Species of the corpse: Red Stag

Time since death: Forty-five minutes.

Cause of death: Snake venom.

Corpse condition: Adequate enough to become a corporeal undead. The corpse could be purified of the effects of the venom that killed the deer, or it could be left unhealed and any corporeal undead that its body creates would possess a potent and debilitating poisonous bite attack.

Corpse Stats:

Strength: 15

Speed: 25

Special abilities: Gore (Physical ability in which the creature attacks using its horns to impale enemies), Unstoppable charge (Physical ability in which the creature charges at an enemy, either missing completely or attacking with both its hooves and its horns).]

Examining this notification brought a smile to my face. And the corpse wasn"t located far from me either. I began to move towards it, a grin on my face as I considered what I"d do when I eventually found the body.

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A few minutes later I was walking boldly through the forest. I wasn"t particularly paying attention to the forest itself on a physical level, and instead, I was walking guided by my mini-map. My mind was on my magic.

[You have a new spell. Displaying it now.

Create Undead: This spell allows for the creation of undead beings. This is the second least of the spells that allow for the creation of undead creatures, but your undead beings will always be the greatest examples of their kinds. This allows you to create zombies, skeletons, and ghouls.

Note: So long as the corpse hasn"t been dead for longer than a day, you can channel healing energy directly into it to cause the skin and flesh on it to regrow and thus increase its suitability to becoming more fleshy forms of undead.]

My grimoire was repeating what I already knew, aside from the tidbit about causing skin and flesh to regrow. But I didn"t mind it, as it was helpful for me to see the information once more.

I found myself deep in the forest. Trees loomed around me, their leaves and branches obstructing much of the daylight that should have shone on the forest floor and illuminated it. I could smell an unpleasant scent on the breeze and a.s.sumed that it was caused by the body which I was on my way to transform.

I wasn"t far from the corpse. And as I honed in on it, I began to fancifully imagine what it"d be like when it was resurrected. That said, I didn"t intend to grant the thing intelligence. I knew what I wanted to do with it. I mulled over my scheme and my goals with the corpse, while I moved towards the corpse

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In the time it had taken me to dive deep into the forest, a scheme had come together in my mind. At first, it was only fragmented bits and pieces of a greater plot that I had to take time to weave into one subversive scheme. But now, thanks to the pa.s.sage of time and an opportunity to focus my thoughts, it had come together. And quite beautifully at that.

This scheme of mine came in two parts. The first part was the acquisition and unholy animation of three corpses that possessed an adequate amount of flesh and flesh in suitable conditions to be reanimated as zombies. I wanted large creatures, not small ones, to become part of a gift I was envisioning. A rather macabre gift, but one that was also delicious.

The second part of my scheme required that I finish creating the gift I had envisioned. In doing so I would acquire my "Shapeless One" powers in full and be able to create a stunning deception.

I planned to enter the goblin community bearing my gift: the shambling corpses of a trio of large creatures, animated by me. I would enter the place in the form of "Cosecha", my persona, and inform the goblins that I was a spirit who was offering them this gift of meat freely and then move to demonstrate my other powers to the hopefully awed goblins.

There were a few wild cards that were likely to affect how well this scheme of mine may go. Chief among these wild cards would be the corpses I"d find. I hoped to find large corpses, ones with several kilos of flesh to be eaten.

Another wild card would be whether or not the fact that I reanimated the corpses would cause them to be considered something I "created" and thus give me some influence over the goblins who eat their flesh. I hoped it would because the awe-inspiring nature of the scheme I had in mind made it a surefire way to gain significant influence over a considerable number of goblins and even their orc chief at once.

Perhaps the final wild-card in play would be whether or not I had an opportunity to fully use my other powers to their fullest extent. If I had the chance to heal the goblins and then showcase that I could give them the power to heal themselves that might be enough for the little creatures to begin to worship me then and there.

While I was scheming and thinking opportunistically, a small part of me was whispering to the other part of me. Its whispers were sinister and intriguing.

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"I"m focused on acquiring living servants and worshipers, but I quite clearly heard the system say that undead that I create which are greater than zombies worship me." I mused, darkly.

"I should at least be open-minded to the possibility of creating a cult of undead creatures who worship and revere me. The subdomain of necromancy seems like a potent one, and gaining influence over it would no doubt make me a stronger ent.i.ty." I told myself, doing my best to keep my mind open to the possibility and the potent increase to my powers that would come with such an action.

[It"s worth noting that such an action would no doubt serve to open up other domains and subdomains to you as well. If you did create a cult of undead beings you"d begin to slowly gain influence over things like death, souls, and evil.] The system added, chiming in while I was listening to a small voice in my head that was open to any means to gaining power. And it wasn"t done talking either.

[Interestingly enough, if you wish to use Cosecha"s followers to create a cult dedicated to some version of goodness, you could gain influence over the domain of "Good" all while steadily acquiring influence over the domain of "Evil" with an undead cult. If you insist on clinging to this principle of not hurting unwitting living creatures, you could even just scavenge the already dead to transform into the undead needed for such a cult.] My companion admitted, begrudgingly. I chuckled at that.

"Do my worshipers need to be humanoid, or in the case of undead beings come from humanoids to count towards my overall cult-building goal?" I asked the system, referring back to the deal it and I had struck earlier.

[No they don"t. If you want to create undead from animal-corpses or even plantlife such an act is possible though you can"t turn trees and such into undead beings quite yet. In your case, you"ll need to become a necromancer before you can do such a thing. Which you"ll do when you reanimate your first living creature.] The system boldly announced. And then it added something to that announcement.

[The term "Necromancer" is the name of a cla.s.s. When you reanimate your first corpse you"ll gain your first level in that cla.s.s. Cla.s.ses advance when you go activities related to them, so as you reanimate corpses you"ll gain levels in the necromancer cla.s.s. When you tend to nature you"ll gain levels in the druid cla.s.s. And so-on and so-forth.] My companion revealed, causing me to smile.

A small part of me wanted to learn more about tending to nature, so that I could improve my skills as a druid, but I was also deeply excited to gain another cla.s.s. I was excited to expand my skill set and that overwhelmed my curiosity about powers I already possessed.

Knowing that I was close to gaining access to a whole new set of skills made me move faster. It quickened my step and I sped towards the location of the corpse.

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As soon as I was within sight of the corpse I began to study it. The thing was long. It was perhaps two meters long from tail to snout. It possessed lovely auburn colored fur, fur that was matted and dirtied now but I could tell was once clean and well-groomed. It also had long and fierce-looking horns, ones which seemed to absorb what little sunlight made its way through the top layer of the forest.

The smell I had detected earlier was indeed coming from here. It hadn"t attracted predators just yet, but I could definitely smell it from a distance.

It was the nasty smell of pooling blood and excrement mixing together. A nauseating looking ma.s.s of bile and partially digested food was situated not far from the deer, hinting that the thing had begun to move before collapsing and expiring where I found it. Blood was visibly pouring out of two thin bite-wounds barely visible on the thing"s neck.

I kept approaching the creature, both cautious and excited as I inched closer and closer to it. It was dead, no doubt about it, but I still kept my approach slow and calm, or at least as calm as I could.

When I was a few meters away from it, I stretched out my hand in its direction. I took a deep breath, and then I cast my "Create Undead" spell, focused on and aimed at the deer. A visible line of darkness shot out of my hand and flew until it collided with and then sunk into the corpse of the deer. When it did, I received a notification that was politely asking me a question.

[Alert: You have successfully cast the "Create Undead" spell on an applicable target for the first time. You may reanimate the targeted corpse as a skeleton, a ghoul, or a zombie. Which would you like to resurrect it as?]

I thought for a second as to which would be the best choice here. I genuinely considered how to approach this particular situation. But the choice was simple. I didn"t want to create something intelligent. Not just yet anyway. And I needed its flesh anyway. I informed the system that I was going to transform the corpse into a zombie.

As soon as I did the deer"s body began to convulse. I watched as the thing began to stagger to unlife, but the first part of that was watching on in uncomfortable silence as the deer appeared to undergo a violent seizure.

As it began to shake off the violent throes of the seizure it was in, I received a new notification. One that brought a delighted smile to my face.

[Multipart alert: You have successfully reanimated one out of the three corpses needed for you to have upheld your end of the bargain with the system. You have also gained the interest of the subdomain of necromancy.

To that end, the subdomain is offering you the quest it wishes for you to complete to prove you are deserving of being granted the lowest tier of influence over it. The quest"s objectives are simple: reanimate ten different kinds of creatures. Upon doing so, you will gain the first tier of influence over the subdomain of necromancy.

A special note about the quests to gain the first tiers of influence over domains and subdomains before we continue: These quests are meant to be simple. Domains and subdomains want you to become an all-powerful being who has mastered all of your powers. These quests exist to teach you about your powers, not to stand in the way of your progress. That said, quests beyond the first tier of influence over a domain or subdomain are not so basic. Keep that in mind moving forward.

You are now a level 1 necromancer. As a level 1 necromancer, you can reanimate more sorts of dead things, in your case, you can now reanimate plants that have died. This expands the sorts of undead beings you can create, as plantlife doesn"t reanimate into zombies, skeletons, or ghouls.

As a level 1 necromancer, you can also directly channel the sinister energy that reanimates corpses. Such energy is toxic to living creatures and if they are hit by it they suffer for it. You can also absorb the lifeforce of others, weakening them and sapping their strength. More details about this cla.s.s will be revealed to you when you next open up your grimoire.]

The notification vanished when I finished reading it. As I finished reading it I felt a strange and sudden surge of power flow into me. I knew via context that this was most likely my body immediately acquiring the power I was informed I was just given. It was an exciting sensation and caused me to close my eyes and sigh with a smile on my face.

When I opened my eyes I laid them on my reanimated deer companion. While I was reading the lengthy notification the thing had the time to fully complete its reanimation and it now stood, both awe-inspiringly and terrifyingly in front of me.

I studied it with an admiring gaze, examining the thing now that it stood before me.