I said in the past that I was reaching the limit of merely practicing magic, but I was omitting the use of necromancy and the related spells. Even if I do enjoy frivolity, there is a minimum standard to be maintained, and the line had been drawn at practicing necromancy openly. An arbitrary designation, but one that made sense.

That meant what would probably be my strongest weapon was being neglected. It wasn’t impossible to think that it would be a qualitatively different discipline for me either. Due to my specialization, I thought perhaps I would be unlimited in my achievements in the realm of death.

The limitation that really would stop me dead in my tracks was the matter of corpses. All experimentation would have to be done conservatively in regards to the resources at hand. Thankfully my ill fortune of being Level 1 limited the number of things I could try, but I had a habit of trying to take things to an infinite limit if possible.

I started off examining Hans more thoroughly. Hand Spiders were the only form of undead I was capable of creating, and I suspected that they would be a staple minion for quite some time. They were meant to be used as distractions or as assistants to fetch things. While they were dextrous to be used ingeniously, in my situation Hans seemed particularly useless. I needed to find the absolute limits of its abilities.

Setting Hans down on the leaf litter, I observed the default behavior. In Underworld, there would be several different settings as to how fully controlled minions would act. Hans’ independence was an important feature to note. Were it to crawl into someone’s bed of its own volition, I would be quickly finding myself a new town to stay at.

For the most part it stayed in one place. It pawed at the leafy ground with its claws, and paced about in a two foot radius. Looking bored, it poked at the ground digging little holes, like a cute squirrel about to bury an eyeball for the winter. Maybe it’s just my soft spot for feeble things.

Realizing that Hans wasn’t likely to decide to go hunting on its own, I could move on. Finding all the ways Hans could be ordered about topped the list of things to try out. Verbal commands were first, and it was simple to realize that Hans didn’t need to hear the orders. The thing didn’t even have ears, how would actually hearing the words work? I theorized that since I could use hand gesture(Hans didn’t have eyes) as well, ordering it about was actually done solely by intent.

The somatic and verbal components acted as mediums that made the communication easier. Casting my other spells were likewise more difficult and less mana efficient if I tried omitting the physical steps that naturally went with them. I pondered the relationship; commands were given by intent, but made easier by voicing or gesturing; spells were cast by filling a spell shape with mana, and were also made easier by voicing or gesturing.

Each command being its own spell seemed like a bit of a stretch, but since I could do so mentally, some sort of magic was being used to communicate it. This use of magic didn’t require mana though. The interaction was much less physical than other uses of mana, but I felt divination spells also fell into the same category.

I looked over the mental connection between myself and Hans, comparing it to the one with the Barnacle.

The psychic Barnacle remained unmoving like a tree in my mind for the past week. The mental connections I had made could be felt constantly, but Barnacle was so static that its presence became accepted. Unlike Hans, I could feel the spiritual connection even while asleep. Barnacle’s link was like a rod connecting us, while Hans was at the end of a long thread. Hans was easier to commune with, even if the link was more tenuous. Though since Barnacle had reacted to nothing at all, it wasn’t quite fair to compare.

Mentally shaking the thread between us, I practiced moving Hans about with only my mind. The difficulty was quite high, and the hand spider’s movements were stilted under full control. This was the only way to operate it like a puppet, using verbal commands gave it some degree of autonomy. Even if I couldn’t predict what Hans would do, it still acted in ways that I approved of. It seemed like it was using my mind as a template for decision making, but couldn’t figure out why mental communications were so hard if that was the case.

It is also the case that words do not have to match intent when commanding a minion. Slightly exasperated at Hans’ difficulty climbing a tree, I told it to ‘go die again, you miserable excuse for an undead’. Luckily, it did not take the instructions literally and try destroying itself, but redoubled its efforts in scaling the plant.

My intent had made it through despite my word choice, and I doubted Hans was using Human Intelligence to interpret my real meaning. In further trials, it was more difficult to get across a message like ‘go forward’ when I said to stop, unless I was speaking sarcastically. Using doublespeak without becoming doubtful myself was a new challenge, but one that seemed simple enough to overcome.

The last of Hans’ limits that I tested was the range of communication. Hoping it wouldn’t get lost, it could be commanded normally out to 20 meters even if I couldn’t see it. After that, I would have to use mental commands, until about 50 meters. Beyond that range it could only be ordered to return.

A sensible limit were this a game and balance needed to be maintained. Upsetting when you are trying to achieve unlimited power.

I moved on to spend about an hour practicing the spells I’d neglected. While there was obviously a great deal of difference between them; the spell shapes for necromantic spells all felt like they had something to do with creating or destroying bindings.

Trying to permanently keep up, I strolled deeper into the forest. There was still time to wander before returning. For some reason, the danger of combat and encountering something powerful didn’t dissuade me from travelling deeper.

Farther in, the woods became more dense. Trees thickened to the size of a large man’s waist and the canopy blotted out more and more light. As a result of this, the amount of brush decreased and it became easier to travel.

One can’t help but smile in such a dark place, with the smell of the earth. The slight rustling of leaves the only sound around.

Upon entering the forest, there had been the sound of wildlife chittering. The last time I clearly recalled it was only about a dozen minutes prior. My own presence did not still the noises of the forest, so it had to be something more than a wandering creature.

Concentrating on the distant voices of the animals, I headed towards the silence. In line with my experiences so far, the chirping of birds slowly resumed and whatever it was had passed. If not for keeping active, there would have been no clues as to what had happened.

A slight bit of the Void Black and Blood Red auras lingered in the distance. Ready to use , I approached with proper stealth. Slowly, with Hans serving as a noisy decoy. It could continue an order outside of 50 meters, so long as it was given the command beforehand. Still behind trees, every time Hans loudly rustled, I peeked around and advanced to the next point of cover.

A waste of caution, as upon arriving there were no creatures remaining to see me. Thinking of caution as a waste is a dangerous habit, but sometimes I desire efficiency over personal safety. Surveying the area, a few clues were present.

Blood, surrounding the center of the black aura, was liberally spread about next to a tree. Trailing off further into the woods, something had been wounded and then hunted to this point. From the red fur that was on the ground and the smallish prints on the ground, I assumed it to be some sort of fox, or whatever this world’s equivalent was.

That was really just a clear deduction to make, my tracking skills weren’t actually that great. I could tell that there were signs of a scuffle in the leaf litter, and by the spread of blood it had been the result of a slashing weapon of some sort. My assumption that this was the result of a goblin hunting was pure intuition. I would also count myself correct if it was any other sort of small beast, like a kobold or dire rat or something.

The important part being that this forest contained creatures that were slightly more powerful than a fox, and that I probably wouldn’t mind killing. Well, like my arbitrary hate for point-ears, I find the reptilian depiction of kobolds adorable so I didn’t actually want to kill one. Point being, there were parts just waiting to be collected inside the woods.

Not wanting to be too late returning, I made my way back. Encountering the stream, it wound about, but I quickly found my way to the village. The disappearance did not seem to have caught anyone’s attention, possibly because it had barely been for half a day.

That was a good thing though. I thought of only returning to the forest every week to be safe, but convinced myself to reduce the time to three days. So long as I consistently interacted with the villagers, it wouldn’t seem as if I left at all. Keeping suspicions low in the first place was key.

Casually strolling back through town, I went to try an locate Ross and Troy. The lumberjacks were probably the two who would benefit from my carrying capacity the most. Instead I ran into Pan. Being interrupted from what I am trying to do at the moment is a running theme in my life.

“How are things Alric?” Pan approached from the south where the fields were. Come to think of it, I didn’t recall ever asking him what he did around the village. Meh, I shrugged internally, I didn’t really care.

“Ria is getting better slowly, she talks coherently during meals now. I might be able to get her up and about soon, but the matter of the horns and skin has yet to be resolved.” I scratched at my chin, looking thoughtful as I stared off into space. Which was basically just straight over Pan’s head.

“I know that we haven’t much to offer, but please do everything in your power to help her. The paladins will be here in only a few months. If you break the curse, I will do whatever you ask and work as long as it takes to repay you.” I wished Pan would stop being so sincere with his words. I am already earnestly trying to complete this quest, there’s no need to beg.

“Unfortunately, the situation is difficult.” I shook my head, offering an explanation that would neither diminish my apparent skills or personality. “I ended up in Derrian with almost nothing to my name. To free her from this curse, it would normally take resources far beyond those available here. The treatment she is receiving is the best possible considering the circumstances.”

“I see...then if you were able to get what you need would you be able to heal her?”

“Of course.” Technically speaking, as long as you had what you needed you could do anything. It just so happened in this case a set of instructions was also being included in what I needed to heal her. “But this village is a little too small to have access to what is needed.”

“There is a town about a week to the west of here. It’s fairly large and could have what you need.”

A town! A proper town, and not some rinky-dink village? Count me in! I now knew the language and with a guide, things would definitely go well. I would not be ditching Ria and Tagalong Girl the moment I saw properly constructed houses, but I was desiring a change of pace.

Master procrastinator, I put off my plans to hunt in the forest, learning more about the psychic Barnacle, figuring out what was up with Tagalong Girl, and I probably wasn’t actually going to find anything to help Ria. I figured I still had quite a bit of time.

“In that case I shall travel there and see if the materials for a remedy present themselves.”

With that, I had been scheduled to get out of the village the day after next.