Veran, goddess of war and fire, knew how to set the stage.

“To graduate from this academy, each of you must craft a personal artifact, according to our guidelines,” she declared, the ceiling flickering with phantom flames. Hiding her whole body behind a thick shell, she looked more like an infernal, fire-powered golem than a dwarf. “The [Solomonari’s Grimoire] is the classic, but I would prefer more imaginative proposals for this session. Like a gun! Or a sword, with a gun!”

As one of the students sitting in the amphitheater, Victor scribbled down every damn word of this [Cursed Artifact Crafting] class. His classmate, Goblina, raised a hand to ask questions. “Can a ballista work?” she asked.

“If it is magical, nigh-indestructible, and destructive!” the goddess replied. “The essence of artifact creation is to pour your soul into the task. Literally! Creating an artifact means surrendering part of your lifeforce, of your max HP, and imbuing it with a personal touch!”

“What kind of artifacts did you make in your heyday?” a regal, crowned imp asked. Victor knew him as some kind of fallen demon prince eager to make a comeback but had little interaction with him.

“Jesty created his [Deathscythe],” Veran replied. “Although he killed so many people with it, surrendering his lifeforce was just the last push. Camilla crafted the [Crystal Skulls] which first spread vampirism and so many forms of undeath. As for me… oho, it would take a whole year to list all of mine! I was, and still am, a very busy crafter! The sword [Revengeance], the [Anvil of Catastrophe], the [Slime Machine]...”

As announced, the Dread Three did give classes, although most of the teacher body included ghosts of past overlords, mad prophets, and ancient horrors whose every lecture forced a Check against [Madness].

The curriculum focused on various courses each year, with the first focusing only on statecraft and ‘mindset.’ The teachers had taught Victor classes based on Akhenapep’s one hundred stratagems, although they went deeper into the practical applications. He had lost count to the number of times he had to hide a fake artifact from classmates acting as heroes, or minion HR sessions. While it only refined things he had already learned, the knowledge would serve him well in Murmurin; it had even opened his mind to new ways of managing Vainqueur’s new nation.

For the second year, the teachers would finally teach the students sorcery, item crafting, and more practical skills. After spending a good hour listing and detailing some of her proudest artifacts, Veran began to explain the process of crafting one. Victor scribbled down some ideas; since the process would take years, he had to quickly settle on a concept.

When the class ended with Veran turning into a pillar of flames, the students left the amphitheater into the dark, dimly lit corridors of the school. “See you at the [Infernal Alchemy] course, Vic,” Goblina told him.

“Nah, I’m attending the [Necromancy] course,” Victor replied. Partly because he liked the subject, and mostly because Isabelle Maure gave the lecture on [Infernal Alchemy].

“You must be the only one,” she said, before leaving him to find the class on his own.

As Victor walked around the windowless school, he mused that the worst part wasn’t the lack of sun, the constant company of unethical psychos, the unnerving presence of Isabelle Maure, or the intense work schedule. No. What Victor struggled with was a more primal, intimate problem.

Not getting laid.

This place was worse than a monastery! His classmates ran the gamut from goblin to animated armor, and even a psychotic mad alchemist, but no female humanoids! As for the teachers… Isabelle Maure seemed to take sadistic glee in teasing him, and he didn’t feel attracted to dwarves, especially world-conquering ones.

Victor had strongly considered summoning Chocolatine, before realizing that she would remain trapped with him for at least six more years if he did. He hadn’t breached the subject with the teachers, so he had no idea how they would react; nor how would the werewolf. Trapping her in that castle for a quick relief from his pain sounded very selfish.

Finally finding the [Necromancy] amphitheater, Victor found himself the only one sitting on the stands. He didn’t have to wait long before the teacher teleported inside amidst swirling miasma.

The creature before him… was the greatest beauty the Vizier had ever laid his eyes upon. A dark elf whose skin was as black as a moonless night, pristine, and pure; her crimson eyes were shining rubies, her hair a white waterfall. Her wizard robes fit her perfect, voluptuous curves in an entirely supernatural way. She smiled at him, vampire fangs whom he would have happily sink into his neck and—

‘MINION!’

When he realized who he was looking at, Victor forced himself to focus on another mental picture; namely, Vainqueur. Somehow, imagining the dragon barking at him immediately broke the elf’s spell over him.

Forced abstinence was slowly driving him mad.

“You are the only student?” Camilla, goddess of death, plagues, and the undead, asked with a disappointed face.

“Apparently. I dunno why though.”

“Since undead have become accepted, necromancy no longer has a…” Camilla considered the word, “Bad Boy appeal? Being a nice, mass murder-raiser is no longer a popular career choice.”

“Everybody wants to be some kind of crafter shieldsman nowadays,” Victor deadpanned. “But I’m all about the classics.”

“And for that, Victor Dalton, you have my sincere gratitude,” the goddess said with kindness. “Thanks to your efforts, the cause of the undeathstrial revolution is making headway in the Mistral continent... and your devotion shall not go unrewarded.”

… don’t imagine her naked, she didn’t mean it that way, don’t do it, Vic, don’t do it...

“Since you are the only student, we can make this a private tutoring class,” she said, either unaware of Victor’s less than saintly thoughts or ignoring them. “Why did you choose to study [Necromancy]?”

Yes, let’s talk magic! “I have started learning the fundamentals of magic, but I never fully explored Necromancy in depth. I know spells are divided into tiers of power, and specializations, but not what these subschools do.”

“As a [Reaper] of your level, you should have access to [Necromancy], [Ritual], and [Diabolism], correct?” Victor nodded, as the goddess took a professional tone, absorbed in her lecture. “[Necromancy] is sorcery focusing on the powers of undeath and death in general; it is obviously, my favorite.”

Figures. “What about the others?”

“[Diabolism] is sorcery focused on the lower planes, opposing [Sacrament], which calls upon the so-called heavenly planes. It gives you access to fiend summoning or sacrificing souls for wicked powers. As for [Rituals], they are very long, complex, but extremely powerful spells with a long spellcasting time, specific ingredients or needing conditions such as planetary events.”

So the virgin sacrifice to summon demon lord kind of magic.

“You also have access to [Universal] magic, which any spellcaster can use, but if anyone wanted to be a good one, they would have become necromancers,” Camilla said. “Luckily for you, [Reaper] has one of its best Perks for spellcasting.”

“[Soulmaster IV],” Victor guessed, “[Reaper] levels now count as caster levels for the purpose of class restrictions. What does that mean?”

“That your Reaper levels can serve as a stepping stone to access more powerful, elite spellcasting classes, like [Lich], and that your current tiers will also stack with new ones for the three schools of magic you have access to.”

“I would rather explore my existing classes before looking for new ones,” Victor replied. “I have perks like [Darwinist] which could synergize well with necromancy, like allowing me to use undead-only spells on myself.”

The goddess put a finger on her smiling lips with her eyebrows furrowing, deep in thoughts. “Most necromancy spells focus on killing or raising the fallen as undead,” she said. “But it also opens the path to many stranger abilities, which can both enhance your abilities and mesh with your natural management skills.”

“You have experience with that?” She obviously had to be good at raising undead armies.

“I’m the one who kept my guild organized and grounded,” Camilla said. “Jesty is all about striking against the establishment, while Veran is the establishment. Making sure everyone gets along has been a tiring experience, but a rewarding one.”

“About that, why did you create a school like Scholomance? I never imagined that kind of establishment could exist in Outremonde.”

“We Dread Three believe that we can achieve greater things if we cooperate, than if we war with each other,” the goddess replied. “If Mithras and the gods of the politically correct can band together to push their retrograde agenda, why can’t we do the same? We defeat our enemies by making them our friends, or our zombie slaves; which is something the fomors could never understand.”

Victor thought she had a point, except for the undead slave part. “You know, I came here to think back on my life first and foremost.”

“Have you?”

The Vizier nodded. “V&V is the most unstable nation in existence, but it is also the only place where monsters from all corners of the world can live in harmony and somewhat peacefully. We succeeded at amazing things too; we even reached the Moon!”

Camilla chuckled as if laughing at a private joke. “You came a long way.”

“So even if Vainqueur created it by accident, I wouldn’t mind helping a monster civilization grow prosperous,” Victor said. “Monsters are seen by adventurers as the enemy, and vice-versa… but it doesn’t have to be. While our values differ, peaceful coexistence is possible. I would like to show that to all of Outremonde, with V&V as the case study.”

“So you will expand the empire’s borders until the world is united under your benevolent iron rule?!” Camilla said with a dramatic voice, making Victor raise an eyebrow. “Sorry, I was channeling Veran for a moment.”

For a goddess, she sounded like a closet dork. “I’m always going to follow Vainqueur. I’ve sworn it and I stand by my words, even if I must toil forever to grow his hoard. But besides my duties, I want to see the house I built prosper.”

Camilla listened patiently, before nodding. “Would you like to become my apprentice?”

Victor blinked. “Apprentice?”

“Since you are the only student interested in necromancy among the studies, so I might as well go further with you. I can help you progress into your [Reaper] class until you cap it at thirty, teach the tricks of the trade.” She giggled. “If you reach level sixty by the end of your stay, I may even reward you with a little something.”

That kind of reward? He couldn’t help but think.

“Shesha did say you were easy,” she laughed, having read his mind much to his shame. “But let’s keep things professional within this school's walls. We will first start by reviewing every spell under Tier IV...”

Congratulations! For receiving the private tutelage of the goddess of Undeath, you earned two levels in [Reaper]! You earned the [Nightmare Lord] class perk!

VIT, + 2 SKI, +2 AGI, +2 INT, +2 CHA, +1 LCK.

[Nightmare Lord]: By sacrificing half your max SP, you can change an area up to a mile wide into a [Nightmare Realm] Field for thirty minutes. Each minute, non-mindless creatures must pass a Charisma check, with each failure inflicting a status ailment. One check failed: [Drain]. Two checks failed: [Terror]. Three checks failed: [Madness]. Four checks failed: [Nightmarish Sleep]. Five checks failed: [Insta-Death], with the soul trapped as if targeted by [Helheim]. Any successful check resets the cycle. [Nightmare Realm] ignores ailment Resistances, but not Immunities.