Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night - Chapter 242

Chapter 242: A New Heirarchy
Zane stood in disbelief at what he was witnessing. Kneeling before him was the Tier I Horde King who he had just killed. She was perfectly intact, without the slightest sign of injury, just as she had been prior to their little duel.

Gwen held her head low. She would not move until Zane issued her to do so. It was a strange phenomenon. Even if she wanted to make a move, she could not. She was completely and totally subjugated by Zane’s will.

Meanwhile, Zane himself stared at the stats of his latest acquisition in complete and total disbelief.

—

[Undead Servant]

[Gwen]

[Rank: Horde King Tier I]

[Level: 49]

[HP: 3,500]

[Attributes]

[Strength: 35]

[Dexterity: 40]

[Constitution: 35]

[Intelligence: 35]

[Wisdom: 35]

[Charisma: 35]

—

Zane stared at these astronomical figures in complete and total disbelief. They were well above what he and the girls were capable of dealing with, even if they combined all their efforts together. Hell, he could mobilize the entire force of Gravestone’s militia, and they would likely be no more than flies when dealing with Gwen.

She was quite literally one step away from becoming Tier II. And it would appear that Horde Kings had certain physical and mental advantages over awakened humans. Because mathematically speaking, the attribute points Zane would need to match Gwen one on one, would require him to be far higher than level 49.

And he had a +5 advantage to all base stats thanks to him being a Horde King himself. When Zane fully realized what this meant, he stared at Gwen with disbelief before asking her a simply question, one in which she was compelled to answer honestly by being in his service.

“You…. You let me win?”

Gwen had a humble smile on her pretty face when she heard this, averting her gaze from Zane in an embarrassed state as she admitted the truth with a bashful tone in her voice.

“Of course! It was mother’s will! Besides, I wanted to see what would happen myself. I had a sneaking suspicion you were gaining new abilities by feasting on our blood crystals. And that since you appear to have been a human who became one of us without suffering death first. It meant that mother was grooming you for leadership.

By my estimations, your next skill should be something that none of us have. And I was right. You possess a talent that only Mother has or had until this very moment. You can raise us from death… The downside is I am now bound entirely to your will.

I suppose this was mother’s way of uniting our siblings under her favorite child. There is no way big sister Lilith would accept being anyone’s servant unless she was broken through sheer force of strength.

And if you want to talk about that creep, Damian, he would rather die than bend the knee. All that’s left really is for you to defeat Bartholomew, and claim this entire region for yourself. But that won’t be easy.

Not long ago, he underwent a major shift in power. At first he was a Tier II Horde King, which even with my help you would have not been able to defeat in your current state. But… He got his hands on something special, and is now a Tier III Horde King. You will need more than just me and that tiny horde of yours to take the likes of him down.

You need to grow, big brother, gain more power, hunt down more Horde Kings and bend them to your will. Speaking of which, you should be able to raise the others that you killed. Although you might have to retrace your steps a bit…. I would suggest starting with that.

Your horde will soon become unmanageable, at least not in the current way you have been using it. It will grow in size and power. Will need myself and my siblings to act as your officers in the field.

By the way, what level have you gotten your servants up to so far?”

Gwen had given Zane a lot of information, but with his superior intellect and wisdom, it took him no more than a moment to process it all. He quickly explained the current situation of his horde to Gwen, almost as if they had been friends for a very long time.

Currently, I have upgraded all of my horde from Tier III Ghouls to Tier IV. It depends on their use, but for infantry and archers I use revenants, for spellcasters I use liches. Although, I’m wondering, what exactly happens when I evolve them into Tier V undead? What are my options?”

Gwen was stunned by this information. Generally speaking, Horde Kings would use the most bottom ranking undead within a tier as their servants. The reason for this was simple. The more powerful the undead servant they added to their ranks, the more it cost to create them.

This was why, Howlers, abominations, stalkers, and juggernauts were preferred. Quantity over quality, so to speak. For Zane to make his Horde a mixture of revenants, and liches. It was an unfathomable amount of resources he would need, at least from her perspective as a Horde King who lacked the awakened system to foster such an army.

The benefits of this was of course, increased versatility, and attributes among Zane’s horde. A revenant was capable of wielding weapons, wearing armor, and functioning in formation like Zane intended.

Whereas a Stalker was less useful in this regard due to their strength being in scouting. Zane had a few of such undead among his ranks, but they were used exclusively for that purpose. When Gwen heard this, she remained silent for some time. Before finally wearing a wide grin on her face and nodding her head thrice.

Only after doing this did she finally answer the man’s question.

“Your horde may very well rival Balthasar’s one day… To put it simply at Tier V you gain a wide variety of options to evolve your servants into. Spectral undead are heavily favored, but require a lot of resources to make.

The upside is, humanity has a very hard time dealing with them. However, you still have other options. You appear to like having more corporeal forces which can be better utilized with your tactics.

With that in mind, I think you might favor the likes of vampires as your foot soldiers. Arch liches will replace your liches as spellcasters, and you can replace your current stalkers with spectral undead such as the likes of Ghosts, Banshees, Wraiths, et cetera to act as your scouts, spies, assassins, well you get where I’m going with this, right?

Now, for your army, juggernauts have little use other than to act as shock troops. Which is what lesser Horde kings like to invest in, due to the fact that they can only have so many Tier V undead with their limited resources.

I can only imagine what you will be capable of achieving with 10,000 Tier V Undead beneath your command. They could be entirely encircled by a horde ten times their size, at least one belonging to a max level Tier I Horde King, or a Low Level Tier II Horde King, and you would most likely emerge victorious.

With me as your current commander, and our siblings who you have already defeated, and have yet to resurrect, as your officers. This army of yours would be undefeatable. At least so far as any Tier I Horde King is concerned. Tier II Horde Kings, they would be another story entirely.

I think right now, you should focus on increasing your Horde Size, and quality… The only problem is, there are only so many ways which we can expand without coming into contact with a Tier II or Tier III Horde Kings….”

Once more, Gwen had given Zane a lot of information to process. But she was right. Right now he should focus on gaining levels, investing in Charisma, resurrecting the Tier I Horde Kings he had already defeated, however that was possible.

All the while focusing on improving the quality of his Horde, and their equipment, as well as helping the girls level up so that they could improve their new skills to the maximum level. Once they had done that… Maybe then they could think about how to deal with Bartholomew.

As for the other Horde Kings, they would be having another convention among themselves soon enough. Gwen’s death was shocking. But her death did not last for long. As shortly thereafter, they received a signal in their minds that she had been resurrected.

A feat once believed to belong to only their mother. This shocking information would prompt a new investigation into the matter, as well as a debate as to who was responsible for Gwen’s resurrection.

Gwen herself would not be privy to such a conversation. Now that she was bound to Zane’s will, she no longer shared the mental connection with anyone other than him. But Zane would finally be able to listen to the Horde Kings and their emergency meetings. Albeit silently so.