Chapter 1: The Undead and Children in Army
‘Resurrection’
He was able to come back to life with ‘Resurrection’, a forbidden light magic technique he learned through an ancient book.
It was a spell that stopped the soul from leaving its dying body. A light magic spell that ignored things like ‘faith’ and ‘god’s will’.
Thanks to the forbidden spell, and his unique body that could cast healing spells in automation mode as long as he had the mana. In this case, his body had automatically cast ‘Resurrection’ a while after his death..
But it seems that the spell was incomplete. His soul did however return, he believed his heart and his brain functioned as well.
Unfortunately, he could not move his body at all, even by an inch. After casting ‘Resurrection, he exhausted his mana.
He couldn’t afford to cast a single healing spell. He could not stop his bleeding, he could not heal his broken bones and he couldn’t move as he had broken spines.
He tried to laugh at the absurdity, but his lips refused to move and the laugh sadly never came out. He wants to weep as he felt he would die again but the tears didn’t shed.
As he felt his body rotting, he remembered the story of Faust, the magician who invented the spell.
It was said Faust created the spell out of the love of his dead wife. After years of researching, he learned resurrection.
With ‘Resurrection spell, his wife was revived. The problem was, the spell didn’t complete. His wife body wouldn’t stop rotting
As he saw his wife suffering, Faust tried to reverse the spell, but it was to no avail. His wife kept on living even after she was nothing but bones.
After some time, Faust’s wife died once more as her body disappeared once and for all.. The magic guild recognized that the magic was too dangerous and as a result banned the spell entirely.
He knew, he completely knew about the story. Yet, his body remembered the spell, it was cast in automation mode. He felt his mana ran out, the stench of his rotting body grew stronger, his vision was long gone, and he couldn't move a finger. He was alive but not live, he had his soul but his body was dead.
Like a stone, he remained unmoving. Only God knows how long. And he could do nothing but reminisce his wretched life.
*******
He had a hard life, but he never chooses death. He believed that one day his luck would turn around and he could live a decent life.
‘How naive’, he tried to laugh as he dissed himself, but even that was impossible to him. His death was unbelievable, completely unbelievable to him.
He was a spy that gathered crucial information. A hero who slew a dragon. A savior that healed thousands of patients. A vassal that saved his beloved kingdom many times. And powerful soldiers to watch out for. But no one ever recognized him.
When he gathered crucial information, the head spy reported it to the king. And that guy was praised on how well he trained his underling. When he slew the dragon in the army, his nation sings praise to his army commander. While the truth was that guy just hid behind a rock the whole battle. Due to his magic capabilities, he heals triples of the amount compared to other healers. BUt the head medic was praise on his department efficiency. Just because he was a slave. Every credit went to his masters and he kept on bowing his head to everyone around him.
After all of that, after everything he had done. He was betrayed, abandoned, and killed. As if he was nothing.
REVENGE!
That was the first thing that popped up on his mind as he was resurrected. He could not forget the agony of being betrayed, and he never would.
He remembered it, every single one of them. Every single scene, like it was just a moment ago. The hundreds of arrows targeting him. The swords and spears plunged onto his bodies. His endless fight on the edge of the mountain.
And finally, as bloods spurt from every direction of his body. And standing was the only thing he could do. His ‘friend’, the one he truly thought as a friend. He walked towards him nonchalantly and kicked him into the abyss.
Those fools should find his body and confirm he was dead. They didn’t do it, and that foolish act would come and haunt them later.
He did understand the reason. The place he fell was the lairs of the most corrupted existence in the world.
‘Krashapan’. The abyssal forest. The land of the dead, where the undead rule. It was not just a simple monsters' lair. It was the very nation of the undead, with their king, the Overlord.
********
“Yield…...”
He heard a voice, whispering to him as the corrupted wind of Krashapan blown on his ears.
“Yield...to...me….”
As time pass, he could hear the voice clearer and clearer.
“Yield to me…..and….succumb...to…..the darkness!”
His rotten body couldn’t open its mouth, couldn’t widen its eyes, couldn’t tremble in fear, and couldn’t have cold sweats. Regardless, he felt his body would do that as he finally realized the voice of true nature.
“Yield to me…..and live…... an…. immortal….life!”
It was one of the many power of the overlord, the one who ruled Krashapan. He knew everything happens in Krashapan. He could send his voices all over the forest or make it so just one person hears it. And, he could raise the dead bodies and turn them into an undead.
But the dead bodies only turned into less powerful, mindless vassals. In every chance he had, he would coax the person about to die and corrupt the soul as well.
“Yield to me….and….take your revenge!”
As he heard the word revenge, his heart beats faster. He didn’t want anything else. He just wanted those guys to pay everything they had done. He wants them dead!
“(Y-YES!)”
He tried to move his lips but he couldn’t. He could only answer loudly with his heart. And that was enough for the dark power of overlord to creep in on his body and corrupt everything.
“(ARRRGHHH!)”
Deep within his body, his soul screamed. The pain was unbearable, as the dark powers were influencing his body, changing it. Time passed, he thought of the past. And even that was robbed of him, memories kept on disappearing until eventually there was nothing. As the work was finished his once-noble soul was corrupted.
He knew it, he read enough books to know exactly what would happen once he yielded to the overlord.
His soul and body would be corrupted. His memories would be erased and his mind would only be filled with the loyalty to the overlord.
But the slightest chance he would kill those guys while under the overlord influences were enough to tempt him.
From inside of his body a dark flame burst, burning his entire body. He felt nothing anymore as he fleshes burned, slowly turning into ashes.
As the dark flames died down, burning everything except his bones. He raised his skeleton body and stood up. The overlord answered his prayers and he was turned to an undead.
*******
He doesn’t feel anything, he doesn’t remember anything. He was not particularly strong as he was just a ‘walking skeleton’, the type of undead that could only walk all over Krashapan and feast on its corrupted power to become stronger.
But even for the lowest form of the undead, he still had some mana. And his soul carried all the abilities he used to have. Everything, including spells and the automatic casting abilities.
‘Purify’
It was light magic that could turn undead to ashes. But the dark powers that granted him his undead body didn’t fade away. Because the spells only circulated inside of his body in automatic mode. From his chest, it cleansed his corrupted soul, bit by bit his consciousness, his value, his nature, and his past returned.
'How could this be?'
His mind said as his skeletal body could not do it for him. But his undead body remained shrouded in the power of darkness. If Overlord knew one of his minions had a mind of his own, he would kill him for good.
'It was something the overlord didn’t foresee, maybe it just passed by him and he didn’t realize it.' His mind speculated.
He himself did not foresee this. He thought he would be the overlord slave for eternity. Everything turned better than he expected and he would not let this chance slip by. The first thing he needed to do was to survive in Krashapan. He also needed to be reserved as he didn’t want the overlord to know his situation. Leaving Krashapan unnaturally may result in death as the overlord would probably know about it. His current form does not allow him to fight at all, a ‘walking skeleton’ was that weak.
******
It was three, four, or maybe six months. He did not know how much time passed, he had walked around Krashapan. Thanks to his undead body, he does not feel fatigued. He also doesn’t feel hunger and all of his five senses were lost.
But his sixth sense, where he could felt the presence of everything around him turned sharper. Normal mindless ‘walking skeleton’ could die once they encountered adventurers trespassing into Krashapan or other undead monsters. He was lucky he remembered everything. Every time he felt the presence of animated objects, he would avoid them.
‘Walking skeleton’ didn’t even have enough strength to lift pebbles. It was completely harmless. From his knowledge, this kind of undead walked around and feasted on the dark powers around the field and gained more strength over time to evolve.
He just needed to survive. He avoided everything that seems dangerous and patiently walked around Krashapan to gain more power.
“(Heh, it just like that time. When I was powerless)”
As he wandered around Krashapan, he started to reminisce about the past. The far past when he was powerless. The past he most hated and want to throw away, with some part he wanted to keep. He was that greedy.
The voice did not came out but he made the gesture as if he was chuckling.
“(Yes I was that greedy)”
As if he had eyes to see, he turned his head to the sky. That night when he desperately clung for his life and survived miraculously. He could never forget that incident where he could do nothing except running. He did it and survived. And not without ignoring his comrades.
******
That night in his memories, a sky without stars, dim light from a full moon. A cold breezy night.
“Guys! The opposition’s armies have gone back, we managed to defend the city!”
“Hurray!”
The cries of joy echoed through the 36th division army. It was another hard-fought battle with lots of casualties which they won after a month.
The army immediately prepared for a party that night. They had no time to weep for their dying brethren, only the joy of escaping death and surviving the war. The battle won just meant their lives would be spared, at least until the next skirmish.
During the night, the army and the city’s folk threw a party, to celebrate their victory in defending the city of Rasniv. The soldiers danced, sang, and laughed together with the city’s folk happily, as they knew it may be their last party. Soldiers in the army had no idea whether they would survive the next war.
The sound of the firecrackers resounded from afar. On the outskirts of the city, at the forefront of the battlegrounds, there was work to be done. The sight of the horrible aftermath of the war was enough to make even the hardened soldier stood up and puke.
The destroyed first wall of Rasniv city, the rotten smell of countless corpses, the sticky ground mixed with the blood of both sides, combined with the chilled misty night. It was a place where it brought chilled down to the spine of any normal person.
*dig* *dig*
“I guess this one is deep enough, you can put the corpse here.”
“We had no time, just dig a big hole for the enemies and put all their corpse at once.”
“I wish we can do the same for our side corpse, it takes forever to properly bury them as the soldiers.”
“It can’t be helped, they are our heroes!”
Far from the festive mood in the city center, the slaves from the armies and city folk were doing the usual post-war procedure.
The corpse’s equipment was stripped and loaded onto carts. Once loaded with equipment, the carts would be pulled by a slave to send to the blacksmith. Then the equipment would be repaired and polished so it could be used in the next war.
As for the corpses, the slaves gave their side a proper burial and just stacked the enemies' dead bodies in one big hole.
Unlike the city slaves, the army slaves worked quickly and efficiently, as they already had the experience from previous campaigns.
From thousands of slaves burying the corpse, there was an odd group of kids salvaging from the corpses and digging graves.
Their movements as they dug the holes and stripped dead were efficient as they worked cohesively together. This was just routine for them. However, their movements were slower, compared to other groups, as they were only kids.
One particular boy in the group shoveled faster than the regular adults in the field. He has a bigger built than other kids and was the oldest in the group. Like every other slaves, he stripped down to only his pants showing his well-built torso.
Although a slave, his blue eyes brimmed with confidence and pride. As he loved shaving his hair in his free time, his golden hair was on the short side. When he was just an infant his village was destroyed. He was lucky to be rescued by the army. For his whole 14 years of life, Dirt had always been a slave for the army.
“Dirt has completed one more hole, bring the corpse!”
The young boy who spoke was Crow, he has a thin body with bulging eyes and black hairs stretched to his shoulders with a part of it covering his face.
“One, two, three!.”
Three kids lifted a corpse together as they tried bringing the corpse to the hole Dirt just dug.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
“Ouch!”
While struggling to put the corpse in the hole, one of the kids fell. The abrupt change of balance makes the other kids fell down with him.
“Pfft! You again!”
“S-Sorry.”
*sniff*
He was a child way smaller than the rest. Being the youngest child among the kids picked by the army, he always lacked the ability to complete a task. Regardless of his age, he was treated like other slaves. A simple mistake earned him a scolding or in some cases, beating.
‘“What? Are you gonna cry now? Are you gonna cry now? Quit it before I smack your face!”
Crow shouted while making a gesture to hit the child. His face reddened and his eyes bulged more than usual.
“Crow quit it.”
“B-But Dirt, he’s pulling our legs behind with him! If we’re late burying the corpses we won’t get any food.”
“He’s just around seven years old, and he just lost his family.”
“Tch, Everyone of us losing our families! You lost your whole village when you were an infant, my family farm was burned and my whole family beheaded in front of me!
At least this trash had lived a life of a young noble before his family massacred by the orcs in the previous war. This trash had warriors and maids protecting him with their lives before our army arrived.
This piece of shit was blessed with nobility, but he shouldn’t expect to have the same privilege here when he’s now the same lowly slave like us!”
*sniff*
“I’m not trashed and I’m no a piece of shit, my name is Hans XXII Golden Age, the 47th descendant of Crocto’s main noble family .”
“And that name! I may hate you less if you just change your so-noble-name, here we only had Mud, Dirt, Crow, Raven, or any lowly things as our name, no noble name such as ‘Hans whatever’!”
“B-But it was the name gave by my beloved family, the only thing my family left for me!”
*sniff*
Hans can’t hold it anymore, he was fine with a scolding or some beating, but as he just loses his family, he can’t help but crying once his family mentioned.
*smack*
Crow charged to Hans as he punches him to the face. Without waiting for Hans to stand up, he kept on kicking the seven-year-old child without mercy.
“Just, stop, crying!”
“Crow, stop it, you are wasting our time.”
Crow stopped his beating as he heard Dirt spoke. If it was another person than Dirt, he would just punch them to the face even if it was an adult.
But Crow has a deep respect for Dirt. Dirt was the strongest kid Crow ever saw and he has saved Crow’s life a few times already. And in terms of seniority, Dirt has lived in the army two years longer than him.
“Tch, fine, let’s continue our work.”
The other kids just nodded as they tremble at Crow fierce attitude. Crow kneeled and grabbed Hans’s black hair. His innocent face was filled with bruised, his gentle brown eyes were nowhere to be found as his eyes nearly closed from all the beating.
“....And you, strip the corpses equipment and put it in the carts. Do a good job this time, if by any chance we don’t get our food when we get back, I will fucking kill you.”
Hans just nodded as he heard Crow’s voice. His eyes were too tired to shed tears, his mouth was hurting as he tried to move it. His whole body was hurting and felt numb, for once he was dead quiet.
Unlike normal seven-year-old boys where they should laugh and cry at their heart's content, Hans could only hide his feeling and silently doing his task.
*****
While Dirt, digging, Crow and Mud moving corpses, and Hans looting the equipment, they noticed the fire from the firecracker suddenly stopped.
The loud sound of the festival was gone, the sighted of the city suddenly swallowed in the darkness from the ex battlefield point of view as the city’s light was shut.
No slaves have finished their tasks as the night still young. But deep down they knew what happened. As Crow saw the city stated, he kicked the rock beside him out of frustration. He sat beside Dirt as Dirt also stopped to move his shovel.
Both of them looking at the sky in despair. As the army prepared, a big portion of the food went to the army while the slaves' foods were rationed based on their ages and gender.
Adult men received more foods followed by adult women, kids, and finally, the elderly receiving the least food.
From past experience, both of them knew they wouldn’t get foods that night no matter how fast they completed their task.
While looking at the misty night sky, Crow starts to speak without looking at Dirt’s face.
“The party should be going until morning, but the usual happens.”
“....It seems the next war is near”
“Yeah, they need to prepare. The last time we only had three days to prepare, how much time do you think we have this time?”
“No idea, I don’t think it will be any different this time.”
“Why the fuck every single race hate us? Both the ‘Seal Breaker’ and ‘Oath Breaker’ faction kept on attacking us as if they want us to extinct!”
“It’s not like those two factions have a good relationship, the last time I heard the orcs army had invaded the elf’s city.”
“To hell with it, I don’t care, I will just survive and live. We had nothing, I guess the only joy in this turbulent time is to keep on living.”
“...Maybe.”
The slaves continued their task of burying and looting thousands of corpses. Not as motivated, they slowly take their time. They completed everything until past midnight before they went back and went to sleep.
******
On the next morning, everyone from the army was busy preparing to depart for the next war. High-rank officers planning their strategy, soldiers managing their equipments while the army’s workers and slaves doing various other work.
The slaves were the busiest of all, they needed to collect herbs for the army’s medics, help the blacksmith polishing and repairing equipment, gather food for the army’s cooks, and pack the tents.
Their workload was the same as an adult’s if not, worst. Not only were they feeling tired from yesterday’s work they were burdened with work from the army, ensuring that armies men were well rested. They needed to wake up before the sunrise and quickly do their tasks.
Some of the kids were told to collect water, some helped the cooks for breakfast and the rest would help other groups of slaves.
Naturally, strong Dirt was trained with other soldiers as the army was preparing him and Crow to enter the soldier's rank.
As many of the soldiers died in the war, it was natural for the army to quickly recruit potential candidates from the town and city they passed by.
Slaves usually do not have much combat prowess as life in the army was harsh. They were often malnourished from the lack of food. But sometimes the army recruited the soldiers from the slave ranks for an emergency measure or if they saw some potential in a slave.
The army instructor noticed Dirt’s naturally strong body and just could not let go of Dirt’s massive potential. As they trained together the regular soldiers were glad about their choice as Dirt current fighting prowess has surpassed normal soldiers.
Unlike Dirt, Crow does not look strong at all. Everyone just saw him as a mere slave until they noticed his tendency for violence.
Crow always found ways to get into a brawl. Whether it was the kids, the adult slaves, or even the soldiers, Crow’s fists tended to punch faces. He did not always win. Had he not had Dirt’s help, he would have died at an early age.
Both Dirt and Crow were in the reserved squad. They were still regarded as slaves and they still needed to do slaves work, the only difference was they had to attend the soldier’s regular training.
In their training, Dirt and Crow learned ‘basic combat’, a basic skill for every soldier to defend against their enemies.
The five years old Hans was assigned to help the blacksmith repairing and polishing the equipments the slaves looted from the corpses yesterday.
To repair and polish that much equipment, a lot of workers and slaves were asked to participate. Among the slaves, Hans and his acquaintance named Mud were the only kids around.
Before they began their task, the master blacksmith, Harry, meticulously explained on how to repair and polish the equipment. He taught them a few tricks in the trade about repairing and polishing equipment.
“Listen, polishing is as important as repairing. It will be easier to cut with a clean sword compare to a sword filled with bloodstains. A regularly polished equipment can preserve its durability and protect it from rust.
Do this diligently, the difference between good equipment and bad equipment can save lives.I have taught you the basics, you can start now. Just throw away hard to repair equipment, understand?”
“YES!”
Hans and Mud sat beside each other, they were given a rag, a bowl of water and chemical liquid to polish the equipment.
Hans just works silently the whole time, the eight-year-old Mud occasionally looking at Hans as they polish the equipments. Mud lips staggered as he tried to talk but stop before the words came out. The awkward moment went on for sometime before Mud finally found his courage to speak.
“I-I’m sorry.”
“Hmm?”
“ Yesterday, I thought Crow was too much but I didn’t stop him because he was too scary.”
“.....I would do the same if I were you. At least you have thought of saving me, thank you.”
Hans starting to adapt to living as a slave. Unlike nobility, emotion, justice and love were something a slave should not have.
If he cried, instead of sympathy he would get beaten. If he plays around and laugh, instead of laughing together, he would get scold. If he’s right, no one would stand up for him. And if he died, his body would be buried in a nameless grave.
Maybe he should be thankful for Crow, the one who taught him how a slave should act. A slave delicacy is a food other than bread and plain water. Slaves shall bow, cried, and say ‘thank you’ a thousand times when they had a simple fifteen-minute rest.
Follow order, silently and indiscriminately was a slave code of conduct. Surviving day by day was a slave way of living, dying, was their only way to rest.
In four months he was in the army, Hans has matured. He can’t throw away his origin as he doesn’t want to forget his parent, but he decides to throw away his five-year-old noble boy mindset.
“...You know, I heard we will fight with the gnoll army next.”
Hans turned his face in puzzlement at Mud.
“Gnoll?”
“Yeah, it was a humanoid looking hyena. I heard their armies were fairly intelligent and strong. Thankfully their numbers were not as great in this war.”
“They must be scary, anything that comes from the ‘Seal Breaker’ faction is scary.”
“Y-Yeah. I guess so.”
“..........”
As the conversation awkwardly ended, Mud desperately tried to resume the conversation. He hesitated as he could not come with any topic to chat about. After some time, Mud gave up and quietly did his work besides Hans.
*****
“Aargh!”
“Next !”
Ting! Ting!
As the army marched to the next war, they continued their military drill to ensure the soldiers were ready.
This time it was a sparring session for lower-ranked soldiers. Usually, the squad commander chooses someone from the reserve squad. It was to ensure the soldiers victory so they could gain morale.
But that night the squad commander has chosen a wrong person from the reserved squad. All thirty soldiers sent were easily owned by the person in one on one fight.
Not even looking tired, the twelve-year-old Dirt prepared to fight his 31st battled.
“Start!”
“Hyaah!”
Without waiting for the hesitant soldier attack, Dirt charged toward the lower-ranked soldier. Dirt’s two sturdy hands were firmly holding the training sword as he about to attack. He swung the training sword from above the soldier head swiftly after he closed his distance.
Ting!
The soldier managed to somehow block the attack although his hands felt numb as he blocked Dirt’s attack. As if he was a beast, Dirt continues to attack relentlessly making his far older opponent busy with defensive measures.
Ting! Ting! Ting!
This time Dirt’s opponent was fairly nimble, his reflexed was good enough to follow Dirt every attack and block it. But he had no time to counter. Regardless of he blocked the attack, he felt pain from the shockwave he received while he blocked Dirt’s sword.
As the soldier continuing blocking the attack, gradually his grip from his sword loosen. Before the soldier managed to recover, Dirt kept on attacking and finally.
Clang!
The soldier’s sword flung as he tried to block Dirt’s diagonal sword attack. By the time he lost his sword, the soldier loses the fight.
“........”
This time, instead of calling the next opponent, the instructor decides to end the sparring session as he can’t afford the soldiers losing morale through the sparring session.
“Let’s call it a day. I guess you guys need to work harder if you want us to win the war. Just remember, losing the war means total annihilation, you may not preserve your life even if we win, but at least your comrade could still live.”
As the training drill ended, everyone dispersed to return to their tent. The training field emptied, twenty-five miles away from the training field, above one of the tallest trees in the forest. A pair of beastly eyes, quietly watching from afar behind the darkness, finally moved after hours of standstill.
It jumped from the top of the tree in a single leap. As it easily landed with its animal leg, it dog-like mouth showing a gesture as if it smirked.
He was a gnoll’s scout, sent by the gnoll to scout their future opponent. His leader has anticipated ‘The 36th Division Army’ participation in defending the northwest border, Fort Levi.
The scout has observed the 36th Division Army movement as early as their departure from the city of Rasniv.
He believed he has collected enough information. In a week, the army would arrive at the Gnoll’s ambushed location. He needed to deliver the information before so they could effectively plan the ambushed.
The humanoid hyena ran into the darkness without a sound. He believed the Gnoll army would be victorious with his information and his leader strategy.
It was calmed that night. The people’s in the army knew they would go to war, but they hadn't anticipated the future surprise attack.
No one knew that calmed night was the first sign of an incoming storm. And nobody expected that the slaves, for the first time would play a major role in the war to come.
******
Thank you for reading ^_^ Credit for Mek and Avenue for proofreading this.