After Gronir left, I prepared the strengthening bath. Then I placed the bones inside. They should soak in there for a day. I was slightly concerned about sabotage, or someone stealing my bones. So I placed two skeletons and Frank there to protect them.

Despite my precautions I was nervous. While Nyx turned out wonderfully, they did try to kill me when I raised her.

“We can accompany you tomorrow, when you raise your skeleton.” Skadi offered at dinner.

“Yeah, I want to see your newest creation anyway!” Helena added.

“You could still use my frost infusion potion before you raise it…” Cassie suggested.

I looked at her. “You mean the one that exploded my zombie when you tried it?”

“I have improved on it! I am confident it will help your skeleton.” She replied.

“Wasn’t that supposed to only grant a temporary boost?” Helena asked.

“Sure, for an existing undead. But what if you used it before the bones are animated? Maybe some of the benefits will stick!”

“I don’t think a valuable skeleton is the best way to test such things. Maybe I could try it on a chicken…” I mused.

Cassie grinned. “I will bring something tomorrow!”

“It’s going to explode.” Skadi predicted. Cassie pouted.

The next day, all of us went to the lab. It looked undisturbed. Of course, a lot of students were not even at the academy right now. Classes had not resumed yet. Archibald and his friends were certainly gone, which reduced the risk of someone messing with my stuff.

“I have two chicken corpses that look reasonably intact. If your potion works on them I will use it for my mage.” I announced.

“Sure. Just pour it over the bones, then do your thing.” Cassie said.

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Helena and Skadi wisely stood back. I looked more closely at Skadi. “Have you used earth magic to harden your skin?”

“Yes.” She replied.

“I am not that bad.” Cassie mumbled, while handing me a potion.

I did as instructed and poured it over the corpse. I was reasonably far away from the mage skeleton, which was still soaking in the strengthening bath.

Nyx looked at the potion in my hand, then jumped from my head and walked over to Skadi and Helena. Cassie stayed close and watched with excitement.

I could see a slight blue tint on the bones. Something was happening. I began my spell to raise the skeleton. Before I could finish there was a crack. I stopped my magic and poked the bones. They splintered. Cassie’s potion had made them really fragile and brittle.

“Huh. It did not explode.” Skadi sounded surprised.

Nyx came over and sniffed the bones. Then she started licking up the shards.

“At least you did not destroy the taste.” Helena commented.

“You need to animate it faster!” Cassie suggested and handed me another potion.

I grabbed the second skeleton I had prepared. “I will already prepare the spell in my mind. Can you pour it over the skeleton? Then I can animate it really quickly.”

Cassie nodded and took her potion back. This time everyone was standing close. Except Nyx, who was still consuming the failed experiment.

I readied my spell, then signalled Cassie. She poured the potion on the bones and I animated them. The undead chicken rose.

We all peered closely at the result. The bones had turned slightly blue. Skadi poked it.

“So, it worked?” She asked.

“Yes!” Cassie cheered.

“What can it do?” Helena asked.

“No idea. Let’s see.” I said and commanded the chicken to move around. So far it was nothing special. I still had my skeletons protecting the mage corpse. I ordered my new chicken to attack them.

It charged…

“It’s trying to stab them with its beak.” Helena observed.

“And it’s not using any magic.” Skadi added.

“Maybe it helped its defence? Clearly it did something, the bones look different.” Cassie said.

The chicken’s attack did something. Sadly, that something was not good. The chicken’s beak cracked.

“Hm. That is not supposed to happen.” Cassie said.

“I am not using that on the mage skeleton.” I announced.

“It might need more work.” Cassie admitted. “Can you dismiss the chicken? Maybe I can find something when I look closer at those bones. Maybe I need a way to inject something into the bones…”

While she was contemplating things, Nyx approached the second failed experiment. “Nyx, stop! Cassie wants those bones.” Nyx glared at me, I glared back. Then she walked away.

“Thank you, Nyx.” Cassie said and collected her research material.

While Cassie’s potion might have failed, I still had a great mage skeleton. And it was time to raise it. I collected the bones from their bath and arranged them on the floor. I was debating if I should dry them but I was going for a water affinity anyway.

I had brought the book Gronir gave me and rechecked the spell. I had memorised it yesterday evening but wanted to double check. The runes were not that simple and I needed to get the mana ratio right. I decided to go for a ranged, spell based, magical skeleton. I would use roughly 60% death mana and 40% water mana. I did not have an internal way of measuring that so I had to eyeball it.

I was slightly nervous. I took a deep breath and started forming the runes in my mind. I pulled mana from my core and converted it. Did the ratio look right? I added a bit more death mana. Then I poured it into the spell.

The darkened bones became even more black. Light blue runes appeared on them. It looked similar to Nyx’ bones. There were no glowing eyes though as the skeleton rose. It worked! Time to figure out what I had created.