《The struggle of a Skeleton Cook trying to survive in the Demon Lord's castle》 Not chapter, just a note of what the fuck is going again and about broken promises Well, this is hell of awkward and right out stupid but I''m back with news and hopefully able to keep my promises. So what the hell is going on that has me deleting all the chapters, redo the title and summary and whatever else? Easy to answer, I''m starting a new story though in a rather unconditional way if I''m being honest. See, I''ve finally given up on my orc cookk stry and have been trying a new approach. I still want to do a stroy about a cook and it has ended up with this. Now, apperently one can delete old stroies to start afresh, which is something I''ve wanted to do but unfortunatly for me I can''t seem to do it now matter what I try. Even with help. So in the end I deleted the old chapters and are going to use this one as the start of the new story. I''ll try my danrest to update any new chapter as best as I can. With as much editing as possible but be kind. English has never been my best subject back in school and it is most certainly never gonna be. If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. That being said, the first chapter should come fairly out soon. So look forward for it. And I hope that whomever wants to read my pathetic attempts at being an author, enjoy what little I have to offer. Chapter 1
***Congratulations on your reincarnation Carrie Blackburn! You''ve now become a [Undead], type Lesser Skeleton. May your new life be better than your last.***
Is what a blue box says to her face far too cheerfully for any given circumstance, let alone the one she''s just found herself in. She''s in a crypt of some sorts, walls and ground made of cold hard stone thats aged for who knows how long. The air smells faintly of dust and the faint scent of something not quite right, like a forgotten apple in the back of a fridge. Carrie, or what''s left of her, looks down at her hands. They''re bone, pure and simple. She can see right through them to the grey stone beneath her bare feet. The weight of the realization settles on her like a ton of bricks as she slowly moves her boney legs around carefully. She does the same with the rest of her body, proving what the blue box had just called her. She''s a skeleton now, a Lesser Skeleton to be precise. Dressed in nothing but rags to cover what little decency she had left. Carrie tries to remember her past life, but the details are as murky as the light in this crypt. Her mind is a foggy mess, only snippets of moments coming back to her. She was human, that much is clear. But why is she here? What happened to her? Than like a tidalwave, it all comes back. The misery her life have been, that single spark that put the entire shitty house her lousy apartment was part of on fire. Her desperate screams as the flame consumed her flesh and her soul slipped away. The pain was so intense that Carrie actually felt grateful to be nothing but bone. Her mind reeling from the horror, she tries to stand up, but her body feels so strange. Every movement is jerky and uncoordinated, as if she''s forgotten how to control her own limbs. The sound of bones clacking together echoes through the crypt, and she winces at the noise. And then realize that she is not the only skeleton in the room. Theres several others that are shambling about, seeming to struggle to move just as much as her. If not worse as some lack limbs or even half of their body, but still crawl around nonetheless making the same clacking noises as her. If not more. Carrie feels a strange kinship with these undead beings, despite the fear that claws at the back of her mind. She takes a tentative step forward, her bones scraping against the stone floor. One of the skeletons notices her and shuffles over, its skull tilting to the side in curiosity. The creature opens its mouth in what might be a greeting or a warning, but no sound comes out except for the dry rasp of its jaws moving. Then quickly losing any intrest in her and walked away as best as it could. Its then that something just snapped inside her. ''[Undead]!?! What the hell is that supposed to mean?! And a Lesser Skeleton at that?! What kind of joke is this huh!?'' Carrie''s thoughts raced as she looked around at the other skeletons. They didn''t seem to be in any rush or have any clear direction. They just... existed. Her mind was a whirlwind of confusion, fear, and anger. But she knew she couldn''t stay here, not like this. She had to find a way out. But it seems fate had other plans for her once again, as suddenly a door that had not been there before appears on the wall of the crypt with a loud creak that echoes through the chamber. The sight of the wooden door, that looked as old as the crypt itself, has an odd power to it that made every skeleton in the room suddenly walk towards it. Carrie included as her body shambles along with the others without her doing anything. ''What the fuck is going on now?!'' she screams in her mind, the effort to do so physically causing her jaw to clench with an audible clack. The other skeletons seem oblivious to her outburst, their hollow eyes staring straight ahead. Carrie tries to resist, to pull away from the door, but her legs march on, driven by a force she doesn''t understand. Her curiosity battles with the horror of her new reality. The door swings open, revealing a dimly lit corridor that stretches far beyond the reach of her limited vision. And for what feels like an age, yet could be no longer than an hour or two at best, she along with the rest of the other skeletons walks down the corridor until they reach another door that opens up as soon as it felt or sensed their approach. On the other side of the door is a large room, filled with what looks like ancient artifacts and dusty tomes scattered across a table, with a figure hunched over them. The figure was a creepy ass looking, half rotting human like thing dressed in a black rob that looked like it had seen better days. And had a gaze that made Carrie''s bones shudder in disgust and unease. Its voice was no better, as Carrie found herself thinking nails on a chalkboard would have been far more pleasent sound to hear right now. "Ah the newest batch is finally here." It says with a bored tone and a professional decor that only comes with having to do whatever this is a million times and then some before. It just adds even more confusion to the already very mixed feelings Carrie is having today. "Let''s get this over with quickly. If I''m lucky I might have the time to visit the succubuses quearters for some fun." It continue on as it moves its left arm in a strange way that formed a pattern of some sort. Said arm also starts to glow a sickly greenish hue as well. Then a strange circle filled with all kinds of runic words, symbols and what not appare infornt of the table. Then the half rotten thing points at the nearest skeleton before it and say "You first." as it picks up a large book, a inkwell and feathery pen. Carrie finds herself greatful that she''s in the back of the small group of skeletons, as it give her a chance to see what the circle do as the pointed skeleton walked into it. And make confusion being the main thing she feels about all of this. For as soon as the skeleton is standing in the circle, it glows the same sickly greenish hue and a strange barrier comes about that reminds her of the northern lights. Just filled with a lot of runic words. It does a little dance around the skeleton, while the half rotten thing just start writing something down in the book. Nodding and mumble things she can''t hear. Then when the circle is done, the skeleton moves to the right side of the table as the rotten thing points to another skeleton to come forth. This repates on and on again, one skeleton at a time until it is finally Carrie''s turn. Much like how that door appeared, her body moves automatically to stand in the circle. The lich, as Carrie has come to call the thing before her, having the same bored look as the magic spell (cause theres noway it was anything else) under her starts to work. That bored look though quickly disappear as whatever he sees in the spell quickly gets his attention. "Thats weird." The lich mumbles, setting the book and feathery pen aside as he walks closer to get a proper look at Carrie. She feels the coldness of his stare, like ice was running through her nonexistent veins. "You''re different." His voice sends chills down her spine, the words spoken with an eerie excitement that makes her want to run. But she stand still as the lich walks back to table and fish out a small hand held bell. Its softh rings making Carrie not feel any ease at all. And once the bell stops ringing, a new magic circle appear, though this one red as blood with a glow to it that would make hair stand on end. Out of it comes out what Carrie can only call an imp due to its very short stature, bat like wings, pointed tail, red skin, hoved feet and a tiny set of horns on its head. "You called lich?" Its voice a strange mix of childlike curiosity and malevolence as it looked at the mention being in the room with expectation. Said lich pointed to Carrie as it spoke "We might have a varient with this one here or one that is already getting a class. The Appraisal spell indicates that this one is in the process of either of the two and thuse we need to move it to the quarantine quarters until its done." It simple tells the imp before it, who gains a look of surprise on it face. "Already? That sure is rare. How long have this one been active?" The imp asks as a small black hole appear before it. And the imp is quickly sticking one of its arms in it to look for something inside the hole. The lich shrugs, "I don''t know. This one just woke up with the others, but it''s clearly not the same as them. It''s more... aware than the usual fresh ones." He says, studying Carrie with a mix of curiosity and caution. The imp just hums at that and then smile as a simple black dog collar and leash comes out of the hole. The smile turing into a wicked grin as it speaks. "Well no matter, the higher ups will deal with it once the process is done." Carrie felt the cold metal of the collar snap around her neck before she could even react. A sudden jerk from the leash and she stumbles forward, the imp already pulling her towards another door at the far end of the room. The other skeletons watched her leave with their hollow gazes, seemingly unphased by her plight. Shortly after going through far too many halls, rooms and doors than Carrie cared to count, she finds herself in a cell that was more akin to a prison than a quarantine. The walls are made of the same cold, hard stone as the crypt, with bars made of metal that looked like they''ve been here since the dawn of time. The cell is lit by a single, flickering torch that casts eerie shadows on the floor. It also sports a bed made of dyr hay and a bucket filled with fresh water that was put there shortly after she got into the cell. Though she has no idea why she was given water since as a skeleton she has no need to drink or eat. Or sleep for that matter now that she thinks of it. "So thats why this lesser thing is here." Says a new voice, deep and holding a tone of power that makes Carrie''s boney spine shiver. The voice of the imp follows shortly after. "Indeed Warden Lord, as you can see this one is a peculiar case given that not much time as gone since its rise from the dead." The imp holds up the leash tightly, giving Carrie a little shake. "I shall leave it to your capable hands. I have other matters to attend to." Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. The Warden Lord, who was certainly a demon of some kind as a well though far more scary looking with a much bigger build and meaner looking features than his smaller counterpart, just rolled his eyes as the small imp quickly left once it had handed the leash over to him. Said leash quickly found itself off the collar Carrie was sporting, but thats was about the only thing he took off her before he spoke. "Well this should at least prove to be some interesting days at least. You''re lucky that I''ve got a soft spot for the unusual." The Warden Lord rumbled, his deep-set eyes studying Carrie intently. He was a towering figure, his red skin stretched taut over a frame of dense muscle and bone, his horns curving back like a ram''s and his teeth pointed like a shark''s. Carrie could feel the power emanating from him, and it was unlike anything she had ever encountered in this new life so far. He most certainly had a lot more power than that lich or imp had. From there some days passed by, or so at least Carrie thought. It was kinda hard to tell when one did not have anything to actually tell time. But those days wasn''t wasted. Carrie quickly came into the habit of listing the days in her head, using the changing of the torch''s light as a makeshift clock. The Warden Lord visited her daily, bringing a sense of routine to her otherwise chaotic existence. And brought with him a few more items that was added to her cell. One of which was actual clothes, sort of. It was only a simple tunic but it was better than nothing. Though the fact that it was made of what felt like spider silk, made her skin crawl even if she didn''t have any, she still felt something. And that something was not pleasant. None the less she wore it as helped her feel at least some normalcy. She also started to listen for the Warden Lord''s voice and others as well to figure out what exactly was going on, as the big demon was not the only one who worked in this area. Nor was she the only one who was locked into a cell for that matter. While she could not see who the others were, but from some of the painful shouts or screams she would occasionally hear made her think they weren''t as lucky as her at the moment And she had finally understood why she was here to begin with thanks to all her effort on eavesdropping. The lich mention of her being in the process of becoming a varient or getting a class, whatever those things were or meant, seem to have set her apart from the other skeletons she''d woken up with. The Warden Lord was the only one that talked to her on a regular bases and he did so with a certain amount of curiosity as to what exactly she was going to be. He not only did it out of curiosity though, as it was his duty to regularly check upon her due to this. Especially since her case was a very rare one to happen, as most of the time this sort of this happens after one has been around for a few years. Instead of the moment one is born or in her case raised form the dead. It also appeared to be a process that could take weeks to finish as well, if what the Warden Lord has said was anything to go by. Frankly speaking, Carrie wanted nothing more than to hit her head agains the cell walls at this point. But she was still having difficulties moving her new body naturally. Which have ended with her making a fool of herself more than once, which the Warden Lord found quite funny when he had the spare time to watch her stumble around in her cell. At least she had a few things to do now with her ample free time. Especially after the Warden Lord came back with what she could only describe was a wooden box filled with simple wooden toys usually meant for kids. She has no idea if this was to humiliate or help her. But by the end of her first week, she was using them as a way to not go insane from boredom. Or stop herself from once again to count the straws in her hay bed. Of course that did not mean all things was going well for her. Some of the Warden Lord''s fellow colleagues or those under him seems to have taken a liking to torment her when they had the chance. Like now, as a skeleton guard was currently using a rusted sword of kind to slowly make a awful noise that made Carrie cringe. Beside it was another imp, one that was most certainly not the same one who had taken her here days before, grinning like it was the most hilarious thing it had ever seen. "Oh how I wish I was allowed to whip you instead." It said, with a slight sadness to its surprsingly female like voice. It was filled with the same childlike curiosity and malevolence as the previous one. Though there was a slight edge to it that Carrie did not like. "But rules are rules, and I''m a good imp to my Lord. Beside, I don''t want the mess to come should I end up killing you. You Lesser Skeletons aren''t exactly know to be very robust." The imp continued on as the skeleton guard continued to mindlessly make more of that awful noise. Carrie cringed again, but this time for another reason. While the Warden Lord have been the main source of her knowing what is going on, it did not mean she haddn''t managed to listen in on what the other demons or beings that came and went through the day. There seems to be some sort of war going on. For what she has no idea of, but its clear that had it not been for this ''varient'' or ''class'' process, she would have been sent to the frontlines to be a mindless drone. And she had a feeling that the process she was in was the only thing keeping her from that fate. Which left her wondering just what exactly she was going to be once it was said and done. She got her answer for what seems like the end of her third or fourth week in the cell when a bounch of blue boxes popped out of the blue. Literally.
*** Varient and Class process finished. New class and element affinity gained! Titles gained! Soul has properly been integrated. New stats updating.....updating.....updated complete. Opening [Status Window] is now available.***
Was what the first box said. '' What the-'' Carrie''s thought was cut short as a sudden burst of blue light enveloped her. Her bones tinglinged and burned, her mind racing as it felt like it was being rewritten sideways. Her body spasming and shaking until suddenly, it stop. When she finally felt she could open her non existence eyes without feeling like she was on fire once again, a new box was before her saying the following.
Status Window Name: Carrie Blackburn Race: Undead; Type: Lesser Skeleton Class: Cook lvl 1 Elemental Varient: Fire Health: 57/83 Mana: 23/23 Stats: Strength: 9 Agility: 17 Endurance: 18 Intelligence: 11 Wisdom: 10 Dexterity: 12 Luck: 5
There where other things as well in the box too. Skills, Spells, Blessings, Titles, Quests, Maps and more was available as this strange little tag like things she felt she could touch to learn more about. So did the rest of the stuff she already read. But before she even had a chance to do any of that, the Warden Lord''s voice rang out. "Well well well. Looks like its finally done and we just hit the jackpot! Both a varient and class eh? Why Lady Luck most be smiling at us." The Warden Lord said with a smile as he looks at her. Carrie growing both confused and worried that he is somehow seeing the same thing as she is. Theres a few imps with him this time, all of which are looking at her with curiosity she don''t like and makes her want to hide in her hay bed. "A Cook?" One of the imps speak up, confusion clear in both its voice and face as it keeps looking at her. "What use do we have for a skeleton that can cook?? These things don''t need to eat or drink for Lord''s sake!" it continuse to speak as it looks up at the Warden Lord for answers. The Warden Lord just chuckled as he leaned against the cell bars. "Don''t worry about it, its for the higher ups to decide. Now you," he points at one of the imps rather impatiently. "Take it to the one of the test rooms. And make sure the room is equiped with what is needed. I want to see what it can actually do now that the process is done. We have a lot of work to do and I don''t want any mistakes." The imp looked at him with a slightly scared look before it nodded rapidly and opened the cell door with a set of jingling keys. Carrie had to admit she felt a slight thrill of fear as she was being taken to this ''test room''. What kind of tests would they put her through? Would they hurt her? Would she even feel pain anymore? Turned out her worries was a little wasted as where the imp took her after putting the leash back on the collar she has been wearing since the day she woke up here, was a little anticlimactic if she was honest. The test room was a small chamber with a single stone table and simple wodden chair in the center. The walls were bare, except for a few torches flickering dimly and a stone stove that seems to have had better days. On the table lay a set of ingredients that looked both familiare and strange at the same time. The imp before her had a look of excitement that did not sit well with Carrie. "All right you bag of bones. You task is simple, make something edible with these," the imp said, her voice filled with a mix of excitement and challenge as she pointed to the ingredients laid out on the table. The ingredients were a motley collection: a few strangly looking vegetables that looked slighty withered, some meat from what was most likely not from any animal she knew of. There was also a few clay jars before her, that despite her lack of a nose, smelled faintly like herbs and spices. There was also a large clay pot with water and to the side of the stove was a large stone shelf that had all kinds of cooking utilities for her too use. Once the imp had given its instructions to Carrie, it disappared in a could of smoke with a quite ''wosh'' sound, leaving the skeleton woman alone. Carrie looked down at the ingredients, her mind racing as she recall any shred of cooking knowledge she had from her past life. The ingredients looked foreign, but she figured that cooking was cooking. The basics had to be the same, right? But before that, she had to check out her body once again. Even with being suddenly dragged here, Carrie had notice that she did not have the same struggle with moving her body as much as before. There was still some delay, but as she slowly moved her limbs and body, things was a lot smoother now. And she even looked a little different now too. Her skeleton hands and fingers have taken on a black hue, with red like vines glowing slight. Her legs also having taken this trait too. And using the pot with the water inside as a mirror, her skull had gained some red marks too. The marks was glowing just as faintly as those vine like marks on her hands and legs. Though larger and more spread out, giving her a surprsingly simple but cool look than just being a boring old skull. It was like someone had painted her with some red paint that just glowed slightly. Kinda like war paint in some ways. But Carrie was quick to forget about that when she once again looked over at the ''kitchen'' before her and let out a sigh. Which startled her quite a bit. "Wha-huh-eh! I-I-I can speak again?!" She spoke, her voice still the same but holding a slightly ghosting echo to it now. Her jaws moving slightly more smoothly than before, which was quite the surprise to her. "What kind of witchery is this?!" She can''t help but blurr out, the shock of being able to speak again after weeks of only being able to think was too much for her. The room was silent, except for the faint crackling of the torches. Carrie felt a strange sense of elation at the sound of her own voice, even if it was slightly muffled and echoing. But she pushed all of these feelings to the back of her mind once she again looked at the kitchen before her, which reminded her of the task the imp had given her. And not wanting to know what would happen if she took too long immediately took a deep breath, or as close to one she could anyways. "I better get started then." Carrie murmured to herself, the words echoing slightly in the empty chamber. As she walked over to get started, she did not notice the little bat like creature that was hidding in one of the shadowy corners. Its single eye watching and its ears listing to everything that was going on. And sending it all to the watchers of the test. Chapter 2 The Warden Lord, know by the name of Thalmor, was a demon with simple pleasures and wants. Like any of his kin, he likes to see sinner punished or corrupt the good. The sizzling of the flesh and the smell of fear that filled the air was like a fine wine to him. He was not one for grandeur or flashy displays of power, his domain was the quiet, the shadows, and the cold steel of his instruments of torture despite his large build. The quarters that he is incharge of spoke of that to some degree. But he was also a demon with great pride and great sense of duty then most. And take proper responsibility with that sense of duty. Its was probably why he was assigned to become a Warden Lord and later on given one of the few special quarters that was used for very special occasions. In his case, the ones used to quarantine monsters, demons and various other creatures that was either going to evolve soon, become a varient or gain a class. Any of these could get a bit messy at times if not deadly, but it was his duty to ensure that they remained in check until the whole process was done. Most of the time it was easy as the processes are slow ones that affored Thalmor the time needed to prepare and make sure that none of those in his care suffered needlessly through the changes that happens to them. A demon he might be. But he understood that those who follows his Lord are not mindless beasts. And are not his enemies to do what he want with them. They were soldiers, warriors, workers, craftsmen, supporters and agents of change. Thalmor''s job was to make sure that these special guests didn''t cause any trouble while they were going through the painful process of either three. So, he had to keep an eye on them, which sometimes meant getting his hands dirty. Especially if one of his charges suddenly went into a berserk like state thanks to the pain. So when one imp had come with a Lesser Skeleton of all things to his ward, it was safe to say that Thalmor''s patience had been tested. Lesser Skeletons was know as some of the weakest of the Undead. Barely worth the bones its made of as even children can win againts them with a lucky strike from their little sticks. Granted those sticks had to be a tad bit thick to actually do some damage. But they did make great cannon fodder and distractions on the battlefields. Not to mention gather a good enough hord of them was always a good way to raid a few unsuspected villiages in quick succession. And from what he had been told once by one of the Necromancers in the service of his Lord, Lesser Skeletons were sometimes a key ingredient to make stronger types of undead skeletons through special rituals. Thalmor was just glad that the process seems to not hinder the Lesser Skeleton''s nature of being idle and easy to herd when not given a task or hunting the living with a passion few other creatures that was not of the undead kind could do. Nor did it try to escape or anything of the like as soon as it was in its cell. The next few weeks was both interesting and boring at the same time. As was the usual unless Thalmor and those under him were dealing with the more aggressive or messy side of things. But the Lesser Skeleton, which he had dubbed "Skell" was surprisingly docile and obidient. If a little bored itself. Hench why he had gotten some children toys for it to play with. At first, the Lesser Skeleton had ignored the toys, had even seem to glare at him when he had gifted the box with the toys like it had been offended. Which was odd to see as skeletons tend to not show much of any kind of emotions. At least those of such low rank. But this one was proving to be an exception to a lot of things. Whenever he checked upon it, he felt like it was listen to every word he had to say and even though he got a few good laughs at its stumbling attempts to walk and using its new toys, he had to admit that there was something about Skell that was different from the usual mindless drones he was used to dealing with. Then Skell''s process was finally done after neary a month had gone by, and what a little surprise the skeleton gave him. Skell got both the varient and class processes, which explained why it took so long for the whole process to finish. From what his meager skill level in Identify could tell, Skell gained the Fire Element and the Cook class along with a slighty more robust body as well. The new black and red colours sporting on its skull, hands and legs added a nice touch too if the demon was honest. But work had to be done, so he had the imps prepare one of the test rooms to see just what Skell could do now, and was once again surprised at what he sees. As soon as the imp had vanished once given the skeleton its task to cook something with what it had been given, and the Spy Bat was properly connected to the magical mirror that would allow him and one other person watch what was going on, Skell once again proved to be full of surprises. Starting with suddenly talking of all things after it was done looking at itself and testing its own body out again. Which should have really not surprised him as Skell had shown such behavior many times before. What did surprise him was the voice that came out of Skell, and Thalmor realizing that the skeleton was a ''she''. Which he had not expected given that Skell had up until then felt more like a ''it'', maybe a even a ''he'' if the demon was honest. But you always learn something new in his work. "Well that is curious." says a gruff and gravly voice to his right, and Thalmor turn to look a what most would call a living statue. Which was not totally wrong given that this thing was a gargoyle. But unlike most gargoles, this one was not made of stone but of iron with a hint of gold. It also sported two pair of wings instead of only one pair. "She has not only gained a class and element affinity, but also the ability to speak and self awareness." Thalmor mused, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "This truly is an exceptional case." The gargoyle, known as Ironwing, nodded in agreement. Despite his intimidating appearance, he was quite the scholar when it came to the arcane arts. "Indeed. The fusion of both processes is unprecedented for a creature of its kind. This could provide valuable insights into the evolution of the undead. I know for a fact the Necromancers in our Lord''s care will most certainly want to study it." You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. "She." Thalmor reminded the gargoyle as they both watch Skell get to work with making something to eat. It was rather funny as well, as Skell seems to struggle at first with activating or using the skills she should have as a [Cook]. Her reaction on seeing one of her hands suddenly on fire as she accidently activated one of the two simple and very weak spells she now has thanks to her affinity, had both Thalmor and Ironwing chuckling. "I guess she need to get used to her new powers first." Ironwing said, his voice a bit softer as he watched Skell panic a bit before she realize that the fire isn''t hurting her as much as it should thanks to her elemental affinity. She nonetheless puts the burning hand into the pot filled with water, which the gargoyle could not blame the undead for doing. Thalmor nodded, "Aye, and quickly. We can''t have our new little chef burning down whatever kitchen she''ll be working at. Besides, she might be more valuable alive than dead to us." He couldn''t help but chuckle at the irony of that statement. As they watched through the mirror, Skell seemed to get the hang of her fire affinity a little, carefully using it to light a small fire on the old stone oven after she had find the pile of firewood prepared before hand to give the magical fire some proper fuel once lit. Skell stayed near the fire for a good few minutes, seemingly making sure the fire would not go out on her, before she turned to the task at hand. The ingredients where quite simple, Thalmor nodding at the Ashen Potatoes, Pale Carrots, Withered Onions and a few other basic food items that had been placed in the room for her. With some simple herbs and spices that were also given. It was clear that they had to start with the basics, seeing if Skell could even cook something edible. Skell started quite simple, using the now lukewarm water in the pot after she had put her hand in it a few minutes before, to wash the various vegetables, peel and discard what she did not need. Both demon and gargoyle watched in fascination as she seemed to understand the process without any need of instructions, her movements methodical and precise, even if a bit awkward. Like she wasn''t used to her boney arms just yet. "Hmm." Ironwing hummed for a moment before he spoke. "It seems little Skell might have somehow retained some of her previous memories from the time she was alive. I''ll make sure to report that we might need to restructure our training course for her a little, at least when it comes to some of the basic." Thalmor nodded before he speaks. "Agreed. I already have my reports on how she''s been behaving the past month in her cell ready. I''ll make sure to have them send to your office as soon as possible so your able to give a proper report to the higher ups." All the while the Warden Lord and his companion was chatting along, neither missed when Skell started to cut and season the vegetables. Nor when she started on what Thalmor noted was a good piece of meat from one of the wild beasts hunted out side the walls he called home. He could not exactly tell what type of meat it was, hunting and cooking not being his strong suit whatsoever but Skell seems to have no issue telling what it was as she started to prepare it too. Cutting off most of the fatty bits, then using the back end if the knife in her hand to wack at the meat repately for the next few minutes. Then finally adding the spices and herbs. Then once all the ingredients were ready, Skell approached the stove with caution. She paused, seemingly contemplating her next move, and then with a swift and surprising grace, she placed the chopped and seasoned vegetables and meat into a large cast iron pot. The aroma that began to waft from the oven most have been quite good as the Spy Bat seems to sway in place slightly, its nose twitching in anticipation. It made Thalmor a little jealous as unfortunatly smell was one of the few things the magical mirror could not produce. At least the one he had anyways, the demon have heard rumors of the more high ranked demons and other monsters having magical mirrors that just did more than just show and listen to whats happening. "Oh," Ironwing spoke up. "She left some of the ingredients untouched." Thalmor looked at the mirror and noticed a small pile of herbs and spices that Skell had set aside along with a few chosen vegetables as well. "It seems she might have some other usage from them as well." The gargoyle added. That she indeed did. Once she had deemed the meat and vegetables sufficiently cooked, Skell turned to the untouched ingredients once she set the iron pot slighty away from the flames. She began to mix them in a small mortar and pestle, grinding them down to a fine paste. The smell seems to have grow stronger, now a mix of the cooked meal and something herbal. If how the Spy Bat was acting was anything to go by. Then adding a little bit of water into the paste. She then chops up the remaining vegetables into find pieces before she finds a pan and dump the finely chopped pieces into it along with the paste. Skell seems to be quite focused on the task at hand, her skeletal hands moving with surprising dexterity over the fire. Thalmor and Ironwing continue their discussion as they observe Skell''s culinary skills unfold before their eyes. "I wonder what she plans to make with those?" Thalmor says, tilting his head slightly to the side, his curiosity growing. Ironwing shrugs his shoulders, "Perhaps a sauce for the main dish. It''s quite common for Cooks to prepare something to enhance the flavor." It was not long before Ironwing was proven true and once she had added all the cooked ingredients into a plate to served on, the cooked meat looking rightout delicious despite its simple nature. The vegetables holding a nice hue and looked just as good as the meat. The newly made sauce seems to just add to the whole meal. The same imp who had vanished showed up shortly after Skell was done with her task, looking at the meal with quite the hunger before her. "Call me a hag, this doesn''t look half bad." The imp could not help but say. Her stomach growling a bit too loudly as she took in the sight of the food that Skell had cooked. But before the imp could as much as try a bite, its face changed from one of hunger to pain for just a moment. Then as if a switch, the imp simple found something use as a lit for the plate and said" I''ll be taking this to the taste testers shortly. You." The imp pointed at Skell " Start to clean up. The next test will start as soon as the taste test is done." "Ready to try a meal made by an undead, Ironwing?" Thalmor asked the gargoyle with a smirk, as the imp disappeared with the plate of food. The Warden Lord was already making sure his desk as an open space for the meal that will be here within moments. Ironwing nodded, his stoney face betraying a hint of excitement. "Indeed, it''s not everyday one gets to eat something like this." Ironwing said just mere moments before the imp appeared before them, setting the meal on the desk before disappearing again. ''What a smell'' Thalmor thought, as the scent of roasted meat and vegetables filled the air. The aroma was heavenly, even to a demon. Leaning forward to get a better sniff of it. Despite the simple ingredients used, it was clear that Skell had the talent of a proper chef if given enough time to properly learn. ''And not get killed off by chance caused by one haunty high ranked servents of the Lord for just having a bad day and need to let out steam'' Thalmor thinks to himself as he and Ironwing get themself ready to enjoy the meal. Meanwhile, back in the test room Skell, or Carrie as her true name was, was busily cleaning up the small ''kitchen'' she found herself in. Wondering for all that was good what her next test was going to be. Chapter 3 Carrie genuinely had no clue what to actually think on how her day has been so far. The strange blue boxes suddenly showing up, the pain that came with it and then the Warden Lord showing up and immediately test her as soon as he found out she''d gained her class and elemental affinty. "I guess today''s just full of surprises," Carrie mused to herself, even as she finish up the last of the now clean dishes and what not. She had not liked it when the imp had ordered her to clean up after she was done cooking the simple meal she had made, but at least it gave her some time to think through what had happened so far. And secretly test out a few things too. She had tried thinking of her status window to appear before her instead of saying it aloud. And it had worked wonders and made her happy to know she did not need to actually speak the words to get it to show up. Then she had done a few experimental mind taps, for lack of better words, to check out a few things in this menu box thing of hers. Starting with her new race and type. What was shown did not exactly bring her into a good mood.
Undead: Once part of the living now cursed to wander once again as something that should not even be alive. Comming in many varients and types, they are one of the evil banes that plague the lands of the living and good. Known for their unending hunger for flesh and souls, along with a unyielding hate for the living as well. Many sees them as a natural enemy.
Her type, Lesser Skeleton, just made things worse.
Lesser Skeleton: The weakest of the Skeleton Undead found around the world, children can easily kill one with a thick stick or branch. The only things that are weaker than a Lesser Skeleton are Slimes and Lesser Goblins. They are used mainly as cannon fodder and to scare children to eat their vegetables.
If Carrie still had a heart, it''ll been on the ground at the information she had gained by tapping at her race and type. She had hoped, perhaps naively, that her new life would grant her some power or status, but instead she had been saddled with the burden of being the weakest of the weak, the laughing stock of the undead world. But she had to keep moving forward, there had to be something useful in this menu thing. Tapping on her stats just gave her additional info that she is not sure was needed given the names are very self explanatory in and of themself. But she was not gonna deny that some of it did help her understand that there are limits to her new body. Her strength was a good example of that. While only at a measly 9, it nonetheless meant she at least had enough to carry a bag of potatoes on her back. Even if she would be struggling with it for a good bit at the start. And even if her punches can do little to no damage to those who had a far higher endurance than her strength or wearing decent armour, she was at least able to handle most common low ranked weapons that don''t require a lot of strength to wield. Knowing she would be able to use a common dagger or short sword later on to be able to do a little more damage was good to know. Though she had no idea what a low ranked weapon meant. She was also happy to know that with a little bit of training or hard labor her strength and other stats would increase naturally. Though given her undead and skeletal nature, she was unsure how that worked. She could also increase her stats by leveling up or evolve. But she had no idea how that even worked much less how to start on either of the two. But at least she was doing good in the other stats, excluding her luck which was not only at 5 but was the only stat that needed special means like a very lucky event or something of the kind to increase. Having 17 point in agility did not make her a Usain Bolt, but she was a lot faster than most Lesser Skeletons are and her undead nature made it possible for her to chase someone down for days at end since undead don''t need to eat, drink or sleep. It also seems to allow her to use ranged weapons like bows or slings. She was really happy about that her 18 in endurance gave her not only a larger pool of health and better health regeneration, but also increased her resistance to physical damage too. It also meant she can wear simple and basic leather armour with little issue. Or so the blue box said anyways. And she had to admit that her 12 in dexterity was not too shabby either, it meant she had some decent hand eye coordination and could dodge some attacks if needed. It also meant that while not decent, if she is throwing or shooting something, she has slightly better aim as well. She was most happy to know that dexterity was the main stat most crafters needed, her Cook class included, so she was going to work hard to increase that one as best as she can. Her intelligence and wisdom, 11 and 10 respectfully, are not bad either. Sure she''s no mage, but a mana pool of 23 and being able to generate a few points of mana every hour was not bad all things considered. At least it allowed her to use her skills and spells a lot more times than any other Lesser Skeleton. Speaking of which, her skills and spell lists are quite something. Skill wise, she has a lot of them and the list is long. Long enough that several groups has formed out of them to keep it all properly sorted. Passive, Active, Race, Class and more are just some of the groups on the list. Her spell list however? Theres only two spells in there, and she only got them due to her elemental varient. If she wants to have more, she needs to find someone willing to train her or gain them by other means like spell books or old tomes. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. But Carrie was not gonna look a gift horse in the mouth, even if the two spells she has is pretty darn useless in combat and are of the lowest of fire type spells. Not to mention their names. Ignite and Hot Hands. Yeah, not the most intimidating names for spells, especially for a creature that was supposed to strike fear into the hearts of the living. Carrie rolled her non existence eyes at the thought of trying to scare someone with a spell called Hot Hands. The description of the spells are at least useful. Ignite is what it says, letting her ignite anything flammable within a certain range and allow her to not rely solely on flint and steel to set something on fire. Not to mention as a fire varient of the Lesser Skeleton, her hands could be used as torches to light her way when using Ignite on them. Sure she''ll take damage doing so, but being a fire varient meant that the damage was much less then it would have been and take longer to happen as well. Hot Hands was not much better. It basically allowed her to warm or cook things using her bare hands. It was the equivalent of a microwave in a world where everyone used a stove or a campfire. Sure it''d save time, but it''s not like she was in a rush to defrost a pizza or anything. Though knowing she has a way to cook, roast or grill something when theres nothing to use or make a fire with was admittedly helpful. And the mana consumption wasn''t so bad either, 1 to 1 rotation from what she could tell. She had to test these spells out, especially since she managed to accidently activate one of them when she was working on her task of making a meal. The panic she had felt at seeing her hand on fire again was not funny at all. At least she know that if theres water nearby, she can just put her hands into it to deactivate her spells. As for her skills? Carrie don''t even know where to begin with them. Her race alone gave her like a dozen skills alone, her class another 5 and she seems to have gained some extra skills from her life back on Earth as well. But just by doing a curiosity glance, she notice something about her skills. Especially the passive ones. She has passives that are both good and bad for her. Good like Bone Durability and Slash Immunity. The first made the bones that her body is made of stronger than what normal bones would be thanks to the magical nature that keeps them in place. While the second one made it so that any bladed weapon did little to no damage to her. Unless the one who uses the blade have enough strength that it can just smash her to pieces instead. Which as it turns out she is quite weak agains blunt, smash or piercing type weapons thanks to the following skills. Blunt Vulnerability and Piercing Vulnerability. Both of which does exactly what it says on the tin. She also had the more classic weakness of the undead. Light and Holy based magic, skills or items are the bane of her new life. And she also has a natural weakeness to fire as well. But once again it seems her Fire Element negates that weakness to be far less useful to exploit. She''ll still take damage from it, but unlike a normal Lesser Skeleton, she''ll only take a point or three of damage instead of like half her health. Given her health pool was at 83, that was a small comfort to know someone can''t just kill her by using a simple torch or a burning branch. She''ll take what little blessings she has. Carrie lets a sigh escape from her skeletal jaw as she takes another quick glance at her skills. She''ll have to look further into them when she actually have the time to do it, as it seems the imp is about to return if the red glowing circle that suddenly lights up was anything to go by. And it seems the imp had more supplies with it this time. Its carrying a small bag on its back as it flies over to the table before Carrie, where its starts to take out the contents within the bag. Theres a lot of fruits, at least that what she thinks most of the ingredients are. She''s never seen half of them before, but can recognize what looks like apples, peaches, pears, oranges and a few berries as well. In the bag is are also three other smaller bags as well. One of which the imp seems very reluctant to take out. But does it anyways after a small moment of hesitation. Then a few glass jars is taken out filled with strange syrup like liquid in them. Then a small strange looking wooden cotainer of some sort and a large, sealed clay jar that smelled like milk was put on the table as well. "Alright Bonesy." The imp starts, not noticing or care that Carrie gives her best attempt at glaring at it at the what it just called her. "Your next task is to make a dessert with what you got." Then the imp points at the three smaller bags and the wooden container." Two of this bags are tiny Bags of Holding, both having the flour and sugar you need. While the last one has eggs for you to use. While this container has the butter and that this jar the milk." As the imp speak it also pull one last thing out of its bag. "And ring this bell three times when your done." Said bell, one that you could easily hold in your hand, was placed on the table as well. Then without a word, the imp vanish once again. Leaving Carrie to her own once again. It takes a moment for Carrie to start, as she stare at the ingredients before her. Her mind racing to think what she could possible make with what she had. She knew a few recipes that migth actually work. But then a thought hit her, and she slowly looks at her bare bone kitchen before her. Namely the stone stove. "How the hell am I supposed to bake when I only have a simple stone stove that don''t even have a oven build into it?" She asked to no one but herself. It takes a bit before Carrie start to look around the test room for something to help with that, with the stone shelf that hold all the cooking utilities being her best bet. Though she did find out there was a small hole in the room that was actually a well that hold fresh clean water for her to fill up the clay pot with. But as she looks through the stone shelf, she can''t help but complain a little with what she finds. "I know I accepted the fact that most likely I''m in the middle ages as far as technology is concerned. Its kinda hard not to notice given I''ve been living in a cell for the last month with a bucket of water, a bunch of hay for a bed and a simple torch for light. Not to mention with how the guards are suited up." She mumbles as she digs deeper into the shelf. "But theres got to be something here I can use!" She continues to say, getting more and more agitated as she searches. Then she finds something that gives her an idea. She takes the items out and place them on the table real quick before returning to the shelf and pick up some utensils as well. The a few wooden cups and other containers. Then she looks at the ingredients before her and start to think for a few more moments. "Let''s see if this works. [Status Window], Cook Class please!" She speaks with a bit too much vigor at the command. But she don''t mind it whatsoever when the blue box shows up. And if Carrie''s skull could smile, it would. And it would have been as wide as the grinning cat Alice meet in wonderland. As the blue box shows her what her Cook class has to offer, Carrie can think of a few desserts that would do just the trick. Meanwhile in Thalmor''s office, he and Ironwing are looking at the magical mirror in utter confusion as they watch Carrie started to once again lit the fire on the stove again, the previous flames having slowly gone down to embers after not been attend to for quite some time gvien Carrie used quite a bit of time to go searching for something. But what happens next when the skeleton start to prepare the ingredients as both demon and gargolye look at each with looks of befuddlement. Carrie though? She''s starting to slowly hum a tune as she prepare the batter, fruits, berries and syrups she''s been given. Far too concentrated on what she was going to make to care even if she got to know she was starting to worry the Warden Lord and his companion. Chapter 4 Carrie likes to think that being able to work 3 to 5 part-time jobs in any given year, gives her not only more work experience than most other part-timers. But also give her the chance to learn a lot of different things that might become useful one day. She''s been a cashier, cleaner, stocker, handler and various other roles when she got a job at a store, supermarket, restaurant, pet shops, various food shops that handle raw ingredients or cook meals for their customers, diners, cafes and much more for a decade. Even worked as part of her city''s waste disposal for a couple of years when she was unable to find better work. It has given her a lot of different skills that not only should have let her get a more stable and permanent job. But also one that would actually let her do what she went to school for. Cooking. But none of this seems to be in her hand of cards. No matter how much she tries or how many interviews she goes through, bad luck seems to follow her in becoming a certified chef. It''s as if the universe is playing some cosmic joke, keeping her stuck in the cycle of minimum wage and no benefits. Each rejection feels like a knife twisting in her gut, her culinary school diploma gathering dust in a corner of her apartment. At least when she got the diners and cafes jobs, there was always a 50/50 chance in wether or not she could cook instead of just cleaning or serving the food. But she always took what she could get. Her passion for cooking had never wavered, even when her bank account was as empty as her fridge at the end of the week because the bills had to be paid first. Another plus side to working at diners and cafes was that she tend to be lucky that there are always a manager or a boss who don''t mind she or other employees take leftover food with them home at the end of the day. To them, thats less that needs to get thrown out or go to waste. Not to mention it did not end up feeding the rats and other pests. Sometimes this was the only times she was able to eat anything in the day. Aside from drinking water whenever she had a small enough break she could get away with it. Being as poor as one can get, without ending up living on the street, was not fun. But Carrie learned well how to get the most out of every dollar and cent she earned. Various salse and seasoning she picked up from her different jobs, sometime even stealing them if necessary, she figured out how to turn even the most bland food into a delightful feast. Her culinary school training had taught her that with enough skill and hard work, even the cheapest ingredients could be transformed into a Michelin-star worthy meal. The fact that she also quickly learn how to make most of her own bread, jams, various condiments, pickles and much more by just buying the bare necessities was a good skill to have. And being a horder of all sort of containers so she could plan ahead on what she had to eat for the next few weeks always made it a little easier to live and keep her sane. And when she had a day off, she was even able to give herself small rare treats to cook should she have managed to squirrel away any spare money that did not go to bills, living exspences, or the occasional pack of ramen. She would treat herself to a fresh vegetable here and there, a bit of meat that was not so close to expired it was practically begging to be used. Or even by a single cup of pudding for a well deserved dessert of that week. She especially liked it when chrismas came around, not only because of the festive atmosphere, but because people were more generous with tips. And if lucky, some of her bosses from her various part-time jobs was willing to pay their workers just a little more that month thanks to all the sales. It was the time where she got the most money and actually allowed her to buy something new or nice for herself. But that was back on Earth and when she was human. Not someone who wakes up as the weakest type of undead skeleton in what is definitely in another world where demons and monsters exists. The skeletal woman has no idea if this is another joke the universe has played on her, or a twisted form of cosmic justice for the way she''s lived her life. But here she is anyways, now making simple pancakes by using what she have been given to make a dessert. Though this time she is making sure to make two plates. When the imp had previously come and gotten the simple meal she''d made as her first task, it had mentioned taste testers. She had no idea how many of the taste testers there are. But two plates with six or eight pancakes on them should do the trick in making sure everyone got a taste. That had actually made her feel bad that she had only made one plate of well cooked and seasoned meat and vegetables, with a her own homemade sauce. The sauce had actually been a bit of a gamble as most of the herbs and spices she had was not the ones she was used to work with. Neither was the meat or vegetables for that matter. While some of them looked like something she''d would found back home, there was clearly many that did not. She had also not worked out her skills yet either, which when she managed to get the blue box to tell her what skills she had a Cook would have helped her immensly. Carrie suspects she still hasn''t, even as she flips the pancakes with practice hands. Finding out she had a skill called [Ingredient Identify] would have made things easier for her when she cooked that first meal. But she was not going to cry over spilled milk. With now knowing of it, at least she has learned about what she had to use now. Blaze Apples, Sour Peaches and Blood Raspberry was just some of the things her identify skill managed to tell her and inform her of what they were usually used for. Or where they came from. The less said about how Blood Raspberries grew in gardens where the blood from still very much living people or beasts by bloodletting them right over or gathering it in a bowl to water the plant, the less Carrie would have nightmares about it. Then again, as a undead skeleton she did not sleep at all. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. It did not mean it did not send a terrible chill down her spine. Nor explain how she felt sick about the information the skill gave her. It might be because that despite looking and being a undead now, she was still very much human inside. She had quikcly put the raspberries and any other fruit that made her feel like that away. And that meant most of them. But the last few she''d had left would work just fine. As a skeleton, she might not be able to eat or taste anything anymore but if what her skill said is true, the woman had little to worry about. Or so she at least hoped. Getting them cleaned had not been too hard. Sure she had to soak them first in another pot for a good 5 to 10 minutes, but making sure that there was no unpleasent creatures and the like on them was a must. But after that, things was pretty easy to dry and clean them. At least those 5 to 10 minutes gave her a chance to check out the glass jars with syrup like liquid in them. Along with the flour, milk, sugar, eggs and butter. The syrups turned out to actually be honey harvest from a bee monster found somewhere down south in a country called Zilantis. Said country though could not be found in the lands Carrie was currently in. The blue box told her she was in a country called the Demonic Country. Where the Demon Lord rules over many monsters, demons and undead. Said country was also in a war with the humans, elves, dwarfs and many other good or neutral aligned nations. And a huge wall at the border was currently the only thing keeping the Demon Lord from sending their army out. So how this honey came here remained a mystery to her. And that was not mentioning all the other things she''d learned from tapping on the things that the blue boxes showed her. But it was something she would had to think and look further into once she was back in her cell, as Carrie had no illusion nor want to test the demons patient more than needed. The flour was at least more normal-ish. It was made of simple barley and both the butter and milk came from some domesticated hell-cow creature. From what the skill told, the milk tasted like any common cow milk, but with a slight spicy taste to it. How spicy the taste was, Carrie had no idea. But she be a monkey''s uncle if was spicier then spiced eggnog. As for the eggs and sugar? Well the eggs was from another domesticated creature that belonged either in hell or a made up book of monsters. From what the blue box said, the only difference between the ''chicken'' and its earth version equivalent its the third eye and ability to spit acid at will. The sugar was simplely another ingredient that like the honey somehow ended up here. And the only shocking part was that she found out is was the type of sugar that went for gold coins in wight. Which explained why the imp had hesitated with taking it out of the small bag it had with it when it came to give her the next task and new supplies. The honey was pretty exspensive too, but not as much as the sugar. Either way, Carrie quickly planned to avoid using up too much of the sugar and honey. The pancakes was going to be sweet enough with what she had planned anyways. Making pancake batter was easy enough. Despite what some people might think, making pancake batter with only five ingredients aren''t that bad. Sure she is unable to make it the fluffy big ones with what she got, but everyday pancakes aren''t that bad either. "I mean." Carrie mutters low enough the Spy Bat don''t pick up what she has to say, as she set the second plate with steaming hot pancakes on it and continue to talk to herself as she beings to add the cleaned and chopped fruits to on them. "People eat it for breakfast, lunch and for dinner back at home. So me serving it as a dessert ain''t hypocritical at all. Theres plenty of other pancake recipes found all over earth that used for that alone." She goes on as she drizzle a nice splash of honey as the finishing touch. With a light dizzle of sugar on top. "Beside, when you have a skill that can add yeast magically to what your making when you don''t have any on hand, helps more than one would think." Carrie finish of her muttering as she takes a few seconds to look at the finsihed dishes before nodding to herself. Then Carrie quickly rings the bell three times, like she had been told to, and within seconds three imps appeared before her. The two new imps share very similare features as the imp Carrie recognized, but was clearly a little bigger than it and their horns was more ram like. All three looked at the two plates with hunger in their eyes. "Right then," the smaller one began after a little while, looking at its compaions with a stern look on its face. "Bonesy, start the clean up, and Hark? You start gathering the supplise, the head chef wants them back as soon as possible." Then looking at the other sligthly bigger imp it said. "Tax, you and I will take these to the taste testers, and by the mercy of the Hells don''t try to sneak a bite! The Warden Lord will have your hide and head if you do!" It said with a glare Carrie was sure could melt stone. Not that she''d care much, as she was already cleaning up just to avoid getting its attention. Imp it might be, but they were still stronger than her. Maybe not by much but Carrie had no idea how well her chances were to deal with three of them. And she had no idea how to even fight for that matter. The one named Hark looked quite disappointed that it was not allowed to take a bite of the pancakes, neither did the one named Tax for that matter as it and the other imp quickly disappear to deliver the plates to the test testers. Hark quickly began gathering up the ingredients that was left, pulling bags out of a black hole. And started to mutter about unfairness and all that as it did as orded. Carrie once again did not care much, focuses on with getting the cleaning done as fast as possible instead. She just wants the day to be over now. Though she did let herself idly wonder if there was anything else these imps wanted her to cook today. Meanwhile, Thalmor and Ironwing was having one of the best desserts they have ever tasted. Pancakes was clearly not something neither the demonic Warden Lord nor the metal made gargoyle have ever had, and they were enjoing every piece of it. Small shouts of delight could be heard from them as they devoured the food. If one cared and dared to take an ear to the door that is. A little while later, another imp appeared before Carrie in the test room. And in its hands were a new leash and dog collar that seems to have bronze plates stitched on it. The imp was quick to change the one Carrie had been wearing up until now before she was even able to react, then pulled back to her cell with little input or word. It was only a few hours later that she overheard one of the guards that she learned why she was back in the cell. Her new tests and tasks was going to be at the training grounds and the Warden Lord himself was going to be incharge of them. That bit of news made dread rise up within Carrie''s soul, though it lessend a little when she heard that it won''t happened until the day after tomorrow. Giving the lesser skeleton time to figure out more on what her skills can do. As well as learn as much as she could from the blue boxes while she was at it. Chapter 5 Its has been a long time since Thalmor had personally seen to a test at the traning grounds of this old fortress that still stand close to the border and frontier. Thalmor has called this place home ever since he was a little imp himself, before he gained his class and later on evolved twice to become the mighty demon he is today. Sure he is still by all accounts considred a low ranked demon by some. But his strength, pride and sense of duty has shown how well earned his title as Warden Lord proved it would not be long before he reach the middle ranks. But that was not important right now. No, what was important was his duty to properly test out Skell''s physical prowess and combat ability. And teach her how to actually use her skills properly. While he and Ironwing had notice that the lesser skeleton have been starting to get the hang of it, with the guardsmen having reported to him that they have seen Skell having been working on that too in her cell while he and Ironwing had been busy this week. It meant that it would not take long for them to finish that part of the test and training that Thalmor was going to do to Skell. Unfortunatly due to Skell belonging to the undead, there had to be some uncommon adjustments made to the tests and training to happen. It was nothing new nor something special for the undead alone. Many times then not, Thalmor has to work with the commander and workers to adjust the traning grounds when testing out a newly evolved monster. Or someone who has gained their class or varient type. Most of the time the adjustments was pretty easy to do. Make sure theres a small team with plenty of buckets of water, or even better a water mage or two, to put out any fires should whomever they are testing become a fire elemental varient. Fix up a few training courses or sparring matches if gained a class or evolved. Set up various targets to test out any range or close combat skills ect ect. With Skell though? Things had to be done a bit differently. If not for her undead nature that made some of the training courses useless or because she gained both a varient type and class at the same time. With the latter being a craft based class at that, gaining the Cook class. And the former a fire varient. It was not the most useful class found around in a war. But that was what those with no common sense on the battlefield thought anyways. The commander however was well aware how a good meal can help boost soldiers morale and keep them from getting desperate. And a army don''t march on empty stomachs as everyone knows. Unless you are either a undead like Skell, or some golem based creature. The commander though, a Werewolf of almost 7 feet tall, littered with scars from countless battles over her many years as a soldier of the Demon Lord''s army and having a sepcial made prosthetic arm after loosing it to a Hero some years back, had been both disappointed and truely confused to learn that the possible new cook was a undead. And a lesser skeleton at that. Much like Thalmor and Ironwing, the werewolf was well aware that undead don''t or rather can''t cook. Especially those of so low rank they were barely worth anything. It had taken both of them days to convince the skeptical commander of Skell''s potential. They had to explain how much of a abnormality she was to her fellow skeleton kin. With Ironwing having to explain the signs of the skeleton actually being one of the rare few undead to have more of their older selfs intact than being just a drone to hurl at their enemies in droves. So much so that she was self-aware and even able to talk. Which was very rare to find among the undead unless of very high rank as Ironwing had pointed out. This bit and what they had already told the werewolf, had finally convinced her to give Skell a shot, though she remained skeptical. The training grounds were now a mix of the usual spikes and swinging logs, with proper running course and a small obstacle course, as well as a small area set to for Skell to properly learn how her most basic skills as a skeleton worked. Irongwing was also with him, as Thalmor needed the gargoyle''s knowledge of undead to make sure things went right. Especially in the skill department. Low ranked skeletons don''t have a lot of attack skills to begin with. And Skell had to earn at least two new ones before they started on her spell tests. That area was also more of Ironwings fort. But that won''t happen unless for a good while yet. Skell first had to be thoroughly tested physcially first. Beside, this gave Ironwing a chance to carefully watch how the skeleton would react to many different things and learn just how much of her old self was still there. As well as learn just how much mana the skeleton has at her disposal. That last thing was rather very important matters when it came to magic. Thalmor himself only had a handful of spells thanks to his last demon evolution offered gave him some. But even he knew that mana was a delicate thing to handle even before he gained the spells thanks to having to be mindful of his skill usage. But with spells though? Too much and it could overwhelm a creature and blow them apart at the worse, or if they were not careful, it could leave them drained and unable to fight for hours if not days on end. A small shudder runs down his spine when he remember the first time he had experienced the latter part. Getting your mana drained to 0 was just some of the worse things the Warden Lord had experience so far. Aside from the punishments he received back when he was a imp. But that was a long time ago, and he had learn his lessons well. "You alright there Thalmor?" Ironwing asks the Warden Lord, having notice the sudden shudder that had come upon his demonic companion. The gargoyle was holding a book in one hand, with a floating inkwell by his side and a quill in the other. Ready to take notes on the skeleton''s performance. And what else the gargoyle deems necessary. "Yes, just excited to finally get started. It took way too long to get everything set up." The demon answers back with a wave of his hand, a little diverted from his thoughts. The training ground is alive with the sound of clanking steel and the smell of freshly carved dirt as the workers put the final touches to the obstacle. The chuckle that comes from Ironwing held only mirth at how Thalmor had answered. "Well it did take a good few days for Lady Lorelai to agree to this after all. The commander is not a easy woman to please nor to convince." He says before he dips his quill into the ink and starts to write something down in his book. Before Thalmor could say anything back, he and Ironwing heard the a door from the armoy open and out of it walked Skell, dressed up in basic traning gear that all new soldiers wore on their frist day on the traning gounds. The grin that formed on Thalmor face would have made a lesser man faint if seening it. The demon''s eyes shining at the lesser skeleton who somehow was able to look horrified at what she was seeing, despite lacking any features or a proper face to do so. "Welcome to the traning grounds!" Thalmor said all too happy and eager, the demon was pretty sure a ''eep'' came out of the skeleton at those words.
"Welcome to the traning grounds!" Is the word that makes the dread that have been slowly building inside Carrie finally come to a head. She looks around the space, which to her opinion looked like hell. She sees what she can only call open spike traps in the ground with swinging logs ready to make it even worse for her. A running course that also have its own obstacles for her to go through. Along with obstacle course that seems to be more strength and enudrance based from what she can see. And then there was what looked like a small fighting area or maybe a sparring area? She wasn''t too sure, but is certainly looked like a place where you either trained against straw made dummies or fight someone to simply train. In someways, it did not look bad. Even inviting if you ignored the fact that some of the obstacles definitely could been seen as death traps to some. But then she looks were the voice of the Warden Lord had come from, and Carrie''s nonexistent heart dropped once again. And then she felt slightly confused as she also notice the warden was with someone. A....gargoyle perhaps? ''But aren''t they made of stone and not metal? And only one pair of wings?'' Carrie thinks as she notice the metal gleam coming from the thing that stand beside the warden. It is also covered in robes as well as have a book and feather pen in its hands, with a floating inkwell right beside. Making it looking like a scholar of some sort. And the warden? Usually Carrie saw the demon dressed in simple but well made armor when on duty. Now he wore something that resembled something more used for training than battle. A pair of thick leather pants and a chest piece that looked like it could withstand a sword slash. And in his hand was a whip that crackled with energy. Along with what Carrie managed to recognize as a large two-handed sword of some type on his back. It took all of Carrie''s willpower to not let out anymore then the small ''eep'' that managed to sneak out. And hoped the warden or his companion did not notice it.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. It all frankly made Carrie wish, not for the first time, that this was all a dream again. But this was her new reality and there was nothing she could do about it. At least the week has not been a total drag and filled only with dread. She had no idea why it had taken so long for this part of her test to start, knowing she was supposed to have it a few days ago. But she had nonetheless been greatful for the extra time. And she had used that to learn as much as she can from the blue boxes. As well as try and test out some of her other skills as well. And her spells? She''d elected to not use them in her cell, mainly because it was just a bad idea ingeneral to even try when she knew there were guards around and trying to use a spell involving fire was just asking for disaster to happen. Even if she had a bucket of water nearby to use. And through all this she had learn a few things. One was that most of her race skills involved passives. Both good and bad. Out of the 10 skills she has in her race, only three are attack based. Well three was a bit of a stretch, as the last one was something she gained due to her fire varient and was a last suicidal chance to do damage before she died. [Suicidal Flaming Skull], as the skill was so lovely named, basically allowed Carrie one last desperate attack by setting her skull on fire and throw at her enemies. And when hitting something or someone, a large area will be filled with magical fire that would cause something called the Burn Status and cause quite the fire damage around the area. But as the name suggested, it was something you used when you were out of options. And Carrie wasn''t too keen on trying it out. As no doubt it would also mean her death too if she had to throw her own skull to make it work. But the other two? They were at least useful if a little underwhelming and basic as basic can go. [Bite] and [Claw] may not be the most impressive skills but they were skills nonetheless. And she had been able to use them, even if it was against the rock walls of her cell. And even with her lack of strength, she had felt a difference in the force behind each strike of [Claw]. As well as notice her boney fingers becoming sharper when the skill was used. [Bite] came with a brief sense of pain as her teeths become sharper and jaws tougher? Carrie frankly did not know what changes happened when she activated the skill, the bucket of water not allowing her to see much change. Not to mention the poor flickering torch she had for light. But she knows that the changes of her jaw and teeth means a easier time for her to damage whomever are her enemies. She also found out when testing these two, that she did not have the best success rate of using them. She was unsure if it was due to something being wrong with her or there was something she was just missing. But she is only able to use either skill 1 out of 10 times successfully so far. Or so she has guessed. Carrie was sure it was not due to the mana cost of using either skill, both costing no more than 3 mana points per use. As her mana pool drops each time she use either, wether it was a successful use or not. But she had not given up hope, as she had seen the potential in both skills. If she could just manage to use them more often, she might be able to hold her own against some of the lesser creatures of this world. And she had to start from somewhere anyways. Her class skills was also of no use either, mainly because she needed to be in a kitchen to use them given her class is Cook. Aside from [Ingredient Knowledge] and a skill called [Pan Strike]. Yeah she has a attack skill in her class, though this seems to be one of the few extra skills she has gained due to her previous life back on Earth. Carrie has the sneaking suspicion that skill came from the numerous times she''d accidentally hit someone when badly startled. Or the few times she had to use the pans to survive against robbery or those with less then friendly intentions. Some of her part-time jobs did not have the best security around. Especially when it came to the night shifts. Either way, she needed to have a pan in her hand to use it. Or at the very least something pan like. There are a few other skills that are also based on her life from Earth as well. But before Carrie can think further, the voice of the Warden Lord rang out once again. Carrying a tone of annoyance to it this time. "Oi! Do you have a brain or not Skell!? Get over here so we can start!" It took a small moment, even when the voice startled her badly, to realize that the warden had meant her when he had said the name ''Skell''. Either way, Carrie was quick to comply and arrived infront of the demon and his odd companion. After a moment that stretch into awkwardness, the annoyed look on the warden''s face changed into confusion. "Well?" He started, seemingly expecting for Carrie to do something. She however just stayed still and silent, mainly because she had no idea what to actually do or what he wants. It wasn''t until the metal creature beside the warden that Carrie got a clearifcation, and it made her nonexistent blood run cold. "Little Skell." It began, having a much deepr voice then the warden, with a gravelly and earthen like tone to it. "Both me and Warden Lord Thalmor here are aware that you can talk. So if you would?" It ended with a questioning look on its face. Carrie''s reaction to that reveal was to fumble a bit, letting out various sounds before she managed to speak. "Ah, eh, uh Carrie Blackburn at your service?" was what she managed to say, the questioning end and unsureness to her voice not making the skeleton feeling any better. Warden Lord Thalmor raised an eyebrow, looking slightly amused by her stumbling. "Well, it seems we have a proper greeting from our little Skell here," he said with a chuckle, the whip in his hand crackling slightly with the motion. The metal gargoyle just stared at her, unreadable at first before it smilled at her. "At ease." The being said, before he started to point at itself and the Warden Lord beside it. "My name is Ironwing, a magic user and scholar of the arcane arts. And this as you must already be aware of is Warden Lord Thalmor. You current caretaker for lack of better words." "Ah yes sir. Uh, I''m sorry to ask this all of a sudden but are you are gargoyle sir?" May both answered and asked. Earning a small chuckle from the pair before her. "Indeed I am. Though I''m whats called a Steel Gargoyle, a rare evolution of your standard gargoyle." Ironwing''s smile grew slightly wider, showing a glint of metal. "But let us not dilly dally for too long. Do you know why you are here Miss Blackburn?" Ironwing asked her again and Carrie was quick to answer this time. Sounding more sure as well, which made the demon nod in approval. "To test my physical and combat abilities." "And to train." The Warden Lord Thalmor said, earning a confused sound from the skeleton before her. Which once again made the demon chuckle. "Lesser Skeletons aren''t know for having a lot of combat or attack skills. So part of this test require you to at least gain two new skills related to that." "Speaking of which, Miss Blackburn. Do you know how to use and activate your status menu?" Ironwing spoke again, looking at her with a mix of curiosity and patience. At her nod, Ironwing then asked if she also knew how to access her skills as well. At another nod, he then asked her to list any attack or combat skill she currently had. "Um." Carrie started, taking a moment to quickly glance at her skills before she spoke again. "I have [Bite], [Claw], [Suicidal Flaming Skull] and [Pan Strike]." Which earned her a confused look from Thalmor at some of the skills names. But Ironwing just nodded as she told what he wanted to know. "Quite a bit more then what is normal for your kin. Usually you lot only have [Bite] and [Claw] to use, maybe even [Bone Spike] or [Bone Throw] if lucky." Ironwing said as he write down something in the book at his hand before he raised his head to speak at her again. "I take it the [Suicidal Flaming Skull] skill is something you have from your fire affinty yes?" At Carrie''s nod, Ironwing asked if she could discrbe it to him. So, Carrie did her best to explain how it worked, trying to keep the fear and reluctance in her voice as little as possible. The looks that landed on both the demon and gargoyle, a dawning understanding and seemingly their own reluctance, made her feel a bit better when Warden Lord Thalmor spoke up. "Alright then, not having you using that one then. Demons and gargoyles may not take much fire damage ingeneral. But the commander would have my head if the training grounds becomes a mess and we need you to stay alive. Well as alive as a undead can be anyways." the warden quickly corrected himself at the last bit. Ironwing nods at that. "I agree. While such skills are rare to have, theres a reason why it has the word ''suicidal'' to it and are seen as last resorts." "The [Pan Strike] is from your Cook class then?" Thalmor asked, looking more curious than before. Carrie nodded, starting to feeling more awkward then the dread and fear before. "I need a pan though to use it." Carrie quickly put in, making Thalmor nod. "That can be arranged quickly. Though I did not know craft classes can have combat or attack skills of their own." The demon said, then looking at Ironwing for answers. Which Carrie did too, as she was just as curious about it as well. "Oh they have, its just really rare since not many craft related classes needs to go and fight for their lives to get what they need nowadays. And [Pan Strike] is more of a defensive skill for when things go sideways in the kitchen. Or when to make sure that no one tries to sneak in a bite." Ironwing said, with a glint of amusement in his eyes. "And the once that do have such skills from the get go are usually based on woodcutters, miners and the like. They need to have a few such skills should they end up facing monster or other creatures that wants a fight when out in the mines, woods and such." The gargoyle add as he once again write things down in his book. "Alright then, Skell." Thalmor says, and Carrie is quick to realize that the Warden Lord is going to continue to call her that even if he knew what her name really is. Though if the skeleton was honest, ''Skell'' was not such a bad of a nickname. "Now that we know of what you already have, its time to start. I hope you are ready cause things are about to get interesting and fun." Thalmor said, the whip in his hands getting more energy. ''Aaand theres the dread and fear again'' Carrie can''t help but think as she looks behind her and sees whats in store for her once again. A sigh escapes from, which earns a quick laugh from the demon. Meanwhile, Ironwing had a small smile on his face at it all. "Alright then, Skell." Thalmor says, and Carrie is quick to realize that the Warden Lord is going to continue to call her that even if he knew what her name really is. Though if the skeleton was honest, ''Skell'' was not such a bad of a nickname. "Now that we know of what you already have, its time to start. I hope you are ready cause things are about to get interesting and fun." Thalmor said, the whip in his hands getting more energy. And a wide grin quickly appeared on the warden''s face. ''Aaand theres the dread and fear again.'' Carrie can''t help but think as she looks behind her and sees whats in store for her once again. A sigh escapes from her, which earns a quick laugh from the demon. Meanwhile, Ironwing had a small smile on his face seeing Carrie''s reaction. Chapter 6 If you think a month was all that was needed for Carrie''s human mind to get used to her skeletal body much less her undead nature, its on you if you get a pan to the face for thinking that. Courtesy, of course, done by Carrie herself. When you lived as a living and breathing human for 28 years, a month is not enough to come to proper terms with this aspect. That did not mean the former human had not made some strides though. She don''t flinch or wince at any of the clacking noises her body makes when she moves. Nor the occasional ''crack'' sounds that comes around when she have been standing around for who knows how long and started to move again. That sound had been much more common when her soul had not been fully ''intergrated'' to her new body. Which meant she had to deal with a type control that was just the worse until that bit was done. A new born had better control over their body than she did for christ sake! She still had some stiff movements, but Carrie figured with a little more time that would be fixed. Honestly? Carrie had been glad when the imp had dragged her to the test room and have her cook a few meals. It honeslty felt good doing something normal she did not mind much with how the imp had treated her. For the most part anyways. She also did not react much to seeing a skull instead of her face whenever she looked at the water in the bucket that was in her cell. Though she still felt a bang of longing for what she used to be regardless if she saw her skull or not. Seeing her boney limbs and what not made sure of that. But right now? Carrie finds herself greatful that her undead nature made it so she had endless stamina to use. Cause Thalmor was dead set on testing all her limits and then some. The obstacles, traps and courses was utter hell. And the Warden Lord seems to take great pleasure in seeing Carrie working her boney ass off. Especially after Thalmor had gotten Carrie to tell what her stats was so he knew what he was dealing with. That had confused her at first, until Ironwing explained that while the Warden Lord had a skill that could tell him if someone had gained a varient, class or what new evolution they''ve become, he can''t see someone stats aside from their health pool and mana pool. And if Thalmor was going to do his job right, he needed to know what her stats was before the traning started. And so Carrie did. Which had led to Carrie getting to know from the gargoyle that she was a lot stronger than most of her fellow lesser skeletons normally are. Most of the time, a lesser skeletons stats was somewhere between 0 to 5 at the most. With a rare few maybe having a extra point or two in a few stats if lucky. So her having 9 strength, 17 agility, 18 endruance, 11 intelligence, 10 wisdom, 12 dexterity and 5 luck, it easily made her the strongest among a group of lesser skeletons. That however did not mean she was invincible though, as Ironwing reminded her. According to him, while children would have a harder time in killing her now if they just went by stats alone. But the older ones and adults would still kill her within a hit or three at the most. Espeically the adutls as their stats, even untrained, tend to be in the 20s at the average. And that was not even adding the fact that wild monsters and beasts could be found in abounded around the world. Sure, Carrie could easily hunt a few even with her low stats, as some of these beasts was even weaker than her. But Ironwing nonetheless did not recommend that idea until she had some more combat or defense related skills first. Carrie honestly felt she did not need that reminder at all. She wasn''t eager to go to any fights or wars for that matter. And had been well aware just how weak her type of undead was in this world. Though she felt a bit better she at least had some advantages. "I''m aware." She had murmured to herself, though not low enough for Ironwing not to hear. Though before he had the chance to ask her, Thalmor had called for the tests and traning to start. At least going through all that had increase her physical stats by some. Her strength now was 15, agility at 21 and endurance at 23. Her dexterity had also increased but not as much as the other three. It was at 14 now. Thalmor nodded as Carrie informed the demon of such, while she was laying on the ground not out of exhaustion. Well in the physical sense anyways. It was different in when it came to her mental state. "That is far better than I could hope. And don''t worry about your dexterity not increasing as much, I may be a warrior based class but I know that the craft related lot needs dexterity more than any other stats. Once we start with some range training, that stat will go up soon enough. Right now its more importent we get the first three a little higher first." "Why?" Carrie asked, who still layed on the ground and looking like a flopped starfish with the way she was laying. "Well for one, its because of your class. Just because your a Cook, it does not mean you can neglect your other stats. I may not know much what cooks do on a daily bases. But I do know it can involve a lot of labor, especially if you end up having to feed a army." The demon said with a chuckle. "Okay that makes sense. What else?" Carrie asks, now finally starting to get up. Here a odd look falls on the Warden Lord''s face. "The second reason is due to how things works here in the Demonic Country." He started, taking a deep breath before he continues on. "Here strength and power means a lot more than it those in other nations or countries. Its thanks to several reasons, how the other nations have been treating us being one of them. But there are other reasons also. Mostly because of our pride and how things are often decided in death matches." "I''m sorry what?" Carrie asks with some worry in her voice, but Thalmor waves a hand in dismiss at it. "Not something we need to talk about right now. Ironwing will be incharge of you education and training on how to use your spells when we are done here. Right now we need to focus on you physical stats, weapons, and skill tests. Along with the training that comes with it all. The commander have given me a month to get it all done so chop chop Skell. We have work to do." At that was what Carrie found herself doing for the next month. In someways she hated every bit of it. Not because she hated doing anything physical, labor intense or physical training included. No, far from it. What made her hate it all, was the methods that Thalmor used. Traps of all kinds, obstacle course, training and weapon sessions that would make a spartan blush. The lesser skeleton was half convince Thalmor partly did this due to his demonic nature. But Carrie could not argue with the results. Most of her stats now was in the 20s, excluding intelligence, wisdom and luck that still remained below the 10s and 15s. Which was to expected as Thalmor was more focused on making sure Carrie had better chances on taking physical hits than magical ones. And as Carrie was told, that was more Ironwing''s fort anyways. She had also gained some new skills too, more than the required two. Which had surprised Thalmor at first, but he saw it more as a great benefit in the long run. She''d gained [Dagger Mastery] and [Sling Mastery], along with [Dash], [Iron Will], [Running Boost] and [Strength Up]. According to Thalmor most of these skills was basic ones you''d find in any warrior or fighting based class. And he had explained what each skill does whenever she had earned one as well. [Dash] was a skill that not only allowed her to run very fast for a short period but also enchanted her chances at dodging attacks to be better. And it had saved her quite a few times during the training sessions. The Warden Lord had even gone so far as to say she had a knack for it. Which had earned her a rare pat on the skull that didn''t feel like it was going to crack it. [Running Boost] and [Strength Up] was what was called buff skills and would boost the respective aspects that the name suggested for a period of time. At their current low levels it was not for very long nor much. But Carrie thinks a minute and a half with a 10% boost isn''t too bad. It was going to be a pain to use and level up though, as Thalmor had told her buff related skills or spells are a bit tricky to use and gain exp on. [Iron Will] was a passive that strengthen her willpower and mental fortitude. Along with making it harder for anyone to mess with her mind with things like illusions, mind attacks and the like. Carrie had actually had a full on body shiver when both Thalmor and Ironwing told her of the various creatures who prefer to hunt your mind then your flesh. And you could find them all over the world. This skill was also the rarest she had gained so far, as [Iron Will] was something you''d only gain by going through various mental feats that put a great strain on your mind and willpower. More often then not, being on a battlefield and fighting for your life. It honestly shocked the two how she was able to gain it to begin with. Carrie wasn''t though, as she had the a sneaking feeling again that her experience back on Earth had something to do with it.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. As for [Dagger Mastery] and [Sling Mastery]? They were both skills related to weapons that she could use. Carrie had prove to be terrible at bows, which Thalmor had not been very happy with as Carrie needed at least one range attack of some sort in her arsenal of skills. And given she only had Ignite to use as a sort of range option, the Warden Lord had deemed it a priority. It had been Ironwing who''d suggested they try out the slings instead. And it turned out she had a decent talent for it. Slings were also a lot easier for Carrie to actually use, as not only was it just some simple strings and a leather pouch to use. But it was also easy to aim and she could find amo aplenty without issue. It also had good synchronization with two other skills that Carrie was defently getting. [Throw] and [Aim]. The names themself are pretty self explained, but both skills comes with some added stats bonuses for her agility and dexterity as well. And of course makes her a lot better at either throwing or aiming. And the [Dagger Mastery] skill was so Carrie had more options when it came to close combat. While her [Pan Strike] and [Claw] skills gave her some already, Thalmor said there was no reason to not gain one more to have under ones sleeve to pull out when needed. "Lesser Skeletons are so weak Skell, most don''t see the point in learning what they can or can''t do. You can simplely use rocks and thick branches to kill them and be done with it. So most will see you as a easy source of experience at the worse. And dumb free labor at the best of times. And that is your greatest advantage." The demon had explained when testing and teaching her how to use various weapons. Even with her improved strength, daggers was choosen due to one simple thing. While she could also wield various small swords, small axes and a few other light weapons as well, in the end it was daggers that won due to the fact daggers are much easier to hide when working in a kitchen then a sword or axe would be. Not to mention, most don''t expect a cook to even have a weapon hidden on them either. Unless your a assassin. And as for how well she''s now doing with using her skills? She can now say she has a 50/50 chance to actually succeed. Its far better than the 1 out of 10 chance she had in the beginning. And Thalmor would have liked to get it higher, but they had run out of time to actually practice it. Thalmor found peace in the fact that as Carrie used her skills, no matter what type it was, she''ll eventually get to the point she can successfully use a skill without failing to do so. Unless she got interrupted that is, as was possible to happen to any skill or spell. However this have not been the only things to happen for Carrie. She no longer lived in a cell anymore. As soon as her first week of training and testing was done, Ironwing had personally led her to a small room that was barely bigger than her cell. But a far better upgrade in all. "This will be your new temporary living quarters from now on Miss Blackburn. Since your processes of gaining both a class and varient type is long since over, it was high time to change you living condition." "Am I even allowed any of this at all?" is all Carrie had managed to say after taking a look inside the room. There was a wooden bed strewed with hay or dried grass, with both a blanket and pillow that looked like they were made of leather and fur. A small table with a crud wooden chair and shelf beside it to store things in. There was also a small chest as well, sitting infront of the bed. On the table was a candle holder, with a small box beside it. In it was more candles for her to use as light. The room also got a small window, with bars on it. But it did give her a view of the outside, which was a lot more than what she had before. "Technically speaking, once a process is done and gone through most of the tests and training there after, you''d be sent back to the place you''ve been assigned to or working at before. Or transferred to a new place thats more suited to your new class, varient or evolution. You however is a bit of a special case and had not been assigned to anything when your processes was discovered." Ironwing had then moved his arms around the whole room as he continued on. "As such, we had to improvise a bit. Its not the best but it will do for now. Theres some simple hemp made clothes in the chest for you to use, just so you don''t need to wear that leather armor all the time. Once all the testing and training is done, you''ll be assigned to something more proper after the Commander has seen the results and decided where your needed." The gargoyle had said. It was in this room Carrie found herself now in, sitting on the bed and clad in the hemp made clothes, sporting a simple shirt and trousers with ropes keeping them both inplace given her skeletal body did not offer much to do so itself. She is slowly watching from the barred window as the night pass by slowly. A restless energy keeping her mind more occupied than ever at what was waiting for her once day comes. Tomorrow was her first ever lessons in magic and spells. Along with a much needed history lesson as Carrie had discovered the blue boxes she now refers to as the system, mostly because she was tried of calling them blue boxes, had not been very fort comming with info on the matter. Aside from what she had discovered back in that testing room months back, she''d barely gotten anything new of what exactly what the Demonic Country was or why it was at war with several races and nation world wide. Each time she tried, she got a red box that warned her of missing mana, conditions and various other things that pointed out something that made Carrie''s soul feel a chill deep inside it. It was clear someone or something did not want her to learn much yet, wether it was the system itself or something else. It had not meant she haddn''t learn something though. Whatever the reason for this war, it was not those of the Demonic Country''s fault by defult. What little the system told her, the original reasons has been mostly lost. But it seems the other nations and races are at good deal of fault for the start of the war to begin with. Not that Carrie knew what that was. Again, the system seems to not be too eager to share. But Carrie at least knew there was more to this war then meet the eye. As for what she knew of her new home country? Here the system had been more forgiving. But there were clear signs there where things she was not allowed to know just yet either. Carrie did not mind this much, given she knew of her upcomming history lessons from Ironwing wil at least fill the holes. And frankly speaking, Carrie found herself very interested in this land she lived in. From what she was able to understand, the Demonic Country was a land of abundance. The soil is rich and fertile, making it a ideal place to farm. Theres plenty of fresh water and theres a ocean in the west that brings in a lot of fish, shellfish and various other sea creatures that can be eaten. There is also trade routes on the sea as well, to some of the few nations that her homeland seems to have actual friendship or at least neutral relationship with each other. Theres plenty of wood, metals and various other resources that can be found inland. Both magical and non-magical alike. And since this world is clearly based on fantasy, magic and the like, and not just the middle ages, theres magical creatures of all kinds to be found world wide. Theres even wild versions of many of the more senitent races found within the Demonic Contry, found all over the place in the other nations, countries and lands. Even the sea is teeming with them. Along with many that only exsist or be found in a single small place. Her homeland is not a exception to this either. Infact, it seems a vast part of her homeland is not in use due to there various magical creratures, wild monsters and beasts keeps getting in the way. If not that, then how the geography. It seems theres a lot of areas that have unstable or many other less then pleasent features that one had to take into consideration when building or farming. And it is not helped with the fact all of these creatures are far stronger and aggressive then most other places. Aside from a few places like Death''s Vally and the Elven Kingdom, the only place where a simple bunny can kill you in one hit can only be found withing these lands. Or so the system had told her anyways. As well as cut her off from learning more. It was frustrating to say the least, but Carrie had a feeling she''d learn all about it soon enough from Ironwing. Another thing that she had learned through this, was that the massive wall at the border that hinder the Demon Lord''s army was as much of a pain to deal with as it was a wonder to look at. If she had to put words on it, it was like the Great Wall of China with a magical twist to it. Magical barries, weapons and a lot of other things only found in fantasy strories in the defense aspect was on it. Wether it was human, elven, dwarven or some other race made it. It was proving to be the best way to keep the Demonic Country incheck for now. The system also revealed as well that the wall was a joint effort by all those nations and races that was currently warring with the Demon Lord. And had take millions of lives along with a few centuries to actually build. That was about what she had managed to learn. "Tomorrow is going to be interesting." Carrie mused to herself, as she slowly starts to swing her legs in thought. The candle light flickering softly across the room, casting dancing shadows on the walls. She had so many questions about this new life of hers. And while she knew that Ironwing would be a better source of answers than the system, she couldn''t help but feel a mix of excitement and anxiety for her upcoming lessons. Especially when it came to those that involved magic and spells. Something that was only fantasy back on Earth. Taking once again a look at her now black and red hands and legs, Carrie could not help but feel the anxiety increasing. She''d only used one of the two spell she has thuse far. And it was by accident that she did so. Hell she''d not even know which spell she had activated to begin with. But that was all going to change once dawn breaks. With a sigh, Carrie climbs off the bed and walks over to the chest, pulling out the leather armor she had been wearing so much these days. It still felt strange to wear it, as she felt far more comfortable in these simple clothes and with a an apron if possible. Ever since she''d gained her class, she''s been slowly feeling a need of sorts to do some cooking as the month passed by. When she had told this to Thalmor and Ironwing, both had explained that this was not something to worry about, infact it was completely normal. When one finally gain their class, the first few months comes with this ''needy feeling'' she was experiencing, to promote one to quickly gain levels in their class and start to experience what the class have to offer. However, both Thalmor and Ironwing had informed her that she was not yet allowed to do any cooking. Both because she needed to pass these tests and training. But also because the head chef in this fortress had flat out told them that she was not allowed anywere in the kitchen whatsoever. Mainly because of the fact she was a lesser skeleton, and that alone was reason enough to not give her even a chance. Thalmor had quickly informed her though, after he watched her curse out the head chef in a very colourful way for a good hour, that depending on how well she do at the final test that involved all the she had learned so far, that the Commander herself will make sure Carrie gets to work in kitchen given that is what she is supposed to do. Even if it was not in the kitchen of the fortress itself. It was the best Carrie had, really. She was still all too new to this world and even if she wanted to suckerpunch that head chef so badly she can actually feel her boney fingers crack a little. So for now, she calms herself and check her armor out to make sure it is ready for tomorrow. Ironwing had left a rather cryptic remark by the end of the day that she might need it for her magic training. And she was not gonna take any chances when she knows her spells are going to involve a lot of fire. Better save then sorry after all. Chapter 7 Many would say that gargoyles aren''t the scholar nor the mage type. Hell, most gargoyles are more like special guard dogs for various important buildings and other areas where their stone made bodies, powerful attacks and aerial maneuvers could be best used to both defend and keep unwanted individuals away. They''re not exactly the first creature you''d expect to find in a library, let alone one with a penchant for reading. But then again, not every creature followed the norm. Ironwing was such a gargoyle. He''d been different from the moment he was created. Oh he''s done his fair share of doing the expected duties that most of his kin do. Guard this place, take the form of a decorative statue to lure any trespasser to a false sense of securtiy and then jump on them and either scare the life out of them or kill them outright. And many things more. But unlike his fellow kin, he had always had a mind for the more scholar and magical path. Well back before his evolution into a Steel Gargoyle, Ironwing had spent what little free time he had to read and study the ways of the arcane arts. Spending countless years of improving his knowledge as much as he spent to improve his various skills as well. Gaining spells that he used or teach some of his kin to better themself in their duties. And many took notice of this fact. Especially Mistress Aria, a powerful sorceress who had been his mentor and benefactor for years after she saw what great potential he had. And understood how different he was among his kin. He''d been part of her gargoyle guards back then, watching over her castle as she conducts various magical creations for the Demon Lord. Wether it was a potion, a magical items, a new high grade golem used for either war or to guard a special vault, his mistress did it all and then some. It was here he gained both his Combat Mage class and his Scholar class. Then later evolved into the steel gargoyle he is now. It was only a short few decades after this though, that he had to be transferred to one of the many forts and fortresses that keep the frontline and borders safe. And gained a new role and duty due to his knowledge of many skills, spells, classes and evolutions. He was to help out the Warden Lord Thalmor to look after those who goes through the processes. The demon incharge reside in the Fortress of Cragspyre, a place of strategic importance and very rich in battle history. But when he had first arrived, Lady Lorelai was not the commander of the fortress back then. No, back when he first started, a High Minotaur by the name of Grax had that role. Commander Grax had been a fierce warrior with a heart of gold, who took good care of those under him and made them into the best they could be. Ironwing would watch many flourish in the Commanders care and along with Thalmor got to meet Lady Lorelai as a new recruit before she eventually became the one who gained his position years later. It was not hard to respect Grax nor feel a great sense of pride being part of his force that kept what few of their enemies dared to cross the border wish they haddn''t. Even Ironwing and Thalmor would find themself on the battlefield on the rare occasion when Grax needed re-enforcements or when the situation called for their specialized skills. It was great being under Grax command. Ironwing was even the one who had been helping the Commander in making sure to get his next evolution started. Spending weeks if not months planning and doing what he could to help the commander achieve new strength for both himself and his troops. And then that thrice damned, blast ridden Hero had come knocking on their door. Its been decades since Grax''s death by that Hero who took the old commander''s head along with most of the equipment with him, but Ironwing knew that day was something everyone cursed even now. None was willing to forget what happened that day, and many morned the fact that both a great man and leader had been lost to such a cruel and honorless death. Lady Lorelai has been doing her best in his place, trying her best to live up to her precessor and the wishes he had for the future of the fortress and its people. She was a good commander, but she didn''t have the same... presence. Grax had a way of making everyone feel like they could do anything, like the gods themselves had blessed them. But that did not make her a bad commander though. She may not be much like the way Grax was, but she had learned a great deal from watching Grax over the years, not to mention the training she received from him personally after gaining her own class. She took the loss of Grax far harder then Ironwing or Thalmor ever did, mainly due to how demons and gargoyles don''t morn the same way others does. But she knows that both of them miss the old minotaur very much just like she did, through the ways of seeing both him and Thalmor still keeping old keepsakes given as well meaning gifts by their old leader around their person. If not in their offices. Ironwings thoughts about the past are interrupted as a skeletal hand raised up, indicating thats its owner has a question or a need for help once again. "Yes Miss Blackburn? What can I help you with?" Ironwing asks his latest ''student'', a lesser skeleton that have far too much personality and self awareness than any of her kin should have. Showing clear signs of having some of her previous life memories still intact. And made even stranger and more abnormal by the fact that meer hours into her creation she was already in the process of gaining both a class and varient. She was a oddity, Carrie Blackburn as her name was, but in a world of magic and monsters, oddities often became assets if trained and given the right opportunities. Her eyes, glowing with an eerie blue light, flicked up to meet Ironwing''s gaze, the parchment in her bony grasp fluttering nervously. "I''m having some issues with the texts again, Mr Ironwing sir." She asked politely as possible, sounding guilty and embarrassed for once again having to ask him how to explain what she was currently trying to read. Ironwing just gave a small chuckle before he once again explained what she was reading and how to properly write things down once again. It had been discovred early on when it had finally been his turn to teach Carrie after Thalmor had finished the month long tests and training that everyone goes through after their process was over, that the lesser skeleton could neither read nor write the common tongue of these lands. Which was not really that much of a surprise. She was clearly once human when she died, her skeletal structure being enough proof of that. Humans are not a race found in the Demonic Country naturally, unless one counts the slaves found in the high elite or those sent to the gladiator rings. Ironwing was never sure how their local Necromancer have the means to gain human, dwarven, elven, demi-human and many of the other nation races recently dead. Given they were still currently in a war with them all. But he knew better then to stick his nose in places it shouldn''t. Nonetheless and regardless of that fact, it meant Ironwing had to first teach Carrie how to both read and write before they could do any sorts of magic training. As much as Ironwing had wanted to start the magic training as soon as the skeleton had walked into the room that would be used for such, it was not meant to be. Being able to at least read and write the basic was a must in the Demonic Country. By law even, as the 4th Demon Lord had made it so everyone has a chance to not only better themself but also able to aid by the other laws much better with the ability to read and write.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. This has also led to Ironwing having more than just a couple months to teach her, just so he had the time to properly teach the basics. Both magical and non magical alike. Not that he minded at all, as thanks to this he had been given the opportunity to test out just how much Carrie could remember and find out what other basic knowledge she lacked. The results had been very mixed, enough so that he was growing concerned. Which by all right he should not be. Its a very know fact among scholars that when undead do manage to retain some of their memories from their time alive, if was often not very intact or just very specific ones. Carrie had both, and much more then that. The first concerning fact was that she lacked a great deal of common knowledge or sense even for a undead who''d retain their memories. Even if there was only a few things one could specifically remember or recall, there was always some basic knowledge about the world one lives in. For Carrie though, there was little of such knowledge. Oh don''t get him wrong, the lesser skeleton was able to see the difference between right, wrong and many other basic things. Have no issues with problem solving when he handed her various puzzles to try out, seems to enjoy them after a bit. She also do well in math, which had been a unexpected surprise given the gargoyle was well aware just how little education common people of the human nations gets. Which is to say nothing at all. And Carrie was very much someone of common stock with the way she acts. Sure she knows how to be polite to those of higher strength or status then her, and she seems to undestand when it is better to keep her mouth shut and listen. But her humor and many other personality traits was more the type you find in a labor doing a honest day work than high society. All of this meant the gargoyle found himself with more work then he''d thought. But he was not bothered by that, as a scholar teaching was just part of the job. Beside, Carrie is wellbehaved and seems eager to learn what she can. Which was always a plus to him. And then there was the more specific parts of her knowledge. It became clear to Ironwing quickly that it is a high possibility that Carrie had the Cook class when she was still alive. And had been given it again when she became undead. The World''s Voice seems to deem as a must that she stays a cook for some reason that is unknow as of yet. This conclusion not only came from what he saw in the magical mirror and the two meals she had made and gotten the pleasure to eat, but also due to the knowledge and skills she has. [Ingredient Knowledge], [Ingredient Identify], [Cooking], [Meal Planner], [Pan Strike], [Ingredient Summon], [Touch of the Chef], [Basic Cutting Technique] and [Experienced Butcher] was all skills found within the Cook class and its evolutions. Well most of them. [Meal Planner] and [Ingredient Summon] are two skills that Ironwing has no knowledge of, and had to ask Carrie what exactly those two skills do. From what she was able to tell him, [Ingredient Summon] is a skill that at the cost of mana, she was able to add any missing ingredient to whatever she was making. The cost varied though due to the skill factors ones mana pool, knowledge of ingredients and what the missing ingredient costs to summon was. Not bad in all for a skill he''d not heard of, but what had shocked Ironwing the most was that the skill was Mystic ranked. There are 8 ranks that acted as grades for how good quality, rareity or how strong something or someone is. They were as followed: Trash, Common, Uncommon, Rare, Ultra Rare, Mystic, Legendary and God. Each rank had its own perks and other benefits. With vastly different outcomes depending on if it is a class, item, skill, spell, a resource or something else thats within these ranks. A good example was scrap metal or scrap wood always has the Trash rank and thuse had little usage as side from being used by the poor to make makeshift housing or for them to sell to blacksmiths for what little coins their willing to pay for it. Though Ironwing has heard that more often then not, some of the poor becomes a Scrap Smith or something of the like instead, so that they can get more use of the scraps they''ve salvaged. Meanwhile a Common ranked lump of iron ore or wood has far more value than any Trash ranked item could ever have. They could be used to craft weapons and armor that could last a year or two if made by someone with enough skill. Or be used to create simple furniture that wouldn''t fall apart after a week of use. So the fact that Carrie already had a Mystic ranked skill was a unexpected find to say the least. Ironwing would have to make sure to thoroughly test that skill out once he had made some arrangements. As for [Meal Planner]? While it was not as a high ranked skill, Uncommon was what he was told, it was nonetheless a useful skill to have. It worked very much the same way a Architect''s [Material List] did. By allowing its user to have a instincual knowhow on how much one had of raw materials and whatnots. Along with one being able to update the list whenever one liked to keep better score and make sure nothing was at miss. [Meal Planner] also allowed Carrie to plan meals ahead of time, under pressure or what little one had to work with. With the latter part seeming to be what it is best at. As it could passively calculate what was on it to help its user to make sure everyone got a good meal with what was on hand, what meals could be made and that it lasted for as long as it could without the consumer suffer a lack of proper nutrition. Ironwing had no doubt this skill would see a lot of work should Carrie be assigned to one of the many work kitchens found in the frontlines. Rationing was not a uncommon thing happen out there, specially when the supply lines got intrrupted or when the enemy managed to burn down the crops. And knowing that she could make something edible and nutritious with next to nothing was a boon to have in any kitchen. There are many other things as well that Carrie can specifically remember as well aside from what she did back when she was alive. Her death was one of them, which gave Ironwing a explaintion as to why she had gained the Fire Element as a varient type. A very unique aspect of the undead is that how one died have very strong effects on what type of undead one can become. If you die of old age or peacefully, you''d come out as a simple and weaker types of Zombies and Skeletons. Dying by fire though? It was arguably one of the worse ways to die. As well as created some of the most violent and aggressive types of undead to exist. Fire type undead tend to be chaotic and destructive by default due how painful their deaths are, as the pain and fear they felt when being burned to death one way or the other lasted even into the unlife. Ashen or Flamming Skulls, Fire or Flame Skeletons, Smoke Rattlers, Ember or Smolder Zombies, Scorched Crackers and Hellfire Banshee was just some of the many types of undead that one could become if fire was the cause of your dead. And yet, Carre was just a Lesser Skeleton with fire as her varient type, unlocking the ability to use fire based skills and spells but nothing else. Aside from a small redo of her looks that is, as both her skull and all limp now had red and black colours on them that made it look like theres was small red vines creeping around the blacken hands, legs and skull. Quite the look really. What this meant though, Ironwing had a few suspisions and theories. But until he got his hands on more information and had a talk with their locla Necromancer, those suspisions and theories had to be put at the back of his mind for now. ''For now though.'' Ironwing thinks as he once again corrects Carrie on something she had spelled wrong or tell her how the word is read. ''I better focus on making sure she can properly read and write. Then we can finally begin with the fun stuff.'' The gargoyle thinks as a small smile slowly shows itself. Oh how much fun they were going to have in the months to come. Chapter 8 Ironwing''s teaching is vastly different then the one Carrie went through with Thalmor. The Warden Lord was far more focused on the physical aspect and making sure she is well trained enough she won''t be stumbling on her feet when using her skills and what physical strength she was able to gain in the short time they had. There was very little history or other school like subject talked about with the demon. Not due to lack of interest, Thalmor have been teaching Carrie more then just how to handle a weapon, how to fight or how her skills are used. It was just that it became clear to her that the demon wasn''t all that interested in history or such subjects. But he nonetheless would tell her a few things here and there throughout the month she trained under him. Like the ranks. It had been oversimplefied, Carrie is pretty sure of that, but it help to know what all these colourful names she has been seeing on her skills meant. Or on the armor along with the few weapons she has. She herself don''t have a rank, which according to Thalmor was because of her type of undead. Lesser Skeletons don''t have ranks per say, mainly due to how weak they are and the fact that unlike Carrie were not self-aware. That did not mean there wasn''t a way to measure what rank her kind usually are. Turns out that non sentient animales and monsters have their names in the colour of their rank. And surprise surprise, lesser skeletons have the lowest rank possible, Trash. When she heard that she had actually dropped to the ground due to the various negative feelings that came up when she learned of that. As well as how tired she was to be reminded just how weak lesser skeletons are. If it is not Thalmor or some other demon or monster who points it out, then its the system turn to do so, or World''s Voice as it is know as. How''d she know that bit? It was due to Thalmor having quickly explained and reassure Carrie that she did not have that rank at all. Infact, she did not have a assigned rank to begin with as her name currently lacked any colour whatsoever. This, as the demon has explained it, was because of the World''s Voice was still deciding on what her rank actually was. See, when one gains either a class, varient, evolution, massive power or something else that puts a major change into your life, your rank will change. Either for the better or for worse. There are as many ways as to increase your rank as it is to decrease it. It seems the system as Carrie prefer to call it was very fair in its assessments, taking everything into account before it gave you your new rank. Thalmor also told her, though he adviced her to get Ironwing to tell her more as he only knew the bare basic of this, that how strength is measured on this country is very different from the other nations found around the world. In the other nations, they use the colours mainly to comfirm quality and rarity. And if something is of worth to them. While their strength and power used a different system all together. The warden had no idea why they did that to begin with, as in his honest opinion that just made things more complicated than they needed to be. Other then that and a few more things, Carrie learned most of this worlds history and much more from Ironwing as soon as her first day of lessons started. In someways it was like going to school all over again. But this time she has a teacher that actually cared and taught you the right stuff. Sure it had been embarrassing that she had to learn how to write and read again, feeling like she was 6 all over again and just started elementry school to learn such basic things. But the embarrassment had lessens somewhat upon learning that she was not the first who''d had to go through this. Nor would she be the last either. While not rare, should ones evolution or some other change be big enough, one often find themself having to relearn a lot of the basic stuff they thought they knew. Ironwing once told her, he once had to teach a small group of demons how to read and write again mainly because their handwritings had become terrible or non existence after their hands became knife like after their evolution. Sickle Demons, as Ironwing recalled the demons new evolution was, had a hard time gripping quills and parchments with their new pointed fingers, which resulted in a lot of ink spills and squiggly letters. Carrie couldn''t help but chuckle at the thought, imagining the frustration and determination on their faces as they tried to master the art of writing again. It also ended with a quick lessons on how language skills actually works here. Well at least for monters, demons and undead. She already knew she had the language skill [Malpharic] from the get go, along with another language skill called [Common Tongue]. Malpharic is the language used in the Demonic Country, named after a close companion of the 4th Demon Lord who''d been the one to offically make a actual language that everyone could agree on. This language is given to you the moment you gain self-awareness as a monster, demon or undead, as the system sees it as a neccesity for communication and unlike most other language skill was actually made to be used by monsters, demons and undead. Her [Common Tongue] skill though is a skill that only the human nations and their allies uses for comunication, it is not something that is nativly known by demons or monsters. Each nation has their own language, but this one was made so that everyone had a common way to talk to each other without causing major misunderstandings. Well, everyone execpet those who lives in the Demonic Country that is. Whenever someone of her new homelande tried to learn or speak it, more often then not it did not end well for them as the other nations sees it as a great sin or taboo that a monster know how to speak the ''proper language'' of society. That last bit Ironwing had said with so much venom, sarcasm and bitterness in his voice, Carrie was certain it could melt platinum with how acid like it sounded alone. It also told Carrie that this was a sore subject to talk about. Unfortunatly for Ironwing, this bit was part of the history lessons Carrie needed to learn. So the woman did her absolute best to avoid asking too much about this along with other subjects she picked up that also made Ironwing''s mood soure quite a bit. At least he was not mad that she had that skill whatsoever, he seems to think that since she was once human before turning into a undead it was a skill that just came naturally to her. She could even read it without issue, when she had struggled far more with basic Malpharic that took her two months to master. Speaking of which. Ironwing have been asking his own questions over various things. From her class and skills to what she can remember of her life as a living human. Or if she has any titles or blessings to share. At first Carrie had been very hesitant, especially on the latter parts given she was not exactly from this world to begin with. Its really hard to come up with something that works as a truth but is also a half-lie of sorts that hides the fact she is a Otherworlder and at the same time give satisfying answers. Carrie had no idea why, but there was a deep feeling inside her that she needs to keep that bit hidden as much as possible. And yeah she means Otherworlder with a big fat O. Given its a title she was given and not shared with Ironwing for now. She had this strange feeling it would not end well if he heard the title. When she had first seen the title, she''d not thought much about it. Given that learning what she was and how her skills worked had a far higher piority then why she had something like a title to begin with. But since she had plenty of time on her hands, she had eventually taken a proper look one night and suddenly a lot of things made sense to her. Titles are rare and powerful things, often comming with all sorts of benefits that in the long game made them almost cheat like. And Otherworlder gave her just that. It was not a title that would make her a hero or some undefeatable monster. Far from it, but what it did give her was nonetheless valuable in the long term of her survival. For one, she had a easier time gaining experience, stats, skills or spells than others. The increase wasn''t much, as far as Carrie could tell given it was not giving her any numbers to use. But it was useful to know why it seems she picks up things with a bit more ease then others. Second was that it was the reason why she had so many extra skills that did not make much sense to have at the start or why she had gained [Iron Will] so fast. The title converted all that she had lived through back on Earth into various skills for her to use. And she was greatful for that too as this gave her far more options when it came to whereever she was going to be assigned to ones all her tests and traning are done. She just wish some of the extra skills she''d been given weren''t based on some of her more thievery ways that used to keep her alive back on Earth. The only bright side of that was she only got three skills out of it and nothing more. Then there was the last thing the title gave her, two Mystic ranked skills. [Summon Ingredient] and [Inventory]. She was already aware what [Summon Ingredient] does thanks to Ironwing, who told her he was going to arrange a few things so they could properly test it out. Mystic ranked skills often had hidden effects or were incredibly powerful, depending on what it did. She had however not told him about [Inventory]. Mainly becasue she was actually scared on how he''d react. It had been bad enough when she told him about the [Summon Ingredient] skill and the look of shock had made a odd ill feeling come up inside her. That being said, Carrie was glad that she had this skill due to its utility. [Inventory] is for lack of better words the thing that allowes you to have your very own dimensional pocket to store stuff in. Carrie was never into much games, but the few she did play made her very aware just how useful the skill is to begin with. Especially when it came to keeping things hidden or for her cooking for that matter. She''s all for a storage space where time stay still and thus hinder all forms of rot to happen. She could have freshly made pot of stew in there for years and it will come out as good as the day it was made. As such, Carrie was more then happy to keep this card close to her chest. Blessing was even more rare and far more powerful. More often given by the gods than anything else, though the system has been know to bless a few on very rare occasions as well. Carrie did not have a blessing, but she was happy with that if she was honest. She was already a abnormality as it was without one to begin with. And like how there are good titles and blessing, there exsist bad ones as well. Bad enough you''d almost prefer to die as painfully as possible than having such a title or blessing. Ironwing had made it clear that having such titles and blessings is also a guarantee to make you a outcast or getting killed without hesitation as many believed such things could spread like a disease. This have been just some of the things she has been learning since she came unde Ironwing''s teachings these past three months. She''d also gained a lot of new knowledge and history when it comes to the Demonic Country, which she is greatful for in many ways. It made easier for her to undestand why Thalmor have acted the way he did when it came to certain subjects about how things are ruled here. By strength and proven power. The Demon Lord is the ruler by being the strongest there is, along with being able to lead and make sure there is a little as infighting as possible among those they rule over. Though that did not mean the Demonic Country was a lawless land.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. There are laws, rights and many things any nations have that can be found here as well. All previous demon lords have improved how things works in these lands for centuries, even if some of the methods can be a bit barbaric. But it worked and that is what mattered to them. The Death Matches being one of these barbaric methods. Carrie had heard whispers about them, but it wasn''t until Ironwing brought it up that she understood properly what they were. They were a form of punishment, entertainment, and a way to display one''s might. Along with being used as a way to gain a honor''s death or to regain that lost honor. It was also a last resort of deal as well, so Death Matches was only used when necessary. And many took great pains to make sure that it was warranted to be use at the time. And then there was the history of the Demon Lords. From what Carrie learned there have been 7 in all so far. All of which have done a great deal of good and bad on their end. And when a new Demon Lord needs to be decided, it is not by birthright or anything like that. It can only be gained by winning a battle in a sacred place, where everyone in the nation participate to see who is the strongest. Though this battle has not been taken in centuries since the latest Demon Lord came into power. Demon Lord Agen is as powerful as he is a mystery. No one really knows where he comes from nor what his life was before he became the current ruler for the past 500 years. Hell, no one even knows if he is a demon, monster, undead or something else entirely. He just short of showed up one day and took the throne with neary a sweat shed. But he is well respected not just because of his strength and power or how he leads. Despite having been in a deadlock with the other nations, it have not stopped Agen from improving his people and make life better for them. He is loved for taking well care of the people he rules and many have benefit from his fairness and his just rule. These past 500 years having become a golden age not seen before. Agen was also far more powerful than any of his predecessors. According to Ironwing only the First Demon Lord is his equal. Carrie had her doubts though, mainly with how prideful Ironwing was in saying that and the fact when she asked if the lord was that powerful why have he not taken over the world or at the very least tried to conquer the other nations that was at war with them. That had ended with the gargoyle becoming far less prideful, gain a look that Carrie could only describe as forlorn and a half hearted shrug that did not really answer the question at all. No one really did for that matter as many saw it as Lord Agen right to do just that. But the gargoyle reasoned that Lord Agen must have his reasons as to why he hasn''t done that yet. Carrie had just let the topic be, espically since she was finally going to learn magic. This was what she had been waiting months for. Sure she has two spells, one of which she had accidently activated soon after she had gotten her class and varient type. And thuse she had already acheived something most could only dream of back on Earth. But to actually learn and then to use magic properly and at will? Thats where the real business at. To say she was eager to learn how to actually do magic right is not a understatment. Especially since she wants to be able to use the type of magic that for lack of better words suits her best. Fire Magic. It was one of the most basic type of elemental magic, along with Water, Wind, Earth, Light and Dark making up the rest. It was also one of the few basic types of magic that had more combat and attack based spells then anything else. Which did not surprise Carrie at all when Ironwing started teaching her. Fire is destructive at its core, a dance of fiery fury that could burn down forests and reduce mountains to ash. It is a force to be naturally afraid of. So its no wonder it has so many spells made or focused on that aspect. That did not mean there weren''t any defense or utility based ones. Ignite and Hot Hands are such utility based spells. Ironwing had told that while they aren''t powerful nor combat based spells they are nonetheless useful to have. And are often seen as good spells to start with when training to become a fire based Mage, Summoner or some other class that use fire as their way of work or attacks. Her class of Cook though, found other usage of the fire affinity. Being able to use it not only to cook things that normal fire would not been able to but also use it to make what are know as Buff Food. Buff Food is as it say, food that can give all kinds of buffs depending on what you cook, the ingredients and many other aspects used in the process. Ironwing says that the buffs tend to not be very strong like the ones potions gives. But they can last way longer. A potion of Power or Quickness might only last a few hours at the most. But foods with buffs in them can last for as long as a day at the bare minimum and many weeks at the highest. He also told her that he was not very well learned in this aspect and many cooks keeps it a secret on how one are able to make such food for themself. So most likely she had to teach herself by trial and error once she was high enough level to pull it off. But first, the basics. Ironwing made quite sure that before she started to actually practice any sorts of magic, much less the two spells she already has, she has to know and understand the basic on how to use it. Starting with gaining a skill called [Mana Control]. This was a skill that regardless if you wanted to a basic mage or not, had to learn to be able to control the mana inside you. You can cast a spell without it but it is not the smartest of ideas as it could cause the spell to explode on you at a moment notice. This still happens even when you have [Mana Control], but the skill lessen the chances for it to happen along with allowing you to use mana more efficiently. She did not know that it was possible to waste mana, but the look Ironwing gave was enough for her to understand that it was indeed a thing. She ended up getting at very thorough lesson on that. It had been a slow process to learn the skill though, even with her little cheat. Mana was a strange force to use and feel. It made her bones tingle and leave a strange after feel that she could only describe as a cross between sticking your hand in a jar of jelly and sticking your hand in a hot pan. It took sometime to get used to if she was honest. And being a living skeleton that used magic at a subconscious level to keep herself intact should at least have given her some way to quicken the whole thing but no. Slow and steady was a must here, as Ironwing told and demostrated when using some of his own spells to show just how dangerous it can be if one don''t do it properly. She still shivers whenever she thinks back on those demostrations. Magic is a dangerous force to being with and it shows when even the slightest of lost concentration or control can cause a explosion of mana to happen. And the fact she had to learn it from the basics with a body that didn''t quite react the same way a human body would had made it all the more challenging. But she got it eventually. And now that she had the skill it was time to actually do it. By not only learning how to use her spells but also gaining a couple more as well. And much like Thalmor, Ironwing wants Carrie to have a few spells under her belt to protect herself. And he makes sure they are not all fire based ones either. She can barely use water based magic, thanks to being a fire varient. But learning a spell that allows one to find a water source is doable. Finding Water its called, and Carrie tries her best to not groan at the simple name. She''s come to learn that basic and weak spells don''t have the best of names, mainly due to how simple and weak they are. She just take it as a small blessing that none so far has been named something silly like ''Fluffy Cloud Walk'' or ''Bunny Hug''. Or named by using puns. God those she hates puns. She gotten too many of them back on Earth thanks to all the jobs she''d had. She''s really not sure how she''d react if theres a spell named after a pun. Ironwing also told her once she has this spell and the two she has already have mastered, they can work on some simple defense spells as well. Theres two in paticulary he wants her to learn on that front. One was from the Arcane Magic spells. Arcane is a very odd type of magic for Carrie, its a sort of neutral force among all the other types of magic. Its not a very powerful type of magic, mainly due to its neutral nature makes it having no advantages or disadvantages. But that did not stop it form being very useful to have or learn several spells from it. Arcane Magic can mimic other spells from other magic types. Fire, water, earth, wind, dark, light, lightning, thunder, magma you name it, it has it. But only for a short time and only one element at a time. Along with a much bigger mana cost then the original spell cost. It also has a few unique spells of its own that no other magic type can do. And one of them is Mana Shield. Its basically a couple of floating shields made of mana that will take incomming hits for her up until its either destroyed or the time runs out. Its also one of the most basic defense spell know world wide and easy to learn for beginners. The other defense spell Ironwing wanted her to have was from fire magic though. Ember Wall, a spell that summons a thick wall of embers to protect her from incomming attacks. And much like Mana Shield was one that was easy to learn too. Of course there was also the classic Fire Wall spell as well in fire magic, but according to Ironwig she was too inexperienced with magic for her to learn that one. The same was said for Fire Ball as well. Accodring to him, he won''t teach her either until he knows she can handle it. And well, there was also the manner of cost as well. See, while Carrie is a fire varient which came with some rather nice perks of being far more resistanced to fire damage, dealt more damage with fire and even lessened mana cost for any fire based spell or skill, it did not mean she could hurl fire balls left, right and center. Despite having been under Ironwing''s teaching for months now, her mana pool had only gone from 23 to 47. Which while much better then what she had at the start, Carrie felt she should have more to use. Her intelligence and wisdom stats has increased by 6 and 5 points as well thanks to all her efforts too. So one would think that given she now had 17 intelligence and 15 in wisdom would mean a far more larger mana pool, but that was not the case. According to Ironwing, both stats do a lot more than what she had understood back when she read the description of these two stats. Wisdom acts more like her endurance stat, increasing her resistance to magical attacks, bad status effects and debuffs cast on her. Along with making it harder for mind based spells or skills to affect her. Meanwhile, Intelligence is the one responsible for her mana pool increase and generation. Along with improving her memories, understanding of things and making it easier for her to control her mana. One would think that meant she should have a lot more mana and better generation. But no, that was not the case thanks to her race. Due to her undead nature a good chunck of her mana is used to naturally keep her skeletal body inshape and moving, which meant that her actual mana pool was drastically decreased as a result. The same went for her generating new mana as well, as what was should normal be at least 5 or 7 mana generated every hour was now down to 1 or 3 points a hour instead. This however was natural when it came to the undead. No matter how strong or weak a undead was, they had to pay a certain mana cost to keep their bodies working and not just die within seconds after raising from the dead. The cost even increased the stronger one got. Though depending on what one evolved into and their class, the costs could decrease or at the very least make it a even break. Liches and any magic oriented undead have both the easiest and hardest time in paying this cost. They are able to gain more out of their intelligence and wisdom when it comes to mana, but also pay a higher cost to maintain their bodies and abilities. It made Carrie feel a little better knowing that. Just a little though. And learing these spells wasn''t so bad even if it took a good deal of mental exercise that made her feel like she''d run a couple of dozen miles. The bad parts came with using them. "No Carrie," Ironwing says, his voice a little strained as he speaks. "You need to concentrate more and focus harder on your target." He continues on as he watch Carrie struggle to lit the five simple torches before her. She was currently training her Ignite spell, given it was the only spell that had a good range and one she would most likely use most often once she works in a kitchen. And trying to use it was proving difficult to say the least. When Carrie had done a spell the first time, it had almost been natural even if it was done by accident. However, Ironwing had told it was most likely due to her still being new to her powers and as she had put it herself, confused as all fuck when she had suddenly gotten her class and varient type. It was not unusual at all that she had ended up accidentally using the spell and not knowing how it was done. Doing it by will though was like pulling teeth with pliers while using a unicycle and juggle some molotovs. Hot Hands had been eaiser to use, as Carrie had only needed to concentrate on her hands to get them hot and hold it for as long as possible. She could even do this in her room, as long as she stayed in the center and made sure to have a bucket of water near incase of any accidents. Not that she feared any, as the spell produced very little flames when activated. Unless she wanted to increase the heat that is. She also learned that with her current mana, she can hold this spell for a whole hour. Which was not bad if she was honest, even if she was unsure on how useful it was. But trying to lit a torch that was just a few feet away from her? Yeah, Carrie was getting fruatrated. She had tried everything, from whispering incantations to slamming her hand down as if trying to hammer in a nail, but the damn torches remained unlit. And then she snapped her fingers, lighting the first torch up. She just stared at the now lit torch, a battle between dumbfounded and rage going on in her mind as Ironwing claps at what she just did. "Good," He says, a proud smile on his face. "Now repeat that four more times and we can move on to the next target." All Carrie did to that was taking a deep breath, somehow still able to do that despite not having any lungs anymore, and Ironwing suddenly found himself covering his ears at the scream and curses the skeleton let out about why that had worked when all the other times didn''t. ''We may need to add some lessons about ways to deal with furstration when it comes to magic practice as well.'' The gargoyle notes in his mind, watching as the lesser skeleton still going on her little tirade. The rest of the day proved to be a long one for Carrie. Chapter 9 Carrie can''t help the humming she''s doing as she is carefully sorting out various herbs and mushrooms that lay before her, several wooden bowls stacked upon each other ready to be filled. There was also clay jars to her left, all empty for now as she carefully picked up a one of the herbs before her, softly speaking at it. "[Ingredient Identify]" was the words said and if Carrie could smile she would as a blue box came up to her face.
Sage A common herb that many use for cooking, medicine and alchemy. It has a faint scent of pine and earth, and its leaves are a silvery-green hue. Most often used to make minor potions of healing or as part of herbal mixes used in various cooking recipes.
The blue box hovered in the air, displaying the information before fading away. Carrie nodded to herself, placing the sage into a bowl before picking up many more from the pile before her. And using small thin ropes to make bundles of sage before she picked up a odd looking mushroom. Its top had a odd shape, looking more like a shield than your average mushroom top. The colour was strange too, as while the stem was a nice earthen brown the cap had a metallic blue sheen to it that reflected the flickering candlelight in the room. When she used her skill once more, this was what the blue box told her.
Shieldshine A mushroom that when eaten raw grants a slight temporary boost to once physical and magical defense. It has a odd tingly, earthen and bitter taste to it, and is often used by alchemists to make minor defense potions.
"Hmmm, wonder what will happen if I try to dry or cook it." Carrie said to no one but herself as she puts the oddly shaped mushrooms in their own bowl. Being careful with her movments as she did not want to know what happened if the mushrooms where handled too roughly. The next plant she picked out of the pile before her was a thyme, a herb Carrie was well aware had many uses in cooking and medicinal purposes. The thyme had a pleasant aroma that reminded her of her mother''s kitchen, a warm, comforting scent that she had missed for a long time. She made a few bundles of the thymes as well before putting them in a bowl. Over the next hour or so, Carrie continued to sort the various plants and mushrooms before her. Getting more common herbs and mushrooms like basil and mint, and a few common variety of edible mushrooms that could be used in stews, soups or when grilled. She also found more magical plants and mushrooms as well. Aside from the Shieldshine, she had also gotten her hands on Frostberries. A type of berry that looked like blueberries at a first glance but had a small cold aura around them that made it cold to the touch and a had a much lighter blue colour then what blueberries was know for. From what her skill told her, it was a good snack to have on hot days, used to make minor cold resist potions and was a good ingredient used to get fevers down once made into a drink. Another magical plant was Bitter Talon, a odd looking herb whoes leafs looked like the talons of a bird, taste bitter as all hell and had a deep green colour not unlike that of a poison ivy leaf. According to the blue box, it could be used to make potions to cure poisons or as an ingredient in poisons themselves. Carrie decided to handle these with gloves, not wanting to take any risks. Even if she was just made of bones now. Though she was unsure what to do with a bunch of poisonous magical herbs. Given the Bitter Talon was not the only plant she''d picked up that had such properties. ''I''ll have to ask Ironwing if he wants them. Given he is clearly a mage of some type, he should have far better use of them then me. Well, maybe aside from the Grettle herbs. Being able to make a tea that cures minor poisoning is always good to have.'' Carrie thought while she continued to sort. Then there was the Swordcaps, a mushroom that was often found along side the Shieldshines. Where the latter focused on defense, the former was for attacks. Like with the Shieldshines, it could be eaten raw to get a slight boost to their attack power for a short while. It was also used to make minor potions that boost attack power. These was just some of the things that Carrie had found. There was a lot more. Nuts that had a spicy taste but boosted ones responds time when brewed properly into a potion. Or gave a nice kick to any sauce made from it. More berries that when eaten gave some sort of resistance to a certain type of element or something else. Other herbs that could be used in cooking, alchemy, medicine or even enchanting. On and on she sorted all kinds of things. By the end of the hour, about a dozen bowls and many jars filled with various herbs, mushrooms, berries, nuts and more lined the wooden table before Carrie. Her skeletal hands had moved with surprising deftness, separating and categorizing each ingredient according to its properties and what they could be used for. The candlelight danced over the bountiful array of colors and shapes, casting a nice shine of colour into her small room. And Carrie could not be happier about it, especially since all of these ingredients was her to do what she wanted with. A soft caw suddenly distracts her, making the skeleton turn to new addition in her small room. A stand with a bird cage covered by a well worn cloth. And Carrie was quick to go to it and remove the cloth as more caws came out of it. "Morning Irene," Carrie greeted the bird inside, a crow that sported a few unusual features on it. For one was a small red cloth around its neck, tied to a loose bow as to avoid choking the bird. Next was two pairs of small metal bands, one pair on each leg that looked like it was made of bronze or copper, both of which have odd glowing words on them. The last feature was the crows eyes. Unlike the usual eyes found on crows, Irene''s ones glowed slightly and had a glint of intelligence that other crows did not. Irene lets out another soft caw, stretching her wings for a brief moment as she did so. Carrie just chuckled as she opens the cage, letting the crow fly out who quickly lands on the messy table. Moving her head here and there at what was before her before turing to Carrie as if to ask what was going on. "I was finally allowed to go and gather my own kitchen supplies in the forest nearby. It took Ironwing longer then he liked to arrange a couple of guards to escort me though. Theres still some awkwardness when it comes to how they should treat me." A frostberry was given to Irene as Carrie talked, the bird more then happy to take the little snack. Carrie just let out another small chuckle at the crows antics and joy of eating the berry. "I know right. They still don''t know what to do with me given how...odd I am from other lesser skeletons." That was a understatment in all honesty. The guards, soldiers and staff had no clue how to really react to someone like Carrie. She had found out that they all have heard rumors of an unusual skeleton that was causing quite a bit of stir with the higher ups of the fortress. It was just that none of them expected the lowest of skeletal undead to be the source of the rumors. Its been awkward at best of times when it came to Carrie interacting with the guards, soldiers and staff when she finally decided to explore the fortress a few days after she had gained her new room. Carrie was honestly curious as to what the place was like and since she had spent a month in a cell with barely anything to do, she felt a little exploring was in order. She had just not expected how the guards or staff would react seeing a lone lesser skeleton wander around all alone. Some of the guards had been quick to apprehend her, for lack of better words, and taken her to some sort of mining site before she had even a chance to realize what exactly was happening. When she did though, she had quickly scared the living hell out of the guards and the overseer on the site by talking. None of them had expected for her to speak at all given her kind was know to be mindless drones nor the fact that she had quickly gone into a detailed rant about how they needed to use their eyes and brains properly to see that Carrie looked different than others of her kin. "I mean, if not for the fact I wear common clothing, then at least for the fact you can see I have markings on my skull and limbs!" She had told them in rage, all the while the gurads and overseer was looking at each other with very awkward and embarrassed looks. Both Ironwing and Thalmor had to come over to fix the situation and explain to the guards who Carrie was. In the end though, and to avoid from such a thing happen again, a big meeting was hold by the commander herself to inform the staff and guards about Carrie properly. That way, none would think that she was part of the lesser skeletons that was going to the frontlines. Or used in the mines. Even with this meeting clearing up a lot of things, that did not mean she got a warm respond from everyone one. To some of the staff or guards, ranks and strenght meant a lot more to them then anything else and would at best treat Carrie with cold professionalism when she had needed their help when she was lost or looking for something. After all, to them she was barely better than any normal lesser skeleton despite Carrie being clearly sentient and was stronger than most of her kin usually was. Carrie did not give much care about that. Everyone had their own opinion and it was clear that while they did not like her much due to her rank and status as the lowest of low, they at least understand that they can''t treat her badly due to the various laws and rules of the country had about someone like her. Being someone who remember some of her past and was fully sentient, there was laws and rules inplace to make sure no one just kill her outright for no good reason. Ironwing had been quick to teach her all the rights she has in this country, making sure that Carrie knew what laws or rules she could use should someone give her grief or try something bad.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. Infact, by all right Carrie was allowed to sue or even punish the guards somewhat due to how they had treated her and taken her to a place she did not even belong to. But given it was clear they had been unaware she was not some mindless drone, she had forgone any such action. Well other than that she wanted a apology from them. Which was given without issue as the guards cleary understood the wrong they had done. Carrie''s thoughts are stopped when she feel Irene poking at her fingers, the crow looking at her worried. She was quick to give the bird some pets as she speaks to it. "I''m fine Irene, nothing to worry about." Carrie assured the bird as she gave it more pets. "You know, your the closes thing to a pet I''ve ever had. Neither the orphanage nor my former landlord allowed anyone to have a pet." Her mind drifted again after saying that, but this time to how she had gotten Irene in the first place. Where she had spent only a month training under Thalmor, though the warden wanted to at least train her for at least two, she''d spend five months under Ironwing given how much Carrie had not only needed to train her magic but also in what she needed to learn about her homeland. Frankly speaking, five months was not enough at all to give someone a proper education. Or how to properly handle magic. But the commander could only allow so much time before Carrie needed to take the final test and then be put to proper work. Work that was a must as Carrie has kinda gained some debt by being here. Not much, given she don''t need a lot as a skeleton. But still, there where some things that commander had to get for Carrie to have a citizen, mostly documents that acted as her birth papers and passport and that cost coin. Then there was also for the training she have been given so far as well. Lucky for her, most of it is taken care of by a special fund set aside for things like this. But she still needed to pay at least a quarter by herself. And then there was the fact that by law, she needed to have do some work every day. This country don''t allow for much layzness, specially when you already have your class. Anyways, Ironwing was well aware of the fact that Carrie was far from prepared and had gotten books for Carrie to read as a parting gift on the last day of the lessons she had with him. The books covered law, history and many other subjects that Carrie could read in her spare time to further expand her knowledge. And train her magical abilities as best as she can on her own. It had not been the only parting gift either. The last lesson she had with Ironwing had been about forming a familiar contract. Familiars was pretty much like those told about witches back on earth. A creature you bond with magically and can communicate with on a level that went beyond words. It was a way for many mages of all kinds to not only gain companionship but also gain a helper that could aid them in their daily lives or even in battle. And Ironwing wanted her to have just that. Granted, her being a cook instead of a mage or witch made it strange to have one to begin with but Carrie did not see it that way. The only issue she had with it at all was what kind of familiar she''d end up with. See, everyone gets a different familiar when making a familiar contract. Certain aspects like how you are as a person, your magical and physical power, what you do and many other things influance what you end up with. But there was other things that remained constant. The bond was unbreakable and once a familiar had been picked, it would stay with you until one of you died. Unless you do something to break the bond, which was something Ironwing had told Carrie not to do unless she wanted to suffer great consiquences. So when her lesson was over, at least in the theory aspect, Ironwing had help her set up the summoning circle, the contract and the needed items to get her own familiar. And that was how she had gotten Irene once she had made the contract. Ironwing had been the one to make the metal bands, after Thalmor had come with the needed metal to make them. These bands was a way for people to know that Irene was a familiar instead of a normal crow. And Carrie had added the small red cloth later on to further help distinguish her from other crows. And yeah, while Irene looked like a normal crow at a glance, the bird was anything but. When a creature becomes a familiar they become something called a magical beast. A odd creature inbetween a animal and monster. Most wild monsters are originally animales that have evolved thanks to absorbing a lot of mana and gaining vast amounts of experience. Along with gaining the ability to use either magic, special skills or something else that influence their evolution. Magical beasts are for lack of better words a mutated animal with some magical abilities. Wether by skill or spell. Instead of evolving, they just gain abilities that makes them stronger than normal animals tend to be but not as strong as their monster version are. They are pretty much the middle ground and often needs a lot of training and care to become powerful beings. Something any wild monster needs as well. Its just that theres a clear power difference between the two at the start. And monsters tend to be a lot more wild and dangerous then magical beasts are. In Irene''s case of being a magical beast, the crow have some good stuff. For one, she has the basic skills all bird regardless if they are a normal animal, magical beast or monster. [Peck], [Talon Attack] and [Swoop] may not be very good or powerful skills, but having the basic is always good to have in hand where other skills would fail. At least according to Thalmor who''d helped Carrie finding out what her new companion could do. And since Irene was a crow, she also had the [Treasure Finder] skill too. A skill that made it easier for her new friends to find shinies, for lack of better words. Then there was the skills that came from being Carrie''s familar. Being a cook, Irene had been given the skills [Gathering] and [Cooking Support]. The former allowed Irene to find more ingredients that Carrie could use in her cooking, along with having a better chances at finding said ingredients and the latter meant that she could help Carrie out in the kitchen. Unfortunatly, since Carrie is still banned from the kitchen it meant that the latter could not be tested. Which both annoyed and frustrated her to no end. But there was little that she could do to change it. As for Carrie being a fire varient? Thanks to that her crow had gained the fire resistance skill, along with another resistance skill against the dark element. This made it harder for anyone to just kill her bird with fire or dark magic. The dark resistance skill came due to Carrie being a undead. The dark element and the magic that comes form it is the backbone to a lot of the necromanic magic used by necromancer to summon undead and do their bidding. And since it was something that came natural to all undead, Ironwing had made sure Carrie could also cast the most basic attack spell from it. Dark Bolt may not be strong damaged wise, but the spells main strength lies in the fact that theres good chances that you gain one of several debuffs or bad status effects. Things like Confusion, Drained, Fear, a decrease in attack power or defense, there was many options when someone got hit by a Dark Bolt. Carrie was honestly cuirous as to what other effects the spell had. But she had no proper way to really test it given she''s has yet to get someone to battle against. Beside the resistance skills, Irene had also gained the skill [Flame Coat]. This allowed her little crow to coat herself in flames for both defense and attack purposes. Anything that wanted to touch or attack Irene would have to deal with the fact they''ll get burned by doing so. And when Irene attacked they will once again get burned by the flames covering the crows body. The skill even made it so that any attack skill used also got coated in flames as well. But even with all these fancy skills that no crow would normally get, Irene was still normal by magical beast standers. Ironwing had been disappointed at this given how special Carrie herself was. But Carrie was just glad that by the end, her familiar had not gained anything negative. She already had enough to worry about as it is. Now that she had no more lessons or training to do, time was ticking down to that final test that the Commander would be issuing soon. Both Ironwing and Thalmor had taken Carrie to a more private room to properly explain what and why this test was importent to begin with. Carrie alreay knew partly that the reason that final test exist was to properly check that she could be of use to the country as a whole. And be able to survive as well. It might sound harsh, but even in these ''modern'' and good times everyone needs to pitch in where they can. Even without a war that was in a stalemate, there where other dangers found around in this new home of hers. Monster Waves, raides by either wild monsters or the enemy countries, nobles going at each others throats and causing all sort of messes are just some of the more common things that happened here than any other country. It was not easy ruling over a country where many races existed. All who had different values, cultures, views and so on. And the fact that the rule of strength and power was one many followed did not help matters. It was one of the reasons, as both Ironwing and Thalmor had told her, that many liked how Lord Agen have been able to rule for so long. The Demon Lord have been able to keep a ''peace'' of sorts and gotten rid of a lot of corruption throughtout the many centuries of his rule. According to both, there is no doubt in anyones mind that should Lord Agen die one day, they may never know this peace anymore as it was no guarantee the next one would be as good as Agen is. Infact, its quite common when a Demon Lords dies, chaos tends to erupt. As everyone scrambles to gain the title for themselves. A lot of damage usually happens and its know that a lot of valuable knowledge and other importent stuff gets destroyed or lost due to this. But what other reasons was this test for as well? Truns out it was also used as a way to weed out the bad seeds too. The Demonic Country has no use for the useless, weak or those that would do it harm. And if Carrie failed this test, it would not bode well for her. She could end up being sent to the mines at the best or just be killed on the spot. So yeah, no pressure at all to pass. Yep, no pressure. "I hate this waiting. I''d have that test weeks ago now if it was not for that head chef refusing to budge on me not being allowed in the kitchen. Even Ironwing is loosing his patience with it." Carrie murmured to herself as she continued to stroke Irene. "Then again, according to some of the maids that chef is a demon of Pride. And if its anything like that what I was told back on earth, those kind of demons are a pain to deal with. Honestly, its hard for me to believe that Thalmor is also a demon from the Pride faction as well, given how he seems to know when to swallow his pride to avoid problems in the future." That was a ture fact. When Thalmor had first told her what part of faction Thalmor belonged to among demons, after Carrie had gotten basic lessons from Ironwing on the 7 factions that demons are born into, she had honestly thought the Warden Lord was joking. Much like how it worked back on earth, the seven deadly sins plays a big role for a lot of demons. Pride, Greed, Wrath, Envy, Lust, Gluttony and Sloth all had their own faction and followers. And while not all demons followed these sins to the point, they certainly had a big impact on how they acted and how they were seen by others. Which explained partsly why Thalmor was so different then the head chef despite both being born demons of Pride. Demons of Pride tend to be very selfsentered and demanding, not caring much for others unless it served their own needs. But some, like Thalmor, are born with a bit more level headness then what is normal. Which means they are aware that there are just those times when swallowing your pride is the better option if you want to survive. The head chef though? Very much like most typical demons of Pride acts. His a good chef and has good reasons to be as proudful as he is. But that pride makes him very stubborn and unwilling to let anyone who he sees as inferior to him into his kitchen. Especially if your of a race that is seen a good for nothing for centuries on end. Sure her status as the weakest type of skeleton undead those not put her in very good graces. But still, she had proven herself to be quite the capable person already in many other ways. And thanks to this not only can''t she not take the test as cooking is going to be part of it. But she can''t even do anything related to cooking as a whole. Her class has been slowly driving her nuts and its noticeable. Even those who don''t like Carrie much, mainly due to her low status, gives her looks of pity that her own class is driving her insane due to disuse. At least with being allowed to go gather her own ingredients now helps curb it a bit. Her [Ingredient Identify] skill helping her finding all sorts of useful stuff. Granted, she had been ignoring what it had said at first due to how eager she was to do anything other then self imposed fight training and reading the books Ironwing had gifted her. But this was at best a temporary fix. She needed to cook something fast. And Thalmor, Ironwing and the commander was very aware of this. A sigh escape Carrie once again, then she looks at her table again. "No use thinking about it. I should just get this cleaned up and stored in my inventory for now. Thalmor has already said that he and Ironwing are working out a solution, should the commander not be able to get the head chef to see reason." She speaks to herself as Carrie starts once again to clean her little work space. Irene watching it all from her place at the window. Chapter 10 "Here''s your pancakes with the syrup." Carrie says as she hands out the plate to a very eager imp thats dressed like a waiter/server. Sort of. Given that imps are no more then 2 ft tall, all the little thing was wearing is a small cloth around its waist acting as a waiter''s apron. Said imp takes the plate with a grin and a bow, then zooms away to a magic circle that quickly lights up to send it away. The next imp comes up, dressed the same as the one before. So are the other three behind it. "One omelette and a side of toast," it says, with a toothy smile, holding up its serving tray. Ready to take the order as soon as it was done. Carrie nods before saying "Right up" and quickly starts making the new order. Things have been busy for the last few weeks for the lesser skeleton. Thalmor had somehow gotten permission to refurbish the testing room that Carrie had been in all those months ago into a proper kitchen of sort for her to use. Here she was not only able to cook and make things as she pleased. But she was also serving the working staff that was under Thalmor''s command. It was mostly imps she served though, mainly due to the fact that they where the easiest for the lesser skeleton to serve. And the fact that there was more of them then there where of other people of the staff. Thalmor had various people working for him. Ranging from several types of lesser demons to monsters and undead. Carrie remember while still being in one of the cells seeing Thalmor ordering around various creatures and thinking to herself "What does he need all these people for?" She had seen him use them for various tasks around the tower. Some were for cleaning, some for carrying goods, and some to guard the cells. And much more yet. The Warden Lord runs a tight crew though, and no one is assigned a role they can''t do. In the imps case, they are mostly incharge of menial labor. Doing all sorts of tasks around the area thats under Thalmor''s control. Wether it be cleaning a room or flying around carrying various things to wherever it needs to be. Carrie sometimes swears there most be a hive somewhere that was spitting out the little things given how numorous they are. And like all living creatures, they had needs as well. Thalmor knows that a happy imp is less likely to cause any mischief or chaos. And takes good care of the buggers. And some of the things a imp loves the most are good meals. Which is where Carrie comes in. Truth be told, Thalmor has had some issues when it comes to the meals the imps eat. Mainly in the fact there aren''t enough hands to feed them. Imps are not picky eaters, know to even eat stuff from the trash if it means they can survive another day. But like any other thinking being, theres only so much they are willing to put up with before enough is enough. Carrie found little to complain about the whole thing though. Sure, making food for the weakest of demons was not something she expected to do but at least she''s finally doing what she has always wanted to do but never got the chance to. Besides, she was having a lot of fun. She had been given 7 imps as her own staff, five of which acted as waiters while the last two was busy cleaning all the dirty dishes as fast as they could. Making sure that the plates and other kitchenware were spotless before putting them away. Or hand them right to Carrie to use. She of course made sure that when each shift is over, the imps are rewarded with their own freshly made meal, along with some treats Carrie made the night before just for them. And Irene was proving to be quite the helper as well thanks to the [Cooking Support] skill. One would think a bird, much less a crow of all things, acting as a helper in a kitchen would be a disaster waiting. But surprsingly, it was the complete opposite. Irene had a knack for it. She would grab ingredients with her beak, toss them around, and somehow always knew where to place them. She''d watch over the stove with keen eyes, ensuring nothing burned while Carrie was busy preparing other dishes. And if she ever did mess up, it was always something minor, like knocking over a pinch of salt or dropping one of the utensils to the ground. Or that one time the crow had confused sugar for salt several times thanks to one very hectic dinner rush. But even then, she had learned from her mistakes, and now made a point to double-check everything she grabbed. The kitchen was a symphony of clangs, sizzles, and the occasional flap of wings or caw as Carrie and Irene worked in harmony to keep the imps well-fed. And if there was anything Carrie would complain about? It was the variety of ingredients. Thalmor had provided her with a decent stock of food, but it was mostly the basics. Eggs, cheese, a few vegetables and meat that would not spoil easily, some fruits and a small bag of sugar. Several bags of flour of either wheat or rye to make bread or any other flour based dish. The thing she had the most surplus of was herbs. Basil, mint, thyme, rosemary, and a few more. Along with a a huge bag of salt and pepper each, and several smaller bags of other spices she would find in most kitchens. She hopes anyways. But that did not stop her from making a menu that offered a wide range of dishes for the imps to chose for breakfeast, lunch and dinner. Sure, she had to make so that certain meals where only at certain times, but that was part of the fun. It was like a game for her, seeing what she could whip up with what she had on hand. Some of her most popular items was the breakfeast sandwiches with freshly made bread right from the oven. With fresh veggies, well cooked meat of either pork or chicken, with melted cheese on top or inside. A sprinkle of basil and a dash of pepper. It was a simple meal that hit all the right spots for a lot of imps in the early morning. With a selection of freshly made blaze apple juice, cold water or a selection of four different teas as your choice of drink. Carrie wanted to have some milk as well to serve the small drink bar she''d set up for the waiters to fill the ordered drinks. But any milk had to be used to make the bread or other dishes. Not to mention she was only given so much milk to use, as there was no safe way for her to store it here long. The test room might have become a much better kitchen then when she was here the first time, but most of the stoarge space was used up to have enough kitchenware, plates and other things needed to serve so many meals. The ingredients she had were kept in a small pantry in the corner. It was organized as best as she could manage with the limited space. But it was enough for her to work her magic with. Even when night hits and everyone is asleep, Carrie would still be in the kitchen. Using the late hours to prepare for tomorrows rush and do some research of new dishes. At least once a week, Carrie was allowed to go and forage her own ingredients in the local forest.Thanks to that, Carrie''s inventory is being filled with all sorts of magical plants and other magical edibles to use for her cooking. Putting aside the ones that cause poisoning or some other negative effects, she gave those to Ironwing to use for his alchemy. Along with some of the more useful stuff. Like medicinal herbs or the odd manashroom she finds every now and then when out foraging. They where used to make healing or mana recovery potions, along with the various poisonus ones used to mostly make antidotes. The fact that Carre was able to give him a fresh source of the stuff every now and again was apparently well worth trading other ingredients for it. Her sage stock was a bit low as a result, since it was importent for a lot of health potion recepies, but she did not mind it one bit. Hell, she''d even asked Ironwing if he could teach her the basic recipe for a health potion. Something the gargoyle had no issue with, given that a basic one can be easily made with just a pot, clean water, a spoon and the right ingredients. He even taught her a basic antidote and stamina potion as well. Carrie may not be a alchemist or mage, but Ironwing says that her cook class could allow her to learn a wide variety of recipes if they follow the basic in most forms of cooking. So yeah, she can also make some potions as well despite being a cook. Not that she minded one bit. It was something that could be useful one day. Even if they where useless to her as a undead skeleton. Heck, the minor health potion she can make can even hurt her for chirst sake! It was not a unheard thing that adventures or any one with half a brain would throw a health potion at undead to damage them when running away or to make the fight easier.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Not that it happened very often. Any potion no matter how minor was not cheap to get. With at least a few dozen coppers being the bare minumum for even the cheapest. And that was before you had to haggle with the vendor. So if someone ever threw a health potion at her, she''d just shake her head at their wasted resources. Then there was the result of her own research with magical ingredients. With the help of two books that she was currently borrowing from the library the fortress have, one called Miss River''s Homemade Remedies and the other Magical Ingredient Handling for Dummies, she''s been having some interesting results. For one was that a lot of the more magical stuff did not like being handeld roughtly both in the gathering and prep stages. Granted, some types, especially if they where vegetables or certain parts of a body, could handle being rough a lot better then others. There was also the fact that some needed special tools, equipment or even skills to even be gathered or prepared before use. Something Carrie did not have at all at the moment. That did not mean she was not learning a new recipe or two from the borrowed books. Within the week, she''d been able to learn the recipe that uses the grettle herbs to cure minor poisoning. With a few modifications to it after she had her little imp staff try it out after she''d made a successful brew. The original recipe only uses the herb and water to make the tea, though it is not like you can just throw both into a pot and leave it to boil for the next hour. No, first you have to get the roots, as they are the only needed part of the plant for the brew. The rest of the plant is just right up useless, so Carrie just threw that bit into the trash. Next you need to clean the roots good. Dirt and other nasty stuff clings to them like stubborn mules and let they air dry for the next two hours. Then cut them up into small enough peices they can be put in a mortar and pestle, then grind the pieces into a thick paste. Once that is done, you add water to a pot and let it get to a boil before adding the paste little by little, stirring now and again to make sure it properly mix. Once it gains a nice deep green colour and starts to smell a bit earthy, you got yourself grettle tea. The tea is pretty good when it comes to curing oneself of minor poisons. But the taste is basically nonexistent. To a criminal degree if what the imps said was anything to go by. The description she got from her identify skill seems to be in agreement. As such, Carrie had spent better part of the week trying to modify the tea to make it easier to drink. Sure being tasteless isn''t bad all things considered, but its not good either. In the end, Carrie found that by adding either some honey, fruit juice, mint or a combination of the two, the tea suddenly had a taste. One that was a lot more palatable. If how the imps and even Thalmor, who''d come for a quick visit to check upon her, were eagerly drinking the stuff down with gusto. According to the Warden Lord, he can say with confident he''ll never drink grettle tea the usual way ever again after that cup. The imps nodding their heads hard and quick enough Carrie worried they might snap off their necks. Though she had to admit, she was quite proud of herself. It had taken her a while to find the right balance of ingredients to not only make it palatable but to keep the potency of the tea. She''s currently working on another tea. One that involves the frostberries she had found a while back. The tea made from the berries are used to help fighting high fevers and Carrie see no reason not to know how to make it too. It was just a lot more difficult to make in a whole nother way given she did not have a lot of the berries at the moment. Frostberries are most often found around winter and theres still a month or two yet before she can find more. But that is not the only difficulty she has with the berries. Due to the natural cold aura around the berries, water tend to freeze pretty darn quickly and she can''t use proper warm water either at this stage. Unless she wants to ruin the berries. Her solution to the problem came in form of a glass bowl, Irene using a wooden spoon stirr the water and Carrie herself keeping the bowl warm enough for the water to remain lukewarm by using her Hot Hands spell. It took some doing though as Carrie had found herself adjusting the spells effect before she got the right temprature so the water don''t freeze but also don''t harm the berries. Now all she had to do now is wait for the berries become as dry as packed ramen noodles. It was a delicate process that required patience. She had to make sure they were dry enough to be safe to use in the tea but not so dry that they lost their potency. Carrie had read about a method where you could dry the berries using the warmth of the sun, but the lack of windows in the kitchen and according to the local weatherman its going to rain for next few weeks makes that impossible. Her Hot Hands spell could work but the skeleton did not want to risk ruining the whole batch. Lucky for her, Ironwing had just what she needed. A magical drying rack. Drying racks are very simple things as you can make one just out of very long sturdy sticks and string. But the one Ironwing gave her was not your typical drying rack. This one was made with metal bars with runes etched into them. It had a few slots that could hold the berries without them touching each other and a small compartment that was filled with some sort of magic crystal. This drying rack was magical enchanted to speed up the drying process and keep the berries at a constant temprature with far less danger of damaging them. The crystal needed to be charged with mana to work but it lasted for quite a while before it needed to be recharged again. Though Ironwing could not let her have one for free, due to the fact all these racks are property of the fortress, he was at least able to let her borrow one for the time being since she had need for it at the moment. Thanks to this, as long as Carrie remember to charge the crystal up twice a day, she''ll have all the berries she needed dry withing the next day or two. And it was not like she wasn''t doing other things to prepare to make the tea. The Frostbite Tea needs some medicinal herb paste added to the mix, to both boost and make sure the fever reduction aspect of the berries stayed. This paste took a day to make, not because she lacked the needed herbs. No, mainly due to all the meals she had to make for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Nonetheless, a nice ratio of some medicinal flowers and sage, chopped fine and having been steeped in water for a few hours was all she needed to make the paste and later store it in a glass jar for when the berries was ready. Then she just had to grind the dried berries into a powder, shive it a bit to make sure its fine enough and mix it with the paste. It was a tedious process but it had to be done. Carrie had made a small batch of the paste the day before. It was currently stored in a glass jar with a lid on it. The jar was placed on a shelf, the lid sealed tightly to keep it fresh. She had made sure to label it with the name of the paste and the day it was made. It was important to keep track of things like that. There was a few other remedies that Carrie plans to learn, not just to have them incase they where needed. Learing these recipes helps all the current cooking related skills she has level up, along with what will mostly like be new skills to gain in the near future. With the best part being that she was finally gaining her levels as well. She''s been at level 1 since the day she woke up in this world. And through all these months she never really know how to gain exp to level up. Though once the lesson with Ironwing happened, she got some much needed answers. Like in many games and stories back on earth, by killing something you gain the exp needed to level up. Though it was not the only way. Skills gain exp as well when used and some of that exp goes to ones level. According to Ironwing, she has been gaining some exp ever since her training with Thalmor. But the exp gain is of a far lesser value then if she had killed a horned rabbit or a seedling. If Carrie was honest, she really did not want to kill anything. However, as a cook she was expected to kill animals raised and breed to be eaten. She had no issues with that, she had actually had the chance to kill a living chicken before, thanks to a school trip to a large farm when she was in high school. It had been a interesting experience, but not something she liked doing. However, the problem lied in the fact that normal animals aren''t the only things that people of the Demonic Country eats. The mentioned horned rabbit or seedling being just the tip of the iceberg. Ironwing had once brought her a list of creatures she could hunt for ingredients, and she had to admit that some of them had names that were not quite... natural. Nor sounded something she wanted to hunt and fight against for that matter. Luckly for her, she was not expected to hunt and fight every eatable monster know. Sure, she might be ordered to go and hunt horned rabbit or some other weak monster for tonights dinner now and again. But none expect a novice cook to hunt down a dragon every other week! Cooks are mostly meant to be in the kitchen or make sure theres enough stock in the larder. Not constantly out looking hunting for the next meal. She is nonetheless happy to know she is steadly gaining the exp though. Regardless in how it is done. "Hey Boss!" One of the imps shouts, a quick turn makes so Carrie sees its one of the two imps on dish duty. Kronk was his name, she had learned over the week she''s had him here. "What''s for todays dinner? You said you had something special for us tonight?" he asks, making his dish partner also look at her to see what she has to answer. Carrie let''s out a chuckle, wishing for the the hundredth times this week she could grin again. "Oh do I. But you''ll have to wait for now Kronk. We got people to feed and plates to clean, the faster we are done the better!" she says with a playful tone. The imp nods eagerly, turning back to the sink with a little extra spring in his step. Carrie hums as she gets back to work as well. These dishes don''t make themself after all. And in her mind she makes a note to make sure to set a bit of cheese aside for tonights dinner. Her little imps deserve a bit of a treat for being able to keep up with all the work despite never been in a kitchen before. And a since juicy burger, fries and some good ale she''d managed to sneak away from the main pantry is just the thing to make for a sunday dinner. Fast food after a month worth of work always tastes the best, at least in her humble opinion.