I let the boy go after all; I do need more knowledge of the world, and humans were the only species that would actively search for it. The boy was lucky enough to rest within the confines of my territory since I deterred most predatory beasts. After he left my area of influence, I ordered Herald to tail him. I'm not sure the boy will make it. By flight, the journey to Atarinsk would take a couple of days, but by foot? maybe a week or two if he is adept at survival. So I instructed Herald,

"Herald, I have another quest for you. You must follow that boy and protect him from any danger. But you must also not be seen, heard, or known to him. You will be his unseen guardian until he reaches the city of Atarinsk, after which you will return. In return, I will allow you to have a sip of the wine of life on the third."

Herald cawed submissively,

"Yes, Thank you Fa- Creator!"

After accepting the quest, Herald flew into the horizon after the boy. After fixing the minor damage caused by the delvers, I started work on necromancy. These newly acquired corpses shall serve me well, and I'll start conducting my experiments on them. But first, I should consult an expert. Turning my attention to a silver vase, I spoke to it.

"Are you ready to speak lich?"

The silver vase rattled a little

"Damn you 'Historian'"

I chuckled

"So you are. I would like your knowledge on the necromantic arts"

the lich Snarled

"You kill my summons, destroy my body, lock me in a vase and now you want my necromancy? Never you Decrepit co- AHHH!!!"

I stared at the spasming skull and said "You will disclose your secrets your knowledge and your Magics lich lest you want to suffer another light mana infusion do you understand?"

For a moment the lich was silent and after contemplating for a bit he spoke

"I will tell you how 'historian' but in return, you remove the light mana enchantment on this damned vase."

The offer was tempting but I couldn't show any weakness

"I will deactivate the enchantment for a month and in return, you will teach me of your necromantic arts"

the lich thought for a moment and accepted

"Deal"

laying a skeleton of the original inhabitants of the fortress in front of the vase I asked,

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"How does one breath life into a corpse?"

The lich scoffed

"You don't, you can't breath 'life' into things unless you fancy yourself a god. To animate a skeleton you must first thread it"

I was confused

"Thread it? Like a puppet"

the lich nodded

"Yes I suppose you could compare it to puppetry however necromancy is far more complicated than that. First, you must thread the corpse with death mana I don't suppose a shard of Rock would possess extensive knowledge on human anatomy"

This lich was very condescending

"You see these joints? You must thread them with death mana. These threads will serve as artificial tendons and ligaments"

After a couple hours of fiddling with string, I asked the Lich

"Now what, how does one animate a corpse?"

The Lich replied

"Depends... Higher undead such as me require a soul of sorts but for lessers, all you need is some remnant emotion"

I was perplexed

"Emotions you say? How would something pertaining to the mind affect the body after death?"

The lich scoffed

"You don't even know this? I suppose a rock like you would after all your kind can't even process emotion. Well for your information after death souls leave the body towards either one of the gods' afterlife, one of the hellscapes or simply roam the living world. In most cases, the soul leaves the body pure and untainted leaving its emotions of sorrow, rage, bliss, etc in the body. That is what we will be using to animate the corpses"

I was skeptical

"Care to elaborate on the afterlives you talked about?"

The lich spoke

"That is not essential to learning necromancy"

That's fair

"so how does one access these emotions you speak of?"

The lich said in an uncaring tone

"It is simply imbued within the flesh and bone all you have to do is give it a shock and gain control over it."

I gave it a little mana shock and the skeleton started to spasm. It cracked and popped into unlife and it stood though awkwardly. The lich examining the corpse pointed out some mistakes

"The death mana thread that connects the Achilles tendon to the foot is too short and will make it much harder to walk. The left arm is fine but the right arm is dislocated; you threaded it too loose. The spinal cord is fine but the legs are too tense; you have to loosen the strings there lest you want them to break in battle. I'll give you a tip when threading the human body symmetry is king; you must make your threads symmetrical."

Noticing his points and tips on threading a corpse, it seemed the lich was a surprisingly good teacher. Out of curiosity, I asked,

"Why do you need death mana to perform necromancy? Surely it's possible to thread things with earth or water mana?"

The lich pondered the question and replied,

"It is possible however it wouldn't be necromancy anymore if you did that because necromancy is defined by the use of death mana to create undead. And after death, the remnant in bodies react best to death mana. Unless you want to pursue the backwater field of golemancy, I recommend you don't stray away from the path I've so graciously put you on."

Why is this lich so prideful? Do necromancers have something against golemancers?

"What is golemancy?"

The lich said dismissively,

"It is the magic of those too afraid to deal with corpses. They merely feed orders to rocks and stones and expect them to have the intricacies of flesh and bone. Their golems are so fragile that one good strike at their core and the whole thing crumbles apart. Undeads have no such weaknesses."

I pondered the implications of golems and asked,

"Could you teach me that as well?"

The lich snorted,

"Hah! Why would someone of my stature even want to devote my precious time into something as drab as golemancy?"

Damn, this lich really hates golemancy.

"But that doesn't matter for now. Let us delve into the intricacies of necromancy. Shouldn't you be grateful?"

So I continued my necromantic teachings.