I returned home and knew I wasn’t going to be sleeping. I was far too angry for that, and the only way to relax my mind was to get to work. I had a few tasks I wanted to do, and quite a bit of that would require morning.

  I couldn’t wait that long. My body wouldn’t let me.

  I turned to Ophelia. “I need you to acquire Glass for me. And before you do that, if you get the time, can you make another chamber from the Crypt for a body processing room? I’m going to make you a vampire servant. I’ll need the room to be 10 tiles by 10 tiles as well. Any preference on breed?”

  Ophelia nodded. “Finally, real tasks. If you are able, I would enjoy the company of a Drakhuul. They are frontline fighters, and I could use a meatshield.”

  I don’t have the heart to tell her that the glass was for a greenhouse. But to me, getting the glass was the only real task.

  “Oh! Flowers-By-The-River. Find me some Balinka leaves, please.” Ophelia again nodded, before we separated.

  I entered my hovel and cleared up some space on my singular workshop/study/book stand.

  I was already a [Chirurgeon], so I took a seat and began to work. I could feel the anger dissipate as the thoughts of looking old faded into the familiar confines of work.

  Elvish Longhair was a parasite that fed on the host. So no matter what I did, it was going to hurt the patient as well. It needed plenty of preparation, and the Balinka leaf was the exterior shell that was used as a way to not kill the host immediately.

  I took the bone fragments on my desk to make specialized tools: A mortar and pestle, a sharp knife, and a scale. I then created several cups of the same size.

  I slid my knife against my hands. I was guessing at best here, but at least it was mathematical. I couldn’t afford a properly weighed scale, or blocks of iron guaranteed to be a certain amount of grams.

  But I knew math.

  The volume of a cylindrical cup was π times the radius squared times the height. I took a ruler to confirm. Since I knew I wanted each of these to be 500 mL, I made each of my cups 5.42 cm by 5.42 cm.

  I took more bones to increase mass. I needed 1 gram, 5 grams, 10 grams, 50 grams, and 100 grams. However, there was next to no chance that all of these cups were the same weight, since I magically carved it.

  I would have to zero it first.

  I took two cups and placed them on the scale. As long as I didn’t change the radius of the interior or the height, I could chip away at the mass. I was right handed, so I made the left-scale my control, and corrected all the cups to that measurement.

  Now, the cups weighed the same. I however needed distilled water, or the weight of water would be off because of whatever was in the well too. I created a simple system from one alembic flask with a tube system to the second. I boiled the well water and let the steam condense back into clean water.

  I then poured the distilled water to the top of my control cup. This was 500 mL theoretically, so that’d be very close to 500 grams. I then placed an empty cup on the other side to zero the scale, and started pouring bone chips till my scale said they were equal. With that, I had a 500 gram bone cube.

  I replaced the cup of water with the 500 gram bone cube. I then poured bone chips again till the scale balanced. I split this pile into two to make two 250 gram bone cubes. I then made five 50’s, five 100’s, five 10’s, and ten 1’s. I even made a 1 kilogram cube to finish my set.

  I then used these measurements to mark the volume points on the cup - using 100 grams to find the point on my cups when the scale equaled.

  A part of me worried that I was off - I didn’t have any weight to actually confirm if I had 1 gram right, since I couldn’t really ‘pour 1 mL of water’ without a pipette. But it was a uniform error… but that imprecision was going to bother me. But I was using distilled water! And everything else was done mathematically right, or as close as I could get.

  I got new water for the 100 mL base. I ground the nightshade, acquiring 5 grams of the wet mixture. 10 grams of thyme, and 1 gram of hemlock seeds. I scraped this mixture into my 100 mL of water, and then let it infuse over a low flame.

  If Ophelia came back by morning, I could wrap it up in the Balinka leaf and give Aywin his medicine. I’d have to create more, at least a week’s worth in fact. I began to work on it, and the entire process took about an hour. That wasn’t including the other hour I needed to get all the tools I needed as well, but now at least I had equipment I could trust.

  I left the alembics to boil - in my hearth so it didn’t start a fire - and walked out.

  Ophelia had done what I asked, and within the crypt, beside the soul storage room, a new cavernous opening awaited me. The gloom radiated out, and I instinctively shivered. I peered into the blackness, but saw nothing waiting for me.

  I took out the holy chalice then, and the poisonous herbs and mushrooms. I offered them into the darkness, and the room began to create itself.

  Tiles. That was the first thing I saw. Small, white tiles covering the floor. Each a few centimeters long with white grout that connected them. The walls were smooth and rather plain, and the ceiling held a singular source of light that bathed this room in a pale light.

  And in the center was a slab of metal, cold and smooth. It was elevated, and had grates on the floor surrounding it. There was metal drawers and glass cupboards nearby.

  The area smelled exceptionally clean, like if hard lye was scrubbed all around. It was strange compared to the crypt it was attached to, but the crypt did have the special property of storing bodies and preventing it from rotting over.

  I switched my role to [Thanatologist], and immediately, a system quest came.

  Again, I was going to do that anyway, since I wanted to record the data. I dragged Cadence’s corpse onto the center of the metal table. I then placed his decapitated head atop of his chest

  This body was rank. It had far too many wounds all over the place, and the quality of the flesh was weak.

  [Mortis Visio]

  Those were things I could fix.

  The first thing was reattaching the head. I took Cadence’s head off his chest and moved it towards the stump. The spinal cord flopped around, and I placed it approximately where it should have been.

  My hand opened up

  The cracking of bone came about as I willed the Symphony to obey. I felt the chill of death, but as a [Thanatologist], the background harmony was the structured order of the great libraries. I could smell books and ink in the air, alongside the warmth of my breath escaping into the chill air.

  The bones connected, but that left the floppy point of flesh and muscle. I was hoping the skin would reconnect too, but no such luck. I found a drawer nearby, though it was empty.

  I sighed, going back upstairs to take the tools I needed, and then my calibrated cups, bone cubes, and the home-made alchemy kit. That area was suspiciously clean, and felt sterile. If it wasn’t for my alembic flasks already bubbling away, I’d have moved it into that room as well.

  Next time.

  I’d probably need to set up an entire room for my [Alchemy] - though, Levan called this [Chemistry]. Since I was his pupil, I’d name it [Chemistry] too.

  I took a needle and thread and began to stitch. The cold pallor of the decaying skin didn’t bother me as much as I thought. In fact, as my fingers began to move, I started humming.

  Maybe if I ever had an excess of skeletons, I could raise a few to play music for me? It was so quiet down here.

  My fingers guided the thread over Cadence’s decapitated neck and head, stitching them together in black thread. It was a temporary fix, and an obvious weakness.

  I needed an epoxy, one that would work on cadavers.

  I leaned onto the wall to think. There was a solution, but it was kind of macabre.

  See, Pa used to use a mixture called whitewash on the fences. It would bind against the wood, connecting the breaking points. It would harden against it… and fix the gaps.

  But Whitewash wasn’t an epoxy. However, the principle behind it was milk, and a specific part of it that came from letting it settle. That same ‘part’ was in blood.

  I groaned at my realization, and pulled out a vial. I cut my hand, and let my darkening red blood spill – so thick and heavy that it looked black, or the deepest shade of red.

  Now, I could have done this two ways. I could wait 24 hours for it to separate naturally, or, since everything I used was made of bone, I could use [Skeletal Grasp] and spin it rapidly to force the process.

  I was already waiting on a lot, and waiting more was going to irritate me. I pushed it into the air, and let it rotate rapidly as I worked on the remainder of this plan.

  I went outside to my clayfields, and began looking for Limestone. These heavy chunks were everywhere, and within 3 minutes I found more than enough. I then went back inside and moved the alembics away from the Hearth to access it. I closed the iron door to prevent backlash, and put the limestone right against the coals.

  And then I heated it up. I was glad I was on my blight for this process, since the amount of flame I would need was intense. It also meant I did have to use coal and not wood. This was the few times Pa would permit it - wood didn’t burn hot enough.

  I focused, and ignited the coals, and could feel the intense heat, even with the iron gate protecting the backlash.

  I then equipped the Crow Suit. This was an incredibly dangerous process, and Ma and I used to go to town when Pa was making Whitewash.

  I waited for it to heat properly, and then let the flames die down. Inside were the glowing white Quicklime.

  I used [Skeletal Grasp] to move bone tongs to pick up the pieces of rock and put them into a similarly made basket. The bone hissed at the difference between room temperature and nearly coal-fire and became orange, but did not melt! That was a massive relief!

  I then took the Quicklime to the basement, glad I was just smelling herbs. Maybe I should ask Ophelia to make this in the real basemen– and let the fumes catch downstairs with nowhere to vent?

  You will do this outside, Ashley.

  Sometimes I would overconsider myself to death. Nonetheless, I brought the Quicklime down and the Blood Serum was done spinning in its alembic. The yellow fluid atop was what I wanted, and I could easily separate it with my necromantic powers.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  I poured the rest of the blood down the drains. That’s what they were for! And the earth below drank it greedily. That was creepy.

  I had to do everything with magic here, since Quicklime that was still white would just burn my hand. I put it into the bone bowl and started smashing it away with the pestle. Disgusting, poisonous fumes began to fill the air, but that was why I was wearing the Crow Suit. I was ventilated and protected.

  When it was finally a deep chalky mixture, I poured the serum atop of it - like one would pour milk. I mixed it together until it became chalky… goop. It wasn’t thick enough. Pa would have used clay, but I had something better.

  I took the bone chips from all my crafting and poured them into the mixture to make Blood Epoxy. Since it used my necrotic blood, it was already going to be stronger than normal.

  Who would have guessed a [Farm Girl] watching her Pa paint fences could make such a thing? And I coat it all over the body to act as a hardener and shield.

  I took the mixture with me and began to just dab it all over. I started with the neck to connect it properly, and then went over the wounds on his chest. The gray-red blood-glue seeped about, coating it over and over.

  But now, he kind of reeked, and his skin was cracking white.

  Burial Oils.

  This thankfully was easy to make, as I just took rosemary and other sweet smelling herbs to grind and boil into an oil.

  I poured it over his cracking, dry, reeking skin and saw it glisten and glow.

  Not half bad, Ashley! People could pay you to do this. Though, I’m not sure how many people wanted to see their dead ones look better than they were alive.

  Fixing the bone was a simple matter of [Bone Mend], and since he was already dead, I didn’t care about how much this hurt.

  And frankly, I’d bring him back to life to make him experience it. Poor Dalliance.

  I extracted Cadence’s soul next as the bones got to work. Cadence’s soul was [Uncommon], unlike Dalliance’s whose was [Masterwork].

  I brought the soul towards Rhyvesta’s Altar, and flinched. I hadn’t entered this room in weeks since it frightened me.

  I took a step inside. The central brazier ignited in its spectral green flames, and the cold, skeletal throne room seemed warm and inviting.

  The throne itself was made of bones of ancient and uncreated and extinct and yet-to-be born creatures. The cushion was stitched of leather from the old, the young, the sick, the healthy, the dead, the neverborn and dyed in their blood.

  It looked so inviting. I felt called to sit on the throne, and stare into the flames.

  My Goddess Wanted to Speak to Me.

  I shook it off, immediately busy with my work. Silly inane things like that could wait till I was done with my tasks for the day!

  I approached the brazier and dragged Cadence’s Soul into it.

  I looked at the information, and while it was all very interesting, it didn’t explain anything else. I moved my hands to the flame, and the flame went green.

  This was the part of my job I understood the least about. I was a [Scholar], not a [Wizard]... and definitely not a [Necromancer]. I never read about this, or had farming experience related to it.

  I touched Cadence’s Soul.

  So… souls had traits? I chose to strip the soul, since that was a lot of bad attributes. But I guess I was going to be delayed…

  “For I could not stop for death, death stopped for me… kindly stopped for me…”

  I shivered again, and looked at the throne. The soul however was free to grab. I swallowed. Every part of me didn’t feel the need to get her mad.

  “Would… you kindly.. Wait for me… after… the day… done?” I stuttered, looking at the empty throne.

  The green flame turned blue.

  “She knew no haste… Carriage Held but ourselves… I await… after… field and labour… I await… death and immortality.”

  I swallowed again. This was jumping to the top of my priority list very fast, and even though I was given an extension… I think… It felt very unwise to put it off.

  But I had work to do. I bowed deeply to the flames. “Thank you.”

  The flame died away, leaving me in the horrifying gloom. My left eye burned.

  I quickly ran out with the purified soul to the other room where the bones were done mending, and the skin was done being absorbed.

  I did one final lookthrough.

  And Cadence’s soul was [Rare] as well, if stripped of his personality. Which, again, was probably a good thing.

  I combined the two, and then prepared myself.

  The strong sensation of falling snow besieging me. The winter howled into a blizzard into a dying agasp. The books on the shelves fluttered their pages and the scent of ink and parchment was replaced with the growing smell of rot and death.

  Even if this room had a spectral light, it seemed to sway by the assault, the Symphony breaking from its usual joint music into fractured staccatos. It burned my ears and muted my sight. What was right was left and up became tomorrow.

  I came to a horrifying realization.

  At some point, as a [Necromancer], I would actually have to read these messages and come to conclusions about what they are. Like none of those are numbers, it's just words. I’m going to have to do homework again.

  And none of what was written even remotely helps with running a farm. Maybe I could attach a plow to a Drakhuul at best? But then would it try to fight the crops?

  So many dumb questions, especially since I was the one who others would think is the expert. ‘Hey, Ashley, do you know what the difference between this and that is?’

  I picked Drakhuul, since that’s what Ophelia asked for.

  The black mist flew into Cadence’s body and it began to jerk and shake on the metal table. The lanky body that I had prepared slowly began to pulse out. The muscles shook and spasmed, becoming bigger with each pulse. His head became more disgusting and snout-like in shape. Bat-fur began to sprout against his skin, pouring out like weeds. Cadence was already tall, but this added two to three more feet.

  No one would believe this man was human, even if it weren’t for his bat-like face. He was too big and burly, like a creature mixed with a beast.

  He immediately pounced up with a snarl, hissing in the air. His wild eyes looked about, and his arms swung haphazardly.

  So I stared at him. The fact I didn’t react seemed to bother him more.

  Since I was making him for Ophelia, I decided to rename him.

  Laertes.

  Laertes stared at me still, so I just walked outside. The newly made vampire stumbled out behind me. We exited the basement and I found Ophelia standing there with the glass and Balinka leaves.

  I moved to her and took them. “Laertes is your problem now.”

  “Laertes?” Ophelia asked, before turning around to see the massive, bestial ‘man’ lumbering out the cellar.

  “Damn it!” she shouted, going off after him.

  Ophelia probably knew how to introduce a new dead person to her society better than I did. And besides, I had more work to do. I had to wrap the medicine up in these leaves, and then plant the crops. Ophelia even got me broccoli seeds – 9 of them – since they grow the fastest!