When Calen rose from the dead with his soul still intact, he looked down at himself for a moment, confused by what had just happened earlier. He looked up at the young lady in front of him and had the tremendous impulse to kneel before her in subservience.
“W-What is this?”
His mind was in turmoil because he knew for a fact that he had just died earlier. The sword that had impaled him was even still stuck in his chest and when he tried pulling it out, blood spilled from his chest but it didn’t hurt at all. There was only a numbing sensation as the sword was pulled out and he was extremely terrified upon seeing the gaping hole in his chest.
“H-How is this possible?!” Calen roared in confusion. He looked up at Maria who was just smirking at him and yelled, “What did you do to me?!”
“As I said, I would make you my subordinate–my undead subordinate, that is~”
There was an innocent smile on Maria’s face as she said this. Calen’s mind reeled at the thought of becoming an undead, just like the other skeletons inside of the room. However, unlike them, Calen still had his mind completely intact. He could think and move around as he pleased, but there was an ever-dominant urge in his mind that compelled him to serve the young lady that had turned him into this.
Calen wanted to strike at Maria after feeling an overwhelming rage burn in his heart because this woman lied to him, saying that she would spare him and turn him into her subordinate. Maria didn’t lie to him as she did turn Calen into her subordinate–only in undeath, of course. As for sparing his life, Maria didn’t say nor promise him anything like that. All she said was that she would take him in as her subordinate if he proved useful to her, which he successfully did.
Maria could feel the murderous and rebellious thoughts that Calen held towards her and, since this was the first time any of her puppets or familiars ever held such thoughts about her, she was incredibly surprised.
“Hmm, is this a side-effect of reviving you with your soul intact? You don’t seem to be as subservient as Morte and the others…” Maria thought out loud.
For a brief moment, she thought about erasing Calen’s soul now that she saw him behaving like that, but since it was interesting, Maria didn’t do it.
“Never mind. This seems like fun. I’ve never had a sentient shadow puppet or undead familiar before~”
Seeing that Maria thought this was all just fun and games, Calen wanted to drive the bloodied sword in his hands straight into her chest but something began pricking at his head. When he turned around, he saw the large skeleton that had impaled him earlier and there was an incredible sense of fear that overwhelmed him at that moment.
“Morte, that’s enough. I’ll give you a new sword, so let that newbie have your old sword. It’s about time we replaced your equipment anyway,” Maria called out to Morte, who seemed about ready to pick apart Calen’s body and send him permanently back to the realm of the dead.
Morte had felt Calen’s murderous intentions towards their Master and, naturally, this didn’t sit well with him. Even though Morte’s soul was that of a random monster that Maria had killed and raised into undeath, loyalty had been engraved into his undying bones, so Calen’s display of disloyalty didn’t sit well with him.
Destroying Calen was the only conclusion, but just when he was about to do that, his Master stopped him for some reason. Morte looked at Maria for the first time in confusion at her orders and Maria noticed this. Her eyes brightened and she said out loud, “Ohhh! Did your soul develop as well, Morte? Is this possible only because you are a Named Familiar?”
Maria's eyes were sparkling with curiosity and excitement but next to her, Calen’s eyes were burning with murderous intentions towards her and just as he was about to try and thrust the sword in his hands at her, Morte made the first move and smashed Calen away with a swing of his bulky skeletal arm, which sent the poor zombie careening into a wall and being embedded inside of it.
“Oh, Morte, you didn’t have to do that. That weakling wouldn’t have been able to hurt me anyway~” Maria said with a smile as she looked at her big undead familiar.
Morte only rattled his jaw but Maria could guess what he was trying to say to her.
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“I’m letting him stay like that because it seems fun. He’ll come around eventually.”
Maria brought up Calen’s [Status] menu and the smile on her face widened when she saw it.
Name: Lifestealer Calen - Maria’s Undead Familiar Level: 50
HP: 25,000/25,000
MP: 10,000/10,000
SP: 2300/2300
EXP: 0/500,000
STR: 1000
AGI: 700
VIT: 500
INT: 100
Skills: [Unholy Frenzy Lv. 1], [Life Steal Lv. 1], [Zombification Lv. 1], [Ultimate Skill: Zombie Horde Lv. 1] Promotion: Level 60 Evolution: N/A
Calen's stats at level 50 were roughly the same as Morte's stats when he was at level 50, though there was just a minor difference. Morte was still a bit stronger than Calen in terms of stats, but Calen was a STR-AGI focused undead, while Morte was a VIT-STR focused undead.
If they were at the same level and were to fight, it would be hard to predict who would be the winner, because Calen and Morte both had their own unique advantages as units of different types. She now finally had a proper DPS-type melee undead as most of her close-ranged undead were those of the Tank-type.
"Calen and Morte's roles will complement each other. He couldn't have come at any better time!"
Once she finished going over Calen's stats, Maria proceeded to inspect the Lifestealer's skills.
Skill Name: Unholy Frenzy Level: 1 Rank: B Description: The Lifestealer goes into a berserk state which enhances its A.SPD and M.SPD by 50% as well as its STR by 25% but increases DMG taken from all sources by 75%. All attacks have a higher chance of inflicting Critical Hits, [Bleed] for 5 seconds, or [Stun] for 2 seconds Duration: 30 seconds Cooldown: 45 seconds Cost: 1000 HP & MP
Skill Name: Life Steal Level: 1 Rank: A Description: Inflicting damage will heal the Lifestealer by 2% of the enemy’s total HP. Passive Skill.
Skill Name: Zombification Level: 1 Rank: B Description: When the Lifestealer kills an enemy unit, there is a 30% chance of turning the unit into a mid or low-ranked zombie that can be controlled by the Lifestealer for 60 seconds. Once the duration is over, the zombie will turn into an ordinary monster that cannot be controlled but is able to receive behavior suggestions from the Lifestealer. Passive Skill.
Skill Name: Ultimate Skill - Zombie Horde Level: 1 Rank: S Description: Upon activation, the Lifestealer imbues dark energy into his surroundings, reanimating any corpses within range into zombies that will fight for the Lifestealer for 180 seconds. Any skills that the Lifestealer uses will similarly be invoked by all summoned zombies in the [Zombie Horde].
While [Zombie Horde] is activated, the duration of [Unholy Frenzy] is multiplied by 6, and [Zombification]’s effect will increase by 25%. Any zombies that are alive when the duration ends will invoke the skill [Corpse Explosion], damaging enemy units for (STR*2.0) DMG and healing allied units for (VIT*2.0) HP. Summon Limit: 100 Cooldown: 480 seconds Cost: (INT*0.9) MP
“Another Named Familiar! I guess being on this playground of a planet is turning out to be okay after all!”
Maria hummed in delight before she waved her hand and wrapped Calen, who was embedded in a wall, with her aura. She then telekinetically brought the rebellious zombie over to her.
“Oh no, you’re all broken up now!” Maria said with genuine worry after seeing her zombie all mangled like a broken and twisted doll.
Being hit by Morte, who was tens of levels higher than him, nearly killed Calen–again. The crazy zombie was breathing raggedly as he gave Morte a crazy, murderous glare. Morte rattled his jaw at Calen and seemed to be saying something along the lines of ‘Do you want to be hit again?’ Maria saw this and she immediately began laughing before telling the two of them to break it up as she healed Calen with a [Hi-Cure] and [Hi-Heal] until he was fixed.
“Enough, alright? You two are now under my command and you’re the highest-ranking Undead in my army. Calen, you should be happy that I took you in. Now, you won’t be living in mediocrity on this small planet anymore–actually, you’re dead, so you won’t be ‘living’ at all,” Maria said with a giggle.
Today was just a roller coaster of emotions for her. She was disappointed by the weak planet that Death had dropped her on, but all of the amazing surprises she gained were more than enough to get her excited and quell her disappointment. While she was randomly thinking about how she turned Calen into a zombie, an interesting idea popped into her head.
“I’ll be the harbinger of this world’s undead apocalypse! If I put this as the narrative, maybe I can post it on my Switch Channel and turn it into a homemade TV series or something!”
Maria began to joyfully applaud herself for thinking of this brilliant idea. She wouldn’t be doing the killing or massacring, which made the internet condemn her for a few weeks in the past, but instead, her subordinates would be doing it and with the proper narrative, the videos she would put out would just be like a zombie apocalypse movie or TV series.
“It’s absolutely brilliant! In fact, I think I’ll have a little fun with this~”
She began to formulate an amusing plan to turn this 'playground' of a planet into her literal playground while she was there. Since Death gave her such a place to have ‘fun’ in, Maria decided that she should properly have ‘fun’ and not half-ass it at all.
After thinking about what she would do from now on, Maria began to squeal in excitement as she began prancing around and praising herself, “Ohh, this is brilliant! Absolutely brilliant! Man, aren’t I so smart? I’m a genius! A literal genius! Not only will I be able to have fun, but this will become trademark content for my Switch Channel!”