“Help me drag the beast!” I whispered the command while trying to estimate the direction of the voices.

One thing was sure, whoever caught me would later cause my death… Though I could try to dispose of… No, I’m not going there.

Pushing the necromancy-like ideas out of my head, I dragged the dead boar towards a nearby crevice that seemed to have appeared out of sheer necessity. Okay, I have to admit that I’m being greedy for trying to keep the loot when I should be trying to just disappear, but I couldn’t part myself with it while there was still a chance. I was told before that my positive thinking reached insane levels, and I did have my share of educative bad endings, but I just can’t…

I was relieved to see that my leveled undead was much stronger in pushing the loot – I just hope it’ll be enough. I pause for a second when my back touched something. The voices were already loud enough to be understood. Thankfully, the hard ‘something’ on my back was the rock, putting the crevice only a few steps away. I was pushing my luck too far, but now wasn’t the time to reevaluate my actions.

I willed an order to my skeleton, practically screaming through my thoughts, and hoped it to be a valid way of necromancy communication. The undead changed his pushing, either because of my will or because it was part of the first command, which allowed for the body to get sideways and into the crack. I squeezed myself inside, crouching to almost knee level and stepping over the loot, and whisper:

“Get in here!”

The skeleton complied and got inside, both pushing the dead boar deeper and going over it. The voices continued getting closer until they became clear.

“Where did it go?” A young masculine voice said.

“Are you sure you were tracking a real beast?” A similar but deeper voice asked.

“Look at these marks. They’re fresh, so it shouldn’t be far…”

“Wait… these are human tracks…”

“No way, someone got it first? The other team should be hunting on the other side closer to the road. So, how?”

“Do you think… it could be the boy?”

“Don’t be stupid. He should have gone by the road with some trader… Anyway, how would a green without a class like him survive in the forest?”

I gritted my teeth and suppressed the urge to go out to show them who is green. They should be talking about me, right? I wonder how my parents are handling this… I miss them already… No, let’s not go there. Now is not the time to start crying.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“Let’s follow these tracks and see…”

Damn, they’re coming here. How did I forget to cover my tracks? This is such an amateur mistake… Wait, I’m an amateur. Focus, Shain. Focus! I need to push their attention somewhere else, but how? If I could just… The sounds of steps grew closer, but they seemed to fade as my heartbeat got louder.

I held my knife tighter, unsure of what I would do if they find me. Time seemed to slow down, and their shadows appeared on the ground just a few steps from us. Then, I heard a scream before the hunters ran away.

I, was, saved! Lucky, I’m so lucky! Maybe this damn class had come with some luck to balance the scales. Either way, I had to leave. Hence, after ordering my minion to go out and pull the dead boar, we dragged it around the rock until we were hidden from the previous spot. Then, I went back and covered our tracks. The wise choice would be to leave and get as far away as possible, but I had to get something from this beast. I had already risked too much for it.

So, I dived into a desperate butchering attempt of getting the bones out of the dead boar. Well, I did get the bloody bones in roughly one hour and a half, plus a core. The problem was that I forgot to consider my mana, which was still at 9. Damn, how could I be that stupid? The cost to create another skeleton was 10 mana, so I was short of one. The only good thing was that I had already recovered 1 mana since the fight. Best-case scenario, I would get an extra point in the next half an hour, putting my regeneration at one per hour. If not, I would have to wait and see how much time it would take.

I wouldn’t be idle, though. The bones could be better ‘cleaned’. Moreover, I could save a few more bones from the meat, and hopefully, that would make my skeleton stronger. Getting some of the better parts out of the boar, wouldn’t hurt. Fresh meat had its place in my heart. Sadly, the boar hide was too ‘butchered’ to be saved, so I’ll stop at the meat.

Approximately half an hour later, I check my stats and found a beautiful 10 mana points waiting for me. Without hesitating, I gathered myself and started pushing the mana over the bones. I didn’t know how many bones of the creature my spell required, but I had put the effort into getting as many as I could in such a limited time.

At first, the purple mana was fighting against my attempt. I realized that it was simple to control the mana inside of my body, but much more difficult to do it outside. Still, I pushed it to the bones, and once it touched them, the purple magic started flowing out of me easily. I followed my instincts and repeated the process from the last time, but with more confidence.

“Rise!”

My voice steered something in the purple mana, making it work its magic. The bones floated, and a few that were positioned wrongly went to the right place. Then, the mana flowed towards the joints and the ‘core’, and thus my second undead was created.

Lesser Skeleton L1

Well, it was weaker, so their level isn’t tied to my level. It could be because of bone work, or because the beast was one level weaker than the one I killed first – I couldn’t say for sure. Somethings I’ll have the learn as I go. Now, I have to leave this place and get away, really away, from the village.

I had been inept in following up with my decisions. Probably, I was unconsciously trying to stick close to the village, or else, why would I stay in their hunting grounds knowing the risks of someone finding me? I had to accept that my life as it was would never be again. If wanted to live, I had to leave it all behind.

The tears came down, but that didn’t stop me from commanding my undead and leaving. Little Shain was no more, now I’m Shain the Necromancer.