Chapter 11 - Flesh Golem

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Name: Chris Ederson

HP 220/220

MP 150/150

SP 160/160

DP 11/11

Race: Human

Guild: None

Class: Celestial Paladin

Level 37

Status Alerts:

Remaining Skill Points: 0 Remaining Stat Points: 0 Current Permanence cycle: OFF Current Bound Point: Maltetious’ Realm

Buffs:

Night Vision (Modified Vampiric Bloodlines) Improved Smell (Modified Vampiric Bloodlines) Improved Reflexes (Modified Vampiric Bloodlines) +200% modifier to original base level Strength and Speed (Supersoldier)

Debuffs:

+8% damage taken from Dark, Necromancy, Chaos and Curse (Aversion to Evil)

Stat Amplifications:

36 Strength

60 Vitality

30 Endurance

26 Dexterity

8 Speed

11 Intelligence

25 Wisdom

20 Faith

0 Luck

0 Willpower

(Click spoiler for the rest of the status page!)

Magics (7 of 8 spells learned)

Blazing Glory^ (Celestial) - Level 18 Unleash a long range torrent of celestial power at your enemies. High damage, wide area of effect. High cooldown. Upgrade 1> +29% damage to Fallen, Demon and Undead class enemies.

Shield of Righteousness^ (Holy) - Level 18

Create a barrier of holy magic Upgrade 1> reflect 5% damage back at attacker regardless of attack type

Justicara: Purging Light (Celestial) - Level 9

Illuminate the area around you with celestial light that burns those you recognize as enemies and heals those you recognize as allies

Blessed Weapon (Holy) - Level 7

Bless a choice weapon with 6% extra holy damage per strike over the next hour

Luminous Grace (Holy) - Level 6

Instant cast. Heal yourself or target slowly over time for 60 seconds.

Cure Ailment (Holy) - Level 6

Cure simple ailments such as low tier disease or poisons

Rise Up (Holy) - Level 2

Resurrect fallen comrade. Very long cooldown.

Miracles (1 of 8 miracles learned)

Field of Nurturing^ (Holy Miracle) - Level 15

An area of effect miracle, replenishes HP, MP, and SP to yourself and those viewed as allies at moderate rate over time for 300 seconds. Upgrade 1> Increases all resistances to yourself and allies by +12

Physical Combat (1 of 8 sacred arts learned)

Polearms^^ - Level 20

Upgrade 1> +3% damage while striking with polearms Upgrade 1> +10 strength while using polearms

Justicara: Divine Smite^ (Sacred Art) - Level 12

Empower the next physical attack with a stunning effect and additional celestial damage. Moderate cooldown. Low SP cost. Upgrade 1> +16% damage to Fallen, Demon and Undead class enemies.

Heavy Armor^ - Level 12

Upgrade 1> +4 overall physical resistance for each piece of heavy armor worn

Bows - Level 8

Hand to Hand Combat - Level 8

Blunt Weapons - Level 6

Blades - Level 6

Shields - Level 5

Small Blades - Level 5

Assassination - Level 5

Light Armor - Level 4

Miscellaneous

First Aid - Level 9

Identification - Level 8

Sneak - Level 5

Tracking - Level 4

Traits:

Earthborn - You are earthborn and experience ‘ON’ and ‘OFF’ permanence cycles. You also gain a 20% increase to any type of XP acquired when compared to your fellow NPCs, and your mana regeneration rate is increased by 30%.

Languages Learned - Human, Dwarvish, Elvish

Modified Vampiric Bloodlines - Your body has been modified with key aspects of an ancient vampiric bloodline. You now have night vision, an improved sense of smell, and improved reflexes.

Supersoldier - Your DNA has been altered to express the best traits of your human heritage. You now have a +200% modifier applied to your original base level Strength and Speed. This modifier does not apply to Stat increases.

Aversion to Evil - Dark, Necromancy, Chaos and Curse magics or miracles do an additional 8% damage to you.

Physical Attributes:

Modified Vampiric Bloodlines: Eyes - Your eyes turn light blue and glow in the dark when using night vision.

Skill Trees Unlocked:

Justicara

Magical Attributes:

Celestial

Holy

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Chris closed his status page after assigning his level up’s 5 stat points to Strength and 1 skill point to Shield of Righteousness, only to hear Taen mumble some odd riddle again.

“What is always coming, but never arrives?” Taen thought out loud. He lay half submerged against the sand as he gazed above to the starlit heavens, the river flowing gently across his bare body as the blood cached to his skin rinsed away.

Puffing on a rolled up joint, Chris got up from leaning against his armor set he’d scrubbed off just a little while ago and turned to Taen with an utterly stoned expression. “You seem to be in a better mood than you were an hour or two ago. As for the riddle… let me think about it.”

Chris began to wade out further into the river. Looking over at Michael, who shrugged and continued to wring the blood out of his undergarments, Chris turned back to Taen. “The answer,” he said with a widening smile, “Is tomorrow.”

Taen began to laugh and slapped his thigh, “Very good! You are correct. I believe you guys are one for three now.”

“That’s better than ‘O’ for three right?!”

“Indeed it is. Indeed, it is.”

Taen shot his 16 zombies, who were still standing in the shadows of the cliff at the cliff’s base, a smoldering grin. “I cannot wait to get started on building it.”

“It?” repeated Chris curiously.

Taen nodded enthusiastically. “The flesh golem. It’s going to be grand.”

“When do you start?”

“Later tonight of course. Why would I wait?”

Chris shrugged, and after a while he came out of the water to search his belongings. Then he searched his clothes, becoming frantic all of a sudden. “Damn, I’m nearly out of da grey chief.”

“You mean those leaves you’ve been smoking? I was wondering when you’d run out. Ha!” Taen chuckled to himself despite the look of disappointment Chris shot his way.

“This is a serious matter. I don’t know where to get them outside of Maltetious’ realm. Next time we see her, I’m going to ask her for some more.” Chris snorted, defiant of Taen’s judgemental attitude, and yawned. “We should probably get some sleep soon.”

Stretching out and yawning again, Chris closed his eyes as if to go to sleep right there.

“We have company.” said Michael, motioning towards the pass that led down the cliff face. Three figures carrying torches were making their way towards them.

As they came near, they saw the young man who’d been openly doubting them prior to the fight, the girl who had accused them of being vampires after trying to stab Chris, and Nanipe’s husband - the baker - for whom they still did not know a name. They were all a lot more hesitant when passing the 16 dead men, but eventually walked by the standing corpses despite their disgusted looks. And terrible smells.

Chris motioned towards Nanipe’s husband, “I was told his name once... but now that I’ve forgotten it I can’t ask what it is again without being seen as an idiot. Michael, go ask what his name is for me. They already think you’re stupid, I still have to save face.”

“I was told his name too, and like you - I also forgot. So no.”

“But you’re already known as the village idiot, so it doesn’t matter.”

“Not happening.”

“Rude.”

The three newcomers had now reached the beach and headed towards the Earthborn, promptly planting their torches in the sand as they sat down and joined the party.

Anxiously clearing her throat, the short blonde girl who’d attacked Chris didn’t waste any time at all - and started talking immediately. Though she awkwardly stared at the ground between her feet as she did.

“I want to apologize… For trying to stab you earlier.”

Chris sat up, still as high as the heavens and holding a smoking blunt in his hand. “And I apologize for not having any clothes on. They still have blood soaked almost all the way through them. So we’re even.”

Chris gave Michael a raised eyebrow. “We need to get some black leather clothes to wear under our armor if we keep this up, or something darker than what we have. Like our cloaks maybe, they’re dark. That way we can’t see anything if they get stained like this. I mean, look!”

Chris pulled his pants over and held them up to the torch light, “They’re all splotchy now. Imagine what it would have been like if we’d not been wearing plate metal coverings on top!”

Michael continued to squeeze and wring his clothes out, then he put them down to start cleaning off his mace. “Not a bad idea, black would probably be nice right about now.”

Standing up, the girl began walking towards the water with an awkward sideways glance. She began to strip down to the surprise of the men, and without looking back - she addressed them rather loudly as if to build up her own confidence. “Thank you for saving all of us back there. My name is Erin, by the way.”

She threw her tunic and other clothes onto the shore, and dove into the river. Her small frame paddled out into the deeper part of the shallows, then stopped to look back and call out. “What are you three named?”

“I’m Michael, the guy you tried to stab is Chris, and this is Taen.” Michael turned to the two men sitting beside them in silence. “Did you want to say something, or did you just come to skinny dip with everyone else?”

Sighing, the young man they’d originally known to have major doubts about their expertise spoke first. “I wanted to apologize as well for openly doubting you earlier. You three have done something amazing, and brought many of our friends and even family to us tonight. You have my gratitude. Aside from that, you did so without even one of us getting involved.”

He got up and bowed. “My name is Oni, and if you need anything else - let me know and I will try to be of assistance.” With that he took his torch from the ground and left to join the others at the top of the cliff... completely avoiding the zombies this time around and going up a steeper area just to do so.

Nanipe’s husband, for whom none of them knew a name nor intended to ask for it, spoke next. He pushed his large hands through his locks of wavy brown brown hair and looked to be deep in thought. “How many were there? The women and children you brought said there were over a hundred.”

Michael cleared his throat, “There were only 52, if you include the sentries they had waiting in hiding. Well, at least they attempted to hide.” Michael winked and looked across to the girl who was out swimming.

“Only 52…” Nanipe’s husband shook his head in amazement. “Three of you did all of that huh? That isn’t even human, but I am glad for it.” He smiled and then looked to the girl as she started to make her way back towards the beach, the moon and stars lighting up her pale white back as she came.

“That girl was hellbent on coming out here to thank you three, very determined and had an entire speech she was going to give you about how she owed you... But now I think she’s gotten nervous.”

Chris smirked, remember how she’d just tried to knife him a couple hours ago. “She doesn’t seem like the type to get nervous.”

Nanipe’s husband gave Chris a more sad smile than the one he’d been wearing moments before. He interlocked his fingers between both hands and shook his head in dismay. “She lost her entire family and home to the slavers, as did many of the other people you brought with you. She has nothing left.”

They became silent after that, not knowing what to say. The jokes that Chris had been wanting to continue about the spunky, petite girl now remained stuck in his throat.

Erin reached the bank of the river to their left and began to slowly walk towards them, shyly looking towards the ground. Bare skin and long blonde hair glistening in the firelight, and the petite girl knelt before them to bow her head. Opening her palms forward towards them, she murmured something under her breath. In her palms she held a smooth black stone that she’d probably taken from the river. She just sat there as if expecting something, and none of them knew what to do next.

“Uh…?” Chris looked confused over to Nanipe’s husband.

The older man gave him a nudge and whispered back. “Take the stone.”

Chris had utterly no idea what was going on, so he shrugged. Casually he got up and took the stone from her hands. A few moments after he did, Erin slowly stood up and then to his surprise she hugged him with a look of extreme gratitude - and stayed there, not letting go.

Turning around he gave another quizzical look to Nanipe’s husband who just smiled and sat there.

“Mind telling me what’s going on?” muttered Taen to the smiling man.

“Yeah me too,” said Michael who stared at the embracing duo, “I’m starting to get jealous here.”

Nanipe’s husband laughed and put his hands behind him, leaning back into the sand. “She just offered you three a life debt, and Chris picked up the stone that symbolized it. Now she is in Chris’ service for life. It is a very meaningful thing to do, a sign of extreme respect, not to be taken lightly.”

Looking to the opposite shore, he yawned. “When someone has had their life saved by another, or when something of immense value has been done for someone, a life debt is sometimes offered as a way of saying that they’ll never be able to repay you for what you’ve done. It would have been incredibly offensive and rude if one of you hadn’t accepted it.”

Taen looked at Michael, who was staring right back at him. Together, they began to chuckle - which then turned into a fit of laughter.

[English Dialect] “Looks like you have a lot to look forward to Chris!” Michael called out while winking.

Chris looked back at them in confusion. His eyes were bloodshot, and the blunt he’d been smoking was still waiting to be finished. [English Dialect] “Do you have any idea what’s going on?”

Michael just laughed, stretched and threw his clothes over his shoulder. [English Dialect] “Ask Taen.”

Then Michael gathered the rest of his things and started walking up the path to the top of the cliff. Chris had nowhere left to turn and finally gave Taen a quizzical expression.

“I’m not getting into this, you need to figure this one out yourself bro.” Taen smiled and began to gather his things as well. He yawned loudly and put his hands on his hips. “I’m going to go create that golem and then head to bed, man. I’m sure you two have a lot to talk about.”

With a backhanded wave, Taen grinned and walked further down the beach, giving his 16 zombie minions a mental command to follow. Soon the mindless undead creatures were doing his bidding and sank into single file rank behind him - disappearing into the dark.

“I think I will take my leave here too,” said Nanipe’s husband who got up, picked up a torch and headed up the path behind Taen. “Don’t stay out too long, you need to rest up for tomorrow!”

Chris looked down at the silently quivering girl who clung to him as if for dear life. Slowly, he unwrapped her hands from around his chest and waist, and holding both of her hands in her own - he looked down into her eyes. “Erin, right? I’m really not trying to be rude when I say this, but I’m really high and I have no idea what’s going on. Could you please fill me in?”

***

Taen felt his pulse quicken. His excitement was climbing as he reviewed the spell in his mind, mentally preparing himself to take the dive into the void to find a soul worthy of his creation. He certainly wouldn’t be using one of the slaver’s souls… upon creating the zombies he effectively got rid of their souls entirely and sent them off into the afterlife. He wanted to find a soul that would be loyal despite his contract, as he’d had experiences before with minions who were a real pain in the ass before and needed very specific instructions every time he wanted them to do anything at all.

Thankfully, most of the free-floating souls wanted a body. They usually wanted to get out of their own realms and back to the worlds of the living. A body was a coveted thing, and Taen would be supplying one.

He took in a deep breath of the cool mountain air and looked skywards into the starlit night. His 16 zombies stood unmoving, unbreathing and awaiting his commands behind him along the shoreline. Unfortunately, he wouldn’t be able to imbue any alteration buffs just yet. He hadn’t had time to perfect those in the two years of his training, but eventually he could always come back after learning some more spells and improve upon the undead he created. At the very least he’d be able to mould the flesh golem to his liking for the physical form, as golems were each unique and varied greatly in terms of strength based on the skill of the crafter and the body parts available.

The necromancer gave a mental command and the zombies immediately responded. They all shed their clothes and weapons, stood one by one in line with their hands stretched out in front of them. Taen came by with his dagger and sliced a finger off of each of their right hands, placing them in a small pouch he’d acquired before starting off from the village. Then, with a second mental command, the zombies came together and began to lay down on top of one another. The pile grew until all 16 of them were in position.

“Alright… let’s get this shit started.”

Taen cracked his knuckles and knelt to the ground, placing the pouch with the cut off fingers on the beach. Taking his dagger and drawing a nearly perfect circle in the sand around the bag, he began to start the incantation under the starry night sky. Guttural muttering that would have creeped out any normal person was flowing out of Taen’s mouth like it was a natural everyday occurrence, and it went on for a long time.

He continued to draw in the sand. The 5 pillars and 4 faces of death were displayed all around the circle as symbols, and a diamond was drawn around each of them in turn. Ending the incantation and then offering a quick prayer to the core attribute of necromancy itself, the magic lineage answered his call - and the drawings in the sand flickered with pale-blue fire. A phantasmal whisper echoed incoherently as the pouch of detached fingers burst into flame too, and then vanished in another flare of death magic.

The initial incantations and rune sketching were the easy parts. The next two parts would be the hardest.

The first of these two steps would be to stabilize the body… this involved a good amount of skill and is where most necromancers failed. Knowledge of anatomy, biology and magical interweaving was essential, and more often than not - an unskilled necromancer would utterly fail in creating flesh golems. Raising bodies was a lot easier, where the bodies were already put together and mostly intact. Bone golems were a little more complicated than just raising bodies, and they were certainly dangerous, but they were expensive to maintain and constantly required reparations via mana when they began to break down. Flesh golems though, they were usually stronger and required less maintenance. This wasn’t always the case, but was a general rule of thumb. If all he had to work with was bones then a bone golem would be a good option, otherwise flesh golems were the way to go.

With a quick series of hand motions the flames flew upwards by three feet of the ground and then quickly disappeared. The remaining runes on the ground still glowed a pale blue and in the next second began to generate death mana. The mana poured out and into the air only to find the pile of bodies, wrapping around and engulfing them. The bodies began to crack, crunch and splash as their skeletal structures and internal organs caved under great pressure. Then they began to rip apart entirely with loud, disgusting fleshy sounds before coming back together in a solid, singular ball of body parts many-times larger than Taen was.

He closed his eyes… beginning to envision what he wanted. As the picture formed in his thoughts, the mass of flesh followed it in exact precision. Bulbous pockets of body fluids exploded and sparks of mana flashed as the creature began to take form.

It was a simple form, and was only the beginning of what the creature would eventually become. Taen already had big plans to modify it later and ideas to try out or test, but today - with the current amount of material he had - he could only create the core structure. This would have to do for now.

Then it finished the transformation. It was still humanoid, though it lacked skin completely... and huge, red, bulging muscles were exposed to the air as it rested in finalization. Thick veins and arteries pulsed across the exposed musculature and large bone spikes jutted out of the creatures forearms and back, making for good defensive and offensive utility. Thick legs, each twice the size of a man, formed with thick elephant-like feet that slightly widened out at the bottom. In proportion to its body, the legs were a lot thicker than a normal man’s. Two enormous muscular arms were attached on each side, ending in clawed hands that were thick and created from numerous large bones. It had an enormous trunk as well and many sets of ribs had been placed across the middle of its body for extra support. The huge, lumbering creature had no neck, with only a bulge at the top to indicate its head was actually separate from the rolling layers of muscles attaching from body to skull. The skull itself was human, placed on the anterior aspect of the upper body instead of directly on top, and relatively quite small compared to the enormous body that it sat upon. The eyes remained lifeless and dead, but the skull itself had fleshy strings attaching it to the body amidst the backdrop of the huge mounds of muscle behind and above the skull’s holding place or head socket. It stood at three times Taen’s height, towering over him and staring out blankly.

He continued to watch it carefully, noting the pulsing muscles come to a stall as the empty body calmed down. After a few minutes of staying that way and inspecting it over, Taen was certain it was a stable construct. He wiped away sweat from his forehead and smiled to himself, victorious in the first part.

Now came the second hard part, and this one was a little more dangerous. Entering the void was always very costly in terms of mana, but more than that - it was also dangerous. Denizens of the void that wanted a body would seek him out and try to possess him or even consume his own soul if he was not careful, and preparing himself mentally was always an important step to help in case of such an event.

So he sat down, and began to meditate in a cross legged position on the ground.

The meditation took nearly an hour until he was comfortable enough to proceed. Getting back up and stretching, he prepared for the final task. Closing his eyes and muttering the next incantation, he felt himself drift away from his body after a burst of energy swarmed out from his body - and was soon engulfed in a sea of darkness.

He was now in the endless black of the void.

Floating islands drifted across his vision having no specific axis of gravity to guide their wandering with spontaneously glowing balls of light flitting about all around him. There was no up or down here, and even left from right was hard to tell due to the disorientation this place had on one’s mind. Nevertheless, Taen sent out a message to the nearby souls as he opened his mind to their presence.

He had one blaringly loud, singular thought that radiated through him as the tiny balls of light began to swarm him. The thought he portrayed was this: “I need a servant.”

Immediately his mind was bombarded with offers of servitude. Souls of all variants whispered to him, begged him to choose them. Their emotions, feelings, and thoughts intermixed with his own to the point that it gave him a headache, but still he remained firm.

It took him well over two hours to choose. Staying that long in the void was a large risk, but one Taen was willing to take in order to create his partner-to-be. Cycling through various applicants Taen found a couple that he thought were a good fit, and eventually he selected the one whom he thought would match best with his own personality. So he selected it, pulled it from the void, and in the next instant he appeared back on the planet of Nagochus. In his hand he held the little ball of light he’d taken with him, and he smiled from ear to ear with pleasure.

He had done it.

With his heart now pounding even more loudly than it had been before, he turned around and looked up at the giant body he’d created that stared out lifelessly across the waters of the river between cliff faces. Without another moment to lose, he took the soul and slammed it with all of his might into the great leg of the creature.

The body shuddered. The soul disappeared into his creation and the huge lumbering monstrosity began to stir. Sinewy appendages snapped into action, taking a step forward as the joints groaned in their first time of use. Turning the blank, black pockets of the skull’s eye sockets to Taen, the head swiveled on its relatively larger body.

“You have succeeded in creating a Flesh Golem. Flesh golem is now registered as your minion. Congratulations. Please refer to its status page for details.”

Taen’s smile couldn’t have been bigger and he lifted his hands out to either side and above his head in victory. “YES!!! Yes, yes, YES!!!”

The skull cocked to one side along the backdrop of the fleshy mountains of muscle, and the creature lifted up its hand to look at the pointed clawed fingers created from various bones of the people used to create it. The monstrosity could have easily picked up a fully grown man to crush him with one hand, and the exposed rippling muscles worked in conjunction to emphasize each movement it made.

Beating back his excitement Taen furrowed his brows and tapped his foot as the creature lowered itself to his level as best it could, but even when kneeling - it was still taller than he was by a good amount. He cleared his throat.

“Do you have a name?”

The monstrous flesh golem cocked its head the other way as if confused. It opened its mouth, then shut it again. It repeated this action twice more before shaking its head and pointing to the mouth.

Taen’s eyes raised and he quickly understood what it was trying to portray. It couldn’t speak. In Taen’s efforts to make sure its internal organ systems, mana lines, and musculoskeletal system were in check, he’d completely forgotten to give it a tongue or some other form of speaking.

Fuck.

The body’s creation was already complete so he’d have to go in and modify it up close. So he made a mental command and the golem laid out a hand. Taen stepped onto it, and the golem brought him up to where the skull and backdrop of taught fleshy muscles connecting it to the rest of the body were. He spent the next half hour rearranging anatomy with necromantic energies sparking to life and getting his hands a little bloody in the process while moving around body parts, but when he finished and placed the dislocated skull back into the socket he’d created for it, he was satisfied to hear deep rumbling speech come out of his giant minion.

“Thank you… my liege… for the opportunity to live…”

Liege. Taen liked that title, but it was a little too formal. Hopping off the creature and letting it stand to its full height he thought about what name he’d have his minions call him by, then took a look at the simplified status page for his minion.

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Simplified Status Page

Name: N/A

Race: Flesh Golem, Greater Undead

Class: N/A

Level: 1

HP: 2300/2300

MP: 60/60

SP: 400/400

DP: 0/0

Skills: None

Traits: Autoregeneration, Sleepless, Tough, Weakness to Fire, Bone Spikes

Taen Movorio’s Minion

Magical Attributes: Necromancy

Opinion of you: Neutral

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Control Limit Slots: 2 of 16 used.

Taen’s Minions:

Flesh Golem, Greater Undead, Level 1 (2 slots)(Neutral)

The creature had an enormous amount of HP, even more than when combining the HP of the 16 men he’d used to create the creature. He did note when looking at his own status page that the creature actually took up 2 minion slots, meaning the All Spirit’s system likely thought of this creature as actually stronger than Taen was. THAT did surprise him. The previous flesh golems he’d created while practicing in Maltetious’ realm had only ever taken up 1 slot, but now that he thought about it this was likely due to the fact that he was using territh souls for practice. The territh knew what they were going through and had an absolute love and devotion to Maltetious, and if Maltetious had given them the order they’d have had no problems following her commands. It just hadn’t occurred to him before now.

For necromancers, it cost 3 willpower for a single control slot - before they started doubling in cost every 10 slots. Weaker minions were always categorized as 1 minion slot regardless of how they felt about you. If they took up 2 minion slots, it meant the minion either disliked you or kept you in the neutral category. Minions that were significantly stronger than you and also disliked you took up 3 minion slots and had a single opportunity to contest their master’s control over them through a battle of wills that if won would release them from their contract, and if lost they would never be able to challenge again. Stronger minions that liked you though, they could and would often reduce their minion slot total to 1 as the willpower required to control them was less if they were more willing to obey orders.

So it made sense looking at the creature that it could take up 2 slots, given that it held him in a neutral viewpoint.

Taen revisited his previous question. “So… Got a name?”

The flesh golem slowly shook its skull head no. The deep rumbling voice of the giant creature poured out in waves. “I do not have a name… not anymore. I used to have one… a long time ago in another age, but I have forgotten it over the millennia since my death. I cannot even remember what or who I used to be, and only remember the blackness of the void. Forgive me, my liege. Would you honor me by giving me a name yourself?”

The dark, empty eye sockets of the undead creature bored into Taen as the necromancer thought, and over time amidst the crickets chirping further back in the treeline - a couple options came to mind. Taen picked the best two, and presented them to the golem.

“I’ve come up with two good ones, but I want you to be the one that picks which of them you want.” Taen gave his new minion a friendly wink. “That way you can make it your own. Lurkash, or Butcher. Your pick.”

Lurkash and Butcher. The golem considered both options for a time and then raised his skull head to eye his master again. “Will I be killing often?”

Taen’s brows furrowed. “It is highly likely, but not a sure thing.”

A deep thoughtful rumble echoed out from the golem’s chest as it head bobbed. “Then Butcher will be my name.”

Taen smiled and held out a hand. “Great! I’m glad to have you on board, Butcher! My name is Taen. You can just call me by my name, as flattering as it is to be called ‘Liege’! I hope we can become good friends!”

The act surprised the golem and it reared back just a little bit to get a better look at his new master. Eventually though, the giant clawed hand of exposed bones and flesh came down and dwarfed the little man’s arm, gripping it gently and barely moving to imitate a handshake.

“It is good to be alive again.” Butcher replied slowly. “I share your wish. May we become good friends… Taen.”