Chapter 31

Chapter 31

"Who the fuck put you in charge?" One of the little shits yelled.

"I did. This is my property." Drew responded.

"You knew about this shit for a week and you didn't tell nobody! Plus, this place doesn't even look safe, what the fuck is chain-link fences going to protect against, I could climb those in my sleep!"

"Uh-huh. Well, I'm glad you pointed out how unsafe this place looks, because you, and your two buddies next to you are not welcome here. That offer extends to anyone else here, if you don't like how things are run, you're welcome to leave and fuck off to do your own thing."

That made the smartass pause for a second.

"You can't kick us out! There are monsters 'n shit out there! We aren't leaving!" His friends nodded along with the bigmouth.

"Yeah, you don't seem to understand how this works kid. You're going to leave. You don't get a choice in the matter, as you're not welcome here. So, leave, now."

"Fuck you! You can't make us leave!" He yelled as he pulled his gun off his shoulder and began to take aim.

"Stephen, don't do this man." One of his friends whispered.

"They can't do shit to stop us, we're the ones with guns! A couple of skeletons with bows aren't going to scare us!"

"If you aim that gun at anyone here, your life, and those of your friends with be forfeit. Better think hard before you do something you'll regret." Drew said firmly, his lips in a thin line.

*CLICK!*

Dickbag tried firing his gun. Failure.

"What? Why the fuck didn't it fire? Kill that old fuck, Tyler!" The kid yelled.

*CLICK*

Dickbag's friend tried his gun that time.

Drew cast corruption on two of the young men. He left the naysayer alone to chat with later. These people had threatened the lives of everyone here, and had tried to kill Drew himself. Threats were to be ended, permanently. He wasn't about to let a threat continue to walk around and come back later to haunt him. These kids had tried to shoot and kill him. The most moronic thing Drew could have possibly done was to let them off with a slap on the wrist. If they managed to survive out there, they'd come back to harm people when they had the power to do so. Threats to their lives would always be destroyed. He had no mercy in that regard.

Everyone else nearby had vacated the area around the kids once the guns had come out, many of them were still running away, only to turn their heads back in curiosity when they didn't hear a gunshot.

"What the fuck?! Why aren't they working?"

"I don't know! It's not jammed!"

The kids were struggling with their rifles, trying to get them to function desperately. Drew sent the command to Scolder and his packmates. Hold them down by the ankles, don't let them run. People needed to see how he would handle threats. Both to prevent future issues like this from happening, and to reassure people of the safety of the community and the power of himself and his allies. He would not allow them to be fucked with. Just as he had that thought, the coyotes latched on and the screaming started.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHAAHHHHHH WHAT THE FUCK!?!"

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Everyone had turned around when the screams began, and the kid that had been against harming him was backed up against a tree, wide-eyed, and trembling as he watched the undead coyotes rip into his friends' ankles. Then the corruption hit. The black pus-filled sacs grew from nothing, into grapefruit, then orange, and finally football sized pustules. The gooey black slime was rotting through the twenty-something year old bodies they had. The screaming then rose from fear and surprise to pure panic. Drew had a choice now, he could end their suffering by ordering his coyotes to rip out their throats, or he could leave the rot to take its course while they were still alive.

He had ended the threat, and they were going to die anyways, but did he stand to gain anything by letting them suffer more? No, most likely not. He was pretty sure his point would come across clear enough to everyone nearby. There was no point in them suffering just for the sake of suffering. The spell itself caused them to suffer enough. He sent the orders to Scolder and his pack. End them. The coyotes tore out the young men's throats as they continued to thrash around wildly on the ground, until suddenly, everything stilled.

His notification icon was blinking, and to distract himself from the horror of seeing his spell's effects on a human body, he pulled up the messages.

*DING!*

You have slain [Human (Grade - F) - lvl 0] x2
No experience earned due to level disparity

Title Earned [Cold Blooded]

[Cold Blooded]
Kill a weaker sapient being to prevent a future threat from occurring. Grants +1 to all stats.

Maybe it was a bit cold blooded? He didn't care, it needed to be done. Those two kids would have come back and killed people for petty revenge. It was likely that they would have eventually found firearms that would still work, or picked up ranged classes and snipped off innocent people on his property. No, fuck that. He looked up from his menu and his thoughts, to find the skeletons of the two young men. Well, might as well not let the bones go to waste, he needed more archers anyways.

He walked up to the calcium of the main dickbag and began his ritual. But this time, he activated his mana sense to try and understand how the skill worked. Yeah, nope, way too fucking complicated. Threads of mana were all around the body, folding in on themselves, running through the runic symbols, it was too much for him to understand or process right now... wait...what was that? A strange blob of floating mana was raising in the air and moving away from the body. It wasn't like his core; it was more like a blue-white glowing inkblot.

Screw that! He wasn't going to let his mana siphon away from the body, raising these bones was expensive enough. He wasn't going to waste mana by letting the shit fly off into the sky. He used his newfound strength and ability in mana manipulation to create several threads of mana from the chest cavity of the skeleton. Once the threads were strong enough, he forced them up to grip and catch the quickly escaping blob of mana. It was a squirrelly little fuck, as it kept trying to wiggle its way out of the grip of his mana. Noppppeeee, none of that please. Drew wrenched down using his willpower and snagged the little shit, pulling it straight down into the body. No mana would be wasted inefficiently on his watch!

Like a fish pulled from the water by a strong fishing pole, the blob was forced from it's escape and settled into the chest cavity of the bones, where it condensed into... a core of mana? Sweet! Maybe this one could use spells down the road or something. Once the mana core solidified, the blue glow pushed out from the core itself to envelop all the bones in a firm but translucent sheen of magic film. Immediately, the eye sockets of the skull blazed to life as blue flames erupted from them, followed by a piercing wail of sound.

"SHREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE"

Well, that... wasn't normal. The ritual ended with the translucent purple light of the ritual being shot into the sky, and the skeleton stood up...without his command? Interesting. Maybe it was more intelligent because it had a mana core or something. His notification icon was flashing again, maybe he'd gotten a sweet title for raising a skeleton mage? That would be sick. He brought the messages up.

Class skill: Raise Dead (Grade - Inferior) -> Raise Dead (Grade - Uncommon)

Raise Dead (Grade - Uncommon)
A staple spell for the magic school of necromancery, with great affinity for the elements of shadow, undead, and life. Raise Dead allows the caster to utilize any corpse to create a servant. Grade Uncommon allows for the choice to create a Soulbind and thus create Soulflame minions. Risen dead can be telepathically or verbally commanded by their caster, additionally the caster may share all senses. Risen dead at this Grade can perform any task their master wishes, so long as they have the capability to do so. All servants are loyal to their master. Additional mana may be spent to increase any of the servant's starting stats, and all minions now have passable sapient intelligence, whether Soulflame, or Constructed.

Title Earned [Auspicious Necrolyte]

[Auspicious Necrolyte]
Perform a successful Soulbind to create a Soulflame minion within 24 hours of System Integration, before evolving your class, race, and profession, and without instruction. Such a deed will surely impact the Records of the individual and open more paths in the future. Grants the following advantages: All necromatic actions, spells or rituals are 25% more effective, for 10% less material and mana cost. Risen minions will be moderately more intelligent, tough, and strong. Soulflame minions will gain access to special classes. Additionally, you will be granted two free Class abilities.

Soulbind? Soulflame? The hell did it mean? Was that the proper name for skeleton mages? What a strange name, why would The System name them with the word soul in...

"WHAT THE FUCK!?"

Drew's head shot up like a rocket as the voice broke his concentration. His new minion was standing, with its head down closely examining its hands, then its legs, and finally its arms and chest. Its head tilted up towards Drew and its bottom jaw dropped as if it was surprised.

"YOU! YOU OLD FUCK!" It yelled as it pointed its finger in his direction

"Oh, fuck me." Drew whispered.

Nowwwwwww he knew why it mentioned a soulbind and something about a soulflame. He hadn't captured fleeing mana; he had clamped down and captured the Dickbag's soul. Fuckkkkkk. He thought he had just gotten rid of this guy. Dickbag reared his boney fist back as he attempted to punch Drew, only to find that he couldn't move forward. Not that it would have hurt him, Dickbag was still level 0, even as a skeleton. Oh right, that part of the skill description that said they were all loyal... he couldn't harm him. Well, in that case...

"I command you to do the 'I'm a little teapot dance' while singing it's song!" Drew ordered.

The skeleton snapped to attention, and begin the song and dance. He had to admit, watching a magically animated skeleton perform the teapot rhyme was hilarious, especially considering that somewhere in that pile of bones was Dickbag, and Drew knew that Dickbag would hate this.

"Tip me over and pour me out! ...wait...the fuck...why did I do that?"

"You're my minion now, you're forced to be one hundred percent loyal, and can't go against my commands. I hereby order you to never harm, or knowingly allow to come to harm, myself, or any other resident or animal of this community."

"ARE YOU FU..."

"Oh, and never yell again, or curse. In fact, stay completely silent unless I give you permission to speak, or I ask you a question."

His jaw snapped shut from where it had been open. Drew could tell Dickbag wanted to open his fucking mouth again, but Drew never wanted to deal with that shit again. He was annoying, obnoxious, and... well he was a dick. The skeleton then flipped him off.

"No rude gestures either. Oh, and your new name is Dickbag, you will answer to, and obey all orders related to your new name."

Haha! That would teach him! Oh, how it felt so, so good to take his frustrations out on his new minion. The orders of course, were perfectly reasonable, especially the new name. He could tell from the mental connection that his new minion was fuming in absolute anger towards him right now, and yet he couldn't do anything at all about it. Served him right for trying to kill Drew, and harm other people. Hell, it served him right that now he was stuck in bones as a body and couldn't do fuck all about it. Maybe karma really did exist? Drew turned his head to see many of the people wide-eyed, pale, and trembling with fear. Oh yeah! He had other people here besides his new minion. Oops!

"Right then, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, anyone who doesn't want to work or contribute, or feels the impulsive urge to bitch and complain all the time is free to leave, and preferably sooner rather than later. Everyone else is welcome to join the community, and I promise to do my best to provide a safe and secure sanctuary for ya'll. That said, as everyone can see, I handle threats with extreme prejudice. So please, for everyone's sake, don't threaten or harm other people or animals here."

Everyone remained still, well everyone except Amber and her group, they turned to head to the housing area. He guessed they could tell that everything was pretty much wrapped up, and he'd be able to handle the rest from here. Besides, they'd been out since the goblin horde attack, and were likely extremely exhausted, both mentally, and physically. One small group of people slowly backed away and went back out through the gate, looking back over their shoulders to make sure nothing bad was going to happen by leaving.

"Ya'll stay safe out there! Thanks for being honest!" Drew yelled and waved towards the departing group. Several of the people flinched after hearing his voice.

"So, anyone else? Last chance for today, and then I'm shutting the gates." Drew said to the remaining fifty or so people.

Most folks shook their heads in a negative fashion. Well alright then, guess the rest were staying. Fine by him.

"Dickbag, go close, lock, and secure the gate, then follow me. Hey folks, whenever ya have a chance, find Spock and Robert, they'll get you settled in. I'm heading to Spock now if you want to follow."

Drew made his way towards Spock, and sent the archers back to practicing with their bows and arrows after he collected the bones from the other asshole. He was going to turn them into another minion at some point. He'd need to check on them sometime soon to see if they picked up the Archery skill. But right now, he needed to find out about stuff from the tutorial guide. He closed in on the front lawn and found the two guys plopped down on the ground, breathing heavily and covered in sweat. It looked like they were taking a break. Robert's endurance must have been insanely high for him to keep up this much exercise in one day at level zero, while wearing plate armor.

"Hey guys, the newcomers are here. They should be following behind me a bit, so help them out. Spock, I have some pressing questions that I want answers for."

"Indeed? What questions do you have, Drew Wright?"

"Yeahhhhh... So, I accidently performed a Soulbind while doing my ritual, and now I have something called a Soulflame minion. I got a big fancy title from it, but can I continue to make regular minions?"

"You successfully completed a Soulbind? That's truly impressive, especially given your level and lack of evolutions. Yes, you can continue to make normal minions, if you wish to create more Soulflames, you just need to focus on your intent."

"Cool, I think I'll stick to the regular minions though, unless it's a special circumstance. It doesn't feel right, capturing someone's soul and preventing them from moving on. I mean, if one of ya'll died, that's a different story, and I'd happily do it to any monsters if it makes them stronger. But people? Nah. Not that I'm sending my new minion to the afterlife anytime soon, he was a huge dick and tried to kill me, plus we're super low on minions right now."

*DING!*

You have received an invitation to meet with Raynalyr, The Baleful Lady, in her Realm, The Halls of Reflection.
Accept invitation?
Yes/No