A series of loud knocks at the door woke Grave up from their sleeping position on the ground by the fire. Grave was in far too much pain by the time they came back from killing the undead to get into their bed so they just decided to pass out on the floor which did no favors for the aches and pains. Grave was able to support their weight on the injured leg now and shuffled towards the door and threw it open in the middle of the next set of knocks. Kreal stood with Grave’s shovel in hand, fist in the air, a slight smile lining his face that quickly turned to a frown as he appraised Grave.

“Report.” Kreal ordered Grave who grimaced before replying

“Undead, variant, freshly risen, killed it but it got a bite out of me before Leggy was put down and I had to use a potion to not bleed out.”

“Leggy?”

“It was what I called it when we fought. Was the corpse not by my shovel?”

“Only a trail of blood that loosely leads here Grave. Your shovel was near the caravan.” Kreal looked deep in thought before using his free hand to grasp at a bag at his waist. A small vial of swirling black liquid was handed over to Grave who uncorked and drank it immediately. Grave felt like their leg was itching but could also see the flesh wriggling and attempting to heal. Kreal spoke again

“The variant… was it a mass of flesh with a maw on two legs?” Grave felt their hands get clammy as they got a bad feeling

“Yes…”

Kreal grunted, tossed another potion at Grave, set the shovel down against the doorframe, and left leaving Grave to their worries and duties. Kreal always just left without explaining anything, just sowing seeds of confusion and stress. Grave wiped their face with their hand and picked up the shovel and began to limp out into the graveyard to finish his tasks for the day. But first to check up on the damage that Leggy caused.

The cart was wrecked but it wasn’t Grave’s so they were not concerned with that damage the real damage was the 5 other graves that were dug up and emptied of its contents. They could at least throw other bodies in but Leggy ate every single corpse that was available besides the 3 that were already prepared in the morgue which meant that Grave was down two entire plots! It would cut into their profits, albeit barely but Grave always needed something fixed or replaced. Grave decided to look through the wreckage of the cart to see if a ring or something fell off the nobles. I should have collected it yesterday, Grave griped as the cart only had the base iron nails and nothing extra shiny or exciting. Sighing deeply Grave got to work burying the bodies that were prepared.

–

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

I held my head in my hands pondering why things always turned out wrong and would have remained in that position had I not felt the presence in front of me. I looked up and saw a creature that consisted of only 3 floating skulls and an aura made of spectral white flames. It could interact with the world with the aura but it burned whatever was being held. It also was smarter like I had wanted but it just gave it a natural curiosity about everything. It could think for itself and with the vast amount of magical power concentrated into those three skulls it used it for the most mundane of things. It currently was holding a branch with a caterpillar on it that burst like an egg in a fire but it kept reconstructing the caterpillar into a facsimile of life and watched it burst over and over again. “Master” It spoke with the voice of an old woman and a child overlaid one another “Why does it burn? Why does it not simply stop burning?” I felt my head begin to ache as we had a conversation, again, about how most things could not, simply, not burn. It thought in silence after that conversation before flitting away to grab more things from outside. I stood to look around the area to look over the renovations that I have been directing. The main room was mostly unchanged besides the stone being carved near the doorways and the floor being repaired in its entirety. The Summoning Table was still in the middle of the room however small holes were made for the legs for added stability and it created the appearance of it being formed directly from the ground which I found artistic. The tiles directly around were carved by a flame into the shapes of skulls which my creation made when testing how much stone would burn, giving them a blackened color I quite liked. I mentally ordered some skeletons to follow me as I ventured out into the ruins, although ruins was not the most accurate description any longer. I had my workers demolish everything they could and begin to rebuild buildings as barracks and personal manors. The demolishing had been going exceptionally well however the rebuilding has only seen one barracks that the workers took turns sleeping in. I was skeptical that they even needed to sleep but a little quirkiness is fine especially with such a large labor force. I continued to walk through the freshly paved streets until it brought me to a very overgrown and ruined road into the forest beyond. The trees looked sickly but pulsed with wisps of power, their leafless boughs bending slightly down towards the earth like grasping hands. Before my evolution the road led to Pierca about a 3 day walk away which was the nearest settlement, now? Who knew? The border to the kingdom before was about a month on horseback but from the little Farlow mentioned I was unable to tell if it was closer or further away. I did know there were no settlements within a week's travel but as Farlow failed to give me a map It would be up to me to reclaim what was lost and expand further. The skeletons I brought with me were ordered to begin clearing the road and they quickly formed axes with their bones and began cutting down anything that was overhanging the path. Satisfied I returned to my lodging to see about creating a mount.

The mount was basic, two skeletons mashed together in a vaguely horse shape. I figured I would try a lower power rune combination to create it as I just wanted easier ways to travel and my previous failure made me wary of making a flying mount. I just used the runes for ‘Movement’ ‘Balance’ ‘Speed’ and ‘Call’ to hopefully make it summonable across great distances. I manifested my magic and a trickle of power filled up the summoning table and began to infuse the skele-horse that I made. The entire creation shuddered as my magic animated it and it began to stamp very horse like in the back but the front was beating its hand hooves rhythmically against the table. As the summoning table finished animating it it looked towards me and broke off a finger from its hoof and dropped it at my feet. I collected it and pushed power into it which brought my mount to my side. I smiled wide, pleased with my expertise and skill, I spoke to name my faithful steed “Yan” Yan immediately looked towards me. I began to laugh with absolute joy