And that's how Ronan and I end up riding back on a zombie bear, pressed close together. I'm in front, enjoying the ride and totally mind-blown to be sitting on top of an undead beast. Ronan sits behind, his face as red as a ripe tomato, dying of embarrassment and at a loss for where to place his hands to avoid accidentally touching me. It's the bear's fault, being one of the smaller ones without much room to spare. Poor Ronan doesn't have a clue how to act around a girl, especially one who's technically his lady. I feign obliviousness to his discomfort and focus on savoring the journey, taking in the scenery and relishing the breeze caressing my face.

After all, now that I know he wasn't trying to confess his feelings but rather swear fealty, I can relax around him—he's harmless.

When we reach the goblin camp, the totem greets us gratefully. Thanks to the goblins who came back to report to him after the seed took care of the giant bear, he already knows we've dealt with the threat. When I tell him about their new and much larger cave, he's overwhelmed with gratitude.

"Come on, let's gather your belongings so you can move," I suggest to him.

He immediately starts giving orders to his people. Additionally, Ronan instructs them about the bears—they need to secure leather harnesses around the necks and backs of the two living bears we'd left here. These harnesses will then be tied to the zombie bear, which will act as a guide, leading the living bears along the correct path. And since the zombie is strong and won't complain... the goblins start packing things onto its back, securing them with ropes. Poor thing looks like a typical dungeon Sherpa, one of those carrying a backpack bigger than themselves, and on top of that, they're making it walk two bears on leashes.

Ronan slips away for a while.

Ronan.

The bears. The two large bears.

Obviously, no self-respecting necromancer would waste such specimens.

As soon as he could, he left Bianca in the cave with the goblins and went to the pit. He arrived in a couple of minutes and approached the giant bear, the one that could knock down trees with a single swipe.

He stood before it as his hands began to sweat. He wiped them on his uniform and focused on the spell. After summoning so many skeletons to train with the mace, since the day his skeletons took the boars to the village, he felt stronger, as if animating them had become easier. So that very night he went to the stone slab to check. He felt very satisfied seeing that the animate skeletons spell had evolved and even given him a new one. Summon skeletons had improved too. Amazing, because locked in his parents' basement all he had to practice with were rats and other small animals that snuck in. However, since leaving home he had access to the world and, somehow, his high dark affinity guided him to areas filled with death and corpses. So he began expanding his repertoire of first-time animated animals: dogs, cats, ravens... One night, he found some recently buried corpses not too far from the road to town. It didn't even cross his mind that this might be wrong. Instead of alerting the authorities, he decided to put the bodies to good use. That's how he was able to animate human skeletons for the first time, which allowed him to summon low-level human skeletons from then on.

Advanced Animate Skeletons. Requirement for necromancy spells: high affinity for darkness. Summons up to a maximum of x skeletons of a creature whose bones or corpse are present and within a 120-meter radius of the animator. x = animator's Int. Cost: 1 MP for every 3 skeletons.

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Intermediate Summon Skeletons (evolution of the animate skeletons spell). Requirement for necromancy spells: high affinity for darkness. Summons a skeleton of any creature the summoner has previously animated within a 15-meter radius of the summoner. The skeleton's level will depend on the summoned creature, the summoner's intelligence points, and the summoner's level. The skeleton's level can never exceed the summoner's. Equipment available for the summoned skeleton improves compared to the previous spell level. Cost: 3 MP.

Lesser Animate Zombies (evolution of animate skeletons spell). Requirement for necromancy spells: high affinity for darkness. Summons up to a maximum of x zombies. Each zombie requires a separate corpse present within a 30-meter radius of the animator. x=animator's Int. Cost: 1 MP per zombie.

Ronan raised his hands again and began muttering the animation words. Some of his necromancy spells weren't quick. This one specifically required him to concentrate and amplify his sense of darkness toward the corpse. To anyone watching, it would look as if his dark aura stretched into multiple frayed hands that reached toward the corpse and touched it, entering inside and making the necromancer feel one with the body. It was difficult because the bear was enormous and seemed to want to resist, even in death. With a brutal effort of will, he clenched his fists and spoke the spell's final word.

"Join me."

The syllables seemed to hang in the air for endless seconds. The giant bear's dead flesh began to reverberate, responding to the dark mana and the cadence of the spell he'd just recited. It wasn't a chant, but something in the solemnity of the moment made it feel like one. The body suffered a spasm, then another and another one. Its jaws opened and a terrifying roar escaped the zombie's mouth as it stood up. A breath of decay spread toward Ronan's face. He didn't care. He smiled. He was ecstatic. He'd done it. This giant bear was his to command.

"Come."

Ronan indicated it should follow him but, before taking a step, the creature suddenly collapsed on its hind legs, falling to the ground like a heavy puppet with cut strings. Ronan felt a brutal weakness and fell too, to his knees, on the earth. A crushing and familiar disappointment overwhelmed him. He hadn't succeeded. He thought he had but no. It was like his void spell, the one he cast every day of his confinement despite it leaving him unconscious for hours. That kind voice, his lord, grew tired of warning him to stop, that it could kill him. In fact, he still did it occasionally at the academy, preferably on weekends to avoid missing class. Well, this, minus the blackout, was the same. He had seen the bear, raised it for a few seconds, had tasted the sweetness of that power... not a power as immeasurable as the void's, but great power nonetheless. And all to let it go because he wasn't capable.

He was still unworthy of serving his lord, but nothing that effort and hard work couldn't fix.

He focused inward to check if he had any mana left. He noticed he did, though less than expected. Then he approached the other bear in the pit. The pieces of broken rock that had been on top of it were pushed aside. The goblins had skinned it without removing it from the pit and had started taking its meat. Ronan concentrated again and repeated the spell. This time, communing with the dead flesh was easier. It was still challenging, of course, since it was a larger and higher-level creature than the small bears, but he raised it. A huge mass of bloodless flesh without organs, also missing large chunks of meat.

But the power... he felt this creature would be capable of facing tough enemies. When a body rose as a zombie, it was stronger and more resilient than the original living creature.

"Come, follow me," he commanded.

He observed the zombie struggling up the same slope it had carved out while alive, its missing leg causing it to drag itself awkwardly. He felt sorry for it. This creature was powerful but shouldn't be like this.

Out of respect, he would let it rest in eternal sleep.

"But first, do me a small favor."

He guided it to the cave entrance, the future smokehouse, where he ordered it to lie down. And then he dismissed it.

Solemn and sad, he turned to go back inside. One of the goblin women, who had seen him with the bear, had run through the tunnel and was shouting something. Very noisy. This way, they weren't going to let the dead rest in peace.

He heard his lady calling him. She didn't sound very happy. He wondered if she was also sad about the poor bear.