Chapter 226 Humble Duties

“Hang on, why did Heavy level up. It didn’t even attack the beast?”

Jay wondered, “… and it never killed anything. Could it be the training combined with its mind?” “Or… Do the skeletons share exp? – Well, their own version of exp?”

It made sense to Jay, as the skeletons levelled up much slower after there were more of them summoned.

“Maybe I’m onto something…” he thought, making a mental note to test this later.

If he had an army of undead, it would certainly take longer to make them stronger if they were all sharing exp, but also much easier for the weaker ones to level up since they wouldn’t be able to kill higher level monsters to get exp in the first place.

“Anyway… Sweeper next.”

Jay opened up Sweepers stats, expecting to see some strange choices as he had typically given Sweeper odd jobs as well.

And by odd jobs, they were ones that really weren’t desirable at all.

<[Please choose a role from available categories]>

[Available categories are based on the skeleton’s qualitative experience. If no choice is made, a random role will be assigned once the skeleton levels up.]

[Commander] (1)

[Guard] (1)

[False Hope] (1)

[Vanguard]

[Midguard]

[Rearguard]

[Messenger]

“Four choices? Huh… and no warrior role this time. Strange.”

“The guard type role choices are obvious. I suppose the mid and vanguard roles opened up because of their similarity to rearguard, but a messenger?”

Jay scratched his chin, deep in thought.

“Messenger…”

He couldn’t think of how it related to undead at all.

As far as he could tell, it would be a skeleton which delivered messages.

Quite useless, especially when no one would want to accept a message from the undead anyway.

“Jester would have been a more appropriate role,” Jay shook his head, “alright, we’ll go with rearguard. You’ve been useful there anyway.”

[Choice: Rearguard]

Sweeper didn’t throw down it’s sword, but like Lamp, it too began crafting, using Jay’s platform of bones to fuel is machinations.

Jay left it to do as it please, ignoring it for the time being and turning his eyes to Handy.

The skeleton had outgrown its modified ossein sword and it was time for an upgrade.

Instead of making a new sword, Jay just grabbed its current sword and began to modify it.

He added more bones to it and melted them together, making a larger mass before stretching it longer – however it looked kind of flimsy, thin and skinny.

To give it a stronger structure, he made the blade wider and slightly thicker.

As well as that, he decided to add a wide T-shaped cross guard just above a longer sword grip.

For the sword grip, he also made it rough and bumpy rauther than smooth, so the skeleton could grip it easily as it spun the giant blade around.

After it was done, it looked quite impressive, even for Jay’s standards. It was a simple design but seemed quite regal. Giving it a test swing against one of the trees, the tip cut deeply into the bark by the force of its own weight.

The sword was sturdy and seemed like it could hack endlessly without remorse.

It was a classic bastard sword.

Apart from the white-grey colour, Jay thought it looked quite similar to the ones he had seen at the adventurer association, glad that it looked like a forged weapon.

To his surprise, it was also level two.

<[Necrotic Bastard Sword – Level 2]>

[15 damage] – Slashing, piercing.

[Two Handed] (Passive)

– Requires two hands to wield effectively.

– 150% damage when two handed. 75% damage when one-handed

[Lifespan] (Passive)

– Requires necrotic essence to maintain it’s form

[Current lifespan: 48 hours]

“Hmm… necrotic instead of spectral. Damn. I wonder how to make spectral weapons to match their spectral armour.” Jay thought.

“Not much more damage than the level three ossein swords, but I guess that the two handed passive will make up for it.” Jay thought.

“Level two as well. Maybe it was because I used a level three sword to make it?” he guessed, “Or maybe its just similar to most swords and daggers, so my first attempt didn’t result in a level one sword?” he scratched his chin.

“I guess it doesn’t matter either way.”

With the sword formed, he presented it to Handy.

The skeleton seemed to accept the sword with both honour and glee as it stepped forward and lowered its head while raising its arms, as if it were in a ceremony.

After stepping back to its guard duty, it began to swing it, feeling its weight and reach as it grew accustomed to its new weapon.

“A level two weapon for a level two skeleton” Jay thought, excited to see what it would be like once it got its zweihander role and hit level five. At that point, he would make it a better, larger sword.

Typically his level two skeletons had been small in stature, but thanks to his skeleton-raising skill evolving into the [Raise Lesser Undead] skill, they were naturally taller than their feeble creature counterparts, so Handy’s new weapon seemed a little large for it, but it wasn’t so large that it wouldn’t be useful in battle.

“Now, I suppose I should craft you some armour before you level up further…” Jay glanced at Handy before looking at his other skeletons, “Well, craft some for all of you.”

At the moment, Handy and Dark were the only skeletons without any armour, while Heavy was the only one with a chest plate; Jay didn’t think he was quite skilled enough at scrimshaw to make other armour parts just yet.

As for the other skeletons, they each had the same armour as Jay: Vambraces, greaves and a helmet, each of the skeletons recieving five extra health for each spectral armour part – excluding the helmet, which for some reason was not considered a spectral armour piece.

“At least I’ll have something productive to do tonight” he nodded before glancing at his skeletons.

“Now… who’s free for some chores.”

Sweeper was still crafting something, so Jay decided to just keep it here to guard him along with Heavy.

Handy and Lamp, though, were sent out to hunt.

Jay hoped he wouldn’t regret the decision to send the skeletons with the most specialised weapons out to hunt – the bastard sword, the gut knife and the shepherds crook.

A part of him thought they would either come back empty handed or with shredded and mutilated bits of unidentifiable meat from many different animals.

All he wanted really was one carcass to butcher, but for some reason he felt like this chore was too hard to ask the unrelenting skeletons.

Thankfully, had just Blue came back from its task; a bundle of wood under its arm.

Some was unfortunately still green, filled with water. Jay tossed those pieces as they wouldn’t catch fire, but thankfully the skeleton came back with some dried out pieces which should burn quite easily.

Still, Jay needed more.

“Hmm… Heavy. Come here.”

The thick-armoured skeleton had become much heavier after consuming much more bones than any of the other skeletons, all to feed its growing armour, and each of its steps were as weighty as Jay’s now.

For now though, it wouldn’t be useful for hunting, but having a mind made it useful for this particular duty.

Jay showed it the difference between good firewood and the water-filled green bits of wood which wouldn’t catch alight. The skeleton couldn’t tell the difference at first, but Jay showed it how the drier bits of firewood would snap when bent, while the others would bend as he taught it to do a most humble job.

Still, Heavy was happy with carrying out whatever tasks its master would use it for, so it quickly went off into the forest and began gathering.

In the meantime, Blue would be there to guard Jay, along with Sweeper who was still crafting something.

Red was gathering water, his shelter was made from bones, firewood was ready with more on the way, and skeletons were out hunting. Jay felt pretty set for the night.

There was nothing else that Jay needed to do while the last slips of sunlight were disappearing, but he was by no means idle.

“Blue, I think it’s time I gave you a mind.” Jay decided.

Blue was his most favoured skeleton, formerly called ‘Don’ along with Red – together they were the don don duo. He smiled warmly remembering those seemingly simpler times.

Still he preferred the present – even though his secret was out and he was being hunted down, he had many more skeletons and skills.

Plus, he was even enjoying it, despite all the dangers and pain he had waded through.

Through it all, Blue had been with him. A trusted companion since the beginning.

He still remembered the first time he saw it; it shocked him enough to unsummon it immediately.

Although it was much shorter at the time, only as high as Jay’s waist, it was just as fearsome back then as it was today, though it stood much taller, its bones thicker and longer, and carried a fearsome sword which it fueled with its own necrotic essence.

Not to mention the various pieces of armour that covered its limbs and its skull.

It had been grown into a force to be reckoned with, capable of dispatching most adventurers its own level with none of the drawbacks such as pain, fear or death.

It was a silent companion to Jay, even a trusted ally. He counted on it many times and it diligently performed its duties with supreme execution.

As it knelt before him, he felt a sense of pride as he began to form its mind. He felt like he was placing a crown on its head.

Suddenly, the gloomy bone platform hidden deep in the forest was lit up by the familiar green light as it swirled around a skeletons head.

After a few moments, the deed was done.

[A new mind is formed.]

Like all the other skeletons, it followed the same pattern of logic as it came to its senses:

– Stare at Jay, seizure, stare at own hands, inspect armour, find a weapon, and finally swing its weapon.

This time though, it did something different.

“Oh?” Jay raised a brow.

It didn’t begin to swing the weapon. Instead it went back to kneeling before Jay, as if recognizing its maker and showing him honour.

Jay had to stop himself from gasping, touched by its loyalty. He wasn’t sure how to act as he had never been treated like this.

Jay paused as he took it in and enjoyed the feeling for a moment.

“You truly are a great skeleton.” he smiled.

“Alright, you need to practice. Swing your sword and maybe cut open a few trees if you’d like. When Heavy gets back from collecting more wood, you can duel with it.”

The skeleton slowly rose and nodded, stepping off the bone platform before cleaving and piercing the air with its ossein sword.

Soon enough, it carved open some trees too.

The bone weapons had a few advantages over the conventional metal ones: they were lighter and easier to craft – for Jay at least – but the main advantage was that they didn’t lose durability. Jay had noticed other adventurers, particularly the lower levels ones, always having to tend to their swords with a smooth stone to keep the edge sharp.

Some even applied oils to them.

The bone weapons didn’t have a durability stat – instead they had lifespan.

As long as these strange weapons had necrotic mana they would keep their form, all the way down to the sharpest edge. Even if they did become dull, they would gradually reform themselves.

Essentially, they were the perfect weapons for the undead. As immortal as the immortal were.

“Now… what do to..”

After Blue’s upgrade, crafting the fire crucible as well as the flat sleeping area, Jay was low on mana.

Before meditating to recover it, he used the very last wisps of daylight sneaking through the trees to get his fire started.

In no time, he was sitting cross-legged before a small crackling campfire.

As he had become accustomed to restoring his mana he didn’t need to focus as hard, and soon his thoughts drifted aimlessly elsewhere, unguided and unrestrained.

“I should check if the marked mage hunters have left Losla. It seems like my diversion probably worked.” he thought.

“As for Lannister and Lara, well, I doubt I’ll be hearing from them again. There’s probably more of a chance of my dad sending me a messenger skeleton.”

He was still somewhat annoyed at their strange promise to take him away and save him, only to ditch him at the last minute, but he was glad they proved to be a useful diversion anyway.

In one sense, they did help him to escape Losla.

Still, Jay was never relying on them to save him anyway. He knew better than to trust humans. To Jay, they were simply useful tools for his own survival.

“I wonder what that weird turret-summoning kid is doing at the moment. Steve? Liam? Eh, I forget his name. Hopefully he learnt his lesson to not force people into his party anymore.”

“Anya probably made it to Lara before they ditched me. She’s probably in some paradise somewhere being given special lessons. I wonder how they planned to evacuate us anyway.”

“The butchery… did Trenly survive? I hope he’s alright, he seemed like a decent guy.”

“Plus, I want my money someday.”

Jay hoped Trenly wasn’t being tortured somewhere, but he doubted his butchery shop was okay.

The last time he saw it, the door and front window was smashed through. It was likely the mage hunters had since ripped apart every inch of it in search of any clues about Jay.

He even wondered if the building itself was still standing.

“And the last quest of the mist keep dungeon… the spear Sedulus gave me. I wonder if I’ll ever be able to complete it.”

“Well, hopefully one day I’ll go back and do it. Once I’m powerful enough to stand against the mage hunters.”

“Hmm… No. I will go back. One day.”

After a few hours, Jay’s mana was full again and he cast aside his thoughts as he opened his eyes.

Heavy was back, and after delivering the wood was now sparring with Blue; Jay wasn’t sure who was teaching who. Compared to the other skeletons, Blue seemed much more mature even though its mind was younger than Heavy’s.

“Everyone else levelled up. I guess should check my level too.” he nodded.