Once again, Jim rises up from the dead!

The pearly white hand poked out from the soft earth under a particular tree just like last time, this time he pulled himself out quite quickly despite the trouble he had last time.

"..Jim..."

And he wasn't particularly intelligent either it seemed...

Jim the skeleton had completely forgotten about the arrow incident and started to wander the green plains again. He looked left and right before wandering down a dirt path.

Despite his looks, he was as inquisitive as a newborn child would be though I suppose that he did count as a child when considering his origins. Due to this "particular" trait, he couldn't resist it when sounds of talking came from the other side of the bushes.

"Are you sure this is a good idea? I don't think we'll be able to find anything worthwhile around here..."

"I heard there were some strong monsters around here, I'm known as quite the daredevil myself you know?"

Jim walked forwards to observe the situation before stumbling onto the ground right in front of them. This got his eye sockets full of dirt before he looked up at the voices before having a cross slapped in his face.

"EEK! [Turn Undead]!"

Jim's skull cracked instantly before the rest of him started crumbling as well, leaving only dust in his wake on the ground.

"jeez, I thought you said the monsters were supposed to be hard!"

"How was I supposed to know it was filled with low tier skeletons? That thing didn't even look like it was going to attack us anyway, does this count as murder?"

And once again, another unfortunate end for poor Jim. (Nothing to do with the main plot, side/gag story)

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Damon P.O.V

I glanced down from my window to see the skeletons once again at work. Though it was still early in the morning the skeletons showed no signs of exhaustion as they constantly went into the outskirts and the depths of the Demon forest to gather the endless amount of resources.

Though, even with all these materials and monster corpses, there wasn't any way I could feasibly use them. I put most of the monster corpses into rebuilding the castle's interior and the crumbling castle walls, which caused them to instantly regenerate. Columns of cracked walls and windows started to rebuild and return to their original forms before the last days of the former demon king.

At points, even the flags of the former Demon king were remade and moved back to their original places on top of the castle walls, the ripped black and blue cloths back to their former glory flying their colors in the wind. Though there wasn't a design on them as it was just blue and black lines going down from the flag, I doubted that this was what they looked like during the former demon lord's reign but that was the least of my concerns at this point.

Now that I look at it, this place is quite nice once it isn't collapsing onto itself.

Most of the interior rooms had been regenerated especially after the Lava Lizard was absorbed. That one lizard corpse saved us weeks of work since it was such a high rank and level. It was the reason that the castle was finally reborn.

However, the former town was a different matter. Everything was still in a state of disarray and destruction since even after all the monsters I had gathered it was barely enough to fix the damaged castle, there was no way I could feasibly get the amount needed to fix the rest of the dungeon.

The door to the room swung open, revealing two familiar skeletons that made their way towards me. Though now I was getting a weird inferiority sense as the clanking of Vilards armor and the chilling appearance of Char with his singed body and glowing eyes, compared to them I was as normal as can be other than my horns and wings. No one's going to be scared of a guy in a t-shirt and shorts.

Personally, I would find them much more intimidating than I would ever be.

Vilard glanced towards Char and let out a series of chittering and chattering before Char turned towards me.

"As I previously said, he wishes to return the armor of the fallen soldiers that had died in the battle with the bandits. There were names engraved in each of them so he could just hand it to someone near the border and head back."

He shrugged.

"Personally, I don't see much of a reason but I suppose it has something to do with him being a knight and having that insufferable justice mindset"

At this point, if Char was next to any of the skeletons they would talk to him instead of me and he would translate what they said, even Vilard since he still spoke in broken sentences that made it especially hard to understand.

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Putting that aside, Villard's request was a bit odd even though my own request had been weird as well. I didn't want to be wasteful but it felt like a bad omen to take from young soldiers that were in a neutral conflict.

We also had no use for any of the armor since the skeletons were already equipped with armor and weapons. Though, I wasn't sure that it would be the brightest idea if we turned up to the border as a bunch of skeletons that were clearly capable of killing their entire army.

Even with helmets over their heads, the skeletons would most definitely be recognized by the bunch that had been saved by them. There wasn't a very good stigma with undead among the living in the first place so there wasn't a guarantee that the soldiers that knew who they were wouldn't attack them even if Vilard had saved them before.

"...They wouldn't be able to harm you either way and the fact that there is intelligent undead in this forest isn't hidden to them anymore after your last incident, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to try and increase relations with somewhere outside of the dungeon."

I say this, yet I absolutely need some kind of relations outside of here.

I hadn't thought about it too much before, but the buildings in this dungeon weren't created by the dungeon, at least, I couldn't create it using the system I had.

I had asked Char quite a bit about the dungeon's functions, with him being the most knowledgeable one out of all of us it felt like it would be the most useful course of action.

Turns out, Char pretty much understood the dungeon inside out. Probably because of the long span of time he had been residing in said dungeon, but he definitely made my life much easier.

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Flashback

"So Char, can you tell me anything about this place?"

"What do you mean?"

I gestured to everything around me and out the window. The skeletons that were effortlessly piling materials into the castle walls and going back out again were repeating the same actions and steps day by day. Though I had told them to do it, I really wasn't sure how to use the materials themselves.

"This castle, the city, the dungeon in general. I'm pointlessly gathering materials from the dungeon but I have no use for it whatsoever. Even though I am a lord all I have are the ruins of the empire that your previous master left me."

Though these previously crumbling walls could hardly be called ruins anymore, the city itself could definitely still be described as such. I had gotten the "living" skeletons to remove the corpses of the deceased from their exposed deathbed and bury them into the ground.

I will admit that I had at least attempted to bring them back but nothing happened when I attempted. It seemed like the skeletons that I brought back, according to Vilard, weren't their actual skeletons but were instead skeletons that were artificially created through magic to replicate their previous selves.

Belongings such as armor and weapons were automatically transferred and the skeletons were imbued with the original owner's souls making them essentially "undead" but not like the undead that necromancers summoned, those were reanimated bodies that tended to start annoying incidences, with a twisted sense of morality you could consider my method "less evil".

" Dungeon master's cannot create these buildings, my master was no omnipotent nor all powerful. There is a reason that this was a thriving city instead of a slaughterhouse of humans after all"

Ignoring the last comment, it seemed like the only way to increase my defense force would probably be to recruit people from elsewhere. Being in the middle of a monster-infested forest, only desperate or crazy people would even consider venturing into this hell-hole.

"oh boy..."

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"Well, whatever the case I'll do what it takes to strengthen my place in this world. If what I understand about demon lords is correct, I'm going to get swarmed quite quickly by people wanting my head if I don't do anything myself."

Though there was no use in piling up endless resources that I wasn't going to use, the fact that the dungeon inventory essentially stopped all rotting and rusting meant that it didn't matter how long I put the materials in for, since when I took them out once more it would be in nearly identical condition.

"As of now, I really have no skills to make anything at all but maybe in the future if someone could teach me. Vilard, I'll be going with you for this since I should really see what these guys are all about."

"Yes...sir"

Vilard, along with a few others, clanked their way towards the skeletal horses that were tied up outside. I started to follow them before looking down at my unwashed clothes and pants.

"Ah shoot, this is a problem. I don't really want to show up looking like a hobo...aha!"

As one of the last skeleton warriors attempted to leave, I clasped him by the shoulder. They had leather armor on that despite being quite old looked quite prim and proper.

"hey, how about we give you a break?"

If a skeleton could scream, they probably would've.

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Artia P.O.V

"Aye, this'll be the place."

As previously suggested, Thogir and I went around looking for somewhere to buy appropriate clothing. Though I did like my dress quite a bit, it did seem to be lacking a few...characteristics... to be utilized in battle.

Thogir looked up and down at the various stores that lined the street. The streets were made from polished stone bricks and some of the stalls were even made up of marble, even in the capital this kind of wealth had never been seen. However, the only thing missing from these streets were the people that were supposed to be busily shopping.

"Even though it's the middle of the day, there's barely anyone here..."

After the explanation by Terrence, it was clear that the stigma of the previous demon lord and the demon forest had caused so many to move away. After the number of troops decreased since the great battle, thieves and bandits had taken refuge in nearby areas and lurked in the shining city streets.

Though they stayed off the main road during the day since there were still patrols around, the city had to impose a curfew to prevent murders and robbing's from happening since it happened so commonly. With people shying away from the city despite the income opportunities and even mercenaries refusing offers of large sums of money due to the stigma, we were the only ones that accepted since we were rookies.

After going through many of the stores, the store that Thogir stopped in front of looked like a tailor's store. Cloths and fabrics of different colors lined the walls as well as the display cases outside.

It was definitely an impressive selection, but unlike the other stores this one didn't have anything that screamed out rich. There were clothing samples in the back but...there was no tailor in sight.

"Alright you brats! Get out!"

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I'm sorry for the lack of updates but I just finished my mock exam week that will help determine what university I'll go into so I had to put writing aside, but I'm back now!