With White Death returning to my side, I figured that it was time for me to return to the guild hall as I was beginning to feel deeply drowsy. Before we headed off however, I figured I would take a look at my stats to see how far I had progressed.
<[ Eric]>
<[ Human ]>
<[ Necromancer ]>
<[ Level 1]>
<[Exp: 97/100]>
Health: 45/45
Stamina: 20/20
Mana: 15/15
Willpower: 19/100
<[ Statistics ]>
Strength: 12
Agility: 7
Intellect: 10
Vitality: 13
Energy: 25
Extra Stat points: 0
<[ Skills ]>
Raise Feeble Bone Creature [Level 1] {1/1}
Animate Feeble Corpse Creature[Level 1] {1/1}
Summon Feeble Spirit [Level 1] {0/1}
Inspect (Activation)
Extra Skill Points: 0
I gasped upon seeing how close I was to leveling up to level 2, and I decided that White Death and I would definitely kill something before I returned to the town. As I glanced through the rest of my information, I noticed that my mana was fully charged, and decided that I would attempt summoning a Feeble Spirit with the creature that we kill. I then noticed my willpower, and my face scrunched up with confusion as I realized that it had lowered compared to what it had been the day previously.
"Alright, lead me out of here White Death." As I followed White Death away from the cave, I called out over my shoulder. "Poky, you're in charge of your Lesser Undead, just make sure they follow the same rules I gave you!"
Turning back, we quickly made our exit from the gorge. After this, the two of us made our way through the woods, and just before we reached the graveyard, we stumbled upon a Level 1 Hashoret Mouse.
Pulling my sword from my inventory, I spoke to White Death. "Stay back and watch me. From now on, try to damage the creature's body as little as possible."
Rushing forward, I jabbed at the mouse in the neck with my sword, causing the mouse to give a gurgling squeak while a notification appeared in front of me. Backing off from the fleeing mouse, I took a quick glance at the notification.
[Critical Hit - 20 damage]
Looking back up towards the mouse, I used a quick inspection to see how it was fairing.
<[ Hashoret Mouse - Level 1 ]>
HP: 5/25
Status: Critically wounded, Bleed effect (-2/sec)
The mouse was unable to get far before it stopped running and dropped to the ground, causing me to get several notifications in rapid succession.
[Gained 6 experience points]
[Leveled up]
[Gained 5 free stat points]
[Gained 2 free skill points]
I smiled in satisfaction upon finally leveling up, however I didn't let the different notifications distract me for long as I remembered that I intended to summon a Feeble Spirit from this creature. Raising my hand, I began my chant once more. "Rise whisperer of death, rise and serve your new master."
I felt my mana begin to quickly deplete as exhaustion hit me like I had ran face first into a stone wall. As I stumbled and deliriously attempted at staying aware of what was going on around me, I noticed my green necrotic mana had formed several chain like whips instead of a gas, and had immediately lashed out to wrap around a spot of air that was roughly a meter above the Hashoret corpse.
As the chains continued to lash and wrap around whatever was there, they began to glow brighter, bathing the entire area in a sickly green light before it faded away. Looking up, I could faintly see a pale green outline of a spherical light floating before me. By now, White Death had come to my side, allowing me to lean my body against him as I forced myself to rest a little bit.
Using my inspect skill, I took a look at my new Feeble Spirit.
<[ Feeble Spirit ]>
5/5 HP
[Damage]
-2 (Straight Damage) (Ethereal Touch)
<[ Skills ]>
[Undeath] (Passive)
-Immune to cold, poison, blood damage, hunger, stress, fear, pain, exhaustion
[Lingering Presence 1] (Passive)
-Lowers the temperature around it to freezing (All water magic is frozen, fire magic is weakened by 30%)
[Lingering Presence 2 - level 1] (Passive)
- Produces 1 liter of miasma a day
[Cold Resistance] (Passive)
-10% resistance to ice magic
[Ethereal Vision] (Passive)
-The souls of all are laid bare before the spirits, and no amount of stealth or invisibility can hide you
[Ethereal Touch] (Passive)
-Attacks bypass all physical armor and attack the soul directly
[Soul Burn] (Passive)
-Those touched by the soul find themselves becoming unstable (cancels natural mana regen for 10 minutes, burns mana -5/sec)
[Incorporeal Form - Level 1] (Semi-Activation/Passive)
-The spirit becomes tangible for 30 seconds every 2 minutes
-100% resistance to every physical (non-magical) type damage when intangible
<[ Description ]>
[A monstrosity that defies the will of the gods, and spits on the laws of both the world, and of life. Death favors those who release the trapped soul. Execute with extreme prejudice and give final burial rites so the soul may rest in peace.]
My eyebrow rose in surprise as I looked at the extremely low amount of health before noticing all of its skills, especially the incorporeal form level 1. I quickly realized that my Feeble Spirit was nothing more than a glass cannon, with high damage and support interference compared to its low amount of health.
I then smiled when I relooked over the skills and both lingering presence skills sank in. I no longer had to worry about my lesser undead perishing or going on a rampage in an attempt to prolong their lives since my Feeble Spirit now produces miasma. Now I just had to come up with a name for him.
Trying to come up with a name for my Feeble Spirit, I thought back to an old ghost story my mother used to tell my brother and I when we were kids. It was a story about a lingering ghost who couldn't move on to the afterlife, but didn't want any ill will towards anyone, and only wanted to just have fun. What was his name again? Ah, yes! Casper! Casper the friendly ghost!
This name would fit perfectly since I intended to have Casper act as a support troop to sustain the rest of my undead, though I wondered how I would get him stronger if I was only going to have him focus on his support type.
"I name you Casper, Casper the Ghost. You will follow White Death back to our base where I want you to remain, staying inside the cave so that your lingering presence will cause the air to reach freezing temperatures while you gather miasma for the Lesser Undead.
White Death, I'll take this corpse back with me, but from now on, I want you to continue taking your kills back to the den, but make sure to keep them separate from the other pile of decimated corpses that Poky is eating from. Also tell Poky not to eat any from this newly formed pile of corpses."
After that, I picked up the dead Hashoret Mouse, storing it within my inventory, before I made my way past the graveyard and to the Northern gate of Hothal Aldu. When I finally arrived at the edge of the tree line before the Northern gate, White Death and Casper both turned and left, making their way back into the woods.
By time I had returned to my bedroom a new notification had popped up. Taking a quick glance at it, I smiled before passing out on my bed for the night.
[10.5]
Waking up the next morning, I went about my day as normal, getting breakfast, going to class, before then having lunch and then going to work. During the entire day, I received many notifications once more, and I smiled to myself as I looked forward to my rapidly increasing levels.
[6] x 3
[4] x 10
[2] x 23
[8] x 2
[10]
After work, I made my way to a different butchery where I could sell my Hashoret Mouse corpse. I walked into a nearby alleyway and pulled the corpse out from my inventory, pausing as I realized that after nearly an entire day, the corpse had yet to stiffen or begin to smell like the other corpses that had remained in the cave. Intrigued, I began to wonder if the inventory paused decomposition, allowing one to preserve perishables for as long as they remained in the inventory.
I figured I would test that out later, and returned my focus towards selling the corpse. After finishing the sale, I smiled to myself after selling the entire Hashoret corpse for roughly twenty copper pieces. Had I taken the time to properly clean the corpse, the butcher would've been willing to pay me more for the animal, but since I was selling the entire thing, he didn't seem too ecstatic about having to properly skin and gut the mouse while also dealing with the rest of his meat that he was trying to sell.
I decided to quickly look at my stats as I made my way out of Hothal Aldu. Once more heading out towards my undead; I continued feeling as if someone was watching me, causing me to look over my shoulder several times, until I reached the graveyard. After that, the feeling of being watched appeared to have left, allowing me to make my way to the gorge with ease.
On my journey, I saw several different herbs that I had learned while taking Otto's classes, and after picking up nearly ten different species I noticed a few new notifications appear in my vision.
[Gained Gathering Skill - Level 1]
[Gained Herbalism Skill - Level 1]
'Okay, what is this going to do for me?' I thought to myself as I looked at the two new skills, however nothing appeared to give me more information as to what it could do. I finally returned to the gorge entrance and began making my way into it, deciding to take my sword and begin marking the corners that I would need to pass.
I eventually heard the clicking of bones as White Death came from deeper within the gorge and as we met, I quickly commanded him to guide me back towards the cave so that I could guarantee that I could leave a path for myself to follow once more.
Arriving at the cave, I immediately noticed two more Hazorack Lizards Zombies had now joined Poky's horde. Nodding at Poky, I entered the cave, feeling a strong chill travel up my spine as goose bumps grew on my skin and my breath misted before me. Smiling, I looked at the pale green outline of a ball floating deeper in the cave, and seeing Casper, I truly felt ecstatic. Casper was my ticket to getting rich, while making life easier for keeping my undead in a stable state. Without him, I don't think I would be able to keep my undead hidden from the rest of the world.