After a while, Alex finally started to calm down. While he was upset that all those hours he put into designing his perfect look went out the window, there’s nothing he can do about it now. It’s time to move on and get things going.
Stepping out of his manor, he has a look over what these things can offer him.
[Race: Undead]
[Undead Racial Bonus]
[As you are dead, you will no longer need to eat, drink or sleep]
[Immune to poison]
[Immune to cold]
[Immune to fear]
[Summon Undead Soldier Level 1]
[Summon 1 undead soldier to fight for you]
[Undead Soldier Life: 50]
[Undead Soldier Damage: 5-10 (Physical)]
[Undead Soldier Defence: 5]
[Lord of Death]
[The Lord of Death can merge his creations to upgrade them]
[The Lord of Death can merge different creations to make new forms]
[The Lord of Death and his followers can use the bones of fallen enemies for crafting]
After looking over his character sheet, he realises how broken this actually is. The hardest thing to do when starting out as the lord of a new territory is to procure food, and with his undead trait, he never has to worry about this. It’s a huge benefit.
The next thing on his to-do list is to check out this summoning gate. Heading over that way he activated it.
A small vortex of light appeared between the pillars of the gate and the runic symbols on the stones began to glow a deep red, as 50 figures walked out and bowed down to Alex.
“What the shit is this?” Confusion was on Alex’s face before he remembered the trait which was gifted to him by the mysterious old man.
[[Give me More]: Gives you a 10x multiplier.]
He just stood there dumbfounded, he wasn’t expecting it to work with the summoning gate. He would have to test what else this 10x multiplier worked with soon!
Alex overlooked these new additions to his territory.
[Zombie] x10
[Zombie Life: 100]
[Zombie Damage: 4-6 (Plague: 1-2 DoT)] (DoT = Damage Over Time)
[Zombie Defence: 10]
[Skeleton Guard] x20
[Skeleton Guard Life: 150]
[Skeleton Guard Damage: 3-5 (Physical)]
[Skeleton Guard Defence: 15]
[Skeleton Hound] x10
[Skeleton Hound Life: 50]
[Skeleton Hound Damage: 5 (Physical: 1-2 Bleed DoT)]
[Skeleton Hound Defence: 5]
[Wandering Ghost] x10
[Wandering Ghost Life: 0]
[Wandering Ghost Damage: 1-2 (Spirit)]
[Wandering Ghost Defence: 0]
[Waiting to be assigned a job]
Alex was happy with this turnout.
Even though he had 20 skeleton guards and nothing to guard yet, he sent them on patrol anyway.
What was surprising to Alex was their ability to communicate. Even though they were unable to speak, they still followed orders.
Alex needed to find out the abilities of his new followers. So he spent a couple of hours with them finding out everything they could do.
Surprisingly, though they were Zombies, unlike all the movies he had seen his entire life, they did actually have some intelligence. Granted they wouldn’t be passing any tests but they could understand basic orders.
The Skeleton Hounds are exactly as he expected - Good boys. Though they were rather big, roughly waist high, they were also fast and agile. Alex planned to make them into mounts when he found the right riders. Although he would love to see how a Zombie would ride one.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Next were the ghosts. What he liked the most was that they were incorporeal, so they could move unhindered and carry out various tasks. They were also immune to all physical damage, however, they would quickly be taken out by elemental damage.
Looking at the list of jobs they could be assigned made Alex smile more. It seems like Ghosts for him are general workers, able to be assigned to be carpenters, blacksmiths, jewellers etc.
What he was most interested in right now was assigning them to be scouts. He needed to know the lay of the land and everything inside it. What better scout than a ghost?
[Assigning Job: Scout]
With this job role, the ghosts changed a little. They all received backpacks with a small storage capacity.
Alex sent 5 of his new scouts to map the local area, and if they came across any enemy that could harm them, they were to return to the base right away.
Then he sent out all 10 Zombies, as well as 10 guards, and 5 scouts to follow. With a force of 25 strong, their orders are to leave the base and head towards the forest in the distance. He figured if there was anything to kill and collect their bones, it would be in that forest.
Happy with the orders he had given, he had nothing else to do now but to wait for the outcomes.
A few hours had passed, and Alex was playing fetch with the Skeletal Hounds, who were running around with their tails wagging chasing a bone. Don’t ask where the bone came from.
[Your Zombie has died]
[Your Zombie has died]
[Your Skeleton Guard has Died]
[Your Zombie has died]
[Your Zombie has died]
[Your Zombie has died]
[Your Skeleton Guard has Died]
This definitely caught his attention. If he could frown he most definitely would be.
[Your Zombie has died]
[Your Zombie has died]
[Your Skeleton Guard has Died]
[Your Skeleton Guard has Died]
[Your Skeleton Guard has Died]
He doesn’t know what is going on, but it seems as though the woods are more dangerous than he expected. By the time he walked over to the edge of his territory safety barrier, the rest of his Zombies and Skeleton Guards had perished.
Luckily, it seems whatever is in the forest is unable to damage his ghosts. He would have to wait for them to return and get a report.
Sidestepping the Skeleton Guard who was hopping along his patrol route, he wanted to test to see what his [Lord of Death] trait could do.
With 30 days of protection still, he didn’t need this many guards anyway. Calling them all over he planned to merge them all and see what the effect would be.
Everyone being present, some a little more gnawed than others, he clapped his hands together. “Merge!”
Darkness swirled around the Skeleton Guards as they each turned into a mist, and came together.
When the deed was done and the mist cleared up, standing there was a much taller, much sturdier-looking skeleton. It had a large round bone shield in one hand, and a bone mace in the other. It was quite imposing.
[Skeleton Guard Captain]
[Skeleton Guard Life: 500]
[Skeleton Guard Damage: 20-30 (Physical)]
[Skeleton Guard Defence: 50]
[Skills: [Shield Bash][Taunt]]
[Shield Bash]
[Swing your shield at your enemy to deal 150% damage and cause stun for 5 seconds - 1 minute cooldown]
[Taunt]
[Taunt all enemies in a 50m radius to focus their attacks on the caster until death and increase defence by 100% - 10-minute cooldown]
The results had been better than Alex anticipated. He managed to get a strong guard and it acquired two skills. Shield Bash is a great skill for interrupting an enemy's big attacks, and Taunt is the perfect skill for a tank.
While Alex was reading over the updated stats and skills of his new Skeleton Guard Captain, it went back to patrolling the surrounding area. Say anything you like about skeletons, they are diligent.
A while later, the scouts who went to the forest had returned. After giving their reports, it seems that the forest is the home of a rather large pack of wolves. Luckily it’s nothing too scary and Alex should be able to deal with it soon enough.
Even better news for Alex is that the scouts didn’t come back empty-handed. Each of them had filled up their backpacks with bones before returning. They reported that the forest floor had been littered with bones.
With a smile on his face, he sent the ghosts back out to the forest. As the wolves can’t hurt his ghosts, he would gladly accept their donations.
Each ghost was able to bring back 20 bones. It wasn’t an impressive amount, but after a while it would build up, especially seeing as though ghosts don’t need to rest.
Feeling happy with his gains so far, it shouldn’t be long before he can upgrade his territory and get even more benefits!
What he desperately wanted to upgrade was his summoning gate. The higher level gate, the more summons and the higher quality. Walking over and looking at the information, he quickly tapped on [Upgrade] to find out what materials were needed.
[Upgrade requires [Lords Manor] to reach level 2]
Ok then, that’s not a big deal. It’s a common theme in many games. He headed over to the lord manor and decided to see if he could upgrade this.
[Upgrade for level 2 requires 10,000 bones]
Well, shit.