Building the Strongest Undead Empire from Scratch

With two gargoyles leading the way, Alex followed behind and entered the castle, while Ice Cream and the bone dragons waited outside.

The interior of the werewolves' castle was quite different from those of the Lords from Earth. On wooden racks on either side of the rooms hung unknown black fur, and animal skulls were scattered in the corners. At the center of the castle stood something akin to a stone monument with four sides, each side having some rotting animal entrails placed beneath it.

The pungent, foul smell made Alex nauseous.

"It seems there's no danger left in this castle."

Alex instructed the gargoyles to start searching separately while she ascended the stone stairs to the upper floors.

She checked each room one by one; most contained a pile of straw covered with animal fur, likely the sleeping quarters of the werewolves. After searching, Alex found nothing of value.

Disappointed, Alex returned the way she came and proceeded to the third floor. As she entered, one room caught her attention. The doorway was adorned with two necklaces made from animal fangs and two fire pits supported by wooden sticks, flickering with red light.

Alex approached the door and kicked it open.

Just as she was about to step inside, a fierce claw strike came from the side. Fortunately, Alex reacted quickly, stepping back out of the room to dodge the attack.

She saw her assailant clearly: a werewolf wrapped in animal fur, noticeably thinner than typical werewolves, with more vigorous fur on its wolf head and a protruding chest.

"Female werewolf?"

This was Alex's first thought, having never seen a female werewolf before.

"Human, I will kill you!"

The werewolf's voice was shrill as it crouched on its forepaws, ready to charge at Alex.

Alex extended her arm, her two fingers hooking upward in a taunting gesture that seemed to say, "Come at me!"

But in that instant, she activated a spell. The two fire pits behind the werewolf burst into flames, and two fire dragons emerged, engulfing the werewolf in fire.

Only when Alex smelled the scent of roasted meat did she withdraw the flames, and the fire in the pits returned to normal.

The werewolf's charred body lay motionless on the ground. Alex stepped over it and entered the room.

This room was larger and differently arranged from the others, even having a rudimentary bed made of stone, topped with dirt, straw, and several layers of animal fur.

"This must be the werewolves' leader's room. Was that female the leader's mate?"

Alex searched the room but was disappointed to find nothing of value.

"This is too poor."

Alex left the room and continued her search upwards until she reached the top floor.

The top floor had only one room, with windows on all four walls letting in the cold wind, and a thin layer of snow already on the floor.

At the center, Alex found a human-height stone pillar with a red-glowing crystal embedded at the top.

"What is this?"

Alex approached the crystal, and a system prompt appeared. She tapped it with her hand.

[Discovered werewolves' castle crystal. Disassemble now?]

"Castle crystal?"

Realizing this was the core of the castle, Alex knew that disassembling it would likely cause the castle to vanish.

She returned to the ground floor, refusing to believe such a large castle had nothing of value.

The gargoyles had already brought out many boxes, and more were being moved out.

"Where did you find these?"

Alex asked a gargoyle, which pointed to a corner of the hall. Following its direction, she discovered stairs leading to a basement.

The basement was a large space with three passageways on the walls, all built of stone and covered with a thick layer of ice.

"They even have a basement reinforced with ice. Are these werewolves too clever?"

Alex didn't go further, assuming this was where the werewolves stored their supplies.

She returned to the first floor and began inspecting the boxes.

"Food."

"Magic crystals!"

"Food."

"Fur."

"Essence Shard!"

Most boxes contained food, stored in the basement for preservation, along with two boxes of magic crystals and one box of Essence Shards.

The boxes for magic crystals and Essence Shards were much smaller than those for food, and the Essence Shard box also contained other miscellaneous items, possibly considered valuable by the werewolves. Alex didn't inspect them closely.

"Take these boxes back to my castle."

"You, come with me!"

Alex ordered the gargoyles to transport the supplies back first and led one gargoyle back to the top floor.

Once again in front of the crystal, Alex commanded, "Disassemble!"

[Congratulations Lord, you have successfully disassembled the werewolves' castle crystal, obtaining 10k wood, 20k stone, 5k iron ingots.]

As Alex tapped 'Disassemble,'the castle suddenly vanished, transforming into piles of wood, stone, and iron ingots scattered on the ground.

The blizzard surged from all directions towards Alex, who quickly grabbed onto a gargoyle and flew into the air.

"Phew, I knew it."

Fortunately, Alex had anticipated this.

The gargoyle gently landed with Alex, who immediately ordered the undead to start collecting the scattered resources and materials, then began transporting them back to the castle.

However, since the materials were loose, transportation was a bit of a hassle. Alex had to wait for the gargoyles to bring back the boxes they had used to transport the other supplies. This would at least speed up the process.

[Blood Moon in the sky, darkness descends!]

"Is it night already?"

The severe weather on the snowy mountain made it impossible for Alex to discern the time of day; she only remembered it being very dark when she first entered the castle. Now, with the blizzard intensifying and the sky darkening further, she was completely disoriented.

Once Alex had nearly finished organizing the transportation of the materials, she planned to proceed with Ice Cream to the deeper parts of the snowy mountain.

From what Alex understood, the strongest entity in the entire Frostwind snowy mountain was the frost dragon, and with the angels and Holy Court knights gone, she was relatively safe for now.

"Ice Cream, let's go!"