episode_0113

Heading to the studio, I immediately began practicing black magic.

The beginning, of course, was reading the book my grandmother left me. Although I’ve already read it once, I gained something every time I read it. Things that I didn’t really understand the first time I read them were understood the second and third time, so there was some progress.

“Oh, this could be applied like this.”

Of course, I also learned new ways to apply things I previously understood.

But I couldn’t rely on the books my grandmother left me forever. This is because the book my grandmother left behind contained knowledge that provided the foundation for a warlock to conduct research on his own.

Of course, there was no detailed explanation on how to make a Death Knight. In order to create an advanced undead at the Death Knight level, I had to find a method myself. Of course, it wasn’t like starting from scratch. There was useful content that could give you some direction.

Anyway, after reading the book my grandmother left behind, and feeling that I had gained some understanding, I immediately decided to do my own research on black magic.

“… … Then let’s give it a try.”

I was a little worried because it was my first time doing research that was built completely from scratch, but I applaud! After hitting it and rubbing it lightly, I started researching.

The first step was dealing with the soul. Rather than simply calling out and using it to extract the desired information, it was to capture the soul completely and prevent it from going to the afterlife. In a way, it was closer to turning the soul of someone who had already died into a wraith, a type of undead monster.

No, in fact, it would be safe to say that it was turning the soul into a race and allowing it to settle down in this world. In this world, race means a soul that cannot accept death and wanders this world.

In order to fully utilize the soul of the person who would become the Death Knight, it was necessary to go through such a process. From now on, further work is needed to strengthen the body that will become the Death Knight’s body, but the important part now is to settle the soul in this world.

It may have been a simple call, but it took a lot of effort to keep the soul from going to the underworld according to the laws of nature. Death Knight was not a high-level undead for no reason. In addition to the advantage of being able to produce incredibly powerful force, there were also some that were classified as upper class because they were difficult to make.

Anyway, for that reason, in order to create my own method of turning souls into lace, I started using monster corpses that had been prepared in advance.

It is best to use corpses that have not been dead for a long time, but since the mercenaries will bring them in a while, I decided to use the corpses that are there first to get a feel for them. Still, we carefully selected and used only the most recently received corpses. Because if it’s too old, it’s impossible to summon the soul.

Following my instructions, the skeletons that would serve as assistants moved and brought in a corpse. The goblin corpse, which had been treated with a petrification curse to prevent it from needlessly decomposing, was placed on the workbench. The beginning was not much different from the process of making a skeleton. The first thing to do was to break the petrification curse. Since I had placed it, the petrification curse was lifted simply by using black magic.

The petrification curse was lifted, but due to rigor mortis, the dagger was thrust into the corpse, which was still quite hard. Although there was some resistance, it was not difficult to make a few scratches on the corpse.

“Completely hardened. I have to melt the blood first.”

However, the blood used to draw the magic circle to summon the soul did not come out. Even if you cast a petrification curse, there was nothing you could do about it already hardening before that. In the end, I had to use black magic again to melt the hardened blood.

After quickly melting the hardened blood, he immediately began using the blood to draw a magic circle around the goblin’s corpse. All kinds of geometric patterns were drawn on the workbench according to the gestures of my hands.

After diligently drawing the magic circle, I immediately summoned the goblin’s spirit. Since I had previous experience summoning the spirit of a knight, there was no difficulty up to this point.

“Kyaaaagh!”

And this time, as soon as the spirit was called, a deafening sound rang out. I thought it would be a little difficult if this echoing sound rang out every time, but since my spirit was summoned, I continued to work.

“Squeak! Gegegegegeong!”

While the work continued, the goblin’s spirit seemed to have come to its senses and let out a strange sound. Since it is a normal entity and lacks much intelligence, it does not engage in conversation or anything like that. I decided to check it later when a special entity arose, and continued to focus on turning the soul into a race.

All kinds of materials as well as a large amount of black magic were invested, and various magic circles were drawn and engraved into the soul.

In general, a race that exists in a natural state required special conditions, such as having a strong grudge at the time of death and having many mediums filled with dark magic around them. For example, if someone suffers an unfair death on the battlefield and is full of resentment, there are dark magic materials filled with black magic scattered around them.

However, in order to artificially create a race like now, there were many processes that had to be completed. The fact that the soul has gone to the afterlife means that there is no limit to how much it will remain in this world, and it was possible to solve that problem through connection with a black magician. It was not a grudge, but a warlock’s will that made it remain.

By using that method, one could gain the advantage of being able to remain in this world forever as long as the black magic power of the warlock was supplied. In the case of a naturally occurring wraith, it was said that it was possible to stay by the warlock’s side forever, unlike when the grudge was resolved to a certain extent or the black magic that could maintain its form was lost.

The disadvantage is that the stronger the soul was in life, the more dark magic and materials are required to turn it into a race, and thereafter it cannot grow without a special method.

Anyway, I continued to work on connecting the goblin soul with me and turning it into a lace using a method that had both pros and cons. All kinds of materials were used, and enough black magic power was injected to create dozens of skeletons.

“Kkieee.”

As a result, the goblin’s spirit, which had been screaming as if it was going wild, began to become calmer and began to float in the air, staring at me.

As I watched the goblin’s spirit calm down, I felt like there was a slight connection between me and the goblin, albeit a weak one. I don’t know if there was a mistake during the making process, or because a corpse that had been dead for some time was used, but the connection was very weak.

Still, I think I can convey what I want in my own way, the goblin spirit as it is… … . No, I gave an order to the Goblin Wraith.

“Bring one of the blood essences over there.”

As it was a studio, it was stocked with many of the materials I needed, and I had them bring one of them. Then, the Goblin Wraith flew through the air as if swimming.

However, the Goblin Wraith that flew like that soon appeared to stop at the place where the materials were gathered. Maybe he didn’t understand the order I gave him, or he looked like he didn’t know what to take. No, more accurately, it was closer to the feeling of having forgotten something.

“The intelligence of the original soul is also important. This is enough… … Wouldn’t it be practically useless? The results are very poor compared to the materials and effort put in.”

After successfully creating a race and liking it, I had no idea that intelligence issues would arise like this. The thought filled my head that ordinary goblin-level objects should only be used as simple labor skeletons.

Still, I started experimenting with Goblin Wraith, wondering if there was a way to make it more useful.

“It has no immediate use other than as a kind of surveillance undead.”

As it was a race that connected my soul to me, it had its advantages. The advantage was that no matter where I was, I could understand the situation of the race through being connected to myself. To be precise, I was able to receive Wraith’s visual and auditory information, as if I were possessed by Wraith.

It seemed like it could be hidden throughout the territory so as not to be seen, or used for reconnaissance in enemy territory. First of all, it has the disadvantage of not being able to properly complete orders due to intelligence issues, but that’s enough if you just tell it to stay in one place and do nothing.

In a way, it could be said that the wraith could produce a similar effect to the familiars used by ordinary wizards. In particular, since it was a spirit race, it was also possible to pass through walls at will, and considering that, I thought it might be superior to a familiar.

Of course, there were many more ways to apply it. In a battle situation, if it was impossible to urgently create additional skeletons, it was also possible to possess the wraith on the corpse. As an experiment, I entered one of the goblin corpses and tried to make it move, and surprisingly, it was possible to move the dead body.

However, I don’t know if it was because the base was a goblin, but it didn’t move properly even when it entered the orc corpse. Although it wriggled, it didn’t move as well as it did when it entered the goblin’s corpse.

“Hmm, I wonder if it can also enter living entities. If possible, I think it could be quite useful in a combat situation.”

I wondered what it would be like to possess a living goblin, so I decided to catch a living goblin and test it later. Or maybe you could find it yourself and experiment with it when you travel somewhere.

Anyway, through other experiments, I gained information about lace and realized additional ways to apply it.

In particular, since it was a race based on the soul, it was possible to understand quite a bit about the soul. However, it could not be said to be perfect yet. Since the ultimate goal was to completely transform Amy into a Death Knight, it was necessary to have greater skills than she had now.

And, as I was thinking about that, Amy came to my studio. Together with several mercenaries, he was carrying a large bundle that was presumed to contain the corpse of a monster.

“Andrew, I brought you the corpse of the monster I mentioned earlier. Where should I put it?”

“Oh, good timing. Just leave it here and I will take care of it.”

“It’s heavy, is it okay? We will move it.”

“It’s okay. Because it’s not like I’m moving it.”

I nodded and pointed at the skeleton next to me, and Amy nodded as if she understood.

The mercenaries smiled lightly, as if they were happy that they didn’t have to do any cleaning work, and roughly placed the bundles they had brought on the floor. About ten monster corpses piled up on the floor.

“Amy. Has there been any special object?”

“Special object? Ah, now that I think about it, there was one. It was an orc warrior, and I kept it in your workshop in the mansion. I need? Shall I bring it for you?”

“No, we’ll do that later in the evening. This is enough for now.”

Among special objects, it was very important to have a warrior object suitable for use as a material for a Death Knight. It is not too late to proceed after conducting a little more research using ordinary goblins.

Amy must have sensed that my mind was full of thoughts about research, so she waved her hand lightly as if she was leaving the place and took the mercenaries out.

Soon I was left alone again, so I used the skeleton to organize the corpses and continued my research.