“Well, that’s just interesting,” Zarian said, raising five out of six goblin skeletons. He’d prepared for an eighty to sixty percent failure rate since skeletons were harder to raise than fleshy undead.

Instead of a high failure chance, he had a high success rate.

His reanimated goblin skeletons rose and stripped off their flesh like throwing aside their clothes. Skin, muscle, tendons, organs, everything sloughed off like goopy, melted ice cream.

Whatever still clung, they tore off easily with boney fingers.

Some blood remained on their white frames, but no flesh. Not even their eyeballs or their long ears.

Five rictus grins with long fangs looked at Zarian, waiting for his orders.

He used his Identify trait on all of them and received the same info.

“Most of the goblins had a variance of levels between 20 and 25. But each of the skeleton versions came out at Level 18. The book hadn’t explained that part in detail,” Zarian said, wanting to hear his own thoughts aloud.

Nobody would dare call him crazy for that here. Not with the present company, at least.

Para vibrated a patch of the cloak against his back, pointing something out in the four o’ clock direction. The vibration wasn’t urgent, but Zarian appreciated the heads up.

He rolled his aching right shoulder where a bullet remained. He turned to see Gilbert standing in the doorway.

Gilbert looked with wide eyes at Zarian and the goblin skeletons. His attention shifted more and more toward the act of ungodliness as the animated creatures acted out randomly by doing goblin things while having no orders.

They pushed at each other, slapped each other around, and even went as far as stealing rib bones from each other. They spoke no language or anything, showing that they were voiceless things, but not completely silent.

Most of their actions came with the slightly comical and disturbing rattling sound outside of any overt impacts. Gilbert looked more disturbed than amused as the goblin skeletons played.

“They’re adorable little guys, aren’t they?” Zarian asked.

“Um, uh, well, if that’s what you think.” Gilbert swallowed dryly. He licked his dried lips with a dry tongue. “Sorry, I just wanted to make sure of something.”

Zarian’s hood was down, so he gave Gilbert a questioning gaze the big man could see.

Gilbert sighed heavily. “I was hoping you wouldn’t do necromancy with Ken and the others.”

“Huh? No. Why would I? I said I’ll bury them, didn’t I?”

Gilbert nodded his head rapidly. “Yeah, yeah, you did. Sorry. Just all out of sorts. Not thinking straight.”

“Hm. Well, before you go. How about this to cheer you up?” Zarian turned to a lone goblin skeleton leaning against the wall, looking standoffish. That one didn’t want to play like the other four. “Hey, I’m going to call you … Loner. Do you know where the Slave Cook is?”

Loner stood at attention, little head held high. The others stopped fooling around and watched Zarian intently. They reminded him of obedient dogs who waited on their master’s orders.

Maybe I’m a little crazy to think they’re adorable this way, Zarian thought.

He wished Ariana was here. She would agree with him.

Loner looked back down the hall before turning back to Zarian and nodding his skull. The standoffish skeleton knew where to go to find the Slave Cook.

For reconfirmation, Zarian asked all the skeletons the same question. They all nodded.

Bingo bango, they were in business.

“Thank God,” Gilbert praised.

“Could be more than just a god in the System,” Zarian said under his breath.

He brushed past Gilbert and entered the rubbish room. He made a beeline to Naomi and knelt in front of her before she could get up and act all Marine-like.

“I don’t know what I did to upset you, but please accept my apology. I really liked what you did with the dark claymore. You are badass, beautiful, and a great battle partner. So if I’m being dumb, just let me know, okay?”

Naomi’s face was bright with shock and embarrassment. Her mood seemed to worsen when Bianca let out a squeal and kept saying too many confusing girly things in Spanglish.

Naomi couldn’t even speak, so Zarian grabbed her hand with both of his.

“I forgot to say thank you, didn’t I? I thought I did but I don’t mind repeating. Thank you. You had my back from the start when you had enough reasons to hate me. Now I’m going to conduct a few more tests with Hannah, and then we’ll go get some water. I’ll like you to fight some more if you’re able.”

“I’m able, sir!” Naomi shouted.

Zarian smiled. “Cool.”

He turned to Hannah while Naomi remained seated. It looked like Naomi needed more time to recover.

Bianca was all over her, with her squeaky, Half-Spanish, Half-English, girl talk. Zarian left that alone.

He took Hannah out into the hallway. The four playful goblin skeletons were in the middle of dogpiling each other.

“Oh, God!” Hannah stumbled back.

“I know, right? It’s horrifying, but I can’t stop watching them,” Gilbert said. “Look at them go. It’s like watching a cartoon in real life.”

“Separate, guys,” Zarian ordered.

They had to wait for the goblin skeletons to untangle themselves. Para helped with her flesh and bone tentacles, unclipping goblin skeletons from each other.

“First things first. Can I use multiple spells from the grimoire?” Zarian turned to the spellbook bobbing next to him, its thick chains connecting the bound skill to his soul.

With a whim, the grimoire flipped to the Bloody Lifesteal pages. Nothing happened.

He began evoking the blood spell, and the skeletons dropped to the floor in neat piles. The bone piles weren’t all the same, but they were obviously unnatural where they dropped.

Zarian flipped to the necromancy pages and evoked Raising Advancing Skeletons. The spell raised each skeleton perfectly.

The process was almost instant compared to when they first separated from their old flesh.

“Okay, that confirms that. Only one spell at a time while using the grimoire,” Zarian said. “I understand from a rule-maker standpoint why that has to be a weakness. I might earn an unlimited supply of spells in the future. It wouldn’t be fair if I can use them all willy-nilly.”

Zarian would probably try to break that rule eventually.

“You’ll have to think ahead of which spell you’re using,” Hannah said shakily. “I believe your red blood spell works well with Para while catching and hurting monsters. Without that, it’ll be harder for those … weaker than you … to fight.”

“I agree,” Zarian said. “On the other hand, with these undead gobos, I don’t need much help. That’s the grand appeal of necromancy.”

Hannah and Gilbert fell into a chilly silence.

Zarian smirked. “But I’m a wizard apprentice, not a one-trick necromancer. I like to layer up all the magic abilities I can. Hannah, do me a favor and use Basic Enhancement on that good skelly over there. His name is Loner. I think they’re all guys. I can tell the more I look at them.”

The standoffish goblin skeleton was back to leaning against the wall. He waited with boney arms crossed over his ivory ribcage.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Hannah shuffled forward shyly. She greeted Loner with a hello.

The standoffish goblin glared at her with his empty eye sockets and rictus grin. His fangs were as long as her pinky.

Hannah took a deep breath before activating her skill. She aimed her palm over Loner’s face, emitting a soft glow that turned into some runic symbols, geometric patterns, and hieroglyphs.

Zarian watched closely with Identify activated. Again, the runes slipped from his complete understanding. But he memorized a few before they faded into Loner.

The goblin skeleton jolted upright. He flexed his bony hands, turned to the wall, and punched it.

He struck like a hammer and sent down a scattering of stone chips. Then Loner turned and showed off his fist. Not a bone out of place.

“Groovy,” Zarian said, grinning from ear-to-ear.

The other goblin skeletons grew excited and crowded around Hannah, their bones rattling about. The poor woman was doing everything she could not to scream.

“Back off,” Zarian ordered, his voice cracking, his throat drying. Ugh, thirsty.

The skeletons listened right away.

“Gilbert, get everyone,” Zarian said.

The big man disappeared into the doorway. Soon, everyone was out in the hall.

Naomi was back at Zarian’s side with an expressionless face. Bianca was now entwined with Hannah. Gilbert looked over everyone from his lofty height.

“We have two more options,” Zarian said. “Bloody option or skelly option. Do we want to fight anything in our way to the Slave Cook and give our weakest members leveling opportunities? Or do we let the skeletons fight for us and let them level up?”

“Eh, it would be best to become stronger, yeah?” Bianca mumbled. “But … I’m barely holding it together. I’m not doing so well, Senor Zarian.”

“I need water and food, please and sorry,” Hannah said demurely.

“I’ll push if I have to,” Gilbert offered.

“No.” Zarian shook his head. “You three wait back and conserve your energy. There will be more leveling chances later. Time for the skeleton parade to play. Plus Naomi.”

“Okay, then let me enchant them. And if you give them all dark weapons, I’ll enchant those, too,” Hannah offered.

“Wouldn’t that drain you?” Zarian asked.

“Yes … but I just received a quest from the System. It’ll give me increased experience for the work.”

By the time Hannah finished, she was practically dragging her feet. But she leveled up to Level 5 and her Basic Enchantment was at a higher level, too.

She’d learned a new enchantment as well: Sharper.

All the skeletons were reinforced. All of their dark swords were sharpened.

Naomi received a medium-sized straight sword. Her weapon received the reinforcement enchantment.

Without further ado, Loner led the way. Parasite threads and hairs reached out even further ahead to scout. Loner took care of pointing out traps, and Para searched for enemies.

Two skeletons guarded the rear. Two stayed at Naomi’s side.

“I have little helpers now,” she said, smirking.

“Technically, minions,” Zarian said.

“Are we the villains?”

“Well, no, but minions sound better than helpers.”

Naomi chuckled, sounding lively and excited. The skeletons click their teeth rapidly like chattering jaws to laugh with her.

Zarian gave the signal to stop after feeling a serious vibration from Para. He checked their six o’ clock before ordering one skelly from the rear to move upfront.

Naomi and her minions joined Loner and the extra skelly. The five of them formed a V-shaped formation.

Barely a few seconds passed after the group was set when a bunch of goblins appeared from around the corner and charged down the hall at them. Somehow, they had advanced warning and were prepared.

They even had weapons this time. The armaments were rusted, chipped, and barely serviceable, but their addition complicated matters.

A skelly took a crossbow bolt to the head and fell on its back. From there, Zarian knew this was far more dangerous than any prior encounter.

“Drop,” Zarian ordered.

Naomi and the skeletons fell in sync, laying on their bellies. Zarian pushed his hands forward tensely like he was facing great resistance.

Then the tension broke free and a volley of heavy dark bolts flew forward. The dark bolts soared silently over the prone frontal fighters and ripped chunks out of the first wave of goblins.

Six fell dead.

Others kept going, screaming wrathfully. A new goblin type barreled closer while holding old tower shields filled with holes – Bruisers, Best Alpha Skill: Shadow Armor.

Behind the bruisers, energetic goblins bounced from floor to wall to ceiling and back while preparing to spit globs of acidic vomit. They were Spitters, Best Alpha Skill: Shadow Stomach.

The spitters hurled volleys from behind the running bruisers. Zarian growled as he worked defense and offense.

He covered himself and the weaker humans with his Parasite Cloak. He raised a wall of dark spikes facing forward like a palisade in front of Naomi and the four upfront skeletons. And he slung forward another volley of dense dark bolts.

He got in a third volley after the second and broke up the charge, killing their momentum, before they slammed into the spiked palisade with a pile of bodies. Rushing goblins stabbed themselves into the sharpened staves. Muscular goblins tried to tear the palisade apart.

Nothing could break through immediately. Zarian’s side had a window to breathe and strike back.

“Attack,” Zarian ordered.

Naomi and the skeletons got to work. Enchanted dark swords cut with a silent and sharpened edge, hacking off reaching limbs and splitting wrathful faces like splitting cantaloupes. As the skeletons killed goblins, Zarian heard the soft ‘ding’ in his head reporting their success.

He imagined that they shared experience gains, most going to the goblins while some trickled to the novice necromancer. That would be a smart design of the System, especially since the skeletons could advance and evolve.

Things looked alright at first with the fight. Zarian was taxed with offense and defense, and there was the chaos of blood, death, and crazed goblins screaming insults in their language, but the battle was holding steady for now. The biggest issue, however, was the dark palisade breaking more and more, faster and faster.

Hannah showed up to do the dumbest and bravest thing ever, running around the extra cover Para provided and rushing ahead of Zarian. She slid to a stop on her knees at the front lines. She used her enchanting skill to reinforce the palisade, easing the burden on Zarian by a lot.

A spitter lunged onto the sharpened staves and stabbed itself, ignoring its own injury to get a shot at Hannah. Nobody else could help her other than Zarian.

He had already walked in to drag her out.

Para blocked the acidic bile shot with a thick strip of flesh. Naomi dashed over the palisade’s blunted backside and beheaded the spitter with a single sword swing.

“I’m sorry. That was stupid. But I was afraid what would happen if that wall broke,” Hannah blabbered. “Bianca and Gilbert would’ve stopped me, but I have a little extra in Agility than them and slipped away.”

Zarian handed her off to Gilbert and looked back to see a skeleton get dismantled by a strong goblin through a hole in the palisade. Even with it reinforced, there were growing chinks in their defense.

Zarian blasted the strong goblin’s head apart with a dark bolt. He directed the skeleton in the rear to fight up front. He sent more dark bolts flying, picking off targets that were on the verge of breaking past the line.

“Can’t you make more skeletons?” Bianca asked from behind.

Zarian wanted to, but his focus was scattered. He was spending so much aura he was afraid he would hit his limit and get them all killed.

“I’ll try.” Zarian evoked the skeleton spell on the freshly dead on the palisade and raised six more skeletons.

Their flesh and organs fell off. They untangled themselves from the wall and got to their feet on the wall or in front of it. Then Zarian formed dark blades for them before they attacked their former comrades, the still living corrupted goblins.

Yeah, he was hitting the limit. He felt pulled in a bunch of directions. The constant outflow of magic was unraveling him.

But Zarian didn’t dare stop. His side was winning. They were close to their goal. And this was a huge battle with loads of experience to earn.

So he pushed himself. Everyone else was doing the same, which had him doubling down.

He was commander, leader, and battle wizard. He could see the grand potential of his group like augments of himself, especially Naomi.

He watched Naomi cut down goblins one after another like a mad woman. She was both graceful and ruthless, brazen and beautiful. She had a vicious smile on her face, becoming one with the battle, unleashing her true self.

Zarian could see she was born for this life, as if she was always meant to live in the Infinita Star System. He was happy to see that despite how burdened he felt supporting everything, despite Wally and the others’ deaths.

Then Naomi made a mistake and had her side slashed open. Arcs of crimson blossomed from the gory wound. She hit the ground like a sack.

Two skeletons brought her back as she bled profusely. Gilbert went to work on her and removed the threat of death. She would be okay.

Zarian still felt tilted.

“Bianca, give us your best flash,” Zarian demanded.

“Yes, sir!” Bianca prepared her skill. It gathered in between her palms like a miniature solar flare about to go off.

Zarian dropped all of his dark conjurings. He flipped the pages on the grimoire and evoked the Bloody Lifesteal spell.

Then Bianca turned the hallway all searing white and painful. She blinded him along with the corrupted goblins.

That was okay. He didn’t need to see, and he didn’t need to concentrate too hard while in pain.

He walked forward and lent control to Para.

The parasite went on a rampage. Buffs from the Bloody Lifesteal spell and the Overpower trait kept her in motion, kept her dominant, and kept Zarian alright in the eye of a goblin-shredding storm.

By the time Zarian could see again, the battle was over, and he was covered with blood and strings of wet flesh. Para lapped the mess off with tongue-like tendrils.

She quivered, purring all over him. She enjoyed it a lot when he let her go wild.

Looking back, Zarian saw the Parasite Cloak had left a massacre of the remaining goblins. There were separate limbs and half-chewed heads. There were torsos filled with holes and flesh-flowers peeled off the bones until they looked like they were blossoming.

Para had made art out of the goblins.

Zarian nodded before flipping through his floating grimoire and evoking the skeleton spell.

Ten gobo skeletons rose from the mess. One hadn’t made it, remaining thoroughly broken. Most of them were Level 20 now.

Loner was Level 21.

How long would it take for them to advance and evolve?

Naomi had reached Level 18. Even the weaker members had new levels. It was good that everyone had grown, Zarian most of all, now Level 23.

But none of that mattered when Zarian heard a scratchy, feminine voice crooning around the bend of the hallway. He heard a flame crackling. He heard something sizzling like fat on a hot pan.

Something was put to boil. A knife landed with a thunk, thunk, thunk on a cutting board, slicing up something meaty.

He heard pouring liquid falling with a cool splash.

“We made it,” Zarian croaked, throat parched, belly rumbling. “The Slave Cook is just around the corner.”