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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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After concluding his meeting with the territory’s key figures, he began creating undead from the corpses of the eliminated raiding party.
He transformed the commander into a Skeleton Knight, the paladin into a Commander-type undead, and the two priests into Mummy Priests.
He combined the remaining mercenaries into a single Draugr.
Despite having over a hundred corpses, he only created five undead. The Commander-type undead was currently useless without any subordinates, but he wasn’t concerned.
‘I can mass-produce low and mid-ranking undead as long as I have enough corpses.’
Control capacity wasn’t an issue.
A 7th circle necromancer could control thousands of low and mid-ranking undead.
The problem was the sheer amount of demonic energy required to maintain and control them, which was why he didn’t usually do it.
He already had several high-ranking undead bound to him, so a few more wouldn’t strain his control capacity.
‘A Legion Commander is a different story, though.’
Since he now had a Skeleton Knight, he created a Skeletal Steed and bound it to the knight.
He wasn’t sure how large the occupying force would be, but it was a good start.
While he was creating the undead, Otriokar visited him for a brief conversation.
He mentioned that his associate membership in the Magic Tower was still valid and that he would do his best to maintain it.
He seemed eager to maintain a connection, and he saw no reason to refuse.
Otriokar also asked about the path to 7th circle, but he dismissed the question, saying it would be meaningless for him at his current level.
He had only recently reached 6th circle and wasn’t ready for such knowledge.
Indeed, Otriokar still seemed to be consolidating his existing knowledge and hadn’t yet begun forging his own path.
He had initially planned to receive a briefing and head to the front lines alone, but the lord pleaded with him to escort a supply convoy, as they were having trouble with Jutus’ raiding parties.
Recognizing the importance of supplies, he agreed.
As expected, they were ambushed by a raiding party targeting the supplies, and his newly created undead proved their worth.
He added over a hundred Skeleton Warriors to the Commander-type undead’s control and acquired another Commander-type undead and two Mummy Priests.
‘Two priests and a paladin operating as a team.’
It seemed to be their standard unit composition.
The soldiers escorting the supplies looked at his undead with a mixture of fear and awe.
Upon reaching the front lines, the knight who had received Colmail’s orders assigned a mercenary to him.
He recognized the face.
“You’re…”
“Eryan?”
It was Eryan, the mercenary from House Jutus who had guided them before.
He had apparently defected to Doriem and was now fighting on the front lines.
Eryan, having worked for House Jutus, would be familiar with their territory, and his experience on the front lines meant he would also know the surrounding area well.
‘They chose well.’
“Huh. I heard you left Doriem. You’ve returned? The rumors say you’ve become a recognized warlock.”
“I’m just here to help with the war. I haven’t returned permanently.”
“So, the rumors are true?”
“Yes.”
Eryan shook his head at his confirmation.
“If you’re a recognized warlock, why risk your life in a losing war?”
“Necessity? If this territory falls, mine will be next.”
“I see.”
Seemingly satisfied with his explanation, Eryan extended a hand.
“I’ve been ordered to cooperate with you, so I look forward to working together.”
“Likewise.”
The man who had once spoken so proudly of House Jutus was now fighting alongside him for Doriem.
‘It won’t be for long, though.’
“So, what should I do?”
The orders didn’t seem to contain any specific instructions.
He explained his plans, and Eryan looked shocked when he learned he had become an Archmage.
“M-my apologies for my…”
“Don’t worry about it. Just act normally.”
“…Are you sure?”
He seemed rather bold, telling him to drop the formalities.
“I wondered why you would participate in a losing war, but now I understand. An Archmage, a warlock no less, can easily turn the tide.”
Eryan nodded, seemingly convinced.
“You said you needed corpses? That’s easy.”
There were plenty of unburied corpses from recent battles, Eryan explained.
“The crows will be going hungry for a while.”
“Not our soldiers, right? I promised I wouldn’t touch those.”
“…Do you take me for a grave robber? Don’t worry. There’s a mountain of Jutus corpses.”
Eryan’s expression was slightly grim.
He understood. Eryan had been part of House Jutus until recently.
There were likely many familiar faces among the corpses.
However, he seemed to have made his peace with his defection, as he didn’t react with disgust when he mentioned he would be turning them into undead.
“Follow me. I’ll show you.”
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As he had said, there was a mountain of corpses.
Over a hundred, at a glance.
“…If you leave them like this, there will be an outbreak.”
“We burn them regularly. We’ve just been too busy with the war recently.”
“Regularly… they must have a large force.”
“It’s sickening. Not just Jutus, but other surrounding territories have joined them, and the Goddess Religion has also sent reinforcements.”
“You’ve held out well.”
“We’ve been receiving regular mercenary reinforcements from… somewhere. The rumors suggest it’s obvious where they’re coming from. And recently, they’ve become less aggressive, focusing on disrupting our supply lines.”
The mercenary reinforcements were likely being provided by the royal family.
“That’s why there are so many corpses, even though we burn them.”
Judging by their condition, the corpses were relatively fresh.
Two days old, at most.
“We estimate their total forces to be around two thousand. Mostly mercenaries, of course. The problem is they have over a hundred priests and at least fifty paladins.”
That didn’t even include their knights. Considering the size of the territories involved, there would be ten to twenty knights at most, but that was still a significant number.
“Iklemba, the territory you visited before, has also sided with Jutus.”
That was to be expected, given its location.
“They have about three mages… but we have an Archmage.”
He nodded at Eryan’s words.
He was right. Unlike the enemy, they had a 7th circle Archmage.
A few mid-ranking mages were insignificant in comparison.
Their forces, on the other hand, consisted of barely over a thousand mercenaries and a handful of priests from the Earth Mother Religion.
They had managed to assemble around ten knights, mostly free knights working as mercenaries, and their mages consisted of a single 4th circle and five 3rd circle mages.
They had held out this long thanks to the quality of their mercenaries, but against Jutus, backed by the Goddess Religion, they were on the verge of collapse.
The fact that their front lines were still holding, despite the significant number of mercenaries diverted to raiding parties, highlighted the disparity in their forces.
‘But things are different now.’
While the enemy forces were formidable, he could control a larger force on his own.
With a single Skeleton Knight legion and a thousand Zombies, he could easily handle two thousand soldiers.
And with his high-ranking undead… it would be a massacre.
There was no need to be concerned.
He examined the corpses and was disappointed to find no Knight-level talent among them.
The priests and paladins, being high-priority targets, were naturally absent.
He turned all the corpses into Skeleton Warriors and fed the remaining cloth and flesh to the Draugr, increasing its size.
He then bound all the newly created Skeleton Warriors to the Commander-type undead, the Centurion, he had created earlier.
Eryan flinched slightly at the sudden increase in undead and their imposing presence.
Over two hundred undead. That should be enough to reclaim their lost territory.
He had already been informed of its location, so he followed Eryan, bypassing the front lines.
He had informed them of his destination before leaving. No one had the authority to command him, so a simple notification was sufficient.
Eryan, initially suspicious, didn’t hesitate to guide him after witnessing the might of his undead army, and they marched towards the lost territory.
It took a single day to reclaim it.
Upon arriving, he confirmed that the enemy force numbered only around three hundred, and he immediately sent his undead, led by the Draugr, into battle.
The enemy camp was surprised by the sudden appearance of the undead but didn’t seem overly concerned.
There were around ten priests and five paladins within the camp, and they declared that Doriem had finally resorted to using a dark magic user, proving they had been right all along.
He then proceeded to slaughter them all.
He added two more Draugr to his forces and now commanded five hundred Skeleton Warriors.
He formed a Mummy Priest squad and turned the paladins into Commander-type Centurions.
Thanks to an Expert-level warrior among the slain enemies, he also gained another Skeleton Knight.
He was disappointed there was only one Expert among such a large garrison, but it couldn’t be helped.
“That was surprisingly easy…”
He had effortlessly achieved what Doriem had been struggling with.
“There are a lot of supplies here. Some of them are plundered, I presume?”
They found a large amount of supplies that hadn’t been transported back to the main base yet, and he stored them all in Athena’s subspace artifact.
He wasn’t concerned about revealing the artifact.
He had the power to protect it.
He wrote a brief report of the situation and sent it back with an undead messenger. Having witnessed his undead army, they would likely deliver the message without any problems.
After resting for a day, they crossed the border and entered Jutus’ territory.
He had found a large carriage among the supplies, which he connected to a Skeletal Steed and used as transportation.
Over five hundred undead marched in formation around them, acting as escorts.
“…You always change drastically every time you advance, Inha, but this time, the difference is… significant.”
“Isn’t it?”
“The biggest change was when you reached 5th circle, right? That was shocking enough, but this is… on a different level.”
There was a reason Archmages were considered equal to Masters. And he had only shown a fraction of his true power.
He was still growing accustomed to his new power and continuing to improve.
For instance, he was now able to create permanent undead.
He could easily modify temporary undead, making them permanent, and he could even create and bind low-ranking permanent undead with a mere thought.
He could extract Soul Shadows with a flick of his wrist and effortlessly create relatively high-ranking undead like Skeleton Centurions, Skeleton Knights, and Mummy Priests.
Through repeated practice, he was deepening his understanding of magic and optimizing it for his own use.
‘At this rate, I won’t even need to cast strengthening spells during battles.’
He felt he would soon be able to create undead that didn’t require further strengthening.
It didn’t seem like a distant goal.
He suspected he might even achieve it by the time they conquered Jutus.
“Are you really going to start by attacking villages?”
He nodded calmly at Eryan’s question.
“Yes. We’re the raiding party this time.”
He planned to pillage the villages and, if the opportunity arose, even attack Jutus’ main castle.
However, he wouldn’t be reckless. If he couldn’t capture the castle quickly, they could be trapped between the main army and the castle.
He wasn’t afraid of a direct confrontation.
But he lacked the numbers currently.
Eryan’s expression darkened at his casual reply.
He was likely assuming he would be slaughtering civilians to increase his undead forces, but he had no such intentions.
He planned to send the civilians he captured to Lineta.
The lord of Doriem wouldn’t be able to object.
‘Even villages have some mercenaries, right?’
And the main army wouldn’t be deployed to deal with raiding parties initially, so he intended to target those smaller forces.
That didn’t mean he wouldn’t kill any civilians.
If there was a temple in a village, the priests and devout followers would be slain and raised as undead.
Therefore, he didn’t bother explaining himself to Eryan.
He simply instructed him to fulfill his role as a guide.
And it was Jutus who had initiated the attacks on Doriem’s villages. In this world, weakness was a sin, and the weak were prey.
As they steadily conquered the villages, Kayla remained silently by his side, fulfilling her duty as his escort.
Her presence was reassuring, and they were able to easily capture all the villages within Jutus’ territory.
The enemy, noticing their advance, sent forces to intercept them, but it was a futile effort.
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