After a few hours of travelling the sun was nearly down. The forest was cool and as quiet as every as the small band of skeletons marched with their king on the throne; two other small ones carried the blanket with the girl in it.
Dark still had not died, so it was a sign the mage hunters had not crossed the desert and started exploring the forest - he was safe to camp for the night, or at least for part of it.
Jay found another decent camping spot, a similar area to before: three large trees forming an enclosed area between them.
Tonight he would have two more skeletons with him: Lamp and Handy. Each of them still didn't have minds, along with Sweeper.
So far, the skeletons with minds, which were Blue, Red, Dark and Heavy, all seemed to get along with each other and the non-mind skeletons.
Some even recognized the authority of and took orders from Blue.
During the journey, Jay had been wondering how much free thought they would come to possess. Would they eventually come to have human-like personalities and bicker? Would their intelligence be endless?
Perhaps some would even attempt to leave Jay, or at the very most request their freedom - or maybe they would only grow more loyal and fonder of their master.
Either way it didn't matter. When it came down to it, none of them could resist his will.
For now, he needed intelligent and strong skeletons, and was focusing on making them better in whatever way he could: minds, weapons, armour, experiments, research... and now even teaching.
Before the skeletons lowered him down from the throne, he repeated the same process as before: construct a foundation out of larger bones, cover it with smaller bones until they filled in the gaps and it was reasonably flat.
“My best work yet,” he thought as he stepped off the throne onto the new bone platform.
He immediately had the skeletons place the throne on the platform and sent two skeletons, Blue and Red, off to get firewood.
Next, he took out the bone crucible and the flat rectangular bone sleeping spot.
He had Heavy and Handy place the girl on the platform, but felt weird seeing her lay flat on the ground, wrapped in the blanket like a dead body, so he propped her head up with a femur bone.
“Hmm, It might be uncomfortable for her but... meh.” he chuckled.
“Perhaps if she gives me some answers I'll make her a better cushion, maybe out of fur or something.”
Heavy and Handy stood at either side of the sleeping girl, guarding her - both from outside threats and as if she were a prisoner, as she technically was one.
As soon as the throne had been laid down, Sweeper was busy trying to set up defenses again, crafting more spikes from bones - though Jay quickly brought out the ones he had stashed as living blueprints and the skeleton quickly made a perimeter of spikes.
It was like a fanatic when it came to defensive measures.
Everything was ready, and the only skeleton with nothing to do was Lamp.
“Well,” Jay's lips curled, “looks like it's your turn, Lamp.”
Lamps turn to receive a mind was at hand, and Jay sat on his throne and prepared himself.
The skeleton lay down its shepherds crook and gut knife carefully as it went to kneel before Jay, who had his hands out ready.
“Eugh...” Jay thought, grimacing a little. There were even some hairs tracing down the back of its skull; some hairs of the hide it skinned fused right into the bone.
Jay hovered his hands around its head and began the process of creating its mind. He was used to the energy draining feeling by now, but still used his throne to support his arms as it made the process easier.
After a little while, he received a familiar notification.
[A new mind is formed.]
The skeleton repeated the same process the others did: seizure, followed by coming to terms with its body, surroundings, and finally laying eyes on its maker.
Lamp gazed at Jay for a moment and then kneeled, lowing its head.
Jay smiled, enjoying the sense of respect and importance he felt from these gestures, feeling like their eternal king, and attempted to mimic what he thought a king would say.
“Arise, Lamp. Your weapons are waiting for you.” he pointed to the shepherds crook and gut knife.
Lamp nodded and retrieved its weapons before staring at them while Jay watched silently.
It seemed to analyze its weapons, and Jay could tell that it wanted to practice but it didn't start swinging.
It seemed that these kinds of weapons required a victim to practice on.
After it stroked the blade and felt the curve of the crook, Jay thought it seemed much more intelligent than the other skeletons. There were not really any signs of wonder in its green eyes or naivety in the way it moved or acted, and it made Jay feel like it was both dependable and dangerous.
Soon, it lay eyes on the blanket with the girl inside the noon-leather blanket, and Jay sensed that it had the hungry yearning of a predator.
Jay decided to nip it's idea in the bud, “Don't. She's useful to me alive.” he commanded Lamp.
He had to choose his words carefully. If he said 'don't kill her' then perhaps the skeleton would not protect him from Asra if he needed it. If he said 'don't harm her' then perhaps the skeleton would use some other way to slay her, perhaps tossing her into the fire or the maw of a roaming beast - then it would be able to skin whatever was left over.
But in saying she was 'useful alive' then skeleton would not harm her as long as she did not harm Jay.
Lamp suddenly stopped, then turned to Jay before looking down almost wistfully. It almost seemed disappointed, and Jay thought he even felt lonely yearning coming from it as if it wanted to be united with her flesh, and not in a good way.
Next, it lay its weapons down and kneeled before Jay. If it wasn't allowed to skin her alive, then it seemed like there was nothing else worth doing.
Jay had a strange sense of regret. He felt like he had made a small child cry, or had taken away a toy from a pet.
Well, a pet which wanted to do horrific things.
With a sigh, he pointed south, “Go on,” he shook his head with a smile, “go hunt. And bring me something back in the morning.”
The skeleton suddenly picked up its gut knife and shepherds crook and stood up, all in one quick movement.
It bowed its head and then jumped off the platform and sprinted into the forest as if it was already chasing something.
The sounds of its clinking bones disappeared in a matter of seconds as it shrouded into the darkness.
Red and Blue had brought back large bundles of wood, and this time there was no green wood, counter to Jay's expectation.
“Huh... I thought I only taught Heavy about gathering fire wood... So Heavy must have taught them I guess?” Jay pondered, wondering what happened while he was sleeping last night - perhaps Blue helped Heavy to gather wood and learnt from it.
On the surface, this seems like a small thing, but it actually meant that Jay would only ever have to teach one skeleton, which could teach others, which could teach others.
There was no telling how much time this would save him as he wouldn't have to teach every individual skeleton, and if he had a multitude of skeletons, well, it would save a lot of time.
“Come here Blue,” Jay said as the skeleton dashed over.
It was spared from wood gathering for now.
Jay decided to teach Blue how to light a fire. There were quite a few methods, the easier ones involved using arc stones, embedded fire gems, flame talismans or class magic. Even fire orbs which themselves only needed mana, rendering wood useless.
None of these, however, Jay had the money for. At least not previously - now he instead didn't have access to a market.
Instead, he had always relied on flint and strike iron.
A shower of sparks soon flowed over some hairy bark, and soon caught alight. After starting a fire himself he stored the precious strike iron and flint away.
Jay just needed the extra light, as he was going to teach Blue the most difficult method: rubbing sticks together - he didn't want to give Blue his only flint and striker.
Jay was not a novice at this method in any regards, and had done it many times before when his flint had run out or after he had simply misplaced it. This was before receiving a class and getting access to the inventory utility to store them.
A groove in one stick, and another twisting into it with plenty of pressure and some fibers within, and an ember was made, which started smoking before catching alight. Jay didn't blow on it as he knew the skeleton didn't have lungs, instead he waved it around to fan the flames.
“Now you try... keep going until you create fire.” Jay said, knowing the skeleton would not stop until it was dead. So forever, essentially - yet with a mind it would keep making adjustments and improving its method, like it would with any other task given to it.
Most people learnt to do this in under an hour, yet with the skeletons diligent, unrelenting work ethic, it would probably not take long for it to light its first fire.
As Jay turned to sit by his campfire, he gave Blue one last order.
“Teach the others when you're done.”
It would be useful to have all his skeletons know how to light a campfire, freeing up his time to do other things - though this skill has plenty of other applications too.
Next, he decided to teach Red to cook meat while he relaxedly watched the fire, and he couldn't help but smile as he waited for his meal; the last time anyone cooked for him was when he paid for it at the Snakeraven inn, but otherwise he had always cooked for himself.
A part of him almost felt... cared for.
It was a nice feeling, and soon it mixed with sadness as it was a feeling he didn't even realize he was missing. His skeletons were slowly becoming like a family to him, whether he realized it or not.
One by one, he took fresh pieces of meat out and handed them to Red.
Red held its hands in the fire at first, burning the meat. Next, it held it too far away and not for long enough. The meat was still raw but dried out.
Under Jay's instruction though it soon became better at cooking and started to consistently make edible steaks - though they sometimes were dry as a bone or still quite bloody, but it was a start.
It wasn't long before it became better than Blue, who had simply copied Jay the previous night.
Jay had added the undesirable burnt meat to his inventory while eating the nicely cooked bits.
He was going to discard the burnt stuff but didn't want to attract any animals while he slept, though he soon changed his mind.
“Actually... maybe I do want to attract animals.” a mischievous look appeared on his face.
Taking out the half-burnt bits of meat and a few uncooked bits, he threw them out into the defensive sea of spikes which Sweeper was still building.
He guessed he was probably getting close to the real edge of the blood-vine bears territory and hoped to lure something, but if not, the meat would at least attract parasites away from him and Asra while they slept.
“Maybe soon I'll teach them to forage as well... maybe even to grow food? Well. I would need a farm for that - or at least a safe place to set something up.. ah, but I would first need some seeds too. Damn. I really need to find a market or fa-” he thought, chewing on another piece after he sat back down, though his thoughts were soon cut short.
He suddenly stopped chewing as he noticed two of his skeletons become alert.
Handy and Heavy suddenly raised their weapons, pointing them towards the noon-leather blanket.
They both took defensive stances.
The blanket was moving.
Asra was waking up.
