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You Only Die Once (An Undying Necromancer LitRPG)
Chapter 23: The Necromancer's Way of Grinding (1)

Chapter 23: The Necromancer's Way of Grinding (1)

Dozens of skeletons sat in front of me, all of them kneeling. They were like a classroom of lost children just entering their first day of school. It didn’t matter which, the first day made everyone revert to being a nervous child.

They even glanced around, wondering if they could make any friends in this place. Don’t worry, my dearies, we will find all of you mates.

I shook off the teacherly instinct slowly taking over for my own corpses and coughed.

“Alright, all of you know the drill!”

The skeletons nodded and raised their hands. They pumped their fists. Though they couldn’t say anything, I thought I could hear their words.

“MURDER! MURDER! MURDER!”

That was how it would sound if they could speak, at least according to my artistic rendition. I sighed and shook my head. I wonder who they took after to be such murderhobos.

“All of you. I will need your help. Around you are books and weapons. Some are about martial arts, others about magic spells, and lastly the weapons—which are a wide range. You all have to learn them.”

The skeletons tilted their heads. Then, the one at the front who looked the strongest (the second to most recent dead) slapped his fist over his palm and nodded. I was a little nervous. They had no body, but I knew from the lich that skeletons could use magic just like real people.

In fact, the strongest one should be able to use a few spells. I asked it to summon a fire arrow and give the others an example. The skeleton slowly stood up and stepped next to me, facing all the other skeletons.

It stretched its hand outward. I distinctly felt the movement of mana as it summoned a spell. My eyes narrowed slightly, the mana it took to maintain the skeletons hadn’t changed. That meant the skeleton was using its own mana to make the spell.

What a cheat.

The fire arrow formed in the skeleton’s hands and the others started clapping. It made the one giving the display blush and scratch the back of its skull.

What the hell, was it shy now?

I faked a cough and pulled their attention back. “That kind of magic. The books are around you, please start reading them. And for who will do what…” I looked at the skeletons again. It was going to be confusing to just call them skeletons.

There were a lot of them, but many could hardly walk so there were very few I had to pay attention to. It seemed only about 12 of them were strong and smart enough to help, which was enough for now. The rest could work as punching bags and try out the weapons.

“Alright, I’ll name you. Which of you guys died first?”

A skeleton at the very back raised its hand. It seemed like the oldest skeleton. Unfortunately for me, it also meant one of the worst skeletons since it was the first one to die from asphyxiation in the coffin.

“Maybe the weeks of workout in the castle might help? You are now Skelian Meyer 1! Pick up the sword and start using it. Take some of the weaker skeletons for help.”

I had learned a bit about the sword back then. Hopefully, it would remember and develop if it fought with someone near its skill level. I wasn’t going to learn anything from a skeleton that weak, so it was fine if it just learned enough to fight for itself.

That’s right. I was not just upskilling myself. I was also upskilling the army I always had with me. If I could make them all stronger at the same time, it would turn this ‘mob’ of Skeletons into a proper corp.

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One after another, I gave names and tasks to the other useful skeletons and set them to work. Since there were a lot of weak ones who could work but had no real hope of helping me, I made them all learn by fighting each other. It seemed I had about 30 of them if I only counted the ones that could walk. All the other skeletons were merely writhing on the ground and were unable to do anything. It was annoying to even try to count.

Of those initial fifty, only 12 were useful. Four started learning Magic from the books. Three martial arts from the books. The other Five took to weapons. A chain mace, a shield, a short sword, a long sword, and a bow.

Once they were all fluent with things, since they were practically me, they would be able to teach me much faster. And even if it took time to learn, at least they would know the skills. While these twelve worked, Skelian 1 and Skelian 2 (one of the dead from the Lich’s time. I didn’t bother naming the ones in between) had started training the others personally.

With that, the first day of my skeleton upskilling boot camp began.

A grin spread on my face. Who cares about a bunch of undead and an undying? While I needed to eat, I couldn’t say the same thing for them.

This boot camp was never going to end.

I meant it when I asked them to return to hell.

“Haha… Hahaha… HAHAHA!”

“”“…?”””

***

The training was proceeding smoothly. Alongside the growl of the birds and the rustle of the leaves, now the clangs of metal clashing against metal and rhythmic flips of pages had become a part of the sounds of the forest.

It also made me feel way less lonely. The constant drainage of mana too felt like a method to train, so I kept breathing strongly to boost up not just my mana but also my intelligence which would increase my recovery rate and efficiency.

It was truly a perfect form of training. The kind of ‘Cheat’ skill that I was looking for all the time while I was with the rest of my classmates. In my eyes, it was good enough to catch up with their talent if not to slightly surpass it.

Of course, the hard work was immense. The skeletons retained intelligence, but just keeping them stuck together and not dropping into a pile of bones was an exercise in using my [Control].

It was while I had handed Skelian 11 the water-based magic book that a problem arose.

“What…? You don’t know how to read this?”

Skelian 11 nodded at my words. This was troublesome, it did not possess the skills of the 1st and 2nd Circle Water Magic that I had learned, so it couldn’t directly jump into Circles 3rd and 4th. Learning it again felt like a waste of time when I could learn something else.

But I also wanted to develop my depth alongside my width.

“For now, learn Earth Magic.”

The higher the grade of the spells the tougher they became. I thought if two of us worked on the 3rd and 4th circle spells together I would cut the learning time.

“Should I kill myself?”

The thought came naturally. I could kill myself, get another skeleton that would be strong and also smart, and would then be helping me learn. It felt like a tempting idea.

A very tempting idea, before something happened. One of the skeletons who was learning how to use the mace stood up and walked toward me. It had an evil grin, just like the one that the Lich used to flaunt.

“What is it, Skelian 9?” I asked.

Skelian 9 laughed grimly and pointed at me, then it drew a line over its neck with its thumb and pointed to the ground.

“What?” I asked again.

With a sigh, Skelian ran the mace on the ground. It wrote the word ‘Coup’ on the dirt.

“Oh?”

It seemed Skelian 9 wanted to take over as boss. It quickly raised its mace and charged at me.

I sighed, stood up, and took a stance, pulling my fist behind. This was troublesome, with its new skills, Skelian had gotten in over its head! A completely new problem had arisen, though it could just be a rebellious streak for this juvenile skeleton.

As the skeleton swung the mace, I thought it looked pretty slow. With a simple twist, I dodged to the side and punched outward. My fist slammed straight into the center of Skelian’s face.

Its mouth curved in.

A crack resounded.

The mace fell to the ground and Skelian 9 flew off. It hit a tree and then another before falling on the ground and breaking into a pile of bones.

All the other Skelians stopped and looked at me.

“Oops?” I grinned.

Right now, I am at least twice as strong as the strongest one.

The other Skelians started working again with twice the intensity. They didn’t seem to want to be the next target.

***

In the end, I decided to kill myself and bring myself back.

But the incident from before made me hesitate. If I couldn’t work it out properly, then the skeletons could rebel.

That was why, I made them disappear first.

I was going to kill myself. Grow stronger. Summon the skeletons, and show it its place with the gap in skill.

It was a perfect plan.