Chereads / The Necromantic Lord / Chapter 12 - The skeleton encampment

Chapter 12 - The skeleton encampment

"Hey John aren't you worried people are going to be jealous of you for the power that you are wielding? People might come for you or even try to kill you for your Power..." asked Percy worried. "Oh Percy, not many people know that I can cast magic. Only you and these skeletons in fact... Anyways... if someone does figure it out and comes to me or my friends with the intention to kill... killing those enemies that green with envy or hate shouldn't be problem... Right?!" said John with a smile. This smile sent Percy shivers down his spine, he wouldn't have thought his friend had a little dark side.

John, Percy and Ulna were walking close to 30 minutes through the woods until they found a small encampment in a glade. The encampment had one big cabin that served as housing for them.

"Master... Skelly is inside waiting for any orders, as well as I" she said as she opened the door. "I also gave some guidance to our skeletons as I noticed their traits! You see those two, Femury and Fibula, they would make good scouts, they are agile and have great knowledge and thinking capacity. Those two master... They can only craft stuff and gather materials, they are the one that made the house, nonetheless essential" Ulna sighed pointing to Fibula and Radius. "Ulna don't worry! I can probably make another five skeletons today, maybe six" said John. "Master if you don't mind... can I have some of your blood?" said Ulna being a little apprehensive about the matter. "Ulna why do you need my blood?" asked John while frowning toward Ulna.

"Master, the thing is... I can summon more skeletons but I need blood preferably human blood, animal blood can be used, but it drops the percentage of a successful summoning as well as the quality of lower level undead that require blood as a medium will compromised." Ulna said explaining herself for such. "Usually a lich, usually need a bunch of blood slaves from different races... either to feed the vampires as well as summoning component, many kinds of undead which right now aren't worth mentioning since we can't summon them at all due to our rank being too low and because we don't have the components to do them." explained Ulna with great detail. "OK, I'll do it, no problem... Here you go!" said John hesitating to give the vial. In the vial there was close to 15 drops of blood and he also made a pile of bone dust in a corner of the house equivalent to 160kg. 'I guess it's no different than me summoning it, her skeletons will be mine to command as well' John thought and calmed himself down. Ulna went to do something with the things he gave her and he saw her mixing things on the side of his eye while he was pulling Percy toward Skelly was.

"Percy you see this awesome skeleton, his name is Skelly and he was my very first skeleton" John said it very proud. "Hello there Skelly!" Percy said a little intimidated from the skeletons the atmosphere was just too eerie. Skelly greeted him and then went to practice his sword. John looked at Skelly as he was almost sure he was showing off in front of his friend.

John starting setting things up and summoned 5 skeletons. They lined up and stood still waiting for some command. "Stay where you are, wait for Ulna's instructions"... Ulna's appeared "Oh, you guys must be the new recruits... We'll talk later, I guess you guys should already know who I am. The name is Ulna, and me and Skelly will take good care of you! So, wait here so we can reorganize you soon." Ulna said to the skeletons and they stood still. Ulna walked towards John.

"Master I want you to join in a summoning, the things are prepared... we should be able to summon close to 14-15 skeleton in one go, if it's successful! This usually is done by one person, but it's not uncommon to have more than one" said Ulna with her awkward smile. "What are we doing? Ulna..." said John confused. He saw the pile of bone dust in the middle of a magic circle, the circle was black of some kind of black dye that was made out of some kind of ash and water. That dye had John's blood in it and was one of the components needed for the summoning ritual. "John if you're going to be part of the ritual, the incantation for it is the same as the incantation for what you did earlier and that's the first part, after that I will seal the summoning circle with another incantation and the summoning will be done. You won't feel tired after this, since I am going to be the medium and you will just be the anchor, you will not feel ether being drained out of you" said Ulna with confidence.

John started the incantation "renaitno crouy otni sihtm rofsnartd na, doiveht morf dellup si luos a." said John twice like usual. The blood starting separating from the dye and started floating towards the middle of the circle and the separated in fifteen drops. "sdneg ninommus eht nekorb ebton leas yht" chanted Ulna and sealed the incantation. "Ok John, don't move from the circle yet, don't move out otherwise the ether is going to be disrupted" Ulna said. John on the other hand was distracted by what was going on in front of him. The droplets of bloods were getting excited as they began devouring the bone dust, some were even competing who devours the most and some even tried devouring their neighbor. The orbs were now on standstill and the bloody orbs were no longer greedy or worrying about growing stronger by devouring their neighbor, they just couldn't. The bloody orbs started condensing and taking shape of a skeleton, the color of the skeletons were slowing changing from red to a pure white and their life was ignited with a scarlet flame that

"What a pity... Only 14 skeleton were formed... the ritual was a success" said Ulna with happy face, she didn't seem tired at all... "Ulna, how come you don't feel tired at all despite doing the ritual?" asked John. "Well that's because we didn't used our own ether, I used the ambient ether, if you would had been the one controlling the energy, you would had felt drained because of stamina, on the other hand I can only use that once ritual once per day" said Ulna with a smile. "Up to how many skeletons can I summon at time?" asked John with wonder "Up to 20 skeletons, but you would pass out if you tried doing it though, even I wouldn't try it, my soul would probably become unstable" said Ulna with a smile

Interface notification:

Witnessing and learning a higher tiered summoning incantation has raise your stage and understanding of a skill. Summon Lesser Undead is now (Rank F: Stage 3), Eldritch Incantation is now (Rank F: Stage 2).

John opened his interface window to see his current development:

Name: John Witherwood

Rank: Novice F

Vitality: Mediocre +

Stamina: Mediocre +

Dexterity: Mediocre +

Intellect: Mediocre ++

Strength: Mediocre -

Agility: Mediocre

Passive Skill:

Death Aura(Passive): User has 1% chance to make someone die if he has a strong emotion towards it. The stronger the emotion the higher the probability for it to be trigger. The user can turn it on/off at will. This skill can't kill things that are already dead or a rank above you,

Universal Skills:

The all-knowing identifying skill (Activation Skill)

Language skill gained:

1. Basic Eldritch Runes (Rank [F] - Stage 1/10)

2. Basic Eldritch Incantation (Rank [F] - Stage 2/10)

3. Soul Communication (Rankless)

Spells gained:

1. Summon Lesser Undead (Rank [F] - Stage 3/10) (Incantation Spell)

a. Mass summoning (Rank [F] - Stage 3/10)

2. Eldritch Flame (Rank F - Stage 1/10) (Control spell)

a. Flame Communing (Rankless - Stage 1)

CLOSE WINDOW NEXT WINDOW (Spatial Pouch)

'My stats had been boosted again! Specially Intellect, Stamina and Vitality. I guess there is no surprised there... How come I don't feel any smarter?' thought John while he was watching the window. He looked in his spatial pouch took all the clothing and shoes to the Skeletons. There was something he still didn't know what it was, the purple looking gem, which I called an amethyst. He decided to use his identifying skill.

connecting...

scanning...

cataloguing...

identifying...

Low level soul stone: a low level soul is imprisoned in this container. This objects tends to drop from low level undead. Necromancer are known to be able craft this as well, with different kind of precious stones they found, they can store souls, soul fragments and even memories. They have various uses which have yet to be found. For more information on this subject you'll need more access.

ding ~

You have used one of your tokens for your skill. Now you have 39 tokens left. If you used all your tokens you'll have to wait until the next day to get an additional 10 tokens. Contributing to the library is also important and will give you additional token and rise your access depending on your contribution.

"John! We have to go back!!!... Otherwise mom is going will beat me up if I don't get there in time for dinner..." said Percy in hurry... He already had already been bored for a while too, it was late... For him this trip was a little disappointing and he felt alone most of the time. John had been busy the whole time, and he was just a sitting duck. "Goodbye everyone, skeletons please listen to Skelly and Ulna!" said John and walked back to town accompanied by a couple of skeletons.