{Zombie}

Along with {Skeleton} and {Ghost}, they technically are all part of the same {Creator} tree. However they are gained one at a time, so even though there are some basic skills that affect all three, they are usually considered separately.

The {Creator} trees automatically provide the Necromancer with their own modifiable version of the raise dead spells available to all classes. There are a lot of variables that can be gone into at length; the short version is perks are needed for certain types of undead, the power of the minny depends on the Necromancer and their materials, and though there are spell versions, the Necromancer is naturally superior.

{Zombie} is the first {Creator} ability, and I say it is for good reason. Skeletons are clearly way better than zombies, and shouldn't be first tier creations. That was the reason why I hadn't exactly been jumping with great vigor, I really wanted skeleton minions, not zombie ones.

Well, I needed to make do with what I had. ‘Browsing’ the contents of my Inventory, I picked out a fairly whole goblin corpse. First waiting for my mana to recover, it was then placed on the ground. It died from bloodless due to a few punctures in the lower body and arm. The flesh and bones still held together, so it would be good zombie material. Most importantly, the brain held together.

That's one of the(many) reasons zombies are so terrible. Skeletons don't need brains, or even all their bones. Ghosts can be brought up even from a pile of ashes. Zombies on the other hand actually have a weak spot like the head. The popular theory on the forums was that the brain acted as a sort of conductor to the rest of the body, making use of old functions to make it cheaper to run. Seems like a neat idea, but I was pretty cynical about it and felt it was just an homage to zombie movies. No lore clarified the matter.

Anyhow, the zombie’s inferiority to the skeleton aside, I focused. A basic zombie took 100 mana, and given how initial castings of spells seemed to take much more, I didn't want to have to wait for an hour just to try again.

“” waving a hand over the body, the spell shape formed. Though unfamiliar, I tried to restrain the pace and direction of the mana within it. It seemed to go well, and as the complex jumble of geometric figures filled up, the amount of mana used really had been restricted all the way down to 75 as the spell was completed. Surpassing even the original value, I felt quite pleased and released the spell.

As you might expect, such fortune does not agree with me. The goblin corpse shivered a bit, and all of a sudden 90 of my mana vanished from my pool to stir around in myself. The corpse shivered some more as the mana settled down in my mind, and a new spiritual connection formed.

All of the other connections in my mind reacted, Zog(zombie goblin, figured I would name a dumb zombie something dumb) formed a connection like a five foot piece of yarn pulled taut. To compare using the same analogies, the hand spiders were connected by a loose thread 10 feet long, though Hans’ was only seven. Barnacle shifted, surprisingly, but it only amounted to rolling over in one’s sleep. Barnacle was an I-beam three feet long. So Zog’s connection looked rather moderate compared to my other spiritual connections.

In the physical realm, the hand spiders seemed to be running around Zog. The corpse sat up slowly as I commanded, looking forward dumbly. Well, not all the undead can be little geniuses like Hans und freunds. Commanding it up psychically, the connection seemed to have different capabilities than that of the hand spiders.

Sitting down, I focused on the connection. Interacting with it, a small amount of feedback returned from the strand. Concentrating harder, not only could I feel Zog’s general position, but his senses were being returned to me. This wasn't some low level clairvoyance exploit; it was closer to someone telling you they felt pressure on their back and butt to describe themselves sitting down.

As I poked around, something came to my attention that I could only call a ‘false soul’. {Soul Control} let me pick up bits of decaying souls around me, would sometimes show a blue light that resembled a soul, and Inventory and my spiritual connections both took place somewhere that wasn’t, which I assumed to be my soul. So the features of what was and wasn't a soul started to make themselves clear. With that knowledge, following the link to Zog, he was a ‘false soul’.

The problem of Theseus’ ship clearing up, the soul seemed to be where the existence was evaluated; think of it like a display screen for all the bits of an individual. All that you were came together in the soul in a big data dump, and instead of a filing cabinet, Zog’s ‘soul’ was a sheet of paper with some handwritten words. Learning from this, the hand spiders’ souls were more like notes on napkins, but the writing would have been done better. That's what happens when you care about craftsmanship on low-tier things.

Through the connection, the information on Zog’s soul could roughly be made out. Unimpressive and sparse, I shifted my attention through Zog and the hand spiders, practicing my ability to ‘read’ their souls.

Moving from one mostly obscured soul to the next, all of a sudden I had an epiphany. In some LitRPGs, the main character would improve their mind or base or dungeon or whatnot with an abstracted system of points. Much like the Soul Power, used to enhance the undead, that I possessed in point-like terms!

A victory for additional power, but I was never very fond of that kind of thing. Oh well, it is what it is.

Soul Power pretty much was portions of soul, but I didn't really know how to graft it to the false souls. Besides, how it affected the minny also remained unclear; altering the soul might alter the minny, but would that transfer into a physical effect? How would that work?

The correct answer is ‘magic’, and having an abundance of Soul Power, this seemed to be one of the few things I had the resources to dedicate to trying out. So with a lot of face-scrunching and eyebrow wiggling, I tried moving my mind in a way to activate the Soul Power.

Fwish!

No sound actually occurred, the onomatopoeia accurately represents the feeling of Soul Power leaving to go to Zog. The change occurred while interacting with the connection; when I tried ‘grabbing’ Zog’s false soul from the ‘outside’, desiring Zog to be less of a stupid, slow zombie, Soul Power went and ‘stuck’ to the outside of his soul and began to merge.

Unless you too manipulate souls, there really isn't a way to explain it. English just wasn't constructed with these concepts in mind. Think of Soul Power as an implant; foreign, but absorbed into the host.

Excited, taking a peek into the soul, the information related to the body really was changing. Not having established a baseline, I couldn't measure the increase, but Zog’s agility has increased by half at least. As for his mind, some of the fog that made it difficult for me to look around also cleared up.

Woo! Neat! Ack!

After investigating the slightly improved soul of Zog, my horizon broadened again. Though I could still make sense of my soul while investigating others, I couldn't read through all the information at once; I usually just operated on knowledge of my health, mana, and stamina. If I let the accuracy drop, I could get a broader view, though for things like mana and health I was very familiar with, I would always have at least some sense of them.

For Soul Power that was not the case, so when I stepped back to look over its changes…

“*It took that much!?*” Crying aloud to myself, a fifth of the Soul Power had gone away. Let me remind you, the amount of Soul Power I had may have come from goblins, but it came from a battlefield of goblins. The amount expended represented 30 goblins, at least! Could Zog fight 30 goblins? Noooo.

Things looked like a really bad deal at the moment in regards to {Soul Control} upgrades. I decided to just save up from then on, until I thought of something new. I'd gamble on something better showing up later, or using them in an emergency; spending them on Zog seemed wasteful.

Well, I still wanted to squeeze in the Negative Energy imbuement tests before it got too dark, so it was good to find a stopping point. Time flew by when doing science! and dusk had already set in over the forest. I promised myself just one last round of tests and I would jet right back to the village.

Negative Energy imbuement is the {Negative Energy} skill that has the most synergy with {Creator}. It’s the Necromancer’s primary support skill for his undead legions. Within it there are two routes to focus on, the path that leads to buffing a smaller number of elite undead, like you would in a party, or granting a smaller bonus to larger numbers of undead.

With the Soul Power limitation, it’s generally thought that the first options of creating powerful allies was the better option. This seemed to be backed up by the information I was able to get a hold of; but during a rendezvous with Rems, she hinted that there are some chicanery that could be done that was what allowed her, Anubis, and kApRiKhOrNe to rise to power.

At the moment, prior to any perk points, there was only the option of weakly boosting a single undead, so long term strategy didn't really matter. Holding my hand over Zog, I willed the Negative Energy to reinforce him.

His spiritual connection shuddered, as the energy raced across the surface of his soul. Similar to how the Soul Power acted, it wrapped around it, and began to merge. However unlike the Soul Power which completely became one with Zog’s soul, the Negative Energy effervesced, slowly diminishing in power already.

From inside Zog the changes could be seen; though the changes were slight, in the low-tier area of Derriad they might actually suffice. Having Zog punch a few trees, in game terms his strength probably went up by 5 points or so. A very modest number, but things were just getting started. For the cost of 80 mana, that sounded like a good deal.

Observing Zog, the stats did gradually dwindle at around a point every 5 minutes, but that still seemed very good. That was about half a level bonus for a Level 2 or 3. Zog would definitely be an okay decoy, especially if I tried placing those points into Endurance. He could be my tank in the future, although I couldn't really use him with other party members around.

After checking that, I tried stacking multiple enhancements, which led to diminishing returns, but could still be done. If Zog was to be enhanced all in one go by amplifying the mana usage, the result was almost the same. Doing so without breaks between the castings meant the power ‘stuck together’ better, and didn't dissipate as quickly. Well, the higher level bonus, the faster it vanishes, so things seemed to balance out in the ends.

With Zog punching stuff to test his strength, in due time he tore up some of his body. His strength may have been enhanced, but the trees were as big around as my waist at least. Through repeated trials, he injured himself.

Testing out healing, I observed the Negative Energy first delve into his soul. From the way things went, I thought it might be looking at the original structure of how the body was supposed to be. Like the enhancement, it started merging with the soul, but focused on the portions not at their best. Melding, it seemed to fully become part of the soul again, with only small bits effervescing.

I could heal, fight, and enhance with {Negative Energy}, and though I didn't like {Zombie} too much, I had Zog. It was already quite late, so I stuffed all my minnies into my Inventory.

Things had been quite productive that day.

A/N:AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

I'm gonna be honest, I'm not really keeping track of how many Hs I use anymore. I'll try to fix that tomorrow