First Corpse Undead

While relaxing on my bed, I sighed as I looked upon both my unchanged stats window, and now my inventory which had held 90 copper pieces from my month's work. This amount of copper pieces would be the only coin I would have to my name as all my earnings from all the other months that I will work for Donven will be handed over to the guild as payment for their room and meals. Unless I find another way to earn some more copper.

I glanced at my three unused skills, and thought to myself. 'If I had them hunt down animals, I could sell them to the other butchers, or even butcher and sell the meat myself, better yet I could even have them hunt local monsters and gain monster parts that way. Though, how would I sell those? If I give it to the guild, they would immediately know something's up, but I can't sell it to any of the adventurers since they all should know that I'm classless. Okay, hunting regular animals to sell is the main goal, while hunting monsters will be just for me to collect their resources for something possibly later in the future.'

After that decision, I spent the next day following the same pattern, though instead of making my way towards the library that evening, I instead made my way towards the only blacksmith in town. Unlike the butcheries and many of the other jobs around, Hunganner would leave his shop open late into the evening as he used the evening to sell his weapons while using almost all of the daylight to forge.

"Good evening laddie and how can I help ya?" His gruff voice called out from behind his counter as he finished setting a few new daggers inside his counter's case.

"I'm looking for something worth no more than ninety copper sir." I responded back as I gave a sheepish grimace. I mean, many new adventurers would rarely have enough money to buy any weapons, though I did know that the guild would rent out a weapon for usage until the adventurer was able to afford their own.

Quirking an eyebrow at me as he stood up, Hunganner towered over me, forcing me to tilt my head back to look at him. "I got several for ya, though they're only made from crude bronze and aren't even steel."

Bronze, an outdated weaponry that everyone knew couldn't compare to steel armor or weapons, however it would have to do.

"That works for me."

Walking over to a small section in the back of his store, I saw a singular shelving unit that held several bronze weapons ranging from a few daggers to even a warhammer. "Take your pick kid, other than the warhammer, you'll be able to afford any of those items."

After several minutes of sorting through the different weapons, I finally came across a short bastard sword that would work very well for me.

"So you're a swordsman huh. Didn't take ya for one if I'm being honest. Anyways, that's gonna cost you fifty copper for the sword."

Handing over the price by making it look as if I was pulling it from a pouch I had within my clothes, I quickly took the sword and left, making my way quickly to the gates so that I could go out and find something to kill. Other than a few fruits I had stored away within my inventory, and the sword I carried, I had nothing else with me.

I was thankful that the night was cloudless, and with a near full moon, allowing me to see quite far into the darkness. For several hours I wandered through the woods, looking for anything to kill. Close to midnight, my crashing raucous finally scared a Hashoret Mouse out of its nest.

I looked at the creature that was roughly the length of my leg, and stood no taller than my knee as it squeaked and attempted to scamper away from me. Dashing forward, I raised my bronze sword and lunged, stabbing the point of my blade deep into the Hashoret's back.

The creature shrieked, and though it continued to run away, the injury I had inflicted upon it was quickly slowing it down. Keeping my eyes, and most of my focus directed towards the Hashoret, I quickly noticed a pop up appear in my vision.

[New Skill unlocked, Inspect]

Seeing the new skill, a smirk flickered across my lips as I figured to use it. I mean, I understood what the skill's name implied, however I was curious as to how much information it would give me. Looking at the Hashoret, I quickly used my inspection skill to see what the monster could tell me.

<[ Hashoret Mouse - Level 2 ]>

HP: 23/50

Status: Injured, Bleed effect (-1 HP/sec)

Satisfied, I quickly caught up to the fleeing Hashoret Mouse before stabbing it once more, leading to the monster to release a short, ear piercing cry as it stopped running and instead curled up to die.

Having finally killed my first creature, I immediately noticed the announcement of myself gaining 10.5 experience points from this.

[+ 10.5 xp]

Intrigued, I decided to take a look at my stats window to see what differences may have occurred, though I felt that I could definitely guess as to what had changed. 'Status'

<[ Eric]>

<[ Human ]>

<[ Necromancer ]>

<[ Level 1]>

<[Exp: 10.5/100]>

Health: 45/45

Stamina: 20/20

Mana: 15/15

Willpower: 64/100

<[ Statistics ]>

Strength: 12

Agility: 7

Intellect: 10

Vitality: 13

Energy: 25

Extra Stat points: 0

<[ Skills ]>

Raise Feeble Bone Creature [Level 1]

Animate Feeble Corpse Creature[Level 1]

Summon Feeble Spirit [Level 1]

Inspect (Activation)

Extra Skill Points: 0

I looked with satisfaction at my first 10.5 experience points that I personally gained before I went through the list, quickly noticing that a little more information was visible. I paused at willpower, curious as to what this would imply, though I was not entirely sure, nor did I understand why it was down so far.

Continuing down, I finally arrived upon my skill's list and saw the inspection skill. If I had gotten this just from trying to study a monster, what other skills could I learn without needing a class for?

Looking away from my stats, I glanced at the corpse that lay before me, trying to figure out what I should do with it. I figured it would probably be best to make my choice after looking at my three different summons and seeing their pros and cons.

Raise Feeble Bone Creature: Belongs to the Bone branch of Necromancy

-Imbue a skeleton with your necrotic energy, raising it for your eternal service.

[0/1 Raised]

[Costs 5 mana]

Animate Feeble Corpse Creature: Belongs to the Flesh branch of the Corpse Branch of Necromancy

-Imbue a corpse with your necrotic energy, fueling its empty gut to ever hunger for your praise.

[0/1 Raised]

[Costs 1 mana]

Summon Feeble Spirit: Belongs to the Soul Branch of Necromancy

-Ensnare the passing soul to be forever whipped in never ending service to you.

[0/1 Raised]

[Costs 10 mana]

I grimaced when I saw the mana cost for summoning a feeble spirit, and immediately decided not to summon one at the moment, after all, I had no clue how long it would take for my mana to recharge after use, and I also didn't want to run the risk of causing some sort of health issue if my mana were to bottom out at zero. Plus, I wanted to get the most out of my summons, and having only a single spirit to hunt animals would not be as useful as having a skeleton and re-animated corpse hunting them.

Looking between the Corpse and Bone Creatures, I immediately chose the corpse creature due to the fact that I knew the perfect place to summon a skeleton, and I had no intention of summoning a lowly animal skeleton to fight and hunt.

Raising my hand over the corpse, I decided to go with what I felt sounded right in this moment. "Arise, mere corpse and walk once more."

As soon as my chant finished, I watched as a glowing light green gas seeped from my hand before it began to float and gather around the corpse. As I watched in expectation, the gas fully surrounded the dead Hashoret Mouse before I watched as it poured into the still warm remains. Slowly I watched as muscles began to twitch and spasm along the creature before it fully jerked as the Hashoret began to move once more.

With a slight jump, I found myself a foot or two away from the reanimated corpse as my heart pounded in my chest, due to both my joy of success and to the fear of an undead in front of. As I hesitantly watched, the undead turned and stood staring at me, and after a short while I realized it was waiting for my command.

Letting out a soft sigh, I quickly used inspect to view my creature's stats.

<[ Feeble Corpse Creature ]>

20/20 HP

<[Damage]>

-1 (Smack) (Crushing)

-2 (Scratch) (Necrosis)

-3 (Bite) (Necrosis)

<[ Skills ]>

[Undeath] (Passive)

-immune to cold, poison, hunger, stress, fear, pain, exhaustion

[Necrosis] (Passive)

-Necrotic Energy courses through their bodies, festering and corrupting within their flesh and fluids. Converts living creatures into new, Lesser Undead should parts of the infected get either ingested or injected. (Deals -1 damage/sec until death or purification)

[Scent of the Living]

-The undead can smell those that are alive, the scent of their beating blood and charged minds draws them in their horde.

[Shock Padding] (Passive)

- the rotten tissue acts as an insulator/cushion (30% reduction to crushing damage)

<[ Description ]>

[A monstrosity that defies the will of the gods, and spits on the laws of both the world, and of life. Death favors those who strike it down. Execute with extreme prejudice.]

I was entirely shocked to see how much health my level 1 monster had, after all, I as a level one necromancer had over double its amount of health. I wondered how its health compared to the other two monster types, but I realized I would learn that once I had arrived at the graveyard and summoned my skeleton.

Continuing down the lines, I looked with satisfaction towards the different damage outputs my undead could output. I paused when I saw the word Necrosis. At first I was curious as to what it meant, but when I reached the skills section, I immediately understood what it did.

'Okay, so this corpse creature can create more Lesser Undead by biting them. What's the difference between it and a Lesser Undead? Also does this mean that I can't use him to hunt creatures and collect meat from them? What about me, can I be infected and turned into a Lesser Undead if I were to accidentally get some of their flesh or fluid in me?'

I took several more steps back as I had no intention of taking the risk of becoming infected. Looks like I'll have to keep a close eye on this guy, make sure he doesn't infect anything and release Lesser Undead.

"Alright, time to go to the graveyard and get you a friend." I say out loud as I begin walking in the direction of the village's graveyard. Looking back I see the corpse undead slowly begin shambling after me, causing me to realize that corpse undeads are slow undead.