"Next up. Use the reanimate spell." the lich instructs me.
I do and the skeletons light up with a gray skullfire in their eyes while the zombie bodies just sit up with blank faces.
"So where do all these bodies come from?" I ask.
"Death row prisoners and traitors." he says with a laugh.
"no waste i suppose. so what do I do next." I ask.
"You'll learn to properly modify their bodies. As they are right now any half ass fighter could simple smash them to pieces." he says pulling out a bunch of different tools.
"So how do we solve that?" I ask.
"Reinforcing the bones and muscles with wires or metal plating. The problem is if you accidentally tear the wrong muscles you would have wonky control of limbs or fingers. making the zombies useless. Skeletons are simple you just use solutions to coat and strengthen the bones." he explains.
"So what are the pros and cons of skeletons and zombies." I ask.
"Skeletons have an obvious flaw. They can't blend in, if a skeleton shows up people instantly know it's an undead and it gets blasted by a simple light spell to dust. Zombies can perform basic infiltration and look exactly like regular humans besides the smell and blank look." he explains calmly.
"Pros and cons combat wise?"
"Skeletons are more brittle and need reinforcements the can only be stopped by destroying the head. They have average combat strength. Zombies have a little more power in them with added muscle strength. But they are a little more high maintenance. They need to be treated so they don't rot and stink. They are able to be fitted with armor easily though so that's a plus. Skeletons just kind of rattle around."
He brings out a barrel of solution from the corner of the room and passes me a piece of paper.
"This is the solution to attach metal coating to skeleton bones and strengthen them. I used to bathe in this all the time as a young skeley." he says fondly.
I look at the formula and absorb it into my book. I order the skeletons into the barrels of chemicals to bathe.
"The metal shavings can be changed out from iron to higher grade if you can afford it. It can get quite costly building a skeletal horde." he sighs.
"On to the zombies then." he claps his bony hands together. "Have you taken any medical classes?" He asks me.
"Yes I'm a certified medic." I pull out my card and show him.
"11 years old Magic swordsman certified. Medic certified. Tier 1 alchemy certified. Chef certified. Putting in quite the work aren't you?" he laughs and hands my card back.
"I don't have much to do til I'm 16 as that's usually the age the guilds and army take in people." I explain.
"Well by the time your done I'm sure you'll be a force to be reckoned with. Now since you know what your doing first you need to drain the body fluids from your zombies. Blood can spoil and go rotten and harden making zombies stiff and hard to move." he passes me a tool hooked up to some weird pumps.
I cut a hole leading to a main artery and insert a tube. I press on the little foot pump and it starts to suck out slightly dark blood from the body pouring it into a barrel.
I do this for all the corpses.
"Next we replace the blood with fluids to keep the body fresh." he passes me another formula.
"This fluid only needs to be changed once a year if you want to guarantee freshness. I personally like to add lilac to mine for a nice flowery scent." he pulls drags out some more barrels.
I put the formula in my grimoire and start the process of filling the bodies with the fluid.
"Now once your done adding the fluids we move on to removing most of the organs and sealing off leaks. Organs add unnecessary weight and can be replaced with things like flammable vials or poisons. We keep the heart and brain the rest is just garbage." he tells me putting surgical tools on the table.
"For you the sealing will be much easier as you can use wood or water based healing I presume?"
I nod. "Good just don't ever use light based healing as it burns instead of healing."
This is all very fascinating in a sick dark way.
I finish pumping the bodies with the lilac smelling liquid. Personally I'm a sweet pea fan myself.
"Now make some neat incision along the abdomen." he instructs me as I use a scalpel to cut open the body.
Some liquids gush out but he tells me that's normal.
"Now cut away all the organs and seal any leaks with healing magic."
I of course have to do all of this bare handed as its harder to use healing magic through gloves.
I slowly cut and pull out organs tossing them in a rubbish bucket. Using wood healing I seal all the leaking veins.
soon all that's left is a heart and the brain.
"We don't take the brain because it's a bitch to get out without breaking the jaw and leaving tons of damage to repair it's just not worth it. As for the heart that's the main system for veins and it let's us pump in the liquids we need all around the body." he explains.
"So what next?" I ask.
"We let the bodies settle and absorb the liquids the tomorrow we start modifying them." he says before clacking over to his desk and picking up a book to read.
"Class dismissed until tomorrow." he waves me towards the door.