My day with Voulos got off to an explosive start in a very literal sense. He had a spell called [Negate Death]. He could only cast it twice per day, and he usually reserved it for himself. It essentially gave total protection from harm, but only for a second once it activated.

Of course, Voulos didn’t explain any of this to me when he had me self-destruct with my [Corpse Explosion]. Having studied my character sheet I fully understood what that ability did. I was too young and beautiful to die, so I threw everything I had against the order. It wasn’t enough. Searing pain assaulted me until my willpower bottomed out and I activated the ability.

My life force gathered into a compact ball before surging outwards. The ability would have turned my skull into shrapnel, however [Negate Death] activated and for a fleeting moment, I was invulnerable. A wave of angry black energy and bone splinters burst out of me. Where the splinters came from was a mystery considering my skull remained intact, but I hardly had time to question it.

Voulos was hidden inside another ritual circle. Cordelia had hastily corrected me when I called the runes ‘squiggles’ and explained the general purpose of such circles was to trap something inside or to keep something out. The protective runes protecting Voulos glowed as they absorbed the attack. Once I realised that I wasn’t going to die, I sent Voulos a message through the puppet link.

‘Gompta! Why do you do that?’ I angrily asked.

“I see you have been picking up some colourful language from your teacher. I haven't heard goblin-speak since I eradicated them from the forest.” Volous laughed. Cordelia had demonstrated some very colourful language indeed when Voulos pushed her back inside the silver flask that morning.

‘Answer!’ I demanded.

“Watch your tone minion. I thought it would be easier for you if you didn’t know what was going to happen.” He replied, looking like he was still holding back a laugh as he told me off. “Hopefully you will get used to it, as we will be doing this every day. [Negate Death] is close to foolproof, so you have nothing to fear. You will thank me later.” He boasted.

I could tell that Voulos was waiting for me to ask what his master plan was. Inside that devious brain was a scheme or exploit, and he wanted to brag about how clever it was. He would be waiting a long time. He would have to compel me if he wanted me to play along, and that would take the fun out of his gloating.

Annoyance was one of the many emotions available to me with my charisma score. In the short time since I had been awakened, I had felt it quite a lot.

I had been a little miffed when Voulos left me alone on my first night. I had been quite peeved when he ignored my, admittedly weak, protests to choose the [Flesh Hunger] upgrade. Then, when he ‘accidentally’ dropped me on the floor yesterday, I had been more than a little pissed off.

Now, looking at his smug grin at my terror, I felt genuine anger for the first time. I embraced the feeling, and it felt good, natural even. The problem was that the more I directed that anger at Voulos, the bigger my headache became.

My lack of outward reaction unsettled Voulos for a moment before he recovered.

“Oh relax, it was just a joke. I’ll warn you next time, but there really is a good reason for it…” He left the sentence hanging. I’ll admit I was curious about what he hoped to achieve by blowing me up. The ability itself emphasised the expendable nature of my kin. I had vague memories of similar explosions during my fight against the paladin before I reached the front line.

There was a long and awkward silence as Voulos waited for an excuse to monologue, but when I stayed silent, he moved on. He loudly mumbled that his plan would go over my head anyway, before blasting me with dark spells to heal me back to full. He threw the crackling mossy green bolts with a little more zeal than was really necessary.

Voulos carried back to his room afterwards, picking me up off the floor by my earring. His careless handling of me triggered another spike of anger, so I tried to [Bite] him. Nothing happened. Just thinking about it gave me a headache, but it seemed that as long as I was his [Minion] the system simply wouldn’t allow me to attack him directly.

Voulos spent about an hour intently studying his Tome of the Optimiser and pointedly ignoring me. I continued to give him the cold shoulder, despite several transparent attempts to catch my interest. He gradually picked up on my quiet rebellion and the silence grew oppressive.

Keeping quiet was one thing my master wasn’t very good at, and so eventually he began talking to the only person who could put up with him: himself. From his grumbling, I gathered that his books didn’t contain what he was after. The first sentence he read out basically said that zombies are dungeon fodder whose main strength lies in how cheap we are to animate and maintain. He delivered the line with a snide look at me.

As mindless monsters, the system levelled wild zombies automatically. There were several known templates the system used: ‘slow’ zombies put all their points into strength and evolved into hulks, and ‘fast’ zombies put all points into dexterity to become ferals. The screamer evolution was uncommon and only appeared in the largest hordes, and the rotting varieties were known to naturally occur, but only their dead bodies had been observed.

All this is to say that Voulos couldn’t dig up any information about [Overseer Zombies]. He lamented the lack of information, but as an innovator, it was to be expected. Though his words were high-spirited, I could tell that the failure had further darkened his mood. Putting his book down, he finally turned to address me directly. I felt a familiar unease as Voulos pulled on our [Puppet Link] and examined me.

The minion lock on my sheet had prevented me from looking at the available upgrades. When I tried it gave me the same message that I wasn’t allowed to look each time. Every time I read that message, my hackles raised. When Voulos started looking through the options, I tried my best to keep up with him. The [Intellect Ring] made a difference, but I still struggled to finish reading one option before Voulos had read them all.

Fortunately, after he finished reading the options available, Voulos went back to his books to see if he could find any references to similar skills and their related upgrades. He left the boxes open, which gave me plenty of time to read all the options. For my level twelve ability, I had only three options available.

Frenzy Horde (Prerequisites: a horde of at least 100):

2 Soul / Second

No Cooldown

Increases nearby zombies’ Dexterity by +2 and increases their movement speed by x2. Range of 12 meters.

Pull of the Grave (Prerequisites: 10 Charisma, bury an enemy alive):

200 Soul / Second

No Cooldown

Summons spectral hands to pull the target into the ground at a rate of 0.12 Meters / Second. Range of 6 Meters

Fear the Dead (Prerequisites: [Chilling Gaze]):

50 Soul

120 Second Cooldown

Adds 1 Fear to target per zombie in range. Range of 24 meters.

I read through each option, but I knew immediately which option I wanted. [Pull of the Grave] was undeniably the coolest ability listed. I waited for Voulos to pick it, but he just kept on reading his books. I wanted to interrupt his reading, but just before I pulled on our [Puppet Link] reconsidered. My charisma was telling me that interrupting his reading would annoy him. He was a very irritable person. I was smart enough to realise that annoying him would make him less likely to do what I wanted, so I held my tongue.

“So, the closest analogues to your evolution are probably vampires.” He finally looked up from his books to say. “As a type of undead that focuses on charisma, they mostly take [Lesser Bloodcasting] at level two followed by [Charm] at seven. Both abilities can be quite potent, but I’m not sure how well either would synergize with your role. We are building you as a support caster, not a damage dealer or controller. We can try feeding you blood to see if that unlocks anything. It certainly can’t hurt.” He mused.

“What you have unlocked at the moment isn’t too bad. Frenzy Horde is a solid ability, even if the range is less than I would like. It would still reach the front of a moderately sized horde. It synergizes well with your [Overseer’s Aura] and would fit well with the bardic [Autotune]. [Fear the Dead] is tempting, except [Paladins] are immune to fear effects, so it would be useless against my toughest and most frequent foe.” Voulos trailed off and I used the opportunity to interject.

‘[Pull of the Grave] is cool! Choose that one.’ I said with enthusiasm.

“A flashy choice isn’t always a good choice. Twelve centimetres per second, to a depth of twenty-four centimetres, before your soul is drained. That’s not even up to the knees of a normal person. Certainly not a bad ability, but the cost is quite significant. We will bury a [Hulking Zombie] to different depths to test it. I’ll prepare you a blood bath tonight, and decide after that.” Voulos concluded.

‘I don’t know Voulos; first, you want me to smell, now you want me to take a bath. Make up your mind!’ I retorted. The words came unbidden in a voice I barely recognised as my own.

Voulos just stared at me, and I could see the wheels turning in his mind behind that receding hairline. He was trying to work out if I was mocking him.

‘You say you joke, I try joke too.’ I quickly sent him, trying to stave off his reaction. Unfortunately, Voulos isn’t a man who can take a joke. He didn’t immediately say anything, but I could almost hear him grind his teeth.

I just hoped that my master’s testing would show how awesome the burial ability was, but I was becoming accustomed to disappointment. I didn’t think he would pick a suboptimal option just to spite me, but I wasn’t certain.

Regardless, Voulos had moved on and had opened several boxes for the skill choices I had available. There were several that mostly gave small passive attribute bonuses to nearby zombies, but the option that Voulos homed in on was a skill called [Pack Leader]. Like the other skills, it gave a small bonus to other zombies, but it stood out for giving me the ability to form a party.

Pack Leader (Prerequisites: leadership title):

+1 Charisma and ability to form a party limited to creatures of the same race. Party members gain +1 Wisdom whilst within sight of another party member.

Without his usual expository monologue, Voulos picked the skill after only a brief hesitation. It was only afterwards that he explained his choice. His usual lecturing tone had an undercurrent of suppressed annoyance, and his explanation was unusually brief.

“The party subsystem has a great deal of utility, but I mostly want to squeeze as much charisma into your build as possible..” Voulos said. Then, as an afterthought, “It also solves the problem of getting you experience. You are useless by yourself, but this lets you leech off my other minions.” He finished.

To test the party system, Voulos had me form a party with Hans. It was intuitive enough. All I had to do was mentally invite the zombie, then Voulos controlled him to accept the invite. I saw Hans’ name listed as simply ‘Zombie’ but was pleased to discover that as party leader I could give him a nickname. When I focused on his name, I could also open an abbreviated version of his character sheet.

Zombie, aka ‘Hans’

14:46, 44th of Anoxi, 1465 3A

Total Level: 1 (Copper)

Type: Zombie (E)

Attributes:

Dexterity: 5

Strength: 13

Vitality: 14

Wisdom: 5

Intelligence: 2

Charisma: 2

Affinities: Nether (100%), Poison (50%), Fire (-25%), Holy (-100%)

Traits:

Made to Serve

Flesh Construct

Abilities:

Unarmed Strike

Rush Attack

Bite

Status Effects:

Minion

Overseer’s Aura

Pack Bonus

Though the party system didn’t seem to want me to know everything about my new party member, it linked me to him in a few ways. It wouldn’t show his health on the sheet it showed me, but it allowed me to sense Hans’ general wellbeing when I focused on him. I could intuitively tell that he was at full health, though he seemed to only have a fraction of the health that I had.

I was a little disappointed to find that Hans was just a completely average level one zombie. It wasn’t too surprising considering the rarity of higher-level zombies, but I had expected him to be special in some way. With the extra point in wisdom from being in my party “Zombie, aka Hans” had crossed the first attribute threshold. I wondered if he found it as disorientating as I had. I felt his weight shift slightly, the first time since I encountered the stoic zombie that he had moved without prompting.

Hans’ intelligence and charisma were still both sitting at 2, but he had taken one step towards sentience. Whilst Voulos was writing notes to add to his Optimiser's Tome, I noticed another intriguing function of the party system he had neglected to mention. There was a party chat! Accessing it felt a lot like using Voulos’ [Puppet Link].

The scratching of the quill on parchment showed that Voulos was still busy, so I decided to carry out an experiment of my own. Voulos often talked about the importance of his experiments, so I assumed he would approve. Plus, it would probably be a good idea to give him some time to cool off.

‘Hey, Hans! Can you hear?’ I sent him. Hans didn’t reply, but he abruptly stiffened up in reaction. I assumed he could indeed hear me. However, I wasn’t sure how much of my speech he could understand. His wisdom might have been five, but his intelligence wasn’t even close to the threshold. ‘Ok! Hey Hans, lift me up? I want to be tall again.’

At first, I thought he was going to ignore me, or that he hadn’t understood my request. However, after a long pause, I felt myself being raised up as he lifted me above his head. Success! [Made to Serve] specified that domesticated zombies could follow any three-word command, so I shouldn’t have been so surprised. With the two of us working together, we would be unstoppable. I didn’t even need a body if I had Hans! It might seem like an insignificant victory, but being at eye level instead of crotch height made me feel more in control.

“Minion, put your arms down. You look like you’re going to smash Zed on the floor like an egg. What got into you?” Voulos said, interrupting my moment of triumph. The movement had caught his attention.

‘I asked him to!’ I said through our [Mind Link], annoyed at Voulos for ruining my moment of triumph. Voulos looked perplexed for a moment before comprehension lit his face.

“Ah, the party chat. How useful, given your limitations. I wonder… Can you activate [Enrage Zombie] through the chat? It might be enough of an empathic link to circumvent the speech requirement.” He asked.

I was starting to learn that the compulsion was rooted in my interpretation of any given order. That was why when I procrastinated, I could delay obedience. If I considered his statement to be a question and not a direct order, I didn’t feel any compulsion to obey.

‘I could try. Can you say to Hans lift me up? Want to be tall again.’ I asked him in return. For a moment Voulos looked puzzled, and then an ugly look of anger flashed over his face.

“Do what you are told. Activate [Enrage Zombie].” He commanded.

I had learnt not to face the compulsion head-on, so I frantically thought of ways to avoid it as the headache grew.

‘Enrage who? Need target.’ I said to buy myself time.

“What? There is only one valid target. Enrage him!” Voulos snarled while pointing at Hans.

I considered pushing back harder, but a look towards my master’s face quickly convinced me it wouldn’t be worth it. Voulos was distracted when the ability activated and Hans grew to the size of a [Hulking Zombie], but then he soon turned his angry gaze back on me. “Do you know why I use hordes of zombies rather than a small group of greater undead?” He paused for effect. “Partly it is because I think people underestimate the value of sheer numbers. A hundred zombies are as cheap as a couple of [Wights] after all. It gets even more effective with the sleeping beauty exploit.” He explained, taking a dramatic breath.

His eyes burned into mine as he fixed me with an intense gaze. “However, the main reason is that I just don’t like people. Zombies are simple. They do what they are told without question, and without complaint. You are an interesting specimen, but I could easily replace you. Read your fucking sheet! You are a [Minion], and were [Created to Serve]. I created you to serve me.” He said in a growl.

I froze. In Voulos’ eyes, I saw the heart of an unrepentant killer. I saw a man who would set the world aflame to rule over the ashes. Some people think that being undead is all about death, but the clue is in the name. I didn’t want to die. My kind is practically defined by a stubborn refusal to die.

I bowed my head in submission and hoped that would satisfy Voulos. He took a while to cool down before he spoke again. “After all I have done for you, a little gratitude would be nice. I don’t expect it from the mindless horde, but I have elevated you beyond that. I have given you magical artefacts worth a king’s ransom, enslaved an ancient spirit so that you might speak. Does that not warrant thanks?” He asked and jabbed a finger towards me.

Clearly not expecting an answer, Voulos went back to his note-taking whilst he cooled down. I took some time to think over his words. Was I being ungrateful? Voulos had certainly helped me, but it wasn’t out of the goodness of his black heart. By strengthening me, he strengthened himself. Just because my sheet said that I was his minion, didn’t mean he owned me. He created me, but he almost certainly killed the old me to do so.

For about an hour after our fight, Voulos sulked in silence, but then his mood swung and he chatted cheerfully as if nothing had happened. Before his death threat that morning, I had found his prattling quirky and eccentric. I might have even admitted that some of the exposition was kind of necessary. Seeing how quickly his mood could turn his ramblings now took on a vaguely psychopathic tint.

I mean, I had already known he was a mass murderer. I spent the first night after my evolution in a room filled with corpses. It was slightly different when it was my life on the line. Did that make murder… wrong? Nope. That line of thought was ridiculous. I was a zombie. I’m supposed to kill things, just like the wolf expected to hunt sheep. The sheep get a raw deal in this arrangement, but I’m not a sheep. I’m a zombie.

The rest of the afternoon passed in a bit of a blur. Voulos introduced me to one of the feral zombies living in the forest. No sooner had it joined my party than Voulos sent it back out into the wild. A quick glance at its sheet showed me that just like Hans, it didn’t have a proper name, and was instead called ‘Scout Four’. Having a real name was important, so I took it upon myself to name it. The silent way it moved reminded me of the way Cordelia floated around, so I nicknamed it Ghost.

Scout Four, aka ‘Ghost’

15:46, 44th of Anoxi, 1465 3A

Total Level: 20 (Bronze)

Type: Feral Zombie (D)

Attributes:

Dexterity: 18

Strength: 13

Vitality: 14

Wisdom: 6

Intelligence: 4

Charisma: 2

Affinities: Nether (100%), Poison (50%), Fire (-25%), Holy (-100%)

Traits:

Made to Serve

Flesh Construct

Feral

Skills:

Supernatural Senses

Undead Resilience

Hyperflexible

Shadow in the Night

Abilities:

Rapid Strikes

Dash Attack

Stalker’s Bite

Bloodhound

Infected Claws

Cannibalize

Headshot

Silent Steps

Savage Charge

Bone Spurs

Shadow Step

Attunements:

Relay Stone

Status Effects:

Minion

Overseer’s Aura

Pack Bonus

Throughout the day Voulos had me practise my [Enrage Zombie]. It only levelled once, even though I spent the rest of the day using it. Maybe this was because I couldn’t spam it like my lower level abilities, or perhaps stronger abilities always took more time to level.

Enrage Zombie - Level 2:

50 Soul

No Cooldown

The user lets out a rage-filled shout at a target zombie to increase its Strength, Dexterity, and Vitality by +5 for 21 seconds.

Burning my soul all day left me feeling emotionally raw and spent. Strangely, I found that the speed at which my soul refilled varied with my mood. The argument with Voulos left me feeling dejected, and so it refilled slowly. This left me with a long waiting period before I could use the ability again. Occasionally, Voulos would make an offhand nasty comment, and my rage reignited. While my anger lasted, my soul regenerated much faster than before, letting me channel that fury into [Enrage Zombie].

While I trained, Voulos got on with the chore of reanimating his army. He had used my training as an excuse to put it off, but he still had a mountain of corpses to get through to get the horde back to full strength. It gave me a brief insight into my creation, which was something I didn’t remember all too clearly.

Voulos had a house-trained [Hulking Zombie] fetch corpses from a nearby cold storage room and place them on a stone slab taken from one of his ritual rooms. The ritualistic spell casting was a much longer process than other spells I had seen him use. I didn’t need my high charisma to see that the process bored him out of his mind.

Late in the evening, Voulos suddenly recast his [Negate Death] on me. He did it so suddenly and out of the blue that he must have been trying to catch me by surprise. Luckily, the memory from that morning was seared into my mind, and I knew exactly what was happening this time. Knowing what was happening didn’t make it any easier to go through, but I recovered my bearings faster. The smirk on his face afterwards told me he had still found my reaction amusing.

After finishing dinner, Voulos dunked me in a tub of fresh blood. This was the best part of an otherwise terrible day. The iron tang was pleasing to my [Supernatural Senses] and I could almost feel the essence of life still contained in my impromptu bath. An hour later, I was pulled out by Hans, and taken back to Cordelia’s room.

As Voulos passed me on the staircase, he left me with vague orders to learn the language, level up my skills and impress him. He said this was my chance to prove I was worth the trouble. He expected me to be a good little minion, and if I wasn’t, he could always replace me with the next zombie that evolved. It wasn’t the first time he had mentioned the idea of replacing me, but this time it felt less like a threat, and more like a promise.

Zed's end of chapter sheet:

Zed

23:46, 45th of Anoxi, 1465 3A

Total Level: 16 (Bronze)

Levels: Zombie 10, Overseer 6

Experience: 126,911/159,700

Type: Overseer Zombie (C)

Attributes:

Resources:

Dexterity: 6

Stamina: N/A

Strength: 13

Power: N/A

Vitality: 14

Health: 476/476

Wisdom: 8

Willpower: 272/272

Intelligence: 7

Mana: 238/238

Charisma: 13

Soul: 442/442

Decay: 2% (Stage 0)

Affinities: Nether (100%), Poison (50%), Fire (-25%), Holy (-100%)

Titles:

King of the Braindead (Inactive): Access to Kingdom subsystem.

Traits:

Made to Serve: +1 Intelligence, +1 Charisma. Understands system common, and the primary language of its creator (Orcish). Can follow simple commands based on the creator's intelligence divided by 10 (3 words long). Gives access to a portion of the knowledge contained within the host brain, better preserved brains retain more information.

Flesh Construct: Sustained by nether magic, does not need to eat, drink, sleep or breath. Does not regenerate Health. Does not use Stamina or Might, but instead uses Decay.

Overseer: +2 Charisma.

Not Braindead: +1 Wisdom, +1 Intelligence and +2 Charisma.

Skills:

Supernatural Senses: +1 Wisdom and amplifies the user’s senses by x2.

Undead Resilience (Elite): 50% reduction to all non-holy damage taken.

Pack Leader: +1 Charisma and ability to form a party of zombies. Party members gain +1 Wisdom whilst within sight of another party member.

Abilities:

Unarmed Strike - Copper - Level 1 (Unavailable):

0% Decay

1 Second Cooldown

Strikes at the target with an unarmed limb for 26 bludgeoning damage.

Rush Attack - Copper - Level 1 (Unavailable):

0% Decay

10 Second Cooldown

Lunges at a target within 2 meters for 29 bludgeoning damage with a chance to push back or knock over the target.

Bite - Copper - Level 4:

0% Decay

5 Second Cooldown

Bites the target for 40 piercing damage.

Scent Chameleon - Bronze - Level 1:

No Cost

30 Second Cooldown

+1 Charisma and scents detected by [Flesh Scent] can be absorbed and secreted to mask the user’s true scent. Amplifies and identifies the smell of any flesh by x5 for 13 seconds.

Chilling Gaze - Copper - Level 1:

No Cost

60 Second Cooldown

A glare that adds 7 fear to the target. Requires eye contact.

Corpse Explosion (Elite) - Copper:

100% Health

No Cooldown

Kills the user and converts all remaining health into an explosion of nether energy and bone that deals damage equal to double the health consumed in a 7 meter radius. This ability kills the caster.

Enrage Zombie - Bronze - Level 2:

50 Soul

No Cooldown

The user lets out a rage-filled shout at a target zombie to increase its Strength, Dexterity, and Vitality by +5 for 21 seconds.

Overseer’s Aura - Bronze - Level 1:

1 Soul / Second

No Cooldown

+1 Strength to all zombies within 13 meters.

Focus here to see options available for level 12…

Attunements (3/3):

Ring of the Jester (Cursed): +2 Charisma but curses the wearer with [Jester’s Curse].

Princess Tiara: +2 Charisma and makes the wearer more attractive to Princes.

Intellect Ring: +1 Intelligence.

Status Effects:

Minion: Magically compelled to follow commands from [Voulos].

Jester’s Curse: The target is cursed by the jester. The curse can only be lifted by a Sphinx’s laugh.

Geas (Greater): The target will die if they break this geas: Do not change the name on your character sheet.

Pack Bonus: +1 Wisdom.