My Necromancer Class

Bones floated in front of Jay as he channeled his mana into them, giving them a light-green tint as it mixed with the bone particles. Slowly, the bones began to soften and meld together before flattening out. It was a round disc of bone, looking nothing like a shield.

Jay tried to mold it into a shield shape, but he couldn't hold the shape. Losing control over the bone disc, it fell to the ground, splintering into pieces.

Damn… Jay thought, as he picked up the bone scrap. My scrimshaw ability is still level 1, even after all the dagger crafting. Surely I'm close to leveling it up though? He pulled more white bones from his ring. Guess I'll just have to change that.

After a while, Jay was getting faster and more efficient - finding he could shatter daggers with his mana before re-crafting them, though he lost some material from the process.

Two hours and 23 white bone daggers later, Jay finally received a notification.

[Scrimshaw Level 2]

Finally.. Now, what was I doing again? He looked around at the bone residue and splinters on the ground, wondering for a moment.

"Oh yeah, making a shield," he chuckled, grabbing more bone for his shield.

This time, as he crafted the flat circle, he had a feeling that he needed to add more bones, so while holding the forming bone-pancake, he shifted his ring. To Jay's surprise, the circular bone formation pulled bones in from the ring itself, as if they were magnetized. Seeing it slow down, Jay added more mana and restored its formation speed.

The shield drew an additional six bones into itself, along with a soap rat skull, including one of the blackened marsh bones. After Jay forced the mana-filled semi-solid bones into a shield-like shape, the process began automating itself.

Before Jay's eyes, a shield formed. The rat skull increased in size while its snout shortened. It found its place on the front of the shield as two glowing green eyes appeared in it.

[Item Complete]

Nice, Jay nodded, grabbing the shield after the process finished, looking at the menacing rat skull on the front as it stared back at him. There was a hint of sentience in its brooding eyes.

I wonder if it likes being a shield.

The shield was the same shape as a knight's shield, its shape similar to a square with a triangle on the bottom, yet much lighter. The edges were thicker and darkened, with claws at the three points, facing outwards towards the enemy's side.

Artery-like structures seemed to stem out from the rat skull at the center. It seemed to Jay like there was a green-ish liquid coursing through them.

Pleased with the design, Jay analyzed the shield.

[Death-walker's Sentry] (Unique Shield)

[Aware - Alerts the owner when it detects a threat]

[Shade Vision - Can still see clearly in the absence of light]

[Mana burn - Physical contact causes mana-loss to enemies]

[Block - Negate 100% damage from an attack. 15% chance.]

[Lifespan - Requires essence to maintain its form]

[Current lifespan: 120 hours]

[Remnants] When life reaches zero, the shield breaks into three pieces. Can be restored using necrotic mana. Each piece can track the other pieces.

"Wow…" Jay grinned with excitement. "No wonder it's called a sentry. It literally detects enemies in the dark." he smiled, looking at the rat skull on the shield. "The creepy rat skull alone would cause people to think twice before even striking it."

Its glowing eyes gave off a faint green glow in the darkness, enough to lure in any unsuspecting enemies.

Standing up, Jay had a snack and some water before getting the party into formation and moving deeper into the caves, excited to try his new shield. He decided he would give his old buckler to the lamp-carrying skeleton once they were out of the cave.

"Hmm, perhaps I should make you a shield instead… Having one of you to guard me with a shield would be good, but I think I'll keep the other two for damage-dealing." Jay had a realization. "I wonder if I can equip you all with armor too…" rubbing his chin, he imagined a skeleton clad in thick armor.

"Maybe I'll wait till the skeletons stop growing before giving them armor. I don't want to re-craft more once they grow out of it." He glanced at Lamp. In one level up, the skeletons went from being up to his hip to be shoulder-high, so Jay reasoned they could probably get much larger.

A few hours passed as the party of four killed its way through the dungeon. They dispatched three lone silt wolves along with two pairs of silt wolves - Jay needing to help with the pairs of wolves, using four unstable teeth attacks and blasting holes in their hides, stalling one before the minions could kill them both.

This works well enough, thought Jay, considering his tactics while continuing through the dungeon - before his shield alerted him, squeezing his wrist a little as it saw something in the dark; another silt wolf ambush.

Noticing a faint light glowing in the dark, Jay understood that he finally found another one of those silt wolf variants - the one which released the pulse attack and fled.

Finally, another one… this time you won't escape. Jay glared at the wolf. He knew it was a different one because it didn't have a blue bone sword sticking out of it.

First, he commanded Red and Blue to fight the variant while he backed up, bracing for the mana pulse attack.

He quickly channeled his mana around his head, imagining a thick membrane which slowly formed.

The wolf variant continued to charge its first attack even while the minions were now stabbing its throat and torso, meanwhile the other silt wolf was winning its battle with Lamp, however an unstable tooth blasted a chunk of its ribcage out, causing the fight to be a stalemate - Jay went back to forming his makeshift mana wall, before being temporarily distracted from the fight.

[Ability Discovered - Mental Coating]

Not having time to analyze the skill, Jay continued to assist Lamp while he kept track of Red and Blue, fighting the variant, which was glowing more brightly.

It's about to do it… Jay thought, noticing the flesh-like flaps around its mouth open up. He took a knee, stabilizing himself so he wouldn't fall over.

As Jay thought, the glowing light contracted and emitted a translucent blue pulse. It waved through the minions without affecting them. This time, as it hit Jay, he felt like he was poked in the forehead rather than punched in the brain.

"So weak." Jay smiled condescendingly.

Raising his hand with a floating tooth in it - the tooth seeming to shudder as if excited or full of energy - Jay only smirked like a noble as his eyes gleamed like a predator.

"My turn."