Koyuki, the Necromancing Foxkin

CHAPTER 336: Resistance Testing

Gronir led us to a training room to continue his lecture. "Now let us see if we can't learn something new together! Isn't that exciting?"

I nodded, I did love some experimenting and learning new things about necromancy. Gronir opened his bag, which was filled with vials and bottles, and retrieved one of them.

"I have some interesting potions from Horas to help us test several things. First, I want you to consume this, Hatsumi." He held a potion in his hand and offered it to her. "This brew contains some light mana. If it becomes too problematic you can vent it but it should not be dangerous."

She took the bottle and sniffed it. "This contains blood."

Gronir nodded. "It should make it easier to get the light mana into your body since vampires can absorb blood. In a sense you could call this tainted blood, it is a way to poison vampires. Using light magic is not the most common way to taint it, actually. Fire is often used because it is an easier recipe and the ingredients are cheaper."

"Are there really enough vampires that people come up with recipes to poison them?" Tom asked.

"That is a great question! Most people would argue no, however vampires do blend in quite well with society. While most undead are found in old crypts, battlefields or places with a lot of death mana, vampires could be among us. That can lead to a bit of paranoia and the occasional vampire scare. Ilestria is extremely paranoid about being infiltrated." Gronir explained.

"Why are free vampires illegal? Could they not live peacefully among us?" I asked.

"Technically yes, however a free vampire needs to feed. Hatsumi has your bond which means she does not need to drink blood on a regular basis. Further, they are rather strong and hard to deal with unless you are a mage yourself. Most people do not want someone stronger than them who sees them as food as a neighbour." Gronir explained.

Personally I did not see the difference to any mage. Having to drink blood was not that different from eating normal food, especially since they did not need to kill. Sure, we did not eat people, but vampires did not have to either. Their power was a concern but any mage held power and plenty of them looked down on commoners. Was a vampire really more likely to hurt them than the average noble?

While I pondered such things Hatsumi drank the potion. "Hm, it has a strange sweetness."

"Oh? Interesting. How do you feel? Any discomfort? Any pain?" Gronir asked.

"No." Hatsumi stated.

Gronir stroked his beard. "Let me try something else." He rummaged through his bag and retrieved another bottle. "Can you pour this over your hand?"

Hatsumi accepted the bottle. "Sure." Then she uncorked it and poured some over her hand. "That stings."

"So light mana still hurts you but not when mixed with blood. Or is there too much of your own mana inside your blood and it simply overwhelms the light mana?" Gronir wondered.

"Do you have a more concentrated version of that tainted blood?" Hatsumi asked.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"If it becomes too concentrated it might be dangerous, I wanted to avoid that. However, if you are confident we can try."

"Sir, I have a question." I said.

"Yes, Koyuki."

"You mentioned that light magic can burn or heal and that a combination is used against undead. Does your potion have both aspects?" I wondered.

Gronir nodded. "I ordered it from Horas and he used mixtures designed to fight undead. He diluted them enough for experimenting since we are not trying to destroy your undead."

"Is there a way to only test the healing aspect? Light burns everything, right?" I asked.

"You are not wrong but the healing aspect is there to weaken the undead while the light burns them. Spells designed against the undead always combine both aspects." Gronir replied. While he answered my question he grabbed a vial and handed it to Hatsumi.

I was already preparing my undead heal as Hatsumi took a sniff and downed the vial. But my precautions seemed unnecessary as nothing bad happened.

"It gives me a warm feeling, kind of nice." Hatsumi mused.

"Hm." Gronir retrieved one more vial. "Try this on your hand again but be careful."

She did as this time there was actual sizzling. A small burn mark formed on the back of her left hand. "This certainly hurts, it feels like the light blade he used to stab me with."

"Fascinating. It truly seems like the blood is the key." Gronir stated.

"Blood is healing her, right?" Tim asked.

"Could the blood simply heal her more than the light damages her?" Tom asked.

"Tainted blood should not heal her. Her body should be trying to absorb it and damage itself in the process. That is why you poison vampires with tainted blood." Gronir explained.

"Do you have other tainted blood? We could try it with fire, if Hatsumi is willing." I suggested.

"Sadly, I did not prepare such a thing." Gronir replied.

"I think we do know an alchemist who loves fire." Hatsumi said, with a smile.

"Don't drink exploding blood!" I said.

"Not everything Cassie brews explodes. She mixes delightful blood drinks for me." Hatsumi stated.

"She is rather good at creating blood snacks." Garm confirmed.

"Might I test the non blood potion as well?" Kaito asked.

"Sure." Gronir replied.

Kaito poured some of the liquid in the back of his hand. The result was some sizzling and a similar burn mark to Hatsumi. I cast an undead heal on both of my undead and the mark slowly disappeared.

"Similar result. It seems that if no blood is involved Hatsumi behaves like most undead in the face of light magic." Kaito stated.

"I used blood claws to fight the light blade. I guess as soon as blood is involved I am more resistant to light. No matter if it is my blood or someone else's. Drinking the mage did not harm me and I assume he used light mana inside his blood." Hatsumi stated.

"What about the undead she created?" Leo asked.

"Good question, let's test Bob." I said.

The results were similar but Bob was not entirely immune to the tainted blood. He was no vampire either, just a tier two vampiric undead. I summoned Chariot and we tested it on him as well. I needed to heal him because he was most certainly not immune to the tainted blood. It even gave me a small scare.

"Should we test Ivy? She is a tier three vampiric undead." I wondered. Ivy was no vampire and she had started as a tier two until Nyx had elevated her to tier three.

"I suspect she will react like Chariot. Because she is stronger it would do less damage but there is no reason to assume she would have any additional resistance." Hatsumi stated.

"I suspect she would puke the blood on your shoes and then demand a treat as compensation." Kaito stated.

"Maybe we don't need to test her…" I mused.

"Ridiculous." Leo muttered and I ignored him.

"We certainly had some fascinating discoveries today. Sadly our time is up and the lesson is over! Koyuki, please let me know what your results are with fire tainted blood." Gronir said.

I nodded. I was curious myself since there was no reason for Hatsumi to have any resistance against fire, so I expected her to be affected by fire tainted blood. Right now it seemed that any vampiric undead retained the resistance of their original body inside their blood. Of course, most vampiric undead came from water and earth affinity creatures. The body of a creature with light affinity would never raise naturally as a vampiric undead and most necromancers would not try to force it. You tended to get better results if you tried to retain the original affinity.

It made me wonder if anyone had ever created a vampire from the corpse of a light mage before. We had used our circulation technique for it, had that been essential? How did other people raise vampires anyway?

Also, were there any light affinity monsters we could hunt? What if I created a small squad of vampiric undead with former light affinity? It could be a nasty surprise for any future assassins.