The Necromancer Who Was Despised - The Necromancer Who Was Despised chapter 146
The undead I mainly created were Skeleton Warriors and Specters.
At night, I would strengthen the returned White Corps and, when I had the leisure to do so, create Skeleton Warriors and bind them to the Corps.
Since they were made from orc bones, their performance wasn’t bad.
As for the Specters, I bound them to Ori.
As a high-ranking undead, she had the ability to control lower undead and high combat skills.
Moreover, as a ghost-type undead, she could control a larger number more efficiently.
When the first Specter was bound to her, she showed a very pleased expression.
-I also had a direct subordinate…
However, their performance was somewhat lacking.
Since they were made using orc souls as the base, their physical abilities were better than expected, but their energy drain and intelligence were significantly lacking.
Nevertheless, Ori was still pleased, saying that control was easier for her.
However, Specters were difficult for me to mass-produce, so their creation took a considerable amount of time.
That’s how it went for about a month.
Those who had been aiming for the Desert Shield in the surrounding area had disappeared, and we had even made contact with the Cross Federation.
It seemed that they had been thinking of sending a search party since there had been no news for a month, so it was a good decision to make contact with them.
They were surprised to hear that we had recovered the Desert Shield and successfully defended it for a month, but that was all.
It wasn’t as if recovering the shield itself was difficult.
The orc tribe that had been occupying this place wasn’t small, but with the Cross Federation’s military power, they could handle it easily.
The problem was maintaining it.
If we recovered the Desert Shield, we would have more places to defend. While the current military power of the Cross Federation could recover the shield, they couldn’t defend both places at the same time.
Periodic supplies were also an issue.
“The duration of defense is short, too.”
However, that didn’t diminish our achievements.
We were a small group, and although we had been here for a month, we had defended this place and cleared out the surrounding area.
As a small group, we didn’t need a large supply, and we could even self-sustain our food, so it seemed that they had calculated that they could defend the Desert Shield for a relatively long time.
In reality, since we had cleared out the surrounding area, their burden had decreased, and they didn’t lack anything, so they said they would provide us with supplies periodically.
We accepted their favor.
We received additional equipment for the newly created Skeleton Warriors, as well as spices and tools for equipment maintenance.
There was no news of Athena.
However, a month wasn’t a long time, so we didn’t worry.
And so, two months passed, and three months had gone by. Finally, Athena returned.
< Episode 139 ﹥ Ryneta County
“Long time no see, oppa.”
“Long time no see.”
It had been said to be two years, but in the end, it didn’t even take a year to reunite with her.
Despite that, Tia had changed a lot.
“Have you grown taller?”
“A little.”
Her expression had also become slightly more mature, and at the same time, she had gained a bit of ease.
“Hehe, don’t you see me? It’s been a long time, too.”
“You can’t not see me.”
“I’m relieved. I thought you had forgotten about me.”
“It seems you haven’t.”
“I modified the carriage. It was a bit of a struggle.”
Mute laughed as he said this.
Although he laughed, he must have had a hard time over the past three months.
Especially, there wasn’t a day when he could relax.
But Mute had to deliver some sorry news.
“Unfortunately, I couldn’t find your family. I’m sorry.”
“I already knew. I didn’t think I could find them in such a short time anyway.”
Mute said that there were still many days left, so there was no need to be sorry.
However, I seemed to feel a little bitter.
It wasn’t as if I hadn’t been looking for it on purpose.
I was caught up in various incidents and had no leisure time to myself.
If I had used the royal family, I might have been able to find it, but the fact that I possessed a dwarf was a secret.
Dwarves were extremely rare, and most of them were owned by large guilds or noble families, so the royal family’s intelligence agency would have known that Siglen’s dwarf was Mutre.
In that situation, finding Mutre’s family through the royal family would be equivalent to openly revealing my weakness.
Of course, I didn’t give up, and I told him that I wouldn’t, and Mutre nodded in agreement.
After finishing our greetings, I looked at Atina.
Perhaps because I had successfully brought her brother back safely, her expression had brightened.
She handed me a pouch of money and opened her mouth.
“I’ve almost used it all up, but I still have a little left. It’s definitely convenient to have a lot of money in various ways.”
“It doesn’t matter even if you’ve used it all up.”
I didn’t think of saying anything even if there was some left.
Atina shook her head and responded.
“We need to keep track of our finances accurately. And even if we have it, it’s not like we can use it. The state of our territory is no joke. I didn’t expect to be attacked as soon as we entered.”
It seemed that we had been attacked by monsters as soon as we entered the territory from Doriorem to Linero.
“I hired mercenaries just in case, and it was a good decision.”
Colmail had recommended it, and since we had a lot of money, I accepted his advice.
As it was a neighboring town, I had basic information, and that’s why I gave such advice.
I parted ways with the mercenaries at the Cross Castle.
“I’ve heard the story. You’ve been holding out for three months after reclaiming the castle.”
It was quite famous on our side as well.
The lord also seemed to have high expectations for our activities.
“And, did you receive this too?”
Atina brought out two coffins and a pouch from a large carriage.
“This is what you wanted, right?”
The coffins and the pouch.
‘…It’s finally here.’
This was the compensation for selling the Holy Grail of the Daheim Temple.
The royal family had accepted my deal.
They said it would take some time, but I received the news last month.
‘I thought it would take at least another month…’.
“But is this… wasn’t that thing from back then? That artifact…”
“…Is this something that’s been delayed for a few months? Isn’t it too slow?”
“I guess they hesitated. If I received it, that’s enough.”
I didn’t think of complaining because it was late. It was because of the Daheim Temple that I was busy, and the more they worked, the more beneficial it was for me.
‘As long as I have it in my hands, that’s enough.’
The pouch contained twenty shadowy souls of large eggs, and each coffin had a corpse lying inside.
‘The quality is…’.
One was estimated to be a high-ranking expert, and the other was believed to be an ultra-high-ranking expert.
An ultra-high-ranking expert is a being who has reached the threshold of mastery.
Of course, only a select few could take that final step, and it was common for people to spend their entire lives stuck at the ultra-high rank.
Needless to say, being an ultra-high-ranking expert in itself is a remarkable achievement.
Many people couldn’t even reach this point.
Even an average knight’s order wouldn’t possess an ultra-high-ranking expert.
The corpse of such a being lay before my eyes.
“Was it difficult to obtain?”
Although the value of a single holy artifact was insufficient, considering the support I received and the fact that the corpse wasn’t too old, I could say I had saved face.
“No, it’s not that.”
Now that I looked, each of the two coffins had a shadow of the soul attached to it.
It seemed that I had even extracted and stored the shadows of their souls.
“How…?”
The two people lying in the coffins were estimated to have died relatively recently.
The fact that I had even extracted their soul shadows and brought them here was…
It was possible that there was another necromancer cooperating with the royal family, aside from me.
“Or maybe… there was a related artifact.”
That was something I couldn’t help but investigate.
At a higher level, it might be possible, but at my current stage, creating soul shadows required a tedious preparation process.
Moreover, manufacturing a specter and attributing it to Ori was a time-consuming task that took longer than expected.
“Still, I’ve managed to create ten.”
There was a method to strengthen specters using soul shadows, but I wasn’t particularly fond of it.
The ones I created when I first made Ori were different, as they were heavily influenced by the orc’s spirit.
It felt a bit wasteful to invest resources in them.
“It’s true that they have the advantage of not taking lethal damage if they run out of mana, but it’s better to increase the number of skeleton warriors instead.”
I thought it would be better to use them for a different purpose.
“Then…”.
Even if I set aside the soul shadows, the question was what to create with these two.
“If I do it right, I might be able to break through the wall this time…”.
For the past three months, I had been living on the edge, feeling like I was about to break through the wall.
I didn’t feel anxious. If I felt anxious, I wouldn’t be able to do anything.
Since I had already walked this path once, I could maintain a certain level of self-control.
The only thing was that these corpses seemed like they could be a trigger for me, so I was a bit greedy.
“The best method would be to try something a bit challenging at my current level.”
It was different from when I created Ori.
Back then, it felt like I was feeding undead creatures with elixirs, whereas now I was creating undead that were difficult to make at my current level.
“Then, I would need to use the corpse of an ultra-high-ranking expert…”.
The best choice would be a skeleton knight banneret.
As a high-ranking undead, its combat power was above that of a skeleton knight, and it could command skeleton knights.
“If I provide a skeleton horse, I can even create a knight’s order.”
With my equipment and skills, I can wield a power surpassing that of an ordinary knight, an undead knight.
The problem is that it’s difficult to increase their numbers because they’re not easily created, and it’s hard to make them in large quantities, even if I can catch a massive amount of magical energy in one battle…
“If it’s like a specter, then it’s manageable. But with a knight, it’s a different story.”
An orc warrior. And among those who use mana, some can be turned into skeleton knights.
Compared to human knights, it’s a bit more challenging, but it’s not impossible.
“I’ll go with this.”
After making up my mind, I told my party that we would start working on it right away.
“It’s been a few months since we last met, and yet you’re more interested in them than in me.”
“You’re in an important moment, Master. I understand.”
Atina said with a hint of disappointment, but Kayla cut her off.
“I’ll explain the situation.”
Kayla knew our current situation, so she took Mutr and Tia, as well as Atina, and had them step aside.
“We’ll also check our skills during this time.”
“Will it be easy this time?”
“It seems like you’ve become a high-rank expert.”
“…Is that so?”
“That’s because I’ve surpassed one level.”
The party’s chatter faded into the distance, but I didn’t mind.
“If we succeed just once, that would be great…”
From noble mtl dot com
I wanted to make the most of this opportunity to create a high-rank expert’s corpse.
I moved all the coffins containing undead bodies to a storage room.
Then, I filled the coffin containing the high-rank expert’s corpse with black liquid.
Of course, I kept the shadow of the soul separate.
Next, I drew a magic circle on the spot where I would create the undead and sprinkled black bone powder on it.
“Next…”
I took out the large orc bodies from the pile of accumulated corpses and separated their bones.
The completed black bones.