A couple seconds later, a new understanding of what were undead and of what a necromancer was supposed to do with its power filled her brain. She shook her head, trying to clear it of a light headache that came with the flood of knowledge. Now she knew that she had to do, in order to obtain power.

She would need corpses. Mounds of them. After all, she couldn't raise undead from the dust, or at least not zombies. So, she decided to get out of the cave, maybe try to hunt some of the weakest animals and raise the from the dead.

She was about to turn around, towards the entrance of the room where she found the laboratory, when she heard something moving, a sound like a lot of tiny legs skittering on the ground.

She spun around and saw the cause of the sound. A giant cockroach, as big as her torso, was nibbling on a book, seemingly not having noticed her yet.

She took a fighting stance with her hatchet and started circling the cockroach, still intent on consuming the precious piece of paper. Then, suddenly, the roach turned and spat a ball of goo towards Elena, who dove out of the way. She didn't know if the saliva of the monster would be dangerous, but she definitely didn't want to find out at her own expense.

As soon as the spit hit the ground, it started to sizzle revealing it's hidden acidic trait. Then, the cockroach skittered towards Elena, and before she could move out of the way it jumped on her and forced her to the ground.

It tried to take a bite out of Elena's arm, but she managed to get her hatched in the way just in time, and after a couple of rolls on the hard ground of the cave together with the roach, she managed to push the beast away from her. It had tried to keep Elena in its grasp, and so its legs had dug a couple shallow gashes on her arms and sides, but she was otherwise uninjured.

She approached the roach, who ended up falling on it's back and was still trying to get back up and raised the arm which still grasped her weapon. Then, she brought it down on the head of the disgusting thing. But it still moved.

So, she brought it down again, and again, and again, until its head was reduced to a squishy mush. All the while, it's acidic juice splashed all over her, hurting her skin and melting her clothes, even if it's effect was diminished because of all the green blood of the insect.

Still, she didn't stop, until it stopped moving after an unknown number of times she brought her hatched down. Then, she collapsed, covered in green blood and acid, her hatched a melted mess.

She woke up some time later, her arms feeling like she spent hours hacking away at a tree. Still, she picked herself up and was forced to notice a couple disturbing details.

First, she slept in the middle of a pool of blood. That couldn't be good for her skin, considering that it was also mixed with acid. Then, there was the fact that she slept huddled to a dead, decapitated cockroach. That... she would die before she had to tell anyone about it. Last, she stank. A lot.

Even more than the time she rolled herself in the mud with the other kids and then ended up in cow's shit. Even more than the time she helped her granny cut those really stinky herbs. Even more than the time- that time...

She had to stop and brush away the tears that were forming. There wasn't time for that. She had more important things to do. First of all, she had to take a bath. Fast.

She was about to get out of the cave when she remembered she was completely defenseless. So she went back towards the kitchen and took out the biggest knife she could find, which was about the size of a short sword from her point of view.

Everything was looking forward to her to take a bath when suddenly, she heard a familiar sound. Things were skittering, just outside of her front door. And then, two cockroaches as big as the first one she killed appeared. They also didn't seem to have noticed her, so they immediately jumped into the pool of juices she slept on.

She considered her options before attacking them recklessly. She most probably couldn't take on two of them at the same time... not alone. She grinned, looking over to the dead roach just a couple meters away from the new threats. Then, she started chanting.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"Stir from your eternal sleep to serve your new master: Raise Lesser Undead!"

[ Acidic Roach has become a Zombie. Because of the type of Undead, they will receive a malus in all Stats. Because this is the first Zombie you raised this month, it will receive a random appropriate Skill and will grow in size ]

[ Acidic Roach Zombie obtained an Uncommon Skill: Acid Spring ]

The newcomers turned towards Elena and tried to run towards her, but they were pushed to the side by the headless carcass of their comrade. The zombified monster then proceeded to vomit a fountain of acid from its neck, covering them and making them shriek in pain.

Elena ran towards the nearest cockroach and thrust her knife in it's weakened abdomen, killing it. Then, together with her new minion, they took out the last one.

She then tried to turn the cockroaches they fell into zombies but had to stop after she reanimated the first one because the skill stopped working. Worried she may have broken her class, she brought up the Status Screen.

[ --- Status Screen --- ]

Name: Elena | Class: Necromancer – Apprentice | Level: 1

Condition: Battered | Mana: 3/17 (7 Mana/h)

[ --- Stats --- ]

Str: 5 | Cos: 5 | Dex: 8

Int: 7 | Wis: 6 | Per: 7

[ --- Skills --- ]

Common: Basic Farming III | Reading II | Writing I

Uncommon: Raise Lesser Undead I [Lesser Zombie]

Rare: Analyze-Self

[ --- End of Status Screen --- ]

No, everything was alright, she was just out of mana. She breathed a sigh of relief.

Then, the first cockroach she defeated, the one without the head, turned around and went on the far side of the room, in a corner and started covering himself in some kind of filament it produced from its rear. She guessed it was... well, she didn't really know, maybe it was something Zombie Roaches did?

She couldn't care less and left it at its shenanigans. She had a bath that waited for her and needed someone to guard the cave, so it was a win-win thing. But, she brought with her the other zombie roach and her knife (which didn't melt this time around) and got out of the cave.

The sun shined overhead and blinded her for a second, but after the blindness passed she was able to enjoy the fresh air, after being inside the damn cave all that time.

Until a boar charged towards her.