You have used [Dark Arts - Necromancy] on target [Lava’Raz]

You successfully raised a [Low Tier] puppet.

This [puppet] will obey you.

Mp Consumed: 40 You have used [Dark Arts - Necromancy] on target [Lava’Raz]

You successfully raised a [Low Tier] puppet.

This [puppet] will obey you.

Mp Consumed: 40 You have used [Dark Arts - Necromancy] on target [Lava’Raz]

You successfully raised a [Low Tier] puppet.

This [puppet] will obey you.

Mp Consumed: 40 You have used [Dark Arts - Necromancy] on target [Lava’Raz]

You successfully raised a [Low Tier] puppet.

This [puppet] will obey you.

Mp Consumed: 40 You have used [Dark Arts - Necromancy] on target [Lava’Raz]

You successfully raised a [Low Tier] puppet.

This [puppet] will obey you.

Mp Consumed: 40 You have used [Dark Arts - Necromancy] on target [Lava’Raz]

You successfully raised a [Low Tier] puppet.

This [puppet] will obey you.

Mp Consumed: 40 Warning!

You are controlling too many [Puppet]s.

You are unable to control all your dolls efficiently You have used [Dark Arts - Necromancy] on target [Lava’Raz]

You successfully raised a [Low Tier] puppet.

This [puppet] will obey you.

Mp Consumed: 40 [MP] Remaining: [0/280]

Was completely draining my mana a wise move? Probably not - for multiple reasons. One - the dolls were much weaker than their original, living versions. Yes, maybe they didn’t get tired and were able to attack with full power without care for the damage they’d take while fighting, but were much more clumsy, and in the battle against many enemies, the ability to maneuver was crucial. Two, I didn’t know how strong the alpha was - I could have found myself in dire need of weakening him down with one or two curses. And ‘three’ - I didn’t know if after clearing this chamber and heading back to the camp I wouldn’t be attacked by yet another creature.

Still, all of these were risks I took consciously, knowing how they might end. For, in the end, I didn’t believe I could fail here.

Again, I came here with a desire to learn, to test my limits, and reanimating dolls with my entire mana pool was on my bucket list - if I didn’t do that, I wouldn’t learn that I can ‘efficiently’ control only five creatures at the same time, learning that in the heat of actual deadly combat could prove to be lethal, and I didn’t feel like having another meeting with Mortis, Zariel, or whoever.

I felt these seven creatures in my mind - their existences tickled my consciousness, like extensions of my body which I could control, and just as the notification said - despite 'having' seven of them in my head, I could - at the same time - control only five.

Do you wish to designate one of your [Puppet]s as [Commander]? [Yes] [No]

Without hesitation, I pressed yes.

Error [Necromancy] rank is too low

[Puppet]s ranks are too low

Combination of [WIS/INT] attributes is too low

[User] does not possess [Mage] class

[User] does not possess [Commander] rank

[User]’s [Team Tactic] skill’s level is too low

I expected this much. Apparently, I have far more things to polish than just my swordsmanship. Maybe, it might be wise to choose the Mage’s class once, just to get rid of all these inconveniences. But, that’s for later - for the time when I would rank up again, so definitely not in the next couple of days. For now, I reached out with my mind to my puppets and gave them my first command.

Focusing on two of my creations I gave them a single order - locking their eyes on the most isolated monster I ordered a simple “kill” command, before releasing them from my mental grasp. Right away I focused on the five remaining creatures, then, we moved. In perfect unison, holding the line like experienced knights.

The alpha roared once more, giving orders of his own, taking advantage of the difference in numbers it made his kinsmen start running to the sides, trying to outflank us. Great idea, in its place, I would most likely do the same. Once again reaching with my mind, I adjusted our formation. We no longer ran as a single line, instead, I ordered the creatures to my sides to move into a shape resembling an arrowhead. One monster on the front, two on its sides, running slightly behind it, reducing the pressure of the attacks that would fall on us from the sides, and I - was running in the middle of this formation, hiding myself from the gaze of other creatures preparing for an attack that they wouldn’t see coming.

And so, all according to my anticipations - our formation clashed into the front line of the enemy, and seconds later our sides started being crushed by masses of the monsters. The four creatures on my sides were keeping the attackers back, the one on the tip of our formation pounced onward in a suicidal attack, all for the sake of creating a few seconds long distractions.

It was more than enough.

I saw as the two monsters protecting the alpha bit on the body of my doll, holding it in place, slowly ripping it into the pieces, completely focused on it, they failed to react in time to me, for I was running right behind the monster, now having a clean opportunity to take down these two with few single attacks I slashed and pierced. Instantly, I murdered the monsters and freed my puppet from their deadly embrace, then, ignoring the battle going on behind my back, I rushed onward, aiming at the bigger Lava’Raz, wanting to deprive the enemy formation of its “head”.

Yet, the monster which until now was staying behind watching over the battlefield did notice me, and jumped back a couple of times, hissing, making more of his subordinates stand in my way. Four more reptiles blocked my path to their “commander”.

Damn it! You are not as feral as I had anticipated, you clever creature. - I praised my opponent in my head. I quickly checked on the situation behind me. The formation, for now, somehow managed to keep on holding other attackers off my back, each of my puppets fought with three of their “living copies” at the same time, having their joints twisted and bodies torn in the process. Still, as they were undead, they felt no pain, and that allowed them to respond to each of the attacks in a deadly manner - one of the living Lava’Razes dug its fangs in my puppet’s side, normally, that would cause attacked creatures to yell in pain and most likely collapse on the ground, but my servant instead of yielding in agony stretched its neck and opened its tormentor's throat, splattering blood all over the cave’s floor.

In the meantime, the two reptiles that I had sent away at the beginning of combat, did murder their isolated target. Once they were done, they feasted on its essence, before messily attacking random targets in their sights.

Oh, so after finishing the order that was given to them, the puppets would behave like regular mindless undead - attacking the closest living thing around them. Damn it. I couldn’t ‘reach out” to them to give them new orders without “giving up” on the few which I was controlling right now. With mixed feelings I watched as the two were being slowly surrounded by another bigger group of reptiles, slowly being ripped into shreds. These two, without precise instructions on how to act, were doomed. Well, they still managed to stall a group of few monsters, and even killed three of them. I would say that they have served their role well.

Focusing back on the monsters in front of me, I moved onward, shield raised in front of me, weapon along my body, hidden from their sights. The four protectors of the alpha rushed at me, trying to attack from all sides: left, right and front, while the last monster left the group - only thanks to life sensing could I tell that it was trying to circle around me staying outside of my vision range only to pouce at my back.

I slammed the beast on my left with a powerful strike from my shield while lunging onward and piercing the core of the beast in front of me. I tried to change my footing and avoid the attack from the right, but I was too slow to react to that. Monster pounced on my stretched sword-holding arm, now burrowed in its brother’s guts, locking its jaw around my forearm trying to bite my hand off. Ignoring the notification informing me about my armor losing some of its durability, I pushed the monster to my left further away with my shield before changing my footing, twisting my body, and letting the creature targeting my back ‘run past me’ as I started to repeatedly slam the beast, now holding me, with my shield.

One, two, three hits. Only after the fourth strike did it surrender, releasing me from its grasp, but, I wasn’t done with it. With one more strike of my shield, I pushed it away, getting just enough distance to retrieve my weapon from the dying monster's belly and I slashed horizontally. I wanted to cut its head off, but I only managed to slice its throat. Deeply. Or at least deep enough. The monster started crawling away to safety, slowly bleeding to death.

I lost a ‘signal’ of another puppet, leaving me with only four. Having one of the creatures in the formation dying its second death, it was but a matter of time before half of the horde would soon charge at my back.

I had to kill the alpha quickly. He was the one coordinating the attacks of the group. Without him, dealing with the remaining crowd wouldn’t be any different from my previous battle - just a methodical removal of the living creatures with them being unable to pose me any harm. And so, sensing one of the two remaining ‘guards’ targeting my back I waited till the very last moment before taking one step back and squatting - it was targeting my neck and so its head and arms were stretched high in the air, now, not being able to adjust to my sudden change of stance, it tripped over my crouching body ‘flying’ over my head, landing on the ground with a painful groan. Still ‘kneeling’, I pierced down, ending its life.

Quickly getting up I tried to block the attack of the last living guardian with my shield, but, as my stance was still unsteady, I was pushed back, messing my footing and making another opening for the beast to attack.

It started pushing me further and further away from the alpha. Trying to not lose my cool mind to irritation, I focused on regaining balance. Eventually, still ‘pretending’ to have messy footing, I allowed the creature to take over initiative once again to attack, just to dodge its strike with perfect pirouettes, stabbing its side in the process. Crippled, it fell onto the dungeon floor, still trying to get up and stop me from reaching the head of the pack.

Seeing the rest of the horde now busy tearing my remaining three puppets into shreds, and knowing I have no more time to waste, I ran forward, dedicated to kill the beast as soon as possible.

But, the creature, knowing it was still in a better situation than me, realized that time was against me. Instead of attacking, it started to dodge my attacks, trying to buy enough time to let the horde kill my creatures.

I slashed, it jumped back, I pierced but only for it to move to the side. I even tried to attack “messily” once in order to provoke it to attack me, but it remained unfazed, focused on running away while watching each of my moves carefully.

Two monsters remained, and in my head, I could see them being torn apart by several jaws. I was about to lose my remaining puppets in the next few seconds. Beast, seeing it, let out a mocking croak.. and then, its head was pierced by a long, slightly curved blade of the glaive.

“Sorry for stealing your prey, but you looked like you were in trouble. You are all right with taking down the remaining geckos, or do ya need my help?”

Agnes asked with a huge, bright smile from behind the now collapsing body of the alpha.

“Y-yes…” I answered, taken slightly aback. “Greeeat! I will then watch over from a safe location! Feel free to finish your training!”

The help came just in time, for at the same moment as the alpha fell my very last doll fell down as well. No longer hearing their commander's calls, the horde became confused. Around sixteen remaining monsters attacked me again, with hatred and wrath, wanting to rip me apart for killing their leader, but, just as before, their attacks became stupidly plain and easy to read.

Dodge, block, slash. Dodge, block, pierce. Dodge, dodge, dodge, and double slash.

It became ridiculously easy. Eventually, the last of the monsters fell. I looked over the cavern, now filled with corpses of forty-nine Lava’Razes and their alpha. Carnage indeed, but I knew how it would have ended without Agnes’s help.

No, I doubt I would have died, but, I would surely suffer some ridiculous amount of damage. My armor would be in a mess and I would be yelled at by Godric - for both damaging House’s property (AGAIN) and acting on my own (ALSO AGAIN). He would surely punish me for this, this time not just by making me “strip the dragon's body as no one was watching”.

The Lion’s skirmisher jumped from one of the rock shelves from which she was watching my battle.

“Where did you come from?” I asked, not trying to sound impolite or ungrateful. “Hm? Oh, I wanted to talk with you a little in the camp, but first, you kept on working around the camp, and I didn’t want to disturb you, then you spent some time with the commanders in their tent, and then, after leaving the tent, you right away left the camp with a sword in hand, so I thought I would just tail you and… N-n-n-not that I am following you, or something! That would be creepy! And I am not a creep!”

… definitely.

“A-a-anyway! How did it go? Are you happy with the results of your hunting-training-suicide attempts? What did you learn?” She quickly tried to change subjects.

I didn’t answer right away, carefully choosing my words.

“Humility, the importance of the commander's role on the battlefield, that you always should try to take down a leader at the start of the battle, and that I owe you more and more with each passing day. But yes, mostly humility. I got slightly stronger and thought I could take on the world. Dangerous thinking.” “Bullshit! That’s the correct thinking! And that’s also what I keep on repeating to myself! That’s how I am able to fearlessly pounce on a dragon and throw explosives into its opened mouth!... Though you stole all the glory from me back then.”

Suddenly, out of blue, she started sulking.

“I am… sorry? I guess?” “I don’t give a damn about your sorry!” she pouted loudly “... I was planning for months what epic move I would do if I was fighting a dragon! And then, just like that, you out crazied my crazy! Do you have no shame at all!?...” she poked me in the chest plate with her finger “... I am the top crazy knight of the House, ya’ hear me?! Don’t test me, punk!” “... waaait. Is that the reason you wanted to talk with me?” “No!.. Yes?... MAYBE! It’s irrelevant now! Just know that if you wanted to do something crazy next time, consult with me first! I can’t have you outshine me!”

I chuckled. Then laughed, then completely lost it. An undead’s laugh definitely isn't pleasant for ears, being more than enough to freeze the blood in your veins and make you shiver in fear, but Agnes didn’t seem to care about it, looking even more annoyed by my display of happiness, misunderstanding it for mockery.

“Don’t you dare laugh at meeee!” she started slamming her fists on my armor, more as a display of being annoyed rather than trying to harm me. You have received [0] [Blunt] damage Armor durability reduced 82.4% ➝ 82.3% “Very well. Very well. I beg your pardon. Here, I hereby proclaim you the superior ‘crazy’. You are the craziest crazy in the history of the House. Maybe ever. Do you view this statement as sufficient?” “Hmph! For now.”

Well, she might not be right in the head, but she has her heart in the right place. And, this is the second time I owe her a favor. I need to start coming up with a way to repay her. But, for now.

“Agnes, do you mind if we start returning back to the camp now?” “Hm? Sure, I mean, this place is far too anticlimactic for a date, so, yeah, no objections. Let’s leave.”

This again. I can’t really tell if she is serious or just teasing me. Well, I have been warned by everyone that she ‘falls in love’ fairly quickly with almost everyone she meets, and then she is quite persistent about it, but, taking into consideration that I am just a set of walking bones, that doesn’t make any sense.

Shaking my head, I threw these ridiculous thoughts aside, turning back towards the camp’s direction and starting my march back. Today was a long day, I will need to relax before resuming our march deeper into the dungeon. In the end, fighting nonstop can’t be good for one’s mentality. I need to rest for an hour or two… but how?

Oh right! I did bring those books with me, didn’t I?

You have gathered [Lava'Raz Alpha] essence [121] [0/3500] ➝ [121/3500] You have gathered [Lava'Raz] essence [63] [121/3500] ➝ [184/3500] You have gathered [Lava'Raz] essence [71] [184/3500] ➝ [251/3500] You have gathered [Lava'Raz] essence [64] [251/3500] ➝ [315/3500]

.

.

.

[315/3500] ➝ [3257/3500] Skill proficiency increased Skills:

[Sword Usage - Journeyman level 22 ➝ 24]

[Shield Usage - Journeyman level 9 ➝ 14]

[Bow Usage - Apprentice level 1]

[Nature Magic - Novice level 1]

[Mana Sense - Low - Passive]

[Life sense - Medium - Passive]

[Combat Maneuver/Team tactic - Apprentice level 4 ➝ 6]

[Heavy Armor Usage - Apprentice level 8 ➝ 9]

[Hand-to-hand Combat - Novice level 4]

[Stealth - Apprentice level 2]

[Mind Magic Resistance - Low level 1]

[Dark Arts - Curse Words - Novice Level 8]

[Dark Arts - Necromancy - Novice Level 4 ➝ 6]

[Tracking - Novice Level 2]