On the top, within a mountain there stood a castle in ruins. In the courtyard, a skeleton in black armour was standing surrounded by a bunch of other skeletons.

That, of course, was Connor. He was practising his blessing to create undead creatures. The skeleton was the easiest and most basic form to create but also it was the very weakest undead unless infused with a great amount of power to make it a higher rank.

The ranking was, among other things, also explained by shade. The higher the rank of a creature the higher the required power for them to be created. Also for the undead, their intelligence is determined by the amount of power infused into them during their creation. 

The lowest rank according to the shade is a soldier. They are the basic non-intelligent undead, unable to make a decision on their own. If left alone they will just wander around, killing any living they find. The rank above the soldier was called commander by shade. The commander class skeleton has the ability to control and order the lesser undead, the soldiers. They serve as the arm of the next higher rank of undead: the general class. They have the command over the commander class and the soldiers. Their purpose is the tactical guidance of the troops during large scale combat. Due to the large amount of power required to create them they are highly intelligent, making them even better at their job. And the last class Connor could create were the elites. The elites could think for themselves, make decisions, and command all the other ones except the king himself, which was Connor, the last class. While they could, of course, command troops, their true purpose lied in their individual combat power and not their strategic capability, making them a noteworthy force even when alone.

Connor also learned how to control the blessing of the plague god. This enabled him to coat his weapon in deadly poison, which in turn killed a human in a matter of seconds after even the slightest scratch. In addition to that, he was also able to coat his whole body in a mist that had a corrosive effect on everything that comes in contact with it as well.

Connor had also been thought how to summon the weapon granted by the dark warrior god, Zetyx, the arch nemesis of the light warrior god Nekel.

This blessing now allowed him to summon a greatsword within his hands. The sword's hilt was made out of countless bones and little skulls. From the sword itself an ominous black aura leaked out and just looking at it would send a chill down the spine of any mortal who dared to rest his eyes upon this cursed blade.

After hearing all the explanations from the shade, Connor continued to practice creating the undead for some time until he was bored with it. The final result of his practice were two hundred soldier skeletons, ten commander class, and one general class skeleton.

*sigh* "I became bored with making so many skeletons, so what now? Not much of this sea of bones remains either." Connor talked as he looked at the skeletons roam around. Only the ten commander class and the general class skeleton were standing still, not moving an inch, as they were not mindless like the soldiers, that needed to be controlled and directed. They had enough intelligence to know how to respect their king, it was in the essence of their being to obey him.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Connor turned around, not minding the standing skeletons, and walked over to the floating shade.

"Hey, Shade! Isn't there anything to do here? I'm bored of creating skeletons and there are no longer materials to make more here anyway." 

The shade paused for a moment and then spoke:"Hmm... Well, if you are interested, there is a bandit encampment at the foot of this mountain. I scouted the area around the mountain, there are only forest and that encampment."

"Huh... Bandits? Well, this should be fun enough. I wanted to try out this little army of mine anyway. Let's go."

Connor walked back to the skeletons with intelligence. They still had not moved, not even turned around without any command. "Follow me. We move to the foot of the mountain. Also, you", Connor pointed his finger at one of the skeletons and spoke "the general, need a name. You shall be called Krolzis. Any objections?" 

"Oh man! What a lame name. It just came to me I am really bad at names." Connor was thinking.

The skeleton general, now named Krolzis, kneeled down and spoke "None, my king. I live again to serve you." 

As he spoke, the commander class skeletons kneeled down as well.

Connor looked at this scene with a satisfied look "Good. Now Krolzis, all the soldiers here will be under your command. This includes the commanders. Go get some armour and a weapon, all of you!"

"By your will, my King," Krolzis spoke as he swiftly stood up.

As soon as he did the commanders and the soldiers moved around the castle and the courtyard in search for armour and weapons like the king had commanded them to do and in a matter of minutes every single one of them was wearing a rusty armour and weapons. They took everything, swords, axes even broken blades as long as it could be used in some way as a weapon they would use it.

The commanders were wearing a better, more complete set of armour than the soldiers. Their armours were not that rusty and damaged and also their weapons were in better a condition.

And lastly, Krolzis, the general, was wearing the best armour they could find. His armour looked similar to the one Connor was wearing but it did have rust here and there. Overall it was still way better than anything the others were wearing. For weapons, he settled on a shortsword and a metal tower shield.

Connor looked at his little army and felt satisfied. They were his to command and loyal to the death. Well at least until their next death, and even then he could always just resurrect them again.

"Move out! We march down the mountain!" Connor commanded in a loud voice.

Hearing his king's order Krolzis took control over the army."From the formation! Follow the king!" When he was finished giving the order, the skeletons had already formed the square formation behind Connor. Krolzis followed just a few steps behind him with the ten commanders, in turn, following him and lastly the soldiers. They all moved in unison as if they were one. They already behaved like a trained army. This made Connor even amazed more at the skill the general class had. Then Connor remembered that there is still one rank above that which in turn would be even better. He could not feel be anything but happy thinking that from here on it would only get even better.

"Can't wait to try it, hehe."

At the foot of the mountain was a forest, covered by snow. Inside the forest, a clearing, which the bandits used for their encampment. They had set up a stockade around their camp to keep animals and potential enemies away.

The bandits slept in the tents they had set up there. The leather tent,  whose the creator obviously was not best, were set up without a system just all over the place. They had about thirty of them, but currently, some of them were put down to make space for the grand feast they were holding in their own style. They successfully robbed the caravan that was passing nearby. In the process, they killed everyone except the young girls. For them, they had other plans. The girls were taken to their base, the bandit would indulge in their bodies and after they were done they would simply kill them and toss them in the forest for some wild animal to eat them.