Chapter 40

Chapter 40

Drew really needed to come up with a catchy song for when he was busy raising the dead. Something other people could join in and make into a musical of some kind. Maybe something with seven dwarves, or a bunch of sailors. Why? Because after a while, it became really, really boring. After who knows how many hours, and who knows how many bodies, he was bored out of his skull. Pillars of purple light, bodies raising from death into a form of unlife, rinse and repeat. Sure, he had a flock of zombie crows the size of eagles now, sure he'd gotten a bunch of goblins as minions, but they each came with their own issues, and between the boredom, and the issues, he was discovering he was very tired, and more than a little cranky.

It turned out that the crows were extremely useful. In some ways. For one, they could fly vast distances, and had great eyesight to spot anything that moved. On the other hand, they had great eyesight and could spot everything that moved. So now, Drew was busy raising more bodies to join his security forces, only to be constantly...pinged, for a lack of a better word, by every blade of grass moving, for every twig falling from a tree, and every little mouse fart happening around the community. Thankfully, he was capable of multitasking, something that his intelligence stat points greatly improved. That said, his eyebrow was still twitching as he attempted to create a stricter set of commands for the birds, while raising the undead bodies.

Needless to say, he was being interrupted on a constant basis, while trying to both fix the problem, and continuing to add to his ranks of the undead. The other major negative side effect? Fun fact, if he raised bodies that were already beginning to rot, there was nothing he could do to change that. Even if he healed them with a screaming skull, they still had the awful aroma of putrid death, and boy did they fucking stink. The birds that died outside of the ice and flames weren't too bad, as he just sent them into the trees and circling the sky to act as scouts. No, it was the goblins. Apparently, bodies that laid out in the sun and sky for a full day ripened fairly quickly.

Plus, because they were goblins, and didn't have wings, the sickly-sweet scent they produced lingered at ground level. So, all it took was for a stiff breeze to roll through the open pastures and plains nearby, and it would kick up that awful aroma and send it straight onto his property. As a side note, the goblins he was raising weren't capable of becoming archers for his watchtowers either. Why? They were incredibly short, so not only did they have issues looking over the side railings of the towers, but they were too short, both in height and arm length, to properly use the bows he had. The bows that were made with humans in mind, and not creatures the size of elementary school kids.

Drew finally finished sending the updated, and very specific commands to his murder of crows. He ordered the goblins to collect and gather their old weapons they held in life. He didn't have good weapons for them, and he definitely wouldn't waste them on goblins if he did. Once the goblins had their weapons, he sent them to stand guard near the gates, both inside and out, as well as various spots around the outer fence. His thought process was, if something hit one side, the other nearby minions could quickly rush to reinforce the besieged defensive line. It wasn't perfect, and he needed far more archers than he currently had access to, but it was better than nothing. Worst case scenario... he might need to use some of the human bodies.

It felt wrong to him, but they didn't have many options for ranged security right now. Although, he'd probably wait until the families buried their loved ones, before he dug them up, cast corruption on them, and then gain some new archers. He'd need to keep it hush-hush though, as he could see many of the newcomers not seeing the... practical side of things.

Drew finished for the night, too worn out to continue raising minions. He'd finish in the morning, or until he hit a cap of some kind. He grabbed several buckets of water from a manual pump, brought them over to a nearby fire, and let them warm up, before collecting them and bringing them to his fenced in backyard. He unequipped his armor, and scrubbed down using the warm water and a bar of soap. He threw some shampoo in his hair, rinsed that off and headed to bed.

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Drew woke up feeling refreshed only four hours later. The increase in his stat points made sleeping much more efficient, and overall, he needed less sleep now. He laid in bed and reflected on the events in the last day. Thankfully, the community hadn't been attacked while he was passed out. People needed time to rest and mourn, and he didn't want to push his own group of friends and family too hard unless necessary. He got up out of bed, and made himself a cup of coffee using the propane stove he had in the backyard. It was still dark, but sunrise would be coming soon. He sat down on the porch couch and sipped his hot jitter liquid.

It was time, he finally had a free moment to himself. He had a total of four class skills and three profession skills he needed to choose. Two class skills came from the [Auspicious Necrolyte] title that he'd earned, and the remaining skills he'd gotten from his class and profession level-ups. He pulled up his flashing notification icon...

*DING!*

Profession: [Baleful Warden (Unique)] has reached level 17

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Profession: [Baleful Warden (Unique)] has reached level 24

Race: [Dhampir (Grade - F)] has reached level 20

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Race: [Dhampir (Grade - F)] has reached level 23

[Baleful Warden (Unique)] profession skill available

His profession and race leveled up? Why would they...oh. Duh. The profession gained experience from both doing his duties as a Baleful Warden, and probably anything that had to do with the aspect of death. So, he probably had gotten a bunch of levels from raising all the bodies as minions. The race jumped up in levels because the profession did. Okay, good. His brain was caught up now. Drew pulled the giant bone sword from his inventory and looked at it. His profession truly was strange. Sindra was right though, it was a job that needed doing, and it would help souls pass on, and keep his people safe from the feral undead.

But the main issue, it added a ton of responsibility to his plate, responsibilities he didn't have time for. How was he supposed to deal with all the souls of the dead on the entire planet? He was just a tiny little speck of a person, in the southern portion of Oklahoma. There was no way he could get all around the world like Santa Claus every damn day to mop up the souls of the dying. It was physically impossible. He racked his brain around the issue. Sindra had said that he would later have other wardens under his authority, but that didn't help the present Drew. Screw it, he'd think about it later.

Oh yeah, he never did inspect the bone sword...

[Baleful Greatsword (Unique)]
Created by taking wood grown from the Tree of Life and Death, and then treated and processed by over ten thousand master smiths. This is a growth-type item. As your grow in strength, it will as well. At Grade F, this weapon grants: +20 STR, +20 VIT, +20 END, +10 TGH, +10 AGI, +5 INT, and +5 WIS.

It had less stats than the armor did, but the armor was a set, so it kind of made sense that it gave him far more. Still, he'd take any boost he could get. He really needed to track down his wife, so he could give her the new bow. He added that to his list of things to do. Alright, time for skill selection. He started with the class skills. As always, the list was huge. But he knew two skills he needed immediately that he'd looked at previously.

[Dodge (Grade - Common)]
This is a passive skill that allows you to predict an opponent’s movements, and use your own movements to avoid being hit.

[Greatsword Proficiency (Grade - Uncommon)]
This is a passive skill that instills many years’ worth of practice, and experience in the handling and swordsmanship of the weapon. At this level, many would consider you to be an expert in the blade. This skill does not translate to other weapon types.

Were they a bit vanilla? Sure. But they were needed. Badly. His armor should protect him for the most part, and even though it was very powerful, he wasn't going to risk getting hit if he could avoid it. The nice surprise was the proficiency was a higher grade. When he investigated it, it looked like general weapon skills were graded lower, like bladed weapons, or blunt weapons. Specific weapon skills were a bit higher, and finally extremely specific weapon proficiencies were a higher grade still. So, his new greatsword skill, wouldn't work with another sword type, and definitely wouldn't work with a dagger of any kind. It was a bit of a trade-off, but he already had a really badass weapon, so he might as well have a good skill for it.

He skipped over the bone armor skill he'd looked at previously, as it seemed redundant now that he had access to proper plate armor. Like the last time he looked through the list, several skills were highlighted to him, and were typically of a higher grade than the others that were available. Either his actions, or maybe even his Records were the reason for this, but he was thankful to have some good options this time. He was going to rectify the issue with his minions’ durability first, as he found a skill that spoke to him.

[Woven Bone (Grade - Rare)]
This is a passive skill that affects all undead and unliving minions who rely on bones to form their bodies. Greatly increases the toughness of bone-based minions, which allows for a much higher durability. Also grants a slight boost in intelligence and wisdom and a minor boost to natural regeneration.

Yeah, he needed that badly, and it was graded as rare, so he immediately chose it. Minions dying were a major issue right now, especially the archers. Not to mention he had Soulflames to worry about now, and this would help keep them undead much longer. The slight boosts to intelligence and wisdom were nice, but not something he cared about greatly, but the boost to natural regeneration would help with his maintenance costs. Having to spend a bunch of time and mana using death toll to heal his minions after combat, was not something he wanted to worry about. Now...the next skill. He looked through the highlighted options and found one.

[Agony (Grade - Uncommon)]
A spell that damages enemies over time. Damage starts low, but becomes higher the longer it remains active. It has a short cast time, moderate mana point cost, but minimal visual effects. This spell inflicts great physical and mental pain upon an enemy as its damage increases.

He already had corruption, and it worked great. Especially for groups of enemies. So far, the community had only faced large waves and hordes of critters, but something Sindra had said stuck with him. The planet was mostly full of beings in F Grade and E Grade, but there may be some C's laying around somewhere. He didn't like his chances, nor the chances of his friends and family, of surviving against something that powerful. He needed another ability that ramped up damage as time passed, as it was highly likely that such creatures would have a ton of health. Right now, only corruption and death toll would be of any use to him in taking down something that powerful. He had his sword and armor, but it didn't hurt to prepare for the worst.

With his class skills finished, he switched over to the profession-oriented ones. The list was far different than the class skills. This new grouping was far more... specialized. Many of them related to his powers to collect and store souls. Some would allow him to craft items using the souls of the dead, others used the souls as fuel to empower his other abilities. Weapon proficiency skills didn't exist in this list, in fact there was nothing that he recognized available from his class skill selection.

He spent a long time going through each skill and spell, reading each description, as he didn't want to miss anything. The number of skills were plentiful, but not unlimited. Still it took a while before he felt comfortable with his options. He sorted through them until he had selected three that he felt comfortable with.

[Baleful Lighthouse (Unique)]
Summons a Baleful lighthouse from the realm of The Baleful Lady. This building will naturally guide lost and damned souls to its location, where the souls are them collected and stored for later use. Many Wardens utilize this skill when building a new settlement, as it lowers their workload as they push forward in other endeavors.

[Soulsmith Workshop (Unique)]
Summons a production quality blacksmith's facility from the realm of The Baleful Lady. This workshop is capable of turning damned souls and other materials into basic tools, weapons, ammunition and construction materials. Reach out to your superior within the Cadre to recruit a Soulsmith capable of running the workshop.

[Dreadful Soulflame Aura (Unique - Legendary]
A legendary active ability offered only to Baleful Wardens who have a great affinity toward the aspect of death. This is a unique aura-type ability that contains two parts. When activated, the first portion imitates the chill of death, freezing enemies and your surrounding environment, while also infecting them with an unyielding dread. You may then choose to activate the second portion, which combusts all nearby enemy souls weaker than your own, whether they are living, or dead. Your Records have indicated that you've created and used this ability without assistance from The System, and as such, it is being offered to you now due to your accomplishment.

Just as he locked in his final selections, The Lady reached out to him.

"My Champion, I recommend caution when utilizing the second part of the aura ability that you've chosen." The Lady said to his mind.

"Holy crap, I just picked the damn thing out. How'd you even know what I chose?"

"Primordial goddess of death and all that. Plus, I'm keeping my eye on you for the moment."

"I know you're not bored. You probably have a line out the door for all those souls."

"I'm capable of multitasking in case you weren't aware. You're very brazen for a mortal."

"I think I just lack the capacity to care about tact. Anyways, what were you saying about the aura ability?"

"Don't use the second portion unless you're in dire need. Your soul is still rather weak at F Grade, if you use it too often, your soul may fracture."

"That...doesn't sound good."

"It's not good. It would be very bad if that happened. Not just for myself, but also for you. Thus, I recommend extreme caution when choosing to use the soul combustion portion of the ability. You should be fine to use it once you hit C Grade, but you've already used it once...albeit unintentionally during your current Grade."

"I see. Alright then. Bit of a waste since I just grabbed it... Oh, hey I need a Soulsmith, do you know anyone who would be interested in the position? My new skill description recommended that I ask."

"Hmmm, I'm sure we have some apprentices who wouldn't mind going to a newly integrated world. I'll ask around, and get back to you shortly."

"Thanks!"

Well, that was a rotten kick in the balls. At least he finally knew what had happened on the battlefield, but it left a sour taste in his mouth that he'd purchased a skill that he could only use half of, at least for the time being. Oh well, at least the lighthouse would help solve the issue of not having additional Wardens nearby, and the Soulsmith workshop could help with the lack of armor and weapons... and arrows. Fuck, he needed so many more arrows.

He still had one more profession skill that he needed to choose, but he put that on the backburner for the moment. He'd get around to it soon.

Drew got up and polished off his coffee. It was time to go find his lovely wife and finally give her the bow Hades had made for her. Then summon the lighthouse, and the workshop, and work on more minions. Oh, and he needed to have a meeting with his friends and family and see what the hell they were all up to.

So much to do, and so little time. Some things never changed.