Chapter 306 Ghost Weaver

Jay raised the new level one skeleton and had it walk alongside his throne as he talked to it, giving it a name.

"Your name is Archers. That's right, Archers with an S." he nodded. "This will make it easier when I yell 'archers, fire!' in the future… Hopefully."

The skeleton clapped its jaws, accepting its name.

"Blue, teach it my ways."

Blue glanced up at Jay and gave a nod, accepting his order.

Jay watched them communicate in their strange silent skeleton language as the young skeleton was bombarded with orders, including Jay's past orders: always collect all, don't attack humans around Losla, and so on, until they reached Jay's last grand order of revenge if he were ever to die.

"I wonder if they speak something other than Astratan." Jay wondered as he watched.

"I'll need to give Archers a mind too…"

The skeleton cohort had marched Jay downhill for a while, and the fresh forest air was replaced by a more humid, warmer one.

Before reaching the bottom of the mountainous area, Jay had the troop stop, setting Asra down on a large, flat rock and lowering his throne to the ground.

"I don't want to stop for long, but the sooner they get minds, the better." He thought.

The first to receive a mind was Archers, followed by Jay's other main skeletons, whom he missed.

He gave them a moment to get used to their senses and their bodies again before giving them the usual orders to guard him and Asra.

Having a new mind, Archers noticed something.

It looked lost, or empty, as it had no weapons of its own. Even the sub-constructs had daggers that Blue had crafted for them.

"Relax, I'm getting to it." Jay hushed the skeleton.

Curious as it was, it took a peek into the blanket wrapped around Asra.

"Mmm…" Asra gave an annoyed groan.

(Archers, stop it.) Jay ordered.

Yet Asra had woken.

"Jay, why aren't we moving?"

"I had to stop. We won't be too long."

"… care to elaborate?"

Jay thought, "Dammit… what's a good lie… argh, my blood will stink if I lie. I suppose I'm not cut though so I won't smell it. Hmm… I guess the truth isn't that bad. She'll probably understand."

"I'm upgrading my skeletons before we leave the mountain forest. Downhill from us, there's a plane of rocks and a thick fog below that. Anything could be there, waiting in ambush."

Asra was silent for a moment, but as Jay took out bones from his gauntlet to craft, she gave an order.

"Get us into the fog before nightfall."

Jay glanced down the mountain. Between the mountain forests and the fog at the base of the mountains, there was a plain of volcanic and ancient rocks, all covered in a thick carpet of moss.

"Hmm, before nightfall? I think we can manage that." Jay nodded.

Since they were no longer carrying Asra, the five skeletons of Blue fanned out and did some perimeter patrolling in a wide area, while Red's two skeletons came to Jay's side.

It satisfied Jay to see his main skeletons using their sub-constructs differently.

(Sweeper, now is not time.) Jay said, seeing that Sweeper had taken some bones and crafted some defensive spikes.

Sweeper looked disappointed as it dropped the bones and waited by the throne.

"Alright… now a bow… but what can I use for the string?" He wondered, but he came up with no ideas. "Damn, I didn't even consider it."

Jay stood by Asra's wrapped blanket. "Ah, Asra, are you still awake?"

"Unfortunately." She sighed.

"Do you have any experience with making bows and bow strings?"

"Don't use a bow Jay, you'll be wasting your time. Just stick to undead."

"The bow is for my undead."

"Oh… well, what do you have access to?"

"Apart from the forest and trees, the random animals that Lamp catches."

"Vampires don't use bows, but in Pantry, I've seen some husks use dried out animal guts. It would be better if you could find some flax or hemp, but I doubt you'll have much luck in a forest. Pretty low chances of finding any twine or silk out here, either."

"Would you have any?"

"I only have some thread. And I'm not sharing it." Asra whispered.

"Ah… I see." Jay pursed his lips, and went back to sitting on his throne, checking his inventory.

He had another set of clothes which he didn't want to rip up, but as he looked through, he found something which was perfect.

[Ghost Silk] x57

"I completely forgot about this… I got it from the silk woods dungeon, I think it was called?"

A shiver went over Jay as he remembered the ether spiders with their semi-ghost bodies, all eating through the gigantic corpse of their brood mother… eating each other, piercing each other with venom. Cannibal spiders; he had enough of cannibals.

"Ugh. Glad I wasn't trapped there." He thought, bringing out one of the silk clumps.

< [Ghost Silk] >

[Taken from ether spiders, it can turn into an invisible ether form when supplied with mana. While as light as air and as sticky as tar in its ether form, it can become as strong as steel while dormant.]

"Dormant, that must mean when it's not supplied with mana." Jay thought, adding a tiny amount and making it invisible for a moment.

"It's good that it will become sticky when I add mana, as I'll need to attach it to the bows, but I know from other adventurers at the guild that they don't always have their bows strung, so I'll need to make a hoop at one end to it can detached… hmm I'm thinking too far ahead. First I'll need to make it into a string." He thought, holding the clump of silk.

Jay began to pull it apart slowly, making it longer and more string-like. He pulled some parts away from the main clump, detaching them while trying to twist it and wind it, too.

"Ah, this will take way too long. The skeletons can do this part." He thought, sitting back on his throne.

(Blue, get two of your skeletons to do this.) he ordered, and Blue brought two over.

Jay showed the two skeletons and Blue exactly what he wanted, demonstrating how to twist it. He made sure Blue watched and learned, as it had a mind, and could teach it to other skeletons and monitor these two skeleton underlings, which Blue directly commanded.

However, when the skeletons tried, they had no flesh and couldn't grip it.

"Hmm…" Jay thought for a moment. "They can't twist it with their own hands."

It was a simple solution to craft a bone shaft with a hoop on the end. He twisted and tied some silk around the hoop.

This way, the skeleton would only have to twist the bone shaft.

The second skeleton would have the simple job of dragging apart the silk clump.

Jay watched them for a moment, and made sure that the skeleton twisting went at a steady pace, while the skeleton pulling the clump apart kept the string uniform.

With no clue about how to form a silk string, Jay was off to a good start.

"Now… let's keep marching." Jay thought, storing the leftover bones back into his ring.

Jay had Handy and Dark help to carry Asra, as two of the lesser skeletons were walking alongside Jay, making twine.

Blue still carried Jay, but it periodically glanced at its two skeletons, making sure they were doing as Jay instructed.

"Don't worry, Archers, we'll get you a bow in no time," Jay winked.