Raising Undead
Damien first had to deal with his hunger. His lack of stomach innards and functioning organs meant his stomach no longer growled, but if it could have, it definitely would have. He felt a raw, primal hunger wash over him that was worse than any he had ever felt before.
If Damien let this hunger go on, he had no doubt that if even a human was presented before him, he would not hesitate to feast on their flesh. Best not to let it go that far, though. He knelt down by a vulture corpse and tore into it.
Damien did not care what he ate. He just ate. He shoveled in feathers, then skin, then flesh and blood, working his way into the vulture with bloody hands. He felt zero sense of revulsion at eating the raw meat and tearing into it like an animal, just pleasure that he could whet his appetite.
As Damien ate chunks of raw vulture, Zarah appeared again in a puff of smoke, hovering over him.
"And what did I tell you about ruining your face?" said Zarah as she eyed his lack of an eye. "What a shame. You were not too hard on the eyes. But don't worry, give me some time, and I can make something to fix you up with."
"You don't seem all that disturbed by how I look right now," said Damien as he shoved his hand into the vulture stomach and scooped up intestines to slurp up like noodles. "Blood, gore, missing eye and all. Which makes me wonder, why is it that you seem to like me?"
"I'm not so sure myself," said Zarah. "But what I can tell is I have a feeling you are juuust right for me, and it's a wise choice never to bet against a lady's instincts. Especially when said lady is a genie."
"And this whole being undead and torn apart doesn't bother you?" asked Damien.
"Why would it? I know what humans think is attractive, but I myself am not one. I have different standards, and you meet them. And seems like you really aren't that much more human than me at this point," said Zarah. She cocked her head, getting a good look at Damien. "You remind me of a Ghoul. Except you can speak more than three syllables and are far better looking. And less rotted, though at this rate, there won't be much of you left."
"Ghoul, huh? You remember where you're from?" Damien knew that in the middle east, there were undead called Ghouls that were pretty damn strong as far as undead went, capable of using some nasty curse-based magic and taking over bodies.
Damien seemed to be the run of the mill cookie cutter zombie. The type that you would see in a shitty B list movie ready to be gunned down. Only difference being he kept his human sense of self.
This, though was incredibly odd.
Lower undead like zombies never managed to keep their memories. That was one of their defining traits.
"Not really. But some of my memories come back to me when I see something that prompts them," said Zarah. She put her hands to her hips. "Now then, let us see to getting you out of here.
I could theoretically teleport you out, but it would take a wish. Wanna use one?"
"Not if I can help it," said Damien. He had tried to reason what he wanted to do, and his plan was to backtrack his way into the Rift, killing monsters along the way and raising them as zombies. Then he would escape and try to get back to his apartment without letting anyone get a glimpse of him.
Problems would arise when he got back to the real world because his undead appearance was going to be highly noticeable, and he would not hesitate to use a wish to change his appearance.
Which made him wonder –
"By the way, do you know if your wishes can change me back to being a human?" said Damien. It was not that he wanted to become human anymore, especially if it meant losing his powers, but he wanted to know if he could be changed any.
"You miss how you used to be? I don't mind how you are now, but let me see." Zarah floated to Damien's shoulder and put her hands on him. He felt warmth radiate through his body as she analyzed him.
"Huh." Zarah put a hand to her chin and floated backwards with widened eyes.
"What?"
"To put it simply: no. I cannot change you back. You are fixed in this state and any wish that tries to alter anything about your undead nature will simply not work. Not just my wishes. There is something blocking any magic from changing you or even finding out about your condition.
The degree of this protection is so high and unfathomable that I dare to say not even a god could change it."
"There goes any semblance of having a normal life again," said Damien as he chewed on some innards. Then he had an idea. "How about an item that can change my appearance? One good enough to fool most magical sensors as well."
"Making stuff - now you're speaking my language," said Zarah with a nod. "But unfortunately, I do not have the materials to make something like that with. You could conjure something like that up with a wish, though."
"No, again, don't want to use a wish if I can help it. I need to actually get out of this Rift first before I even consider changing my appearance anyway. Besides, I might find a monster here that can be processed into an item like that," said Damien.
With that, he started picking up the pace, eating faster because the more time passed, the likelier it was that another Delving party would come to clear this Rift.
Judging by the position of the sun, Damien roughly estimated it had not even been an hour since he had first died. He still had time to escape.
The way back entailed an hour-long hike down the mountain side, then another half hour long hike across desert sands to a portal.
But if things went right, Damien figured he could cut that time down dramatically by flying out.
[An Ironbeak Vulture is ready to be turned. Will the Host turn it or not?]
[Yes/No]
Damien saw a message box sprawl out in front of him. He mentally pressed the Yes button because he had eaten enough to get a quick fill. He stood up and watched the torn apart vulture's corpse shudder, black wisps of smoke-like energy curling around it.
Its flesh shriveled up and rotted, and its feathers thinned before falling apart, leaving its grey, dead skin covered only patches of bloody feathers.
The vulture stood up on its talons and loosed a rattling screech before it stared at Damien and bowed its head.
[The Ironbeak Vulture has successfully been turned into a Husk]
[Note that every single undead turned by the host possesses the host's rank of the skill Infectious Bite]
Damien tried to reach out to the vulture.
A Husk was the lowest rank of undead monster, and beings that turned into Husks became both mindless and significantly weaker than they were normally.
The husk vulture immediately began to tear into another vulture corpse.
But because every single undead that Damien raised had his Infectious Bite skill, if he got enough creatures infected, he could create a critical mass pandemic of infected and exponentially grow the count of undead he had.
That said, Damien still wanted his undead to be relatively intact and not half-eaten.
Damien tried to will the newly turned vulture to stop, but he felt only the faintest connection between himself and the vulture.
The vulture husk ignored him and tore off the wing of the corpse it feasted on.
"Don't even try. That vulture is no true familiar of yours," said Zarah. "There is no spirit bond between it and you as there is between you and I."
"No, there's some connection. Not much, but a little bit," said Damien, noting that though Zarah was closely linked to him now, she still could not sense his system nor his link with the undead. That seemed to be something entirely separate from him. "If there's even a bit of a link, maybe I can make something work."
"Stop eating," said Damien directly to the vulture with a firm tone of voice, as if he was scolding a dog.
The vulture slowly stopped.
Seemed that the vulture understood very basic commands, but as Zarah had stated, Damien did not have strong control over it. He could probably give it a vague order like 'attack' or 'protect me', but nothing complicated, and likely no more than one order at a time.
[If the Host wishes to increase their control over their undead, then they must level up and invest into their attunement stat. However, it is possible to obtain full control over the Ironbeak Vulture husk by making it a Bound, granting it closer connection to the Host at the cost of a Bound slot]
[Current Bound Slots: 0/1]
Damien stared at the undead vulture's wings. They were still largely intact and what he wanted, because flying on the back of a vulture beat hiking down a mountain by a long shot.
The only issue was that he doubted he could steer the vulture properly with how dumb it was, let alone if he had to get the thing to fight in the air while carrying him.
Damien willed the vulture to become his Bound. He did not know what a Bound was because he had not read anything that talked about it in his studies, but if it gave him full control over the undead, he was going to use it.
An aura of black smoke flickered around the vulture, and once it dissipated, Damien could immediately tell that he possessed absolute control over the creature. He could tune into its senses and control it like an extension of his own body.
"What? You made a contract with that vulture of all things? Geeze, you're cheating on me already, huh?" said Zarah as she crossed her arms with pouting lips.
[Bound Undead: 0/1 > 1/1]
[Note: the Host has reached their limit to bind undead fully to themselves. To increase this cap, level the attunement stat. Otherwise, break an existing bond with a bound undead to make room for another.
Warning – breaking a bond with an undead will destroy it]
"It can fly, and you can't," said Damien.
"If you gave me enough of their cores, I could make some wings for you, maybe," said Zarah. She sighed in defeat. "Though considering how weak their cores are, it would take me a few hours to build something."
"I appreciate the thought, but we don't have that time," said Damien. He went over to the rest of the vulture corpses and bit their necks just enough to draw blood and get his infectious bite into them.
Exactly one minute later, he saw the system messages pop up again –
[An Ironbeak Vulture is ready to be turned. Will the Host turn it or not?] [Yes/No]
[An Ironbeak Vulture is ready to be turned. Will the Host turn it or not?] [Yes/No]
[An Ironbeak Vulture is ready to be turned. Will the Host turn it or not?] [Yes/No]
Damien selected yes for all of them, and they all went through the same rotting and zombification phase before rising up, curls of black smoke fading around them.
[New System tab unlocked: Undead Count]
<<<Undead Count>>>
Bound Undead (1/1):
-Ironbeak Vulture Husk
Total:
-4 x Ironbeak Vulture Husks
>>>
[New System tab unlocked: Quests]
[New Quest Obtained!]
<<<Quests>>>
{Escape}
Difficulty: 1
-The difficulty of a quest depending on how life threatening it is to the Host based on available information. The scale ranges from 1-5, with 5 being an almost assured death
Time Limit: None
Rewards: 100 EXP
Details: Escape from the grade 5 Rift alive
>>>