Practicing her examination skill Jenna had nearly examined every inch of the hotel rooms that she had stayed in for the past week. To say she was bored out of her mind was an understatement. While she was eternally grateful for the help Jack and Falaen had been, she had grown weary of hiding out in the hotel. What was worse were the times she had to act like a doll when the cleaning staff came into the rooms. At least they would be leaving the hotel tomorrow. But even more important was that she would be getting a new body tonight.

During the week Jenna had helped Falaen craft a new arm for Natasha. Its design was absolutely leagues ahead of the dolls she had made in her factory. While it was still basic according to Falaen, it was staggeringly advanced compared to her body. Thus after some dealings with Falean she was able to get her hands on a blueprint for a new body for herself. It was designed to be made with relatively common materials, and Falaen being an artificer assisted her to build the new body.

Even with Falaens help she only just finished the body today. She would have finished it sooner, but Jenna could not work on it during the night when everyone slept. Jenna had no need to sleep while in this form which left her a great deal of time on her hands during the night. Which is how her examination skill got so high as she spent the nights just examining things over and over again. Right now she was examining her new body.

While she could adapt it to any form, she settled on  choosing a standard human women shape. When it stands, it would be at five feet four inches tall. While the new body had breasts, due to the practical limitations of the design it did not have genitalia. However, it did have a working stomach and a tasting sensor. She dearly missed the taste of food and while it wouldn't be the full taste, it was still something. The only real downside of the body was the clearly apparent artificial nature of the body.

Falaen was able to get what they required at the local market, but due to the limitations of the design they couldn't make the body more realistic. Thus, it had a metallic sheen to the body that people would be able to spot from quite a distance. To be sure Jenna was still satisfied with the results. Falean promised to look for a way to make synthetic skin as well. While she could still be confused for a golem her new body would be far more capable then her current doll form.

When she made the face Jenna copied her original face as best she could remember. The result did look close, but it seemed off. While she had been working on the new body Jack had met with her god Bonus Eventus and made him a Divine User. Apparently the god had been sent down by Eramis to hunt down some corrupted monster. Jenna was then able to sign up to be one of his users. She did it without hesitation after seeing the powers Falaen possessed from Jack.

After accepting Jack's User Contract, Jenna was surprised at the effect it had on her. While it did not physically change her body, it did make her feel more connected to it. Before it felt more like she was piloting her body from afar, now it felt more like she was inhabiting it. She couldn't wait to get to see how her new body would feel. Just as she started to examine her new body again, she heard the door open.

Jumping down from the bed she ran to the bedroom door and peeked out. Seeing it was Jack and the others Jenna stepped out and said "Welcome back. How did it go?"

While Jack took a seat on the couch, he said "It went quite well fortunately. The Baseminds agreed to sign the contracts and will be accompanying us to the dungeon tomorrow." He looked at her and said "Congratulations on deciding your class."

"Much obliged Sir Jack. While I appreciated your offer to construct a new class for me, I felt that Necromancer would work best for my plans at the moment and me." Jenna said.

"Why that is really surprising." Veronica said. "I would not have guessed that you would be interested in that field. In fact I suspected you would go for the artificer class like Falaen."

"I considered it, but what drew me to the Necromancer class was the soul Manipulation aspect of it. As might be expected I'm not exactly thrilled to work with the undead, but in order to achieve my goals I can tolerate it. I know Jack you are working hard on creating a living body for me, but I don't want to sit around doing nothing for myself. With this class I might be able to build a new body for me." Jenna said.

"That is possible. The base minds seem to know alot about how to build a body, maybe you can gain some insights from them when you meet them tomorrow." Veronica said.

"It is possible with some help they might be able to clone her original body." Falaen said to Jack.

Shaking his head Jack responded "While that could work, it is completely unethical. What they did was downright terrible. In order for them to take over the clones bodies they had to overcome the original soul of the cloned body. Since they were born so fast the souls were weak so the Baseminds quickly took them over. When I met them, I could still feel remnants of the previous soul within them."

"It is possible there is a way to create a clone body without a soul already in it? Or maybe implant Jenna's soul into it before a soul is created?" Falaen asked out loud.

"Maybe. I'm not familiar with how they created the clones, so I will have to discuss it with them. Speaking of establishing a new body are you ready to move into the one you built?" Jack asked, looking at Jenna.

"Yes, I am prepared. This body just reminds me of what was done to me. No, I want to get out of it as soon as possible." Jenna said eagerly.

"Alright we can do that." Jack said and walked to the room where they had built her new body. "Falaen have you prepared the body to receive Jenna's soul core?"

"Yes, we just need to open up the chest." Falaen said and began to slide some parts around revealing a gap where the soulcore would reside.

As Jenna moved to lay on the bed next to her new body she asked "I know this is rather late to be asking but will this hurt?"

Jack stroked her head and said "No need to worry. When we begin the transfer, you will lose consciousness and retreat to your soul space. During the transfer you may see dreams so don't be alarmed if you see anything strange. It should be a short process."

"I will keep that in mind. Thank you for doing this for me, Jack." Jenna said.

"It is no problem Jenna. I vowed to help you, and so shall I." Jack moved aside the dress on Jenna and said "Alright here we go."

As Jack touched her, there was a strange sense of falling and her vision blackened. When she came to, she was standing in a field of black flowers. In the sky above there was a dark star that had a strange glow about it. Jenna was feeling a bit nervous but quashed it down as she looked around her soulscape.

Jenna began walking around taking a look at the strange black flowers. As she bent down to take a closer look, she spotted a green flame in the distance. Curious she began to move closer to it. As she got closer, she could see that the green flame was coming from a lamp that was on the table. Next to the table was a woman that exuded power, she was currently laying out cards on the table.

As Jenna approached the woman looked up and said "Hello Jenna. It's a pleasure to finally get to meet you." 

The woman was dressed in a black shirt and pants and had a necklace of bones on her. She gave off an intimidating aura, but there was a kindness in the woman's eyes. "Do I know you? I don't believe we have met before."

The woman smiled and said "That is alright, not many have heard of me nowadays. I am Kara Everlai, the Goddess of Death. I have wished to speak with you ever since you decided to become a necromancer."

Astonished Jenna dipped into a bow. This would be her first time to ever meet a god and she did not want to be smited should she mess up. "It is my honor to gaze upon your form Goddess of Death. As a humble mortal what is it you wish of me?"

"Relax child. I did not come to bring harm to you. My other half and I have signed up for a contract with Jack. A while back my other half signed a contract with a priest. To keep the balance between us, I would like to appoint you as my champion on the world." Kara said shuffling the deck of cards she had and laid more out on the table. Each of the cards had a symbol that hurt Jenna to look at.

"While I am honored that you would seek me as your champion, I must inform you that I am currently a devout worshiper of Bonus Eventus." Jenna said, taking a seat at the table.

"I'm not asking you to stop worshiping Bonus Eventus, rather I wish you to act as my champion and help spread my name once more upon the lands." Kara said. "I'm not a jealous god, so you can worship whoever you wish. Just know since you chose Necromancer as your class you are inevitably tied to me. Though Jack has significantly changed what his necromancer class does compared to the original."

Jenna frowned in confusion and said "What exactly do you mean? I thought that they both deal with Undead and death. How is Jack's class different?"

"It really comes down to how each of you uses Necrotic Energy. Other Necromancers on this world manipulate Necrotic Energy Using magic. You however will use the mana within yourself which has been purified with the aid of Jack. Since Jack is made out of Soul Energy, it adds a unique effect to mana which will boost your powers in using Necromancy. I myself did something similar for my necromancers, but your contract with Jack will produce better results."

"Are you saying that I will be more powerful than a regular Necromancer?" Jenna asked.

Kara nodded "In a sense yes. Regular necromancers have several issues that will cause them to lose out against you. For example due to the impure nature of magical energy, they are risking being affected by necrotic energy. In fact at the higher levels, this could create a lich. Which completely misses the point of what necromancy is really about, as they view this form as some goal to reach. Which is completely absurd and annoying." Kara said in an annoyed tone.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand. What is the point of necromancy then? I had always thought it was simply to make dead things undead and cause harm to living things." Jenna said.

Kara shrugged and said "Not your fault. These foolish Necromancers have really ruined the reputation of the field. In fact before I was split from my other half-Necromancy was quite the respected field. Nowadays they just focus on the very basic applications of Necromancy. No, the truth of the matter is that Life and Death are tied together, thus they do not apply Life Energy with Necromancy thus failing."

"What lives will die, and what is dead can live again. If you take a look throughout nature, you can see how they are interconnected. These necromancers focus on creating followers that while powerful at times will never live up to their true potential. Even now they think they have to go out to cemeteries and dig up corpses to make zombies and skeletons."

"Yeah, I have to admit that part did not really appeal to me. I was thinking actually I could hunt down some monsters and just use them."

"Well that is one way. But you don't really have to do it that way. See the reason why they do it that way is they have no idea what they are doing. If you do know what you are doing you can create undead straight from necrotic energy."

"How is that even possible?" Jenna asked. "Don't you need a body to use as a framework for necrotic energy?" 

"Because of the nature of life and death. They leave echoes upon the world that you can tap into. Plus it helps that monsters are composed mostly of Magical Energy." Kara said.

Jenna thought for a second and nodded "That makes sense. I knew slimes were made out of magic so it's not surprising that other monsters are made from it. Though some of the monsters I'm familiar with seem to be only part magic. Take, for example, goblins."

"That's straightforward to understand. The most common monsters that you will come across are usually just monstrofied animals. While monsters they still have ties to the animals they come from. However the more powerful they get, the less they retain that part until they reach a point of where they are completely consisting of magic. At that point they will likely develop a core."

"Goblins are a bit different as they were created artificially. They propagate through a different means compared to other monsters. What is important for you to take away is it's entirely possible for you to create a new undead solely using a mix of Necrotic Energy and Life Energy."

"Are you suggesting I will be able to do that?" Jenna said amazed.

"Currently at the moment no. You are far too low leveled and lack the skills necessary. That is why I wish for you to become my champion. With my guidance you will learn to create undead with ease. At the moment you will need some ingredients, but you won't need a full body. As part of my teaching, I will grant you a task."

Jenna thought for a moment and said "I will act as your champion. I am honored for your guidance and knowledge. I must ask though do you know of a way I could create a body for myself? It is one of the reasons I decided to go with necromancy. I am confident Jack is working on a way, but I'm not the sort to sit around and do nothing for myself."

"I appreciate that kinda attitude. Too frequently people would pray for me to help solve their problems. Which is irritating when most of them are entirely capable of solving their own problems. While Jack did create this class because it has some relation to souls, it is true that should you get powerful enough you will be able to create a new body for yourself. Not some lich body either, a real living one."

Jenna bowed "I thank thee for answering my question. While I had no appeal to an undead body, I figured it was better than remaining in these constructs. They have benefits, but the drawbacks are numerous. So I am happy to find out that I may create a living body in the future."

"Then you are already smarter than most of the other Necromancers out there." Kara chuckled. "They believe that in order to become stronger necromancers they must take in the necrotic energy which slowly changes them to the undead. Though to be honest it does make them stronger undead necromancers but it is not the true path of necromancy."

Kara waved her hand and a large black and white coin appeared. It spun in the air as the goddess continued to speak. "My other half and I were once united. Life and Death are two sides of the same coin. Today's Necromancers believe Necrotic Energy to be the reverse of Life Energy, but in fact it is just a different form of Life Energy. This is evident by the fact that you are entirely capable of healing people with it. Of course it's not easy but it is possible."

"Wait, how can that be true? Is Necrotic Energy not antithetical to all life?" Jenna asked confused.

"That is a misconception, though an easy one to see how it could be made. Yes, uncontrolled Necrotic Energy will damage living beings. But so do uncontrolled Living Energy. Most of the negative attitudes towards it likely come from how necromancers currently typically use it. What's funny is that they could achieve the same results using Living Energy." Kara said.

Kara then waved and an image formed in the air of a dark red chasm. The light emanating from it hurt to look at. "Here is a picture of what is the true antithetical to life energy. It's anti-life, or basically life energy that has been completely corrupted. It will destroy living things and undead things. In fact we originally created Vampires to fight this energy."

"I have heard of Vampires, but most of what I heard was more like legends of what they are. I don't know how much of what I heard is true." 

"Vampires are a mix of Undead and Living. Lesser Vampires are undead while True Vampires are living. Because of the amount of living energy within them they can resist most attacks and are quite powerful. Another reason I bring up Vampires is by using a similar method to how vampires were created you can create a new living body for yourself."

"You mean I would become a vampire?" Jenna asked.

"No, at least not if you don't want to be one. When you gain more power, you will be able to create a new body with my guidance. Of course I will only teach you this method as long as you follow my tasks. You might be able to learn it without my help, but I assure you it will take a lot longer that way, then simply helping me."

Jenna nodded and said "Then it would be wise of me to do these tasks of yours. How am I to use these teeth you will give me?"

"I will deposit the teeth into your inventory. Jack will be taking you along to his dungeon. At that point I want you to plant the teeth into the ground. As Jack has a need for monsters for his dungeon, I will have you create a few for him. But first we need you to learn the skill for it. Take a look at these cards on the table."

Taking a closer look at the cards, Jenna had to squint as the symbols of the cards hurt her eyes. As she watched the cards seemed to take on a life of their own and began to float in a pattern that was clearly impossible. The angles of the pattern were clearly bent in two opposing ways yet led to the same place. It felt as if she was looking at something that should not be seen by anyone.

Kara continued "What you see here is a representation of all Necromancy. Every Necromantic spell and possible skill is displayed within here. While this is beyond your current means of comprehension, we can use this to teach you a new skill with my power. Reach out your hand and grab a card, I will make sure it is the one you need for this task. But take heed, it will be a great strain to your soul, it will not feel pleasant."

Hesitating for a brief second, Jenna reached out and grasped a card. As she touched it, the card seemed to melt within her and the floating cards disappeared. Next came a roaring intense pain flowing throughout her soul as if it was being ripped apart then squeezed back together. The pain seemed to go on and on threatening her with the wholesale destruction of her being. When it ultimately passed, she found herself laying in the lap of Kara. She got up and saw a blue screen in her vision.

As Jenna weakly stood, Kara said "Good you have acquired the first skill you will need. I'm afraid you will need to learn the other skills on your own, employing this method too many times risks damage to your soul. Using the tooth of a creature with this skill, you can create various undead. When the creature you create with the tooth is destroyed you can recover the tooth from its body. You can then replant it if it still has energy. For example these hydra teeth can be used twenty times each before they break and will no longer work. That should be enough to get you to level four of the skill. When you reach that point, I will grant you your next task."

"I thank you for your generous help Goddess Kara." Jenna said while bowing.

Kara smiled at Jenna and then said "It looks like our time is up here. I will speak with you again later. Take care my Champion."

Before Jenna could say anything, she found herself sinking into the ground and then fell into blackness. It felt like she was about to hit something so she braced herself before she suddenly sprung awake on a bed. She nearly crashed into Jacks head as she sat swiftly up.

"Careful, we just finished moving your soulcore. How do you feel?" Jack asked.

Jenna raised her arms and looked down. She could see she was now inside the body she built. The new body was sending new senses to her. She could vaguely sense the bed that she was sitting on. It was not as good as her original sense of touch, it was far better then what her doll body provided. In the doll body it was like listening to an orchestra from several buildings away. With this body it was more like listening from outside in an alley.

Looking down at her metallic sheen arm, Jenna squeezed her fist open and closed. She was satisfied that she could feel how much pressure she was putting into her hand. "This feels amazing." Jenna said. She looked up at the three and said "I thank you for all the help you have given me. Especially you Falaen. You worked hard on this body, and it turned out fantastic."

Falaen nodded with a smile and said "You are welcome. But I was interested in learning how to build such a creation. I have gained a lot of experience from it and now have new ideas I want to try. It is getting late, and tomorrow will be a busy day, so I will be heading to bed now."

"Goodnight." Jenna said with the others.

As Falean left the room Veronica said "You should try out your body, see if there are any kinks that need to be worked out."

"I will do that. I have been eyeing those sweets you bought, so I want to try out my new stomach." Jenna said standing up on her new legs. She could feel a bit of a rush when she stood. She had gotten used to the dolls short height, so it was a bit startling to her when she gained a few feet in height so suddenly. Each movement of her body felt a bit stiff yet at the same time quick. In fact when she took a look at her status, she found several of her attributes had increased.

Delighted with the changes, she headed out the room followed by Jack and Veronica. Jack said "I will be going to bed. If you need anything please let me know."

"Will do." Jenna said.

Jack went to his room followed by Veronica. When they had left, Jenna went to the kitchen and found one of the pastries that Jack had bought. While she did not need to eat, Falaen had included a stomach in the design to help her feel more alive. It would turn anything she consumed into energy, but more importantly it allowed her to once again taste things. Taking a big bite of the pastry, Jenna found the experience nearly overwhelming. While it was still dull, it was still tasting something and if she could cry she would have. Jenna spent the next hour simply savoring the experience of tasting.

ElKriJa

Thank you for reading my story. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Next weeks chapter will have an R-18 section.