Now the core members of the last lot are the stronger ones with the copper rank undead. Bringing them with me to the inner meeting area of the cavern I turn to them and command them to tell me of the group and other things I wish for. The general consensus was that they either were attracted to the latent power emitted by the Agros de Mortis, poverty forced them to gather together, or persecution by the local populace against necromancers. They were originally led by a middle aged man who was a master necromancer by their thoughts but he died while exploring the cursed lands.

Apparently he just keeled over and they saw that his soul had been scattered as it left his body, apparently afterwards the beanpole had taken over since he was the only one trying to lead but did it by bad means. Whatever information they had was lost when the original leader died and these guys just stayed on the fringes just surviving and making the occasional raid on the dumping grounds of the city for corpses. Now as the third generation leader it falls to me to actually make sure they do not stay headless chickens forever. Bringing forth the beanpole’s skeletal knight I have it remove it’s gear and point at it while dramatically saying some words.

“You say that this is a skeletal knight then let me show you what a true skeletal knight actually is!”

That was actually bending the truth since I can’t make a skeletal knight by my standards without a proper lab but I can certainly make one that will scare this lot into total submission. First I start by cleansing the skeleton of any latent fragments of soul from its form and making sure the bones are in proper pristine condition. That bit of maintenance over I start applying my bone warrior upgrade to it before gathering up a portion of my necromantic energy and pouring it into some careful magic arrays around the skeleton. This is meant to cause changes in the way that I wish it to, as the arrays start to spin new bone growth starts to appear all over the body and spread. The growth flows across the body until soon it is encased completely in a full bone armour reminiscent of a knight’s full plate armour with scales instead of mail. Soon as other arrays spin more growth spread until soon the skeleton is wielding a warhammer of steel strength bone in the shape of a fang and a shield in the shape of a shoulder blade.

The skeleton has grown several inches to become just a bit over the stature of a 6ft warrior and as a finishing touch I take out one of my original talismans. This one is a construct of metal and bone in the shape of a small lantern swirling with ethereal light, a container for my pseudo souls. Calling one forth I insert it into the skeleton and complete my own skeletal knight, fires of pale flame ignite in it’s eye sockets and it starts shifting before emitting a silent roar into the sky. Silent to all but those sensitive to changes in necromantic energy, these fellows may be weak but they have still been exposed enough to the necromantic arts to hear a portion of it. The roar of the skeletal knight released a pulse of energy across the local area and pressuring those that can feel such shifts.

The acolytes in front of me cower in fear and awe before me and my latest creation. They may not know much of the arts but one does not need to be trained to realize when a predator is in front of them, to them before the knight was a scary thing that was potentially dangerous and now they see an apex predator giving them a considering look for whether it is hungry enough to feast. They appear half dead from that roar and now I realize that perhaps they are too weak to face the birth roar of a mid steel grade undead. This is by my classification a middle tier undead since with the pseudo soul it has much more intelligence than a low tier but not true sentience so it can’t be called high tier.

I care more about intelligence than raw power with my undead, to me run of the mill skeletons are low tier, the skeletal knight is low down on the scale of middle tier, then a skeletal general is high tier. Middle tier undead not only have more intelligence but more power, skill and often a fear aura. To normal people they are so terrifying as to literally kill people by stopping their hearts in close quarters if weak, low tier undead can frighten people and even cause them to go running with fear but not kill them. For a high tier undead well let us say that there is a reason that they are spoken of in hushed tones regardless of location. Dampening the aura released I turn to them and gesture to follow me back to the central cavern where the rest have been waiting. Looking upon them I see white faces, they were farther away but are at the same time weaker than the acolytes with me.

Gesturing to said acolytes to stand to the side I once more gather my energy and prepare to work on the skeletons before me. Most are gravel grade and so I give them the most basic upgrades similar to what I gave to the skeletal workers before. The bones of the beanpole are much more useful though on par to the skeletal knights regardless of the character the magical potential is left in the bones and can be used. They truly got lucky with finding the body of a gold rank adventurer for this lot to have killed one would be ridiculous but too bad any magic equipment appears lost. The copper rank ones I can work with similar to my skeletal pseudo warriors and give them the appropriate upgrades while the beanpole will now become a skeletal mage. After applying the basic upgrades and the skeletal warrior ones I shape the old flows of mana into new ones more suitable for necromancy the bean pole is enriched and add a weak pseudo soul.

Where before he was a high iron grade mage it is now a mid gold grade necromancer, this means that it can now make skeletal warriors and other similar grade undead. The threat level would require a small order of mounted knights to have a chance of winning. The remnants from their original souls I gather up and cleanse to make more pseudo souls with later, combined with the previous gold rank skeleton I have more raw material. Some of the strength of these skeletons came from the soul left in the bones but now it is the base power that I impart that grants them power. Spreading my arms wide and looking across the acolytes I speak out in a dominating manner.

“Behold the power I wield, what can you poor fools do against it. In less than an hour I have crushed this poor excuse for a cabal of necromancers. Your leader now is slain and better serves me in death then his attempt at betraying me in life. But to you I offer a chance, look at my creations and perhaps in the future you can create such minions. I offer you safety and knowledge to pursue the depths of necromancy, join me and pledge yourselves body and soul and I will return upon you power you could not imagine beforehand. Come I offer you my hand to aid you in growing strong and powerful, join me in my endeavors and you will benefit as well. Come join me and I will show you the depths of necromancy”

I can see and feel the emotions they each have in my senses, quite a bit of fear but more of awe and acceptance. They all kneel down and while they are not skilled enough with souls it is immaterial to me, I reach out and take a portion of their energy as they give it up willingly. Binding this energy to me I can now go down the connection forged to see whatever they have in their hearts and minds but only if I go forth.

It is like a door, first it has to be opened and not barred to be used. If they ever try to betray me then I can snuff them out with ease but that will not be needed now, I have a good feeling with this lot. I gesture to them to rise and start giving them the trinkets from earlier, I do not make fake products when crafting. Perhaps they may not be up to standards but they are real items regardless, taking out fragments of bone I start crafting stele to imprint my most rudimentary of knowledge onto. Handing everything out I inform them that these are items to aid them in their journey along with some of my knowledge, I am free to do this now that everyone has given up themselves to me. The start of a grand undertaking is now occurring with this first group of acolyte, while I do not need it now perhaps one will be a worthy apprentice in the future.