The world was hazy, the dirt path merging with the houses. Only one house remained sharp, his. The door was slightly open, beckoning him further. Alaster knew what he would find, but he couldn't control his own body as he walked forward.
The scent was the first thing to hit him, as it always was.
Alaster opened the door wide, and that scene that he would never forget was seen once more.
Blood pooled on the floorboards, soaking in. It already coated his bare feet.
Cold iron chains hung from the rafters, each tipped with a bloody hook.
Blood splattered the walls.
Furniture was broken and splintered.
Powerless to control himself, Alaster finally looked at the center of the room.
Hung from the hooks, his parents, displayed as a form of morbid art.
Alaster looked down at his hands and saw them covered and stained in blood, their blood.
Alaster's father looked up at his son with bloody eyes and mouth hanging open.
"Yoooou diiiiiid thisssss."
*****
Alaster shot up in a cold sweat.
His clothes were soaked and chilled him to the bone as he gasped for breath.
The boy had grown used to having nightmares of that night, but it had never been as vivid as that.
Alaster wrapped the Bugbear hide around himself and hugged his knees.
His mind replayed the nightmare over and over again.
He knew logically that it had not been his fault, but his heart kept telling him that if he had been there. If he had just gone home when he was supposed to and not kept playing with his friends. If he had gone home when he was supposed to. They would still be alive.
He tried to tell his heart that his parents had both been Adepts, and his father had been a Combat based Adept. Yet the attackers had still completely overpowered them. What could a Classless boy have done?
But that didn't stop the feeling. The feeling that, in some way, it was his fault.
Alaster shook off the hide blanket and added more wood to the fire. It had died down during the night, but there were still glowing embers. He built the fire up, building it high and hot. He took off the cloak to let the fire dry his clothes directly. The boy shivered slightly, but the fire did well to warm the small room quickly. Unfortunately, Bone was not the most insulating material and lost heat quickly.
As the heat slowly dried his clothes, Alaster took out the last of the boar meat and began to roast it over the flames.
After half an hour, Alaster killed the flames by disconnecting the funnel, closing it, and dropping it over the fire bowl. After waiting a moment, Alaster used his [Bone Craft] to open a door and carry the fire bowl out. Only then did he take off the funnel. Smoke billowed out, but the fire was dead, having no air to burn.
Slowly, Alaster took down his shelter and put it all into his ring. He was still numb from the nightmare.
"Gobi."
The Goblin skull quickly clawed its way out of the snowbank and stood before its master. Alaster only wordlessly handed it the hatchet and began to walk away.
The nightmare had reminded Alaster that people were chasing him. Even if he did not know who they were, they had tracked him to an Independent City, under the protection of one of the Lords, and still attacked him. Even after two, nearly three years. He could not stay in one place too long.
As the sun rose to its peak, it began to lightly snow. Alaster did not care, and continued to walk forward. He did not even know where he was going, he merely continued East.
At one point, he came across a large deer.
'Not a deer.' Alaster corrected himself, 'Caribou'
It was a female, as its antlers were much smaller than the males. Despite its size and obvious weight, it seemed to only sink slightly in the deep snow.
Alaster didn't bother hiding, she had already spotted him. They both stared at each other, waiting for the other to make the first move, but Alaster didn't need to move. He had Gobi. An Undead Skeleton with no scent, at least, not one the Caribou found as a threat.
Alaster had ordered Gobi to follow him through the tree branches. They were thick enough to support the light weight of the Goblin Skeleton, and the trees were close enough to intermingle. The moment Alaster had spotted the Caribou, he had ordered Gobi to get right above it.
On his order, Gobi didn't just fall from the branch, but jumped from it. Propelling itself from the underside and sending him hurtling towards the animal. An animal that reacted too late.
Gobi's heavy hatchet buried deep into the mundane animal's neck, painting the skeleton in a fresh coat of blood. The animal was only able to give a brief cry before it died. It landed heavily in the snow as it died, sending up a puff of fresh snow.
Alaster emotionlessly walked closer and took the hatchet from Gobi. As he butchered the Caribou, he noticed that its feet were quite wide, allowing it to travel easier through deep snow. Using some of the animal's bones, Alaster fashioned himself some snow shoes.
Nodding to himself, Alaster opened the Ring. He was not in the mood to fight with his mana, and instead just forced it into the Ring, costing much more mana than was needed. He threw in the remains of the Caribou and continued on his journey. Fresh snow already beginning to cover the blood soaked area.
With his new snow shoes, Alaster was much faster as he didn't sink nearly as deep.
Gradually, Alaster noticed that he was continually ascending, and the trees were beginning to thin out. Eventually, Gobi wasn't able to continue following from above and jumped down.
It was at that point that Alaster stopped. If he continued East, he suspected he would reach some mountains. He did not want that. There would be no cover to hide. He would be exposed to both his pursuers and any monsters. Instead, he returned deeper into the forest and turned South. Gobi returned to the trees under Alaster's order.
Soon, Alaster spotted tracks in the snow. Familiar tracks. He called Gobi down and had it step into the footprint.
'Goblins.'
Alaster was not too worried about Goblins. He had killed four of them as a child with just a dagger. Now he had a sword, magic, and an Undead minion, all of which he knew how to use. His only worry was about being surrounded. Goblins were known for their numbers.
Any normal person would have turned around and returned with allies, but then again, no normal person would have been this deep in the woods, in the middle of winter, alone. Alaster was far from normal. His desire for power trumped his desire for safety at that moment. And he had a lot of anger and pent-up stress to unleash. Goblins would do nicely if he could ambush them.
So Alaster continued forward as Gobi kept watch overhead.
As he kept going, the tracks grew more frequent and recent. Alaster soon spotted thin pillars of smoke rising in the sky. He was getting closer to the tribe. He growled in frustration, as he had only been expecting a patrol, but it only added onto the anger he was already feeling.
Instead of turning around, as his cautious mind was telling him to do, Alaster continued on.
It was not much longer before Alaster hid behind a tree as three Goblins appeared. They seemed to be a guarding patrol and were clearly unhappy to be there. Even without knowing the language, anyone could hear the annoyance and discomfort.
Alaster peeked around the tree. Two of the Goblins had wooden spears, similar to the one Gobi had had. The third one carried a club. All three wore mismatched furs and hides to protect them against the cold.
The young man waited until they walked past him. If they turned around, they would see him, but he didn't give them that opportunity.
Alaster cast a [Necrotic Bolt] into the back of one of the Goblins, while Gobi dropped onto another, hacking into its neck.
The one hit by the bolt screamed, but Gobi's never had a chance. The third one turned around, raising its club, just in time for Gobi to leap onto it, plunging its hatchet into its face. The three Goblins were dead before they could react.
[Raise Undead: Level up]
[Class: Level up]
'Oh?'
Alaster had noticed that the spell had gotten EXP after killing the Bugbear, but he had not expected the Goblins to be enough to level it again.
[Raise Undead
Level 4: 5%
Raise a small corpse to serve as your servant
Max Minion: 1/1
Mana Cost: 44]
'Four? It leveled twice with only two Goblins?'
It had, in fact, been gaining EXP with each kill Alaster had done, as the Undead had participated in all of them.
Alaster took the hides and furs the Goblins wore into his Ring. Bending down, he used his [Bone Crafting] spell to liquify the bones and used mana to carve its way out of the body. It was gruesome and disturbing to watch, but Alaster did not care. He did the same to each of the bodies, adding their bones to the Ring.
Only after finishing did Alaster leave and climb a tall tree nearby, Gobi following him and sitting on a branch in the tree next to its master. Alaster opened his status and put two pointed into his INT to get it to twenty and the last three into his WIS, bringing it to twenty-three.
After, Alaster decided to meditate to recover the mana he had used. Pulling the bones out had drained twenty mana for each goblin.
However, only ten minutes passed before another patrol walked past. They spotted the blob corpses of their comrades and immediately went on the defensive. Alaster raised his eyebrow. He had expected them to run back to raise the alarm to the rest of the tribe. But apparently, this group of Goblins were braver than most, and dumber.
Hidden in the tree, Alaster simply fired a bolt of Necrotic energy as Gobi fell on them. It was basically a perfect copy of the first group. Once again, Alaster drained their bones and took the hides and furs.
[Raise Undead: Level up and Evolution]
'It reached level five.'
Alaster was quite surprised as he settled himself in the branches. He had fully expected [Meditation] to be the first ability to reach level five and Evolve.
[Raise Undead
Level 5: 10%
Raise a small corpse to serve as your servant
Max Minion: 1/1
Mana Cost: 42
Evolution:
1: Be able to raise larger minions
2: Be able to raise two minions
3: Be able to give more complex orders to your minions]
'Interesting. I suspect the first option would allow me to raise human and similar sized corpses. Powerful, as humans are much stronger, but not useful to me now. Being able to raise two minions would be amazing. Numbers often decides a battle. But having smarter minions could be beneficial. Stronger, numerous, or smarter?'
Alaster rubbed Evelyn's ring as he thought. Several minutes passed.
'Numerous.' He finally decided, making his choice.
[Raise Undead
Level 5: 10%
Raise a small corpse to serve as your servant
Max Minion: 1/2
Mana Cost: 42]
Grinning to himself, Alaster took back out the bones of the Goblins he had just put into his ring. He cast the spell and watched as a Goblin Skeleton began to raise out of the pile.
'Wait a minute.' Alaster realized, 'I have a spell to manipulate bones and mold them into whatever I wish. Skeletons are made of bones.'
Chuckling to himself, Alaster approached the new Skeleton, excited to experiment. The poor Skeleton had just been born again and had no idea what was coming to it.