After a week I was allowed to leave the infirmary. On the way to my room I inspected the damage to the academy. There was still some construction going on but the repairs were almost finished. Having a lot of powerful mages certainly helped when it came to repairs.

  When I arrived at my room my friends were waiting.

  “Koyuki! We need to celebrate your recovery!” Helena announced.

  “Indeed. We got a barrel of ale and ordered some good food in the mess hall.” Skadi said.

  “We did ask the nurse, it’s fine to have a feast and some drink!” Cassie added.

  “A drink does sound good.” I agreed.

  We went to the mess hall where they had reserved a table, by placing the cats on top of it. Somehow they must have convinced Nyx to order them to do that. Interestingly, the other students did not bother us, for now.

  “Hey, have you heard anything about Eva?” I asked.

  “No, she is still missing.” Helena replied.

  I had never liked her but I had no idea if I had ever truly met the real Eva. My thoughts were interrupted by food.

  My friends brought whole grilled chickens with rice, a small barrel of ale and I spotted a cake for dessert.

  “Wow.” I said.

  “Chicken is appropriate since the Iron Beaks saved the day!” Cassie declared.

  I rubbed my back. “They did save me, although it was a close one.”

  “Yeah. Next time you need better protection. They are not meant to explode near you.” Cassie said. “But I want to upgrade some of them. I think we could have elite Iron Beaks with a bigger bomb. Clearly they were not enough against such an opponent. Maybe I can get my hands on some vampiric nightshade seeds…”

  “We need to get stronger. But we are already working on that.” Skadi added. They still had their secret project. I was really curious what they were working on.

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  “I can help you with an ice armour.” Helena offered.

  “Speaking of becoming stronger, we do have a new corpse.” I said. “And we have the chance to make something special!”

  “Sure, but first a toast. To Koyuki!” Helena proposed raising her mug.

  We clinked our mugs and took a sip, then Skadi asked: “So, what do you want to do with the corpse?”

  “I want to make a tier three undead!” I announced.

  “Wow. Did you learn that while you were recovering? Did you study all this time?” Helena asked.

  “Um, I still need to study some more. And it will need preparation. Also I was hoping we could do a joint casting so I have more mana available.” I explained.

  “Sure. Sounds like an interesting idea. And I look forward to seeing her face when she realises she is an undead!” Cassie said with a grin.

  “Oh, I wanted to create a new undead, not bring her soul back.” I responded.

  “Why? She wanted to kill you. Making her serve you seems appropriate.” Skadi replied.

  “Because she would likely try to sabotage me. She could interpret orders the wrong way, only ever do the bare minimum. I need an undead who serves willingly.” I explained.

  “That does make sense.” Helena agreed.

  “You do make a good point.” Cassie agreed.

  “So, what type of undead are you thinking about? Can you use her affinity?” Skadi asked.

  “That might be tricky. But her potential should carry over. So she might be able to grow into a grand mage again, in time. Senior mage at least.” I said.

  “Wow. And you have Nyx too.” Skadi said.

  “Your undead army is growing! Muahahaha.” Helena laughed.

  “Soon you will be officially a senior mage as well.” Cassie added.

  “Not just me. All of us are going to perform advanced magic.” I reminded her.

  Cassie grimaced. “You know my core is not that big. I doubt I will fulfil the mana requirements for a senior mage.”

  “But you have made good progress. I think Koyuki’s circulation technique has increased the rate at which our cores grow.” Skadi said.

  “Once we perform advanced magic, senior mage is only a matter of time.” Helena added.

  “So, back to the undead. The corpse should be fresh, right? When do you want to raise her?” Cassie asked.

  “After the exams. We are going to really prepare that corpse. The teachers are going to help with some resources, as an apology for the whole incident. We can go all out this time. I want to soak it in an alchemical solution for a while.” I announced.

  Cassie pondered that. “If Horas can get me some stuff I can work on that. Are we trying to give her a water affinity? Hey wait…” Then she looked at Skadi. “I will need your help.”

  “Sure. What have you planned?” Skadi asked.

  “We're gonna soak this bitch in blood! If the academy owes us I think I can get a vampiric nightshade seed from them.” Cassie said enthusiastically.

  “Eh, we don’t want to blow up the corpse…” I said.

  “No, no. Not for this new bomb. But if I can get some extra… Anyway, I am thinking we can go all out on the vampiric part.” Cassie mused.

  “Are you going to grow a plant in her? Won’t that damage the corpse?” Helena asked.

  “No, I don’t want to grow anything. Just use the seed for a potion.” Cassie explained.

  “Gronir warned me that using regular blood might weaken the result. If you can compensate for that with a seed, a vampiric undead might be cool.” I mused. I certainly had some more reading to do. This new undead had a chance to become awesome!

  Two purple eyes stared at me. Ok, it would never be as awesome as Nyx.