In Blake's cave, around midday, Blake was thinking about the experiment he just made, trying to make a reason for the results.
'Based on the almost none existent knowledge I have about memories, it is the activity of the neurons or nerve cells in the brain. Moreover, neurons could be understood as electric particles or waves. Besides that, the experience one live is firstly stored as a short-term memory, and then, a long-term memory.
'So, based on the goblin leader's report, the undead goblin lost all the short-term memories and maintained only a few long-term memories.
'I believe that in death, caused by the lack of cells and neurons activity, the memories are damaged. Firstly the short-term memory and then the long-term ones.
'So, theoretically, if I was a bit later, the goblin would remember even less, and vice versa.'
Blake then decided to test this hypothesis and order the king-cobra to kill the number two.
This time, Blake waited a few minutes before using 'my undead creation' skill to transform the dead goblin into his undead.
Afterward, the goblin leader went to talk with the new undead reported after some seconds.
"This goblin lost basically all of his memories. Besides the unnatural loyalty to you, he only knows our language and his own name."
'So he still knows that much...' Blake thought, then he said:
"Let's try again."
The number three then was bit by the king-cobra. Blake waited a whole hour and a half before transforming it.
The goblin leader talked with it for a moment and came back.
"He doesn't remember anything except our language."
'So, he still remembers the language...
'Therefore, I can conclude that the language and name are the last things to forget, and the thing may forget its own name before forgetting the language. That's good results.' Blake thought.
Before making the last experiment, Blake decided to prepare a big amount of undead energy, but still not a tenth of the amount used on the rabbit, and then ordered his death to king-cobra.
Just after the goblin number for was killed, he was already transformed into an undead. Blake decided to use more undead energy in order to accelerate the transformation.
After the goblin's leader talked with this one, he reported:
"This goblin looks like he remembers most of the things, however, he said to me that he still has some holes about what happened in the last few days."
'Still not enough...
'I think what is delaying the transformation is the implementation of undead energy from outside.
'Maybe, if there were a way to transform into an undead from the inside, the memories could be safely maintained. However, what about my spiritual energy? It would surely be affected since my spiritual energy has to come from me.
'Maybe I can try to compress some of the undead energy into a kind of pill, and just use spiritual energy during the transformation. Or if I can even compress my spiritual energy into the pill, it would be perfect.
'Let's try it no.'
Blake then starts to work on his 'pills', while the goblin leader keeps himself quiet on the side. He has already understood what is happening and he would be the next one to be tested. But he also understood that if everything goes according to the plan he would keep his memories and sense of self, as the last goblin tested.
Therefore, the goblin leader actually wanted to participate, since he was already imprisoned in this jungle and his death was basically inevitable, being able to escape as an undead would be better than true death.
...
Meanwhile, Joe found another group of people that knew other groups that knew other groups. So, Joe finally had access to the networking needed to create his alliance.
Those people were all kind of average, but he needed them to start.
...
"System"
[ System Window:
Name & Level: Absko - Starter Tier 7
Class: Martial Artist
Passive skills:
Mana Perception (25%)
sword Art (10%)
Spear Art (8%)
Knife Art (8%)
Active skills:
Energy Step (10%)
Energy Slash (40%)
Energy Cut (40%)
Half Moon Slash (30%)
Full Moon Slash (10%) ]
"I can feel I'm almost Tier 8, but I can't get there just yet." Absko said.
"Good, I just had an idea how to improve. Wanna hear it?" Michael said back.
"Sure, what is it?"
"A duel."
"Me and you"
"Yeah, what do you think?"
"Why not? Let's do it."
They then positioned themselves in front of one another. The area where they were was already open with a lot of fight signs everywhere.
Absko was the first to make a move and threw one of his stone knives at Michael to "test the water".
Michael extended one hand and the knife appeared to hit the air in front of Michael ad fell.
Absko did not give Michael time to breathe and used his energy step to run extremely fast in Michael's direction. Small craters were left behind after every step.
Michael jumped impersonating with mana to go even higher than the trees in order to create some distance, but Absko could follow with his skill 'energy step'.
However, the moment, Absko reached Michael in midair, Michael used the air as support and jumped again but in another angle, and created a distance horizontally.
Absko did not have the skill to move in the air and did not even know Michael had.
Absko was just a living target to Michael as he fell.
Micheal took the opportunity and shot the mana bullet he used to kill the eagle eye race before to one shot Absko.
On the other hand, Absko knew the danger coming and decided to strengthen all his senses with spiritual energy and concentrate fully on Michael.
The mana bullet head extremely fast in Absko's direction. But at that moment Absko could use the sword to change the trajectory of the bullet to miss him.
Michael did have time to shoot again, but decided not to and just landed on the floor to see what he previewed from the begging.
Absko landed on his back and got, actually a lot of injuries. But he did not feel it. The only thing he felt was the surge of spiritual energy inside him.
"I Brokethrogh! System." Absko exclaimed.
[ System Window:
Name & Level: Absko - Starter Tier 8
Class: Martial Artist
Passive skills:
Mana Perception (25%)
sword Art (11%)
Spear Art (8%)
Knife Art (8%)
Improved Reflexes (1%)
Active skills:
Strengthened Senses (5%)
Energy Step (10%)
Energy Slash (40%)
Energy Cut (40%)
Half Moon Slash (30%)
Full Moon Slash (10%) ]
"How is it?" Michael asked.
"I got passive and active new skills. Thank you, Michael." Absko replied.
"It was nothing. I know you would do the same for me."
...
On the night of the same day, Blake was still trying to compress undead energy with his spiritual energy. However, he had already almost emptied his own spiritual energy three times and he hasn't been even close to success.
What continued to motivate him was the noticed evolution he was making. It was not going to be a simple improvement in his skills, it was surely going to be a whole new skill.
Joe did not come back this night. This made Blake a little worried, but not too much because he knew how strong Joe was.
After recuperating some of his spiritual energy, he decided to take his undead and search for Joe to confirm his safety.
Right now, Blake has two jaguars, a tiger, a king-cobra, a rabbit as strong as a jaguar, four goblins, and more than a thousand mosquitos as his undead.
There were a few other small animals, but Blake don't really give them much thought and did not order them around anymore. They were basically free undead by now.
Blake ordered the goblins, the jaguar, and the rabbit to guard the cave and prevent the goblin leader and the hobgoblin to escape or injuring each other.
Blake then used the undead tiger as a mount and spread the mosquitos in the surroundings, he then went to search for Joe with the snake following him stealthily.