Catpurr 1: The Start of a Catventure

Catpurr 1: Becoming a Nekomancer

Throughout time, Necromancers have always faced persecution. Scorned, hunted, and generally treated unpleasantly, despite being the best class ever.

I mean, who knew that raising the dead and creating armies of zombies to do your bidding would upset the living? After all, there was an untold amount of free labor to be had by just animating a few bones.

Murder victims could be raised to find their killers, Skeletons could work the fields, while necromancers could help ease the dead into peace without violently exorcizing them. Hell, any job a living being could do, the undead could do better, with endless stamina and less pay, even the IRS couldn't tax the dead! Why couldn't anyone see that?!

Adam Glow did.

That’s why he pursued the path of a Necromancer in the hope of becoming a lich like his teacher.

After all, the class was all perks! Immortality, cool animated bones, unfathomable power, what possible downsides could there be to shedding his weak meat suit? Plus, necromancy could help everyone build a utopian society! They just couldn't see it, because they lacked vision! Lacked ingenuity! The grand leaps in human technological advancement that could be made if only humanity would shed their ignorant ways and embrace the bone!

Sadly he was alone in his love of undeath, and whenever Adam tried to convince people, he was met with indifference, disgust, or anger. Usually, a combination of all three that would force him to flee with his only companion, Schroedinger.

He was soft, sleek, and aloof, with silky white fur akin to bones and eyes that shone a nice blood red, much like the undead under Adam’s control. But unlike the walking corpses, Schroedinger was very much alive, and also a cat! The only living thing in the world Adam truly cared about.

Schroedinger purred in his arms as Adam dodged the thousandth arrow being fired at him. Despite the jostling around and sounds of explosions going off around him, Schroedinger was quite calm.

Opening his status window, Adam tried to contemplate options on how best to escape his dogged pursuers.

TITLE: ESCAPE ARTIST (+ 5 Luck, Alertness, + 10 Movement Speed)

NAME- Adam F. Glow

LEVEL- 314

MAIN CLASS- Lich Aspirant LVL 145

AUX CLASS 1- Scoundrel LVL 56

AUX CLASS 2- Healer LVL 43

AUX CLASS 3- Punching Bag LVL 70

Familiar: Schroedinger

HP: 1542/15050

MANA: 209/45540

STR: 20(+30)/50

CON: 60(+50)/110

DEX: 60(+70)/130

INT: 400(+150)550

WIS: 90(+20)/110
CHAR:10(+5)/15

SKILLS: Identify V5, Tongue of Nations V3, Sapping Sting V3, Chill Touch V5, Cause Fear Concentration V1, Resurrection V2, Quick Learner V3, Exp Stacker V5, False Life V1, Ray of Sickness V2, Animate Dead V5, Revifivy V3, Speak With Dead V5, Raise Dead V3, Create Undead V5, Eyebite V2, Soul Cage V5, Magic Jar V2, Finger of Death V1, Spirit Shroud V2, Call of Spirits V5, Summon Undead V5, Create Catnip V5, Inflict Wounds V1, Bestow Curse V2, Danse Macabre V5, Vampire Touch V2, Life Transference V3, Blood Rain V2, Shackles of Pain V3, Grasp of the Damned V3, Animate Bone V1, Dodge Danger V5, Animate Flesh V3, Atrophy V2, Soul Bond V5, Blood Pact V3, Healing Hands V2, Brace V4, Absorb Blow V5, Dash V5, Levitate V5, Lightning Bolt V3, Deathly Chill V3, Desecrate Enchantments V5, Gaze of Contempt V4, Life Siphon V2, Putrid Bile V1, Rotting Flesh V2, Death Arrow V2, Soul barbs V2, Soul Grasp V5, Touch of Agony V3, Wither V2, Death Hold V3, Life Crush V2, Recycle Undead V5, Wave of Darkness V3, Smokebomb V5, Ghost Vision V5, Create Water V5, Summon Deathrider V1,Create Bone Levitation V4, Create Soul Reaper V1, Alert V3, Evasion V3, Bone Totem V3, Store Spirits V3, Create Boneyard V3, Summon Army V4, Mana Siphon V4, Harden Flesh V3, Use Magic Device V5, Harvesting V4, Curative Curse V3, Dodging V4, Mend Bone V5, Socially Inept V3, Mass Siphon V1, Iron Maiden V1, New Life V1, Restore Corpse V3, Wraith Form V3, Exorism V2, Scan Mind V2, Spirit Lock V3, Blood Rune V1, Bone Barrier V5, Regenerate V4, Arcane Will V5, Will to Change V5, Shrug off V2, Identify Undead V5, Mend Flesh V3, Power Speech V3, Damned Messenger V1, Iron Will V2, Cat Lover V5, Tyrant V5, Firebolt v3, Ghostly Flames V4, Shocking Grasp V3, Mind Ward V2, Blood Sword V1, Armor of Flesh V4, Spark V2, Fleeing V5, Hard as Bone V2, Control Undead V5, Dominate Summon V3, Cursed Breath V1, Deft Hands V3, Meditate V5, Poisonous Cloud V3, Summon Death Steed V1, Transfer Summon V2, Summon Cat V5, Corpse Skin V5, Play Dead V5, With V3, Arcane Mark V2, Diagnose Disease V4, Blood Biography V3, Cackling Skull V5, Force Shield V5, Force Armor V2, Death Ward V2, Shadow Walk V3, Ambitions of a Lich V1(Rare), Darken Area V5, Detect Trap V5, Wail of The Banshe V3, One With The Dead V5, Anti-Life Field V2, Soul Bind V3, Portal V5, Lover of Undead V4, Kingslayer(Rare) V1, Halt Undead V5, Essence of Doom V2, Store Corpse V5, Undertaker V4, Loved by Undead(Unique), Bone Spear V5, Command Army V5, Soulfire V3, Soul Blast V1, Corpse Lance V3, Bone Armor V5, Create Core V5, Muffle Steps V4, Novice Necromancy V5, Apprentice Necromancy V5, Mask Presence V4, Adept Necromancy V5, Expert Necromancy V5, Master Necromancy V3, Ghost Rider V1, Eternal Servitude V1, Demons Of Darkness V1, Shackles of Darkness V3, Swift Harvest V3, Rigor Mortis V5, Final Service V1, Draw Life V2, Transcribe Runes V4, Imbue Death V5, Create Infection V3, Ritual Caster V3, Chanting V5, Wordless Chant V5, Minion Damage Support V4, Summon Swap V3, Darkness Bind V3, Jump V3, Cross Country V5, Wellspring of Mana V5, Mind Shield V5, Poison Spit V1, Bone Daddy V5, Grave Desecration V3, Share Sense V4, Locate True Love V4, Spook V5, Create Bone Weapon V2, Scars of Life V5, Good Intentions V5, Rapid Growth(RARE) V5, Blessing of Nyx (Special) V5, Loss in Translation(Curse) V3, Fondness for Cats V5, Doom Scroll V1, Knitting V5, Thermal Sight V3, Fly V5, Cogulate V3, Summon Tentacles V1, Rune Shield V2, Shrink V3, Enlarge V1, Void Storage V5, Multi Hands V3, Fast Reader V3, Transmute V5, Natural Disaster(Curse) V5, Analyze Skill V5, Detect Lie V4, Sense V5, Pray V1, Heal Self V3, Reconstitute V3, Arcane Summoning V2, Flesh Sacrifice V1, Regrow V4, Drums expertise V1, Wade Through Fire V2, Fire Resistance V3, Electric Resistance V2, Holy Resistence V1, Curse Resistence V2, Fate Resistence V3, Blunt Force Resistence V2, Pierce Resistence V5, Slash Resistence V3, V1, Poison Resistence V4, Bone Resistence V5, Fear Resistence V5, Stun Resistance V3, Blind Resistance V4, Arcane Sense V3, Ice Resistance V1, Solar Resistance V1, Dark Resistance V4, Wind Resistance V5, Disease Resistance V5, Nature Resistance V1, Bite Resistance V1, Acid Resistance V5, Blood Resistance V2, Animal Affinity V3, Combat Casting V3, Duck and Cover V4, Focus Spell V3, Scholar V2, Throw Anything V5, Telekinesis V5, Force Grip V3, Toughness V4, Quicken Spell V5, Agile Maneuvers V2, Fish Catcher V5, Cooking V2, Warp V2, Comfort Wandering Soul V5, Mark of The Inquisition(Branded) V5, Auto barrier V3, Cremate V3. Arcane Barrier V5, Magic Missile V2, Shock Bolt V4, Force Push V1, Mana Transfer V5. Mass Raise V4, Mana Efficiency V5, Full hardening V3, Gadget Use V4, Sprinter's step V5, Life Mana V5, Wellspring V3, Mana Battery V5. Share Pain V3.

He was on his last drop of mana, less than 0.5 percent to be exact, with the other ninety-nine of it being used to defend against the overwhelming barrage of the hundreds of spellcasters and bowmen who had led him into a trap.

Though Adam knew better, he couldn't pass up the opportunity to snap up an Ancient Necromancer artifact, an item he was tipped off to by several paladins gossiping over a campfire, unaware that the person they were hunting was sitting in a nearby tree, observing them as they talked about "Heretical activity" and the "Eye of Eli.".

Adam had licked his lips, listening intently to the men boast about the artifact being the key to Lichhood, the final piece to his puzzle and answer to all his problems.

Despite his skepticism, Adam had arrived to claim the Eye. Unfortunately the rabid Knights and pesky foot soldiers had rigged the temple to explode, causing it to collapse on top of him as he collected his prize. A prize which, much to his dismay, was actually the REAL artifact. However, before Adam could warp away from the explosion, a myriad of spells began raining down on him, forcing his auto barrier to activate.

Luckily for Adam, he had various resistances to the cornucopia of attacks showered on him. Unfortunately for Adam, he underestimated just how many people had come out to kill him and how dedicated they were. Wizards, Archers, Pegasus Riders and their magic-resistant steeds, at one point Adam thought he spotted a row of trebuchets.

It was only after creating hundreds of undead and spirits within the army’s ranks, was he actually presented an opportunity to escape. Using Mass Raise, to raise hundreds of low tier skeletons, and Summon Swap, to trade places, he was able to break their formation.

Seizing the moment, Adam had tried to fly but something prevented him from doing so, forcing him to resort to brute force. Luckily Adam was good at two things, running and making more undead, he wasn't much of a fighter when it came down to it, but he was always good at dodging and having minions do his bidding.

"Kill that filthy bone digger!" Goosebumps crawled along Adam's skin as he recognized the voice.

“Ugh, not this fleshie again!” Adam huffed in annoyance, his notebook slashed open and scattering his notes as he confirmed it with a glance.

It was Junith, a Paladin of the Holy Inquisition with whom Adam was well acquainted. She was unmistakable in her white and gold trim armor. Usually she held a flaming silver broadsword in her hand, but today she wielded an accursed scorching blade burning brighter than usual as she charged at him.

Seems she's still furious about that mishap with the king. Adam grimaced.

Ever since the complete and TOTALLY accidental death of a guy that Adam saw harassing a woman. The deranged lady and her entourage of holier-than-thou zealots had been baying for his blood.

It wasn’t his fault that he couldn’t recognize the King from hundreds of meters in the sky, and it was most DEFINITELY not his fault that the old man died from a heart attack. Granted, his small bolt of electricity meant to stop the harassment may have been the culprit, but from above it just looked like some old perv assaulting a woman!

In his defense, he did try to resurrect the old man, but the Imperial guard and Zealots of the church were on him like flies on a corpse, forcing him to flee.

Ever since then they were committed to “Exorcizing him”. He had tried apologizing on a number of occasions and even offered to attempt to resurrect their GodKing or whatever. But no matter how many times he said he was sorry the woman always charged at him while screaming something along the lines of “HERETIC!” or “UNCLEAN!” or "PURGE!" or "DIE SCUM!".

Adam hugged Schroedinger close to his chest as Junith swiped at him with her burning blade. His passive skill Dodge Danger V5 activated, boosted by Evasion it caused his knees to buckle, allowing him to effortlessly slide beneath the heavy weapon, dodging the attack.

She hadn’t entirely missed though. Whatever the blade was made of it gave off mad alarms in Adam’s head as his health bar dropped by a whole five hundred points. And it hadn’t even touched him! Two more misses like that and he was dead, he didn’t want to think of what would happen if he had tried to deflect or guard the attack.

Seeing the expression on Adam’s face the woman smirked, signaling her soldiers to wait.

“You feel that Heretic!? This is the Divine Holy blade of Akalym, forged in the divine fires of our most divine altar, its divinity so divi—OW!” Whatever she was going to say, Adam wasn’t going to let her finish.

With deft hands he quickly threw pocket-sand laced with his mana directly at the jabbering woman and took off, ignoring the cries of cowardice and swear words from the nearby soldiers.

“I’LL GUT YOU LIKE A FISH, HERETIC!” The angry woman screamed out.

Speaking of fish, that does sound good right about now.

All Adam wanted to do was flee with his prize and eat some fish with Schroedinger, but looking at his depleted mana bar, and cavalry on the horizon it didn’t look like he would ever eat fish with his feline friend again. Whatever the array they had used on him was, it was still draining his mana faster than he could recover it and expanding, covering more ground than he could run, and on top of that it seemed to nullify all his magical enchants on his armor, making his storage units, and special effects useless.

Maybe it’s time to see what you can do. Adam thought to himself as he stared at the amulet in his free hand.

Using Identify he tried to read the Eye of Eli, but all it showed was:

—---------------------------------------------------

Eye of Eli - Legendary Grade Artifact

????

Activation Cost: 100 Mana

—----------------------------------------------------

What now?

Which was odd considering his Identify was at max rank.

Using the skill had cost him precious mana with now less than one-half of a percent of his total mana left, he looked down at the amulet in his hand and decided to take his chances with it.

It was usually not a good idea to activate an unknown artifact, especially when one didn’t know what it did. But at this point, what did he have to lose? In a matter of seconds, he’d be out of mana and dead anyway.

The woman had recovered and was charging at him with bloodshot eyes while armored horsemen rode in from the sunset and Pegasus Archers strafed his position with arrows, making Adam grimace.

His only regret was that Stroedinger would probably die here with him.

“Nothing ventured, nothing gained,” Adam mused as he used the last remaining amount of mana he had to activate the artifact.

Suddenly the world around him froze, with arrows stopping mid-flight, and the flaming sword only inches away from his neck. The image of the crazed white armored woman frozen in place would have been hilarious if not for the fact that she was but a mere second from decapitating him.

An alert abruptly appeared in front of his face, interrupting him from his introspection. A second later, a voice boomed in his ear followed by several other voices that echoed what the main one said.

With no other choice, Adam willed it to say yes, but what came next surprised him.

Is this thing serious?! Adam thought to himself, as his jaw refused to move. He could never sacrifice his only friend. It was preposterous!

There has to be a different option! Cancel Cancel! Adam willed, but nothing happened. With each second passing of him screaming internally, he began to see the things around him begin to move, slowly speeding up, with Junith's blade quivering.

DAMN IT!

“DAMN IT!” Adam yelled out loud as time continued and he pressed down on the screen. Just as the flames pressing against his skin began to burn him. In the next moment, a massive burst of energy erupted around Adam, scattering the attackers and leveling the entire landscape, kicking up dust and debri as humans flew screaming.

“ELI ACCEPTS YOUR GRACIOUS OFFERING YOUNG NECROMANCER!” A voice akin to god from above bellowed out, shortly before Adam began feeling a sense of massive fatigue weighing down on him, almost as if his very soul were being sucked out.

[YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN!]

Strangely he began to itch all over with a burning sensation creeping along his back as his eyes started to hurt. Checking his status menu his jaw hit the floor, in fact, he was so stunned he unconsciously dropped Stroedinger who merely scampered away.

TITLE: IDIOT NOVICE OF ELI (?????)

NAME- Adam F. Glow

LEVEL- 1

MAIN CLASS- Nekomancer

HP: 10/100

MANA: 0/75

STR: 7

CON: 10

DEX: 12

INT: 15

WIS: 9

CHAR:10

Buffs:Loved by Undead(Unique), Minor Blessing of Eli(Unique), Eyes of a Predator V1, Corrupted Blessing of Nyx(Unique)

Debuffs: Ha! You Sacrificed Your stats for a Cat?!V1(CURSE) Catsification V1 (Curse)

Skills: Animate Bone V1, Irritating Touch V1, Cat Claws V1, Identify V1. Summon Skeleton V1.

“You’ve gotta…” Was all Adam could say in confusion before a blue portal suddenly ripped open, dragging him.

Snapping himself out of his confusion, Adam dove and attempted to grab Stroedinger, but it was too late, the spell was already in effect, yanking on his ankles and pulling him through.

The cat looked up, attempting to run towards its master, but was caught by the soot-covered Junith who now held a bewildered look on her face.

“SCHROEDINGER!” Adam screamed in panic as he watched the feline be scooped up by the lady in white armor. Adam tried to rack his brain to figure out how to save his companion, but there was nothing he could do. Nothing at all as he was thrown helplessly into the unknown abyss.