“15 minutes might be enough to find some temporary clothes for him.” Helena said.

“We could just leave him in our room while we eat.” I suggested.

“Yes, but wouldn’t it be fun to show him off to the other students?” Helena responded.

I shrugged. “Maybe. Do they allow zombie-like undead in the mess hall?” I asked.

“You know, I have no idea.” She replied.

Nyx was a rather clean skeleton. And most of the time she was small. A human zombie might be different.

“You know, he does not smell that rotten anymore. If you tell him to take a proper shower, with soap, he is going to be presentable.” Helena said.

We returned to the dorms and I ordered my new undead to shower. Thankfully, the women’s bathroom was empty. He was a mindless undead but he looked male. A tier two was intelligent enough to comprehend the order to clean himself. So I waited outside. Meanwhile, Helena organised clothes.

“I got some old pants for him!” She announced.

“Where did you get those?” I wondered.

“I asked the receptionist. She was kind enough to find some old discarded ones from the male dorms. I think they will fit.”

“Thanks!”

The pants were black with a few small holes but they would suffice, for now. My undead minion emerged clean and smelling like soap. The pants were slightly too short but they worked.

“You know, if you don’t look too closely you could think he was alive.” Helena said.

I studied the undead. He was not using his ice armour anymore. She was right. He had sunken cheeks and hollowed eyes. His face and skin looked like they were from an old person, which did not match his stance or movement. Of course, he did not breathe. But looking at him from a distance…

“Yeah. If we keep him away from the food counter and just have him guard our table it should be fine.” I said.

We made our way to the mess hall. Cassie and Skadi were already waiting for us.

“Sorry, it took us a bit longer.” I said.

“It’s fine.” Cassie said. “We are too late for the free meal anyway.”

Sadly, that was true. We were too late for the regular meal hours. But we could just buy something. Not too many students were around. Nobody took an interest in our new minion. Helena seemed disappointed.

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“Don’t worry, I am sure he will draw a crowd at dinner.” I said.

“Or if we spar with him.” Skadi said. “I want to see what he can do.”

“He could fight Nyx.” Cassie suggested.

Because we were eating, Nyx was not on my head. She sat on the table and watched us. She looked interested.

“I hope she won’t destroy him.” I was worried. I had a feeling that Nyx was stronger. She was certainly more intelligent.

“Do you have a spell to heal undead?” Skadi asked.

“I think I have a book with one. I haven’t learned it yet.” So far, Nyx was doing well regenerating on her own. “Speaking of healing, we still have to make that salve for Nyx.”

“I can do that. Meanwhile, you talk with Gronir. Afterwards we meet at the training area.” Cassie suggested.

“Sure.” We agreed. I considered bringing the goblins as well. But I had a feeling Nyx would eat them, if they sparred.

We found Gronir in his office. He was going over some documents as we entered.

“Ah, Koyuki and Helena. Did you have some success?” He asked.

“Yes, sir.” I said and commanded my undead to enter. “Helena helped! We created a zombie-like undead.”

“Helena helped? How? She does not have a death affinity.” He said.

I explained what we did, without mentioning our mana circulation technique. I simply explained that we modelled the water flow after blood.

“Fascinating. I wonder if that could be used to create a water attuned undead for someone without a water affinity. Adding an element to the creation of an undead is an advanced technique, but not something new. Usually it is simply one mage who does all the work. I have no idea if circulating the water had an additional effect.”

He stood up and approached our undead. His eyes flashed green. “Hm. I think this might be a draugr.” Gronir said.

“What is that?” I asked.

“I think I have heard that term before.” Helena said.

“Unsurprising. I am sure your father has fought some of them. They are a type of frost attuned undead. Much stronger than a normal zombie. Although they vary in power. The most common draugr is a tier two who empowers his attacks with frost magic. But there are some tier three who remember their past lives. If they take control of other undead, they can become a serious threat. They are one of the many dangers lurking in the northern mountains. We did not have a serious undead problem in recent years though.”

He walked around the draugr. “You said he can summon armour?”

“Yes.” I commanded my minion to do that.

Gronir watched it form. Then he poked it. “Quite a bit of mana in there. How much does it cost you to control this undead?”

“I am not sure. I would say about ten times as much as a goblin. Maybe half as much as Nyx.” I answered.

“And how much of your core is that?” He asked.

Now that was a much harder question. How much mana did it cost me to keep Nyx alive? I focused inward to examine our connection.

“It’s hard to judge. Maybe it costs me like 0,1% to feed Nyx?” It was my best guess.

Helena gasped. “So you could have 1000 Nyx!”

“There is only one Nyx.” I replied.

“Meow.”

“Sure, but that would be quite the army. It also means you could have 2000 draugr or 20 000 goblins!” She sounded excited.

“No mage would ever use all their mana to control an army.” Gronir said. “You need some to defend yourself and support your troops. Also, the initial cost to create an undead is higher than the upkeep. You need to have some mana left to actually create more undead. My advice would be not to use more than half. But there is a reason why necromancers are feared. And Koyuki’s mana is likely to grow even more.”

“How does an undead use magic? Are they using my mana? Are they limited by that connection?” I asked.

“Ah, a good question. I think I will answer that in class though. Bring your draugr for our next lesson.” He said.

“You know, being able to create an advanced undead, combined with your mana pool, might actually qualify you as a senior mage.” Gronir chuckled. “Although it’s usually expected that you know a larger variety of spells.”

“Is there a way to measure the size of one’s core?” Helena asked.

“Well, there is an orb. They are quite expensive, so they are only used when you graduate and afterwards for promotions. Keep in mind that efficiency with your spells and resistance to fatigue are also quite important. It’s believed that if we focus too much on core size, the more talented students might get lazy. And since there is a lot of growth when you are young there is no point in constantly measuring anyway.” Gronir explained. “Also, those devices are not that precise. Anyway, you are progressing more quickly than I anticipated! Keep up the good work!”

We left Gronir’s office and headed to the training area. As we walked I noticed a certain glee in Helena’s eyes.

“You are imagining an undead army, aren’t you?” I teased.

“Yes, yes I am.” She said with a smile.