SYSTEM MESSAGE:
You have consumed 9 AP to acquire the class: [Spectermancer Lv.1].
By obtaining the Spectermancer class, you have acquired the skills: [Necromantic Rites Lv.1], [Create Undead: Skeleton Lv.1].
Yes! That was a harsh week of studying gory stuff, but it was worth it in the end! ...I hope.
"Wow. Someone dropped a spear here~, I'll be taking it~." - Mira
"You sure it's fine to take that?" - Garami
"Of course it is~. If you're beaten black and blue like those punks, then nobody can complain about them losing their tool of trade~." - Mira
One of the reasons why it took me a whole week was because some grunt-looking adventurers kept on picking a fight with me. And I turned the table all by my lonesome. Mira assisted me at first, but these guys are so pathetic that I can KO them in my sleep. So instead, Mira took on her the duty of cleaning up after the fights. Those guys are dropping their valuables more so than trainers from games that use pocket monsters. On an unrelated (lol) note, Mira's wallet seems to get bigger every time she visits the pawn shop or the smithy. How strange (lol).
"It is technically better than losing their lives... Whatever. You know why those guys are so eager to pick a fight with me?" - Garami
"That's because Garami's rumored to be sucking up to the Union Master." - Mira
"I am doing what now?" - Garami
"You're a beginner who's constantly called to the Union Master's office, only to return with more rewards almost every time. No wonder rumors are starting to fly." - Mira
"And they decided to complain to me out of all persons? What a laughless joke..." - Garami
My motivation for today has plummeted to the depths of the abyss. Definitely to the bottom of Lake Velantas at the very, VERY least...
"Hey, Terra Sol to Garami? What's the plan?" - Mira
"We're going to the sewers." - Garami
"Again!? You're starting to be more of a sewer rat than a demon!" - Mira
"Not my fault. Our quest forces us to go down there." - Garami
"Quest? Didn't you want to test out the necromancy stuff?" - Mira
"And on who do you think I could do that on?" - Garami
"Those guys?" - Mira
Mira pointed at the heap of (not) dead bodies, who came back to life after hearing that and fled like rats off a sinking ship.
"Nah, too troublesome. It's better to take a quest with humanoid monsters and kill two birds with one stone." - Garami
And there was something that had just appeared on the board that I wanted to look at. The quest that said, with bold letters: "DEFEAT THE ZOMBIES IN THE SEWERS!!"
---
"Yeah, those corpse fellas popped up from somewhere before we noticed. Cut 'em down to size, and we'll give you the reward based on how many undead skulls you girls kick in." - Old sewer worker
After accepting the quest, we headed straight for the sewer worker's office. Turns out a bunch of the undead suddenly appeared in one of the sectors, preventing the workers from doing their job. Such an emergency mission is normally taken by the city guards, but they're drowning in work already due to the recent incident, meaning the workers had to rely on the Adventurers' Union.
After getting the go-sign from the old man, we entered the sealed area of the sewers where the undead monsters should be located. The lights are turned off, probably due to sabotage by the undead, so Mira is using a lantern to lighten the path. I'm helping her, in my way.
"...Garami, what is that?" - Mira
"A scythe." - Garami
"I can see that. Why is it glowing?" - Mira
"[Glow Thread]." - Garami
"......fine." - Mira
She gave up. Even when it's not that difficult of an idea.
I wrapped my scythe with lots of [Glow Threads], turning it into a makeshift glow stick. A huge one. And I can turn it off simply by stopping the skill, so it's not in the way or anything.
"Not to change the subject, but why are there corpses walking around in the sewers? I don't believe it's because of the smell, right?" - Garami
Oh, and by the way, that question just now was 100% to change the subject.
"Maybe someone died down here with regrets, maybe someone smuggled them in, maybe they dug themselves a tunnel from Tir na Nog? I don't know, and I honestly don't care. Except for how much Skeleton skulls cashes in for." - Mira
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Tir na Nog is the island I passed by, wasn't it? The one with the explosion. I guess all undead-related events can be attributed to that place, at least in this country.
Though, the undead could have been smuggled into the sewers? Is this connected to those gambler jerks again, or is there someone else in the same business causing trouble?
*Klack, klack, klack...*
Uh-oh. It's back to working hours now. I can hear something boney walking toward our direction. To prepare, I threw some [Glow Threads] up at the ceiling to lighten the area further for Mira's sake.
Attracted by the light, the Skeleton...s arrived. Yup, it's in plural form. A huge group of Skeletons arrived. They weren't armed with anything, but I ran a quick [Identification] on them to be safe...and immediately relaxed. These guys are trash.
"Go get 'em." - Garami
"Hold on! Those are too many for the single me!" - Mira
"With that body? And don't worry. They're weakling Skeletons. Lesser Skeletons, to be exact." - Garami
Mira looked confused at me but decided to take a swing at the Lesser Skeletons anyway. The light-covered sword ran through the miniature horde of bones and broke them to pieces...HEY!
"Wow...brittle..." - Mira
"Was that overkill necessary!? What if I can't use [Necromantic Rite] on them now?" - Garami
"S-sorry, but I didn't think they were that weak." - Mira
"Of course, they are...were. I told you they were Lesser Skeletons!" - Garami
"Oh, mhm... And?" - Mira
Damn, do I have to explain from the beginning? What a pain...
"Lesser Skeletons are the starting point for all Skeletons. A normal Skeleton is an F-rank undead, making the Lesser Skeleton a G-rank." - Garami
"G-rank?! They're literal rubbish then!" - Mira
UGH!? My heart...my poor heart remembers the time when I was a Grey Demon... Are G-ranks looked down upon that much? For real? Ouch...
"Yeah...which means whatever scared off the workers is probably further in." - Garami
"Good point. Let's stay on our toes." - Mira
With the warnings and caution in place, now's the time for the fun "clean up". I targeted the broken remains of the Lesser Skeletons with the effect of [Necromantic Rite]. A black magic circle appeared in the area I had designated and black hands started to drag the broken bones into the middle of the circle, where the pieces started to sink into it.
"Wow...nasty." - Garami
"Be glad the first time is just bones. Think what would have happened if we encountered Zombies." - Mira
Ugh, that would be gory. Yeah, bones are nice. On a related note, it's only the "corpses", as in the remains of the Lesser Skeletons, that are being dragged into the circle. Rocks and dirt aren't touched, so only what had been "killed" recently can be used as a "target".
Now, the reward for keeping the sewers clean for bones is...
SYSTEM MESSAGE:
You have acquired 4 Necromancy Counters.
[Humanoid] blueprints have been recorded in [Necromantic Rite].
"Just 4!?" - Garami
Come on! That was more than a dozen of skulls I absorbed there! What's wrong with this thing? Don't tell me there's inflation when it comes to Necromancy Counters and the undead!
"Something's wrong?" - Mira
"...next time, could you try to leave the corpses intact? They're weak to plain Light." - Garami
"If the next batch is as weak as these, then it's no problem." - Mira
And they were. Another small group of Lessers. Lesser Zombies, that is. Mira held her nose as she slammed her sword on the ground to produce the light blast from the time against the card troopers and flashed out the zombies. The move comes from the [Light Burst] skill, or so I've been told.
I absorbed the deader-than-dead zombie corpses and got 7 Counters. One for each zombie. So there is a possibility of not getting anything if the corpse is too damaged. Or maybe it's a problem with the quality? G-rank corpses seem bad, so damaging them too much makes their value zilch? It could also be a question about the quantity, but that's for future corpse candidates to prove.
And here they are. F-rank Skeletons, along with F-ranked Lesser Skeleton Spiders! Wow, those crawlers are creepy. But a [Light Burst] from Mira was enough to send their front-line back to the grave. I took out the rear lines of the staff-holding Skeletons with a pair of [Darkness Bullets]. These guys are so weak that even non-Light attacks work on them. Either that or their defenses are too weak.
"Good. Now I'm getting 5 Counters per corpse." - Garami
"You sure are using the word "corpse" without much thought." - Mira
"I shouldn't?" - Garami
"Beats me. And shouldn't you test out to see if you can summon one of these guys?" - Mira
"Good call. A trial run is always important." - Garami
I initiated the [Create Undead: Skeleton] skill and started to prepare the blueprints. These skills work by first creating a blueprint, by consuming a specific number of Necromancy Counters based on the strength of the undead and the difficulty to create it, then using more Counters afterward to create a creature of the undead based on one of the blueprints.
An undead's Token-cost is X times 10, with X being their evolutionary rank. As in, G = 1, F = 2, and so on. There are also additional costs if the undead is bigger than normal. A mid-size creature, which is what human-sized is, doubles the Token-cost again, and there are also potential costs for the stronger kind of undead. Like dragons, dragons, and dragons!
Normally, one obtains a blueprint by spending 10x time original value for the undead you want the blueprints for, except for the G-rank undead. It comes as part of the skill from the start, pre-prepared and ready to be used. The "Lesser Skeleton" is the base for all Skeleton-type undead. Even for races such as the Lesser Skeleton Rat! Don't ask me why, but that's the rule. Weird...
Also, one can spend additional Counters to add some customization to the original blueprint. Such as adding more arms to the Skeleton to create an Ashura, for example. Though, since this is just a trial run, and I don't have enough Necromancy Counters for the F-ranks yet, I'll be going with the plain old Lesser Skeleton.
A black magic circle in the same style as the [Necromantic Rite] appeared before us, and a Lesser Skeleton appeared in front of us. It looks not that different from the Skeletons that Mira destroyed earlier... Scratch that. It looks more stupid than those guys. Or maybe more "innocent"?
"Is this what we've been working so hard for?" - Mira
Skelly got visually depressed when he heard Mira's disgruntled question. Cheer up, pal.
"...look, this is just a prototype. He'll get stronger with time and more Necromancy Counters." - Garami
Hearing my words, the Lesser Skeleton looked up with a proud expression...which made it not pay attention, causing him to slip into the sewer water.
"Ah." - Garami/Mira
The poor skeleton got washed by the stream before it managed to get its bony hands onto the walkway and pulled itself up. I went up to him as he lay flat on the floor as if he was exhausted beyond words (not that he could be. He's an undead!) and Identified him. The little swimming trip had cost him more than 80% of his HP!
"...forget time. We need Counters. ASAP." - Garami
"Okidoki~. Time to work overtime." - Mira
I dismissed the Lesser Skeleton and got back the 20 Counters I used to summon him. If he had been destroyed, I would have lost them all! Some skills refund you with some Counters in case your undead gets..."killed", but I wanna focus on quality, not the number of sacrificial pawns.
Hmm, maybe there's a different way to obtain Necromancy Counters than absorbing corpses? There's gotta be, or else I can't see how Spectermancers are gonna thrive.
There's a lot of stuff I could check on regarding necromancy, but for now, let's focus on taking out these "wild" undeads.