It has been several weeks and our newest member David has started with basic training, I do not believe that he will be satisfied with becoming a necromancer but that is not the only path. Becoming a warrior is still possible despite people’s image of those that use miasma and necromantic energy, I simply have to add a few things to make a good spellblade. For now I strengthen his body to the extent he can without causing trouble with his body, then I will have him strengthen himself by absorbing mana and miasma. When he is ready I will start having Cor’lothen teach him to fight once ready and then ways a warrior can manipulate miasma and necromantic energy. A dark knight if you will, that should be enough for him.

As for the senior acolytes I have promoted them to full apprentices, if they are worthy enough then they will become true necromancers. However if they have talent like I have not seen before then perhaps they can become legacy apprentices truly fit to inherit my deepest teachings and the accumulated knowledge I have from both my master and my own creations. Perhaps in the future but for right now they are the farthest of the acolytes along their work. They have a year or so under their previous teachers and now that we are in a stable environment which allows them to dedicate more time to training without the need to worry about daily necessities or materials to use. I expect only two or three years and they will be qualified to call themselves necromancers. If they wish to stay on for more time in order to learn more than they can, but at that point they are ready to start independent studies.

It is because that they have the soul link that I can allow them to go forth for they cannot spread my secret arts so easily and they can benefit from being able to watch my work in the laboratory. It is during this time that they find their own ways to create special creations such as skeletal dragons or other creations of such scale. Even more time will be needed for indepth studies on subjects such as the soul and advanced spirits. Perhaps they can create their own original work in the future and spread the legacy of advancement.

The group of full necromancers is being led by Zanna and they have been learning what I allow for them, as full necromancers I will not simply hand over my own work without being able to guarantee their trustworthiness. I have not allowed them to examine my important work in depth or enter my labs to watch my research efforts. Some of the group including Zanna understands and I have granted each private small scale labs to allow them their own work. I provide a number of raw materials but they will not be able to learn much if they intend to reverse-engineer them. Wild necromancers simply cannot gain the resources to be able to create great works that most mages are able to.

Now that there is this opportunity they salivate, this was a large part of why many joined for the promise of stability is powerful for such wanderers. Of course not all are grateful and I expect the others are dissatisfied but keeping quiet after my display, they have their own pride as well so will not beg to learn as that will bind them to me as master and disciple. A few I suspect of biding their time as they cannot leave me for decades but will gather what they can before leaving, I bid them good luck in such acts. For now they do my grunt work and soon when they reveal themselves will learn truly what happens when someone tries to steal my work, one bonus of being a necromancer is that even in death they are not wastes.

I have sent my scouts further afield and I have found some trace of the incoming crusade, whispers are spreading outward of their coming here to subjugate this land. There are rumours that is because it is to expand the arable land or to take down a lich. Others speak of wilder things such as that a demon lord has arisen and that the crusaders come with a hero to destroy him. This I find hilarious as people simply distort things as time passes. However they do not have any forward supplies organised, a big mistake for it appears they do not know about the food shortage that has started to worsen even more here. Some desperate families have started wandering into the fields inorder to try to find food, some I have taken into isolated villages and provide food for them. Harvest has come and gone and it is bad this year but the measures with my mana stone pillars and agricultural work along with the sheer fact that we have less than a hundred people to feed and a third do not eat much is simplifying things.

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One of the portions that the dungeon system gives are adding elemental effects to the mana stone pillars so that I can cause plants to have the right conditions to keep growing and the 4 field system allowing consistent production keeps the stock pile of preserved food growing. Now that we are growing in size and territory as my expedition parties continually push the borders I find more features available now than before including the creation of mines. A prospect I find physically and magically impossible from a logical point but then again this is a divine ability I received from a high tier deity, do things actually need to make sense after all. While I could provide us mines for raw ore I need the smelting facilities and they are harder to get and use with only one blacksmith and an apprentice, for now rocksalt, stone and coal instead since we have enough scrap iron to be refined instead. Not a glorious thing but still necessary for the key point of not starving to death like I plan for our enemies and we need at least some trees to remain for other necessities.

The key points of my exterior defenses are currently being properly prepared and fortified for use. The beetle project has succeeded and passed it’s tests rather well barring the occasional squashed undead that are fixed by mages that will accompany the beetle. I do not expect them to control the beetle however as that would be stupid since I gave the beetle a good quality pseudo soul and energy to grow. If one is going to have large beasts of burden make sure that they are either loyal and intelligent or very easily controlled. Losing your handlers however is of course a concern which is why I used the pseudo soul, that should reduce issues with command to a degree. This will be the cornerstone of my main reactionary force for the outer defenses and a mobile base of resupply for my forces with a larger quantity of undead beasts of burden and horses to ensure mobility. The graveyard is fortified with a packed earth wall with ramparts and towers while defensive ditches with spikes are spread throughout the area.

I relegated a good quantity of forces to hold and if it is bypassed by the enemy then it can be used as a staging ground for supply raids and flanking attacks. The tomb will follow a similar process but with it’s better quality undead compared to the graveyard I can expect better upfront battles in set piece warfare. If they try to siege a spot reinforcements from the others will be there quickly, even trying to bypass will not work for they need to camp eventually and undead do not need rest with this much miasma. I can guarantee at least one pitched battle to reduce their forces before they reach the lines and then another if they try to bypass or siege a hardpoint. Admittedly keeping undead forces too far away from concentrated locales with miasma will drain the latent miasma quickly in large groups but the mages can compensate. The miasma drainers on the farms create stones with concentrated miasma for later use in casting stronger spells or maintaining our forces.

Now that the labs are better I can create proper blades of bone instead of mostly blunt weapons for these will come in use for the battle as the weapons for my minions improve. Mass production continues and the vats continually grow my forces sustained by miasma and mana collected from my domain. Watching the constructs of glass, crystal, metal, and stone at work is calming as I watch my projects slowly come to form and I smile at the thought of what terror they can wrought.