Another month passed. Painfully. Not just for Alaster either. His Undead rarely went an entire day without being destroyed. Luckily, he had the Blueprint Evolution, or it would have taken days to rebuild his army instead of hours.
As it was, [Undead Soldier] was proving its worth. Not in power. It was still pathetically weak, a single Blackguard could comfortably handle three, but it was just as Aila said. Its value lay in its ease of use and numbers.
Alaster didn’t need to handcraft the Skeletons, nor did he need special materials like bones. All he needed was the Mana to Summon it. In that, the Spell was amazing. It was a Novice Level Spell, technically meant to be learned by an aspiring Necromancer while they were still under Level ten. It only cost fifty Mana, and Alaster had over a thousand, more if he used [Blood Price].
As she had promised, Aila continued to lure Monsters into the steadily growing clearing for his Undead to battle. Unlike what she promised, she didn’t care how many Monsters were lured.
Even now, as Alaster sat cross-legged on a low bone sheet, his Undead, including the Horde Skeletons, were fighting a wave of Monsters. In this section of the forest, none of the Monsters were outrageously powerful, only occasionally would an Adept Level Monsters appear. As such, as weak as the [Undead Soldiers] were, they were still able to effectively fight.
[Raise Undead], [Undead Soldier], [Undead Worker], and [Meditation] had all leveled extensively during the month.
[Raise Undead
Level 24<34: 73%<49%
Raise a corpse to serve as your servant.
Max Minions: 20/20
Max Skeletons: 20/20
Mana Cost: 30]
[Summon Undead Soldier
Level 1<12: 0%<38%
Summon the Dead to fight for you.
Max Minions: 3/3
Mana Cost: 50]
[Summon Undead Worker
Level 1<10: 0%<57%
Summon the dead to work for you.
Max Minion: 2/2
Mana Cost: 50]
[Meditation
Level 22<25: 36%<54%
Clearing the Mind to see what is concealed.
Mana Regeneration increased to 30/min during use.
Can sense fluctuations in mana around you.
Can move slowly while active]
Just as Aila said, [Undead Soldier] and [Undead Worker] both branched into other Abilities at level ten, but they had also increased the Max Minion count by one every five levels. At level five, the Max Minion count increased, but he could have also chosen to select an Evolution that would have increased it again.
Alaster decided against that, for now at least. He had instead chosen to make his the Undead Summoned by both Abilities better. For [Undead Worker], that meant becoming stronger and faster. For the [Undead Soldier], that meant becoming stronger, faster, and more durable.
He had noticed that when he made his selections, both types of Undead visibly changed. The Worker’s bones simply became thicker. But the Soldier changed more drastically. The sword and shield grew less rusted, the bones grew thicker, the glowing balls of Mana in its eyes grew brighter.
When the Abilities reached level ten, he was offered selections.
[Summon Undead Soldier Evolutions]
[Level Ten Evolutions Available
1. Summon Undead Archer.
Soldier will move quicker.
2. Summon Undead Warrior.
Soldier will be stronger.
3. Summon Undead Shield Bearer.
Soldier will be more durable.]
It had actually been quite an interesting choice, seeing how not only would he get another Ability with its own Max Minion count, but it would also effect the Undead Soldiers. However, he didn’t have any Undead capable of ranged damage, not unless they threw their weapon.
Which was less than ideal.
[Summon Undead Archer
Level 1: 0%
Summon the Dead to fight for you.
Max Minion: 0/1
Mana Cost: 50]
The process of summoning was the same as the Soldier, except instead of a rusty sword and shield, the Archer held an old bow with a quiver of arrows on its back.
The Archer and Soldier might as well have been the same Skeleton, just with different weapons. At least before the Soldier had been slightly improved. The quiver held twenty-four arrows tipped with slightly rusty iron arrowheads.
Alaster sent it off to fight with the rest of his Undead and watched for a moment before he returned to his Spellwork. The Archer was able to quickly fire off its arrows, though it was not very accurate or powerful. It was weak, but just as with the Soldier, against low level Monsters like these, it was proficient enough to show an impact.
Unfortunately for Alaster, the Archer was still incredibly stupid. After it fired off its last arrow, it ran forward to collect them, regardless of the Monsters still fighting his Undead. And while it swung its bow like a club, it was still destroyed within moments. This prompted Alaster to resummon it, only for the same thing to occur repeatedly. Once it ran out of arrows, it decided it was suddenly melee proficient.
Stolen novel; please report.
After watching for a few moments and rolling his eyes at its stupidity. When the Archer was destroyed, it slowly faded out of existence, just like the Worker or Soldier, but he noticed that the arrows remained. Alaster turned to his next Evolution.
[Summon Undead Worker Evolutions]
[Level Ten Evolutions Available
1. Summon Undead Butcher.
Worker will move quicker.
2. Summon Undead Miner.
Worker will be stronger.
3. Summon Undead Lumberjack.
Worker will be more durable.]
Similar choices. Alaster could see a use for each one. He imagined creating a fortress of Undead where Skeletal Lumberjacks and Miners provided Undead crafters with the materials required to create horrifying weapons of war.
He chuckled to himself. He was still a long way from even attempting such a thing. It was doubtful it would even be viable. Most Nations were opposed to some random person suddenly laying claim to land and building a fortress. Even in the unclaimed lands, only two Independent Cities were allowed to exist, and both because it was simply too much work to claim them.
As it was, Alaster decided on the Butcher. In his current situation, it would see the most use. The Monster corpses were piling up, luring more Monsters on their own. And Alaster didn’t want to leave anything to waste.
Since he received his Class, he had been in a rush to level up. He rarely had time to stop and properly butcher the Monsters he hunted. Even when he did, he was so unskilled in his work, he destroyed more than he collected. And Mana Crystals were fragile things.
Mana Crystals were powerful things that anyone would want to get their hands on. While Mana Cores built the Magitek of the world, it was the Mana Crystals that powered them. Almost like crude Mana Batteries. However, that was not the Crystals prime use.
The Crystals had numerous uses, from Enchanting and Alchemy, to Blacksmithing and Magitek. But most used them for its EXP. Roughly one in one hundred Monsters produced a Mana Crystal, however, some Monsters were guaranteed to produce one in their bodies.
Mana Crystals, if used by an individual would provide roughly half again the EXP of slaying the Monster. This allowed those who didn’t wish to fight, to still level up, such as many Noble children or those from rich families. But that was not all.
Each Crystal had a very small chance to grant the Individual a random Ability of the slain Monster, and an even smaller chance to bestow the Monster’s Bloodline.
There were Special Constitutions that allowed for multiple Bloodlines, but typically, a person could only have one, and there was no changing it. However, if the person is lucky enough to be offered a Bloodline, they were given the choice to accept it or not. Regardless of their choice, the Crystal would still be consumed, crumbling to dust.
Bloodlines, depending on how powerful it was, how powerful the person was, how long they had been in possession of the Bloodline, and how well it merged with them, could be passed onto descendants. This could be done naturally, where the child was born with the Bloodline, or even a fragment of one. But it could also be done later, after the child had matured or proven themselves worthy.
In truth, Alaster did not know much of Bloodlines. They were so rare that out of an entire city of people, you might find one Bloodline user. Though he assumed the Capitals to have many more users. Power attracted power.
What Alaster did know was that Bloodlines were nearly as diverse as Special Constitutions. Instead of one Ability from the Monster, the user would gradually get access to most, if not all of the Abilities. In essence, it was bound to increase the person’s power, regardless of the type. Supposedly, even those with Bloodlines from weaker Monsters, such as Goblins, still received a good boost in power.
But that was beside the point. One needed to possess a Mana Crystal to begin with, and they were so fragile that if one wasn’t careful and slow, it was very easy to crack it, rendering the whole thing useless. During Alaster’s adventures, he had only encountered two Mana Crystals before, at least from the Monsters he was able to sit down and butcher. But both times, he had been too inexperienced to properly carve them out. He hoped that the Butcher would be more effective.
After making his choice and summoning his new Undead, he had to admit, it was underwhelming. Understandably so, but still disappointing. It was basically just a standard naked Skeleton with a rusty cleaver in one hand and an equally rusty knife in the other.
Nonetheless, it went to work. As the Combat oriented Undead fought the Monsters, they would gradually move from place to place, allowing the Undead Workers to haul the corpses away from the battle. The Undead Butcher dragged one of the Corpses out of the pile and got to work.
It was by no means a clean process. Blood splattered the ground, quickly being churned into mud by the Workers moving back and forth with more Corpses.
Yet all of this was only seen in between working on his Spells. Aila was a wonderful teacher of Magic, but she was harsh. It did not help that Alaster was working on a Magic that was instinctively opposed to his natural Mana.
Necromantic Mana sought to destroy, but Earth Mana was simply there. It didn’t care for the reason it was there, but once there, it was stubborn to move. Which was just one of the reasons it was so powerful and defensive.
It had taken Alaster only a few days to learn [Flame Bolt]. Fire Mana was different, but similar to Necromantic Mana. But it took the young man nearly two weeks to learn even the basic Earth Spell [Rock Bolt]. Despite its name, it was basically just conjuring a rock two fists wide and hurling it at the target.
After he had finally learned it, he had thought he was done and would move onto the next School of Magic. He was wrong. Aila compared it to a toddler walking.
Alaster had only barely learned he had feet, let alone attempting to simply stand. He was a long way from learning how to walk and even further before he could run.
After learning the spell, she forced him to train it, and the other Bolts. Changing its direction after being cast, changing its shape, conjuring more than one, and even more variations. Things that Alaster had previously left the System to do as he leveled the Ability.
The days were long, but the nights were worse. The Monsters almost never stopped coming, which meant that his Undead never stopped dying. He was constantly waking up to rebuild or resummon them. This prompted him to use [Death Embrace] more often. The Undead didn’t feel tired nor the need to sleep.
In addition to temporarily transforming into a Skeleton and no longer needing to eat or sleep, he also found it easier to work through the Magics. With his emotions muted, he was able to approach the Magic with a purely analytical mind. Which Aila didn’t appreciate. She believed Magic was something one had to feel.
Alaster agreed, but one first had to learn the Magic before they could truly begin to feel it. So, Alaster would use [Death Embrace] to first learn the Magic, then with the help of the System, he would begin to experiment with the Spell and feel it. The Bonus was simply too valuable an asset.
With all of his Undead, which was truly reaching impressive numbers, it was beginning to grow more and more complicated to command them. [Death Embrace] made that so much easier, but he couldn’t help but feel like he would soon need others to command as the numbers grew.
After all, armies weren’t led by a single commander, but by a chain of command. It was much easier to command a dozen individuals who all had another dozen under their command than it was to simply command all hundred forty.
Though Alaster did see himself growing more skilled at doing just that. But his desire to raise an Undead capable of thought and command still grew as the days passed.
Laying down on his mound of crudely cut furs, provided by the Undead Butcher, Alaster looked up at the sky. The nights had grown warm enough to not require a closed shelter, so long as a fire was burning nearby. Very little snow was still present, and life was beginning to flourish once more.
But that green life of trees and grass was soon going to be covered by the blood and death of many humans before the snows came once more. Aila occasionally left to bring back supplies, she hated dried meats and preferred options with her meals. But she would occasionally bring back stories of how the Militaries of the Nations were moving.
More and more battles were being fought. No wars were officially being waged, but Aila believed it to be just weeks away before the entire continent was embroiled in war. As Alaster listened, he could not help but think about Onigas.
It was the only city he actually cared about, and even then, only two families, both of which were vastly important to the city itself. They would be the most protected should an attack on the city occur.
As Alaster listened to the most recent tales Aila told while brushing her hair, he promised himself that when the sun rose, he would ask her to teach him how to raise an Undead capable of command. He needed to be able to operate independently of his Undead.
He could already raise forty Undead, twenty-five of whom were Blackguards, four of whom were Night Children, five of whom were Minotaurs, and the last being his Undead Stallion, which had not seen much use since its creation. His Horde Skeletons could now number in the sixties if he was mediating. And now he could raise an additional three Undead Soldiers and one Undead Archer.
He had an actual army, and while they were weaker than the average Adept, he doubted anything less than Thirty Combat Adepts could defeat them. And with the Wars about to rage, most of the soldiers would be drafted, most of whom would be Adepts who hadn’t chosen a Combat Adept Class and would still be largely limited to their combat Abilities from when they were Novices.
Alaster looked up at the stars, finally confident that he was a force to be reckoned. He would have an impact on whatever conflict he was involved in. And yet, he knew he wasn’t powerful enough to rescue his sister. Not just in raw power, but in knowledge. He still knew nothing.
For now, though, he would continue to grow in strength. When the time came, he would be ready to act. Blood would spill, both his, and his enemy’s.