Since my idea to crush the beast with the stone actually worked, I decided to have another bad one – I couldn’t let my stock fall short of those, could I?

Unsurprisingly, my next move isn’t looking for shelter for the night. I know it looks stupid, but in my defense, I’m too tired and unhealthy to search for more trouble. My loot is also a good reason to stay here, though the smell of blood might attract other beasts. So, I better start dealing with it.

Thanks, Mom and Dad for forcing me to process beasts until I’m capable of doing it on my own. The boar’s hide was too tough but the big head wound offered a good starting point for skinning. Fortunately, the beast died on its side, allowing me to cut through its belly without the need for turning it.

The cleaning took an entire hour. Without water – I wouldn’t use my drinking water - I had to use leaves and stones to get the blood and other… undesirable parts off. I buried everything wanting to lessen the smell, and hopefully, save myself from being attacked. Then, skinning took another two hours; the hide was really tough. Living on the woods, I wouldn’t have a use for the beast core, but I save nonetheless. The hide, on the other hand, would be very useful for clothing and protection.

Thankfully, the last hours of sunlight were enough to cut the meat chunks and other edible organs. Of course, I wouldn’t be capable of eating all of the meat, roughly 90 kg, if I didn’t know some preservation tricks. Again, thanks, Mom and Dad. With a tenth of the salt that I got before leaving home and some fire, I should be able to smoke and cure a good portion of the meat. Hence, I chose 60 kg of the parts that looked tastier, from which 10 kg would be cooked directly and 50 kg would be smoked.

Starting a fire wasn’t a problem for me, nor was searching for branches and twigs to prepare the smoking and cure equipment. I struggled between having a big or small fire but ended up choosing a medium fire.

Then, after eating my fill and leaving the rest to be smoked through the night, came the creepy part. I’m a necromancer and nothing can change that, so I should try to do some necromancy things, right? With most of the meat serving as my food stock for the weeks to come, I could only think of… spelling – if that’s the right term – a skeleton.

In fact, skeletons were common themes in necromancy stories used to scare children. So, I guess they should work as… undead. Even thinking about the word seemed wrong, and a little terrifying. However, it would be now or never, being afraid wouldn’t change anything.

Mustering my courage, I started scraping the boar bones clean of any meat and tendons. The whole ordeal took more time than I expected, bringing the night closer to midnight. As if rising undead wasn’t eerie enough. Then, I brought all of the bones together, even paying attention to placing them where I guess was their original position, and finally, I tried.

I tried again, and again, but nothing happened. I guess I should know what I’m trying, before trying it, otherwise, I would just be playing with bones. However, something inside of me nudged me to keep trying. With the poor lighting provided by the fire, I started to ‘see’ some kind of energy emanating from the bones. Maybe ‘seeing’ isn’t the right word for it, it was more like feeling it. A strange idea came to me – they would come to me almost all the time – maybe I should try to interact with the energy. And so I did.

A few minutes later, I noticed the energy was purplish, oddly matching the color of that class crystal. It felt… natural as if the energy was something of mine. A strong desire flooded my mind and I felt compelled to ‘speak’ to it.

“Rise!” The words left my mouth as if I was chanting them.

The purple energy grew thicker around the bones before they started to float, forming a weird but perfect bony combination. Half of the energy then flowed to the joints connecting the bones, while the other half concentrated inside the skeleton, where I imagined the heart to be located. The boar skeleton turned to me, its eyes had a hint of purple, and lowered its head in subservience.

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I made it, my first undead!

Only then did I realize a strange discomfort accompanied by a sense of emptiness. Instinctively, I check my stats.

CLASS

NECROMANCER

LEVEL

2

HEALTH

21 (60)

MANA

10 (20)

SKILLS

BRINK OF DEATH

YOU CAN BRING YOURSELF FROM THE BRINK OF DEATH (X).

COST: HALF OF YOUR TOTAL HEALTH (PERMANENT)

RAISE SKELETON

SUMMON AN UNDEAD FROM THE BONES OF A DEAD BEING (I).

Cost: 10 mana and 5 health.

So, I used both health and mana to create the undead. No wonder I felt strange… But why does it cost me health? It doesn’t make much sense. However, before I could come up with an explanation, my attention was dragged by another strange feeling. The dreadful skeleton was perfectly still, ‘looking’ at me. Great, now I’m not gonna sleep. The undead was… waiting for orders, I could feel it.

I straightened myself, trying to drive the spooky sensation away, and ordered:

“Guard the perimeter!” I said it before realizing how unspecific the command was. Which perimeter? How would the former boar understand what ‘guard’ is? Yet, the skeleton just started walking around the fire in a semi-circle while facing the darkness of the forest.

Did it… It worked! Apparently, the undead can understand my meaning even if the words aren’t specific enough. That’s a relief. I would lose too much time if I had to think before speaking.

After adjusting the smoking meat, I sat with my back to the huge rock – Gotta make it difficult for those sneaky bastards to have a go on me – and focused on analyzing the guarding skeleton. The simplicity and efficiency of it made me startled. The creature was walking exactly around the perimeter I imagined when I gave the command, only a few steps passed the fire from one end of the rock to the other. So, it’s more about my thoughts than words.

I wasn’t really planning to sleep, but the sleep came anyway. After drowsing off two times and realizing the skeleton was still on perfect watch, I decided to let it go. Morning came sooner than I hopped, the bright sunlight forced me out of deep sleep. The skeleton continued guarding the perimeter, and I settled for pretending that I slept over the confidence in my spell rather than exhaustion. Sadly, my health hadn’t recovered completely like my mana, it had stopped at 42 and was refusing to increase further – probably, something related to the persistent pain in my back. I think I broke some bones.

I decided to ignore the pain and move on to more practical matters. For the first time, I analyzed my creation with more than fear and apprehension. The purple energy, both in the joints and in its core, had diminished, if slightly. Will the skeleton degrade until it crumbles? And that consideration got me thinking about how my undead would fare against an enemy... It had once been a level 9 boar. Would it maintain that level of power?

As if responding to that thought and my observation, a smaller screen appeared in my sight closer to the skeleton.

Lesser Skeleton L2

Level 2? Is it matching my own level or is it limited by my skill? I was hoping for a stronger minion, but everyone has to start somewhere. Hopefully, we’ll get stronger.