episode_0115

As the soul of the laced Orc warrior was sucked into the completed body, the body of the Orc warrior, who had immediately turned into a Death Knight, moved.

“Krrruk.”

First, the hands wriggled, and then the vocal cords trembled and made a sound. Just as the sleeping body woke up one by one, the parts of the body began to move one by one.

In this way, various parts of the body, starting with the hands and neck, moved little by little, and the Death Knight’s body stood up completely.

When the Death Knight, who was lying on the workbench, got up, it really felt like an orc was alive. It didn’t even occur to me that this was undead. If you just look at the appearance.

The Death Knight, who had not yet gathered his energy, was feeling very strong dark magic and the energy of death. It was something that could never be felt in a living creature. Of course, even if you save your energy, you won’t be able to completely erase that feeling.

“Human. Am I dead? Or is it alive?”

However, as I was looking at the external appearance of the Death Knight, the Death Knight spoke first. It seemed like he couldn’t tell whether he was alive or dead.

This appears to be because, unlike ordinary skeletons, it uses existing personalities, such as memories and egos, intact. Since your memories will remain until the moment you die, you may not be able to understand how you woke up fine now.

“Hmm… … . If you ask me, I’m dead. I brought your dead soul and made you a Death Knight.”

“… … I see.”

“You’re calmer than I thought? Don’t you think it’s hard to believe that he’s dead?”

“The moment I died came to mind. I’m dead. Do you need more than that?”

“Uh… … . Well, if you are.”

There was a story that when a Death Knight was created, an entity that could not accept its own death sometimes emerged, as it retained its memories and ego from the time it was alive. So I was a little worried, but the first Death Knight I made didn’t seem to be that type of entity. It may simply be due to personality differences.

Anyway, once I confirmed that the body itself was moving successfully and that the wraith soul was properly seated, I immediately began checking the Death Knight in detail.

For now, all I could do was simply watch the dead body move again. There were things to check such as the level of athletic ability, whether a Death Knight could handle the dark magic that a Death Knight should handle, and whether the body could repair itself when damaged like a skeleton.

“Let’s go out to the garden first.”

Then, I went out to the garden of the mansion to check them. If nothing else, athletic ability was not something that could be confirmed in the studio. Even though it was a garden, there was no gardener anyway, so it was a dirt floor, so it was perfect for testing athletic ability.

“From here, just run as hard as you can to the door you see over there and then come back. Start.”

As soon as the sound “start” came out of my mouth, the Death Knight ran away at incredible speed. bang! The Death Knight stamped his feet with a sound and ran through the garden, raising a cloud of dust.

Although it is a standard standard for leisurely walking, it was a five-minute walk from the main gate of the mansion to the entrance, and the Death Knight covered that distance in an instant. Before the dust he had created could settle, he returned to my side and stood up.

“Wow… … .”

Seeing it move at incredible speeds, an exclamation of admiration came out of my mouth. This is because the speed was comparable to the speed at which I moved the skeleton horse that had been fully fed with black magic.

Of course, there are disadvantages to the fact that there are a lot of ingredients and dark magic, and I have to replenish the dark magic from time to time, but it was still great.

“Can you lift that chunk of rock over there?”

Since agility was confirmed, the next thing to check was pure strength. There was a very large rock that had been brought in to be used to make a statue or a fountain, and I was instructed to lift it.

It was very difficult to bring it back, using dozens of skeletons and even a Skeleton Knight, but the Death Knight approached the rock without hesitation.

But unfortunately, the Death Knight could not lift the rock. No, it was strange to lift a rock with bare hands when there was no place to hold it in the first place. I did it just in case, I didn’t think it would actually work.

However, perhaps not knowing what I was thinking, Death Knight seemed to have decided that he must lift the rock. The guy snorted nervously while looking at the unmoving rock and began to raise his dark magic power.

“Oh, are you using dark magic instinctively?”

A black smoke-like thing spewed out from the body, and the energy felt from the Death Knight became more and more intense.

Then, using the strength of his strengthened body, he plunged his hand into the rock. Death Knight lightly pierced the hard rock with his hand as if it were bread and lifted the rock with force.

Pieces of dirt and stones attached to the rock fell to the ground with a pattering sound, and the Death Knight looked at me as if asking how long I would have to hold this. Of course, it didn’t seem particularly difficult.

“You can put it down.”

I couldn’t keep him holding it forever just because it didn’t look difficult, so I told him to put it down, and he put the rock down like he was throwing it in the air. With a thud sound, the rock pressed down on the dirt floor and sunk in a little deeper.

After leaving the fact that the rock was embedded a little deeper than before, we continued the test.

The beginning was a kind of endurance test to see how much dark magic one could use. As they were undead, the fuel they needed to function was dark magic. It was a test of how long it would take to use something that I injected separately or a collection of naturally occurring substances.

At the same time, things like the efficiency of recovering an injured body using black magic were also tested. Since it was not a living thing, it was impossible to recover naturally, so it was something that had to be checked.

I watched him move like crazy while using dark magic, or cause a slight wound and then watch it recover.

“As expected, the efficiency is miserable compared to skeletons.”

However, the results were not that good. As my grandmother once said, it seemed to be because a considerable amount of dark magic was constantly being consumed to maintain the body itself, not the bones.

Still, it wasn’t to the point where it couldn’t be maintained, and it was at a level that only required a certain amount of attention, so it was satisfactory in its own way. Considering the advantage of being able to use enormous power at once, I thought that using a Death Knight for special purposes could be of great benefit.

Anyway, after checking the Death Knight’s performance like that, it was already dinner time. Now it was time for not only Giena but also Amy to finish their work and return home.

“Andrew~!”

And, I don’t know if it was because I was thinking, but I heard Amy’s voice. The skeleton attached to the mansion’s gate instead of its hinges moved on its own, opening the door, and Amy came running in with very lively steps.

“… … Orc?”

However, Amy, who came close to me, immediately began to show signs of caution. This is because a Death Knight stood tall next to me, seemingly no different from any other orc.

In an instant, Amy took out a short knife from her pocket and looked like she was about to attack at any moment.

“This is the Death Knight I made. On the outside, it just looks like a living orc, right?”

“… … Is this a death knight? Really?”

Amy, who was holding a knife on guard, changed her mood as soon as I said that. The wary look disappeared, and he clung to me with a curious expression, looking at the Death Knight. Of course, the Death Knight didn’t seem to be interested at all.

“On the outside, he looks like just an orc warrior… … . You’re not kidding, right?”

I asked the question, does it seem like a death knight to me, a warlock, but is it normal to Amy, an ordinary person, and am I kidding? To that extent, on the outside, they were no different from ordinary orcs.

“Death Knight, that’s right. Of course, it’s not a universal Death Knight. The reason I have to make a Death Knight is a little special, right? I paid a lot of attention to keeping it intact as it was when I was alive. Although it is not perfect.”

“Andrew… … !”

Amy looked at me as if she was impressed when I heard that special care was taken to ensure that the Death Knight maintained its original appearance intact. As I was smiling at the sight of her wanting to hug me right away, Amy really ran up to me and hugged me.

Amy, who hugged me like that, began to show interest in Death Knight again.

“On the outside, he looks like an ordinary orc warrior… … .”

“I paid quite a bit of attention. So, if you have dark magic, you can maintain that appearance forever.”

“Really? So wouldn’t it be better for me to become a Death Knight now? Don’t you think it would be good for you to become a Death Knight when my appearance and body are at their best?”

Amy snorted, clinging to me and rubbing her body. Seeing that made me feel like my blood was pumping faster, but I lightly flicked the tip of Amy’s nose with my finger.

“I have no intention of making you a Death Knight yet. Because we haven’t even confirmed what side effects there will be when turning humans into Death Knights.”

It was obvious that it would be very difficult to legally find a human who could become a Death Knight, but I still planned to find one somehow and experiment with it a few times. Until then, I had no intention of blindly making Amy a Death Knight. First of all, you have to die to become a Death Knight.

“And, it’s not difficult to bring your appearance back to its prime. There is no need to become a Death Knight right now.”

Furthermore, using the body entirely did not necessarily mean that it had to be used in its original form. Although it would take an incredibly large amount of materials and dark magic, it was possible to transform the body from its prime into a Death Knight.

Perhaps that’s why Amy no longer said she wanted to become a Death Knight. He seemed to think that I would take care of it when the time came.

It was just that he was still showing interest in the Death Knight in one way or another.

“Andrew, did you just make this Death Knight as practice before turning me into a Death Knight? Do you have any plans to use it somewhere else?”

“Once I made it, I should put it to good use. I checked it once earlier, and it can be used in many ways.”

Actually, at first, I made it as an exercise as Amy said. However, after checking its performance, I realized that Death Knight could be used in many different ways.

In particular, it seemed possible to proceed with the production method previously introduced by the R&D headquarters through Death Knight. It was a production method that seemed to be quite useful for making things in a blacksmith shop, but so far, the method had been put on hold because there were many shortcomings with skeletons. However, I thought that Death Knight would be able to use that method well.