CHAPTER 414: Undead Shamans

The next week some of my undead went on patrol through the sewers, while I worked on the corpses of the shamans. I had made a deal with the headmaster so I could store my small horde without having to pay rent, for now. The deal included helping the army if needed and potentially providing some tier twos for training. It also came with the offer of potential corpses, so it was really nice.

I was in the lab with Rose, Kyan, Nyx and Gronir where we had soaked the corpses in some alchemical mixture from Cassie.

"I think the design we have should give us the best possible chance for magically strong tier twos." Gronir said. "Having them all linked will be the real challenge."

"Maybe Nyx can do something, she seems to improve all of my links and she did upgrade the other cats." I suggested, looking at the napping feline. Nyx opened one eye and looked at me, then closed it again.

"I am not sure how much Nyx knows and how much she acts on instinct. I think she doesn't know that much about the guardian bond either." Rose said.

"I think most of her instincts just tell her to devour everything." I said.

"Meow." Nyx said, without opening an eye. It sounded suspiciously like an agreement.

"Hm. You know, vampires are generally linked to their masters." Gronir said. "What if we try to have all the shamans linked by using a vampire bite?"

"But they won't be tier threes." Rose pointed out. "Isn't a tier two from a vampire the same as normal tier two? Are the links different? It didn't feel so to me, when I accidently turned someone with a bite."

"You are correct that the sire and subject bond from vampires applies to full vampires, however that doesn't mean we can't use your poison as a connection. We need something that the corpses share." Gronir stated.

I was hoping my circulation could help as well and was wondering if I could circulate one bid amount of water, or blood, through all of them? I would have to be careful because the technique was still a secret. Further, I didn't want to create one undead with five bodies, I wanted five… Or did I?

"Could we create one undead with five bodies?" I wondered.

Gronir pondered that. "An interesting idea and I think it would require an incorporeal undead possessing them. It would definitely require a tier three and even then, the bodies wouldn't be able to wander far from each other. Mind you, I am not aware of such a creature but it would be possible, in theory."

"Oh, are we…" Rose started before Gronir interrupted her: "Erik was quite clear, no tier threes, for now."

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"Maybe we stick to the bite idea then." I suggested. "Should we have asked Cassie to include some of your poison then? Would you be okay with biting the corpses?" I asked Rose.

"You would have Rose do it and not Hatsumi?" Gronir asked.

"Rose is more interested in necromancy, Hatsumi is more into fighting herself and using her spellblade runes and blood powers." I replied. "Of course, it's up to you Rose."

"Oh, I don't mind helping with the undead, this is quite exciting! But we have to, I don't know, have some blood in them probably. Are you going for vampiric shamans?" Rose asked.

"I hadn't planned on it but if that's what makes the link possible I am fine with it." I replied. "We can just mix some pig's blood with Cassie's potion… Oh, is that safe for you to, uh, bite into? The corpses are quite soaked."

"It should be fine." Rose replied.

"I do have to point out that Hatsumi, being the stronger vampire, has a more potent bite, especially since she had been augmented with the spellblade runes." Gronir said.

What he said was true, however I knew that Rose spent quite a bit of time with Thorn. She really loved her horse and she had been sad when she had lost her accidental undead because of the poison. I felt that Rose would be the better choice here.

"Rose will do just fine." I said and her smile was proof enough for me that I made the right call.

With the decision made we had to actually get blood, which took another day. By now we had used blood often enough that we had a deal with a butcher, a deal Skadi had negotiated.

When we met again to finally raise the undead Cassie, Skadi and Ivy were there as well.

"What are you doing here?" I asked my friends.

"I just carry your blood, Cassie has mixed something in it to help." Skadi replied.

"Don't worry, I know that you have them soaked in my previous mixture, it will help with that! Also, it should taste a bit better now." Cassie said, while giving thumbs up to Rose. Then she stepped a bit closer to me and whispered: "Since Hatsumi is busy we thought you could use more blood mages."

"Oh, thanks." I said. I had expected Rose to do all the circling, while biting the goblins, but it was nice if Skadi and Ivy wanted to help.

"Meow." Ivy said.

We had all five shaman corpses in an improvised tub on the floor, right next to each other. Ivy jumped on top of the center corpse and started kneading his head, while purring. Nyx slept on a table nearby and ignored our work.

"I am not sure if her claws are helpful." Gronir stated, while watching Ivy.

I shrugged. "She's a cat."

Gronir chuckled. "That she is."

Skadi carried the barrel of blood towards the corpses and used her magic, together with Ivy, to put some into the corpses. Then Rose gave each a bite and infused it with her poison. To raise them I was trying something a little new, I created five undead simultaneously. While I had done that with normal zombies during a battle I had never tried it with five augmented ones in a lab. It was somewhat exciting.

As I readied myself to begin, Nyx stood up, stretched, and jumped on my head.

"Nyx?" I asked.

"Meow." She responded.

"Ssssshe is offering to help with the mana, in a joint casting." Kyan said, from within my sleeve. "I ssshall do so as well."

"Oh, thanks." I replied, only for Nyx to start kneading my hair, with her claws gently 'massaging' my skull.

Gronir chuckled while watching us. "I have to say, your necromancy is certainly unconventional but I am looking forward to your potentially linked undead. If we can use vampires in such a way it will make them even more desirable for necromancers."

With everything finally ready I began my spell. I stood next to Rose, just in front of the goblins, and formed the runes for my enhanced vampiric shamans. Rose joined my spell to provide the blood affinity while Ivy somehow joined as well, even though she was just focusing on keeping the circulation going. Kyan and Nyx provided some more mana and everything went smoothly, for a change. I fed the mana into the runes and they activated, creating new undead.

The shamans' skins turned a dark grey as the magic transformed them, then they simultaneously sat up and opened blood red eyes.

"Meow." They said, in sync.