It took a very long time for the directionally-challenged Maria to get out of the forest. Things were so bad that, eventually, she began burning down the oddly-colored forest and paved her own way out by just walking forward in a straight line until she finally got out. She could’ve easily saved time by just flying out of the forest but the thought slipped her mind until she saw a flying monster in the sky.
“Ah, I could’ve just flown away out of the forest…”
This left a bitter taste in her mouth because she didn’t know why she was so fixated on getting out of the forest on foot. When she looked behind her, Maria saw the devastation she caused as well as the large army of shadows and undead minions that were waiting for her orders.
Thanks to these cuties, Maria was able to easily walk around the dangerous forest as she pleased. The place was infested with so many monsters of different kinds that Maria wondered just how the forest’s ecology could sustain so many of them.
Anyway, most of those monsters had become fodder for her minions and she even used a few of them to raise more shadow and undead minions that she had lost along the way. Maria’s shadow minions were a bit more useful to her than her undead minions and this was due to their attributes, stats, and longevity. Her undead had a 3-minute duration, so once that time was over, they would disappear.
The weapon skills of her Sekhem Scepter and Necronomicon seemed obsolete when compared to her shadow puppetry, but Maria wasn’t going to count her Undead Familiars out though, because they had a special option to them that her shadow minions didn’t have.
The Twilight Necklace that Maria had equipped on her necklace equipment slot gave her 5 points of Control and 10 points of Domination, which meant that she could only keep 10 Undead Familiars with her that had an indefinite lifespan, just like her shadow puppets. However, they would only expire if they were completely destroyed.
The two stats were something unique only to the Necromancer class, but she obtained them thanks to her equipment. It was good and all, but Maria wouldn’t be able to raise the stats since she wasn’t a Necromancer.
Once she went over this limit, the rest of her undead minions would have a timer on them, so once their summoning durations were over, they’d disappear right after. Due to this, there were times when Maria’s army would just be a black mass of shadows with only a few undead here and there. The important thing about these 10 Undead Familiars that Maria could retain was the fact that, like the Necromancers’ minions, they were able to grow by gaining levels just like any other player.
Naturally, you wouldn’t be able to manually raise their stat points, but you could set their growth orientation based on one of the 4 main stats. The Undead’s levels were important because, upon reaching a certain level, the Necromancer would be able to evolve them into higher-ranking and more advanced undead.
Their growth orientation would also affect their evolution, so the Necromancer could basically choose just what kind of undead they wanted. A STR-based undead which was akin to a warrior, an AGI-based undead that was closer to a rogue, a VIT-based undead which was quite obviously a tank or a knight, and finally, an INT-based Undead for the mage role.
The Necromancer could mix and match the attributes which could result in even more complex undead variations. Many Necromancer players were obsessed with leveling up their undead and creating the perfect minion that they’d somewhat neglect to level themselves up.
It definitely wasn’t easy, however, because the skeletons were so fragile at the start. When Maria compared them to her shadow puppets, it was like comparing an egg and a rock. Once any of her undead familiars were targeted by a monster, they would immediately die. This was a common struggle for all newbie necromancers at the start of the game due to the undead familiars’ weakness. Then there was the level cap that the familiars had.
To Necromancers, leveling up their familiars was more important than leveling up themselves, but the level cap for their familiars was their own level, so they couldn’t have too low of a level, or else it would stop their familiars from growing. It was quite ironic how a necromancer needed their familiars to level up, but their familiars also needed their summoners to be at a higher level so that their growth wouldn’t stagnate.
Maria had been paying careful attention to her 10 Undead Familiars as she did her best to keep them alive as they fought through the forest. She was proud to say that, as of now, the strongest one was finally at level 50.
“Level 50 was the threshold! I should be able to evolve it now!” She exclaimed in excitement while bringing up the undead’s [Status] menu.
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Name: Skeleton Soldier - Maria’s Undead Familiar Level: 50
HP: 10,000/10,000
MP: 1,000/1,000
SP: 360/360
STR: 100
AGI: 50
VIT: 200
INT: 10
Promotion: Available
Evolution: Available
The skeleton soldiers were given the option of either promotion or evolution. The Promotion option was available for a Necromancer’s minions once every 10 levels, so most would have promoted their minions at least 4 times before hitting the level 50 threshold for the first evolution option and selecting that.
If they didn’t promote their skeletons, the stats of said skeleton soldier would be really, really trash, just like Maria’s undead familiar. She had only read about the evolution part of the Necromancer’s familiars, so she didn’t notice this option until now, since she hadn’t bothered to check her familiar’s [Status] window.
“What’s a promotion?”
She quickly went to the forums and found a guide about it. After skimming through it, she found out it was the only other way to increase her skeleton’s stats before their evolution. A promotion was possible on every 10 levels leading up to level 50 but she had practically missed every single one of them already. If she chose to promote her skeleton, then she wouldn’t be able to choose the Evolution option.
“Ahh, dang it. These cuties had been riding the bus all this time, so their levels rose too quickly. I guess it can’t be helped though…”
Maria could only blame her ignorance on this one, but she still had to pick between a promotion or an evolution for her skeleton, or else it would remain just as horrible as it was now.
*DING*
Would you like to evolve your familiar? Y/N
She quickly tapped on the [Yes] and a list of available evolution options showed up the next instant.
Please select one of the following options!
1. Skeleton Knight
2. Skeleton Marauder
3. Dullahan
4. Death Knight
5. Skeleton King
Caution: You can only select one! Please choose wisely as these options may not be available in the future!
“...Why are there so many?”
Maria was a bit puzzled because, from the information she obtained on the forums, the first evolution would generally only have 1 to 3 options and all of them would have the ‘Skeleton’ prefix. She instead had 5 options and 2 of those 5 options didn’t even have the Skeleton prefix in their name.
“Woah…Death Knight…”
The skeleton that Maria had chosen this time for evolution was one whose growth focused on its VIT stat and STR stat. She was planning to make this skeleton a tank-type skeleton, so it wasn’t a surprise that the Skeleton Knight option had appeared since she was expecting it, but the advanced option of that option, the Death Knight, had also appeared.
She had seen videos of a Necromancer’s army and a Death Knight was a very essential unit in that army. She was extremely tempted to pick this option but there was something else that had caught her eye.
“Skeleton King…I’ve never heard of this one before,” Maria mumbled as her fingers involuntarily hovered over this option.
It had the word ‘King’ in its name, so Maria was very much tempted to pick it. Not only that, but she had never heard of this evolution option before. The information she had obtained from the forums had a clear list of the possible evolution options and their routes as well as evolutionary conditions, but Skeleton King was something she didn’t see on that list.
“The proper steps to make a Death Knight was to grow a VIT-type skeleton that also had a bit of STR, evolve it into a Skeleton Knight during its first evolution, and then a Death Knight upon the second evolution…I can choose to skip that and pick it directly right now, but this Skeleton King option…”
Maria thought about it for only a moment before she shrugged and just tapped on the [Skeleton King] button.
“Screw it. The Death Knight option is something I can get again if I follow the proper directions from the guide. This Skeleton King is something new and I don’t know if I can get it again!”
Once she chose to evolve her Skeleton Soldier into a Skeleton King, a large amount of black energy began flowing from the multitude of corpses in her surroundings and formed an egg around her familiar.
Maria could hear the anguished cries and roars of the monsters she had slain coming from the black egg in front of her. A progress bar appeared on top of the egg and once it hit 100%, the egg began to wriggle before coalescing into the form of a skeletal figure that was around 5 meters in height.
The large black skeleton remained motionless for a while before its skull ignited with red ghost fire. A white flame appeared in its eye sockets and it jolted around for a bit before stopping. The black skeleton stepped towards Maria and knelt in front of her as a notification window appeared.
*DING*
Congratulations! Your Skeleton Soldier has successfully evolved into a Skeleton King! Please input a name for this unique undead familiar!
“A name? Hmm…how about Morte? That should be good.”
Skeleton King has received the name ‘Morte’ Additional stats have been rewarded for the unique monster, Skeleton King Morte! Rewarded: STR +10, VIT +5
“Cool, it actually received a bit of stats from just being named!”
Maria quickly brought up the Morte's [Status] menu and inspected it.
“Alright, let’s see if my choice was correct this time.”