The idea of enhancing an undead fascinated me. What sort of creature could I create? I spent a lot of time thinking about it. When I met my friends later I asked them for opinions.

“I guess you can’t enhance an existing undead? You would need to raise a new one?” Helena asked.

“Yes. Changing an existing spell is hard.” I confirmed.

“So, you need a new corpse.” Skadi pointed out.

“What are you considering? Something small? Something big? You could create a rat assassin!” Cassie suggested.

Nyx looked approvingly at Cassie.

“My last rat skeletons were eaten…” I pointed out.

Nyx looked at me, then licked her paw.

“We could check out the adventurers guild. You got some money to spend on a corpse.” Skadi suggested.

“True.” Then I looked at Nyx and narrowed my eyes. “This won’t be food for you. This is my homework.”

She ignored me and kept licking her paw.

“I am sure she won’t eat anything that is really useful. She does seem to understand that you need undead to fight for you.” Helena said.

There was some truth to her words. But we were talking about a cat.

“So, if you are going for a corpse from the guild, any ideas? Are you going to enhance your skeleton with water or death mana?” Cassie asked.

“I am not sure. Do you think I could do both? I am also concerned about the quality of the corpse. If I try too much it might be destroyed. Gronir told us that there is a limit of how much mana a corpse can tolerate.” I said.

“So a bigger creature can hold more mana?” Helena asked.

“Bigger helps but it’s also about quality. Bones that are damaged can hold less. And if you reinforce them with alchemy they can hold more. The corpse of a magical creature in good condition would be best…” I replied

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“...but also expensive.” Skadi finished my thoughts.

I nodded.

“It does not hurt to check what they have.” Skadi said.

“Have you considered a mount?” Helena asked.

“I do have my horse…” I replied.

“Sure. Coffee is a great horse. But you are a necromancer! You could have an undead horse! Or a bear, or a dragon!” Helena suggested.

An undead dragon would be awesome. Sadly it would also be far beyond my current ability. I would need to defeat a dragon first. Then raise it as a tier three undead. Anything else would be a waste. But the more realistic option, like a horse, sounded tempting.

“How easy would it be to get a dead horse? I am not going to kill mine.” I said.

“A horse is boring. Go for something stronger!” Cassie suggested.

“How comfortable would it be to ride a skeleton? Are there saddles for that?” Skadi wondered.

“Uh, maybe? I am sure you could order a custom one.” I replied.

“A draugr horse! Go for a draugr horse!” Helena suggested.

“This is about enhancing an undead. Maybe I should start by enhancing a normal skeleton first…” I was not sure if I could enhance a draugr. Or if we could create one from a dead horse in the first place. Would that water circulation technique work on a horse? We modelled it after the blood flow inside a humanoid…

“You could reinforce the head, for ramming.” Skadi suggested.

“How often do you ram things with your mount?” I asked.

Skadi shrugged.

“Actually, what would I reinforce for a mount? Could I make it faster? Maybe something along the joints?” I wondered.

“Why fast? Make it strong! A combat mount! Uh! Could you create a death aura?” Helena asked.

“Death aura? You want a fire breath!” Cassie suggested.

“She does not have fire mana.” Helena pointed out.

“Death aura?” I scratched my head. “Even if something like that were possible, it would be impractical. It would hurt other mounts nearby. It would hurt you!” I pointed out.

“Fair point…” Helena admitted.

“You could do a frost breath. Or maybe a necrotic breath.” Skadi suggested.

“Sure, they would be great. But I have no idea how to give an undead a specific power! This is about some simple enhancement. Like, more durable hooves or a better bite.” I pointed out. They had interesting ideas but sadly they might be beyond my abilities.

“Well, what power does an undead horse get if you raise it with a mixture of water and death mana?” Helena asked.

“I am not sure. Probably just some resistance to water magic. Might depend on how much mana is used, the quality of the corpse…”

“This calls for experimentation!” Cassie said.

“Sure, but I need corpses.” I pointed out.

“You could experiment on chickens until you find something that works for your mount. We do have a bunch of chicken bones. Instead of making more Iron Beaks you can experiment on some of them. We have enough Iron Beaks anyway.” Skadi said.

“There are never enough Iron Beaks…” Cassie mumbled.

“I doubt those skeletons can hold a lot of mana. So anything I try there might just destroy them. Still, it could be worth a try. We do have those bones anyway.” I mused.

“You still need a proper corpse for a mount. We could check the adventurers guild. Maybe they have something interesting.” Skadi said.

“What if we hunt a bear?” Helena suggested.

“We don’t have time for that.” I replied.

“You know, there is some time off after the mid-year exam. We have two weeks actually.” Skadi pointed out.

“We do?” I asked.

Skadi sighed. “Yes, we do.”

“Hm. I could just enhance a chicken as homework. Then go for a mount after the exam, when we have more time to experiment.” I concluded.