episode_0202

“Village chief. From now on, I will make the village chief’s soul into a kind of lace.”

“Isn’t the Wraith a ghost-type undead?”

“That’s right. Amorphous body, actoplasm, ghost. Well, it’s a type of undead that goes by various names.”

The village chief, lying on the workbench, nodded with a face that had lost much of its vitality.

As someone who chose to become undead in order to see the city’s development, it felt like it didn’t matter whether it was a race or anything else.

“But if you turn the soul into a lace, the body will die right away. Even now, I am extremely weak, and if my soul escapes, all functions of my body will inevitably stop.”

“The body… … . Then, the soul is alive and there is no problem.”

“That’s right. And, even if the body dies, there is no problem. Rather, I plan to turn the dead body into a kind of semi-zombie and use it as a doll to house the wraith soul. Since the body and soul are so well matched, you won’t feel any sense of incompatibility, right?”

The method I came up with was to turn the soul into a wraith, then make it possess the person’s body and control that body. If so, I didn’t know if I could live my whole life in a body that would never age, while retaining both my ego and my memories.

Although I couldn’t be sure because I only studied the theoretical part, I was confident that it wouldn’t fail at least. Even when tested on goblins and orcs, it produced meaningful results.

“Then, please take care of it. Lord.”

He nodded at the village chief’s words to ask for his help, and immediately cast a curse to silence the village chief’s consciousness. The village chief’s eyelids, which had been slowly twitching as if he was falling into sleep, slowly closed.

Since the soul was being extracted from a living state, it was necessary to put the consciousness to sleep. I could feel the intense pain, so I could see it as an anesthetic.

Anyway, after confirming that the village chief was completely asleep, I immediately began preparations to extract his soul.

The essence of the blood was finely ground and mixed with the blood to create a magic circle, and to make it easier to extract the soul, various medicinal herbs and magic potions were mixed and poured into the mouth of the sleeping village chief.

And, similar to what was done to Gienna and Amy, a small bead with the function of capturing souls was placed on the chest.

As he waited for the effects of the medicine and magic potion to take effect, the village chief’s body slowly began to respond. After confirming that, I poured a lot of dark magic into the magic circle and looked at the village chief with great concentration.

Perhaps because the black magic flowed through the magic circle and extracted vitality from the village chief’s body, the village chief’s body changed every minute and second. It seemed like it was drying out, and it also seemed like it was becoming brittle.

Of course, the purpose was not to extort that vitality, but to induce the soul to have the weakest connection with the body. The idea was to extract the soul, turn it into lace, and then breathe life back into it to restore the body.

“Ah!”

And when the cheeks reached a point where they seemed to be dry enough to have deep dents, the village chief’s mouth opened very slightly and something whitish quietly appeared.

Originally, it was a soul form that could not be easily seen, but it was barely visible because it was being made visible using black magic.

Anyway, the soul that came out like that immediately began to be slowly sucked towards the bead placed on my chest. Because it was made to attract souls, souls that should have evaporated into thin air entered the bead.

The bead whose soul was instantly sucked in gave off a bright, sparkling light, as if the absorption had already ended. Even though it was not a luminescent material, it was emitting a faint light as if it was emitting light on its own.

After looking at the bead for a moment, he used black magic on the village chief’s soul, which immediately became one with the bead. The lace was made using the bead in which the soul rested as the core.

Kyaaa-

The orb containing the soul trembled in the air as if violently vibrating, creating a deafening sound.

In some ways, it sounded like a soul struggling in pain, but in reality, it was a sound that came naturally as the lace was made. And, as if to prove it, the bead floated into the air and whitish things spewed out around it.

The whitish thing that erupted for a while slowly took shape. To be precise, he was creating the image of the village chief just before he lay down on the workbench.

As I waited for the shape to become more complete, the village chief became translucent and appeared to be floating in the air.

After looking at that for a moment, he immediately cursed the village chief.

Because it was a curse that even affected the soul, the village chief’s soul, which had been floating dazedly in the air even though it had become a race, flinched and came to its senses.

“… … Lord?”

“How does it feel to be a race?”

“Lace… … ? Ah, ah!”

The village chief didn’t seem to understand what I was saying for a moment, but then he began to check his condition to see if he remembered anything.

The village chief looked down at his hands, which were so translucent that he could see behind them. He moved his hand around as if it was so amazing that he could see the floor that should not have been visible because it was covered by his hand.

Moreover, he looked even more surprised when he realized that he was not standing on the ground, but was floating in the air as if swimming.

No, it felt like I was enjoying it rather than being surprised when I saw it flying around inside the studio. Even though he was a person who was nearing the end of his life due to aging, he seemed to have a childlike spirit and even seemed to be trying to pass through the bookshelf.

If things continued like this, I felt like I could escape outside through the wall of the studio, so I called in the village chief who was repeatedly putting his hand in and out of the bookshelf.

“It’s fascinating… … . Have I really become undead?”

“Yes. If you look at it over there, you can see it more realistically.”

“That… … .”

The village chief looked at the direction I was pointing and looked quite surprised. This is because the place I pointed to was the workbench.

This is the workbench where the village chief’s soul falls out and his dead body lies.

“My soul really escaped.”

“Still, I’ll go back in a little while. No matter how familiar my territory is with the undead, it’s not at the level where it can accept wraiths wandering around. If that were the case, wouldn’t there be people dying from heart attacks every day?”

“Haha, that’s right.”

The village chief smiled slightly and nodded, probably imagining the situation in the city where Wraith was walking around calmly.

“Anyway, now I’m going to bring that body back to life. No, rather than reviving… … What to say, yes. Let’s say we fix it.”

“Are you going to fix it?”

“That’s right. Because the body died as the soul escaped. And, a body without a soul cannot be said to come alive in the first place. You don’t say zombies are alive, right?”

The village chief didn’t seem to understand, but since he had no choice but to watch what I was doing, he just nodded and crept closer to me.

He just looked at his lifeless, dry body with a mysterious expression.

“First of all, I will make the body strong so that it will not be damaged even if the soul enters again.”

After giving a brief explanation to the village chief, he began to adjust the village chief’s body.

First, the magic circle that extracted life force was operated in reverse, and the life force extracted from the body was breathed into the body again.

My body regained vitality, like a dried fish absorbing water and swelling. A voice of admiration could be heard from the village chief, perhaps due to the body changing in real time.

However, since it did not have much vitality from the time it was pulled out in the first place, it did not recover much immediately.

Of course, the plan was to make up for the lack of vitality by using the blood essence used to create the magic circle. No matter how undead he was, he couldn’t be asked to use a body that was difficult to control properly.

“Absorption… … Will it work?”

“That’s right. When using the magic circle, I used blood essence full of vitality, and in order to use it to strengthen my body, I made it absorb the magic circle itself.”

In reality, it was the soul that was undead, and the body was not undead. Of course, it was possible to keep its form intact only if vitality was continuously invested.

Now, the magic circle was a way to inject vitality. The magic circle itself was absorbed into the body and the blood essence was used to replenish vitality.

Anyway, the magic circle that had such a function was literally slowly absorbed into the village chief’s body, and then completely disappeared. The magic circle that had been filling the workbench suddenly disappeared.

“To make it easier to use the blood essence, a magic circle has been absorbed into the body. Later, when you need life force, all you have to do is put the blood essence in your mouth and swallow it.”

Since there is no guarantee that I will always be around, I have created a separate means to easily replenish my vitality.

The village chief also nodded slightly, as if it would have been better to simply replenish his vitality rather than asking me every time.

“And now that we have replenished our vitality, we need to make the body itself a little stronger. It makes the heart that has stopped beating again and strengthens the muscles and weakened bones due to aging.”

After confirming that the magic circle was completely settled inside the body, we immediately began modifying the body.

As my bones and muscles were not in good condition due to my age, I started solving problems from there.

By adding the skeleton’s bone powder filled with dark magic, the bones were made to the same level as those of the skeleton, and the body was transformed by replacing the already loosened muscles with those of an orc rather than reviving them.

Still, the appearance itself was made to be as similar as possible to the existing body, so when all the work, including making the heart beat again, was completed, it was not much different from before entering the studio. Except that it’s a little more lively.

“The basic body modification is completed with this. Later, if necessary, you can engrave additional magic circles that allow you to use black magic, or make your body stronger.”

“Me too… … Is it possible to use magic?”

“Because they are undead. It’s not an ordinary undead either, it’s a race. Although there are individual differences between races, it is possible to use magic. Moreover, even though the body is dead, it is still full of life force, so there is nothing more difficult.”

The village chief also seemed to have some sort of fantasy about magic, and seemed quite excited about being able to use magic.

But now, it was more important than magic to return to the body that had been remodeled.

“Then it’s time to slowly return to the body.”

“Is there anything I need to do?”

“Don’t refuse, just stay still.”

I stretched out my hand towards the village chief’s chest, which was made of translucent lace. As he reached out and grabbed the bead that was the core of the race and contained its soul, the village chief’s form collapsed and was sucked into the bead.

The village chief’s body disappeared in an instant, and all that was left was the bead held in my hand.

Feeling that the village chief’s soul was intact in the bead, he gently placed the bead on his physical chest.

And, the beads slowly seeped into my chest, as if they were being absorbed into my body.

At the same time, a change occurred in the village chief’s body, which was almost dead. He wriggled and then immediately jumped up. It was a movement full of strength that could not have been expected from an old man who was about to die.

It was the moment when the soul became undead, but the body was full of life, creating something that could be called the living dead, alive and dead at the same time.