As I get up and start making breakfast a thought just occured to me, I already know that there have been adventurer explorations into the fields that were considered wastes of time and manpower but what about necromancers. I would think at least one cabal has arrived here to start exploration, but judging by the lack of missing people on a large scale so far either they are a full conclave of necromancers that can control themselves or a worthless cabal too weak to do much. If it is a conclave then some reasonable negotiations can occur but if it is a simple cabal then some acolytes to do some of my work for me would be appreciated.

I would prefer the cabal since I could use some help without the need to watch myself as much with experienced necromancers though the lure of competent associates is also strong. No I have been given this task and I must accomplish it, it would be too much of a risk if a conclave is here. They can serve me better in death than life, that bit of planning out of the way I pack up everything and prepare to move forward.

I quickly make my way through several villages and manage to sell off a bit more of spare product in the process. I cannot afford to stay around to aid them in everyday life but a few tinctures and ointments made during breaks is a simple matter. Nothing else noteworthy occurred aside from one more small band of bandits being converted, they had a small stash of tools however which was quite appreciated for future endeavors and quickly liberated. My workforce now numbers 20 strong and even without any middle tier undead worthy bodies I have enough to sustain myself with what I already have. Those bandits were not the best equipped but I have enough sets of cloth and leather to make padded armour suits and enough axes and clubs to have a combat squad ready. I manage to arrive on the city outskirts after 2 days of travel but decide to camp out for another 2 just to finish up preparations and let my mice scout things out.

After preparing enough arms for a squad of 6 skeletons and having them get to work I take my selected 6 and begin more in depth preparations, beside the initial durability and move sets I improve other things to ensure they can fight the way I want them to. I change their bones to be even tougher and away from the true human form, the feet become somewhat clawed and wider to ensure proper footing along with similar changes to the hands to improve grip and dexterity. I cause the bones themselves to become larger and change the composition of cortical and cancellous tissue in the bone. I change their senses to be improved to almost normal human grade and improve their decision making capacity in the midst of battle.

Now my creations can take and dish out damage comparable to true intermediate elite soldiers, I call these changes altogether my bone warrior upgrade. Now it will take an experienced soldier who has fought a few times before to be able to go toe to toe with my undead.  After completion these chosen are now ready for battle in my time schedule available. I cover them completely in their armour, cloaks, and cloth masks. They now cannot been identified as undead unless one takes away their armour, even the gait has been improved to be close to human standards. While I did spend a good amount of work on them long term it is not worth it for these pseudo warriors, but being prepared is always something good.

The good news is that so far there are no traces of any other potential parties that I should take note of both as a threat or as rivals. The records in this town are more detailed but not by much, the most important note for me is a map with locations on the outer edge that I can turn into a forward base. The most important find however is indeed the discovery of a cabal of necromancers lurking nearby, they are young ones with not much skill or experience. Their apparent leader is barely more knowledgeable about the necromantic arts then the rest and apparently was not a necromancer first. His signature does not have the strength that a full time necromancer should have so it is likely he used to be a hedge mage before changing. He has a hold on the rest only due to threats against them and a skeletal warrior as his minion.

It appears some hapless adventurer died and was unlucky enough to be found by him, it is only about iron strength which is barely stronger than the rest with copper or even gravel. The gravel could be killed by a simple brave villager with a club and the copper could take on an untrained town guard.  They number about a dozen total not counting the leader and perhaps 30 undead with mostly skeletons or zombies. This lot is not going to accomplish much as they are right now, actually I am surprised they are still alive. Sure they could take out maybe a random few isolated patrols of town guard or a weaker adventurer party but nothing else. If they are a research group or the advance party for another group then they are simply pathetic if they are.

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A simple measure for me and my new guards to take, leaving a simple message of a meeting tomorrow at their lair by my mice I begin heading to meet them by changing to my other mage clothes and all covering cloak. During the trip to the outskirts of the fields where they have created a liar I make a new staff with a wolf bone head and a few hanging bone charms to complete my image, a night time meeting with a cabal of necromancers will be the first event to mark my plans for the world. It is time I start to expand my ranks to better be able to handle the future and ensure proper control of what I want. But whoever said that they will have a choice....

Hmm that is an interesting event, a pack of goblins with a village are nearby as reported by the mice. Hmm I have time and testing out this lot would be good, I need to check if my absorbance runes are properly working. I do not need to be as wary of slaughtering a goblin village then a human one, also the fact that I do not have the time to tear everything useful from a human village. I don’t use this often on weaklings but decided to do so for the combat unit here, even if they are made obsolete in the future I can make use of some pawns for guard duty or bait. Sending this lot out I watch them quickly advance through the forest to the village of the goblins, once there at the outskirts they slow down and move slowly. These goblins can see a little better in the dark than humans but not enough to spot my creations as they pad forward.

There is a little noise being made but not enough to cause awareness in the goblins, however once they get close enough the unnatural silence in the local wildlife nearby warn them a little. As the ones on sentry duty start getting nervous however is when my creations strike, the few on guard duty get an axe or club to the head and drop as quietly as possible. Bad for the goblins is that apparently that was not enough to wake them from noise but as the skeletons move closer to the sleeping areas some start twitching. Ahh they smell the blood splattered on my creations, it matters not for these ones are too weak to do much.

Eventually enough noise is made in the form of death cries that they start boiling out to fight, too late as about a dozen already lay slain from earlier. Perhaps if these ones were suicidal enough to start grappling my warriors and trying to break off bones then they have a chance but these ones are not that primal. These weak goblins are slain with relative ease, not a true test of combat potential but that was not what this was for. Crude stone weapons and the occasional scavenged metal weapon are in the hands of the goblins, resistance however is futile. Watching through the eyes of one skeleton without weapons or armour I see it grab a too slow goblin and spear it’s claw like fingers into the eyes of the creature. The loud cries of pain and terror continue until eventually it is killed after getting it’s throat torn out, blood pours out of the eyeless holes and torn throat to bath the skeleton. A good thing that it does not have the padded armour or that would be a pain to clean, still I expect the soul and strength absorption to work well on this one bathed in blood as it is.

Looking through the eyes of the others I see that they have cleaned up any fighters, the only ones left are the weak and young. These too soon die however, what mercy will such creatures deserve to have as no one else will offer it. I have a relative amount of mercy for them however by stopping their hearts quickly and painlessly, no need for unnecessary savagery or time to properly harvest the energy from torturing the souls. It is not unreasonable for them to be somewhat intelligent but even then they would have attacked me regardless without question so why bother wasting time and unlike a human village I will not need to root around for things as much for hidden caches or raising the bodies.

Having the skeletons search the village I find a few useful bits of armour and weapons scavenged from dead town guards or novice adventurers. Not much use to goblins who cannot use them as is or forge them out but I can have a few better equipped troops. Raising the goblins themselves is not worthwhile but reducing their corpses to essence to strengthen these skeletons is something more viable. Making sure to clean up the goblin blood splashed on my creations I channel the fresh miasma and converted miasma into them. As this occurs I see that my creations grow stronger and faster, goblins can only give so much but improvements are here regardless, my work is as good as always but this was something I got to practice more easily back home. Seeing that I have not grown rusty on established skills I depart this area after making sure my creations are good and decide not to torch these crude homes as a waste of effort. After draining the corpses of anything worthwhile I leave only ashes behind, there were some piles of old human bones from previous meals but too damaged for me to bother using.

Some piled up resentful and despairing soul fragments I could make use of however for future work, no intact souls but something I am fine with. Piling the remains in a single area for easy disposal  and cleaning up the traces of my creations took some more hours. Well that wasted enough time, after a quick meal it is back to heading to that meeting I need. I hope I can actually negotiate properly here but then again I can repeat things if needed as that would be acceptable to me since I can make use of either event, the bonus of being a necromancer as rarely will things go to waste if I put my mind to it.