Koyuki, the Necromancing Foxkin

CHAPTER 365: A new Corpse

Inside the adventurers guild looked similar to the one in Lupos. We approached the reception desk where a dwarven woman was reading a book.

"Greetings." I said, to get her attention.

The woman looked up briefly. "One moment." Then she went back to her book. After a short moment she placed a mark at her current page, closed the book and looked at us.

"Ok, how can I help you?" She asked.

"I would like to purchase some corpses for necromancy." I said.

She eyed Kaito, who has the most obvious undead in my group, aside from Nyx. However, Nyx was rather small and not quite as visible unless she sat on someone's head. Right now the feline was sitting on the floor and looking around.

"I see. Licence?" She asked.

I handed her my licence and she checked it thoroughly before returning it.

"Ok, Josh can help ya. JOSH!" She did not move from her seat, she simply shouted until the man appeared from a back room. He was an elderly man with a few wrinkles and short grey hair. Despite his age he did not seem to have any trouble moving around.

"What is it, Bertha?" The man asked.

"Necromancer, she wants corpses." Bertha replied.

"Despite my age I am still alive, you know." Josh replied.

"You sure? That dullahan here looks a lot more alive than you." She replied.

"Meow!" Nyx agreed.

Bertha looked down and spotted Nyx. "Huh. Ok, that cat looks more dead than you, I grant you that."

"Meow!" Nyx complained.

"This is Nyx, a tier three undead." I stated.

"Really?" Bertha asked.

Nyx nodded.

Bertha shrugged. "Not the strangest thing, I guess."

"A lot of us are undead." Garm stated.

"I am a vampire!" Rose said, while smiling and showing off her fangs.

Bertha blinked. "Huh. Anyway, they are your problem now, Josh." Bertha went back to reading her book.

Josh approached us. "Greetings, valued customers. Follow me before Bertha drives all of us insane."

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Bertha snorted.

We followed Josh into one of the back rooms. It had a desk with five chairs for visitors and a small seating area with a couch for any additional guests. Our party was quite large but Hatsumi and Kaito insisted on standing most of the time anyway.

"Please, have a seat. Anywhere is fine." Josh said, while taking the chair behind his table. Then he looked at his couch. "Your skeletal cat is making biscuits and damaging the furniture with her claws."

I blushed, and looked at Nyx. "Nyx!"

Nyx purred. I walked over to her and grabbed the mischievous feline. Then I inspected the couch. "There is no damage." I reported. At least, there was not any visible one. I guess she was just pretending.

Josh seemed to accept that and focused on the reason for our visit: "So, you need corpses?"

I went towards the table and took a seat, while placing Nyx in my lap. She started making biscuits, with the use of her claws this time.

"We would like to inquire about the price of corpses. This includes those in storage and what a special order would cost." Skadi said.

"First, perhaps I should introduce the ladies." Kaito stated. "We have Koyuki, my Mistress. Then we have Lady Helena Frost, Lady Cassie Ashburn and Skadi Helgurd."

"Ah yes, where are my manners? Welcome to the guild, I am Josh and I hope we can reach a beneficial deal!" He replied. "Custom orders depend on the difficulty and the necessary time to fulfill them. Corpses in storage… I will have to check. Our inventory is not the best but we are close enough to the mountains that we have some supply. Unfortunately they are not always in great shape."

"If you have any interesting alchemical ingredients we would take them as well." Cassie added.

"Ah, that might be simpler. Let me check what we have." He did not get up but opened a drawer in his desk and pulled out some papers. "We do have some frost glands, a few different poisons, a rock bear heart,..."

He started listing off several alchemical ingredients while Cassie listened carefully. Eventually he came to the corpse section. "Hm, I do have a frost viper. Two white hounds, although the corpses are a bit damaged and… Oh, the dire mountain wolf is missing a head."

"A missing head?" Kaito inquired. "You would not have the head separately, would you?"

Josh shook his head. "I am afraid not."

Another dullahan could have been fun but I was not sure if it would have been possible anyway. The corpse I had used for Kaito did have an air affinity, something I could not replicate myself. Not to mention that the headless corpse was likely not in the best state.

Still, you could raise an undead without a head. They did not technically require one, it was just that the normal spells were designed to include a head. I would have to modify a raise undead spell, or substitute the head with a different one. That would be complicated as well, but likely easier than eliminating the head entirely. In any case, it presented a potentially interesting piece of necromancy I had not explored yet. Maybe I should try for a novel tier two undead?

"I would like to have a look at your headless wolf corpse." I said.

Josh raised an eyebrow. "Certainly."

He stood up and led us to a storage room. It was underground without any windows but a blue crystal on the ceiling created some light. The room was filled with racks; some held items, some held monster parts and others were filled with boxes. I noticed that it was a lot colder than the main building. Either they used magic to chill the room or they simply used the fact that it was winter and did not heat it. Either way, it gave me hope that the corpse would be in a useful state.

In the front of the room was a large empty table used to display goods for customers. Josh told us to wait while he went towards one of the racks to retrieve the corpse. Hatsumi hurried after him and grabbed the dead wolf as she saw Josh struggle.

"Oho, you are a strong one." Josh stated, as Hatsumi effortlessly lifted the corpse. I had no idea what Josh's plan had been. Perhaps he had some magic and would have levitated it? Or his old body had more strength than it showed.

"I am a vampire, like Rose." Hatsumi said, with a smile.

Josh's eyes immediately fell towards the spellblade runes. Hatsumi was wearing a short sleeved maid uniform, so her runes were easily visible.

"I have heard rumors…" Josh said, while staring. Then he recovered. "Apologies, you have caught this old man off-guard. Some things can still surprise me."

Hatsumi carried the corpse towards the empty table and placed it in front of us. I studied it. It was the size of a pony. The head had been cut off by a bladed weapon and there was not too much tearing. Otherwise I could see a few smaller wounds here and there. Despite the cold the corpse smelled a bit and had begun to rot slightly. The fur was a mixture of brown and grey and the legs seemed to be in decent shape.

"I think this is workable but it's not great. I would need to use some alchemy to help." I stated.

Josh glanced at Hatsumi, then he looked at me. "Normally I would have assumed that you are a novice thinking that this is suitable for an undead. In which case I would have overcharged you, a lot. But I cannot deny that dullahan, or the vampire with runes on her skin. Nor can I ignore Lady Frost. How about a discount? I am curious to hear about the tales of the headless wolf in the future." He chuckled.

"How much of a discount? How about 5 silver for the corpse?" Skadi asked.

"What? I said discount, that would be robbery, young lady! This is still the corpse of a dire mountain wolf! Two gold!"

"It's a part of the corpse. The fangs are where the money is, all that is left of value is the pelt. And you have a few slices here and there which is likely why this is rotting in your storage." Skadi replied.

"Still, there is enough left to fetch a few gold. I am willing to sell for one gold and eight silver."

"It takes work to skin the corpse and use the pelt. Furthermore, it's not fresh enough. Really, we are doing you a favour for five silver."

"One gold, two silver." Josh offered.

"How about one gold and I buy some alchemical ingredients too?" Cassie offered.

Josh contemplated that. "Deal."

I smiled. I had a new corpse to experiment with!