Chapter 26 - Ragtag Unit

Professor Kal sauntered over to the two bodies that were in a pile. Using his staff, he pushed the stinking goblin corpse off of his apprentice. He could see that Ryan still held his eyes tightly shut, his face pale from blood loss. Professor Kal conjured a potion from his ring and pried Ryan's mouth open, forcing it down his throat.

Green liquid spilled out the corners of his mouth, some went down Ryan's windpipe, causing him to cough violently. He sat up off the ground, grasping his chest, coughing and retching, tears and snot running down his face. Professor Kal waited a minute, giving him enough time to settle his body down some.

"That was painful to watch." Kal said plainly, helping Ryan to his feet.

Ryan looked at Professor Kal with hurt in his eyes. He was furious at the man. He couldn't believe that he would let him fight the goblin all by himself. Ryan thought that Professor Kal would have helped him, even just a little bit. That didn't happen, even when the goblin had struck him with its sword, cutting his back wide open, Professor Kal didn't lift a finger. At least he had given him a healing potion, closing up the gash on his back.

Professor Kal looked back at Ryan with cold, uncaring eyes. Losing the staring contest, Ryan looked away and let out a frustrated sigh.

"Take out the necronomicon I gave you, we've got work to do." Professor Kal said, flipping the goblin corpse on its back.

"I want you to use Reanimate Corpse on this fellow here."

Ryan looked around with trepidation, they were still at the entrance to the dungeon. "Won't somebody see?"

"No, it'll be fine. We'll have him wear this." Professor Kal said reassuringly, pulling out a plain brown hooded robe.

Ryan timidly pulled out his copy of The Book of the Dead, still afraid that somebody would see the taboo spell, and flipped to the correct page. All the books that Professor Kal had given him to study were copies painstakingly translated by the Professor himself. He felt touched that Professor Kal would go through all that trouble for him, but the truth of the matter was that Professor Kal had made several copies of all his books over the years mainly because he was bored.

He held the book out in front of himself with one hand, and started to recite the incantation. It was a short chant, but he took his time to pronounce every word correctly. He could feel the mana inside of his body start to move outwards and into the goblin corpse in front of him. Thin strings of black mist could be seen going into the mouth, nose, and eyes of the goblin.

Once Ryan had finished the last syllable, he could see the fruits of his labor. The corpse started to jerk and twitch, its hands opening and closing slowly. Then it opened its eyes, white cataracts blocking out the pupil and iris. It tottered to its feet, almost like a drunk man. Then it stood at attention, perfectly still, not even moving its chest to breathe.

Ryan had mixed emotions, he was thrilled that the spell worked on the first try, but was also terrified that it worked so well. This was unequivocal proof that he was a necromancer, an agent of evil. Although Professor Kal had told him that necromancers were not necessarily evil, he still couldn't get the biased thought out of his mind.

While deep in thought, Professor Kal started to pat him on the back. "Impressive, very impressive. Got it on the first try, very good. Now, have it put this on, we need to get moving."

Shoving the brown robe into Ryan's arms, Professor Kal started to walk down the dark tunnel, slowly disappearing from view. Not wanting to be left behind, he quickly dressed his zombie friend, then chased after Professor Kal. After a minute of running he caught up, only to have Professor Kal point out that he had left something behind.

"He won't do anything if you don't order him to. You'd better hurry up."

Smacking himself on the forehead, he ran back to retrieve the zombie, still standing in the middle of the tunnel.

…..

"Your Highness, do you remember anything from your time in Morgania?" Court Mage Reginald asked King Alexander Amine while examining his body.

It had been five days since Professor Kal had performed the transference ritual, saving the First Prince's life. Hector Amine had died the day afterwards, succumbing to the curse that once inhabited his only son. Soon after, Alexander woke up from his coma, confused and somewhat delirious. It had taken the better part of a week for Alexander to gain his senses back. This was the first time he had spoken since he awoke.

"No, I'm sorry. It's all so blurry, everything after the meeting with the King of Morgania is fuzzy, almost like a dream." King Amine said, slowly shaking his head.

He was still extremely weak and frail. He hadn't been able to eat solid food since losing consciousness almost three weeks ago. They had been force feeding him broth, but that could only sustain him so much.

"Please, if you remember anything, let me know."

Reginald looked into Alexander's recessed eyes, feeling pity for the man. He had very nearly died, lost his father, then survived just to have the weight of the crown waiting for him. He would not want to be in his place. Though, it had to be said that Prince Alexander had been raised for this very moment, it had just come sooner than he would have liked.

Packing up his equipment, Reginald began to leave the room.

"Reginald." King Alexander said, causing him to turn around.

"Gather everyone, I wish to make an announcement. Also I want you to begin the investigation into who might have cursed me and killed my father."

Reginald bowed deep. "Of course your Highness, I'll give word immediately. As far as the curse is concerned, I've already begun to look into it."

"Very good, and one more thing. Summon this Mage Kalcifer, I'd like to meet him." The newly crowned King said with a raspy voice.

"At once, your Highness."

…..

"I'd have to say that this is the biggest mushroom I've ever seen." Professor Kal admitted as they walked into the main level of the dungeon.

They had been walking along the dark tunnels for nearly two hours, collecting stray goblins as they went. They had a healthy entourage of five goblins following silently behind them, all sporting plain brown robes. After the first goblin very nearly killed him, Ryan listened to Professor Kal's advice and had his follower deal with the next one.

The second goblin they had ran into only had a crude wooden spear as a weapon, the end looked like it had used its teeth to sharpen it. As it lunged forward with its spear, Ryan ordered his zombie goblin to attack. The zombie took the full force of the spear into its belly, only letting out a small grunt from the impact forcing what little air was in its lungs out. Surprised by its enemy's actions, the goblin didn't react in time to avoid the zombie's teeth.

Once the zombie wrapped its arms around the goblin, it was over. The goblin tried to let out a scream, but only a wet gurgling could be heard. The zombie had bitten its neck, ripping a large chunk out of it. It only took less than a minute for it to die, then join the ever growing party.

Ryan had hesitated to send the zombie to fight at first, naively worrying about its safety. Witnessing the first battle had changed his mind completely. The zombie felt no pain whatsoever, no emotions could be conveyed through its eyes. It was simply a vessel that was used to enact its users' will, nothing more.

With this new mindset, Ryan took the lead in hunting down any stray gobins they could find. Professor Kal thought highly of the way Ryan took the initiative, casting Reanimate Corpse on every defeated foe. He was also happily surprised to see that Ryan's mana reserve was quite large, being able to cast the spell multiple times without running out.

Professor Kal started to seriously consider taking the young mage back to his underground lair in order to teach him the more taboo aspects of necromancy. He would have to wait and see if Ryan's passion for the dark arts would continue, or fizzle out once it lost its novelty. Putting that thought on the back burner, they continued to walk down the tunnels.

They would pass by other small groups of adventurers as they traveled, drawing only cursory glances. Ryan would hold his breath every time they ran into a group, terrified of being discovered. Most adventurers would mind their own business. Although they might have been curious about the man in the black robe leading children through the tunnel, they knew their kingdom wouldn't let anyone in that didn't have permission.

Now they had finally made it to the official first level of the dungeon. It was a large room, maybe a little smaller in size compared to Professor Kal's garden. Tall mushrooms towered high into the air, creating a forest that stretched from wall to wall. Looking up, you could see mana gems glowing brightly, providing light to the area below. The light was comparable to a full moon on a cloudless night, making it easy to see around you.

The walls were scarred and pockmarked from people digging out the mana gems long ago. The only reason there were still any left was because they were too high up to get to. There was no grass in the room, the ground was hard packed dirt with smaller mushrooms growing in patches every few dozen feet. A medium sized pond was located in the middle of the room, it was in the shape of a horseshoe. There were no fish in the pond, the adventurers and monsters had eaten anything that was alive in there.

Sounds of battle could faintly be heard if you were quiet. This was where all the goblins would be spawned. They only wandered into the upper tunnels from here, getting lost and attacking anything they found. There were no usable resources on a goblin, the only thing you could get out of one was experience in battle. That was why all the novice adventurers would come to this dungeon.

The second level of the dungeon was a restricted area. It was filled with precious magical metals, so it was heavily regulated. Only the kingdom's soldiers would be able to go down there when escorting miners to harvest the metals. Hobgoblins could be found on the second level, they were much stronger than regular goblins, but were still killed all the same by the soldiers. There was even a permanent outpost built on the second level in order to keep the hobgoblin population down at all times.

Professor Kal didn't expect to go down to the second level in this dungeon. He would choose one with less of a presence. His ultimate goal was to work his way to a dungeon core to study it, but that could wait for another day.

He started to cut samples from the mushrooms, putting them into small glass vials. Ryan stood behind him, encircled by his five decaying bodyguards. They were still holding the weapons they had used in life, making them appear like a hobbled together unit.

"I'm done here. Let's move further in, maybe we'll be able to witness how the dungeon spawns these creatures.." Professor Kal said, turning to Ryan after pocketing his samples.