Chapter 8 : Special Individual

Special Individual

Blood Absorption!

System: Obtained Blood Crystal*3.

Undead Revival!

System: Obtained common undead unit...

Blood Absorption and Undead Revival—two skills performed in quick succession. Immediately, three skeleton warriors joined Serea's party. However, after reviving these three undead, Serea felt her head ache, leaving her rather uncomfortable.

At this moment, the system jumped out with an explanation.

System: The host's mental endurance is about to reach its limit. Recklessly reviving more undead may result in loss of control.

"Uh... what? I can only command seven skeletons?"

System: Denied. With the host's current mental strength, you can command up to ten skeletons.

"Ten! That few? I thought I'd be able to control an undead army."

System: As the Darkness Sovereign, all undead will obey your command. However, the host's strength is currently limited and cannot control too many undead. Please focus on increasing your strength.

"Increase strength? Through sacrifice?"

System: Sacrificing dark power can increase your control over undead or awaken you as a hero unit of the Death Altar.

"Sacrificing dark power to grow stronger, huh? Looks like I need to gather more resources."

Serea stroked her chin as she spoke. Looking at the seven undead, she asked again,

"Is there any quick way I could control a few more undead for now? There are lots of corpses in the caravan waiting for me to revive them, you know."

System: Transfer control authority. A new elite unit has emerged under the host's command. This silver elite unit can control three undead.

"Do you have to make me ask before you give me this info? Since you want me to become stronger, be a little more proactive."

System: Opinion reserved, awaiting discussion.

"Fine, you're really something, aren't you!"

Serea was thoroughly speechless at this so-called servanti, and the other party seemed to detect her thoughts—for it actually fell silent.

With that, Serea couldn't be bothered to ask anymore and directly summoned the bone warrior.

"You... uh... do you have a name?"

Looking up at the tall bone warrior before her, Serea asked this question.

"As one of the dead, we need no name. We exist only to follow our queen's orders."

"But that makes it troublesome to address you all. Let me think... You'll be Little Black."

"As you command!"

After naming the bone warrior, Serea gave an order.

"So, Little Black, can you command your... companions in my stead?"

"If the queen trusts her subordinate, I will surely obey."

After saying that, the bone warrior let out a roar at the skeletons behind it. With that roar, Serea felt as if something was slipping from her control.

From her perspective, though, the sense of resistance was tiny; she could easily issue another command to wrest back control of the skeleton warriors from the bone warrior. But Serea did not do that.

She let the three skeleton warriors move to the bone warrior's side, and the swelling sensation in her head vanished.

System: Lost control of common undead units, Death crystal generation stopped.

"Uh... does transferring control stop death crystal production?"

System: Yes.

"Well... whatever, a few less won't make a difference. There are still many more with the caravan."

Serea didn't feel regretful, since soon she would be able to fill up her undead squad.

"Phew, much better. Alright, let's keep going... Uh... wait, what's up with you, little guy?"

Serea pointed at a completely naked skeleton, noticing that all the other skeleton warriors were armed with shields and swords—only he stood there totally bare.

Upon seeing her looking, the unarmed skeleton looked left and right, and then—with its meager intelligence—picked up a twig from the ground.

Watching this fierce-looking skeleton foolishly pick up a twig after shaking its head, Serea let out a helpless sigh.

"Where's your weapon?!"

Serea queried, but it only tilted its head, seemingly unable to understand.

"Tsk tsk, fine, let me find one for you."

With that, Serea began searching the ground for a weapon dropped by the mercenaries. Finding nothing, her gaze settled on a longbow.

The moment she saw the longbow, the skeleton holding the twig dropped it in excitement and let out a howl.

Clack, clack!

Its jaws clicked together with that sound, and Serea glanced at the longbow in her hand.

"You want this?"

Serea extended the longbow tentatively, and the skeleton immediately received it.

This piqued Serea's curiosity. There had been bows and arrows before, so why hadn't any of the other skeleton warriors picked them up?

With that question, Serea checked the skeleton's status.

Role: Skeleton Archer (Undead)

Level: 10

Status: Loyal

Spirit: D

Strength: C

Agility: A

Endurance: D

Constitution: C

Charisma: F

Luck: A

Skills: Power Shot, triple Shot (Tier 1), armor-Piercing Arrow (Tier 1)

Description: A special individual among skeleton warriors, able to use ranged weapons.

"A ranged soldier?"

Serea muttered as the skeleton archer slung the bow across its back, looking quite pleased.

"Fire a shot for me."

Serea issued the attack order. Upon hearing it, the skeleton archer's demeanor instantly shifted; it nocked the bow in its hand while pulling back the string with its right hand.

The skeleton struck a surprisingly standard pose, though Serea felt something was off.

"Where's the arrow?"

Serea asked. At her words, the skeleton archer released the bowstring and started searching around.

So, there was a skeleton hunched over in the grass, rummaging for something—a scene that was truly comical. Yet as its master, Serea could only be exasperated.

"Here, take these. Next time make sure you've loaded an arrow before shooting. Though, I doubt you actually understand me."

Serea tossed a quiver to the skeleton archer, containing twenty arrows.

Upon receiving it, the skeleton archer slung the quiver over its back right away.

"Feels like I'm not leading a squad, but babysitting."

Serea couldn't help but complain. Even as she did so, the skeleton archer pulled out an arrow from the quiver.

With a fluid, practiced motion, it drew the bow and nocked the arrow. Once it had aimed at a sapling twenty meters away, the skeleton archer released the string.

Whoosh!

The arrow shot out and embedded in the tree trunk. Seeing this, Serea finally nodded, albeit just a bit.

"Alright. Remember to pick up your arrows yourself. Let's move."

With that, the skeleton archer happily went off to retrieve its arrow.

Ignoring the skeleton archer, Serea led the group onward in the direction where the caravan had been ambushed.

Judging by the distance, it shouldn't be far now. Still, one doubt lingered in Serea's mind.

After all, the guards she'd brought with her upon marrying out were all soldiers from the army; dealing with these mercenaries should have been no problem at all.

Yet for some reason, all twenty accompanying soldiers had been wiped out, and even her high-ranking personal guard had been forced to help her escape.

Serea tried searching her memories for clues about the enemy, but all she recalled were the mercenaries chasing her. As for whoever took out those soldiers, Serea had no idea.

Still, to achieve such devastation, the enemy definitely wasn't just these mercenaries—there had to be more powerful foes. She'd have to stay alert.

(To be continued...)