episode_0080

Having decided to turn the village into my territory and further into a dungeon, I immediately started working.

First, the work began with turning a total of four knight corpses into skeleton knights. The two bodies were still in good condition, but the corpses of the knights killed in battle in the burial were in a slightly worse condition.

One had a deep cut in the chest and suffered extensive damage to the ribs, and the other committed suicide due to a curse that amplified the senses, causing significant damage to the cervical vertebrae.

But there was no big problem. It took a lot of materials and dark magic, but it wasn’t impossible to fix. It would not be profitable to make a regular skeleton this way, but it was a different story if it was a skeleton knight using the corpse of a knight. Of course, it’s best to be fine.

Through a combination of various materials and dark magic, the ribs cut by the skeleton knight and the cervical vertebrae damaged by the knight stabbing himself were slowly restored. Since it had not been long since he passed away, the body was restored to its original state quite quickly, thanks to the recovery of the remaining body.

“It’s good to be okay, but… … . If it’s severely damaged, I’ll have to throw it away.”

Of course, considering the ingredients used, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was at a small loss. I even used up the Mandrake that I had luckily purchased from Carbon, so the expenses were not light at all. I bought them for 60,000 meds for three roots, and I used them all to restore part of my ribs and two joints of my cervical vertebrae.

Considering other materials, it cost more than 200,000 Med to restore several ribs and two cervical vertebrae. Even though it was a knight’s corpse, I couldn’t help but feel that it was a waste.

Still, it was clear that it would be a powerful force, so I tried to suppress my regret and started making the skeleton.

A curse and black magic were used to absorb everything other than the bones into the bones, and a special black magic to strengthen the bones was also added. After going through several more processes, a total of four Skeleton Knights were created.

The Skeleton Knights created in this way gave off quite a powerful force. There may be a reason for this because skeletons were made from the corpses of powerful people called ‘knights’, but that was not necessarily the entire reason. Since it was a skeleton created by me, a human, it seemed like there was a good compatibility between the human-based skeleton and my dark magic.

If the efficiency of the Goblin Skeleton Knight created with my dark magic was 100%, then the Skeleton Knight created from the corpses of the knights could be said to have an efficiency of about 120%. There wasn’t much difference between the regular skeletons made of the thief who stole the money and the bandit who attacked me, but when they became special entities, the difference became very noticeable.

The longer I lived as a warlock, the more it became possible to understand why certified warlocks kept appearing as targets for subjugation.

The temptation was strong because the path to becoming powerful quickly and easily lay before my eyes if I broke the law just a little, even risking becoming an enemy of the church. It was very tempting to think that it would be possible to quickly gain enormous power by attacking small villages with the existing skeletons and growing in size.

Of course, I did not give in to the temptation because the moment I became an enemy of the church, I would be immediately defeated. It was a long way to become more powerful than the church just by getting stronger a little faster.

Anyway, after creating four additional Skeleton Knights, I looked at the four Skeleton Knights closely. And, one thing suddenly occurred to me. I remembered that I had summoned the souls of the knights, the original Skeleton Knights, and polluted them with dark magic to extract information.

Since the soul of the body was forcibly summoned and used, I thought there might be something wrong with the skeleton. On the outside, everything seemed fine, with naturalization going smoothly, but I was worried for no reason.

Therefore, I immediately checked the condition of the Skeleton Knights. It was about checking things that were moving, hearing commands, and speaking. However, contrary to concerns, nothing strange was found during the process. No, it turned out that the situation was actually better.

Unlike the goblin or troll skeleton knight who spoke a little slurred, his speech was very clear.

“A person who retains memories of when he was a human before becoming a skeleton… … . No, is there a skeleton?”

The conversation was so smooth that without even realizing it, I was referring to the skeleton as a human being.

And, I don’t know if it was because of that, but the Skeleton Knights answered my question very sincerely.

“I have no memory of anything before the glorious moment when I became a skeleton and received new life. However, that experience is melted into this body and these bones.”

He said that he has no memories of when he was a human, but that the experiences he had as a human still remain. It was said that one could imitate the swordsmanship of the original knight. Although it was not possible to imitate it to a perfect level, it was still possible to use the power of a living enemy to some extent.

“Oh… … .”

Of course, it was only good news for me. This is because the strength of the knights was not just physical strength, but also strength that came from tactics and swordsmanship.

Later, I suddenly imagined a time when I would create a higher level knight entity. This is when we created high-level knights such as Death Knights and Dullahan who can exert 100%, or more than 200%, of their previous life’s power.

However, it did not look like a full-fledged knight with hundreds or thousands of soldiers sweeping the battlefield. It was like creating a legendary weapon by smelting a very rare metal from the boiling lava at the center of a huge volcano.

“… … Someday, definitely!”

In addition to being a warlock, I was also a blacksmith owner.

For a moment, I imagined the future I really wanted to achieve, but then I immediately came to my senses and started thinking about how to arrange the Skeleton Knights.

At first, I thought about putting it into production, but since safety is immediately threatened, I plan to wait for another opportunity to handle that part. Protecting myself, protecting the store and blacksmith shop, and protecting this village that I had decided to make my domain were priorities.

After deciding on the arrangement of the skeletons, I immediately pointed to the one that was giving off the strongest momentum. I don’t know if it was the strongest in life or because it was made from an undamaged corpse, but it was the Skeleton Knight with the strongest energy.

“You will be my escort. It would be more reliable if you escorted it with a Goblin Skeleton Knight.”

“For your sake, I will protect you even if these bones break to dust.”

The Skeleton Knight knelt down and bowed his head to me. It looked like a knight pledging loyalty to his lord during an investiture ceremony.

For no reason, I felt like I was a nobleman with a group of knights, and I was embarrassed, so I stood up and turned my attention to the other knights.

This time, differently from before, I chose the two in the order of their weakest momentum. If there were 1st to 4th place, 3rd and 4th place were nominated.

“You can act as a skeleton for exhibition and promotion at the store. Then, if someone makes a fuss in the store, I threaten them and stop them. Basically, you can follow the orders of the staff in the store, but my orders take priority.”

The 3rd and 4th place skeleton knights were tasked with serving as mannequins and maintaining order in the store. This is because the ones previously used were destroyed by the original Skeleton Knights and could not be restored. Since the empty space could not be filled with goblins or orc skeletons, there was no choice but to use knight objects.

Although it is too much power to be used as a mannequin, I thought it was a reasonable arrangement since the purpose was to protect the store in any case. If regular skeletons only work for ordinary people and mercenaries, Skeleton Knights will work for knights as well.

“I will do an excellent job with the mission my lord has entrusted me with.”

And, fortunately, the two Skeleton Knights bowed down without any resistance. Still, I was worried that people would say that this kind of work was not suitable for him because he was a highly intelligent special entity, but instead of protesting, his response was that he would do anything I told him to do.

After assigning roles to each of the three Skeleton Knights, he turned his attention to the last remaining, second-strongest Skeleton Knight.

“You will be in charge of protecting this village by commanding the skeletons. If I create separate skeleton soldiers, you can command them. Command the skeleton soldiers to protect the village from external danger.”

“I will never allow any enemy to invade my lord’s territory.”

The second thing I asked the knight to do was command the skeletons that would protect my territory. Ordinary skeletons are good at exactly what they are told to do, but because they have the characteristic of being close to impossible to move actively, command was given. It’s like controlling production using mages at the blacksmith shop.

In order to turn this entire village into my territory and dungeon, troops were an essential element, but it was virtually impossible to fill those troops with humans. This is because even if you recruit troops from a village that has just begun to grow, you will not be able to produce much, and it will take a lot of time to become useful combatants. Therefore, what was needed were skeleton soldiers, and an entity was needed to command those soldiers.

Moreover, the skeletons to be used as soldiers were already prepared. Although they had not yet been converted into skeletons due to a lack of black magic, there were so many corpses in the studio that they were cursed with petrification, reaching up to the ceiling. About half of them had no choice but to be used in large-scale new blacksmith shops, but the number of remaining skeletons was bound to be enormous.

Anyway, after taking charge of my area and assigning a knight to guard it, I started to get busy.

This is because permission was needed to place skeletons in the village. Although I decided to make the village my territory, it has not yet become my territory. Of course, if you just arbitrarily insert and place skeletons, it would be a problem.

So what I chose was to get permission from the village chief and the guard commander. There was no problem at all with sending in and deploying skeletons upon request from those who manage and protect the village.

And, the process was not as difficult as I thought. In particular, it was thanks to the guard commander’s active support.

Unlike me, the guard captain, who knew the emblem of Viscount Tar’s family, knew the identities of the knights, so he felt betrayed. Not only did the lord’s knights attack the village belonging to the territory, they even attacked the village’s guards and even damaged the wooden fence.

Damage to a wooden fence means that the village’s defenses become extremely weak, and it was especially problematic that it was the lord’s knights who damaged the wooden fence. Although it was a bit of a leap, destroying the wooden fence was the same as saying, ‘I don’t care what happens to you anymore!’ To put it simply, the guard commander was now feeling abandoned by his lord.

Thanks to this, I was able to receive permission to deploy and deploy skeletons, and it became possible to place skeletons throughout the village and the surrounding area.