Raising Allies

by Sarah Lin

  Meanwhile, Izilthor leaned closer and sniffed at the armor. "Not eat."

  "No, we aim to sell this." Bloodwraith knelt down beside her, summoning boxes for each piece of equipment. The armor was made from good steel and certainly had high defensive values according to the boxes, but it was absurdly heavy. Besides, at their level, it was more important to have good enchantments. "Help me put these into the bag so that Meara can sell them."

  As they stretched the opening of the Extra-dimensional Bag wide to fit the armor, Danniah looked over from her lesson with Gharavi. "Could I just take it myself? Store both suits of armor in the sphere?"

  "It doesn't work that w-" Bloodwraith cut off as he realized that Gharavi had started to answer at the same time. Though frustrated that he was no longer the resident magical expert, he waved for her to speak.

  "Equipment spheres have a very limited capacity," Gharavi said, "so they can't serve as replacements for Extra-dimensional Bags. They're also most efficient when the settings are very precise, and efficiency affects how long it takes to summon the armor. You don't want your armor not appearing fast enough to defend you."

  "Haha, that's kind of how we got this one..." Danniah said.

  "Yes, I heard how you tore those thugs apart."

  "That's... it wasn't like that!" Danniah stared at Gharavi in horror, then sighed. "Oh, I guess it doesn't matter. Last time I went into the city everybody was scared of me anyway."

  Gharavi gave her a slight smile. "I was just teasing. Once I'd met you and Izilthor, I guessed the truth behind the rumors. It was good of you to cover for your allies."

  "Thanks, Gharavi. Oh! I was going to ask, do you have a sphere too? I noticed that you changed your equipment really fast before, but I didn't see it happen."

  "Not quite." Gharavi raised one hand and gestured to a silver ring alongside several others. "Same type of spell, but it trades capacity for speed."

  "That makes sense. We should put the sphere on a necklace or something so I'm always touching it. It'll be nice to not wear armor all the time, but I want to have it right there if I need it..."

  While they discussed those plans, Bloodwraith and Izilthor finished putting away all of the heavy armor. Though he still hadn't made up his mind about the recent developments, every time they worked together he was reminded that it didn't really matter. Izilthor was still the same mixed blessing that she had been from the beginning.

  He was actually looking forward to clearing more of the crypt, earning simultaneous EXP and NP. The combination of a ghoul's body and the new teeth had proven very effective at eliminating corpses, but he thought with the purchase of some more traits, Izilthor could become far more dangerous.

  Thinking about the subject, he brought up her box and actually considered it in depth.

  [Undead Companion

  Name: Izilthor (Izzy)

  Class: Ghoul

  Unassig-]

  Bloodwraith frowned. It seemed wrong for the top-most label to simply read "Undead Companion," considering the level of autonomy Izilthor had acquired. Though the boxes weren't always open to change, Bloodwraith forced his mind against it, commanding it to bend to his will.

  [Name: Izilthor (Izzy)

  Class: Ghoul

  Unassigned Necromancy Points: 17

  Total Earned NP: 116

  Health: 91/91

  Mana: 1/1

  Stamina: 0/0

  Statistics:

  Might: 16

  Vitality: 13

  Quickness: 19

  Intellect: 12

  Charisma: 8

  Willpower: 10

  Wisdom: 6

  Luck: 10

  Piety: 0

  Traits: Ghoul Body, Growth Factor (Aggression), Growth Factor (Support), Ally Coordination, Language Development, Consume Undead, Razor Teeth

  Skills: None

  Inventory: Crypt Sword, Ragged Cloth]

  After countless hours spent refining his technique, running experiments, and developing the fundamentals, Bloodwraith considered this to be the true base of Izilthor's growth. Her statistics were nothing overwhelming, but they were stronger than a great many novice adventurers. She might be a bit fragile, but she could be easily healed. Most importantly, she had the intelligence to effectively use the power she would acquire over time, regardless of her Intellect in the boxes.

  She needed proper equipment, however. Her transformation to the Ghoul class had come with the "Crypt Sword", which was a short blade of decent strength, but the ragged cloth was unacceptable. Oh, she seemed to enjoy wearing it, but he'd sent Meara to acquire something that would provide actual defensive value.

  Across the room, Danniah had finished binding her equipment to the sphere and was beginning to test it. Bloodwraith watched cautiously the first time, but the armor disappeared from around her without incident. Danniah breathed a sigh of relief, closed her eyes, and activated the sphere again.

  The armor appeared around her again, making her lose her footing as it appeared underneath her and shifted her position, but there were no terrible incidents. Gharavi nodded to her in affirmation, but Danniah raised both hands and let out a whoop.

  "Finally! Do you have any idea how much time I spend taking off and putting on armor? This is going to be so much easier!"

  Seeing her practice with it, Bloodwraith had to admit that she was right. He should try to acquire similar equipment himself, but unfortunately it was rare enough for that to be difficult, even when they weren't under such heavy restrictions. For now, he would just live in his armor, since he needed to remain devoted to his development of his necromancy.

  Yet before he could start, Gharavi approached to sit beside them. Since Izilthor wandered off to watch Danniah's armor appear and disappear, they were soon alone. Gharavi removed her staff from her back and held it in her lap, idly running her fingers along the edge.

  "I haven't ever seen a weapon quite like that," Bloodwraith said. "Is it more common elsewhere, or did you craft it yourself?"

  "I made it myself." Gharavi spoke slowly, not looking toward him, almost as if speaking to herself. "I needed a staff to store mana, but couldn't be seen to be carrying a staff. It would have... led to problems..."

  Though he was curious about the implications there, based on her tone he decided not to press. Instead, he took the axe from her and examined it carefully. "Well, it is an elegantly-crafted weapon. That compliment may not mean much, given my current body's lack of skill, but even the boxes said it was 'Rare-quality' equipment. I never pursued the art of crafting to a high degree, but I did make some attempts, so I respect the difficulty of your work."

  "Oh... thank you." She came out of her reverie and smiled at him. "You don't think it's fundamentally silly? Using an axe as a staff..."

  "The exterior form of magic is irrelevant! Ignore any superstitious peasants who say otherwise."

  That pulled a strange smile from her. "Somehow, it's reassuring to hear you state that so bluntly. Thank you, Bloodwraith." She reached out to take her axe back from him and their fingers brushed along the haft of the axe. Hers lingered for a moment...

  [Affection +5!

  Gharavi Affection: 31/100]

  Gharavi instantly recoiled, eyes going wide. "What the hell was that?"

  "Sorry." Bloodwraith could only wince and shrug. "The boxes have... issues when it comes to interpersonal reactions."

  "You can't turn it off?"

  "I haven't found a way."

  "That was..." Gharavi held her hands to either side of her forehead, rubbing slowly. "Not exactly like manipulation, but I did not like it. Are you sure there's no way to stop it? Does it happen any time you interact with your allies?"

  "It did at the beginning. But it eventually hit 100/100 with Danniah, and Meara broke the system for her. Sorry, but you'll just have to put up with it."

  "No, I don't think I will." Gharavi stared at him, eyes intense. While he saw anger there, she was intelligent enough to know that it shouldn't be dir
ected at him. "The reason I just noticed was because I developed spells to defend against potential Outsider manipulation. I have others that I hoped would fight back, but I've never had a chance to use them..."

  Though he didn't entirely understand Gharavi's concern, Bloodwraith saw that it mattered to her and wasn't about to pass up the chance to work with Outsider magic. Gharavi demonstrated that one of her bracelets was actually a defensive talisman, of sorts. Working together, the two of them tried to modulate it toward the power of the boxes themselves. There was little Bloodwraith could do on the magical end, but he retained his former knowledge and did his best to apply it to his intuitive understanding of the boxes.

  It took them a surprisingly long amount of time to make any progress. When Bloodwraith looked up again, he saw that Danniah had finished testing her armor and fallen asleep against the wall. Izilthor had curled up in her lap and seemed to be sleeping as well, though she shouldn't require sleep. Meara still wasn't back, which he hoped was not a cause for concern.

  Regardless, it was finally time. Gharavi gripped her bracelet, nodded to him, then released the charge of the bracelet.

  Nothing happened.

  Bloodwraith frowned and brought up her box again, which was when he noticed the change:

  [Gharavi Affection: 31/99]

  "Did it work?" Gharavi asked. He could only shrug.

  "The maximum number decreased. I've never seen that happen before."

  "Hmm. Then it bears repeating the experiment, but the bracelet will take time to recharge."

  "I think we should ask Meara as well, when she gets back. She has direct experience with this system and may have been able to manipulate it in the past."

  "That sounds wise." Gharavi let go of her bracelet and looked up to smile at him. "Thank you for working on this, Bloodwraith. It means a lot to me that you'd help instead of trying to exploit that power."

  [Affection +5!

  Gharavi Affection: 36/99]

  "Dammit!" Gharavi massaged her forehead again and backed away, cursing under her breath in what sounded like a tribal orc language. "I'm just going to... keep my distance for a while until we get this all figured out."

  That suited him well, but before Bloodwraith could return to his work, Meara finally returned. She appeared unharmed, but he saw a shadow in her eyes. She glanced toward Danniah and Izilthor's sleeping forms briefly, then walked over and bent down beside him.

  "I have clothes and armor for Izzy." She pulled a wrapped bundle from her cloak and set it down beside them. "But we need to talk about Raigar."

  "Has the situation changed?"

  "Possibly. He's shown up twice, using the Scepter of Annihilation to destroy something and repeat his threats. There are more people in Manascas explicitly looking for you, and rumor has it that you're hiding in the slums. But that isn't the real problem: he's trying something with the Red Sands Arena. There are rumors that he's been spotted there multiple times."

  "So either he's up to something... or he's just wasting time on some whim." Bloodwraith sat back and sighed. "In some ways, it would be less troublesome to be dealing with an intelligent and malicious opponent."

  Meara nodded. "So there's a chance he's up to something, but that could involve trying to draw us out. What's our next step?"

  "We stick to the basics of the plan. All of us continue to focus on our strengths, I remain here, you and Danniah operate in the city as you can." Bloodwraith tapped his fingers against the stone of the crypt for a time, then shook his head. "But that may not be enough. It's time to add something new: one of the undead with Raigar is named Herskeh..."

  Chapter 19

  Where the fuck had that fucker run off to?

  Raigar punched one of the skeletons standing nearby, sending the skull flying. That took a bit of the edge off, but in his last game he could have blown the whole thing apart. Even getting his new character back, he could have done a better job of punching shit. Despite what that Bloodwraith fucker was doing with his new body.

  It was the misuse of all his Stat Points that really pissed him off. There was no way to respec in worlds like these, so he would be stuck with whatever shitty natural distribution of points the lich had gotten. Probably not minmaxed at all.

  Unless those points were sitting unused? Getting his new character back and finding a shitton of unspent character points would be totally fractured.

  "Are you alright, Lord Bloodwraith?" Secretary Skeleton appeared nearby. Even though his face was just a skull, he managed to look like a condescending ass.

  "No!" Raigar turned on him, grabbing the front of his robe in one hand. "Why haven't the villagers handed him over already? Are you sure we can't just invade the city?"

  "Their defenses are too strong, my lord. You saw that even you had difficulty once their priests began casting. But if we could adopt a different strategy, as I suggested..."

  "No poisoning shit. I can't risk taking him out - I need that body."

  As usual Secretary Skeleton chickened out instead of arguing. "As you say, my lord. In that case, can I again suggest that you devote yourself to regaining access to your necromancy? Your capacity to raise an army would be far beyond mine - we might be able to sweep Manascas, or at least develop undead scouts to search for your target."

  "Nah, fuck that. I'll play a caster if I really have to, but this necromancy build is shit."

  Secretary Skeleton sighed and nodded. Yet as Raigar continued to fume, he felt a twinge of concern. This skeleton was a squirrely little shit, just the type who might betray him. He'd seen the type enough before. Though he could be no real threat, since Raigar kept all his artifacts on his person and had no need to sleep, he might get in the way.

  "Actually... you are right. I am merely frustrated that we cannot find my target." Raigar tried to smile, though his lich face always felt stiff. "Though I'm having a hard time getting my power back, I should keep trying. Maybe start small. What about those two adventurers that stumbled onto us in the beginning?"

  "My lord?" Secretary Skeleton blinked at him.

  "Looked like a mage and a fighter. Those two didn't get smashed in any of the fights, right? Maybe I can start with them."

  "Of course, Lord Bloodwraith. I'll take you right to them." Secretary Skeleton seemed pleased and began walking into another cave.

  All they had were these shitty little caves. Raigar would have been cool with playing a lich if he got to do a bunch of basebuilding, but all he had were random caves outside of town. He'd tried to command the skeletons to build things and they'd either just stared or done a shit job of it. In the end he'd given up on the whole thing, since it was too much of a pain. Besides, there was no point being an evil overlord when he didn't even have a dick.

  Since they didn't have much space, it barely took them any time to reach their stop. Secretary Skeleton gestured into the room of undead standing ready, which was not fucking helping. But since he was trying to play nice, Raigar didn't yell at him and instead stepped inside.

  There, he saw two zombies with way better equipment. Well, not zombies, they were wights or some shit. Without monster type labels they all ran together for him. If this had been a normal game, he'd have complained about the devs just reskinning the same models.

  "So... these two retain their abilities from when they were alive?"

  "Not precisely, my lord. But their bodies do retain some of the power. The fighter is far more durable than the average ghoul, while the mage still has the necessary magical base to cast spells. They will be far less effective without direction, however, since ghouls generally lack intelligence."

  "They don't need it. I can just order them around." Raigar glanced over at Secretary Skeleton. "I can order them around, right? They'll obey me?"

  "Of course, my lord. I may have raised them, but you are still our commander."

  "I was thinking that maybe I should start regaining my necromancy with these two. Show me the spell again."

  Secretary Skelet
on went through the ritual again and Raigar spent the entire time rolling his eyes. He watched, though, and watched carefully. The nearest Return Point wasn't all that far anymore, but he couldn't ignore his character getting stolen, so he was stuck in this scenario. Wasn't the game he'd wanted, but he might as well play it to the end.

  Once the lecture was done, Raigar clumsily tried and fucked up the circle. "Dammit!" He turned to one of the nearby skeletons standing at attention and punched its skull. His hand slid past and hit the wall with a nasty crunch. Though he didn't feel any pain as a lich, the bones cracked and one finger hung limp.

  "Finger got all fucked up because of this fucking fragile body." He turned back to Secretary Skeleton and waved the limp finger. "Surely there's a way to fix this?"

  "Of course, Lord Bloodwraith. Body regrowth comes naturally to many undead. Lesser creatures would need to consume prey, but you should be able to do it on mana alone. The process is intuitive, but I may be able to offer you a few modest suggestions..."

  This part actually wasn't so hard, mostly just throwing mana at the problem. Raigar could do that. When the hand regenerated itself, the bone felt a little more durable. "Huh, good as new. Or is it better than new?"

  "High quality undead bodies will grow back stronger, though of course there are obvious limitations to such a-"

  "Yeah, okay. Listen, I need to think about what you said, maybe try to practice necromancy more. Okay? Scram."

  For a long moment Secretary Skeleton stared at him, then he gave a slight bow, said something spineless like "Of course, my lord" and left.

  Heh, spineless. Raigar laughed at his own joke until Secretary Skeleton was gone.

  But once he was, Raigar quickly returned to the two adventurers. It was a pain to repeat the ritual on his own, but he'd memorized longer things before and he could brute force the magic parts. He got the necromancy mostly right, something clicked... and the ritual didn't go right. As usual, necromancy was a real pain in the ass.