Private Graveyard Shift

[Ginevra Delaney]

Most people did not congregate in cemetaries at the dead of night, with nary a light to guide their way. It was, most certainly, not exactly a healthy or normal behaviour. A lamp would attract too much attention, though. A torch would scorch its light into the eyes of onlookers and bystanders, if there happened to be any this late into the night. Any light would burn away the darkness and the darkness was her ally. An ally that was going to help her figure out how she could have even more allies. Sure, she was not a master of summoning, so she couldn't have hordes of undead. But one or two zombie helpers?

Surprisingly doable.

Here we are, this is the one...

Ginevra hissed a whisper to her companion. She'd brought along @Lucille Fer as usual, in part because they were friends and in part because she wanted to see if necromancy would seem appealing to her friend, who seemed unsure about what kind of skillset to foster. If she ever intended to pick up anything new. She wanted the girl to follow her on the path of taboo magics, but it was truly Lucille's choice.

Either way, they crouched above a freshly dug grave, dedicated to one 'Jennifer Vieve' in recent days. This was the kind of thing that Ginevra had been looking for most of all. Now all they needed was to exume the grave, which meant they needed to get their digging gloves on. Ginevra opened her inventory, drawing out a shovel, before she turned to Lucille.

I picked this one since she died really recently, so the body should be pretty fresh, not disgusting and probably easier to resurrect?

She shrugged, before hefting her shovel.

Would you like a shovel? You're a dog person, so I wasn't sure if you preferred to dig with your claws or not, but I brought an extra just in case. This isn't the kind of 'dirty' I imagine anybody wants to get.

@Lucille Fer

 

[Lucille Fer]

‎

Lucille simply walked some small distance behind Ginevra, hands slightly bent and resting behind her head. She was doing her very best to maintain composure and the tough facade despite practically wanting to cry as a result of stubbing her toe on some loose stone brick she hit herself against at full force just a few minutes ago. Curse be the fact that even beastfolk needed the appropriate trait to be able to see in the dark! And, for some unknown reason, this dark wolf was still as poor as a church mouse...

"This one, huh."

She repeated after the other woman, her eyes looking over the dark grave. It seemed that her eyes were finally starting to get used to the darkness, able to see a tiny bit better. Frankly, the only reason why she was here was because Ginevra had asked... or, in her usual style, ordered her to be here. Personally, she figured that raising corpses would be just too stinky to be of any interest to the wolf. Not to mention that she didn't want anyone or anything to fight her battles for her.

"Wha- a dog?!"

When that was mentioned, the girl got rather upset, stomping her clawed foot down.

"I'll have you know that wolves are far more noble than some domesticated dogs! Unlike a dog, I am ferocious, not cuddly! Wild, not domesticated! And my claws are mighty and plenty capable of fighting this dirt, just you watch!"

This was said right before she moved past Ginevra and squatted down, digging her golden gleaming into the dirt and gravel before starting to dig just like a dog, large amounts of dirt flying between her legs and landing by the side. It seemed that maybe even Ginevra wouldn't need that shovel, given how surprisingly fast that process was going.

@Ginevra Delaney

 

[Ginevra Delaney]

Truth be told, Ginevra wasn't any more capable of navigating the darkness than Lucille was. She'd just walked the route before during the day time, when she'd been searching for the freshest graves that she could find at the time. Of course, she wasn't about to admit that to Lucille. Her friend would think she was infinitely cooler if she could pretend that the darkness didn't bother her at all. And Ginevra had a very vested interest in protecting the image of herself as being a cool and powerful mistress of the dark.

Still, she smirked at the expected reaction to the mention of Lucille being a dog. She knew, of course she knew, that Lucille fashioned herself after a wolf. The girl was far more wolf-like than dog-like and it showed quite heavily. Still, there was nothing quite like a perceived insult to get the blood burning and the energy flowing, Ginevra had found.

So she just chuckled and rubbed at the back of her head.

Right right, I've been proven wrong before so I suppose that you might be correct this time as well.

Truthfully, she wasn't sure the distinction really mattered. They were the same kinds of claws, at the end of the day. And they proved effective, as Ginevra had to sidestep a torrent of dirt as the girl began to dig, chuckling as she stored the shovel back into her inventory and watched, until the sound of Lucille's claws scraping against wood could be heard.

That'll be the coffin. Help me lift it out.

She moved until she was at the foot of the coffin, reaching down to slip her fingers underneath it, waiting for Lucille to do the same, before she counted to three, upon which she would lift the coffin out of the hole.

So, do you know much about Animancy? You've met more people than me, so I figure somebody may have said something maybe?

@Lucille Fer

 

[Lucille Fer]

‎

Once the coffin came into view, the wooden lid was already quite obviously scratched up from the wolf's powerful claws. Even if the girl rarely used them to their full effectiveness, they were still reinforced by Agonizing Savagery and as sharp as any well-crafted weapon you could find. If Ginevra didn't stop her partner in crime when she did, there would have probably been holes large enough to peek inside, even.

"Hmph, I could have lifted the whole thing by myself with ease."

Alas, Ginevra already had her fingers hooked against the small lip that held the coffin's lid in place. So the wolf obediently did the same, digging her claws into the wooden object's sides and helping lift it. Perhaps even with a bit too much force, as the thing was nearly sent flying, coming down with a bit of a thud that even popped the lid off a bit, though not enough to reveal anything until one of the girls slid it over. And a moment of utter silence seemed to confirm that despite the louder noise, there was no one besides them to hear it.

"Animancy? Dunno! All I'm interested in is building up my own power, so if someone talked about it, I probably wasn't listening."

@Ginevra Delaney

 

[Ginevra Delaney]

The condition of the lid didn't really matter. It wasn't like she was keeping the coffin and it wasn't like the coffin was going to remain above ground. By the end of this, nobody would even know that the grave had been dug up by a couple of punks like them. Nobody would ever see the gouge marks in the wood of the coffin, as if somebody had taken a sword or an axe to it and just started scoring lines.

Together, the two of them had heaved the box out of the ground and onto the ground, more force than was necessary being used, causing the lid of the coffin to open as the seals cracked. Ginevra wasn't sure what had been used to seal it, some kind of glue or resin, but the force of the exumation had clearly been its undoing.

Ginevra blinked, before she slowly began to nudge the lid off with her foot. Though, rather than just a light nudge, it was more of a curious kick, causing the lid to slide and slip off, revealing the corpse of a flaxen haired woman inside. Incredibly well preserved, thanks to the fact that she'd been dead for no more than a few days.

That tracks, I guess. Animancy covers things like resurrecting undead and also manipulating life energy. So I should be able to do something like this....

She focused, an almost adorable look of concentration on her face as a dull grey aura emerged from her and wrapped around the corpse. Small patches of rot and remaining damage from autopsy or cause of death began to recede, slowly but surely.

I can restore the corpse to the condition it was in when it was still alive. If you were wounded I could probably use it to heal you. Probably.

Maybe. She wasn't too confident in using it on a living person, yet.

There. That should have gotten rid of any rot, though I can't tell with my weak regular human senses.

@Lucille Fer

 

[Lucille Fer]

‎

There was just about zero respect toward the deceased and their holy place of rest. Granted, this was exactly the kind of blasphemy that Lucille wanted to experience in this world! But, admittedly, it was getting more and more difficult to go against her upbringing and all that was forced into her over the course of many years. Ultimately, she could only meekly watched as GInevra did all of the work, opening the coffin with a kick and then proceeding to use her abilities on it. Though that stoic expression did get broken once the goddess of dark suggested using such abilities on the wolf herself.

"I'm not dead, so there is no restoring me to when I wasn't dead. And I'm not gonna get injured either! Especially not by any weaklings from this world!"

Considering the events she had been through, she was especially adamant in her claims that she was basically invincible. But that hardly mattered right now. Her golden eyes, ever so slightly glowing in the darkness of the night, moved over to observe the deceased. It was... honestly a little hard to tell with a lack of proper light source. Her eyes were, as of right now, no better than those of a normal person. Same went for all of her other senses as well. As a result, she could barely see any changes happening. Squatting down, she tried to squint at the corpse for a little bit, but then averted her eyes and groaned.

"Even if she was fixed, that horrible smell from before still lingers, and probably will stay for a while, blergh."

@Ginevra Delaney

 

[Ginevra Delaney]

Ginevra couldn't help but slap her palm against her forehead when Lucille pointed out that she wasn't dead. Okay, maybe the fault was her own, given how poorly she'd explained what Animancy was capable of. She hadn't quite factored in how little attention Lucille would pay to anything that didn't really interest her from the get go. Really, she needed to encourage the girl to get out and experiment more. Try new things. Sling an elemental spell or two around and really cut loose.

Or something.

Animancy effects the living too, dingus! It gives the user control of life energy, which is only found in living things! I think...

She wasn't too sure. She'd never actually come across an undead monster before, so she had no clue if they had life energy or not. Actually, now that she was thinking about it....

So how do I raise a zombie anyway? Do I just like, point at it and command it to stop being so uselessly dead?

She was pretty determined not to use the UI, it would kill all of her immersion after all, but damn did she sometimes miss how easy it was to do new things utilizing the action assist system that the game had to offer for players.

She squatted down next to the body, prodding it with a finger for a moment or two. Her fingers lit up with a dull, sickly green light, but failed to really do anything substantial. It left Ginevra wondering, just what exactly was she missing?

So anyway, how're your own trainings coming along? Any cool new spells or secret martial arts techniques?

@Lucille Fer

 

[Lucille Fer]

‎

The wolf girl narrowed her gaze when Ginevra insulted her, only to then fail to explain anything herself. This whole thing was rather unimpressive so far, wasn't it?

"If life energy is only found in living things, then how is this thing supposed to control the dead who are no longer alive? Who's the dingus here?!"

Much like the other girl, she stared at the deceased corpse, even as it was poked and prodded, it seemed to make no difference at all.

"This new power of yours doesn't seem to be doing a whole lot so far. Are you sure it's worth anything?"

It honestly led perfectly to the last question, that only had the wolf raise an eyebrow as if what was asked was something utterly idiotic.

"Of course not. Who needs spells or martial arts when you can just go wild and bite and tear anything into pieces? Much easier and much cooler than any of that structure nonsense that adheres to strict rules to be effective at all."

@Ginevra Delaney

 

[Ginevra Delaney]

That's kinda what I'm trying to figure out, pup. It doesn't JUST do life energy, though. I literally JUST picked up the thing so I haven't exactly had any practice with it. That's the whole reason I'm even here right now.

And, really, it said everything that needed to be said, that Lucille just flat our didn't use spells or any kind of structured attacks in her fighting. Wasn't the Mastery for unarmed combat literally called Martial Arts? Ginevra held back a groan and shook her head, rolling her eyes.

Plus, she didn't exactly think it was a great look to be biting anything and she sure as hell wasn't willing to bite some of the stuff out there. The thought of trying to bite a zombie to death honestly seemed pretty disgusting. Or worse, biting some unwashed bandit peasant. Now that sounded like it would be nasty all around.

You know what, fuck it. Time to act stupid.

Picturing herself as a mass of energy, she attempted to slice a finger off and shove it into the corpse. Metaphorically speaking. Or, well, energetically speaking. Taking some of her own life energy, she pushed it into the corpse, then blinked when she felt the corpse.

Like, felt it. The same way she felt her own arm, only it felt like she'd been laying on it. Like she had pins and needles, but bad.

But it still moved, even when it was numb. And so did the corpse, lurching upwards until it was sat upright.

Weird! I guess I needed to actually give it the energy it needs to move.

@Lucille Fer

 

[Lucille Fer]

‎

Whenever the wolf picked a new mastery, it was almost as if the game inserted some rudimentary knowledge of how to use it and what it could do directly into her brain. A strange thing, but a useful one. Surely that wasn't the case just for her, right? So how little could Ginevra know about her own powers, realistically? The only other alternative was that Lucille truly was a chosen one, with exceptional talent and compatibility with these dark martial arts! Perhaps it was that one...

That said, she also didn't quite understand why she was dragged out here as well. As far as she knew, she didn't need any practice. Did Ginevra just need someone to watch her back as she worked things out? That seemed a bit boring. Though, something interesting did happen, at least. The golden peepers followed the other woman's movements, and then they rested at the corpse for a while... until it moved. Those same eyes widened in shock as Lucille leaped back, baring her fangs briefly.

"Whoa- Do I need to kill it? I could definitely kill it double dead, so it becomes triple deaded!"

@Ginevra Delaney

 

[Ginevra Delaney]

Choosing to basically entirely eschrew the game's training wheels, like ignoring the UI almost entirely aside from utilizing the inventory, came with a few disadvantages, such as needing to actually learn what the hell it was that her Masteries did. On the plus side, it did help her be just a little more inquisitive and creative when it came to utilizing them, even if she did still have all of the subtlety of an atom bomb when it came to actually employing her abilities. Perhaps Animancy would change that just a little bit?

Probably not, though. The answer was obvious as she made the corpse sit up, chuckling as Lucille leapt back in fright and yelped something about killing it.

No! Don't kill it yet, let it stand up first! I wanna see how fast and strong it is before we find out how durable it is! Otherwise I'll have to waste my time restoring it and raising it over and over again.

As she spoke, the corse climbed out of the grave and began to shamble around, moving at about the same pace as a regular person walked. Certainly wouldn't win any marathons, at the very least.

Or sprints...

Feels weird, like I'm using a numb arm to move around and grab things. Cool though.

The zombie stopped moving when it reached its old coffin, before it lashed out, an undead arm bashing against the wood, cracking it slightly, before Ginevra nodded.

Alright. Feel free to hit it.

@Lucille Fer

 

[Lucille Fer]

‎

"Isn't repeated practice exactly what you want in this kind of situation..?"

It was an innocent question and rebuttal to the idea that Ginevra would have to repeat the process of reviving the corpse, really. But perhaps not one that would go across well for some. Regardless, the wolf did end up standing down as it became clear that the mistress of darkness did have full control over the walking dead. With her golden eyes, she observed the resurrected woman shamble about, much different from how zombies were usually presented in movies or games. There was no groaning, not even a real wobble, and certainly no thirst for blood. Although, if she recalled correctly, Ginevra did have the ability to control blood, so that could probably be arranged down the line...

"Doesn't really look much different from a drunk leaving a pub in the evening. Or morning. Would you have to revive an actual warrior for them to be useful or something?"

From the way it was described, it seemed that the other girl's combat experience should be enough to make these minions useful to at least some degree. But, of course, this one's strength and speed were still comparable to those of a normal human who did not exercise or do much of physical work on a daily basis. And now that she was prompted to hit it, well... somehow, the idea became a bit repulsive.

"Ugh, the longer I think about her as a zombie, the more she seems icky even if she's not really..."

@Ginevra Delaney

 

[Ginevra Delaney]

Well, I imagine the more capable in a fight somebody was whilst they were alive, the more capable they'd be as an undead. Though, then again, somebody that spent their life as a warrior probably didn't die in one piece, so they'd probably also be harder to revive and make ready for combat.

Utilizing just Animancy to raise the dead probably wasn't the best or most efficient way she could do it. She might have more success combining it with Dark Magic, or Hemomancy. Or even allowing some of her Corruption to slip through the connection and seeing what kind of effect that had. Ginevra looked at the shambling corpse that she had control of.

This is more of just an easy test, since she was a non-combattant who died quite peacefully, all things considered. Sub-par material, but at least it was all in working condition.

Quite morbid to say about the body of a person, but Ginevra didn't see Landers as people. The corpses of Landers, even less so. Besides, necromancy REQUIRED dead people.

Try to picture her as a familiar rather than as a zombie. That might help. Maybe.

@Lucille Fer

 

[Lucille Fer]

‎

What Ginevra said certainly made sense. Or… at least Lucille figured that it probably made sense because Ginevra said so. Since the wolf did not dabble in any magic that would work with corpses, she could not tell whether the state of the body or its experiences while it was still alive mattered in the slightest. And either way, she personally did not need to know. Her task right now, given to her by her owner, was to test her physical might on the shambling body.

She raised her hands to ready herself, though a twitch of hesitation caused her to pause a bit as her mind raced through some unpleasant thoughts. Her eyes fixated on the 'familiar', and she bit her lower lip before she lunged forward, one hand going high up above her head and then coming back down, the claws that adorned her furred hands digging into the corpse's chest and tearing through it, quite possibly even sending it flying backward. Lucille didn't exactly hold back, nor could she, given her state.

"T-There! That was practically just my basic attack, so should be good enough for you to figure out its durability, right?"

Fighting wild beasts and tearing them apart was something she had already done countless times. Heck, she even tore through a few bandits here and there. As long as she remained immersed in this world, all was well. Merely the fact that she was reminded of home and what she was running from made this so agonizingly difficult, despite there being no real obstacles.

@Ginevra Delaney

 

[Ginevra Delaney]

Lucille's attack lashed out, a clawed hand digging into the zombie's chest, with only marginal resistance akin to that of a piece of paper or two. Ginevra wasn't exactly sure how much effort Lucille had put into it, she was hardly an expert at reading unarmed combat after all, but what she could tell was the effect on the zombie that she'd raised. She watched with a quirked brow as the shambling corpse was bowled over, falling backward a foot or two, before it clambered back to its feet shakily.

Well, I'd say it'd only take two of those to completely take this thing out. One would probably do it if you were to aim at the head or neck, or somewhere like that.

She shrugged. Really, she wasn't sure what she'd been expecting. It wasn't like a zombie was any stronger than a regular person. Flesh was flesh, after all. And dead flesh was dead flesh. It certainly didn't feel like her magic was doing anything to reinforce the undead minion.

Well, either way she's outlived her usefulness, so let me just get rid of her real quick.

A raised hand and a flick of the wrist sent a blast of Dark Magic, one that struck the shambling corpse and practically erased it from existence. Ginevra regarded the aftermath with distaste, before scoffing.

Well, that seems to be a bust. Regular people zombies are too squishy and too weak to really use as anything other than disposable fodder.

She paused, before sighing.

I wonder if I could turn a player into a zombie, if we managed to capture one? Feeling up to a hunt, Lucille?

@Lucille Fer

 

[Lucille Fer]

‎

It was certainly true that Lucille did not feel any substantial resistance as her claws scraped against the reanimated flesh. And she was not the type to really hold back, so at least it was clear that the undead puppet withstood a singular attack from someone who was trying to claw it in half. Not that the dark wolf was particularly strong herself… strong in comparison to most newbies, perhaps. But she would not hold a candle to someone who was several ranks above her and focused entirely on brute force.

"Well… don't Lich bosses in games always have hordes of such fodder on their disposal to slow down the hero, though? One lucky strikes could go through if there is enough of them…"

Not that Ginevra was a Lich, although maybe that was her goal if she wanted to control the dead? But the notion of trying to turn players into zombies… there was something that did not sit well with Lucille about that idea. A really, really bad feeling in the back of her mind. She gritted her teeth briefly before giving an answer.

"Um… that probably won't work, I don't think? I mean… someone needs to be dead to be turned into a zombie, right? And when a player dies, their body disappears so they can respawn at a temple, so there wouldn't be anything to reanimate."

Se paused for a brief moment before going on.

"Besides, NPCs usually have a higher upper limit, especially bosses and elite mobs, right? Those would probably be a better target since they can get stronger than players ever could, even with their stats maxed out."

@Ginevra Delaney