I stared at her. The academy’s black flower. The dark princess. The school’s number one beauty, and an unreachable goddess.

Gertrude Blood Panther Skullcrusher wasn’t the most alluring name, but her wild and carefree smile sure won me over. As it did for the rest of the academy.

It worked on several girls as they formed a ring with her and they were all laughing and politely eating. It helped that they would be undisturbed as half a dozen barbarians stood guard.

They lazed around the circle of girls, but they watched the area like hawks as they passed the time by cleaning their equipment, exercising, and straight out brawled.

There was actually a dozen guarding the heiress of the Skullcrusher of the plains of Eidolon that bordered with the Fairy Forest just outside the academy.

They took shifts, half on and half off. They rarely left Gertrude’s side and they were easily among the elites of the plains walkers. The shamanistic tribes that grew warriors like one would grow a cabbage.

I stared until one of her bodyguards; an overly muscular man honing an axe stared back. They all did that to whoever looked too long. The half dozen bodyguards of the princess were too perceptive.

“Hey, Mal. I heard Rickard von Estoria is asked her out,” Jakob greeted as he slid into the bench beside me.

I turned to see my best friend who also loved gossip. Jakob Unlife was heir to the Deathland Kingdoms. A high profile sorcerer and necromancer. His mom and my mom were best friends and thus, so were we.

Despite its heavy name, Deathlands Kingdoms was a prosperous land. They specialized in ores and wheat. The only oddity was that funeral rites involved giving the deceased to the crown for research and or undeath.

“Did he even make it past her guards?” I asked half-heartedly as I nodded to my bone spiderling. It reached into my bucket and withdrew another wing. It then slowly began to tear it apart. I had already eaten a dozen of the wings, and another three dozen awaited me.

My current research needed a lot of chicken bones. I had already wasted nearly twenty kilos of the stuff so far. My current doll, unnamed since they rarely lasted more than one upgrade, was my current crown jewel.

It so far has made it past 2 revisions. A new record for me.

“He defeated two, mace and flail,” Jakob muttered as he cut into his steak. Say what you will for Estoria’s Arcane Acadamy for the Archmagi, but their food was great.

I whistled as I grabbed the offered morsel. The spiderling threw the bone into a second bucket and pulled out another wing. Its simple claw hands began to tear off the juicy meat.

Rickard was the first grandson of the Esteroia’s emperor. Galvus von Estoria. His father was the crown prince, Eldrick von Estoria. Both were powerful knights in their prime.

Rickard was no exception. He was just a first-year like us and yet he already was excelling in both the arcane and physical. It was enough to make a student depressed.

The man had both background and talent. He was slated to be the academy’s honored king in the next student polls. The old king was Beark Bullbear, tribe heir of the western forest.

It was the gossip of if the two would ever fight. While Rickard was a Mana Knight by blood, Beark was a shaman. A Bullbear through and through. There was enough muscle on that man for two of the guards across the field.

It was rare for kings to fight, but they did occasionally happen.

“Oh! Before I forget!” Jakob jumped as he reached into his magic ring space and withdrew a small cloth pouch. He placed it on the table and went back to eating and staring as the gaggle of girls.

I leaned forward to chomp on the offered meat while I grabbed the bag.

I felt three stones and my excitement bubbled. My heart skipped a beat as I felt the small resonance between my mana and the stones within. This was what I needed!

I opened the bag and the dull glow of the demon beast crystals greeted me. Though their colors were off shades of black and white they were definitely what I wanted.

The tree shade I was under didn’t help with this. Luckily to showcase the purity of the gem itself all I had to do was stand on the bench.

I held the gem up to the light. The world faded around me as I stared into the crystal as the light hit the gem. It gently lit up and revealed that it was cloudy.

Obviously inferior, but they were also fairly cheap. I knew they would be when I asked Jakob to get me a set. He knew people in the hunting guilds and asking my family would take too long.

These demon beasts crystals from the Underdark-spiders were what I needed. The planned revision 18 for my spider doll was getting more complex. I needed more support power than from my initial gem.

Though they weren’t very powerful, Underdark-spiders were quick, agile, and dexterous with their hooked legs. It was this dexterity that I desired.

Which meant that some of those qualities would pass onto whatever it was imbued to. A dagger would become easier to handle. Equipment like nets would tangle less.

My eyes twinkled as I looked down. A spider construct would become better. It could climb faster, and stop stumbling as much. It currently moved as if it was formed from wooden blocks instead of bone.

My unwitting doll held up a morsel of meat and wiggled it to show off its dull intellect. At least it was cute.

I held all three gems in my hands and turned my thoughts inwards. There were only the gems.

I pooled my energy and reached outwards. The gems in my hands floated and started to glow. The dull radiance was notable even in the sunlight.

The three gems, each a size of a grape began to shrink as my purification ability eroded away the impurities.

This was why I was invited to attend the school. My unique power to purify wasn’t new, but it was effective on things outside of simple dispels.

I could remove impurities. It lost effectiveness as materials got denser. My ability did work on demon beast crystals, however, and that alone got me noticed by the school council.

The gems settled into pea-like sizes. Most demon crystals were very impure. The stronger the demon beast, the more pure its crystal was. Which also meant that the demon beasts would be empowered.

A simple cycle.

I smiled. As the crystals fell into my hands again.

I gave out a mental command and my nameless spider crawled up my robes and onto my shoulder. It had dragged the meat up with it, and I ate it while making a note to clean my robes next.

I grabbed my doll and touched the rune on the back of its chest cavity. The backbone opened up and there was a single grape-sized demon crystal already seated.

It was a spidery-monkey demon crystal. While they were more common then Underdark-spiders, the crystal was larger and hence more expensive.

I had designed it with more slots in mind so I used the triangle slots for the three Underdark-spiders. They fit relatively well. I would need to fill in the gaps with liquefied bone, but I could do that later tonight.

I would have to adjust the runic array anyways. More crystals didn’t mean more power. One had to implement it. Intertwine the different energies and resonance of the crystals themselves.

I concentrated and gave out a set of orders. My doll leaped off my shoulder, bounced off the picnic bench, and scurried up the tree. It leaped from branch to branch. It moved across three trees before jumping off the top and onto the soft grass.

It scurried back to me in an excellent time.

Well, the fact that it worked at all was excellent. Before these three crystals were added, it could only obey very simple instructions and only within a meter of him.

Any real attempts to jump simply had the doll flop into a broken heap on the ground. It really didn’t land so much as it had crashed. Doll only had like a 10cm hop range before today.

The doll made it back up and I frowned. It had lost two parts of its legs and a third leg entirely.

I sighed as I got up and started to hunt. Two of the parts, the leg part of the legs were easy to find. It was at the impact point when it had leaped off.

The third leg, however…

Did it lose it in the trees?

I heard a grunt and I jumped.

Two of the guards were staring a hole into me. It was axeman and great swordsman. Their muscles were thicker than my waist. They didn’t draw their weapons though and that was the only reason I didn’t squeeze out a brick.

They were immediately ignored as Gertrude smiled at me. In her hands was my doll’s missing leg. Where did she find it!? I made sure the doll didn’t go near the group for fear of the guards crushing doll for fun.

“Here,” she simply said as she offered the leg on her open palms.

I had stopped thinking as I saw her smile, but enough of my brain worked and my doll climbed down and gently took its own leg. It popped it back into place. It wiggled as the energy began to circulate through the limb.

“What is that?” she asked as she cradled my doll in her hands. It balanced itself as she slowly rotated her hands. It lost purchase twice as her smooth human skin gave it little leverage.

I absently analyzed its actions. Dexterity was good. The balance was great as it barely bobbed while moving on her uneven hands. I noted that she had scars of all sorts dotting and lining her digits.

“It’s a spiderling made from chicken bones, a prototype…” I answered as I pulled out my notepad and began to jot down notes. I mumbled my myself as I tried to recall everything I needed to do.

Need to fill in crystal slots for new gems. Need to reinforce limbs for the heavy shocks. Need to look into alternative leg types. Need to double-check limb connections and potential limb swapping.

I noted the small battle-ax hanging from the back of her thin waist. Gertrude had two axes. A big mean one for main combat, and a hatchet like one to get close and personal.

Need to look into weapons. An axe hand would be sweet. Or a hack saw. Need to look into hands.

I touched her hands, my hands overlapping hers. I didn’t see the guards frown. Or Gertrude’s. Her expression softened as she saw my sharp eyes on my doll.

I turned our hands left and right quickly. My doll stayed upright for all of three seconds before it slipped. Its leg was able to grab onto my pinkies in desperation.

It hung midair and I made it come over. Since our joined hands made a bridge, my doll easily moved over despite the fact that it was hanging upside down.

I lifted my left hand and shook it. My doll stayed on.

I nodded.

I made a note to double check the grip array I had installed. It seemed to work, but it was far from what I had envisioned.

I hummed as I petted my doll. The new crystals were probably draining too much power. I needed to find a new way to power it to ensure everything worked.

The three crystals were definitely worth the purchase. Sure, my allowance for the week was gone, but I grinned. My doll was just beginning.

“Thanks, for the leg,” I muttered as I made it wave as I turned around and left.

I needed to finish lunch and then sit through the next two classes. Theory and mystic meditation. Gah. They were going to be hard to sit through.

I held my hands far apart and my doll began to jump from hand to hand. It was heavy, but not as terrible as it landed. No leg fell off. Maybe it had gotten hooked on something?

I noted how the legs wiggled at the joints and I frowned. I needed to redesign the kneecaps completely. The current system was either flawed by physical, and or mystical design.

I needed to visit the library again and look into the various jumping spider records. Then I could also see how well limb swapping worked. I also would need to add a mana battery for prolonged use.

Which meant that I needed to get a demon crystal for something like a golem. Which was expensive.

I sighed. Looks like I was going to be broke for a while. My dreams of making an undead legion were still far off.

I am Malificent Erchester von Rottenheim. I was also a Rottenheim that wasn’t a necromancer or something to do with the high arcane arts. It was embarrassing! A member of the royal line of Rottenheim, rulers of the Rotting Kingdoms for millennia unable to use proper death magic!?

I know there were those that snickered at me in the shadows. Or at least if they were smart they did. Mom certainly didn't tolerate it.

What I did have was a utility skill and a love for necromancy. Arcane doll crafting was the only thing I had towards trying to make my family proud.

Not that they were disappointed, but I was. Well. Was described it perfectly. Sure I couldn’t raise the dead through magic willpower, but I could craft them with arcane runes.

It wasn’t until I sat down and tried to power through my lunch when Jakob burst my high flying bubble.

He was no stranger to my loud mutters and half-formed thoughts. I was crazy and I knew it. But this was so exciting! The doll was going to be awesome and then I was going to give it an equally awesome name.

“So, Lady Skullcrusher smiled at you, and you touched her hands… Grabbed them even…” Jakob said with the biggest shit-eating grin I had ever seen on him. He only looked like this when he had juicy gossip.

“I guess,” I said as I tried to stuff lunch down my throat. The doll was easily five times faster as it stripped off the meat and handed them to me.

“So, how do you think Rickard, Beark, Jalong, Rubak, and all the others will feel about this?” he asked off handily as he finished up his steak.

“I think they will kill the poor bastard who dared to take advantage of the school’s goddess,” I said with a shrug as I skimmed through my notepad. Where was the section for legs again?

“I hope you got more than just that spider old buddy.”

I nodded and stopped. Wait. What?

I looked over to where Gertrude sat and was already looking over towards me. When our eyes met, she gave me a friendly wave. I waved back before I snapped my head over to Jakob.

Jakob’s smiled deepened.

I stared back at Gertrude and then Jakob.

My spider took the brunt of my head dropping onto the table. It made sure to push the chicken meat into my mouth when I let out a feeble groan.

This could potentially be bad for me.

I was a student of the arcane runes. Everyone Jakob just listed with either a magic swordsman or an archmage in training.

Really, really bad for me.

Major note to self, ask mom to send over my skeletal golem, Skeletron. It probably was going to be the only thing between me and repeated resurrections and death.