Filled with confidence over his new follower [Bael], Alex was determined to go on a hunt, but he first wanted to wait for his scouts to return to give an updated report of the situation.
During this time he wasn’t planning on being idle and went back to crafting with his bones. He planned to make himself a weapon to use.
Going through the list, there was a large variety as you would expect. He wasn’t planning on being on the front lines, he had read many necromancy stories before and he always felt that the main characters of these stories never got the true essence of a necromancer.
For whatever reason in these stories the necromancer decided to pick up his sword and fight on the front lines. Alex didn’t think this was smart. A true necromancer shouldn’t allow himself to be in harm's way like that.
He wouldn’t do this kind of thing. He would be at the back of the battlefield with his army between himself and danger. Or maybe he wouldn’t even be on the battlefield at all. Maybe he could just send [Bael] to take charge and win a war for him while he sits at home with his feet up enjoying a refreshing glass of milk.
For this reason, he wasn’t interested in crafting any kind of melee weapon. He was going to craft a staff to channel his magic.
[Weapons]
[Basic Staff]
[All Staves will come with a basic spell that doesn’t require mana to cast but will lower durability]
[Bone Staff] 10 bones
[Enchanted Bone Staff] 50 bones
[Grand Bone Staff] 500 bones
[Supreme Bone Staff] 5000 bones
Alex looked through the options he had which would only cost bones. There were plenty of other options, but these all required materials he didn’t have access to right now.
Alex had 90 bones left in his inventory from his scout's trip to the forest earlier, so his decision was to go right for an [Enchanted Bone Staff] thinking that a regular [Bone Staff] would need to be upgraded quickly and would therefore waste bones.
Selecting [Enchanted Bone Staff] gave him another prompt.
[Choose your Enchantment]
Alex was happy he was able to make the choice himself, after all, if it was randomized and he got unlucky with a fire or light enchantment, that would spell disaster. Literally.
Scrolling through his options he was surprised at how many there were. It seems this world would have a lot more interesting things than he first imagined.
[Enchantments]
[Fire]
[Water]
[Earth]
[Wind]
[Electric]
[Ice]
[Nature]
[Poison]
[Steam]
[Crystal]
[Light]
[Dark]
[Arcane]
[Psychic]
[Plasma]
[Sound]
[Void]
[Necrotic]
[Magnetism]
[Gravity]
[Time]
This was a long list that sparked the imagination of all the things that could be done. Unfortunately, some of the more interesting ones had been locked out. Alex immediately wanted [Necrotic] which is a necromancer's bread and butter.
[Unavailable - Level of Staff is too low]
Well, that’s that I suppose. There were others that had also been locked out. He understood why of course, but he still hoped his MC powers would overwrite this.
With the current options he had at his disposal his best option was to go for a poison enchantment, it’s basically necroticLITE. Although poison doesn’t give any benefits to the undead as necrotic does, all undead are immune to poison.
He made his choice and tapped on [Poison]
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.
[Enchanted Bone Staff of Poison] x10
[Attack: 10-20 (Poison) + 5-10 poison DoT)]
[Defence: 5]
[Skill: [Poison Mist]]
[Enchantments: None]
[Enchantment Slots: 3/3]
[Poison Mist]
[Spread poison over a 5m area which deals 100% poison damage every second - Cooldown 15 seconds]
[After the target leaves the poison radius DoT lasts for 30 seconds]
In front of Alex were 10 floating Staves. “I keep forgetting about that”. Alex claps his hands “Merge!”
As usual, the Staves turn into smoke and join together.
[Venomous Bone Staff]
[Attack: 30-50 (Poison: 20-30 poison DoT)]
[Defence: 20]
[Skill: [Poison Mist] [Envenom]]
[Enchantments: None]
[Enchantment Slots: 4/4]
[Envenom]
[Send a venomous bolt towards an enemy inflicting 50% DoT for 3 minutes and infecting the target with [Contagion] - Cooldown 1 minute]
[Contagion]
[Spread your affliction to all targets in a 5m radius]
“Everything I make is broken as hell”
With the remaining 40 bones he has, his plan was to bolster his army and send them out to the forest.
Opening up his crafting menu once again, he crafts [Skeleton Soldier]x2 and [Skeleton Archer]x1.
Out of the mist walked a small platoon.
[Skeleton Soldier] x20
[Skeleton Soldier Life: 100]
[Skeleton Soldier Damage: 5-10 (Physical)]
[Skeleton Soldier Defence: 5]
[Skeleton Archer] x10
[Skeleton Archer Life: 50]
[Skeleton Archer Damage: 5-10 (Physical)]
[Skeleton Archer Defence: 5]
Although the stats of the [Skeleton Archer] seemed inferior to the [Skeleton Soldier] the range of their attacks was quite impressive, and they seemed to be much more agile than the soldiers.
It wasn’t long after this when his scouts returned, all of whom had backpacks full of bones again which made Alex happy. They then reported to him about the forest.
It seems that the forest in the distance is much larger than anticipated. The speed of the scouts isn’t slow, and being incorporeal they can go at full speed without worry. But no matter how far his scouts went into the forest, they never reached the other side.
After receiving this report, he sent the scouts back out but this time their goal was to map the forest instead of returning with bones.
So far, the forest is his only source of bones and experience. He wasn’t sure how much experience he would get for killing things, or how many bones he could get from a body, but with his 10x multiplier, it should be much better than scavenging off the floor.
With [Bael] as his sword used to farm experience, what he needs are summons that will gather for him. The scouts were a good start, but they can only carry 20 bones at a time.
It was time to look through his crafting tab once again.
Scrolling through the list he saw something which caught his eye. This may be perfect for what he needs, but it looks like he will need to also make a small sacrifice.
[Bone Mimic] 50 bones + 1 ghost
He would need to use one of his scouts for every mimic he created. But looking over what the mimic offered, it was a good deal.
[Bone Mimic]
[Bone Mimic Life: 500]
[Bone Mimic Damage: 5-10]
[Bone Mimic Defence: 50]
[Skills: [Swallow] [Storage] [Stasis]]
[Swallow]
[Able to swallow any corpse no matter the size and store it inside its body]
[Storage]
[Gives an internal storage space of 200 items]
[Stasis]
[Able to put itself in a sleep-like state making it look like a regular treasure chest to ambush enemies dealing 500% damage as a sneak attack - cooldown 24 hours]
This is perfect for what he needs right now. He is unsure exactly how the mimic’s inner storage works with corpses, there’s a chance that larger corpses take up more than a single storage space.
Without hesitating he constructs 2 of these bone mimics and out of the smoke 20 floating bone constructs appear. The lid of the mimic is cracked open and black smoke seems to slightly billow out.
With this many mimics, the rate at which he gathers bones will soar, and he was also curious how many bones he would get from corpses.
It was time to head back to the forest with his new army, which was much stronger than last time. It’s time to accelerate his growth!
With his goal set in his mind, Alex summoned [Bael] who saluted his lord.
“[Bael],” he ordered “These are your temporary troops! Your first mission is to lead these troops into battle and clear out as much of the forest as you can.”
With a salute [Bael] accepted these orders, rallied his troops, and set off in the direction of the forest with his 50 undead in tow.