Amarice struggled to stand up, only to fall face first, her tall nose bending at an awkward angle.

She moved to push herself up, but she ended up flipping her legs over her head, resulting in her armored skirt flipping upward an revealing a bit too much.

Maybe, if she hadn’t been a corpse with ghastly grey skin, it would have been an attractive sight. But to Ryu, even if she was alive, he was too frustrated to enjoy the view either way.

Ailsa clutched her toned belly, laughing so hard that her ample chest rippled like ocean waters under the moonlight. Ryu hardly ever had embarrassing moments on this level, how could she not take full advantage? In fact, she had entered her true full form, just so she could get her jokes off more easily.

Wiping her tears, she decided to finally help. “Little Ryu, you’re like a weightlifter trying to learn the technique and form of a complicated lift, but you’re still using a fully loaded bar instead of a weightless one. What did you expect would happen?”

Ryu paused, leaving Amarice’s corpse awkwardly sprawled as he wiped the sweat from his forehead.

“What do you mean?”

“No matter her dainty body, Amarice was still a Divine Vessel Realm expert. The armor on her body weighs at least several ten thousand jin. Controlling the tendons and ligaments of an expert on that level is hard enough without you making it even more difficult on yourself.

“Replace her armor with some light cloth to cover he decency. Then practicing should become easier.”

“Ah…” Understanding, Ryu put Ailsa’s words into action, removing Amarice’s armor and clothing her in one of his black robes.

Seeing that they were a bit tall for her, he cut around the bottom edges so that they black fabric covered a portion of her calves. Then, he began to practice once more.

He immediately felt the effects of Ailsa’s advice. Without so much weight on her body, Amarice herself only clocked in at about sixty jin. This gave Ryu a much large margin of error because it was now much easier to center her gravity.

Author’s Note: From sources I’ve read, 1 jin = 1 kg. Even if that’s not true, that’s the metric I’ll continue to use just for the sake of continuity.

Refinement Necromancers needed as deep an understanding of the human body as healers did. Even if one refined a corpse down to its bones, it was necessary to use principles of the human body’s musculoskeletal system in order to efficiently control your undead. Of course, if your corpse puppet wasn’t human, you’d have to come to understand that species, whatever it might be, as well.

To control Amarice, Ryu had to learn to use the tendons and ligaments of her body like the pullies of a complex system. But… This was only the beginning.

Control of tendons and ligaments were for fine motor control, but controlling them alone couldn’t bring out the full strength of a corpse puppet. In order to do that, one would need to learn to activate large muscle systems, blood vessels, and meridians.

Ryu was struggling with just the first part, who knew when he could use them in battle…

Luckily, as an Herbologist, Ryu had a deep understanding of the human body as he needed to be very familiar with it to understand how certain herbs react when ingested. So, he skipped over a major step, but there was much fine tuning still to be done. Every human had little quirks that made them different. Amarice’s body was different from Delonte’s not only because she was a woman, but also because she was her own person. It was up to a skilled necromancer to understand how to bring out the full potential of their corpse puppet.

“Amarice’s path focuses on speed and agility, but Delonte’s body is very weak, it seems he was a Mental Realm Master…”

“Mm.” Ailsa nodded. “It’s unfortunate. Amarice likely believed that since she was a woman, speed and agility was her only path. But the reality is that she had a very unique structure suitable for strength and power. Because of that, it would probably be easier if you tried to learn to control Delonte first. Or, better yet, one of the Spiritual Severing Realm experts.

“The greater one’s cultivation, the stronger their bodies even if they don’t focus on the Body Realm. And the stronger a corpse’s body, the harder it is to learn to manipulate.”

“Is there no way to bring out Delonte’s best talent?”

Ailsa shook her head. “In order to use his Mental Realm’s talent and abilities, you’d have to be a Soul Necromancer. Unfortunately, by the time you gained an appropriate Legacy, his soul would have long since dispersed. In fact, it already has. Plus, even if it hadn’t, he hasn’t entered the Soul Birth Realm yet.”

Ryu nodded. This meant that Amarice would be his only puppet truly capable of fighting against Peak Divine Vessel experts. Delonte’s was weaker by comparison, so Higher Divine Vessel Realm experts was likely his limit, maybe Middle.

Of course, this was due to Hecate’s unique refinement procedures. Usually, after refinement into a corpse puppet, one would gain an undead with only about 70% of their true strength at best. But, Hecate’s eccentric method allowed for a 90% translation of strength. If Ryu refined Delonte’s corpse to make him sturdier, he’d be able to exert the strength of a Peak Divine Vessel Realm expert in due time.

“You’re also being too stubborn.” Ailsa said reprimandingly. “The true benefit of Hecate’s refinement method is in leaving corpse puppets with simple wills of their own. You should be able to control them by giving them simple one-word commands instead of controlling them down to their finest muscle fibers.”

Ryu shook his head. “I’ll use simple one-word commands for the weaker ones. But for my strongest puppets, I need to control their actions to the finest detail. Because in all likelihood, if I have to bring them out… My back will be against the wall.”

Though difficult, the world of necromancy was slowly intriguing Ryu. He hadn’t even fully delved into the true meat of this fantastical world. Aside from the three main branches, there were countless other reputable ideologies that fell under their umbrella such as Liche Commanders, Liche Refiners, and even the mysterious Shadow Necromancers.

But for now, Ryu kept his mind on this singular task, slowly letting the weeks float away as he refined his control. After more than two months, Ryu finally left the Death Worm Immortal Cave, heading for the Inner Ring. His mind was filled with thoughts of finding resources to get the Immortal Cave back in working shape. All the while, Delonte’s treasure became a faint afterthought, oblivious to the chaos he had caused.