The First Zombie

A young man in a black hood and black robes trudged across the desolate terrain. He had a staff with a strange purple rock in one hand and an empty sack in the other. Broken weapons, support materials, and the corpses of adventurers lay on the ground, creating some sort of obstacle course. The man carefully stepped over a body with a wound on his chest, making sure not to trip on the hilt of the blade. This was all he could see into the horizon.

Such was the stage after a battle between the Empires of Hiltvelt and Altira. A prominent nobleman from Atria was killed in Hiltvelt. As usual, Altria decided to take up arms against Hiltvelt Mages and warriors from the military of all different classes joined the war. Due to the size difference of their militaries, Altria mostly sent their adventurers. The war is still going on, leaving behind brutal battlegrounds such as these.

"Noctus!" Yelled a scraggly voice from the man's right, "You done with your haul?" A small goblin with a large nose walked up to him holding a large sack of materials. He had a bandanna on to cover his bald green head, as well as a white tank top and brown pants. Two small knives were held on his belt. "Oi, you haven't even got anything."

"Huh? Oh…my bad Louis."

Originally, Noctus was at the Hiltvelt Empire's Magic Academy, doing research on a magical phenomenon.. All living things are infused with a mythical energy source called mana. When a living thing dies, that mana gets corrupted into negative mana. This new energy source is nowhere as potent as pure mana, but Noctus knew there was more to it. The early papers on the properties of negative mana have interested Noctus ever since he was a kid.

He would often get slack for it, but he did not care. The only thing in his mind was unlocking the secret of negative mana. He thought unraveling the truth would be his life mission…until he got drafted for war. He is not strong or magically skilled as other members in the Hiltvelt Army, so he has been put to work as a scouter under the command of his strict boss - Madam Helena. Their job? Either explore new areas for battles to take place or scout out the aftermath of a battle to find high ranking gear that has been left behind.

"Seriously man," scoffed Louis, "Helena will kill us if we don't meet the quota! We barely reached our last one, remember? Focus up!"

"I know, I know". Noctus sighed. As such was his boring new job.

Suddenly, both Noctus and Louis turned to see a strange event in the distance. Behind a large rock some strange glowing light, illuminating the dull deathly atmosphere around it.

"Oi, you seein' what I'm seein?"

"Yeah?…" both Noctus and Louis made their way to the rock, slowly to make sure it wasn't a trap. Untapped booby traps are commonplace in areas like these.

The moment they peered to the other side of the rock, they were met with the corpse of a young woman. She had straight, silky white hair, which was what seemed to be the cause of the glow. It was reflecting the oncoming morning sunrise. She had gray armor on, with a white cloth dress and cape. Her thighs and cleavage were bare and visible. Despite the appearance, she was slumped over cold and missing an entire arm.

"Wowie!" Louis gasped, "she looks pretty damn strong dontcha think? That armor of hers could sell for a shit ton of cash!"

Noctus did not say anything, but was fixated on the cold beauty in front of him. Louis saw his infatuation and put on a face with disgust. "You're not falling in love with the dead body are you?"

"Huh?! No! Noo…" Noctus nervously chuckled, "it's just…the mana from the body, it feels different." He knelt down towards the corpse and placed a hand above her abdomen. As suspected, the energy emanating from her felt off. It was much stronger than usual. Noctus' eyes went wide, and a chill ran down his spine. "Hold on wait…Louis do you remember what I told you about negative mana?"

"Can't say I remember shit"

"I told you like ten times though."

"And I told you I got Goblin brain." Louis smirked, "We're built for instinct, so I couldn't care less."

Noctus sighed, "Whatever. Look, when a living thing passes, their mana slowly gets corrupted into negative mana. The rate at which this corruption happens is constant, so being with more mana than usual takes more time to corrupt."

"Like this beaut here?"

"Exactly. There is still a large amount of mana in her body." Noctus then took his staff and lifted it up into the air. The purple gem on the end of the staff started to glow and dull purple particles started to congregate around it. Due to the death and destruction in the battlefield, negative mana was in abundance. The particles formed the pattern of a cyclone, spinning around the gem. Noctus remembered the research papers he read as a child, and a slight smile appeared on his face. "A fundamental law of negative mana is its weakness. Look how easy it is to push around and manipulate it."

Nocuts then closed his eyes and began chanting quietly. Suddenly, tiny red magical circles began appearing around the cyclone of negative mana. The circles simultaneously exploded at the same time, pushing the particles together. Louis started to pick something off his teeth using a knife, but still watched in curiosity. Noctus kept casting the spell until they were at one point. The collection of negative mana began to glow bright purple. "If we push large amounts of negative mana to a single point…we get The Negative Singularity." Noctus then directed the singularity over the corpse, and gently placed it right on top of her cleavage.

Suddenly, the ball went inside her chest, and her body began to glow both light blue and dark purple, allocating between the two colors. A wicked smile appeared on Nocuts's face. "When the Singularity touches potent mana like thi—" He was cut off by an explosion of mana, sending both Noctus and Louis to the ground. The corpse started to tremble and slowly levitate.

"NOCTUS you fuckin' idiot, turn it off!" Louis yelled, shielding himself for the excess mana. Noctus did not say a word. He was simply mesmerized by the spectacle in front of him. A dance of colors similar to the aurora borealis.

Suddenly, the oscillation of colors stopped, and so did the release of mana. The corpse of the adventure stood upright, and dropped a silver tag of some sort. Noctus slowly went over and picked up the tag.

[Aria Alfundottir 

S Class Adventurer 

Divine Swordsman 

Guild of West Rheinlannd]

The body of Aria then stood as if she was alive, missing arm and all, and opened her eyes. Her pupils were now a dull purple, and her face was emotionless.

Louis dropped his shielding stance and was in shock. "No way…"

Noctus let out a sinister laugh and grinned, cheek to cheek. "When the Singularity touches potent mana, it creates something called Absolute Mana - a more powerful form of mana that mimics how souls work in a way…THIS is the key for Necromancy!"

The undead Aria knelt on one knee, and put her only arm around her chest. "M-masterrr…" she said with a broken voice.

Louis playfully punched Noctu's arm and had a scared smile on his face, "Was this the research you were naggin me about?"

"Yes." Noctus said, with hands smugly on his hips.

"Is it even legal??"

"You're a Goblin, my friend, does legality even matter?"

"Fair." Louis sighed, "So what now?"

"I uhh..actually didn't think I would make it this far." Noctus said, scratching his head, "I only do the theory down at the Academy, so I couldn't run any experiments." Suddenly, Aria leapt forward towards Noctus. Together, they fell to the ground with Aria on top, sitting right on top of his waist. She bent forward so that her face was right in front of his. Noctus started to get flustered as he tried to push her off, but he seemed to forget that Absolute Mana was more dense than regular mana.

"Noctus?!" Louis said, with both is daggers out, ready to pounce.

"H-hold on Louis!" Noctys yelled, signaling his goblin buddy to stand back.

Aria leaned in close to Noctus's face and started to blush. "Master N-Noctus…" she whispered, breathing heavily.

"A-Aria I order you to get off of me!"

"Noo…but I want—"

"That's an order!" snapped Noctus. Aria pouted and slowly let her prey go. Noctus stood up and dusted off his clothes, eyeing a sad Aria now kneeling in front of him. She was still breathing heavily.

"What the hell was that?" yelled Louis.

"Looks like some sort of side effect from necromancy." Noctus confirmed, "Negative mana has a chance to zombify a corpse, and that's pretty much what's happening here but with absolute mana instead…but I don't know why she acted in that manner…"

Suddenly, Louis got an idea, "Oi Noctus, tell her to act like a dog."

"What?"

"Just do it!"

A confused Noctus sighed, "Fine. Aria, I order to act like a dog." 

Suddenly, Aria stuck her tongue out and made a paw pose. "Master! Master!" She said, "Are we gonna playyyy today?!" She let out a cute bark and started panting. 

Louis snickered, "Zombies are dumb by default. They'll do anything you tell 'em to do as long as their desires are met…which is usually food. It's fun dealing with them, y'know."

"Ughh.." cringed Noctis, "Aria, act like a noble warrior."

Aria's expression suddenly changed to be cold and deathly serious. "Yes, master. I am at your service."

"This is great!" Louis laughed and crossed his arms "She can help us out with scouting. We just gotta keep it a secret from the boss lady."

Noctus thought about the can of worms he had just opened. If anyone finds out about this, especially in the kingdom, things might as well be over for him, "Y-yeah…wait hold on, desires?"

Lousi smirked and slapped Noctus on the back, "What do you think it means for your little pet here, genius?"