Chapter 20- Children of the Night

Alaster traveled away from the Goblin Tribe until he could barely make out the smoke trails through the trees. Once he was far enough away, Alaster set up his bone shelter and had Gobi hide in the trees while he took the newest Skeleton in side.

Before he began his experiments, he prepared the Caribou hide with [Death Touch] and hung it over the doorway. He then started a fire in the fire bowl to provide light and much desired warmth, which the Caribou hide kept in.

He then had the Skeleton stand straight and perfectly still.

"If I move any part of your body, you will keep it in that same position." Alaster ordered, speaking for the first time in many hours.

He then began to move the Skeleton like a doll. To an outsider, it would appear as if Alaster was simply playing around. But in truth, Alaster was studying how the Skeleton could move, and how the green veins of his mana worked.

After nearly an hour, he believed he had a good enough understanding and began his experiments.

Using [Bone Crafting], Alaster molded the Skeleton's fingers into sharp points. The bone fingers were already surprisingly sharp as they had no flesh to cover them, but Alaster turned that natural point into a knife point. Once he was done, he did the same to the toes, and Alaster knew that the Skeleton would be able to climb much easier and quicker.

But he was not done.

Next, Alaster changed the teeth, once again sharpening them. He envisioned a dozen of these similar Skeletons dropping from the treetops to bite and claw into their prey before quickly ascending once more.

But still, he was not done.

For his next step, he began to strengthen the bones of its hands and feet. He did not make them denser. While that would make them stronger, it would also make them heavier. Instead, Alaster injected more of his mana into the bone, fusing with it in a way. He had previously found that doing so would make the bones harder to break, while also making them less brittle. 

Once he had strengthened the hands and feet, he noticed that they were darker than the rest of the Skeleton.

'Interesting. So taking out the impurities to make the bone lighter and more flexible makes them whiter, but strengthening them with mana makes them darker.'

However, he was still not done. He was not even sure this next step would work. Targeting the Mana Veins of the Skeleton, Alaster injected his mana, much like a blood transfusion. The Veins grew thicker and more vibrant the more mana he pushed into them. Eventually, however, he sensed that the Veins were reaching a sort of critical saturation, and that if continued to pump his mana into them, that they would burst.

Alaster took a step back to admire his work. The Skeleton was pretty much the same as Gobi, but the bones past its elbow and knee joint were darker, more gray. The veins glowed brighter, especially around the joints, where he had focused his attention. But he was not done. Alaster bent down and molded the forearm and shinbone to have downward facing spikes, which Alaster hoped would assist the Skeleton in climbing.

As a final touch, a more artistic one, Alaster molded the head of the Skeleton to be smaller with its eye sockets smaller, narrower, and pointed.

[Spell Learned: Skeleton Creation]

[Skeleton Creation

Level 1: 0%

Create what none have created

Mana Cost 50/min]

With Alaster's recent level, and two points into INT, he had one hundred fifty mana. Just enough to keep the spell active for three minutes. It had taken nearly an hour to edit the Goblin Skeleton, though it could hardly be called a Goblin Skeleton anymore.

Taking a look at his creation, Alaster was not quite sure what to call it.

When he did have to make the bone denser, to accommodate the amount of mana he was putting in, he also made it smaller, to keep it roughly the same weight. And since he made the skull smaller, as well as the eyes, it looked more humanlike. 

Alaster had been imagining what it would be like for this Skeleton to ambush and terrorizing its prey from the tree tops. It would be even more effective at night, when its sickly green eyes would glow in the night. But due to its size, from afar, it would look like a child.

'Night Child.'

His naming sense still sucked, and he was not going to apologize for it. 

'One of the benefits of being alone. No one can criticize you.'

Alaster decided to change one last thing. The underside of its forearms had spikes, so when it was climbing, they would poke down and dig into whatever it what, helping the Child climb. But having to carry a weapon would diminish that ability.

It could use its sharp fingers to stab its target, but Alaster wanted the Night Child's specialty to be stealth and speed. And to stab an enemy, they would have to withdraw their hand, slowing them. But if they had a slashing weapon? One that was built into them, so their hands were free.

Alaster spent the next several hours working through what weapon, style, angle, and all of that. He added more bone, and had to make the forearms denser. This would slow it down slightly, but Alaster had strengthened its Mana Veins nearly to the breaking point. If his theory was correct, that would make it stronger and faster, and without the weight of flesh, Skeletons were already quite fast.

In the end, Alaster finalized his design and sat down, leaning against the bone wall and staring at his new Night Child.

Standing a little taller than a meter. With gray forearms and shinbones covered in small spikes. Its brightly glowing green veins had been hidden under some bone, blocking its light from showing. Only the joints had unexposed vein, as bone was inflexible, preventing Alaster from covering it. On the sides of its forearms, Alaster had created a long curved blade.

The blade, made of super condensed and infused bone, was razor sharp. It ran from about an inch past its knuckles to two inches past its elbow. It curved, which Alaster hoped would allow the Child to run or jump past the enemy, keeping its speed, while still slashing at the enemy.

Alaster spent all that time designing it, and only about twenty minutes making both blades. When they were made, Alaster finally cast [Skeleton Creation] to finally implement the blades onto the Skeleton, making the two, into one. However, it still took two minutes, one hundred mana, to attach the blades seamlessly and how he wanted.

[Night Child

Health: 65/65

Strength: 8

Dexterity: 15 (12+3)

Constitution: 8 (6+2)]

'Even the name changed. And it looks like my additions also changed its status. It is now easily more powerful than Gobi.'

Alaster sent the Child out. He needed to hold the hide curtain aside, as he did not quite trust the Skeleton with razor blades attached to its hands, not to cut it. The Child took Gobi's place among the trees as Gobi entered the shelter.

Alaster examined Gobi.

[Goblin Skeleton

Health: 19/55

Strength: 8

Dexterity: 12

Constitution: 6]

'Still damaged, and it doesn't seem like the system had recognized Gobi as its name.'

After meditating, Alaster cast [Skeleton Creation] on a hunch. As he had suspected, his vision seemed to highlight the damaged areas of the Skeleton. Alaster knew that if he added bone and fused it together while the spell was active, that it would repair the Skeleton, effectively healing it. But that was not what he wanted to do.

Alaster instead dismissed Gobi. The moment he decided it, the Mana Veins within Gobi vanished, dissipating, and the bones fell into a pile. Gobi had served him well, but Alaster was not one to grow attached to a minion, especially one without any intelligence.

As the bones fell, Alaster gently kicked them into the rest of the Goblin bones in the corner. And then, he cast [Raise Undead].

Another Goblin Skeleton rose out of the pile, staring at its master and waiting for orders.

Alaster had only one.

'Dismiss.'

Very few skills could gain EXP unless there was a target. Such as [Necrotic Bolt], It could not improve unless it actually hit an enemy. But [Raise Undead] only needed bones, and it seemed that as long as a sufficient amount of bones remained after it was dismissed, the same bones could be used to raise another, and it still provided EXP.

[Meditation] only needed mana to be missing from the max, and [Raise Undead] was quite mana intensive.

[Raise Undead

Level 5: 30%

Raise a small corpse to serve as your servant

Max Minion: 1/2

Mana Cost: 42]

After his recent test, he found that raising an undead provided ten percent EXP after the Evolution, instead of the twenty percent EXP before. That was still fine. That wasn't even including the EXP that went towards the spell's level if the Undead killed or participated in a kill.

The sun was still up, and Alaster wanted to attack the Goblin Tribe at night, when most of its members would be asleep. So until then, Alaster was going to speed Level his two most important abilities, [Raise Undead] and [Meditation].

Alaster was excited for the blood that would spill when the sun fell and moon rose.