He kept reading.
He focused mainly on the summoning branch, which interested Rhode most.
It was a category vastly different from conventional magic. Its summons were an entirely different concept from summoning magical constructs.
Naturally, the summoning branch had its own tiers, and they were easy enough to understand.
The more advanced the necromancy, the more powerful the undead it could summon, from the most basic zombies, skeletons, and ghouls to abominations, Crypt Fiends, and gargoyles, and eventually to mighty death knights, Destroyers, Frost Dragons, and more.
Studying it also introduced a discipline he had never encountered in conventional magic: alchemy.
Whether it was brewing Plague Potions to create undead or Necromantic Potions to protect oneself, this was a skill every aspiring Necromancer needed.
The purpose of Plague Potions was obvious.
Every Mage, whether an ordinary Mage or a Necromancer, had a limited supply of mana.
If they used necromancy to summon undead every time, they clearly could not summon very many even if they exhausted all their mana.
And undead, especially low-level zombies and skeletons, clearly relied on numbers to win.
Under those circumstances, Plague Potions that could rapidly transform the living into undead became particularly important.
Clearly, what the Cult of the Damned had put in the farm's granary was precisely this kind of Plague Potion.
Plague Potions also came in different tiers. The more advanced the potion, the stronger the undead it could create. This also explained why some of the dead rose as zombies while others became ghouls.
Of course, the more advanced the Plague Potion, the harder it was to brew. In theory, the ingredients it required would be harder to obtain, and brewing it would take longer.
These "ingredients" included not only the materials for the potion itself, but also the subject to be