deathly silent.

"I'm sorry young disciple..." 

A single glowing tear fell from the man's eye, "But my wife's resurrection is far more important..."

The man released his grip, and the corpse unceremoniously fell to the floor like a sack of potatoes. 

Kieran watched intently for the next hour as the man's flesh slowly dripped off his bones, and judging from his screams; it was an excruciating process.

After three days and nights, the man removed his blood-stained robes and revealed his body of pristine white bone. Nothing remained, and apart from blue flames in his eye sockets, he appeared like one of those skeletons from an RPG game.

A sudden banging at the door startled both the Mage and Kieran.

"Necromancer! We know you reside within these walls! Come out, and you will be left untouched!"

The Mage took one look at his new body and began frantically looking around his lab for something. Eventually, he settled for a stone tile in the corner of the room.

Kieran watched as a translucent blob much like himself left the skeleton's hand and entered the stone slab, just in time as the door exploded and filled the room with a cloud of dust that obscured the angry armoured men that charged inside.

"Halt vile necromancer in the name of the Duke!"

The fight was over in an instant.

The skeleton charged at the men with a silent warcry. One of the armoured knights swung a massive tower shield with surprising speed and obliterated the skeleton into a million pieces.

After the initial shock, they spent the next two hours searching every inch of the laboratory for something.

"No secret exits! The necromancer must have used a teleportation circle to escape!"

The commander nodded at his subordinate and left the scene. One soldier remained in the room for the next week, but eventually, they left.

Once the coast was clear, a new skeleton began forming out of thin air from the bones of the disciple that was still lying on the floor.

The now fully formed skeleton laughed manically, "Hahahahahaha, I finally transcended mortality and become a Lich!" The voice sounded hollow and ancient. "Drats! My magic circles are all gone!"

Kieran watched intently as the newly formed Lich sat down and began to carve intricate runes onto his bones. After a couple of hours, the Lich had repeated the painstaking process six times. 

The Lich inspected the golden runes covering his ribcage, and after careful inspection, he nodded. "Six semi-complete circles. Should allow teleportation magic. Even if the spell fails and I teleport into solid rock, I should be fine..."

The Lich arranged a pile of random bones next to the stone slab containing his soul as extra precautions and then began channelling the teleportation spell.

He vanished into thin air, much to Kieran's amazement.

And then, the scene swiftly changed to a tower on the edge of a cliff.