A few weeks later

“[Clairvoyance].” Vey’s spell is one Sera doesn’t really understand, even when Vey explained it, but apparently it lets him see much farther than usual. That’s why her companion is at the top of a crude, but tall ladder he’d spent the last day constructing and that Sera and Squish(her name for the first zombie Vey has ever raised) are trying to hold steady.

Just getting Vey above the treeline on the rocky cliffside had taken a decent amount of engineering and planning, and Sera hopes that the view from up there will make this backbreaking work worth it. She’d been the one to insist on holding the ladder, as opposed to some of the undead, just in case she had to choose between trusting an undead to catch Vey, or trusting herself.

Still, she can’t argue with its necessity. The spell Vey cast just now is probably the best and most feasible way to scout the village from here, since from as high up as Vey is, it should be easy to spot. All things considered, Sera doesn’t really like the idea that Vey has started becoming more interested in the village and kingdom, but she can no longer argue that they will be left alone if they stay here. Objectively, if they felt like they had the military power, destroying the village would be the best course of action. Vey and Sera by themselves might be enough power, but that would require them risking encountering any higher leveled individuals in the village that Sera doesn’t know about.

Vey’s progress with his magic has frightened Sera as of late, it seems that with the advent of third tier spells, Vey’s combat repertoire has gone from minor buffs and a few offensive spells to almost entirely being ranged evocation magic. [Acid Blast] in particular is quite scary, from what Sera has seen of it. She shudders at the thought of what it would do to a living person caught in the center of that blast.

Vey looks out all around him with [Clairvoyance], and a few things become immediately clear. First, he can’t see the village from here. Second, he doesn’t need to, because he can see the fields, roads, and what looks like a watchpost just outside the forest. He imagines that the village is probably just a bit further past that, and the only reason he can’t see it right now is just because of the angle he’s looking from. The next more important thing is related to that watchpost; there’s a small, but substantial group of guards, dressed in proper armor, by the look of it. Sera had always insisted there was no permanent garrison of soldiers or guards, so this is a new development.

The merits of striking it first or letting soldiers come to the dungeon and dealing with them here are hard to weigh. On one hand, Vey thinks that striking out will be better for dissuading aggression from them in the future, at least until they’re strong enough to feel confident again. On the other hand, Vey’s experiences all scream that he should let his enemies come to him, and wipe them out completely. Though, seeing as it is still the village Sera is from, he decides to discuss it with her. Perhaps later tonight, as managing all of the plans for the future with this new information will take some time.

--

After explaining the situation to Sera, Vey decided to do a bit of a combat readiness check for the dungeon. The first order of business is determining exactly what he has at his disposal at this point. Vey decides not to count Dragon squad as being ‘at his disposal’ because they are the dedicated defenders of the dungeon, and only forces he’d be willing to take outside of the dungeon should be counted. So the final head count is:

Sheo squad(6 members):

-Sheo(skeleton, swordsman)

-Eda(skeleton, spearman)

-Toby(skeleton, archer)

-Mason(skeleton, archer)

-Leaf(skeleton, archer)

-Eek(skeleton, crossbowman)

Zombie squad(6 members);

-Squish(zombie, axeman)

-Io(zombie, axeman)

-Lyandia(zombie, spearman)

-Oria(zombie, spearman)

-Lukt(zombie, great weapon wielder)

-Morris(zombie, great weapon wielder)

Miscellaneous Assets

-A couple dozen rats

-A pile of thirty or so rotting corpses

-Two rope tripwire traps

All said, the Zombie squad is pretty indispensable when it comes to raw physical labor, so if Vey is to take any of the undead with him to strike out at any foes, it will be Sheo squad. The fact that Sera has become quite adept at getting even the mindless undead to listen to her and obey her commands(something Vey thinks shouldn’t be possible, but the fact that Dragon squad calls her 'queen' is probably related) is the nail in the coffin for this. The fact of the matter is that Vey doesn’t know how to make stuff like baskets or crates or barrels, and with the amount of work and research he needs to do in a given day, doesn’t have time to learn. Meanwhile, aside from keeping up with her training, Sera has been actively using Zombie squad to harvest wood from around the dungeon entrance and has also started having the zombies prepare the wood to be turned into planks and building materials.

Sera’s competence in that particular area came as a shock to Vey. In all the time they’ve been here together, Vey had never really seen her do much of anything. Sure, she’s excellent with a sword, she learns magic pretty easily, and she’s cute and loving, but the fact that she was probably a fairly competent and functional member of her village is something Vey never really considered.

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It’s definitely welcome, though. It’s just a shame that stuff like managing troops, doing magical research, training, and so on have no impact on their ability to level up. Vey is pretty sure that Sera would level up at least once the moment they get into and then out of any sort of combat, and he’ll probably be pretty close too. Vey actually had an idea to kill rats to do that, but to no avail. Since Vey(and by proxy Sera) are the ones ‘feeding’ the rats with the corpses in the barracks, they count as ‘farmed’ animals, not monsters, and so it isn’t ‘combat’ when they fight rats, but ‘slaughtering farm animals’.

Vey dislikes the distinction being so seemingly arbitrary, but supposes that if killing farm animals leveled you up, peasants would be more powerful than most adventurers. At least the rats do technically count as farming in the literal sense as well, since all of the rats bring with them fresh bones and at least a little bit of fresh meat when they come to snack on the corpses, so killing them adds more material to the pile. If Vey’s ultimate goal was to acquire as much dead biomass as possible for Flesh Guise, ‘farming’ rats more aggressively would definitely be the way to go.

Vey gives Dragon squad one last check over, making sure the proper dungeon entrance is sealed for the night, and so on, before he makes his way down to the chamber at the top of the stairs. Sera commandeered the old alchemy lab for Zombie squad, so it now has more of a ‘workshop’ feeling about it, with the various zombies turning entire logs into usable building wood by hand. Sheo squad, as usual, is still training in the chamber at the bottom of the stairs, before the fountain room(Sera decided it’s not really a ritual room anymore). It will be sixteen more days before he can raise another batch of zombies or skeletons, so he’s got a decent amount of time to figure out what to do with them, but for now, one set of dedicated guardians, one set of soldiers in training, and one set of laborers is pretty good. It’s almost more than he started with, all that time ago. With his own powers and Sera included… Scratch that, even if it was just him and Sera, they’d still be more powerful than he was back then, but that’s to be expected.

Eventually, Vey finally reaches his and Sera’s room. He spots her sitting down on her bed, looking at him with what he correctly discerns is a ‘loving’ look in her hazel eyes. Only recently has Vey begun to understand exactly what it is the charisma stat is and does, because every time Sera explains that her’s has gone up, it always immediately calls into recognition just how beautiful she is.

If Vey had lungs, he’s sure his breath would fail him every time she looks directly at him now. Even compared to the memories of just a single month or two ago, her vibrant brown hair, completely clear complexion, and the way her eyes seem to glitter in even the softest lights are all otherworldly. It is not lost on Vey that even though she can’t see it in her status, they did both receive a system notice a long time ago that implied she has some sort of blessing, so Vey supposes it is entirely possible her beauty is otherworldly. It certainly shouldn’t be able to arouse the feeling of awe and wonder that it does in Vey, since he is an undead. He shakes off these thoughts quickly as he sits down on the bed next to her the moment her ‘loving’ look changes to a ‘thoughtful’ one.

“So, what’s on your mind, Sera?” Vey asks as he moves his left arm to the end of the bed, and grabs the blanket.

“The village, the watchpost, all that sort of thing. Don’t get the blanket just yet, by the way.” Vey does as asked, and Sera turns to sit cross-legged facing him as she continues. “Do you want to kill them? I… I think I do. For more than one reason. I don’t want to be attacked here, obviously, but I also kinda want to level up. There’s also a bit of anticipation in my body about getting to use the skills and magic I’ve been training, so, what do you think? Do you want to kill them?”

Vey is almost taken aback by her forwardness about that. He didn’t even get to be the one to ask the question so it’s a little unfair to him, he feels. Still, all of her reasons are perfectly valid, and it isn’t like he has any real reason to say no other than ‘safety’ for Sera, but considering ‘safety for Sera’ is his primary reason to kill any soldiers at the watchpost, he can’t refute that metric.

“I don’t ‘want’ to kill them the way you seem to, but I definitely think it is a good idea to do so. I’m just torn on whether we should go to them, and take Sheo squad with us, or if we should let them come to us.” Vey answers with his honest thoughts, and puts his hands on either side of her waist. He’s gotten quite good at predicting what Sera wants, and turning to him when they’re in bed usually means she wants Vey to undress her. She puts her arms over her head as she responds.

“I think we should go to them, mostly because if we wait for them t-” Sera pauses as Vey pulls her shirt over her head, and doesn’t continue until she’s brought her arms back down to her lap. “Come to us, we’ll have less control over how prepared they are. We could attack at night, for example, and kill them all before they have a chance to retaliate. Not everyone can see in the dark, like you can.”

“Ok, I agree. Should we go tomorrow night, or wait until the day after?” Vey sets her shirt on the chair Sera commandeered for the purposes of storing her dirty laundry somewhere other than the floor. He waits for her to stand up and walk in front of him, and they start removing Sera’s belt and pants as a team effort.

“I’d say tomorrow… gives them less time.” Sera’s response is noticeably less confident this time, but Vey attributes that more to the fact that her mind likely already moved on from the current topic the moment Vey said he agreed. As if to confirm this, the moment she’s kicked off her pants towards the vague direction of the chair, she steps forward into Vey, forcing him to push himself further back onto the bed while Sera starts pressing her body into his. “We can think about that tomorrow. For now…”

Vey wraps his arms around her, and the two half-fall half-lay down, managing to get both of their heads onto the three pillows, albeit a bit faster than is probably comfortable for Sera. Vey feels the familiar sensation of what he’s been informed is a ‘kiss’ on his teeth, and ‘pushes’ his jaw into her to return it, the way she requested for him to do. The sensation of all of this is still missing, but the gestures of affection Sera asks for, Vey will provide, though with significantly more gentle movements, as despite how much she insists, Vey refuses to believe that his boney body could be anything other than painful when pressed against her. If anything, Vey has tried to argue(unsuccessfully) that his inability to ‘feel’ whatever physical pleasure a biological creature would experience from this is actually a good thing, since he(presumably) wouldn’t be able to maintain his concentration on so many things at once.

For example, while Sera is enjoying the sensation of being held by him, and Vey returns the embrace, Vey is still able to mentally go through concepts for new or more efficient magic, plans for the future, etc. From everything he’s heard and that they’ve done, he somehow doubts that maintaining such efficient mental processes would be possible if Sera’s breasts pressing against his ribs were having their supposed ‘intended effect’. Vey does enjoy this routine of theirs, in his own way. The softness of Sera's body is quite comfortable pressed against him like this, and it is an excellent way to 'reset' his mind after a day of hard thinking. He still chooses to keep thinking during it, but he does so as the background to the primary task of enjoying his bondmate's happiness.

“Vey… I love you. We can leave the blanket off for tonight. I want to fall asleep facing you, like this.” Sera whispers the words into the general direction of where they’ve determined Vey’s ‘ears’ to be, before she nestles her head underneath Vey’s chin. “Love you, goodnight.”

“I’ll make sure you wake up facing me, then. Sleep well.” Vey starts stroking a hand through Sera’s hair, and moves his other hand to hug her from the center of her back. Mentally, he dispels his [Permanent Light] spell that had been illuminating the room. Sure, recasting a supposedly permanent spell every morning in order to have a more convenient way of dimming the lights to go to sleep is dumb, but neither of them having to get out of bed, or indeed even stop cuddling, is worth it.

It takes fifteen minutes for Sera to actually fall asleep, but Vey doesn’t mind. After all, aside from occasionally playing with her hair or switching the position of his embrace, Vey has nothing else to do but think. For the next seven or so hours, at least.

--

Title Earned: Lich Loved

Your title Lich Loved has changed your type from Humanoid to Humanoid Undead. You are now categorized as a monster(previously a member of the mortal races). Your subrace is now (Undead High Elf). You have gained the Undead Endurance passive skill.