Necromancers and Hard Work

“Trial and Error, trial and error...uuuu...”

Clarence continually muttered to himself while a miasma of thick depression loomed over his head.

To keep things short, Clarence was having a terrible day, and it only seemed to progressively get worse. His ranking went down once again, he had his face disfigured (an exaggeration) by a lowly rank G beast, and to top it all of, his previous attempt at necromancy had gone horribly wrong. While his spell casting and process were satisfactory, there was one major flaw he overlooked; quality.

That is, quality of the body.

The fragile whip monkey he had painstakingly spent over an hour tracking down and subduing (killing) was, for the lack of a better term, invalid. The beast was paralyzed from the neck down, and even with the help of necromancy, Clarence was unable to fix a broken spinal column.

Maybe if he had known some of the more higher tier spells, he could have managed, but at his level, it was a serious impediment to use such a broken corpse.

After all, you can’t exactly rely on a body that can only jerk its head from left to right.

With a heavy heart full of loss (his loss of time that is), the self taught necromancer unwillingly released his spell, returning the beast to the hands of death.

Right now, Clarence was once again venturing the woods, his attitude more pessimistic than usual. He had wanted to give up, and call an end to his “training” for the day, but he didn’t particularly want to go back to the dorms just yet.

Rather, Clarence hated every moment he spent in the dormitory. Not only did it remind him that he wasn’t good enough to stay in a “Tenant house”, it also brought him direct contact to several people he disliked.

That’s actually one of the reasons why he loved the woods so much, it was his place of escape.

Giving up on the pursuit of magical beasts, Clarence opted to go after more reclusive creatures; monsters.

With his acquired knowledge of the outdoors, he went about the woods, tracking down monsters and animals with the naive optimism of an amateur. He would have ended up with nothing to show for his work, had he not had some assistance from a basic tracking spell he managed to learn a week prior.

Eventually, he managed to find a monster, although unfortunately it was already long dead.

“Ah damn it…” Clarence silently cursed to himself.

The rotting corpse in front of him looked about 2 to 3 days old, which was a bit of misfortune for Clarence. You see, for a necromancer, their remains an iron clad rule; Like fish from a supermarket, freshness is always important.

A newer body will retain more of its original strength than an older corpse, that’s usually why necromancers prefer to kill their own servants, it allows them a fresh corpse to use. Of course, while the quality of a body may drop down depending on its decay time, the type of a body is still pretty important. For instance, a dead rank C whose corpse was left to rot for over a week is still vastly superior to a fresh rank G corpse.

Although this case didn’t apply to Clarence’s current situation. The new body of his was also a rank G.

The corpse was avian, with glistening, pitch black feathers, and a too yellow beak. It had a massive wound running down the top of its head and ending at the base of its left eye. The blood had obviously dried out, indicated by the flecks of red which complemented the hollow emptiness of its once beading red eyes.

Clarence noted the red ends of its tail, which if inspected closely, had a hint of purple to it.

“...This redness...the bird’s obviously a Blood crow, but…”

Blood Crows were ranked G monsters. At first sight they looked like any ordinary crow, in fact, that wasn’t far off. Some historians and proclaimed “monster” specialists theorize that, like many of the other monsters in existence, Blood Crows originated from a sort of origin species, in this case, a common crow.

Although they did have their own distinguishing features that set them apart from regular crows.

Firstly, they were obviously monsters. This was proven so by the toxicity of their meat to humans. They were also a lot more aggressive. While alone, they nary posed a threat, but together, a flock of blood crows were dangerous. An average flock of about 700 could easily overpower a rank B monster or magical beast.

Physically, the most notable difference, and the one which earned the creature its monocle, was the discoloration of its wings. Blood Crows had red feathers at the tip of its wings, which, under stark conditions, looked exceedingly similar to flakes of dried blood.

While the corpse that Clarence found did have red tinges, there was also a purple shade which seeped into the Monster’s wings. The purple tinge worried Clarence. It wasn’t an unusual shade for a blood crow, rather, a strong purple indicated a stronger Blood crow. Normally, a Blood Crow that had purple wings were monsters who have managed to move up its species rank.

There was nothing abnormal about this. What Clarence found unusual was that purple winged Blood Crows weren’t normally found in Setohanda forest. The stronger ones flocked far east, near the bases of China’s most obscure mountains, Crows with stupidly bright red wings were what remained within the forest.

Although the specimen before him looked as if the purple was just now growing in, it was still unusual.

“If we’re speaking of unusual, isn’t this Crow a bit too big?” Clarence muttered to himself once more.

It was true, the corpse in front of him was about 3 times larger than a normal Blood Crow, which usually only grew to about a regular bird’s size.

After thinking things over, Clarence decided it was for the better to resurrect the abnormal corpse. Rather, he noted that its abnormalities may have actually been a godsend for him.

They reflected a stronger specimen, and a stronger specimen means a stronger undead.

Also, Clarence harbored a faint light of hope.

Blood Crows were pack animals. Where there was one, there was bound to be another. And, he reasoned, if he found a corpse, he could probably find another.

Learning from his earlier mistake, Clarence first inspected the body for any deformities or performance impending injuries. Once he was satisfied that the body was good for use, he immediately set about resurrecting the undead.

Taking out his wand he repeated his earlier process, and within 2 minutes, the crow was squawking with a lifeless echo.

Clarence grinned a shit eating grin, before he commanded the creature to search out for his other brethren. The Crow retained some form of past memory, so it was readily able to guide its new master to its previous nest.

Following the crow carefully, making sure not to lose sight of him in the nighttime scenery, which was quickly invading the forest landscape, Clarence eventually reached a decrepit old tree.

There, Clarence grinned a shit eating grin.

“Hu hu hu… Like I thought! This place is….this place is a total gold mine!”

He looked on in awe and marvel at the scene before him.

There, strewn across the ground, were numerous corpses of Blood Crows with various tinges that ranged from immature red to developing magenta. Clarence resisted the urge to jump around in excitement as he gathered a rough estimate of the amount of avian corpses in front of him.

“1...2...500!”

Although he felt slight disappointment at finding out the flock’s amount was a little lower than average, he didn’t really care. What he noted most was that, like the Blood Crow he first resurrected, these creatures had different colored wing tips!

A small majority still had the usual bright red tinge of a rank g, but most had purple blended into their pitch black mats of feathers. After some inspection, he was also happy to find that some had a deep dark blue to their wing tips.

“Blue colored wings means rank D or higher!” Clarence hopped around in restrained excitement.

While he didn’t know why so many corpses littered this place, or why they were at such an abnormally high ranking, he didn’t care. To him, this was purely a fortune granted to him after years of misfortune. A needle in the hay stack sort of thing.

He immediately set about to create his own little army of undead avians.

The task was painstakingly long, and took up a majority of his abnormally high mana count (one of Clarence’s only advantages). The actual act of bringing a corpse back to life used up a lot of mana, and what’s more, maintaining control of a corpse permanently lowered his mana cap until he chose to release his control.

In his excitement, Clarence had forgotten the time, and now, it was 2 hours later, and well into the night, when he had successfully resurrected 341 Blood Crows.

About a sixth of his total mana was already in constant use just to maintain his control on the undead, but Clarence was fully determined to see through his actions.

With steeled resolve, he walked hauntingly over to the massive mound of Crow corpses which congregated at the base of the dying tree. He had avoided this spot while he brought back the other crows mostly because just looking at it filled him both with glee and frustration.

On one side, the black lump of bodies gave him a large deficit of would be servants, but on the other, this pile looked like a daunting task that would take him at least an hour to fully resurrect.

Sighing wearily, Clarence immediately got onto doing his task.

Firstly, he ordered the already resurrected crows to displace the lump of bodies, making it easier for him to sort out in the long run.

A crow 5 times larger than average with a dark blue wing tip squawked authoritively from Clarence’s shoulder.

Leading by example, the creature flew off and quickly obeyed its new master’s orders. It grabbed a body with its powerful talons and quickly moved it over to a spot away from the mound. Seeing this, as well as receiving their new commands, the rest of the army of crows followed suit, moving the bodies and eventually thinning out the lump.

After the mound had considerably lessened, Clarence was able to peer inside the center of it, and was quickly surprised.

“Ohoo~ This is…”

At the center, surrounded by over a hundred bird bodies, were two gigantic corpses.

These corpses were identical to each other, with only a slight disparity in their color. One body was covered from head to toe in a rugged brown pelt of fur, while the other was colored grey. The corpses themselves resembled a bear, with the only difference being they had elongated hind legs, and that they were at least twice as large as a regular bear.

Clarence instantly recognized the two gigantic corpses.

“A war bear...and two to boot..”

War Bears, like their name implied where monsters that greatly resembled bears. They were most known for their aggressive, war-like nature which made them quite dangerous for amateur and even experienced magicians.

These monsters were usually rank B, but going by his prior experience with the Blood Crows, as well as through observations, the War Bear corpses in front of him could easily have reached rank A. This was most apparent by the size of the creatures, which was definitely out of the ordinary.

“Going by the fresh scars on their bodies, I can finally tell why there are so many corpses here.”

To keep things short, it was a territory dispute. These two groups of monsters, the pair of War bears, and the flock of Blood Crows, had both laid their claim on the area around this decrepit old tree. As such, it was quite inevitable that they would come to blows. This fighting resulted in the mutual destruction of the two opposing groups.

A sad tale really, but not one Clarence really cared for. Such a thing constantly happened, even within the relatively tame Setohanda Forest. Monsters, which were by nature, territorial beings, would often fight over land. It was actually quite unusual that something like this didn’t happen more frequently within these grounds.

Although this was most likely attributed to the growing urban legend of a rank AAA monster which controlled the whole of the forest.

Clarence struggled for a bit, caught in indecision. Upon seeing these corpses his innate Necromancer nature was quite eager to resurrect them, and add these formidable bodies to his already growing army of undead. While he didn’t really plan on using such an army, he still couldn’t help the excitement he felt upon seeing his hard work pile up higher and higher.

On the other hand, he was nervous. He had never attempted bringing back a monster higher than rank C, let alone rank A. To Clarence, their were too many unknown variables.

After what seemed like hours of quiet debate, Clarence finally decided on going through with it. His eagerness, and excitement had triumphed over his indecision.

Taking a deep breath, He leaned over the Brown one, and quickly began chanting his spell. He made sure to be much more careful than when he resurrected the individual Blood Crows. With painstaking attention to detail, after about an hour (it took much longer to revive such a massive body) of constant chatting, the first war bear twitched.

Seeing this from the corner of his peripheral vision, Clarence was once again filled with vigor, as he excitedly dove into the final verses of his spell. After 15 more minutes, the Brown war bear moved with a deadly gait as it shooks its fur, and bowed respectfully towards his new master (an action Clarence forced it to perform in order to stroke his own ego).

After seeing this was accomplished, he threw his head back and laughed. His first attempt at resurrecting such a strong beast had resulted in success, there was no chance that the vain necromancer wasn’t excited.

He giddily stretched out his sore arms, as he got back into the thick of things. After inspecting the new war bear he had resurrected, he began to bring back the 2nd war bear. This time around, due to his prior experience, he was able to bring the grey war bear to life in a little over 35 minutes.

Once this was done, although thanks to the addition of the 2 rank A monsters, his mana cap had gone down by a full 4th, he was still stubbornly determined to resurrect the remaining hundred or so Blood Crows which remained still and lifeless.

After an hour of more painstaking spell casting, Clarence was finally able to plop down on the ground, surrounded by his army of newly resurrected undead.

“Haaa...Haa….Ha ha ha” Clarence’s loud gasping turned into a self centered laugh.

“I..I am the BEST!” He screamed aloud to no one in particular.

His previously shitty mood had completely changed, and still high of the euphoria of his recent achievement, he completely forgot about Setohanda, and Newgrounds, and his ranking.

Unfortunately to him, the quickly approaching fatigue brought the young man to reality.

He eventually did finally take note of the night sky. He realized how late it had gotten.

Clarence grumbled as he mulled over his actions. He didn’t want to go back, especially considering that it was already well into the night, and only a fool would travel at night in such a dangerous looking forest.

“Ah, whatever. I’ll just camp out here for now. It’s a weekend anyways, so its not like I’ll have to get up in the morning for class… and its not like anyone will be looking for me or something…”

Clarence mumbled to himself hauntingly with a hint of self mock.

Thus, the young necromancer firmly decided to spend the night at the foot of the old tree, surrounded by the constant smell of rotting flesh and his new army of undead, which watched vigilantly into the night.

*****

I woke up this morning feeling more tired than usual.

After the fiasco that was last night, I had a good night’s rest that lasted for about 12 hours, but it seems like the weariness from yesterday had managed to seep its way into my saturday.

I got up with a low moan. I moved towards the door, fully aware of the dryness I tasted in my throat. My zombie shuffle eventually led me out of my room and into the kitchen.

“....”

“Good Morning.” A feminine voice greeted me. A figure sat up rather proudly at the foot of the kitchen table. She had her legs crossed and was casually looking at her surroundings with an obvious disdain in her eyes.

Now, it isn’t uncommon for me to hear such a girlish voice or see such a girlish figure within Rosebud, especially since the majority of the house’s residents are female. What struck me as odd about this voice, and its subsequent owner, was that they distinctly did not belong to any of the known residents.

“....”

I stared blankly at the person. The gnawing of my throat really annoyed me, as I coughed haphazardly.

“Here is some tea. I took the liberty of preparing it.” She gingerly slid the tea cup in her hand across the table. After a while, she took hold of another cup which was conveniently placed next to her and sipped gracefully with practiced precision.

It was the first time I noticed that she had been drinking something.

“....”

Ignoring the “friendly” gesture, I zombie shuffled my way to the fridge, and procured my own beverage; a nice, cool glass of refreshing water.

“Very well, I understand that not everyone prefers a cup of tea so early in the morning.” She stated from behind, not bothered by my refusal.

As I greedily gulped down the water, I squinted suspiciously at the “guest”.

I coughed once, before opening myself up for conversation.

“....Why are you here?”

“I came to visit.” She responded promptly.

“Why?”

“You know why.”

“....”

“....”

I eventually sighed.

A scowl flashed across my face, but unlike last time, the person in front of me did not jerk back in surprise. She kept a neutral look on her face while fixing the frames of her glasses.

“Damn it Miss Secretary…” I grumbled tiredly. “I already told you AND the Vice Prez, I’m not doing it.”

“I’m fully aware of your refusal.”

“Then why are you here?!” I asked irritated, my voice rising an inflection due to my exasperation.

“Well, we can’t accept your refusal.”

“....”

“Actually, to be more precise, the Vice President can’t accept your refusal. He sent me here in hopes of convincing you otherwise. Apparently, this task is very important, and he simply can’t leave it undone.

That’s why I need to convince you to not refuse.”

“...And how exactly are you going to do that?” I questioned dryly.

“He didn’t say.”

“...What are you going to do then to convince me.”

“I don’t know.... But I have… plans.”

“... How did you get in?”

“As a member of the student council, I have access to all facilities and housing complexes.” Ami stated with a hint of pride in her monotone tone.

I inwardly cursed my luck as I moved to the table. Although I hadn’t noticed earlier, food did decorate the normally bare kitchen table; A plate of freshly cooked bacon and eggs, topped with two sausages. In my deprived and hungry state, the plate was like a temptress which lured me into a never ending abyss.

Filled with exaggerated caution, I took a seat across from Ami, and stared at the gourmet plate of food longingly.

“You can have it.” Ami started, noticing my obvious desire.

“...Did you make this?” I asked.

The smell had long wafted to my nostrils, further increasing my desire.

“Yes I did. In fact, I made it for you.” She stated, a hint of a blush coloring her robot like expression.

“...That’s kind of you…” I replied, not even attempting to hide my suspicion.

“Don’t get the wrong idea.” She immediately responded. “The only reason I cooked for you is because I’m trying to garner favor from you in hopes of overturning your refusal.”

“...I see.”

I curtly nodded, before looking at the bacon once more. With slight hesitation, I brought the plate close and enjoyed the meal. I mean, after all, there was no point wasting already cooked food. And thank god I did, the food was really, really good.

I quietly enjoyed the meal, all the while Ami looked intently at me.

“Is it working?” She asked.

“What’s working?” I mumbled through a mouth full of bacon.

“Am I garnering your favor?”

I paused for a moment, before resuming my meal. “...So-so.”

“...What does that mean?”

I shrugged, not really all too eager to answer any of her questions.

“....”

“....”

We lapsed into stiff silence. The room filled with only the chewing noise my mouth produced as I bit through the chunks of protein and flavor.

After a few minutes of quiet, Ami once again blurbed up with another question, this time, one that suited the appearance of such a cute and quiet girl.

“..I-is it good?”

“Yeah, its delicious.”

Without even lifting my eyes of the plate, I answered reflexively. Due to Nanami’s pampering, she would frequently cook for me, so such a question was already well rooted in my mind, and thus elicited a second nature response.

“...I see…” From the corner of my eyes, I swore I saw a glimpse of a smile flash briefly across Ami’s face.

After I finished my meal, and had put away my licked-clean plate safely in the sink, I finally went about to questioning Ami.

“...So, what will you do now?” I directed towards the still sitting, tea sipping person across from me.

She shrugged rather uncharacteristically. “I don’t know, but I’m required to stick close to you until I can convince you to do Vice President’s task.”

I sighed wearily. This was going to totally ruin my plans for saturday.

Wait, I actually didn’t have any plans for saturday… but still...

“...It would be for the best, for both of us, if you just accepted already.” She spoke with an obvious sense of tiredness in her voice.

“Hmmm….” I pretended to mull over her suggestion.

“Umm, no thanks, even if you are going to be constantly pestering me, it still beats actually doing something so troublesome.”

She sighed. “Then I guess we will both have to suffer…”

I laughed dryly at her statement before heading back upstairs. After a slight pause, Ami readily followed me.

As we made our way to my destination (my room), she asked, “Where are you going?”

“To prepare.” I answered casually.

“?”

.

A look of confusion flashed across her face as Ami tilted her head to the side.

“Prepare for what?”

“Why, obviously to prepare for the day ahead.” I answered sarcastically.

“....” She took this information in while another question floated out of her lips. “What exactly will we--er, you, be doing today?”

I broadly smiled at her question. We arrived in front of my room, and as I turned the knob open, I looked over my shoulders and directly responded.

“Absolutely nothing.”

Chapter 17

Chapter 19