Jay glanced at the parasites in his arm before stepping down from his throne.
He felt a little relieved that they had not gotten bigger and weren’t more nurous.
It seed that they were not feeding on him. For now at least – but he knew he had to get them out eventually.
Before Jay stepped off the throne, he held out his necrotic gauntlet.
Before his eyes, hundreds of bones began appearing out of a swirling green mist.
This spiral of bones began to get bigger and bigger as bones flying around and falling onto the forest floor.
Soon enough, the whole cradle of roots was covered in a thick layer of bones. Thick enough to protect Jay from any other parasites which could be crawling around below the ancient tree roots.
“Now that looks better” Jay smiled.
He added much smaller bones on top to fill in the cracks between the larger femurs and ribs below, creating a more flat and smoother surface to walk on – most of the smaller bones being from fingers or remains of shattered larger ones.
All in all, the cradle of bones was about the size of Jay’s butchery shop.
“Now.” he said, ordering his skeletons to carry him closer to the platform.
Stepping down, he was pleased with his makeshift construction as it didn’t shift under his weight.
“Alright…” Jay looked around at his skeletons, planning for the night.
“I’ll need firewood, water and food.” he talked to himself, “shelter is okay for now since I have my swag.”
Of course, Jay wouldn’t be doing work to get any of these.
“Sweep… oh?” Jay was distracted by the munching noises of bones.
The platform he made to stand on in the cradle of roots was already being eaten away by his skeletons.
“You weren’t damaged, so… you levelled up?” Jay grinned.
Both Lamp and Sweeper were eating – after a mont, Handy joined them too.
Finally, his level three skeletons reached level four, and that ant one thing:
“Ti to pick your roles” Jay’s eyes glead.
He had been waiting for this for a while, excited to see what roles they would gain.
Seeing the others eating, Heavy also kneeled down and began to feast on the bones, which only made Jay more ecstatic.
“Fuck yes, you all levelled up?” Jay grinned, “Well then, feast. Feast to your hearts content.” he grinned.
Right now, the only skeletons not feasting were Red, Blue and Dark – who was still heading back to investigate the explosion.
Jay decided to use the [host] skill later on after he prepared his camp, knowing he may need to use his mana for other tasks – one of which would be making a bone crucible for his camp fire.
“Alright. Blue, you collect firewood.” Jay then took out his water skin and drank it down to the last drop, “Red, go back to that stream and refill my water skin. See you in a few hours.”
As the last of the sunlight was going down, Jay didn’t waste any ti.
He made a larger pile of bones on his thick bone platform and began to channel his mana. The familiar green glow of the necrotic mana created an alluring light in the depths of the forest.
The bones he placed in front of him began to glow themselves as his mana seeped into them and lted with them.
In the depths of the forest, on a platform of corpses, Jay was a dark figure weaving sickly green mana around floating bones; four undead creatures eating the bones at his feet. It would have made anyone shiver.
Jay was working with a large amount of bones this ti, but his idea was simple: a large, flat round disc shape. This was where his fire would sit. Simple enough.
It chewed through so mana, but the disc was a simple shape, and before he knew it, it dropped down onto the bone pile.
Next, Jay created a large flat rectangle too, about the size of his own body. This would be the foundation of his bed tonight. It may seem like a small thing, but was necessary for a comfortable sleep.
Plus, using the [Living Blueprints] skill of his gauntlet, he could just store them away for later use.
Jay then set up his swag, rolling it out as he waited for his skeletons to stop eating. After setting up his sleep area he gazed across his skeletons.
All of them were still crunching away on the bones; it would have made so people shiver.
“I’ll send Handy out to hunt when it’s finished eating. Heavy can stay here since it will be too slow to hunt. After the other two are upgraded I’ll send Sweeper hunting too, while Lamp can stay to defend .”
As Jay waited, he was pleased to see that Heavy indeed grew taller, but not only that, its armour also grew larger with it, though it was a slow process as it required many more bones to feed its thick growing armour.
Looking more closely, its armour cracked and reford while it grew bigger; green mana glowing underneath, repairing as it grew.
Jay decided he would check the armours stats after it grew bigger.
It was intriguing as it technically wasn’t sothing he crafted, but a transformation. He wondered if he would even be able to craft it himself once it grew, or if it beca too advanced or majestic, perhaps he would have to rethink his whole armour-making ideas.
“Damn.” he shook his head.
Initially, he was waiting till the skeletons levelled up to craft them armour, but now it seed like he had simply been putting them at a disadvantage since it would grow with them. He was also making it harder for himself as he would have to craft larger sets of armour when they got larger.
Trying to save himself so ti and mana had resulted in the opposite.
“Can’t always win I guess. Better to learn now than later anyway.” he shrugged.
Finally, the skeleton began to finish eating their fill of bones, with Sweeper and Lamp finally becoming the sa size as Red and Blue.
Finally, the role options.
Jay was most excited about seeing Lamps role options. Throughout Lamp’s life, he had kept it close to him giving it odd jobs compared to the other skeletons, such as carrying luminous orbs and a lamp, which is where it got its na from in the first place.
“Better be sothing good.” he smiled with anticipation.
[Type – Undead]
[Role – Undetermined]
HP – 75/75 ( 20, equipnt)
MP – 10/10
[Bone Eater]
[Scrimshaw Level 1] (Passive)
[Undeath] (Passive)
[Fear] (Weak) (Passive)
[Shade Vision] (Passive)
[An abomination, its existence spits in the face of life and death – and they spit back. Stop it before it’s too late. Execute with extre prejudice. Burn the bones.]
[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)
[Keeper]
[Warrior]
[False Hope]
“There’s no zweihander choice?” Jay raised a brow, “Hmm. I guess it only becos a permanent choice after at least one skeleton has it as a role. It was an option for Red before, but I selected the guard role.” he guessed.
“My choices are steadily growing though.” he nodded, seeing the (1) after each of the other two roles.
So far it seed like the warrior role had been sothing easy to get, perhaps even a natural progression so he didn’t even give it any thought. It simply seed too boring.
“Now… Keeper or False Hope.” he pursed his lips, “Both are as intriguing as each other.”
“Keeper, I’m guessing, has sothing to do with being a light holder, but it also has a loose connection to a graveyard keeper, which basically care for the skeletons… hmm, a healer class possibly?”
While having a healer class would be nice, Jay’s skeletons always had the bone eater skill, and so far, he had not had any lack of bones – in fact, since stepping out of Losla, he had gained many more corpses than what he had used in battle – though not including the pile of bones he left under mushroom cap.
“But the false hope role seems way too mysterious to pass up.”
“False hope. What does it even an? How would it even work for a skeleton, and what does it have to do with holding a light? Hmm…”
Jay knew in his heart that he would regret not choosing it; he was simply too curious.
“Well, I can only hope this isn’t a mistake.. But who’s going to know either way.” he shrugged.
[Choice: False Hope]
Jay felt like it was the right choice to make, and as soon as he did, Lamp dropped its ossein sword.
“Huh?”
Jay wasn’t offended over its strange behaviour, but waited to see what it would do.
With all the bones around it, Lamp had free reign.
It leant down and dug its hand through the bone pile, pulling out so long slender bones, most of them being femurs (leg bones).
Next, it began using its own mana to craft itself so weapons… or tools. Jay couldn’t help but smile slightly as he hadn’t seen his skeletons make anything in a long ti.
Jay watched quietly as the glow of necrotic mana coming from his own skeleton made a cloud of floating bones, but what it did with those one made Jay ever so slightly disappointed.
Lamp ford a dagger. Of all things it could have made.
For a mont Jay was a little disappointed, but as the necrotic mana disappeared he was able to see it more clearly.
It was no ordinary dagger.
“Give it.” he said.
Jay took out his luminous orb and held the dagger up to it. It was quite a wide blade, similar to his own designs, but it had one defining characteristic: A sharp, backwards-pointing spike coming off the spine of the blade.
Instantly, Jay knew what it was and what it was used for.
“Huh. A gut knife?” Jay thought, a shiver going up his spine.
He had used these in his butchery before to help him remove the skin of animals, but he pitied anything which would have this used on it while still living.
As Jay looked at the blade, it seed that Lamp wasn’t done with crafting.
It began crafting sothing much different from the femurs it gathered – a long pole with a curved end which turned back on itself.
As it ford, Jay was only getting more and more confused.
“A gut knife and a sheperd’s crook?”
The only similarity between them where that they could pull things towards them, but Jay really didn’t see how this skeletons weapons were going to achieve anything in battle.
Jay looked at the bottom end of its sheperds crook, noticing it ca to a sharp point, “At least it can stab with that end.” he thought, handing back the gut knife.
“Well, since you made a gut knife, I guess I’ll send you out hunting too. We’ll see what you can do.”
Jay looked over his skeletons – they were all finished eating except for Heavy who still had to eat more to make up for its armour.
“Alright, Sweeper next.”
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