Necromancer

A Royal Road Fan Fiction

By: Halosty

Chapter 63

Mortimer was annoyed that he hadn’t yet gotten to use his new skill in Royal Road, Transfer Soul. He thought about it even during his normal life, although thinking about Royal Road during the day wasn’t exactly unique to Mortimer, since so many people played. However, most people didn’t mutter about it under their breath.

“I hope you’re talking about Royal Road,” Alex said, startling Mortimer. He was so comfortable with Alex hanging around that he forgot that he wasn’t alone, sometimes. Not that Mortimer ignored Alex. This was different from ignoring the presence of others, which Mortimer did for people he didn’t care about. Instead, Alex was just part of life, which was weird to Mortimer since he hadn’t really had any friends before.

Now Mortimer had somewhere between one and seven friends. He wasn’t sure if Angela counted as a friend, since she was his cousin. Then there was Robert, who was something like a friend, probably. Solara was… an unclear topic. Nilrem counted, theoretically, although Mortimer only knew him inside Royal Road. James, Mortimer’s butler, certainly was close to Mortimer, but he was also an employee of sorts, so perhaps he didn’t count. Then, of course, there was Dr. Stevenson, who was a teacher, and thus also had a questionable friendship status.

Mortimer stopped standing in place thinking to himself, and answered Alex. “Of course I’m talking about Royal Road. There isn’t even a scientific basis for souls out here, as far as I’m aware. Besides, what would I do with them? In Royal Road though…”

Alex nodded. “Well, shouldn’t like, everything have a soul? Except maybe undead. All sorts of monsters are around, so...”

Mortimer thought about it for a second, then frowned. “That… should probably have been pretty obvious, I guess.” Mortimer was embarrassed that he’d not even thought about that.

“So, need souls for some necromancery thing?” Alex asked.

Mortimer put his finger to his lips. “Shh.” He was quite aware there was nobody around to hear anything, and his facial expression gave away that he wasn’t serious. “But… yes. It should make my minions last pretty much indefinitely.”

“That sounds… pretty terrifying, actually. How many can you have?”

Mortimer tilted his head quizzically. “How many?” He thought about it for a second. “I don’t recall there being a limit on the Undead Rise. So… as many as I want?”

“Then, you could have an entire, permanent army?”

Mortimer shrugged. “Until somebody killed them, which is pretty much what happens when people see undead standing around.”

“So… do that thing where your minions pop out of the ground when you need them.”

Mortimer thought about that. “I don’t think they know how to burrow?”

Alex shrugged. “Maybe you can teach them or something.”

“Can undead even learn things? I mean…” Mortimer paused briefly, “Well, I did teach those ghouls how to hide, sorta.”

“You taught flesh eating monsters how to hide?”

“They only got the gist of it, though. Basically they didn’t start roaring and charging until they got closer to things.”

Alex shrugged. “Well, if you can teach them things that are entirely different from instinct, why not something stereotypical?”

Mortimer stroked his chin in thought. “Well, I didn’t make those ghouls, they were just feral. I haven’t tried teaching anything I’ve made.”

Alex seemed to get a headache at that statement. “You… trained feral ghouls how to hide? Also, they didn’t kill you?”

Mortimer shook his head. “Nah, I’ve got this understanding with undead. Anyway, most of the ghouls died, so it’s not a big deal.”

“Wait, most of them? So you’re saying there could be some ninja ghouls out there somewhere still?”

“Oh, all but the leader died. So, as long as he didn’t teach anybody else… Err, actually, I’d probably avoid the Plains of Despair unless you have a good reason to go there.”

Alex sighed. “Please don’t tell me you taught any other undead anything that shouldn’t have learned.”

Mortimer shrugged. “Nah, the mummies pretty much up and left everything. So really, I’m responsible for there being a lot less mummies in the world.”

“...You were the one who made King Suna’s Tomb disappear?”

“Not… exactly. I mean, I was there when it happened, but the mummies did that on their own.”

Mortimer looked at his phone to check the time. “Oh, looks like we have to get to the next class. Thanks for the tips.”

“I hope I don’t regret it when undead take over the world.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll tell them not to kill you. At least… the ones I control.”

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Quietus stabbed an already dying orc in the back, finishing it off. Finally, he used Soul Transfer, giving its soul to the undead orc warrior he had already made. If he hadn’t used Soul Bind, nothing happened, as he’d earlier experienced. Quietus felt a bit stupid for not realizing he had another spell with Soul in the name. It seemed pretty obvious how this whole thing worked, in retrospect.

Quietus’ orc warrior got about 20% stronger than it was before. It also shouldn’t decay. Quietus decided to experiment with his new skill.

The results were as follows:

Souls didn’t need to be from the same kind of monster

The increase in statistics depended on the kind of soul, with orc souls giving the large physical stats that orcs had, but the total increase was always about 20% effectiveness, if the levels were similar

Level of base monster and soul was important. If a low level soul was put into a high level monster, almost no increase in stats happened, although the duration was still made unlimited. If there were two base monsters, killing one, turning it into an undead, and using the other for a soul had approximately the same effects, even if the levels were different. Thus, putting a high level soul in a lower level undead of the same type had the same end effect as putting a lower level soul in a higher level undead.

Quietus had no idea how to teach undead to burrow.

The last point didn’t actually have anything to do with Soul Transfer. Quietus was at first unsure whether he could teach undead he’d made any skills, but he managed to teach them stealth. Therefore, he thought that he might need to know the skill. He’d have to see if there was a way to learn the burrow skill.

Then Quietus received a message from Angelo. Information on Aullet had been found. It seemed the only lead to be had was a dungeon in the Elven lands to the west. Quietus immediately set out.

End Chapter 63