Chapter 328 Two Minds

The skeletons would not question their master.

If Jay was taking them off the grand duty of culling, and putting them onto something as lowly as rock-collecting, they would give him as many rocks as he needed.

They all darted off to different parts of the swamp island, all of them except for Red's two sub-skeletons, which didn't yet have minds.

Red left the rotting shack and gladly rejoined its master's side. While it didn't have any expressions, it seemed to stand more proudly, puffing its chest out and pulling its shoulders back as it guarded Jay.

Jay couldn't help but curl his lip slightly.

(Red, I'll be giving your skeletons minds.) he glanced up at Red from his throne.

Red nodded, and immediately, its two guardian skeletons left their weapons on the shoreline, stepped onto Jay's bone pile, and knelt before the throne.

(Which one first, Red?) Jay smiled.

Red glanced back at Jay with its lifeless green eyes. Jay couldn't tell what it was thinking, but after a moment it pointed to the one on the left.

Jay held his hands out, hovering them at either side of its skull, and began to form its mind.

His mana condensed and swirled like a storm around its head, like a thick green river, then disappeared, and left the inside of its skull gleaming like a night sky, with many little beads of green light running through.

As the skeleton began to shake and convulse, Red held it back from Jay, who was already at work forming the mind of the second one.

Jay wanted Red there, as it was the one in direct control of these guardian skeletons. He wasn't sure what the sub-skeletons would do if they were given a mind.

(Don't give them any orders until I tell you to, Red.) He ordered, wanting to test something.

Red, holding the second skeleton in its arms, glanced up at Jay, and after a moment it nodded.

After the skeleton stopped shaking, Red stood back by Jay's side - though it stood slightly more forward, closer to the water, between its sub-skeletons and Jay.

Well that's not a good sign… Jay pursed his lips.

The two skeleton guardians began looking at their hands, coming to terms with reality in their own way. Next, they noticed the bones they stood on, Jay's throne, and finally their swords which were back on the shoreline.

Each of them stepped back to grab their swords, curiously traced their bone fingers along the blade, and then glanced at each other.

Then, they did something quite odd. They froze, locked into a stare.

They both stood perfectly still as they stared at one another, not sure what to do. After they had their swords, it seems like that was the end of their insticts.

Hmm, perhaps a part of their base instinct comes from Red? Jay wondered. And maybe Red has no instincts of its own? He watched them for a moment longer.

"Hello?" Jay held his hands out.

The skeletons bodies were still frozen, but then, they slowly turned their heads, their necks creating little clicking noises.

Hmm, so this is how other people feel. Jay thought, shuffling uncomfortably in his throne.

Yet the skeletons fixed their eyes on Red, not Jay. They each stood side by side, with their swords lowered. It was like they were standing at attention.

Red nodded at them, then turned to glance at Jay, and knelt in a display of respect. In a moment, the two guardian skeletons were on their knees, copying Red.

Ah, I see…. Jay thought.

(Alright Red, give them all the orders, rules, and commands necessary.) Jay waved his hand.

Maybe I should start calling them laws instead of rules, he scratched his chin, thinking that his 'laws' would need more thought, as he was sure skeletons like Lamp would find all the loopholes to enact a culling of the innocent to harvest their skin. Until then, he would have to watch over them, making decrees as he went.

Red began giving them directions, nodding, pointing and doing all sorts of gestures, while other times it simply stared into their eyes, communicating telepathically somehow. Jay wasn't sure exactly what they were saying; perhaps they needed basic definitions, like what exactly a human was, or what it meant to kill something, or to die. Thankfully the entire teaching process was quite fast, only taking as much as a minute.

(Alright, now send them off to gather rocks, too.) Jay ordered, keeping Red at his side.

It didn't take long for a small pile of rocks to form at his side, most of them covered in black filth after the skeletons dug them from the swamp's decaying earth.

Jay watched as they piled up, but he didn't need many rocks for his purposes.

(That's enough. Return to duties.) He ordered, and the skeletons left their digging holes, reunited with each other and prepared themselves to enter the water again, to cull more of the lurkers of the depths.

Hopefully making an axe won't be too hard, Jay thought.

While the skeletons could've used swords to hack trees down, the axes would make things much faster, and it was better to learn the blueprint now while he had some free time. Plus, with Red at his side, the skeletons would learn too.

Jay remained sitting on his throne, and reached down, tugging out some bones from the pile he was sitting on.

He released some necrotic mana from his gauntlet, making some molten bone which he formed into a sturdy shaft, about the length of his shoulder to his wrist.

(Red, grab one of those rocks. Hold it here.) Jay pointed to the end of the shaft.

He melded the stone onto the end with more molten bone, and then melted other bones around the rock, covering it and fixing it to the shaft.

After that, it was simple to form this heavy end into an axe-head shape, then to sharpen the bladed side.

Bone was light, but Jay could make it heavier by flooding it with mana, liquefying it, and condensing it. He wouldn't need a stone at all. However, it was much more simple to just add a rock into the craft, saving himself a lot of mana and bone by doing so.

After tracing his fingers along the blade a few times, and fixing more bone between the head and the shaft for reinforcement, his creation was ready.

< [Bone Logging Axe - Level 1] > (Stone)

[5 Damage]

[400% Logging efficiency]

[Lifespan] (Passive)

- Requires necrotic essence to maintain it's form

[Current lifespan: 48 hours]

"Not bad." Jay nodded, handing it to Red to inspect.

(Made sure they only use it on trees.) he ordered.

Red nodded and inspected it, giving it some test-swings, and after it seemed that it was done, Jay stashed it back into his inventory.

Now, after they're finished killing everything in the water, I'll need about seven axes. I suppose the smaller skeletons will need hatchets, Jay thought.

(Red, get me a handful of pebbles about the size of a ring.) Jay said, pointing to his finger, and the skeleton scurried off to another part of the island.

Jay stepped off his throne and walked down the bone pile to the black dirt. He dug a small hatchet-shaped hole, which was really just a smaller version of an axe, and filled it with bones then melted them together with a small stream of mana.

Some of the molten bone overflowed but he simply scraped the excess away.

Red came back just in time, and Jay pointed into the molten bone, making Red drop the smaller rocks in.

The small handful of rocks scattered into the hatchet-shaped hole, and before it could solidify, Jay made a smaller shaft for it, about the length of his elbow to his wrist.

Placing the shaft into the mix along with some extra molten bone on top, he dispersed his mana, and pulled his new hatchet from the hole.

He needed to make some finishing touches to make it even-sided, even-weighted and to hide some of the rocks which poked out, as well as giving it a sharp blade edge, but after checking the damage of the hatchet he was satisfied with his first try.

< [Bone Logging Hatchet - Level 1] > (Rocks)

[4 Damage]

[400% Logging efficiency]

[Lifespan] (Passive)

- Requires necrotic essence to maintain it's form

[Current lifespan: 24 hours]

"Nice, four damage, I was actually expecting three" Jay held it while talking to Red, "only one less than the axe. With the logging bonus it should do 16 damage to trees, while the axe will do 20. It must be a little better quality since I took more time with it, and smaller objects are a little easier to work with, too." He nodded, and glanced at Red.

Red stared at Jay for a moment, and then nodded back, causing Jay to gently smile as if he were greeting an old friend.

I'm glad there's someone I can share my thoughts and accomplishments with… now, we just need to get through the water and start our deforesting operation.