Some wonder why the undead are so feared, when all they typically see, are little more than smelly disturbing monsters, but when the cosmos is filled with such beings, and ones far more terrifying than creatures who so often, don’t even have two brain cells to rub together.
They can’t imagine why these would be the monsters so many are terrified of, and the answer isn’t what most imagine.
It’s not the destruction of the balance, simply the gods saying the dead should stay dead, or even the deep rooted fear of dead loved ones rising from the grave, and trying to eat them.
The reason, undead haunt every emperor’s nightmares is that the undead essentially function like a self replicating virus.
A disease, which not only gets stronger after every battle, but one with the potential to become functionality impossible to truly kill.
Phylacteries, after all, are able to be produced through a bit of mana, and necromancers are a staple of the undead… Which means, facing a thousand undead master swordsmen who keep coming back after you kill them, is not only normal, but is to be expected when battling the undead, and who would want to face such a foe?
The undead are on the same level as grey goo, as self replicating AI, opponents only limited by their resources, their grade only limited by the available mana, and foes, which will always keep coming back, unless they’re completely exterminated.
On the bright side though, most of the undead at least identify as organics, which at least typically puts them against any who want to exterminate all life.
Imagine, if they saw eye to eye with our would be machine overlords, now that would be a nightmare, but even that’s not all roses, when even the machines are ‘alive’ or capable of being reanimated, and metallic undead are problematic to say the least.
This is why the undead are feared, why they carry bounties, but is also why in civilized regions of the universe they rarely ever grow to be a threat.
They’re stomped out, before they get the chance to grow, with even newly integrated worlds being watched over, lest they give rise to another undead empire, and make no mistake.
No matter what the undead say to you, no matter what bargain they try to strike, in their eyes it’s just a matter of time, until they harvest your bones, until they use your remains to make more of them.
An excerpt from a pamphlet found on a neutral world
A book, a living tome of history that not only records what is happening around the cosmos, but is able to reach back into time itself, and see what has happened.
A certainly unique ability for a soul forged to gain, but “What exactly is your purpose?” Were you simply made for that scholar to have something to write about or do you serve some greater purpose, but why would the pages you choose to fill appear to be so unrelated to anything?
The destroyer of worlds slowly taps his desk, before flipping through the pages of the book, each page holding the perspective of some random individual, and rarely seeming to repeat at all, except for his own, which frankly appear at an uncomfortable rate particularly near the end.
“Hmm, it could have something to do with me or perhaps, I’m just the latest target the scholar focused on, after I responded to their meddling or perhaps even just a consequence of the book leveling up, and seeking greater prey.” He then snaps the book shut, before looking back at the void where a certain scholar is just floating away.
“Then again it’s only a matter of time until he tells me everything, but what should I do in the meantime?” The destroyer of world’s hands, almost seems to gain a will of their own, as they pick the book back up.
“I guess I’ll enjoy my latest distraction, a book truly without end, what a novel thing.”
____________________________________________
“We have lost contact with the soldiers who were sent to assist with the necromancer, and none of the bounty hunters are answering our messages” Stone fingers tap upon a desk “The shroud seems to encompass the entire world, blocking teleportation, and all access to the Galactic store.
It’s cause is unknown, but some are speculating it could be an impact of our overall mana density falling, much like how travel is typically restricted in newly integrated worlds while,” The messenger hesitates “Those who are aware of the necromancer worry they might have a ability or item that’s responsible.”
The taping stops, and the Nelka kings voice fills the room “It doesn’t matter, either the necromancer is powerful enough to enact a world wide skill, in which case nothing we do matters, and at best, only those with a vessel will have a chance of escaping.
If, and only if they don’t already have a host of undead waiting for those who try to run or this is truly all of the work of the lizards.” He leans back in his throne “If it’s the necromancer, help will begin to arrive, once they make their undead known, and if it’s the lizards, well it’s going to be a hell of a fight, given we have already started moving our troops towards their cities.” He smiles “You know what, I’m tired of waiting, let’s find out, launch all of the ships, either the necromancer will make their move, and we can settle this mess or we can finally give the lizards the kick in teeth that they’ve been asking for.”
____________________________________________
“Sarah Falmos, and who do I have the pleasure of addressing?” She says while directly looking at the Fairy, whose eyes narrow at the elf “My name?
The prancing little elf wants to know my name?
Ha, MUAHAHA!
I’m the master of death, the ruler of the unholy!” The fairy flutters off of her mount, and waves her sword around “And the bringer of darkness!”
Sarah sighs “That’s a bit of a mouthful isn’t it?” The bringer of darkness hesitates, before plopping back onto her cyclops “Perhaps, for a limited being such as an elf and” She glances at me “A human, I guess, you could also refer to me as Vie, BUT…. Don’t you dare forget my titles, mortals!”
‘Thump’
‘Thump’
“Introductions are lovely and all, Sarah FALMOS” Suddenly I know why she looks familiar.
“And ruler of the unholy, but shouldn’t we have this conversation, you know in a place where things aren’t trying to murder us?”
Sarah tilts her head towards me with a bored expression written across her face “You are free to go elsewhere necromancer, nothing is stopping you from walking down that tunnel, and continuing on your merry way… although.”
She closes her eyes, and grimaces “This isn’t the planet you were on, and you’re so low tier that you could have only found your way here through a portal, which means you should know an easy route off this rock.”
I keep looking down the tunnel watching for the creatures, which are getting closer with each passing second.
“Technically true, if not a bit offensive, but I’m pretty sure the portal I went through is only one way.” A response which results in Sarah’s eyes instantly rolling “Oh yes a level twelve necromancer, surely knows a significant amount about portals, and-”
‘Thump’
I look down the shaking tunnel that’s starting to glow “We really shou-” Sarah waves her hand, and a dark green drop of mana shoots down the tunnel, before erupting in a blast of fire that turns the stone into lava.
For a few moments, the entire tunnel glows red, as stone drips from the ceiling, and looks like someone bore a laser through it.
Me, along with Vie start edging towards the other tunnel, and Sarah smiles “And where exactly do you think you two are going?”
“Well, elf…” Vie grimaces “Sarah, you clearly seem to have some business here or perhaps with the human, and I would hate to take up any more of your time. So, I will be on my way then.”
Her Cyclops takes a step towards the exit as Sarah chuckles “My business is with you dungeon fairy, and as soon as the creep gives me a copy of their map, we can be on our way.”
Vie grows pale, before stuttering “While I would love to go with you, I couldn’t” Sarah starts to frown, and takes a step forward “Possibly leave my creator behind.” Vie waves at me, and I glare up at her.
For a second, surprise washes over Sarah’s face, before she shrugs “Huh, you made the dungeon fairy? Well I guess you’re not totally useless then… or at least got really lucky.”
She tilts her head, and a monstrous shadow bursts from the tunnel, in a blur her hand shifts, cleaving a shadow cat in two from nose to tail, its rhino sized body splitting in half.
We can still see its brain, and muscles spasming, as its blood spreads throughout the hall, but Sarah isn’t even remotely fazed.
“The necromancer comes with us, and you promise not to run or any other funny business?”
Vie nods, while I rapidly blink a few times “My friends call me Tom.”
“Didn’t ask Morthes, nobody asked.” Sarah mutters, before making the entire cat disappear, its body breaking into little motes of mana, before streaming into her pouch.
She then looks at all of the gathered minions “None of them need to breathe right? No, undead, lots of undead, a necromancer dungeon fairy, it should be fine.” In a flash all of the minions, even Vie’s cyclops, begin to break apart, and stream into the same bag.
While Vie, and I, just watch, well Vie falls out of the air while shouting hey!
And I just watch.
“All we need to do now is grab that dragon, and then we can make our way to that portal.
Speaking of” Sarah turns towards me with her eyes ever so slightly narrowing “I can’t help, but notice that the map data still hasn’t found its way to me.” She stares, it’s a very intense stare, and quickly results in me sharing my map data.
She smiles at us, before waving a hand at the tunnel, then starts walking down the tunnel with a skip in her step, and without a care in the world.
Me, and Vie look at each other with resigned expressions, before trailing after her.
____________________________________________
After an extremely awkward silence filled with endless walking, and bland stone.
One dungeon fairy with a rather bubbly voice could take no more!
And the silence is finally broken, surely after lasting more than ten minutes… surely.
“Soooo, what did Sarah mean when she called you a creep?” I glare at Vie, while Sarah just glances back with a smirk on her face, after a few minutes.
Well, maybe a minute of more silence, a disgruntled fairy buzzes over to me, and begins poking my body, while repeatedly saying
“Well”
“Well”
“Well”
“Well”
“Well”
“Well”
Directly into my ear, until with a huff I start to try to swat her away, but she’s an agile one, able to duck, and weave with the fiercest of them.
“Fine!
I will talk, leave me be, and… it’s not like it’s anything major.” Sarah snorts, but otherwise just keeps walking “When I first came into my powers, naturally my first instinct was to experiment with them, and it just so happened to, I don’t know, open a pathway?
To Sarah, she more or less formed in front of me from a haze of mana, and then I passed out.”
Sarah momentarily freezes it’s the same look a wild animal gets, when they’re moments away from bursting into motion, but then she relaxes, and turns to me “That’s an interesting way to dress up what happened.” She turns to Vie “Imagine for a moment you’re alone, peacefully sleeping in your bed, surrounded by some of the best wards, and shields that credits can buy, but then you wake up. You are wrapped around someone in some unknown place, whisked away, from a place you believed was safe, and only wearing your sleepwear… Does that sound like nothing to you?”
“In my defense I didn’t mean to summon you.” She walks in front of me, until there’s just a few inches separating us.
Her eyes are such pretty green orbs, but oh, so not happy ones.
“And that makes it better? Your will reaching into the cosmos, and ripping someone from their bed. To fulfill your own petty desires, after all that’s how mana manipulation works, it draws off what you want, off what you imagine, and makes it reality. So excuse me for being less than thrilled with being whisked away to fulfill your what kink? Did the little human want a pretty elf in his bed? Oh, and it also cost me tens of thousands of mana.”
“No, ughh.” I take a step back, and Sarah takes one forward “The system said that-” I found a piece of my soul
I stare into her glowing green eyes, and she snaps two of her fingers causing a slight echo “The system said what?” I just shake my head “It doesn’t really matter, just know that I’m sorry.”
Sarah huffs “Well, you were only level one, and it only happened the one time. Now, if you had made a habit of it or had been a higher level you would already be lying in a pool of your own blood. With that out of the way, let’s pick up the pace given you two seem to have an excess of energy.”
____________________________________________
‘Chop!’
‘Thud’
The dragon’s head clunks to the floor, for a moment, blood gushes out of its neck, until a string of mana reaches the severed neck, and then it starts to stream into one of Sarah’s pouches.
Meanwhile, she’s just standing there next to the body, not even having broken a sweat, and has a bored expression across her face, while the dragon’s body is slowly drained of blood.
“DID YOU SEE THAT?!?!?!! With a single cut she removed a dragon’s head! A bloody dragon!!!! Do you think I’m next, I am too young to die!”
“For all that is holy, Yes Vie, I saw, I’m literally standing right next to you.”
“Then why aren’t you freaking out?!?”
“I mean, you saw what she did in the tunnel, to that huge cat, and if she wanted us dead we would already be dead.” I shrug “What did you expect to happen?”
Vie blurs in front of my face, and flicks my forehead “THAT WAS A DRAGON, a legendary being!!!
I’m a legendary being.
She’s going to cut my head off!” She grabs ahold of me with her eyes wide “Don’t let her do it!” And I spray her with some mana, until she buzzes off of me “What’s a dragon in comparison to the waves of creatures which she wiped away as if they were nothing?” Vie rolls her eyes, and mutters “Dragon” “Legendary”
Sarah just chuckles, before turning to us “It was practically a baby, now if it was a couple of hundred years older? Now that could have been an interesting fight.”
Vie stares at Sarah, her eyes squinting, before flying over to the dragon, and trying to stab one its scales with her sword.
‘Ping’
The tip of her sword bends, without even leaving a scratch!
Sarah smiles “Oh no, the magically conjured sword of a level two necromancer is incapable of piercing the scale of a minor dragon.” Sarah’s face takes on a shocked expression “This of course must mean that it’s an insurmountable foe.”
Vie’s sword disappears in a puff of light “You! are not funny.” A flash of light bursts across the sky, and is quickly followed by the rumble of thunder.
The sky shudders as it fills with the light of thunder bolts, and five spinning spirals start to form.
“That’s a tad excessive.” Sarah says, before the entire fifty plus foot dragon bursts into little notes of mana, and streams into another one of Sarah’s bags.
“It seems this world’s core really is starting to take offense to me being here.” The first tornado touches down sparkling with blue streams of lights swirling around inside it, but then it erupts into waves of flames, ripping apart the earth, up rooting trees, and even seems to be drilled into the mountain, before bursting forward making a beeline towards Sarah.
“Hmm, I don’t think you two will be fast enough to outrun those, so this might get a tad uncomfortable, but you’ll both be fine.” she squints at the tornados “Probably be fine.”
Sarah nods to herself, before moving faster than we can see, and she grabs a hold of Vie tucking her into the palm of her left hand, before tossing me over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
As the other four tornadoes touch down, and begin to converge, while Sarah with a manic smile plastered across her face runs.
____________________________________________
A human body sags to the floor as Aurelio appears in front of Asmond “We are conducting a full recall, the Nelka empire is reacting faster than we expected.”
‘Boom’
Explosions, and fire erupt behind Aurelio, while stone figures pull themselves out of the craters.
Asmond squints at the projection, while Aurelio turns towards them, and in an instant the Nelka’s bodies are compressed into little balls, before being tossed into the void of space.
Asmond eyes lock onto the waves of power radiating off of Aurelio One day, that power will be mine “My team will head back straight away, most of the weapons have already been disabled by the growing mana anyway.” Aurelio looks down at the human body “Good, Aurisa along with some of the civilians, should be able to handle anything, which remains when they arrive.” Words that cause Asmond to mutter “If she has the stomach for it.” and Aurelio’s eye’s narrow at Asmond.
“She will do what needs to be done, just like she always has. Now, do as you’re told, and get back here!”
‘Boom’
More Nelka, pull themselves out of the fire, and Aurelio tries to crush them like the others, but this time waves of energy pulse around their bodies.
The dozen Nelka gather into a formation slowly walking towards Aurelio as the feed cuts away.
Asmond stares at the faded image for a moment, before fading into a red mist, and triggering the recall command.
____________________________________________
The earth stops shaking, but to me, and a very green Vie, the world is still an uncomfortable blur.
We are unable to even see the glowing runes on the crisp stone blocks, we are laid out on top of, let alone accomplish something like standing while Sarah on the other hand is exploring away, and not even out of breath.
“Hmm, these are some pretty interesting concealment runes, they somehow even disguise the portal as something that produces mana, instead of just being a constant drain. Nifty.”
Vie tries to wobble to her feet, before collapsing back to the floor, and holding her head.
“That’s super” She then gets that glazed look in her eyes, someone gets when they’re trying not to throw up.
“It certainly is a novel concept, particularly given when it’s paired with the natural concept of mana displacement, but… would probably never work on a more advanced world, given the amount of force would probably just crush the portal, but if it could be regulated?” She starts taking pictures, before looking at Vie, and Tom.
Both of their hairs are static messes, and are looking quite a bit less than healthy.
“So dramatic, we weren’t even moving that fast.” Me, and Vie both scoff, before I manage to lift my head for a moment, before crashing back down with a wince.
“Everything is spinning.” Sarah shakes her head “You two at least have a couple of minutes before I figure this out.”
Vie gives a thumbs up, before Sarah starts wandering around poking, and prodding runes, until with a huff she kicks the portal, which causes it to flutter for a moment.
Then it’s like a light goes on in Sarah’s mind, as a smile grows across her face.
“You know what? Runes have never really been my thing, and it looks like good old brute force will be able to get us through.”
Vie and I look up at Sarah, who once again is bearing that manic smile, her dimples ingrained into her cheeks, while her teeth give off a faint glow, and is surely something that’s going to haunt our nightmares for years to come.
“Uncouth brute!” Sarah narrows her eyes at Vie, while I somehow manage to find the strength to say “Don’t you think that you should at least give it a couple more minutes, before you do anything extreme, I mean we basically just got here.”
Sarah dismissively waves one of her hands “It will be fine, worst case we just end up getting tossed somewhere in space.” “Wait.” “Now!” Sarah stares at us with her eyes narrowed “The question is just, do I have to carry you two through the portal or do you two believe that you can manage it on your own?”
Vie and I scramble to our feet, both of us swaying, and stumbling like drunk teens who just snuck their first bit of alcohol.
Sarah just stares judgmentally, before saying “Come now children, I believe in you, you’re quite capable of walking the whole ten feet to the portal.”
A few moments later, mostly without incident, you know, ignoring me, almost squishing Vie, and Sarah needing to sweep her up, placing her into one of the pouches along her waist.
I arrive wobbling in front of the portal with a triumphant grin, that Sarah ignores with an unimpressed stare, before… grabbing ahold of my arm with one hand, while the other hand becomes covered in a golden haze, which she slams into the portal.
The portal bursts outward swallowing Sarah, me, and even a chunk of the portal whole.
We, along with a shower of rocks, are flung through the air, before crashing into my old camp.
The portal winking out behind us, leaving the tomb in complete darkness, and for a moment everything is silent, but then the room fills with the sound of marching feet.
A door swings open, glowing blue eyes start to assemble in rows, and a ball of fire whirls into existence showing a legion of the undead.
Sarah squints around, before mumbling “A graveyard, how unsurprising.” She then shakes her pouch causing both my, and Vie’s minions to come tumbling out.
She then stares directly into the eye of the Cyclops “I’m sure that you will be able to keep Vie safe, after all there are only low tier undead around here, but know that if you don’t, it’s something you’ll regret for a very, very long time.”
“What about me?” I mutter, and Sarah once again stares at me before muttering “Ehh…” Then she smiles, before dropping Vie onto her Cyclops.
“The same applies to you, at least the regret part, but two necromancers getting mauled to death by the undead would just be sad. Be back in a sec, don’t die.” With a wave of Sarah’s hand, the air cracks, and she disappears, without a trace.
Leaving Me, and Vie to face a sea of glowing eyes.
Soulmate, my ass, that woman is an absolute monster… wait.
____________________________________________
Sarah reappears floating a couple of hundred feet in the air, and takes a look around.
Graveyard, graveyard, trees, mountains, water, sky scrappers, and some tall pointy building.
“Hmm, well it doesn’t look like a completely undeveloped waste land.” Then with a shrug, and a casual wave of her hand, the air once again splits, but this time her favorite lizard Sal is on the other end waiting.
“Sarah reporting in.”
“Oh look who I have here, the dragon huntress herself, the one, the only Sarah Famlos, who I have to say, the big bosses are not really too pleased with at the moment. I mean disappearing on your own to go hunt Dragons tisk tisk, without even saying a word?” He then turns slightly pale.
“Umm, yes it’s her, and of course I was just about to patch you through.” Sal then starts to whisper “Good luck you’re going to need it.”
“Where are you?” A calm authoritative voice demands, and Sarah answers back in a bright cheerful tone “Why hello there guild master, how wonderful it is to hear from you I-”
The sigh, the being on the other end of spell releases, not only causes the communication spell to ripple, and shake, but for birds to take flight.
“Where. Are. You!”
“Well, you see we or rather Sal.” A groan can be heard on the other side of the spell “Received a message, about a potential opportunity for our faction. So of course, as an upstanding member of our faction, I did my part to investigate the validity of their claim!”
Sarah smiles, and nods as a pair of yellow eyes try to bore their way through the spell.
“Where are you!” Then the voice grumbles “And”
‘Thump’
“What did you find?” “And did you get a hold of any dragon scales?”
‘Thump’
“Currently on a newly incorporated world, that I had absolutely no hand in linking.” The response is silence, judgmental silence “Unless you believe that I’ve started carving runes, and am capable of creating entire portals, by myself!” The voice hums, it stretches out for a couple of seconds “Well, that’s not our responsibility then is it? And there’s no way you carved these.”
“Hey! I could totally carve those runes!”
“Maybe, if you were capable of standing still for more than five minutes, regardless what did you find?” Sarah frowns while glaring into the portal, but alas her glare is ineffective.
“A minor dragon, a Primordial Elemental, and… a newly formed dungeon fairy, with a spatial bag linked to their dungeon.”
The voice grows still, lacking any emotion “The world tried to kill you didn’t it?” and then Sal’s voice can be heard on the other side “Hey, now! No world killing, that’s expensive! Besides, there’s no way Sarah left behind a newly formed dungeon fairy.” Then there The voice returns, but now it’s practically radiating happiness, a warm glow is somehow even seeping through the spell.
“And you, Sarah, are currently on a world that just recently gained access to mana, right?” Sarah frowns, a feeling that something is deeply wrong spreading throughout her body.
She hesitantly answers “Yes, I am…”
“Perfect, and given you’re such a good upstanding member of our faction, you would of course… have no issue with training up such a valuable asset, in a location, which is perfect for them. A place where there is literally no risk of them being harmed or stolen, particularly with you standing watch, after all, you are such a great member of our faction.”
Sarah’s eyes grow wide, and the panic starts to set in “Wait no, please.” The voice keeps speaking as if they didn’t hear a word Sarah said “Oh, and make sure to get those perfect evolutions, after all this Dungeon could end up doing great things for the faction, I’m so glad you went off on your own like that.” The voice pauses “Right, and make sure to send any dragon materials you gathered, so Sal will stop bugging me.”
“Surely, there’s someone better suited to this task?” Sarah hesitantly asks, the voice just snorts “You have your orders Sarah.” And with that, Sarah falls from the sky, crashing into the ground, without a care in the world.
Horror fills her voice as she mutters to herself “I could be trapped here for years.”
____________________________________________
The legion of the undead shifts, leaving a clear path down the middle, which two undead walk down.
One is wearing a slim black dress, black gloves, black high heels, a thin black half vale covering the top half of her face, and leaving her glowing blue eyes shining through the cloth.
The other is male, dressed in a form fitting suit, also black… I’m seeing a theme here with dress shoes, a dark red tie, and a golden watch.
Both of their outfits are pristine, nary a spec of dirt or a wrinkle can be seen, which is all the more striking when they’re surrounded by a rag tag group of zombies, and skeletons.
Who are at best, dressed in filthy ripped clothes, which are covered in dirt, and at worst, are actively dripping bodily fluids everywhere, not exactly sanitary.
A deep voice fills the catacombs “Welcome back creator, your timing is impeccable, we are just about done clearing the last hundred graves, and have been facing issues that will make reaching the others difficult.”
“Umm, what?” The two words tumble out of my mouth, in an instant, and then there is a pause as the undead stare “Before you left, you gave orders that the extracted bodies should be placed directly in front of your residence… A task that became a bit more complicated once the bodies started moving on their own, but in the end was nothing we couldn’t handle once we got organized.” I focus on the two undead
Tier Three Crypt Lords – Creating undead is something just about anyone can do, so long as they’re willing to spend a little time, and mana, but dominating the undead?
Taking control of naturally or even artificially made undead, and bending them to do one’s bidding?
That takes something special, typically a full blown necromancer who actually has some clue over what they’re actually doing, but in rarer far more impressive cases.
It’s the result of a normal brainless boring undead evolving into something more, into something that’s the first stepping stone towards a true undead empire… A crypt lord is an undead capable of taking control of the undead, and is a fully sentient immortal being that claims territory.
Shaping it in their image ergo, crypt lord’s increase the ambient dark mana, which makes it far more likely for undead, and other dark aligned creatures to evolve, rise, or any other word that means form.
I relax, and my body exhales the breath I was instinctively holding.
“You two are the first undead I made, and if I’m being honest you’re both looking a lot better.” A silky smooth feminine voice responds “For a few days most of us were barely holding it together, and little better than this lot.” She waves a hand at the other undead “But after we crushed enough of the native undead, some of us became more.” She does a small spin “And it even came with magical self cleaning clothes.”
“That’s umm great for you”
…
The two undead’s flames flicker as if they’re assessing my current state “Of course…” The male skeleton says as a faint light flickers across all of the undead eyes, afterwards the female crypt lord waves a hand at the other undead, and they begin marching out.
“With the right minions it would be trivial to produce any comforts you may desire, and would significantly help our efforts, as well.”
The two undead look at each other “All it would take is for you to produce a single Necromancer, and w-” Vie begins to laugh as the undead glare at her, and she then floats right in front of their faces.
“And let me guess, you two would be in charge of this Necromancer, right? Now, being able to have all of the power of your class, along with everything a necromancer is capable of, at your beck, and call isn’t that convenient?!”
I wave Vie away, and she looks down right offended “Isn’t that a tad ironic coming from you Vie?
Like, who cares if they have a necromancer under their control?” Vie gasps “Morthes?!?” My eyes narrow, before she corrects herself.
“Tom, this is necromancy 101, you never give minions power equal to or surpassing your own, for if you do, it never turns out well… why are you staring at me like that?”
(Stare)
(Stare)
(Stare)
“I’m not a minion!”
(Stare)
“Just because you may have had a hand in creating me that doesn’t make me a minion!” I nod “Right” She buzzes right in front of my eyes, and is waving her sword around.”I am a legendary being, not some thrown together undead!” The two skeletons really don’t seem to like that, the woman even takes a step forward, but so does the cyclops, and they’re a bit better at the whole looming thing.
I just shake my head while looking at the two skeletons “And I’m what? A common human? Does that make me less than, more than the skeletons? Is my life, are their lives less valuable than yours?”
Vie squits her eyes before fluttering around the tomb “But, of course, FOR I AM VIE THE MASTER OF DEATH!” She then drops down onto her cyclops “Do what you want, just remember you’re responsible for everything they become.” I then mutter to myself “And exactly what will you become Vie?” I then turn to the two skeletons “Why do you two even want a necromancer?”
The two undead turn towards each other, before the male skeletons answers “For a number of reasons, but all of them can really be boiled down to a single one. We need more classed undead, if we want to survive, and save the other undead who are currently being purged.”
…
…
…
My eyes lock onto the skeletons, my body tenses, in anticipation of asking a dreadful question, which I already know the answer to.
“Survive what exactly?” “The humans who are attacking us of course.” The undead, and even Vie watch my reaction, while I just close my eyes, noting a blinking golden tab, and take a deep breath before muttering “Nothing is ever easy is it?”
Notifications
Experience Earned
Class: There’s nothing quite more necromancer, than creating a bunch of undead, and then jumping worlds only to come back later to collect that oh so sweet experience.
Undead, who in this case certainly would have risen on their own without your meddling, but you still get credit particularly, when the blame of those who had loved ones buried here, or who have had loved ones killed by your undead, will almost certainly fall on your shoulders.
After all, who do you think they’ll blame, the bag of bones, or the necromancer chilling in the middle of the graveyard?
Combat: War, or rather WARS!
You may not have been there for both the start, and conclusion of either conflict, but your minions sure as hell weren’t only here, but managed to kick ass, while taking names.
Quite literally in this case, and it’s a good thing they did, for they were ready when the humans truly started to try their luck in undead owned lands!
Oh, yeah, you also flat out murdered the first sentient undead you created, when they stepped out of line.
Good job, they grow up so fast 🙂
Level up +10
Health Restored
Mana Restored
Stamina Restored
Attributes Increased
Intelligence +1
Constitution +1
Dexterity +1
Spells Leveled Up
Raise The Dead +7
Skills Leveled Up
Anatomy of The Risen +1
Analyze +1
Commander +15
Athletes +2
Milestones
Raise The Dead – Minion
Commander – Leadership
Regional Alert
Bounty
Milestone Reached
Raise The Dead, has unlocked the level twenty five minion pathway choice (Warning! Pathways impact all branches of their related abilities, and this choice will influence how all minion pathway abilities grow, after all, pathways are a lifestyle, and not an arbitrary choice!)
The Ghostly Animator – You could have used your ability to Raise The Dead to bring the very stones beneath your feet to life, which granted you did, a grand total of a single time, but mostly you ignored, an almost endless amount of other applications, instead ‘choosing’ to focus almost of your mana on ghosts.
Beings composed of little other arcane mana on using your mana to rip open the veil, and bend souls to your will, which… isn’t shocking given you’re a necromancer and as the saying goes give a person a hammer, and everything will look like a nail (shrug) animating ghosts is now 50% easier, but all other forms of animation have their costs increased by 100%
Absentee Creator – Sometimes, the things one creates are simply better off without them, a harsh lesson, but one that even dragons sometimes learn.
Your minions do better, without you around, oh, and you will receive greater rewards when you do finally show up.
Adversity, after all, has the chance to create gems, which may have never reached their potential, if they had someone to lean on, but of course, that also means a whole lot of Undead will die along the way.
Only one choice can be made, what shall it be?
(Note the only way you can currently change this decision is by resetting or changing your class)
Milestone Reached
Commander has unlocked the level twenty five leadership pathway choice (Warning! Pathways impact all branches of their related abilities, and this choice will influence how all leadership pathway abilities grow, after all, pathways are a lifestyle, and not an arbitrary choice!)
Know My Will – A piece of your essence is attached to every being that has been created by you, by your minions, by your minion’s minions, and so forth… Now what this piece does is give them some idea what your will is without you even needing to say a word or interact with them at all, but whether said beings even remotely care, is ultimately dependent on how much freewill they have, and their deposition.
Oh and even in the case that you have minions that actually do care, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they will be capable of doing what you want or in a way that you like, after all the way to hell is paved with good intentions, and truly knowing what a person wants is an impossibility when you only know a part of them.
Rallying Aurora – When allies are fighting or really doing any task from crafting to doing things that are more horizontal in nature… they perform better so long as they’re within a certain range of you (currently a mile, but! This is something that can, and will increase over time)
Only one choice can be made, what shall it be?
(Note the only way you can currently change this decision is by resetting or changing your class)
Rude, both of these milestones kind of suck, like absentee creator?
Is just plain offensive, and the worst part is that I have to pick it otherwise, all of my other minions will be more expensive to make!
Then there’s the commander one, once again a milestone trying to get me to stick stuff inside of things without their consent, and one that’s like the opposite of raising the dead one.
“Ughh, I guess it’s all just a wash?” Onward
Status Screen1
21
Ten more points into wisdom bringing me up to twenty eight or like two hundred mana per hour, and around four hundred if I’m meditating.
Still it’s a bit of a shame how the level up mana is just lost to the ether….
Regardless, I open my eyes, and everyone is still just staring at me.
“Well, let’s get started then, bring me to the bodies of those you want to be necromancers.” The eyes of the undead blaze, before the female speaks “We will have the bodies brought in here shortly, some of the undead outside are still a bit wild.” While on the other hand, Vie just plops down on her Cyclops and is shaking her head in disappointment.
“You’re going to regret this Tom.” “Maybe, but I don’t regret letting you go, and why don’t they all deserve a chance to live?” The two undead turn to Vie, who doesn’t say a word, in response even when the undead marshal in carrying a couple of decomposing bodies.
A wave of magic later, and three necromancers arise, along with a lovely little red notification.
Regional ALERT!!!
A One MILLION+ CREDIT BOUNTY!
Has formed in district, undefined (Due to the lack of an established power structure)
Local Zone: The Bone Zone,
Type of Bounty: Elimination
Target: Necromancers
Clients: The Light, The Dark, and even some who fall in-between
…
Additional information unavailable due to the lack of an established bounty office, but know!
That a high ranking associate of the bounty hunters guild is in the area, and will most likely be leading the charge to find these necromancers!
Happy hunting 🙂
“Besides Vie, we are all in this together, at least we will have to be if we want to survive all of the people who are willing to kill us, just for a couple of credits” Who deserves to live, who deserves to die?
I don’t know, but what I do know is that people who hunt others for the express purpose of gain, don’t merit any sympathy. https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!-aKO!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F97b57ae2-ca95-4464-98af-375341aa2130_696x1010.pnghttps://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!rdYj!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F73ab526a-8e31-4214-ab0f-20697e460073_1600x484.png
Due to formating issues this story doesn’t quite look the way it’s supposed to 0_o and you can read an updated version on Kobo, or other platforms. https://litrpgandpolitics.wordpress.com The story is also at around chapter 60 with around 400,000 words, and will posted once per day, until it’s caught up.
Then it will either be weekly, or twice a week, with that being said, I still welcome any feedback, after all I’m still editing everything 0_0 and different perspectives can so often help one see the things we take for granted.
Thanks for reading, and I hope that you have a great day!