Mana Conduit 2

Tamara led Jay down a hallway to a room with a ruby-bathtub in the center.

The bath tub was as big as any other bathtub - yet with a small ruby gem embedded into its base, and a metal cage covering the gem to stop petty thieves. It had already been filled with water, and the gem had already heated it.

Tamara pointed to the corner of the room. “There’s a basket there to put your dirty clothes in, along with a change of clothes on that shelf. I’ve left a towel and some soap there too. If you need anything, just call out down the hallway.”

“Thanks.” Jay nodded as Tamara closed the door.

After locking the door, Jay turned to undress as he watched the enticing wisps of steam dancing on top of the water. Drawn by the warmth, he hurriedly took his clothes off and threw them in the general direction of the basket before hopping into the bath.

At first it felt searing hot, but soon his skin adapted to the heat and it felt comfortable. Feeling his muscles untense and loosening themselves after the shivering, he finally relaxed.

“Ahhhh… I won’t die today. Five gold well spent,” He smiled in delight.

Suddenly, he panicked. Grabbing the sides of the bathtub, he froze.

“I still need to reach the mana conduit! SHIT!”

Jumping out of the bath, he grabbed the towel and wrapped it around himself. He remembered the sun was about to set after that silver crow shocked him awake, so he was really cutting it close.

He ripped the door open and yelled, “TAMARA!”

Tamara quickly appeared. “Yes? Is there a problem?”

“A carriage to the adventurer’s association, I need one now!” Jay blurted.

“Ahh... yeah sure... just... isn’t it closed today?” Tamara quizzed him.

“What, no? Why would it be closed?”

“Well, yesterday was the day of awakening, and they will have a lot of paperwork to go through after all the new adventurers, so they’re normally closed on the 8th of the 7th..? Right?”

Jay felt his heart squeeze tightly as he unconsciously held his breath. “Yes... yesterday…?” he whispered.

“Yeah? Yesterday.” Tamara raised a brow.

“Yes…terday…” he looked like he had seen a ghost, “... never mind.”

Slowly closing the door, Jay completely forgot about Tamara standing there. Thankfully, the door closed before his towel fell down. Standing naked in the room staring at the closed door, he started nodding slowly as a few moments passed while reality caught up with Jay.

Yesterday… I missed it... my one opportunity to escape this hole, he thought.

“How? Why? … WHY?!” Gritting his teeth, he stomped back to the bath and splashed in, not caring about wasting the water.

“I’m going to be a fucking butcher forever h... ha..... haha.. hahaha…”

As he thought about the new adventurers, a root of jealousy grew in his heart as they were now probably training, learning about the system and their classes.

“Enjoying their fucking powers… while I sit here wasting my money on a warm bath… what’s that word they say? Oh, yeah... status,” He said bitterly. His eyes were half-closed and he wore a defeated smile, knowing he will be a butcher forever.

However, something gleamed into his tired eyes.

“Huh?”

< [Necromancer - Level 1] >

HP: 45/45

MP: 25/25

Strength: 15

Dexterity: 25

Vitality: 15

Energy: 25

<[Skills]>

[Raise Feeble Creature - Level 1]

[Class Utility] (Passive)

“Nec… what…?” with a furrowed brow and half-opened eyes, Jay needed some time to process what he was seeing. Re-reading it again, then a third time, Jay felt his heart jerk him awake before he paused in shock....

“I’m... I’M A NEC-!” He yelled, and then whispered to himself “… a necromancer?”

“A fucking necromancer? Impossible… Status? Status! STATUS!”

He yelled, hoping the words would somehow change, yet the same status floated before his eyes. He didn’t want it, he could hardly believe it, but there it was: A necromancer, level one.

How… It doesn’t make sense. Isn’t this supposed to be a monster class? He thought.

Looking around, he felt a strange mix of embarrassment, confusion, excitement and fear - but most of all, he was thankful no one heard him.

How… Why… I just wanted to be a swordsman, shit, even a pugilist class would’ve been fine... Even a fucking monk class - I would accept that too. But I’ve been using a knife most of my life working in the butchery, aren’t I supposed to get a class that suits me?

Jay thought about why he would get a weird class like this, but something dawned on him.

I spent a lot of time looking at dead corpses, cutting them, hanging them, gutting them, analyzing the meat and learning the bone structure of many forest animals.

A slight feeling of dread came over Jay as he realized.

Fuck… what have I done. I’ve cut up more bodies than a cultist… I guess this makes sense… I guess. Kinda perverted when I think about it like that though.

A necromancer… I’ve only heard rumors of these... Aren’t they powerful undead skeletons? he wondered, looking at his hands.

While he was happy to have a class, he didn’t know what to feel - fear of being hunted? Happiness that he’s not a butcher? Excitement for future adventures? Though the strongest of these emotions was currently fear.

Who can I ask about this? Can I tell someone I got the wrong class? Hmm.. I don’t see any advantage to it, and it’s not like this is something anyone can fix… In the meantime, I’ll have to pretend I’m a support class with only a self-buffing ability, maybe a speed buff or something, since my dexterity and energy are high, he thought as he stroked his chin, sitting quietly in the bath.

Well, at least this means I’m kind of an adventurer now, he smiled unconvincingly, trying to look on the bright side.

I’ll test my abilities today and check out the adventurer guild tomorrow to see current quests or free training. Maybe I can find some low-level monster zones or dungeons, Jay thought.

He didn’t know where dungeons were or what they looked like, so he needed the guild’s knowledge. The association would still be drowning in paperwork and closed for quests because of the rush of new adventurers from today, so he had time to plan for now.

Cleaning the last of the mud off his skin, he got out of the bath, put on a provided gown and went to sleep for a few hours to recover. Tamara knocked on the door, waking him later with his fresh clothes. He thanked her, changed into them and left to his rented room to recover more.

As he lay on the Snakeraven inn bed, he couldn’t fight his heavy eyelids, and ended up sleeping until the next day - training day. He left early in the morning, wanting to test his class.

While walking along the street, he looked over his only usable skill [Raise Feeble creature], and more information appeared before his eyes.

< [Raise Feeble Creature - Level 1] >

• Imbue a skeleton with necrotic energy, raising it to fight for you.

[0/1 Raised]

[Cost 5 mana (+3 mana per level of feeble creature)]

It sounds kind of cool, I guess. I wonder how strong it will be? Jay thought, wandering through the cobblestone streets. It didn’t take long before he found an opportunity for his only skill - a desiccated rat corpse in a quiet alley.

The rats in Losla were large, about the size of a cat. Some called them mother-bane, as the rats were big enough to prey on babies and sometimes even toddlers.

He checked the adjoining streets for prying eyes before casually walking up to the dead rat. Standing over its corpse, he saw parasites crawling through its mangy fur, trying to suck out whatever life was left in it.

Glancing one last time up the alleyway, he raised his hand above it, and he whispered his summoning spell.

“Arise…”

Some green glowing gaseous mana formed around his hand and drifted down over the corpse. The green gas circled around its fur but then seemed to wait a moment.

What is happening? he thought, raising a brow. He felt a little slow as 20% of his mana left his body in one go, making him feel dizzy.

“Hey, are you gonna do anything? Can you hurry...?” He whispered to the rat, thinking the spell was complete. He wanted the rat to at least move before someone entered the alley and saw this dark-looking ritual.

Pffssshew~

The green mana was not finished. Suddenly, it entered the corpse's mouth with a quiet whistling noise, disappearing instantly like it was being inhaled.

So I guess I’ll get an undead rat as a minion? It’ll be fine as long as it doesn’t touch me. Desiccated rat corpse is disgusting... I suppose even a living rat is pretty filthy though, thought Jay, not wanting to even smell a wisp of the rotting corpse.

Suddenly, the rat corpse pulsated as if it had inhaled its final breath. Its chest began rising as its skin roiled and rolled, and boils of fat and pus suddenly appeared on the surface of its skin. Its muscles twitched as its body spasmed.

Jay stared at it with an amazed smile, not daring to look away - and then before his widened eyes, the worst happened.

Poowf!

It suddenly exploded - the boils burst their milky fluids, bits of flesh flicked everywhere -most of it covering Jay, and some landing near his lips.

“MMMMMM! MMMM!!!!!!!” wanting to scream in anger and disgust, he didn’t dare open his mouth in case some rotting flesh entered it; he quickly wiped the pieces of flesh off his face.

Yet he may never feel clean again.

“FUCK, I want to die. Fuck this, I’ll be a butcher for life. I don’t even care anymore. This is the worst day. The worst fucking day… No, the worst two days since being knocked out and freezing, thanks to that smug prick in the carriage.”

After having desiccated rat flesh land on his face, Jay made a mental note to stand back after casting this skill next time, if he would even risk it again at all.

Jay thought his angered yelling may attract someone, so he quickly checked his experiment. Looking at the corpse, he realized that only the flesh, hair, muscles and organs were gone - splattered all over the surrounding alley. All that remained were the bones, floating in a cloud of green mist, swirling around in a puzzle and joining together slowly.

The mist wrapped around the bones, seeping into them as they shifted and morphed. Some of the green mist was solidifying, acting like a jelly at the joints of the bones.

The cartilage cracked and popped as the rat bones re-shaped themselves into a humanoid skeleton creature with a hunchback, complete with two tiny horns on its head.

It silently stood before Jay. The undead creature was about the size of a small child. It had long spiny bone fingers with tiny claws at the end. If Jay were to guess what it was, he would naturally think it was a goblin skeleton.

Two hollow eye sockets with tiny green glowing spheres floated in the middle, both of them looking up at Jay from the rat skull. They were filled with murderous anticipation, as if to say, “I’m ready to kill. What can I kill? Where is my target?” with its creepy spindly claws opened wide, ready to slash. It stepped closer.

Ugh, what the fuck? He backed away.

Freaking out, Jay wanted the creature to get away from him - and as if reading his thoughts, the green jelly on the joints of the creature all turned back into mist, and disappeared while the bones crumbled back onto the ground - some turning to ash and blowing away, while others turned back into what looked like normal rat bones.

“Freaky…” Analyzing the bones, Jay gained some understanding of the process.

“It seems like my power is semi-autonomous. It responds to my thoughts immediately but also can act independently when I don’t focus. Interesting... The creature consisted of bones which clearly didn’t belong to a rat, especially since it increased in size - and some of these ‘bones’ turned into ash after it died. Perhaps that’s part of my magic too, to fill in the gaps where a creature is lacking?” Jay whispered, squinting at the remaining bones. “Or maybe my magic just makes the bones larger, and without my mana to support them, they turn to ash?”

“Maybe that’s why I can only do smaller ‘feeble’ creatures at the moment? Because I would need to fill in more gaps for the larger ones…? I guess I should level up quickly and find out. I would like to test this on a dead bird and other corpses too - to see if I get the same creature or a different one.”

Jay considered combining different creature corpses as he walked to the adventurer association. If a bird corpse made a different creature, then surely combining a few different corpses and adding extra bones would make something stronger.

Of course, he will need to find a few different corpses first. So far, he had only found a desiccated rat.

“I suppose I could use some bones from the butchery… but won’t they be too large?” he thought.

Well, I guess I can kill something small in one of the adventurer’s association’s quests, he thought with a sly smile as he attempted his second trip to the association.