The next day I awoke without a headache. I had not overdone it and consumed enough water! Certainly something I was going to point out to Hatsumi.

Getting up proved difficult though, since Helena was hugging me from behind. My tail was squished between us. The beds were not really designed for two people but you could make it work if you cuddled.

I tried to carefully loosen her grip to get up without waking her. It almost worked but her hands latched on to my tail. I sighed.

"Morning, Helena." I tried to wake her.

"Mhmm." Came the response.

"I need that." I tugged on my tail.

"Hm?" She opened her eyes and realised what she was holding.

"But it's comfortable." She complained.

"I will trade you a kiss for it." I offered.

She grinned and let go. Then I kissed her. She dragged me back into the bed and we cuddled some more. So I got up slightly later than intended, but it was Solday anyway. We did not have anything important to do. Eventually we got up, showered and had breakfast. Then it was time to get something done.

The field trip was a few weeks away, enough time to create a new undead. If we found a corpse in time. I also had to contemplate how to make a fire undead. Which was the plan for today, brainstorming and research.

I lacked the affinity, but Cassie could provide it with a joint casting. How would I introduce fire to the corpse though? Blood and water were easy, they did not damage it. I could hardly set a corpse on fire while raising it… or could I?

Hm, no. It would likely damage the undead. Unless I had a special corpse. Actually, what sort of undead was I going for? Maybe a skeleton would be better than a zombie? Bones might be a bit harder to burn than flesh.

Wait, could I go for a dual affinity? We had managed blood, which was earth and water. What about fire and water? What about steam? Could that work? Steam would only boil things. You could definitely cover some bones in steam. But how would I make sure the steam bonded with the undead?

At lunch I met with my friends to get their input.

"We could use an exploding potion as blood. Maybe that would give it a fire affinity?" Cassie suggested.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"It will likely just explode a corpse in our faces." I replied.

"Have you figured out how to get a corpse?" Skadi asked.

I shook my head. "A skeleton would be easier to find though. And maybe we should use other skeletons as test subjects first."

"What if you char the bones?" Helena suggested.

"Doesn't that make them brittle?" I asked.

"Well, an undead would have mana to harden them, maybe? Or you could char them, then use alchemy?" Helena suggested.

"Hm." Cassie said. "I am not sure if the normal strengthening mixture would work if they are charred. Also, would that be enough for a fire undead?"

"Can't you just use Cassie's affinity while raising it? Won't that be enough?" Skadi asked.

"Well, it would gain a weak fire affinity, probably. But not something interesting. Draugr are more than a simple undead with a bit of water affinity. I am just not sure what sort of fire undead we could create." I admitted.

"What does your necromancy book say?" Helena asked.

"I have not found anything other than burning skeletons. They are fire infused skeletons which occur in areas with a lot of natural fire mana. They are not that interesting…" I replied. "What do you girls think about steam? Could we make a hybrid work?"

"Well, you are the expert. But a hybrid sounds cool." Helena said.

"I am just not sure how we can incorporate steam." I admitted.

"You think steaming bones is not enough?" Skadi asked.

"It should be more integrated. We could use a corpse and fill it with steam, I suppose. But it would steam the flesh…"

"I am not sure if steam as blood would work." Skadi said.

I shrugged. "It would be an undead. It would not have the same purpose as normal blood. But I guess the whole undead would be rather hot. Assuming it actually worked."

"What about a gem?" Hatsumi suggested.

"A gem?" I asked.

"A small mana gem with fire mana. You have learned about them in your enchanting class, right?"

"They are rather expensive." Skadi pointed out.

"Not just that. I would not know how to attach it to the bones in a way that the spell would work." I admitted.

"What about molten rock, or metal?" Skadi suggested.

"Um, it sounds cool but how would that work? Pour it over the bones? Would they not burn? And would it attach to the spell? Water and blood are normal materials found in corpses. That is why they work so well. Introducing something foreign is going to be a lot more difficult." I replied.

"So we are back to steam then?" Helena asked.

"That seems the most reasonable, if we can figure out how to attach it to the corpse." I replied. Steam was not that natural but water was. We only needed to find a way to make the heat stick and turn into a fire affinity.

"Hm. Maybe alchemy can help. Not steam, necessarily. But maybe I can introduce fire mana into water with a potion. And then we raise it like a draugr, just with the different water." Cassie suggested.

"That could work." I replied.

"Why water and not blood? Could you infuse fire mana into blood?" Skadi asked.

"It would be more difficult. Might be possible…" Cassie mused.

I shook my head. "I have neither an earth nor fire affinity. We already need a joint casting. I think adding an additional element will be too much for me."

"Ok, I will start working on some water based potions to test." Cassie said.

"That leaves the corpses. Does it have to be a cat?" Skadi asked.

Hatsumi looked at her in horror. "Yes!" She insisted.

"Meow!" All the cats agreed.

"I will try to organise a corpse for the undead and some others for experiments." Hatsumi offered.

"Sure." I replied.

I had no idea why Hatsumi was insisting on a cat but somehow I liked the idea as well. Maybe I had a cat affinity? I chuckled at the thought.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.