Ethical Necromancer
Some want their heroes fast and strong and to always be straight out of a fight. Jennifer had a mop.
Chapter 1
Jennifer brushed her long black hair out of her face, trying to remember what she was doing. Looking around to recollect her thoughts for why she was here. She realized whatever this was, it was not what she was expecting. The room was cold with rows of computer banks with wires coming in and out from one row to another. Jennifer looked at the mess of cables, they formed more of a spider web than what she thought a server room, she thought. A bottle filled with lightning was attached to the ceiling. She stopped, closed her eyes, and took in a deep breath. The smell of ozone tickled her nose. Mentally she tried to retrace her steps when she noticed footsteps.
“I was coming to campus to speak with someone. There were so many classes to choose from, and I didn’t know where to start.” She wanted to reinforce why she was here.
She understood that coming to university would be anxiety producing, beautifully exciting, and at times overwhelming. But she was not expecting to have all those feelings when looking for advice on choosing her classes. When she opened her eyes, a strange little man stood in front of her. He had a bushy brown beard and a hairline that had been in full retreat for some time. He wore a white lab coat over a button-down shirt.
“Oh bother, this is not going well. All so a youth could play a dinosaur.” The little man ran between the high-tech machinery and monitors. Lines of worry creased his face as he looked at readouts. All the needles on every indicator mounted on pipes sprouting out from the walls were in the danger zone. The question of why pressure valves were in a computer room vanished as lightning cracked and rumbled, causing Jennifer to cover her ears.
The man turned and acknowledged her for the first time. “Oh good, you’re here. There is not much time!”
She blinked in confusion. “I’m here to choose my classes, sir.”
The lab coat man shouted over the noise in the room, shoving something into her hands. “Oh, what? Never mind. There is no time to explain. Take this. The system is going to reboot!”
This was all getting to be a bit much for her. “Is this where I choose my classes?” She tried to make sense of the scene before her.
“Save the town! Save the nation! Save the world!'' The little lab coat man yelled over the increasing thunderclaps.
The volume of the thunder increased with each passing heartbeat. The sounds of the storm hurt her ears, and the flashes of lightning hurt her eyes. Feeling overwhelmed, she closed her eyes and sank to her knees, taking deep breaths to try and calm herself.
After a few heartbeats, the noise stopped as if someone had hit the mute button which caused her to hold her breath. Moments passed before she let out her breath. Jennifer opened her eyes, stood up, and took in the room around her. Everything had changed. The man in the lab coat was gone, the bottle on the ceiling was smashed, and the banks of computer equipment looked old and rusted. Just a moment ago they had been new and shiny. The urge to talk to someone about this had her pacing. She knew university could be hard, but this did not make any sense.
“I will find someone to talk to about this.” She crossed her arms and glared at the state of the room. “Maybe even the Dean.”
“Listen, kid, I don’t know who this Dean is,” said an unfamiliar voice, putting an emphasis on the word Dean. “But I’m betting he grabbed whatever wasn’t nailed down and skipped town, never looking back.”
Jennifer gasped as she realized that the thing the man had shoved into her hands was a rather large red egg, and the egg was talking. She held her arm out, freighted the egg, but not wanting to dropping it. She looked around for a place to sit down. Not seeing any chairs, she took a seat on the ground.
Jennifer had been a student at this university for at most a few hours. She was overwhelmed and confused. Jennifer came here looking for advice picking her classes, not to be given a mission to save a town, let alone the world. This was not at all going the way she thought it would. Her goal in coming to university was to learn how to help others, which did not sound too far off from trying to save the world.
“Okay, kid. The world is a strange new place, and you haven’t been here long. So, before you get all panicky, let’s talk.” The red egg spoke in a firm voice. “Let’s start with the basics. What’s your name?”
“Jennifer.” The wheels in her mind turned faster as she focused to answer the question.
“Do you have a last name?” Jennifer could feel a smirk in the eggs’ voice.
Her mouth dropped open, her chin tilted up to the right, eyes darting left and right, before turning her head to glare at the large red egg. Of course, she had a last name. It was on the tip of her tongue. When she tried to say it, the memory slipped away, and she had no idea what her last name was.
“Listen, kid, I don’t have eyes, yet.” The egg sounded annoyed. “So, you’re going to need to talk to me. I know the odds. You don’t have a last name.”
“My name is Jennifer,” she said slowly, her voice raised, disturbed by the hollow feeling of loss at something she had her whole life, just forgotten. “How can someone forget their own name? This isn’t like losing my keys. This is my name. It’s important.”
“I understand this is something you are not used to, kid. This is a step down, a path you probably did not ask for, and it is hard. I am here with you. I will help. What else do you remember?”
She searched her memory and remembered an older woman, telling a story as they picked berries when she was younger. The older woman was much taller than Jennifer at that time and she told her something important.
“I’m descended from giants.” The older woman’s words came out of Jennifer’s mouth.
“That’s new. But what you are now is . . .” the egg paused for a slight moment, “what we call a fragment. The reason we call you this is because you’re an incomplete copy of your original self.”
Jennifer’s mind whirled, trying to make sense of the egg’s words. She may have forgotten her last name, but she felt whole. “Why do you think I’m an incomplete copy?”
“Do you know Lord Dexx’s theory of non-linear temporal interference with connection to the mainframe relativism?”
Jennifer thought that was a lot of made-up words and phrases. “I was going to major in sociology, not whatever that was,” she replied defiantly.
“We all make mistakes, kid. Luckily, we got you before you fell down that rabbit hole.” The egg sounded as if choosing sociology was a bad thing.
“Listen, I wanted to help people. Sociology would give me the education I need to be able to do that.” She remembered having this argument before but not with whom. Jennifer let out huff of frustration at the incomplete memory.
“Okay, your major may have sounded like a good idea at the time, but, kid, that was a world or two ago.” The egg sounded like it was trying to hold in a laugh at its own joke.
Listening as the egg began to lecture, “A man invents time travel by putting a message in a bottle and sending the bottle through time. When it’s found, others learn this message-in-a-bottle time travel method and move it forward in time. The bottle could’ve been forwarded millions of times, affecting untold numbers of people, events, and objects. At some point, the message starts going backwards in time,” the egg paused for effect, “with instructions on how to properly send the message in a bottle to any place and time. So, the message starts its return journey in a long line of return to sender steps. The message in the bottle arrives back to the original sender. That first sender realizes all he has to do is send the bottle, with all of the instructions back to himself, before he sends the first message. The one who sent the first bottle through time, creates a time loop. Then he breaks the time loop. Do you see where this is going, kid?”
With all the information being thrown at her, she had but one response. “No. Is this going to be on a test?”
The egg started up again as if Jennifer had not asked a question. “The bottle was sent, forwarded, and then returned. Now, the bottle is going to be returned then sent. Skipping the forwarded part. The forwarded part is what we call fragmented timelines. The system administrators take people, places, and things out of these fragmented timelines to make this world. Those people, places, and things are never whole, always missing something. In most people, what changes are only memories.” The egg gave space for another moment, this allowed her to digest the information.
Jennifer was getting annoyed at how dramatic the egg was being.
”So, you’re a fragment,” the egg said.
“No. That doesn’t make sense. I’m not a fragment. I’m a person! I have two feet and a heartbeat.” She felt whole and knew her wants and desires. She may have forgotten a few things, but Jennifer was Jennifer. She felt whole no matter what anyone said.
“Well, you are. We think the fragments are put in places like this and studied, like how scientists study mice in a maze. The whole world is a system put in place, and people must navigate the system as if it was a maze. Or it could be just window dressing. This world may even be made up with parts of broken timelines, why some sayings get confused, or why some landmarks are different colors then they remember. Some call it the Mandela effect, people remember seeing him make a speech a week ago, then find out he died decades ago.”
“Okay that makes less sense, red egg thing.” She said, glaring at the egg.
“Well, kid, those are just theories.” The egg went on half-heartedly, “Anyways, it’s time to choose your classes.”
For the first time today, things were going in the right direction. She had come looking for help with picking her classes, like introduction to sociology.
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“Let me pull up your character sheet using the system interface.”
The temperature of the egg rose to a pleasant warmth in her hand as it spoke. She realized at the mention of the word ‘system’, that she had no idea how to interpret what being ‘in the system’ was or how it worked. Her mind spun adding up what the egg lectured on. Red egg could have just said that she was put in a computer system. It must have been in a long-winded profession before it became an egg. If the egg was a professor, Jennifer was going to avoid his classes.
Black letters appeared in the air in front of Jennifer. Putting the egg in her pocket, she reached out to interact with what looked like an options menu. When her hand went through the screen, it dawned on her that it might react to her thoughts. She closed her eyes, focusing her mind on closing the menus. With a ‘close command’ thought, her menus obeyed. Happy she could interact with the menus at will, she opened the menu up again.
“Is this going to be the new normal?” she wondered aloud.
Name: Jennifer
Alignment: Neutral
Primary Class: None
Secondary Class: None
Role: None
Health: 100
Energy: 100
Powers: None
Abilities: None
Skills: None
Traits: Trait one > Error: Name not found. Trait two > Error: Name not found. Trait three > Error: Name not found. Trait four > Error: Name not found.
Seeing how little information was on her character sheet, she hoped that a lot of unused space on the page meant there was room to grow and improve. If she could look at her character sheet often that meant she would be able to choose her path forwards. Moving her hands to navigate through the pop-ups. She knew moving her hands was useless, but it did help her with aiming her intentions. She saw several potential role choices. After narrowing down the selection, her mind continued to make connections to how much like a video game this world was.
Buffer Classes: Will enable teammates to be stronger, faster, and better.
Debuffer Classes: Will disable enemies to make them weaker, slower, and worse.
Summoner Classes: Will enable you to bring more into the party.
Jennifer remembered playing some fantasy series that had summoners. In those games, the summoners always seemed overpowered. She willed the menus to bring up summoner options. Dozens of options popped up in front of her, like Forest Guardian, City Rats, Wave Rider, Spirit Thrower. All the options blurred, and she felt her will slipping. Panicking, she let out a squeak and selected a class.
An announcer’s voice rang out from the menu in front of Jennifer. “Congratulations, you’re a necromancer. You can make new friends out of old enemies. As a necromancer, you can summon the dead to aid you in fights or everyday activities. The dark corners of the world will be your playground.”
“Necromancer, eh? Did not think you had it in you, kid,” the red egg said.
“Umm, I didn’t mean to do that. Can I choose again?” Jennifer spoke knowing there was little hope.
The egg laughed.
The choice was made, but there was still an option to pick: dirty-looking zombies or dirty-looking skeletons. The zombies looked to be in a state of decay. The thought of having the foul smell of rotting meat following her around made the decision simple. Jennifer chose the skeletons. The menu before her showed a list of powers that would unlock as she leveled up. Rather than summoning a skeleton, her first power was a dark pulse.
Dark Pulse: Basic energy attack. 10 energy. Quick cooldown. You can now hit with darkness.
Jennifer knew what she wanted to do next. She was going to choose some kind of healing power for her next set.
“Umm, Mister Egg, can you bring up just healer options? I don’t want to make another mistake like choosing a necromancer.” Jennifer hoped she would have more control over those windows.
The egg sighed. “I was hoping you’d choose something just as interesting as necromancer.” By some unseen power, it brought up four options.
Cleric: Through the power of a patron deity, you are able to heal others.
Alchemist: Why waste energy when you can throw a potion to heal others?
White Mage: Through the purity of magic, you can heal others.
Bard: Oh the things you can do with a lute. Not well, but you can still do it!
Without hesitation and with more confidence than she had felt all day, she knew what to do. With a smile on her face, she closed the window for the bard.
With less confidence, she closed the cleric. Not only did it not seem like her style, but something felt wrong looking at the class.
The two remaining choices were white mage and alchemist. She wanted to be more careful with the next choice if for nothing else but to make up for becoming a necromancer. Reading further into white mage, Jennifer noticed a particular line of text. White magic will also damage the undead. She rolled her eyes and read the alchemist. Potions must be ingested to take effect. Skeletons do not drink, or did they? To her, this was far more guesswork than she would have liked.
“Umm, Mister Egg, what do you think I should choose?” Hoping the egg would have some insight that could help her pick her second class.
“Necromancer takes a lot of energy, and white mage too. The alchemist is more of a stamina drain. You do you, kid,” the egg added, keeping his words tight. His words were not leaning either way.
Looking at the two choices before her, either was good. It seemed to Jennifer that it was easier for her to choose a university major than to choose her classes. In university, it was possible to switch majors, whereas this system appeared to lock her into the choices she made.
Letting her think about the topic of what jobs she could have as a white mage. Town healer maybe? Couldn’t she do that as an alchemist as well? Join the town guard? End up just being another healer, city architect? No, that last one would just not work as a healer.
As a white mage, all she would be doing was healing, and she wanted more than that. The old saying, the spice of life is variety, flitted through her mind. As an alchemist, she might be able to make more than just healing potions. Maybe even have a little shop where she could sell her potions like some kind of old-school snake oil peddler. The difference being her potions would work. She chose the alchemist.
Level 1 skill unlocked. Craft Potion: Craft small healing potion 20 health recovery over 1 second. Energy cost 20. Moderate cooldown. Keep calm, drink this, and carry on.
Jennifer was unsure how she should feel about choosing alchemist. This was a lot of pressure for someone who was starting out.
A third class window popped up, accompanied with the announcer's voice: Future Defence Tech, you have been granted lost tech as a third power pool.
Force Field: Protective bubble. Energy cost 50. Long cooldown. User may cast force field on any target. The target is granted a shield worth 50 Health. Shield will take 100% of damage until it fails. A little protection can go a long way.
“Okay, Mister Egg. I have my three classes. Now what?” With a sense of accomplishment, she smiled.
“Three classes? That is uncommon these days.” Doubt peppered the egg’s words. “Let me take a look. Well, I’ll be. Three classes! Did you get to pick the third or did the system add it? Oh never mind, the next part you’re not going to like.”
The smile left her face. A large red warning came up on the menu along with the return of the announcer’s voice.
Prepare for symbolisation of classes. Warning! Some discomfort may occur.
A hum came from all around the room, growing louder as each moment passed. Jennifer felt herself being lifted off the ground. The disembodied voice turned to static. The static and humming grew in volume, as if in competition to be the loudest.
Error: Third class found > Gnome override found > Gnome override accepted. Clause 114 in effect.
The announcer’s voice faded as the static volume increased. She covered her ears, as her feet dangled in the air below her.
Even though she was inside, Jennifer felt the wind against her skin, creating a vortex around her. It stopped as if flipping a light switch from wind and noise from on to off. She did not fall back to the ground, but the weight of standing returned to her legs. She met a new perspective of the world and everything was just a bit shorter now.
Her eyes were closed, but she did not remember closing them. Opening them, she saw she was in the same room as before. It looked a bit off to her, but she could not tell why other than the dust covering the ground was gone, having been picked up by the wind. Her clothes had changed without her noticing, and Jennifer felt different as if someone re-wired her.
The menu before her now read, Welcome to Bishop's University of Magic, Jennifer the Alchemical-Techno-Necromancer. Beside the words, stood a purple and gold bishop chess piece.
“Umm, it’s just Jennifer, thank you,” she said to the system.
Welcome to Bishop’s University, Just Jennifer.
She had chosen her classes but did not know what to do next.
“So, Mister Egg, now what?” Where her pants and shirt were supposed to be, were now dark robes and baggy pants. She guessed this was what people expected necromancers to wear in video games, but she did not like the outfit. Moving around a bit she had to admit that the robes were comfortable. Still, the first chance she got, she was going to need to find something more to her liking.
A dainty mew and something with little claws moved up her arm inside her sleeve. Jennifer shrieked, freezing in place at the thought of a mouse up her sleeve.
“Oh, for the love of the system, kid. I hatched.”
The voice was that of the red egg. Her heart settled as the realization seeped in.
A tiny white and gray lynx, no bigger than a mouse, popped out of her sleeve, and looked at Jennifer. The lynx had long legs with oversized cat paws, pointed ears, and a broad but short pointy head. She let out an audible, “Aww,” while looking over the cute but strange creature. It had a furry coat and a hairy shark-like fin on its back with a shark tail to match. The fur was cream coloured with spots of brown and black. The tail and the ear tufts were tipped with black. On the sides of the back fin were rectangular prisms with intakes like a jet engine.
“According to the system rules, I can’t tell you what to do.” The lynx raised his voice to emphasize the words. “But you should just say yes to the next question.”
Do you wish to accept a jet-powered lynx-shark as a familiar at this time: yes or no.
This was a no-brainer. This was an adorable creature who, so far, had been a big help. She willed the ‘yes’ option.
What do you want to name your familiar?
She glanced down at the face of the tiny lynx. “So, what do you want to be called?”
The lynx-shark deepened his voice for effect. “Destroyer Of Worlds. Bringer Of Doom. The One Who Is The Storm. Defeater Of The Moon. Slayer Of All Before Him. Something that would suit me.”
She blinked. The names sounded like titles that a B-movie villain would pick. Not sure why she was choosing the name, Jennifer concentrated on a moniker that for some reason seemed to fit.
The lynx jumped out of the sleeve. To Jennifer’s astonishment, it flew around the room using the jets on its back while showing off its shark tail, oversized paws, and dorsal fin. “Oh, kid, I don’t know where you got your lucky, golden horseshoe, but this is the best body I’ve had in a long while.”
The lynx-shark landed on his paws with what one could assume was grace if you squinted or were looking the wrong way. The small familiar stood on his hind legs looking at Jennifer. “So now move around a bit and get used to your new body. Move forward, move back, side to side. Yeah, that’s right.”
Jennifer did as he instructed. As she moved from side to side. Her robes caught on her back, she was unsure why but kept moving.
“So, now that I’ve proven I can walk and talk, can I explore the school now?” Not knowing why she needed or wanted the permission of the small beast, but he seemed to know what he was doing.
“This is still just a starting area. Maybe look around before adventuring out there?”
“I came to Bishop’s to become a student. New world, same goals. I’m the first in my family to ever go to university. So, I will be a student here, and I will graduate.”
A pop-up appeared in her menus.
Do you wish to accept quests: 1) Become a student at Bishop’s University; 2) Graduate from Bishop’s University.
With a smile on her face, she gave a mental command, and accepted the quests.
Looking around the room again, nothing seemed to be of value, but her eye caught on something. Someone had left an old mop propped up in the corner of the room. Jennifer did not have anything beyond the clothes on her back. If this place was like a video game, she would end up having to fight, and she wanted to be able to protect people with something. Without a better option, Jennifer took the mop, straightened her back, and said, “I’m ready. Let’s go.”