What makes a good skeletal partner? He definitely had to be energetic, rattling bones from dusk until late into the day. A good little skeleton would chatter his jaw away, when speaking, even if there were no words. Light hearted and slightly mischievous; the best boney brother would be reliable, even if he didn't have the strength to back it up.

Saturday morning, and the forest was still as usual, with only a few bird calls and the soft chirrup of insects. Long periods of silence would form between them, and during one I knelt by the side of a goblin body. Deeply concentrating, I hadn't even begun casting the spell. Since Hans and the rest seemed to have personalities influenced by their names, or perhaps the other way around, in either case, I wanted to prime my mental state.

Skeletons held another one of those spots in my heart right next to reptiles; an arbitrary adoration. There was no reason other than the fact that those piles of bones simply look adorable to me. Early digital history was also a time when the undead were popular, with people becoming engaged to them and having friendly encounters with the deceased. I also looked through the Fantasy Resurgence era, and the others that followed, but it was undead that really stuck with me.

What sort of person could hate a skeleton playing its ribs like a xylophone? That's right, only terrible people. Villainous or heroic, skeletons should be appreciated by all the people in every world.

I wanted my first skeleton to be special, but in Underworld there were limits to a minion’s advancement according to its basic components. Zombies were most limited, and ghosts were the least, with skeletons occupying the middle ground; they could both be enhanced by getting more materials, but were also receptive to being enchanted and otherwise magically enhanced. The skeleton’s advancement might not be infinite in Underworld of Armok, but the world was a strange one. If I put in enough effort, I felt I could really make a superior skeleton.

Not wanting to go with a default goblin skeletal system, I mixed pieces from different bodies. I didn't think I could create bone amalgams at the moment, so instead the best of each bone was picked out. Like their surface appearance, even a goblin’s bones suffered from mild deformities, however there were thousands to choose from.

In hunting for specifics, Inventory seemed able to slightly narrow down my search, but not to exactly what I wanted if I couldn't clearly envision it. From thousands, only a few hundred of the right bones were shown, along with whole bodies that might contain it. It took a while to sift through the images even just mentally, but it shortened the time required per bone by an order of magnitude.

A perfect goblin skeleton was displayed across the ground. Not one flaw on any of the bones, each one dazzlingly white, looking sturdier than what a goblin should have possessed. Finding a properly attractive skull had been the most difficult part, the oblong shape of the usual goblin head made it difficult to find something to fit my aesthetic, but it had been done.

After experimenting, it seemed that if desired, Negative Energy could switch between two aspects; Death and decay. Wanting to reinforce the bones before the skeleton was even created, the {Negative Energy} enhancement skill didn't work, so I tried to do it with raw Negative energy. The results were mixed, some bones turning to ash, others becoming more sturdy, but the majority were a mix; fragmenting into splinters or chunks that were resilient as the rest broke apart. Further investigation revealed that Negative Energy could be refined into two components, Death, an energy that made dead things ‘more’, and Decay, the destruction and return to nothingness.

They could be slightly influenced, yet I couldn't wait to reach perfection in this new skill before creating any more undead. I could create an imbalance in my usage of Negative Energy to be six parts death and four parts decay, but doing so ‘left’ bits of decay within me. The only adverse effect I noticed was it was more difficult to further draw out only death energy.

Quickly coming upon an idea, I focused using decay on some stones with the most purity I could draw out. Keeping the amount of decay used higher than death grew more difficult almost exponentially, and when I hit my limit, I would switch gears and enhance a bone. Now using about 70% death attribute, if such a long process gave marginal gains then the road to the pinnacle of necromancy would be an incredibly long one indeed. This process was repeated a few hundred times, several times over for each bone so the very best one could be used. With all that practice, my Negative Energy efficiency improved, but the ability to separate death and decay did not change in the slightest.

Now all that was left for me to do was come up with a name. Jack? Skullivan? Fiza? Brook? Bonesy? My little skeleton needed a good name, like Hans did. It needed to have some levity to it, but if he was going to be his own skeleton, he shouldn't be named after another.

I had a bit of an idea, but before bringing him to life, I circulated Negative Energy through me. It’s a strange sensation, because there wasn't actually any Negative Energy passing through, yet chills passed across my skin. The replication of the feeling that occurred before the shadowy wisps manifested, I didn't know if it would have any benefit, but seemed like it should.

Getting in tune with the Negative Energy, I placed my hands on the clavicle. The spell shape formed, looking much like the one for {Zombie}. However, there were far more circles with lines, scattered about in a seemingly random pattern. Paying no attention to the differences this time, I worked on putting my all into correctly filling the spell shape.

Imagine you like to bake, and decorate cakes or pastries. Using one of those icing tubes, you squeeze out the topping in fancy patterns. Filling up a spell shape could be like that, except instead of one of the icing tubes, you had a shovel to work with. With practice, control over it had reached the point where it may have been more analogous to using a trowel. Either way, there were infinitely regressing fractal patterns that even much finer tools would not be able to complete with perfection.

If patient though, despite my trowel levels of control, going over and over the spell shape again and again could provide steady and constant refinements. I couldn't go on forever, as with each pass of modifications another portion of mana was consumed. With the support of my levels I had a greatly increased capacity since arrival, but that only meant I could begin undertaken the mana intense procedures. With unparalleled focus, the spell shape was forged.

Mana about to be extinguished, I released the spell, unsure of what would happen in the case of failure. Letting out a sigh of mental fatigue, the spiritual connections in my mind were beginning to shake as a new link formed. Even the Barnacle shifted, but as usual was unable to be affected by my soul searching, and soon stopped moving in any case.

A nylon cord around three feet appeared on my soul. Tougher than Zog’s, it seemed my efforts were not totally in vain; though the purpose of the cord’s strength didn't seem to affect communication, function indiscernible. On the ground, the bones began to shake a little and a starry light appeared in the eye sockets.

Laying on the ground, he lifted all four limbs to the sky, as if stretching. Cricking his neck side to side, in one move he hopped to his feet. A smile was plastered across his skull and he looked around.

“Clavi!” Rejoicing at my success, I opened my arms and scooped him up. “*Let me see your limbs.*” Struggling in a manner that didn't impede me, I went straight to examining his joints. In some cases there was contact, but not always. Tugging at his limbs, they could shift away by about a pinky’s width, before an alarming sensation came through the spiritual connection.

Clacking his jaw, Clavi looked a bit irritated, but couldn't do anything other than glare. Such a funny little fellow, though he definitely possessed an shockingly high intellect for being undead. That was good, even if it did make me curious. Tapping his wrist impatiently with a clackity-clack, I continued to hold him up and examine him.

A full set of goblin bones aren't that heavy, so I was lifting and turning my skeleton in the air and above my head, giving a thorough examination. Clavi acted very human, letting his arms and legs go limp when held horizontally. At first he seemed to have a sense of touch, but after setting up a test, it seemed like that was an illusion from incorporating my knowledge.

That was a bit worrying, if I could be deceived, that could cause real feedback from my minions, making it seem more ‘real’. I needed to be extra aware around any illusionists in the world.

Hahaha, well I didn't care at all about that sort of thing in the moment. Instead, I was familiarizing myself with Clavi’s emergent quirks. Giving him a sword, we sparred some. My familiarity and size more than trumped his quick and agile frame; it was just a light workout to see what skill could be displayed.

But as we fought, Clavi got better. I repeated certain strikes and over time, Clavi got faster at reacting to them. Starting to display abilities, my attacks doubled in speed and ferocity, taking it from a light spar to a competition. An undead managing to learn...through the soul I could spot a small and continuous improvement within him. There were no physical changes, but Clavi was definitely absorbing the moves he practiced.

That was all though, and he quickly plateaued in ability. I was a little grateful since Stamina was starting to become necessary to keep up. His combat might would possibly reach that of six goblins, so still a bit low since that already included his ability to tank hits. However for a goblin skeleton, the results were beyond anticipation.

As a goblin skeleton, he should have had a little more power than one goblin, though that small increase might make him a match for two. Clavi instead acted more along the lines of a Level 2 monster, if one lacking in abilities. His learning as well, although of limited capacity meant for what should have amounted to a Level 0 or 1, would be able to travel with me until around Level 20, perhaps more if I imbued him with Soul Power.

I did have a lot of that from the battle, didn't I? So I beckoned Clavi over from picking up the hand spiders carrying them around. Getting ready to enhance him with Soul Power, the process began by putting a layer of Negative Energy down. From that, the points where Soul Power could best be applied were revealed; and for Clavi it would cost several times more than Zog’s initial upgrade.

Deciding to go for it, I packed Soul Power onto Clavi’s soul. Kneading it in, over half of what I had, three times what was used on Zog, congealed. Seeping into Clavi, his body strengthened marginally, but not to a negligible degree. The souls connected to me were not clearly delineated as mine was; instead they were more organic and required even more guesswork than interpreting my own status did.

I suspected that only I would possess my arbitrary body with numeric figures. My minnies would have to follow the rules of the world properly. Still, if I had to guess, the Soul Power given would be enough to take Clavi to a Level 2 player. The power hadn't totally settled, and shifted about for the following few minutes. During that time my little skeleton acted woozy if not given instructions otherwise.

Letting him stagger about, I eventually decided to scoop him up and dump him into Inventory. There were still a few hours left before dusk, but I didn't want to totally disappear every time I went to the forest. Besides, I needed to show my face around because I would be gone Sunday to collect my first installment of chikans.

A/N:AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Are the tags accurate? Should there be more?

Also, go develop my TV Tropes!

Also, I still was not lying about the forum game. I've just been in a bit of a writing slump, so that's been my primary focus.

I meant to make a poll, but my phone denied me. Stupid phone.