Building the Strongest Undead Empire from Scratch - Chapter 5

Chapter 5: What a bountiful harvest
[Congrats on leveling up to lv3.]

“Man, leveling up feels awesome!” Alex exclaimed, already pumped for the next level up.

It was the XP from slaying skeletons in the wild that bumped Alex up a level. She’d been glued to the World Chat and missed the kill notifications.

Alex felt a bit stronger, not enough to KO a buffalo with one punch, but definitely could take out a rabbit.

[Lord: Alex]

[Power: lv3 Standard (Personal and troops’ kills can increase level)]

[Territory Level: lv2 Starter Castle]

[Troops: undead race]

[Equipment: Grim Reaper’s Scythe]

[Health Points: 100]

[Mana Points: 30]

[Strength: 6]

[Stamina: 5]

[Agility: 6]

Alex stared at her stats panel, kinda speechless.

“Why do my lv3 stats look almost the same as a lv1 Skeleton Soldier?”

It was nearing noon, but Alex didn’t feel hungry at all, and her Skeleton Soldiers had brought back all the corpses.

She noticed a few of her Skeleton Soldiers looked different—taller, and their aura felt stronger.

[Skeleton Warrior]

[Race: undead race]

[Loyalty: 100% (Never Betray)]

[Life Tier: Standard]

[Level: lv3 (Increases with kills)]

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

[Mana Points: 0]

[Strength: 15]

[Stamina: ∞]

[Agility: 10]

[Growth Limit: Commanding level]

“Did they just class up to lv3?”

Alex looked at the three Skeleton Warriors in front of her, standing about 7 feet tall. Their old bone shields and knives were gone, replaced by huge bone longswords. Their bones looked shinier, probably tougher.

Besides the three Skeleton Warriors, the remaining nine had all reached lv2.

Then Alex pulled out her Grim Reaper’s Scythe, ready to start a troop boosting plan.

Suddenly, she noticed the Grim Reaper’s Scythe’s info had changed too.

[Companion Weapon: Grim Reaper’s Scythe]

[Quality: Commanding level weapon (upgradable)]

[Active Skill: Undead Summoning Magic (Tier 2)]

[Passive Skill: Attacks include soul strike and withering effects, victims slain by the scythe will be converted into undead]

Undead Summoning Magic (Tier 2): Summon double the Skeleton Soldiers.

“Got a new passive skill, huh? So anything I slice up with this scythe turns into undead?”

“And the active skill, Undead Summoning Magic, leveled up to Tier 2.”

Alex decided to test it out on a nearby wild chicken corpse.

Using Undead Summoning Magic!

Mana Points: 27/30

Alright, still burns three Mana Points each time.

But Alex noticed that instead of one Skeleton Soldier crawling out from the chicken corpse, now there were two!

And these Skeleton Soldiers kept their original levels, though their levels were still locked.

Alex was stoked—this meant she could summon even more Skeleton Soldiers.

She spent some time casting Undead Summoning Magic on all the corpses.

Five lv1 wild boars, two lv2 wild boars, thirty lv1 wild chickens, ten lv2 wild chickens, eight lv1 wild rabbits, and two lv1 gazelles.

That was the morning’s haul for twelve skeletons.

In total, Alex summoned ninety lv1 Skeleton Soldiers and twenty-four lv2 Skeleton Soldiers.

But this Tier 2 Undead Summoning Magic was only good for doubling the number of Skeleton Soldiers. To double summon other types of undead creatures, she’d probably need to level up the skill.

Adding the originally summoned skeletons, Alex now had a whopping 126 skeletons—three lv3 Skeleton Warriors, thirty-three lv2 Skeleton Soldiers, and ninety lv1 Skeleton Soldiers.

And that was just half a day’s work—Alex could hardly believe it.

She then disassembled all the corpses.

[Wild boar corpse disassembled successfully, obtained 140 portions of wild boar meat, 14 wild boar tusks, 7 wild boar skins, 3 magic crystals.]

[Wild rabbit corpse disassembled successfully, obtained 80 portions of wild rabbit meat, 8 wild rabbit skins, 1 magic crystal]

[Wild chicken corpse disassembled successfully, obtained 200 portions of wild chicken meat, 18 magic crystals]

[Gazelle corpse disassembled successfully, obtained 20 portions of gazelle meat, 1 gazelle skin, 1 magic crystal]

“Jackpot! All this food can be traded for a ton of stone and wood.”

“Yo, grab that chicken over there for me, alive and clucking!”

Alex pointed at a bush not too far off, commanding her skeleton crew.

Three Skeleton Warriors, now with Agility at ten, not the measly five they started with, quickly nabbed the chicken.

One of them held the chicken by the neck and brought it to Alex.

“Cluck cluck!”

The chicken struggled, but Alex, with a swift swing of her Grim Reaper’s Scythe, chopped it right in half. The body hit the ground, and instantly a magic circle appeared, spawning a Skeleton Soldier, just like the ones summoned by magic.

But now, with Undead Summoning Magic at Tier 2, she could summon two at a time.

The cool part? Slicing them up with the scythe didn’t use any Mana Points. Talk about perks!

After disassembling the body, Alex sent all 126 of her skeletons out to hunt.

With the castle grounds getting crowded, they spread further out.

With over a hundred Skeleton Soldiers on the prowl, who knows how many bodies they’d drag back by dusk? Alex might have just found her gold mine.

Tired of standing at the castle gate, Alex headed back inside. The Warehouse now held 400 units of food.

Deciding she wasn’t hungry, Alex threw all 400 units up for trade in one go!

[Hamburger initiated a trade!]

[One unit of food for forty units of wood or twenty units of stone.]

[Remaining quantity: 400 units.]

Same old trade, same old rates. As soon as Hamburger’s trade hit the market, it sparked the usual buzz.

[Everyone, hustle! Big Hamburger’s dropped food on the market again!]

[Seriously, what kind of troops does this lord have? Bags 500 units of food in no time!]

[Can someone drop a guide? My troops are farmers, surrounded by desert, and they’ve stopped working they’re so hungry.]

[Same here, all grasslands around, no wood to chop, no stone to mine, I’m just grazing to stay full, feel like a bipedal rabbit over here.]