Millie popped the lid off of the [Reward Box: Common]. Inside was a cupcake. Dead center. It hadn't jostled or moved with the box at all. It was colorful, with a tall mound of frosting on a wide thick cake.

******

[CUPCAKE OF DESTINY]

It's a delicious cupcake. You've hit an important milestone in your journey as an adventurer, and this will help you commemorate it. For 1 hour after you've eaten the Cupcake of Destiny, the next three sources of XP you gain are doubled.

[DOES NOT WORK BEYOND LEVEL 10]

******

Millie was surprised something like that would come from a common box. As tempting as it was to use immediately and get double XP from her next quest turn-in, she knew that she would be better served to wait until she neared level 10. Hopefully, she wouldn't forget she had it.

She looked up at the owlbear carcass, and Pax and Quinn were still hacking away at the pelt. It looked like hard work. She couldn't tell how much progress they were making, but it didn't seem like much. Millie shrugged. She'd offered to help, and they declined. So whatever.

Next she undid the ribbon on the [Reward Box: Uncommon] let it fall away. She lifted the lid, and inside this one was a round bottle with a cork stopper.

******

[Uncommon Healing Potion]

[Uses: 2/2]

Drinking this potion will instantly restore 20% of your maximum HP and another 10% over the next 5 seconds.

******

"Simple and useful," Millie said to the rat skeleton. "I think my [Gravebolt] has a new best friend." The minion squeaked a response.

The next box held a blue potion in an identical bottle to the first:

******

[Uncommon Magic Potion]

[Uses 2/2]

Drinking this potion will instantly restore 20% of your maximum MP. The next damaging spell you cast will do 10%.

******

"Oooh, fancy," Millie muttered. Luckily her new cloak had pockets that could hold the bulbous potion bottles. She wasn't sure what to do about the [Cupcake of Destiny], though. Would it get smashed and ruined in the pocket? Would it ruin the cloak?

Better not try it. Millie put the lid back on the common box and got to her feet. The skinning pair really seemed to be having trouble getting the pelt off the carcass.

"Are you two sure I can't help?"

"No! We've got it!" shouted Pax. "Smooth as—" a couple grunts and other noises later "—butter."

"Sure thing," Millie said. She was just about to turn around and head back toward Cragfall, when she looked down at her skeletal rat companion. Millie smiled from ear to ear. She knelt on the ground, directly in front of the withered owlbear. Neither Pax nor Quinn could see her from where they were. "Watch this," she whispered to the rat. She placed her hand on the owlbear's huge beak.

[Skelemation] took 60 seconds to cast. Obviously, the owlbear was much higher level than Millie was. She'd gained 1 since it had died, which meant the difference was a little smaller. There was still a high chance the creature would resist being reanimated, but there was a non-zero chance that she could have an undead giant owlbear under her control.

That opportunity alone was worth taking the time to cast the spell. When she added in scaring the absolute hell out of Pax and Quinn for the way they acted when they found out she was a [Death Mage], well, Millie hoped the same luck or god or whatever had helped her get her advanced class would help her here.

As the spell ended, the black-white deathfire moved from her hands and into the corpse. Millie immediately knew it had succeeded. Against the odds, Millie felt the fire burn into the beast, coating the skeleton, and giving it the power to rip its way out of the thick, dense mass of muscles, organs, skin, fur, and feathers that held it captive.

The body began to heave, and Millie smiled. She stood up and took a few steps back to watch what she'd done. The owlbear seemed to be standing up, raising its haunches even as Pax and Quinn had their knives jammed into it, tearing their tools away from them. Millie saw them fall to the ground, horrified looks on their faces. Real terror. Millie drank it in. It was how they looked at her earlier, but this time, there was a reason.

Millie was in control of something that could end them as quickly as she thought it. That knowledge made Millie feel strong, powerful. Even at only level 2, she knew she could overwhelm these two adventurers.

…and then [Skelemate] their remains to keep them as her minions, too.

Something inside her reveled at the thought. The [Death Mage] class hadn't—so far—affected the way she thought or felt, but at that moment, as she imagined ripping the skeletons from the adventurers' bodies, Millie could sense a flicker of the class itself trying to influence her decision to act.

She steeled herself against it. She understood immediately and innately why so few [Necromancers] were good now. Why her dad said it was impossible to find someone who wasn't evil.

It was that feeling. That need. The power of death. That power that she held over everything and everyone.

And she was only level 2. Millie swallowed hard.

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She turned her attention back to the task at hand and reined herself in. The owlbear skeleton had pulled itself free from its body at this point, the skin, meat, and viscera pooled at its bony feet. Pax and Quinn were covered in blood, moving backward on all fours, scrambling away from the undead creature.

Millie's new pet looked at her and made a low growl. "Say hello to Pax and Quinn," she said.

In response, the owlbear turned in place to face the two horrorstruck people on the ground. It rumbled again, tilting its head and bobbing it slightly, making sure the two of them knew it was aware of them and directing the noise in their direction.

While it followed her instructions, Millie pulled up its status pane.

******

[STATUS: SKELEMATED OWLBEAR][ELITE]

CREATURE TYPE: Undead, Beast, Avian

LEVEL: 10

—HP: 220

—MP: 0

—STR: 18

—DEX: 10

—CON: 22

—INT: 4

—WIS: 2

SKILLS:

—Charge, Rampage, Claw, Bite

DEATH MAGE ENHANCEMENT: This creature can be used as a mount.

******

At the moment, Millie wasn't concerned with the actual skills the owlbear came with. Nor was she even considering the elite status or level difference between it and her.

She was only reading the Death Mage Enhancement. She could use it as a mount! She could ride it! Millie wasn't one-hundred percent certain what the differences were between a creature this large being designated a mount versus simply climbing on top and riding it.

Not wasting even a second, Millie moved toward her new friend and as she did so, it automatically lowered itself to the ground, folding its front paws beneath it and placing its skull very close to the ground.

This worked out well for Millie in two ways: she could easily climb up the creature's shoulder to settle herself in on its back, and it made Pax and Quinn obviously more frightened as it moved its beak even nearer to them.

As she got herself into position, Millie felt the vertebrae under her shift and grow, a small seat of bone forming under her and a backrest growing upward. She could get used to this.

The death mage smiled as she looked down on the pair whose life she'd ostensibly saved.

"Next time someone saves your lives," Millie said, "consider not being so hateful to them. Or they might not do it the next time." She turned her new mount around to face the direction she'd need to travel to get back to Cragfall. "Enjoy the pelt." The owlbear stomped on the meat still attached to a particularly thick piece of its former hide. "You're welcome."

She then urged the owlbear skeleton forward, heading back to town, the undead rat scrambling up the owlbear's spine and settling into her lap. Millie could get used to this.

###

There were no rules in Cragfall prohibiting class-based pets, companions, familiars, or—most importantly to Millie—mounts. That didn't stop the guards at the gate from stopping her before she could enter the city.

A particularly burly guard was already waiting in the center of the road as she walked up. His sword was unsheathed and he had two other guards behind him holding spears at the ready. They blocked were blocking entry back into the city.

Millie had seen this coming. Both figuratively and literally. The guards were well aware of her approach long before she got there, and she was approaching town on what boiled down to an elite undead monster. She understood their trepidation and concern.

She waved as she got near enough for it to be visible, a smile on her face. She got no response. She hadn't expected one.

The closer she got, the more nervous she saw the guards were. As she got within a few dozen yards, she saw the spearmen actually tense up and get ready to defend from an attack.

Could they not see that she wasn't actually a monster?

A voice deep, deep within her mind said, Not yet. She pushed it down.

"Hey, guys, remember me?" She urged the skeletal owlbear to stop. The guards didn't respond.

"I left town a few hours ago. From this gate."

Again, nothing.

"Just heading back in to turn in my quest," she said and gave them a thumbs up. She waited a beat and then, "Well, I'm gonna head on in."

"Hold on, miss," said the swordsman in front. "I'm not sure if that's such a good idea."

"Why is that?"

He either grunted or coughed. Millie couldn't tell which. "Umm, well, your monster—"

"My mount, you mean."

"Yes. We don't allow undead monsters—"

"Mount," Millie repeated, speaking over him.

Unfazed, he continued, "—within the city walls. I'm sorry."

Millie didn't respond for a moment. She looked at each one of the three guards and made eye contact in turn. Finally, she said, calmly. "Look. I'm new to this. I'm a level 2 [Death Mage], and I just want to turn in my tutorial quest." Between the phrases level 2 and tutorial quest, she saw the guards loosen up a bit. "It's not a monster, though. It was. You know, when it was trying to kill me and a couple other people as part of a public quest in the Pines, but now, it's just a pet."

At that, the owlbear made a low rumble that made the three guards take a step back.

"Okay, not just a pet—sorry!—but still, I was able to reanimate it. I didn't think I'd be able to [Skelemate] him, but I did. He's totally under my control, and you know as well as I do that if he were to attack anything or anyone, I would be the one flagged for it." She paused for dramatic effect. "Which now that I think about it, would be the same thing that happens to you if you attack us and prevent us from entering town."

The guards shared a look, and the two spearmen relaxed and rested the butts of their spears on the ground. The one in front, obviously the one in charge, said, "But we can't allow a monster—"

"It's not a monster. And now that I think about it, I'm pretty certain that there are no city laws or System rules about bringing pets, companions, familiars, or mounts inside the gates. I think you would have a very hard time detaining us, especially once the magistrate or captain of the guard."

He sheathed his sword and sighed. "Fine. You may be right, but I'm just trying to protect the citizens from threats."

"So am I," Millie said. "Just ask the ranger and mage Pax and Quinn when they come home later. You'll know them because they're alive from where I saved their lives." The owlbear skeleton chirped, for lack of a better term. Millie nodded and the mount walked forward. The guards moved to the side of the road and watched her pass.

Gods, Millie thought to herself, I'm only level 2. And the city guards were terrified of me.

The voice that had come from deep inside her before whispered, You ain't seen nothing yet.