My Necromancer Class: Part 8 - Captive

My Necromancer Class: Part 8CaptiveAero Revian Copyright © 2023 Aero RevianAll rights reservedThe characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher. Attire of LampHollow Forest, Early Morning Last night, before Jay went to sleep on a rectangle bone slab in a cradle of bones, he sent his skeletons for supplies.Red, he sent for water. Lamp, to hunt.While the others had their own duties - setting up a defensive barrier of bone spikes, scouting, training, and fire-tending.Today, he would reap his reward.Mm, that fire feels nice, Jay smiled, feeling the relaxing warmth of the fire while keeping his eyes shut.He had actually been awake for a few hours already, but was not idle as he lay there motionless.A veil of his mana was cast around him like a net, picking up tiny disturbances in the energy and the slight changes in the air caused by the crackling fire. He even sensed the water bag at his side, placed there sometime last night by Red, which had since gone back to being his personal bodyguard, standing silently and scanning for movement in the nighttime forest with its shade vision.The sun had just given the first light of day, and after his diligent practice, Jay received a notification as he opened his eyes, staring into the dawn sky with a proud smile.[Mana Sense - Acquired]Hmm, I guess the secret was to be still rather than to try to walk while practicing it.Jay had another notification, but first he checked the new skill.< [Mana sense - Level 1] >[Uses mana to sense the surroundings][Three meter radius from mind][2 mana per second]Finally, the mana sense skill. I deserve it after all the practice I put in, Jay smiled, but it was quickly turned to a frown.Wait, why did Viladore want me to learn this again? Hmm... I guess it will help in some way? Perhaps to see behind doors or something?The mana sense ability was not the simple ability to sense mana, but an active skill which used mana to sense everything else. Almost like echo location, except more personal, as a practitioner of the skill felt every detail.The next notification he opened was only one for exp, but despite being so small, he was quite happy.[6 Exp]Looks like Handy and Lamp caught something. Hope it’s not some shit-eating rat, Jay thought, rolling over to one side of his bed.For a moment, his eyes didn’t really focus on anything as he relaxed, though as the sun crept through the trees, something caught his attention.Huh? A feather. He glanced at it with half-open eyes. What are the chances of one even making it through the treetops?A large white feather with silvery threads stuck on the bone platform, wedged in a gap and pointing up like a flag. Jay reached over and grabbed it, twirling it in his fingers as he looked at the glistening, sparkling light reflecting off it.Where did you come from? There are no birds around here... he looked into the forest. He couldn’t see any birds or hear any of their morning songs, so the feather was a strange anomaly.A quiet whisper of paranoia tried to grip Jay, but seeing that his skeletons had not reacted to something as small as a silver feather, he didn’t either.Ah, maybe it’s just a feather, he shook his head. Time to get up, he nodded, tossing the feather away.Standing by the fire, he smiled at Heavy, who had tended to it overnight. He felt refreshed as he didn’t wake up at all since the skeleton kept the fire neither too hot nor too cold.As he stood there, holding his hands over the fire, he glanced at the skeletons. Seems like they’re keeping busy, good. He thought as his stomach grumbled.Ah, where are my hunters... he frowned, chewing on some nuts to sate his hungry stomach.He was waiting for Handy and Lamp to return with their hunt; he sensed they were not too far away, so his breakfast should arrive shortly. They must have found something to kill a few hours ago, otherwise they would have already returned.However, Handy and Lamp weren’t the only thing Jay sensed.Somewhere below him, he sensed a squirming snake-like skeleton in the cold soil, under the intricate root systems of the trees - his bone helminth had returned.Why hasn’t it come up to greet me? Raising a brow, he willed it to come to him, but it remained below the earth.“Come up here. Now.” Jay said firmly.The bone parasite received the warning. It dug its way upwards, but it suddenly stopped, turned, and then went back to circling him underground.Ah, I understand. Jay glanced down off the bone platform at the carpet of roots. With a sigh, he immediately put his skeletons to work.Finding a lower part of the root system furthest from the trees, he instructed the skeletons to begin chopping open a triangle-shaped hole through the roots.The poor bone parasite was blocked by the roots, unable to crawl upwards and meet its master, so the simple solution was to cut a way through.Of course, Jay would not be doing any chopping himself.Under his gaze, the skeletons began chopping away at the ancient dense roots.Everything’s in order. I wonder how Dark’s doing, he thought, walking back to sit next to the campfire on his bone platform - he wasn’t going to let himself lie down defenselessly on the forest floor when his body would go limp from the [Host] skill.One of the few things spared from the blood-vine bear’s hunger were the parasites, spiders, bugs, leaflings and elementals hiding throughout the forest, half of them waiting to make Jay into their meal, or create a new home under his