It painfully slammed into her, sending her flying back into the cave. Fortunately, she somehow managed not to get gutted by its tusks. She stood back up, her stomach protesting at the motion because of the hit and threatening to made her vomit what little remained of it.

At that moment, her zombie roach engaged the boar from behind while it was about to start another charge. Unlike its older brother, it lost the ability to spit acid because of the transformation, but it could still deal some damage thanks to its pincers and sharp appendices, but it was still too weak to threaten the larger and stronger animal, so it turned around and pushed the roach back.

Still, that was enough of a distraction for Elena to climb up the boar's back and pierce it in the back with her sharp knife, spraying blood all over the place. The boar, on the other hand, started squealing in pain and run in circles, shaking its head trying to get rid of the human on top of it.

After a couple shot's though, she managed to sever the boar's spine with a clear hit, and in turn, the animal crashed to the ground, dead.

Elena slid down from the boar's back and sprawled to the ground, exhausted. Then, she ordered the zombie roach to drag the body inside the cave, so as secure the meal from predators and not attract them near the cave. Though, with all the blood it was probably useless.

Then she moved into the forest, decided to find a stream or a puddle to clean herself and what little remained of her one-piece dress.

After a couple hours of walking through the forest, she managed to find a small stream running through the trees, so small she almost didn't see it. Forming a cup with her hands, she drank some water, what with all the fighting she had done that day that made her really thirsty.

Then, she took off her dress, slipping off the one shoulder strap that remained, and started washing it thoroughly, trying to make the green and red stains of blood disappear. She didn't have much luck with that, so she gave up and lay it on a branch nearby.

She proceeded to wash; the hairs were the worst part, encrusted as they were with blood and grime, so much she even considered to just cut them off. But then again, she always prided herself of her long, straight and raven-black hairs, so she decided that was another thing she would have to live with.

She then had to wait for her dress to finish drying up, which was pretty annoying because of the cold. She couldn't help but shiver in the cold air that passed through the trees. She was so focused on the cold, that she didn't notice the roach approaching her, so when she did, she almost reached for her knife. But she stopped when she noticed it was just one of her zombies, that somehow managed to locate her. How did it do that? Did they always know where she was?

That was... creepy, to say the least. After a few seconds of thinking, she ordered the roach to turn around, facing away from her. It wasn't a pleasant though, knowing that a giant cockroach was peeping at your half-naked form.

A few more minutes of awkward silence passed, with the minion staring at nothing in the forest and its master staring at its back. Then, having decided she had enough, she put on her now dry dress and went back to her cave. She had marked the trees with her knife on the way in, so it wasn't too difficult to go back.

Once she arrived at the mouth of her new lair, she took a deep breath, regretting her choice to live in the cave for the time being. The place was damp, dark and quite scary. Also, she was starting to feel a bit claustrophobic. Obviously, she didn't have any other places to pick from, so she was stuck with this as a temporary solution until she could come out of her hiding hole with a big enough force to take revenge by killing those who ordered her parents and friends slaughter.

It was only obvious in this world. The strong killed or governed the weak, and the latter could only despair. Or he could work himself to the bone, suffering every day, until he could become the strongest. Then, he would be able to kill and order around those weaker than him.

She entered her new home, filled with thoughts of revenge and despair, and made her way up to half of the tunnel. Then she had to stop. Her way was blocked by two acidic roaches.

"Again?" She muttered, her voice low so as not to alert her new neighbors. She was now more pissed than scared of the pests now, wondering where they were coming from.

Then, something else appeared. It was a bigger version of the roaches, almost two times as big in fact. It towered over them, and she somehow recognized it. It was the first one she defeated, the one which had its head turned into mush, and that was now somehow back in one piece.

She guessed the cocoon it had covered itself in before she left for her bath was to thank for its increased size and sudden regrowth.

Her minion charged to the two new roaches, smashing the head of the first with a leg and slamming the other into the wall. Then her other minion joined in, and they were quickly disposed of.

Elena ordered her zombies to take the new catches to the main room and then followed them, happy she didn't even dirty her washed dress. Once they arrived there, her minions put the dead roaches together with the other insect and the boar, and went still, waiting for new orders.

She commanded the biggest one to go guard the entrance, while she made the other drag the boar over to the kitchen.

It had a really nice setup, completed with a stove, a two meters long countertop and all of the utensils she could ever need to cook. There was also a fire striker in one of the cupboards, and a pile of neatly arranged logs near the stove.

She then tried to lift the board over onto the countertop, but even with the help of her new helper, she wasn't able to lift it up. In the end, the bigger one had to come over and lend a hand, after which they managed to accomplish the task rather easily.

That being done, Elena proceeded to skin the boar and remove the guts, which she fed to her minions (who knew, even zombies could eat). She wasn't much of a cook, but she knew something about skinning and cooking. She then cut the different parts, so to be able to fit them on the grill over the stove and started cooking them. Finally, she had something decent to eat for dinner, instead of the berries and roots she had been eating for the last week or so.

While she was cooking up the boar, turning the meat over once in a while as to not let the bottom part burn, she reanimated two of the acidic roaches and was rewarded with new notifications.

[ You Leveled up! ]

[ Your Skill -Raise Lesser Undead- Leveled up! ]

Grinning, she called up her status screen. It was nice to be rewarded for her efforts once in a while.

[ --- Status Screen --- ]

Name: Elena | Class: Necromancer – Apprentice | Level: 2

Condition: Bruised | Mana: 20/20 (7 Mana/3h)

[ --- Stats --- ]

Str: 5 | Cos: 5 | Dex: 8

Int: 7 | Wis: 6 | Per: 7

[ --- Skills --- ]

Common: Basic Farming III | Reading II | Writing I

Uncommon: Raise Lesser Undead II [Lesser Zombie]

Rare: Analyze-Self

[ --- End of Status Screen --- ]

As expected, there wasn't much in terms of rewards for her first level up, only three more points of mana. But it was enough, it wouldn't do any good being greedy at this point. Also, her mana refilled with the coming of a new level, so she could raise the last of the roaches to add to her growing army.

It wasn't really much in terms of power, a couple Bronze class adventurer could probably take her on without a problem, but it was enough for now.

The first batch of meat was ready, so she took it off the grill and put on a plate. It was just a leg, but it was more than enough dinner for her young, small self. The remaining she would smoke, so as to delay the spoiling of the meat.

She was about to dig in when she heard a low rumbling coming from the entrance, and an alarm coming off from her minions. So, she picked up her big knife and turned around, advancing towards her minions standing alert.

At last, she saw them.

A flood of roaches was flowing in the tunnel from one of the side caves, slowly but surely advancing towards her.