Harry was hard at work in his workshop on a new necromancy spell. It was more for utility than anything else, but the enchantments weren’t working right. Or, more specifically, they were working too well and spoiling the meat of the animal he worked on. Specifically, he wanted to create a spell to raise his kills and have them walk back to the slaughter barn. He could load them up on Nemean and have his lion carry them, but they kept absorbing death qi and rising as zombies. Once they rose, he couldn’t eat them because the death qi made them taste offal. Nemean had extra food when that happened.

 

The lion had changed over the last three weeks. Harry had been training for the new world. Its mane of white frills had turned black, and its snout was a deep fuzzy dark shade of yellow gold. Nemean groaned and rolled over on his back to scratch his back. The massive cat looked overly pleased with himself as he raised up to lick his crotch.

 

Harry hadn’t given the undead genitals, but somehow, it had grown some, probably as a mockery of life. While the lion hadn’t grown any larger, it had faked being alive better than before and had taken to napping.

 

“You don’t even need to sleep, you lazy thing,” Harry said.

 

“Nothing else to do,” Nemean said.

 

The lion spoke from a speaker in its throat. Harry had first installed cameras in its eyes sockets, then began a project to make artificial eyes. Unfortunately, bones even sanded round like an eye and covered in scripts didn’t work. They kept rolling, so Harry went back to the drawing board. Instead, Harry decided to work on a fluid to preserve eyes for necromantic use. It was a work in progress do to Harry’s lack of alchemy experience.

 

Harry found he didn’t have a knack for potions, one of the magic arts from his home world, and he needed a wand of all things for the spells. He had all the power he needed to perform magic, but he needed a focus for anything complicated. Scripts and runic enchantments were better, in his opinion. In Harry's opinion, Magic was a type of qi that seemed narcissistic. Death qi was slow but certain, while magic qi was spontaneous and loved attention. Harry didn’t feel the same way; he couldn’t imagine seeking attention on purpose.

 

Necromancy wasn’t all about raising the dead despite what the name implied; he could dominate undead, call ghosts, and manipulate shadows. Qliphoth power boosted his ability to control shadows to ever greater heights. Harry raised his hand, and the shadows around the room shifted, and the temperature dropped. He developed his abilities against the clock, and necromancy was a wide umbrella with many different spells. To maximize his time, there were three he practiced every day.

 

Aura of decay damaged living things constantly and boosted undead; shadow’s grasp allowed him to wield physical shadows and arise raised the dead. The last spell was the most basic form of necromancy. It allowed him to raise the dead around him as obedient lesser undead seeking life to further their evolution. They used a general necromancy public domain file, but he didn’t have fine control over them either.

 

Harry raised his hand, and a notebook flew to his hand from a nightstand. Telekinesis was something he practiced religiously; it was important even if he didn’t want to make it his focus. The skill was the most flexible one he had. He could almost lift an elk carcass with it, and it was only his 5^th week practicing it. He would be much stronger in a year, and he was just getting started.

 

 

Harry Potter

Apprenticeship Slots Free: 0

Apprentice To Zoran 1.5%

Skills

Dragon Power: Beginner 30%

Giant Power: Beginner 30%

Leviathan Power: Beginner 30%

Ent Power: Beginner 45%

Mecha Power: Beginner 30%

Nephilim Power: Beginner 5%

Qliphoth Power: Beginner 20%

Sephiroth Power: Beginner 5%

Telekinesis: Beginner 65%

Necromancy: Beginner 80%

 

Harry took a break from the hunting spell and flipped over to a construct he was working on. Dozens of pages filled with possible scripts filled the notebook for something interesting. He wanted to call it the cocoon of evolution after watching some of the Yugioh anime with Master.

 

The shadow man had a weird fascination with Mai Valentine. Then again, Harry understood what his Master was going through, or he would when he reached that level.

 

Ascension to the next realm required a sacrifice to prove his Master’s commitment. The darkness covering his Master’s body was a massive chastity belt. His Master gave up desire in exchange for a chance to reach the 3^rd stage. Of course, there was more to it, but his Master hadn’t been too vocal about the shameful topic.

 

Harry posted concerns about his designs for the cocoon of evolution and received some edits to his scripts. They were barbaric, and Harry hadn’t wanted to go through with them. One shortened Harry’s entire script and hooked everything to a library, shortening Harry’s script by half the number of lines. He saw the correct two days ago and still hadn’t integrated the correction; he was looking for a reason not to. When he mentioned he was going to the Tokyo Ghoul world, a few mentioned he should wait and let his undead feed on some ghouls before going through with the evolution.

 

Every time he ran through his script for the cocoon of evolution, he found mistakes and made changes before posting them again. With each correction, he narrowed down the problem and was becoming bloody close to getting it right.

 

The cocoon was meant to change Nemean, granting the lion undead a few upgrades like poisonous claws, a tougher hide for impacts, a ward to make the undead lion unnoticeable, and bones with natural titanium built into them. His Master bought them for him as a present for making it through the fifth week. Really the cocoon of evolution had a single purpose; it allowed Harry to make simultaneous upgrades to his undead. Once the process starts, Harry shouldn’t have to do anything.

 

…

 

Harry stared at the black portal leading to the new world of Tokyo Ghoul. After he went through it, he wouldn’t have his Master to rely on and couldn’t leave until he reached Intermediate in all his skills and apprentice in two of them. Apparently, when he reached that point, nothing in the world should be able to match him in power. But, of course, he wouldn’t be alone. Jester, Duke, and Matt sent some of their subordinates to join him.

 

“Do I have to go? I’ll become stronger if I continue to work?” Harry said.

 

His Master raised a shadowy finger. “Study is no replacement for experience. Besides, I found a few playmates with less troublesome personalities compared to most of my compatriots’ subordinates. Besides, I thought you would be ecstatic about finally being rid of me.”

 

“Master, don’t make me go. I’ll clean up and make your food.” A comforting hand gripped Harry’s shoulder.

 

“This isn’t a punishment, apprentice. You’ve done better than I anticipated and learned so much in a short time; think of this as a test before you truly start cultivation. The foundry realm is hard on the mind, and this will help you.” Master said.

 

“Do you know where I’ll end up?” Harry asked after an appeal to emotion hadn’t worked. While it was a great opportunity, Harry didn’t want to go. Instead, he would rather continue writing scripts in his workshop.

 

“You will arrive at the beginning of the series. So don’t fret; you won’t miss anything exciting, and even if you mess up everything, we can always send you to another version of the world. So be aggressive and take everything you want. Oh, and take this.” Master handed him a bag of holding with scripts to resist death qi.

 

Harry hugged his Master tightly and felt tears well up, stinging his eyes. Master brushed the back of his head. “This is for you. I know it feels like a punishment, but you’ll thank me for the experience one day. Now go and try to make some friends.” Master said.

 

Nemean led the way and stepped through the portal with his new bag of holding on his back. A world covered in blood greeted him with a woman eating corpses. Harry stared at the bodies and took a step back, splashing blood on his bear-skinned boots. Enchantments activated, cleaning them on the spot.

 

“It's rude to walk in on someone eating.” The woman said with a singsong voice. “What’s wrong? Too scared to run, did I eat one of your parents? You have some pretty green eyes. I wonder what they taste like.” Harry shook at the sight; there were too many bodies for this to have been about food. Master hadn’t let him read or watch the Tokyo Ghoul series because it would have ruined the surprise. Harry had been somewhat prepared for some cannibalism by the title alone. He had researched ghouls and avoided spoilers as best he could. Still, no matter what, he couldn’t allow this woman to live; he couldn’t save the people who died, but he could avenge them or allow them to get their own revenge.

 

Harry raised his hand out and channeled his death qi inner ghost face. “Do you like scary movies?” Harry asked with a grin he didn’t feel. “Arise,” he said and felt a pulse of power leave his body and fill the surrounding corpses. A hand reached out and caught the ghoul’s leg, and Rize shrieked before tentacles shot out of her back and sliced the zombie into bits. Then the eyes of several corpses opened and turned to her.