Koyuki, the Necromancing Foxkin

CHAPTER 368: Alchemical Preparations

The next day I started working on my new undead while Helena spent some time with her father. I visited the lab with Cassie so we could prepare a potion to enhance the corpse. My alchemical knowledge was limited but I could help a bit at least.

The idea was still to jointly raise the headless wolf with Kaito. If I limited myself to a tier two perhaps we could add an air affinity. I needed a way for the creature to observe its surroundings and attack with magic. Hopefully Kaito could help me to achieve that.

"So, I do have one general cleaning potion that will help with the smell and a minor necrotic enhancement potion that should make the zombie a bit tougher." Cassie stated. "What do you want me to make to add the air? Should I just whip up something that we can turn into a freezing mist? Circulating some freezing mist through the corpse could help."

"Circulation has been the key to a lot of things, true. Maybe Garm can help, since he is a canine monster? He should have a better understanding of the body and how the circulation should work." I mused.

"When do you want to raise it?" Cassie asked.

"I am hoping for tomorrow. Maybe I can get it done before your mother and Skadi's parents arrive. We can soak it in your potions for a few hours, then switch to circulating something through it overnight." I suggested. "Hey, you can't create a frostfire potion by any chance?"

Cassie shook her head. "No. The best I can do is freezing mist. We picked up quite a few ingredients for ice and water affinities at the adventurers guild. Also, things that explode are a bit more of my speciality. Hey, maybe we can add some death mana to the mist? I could use some undead flesh, which we could take from one of your tier two…" Suddenly Cassie stopped talking. Then she looked at me. "I have an idea!"

"What is it?" I asked.

"If we want to make it more potent I could use an entire small undead in the potion. That way it would retain more death mana. I just have to be careful to ensure that it does not overwhelm the other ingredients. I might have to balance it out with more frost glands." Cassie started rummaging in her bags and piled up a few things on the table.

"You want to throw an entire undead in your potion?" I asked.

"Well, something small. A skeletal rat? No, that might even be too big. It also has to dissolve. I might need to pour a lot of mana into it…" Cassie mused.

"It's a good thing that your capacity is rising. I bet you are a senior mage now too." I suggested.

"Maybe? We will see if we get tested before the next year begins." Cassie replied. "Anyway, what is the smallest corpse that you can animate?"

"Good question. If the corpse is too small it can't hold a lot of magic. That would make the undead rather useless, normally. It also needs quite a bit of control so that you don't destroy the corpse by overloading it. If the corpse comes from a monster and not a normal animal it helps. Like the scorpion we encountered last year, I think it was a magical scorpion." I explained.

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Cassie shuddered. "Yeah, I remember that. Getting poisoned sucked."

"I think the easiest small corpse to get would be a rat. Unless there are some magical insects around, I doubt that normal ones can hold a lot of magic." I said.

Cassie pondered that. "We don't need a lot. You know, some bugs can be used in alchemy. They are usually dried corpses, do you think you could animate them a bit?"

"Really? A small dried corpse? I think even a hint of mana will disintegrate them." I said.

"What if you told it not to move? And we hydrated it a bit before?" Cassie suggested.

"You want me to briefly animate a dead bug, then throw it immediately into your potion before it crumbles?" I asked.

Cassie nodded. "Look, if the magic disintegrates the bug that might be fine too. As long as we can catch the mana inside the potion. So you animate the bug while holding it over the cauldron and then you just drop it. I really think it will help with the potency of our potion. We add this to some freezing mist and you tell Garm to circulate it overnight. I have a good feeling about this!"

"And this won't explode in our face?" I asked.

Cassie opened her mouth, then she paused until she finally said: "Probably."

I sighed. "Ok, let's try it."

Cassie grinned.

She started to prepare a potion base with a few ingredients and stirred them gently over a flame. Meanwhile she handed me two small beetles. I took one of them and gently dunked it in some water to make it less brittle. Or at least those were my hopes.

"Ok, I am ready. Just animate right on top and throw it in when ready." Cassie said, while she kept stirring.

I focused on the small corpse and formed the runes in my mind. Then I filled them with mana and directed it towards the corpse. As expected, it was not a good vessel. I tried hard to limit the amount of mana I used. I also tried to immediately add the command to not move to my undead. If it tried to move a limb it would likely break.

Despite my best efforts the undead did not really work. The spell was too much and the corpse crumbled. I tried dropping it and dust fell into the potion.

"Uh, it does some…" Cassie dropped her spoon, grabbed me by the waist and pulled me down.

I heard a loud pop and saw a black cloud form above the cauldron. I immediately prepared an ice shield but it seemed unnecessary, as the cloud drifted upwards towards the magical ventilation.

"Soooooo… it might have exploded a bit." Cassie said, as we were lying on the ground. "But the cauldron is fine! I will just have to give it a quick wash and we can try again."

"Again? It exploded!" I pointed out.

"It was not a real explosion. Just a bit of, eh, some form of cloud. You know, that dust was not useless. It would be better if the corpse held slightly longer but we are on to something! I just have to change the base mixture a bit. You know, I could use more frost viper… Hey, Nyx managed to replicate that ice poison, right? She used it when we raided the thieves guild! Get Nyx, I want some of that!"

Cassie jumped back up and grabbed her cauldron. Then she went towards the sink to clean it.

I was still lying on the floor, staring at the ceiling. I sighed and mentally called Nyx. I called Garm as well, since he was supposed to circle the potion through the corpse during the night. I was hoping he would agree but he usually did, he really was a good boy.

Nyx arrived and helped, after I fed her a few bones as treats. Then we started our next attempt with a slightly different base mixture. Our next try fizzled a bit but there was no explosion. Kasai showed up next and helped by breathing fire at the cauldron. Apparently she was good at managing the right temperature.

Despite my efforts I never truly managed to animate a bug but they crumbled less quickly. We would have to try this with a fresher bug corpse at some point but ultimately Cassie seemed happy enough with the results. It took a few hours but we eventually managed something.

"Ha, the enhanced necrotic freezing mist potion is ready!" Cassie declared, victoriously.

I was exhausted but I shared some of her enthusiasm. Hopefully it would help to elevate the corpse and allow me to raise a nice tier two undead. I was looking forward to tomorrow.