The Necromancer Who Was Despised - The Necromancer Who Was Despised chapter 63

When the annex was organized, and we were getting used to living in the basement, I received a message through Tia.

“Are food supplies getting low?”

“Yes. It’s not urgent yet, but we have quite a few people, so I think we should prepare in advance.”

The number of people living in my dungeon, including both the main building and the annex, was 23.

The reason for this was that there were more slaves rescued from the annex than expected.

In fact, even this was a small number. Before he died, Kuman neglected the slave trade in favor of deals with the Magic Tower, so the supply and demand decreased, leaving only a few people.

Excluding my party, Mutr, and Baldur, there are a total of 17 slaves.

Of these, only five live in the main building: me, Kyla, Athina, Tia, and Mutr. The rest, including Baldur, all live in the annex.

The gender ratio is four males to thirteen females.

Three of the males are learning combat from Baldur, while the rest live as servants and maids.

The gender ratio is a mess, but it doesn’t really matter to me.

“It’s been a while since the surface has been quiet, so isn’t it time to start exploring?”

The reason Tia, not Baldur, is giving me this report is simple.

In fact, she was in charge of all internal management.

She realized that she was not suited for combat and continued to search for something she could do.

Athina said that it was enough for her to just live, but it is impossible for a person to just breathe without doing anything, not even for a day or two.

Especially now that my dungeon is not dangerous, Tia’s desire will only grow.

In the end, Tia decided to do what she could on her own, which overlapped with the maids’ work.

The people in the annex had no choice but to find Tia, who belonged to the main building, difficult, even those who knew her when she was still a slave.

So instead of working together, Tia started managing them.

Thanks to her position as Athina’s younger sister and a member of the main building, no one dared to oppose her. As a result, she unexpectedly succeeded in managing the internal affairs, and Baldur began to feel more comfortable.

Baldur was the busiest person in the dungeon, handling a heavy workload that included training, managing the annex, managing the servants and maids, training the combatants, and acting as a liaison between the main building and the annex.

However, when Tia took over the management of the servants and maids, the liaison between the main building and the annex, and the management of the annex, Baldur was able to focus on training and developing the combatants, and his efficiency began to increase.

When Mutr also started helping with the management of supplies, there was even synergy.

As a result, Baldur and Mutr came to respect Tia very much, and Tia herself began to live with confidence, knowing that she had something to do and that it was helping the group.

Athina was also satisfied that Tia was not doing anything dangerous, so Tia’s actions resulted in a happy outcome that satisfied everyone.

‘I don’t have to worry about other things much anymore…’

That’s why I didn’t easily ignore Tia’s opinion.

Because she was good at it, I was able to focus on my own work.

Tia could also be seen as a necessary member of the group through her own efforts.

“I agree that it’s about time we explored.”

“Then…!”

“First, let’s send out the specters and see if it’s okay. If it is, there’s no harm in moving around a bit.”

The skeleton I made using the Wraith Bank is also complete.

To be exact, it’s not a skeleton, but a skeleton warrior, which could be considered a higher rank.

‘It’s a pity it’s not a knight… but it’s difficult at my current level.’

Number 1 is still a normal skeleton.

Lately, I’ve been focusing on making living armor and restoring the staff.

Since the material for the armor was the shell of a Giant Ent, I had no choice but to get Mutr’s help, but thanks to Tia, Mutr was able to focus on helping me.

“I’ll check it out and let you know the results later.”

“Yes!”

“I’m glad you accepted my opinion.” Tia replied brightly and stepped aside.

I summoned Specter and headed to the passage with my equipment.

‘It’s better to go this way than the rocky hill near the exit.’

Instead of the main building or the annex, I headed to where our house used to be.

It was an empty space with nothing there. All the food that was once here had been moved to the main building.

Some suggested using it as a warehouse, but it was rejected because it was too inconvenient.

‘It’s a narrow path because it was made as a backdoor. It’s quite far too.’

I infused a large amount of magic into Specter and sent it to the surface. After quite some time, Specter returned.

‘It doesn’t seem to be as many as I thought?’

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Judging from its behavior, there were monsters, but it didn’t seem too bad.

It was definitely time to go out.

I instructed Mutr to clear a path here. Two days later, I heard that the path had been cleared, so I summoned Athena and Kyla.

By the way, it took two days because the building debris above was likely to collapse, so they were very careful.

They said they couldn’t go any faster because they had to be careful of the monsters on the ground as well.

Thinking about the situation, two days was actually fast.

“Are you really going to explore the surface?”

“It was Tia’s suggestion. She wanted to secure additional food in advance.”

“Tia? Well, food isn’t unlimited. I kind of wanted to see the sunlight too.”

“I’m worried. There were some tough ones during the wave….”

In addition to groups like orcs, there were also strong individuals like trolls and manticores, so it was understandable to be worried.

“Well, it’ll be fine. I’ve added one more undead, and I’ve already sent Specter to check in advance.”

“Oh, the warrior? You called it Number 2? Can you even name it like that?”

“It’s fine since it doesn’t have a self.”

Undead of the advanced level or higher that have a self need to be given a separate name.

By the way, Specter was also likely to gain a self if it grew steadily.

The surface, which I had come to after a long time, was terribly chaotic.

Among the buildings of the pioneering group, there were only a handful that maintained their shape. There were unmanaged corpses everywhere.

There were places where bones were piled up as food, and there were also many that were just left to rot.

“Kya?”

At that moment, a goblin rummaging through a rotten corpse saw us and expressed its curiosity.

It was immediately taken care of by Kyla.

“Ugh, it’s disgusting to look at.”

Athena said as she blocked the entrance we came out of and looked around.

However, I thought differently.

‘It’s not bad?’

It’s not that the massacre or the fact that humans were used as food was not bad.

From a black magician’s perspective, the environment was not bad.

‘I won’t need to generate magic. If I do well, I might be able to create a guardian.’

The number of undead that a black magician, especially a low-level necromancer, can carry around is limited.

However, the dungeon is different.

The dungeon of the wizards is a dangerous place that cannot be entered even after the master is dead.

The amount of power a wizard can use depends on their preparation.

Unlike a warrior who can use a relatively even amount of power in any situation, a wizard is a being whose power is greatly amplified in a space they have prepared rather than in a normal space.

The current environment is the same.

As I mentioned earlier, the number of undead that I can maintain and carry with me is limited, but assuming that the undead are bound to this land, I can maintain dozens of undead.

‘There are many corpses… and because it was a terrible death, it is full of negative emotions.’

I thought it would disappear over time, but it doesn’t seem to be the case.

Even if a spirit of the land was created naturally in this land, it would not be strange at all.

In other words, it is an environment that a black wizard likes.

‘Normally, I would use these negative emotions to extract magic… but I don’t need to do that.’

The undead summoned in the form of being bound to the ground also had a limited area of movement, and their total amount of magic was not naturally restored, so it had to be recharged when it was consumed. Although the possibility of evolving into a higher undead was slim, being able to deploy dozens of undead as guardians at my current level was a huge advantage.

And that’s what I originally intended to do.

The most important thing is safety. So, of course, I planned to create guardians to guard the dungeon.

‘I was going to release magic in the area and pollute the jewels to create an artificial environment…’

It wasn’t an easy task, and I thought it would take a long time. In particular, polluting the jewels was quite difficult.

But I don’t have to do that anymore.

That’s why I couldn’t help but think that it wasn’t bad from my point of view.

Especially…

‘Over there… it’s really the best.’

It was the place where the mercenaries from the former merchant union settled.

I came here with the party to check it out just in case, and I felt like I had found a gold mine.

‘Well, it’s no wonder it turned out this way, as two villages’ worth of humans were brutally executed, the pioneering spirit collapsed, and all sorts of negative emotions overflowed.’

In addition, the corpses of those who were strong mercenaries were full, so the average level of the undead was bound to be high.

“Did the monsters take the equipment?”

“That’s probably right. Orcs and goblins use weapons.”

While calculating the scale of the undead’s territory, Athena and Kayla had a short conversation and looked around the surroundings.

“Fortunately, it seems that none of them have settled near here… It feels bad because it feels like it’s being used as a food warehouse, but Master is very calm.”

“Well, we eat monsters too. It’s no different.”

“…Yes. Giant Ents are also monsters… but I guess it’s because they’re human, I feel disgusted…”

At that moment, Kayla’s expression suddenly hardens.

“Master, Athena.”

“We have to hide.”

At her words, we quickly moved.

We moved towards the building that still had its shape and hid in the ruins.

“It’s a flying monster. It doesn’t look like a Manticore…”

“…It’s there. Hmm? The appearance…”

I also turned my head following Athena’s gaze and soon had no choice but to stiffen my expression.

“…Hippogriff.”

“Hippogriff? Wait, if it’s a Hippogriff…”

‘Count Siglen’s family.’

It seemed like they had succeeded in taming the hippogriff.

If they were scouting around this area…

‘Are they not giving up on Mutr yet?’

Well, he was a valuable Dwarf slave. There was no way they would give up on him easily.

‘This is going to be a pain in the neck…’

If they found out that we were alive in this area, they wouldn’t launch a full-scale attack because of the burden of the monster wave, but they might send a small, elite force to figure out what was going on.

‘We can’t clash with the Count’s forces at our current level.’

Even if I succeeded in creating a Land of the Undead here, there was no way we could stop the Knights if they decided to attack us.

A great lord like Count Sigren would probably have several knights of a similar level to Kyla, and there was a good chance that he would be connected to a Master.

Kyla had grown to a level that was incomparable to her past, but she was still only barely at the advanced level.

She might become stronger in the future, but that was just a possibility, not the current reality.

‘Athena is also only at the intermediate level at best…’

Furthermore, there was a Magic Tower in the Sigren County.

The combined strength of a great lord and a Magic Tower?

‘We absolutely can’t be discovered.’

We watched the hippogriff with tense expressions, and after circling the sky a few times, it slowly began to return to the Sigren County.

“…For the time being, no active movement on the ground. And monitor the hippogriff’s movements as much as possible.”

“…Yes.”

The other two nodded with tense expressions, recognizing the seriousness of the situation.

And so, for the next few days, we took turns watching the sky.

Our original purpose of hunting was out of the question.

If we were to be discovered while hunting, the losses would outweigh the gains, so we had no choice but to give up hunting and take turns checking if the hippogriff was coming.

After first coming to the surface, it seemed like the hippogriff went out to scout for about three days, but after that, we didn’t see it for over a week.

‘It definitely hasn’t come down to the ground.’

In fact, I had been worried that we would be discovered because of the goblin I had killed on the first day, but thanks to it not coming down, we were able to get by without any problems.

There were already several dead monsters around anyway, so the body of a goblin wouldn’t have seemed strange.

If someone had looked closely, they might have noticed the sword wounds and found it strange, but from a distance, it seemed like they couldn’t distinguish that level of detail.

‘After all, it’s humans who are making the judgment.’

The hippogriff’s eyes might have been able to distinguish it, but if humans couldn’t see it, it was as good as invisible.

“Do you think it’s not coming anymore?”

“That would be nice…”

“We should start hunting again soon. Otherwise, we’ll have to reduce the food rations.”

I had no intention of doing that.

The internal order of the underground dungeon was finally in place.

Reducing the food ratios could shake the very foundation.

“…It hasn’t shown up for more than ten days now, so let’s start moving. They’ve been searching since before we came out, so it’s likely that they’ve given up by now.”

If they had started scouting after repelling the monster wave and had some ghosts, they would have checked the area before we came to the surface.

That meant that they had been checking for longer than just the past four days.