BXBX NOVEL Chapter 304 Platoon
Some blood seeped from Asra\'s leg.
"What the?"
Glancing down, a small goblin-like skeleton had scraped its claws across her leg.
Yet there was only the one attack with no follow-up. Blue had glared at it, and it stopped before it could do another.
"Stupid skeletons." Asra muttered, watching her leg heal up.
"You should have given it orders not to attack me before, you silly thing." She said to Blue.
Blue tilted its head to the side, staring at her, and Asra couldn\'t tell if it understood her or not, as it then went back to ignoring her; Blue crouched down and gathered more bones, crafting a dagger, which it gifted to the smaller skeleton.
Lamp brought back another corpse, and Red butchered it, yet strangely, it took the skull for itself. After cleaning the meat from the bones, it also summoned a smaller goblin-like skeleton, just like the one Blue controlled.
It intrigued Asra. While she could summon zombies from corpses and flesh, she never imagined her undead could summon others. In fact, they definitely could not; they could barely carry their own weight.
Blue cooked more meat, which Asra stored while she watched the new smaller skeletons patrol around the near Jay and the campfire.
"I guess they need more skulls to summon more of themselves." Asra thought.
The platform Jay had constructed contained mostly long femur bones, which made the platform flat, but lacked all the bones for summoning.
Asra tucked herself into the noon-leather blanket, as the morning was coming soon. By the time morning came and she tucked her head into hiding, Blue had summoned another skeleton.
Two had sloth skulls, making them look more like undead goblins, while another had a deer skull. The deer-skull skeleton had fallen over a few times and seemed to wobble as it walked, so they hacked its antlers off. They were too heavy for its head and slowed it down too much.
Hours passed, and Jay continued to sleep, catching up on a lot that he had missed. Yet his stomach grumbled, and finally, he woke up.
"I hope Lamp caught something." He said with a yawn.
He heard a crackling fire and some sweet smells of meat. He couldn\'t help but smile as he slowly opened his eyes.
"Mmm, nice work Blue…" he nodded as the skeleton brought him a freshly cooked piece. But before Jay could inspect the meet, the new skeletons around the fire had startled him.
"Wait, who the hell is that?!" Jay pointed at the small skeleton near the campfire.
It didn\'t move until Blue glanced at it, and it ran to Blue\'s side, along with a second smaller one.
"Two.. Three new skeletons?" Jay saw another with Red.
He was planning to praise his skeletons for crafting a campfire, butchering and cooking him some meat, as they took some initiative, but this was far out of Jay\'s expectations.
Immediately, he analyzed one of them.
< [Feeble Creature - Level 1] >
(Sub-construct of Blue)
[Type - Undead]
HP - 10/10
<[Skills]>
[Undeath] (Passive)
[Shade Vision] (Passive)
<[Description]>
[An abomination, its existence spits in the face of life and death. Execute with extreme prejudice.]
Jay could sense it, as if it were one of his own undead, but he didn\'t feel a connection to it like his other skeletons.
"It\'s the same as my skeletons when they were level one… except I can\'t control them?" Jay thought. He had already tried to make it come to him, but it didn\'t respond at all.
As it stood next to Blue, Jay finally noticed that Blue had become bigger, too.
Jay glanced at Blue slyly. "So, you leveled up and now you can summon, too. Don\'t let it go to your head," he winked.
Blue stood there, staring. It had new segmented plate-like bones around parts of its rib cage and shoulders, and somehow, its level up had morphed its helmet into having two upwards-pointing plates on the sides of the helmet, near the ears.
Jay checked its stats.
< [Skeleton Sergeant - Level 5] > (Blue)
[Type - Undead]
[Role - Commander]
HP - 108/108 (+20, equipment)
MP - 7/14
<[Skills]>
[Sergeant] (2/5)
[Bone Eater]
[Scrimshaw Level 1] (Passive)
[Undeath] (Passive)
[Fear] (Weak) (Passive)
[Shade Vision] (Passive)
<[Description]>
[An abomination, its existence spits in the face of life and death - and they spit back. Stop it before it\'s too late. Execute with extreme prejudice. Burn the bones.]
"Awesome, a sergeant. The first step to becoming my general." Jay nodded.
He checked the other skeletons, and only Red was taller.
"So, how come only Red and Blue leveled up? The only time us three were together… oh, when the giant died." Jay nodded, realizing they had gained all the undead exp from its death, while the others skeletons weren\'t present at the time.
"So, you\'re a sergeant, good… I suppose it sucks I can\'t command your skeletons directly, but it will take a lot of strain off my mind. Yes, it will be better this way. I don\'t want to repeat orders and micro-manage all the time, and with a mind, Blue won\'t make them run mindlessly toward their deaths."
Jay checked Red\'s stats next.
< [Skeleton Guardian - Level 5] > (Red)
[Type - Undead]
[Role - Guard]
HP - 116/116 (+20, equipment)
MP - 6/11
<[Skills]>
[Guardian Master] (1/2)
[Guard (1)] (Passive)
[Bone Eater]
[Scrimshaw Level 1] (Passive)
[Undeath] (Passive)
[Fear] (Weak) (Passive)
[Shade Vision] (Passive)
<[Description]>
[An abomination, its existence spits in the face of life and death - and they spit back. Stop it before it\'s too late. Execute with extreme prejudice. Burn the bones.]
"Interesting… it has more health, and by the looks of it, it can only summon two… but is that the only difference?" he wondered, checking its new skills.
< [Guardian Master] >
[Can summon two junior guardian skeletons.]
[Junior guardian skeletons level up to reach 80% of summoners\' level.] (Current max level of 4)
[Telepathic communication - Can share vision with sub-constructs, sense each other, and co-ordinate as if they were one.]
< [Guard - level 1] > (Passive)
[Threat sense (1)]
[A general increase in vigilance.]
"Hmm, but how is this different to Blue\'s?" Jay wondered.
< [Sergeant] >
[Can summon five sub-skeletons.] (5)
[Sub-skeletons can level up to reach 50% of summoners\' level.] (Current max level of 2)
[Can summon an additional skeleton on every level up.]
"Huh, so Blue gets more skeletons as it\'s a commander, and Red gets fewer skeletons, but they are also stronger guardian types, and can level up to four instead of two..." Jay thought, scratching his chin as his lips began to curl...
"Well… that\'s just fucking awesome!" He grinned.
"I have seven skeletons, all of which can reach level five, and once they do, can raise lesser skeletons. Assuming they can all raise about three skeletons on average, I will have twenty-eight damn skeletons? Fuck yes. I\'ve been wanting more skeletons, too. The only downside is that the lesser ones can\'t level up all the way to five, but that\'s no downside at all, especially when there will be so many of them." Jay thought.
"I wonder if I can give them minds, too. Or summon them on the skeleton\'s behalf?"
Glancing around, he wondered why Blue and Red hadn\'t summoned all the ones they could. But he noticed the smaller skeleton each had skulls he didn\'t recognize - the river sloth skulls.
"Ah, bones. Of course." He thought, and released enough complete skeletons for all of them.
Red and Blue each summoned another, but Blue had to stop as it ran out of mana. Jay found he couldn\'t summon them for Blue either.
"Now… I have two ability points to spend, too… but first, I should pack up camp and get moving. I\'m still being hunted, and I overslept for far too long."