130 Estobar 1
Jay gazed at the being on the throne; it was old, wrinkled and seemed like it was on the verge of decaying.
Parts of its skin were black but somehow seemed to retain its life – of course, its life force was driven by intense hate as well as all the strange chemicals and magic surrounding its chair.
“Is this a hexamist?” Jay raised a brow, he couldn’t be sure.
Whatever it was, it was nothing like the soldiers or the lab experiments, there was not a single piece of the black stone on its body. It seemed that this one didn’t go through with the altar conversion ritual.
Despite living on somehow, it was still filled with just as much hate as when it sat down, its face locked in a constant grimace of bitter anger.
Thankfully there was a trespasser to let out some anger onto – Jay.
The decrepit old thing in the throne slowly lifted its head, gazing at Jay.
Jay analysed it as soon as he made eye contact. Surely something on such an impressive throne would be strong, right?
<[Estobar the Heximist – Level 2]>
HP 10/10
<[Skills]>
[Reconstitute]
– Brings soul and matter together
<[Description]>
[One of the five grand hexamists of Helvetia, he guided others to a treasure he could not possess… Someone had to perform the conversion ritual, and it was him. His only tool to become immortal and join his fellow soldiers was with his own research and laboratory materials… Unfortunately, time has not been kind to Estobar.]
“Hm, pretty dumb… just find an immortality book like I did. It’s not that hard.” Jay chuckled, mocking what once was a brilliant mind – now it only had one skill left and as much health as a level 1 soap rat.
Slowly, its weak old hand moved off its leg…
“Hmm? It can still move? Ok, what’s it gonna do? Call a nurse?”
Slowly, still, it was raising its old hand up off its leg. It was on a mission that was a test of both its strength and undying will power – but it was much too slow for Jay.
“Ok, you’re getting there.. Come on. You can do it old man.” Jay encouraged it.
It raised its hand a little higher, ever so slowly.
“Oh fuck me, come on. We’re waiting. I haven’t got all day.”
It seemed that its hand was high enough, and it slowly moved its hand to the right now.
“Ohh. Sorry, we’re closed. Please come back tomorrow.” Jay smiled with a shitty, condescending grin.
Suddenly the ancient hand smashed down on a tiny glyph on the arm of the throne with the force of a mighty butterfly.
Two strange tubes suddenly rose up next to the throne. One was small and the other large.
“Oh, is this where you get your soup for breakfast, lunch and dinner?” Jay continued to mock while something began floating through the tubes as if in zero gravity.
“What the…? Well, at least something is happening.”
One was filled with soul stones while the other tube had skeleton bones.
“Huh? Is this a reward? Well now I feel bad… Hey I’m sorry Estobar… actually now that I think of it, that stuff I said was pretty harsh… I don’t know what got into me, I’m sorr-” Jay put his apology on pause for a moment as Estobar’s eyes began glowing.
Suddenly, they glowed a bright blue as they were filled with mana.
It seemed that while Estobar’s level and health had dropped, and his skills had disappeared, he was still filled with his original mana capacity; a tidal wave of energy – yet it was using it to activate its only skill – reconstitute.
Each soul stone mixed with the bones coming from the tube, blue wisps of mana mixed with them as they floated together, creating cheap imitations of Jay’s undead powers.
The first thing made was a teepee of bones with a skull on top. The eyes of the skull glowed a pale blue as it came to life and a slightly translucent orb of blue expanded out and stopped around itself and Estobar. It was some sort of magical energy shield.
“Huh?!” Jay’s mouth was open in shock, “You can make that from bones?”
Estobar had Jay’s full attention now, as he created some insane energy barrier with bones and a soul stone. It didn’t even occur to Jay that this was within the possibility of skeletal creation.
Jay would definitely try to copy this later, but for now he analysed it.
<[Skull-shield projector – Level 3]>
[HP 1/1]
<[Skills]>
[Physical Projection]
– 50/50 HP energy barrier.
– 1HP per second projection regeneration
– 50% melee damage mitigation
– Cannot block slow moving objects
– Requires power source (Soul stone – 408 seconds left)
<[Description]>
[-]
“Amazing…” Jay gazed at the shield aura. He was starting to gain respect for the decrepit old husk of a man.
Next, more bones floated through the tube, and this time, it didn’t make a barrier projector.
After having seen it countless times, it was clear to Jay what this was.
“Pff, Let’s see which is stronger, the real version or the knock off.” Jay smiled, but soon he wiped his grin off his face.
<[Helvetian Skeletal Golem – Level 5]>
[50 HP]
<[Skills]>
[Golem Strength]
– 20% Extra damage
[Golem Endurance]
– Regenerates 1HP per second
[Unarmed Combat]
– 4.5 damage
<[Description]>
[-]
“Oh shit, not bad? You’re level two and are summoning a level five minion?” Jay wasn’t even mad, he was impressed.
“Thankfully they don’t have any weapons.” Jay wasn’t worried – until he noticed that the two tubes were still filled with many bones and soul stones. There would be more of these things to fight.
“Shit, this could get messy.” Jay got serious now as the enemy skeleton ran out of the energy shield.
Jay didn’t even need to tell his skeletons to attack – the helvetian skeletal golem was already in the midst of battle with his own troops; there was no need for it to defend Estobar as the energy shield stood strong.
Thankfully, it was a 1 vs 4, so the golem was not really a threat, and the level 5 skeletal golem died before it could do any significant damage.
“…” Jay smiled, waiting for something…
“…”
“Oh come on, no exp? It’s level five! …bastard.” he pursed his lips, frowning.
“Hmm… would this mean my skeletons don’t give exp? That’s handy to know…” he smirked.
“I suppose I could farm exp if it allowed me to get some from this guy’s minions, so… it could be just him. I suppose I would have to test it some time.”
Another helvetian skeletal golem was formed and engaged with Jay’s skeletons. Blue did rush over to the barrier with its goal to slay Estobar, but the next enemy skeleton formed just before it could even begin attacking the barrier.
It seemed that perhaps Jay should have stopped Estobar while the decrepit old man was raising his hand – but if he didn’t he would not have learnt of the cool skeletal energy shield.
Jay considered this for a moment, if he let the current level 5 skeletal golem live, would Estobar summon another contraption, similar to the skull-shield projector, for Jay to try and copy?
This was perhaps the culmination of the efforts of a genius from the Helvetian empire.
Unknown to Estobar, he was now like a teacher to Jay – the first one Jay had ever found that would give him some ideas about his necromancer class.
“It’s worth a shot to try… Keep it busy.” Jay commanded, as his skeletons began running around the large room with the massive glowing glyph.
Jay squinted as another skeleton was formed; now Estobar had two level 5 skeletal golems running around the room.
This was still manageable, so Jay gave it another chance before having them slain.
“Come on you old prick…” Jay squinted, “…make another skeletal contraption…”