The room you were in had significantly more lighting than the previous and from a quick gaze around you realized that the room itself appeared to be a small infirmary filled with several hospital beds along with various types of medical supplies.
You see Master Harauphar himself sitting down on a small stool, no flicker of emotion in his face as he notices you waking from your quiet sleep.
"Wraith, I believe you have some explaining to do now." He says calmly staring right at you his eyes examining every part of your face.
"Master I am sure I do, but what happened? I'm not quite sure what I did, all I remember is my casting of a spell, but it was different.... I didn't channel fel magic... I channeled something else.... something I'm not sure I quite understand." You say. Surprisingly as the last bits of sleepy fatigue get drained you realize that your youthful energy you had before had returned. All of your senses were sharp and clear with a quick examination of your body confirming your regained youth, instead of withered weak muscles covered with old gray fur, your luscious black coat and strong muscles had returned to you.
"You noticed your regained youth I suppose, due to your kitsune physiology your damaged and fractured soul is able to regenerate by eating the souls of other animals virtually allowing you to cure yourself of any long term effects Fel magic can cause you." Master Harauphar said.
"My soul can regenerate?"
"Of course, kitsunes are creatures that practically thrive on fel magic, normally humans cannot use fel magic in large amounts because their souls are finite, eventually their souls burn out if they use fel magic, but kitsunes are unique in that they can heal and regrow their souls making them masters of fel magic, though they can still die from overuse age as well if they don't manage to consume a soul in time."
"So overusing your soul causes you to drastically age?"
"That is the most major factor but other side effects can occur as well if you overuse your soul, that's why most renegade use the souls of other humans for fuel instead of their own, they do so by using specialized objects called phylacteries but that's a lesson for another day, I myself tend to use my own soul for using spell magic but I do use the souls of minor demons for more spiritually draining spells."
"Interesting." You say, making sure to commit every detail of Harauphar's explainatom, if you wanted to become a master warlock you'd probably need to know as much as you can about fel magic.
"Anyway, that is besides the point. We must go over what happened at your training. Whilst your little "accident" did clear up somethings I require more information, however I suppose I should explain to you first what happened." Master Harauphar says, in his regular monotone voice.
You gently nod, before standing up onto the bed, relishing how your legs were able to properly support your weight now.
"What you channeled was not fel magic, instead it was another energy color of magic. Fel magic is the green energy, the energy of the soul and the magic of using the manipulating the soul as an energy source. What you used was purple magic, the magic of Corruption." Master Harauphar said.
Immediately alarms began ringing in your head. Flashbacks to your adventure into the forest emerged from your mind. The strange infected creatures covered with horrible mutated purple flesh and mushrooms. The hivemind and the way their souls were colored... purple. You barely managed to escape from the hive mind who seemed to have been a human before turning into what could only be described as a mutated zombie creature. Had you been infected during your time there? Sure you did have some contact with the infected animals you encountered but was that really enough? You assumed your magical nature would protect you from such diseases.
You tried not to let your face show your understanding and did you best to appear normal in front of Harauphar.
"Corruption magic is like it's name implies is the magic of corruption. The magic of disease and infection. It is one of the most dangerous and uncontrollable types of magic out there for it causes a user with a weak will to mutate into a horrible mutated abomination, with a drive to spread its corruption to others. Corruption magic spreads and causes a hivemind to be created. Plants, animals, and even the ground itself becomes connected to the original source. When a creature becomes infected, the disease spreads through their body, eventually taking hold and once the infection fully takes control, the creature permanently becomes a part of the hive mind." Master Harauphar continued.
"I see, so the corruption becomes like a ant colony. The workers have only one goal to serve the one who originally corrupted them." You say.
Harauphar nods before continuing his explanation.
"Corruption Magic also has other forms such as plague magic but most of them remain undiscovered due to corruption magic being a rare anomaly in itself. Most mages who use corruption magic are often branded monsters or criminals, this being due to corruption magic being more taboo than both fel magic and demon magic combined. These mages are often inexperienced and spread their corruption too quickly making them noticeable before any they can gain a real foothold, not to mention most mages often turn into fetal monsters if left unchecked. Corruption Mages also act like act colonies in that they will often fight other Corruption Mages who wish to spread their own corruption, leading to rare cases were two different infections fighting each other for supremacy."
"Fascinating, so does this mean I'm infected? Will I turn into some mindless drone?" You asked genuinely worried about your state of mind.
"No Wraith, you are not a drone, you are actually a hive mind yourself." Master Harauphar said, saying it as casually as one would say while talking about politics or the economy.
"I'm a Hivemind?!?" You said, unconsciously raising your voice in shock.
"Yes."
"But how? What does this mean? Am I going to infect everything I touch?" You say, worried and confused. How could you be a corrupted hive mind? You definently didn't have any urge to infect anyone. Perhaps Harauphar was simply joking you thought, though... since when was he a joker?
"The process to becoming a hive mind is different from being outright infected by one, a hivemind is born after a short period of time, the corrupted magic within slowly infecting the would be hive mind and gaining power. Before that several symptoms appear such as, increased emotional and sexual drive, an increase in animalistic behavior, an increased sensitivity to heat, and in your case, a lack or improper control of magic." Master Harauphar said.
"Wait, so the whole time I couldn't use properly control my magic was because of my infection?" You asked, slightly relieved that it wasn't all your fault that you failed your first test.
"Well coupled with your inexperienced as well, this does explain why you simply could not use precise control over it and nearly dying as well. When you casted your last spell, you shot an infected orb at the plant, instantly corrupting it and when a creature or plant becomes infected, in order to finalize the process, it must have physical contact with its hivemind to properly become infected, until then, the plant or animal would gain an immense drive to gain its master's touch willining to do anything in order have it. That's why once the plant was infected, its vines immediately began making their way towards you. Thankfully I was able to destroy the plant before it reached you." Master Harauphar explained, filling in some of the gaps of what happened after you passed out.
"Thank you Master, I appreciate it, but how was I able to regain my proper youth?" You ask curiously.
"You were in a greatly worn out condition so after realizing the true cause of your incapability I immediately captured the souls of several rodents and the like and fed them to you." Master Harauphar answered.
"Ah, thank you Master. I apologize for letting you down and making you go through all of that hassle." You reply, bowing your head down in shame.
"Apology accepted Wraith, in fact, I should be to blame as well for not immediately recognizing your condition." Master Harauphar said.
Looking up, you ask "So, do you know how I got infected in the first place Master?" You lie, you didn't want to reveal that you purposely withdrew the fact that you found the corruption and didn't report it to Harauphar at all.
"I assumed you knew.... usually a hivemind is made when another hive mind is killed or a certain spell or ritual is cast on you, some potions also cause the affliction as well..."
"But, I never encountered a hivemind before, was a spell cast on me?" You ask Harauphar, lying to him once more. Examining his you now see a cold concern go into his eyes as he looks away mumbling to himself in thought.
"If Wraith does not know, then... no.... did he do it? He is here for his report to Lord Hugenstore tommorrow..... ah..... now it makes sense." Harauphar says, a small bit of sarcastic humor on his voice now.
"What is it Master?" You ask with concern.
Harauphar shakes his hand in dismissal, waving away in concern "I believe I know who had infected you, one of the royal mages of Lord Hugenstore and one of the only mages legally permitted to use Corruption Magic, him and I have always had a bitter rivalry with eachother and it seems his methods are becoming more forceful by the day."
"One of your peer's Master? What shall we do?" You ask keeping a straight even though deep down you were laughing. It seemed like fate had smiled upon you as your Master's own paranoia and pure coincidence have teamed up to back up your own lie. You felt some disappointment in yourself at laughing at your Master's lack of information but told yourself that this could be your own little form of revenge for your Master nearly killing you just hours before.
"For now.... I alone will look into it, the corruption magic within you will lay mostly dormant for now until something you infect creates physical contact with you, when that inevitably happens your hivemind powers will fully emerge and you will change into something much different than what you are now, my rival who you will properly meet within several hours once the meeting begins believes he can intercept and sabotage our goals, but Wraith, your corruption may be a blessing in disguise, for if we awaken your corruption in a controlled manner, a mage of both fel and corruption magic is nothing to scoff at." Harauphar boldly said and a glimmer of his inner insanity gleamed through his usually empty eyes.
"Very well Master, I will redeem myself and prove to you what an asset I can become." You say.
"Good Wraith, we still have several hours before the meeting so I permit you to have some free time for now, you may want to consume several souls in order to keep up your strength though." Master Harauphar says.
"Very well Master." You reply.
Master Harauphar after that shortly left the room, saying how he was going to investigate further into some personal things, leaving you in the infirmary alone, from an outside window you see that it was about one in the morning.