Building the Strongest Undead Empire from Scratch - Chapter 2

Chapter 2: The undead don’t feel fatigue or hunger, so their Stamina is infinite
[Countdown: 3, 2, 1, 0]

As the countdown hit zero, Alex felt a wave of weightlessness, her body yanked backwards by an invisible force. She tilted back involuntarily, losing all sense of support. The scene before her blurred, and she instinctively closed her eyes.

[Initiating Lord status check.]

[Tired bones reignite the soul’s fire, and thousands of subjects will bow at your feet.]

A voice echoed in her mind, but the expected fall never came. Alex’s feet landed firmly, and she opened her eyes.

Alex found herself in a dilapidated castle that looked extremely old. The collapsed stone walls were covered with cracks and the marks of time, with moss tenaciously growing in the crevices. Tattered tapestries hung on the walls, their colors faded, but the patterns of the past were still faintly visible.

The sky around was a dull gray, with almost no trace of sunlight. Heavy clouds hung low, as if pressing down upon the ground. A few dead trees were scattered outside the castle, and occasionally, the wind would blow through, making their branches creak as if they were singing an ancient lament. The ground was covered with a thin layer of dust, indicating that no one had set foot here for a long time.

The overall atmosphere felt incredibly oppressive.

“Is this the real game world? Then what was all that before?”

Alex looked down at herself, black leather shoes and white socks, sexy straight legs, still in that sailor dress.

Phew, Alex breathed a sigh of relief.

“Thank goodness I didn’t turn into a monster, that’s a lucky break in an unlucky situation!”

[Welcome back to your domain, esteemed Lord!]

[Congratulations Lord, you have obtained the Companion Weapon: Grim Reaper’s Scythe]

[As you possess the most noble bloodline of the undead, your troops will be summoned as the undead race, with uniqueness.]

“Ah, what?”

Before Alex could react, a red bracelet with two small bells appeared on her right arm.

Alex touched it, and the bracelet detached from her arm, transforming into a massive scythe.

The scythe was about 6 feet long, taller than Alex, with a blade about 32 inches long, half the length near the handle. It was red and black overall, with a huge blade that curved and emitted a chilling light.

At the top and bottom of the handle were two skulls, the larger one at the top with blue flames in its eyes. The handle was wrapped in white cloth, and two bells and two white ribbons were tied where the blade met the handle.

“Whoa, this is too cool, talk about maxing out the special effects!”

Alex held the scythe in her hand, and details about it popped up in her mind.

[Companion Weapon: Grim Reaper’s Scythe]

[Quality: Commanding level weapon (upgradable)]

[Active Skill: Undead Summoning Magic (Tier 1)]

[Passive Skills: Attacks include soul strike and withering effects, base values doubled]

No wonder Alex felt a surge of strength holding the scythe, but how strong can a girl weighing just 95 pounds be? Even doubled, Alex still felt pretty weak.

With a thought, the Grim Reaper’s Scythe transformed back into a bracelet on Alex’s right arm.

[From now on, your castle will receive a seven-day newbie protection period.]

[During the protection period, the castle is in an invincible state.]

[After the seven days, all Lords will face the first wave of beasts.]

[If the core crystal of the castle is destroyed, you and your castle will cease to exist.]

[Be warned, this is not a traditional game, this is reality, and if you fail, you will truly die!]

Suddenly, Alex noticed a huge protective shield appearing around the castle.

This wasn’t just any game; a real defeat meant really kicking the bucket.

Feeling the urgency, Alex took a tour around the castle. It had various rooms but was completely unfurnished. Basically, the castle was just a shell, totally empty, no kitchen, no bedroom.

Are they expecting me to sleep on the floor?

Alex stepped into the small courtyard outside the castle and found a green crystal. Approaching it, a virtual button appeared.

Alex pressed the button.

[Undead Crystal: lv1 (Unique Barracks)]

[Barracks can randomly summon skeletons, zombies, specters, death knights, liches, bone dragons, ghost dragons, zombie titans, and other undead troops.]

[Level 1 Barracks can summon: skeletons, zombies, specters (random ten units) with a 1% chance of summoning higher-level troops.]

[Upgrading Barracks requires: 100 magic crystals, 1 Essence Shard]

“Am I really stuck hanging out with these brainless things forever, oh man!”

Alex was on the verge of tears. This place was creepy enough, and now she’s got a bunch of undead for company.

[Undead Crystal fully charged, would you like to recruit now?]

Two buttons popped up, and Alex, without hesitation, pressed the one on top,

[Yes]

The Undead Crystal emitted a burst of green light, condensing into ten skeletal figures.

The empty skeletons, ten skulls tilting with a creaking noise, then saw Alex and knelt down to show their allegiance.

“Why do they look kinda dumb?”

“1% chance and I still can’t get any other troops?”

Alex couldn’t believe her bad luck, considering how back in the day, she was the lucky star who could succeed on a 0.1% chance when enhancing equipment.

Looking at the ten Skeleton Soldiers in front of her, each armed with a round bone shield and a bone sword as long as an arm.

“Hey, can you guys talk?” Alex asked, puzzled.

The ten skeletons, upon hearing Alex’s words, lifted their empty skeletal heads, their tiny skulls filled with great confusion.

“Alright, I expected too much.”

Alex sighed, her expression saying ‘I should have known.’

“Hey, I can check their stats!”

Then Alex tapped in the air.

A display popped up showing the basic information of the ten skeletons.

[Skeleton Soldier]

[Race: undead race]

[Loyalty: 100% (Never Betray)]

[Life Tier: Standard]

[Level: lv1 (can be increased by killing enemies)]

[Health Points: Undead trait, immortal as long as the soul fire burns]

[Mana Points: 0]

[Strength: 6]

[Stamina: ∞]

[Agility: 5]

[Growth Limit: Commanding level]

[Note: Troop levels include Standard, Commanding, Monarch, King, Emperor, Sovereign, Divine]

[Undead Crystal recharging (recharges fully every midnight)]

“Ah, I get it now, the undead don’t feel fatigue or hunger, so their Stamina is infinite.”

Life Tier is the growth limit of the troops.

As for the level classification, the note made it pretty clear.

An ordinary skeleton can only grow up to Commanding level.

A normal adult male’s Strength and Agility are around 3 or 4 points, maxing out at 5.

So, a level one skeleton soldier isn’t too bad, especially with the undead trait.

Alex thought to herself. “Okay, I’m pretty good at comforting myself.”

Alex decided to ignore the dopey skeletons for now, since there were system prompts to explore, she figured she’d better get a handle on the other facilities and features first.

She headed inside the castle to check out the internal info.

[Castle Level: lv1]

[Health Points: 3k (Invincible mode)]

[Territory Area: 0.5 square miles]

[Feature: Within the territory, the Lord has the power to see everything, as well as to Disassemble and recycle at the Warehouse.]

[Special Buildings: None]

[Upgrade Requirements: 1k wood, 500 stone]

“Upgrading the castle needs wood and stone, upgrading Barracks needs magic crystals and Essence Shards. Wood and stone are easy enough, but what the heck are these magic crystals and Essence Shards?”

Alex pondered, then suddenly a more pressing issue popped into her mind.

“Looks like there’s no food in this castle, and what if the outside is just slimes and goblins?”

“Ew, I’m not eating that stuff!”

“Hey, you numbskulls, don’t just stand there, go out and hunt!”

Alex shouted to the skeletons outside the castle.

The ten skeletons looked at each other, clearly not getting what Alex was ordering them to do.

“It means go outside the castle and fight, duh~”

This time the skeletons got it, and with their 5 Agility, they started moving towards the outside of the castle.

After getting the hang of the castle and crystal features, Alex was ready to dive into the other features. Inside the castle, there was a central system that could pull up all the features, making it unnecessary to run outside every time she wanted to summon troops.

The system was divided into five modules: [Castle], [Barracks Crystal], [World Chat], [All-Races Fair Trade], and [My Profile].

All-Races Fair Trade was pretty self-explanatory—it was a trading platform.

Alex clicked to check it out. Although all humans from Earth had arrived on the continent of Eldoria, the platform was currently as empty as a ghost town, nothing for sale.

Next, Alex tapped on [My Profile], which was split into [Personal Information] and [Warehouse].

She opened her personal info:

[Lord: Alex]

[Power Level: lv1 Standard (can be increased by killing enemies with personal and troops)]

[Territory Level: lv1 Initial Castle]

[Troops: undead race]

[Equipment: Grim Reaper’s Scythe]

[Health Points: 100]

[Magic Points: 20]

[Strength: 2]

[Stamina: 1]

[Agility: 2]

“I’m this weak? No way!” Alex was in disbelief.

She then clicked on [Warehouse]:

[Wood: 0]

[Stone: 0]

[Magic Crystal: 0]

[Essence Shard: 0]

“Great, starting from scratch here,” Alex muttered, realizing she had her work cut out for her if she was going to survive and thrive in Eldoria.