“What do you mean it is up to us to stop them? We owe these people nothing. Better to just get the hell out of here before you end up dying. This is idiotic and will kill you!” Cynar yelled, trying to get Thorin to leave the Goblins alone.

“I know we don't owe them anything, but that doesn't mean we should disregard their lives!” Thorin shouted back.

“If these people knew what you are, they would hate you and try to kill you. Why save them?” Cynar said cynically.

“Well if we don't do any good how can we expect their views to change?” Thorin said.

“It doesn't matter what you think any way, we are going to help as much as possible. I'm not promising to take on the entire horde, but every goblin we kill is one that won't be attacking the town.” Thorin said ending the argument.

“Fine, but you must not die, I have waited far too long for a necromancer to be born into this world. I would rather die than wait a second time because of your noble concept of being a hero.” Cynar bitterly glared at Thorin.

“Well dying is not at the top of my list, so stop complaining and help me come up with a plan.” Thorin said.

For the rest of the night Thorin and Cynar stayed up talking trying to decide how to inflict the most damage possible to the goblin army.

After finalizing the plan Thorin took a quick nap and waking at about noon.

Cynar stayed up keeping track of the goblin scouting party and reported on their location.

Thorin began moving through the forest as carefully as possible to where the scouts were milling about.

Through the brush, Thorin was able to see into the small clearing where ten Goblins were camped out.

He sat there and waited for some time before three members broke from the group and started out into the forest. This was what he was waiting for and slowly crept behind them and ordering his skeletons to do the same.

After the three Goblins were out of hearing distance from the larger scouting group, Thorin and his skeletons struck.

He dashed out faster than his skeletons, aiming for the goblin furthest away. He ordered his larger skeleton wielding the battle axe to fight a goblin on his own, while the other two combined forces attacking the last goblin.

The goblins were clearly surprised as they turned to face their attackers, by the time they had their clubs up to defend themselves Thorin and his skeletons were upon them.

Thorin lashed out with his sword in an overhead chop. The goblin raised up his bone club in an effort to block it, but Thorin’s strength outweighed the goblins and the club flew from his hands.

Once again, Thorin slashed before the goblin could prepare for another attack. It was a sloppy, but thankfully did the job ending the creature's life.

He pivoted quickly to see if his skeletons needed help, turning just in time to see the larger skeleton’s axe descend, lodging itself into the head of a goblin. Bits of brain and skull sprayed onto the skeleton, but other than the smell he was fine. On the other hand, the duo seemed to be struggling, making very little progress. Both skeletons were just swinging their weapons wildly in an effort to kill their goblin who was frantically dodging and blocking.

Thorin was about to sprint over to lend a hand, when the smaller skeleton used an opening created by his partner. It ran up to the side of the goblin who was busy blocking an attack, and began quickly and repeatedly stabbing using dual daggers. Blood poured out of the wounds and stained the ground, while the Goblins life slipped away.

Thorin was honestly surprised by his skeletons efficiency. He was proud to see they had grown so much. HIs confidence grew as did his chance of success, knowing these skeletons could be trusted to have his back.

Snapping back to reality, Thorin started moving again. He quickly raised the three slain Goblins as undead subordinates and headed back toward the remaining seven goblin scouts. Putting the six skeletons into the dimensional space, so he wouldn't be slowed down.

When he got back Thorin let out a sigh of relief. They were still just milling around and didn't seem have noticed the earlier skirmish. He started to creep closer and closer to the group, stopping about ten meters out. Any closer and he would definitely be spotted, realizing he wasn't going to gain anything by waiting he dashed forward.

He covered the distance quickly and swung his sword, chopping of one the clueless goblin’s head. The rest of the looked on in shock as blood spewed from their ally’s neck, before snapping out of it screaming with rage and charging him.

With a smile on his face, Thorin simply willed his six skeletons back into existence. The Goblins faltered, shocked by their sudden appearance. One even tripped trying to stop himself and ended up tumbling forward. Thorin quickly ordered his skeletons to attack while running into combat himself.

The first skeleton Thorin summoned was the fastest and launched itself at the downed goblin. It stabbed down and piercing the Goblin’s throat. Having dispatched with the goblin quickly, the skeleton picked itself back up and sprinted towards the rest of the Goblins.

Before the battle had even begun, Thorin noticed one of the Goblins started to run in the direction of the main camp.

Right as he reached his second goblin, he ordered his first summon to quickly stop him. This one was prepared and held a rusty knife instead of the normal club. He swung out with his sword hoping to end the goblin swiftly like he had downed the first. The goblin dodged to the side before it lashed out with its dagger.

The strike made a shallow cut on Thorin's side though was mostly absorbed by Thorin's leather armor. Using the momentum of his first swing Thorin chopped down and removed the Goblin's arm that previously held the dagger. Blood splashed out, hitting him in the face, but strangely Thorin didn't feel disgusted, instead a rush of energy. He lashed out again ending the one armed goblin’s agony.

The energy began to increase as more blood splashed onto his torso. He felt it travel down and heal the minor injury to his side mending his flesh. The remaining energy circulated through his body, filling him with strength. It wasn't major, but it was definitely a noticeable increase.

This discovery made him want to jump out and kill again. He quickly looked up and saw a goblin fighting one of the newly made skeletons and rushed over to help. The skeleton was just mindlessly lashing out in an attempt to kill the goblin. It was a futile effort as the goblin continued to dodge and counterattack. Luckily the goblin’s small knife didn't seem too effective at hurting his skeleton, mostly just taking chips of bone off the skeleton.

While the goblin was distracted with his summon, Thorin charged from the side and skewered it on his blade with a well-timed thrust, kicking the goblin’s corpse to free his blade. He glanced around to see if there were any goblins remaining. To his disappointment there wasn’t and only 4 of his skeletons were remained. Apparently one of the new skeleton’s skulls was crushed by a club wielding goblin.

He reached up and wiped off the blood his face. His initial burst of energy and resolution, was replaced by disgust. Why was he craving a fight? It concerned for him, He wasn't supposed to be fighting because he enjoyed it, only to save the town.

Checking his status, he was greeted by two pop up screens.

One was just to let him know he had gained two levels. He quickly put five points into both intelligence and willpower. If he is going to take on as many goblins as possible he needed more skeletons.

The second screen showed him that he had learned a new passive spell.

Blood Lust: Rank D Spell Cost When in combat and killing an enemy you enter a state of Blood Lust increasing your physical stats by 5% and healing you over time. Effects are doubled when in contact with feshly spilt blood. Passive

‘This should be useful, but I don't like how it messes with my mind. I'll have to be careful for now and ask Cynar about it when he returns.’ Thorin thought.

‘Wait what about the goblin that ran away’ Thorin panicked as he mentally checked in on the skeleton he sent after him.

Thorin felt a vague sense of success from the skeleton and let out a sigh of relief.

‘Good job, bring the body back to me’ Thorin mentally commanded the skeleton.

He also ordered the remaining skeletons to gather up the bodies and put them in a pile. He raised up another five skeletons giving him an even number of ten.

He wanted to try out one of his new spells, skeletal refinement with this one.

He had the axe wielding skeleton come forward having proven to be the best fighter among his forces and would benefit the most from a power up.

‘Alright’ Thorin thought as he mentally prepared himself. This spell involved a lengthy chant and a single mistake could screw it up.

He began the chant speaking ancient words that simply rolled of his tongue like they were alive. He felt his mana start to form a pattern flowing into the blood soaked skull floating over his pool. When it came out it had a different property and started to flow faster. According to what Cynar said it should have been a silver stream of mana not a metallic, light red. Thorin almost lost control of the spell due to the difference, but held on.

‘Fuck it’ Thorin thought as he continued the spell. The mana continued to flow faster and faster, until it traveled down his chest into to his hands.

He pointed one hand at the goblins corpse and had the mana expel from his palm. It shot forward in a small ball and hit the body. The mana was absorbed into the bones which promptly exploded out of the soft tissue of the corpse and started to head over the Thorin's skeletons. Everything was going as it should when suddenly Thorin's palm shot out another pulse out. This time it appeared to disperse in a flash all around the battlefield and sink into the ground.

A second or two passed as he continued to chant, ignoring the strange occurrences. Slowly Thorin noticed blood from the ground starting to flow in streams towards the skeleton. A large amount of blood was spilled during the skirmish and gathered in an orb near the skeleton.

The blood started to wrap and swirl around the skeleton and a metallic red light started to glow from the skeleton. The bones and blood started to fuse with the skeleton as the glow brightened. At this point the spell was completed and Thorin was able to look away as the light had become uncomfortable to look at.

Thorin felt exhausted, the spell was only supposed to consume a hundred mana, but when he checked it had took a five hundred.

Eventually, the light faded and Thorin was surprised to see the skeleton was crimson colored and had grown taller.

On closer examination he could see the bones had become thicker and that rib cage fused together. It looked much more sinister and dangerous. The biggest change was the eyes, before the sockets were empty, but now a small eerie flame was present in each of them.

Looking into the skeleton’s new eyes he could see the intelligence behind them. Thorin walked over to the skeleton to get a closer look and as he approached the skeleton knelt down on one knee and bowed its head. When only a step away it looked up at him and a voice sounded out in Thorin's head.

“I am at your service, my Lord.”

“You can speak?” Thorin said shocked.

“Yes, Lord.” The skeleton spoke again

Thorin was thrilled and quickly checked his status and the skeletal refinement skill to see what caused this.

Spell Mutated Skeleton Refienment -> Skeletal Fusion: Rank C Spell Cost

Strengthen a skeleton minion by having it absorb nearby bones and blood creating a Crimsion Skeleton. Depending on skeleton and bones used outcomes vary.

Max Number of Crimson Skeletons: 10

Mana (500).

He was once again surprised as a he found a new screen pop up.

‘What, I created a variant spell!’ Thorin was ecstatic. Obviously this crimson skeleton was a much stronger outcome than anything skeletal refinement could create. The only downside is that currently he could only control ten of them. Envisioning an army of these skeletons made Thorin excited to create more.

“Excuse me, Master could you please give your humble servant a name?” The skeleton asked sounding both hesitant and nervous.

“Of course” Thorin said as he quickly started thinking of what to call his first true minion.

“Stand Roland, you were called Roland in your past life and this will continue. You shall be Roland the First.” Thorin said as the skeleton stood up and picked up its enchanted battle axe.

The first of many…

Name: Thorin Black Class: Necromancer Lv 7 6/70 XP Health 240/240 Mana 1510/1510 Stats: Strength: 26 Vitality: 24 Stamina: 16 Endurance: 9 Intelligence: 51 Willpower: 64 Agility: 12 Dexterity: 11 Skills Summon Familar Rank S Skeletal Fusion Rank C Life Siphon Rank D Summon Skeleton Rank D Blood Lust Rank D Talents Affinity with Death Dimensional Storage Head Start Magic Reserves Strong Soul Blood Lord Thorin's Forces Skeleton 9 Crimson Skeleton 1