Vey scratches at the grove in the stone table as he stares down at his latest failed attempt at making a [Undead Lieutenant] spell. The reason Vey is trying to make that spell is simple: The biggest threat to Vey’s strategy involving the defense of the dungeon is simply that he can’t be everywhere at once. He can’t lead all of the undead all the time, and while Sera technically counts as having ‘tamed’ all of them for some reason, she can’t either.
The idea that he’ll be doing the same thing under his own power that the former necromancer had to borrow power for is amusing. The idea that he’ll be doing the same thing as the necromancer, and might repeat the same actions that led to his own existence, is less so. The fact that Sera has given all of the undead names is something that Vey wonders about, though. Undeniably, Vey and Sera have treated the undead better than the necromancer treated Vey, so perhaps the resentment that grew so quickly in Vey won’t be present in them?
Regardless, designing a spell to give something sentience is difficult, as Vey has learned. It isn’t just a matter of working with necromancy, a school of magic Vey is somewhat confusingly not as good at when compared to transmutation or evocation, it also has the added difficulty of being one of his first third tier spell designs. He’d tried to make one at second tier, but it got too complicated, and he had to up-tier it. Even doing as much analysis on Undead Leadership as possible hasn’t helped him in reverse engineering its predecessor.
The only consolation he’s had through all of this is that his progress on his other spells has been going swimmingly. He’d distilled [Flameburst] into [Fireball], changed the element component of the spell to acid to create [Acid Blast], and then reverse engineered that spell into [Acid Arrow]. That had been easily his most productive day of spellcrafting ever, since he’d also managed to upscale [Magic Missile] into a third tier spell [Chain Missile] shortly after. ‘Four spells in one day’ is what initially provided Vey with the confidence boost to design another divination spell, [Clairvoyance], to help scout from a distance if he can ever find a vantage point to do so from. Coming down from that productive high by working on something he’s bad at was a bad idea in hindsight.
At least Vey has been able to observe Sera’s practice with her swordplay, and her two latest spells she’s stored. Technically it was three spells, but she mastered [Mage Armor] the day after [Stonesword], so Vey isn’t really counting it. [Stonesword] was only the first spell she adapted from his own repertoire, next was [Chill Touch], which Vey is legitimately confused by, as an undead. [Chill Touch] uses negative energy, meaning it heals Vey, but it isn’t a one time use effect, it’s similar to [Cutting Hand], it grants her attacks a new property, that of dealing negative energy damage.
The one Vey is waiting to sing the praises of the moment she figures out a way to actually use it, Sera called [Shocking Grasp], which she adapted from [Ghoul Touch], changing it from a spell designed to debuff to a spell designed to deal as much lightning damage as possible in a single hit. The issue she seems to be having is the same reason Vey hasn’t touched lightning spells yet. Every time she’s tried to use [Shocking Grasp] through her Spellblade ability, the electricity on her own sword hurts her as well as her target.
Watching her shock herself and drop her sword is increasingly anxiety-inducing to Vey, but he can’t deny that if she can figure out how to make it work, inducing that same effect, along with a boatload of damage, will undoubtedly be a very powerful attack. Something Vey has been distracting himself with when failing at making [Undead Lieutenant] is trying to figure out a way to teach his Arcane Strike skill to Sera, since he has not used it even once, but it seems perfect for a spellblade.
All in all, the process of fortifying the dungeon has been going well in the week since the fight on the hilltop. The newly named new skeletons have been training up rather well. Vey’s plan is for this batch, as well as the next batch, to have a similar composition of units as the original six. Based on the names, Vey has decided to call the original six ‘Dragon squad’. Dragon squad has two melee fighters, a spearman and a swordfighter, three archers, and a crossbowman. Training each batch into similar squads will ensure that the skeletons will both always have a competent sparring partner, and will be able to ‘slot’ into other squads without issue. Dragon squad are currently full time guards and lookouts in the entrance chamber, with ‘Sheo squad’(Sera’s idea) serving as manual laborers and training when not working. Vey has decided that Sheo squad will not be taking over guard duty when fully trained, but will instead serve the function of gathering resources like wood from outside the dungeon. Basically, Sheo squad will be the first ‘scouting’ squad.
Thinking about each batch of skeletons raised at the same time as a ‘squad’ means that each ‘squad’ ought to be semi-autonomous, which loops Vey’s mind all the way back around to [Undead Lieutenant], the persistent thorn in Vey’s proverbial spine for the last two days. Ideally, creating squad leaders would be exquisite, and Vey also suspects that having more intelligent undead in the ranks of the dungeon’s defenders will likely have other, unforeseen benefits as well.
As always, the problem is in Vey’s lack of understanding on how its own mind actually works, never mind how to enhance another undead’s. Sera’s explanations and his own observations have led him to the conclusion that no matter how similar or different his own thought structure and consciousness are to mortals, studying mortal brains will do nothing to help him here. The only small progress he’s made in the last day was the discovery of how to make whatever mental expansion he wants to give to another undead permanent, which is to say, he knows how he’d apply the spell, if he had a spell to apply. Vey stops his idle scratching as he notices that the groove in the table is significantly larger than when he started working on this today. Vey mentally sighs, and stacks all of his papers up in a pile, and puts the cork in the inkwell.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“Sera, I’m going to go check on the defenses upstairs. Do you want to come?” Vey asks as he stands up. He eyes Sera’s exposed back(she’s taken to practicing her swordplay with no shirt, only using simple wrappings around her boobs), and traces the faint purple glow of her [Mage Armor] spell. Unlike his own, which is more like a crude set of plate armor, her’s is like a set of chainmail, tiny pieces of solidified magic woven together as opposed to plates and blocks. It’s a little interesting to him that her’s is so different, but Vey supposes that they use it for different things. For Sera, a mage armor spell is armor, for Vey, it’s more like a shield for deflecting blows he doesn’t want to just take. Regardless, her lack of a response is in itself a response, she’s too focused on her own training and spellcraft to have heard Vey’s question, so he just exits the lab wordlessly to go tour the defenses and clear his head.
--
Ter is a skeleton. It is also a spearman. It is not much else. For example, Ter does not remember its creator, how long it has existed for, or even all of the fights it has been in throughout its life of combat. What Ter does know, however, is that the Glorious Leader and Queen have been outpacing its own usefulness. It does not have the capacity to feel anything about this, per se. It only knows that it has been less useful as a fact of the matter, and it doesn’t have the capability to draw conclusions from this.
Ter can follow complex instructions, as long as they are from the Glorious Leader. The Queen’s instructions it does not have to follow, but finds itself doing so anyways whenever it receives them, and not because they are from the Glorious Leader’s Queen. It simply obeys the Queen’s instructions because the Queen is why it is Ter. And Ter does understand them to be instructions, not commands, as its original master once did. Ter understands that the Glorious Leader instructs, rather than commands, for no other reason than that the Glorious Leader understands what it is like to be commanded. This is one of the reasons Ter understands the Glorious Leader to be the Glorious Leader, as opposed to just a leader. Ter also understands that it was not always Ter. It was certainly something before it was Ter, but it does not have the capacity to speculate on what that might have been.
The Glorious Leader sometimes sends instructions to Ter that it does not understand, or have the capability to understand, nor does it remember them. However, one of the very, very few things Ter has understood from the Glorious Leader, is that the Glorious Leader wishes to make Ter like the Glorious Leader. Ter can’t understand what this means. Ter does understand that such a thing would make it more useful, but it isn’t capable of wanting that, nor understanding why not being more useful than it currently is would be a problem.
Ter does understand fighting, and it understands it rather well, even without the Glorious Leader’s assistance. Ter is not capable of something so advanced as ‘wondering’, but it can connect the ideas of ‘being more like the Glorious Leader’ and ‘being more effective at fighting’ on some vague level. Perhaps, Ter should evolve. It knows it has the ability to do so, but the Glorious Leader has not instructed it to do so, so it has not. Ter understands that the Glorious Leader has evolved before, and is able to make the connection between evolving and being more like the Glorious Leader, but such a thought can go no further in its mind.
Ter understands practicing with its spear. In fact, Ter has understood practicing, and has been practicing with this very spear, for longer than it remembers. It is able to make the connection that the Glorious Leader and the Queen also practice, and the Queen sometimes instructs it to practice with the Queen. Ter does not remember what happens when they practice, but it does remember that they have practiced before, on occasion.
These are the things that Ter ‘thinks’ about, while following the Glorious Leader’s instructions to guard for intruders. It doesn’t understand the word ‘intruder’, but does understand that the reason it practices is to kill them. For the first time in Ter’s memory, it does more than simply make a connection. It manages to chain several connections together, and, without instruction, manages to draw a conclusion. Ter is less useful than the Glorious Leader and the Queen because it isn’t as good at fighting intruders, being more like the Glorious Leader would make it better at fighting intruders, and evolving would make it more like the Glorious Leader, so evolving would make it more useful. It does not need instructions from the Glorious Leader or the Queen the moment it reaches its first ever conclusion, all Ter does, is evolve.
Level and Hit Die:
0, 3
Current HP/MHP
27/27
Armor Class
16
MP
N/A(Non-Caster)
Class:
None(Monster)
Name:
Ter
Race:
Evolved Skeleton[Elf, Female, Adult]
Subrace:
Blue Evolution Path
Alignment:
Neutral Evil
Height
5’5 ft
Attributes:
MHP
STR
CON
DEX
INT
WIS
CHA
SPD
LCK
NAC
Base:
27
10
10
10
3
3
3
30ft
2
10
Race:
0
2
2
4
2
2
4
5ft
0
4
Total:
27
12
12
14
5
5
7
35ft
2
14
Proficiencies
Skills(Passive)
Skills(Active)
Magic Effects
Pacts and Curses
Simple and Martial Weapon
Proficiency
Undead Endurance
Guard Stance
Positive Energy Weakness
Tamed By: Sera Eranda Eclir Luvil, [Error]
Simple Tool Proficiency
Spearwall
Negative Energy Healing
Light and Medium Armor Proficiency
Evolved: Enhanced Skill Management
Longspear and Shortspear Focus
Evolved: Innate Armorskin
Lifetime Achievements
Titles
[Error]
Queensguard
[Error]
[Error]