Building the Strongest Undead Empire from Scratch

Alex was somewhat surprised at first, immediately thinking of undead.

But then she thought, if it's undead, what's there to fear?

Soon, Alex realized something was off—it was just a long-dead person, decayed down to a skeleton.

Realizing this, Alex, holding a fireball for light, walked in. Her shoes left thick footprints on the floor, indicating that no living creature had entered this place for many years.

Still feeling a bit uneasy, Alex first approached the skeleton to check it thoroughly, making sure there was nothing wrong with it.

"Anything interesting?" Alex found a letter in the skeleton's embrace, tucked inside the armor. She felt no fear, reaching directly to retrieve the letter.

She opened it, and the paper was very yellowed, showing its age, with some of the writing faded due to the passage of time.

Holding the fireball in one hand for light and the letter in the other, Alex began to read.

"To His Majesty, the Emperor of Starfallen, your most loyal servant has now been at the Frostwind snowy mountain for twelve years, and I have yet to find the item, disappointing you. ...

I have encountered werewolves from the Skyreach Mountains, goblins from the Hobgoblin kingdom, and even the Demon race.

My encounter with the Demon race attracted a frost dragon, and I was severely injured by it. My life is not long for this world, and I have led the surviving soldiers to hide in a frost cave within the Frostwind snowy mountain.

One day, the arrival of knights from the Holy Court gave me hope, and I immediately sent all my soldiers to find the Holy Court knights.

Unexpectedly, there were spies from the Demon race within the Holy Court, and our entire army was wiped out, with only one soldier who accidentally fell off a cliff surviving. He barely managed to bring me this news.

I am writing this letter in the hope of sending this message back to the empire, but the entire snowy mountain's Demon race is searching for me, and my chances of returning alive are slim."

Alex guessed the rest—the letter was never sent, and the person died here, turning into a skeleton.

From the letter, it was clear that the Starfallen Empire was definitely a human force. Looking at the skeleton's attire, his identity must have been something like a general of the empire.

But what did that have to do with Alex? Besides, as a Lord who was an extraterrestrial visitor, the more severe the internal conflicts among these native forces, the better for them.

Thinking this, Alex decided to keep the letter, just in case she had a chance to contact this empire in the future and could stir up trouble among the Starfallen Empire, the Holy Court, the Demon race, and the Angel race.

"Man, you've been dead for so many years, let me make use of what's left of you. I'll take your legacy without hesitation."

Alex stripped the armor off the skeleton, clearly recognizing it as valuable. She also found a ring on the skeleton's finger and eagerly began to check the properties of the equipment.

[Armor Set Name: Fearless Set (Damaged)]

[Equipment Level: Commanding level]

[Set Effects: Increases defense to Commanding level, reduces all damage except physical by 10%, adds ten points to all attributes.]

[Note: Irreparable]

The equipment properties dashboard was full of red downward arrows, even next to the equipment level, indicating that this damaged set was originally Monarch level equipment, but unfortunately, it was beyond repair. It was somewhat useless now, but still stronger than a typical Commanding level set.

Alex then looked at the ring, its simple, unadorned design and as wide as her thumb, clearly a men's model.

[Equipment Name: Ring of Space (Unbound)]

[Equipment Level: Monarch level]

[Equipment Effect: Contains an internal space of 3000 cubic feet for storing items, cannot contain living beings. Once bound, if the holder dies, the ring's self-destruct mechanism will activate, destroying everything inside.]

This was clearly a storage ring. Just by seeing the name, Alex understood its function and was delighted. There must be the general's legacy inside this ring.

But seeing the latter part of the equipment description, she felt a bit dismayed—it could self-destruct, which was frustrating.

Missing out on a fortune, Alex felt a pang of regret. However, acquiring a Monarch level ring was still a cause for celebration.

Alex clicked the bind option on the equipment dashboard, and the ring instantly resized from large and thick to small and thin, transforming into a white women's ring.

She slipped it onto her right index finger, a perfect fit. No legacy, no problem—at least with this ring, things would be much more convenient.

Alex directly stored the six pieces of equipment from the Frost Werewolf and the human general into the ring, along with the letter. After finishing this, Alex checked the rest of the room, finding nothing else.

After all, with a space ring, why would any valuables be left out? Everything had turned to dust with the general's death.

She left the room and continued exploring. She hadn't found the Frost Werewolf's lair yet.

After another fifteen minutes and checking several rooms, collecting some magic crystals and a few Essence Shards, she found no other significant items.

Alex had now reached the edge of the fortress, the stone floor beginning to be covered with ice.

The environment was changing, and she saw a huge cave, about 16 feet high, definitely the Frost Werewolf's cave—normal Flame Demon Wolves and Frost Sprites were only about 6.5 feet tall, so they couldn't have such a large cave.

There was even an opening above the cave, leading outside to the snowy mountain, which also served as lighting during the day.

"The interior of the cave is indeed interconnected," Alex realized, as this cave was right next to the other fork she had entered earlier. She had circled back here after all her wandering.

Entering the cave, Alex found it cluttered with various items, magic crystals carelessly thrown in corners, and rotting flesh and bones everywhere.

Alex didn't see the Frost Werewolf as an intelligent being, just a beast with no intelligence, only fighting instincts.

However, it might have been influenced by something, as she had never seen a creature above Commanding level without intelligence.