I am ready to serve ,my Lord(PD inc. 9)
{Earlier the same day}
"Create a Minor Undead"
"Dismiss"
"Create a Minor Undead"
"Dismiss"
"Create a Minor Undead"
"Dismiss"
...
"Why can't I still do it!" Exclaimed Samuel frustrated with his failure repeated many times that day.
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Mana : 500/1200
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"Create a Minor Undead"
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Mana : 400/1200
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"Still, no!!!" He shouted angrily at a simple skeleton emerging, just like the others.
"Dismiss"
...
"Ehh..."
"Calmly take a deep breath and think again" Repeated in his head the necromancer trying to calm himself down.
...
"Once again from the beginning, what do I want to do?" Thought aloud Samuel
"Create an ELITE variant of the undead," He said the questions to himself while conducting a strange monologue.
"Okay now, what will I create undead from?"
"From mana, how exactly is not important now".
"So going by that reasoning the Elite variant should cost even more mana than usual, right?"
"Then why the fuck doesn't it work!" - Samuel shouted angrily at the fact that something is going wrong for him.
"The only advantage I've discovered is that the more mana I put into summoning an undead, the better equipped it will have."
"The problem is that it's damn near unprofitable, almost nothing changes. After all, what good does it do me if the sword shines more."
"Ehh...One more thing to look out for. Not that I don't have a lot of them" He thought trying to 'comfort' himself somehow.
...
"Randaloph maybe you can help me and figure something out," He said after a while, searching with his eyes for his new animal companion, and then sent through their mental connection an image of what he wanted, when he saw that nothing was happening.
...
"Randaloph?" He whispered waiting a few minutes puzzled, receiving no answer and seeing no movement in the forest.
..
"Where is that damn wolf when you need him?" Samuel thought angrily, forgetting that he had made a deal with the new undead on almost equal terms.
"He still doesn't listen to me and runs away when I want something from him" He stated complaining about the 'innocent' wolf.
"..."
"Wait a minute...Randaloph doesn't listen to me and is ELITE, while normal skeletons obey me unconditionally."
"Yes, yes, how could I have been so stupid, after all, it's obviously about awareness," stated Samuel gleefully, experiencing a sudden flash of insight.
"That's what they lack, consciousness.
"Now the question is, how do you create awareness?"
...
"I think I have an idea." - said Samuel after an hour of thought, recalling an unpleasant incident in the dungeon.
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Mana 1200/1200
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the state of his mana.
"..."
"Create a Minor Undead"
Samuel began to use his mana more slowly than usual, he wanted to have time to act and quickly change or stop if things were not going his way.
As he usually did at the beginning, Samuel began to imagine a human skeleton armed with a shield and sword.
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Mana 1150/1200
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Then, as he already knew from experience what he need to do, Samuel proceeded to modify the weaponry. He gave the skeleton an elongated triangular knight's shield and a decent steel sword instead of default equipment.
{Shield}
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Mana 1100/1200
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"Now the moment of truth," he whispered, not distracting himself from the summoning.
The necromancer began to add descriptions to the imagined undead in his mind, such as...".
LOYALTY
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Mana 1050/1200
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"It's going well," he thought, looking at the rapidly disappearing mana.
HONOR
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Mana 1000/1200
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CHIVALRY
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Mana 950/1200
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BRAVERY
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Mana 900/1200
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EXPERIENCE
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Mana 850/1200
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"And I left the best for last..."
RUTHLESSNESS
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Mana 800/1200
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...
As Samuel finished the summoning, the skeleton he had imagined appeared before his eyes, well maybe not quite.
His shield was the same as he had imagined, only slightly incomplete, missing several wooden parts, while the metal parts seemed undamaged, allowing its owner to use it for many long battles.
His sword, though shorter than he wanted, retained its ornate appearance, as well as some of the blade's incredible sharpness.
"It's just a shame it's not made of steel," he thought, looking further at his new servant.
The armor, Samuel had forgotten, had come into being on its own but was almost completely destroyed.
The plate legs covering the skeleton's legs and hips completely were full of holes, but still looked better than the upper part of the armor.
All that remained of the upper armor was the fragment protecting the hands including the wrists and the large epaulettes, the rest was missing.
Fortunately, the undead was not left unprotected, for in place of the missing plate armor, he wore chain mail, which was the only completely intact and probably "new" piece of armor.
For a complete look at the new servant all that was left for Samuel to do was to take a closer look at the helmet, but he had to look very high, as the summoned skeleton was unexpectedly huge, not to say gigantic one could safely call it a "small" bone giant.
The helmet was in the shape of a Heavy Barbute , from under which protruded a chainmail. Together the two pieces of armor completely covered the undead's skull, leaving only the T mark visible, where its eyes and 'nose' were, Its eyes looked like green fire, and looked directly at Samuel.
...
As Samuel and his new minion stared blankly at each other, the new servant was the first to break the silence.
"Maaster..."
"..."
"It worked!" - thought a pleased Samuel.
XXXX
"So what's your name?" Asked the necromancer of his new undead knight.
"Master..."
"Or do you know how you got here?"
"Master..."
I see... Master?"
"Master!..."
"Ehhh..I see what you mean," sighed a disappointed Samuel.
"So I didn't quite make it after all, well better than nothing anyway"
"Master?..."
"The most important thing is not to give up, right?"
...
"Now I'd like to give you a name since you were the first, do you have any ideas?"
"Master?..."
"Why am I even asking?" he said asking a rhetorical question.
"How about Gawain? I'd call you Mordred, but I don't want you to betray me."
"Master..."
"I'll take that as a yes, from now on you are Sir Gawain. Rise my faithful knight let all the living tremble at the sound of thy name. Together let us burn this world to the ground. "
"MASTER!!!..." exclaimed the excited knight along ,with his master, as if pleased with his new name.
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Before Samuel began summoning more elite undead using the same process. He remembered one more thing he could check with his knight.
The necromancer decided to use the same connection he had with Randaloph, through which he showed Gawain several different images, trying to see if he would react.
"The connection is much stronger than normal skeletons but weaker than Randaloph, I guess it depends on the mana used for the summoning," He said after a while summarising the facts.
"But the wolf at least understood and answered and now it feels like I'm talking to a 4-year-old.
"Ehh..."
"Let's see what has changed in the System," Samuel said looking at the state of his army.
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ARMY
31 Skeletons ,1 Wolf
19 Shieldsmens
7 Archers
2 Spearmens
2 Axemens
1 Alpha Wolf 'Randaloph' (ELITE)
1 Undead Knight 'Sir Gawain' (ELITE)
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"Now I'm sure I've succeeded," he added.
"It's time to summon the remaining knights because if I'm going to have a limit of summoned units I'm going to make sure they're the best," stated Samuel ready for action.
...
"Here we go."
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Mana 900/1200
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"Create a Minor Undead"
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Mana 850/1200
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Mana 800/1200
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Error : Not all requirements for summoning have been met , interrupting skill
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As soon as Samuel received the last notification, instead of the desired knight, the necromancer created a normal undead equipped only with slightly better equipment, the sword had lost some rust and the shield looked more solid, nothing extraordinary.
"..."
"FUCK" shouted the confused Half Lich not knowing what had happened.
XXXX
"Ok... Ok, what went wrong?"
"I did it like before, what went wrong?" Samuel repeat the question again to make sure he wasn't freaking out.
"SYSTEM shows ELITE conditions."
...
"Ehh... What did I expect?"
"..."
"Let's see if anything has changed."
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ARMY
32 Skeletons ,1 Wolf
20 Shieldsmens
7 Archers
2 Spearmens
2 Axemens
1 Alpha Wolf 'Randaloph' (ELITE)
1 Undead Knight 'Sir Gawain' (ELITE)
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"Calm down don't get upset Samuel, try again, this time slowly maybe you made a mistake?".
"..."
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Mana 800/1200
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"Create a Minor Undead"
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Mana 750/1200
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"Now a change of equipment"
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Mana 700/1200
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"And now the emotions"
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Mana 650/1200
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Mana 650/1200
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Error : Not all requirements for summoning have been met , interrupting skill
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"What now, this time..." He didn't even have time to finish his sentence when a skeleton completely different from the previous two appeared in front of him.
The undead had a round iron helmet of the Kettle type and a long slightly perforated chainmail sticking out from under a damaged gamberson on which lay small iron epaulettes.
In his left hand, the skeleton held a medium-sized, slightly damaged wooden shield with an iron rim on the outside. Meanwhile, in his left hand, he held a long one-handed sword that had a few dents on the blade but did not appear to have lost its original sharpness.
Instead of Gawain's plate leggings, he wore long leather boots reaching almost to his knees surprisingly not damaged.
The only thing that distinguished him from the other shield-men, apart from his equipment, was the faint green flame glowing in his eye sockets, which, if you didn't look closely, you would hardly notice.
"Why don't you tell me what makes you different from the others?" Samuel asked, the new acquisition of his army.
"...."
"Great, this one can't even speak."
"Gawain maybe you can communicate with him?" Asked Samuel looking at the giant knight for rescue.
"Master...?"
...
"Never mind, there was no question.
"Ehh..." sighed a depressed Samuel.
"I work with idiots," Said the necromancer in the middle of the forest speaking to his mindless servants.
"Master...?"
XXXX
"Once again what went wrong?" wondered Samuel yet again.
"The first time it went reasonably well, the second time it didn't go at all, and the third time it was even worse than the first time."
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ARMY
33 Skeletons ,1 Wolf
20 Shieldsmen ,1 Captain(ELITE)
7 Archer
2 Spearmen
2 Axemen
1 Alpha Wolf 'Randaloph' (ELITE)
1 Undead Knight 'Sir Gawain' (ELITE)
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"The fact that you are a captain and not a knight doesn't tell me much.
"But wait I had 19 shieldmen before and it didn't work, and when it was 20 I summoned a captain."
"Is it about the number?"
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Mana 800/1200
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"Create a Minor Undead"
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Mana 750/1200
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"Equipment change"
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Mana 700/1200
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Error : Not all requirements for summoning have been met , interrupting skill
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"The result was a simple skeleton, but that's what I expected," he says.
"Dismiss"
"In that case, let's try the archers."
"Create a Minor Undead" x3
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Mana 535/1200
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"According to my theory, it should work."
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ARMY
36 Skeleton ,1 Wolf
20 Shieldsmen ,1 Captain(ELITE)
10 Archer
2 Spearmen
2 Axemen
1 Alpha Wolf 'Randaloph' (ELITE)
1 Undead Knight 'Sir Gawain' (ELITE)
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"Create a Minor Undead"
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Danger: Exceeding the servant limit can overload the mana core
Continue?
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"No, it doesn't bother me at all, at all".
"Damn restrictions."
"Dismiss," Samuel said dismissing one of his spearmen.
...
"Now keep your bones crossed that I succeed".
"Create a Minor Undead"
Samuel once again repeated the process only this time he wanted to create a captain, when the first attempt failed he immediately started another but this time wanting to create a captain of archers.
And so another skeleton was created very similar to the earlier ELITE except that instead of a sword and shield, had a bow and the destroyed gamberson was replaced with an almost intact pourpont.
"So I was right, but just to be sure, I'll check it again," added Samuel.
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ARMY
36 Skeleton ,1 Wolf
20 Shieldsmen ,1 Captain(ELITE)
10 Archers ,1 Captain(ELITE)
2 Spearmen
2 Axemen
1 Alpha Wolf 'Randaloph' (ELITE)
1 Undead Knight 'Sir Gawain' (ELITE)
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"It's good to know I wasn't wrong," stated a satisfied Samuel.
"Then I could slowly build up a tier of the undead."
"Let's assume the lich is stronger than me, and I'm as strong as Gawain and Randaloph, and then the other skeletons go."
"SYSTEM show the undead tier," thought Samuel, thinking that this time the System would answer him.
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UNDEAD TIER
LICH
HALF LICH , ALPFA WOLF ,SKELETON KNIGHT
SKELETON CAPTAIN
NORMAL SKELETON
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"I knew it!" - exclaimed the necromancer pleased that he had finally solved the riddle.
"You act as my outer brain and only show me what I know myself."
"And you won't tell me anything else, right?"
...
"You don't have to answer I know I'm right," said the insanely happy necromancer.