Jay looked over his research, considering what to work on with his extra mana capacity.
[Chimera Research (31%)]
[Immortality Research (5%)]
[Skull-shield Projector Research (32%)]
[Dread-mourn Turret Research (22%)]
"Hmm… the easiest is chimera." He thought.
The two sub-skeletons he had twirling twine had finished the second bow string. It was a much better quality, but as Jay needed wood to make a proper bow, he also knew he needed tools to carve and craft the wood.
He could at the very least make the tool out of bone, but he wanted to put his effort where it would pay off the most.
He had the two sub-skeletons return to carrying Asra while getting Archers to stand next to the throne.
Jay hopped off and un-summoned Archers.
"Now… this shouldn't be too hard." He thought, bending down and grabbing the human skull from the bone pile, adding it to his ring.
Pulling out a wolf skull, he tossed it into the pile and summoned Archer's back.
As Archer's body reformed, he sat back on his throne and continued on his journey.
[Chimera Research (32%)]
In a few moments, Archers caught up to the throne, and Jay didn't leave his seat as he quickly un-summoned and re-summoned the level one skeleton.
[Chimera Research (33%)]
"It's better to do this while they're low level." He nodded, glad to be saving his mana. A level one skeleton only required five mana to summon, but each time a skeleton leveled up, it would need an additional three mana.
Jay's mana pool had a capacity of 148, but after adding some to the Helvetian ring, crafting a bone bow, and casting spells with the goblin wand, his mana dropped to 24/148.
He summoned Archers three more times, bringing his Chimera Research up to 36% and his mana down to 14, but kept a small amount so he wouldn't have the uncomfortable light-headed feeling of low mana.
With little else to do, Jay rested his eyes for a moment, letting the gentle rocking of the throne relax him as his skeletons, with Blue in command, handled everything else.
However, the quiet marching of the skeletons was soon speeding up as Blue poked Jay's leg.
"Huh?" Jay opened an eye.
Archers was jumping, getting Jay's attention as it pointed back to the giant stone tortoises.
Jay sat up and turned back.
The tortoises were quite far away now, and he couldn't even hear their groans or their shells cracking against the rocks. However, he heard something else thumping, and could see well enough that something frightened them.
Something had coiled around one of them, slamming its jagged beak into the stone-like shell.
It seemed like a giant snake covered in a silver fur, but as Jay steadied himself, he saw it had multiple insect-like legs along its body. It drove its pointed head into the shells, making deep booming sounds as it tried to crack them open.
(Lower the throne.) Jay immediately ordered.
As soon as he stepped off, he stashed his chair and the bones in his inventory. He made himself smaller among the rocks as he crouched.
Thankfully, they were far enough away to go unnoticed.
Jay couldn't tell how powerful this tortoise-killing beast was, but he didn't want to find out.
While a necrotic bolt from his helminth caused one tortoise to flee in fear, it didn't mean the tortoises were low level. Perhaps the bolt slightly melted the shell, but it didn't mean it was low level.
As he watched, it seemed that the bird-beak centipede was having trouble cracking the shell.
Jay kept moving, but walked alongside his skeletons as the throne would stick out too much.
Thankfully, his dark green molodus coat helped to blend in with the moss-covered rocks, and the gray-white color of the skeleton bones blended in with the mist they were traveling towards.
The beasts were a welcome sight. Jay had seen none since encountering the blood-vine bear, and it was a welcome reminder that he was out of its territory.
"Damn. I forgot how much walking sucked." He thought, stepping across the mossy rocks.
Sometimes the moss would cover over holes and cracks and his foot would tear right through, nearly causing him to break his leg a few times.
"I wanted to make some bone arrows at the very least… but damn." He frowned.
"I guess the longer I wait, the more mana I will have to work with anyway, so I suppose it's not all a waste of time."
Jay thought about the bolts he had seen Anya using in her crossbow. Tipped with steel, they had black-wood shafts and a few feathered tail tips for guidance, though compared to arrows, the tips were much heavier.
Jay thought it would be a simple process to copy an arrow, but only one part of it would be a problem: the tip.
Bone was a light material, and he knew he needed to condense it somehow… but this was when he remembered that he had done something like this before.
Back in Losla, he had crafted an ingot of bone. He did this while experimenting with spectral armor and found that bone contained impurities.
He was sure that if he got enough of these impurities out, he could condense it, making it harder and making it heavier.
Of course, he also had a backup plan.
"I suppose, if I can't make heavy bone, I could just get some rocks or pebbles and put them inside the arrow heads. Rocks will give it weight on the inside, while the outside will be a sharp arrowhead." He shrugged.
The latter idea was a simpler method, but he didn't like the idea of having to pick stones which were all the same weight.
He wanted uniform arrows, which would, in turn, make his archer skeletons better.
However, stepping over another mossy rock, all he could do was wait until he entered the cover of the fog and ascended his throne again.
"I just need to make sure I've actually escaped the mage hunters, then I can spend all the time I want crafting, reearching and experimenting. There's no telling how they track, hunt and kill mages. Maybe the vampire academy can help me with that, covering my tracks… or perhaps they'll kill me on sight, too. I suppose I'll need to have a little trust in Asra or at least be of more use kept alive."
