Building the Strongest Undead Empire from Scratch

Alex almost forgot; she hadn't checked the properties of the Commanding level necromancer yet. She was curious about what skills it had compared to a Standard one.

[necromancer]

[Race: undead race]

[Loyalty: 100% (Never Betray)]

[Life Tier: Commanding level]

[Level: lv6 (non-upgradable)]

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

[Mana Points: 200]

[Strength: 65]

[Stamina: ∞]

[Agility: 60]

[Growth Limit: King level]

[Skills: ghost form, undead summoning, bone manipulation]

Bone manipulation—a spell that controls the bones in a corpse for combat—was a decent addition, enhancing its combat capabilities.

Moreover, the Commanding level Undead Summoning Magic was an upgrade, even more advanced than Alex's own Undead Summoning Magic. Originally, Alex could only summon the three basic troops, but the Commanding level necromancer could summon five types, including death knights and gargoyles.

At the moment, the three Lords' troops were in a standoff, not attacking each other without their Lords' commands.

The vampires and undead were unharmed, but of the eight snow maidens Samson had brought, only six remained. One had been killed by John earlier, and another likely succumbed to its weakness against Flame Demon Wolves.

The undead and snow maidens, seeing Alex and Samson clad in frost armor emerging from the cave, were gearing up for battle.

The vampires, seeing their Lord hadn't appeared yet, hesitantly stepped back. Being intelligent creatures, they could discern the situation and make their own decisions without their Lord's command.

Alex glanced at the bodies on the ground; the dead Flame Demon Wolves had turned to char. Only the Frost Sprites' bodies were relatively intact. There were twenty in total, with each faction having made some kills.

The snow maidens had the fewest, while the necromancer had the most, having killed nearly half the enemies by itself.

"Respected Queen, Frost Sprites have no souls and cannot be summoned," the necromancer respectfully informed Alex.

Alex was taken aback; the last time she encountered a soulless creature was the Commanding level evil tree spirit in the swamp. What was with these creatures, either going mad or losing their souls? There was definitely a problem here.

Out of the twenty bodies, twelve were Frost Sprites, and of the six Commanding level creatures, four were Frost Sprites, yet they couldn't be summoned. The necromancer had already summoned the other bodies before Alex emerged, resulting in sixteen undead, including two at the Commanding level.

Alex disassembled a Frost Sprite body, finding only an Essence Shard and a piece of equipment, then nothing else. The equipment was a wolf claw, a lower-tier version of the frost set claw.

However, Alex wasn't entirely selfish; she only disassembled the twelve bodies her troops had killed. She obtained 12 Essence Shards, 30 magic crystals, and 4 Commanding level pieces of equipment.

By the time Alex and Samson had dealt with the bodies and were ready to leave, Lucian still hadn't appeared. Alex guessed he might have been too injured earlier and was hiding in the cave to recover, particularly from her.

Alex suspected he wouldn't come out until she had left. Holding the iron ingots frozen into a sphere, she climbed onto Arthur's back.

John also mounted other bone dragon, which even carried the newly summoned non-flying undead, turning the bone dragon into a sort of transport vehicle.

The necromancer's body began to turn transparent, activating its ghost form skill. "I'm heading out first. You should pray that you don't run into me again," Alex called out to Samson below as she rode Arthur.

With a flap of his wings, Arthur dispersed the surrounding snow and soared into the sky, and the necromancer's figure vanished in an instant.

Watching Alex shrink to a speck in the sky, Samson breathed a sigh of relief. If they met again, he feared this formidable young woman might actually kill him.

Lucian finally emerged from the cave, directing his vampires to transport supplies and disassemble bodies.

Seeing nothing left to explore, Samson and his snow maidens dissolved into the snow and departed. Lucian glanced over but didn't bother with them.

Flying, Alex stored the supplies in her ring and headed back to her castle. Over an hour later, she successfully returned and dumped all the materials from the ring into her Warehouse.

[System Notification: Lord has acquired Intermediate Frost Magic. Would you like to spend 1k magic crystals to learn it immediately?]

The price had gone up, but it was a minor issue for Alex. "Learn," she commanded.

The magic book vanished, and Alex's mind filled with various techniques for using frost magic.

Intermediate magic was different from basic levels; lower-tier magic only allowed fixed spells, but reaching intermediate level enabled personal spell development, a completely different class.

Now, the most important thing was the 2k iron ingots. Compared to other resources, iron ingots were what Alex currently lacked the most. Although 2,000 iron ingots weren't enough to upgrade her castle, they were just right to build twenty defense towers.

Luckily, Alex had demanded an extra thousand iron ingots from Samson; otherwise, she could only have built half the towers.

[Building Materials: 1k wood, 2k stone, 100 iron ingots, 1 Essence Shard per tower.]

A defense tower required only these materials, which were quite cheap except for the iron ingots. "Build," Alex decided.

The Warehouse's 20k wood, 40k stone, 2k iron ingots, and twenty Essence Shards vanished instantly.

Alex's stone supply hit zero; the stone in the Warehouse, including some collected by the undead outside, just reached 40k.

Twenty defense towers rose instantly at designated spots along the town wall, their bases square and tops round, matching the wall's dark gray color. An Essence Shard floated at the top of each, drawing energy from the tower.

Seeing the twenty new defense towers, Alex felt a slight increase in her sense of security; after all, each tower possessed Commanding level attack power.

The necromancers on the wall continued their summoning tasks, and Alex had the Commanding level necromancer join them, greatly increasing their efficiency. Tonight, they would finish processing all the bodies.

Looking at her Warehouse's remaining resources, Alex noted plenty of magic crystals and Essence Shards, enough to upgrade the Barracks, but wood and stone were becoming scarce.

"Ah, it always feels like there's never enough resources!" Alex sighed.