Koyuki, the Necromancing Foxkin

The break was almost over and more students returned to the academy. The mess hall was now getting fuller in the evening and familiar faces showed up, like Valeria. As she saw us she joined us at our table.

"It's nice to see you again, did you have a productive time raising some undead?" Valeria asked, as she took a seat.

"Just another assassination attempt and some new tier twos." I replied.

"An attempt? Inside the academy?" Valeria asked.

"No, it was in the sewers…" I told her about our adventures while she listened.

"Wow, so your snake saved you?" Valeria asked.

"Sssss."

Valeria looked surprised when she heard Kyan. "Oh, he is here? I guess I will have to get used to that. Doesn't it feel strange to have a snake around your arm?"

"I got used to it very quickly to be honest. I am more concerned about him getting bored but Kyan seems rather happy." I said. "You know, back when Nyx was riding on my head a lot that was far more noticeable."

"I see. And now you are still waiting for any information about this Renata?" Valeria asked.

"Sadly our captives didn't have any useful information, they were hired mercenaries with no obvious ties and claim they didn't know who hired them." Helena said.

"So it could be the thieves guild, Ilestria or the Brotherhood." Skadi said. "Assuming there isn't some new organisation who wants to kill Koyuki."

"Or some individual, like Archibald." Cassie added.

"I don't think Archibald has the resources for something like that and he would be far too incompetent to set up a trap." I said.

"I have heard rumours that Archibald was connected to the attack on my birthday party! Duke Winston is having a rough time, He lost his alliance with Duke Ashfield now he has a problem with Duke Harold and there is the crawler problem in the north!" Valeria said.

"How is the crawler problem? Have you heard anything from your father, Helena?" I asked.

"No, I am sure Daddy has it handled. He doesn't need to kill the nest, he just needs to seal the mountain and ensure that they don't leave." Helena said.

While we were talking I spotted more familiar faces and when they looked our way I actually waved at them. They awkwardly approached our table.

"Tim, Tom, do you want to join us?" I asked.

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"Um, sure." Tom replied.

"I saw you in some classes, are you friends with Koyuki?" Valeria asked.

"Oh, right. These are Tim and Tom, they are from my necromancy class. These are Helena, Skadi, Cassie and Valeria. You already know my undead… Oh, Kyan, say hello!" I introduced everyone.

The head of a small snake appeared from my sleeve. "Hello."

"Wow, is that a snake? Is it tier three?" Tim asked.

"Yes, Kyan is a snake and he is tier three." I replied.

"Damn, you made another one." Tom muttered.

"Hello Tom, Hello Tim." Helena said.

"Hi. Come, sit down." Skadi added.

"If you ever need more undead enhancement potions and can make you a good price!" Cassie said.

"Thanks! We also appreciate that you gave Koyuki some things when she helped us with our undead." Tom said.

As he talked Miri jumped on the table and sat next to Nyx, Ivy, Yoru and Kasai. Nyx gave a nod to Miri but otherwise they ignored the feline.

"Oh, you have your own tier three?" Valeria asked.

"Um, no." Tom admitted.

"She is a tier two but we raised her jointly and have given her commands to behave more cat-like." Tim explained.

"Hopefully we will be able to make a tier three before graduation but I am not sure if we will ever have a large enough core to become senior mages." Tom said.

"Maybe you can get a special licence for a joint raising?" I wondered.

"Is this a thing?" Skadi asked.

"Normally it's not but they are twins which makes a joint casting easier and it looks like they can control a joint undead just fine." I said.

"So, have you raised any more undead, besides Kyan?" Tom asked.

The twins had finally sat down and started eating their food. The topic of necromancy seemed to help them relax, which was quite understandable.

"I have created a few! Rose has helped a lot as well." I said.

"I can show you my horse Thorn!" Rose said, enthusiastically. "He even saved a wagon driver on our way back!"

"Her horse loves blood." Skadi added.

"Uh, is it tier three?" Tom asked.

Rose shook her head. "No, it's tier two and vampiric. I can highly recommend raising yourself a horse!"

"Goro has a headless direwolf now." I said. "And there is Andy, a bug who can spit infused water."

"Don't forget your new company of goblins." Cassie added. "You have more than 150 now, right? And that's not even counting your new special ones."

"Special ones?" Tom asked.

"Kaito has a squad of assassin goblins now but they can't become totally invisible, sadly I lack the light affinity for something like that." I said.

"And she has a group of death shamans now, they can create a self feeding death cloud!" Helena said.

"What?" Tim asked.

"They were an experiment. We have linked a group of tier two shamans so they can combine their inborn powers and they have developed a death cloud shield with a blood enhancement." I explained.

"You haven't mentioned those undead before." Valeria said.

"I recently made them. After the sewer incident I had a lot of time to work on my undead." I said.

"Sewer incident?" Tom asked.

I told the sewer story one more time as the twins listened.

"So, what did you do with the assassin's corpse?" Tim asked.

"Oh, I still have that stored on ice. I was too busy with the goblin corpses so far. I don't think it's an especially powerful corpse so maybe I will just do a normal zombie?" I wondered.

"We could make him into a wagon driver with the proper commands." Rose suggested.

"Why a driver?" I asked.

"He looks human, that means he can drive a wagon and it will look normal from a distance. A tier two isn't ideal but with some emergency commands it should be fine, especially if he just follows the carriage." Rose said.

"The carriage has skeletal horses, I think a normal looking wagon driver isn't needed." Skadi pointed out.

"There are also Frank and Bob, so you already have human undead." Cassie added.

"I believe a more human looking undead could serve well as a man-at-arms. Not every place we travel to might be welcoming to obvious undead, like myself, however a human zombie can be hidden within armour." Kaito said.

"I will think about it." I said. While fresh corpses were good the body wasn't from a mage, so having it on ice for a while wouldn't be that problematic. With classes starting again maybe I could use it for a school project. I was certainly looking forward to learning more about necromancy again.