Given the Necro-System had updated my intelligence in a sense there had a been a fairly broad array of topics provided directly into my consciousness. I wasn’t able to directly access everything in so short a space of time but a large amount of popular fiction and music was far easier to understand.
Not culturally, I eventually realised that I was a backward peasant on a fantasy world who scraped a bare living where the most exciting event was either a wandering Knight or Vagrant who realised that we existed. Once a man came who called himself a Troubadour, but in hindsight I think he was a deserter who had killed one and simply knew all the songs from his war unit.
He mostly sang about the triumph of the Immortal of the Good Side as it was and then he went into a series of bawdy songs about conquests he’d made of both men and women. As far as I could tell he simply drank through our stocks of alcohol, ate a whole roast wild pig and then left two days later in a hurry.
According to the data which I was barely able to access there was something called a playlist, which was consisted of scores of music in a collection. Some of it appealed to me and others remained strange to my hearing. At the very least it provided me with some background noise as I tried to adjust to my new sense of vision.
The world held a strong tint of red, as though viewing it through a crystal lens or one of the expensive glasses of drink my deceased Master/Mistress used to smash on my back when they were in a bad mood. Too bad I was unable to leave this Necro-Mecha but then as an animated enhanced skeleton soul riding inside a prototype machine far in advance of anything on this planet the liquid would simply run through me and spill on the floor.
I turned my attention towards movement. According to the basic education, I needed to first acclimatise myself to my immediate surroundings. There was a massive collection of data called video games which I came to understand as simulations of real life played for entertainment purposes. In particular a sub-genre of them called first person shooters gave me an idea of how to better operate when viewing through the red lenses directly.
‘Necro-System. The world has a red haze to it, is that a by-product of the qualities of the vision devices or can it be changed?’
My immediate surroundings hadn’t surprised me much. I was seeing clearly through the eyes of this construct, looking down at my clawed metallic feet. They were much designed in an attempt to emulate a dragon, it made me wonder how much of the Necro-Mecha form was in the shape of a winged creature of darkness and evil.
Dragons usually fought on both sides in the conflict, given how slow they aged, the sheer power at their disposal, magical abilities and high intelligence they participated in battles when they wanted, for as long as they wanted.
For my Master/Mistress to try and emulate one wasn’t a surprise. I didn’t remember much about my past, mostly the life of poverty in the village, escaping narrow death and then entering service for an interminable time for an outcast necromancer living in a broken down castle. But I knew one thing, they had an inferiority complex. Why else would they keep beating a poor peasant, keep them around and then finally sacrifice them to kickstart a personal project designed to impress the Dark Lord?
Stupid. According to my basic education from the Necro-System, this was meant to be a Mining Drone equipped with inbuilt basic devices, mapping system, self-repair swarms, ability to install weapon-grade devices, sheer physical strength and speed and averaging a height of three metres.
And what did they do with the design given by an advanced technological device? They turned the thing into some kind of hybrid dragon form which walked on two legs. If this mech had wings, breathed out flames and had claws then I’d need to repurpose it when I could.
….Why didn’t the Necro-System respond. I’d asked a question. Turning off my attempts to view it I sank back into the software of the prototype bonding machine. My authority was absolute, the image of the floating rotating skull remained there but it had slowed significantly. Even the amount of data I had been able to visualise internally but not actually process had reduced.
‘Power. I’ve wasted too much power.’
By spending my time focused on the skeleton, entering and inhabiting the prototype bonding machine. Even by simply thinking and planning I’ve burned off more energy that I thought. Best to be better organised then this by making a list of immediate objectives.
I had little short-term incentive as the Necro-System was under my direct control. I tried again, reducing my own presence inside the device as much as I could. Shutting down my vision, my control of the skeleton I once more turned into a soul presence but this time I saw through a blue tint out of empty eyeball sockets.
‘Necro-System, prioritise your own actions above my own. Reduce all data flow into my consciousness. I need to list a list of immediate objectives. Display in helmet only. Change outside vision to limited control.’
I waited...and waited before a notification display came up in my immediate field of vision. A blue tinted screen to my left. The vision inside the helmet narrowed and I was able to see a small window of the red tinted lenses showing me an outside view.
The loss of all control over the inhabited and partially inhabited skeleton wasn’t entirely comfortable but a necessary choice. A message from the Necro-System flared up and I swiped it away with a single glance.
Usually trying to kill rats was given as a quest to young adventurers as an initial quest, both to prove themselves and earn coin while introducing the jobs of combat and being rewarded for killing non-sentient creatures.
The small window of the red tinted lenses I focused on, trying my best to ignore the slowly flickering blue tinted screen which was clearly running lower on energy. Not that it was going to be an issue. Despite the relative isolated position of this ruined castle far enough away from the main battlelines and other inhabited areas finding rats wouldn’t be an issue.
The view outside was a chamber, I turned my head or what passed for it inside this attempt at a Mining Drone and saw the usual necromantic equipment my Master/Mistress had used in their works. Piles of random bones, a dozen bookshelves filled with texts which I had been deemed unworthy to touch or else face a lashing, a few cauldrons, walls daubed in dried blood symbols and other random junk collected over the long period of time someone had lived in this dump.
Yeah. I wasn’t planning to stay here, calculate my loot and build up an army of the undead. Zombies always required fresh corpses and skeletons were nothing in the comparison of this Mining Drone modified version which would easily crush bones into dust.
The small blue tinted screen flashed up in the corner of my vision once more with a message from the Necro-System.
If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
I was going to prioritise when I realised that I had already commanded the Necro-System to prioritise it’s own function over mine. Basically it was trying to warn me of the power situation without interrupting my own field of vision. I was going to ignore those messages for a while, not disable them, I’d just leave them alone.
Turning around the room and seeing the usual piles of my Master/Mistresses precious artefacts, items of power, ingredients for potions and probably hidden treasure I had a better idea but if it failed then I’d likely be dead.
I moved the small red vision down to my feet. Clawed feet. Dragon like feet. And likely a dragon form with non-functioning wings and the rest of the body. I raised an arm and pulled a hand into my field of view, another clawed hand. Also similar to a dragon.
‘Necro-System, answer me a question. What does someone who’s effectively dead, trapped inside a rough template of a technologically superior Mining Drone and needs to kill rats for soul energy need with the trapping of life? Do you think I should take my time and rummage through the items my dead Master/Mistress left behind to find anything of value and then find some way of storing it and carrying it off like a common adventure or demon warrior?’
Inside the rough template of the Mining Drone model my Master/Mistress had built according to the specifications of the failed prototype I stretched out my senses into the body itself. My energy went into the tips of the claws on the hands as I curled them closed, the legs ended in clawed feet, the back held a significant weight and there were an attempt at wings but they failed to respond. Likely, there for decoration. The body itself was tall but squat, the legs were reinforced but had patterns and additional metal attached I recognised without sight as an attempt at scales.
The head was what I truly wanted, no mock dragon mechanised golem would be complete without….ah. There it is. A horned creature with jaws and sharp metal designed to be teeth, sadly none of it was actually functional. My Master/Mistress had simply added additional weight onto the basic template provided in a vain attempt to impress the Immortal of the so-called Evil side into giving them a position.
I didn’t remember much about them but I knew that they had been vain. Evil, callous, isolated, heavily paranoid and vain. With the benefit of my new education they had chosen to add on what they considered as vital parts on a template far beyond their knowledge of necromantic and hedgerow magic.
But it still wasn’t entirely what I wanted. No, there had to be more..I just need to search for it. I was clearly running low on soul power or blood magic, or whatever passed with the runes melded with technology that animated this thing but there were always loopholes in magic.
The intent and action of killing were both interlinked. As the general cleaner of cauldrons and sweeper of floors as well as cleaning out decaying bodies and failed experiments I had learned a little bit of magic rules. Interesting how my new education gave me clear examples of magic in stories and other media but there was no mention of actual practical spells. Likely, technology worked better, or the prototype had entered a different reality or dimension aboard the containment ship when it crash-landed on my backwards planet.
‘Necro-System. Cancel previous questions. I want an immediate answer to two further questions. According to necromantic law and the rules of magic, as long as I kill those rats then the soul/blood energy will be adsorbed by the runes and yourself correct? The Necro-Mecha will in fact absorb death caused directly by my hand yes? I am the contractor in this case and you are the facilitator.’
...Processing….Processing….
….Checking existing database on Necromantic Magic. Database limited….checking alternative sources….
….Clarification….increase scope of blood ritual to increase power…..
…..Correction. Sentient forms deceased through direct action of administrator increase power.
‘Understood. Death powers me up. Powers you up, but I need to do the action and you need to process it. My Master or Mistress wasn’t as stupid as I thought they were. Ah, granted that I haven’t even found their trapped and bound soul artefact then maybe they were. I remember one thing though, they made it fire-proof. Once they tasked me with trying to break this box and I did, then burn it, use alchemical fire against it, even allowed me to channel a few of their death spells and nothing did the trick. I bet their soul in inside that box, or at least part of it partitioned away to make sure you didn’t devour them entirely when the Necro-Mecha was activated.’
I was clear on one aspect, if either side of the two warring Immortals found out about me before I was prepared then they’d yank my soul out of the metal egg which formed my present home and throw me into one of their respective afterlife's as another battery for their power.
Two immediate goals in front of me. I did remember to ignore the blue tinted screen even though it was beginning to flash faster now which was clearly the Necro-System giving me a warning about low power. Time in many ways wasn’t on my side.
But I did know one face about dragon-kin which my Master/Mistress had been proud of telling me, they had a wide range of powers, magical abilities, close to immortal lifespans, wings, strength, intelligence and one power which I bet they’d clumsily build into this rough template of a Mining Drone.
If I appeared as a dragon style construct it wouldn’t give off too many easy answers, they’d be common enough on both sides. Far more basic and easier to break than this form but it would act as my disguise until I was ready and enhanced a little but further.
Yes, the one fact about dragon was that they had an ability which scared almost every living thing on the planet. They could breath fire or a variant of it. There was no point in my desperately searching the ruins of the castle looking for rats, even tame ones kept inside cages which I had once considered my best friends in my old pathetic life.
Besides, if I was the one to kill them then in theory their souls and energies would enter my form and I could store them away. Another reason for the two Immortals of Evil and Good to take me out and destroy me as fast as they could. The Dark Empress and Empress of Light had never won again each other, not on a permanent level, only fought over a thousand years according to legends and now I was becoming clear on why.
According to the details records when I’d had my education and entered the glowing green floating skull which made up the software of the prototype bonded self-improvement unit there was a possibility of building a virtual reality which could accommodate the minds and souls of mining workers dead or alive.
‘Necro-System. I’m aware that this present form had a number of alterations to it to appear as a dragon and this is likely a single chance that I’m going to get or we both die. But I took a look around these chambers and there’s a whole lot of precious necromantic tomes and materials which can burn pretty good. I mean the entire castle is a ruin ready to go up in the heat. We’re in the middle of summer after all. Please tell me that my Master or Mistress decided to install apparatus to enable this form to breath fire? We’re going to burn the castle down and then find the residual soul of a necromancer trapped inside a metal box in the process. A big enough fire ought to kill enough rats and other creatures to satisfy immediate power needs for a decent amount of time.’
'Administrator authority confirmed. Burn it. Burn everything and we'll find that old necromancer and harness their soul as the first of many into the systems. I'd like to learn a little more about virtual reality construction for workers. Burn it all. We don't need trash. We need souls and blood. We need power.'