by K R Zax
“Come out or die.” In a second, I had my staff in hand, pointing to a tree.
“Eh, did that tree do something to you?” Velira asked when she saw me summoning a Fire Ball.
“Wait! Wait!” A child whose age was around twelve, showed up with his hands raised. “I’m sorry! I only wanted to see the adventurers, I promise!”
“As expected from the Demon Lord, to sense a child hiding behind a tree.” Velira giggled and beckoned to the kid.
“Demon Lord?”
“Yeah! He got that nickname when he brought a bunch of dead children.” Velira explained to the terrified kid, he seemed like he was about to run away at full speed.
“Those were orcs, Velira. Don’t scare the kid.”
“I’m no kid, my lord.” The child put a brave front and introduced himself. “I am Orst Stregov, eldest son and squire of Sir Erval Stregov, one of the knights riding in this campaign.”
“Squire? Tell me, won’t your father be mad that you came here? Did you even finished with all of your duties?”
“Yes sir, I finished with everything, and my father told me that I may walk around the camp if I wanted to.”
“How about this,” I took a silver coin and toss it to him. “You help me with the horses, and you can bother us with any question you may have.”
Orst was ecstatic and accepted the offer, he even pointed out many mistakes I've made while tending to my horse. And as you could expect from a kid, he had an unlimited amount of questions. ‘You’re a Dark Mage? Can you curse people? Did you ever kill a dragon? Do all adventurers have to take quests? How much can you earn from a goblin?
“You killed a hundred monsters in a day?!” Orst had an amazed expression when Bjorsal told him about the time in Jolek.
“It wasn’t a hundred, I only submitted around 80, or so. Can’t remember.” We were eating an orc I killed today while sitting around the campfire.
“It’s truly delicious.” Aler bite the meat like a wolf – what he kind of was. ”We wanted to hunt some today, but it would rot till we reach an Adventurers Guild, and we didn’t feel like going for just one. Your magic is really something, you can store them for later, and they’ll still be fresh.”
“These spices are the best! I just can’t have enough of this meat.” Velira was eating happily and pushing more meat to Orst. “You’re still a kind, you need to grow up strong if you want to hunt monsters like we do.”
Everyone was having a nice time, we ate and drank, and told stories. It was a pleasant atmosphere. Now that I think about it, I never went camping. I knew of a friend of mine who went with his Dad several times, he said, that it was nothing special. Though, he assumed his father just wanted to spend some time away from his wife.
After some time, Orst went back to the knight’s camp, and we go to get some sleep. The sentries were already decided, some people voluntarily applied for the position since they could earn a small bonus.
When we were inside our tent, I gave Lina several crystals and told her to Absorb them.
“Wouldn’t it be better for you to take them?” She was a bit uncomfortable as she looked at the stones filled with bluish light. “I appreciate that you want me to get stronger, but what about you?”
“I already Absorbed most of the monsters we killed today, and I only used the crystals on the most powerful ones. I made a few of the special zombies, and put some crystals aside for you.”
Lina then pressed the crystals on her slave crest, one by one, untill they dissolved. Like usual, she looked tired, but not as much as the first time.
“Come on, show me my stats.”
Name
Lina
Mana
E
Strength
C
Speed
C
Air Magic
F
Her Speed and Air magic went up a rank.
“Hmm, it all seems great, but I thought my Strength would go up too. I know I feel stronger.”
“The gap between C and B rank is bigger.” I reminded her about the increasing difference in power for higher ranks. “My Strength has been at A for a while now. I also feel that I got stronger, but I will need to Absorb a lot of life force to rank that up. Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Oh, it’s nothing. You are right, it would be a bad thing if you’d stay as an A rank weakling for too long. We better get up early and go hunting. I’m gonna sleep now, good night.”
Guess I’ll spend some time experimenting with my magic, maybe I can develop a new skill. I took a little notebook that I bought in Tsarigrad and used to record some ideas and monster abilities. There were all kinds of things that the creatures in this world can do. And if I could replicate some of that with my magic, I would certainly become stronger.
For example, there were the Fur Spiders who set big nets in the forest to catch prey. Those are some sticky and troublesome traps. If I could replicate something of that level, it would be a nice thing to have. Or the Virsk birds, who could fire a sound attack, Poison Lizards who looked like oversized comodo dragons and breathed poisonous gas.
Oh, yeah. There were I few bird corpses I wanted to experiment with.
I took five bodies from my Storage and took a look at them. They were all approximately 1.5 feet in size and had the appearance of ordinary birds. Except for the eyes, each one had six of them.
I used five pea-sized crystals and filled them with the birds' life force. Then I made a little cut on their chest and put the shiny stones inside. After sealing the cuts with a bit of Fire Magic, I started filling them with Darkness.
Like with the other zombies, the crystal will now act as an artificial soul, powered by Dark Magic.
That’s right. From now on, I’ll call them Darkness Zombies. That should be enough to differentiate them from the regular ones.
I left the tent and headed for the forest. One of the sentries warned me to not go far, but since I was also an adventurer, he judged that I wouldn’t do something so foolish.
After making some distance from the camp, I increased my speed. It was way too dark inside the forest and there were some monsters along the way, but I managed to reach the top of a nearby hill safely.
Zombies came out of my shadow, covering the small hill with their numbers. I sat down, focusing a bit of mana on my eyes, and after some time, I successfully gained the Nightvision skill. Dr. Sam helped me a lot by facilitating my ability to learn magic skills faster.
“OK everyone, kill all the monsters that you can, and bring their corpses here. Go.”
On my command, the zombies dispersed through the forest, and I made my way back to the camp. I’m looking forward to seeing how much they can gather for a night.
***
The next day when I left the tent, I could feel some kind of tension in the air. They surely would wake us if something big happened, so what was going on?
“The sentries reported hearing some noises coming from the forest. Like a big fight broke out somewhere. Probably monsters attacking each other.” Aler told me when I asked if he knew something. It appears that my zombies were hard at work last night.
“Are you going to the forest again?”
“Don’t worry, if we find something dangerous we’ll run away,” I said to Velira who looked concerned, but she didn’t press the issue further.
“Something’s weird.”
We were riding on our horses inside the forest when Lina started looking around. “Don’t you think it’s strange? There should be some signs of monsters by now. I can smell them – actually their blood, but we haven't seen any. What if there was a big battle? Maybe we should go back, what do you think, Darling?”
“There certainly was some killing being done last night. But you shouldn’t worry about it, it was the zombies.” I said and gave her a sandwich that the Night Bird cooks made for me. How surprised they were when I told them that I needed a hundred of them.
“Thanks, Darling. Wait, zombie
s? Your zombies? When did you let them out?”
“Last night, when you fell asleep.”
There were bloodstains on the ground and signs of something being dragged away, a corpse no doubt. Even still, the evidence of small scale battles could be seen all over the forest.
“No way. Darling, I think that there is something wrong with my eyes.”
“Nah, everything is fine with your eyes,” I reassured Lina and got off the horse. “There is indeed a field of dead bodies on that hill.”
The zombies were diligently placing the corpses in neat rows. I handed a few more sandwiches and some water to Lina, and went to work.
Absorb – zombify, Absorb – zombify, again and again. There were well over five hundred corpses, and they kept coming. I used crystals on the stronger looking ones to make Darkness Zombies, since they were more reliable, and a greater fighting force.
Hours later, I recalled them all, and we headed east to keep pace with the army. When I counted the zombies, it seemed that I lost around 200 of the regular ones and only four Darkness Zombies, but I gained almost 800 new. Those were very good numbers. Also, my Speed finally went up a rank, as well as my Fire, Air, and Water magic. And I gained Earth magic as well.
Name
Alex Miller
Mana
S
Strength
A
Speed
A
Dark Magic
B
Fire Magic
D
Air Magic
E
Water Magic
E
Earth Magic
F
One of the most surprising things were the Virsk birds I experimented with last night. I only needed to close my eyes and focus my thoughts on them to see what they saw, and even control their movement – it was like having a magical drone. I had one follow the army, so I could know where they were and use the others to find strong-looking prey.
Chapter 15.
“Over here, you moron!” Lina yelled, throwing another rock at the Troll. He was a huge and strong fellow, over twenty feet tall and massive. There was a tree trunk in his hand that he used as a club. Five of my Zombies were destroyed with only one hit, so I had to pull them back.
At the moment, Lina was throwing rocks coated with Air magic to distract him, while I shot my Fire Bullets from another position. No matter how many times we hit him, there was barely any damage to his body.
“Gaaraa! Guuurrd!” The Troll sounded very annoyed as he tried to catch us, but failed every time. He was very slow but tough. My magic was only able to scratch his thick skin a little.
It kind of reminds me of elephant skin, only dark green.
I changed Trinity to its axe form, and run at the Troll's back. When I was behind his right leg, I channeled mana into my axe and swung it at him. The blade connected with the back of his knee, cutting the dense skin and tendons.
“Gaaaaar!” The Troll fell on his knee for a moment. But then, he used the big club as a crutch to get back up.
“What now?” Lina asked when I regrouped with her. The Troll was limping his way to where we were, but it’ll take him some time to get here. “We need to destroy his brain or hart, that’s all I know about Trolls. You managed to wound him with your magic axe, but is there a way you can reach higher? Maybe if you climb a tree?”
“Not a tree, I have a better idea.” I changed Trinity to staff form.
“I thought your Bullets didn’t affect him,” Lina said when I created a swarm of Fire Bullets above our heads. I used more mana to make them a bit stronger.
“I can’t kill him with these, but I think I can make him fall to his knees.”
After saying that, I begin firing the bullets at the sensitive area between the Troll’s legs. The big guy dropped the club and let a soul-piercing cry. And just as I expected, he fell on his knees, covering the hurt place with his hands.
I didn’t waste a second, as soon as he hit the ground I was already rushing at him. Using Air Magic, I created footholds in the air and struck his chest with my Trinity Spear.
“Burn!” Focusing Fire, I channeled it on the tip of the spear and roasted his heart. I then pulled my weapon out, and landed safely on the ground, just as the Troll tumbled over.
“Ah… Um, that… How could...” Lina came closer, with a disgusted expression. “Ah, I guess it shouldn’t surprise me anymore. You’re the Demon Lord, after all.”
“What are you talking about?” Of course, I knew what she was talking about. The way I brought the big guy down. But I’m a man, and I sure don’t want to have this kind of conversation with her.
“That.” She pointed to the Troll’s burning crotch.
“Oh, yeah.” I send Darkness to that area. “I should put that down, or else we’ll have a forest fire.”
“Demon.”
How can women not read the mood sometimes? Fine. Just call me a Demon for not wanting to talk about burning Troll balls with you.
I inspected the hole in his chest, it looked a bit messy, but it’ll do. Taking an empty crystal from my Storage, I Absorbed the life force from the Troll and locked it inside it. Then, I inserted the full crystal, along with a few others I prepared previously, inside the big guy’s chest.
I had four crystals filled with the life force from strong monsters, and I planned to use them on a perfect subject. So far, when inserting multiple crystals inside one corpse before zombifying it, showed that they could become much stronger than when they were alive.
Now, there were five of them inside this one. I channeled an insane amount of Darkness, connecting every cell of this monster with the crystals.
The Troll obediently stood up, picked his club, and went into my shadow like a good boy.
“Crazy,” Lina said after watching my new Darkness Zombie disappear. “Anyway, we should try to catch up with the others, Darling. It’s well past noon already, and you know how difficult is to travel through the forest at night. And who knows, we may even find another big monster along the way.”
While I hoped that Lina’s words would come true, the sad reality was that we didn’t encounter any monster as strong as the Troll was. I dispatched all of my Regular Zombies and we made our way out of the forest, followed the highway until the adventurers camp came into view. Thanks to the Virsk Birds, I knew their exact location.
I won’t expect great results from the zombies I left in the forest since none of them are the Darkness type. Those sure are stronger, but I don’t have enough crystals to create as many as I want. Better to use them sparingly until I can buy more crystals.
We easily found the Three Wolf Fangs' fire since they were on the camp’s edge, just like yesterday.
“Glad you’re safe,” Aler said and pointed back at the sole female in their group. “Velira was anxious the whole day. Especially when we heard a powerful cry echoing from far into the forest.”
“Hey! It was a terrifying cry. Who knows what kind of monster it was.” Velira jumped at her defense and kick Aler’s shin. “And stop teasing me, you dog.”
“It was a Troll.” Lina joined the conversation with a prideful expression. “And Darling killed it.”
Shit. Lina, don’t just tell people everything I do. Ah, they are staring at me like I am some kind of fairytale creature now.
Sure enough, they wanted to see the corpse, which was troublesome for me. I had to focus my mind and order the big guy to stay still. Only then did I took him out of the Storage for a few seconds, before putting him back in. It would be troublesome if people wanted to have a closer look, just to find out that he’s been zombified.
Some of the adventurers saw the corpse and came closer to listen to our conversation. And when they heard Lina explaining how I killed it, they all started laughing like crazy.
“In the balls… Hahaha!”
“Oh, Kriss! I can’t stop!”
“No more! I’ll piss my pants!”
“Forest fire?! He said tha
t?! Hahaha!”
I then took a pot of steaming stew from the Storage and offered some to the small crowd assembled around the fire, no one could refuse once they smelled the product of a high-class Inn. That was an excellent move, changing the subject with hot food.
On this kind of trip, adventurers usually eat dry rations or cook something tasteless, so a nice pot of stew is enough to catch everyone’s attention.
We were having some good time when I saw Orst coming our way, and he wasn’t alone. Seventeen figures were walking behind the boy, they all seemed to be some kind of knights.
As far as I could tell, there were various groups and knight Orders, and every one of them had a different type of armor. The biggest group was undoubtedly the Rasik Imperial Knights, followed by various smaller groups who wanted to win some achievements. As I heard, there were cases when leaders, or individuals who made a lot of contributions, would be granted a higher title. And in some cases even land to govern.
“Who among you is the rumored ‘Demon Lord’?” The representative of the group asked. It was a girl with snow-white skin and purple hair. She also had a pair of horns coming from either side of her head, just above her slightly pointed ears.
They were all women, every single one of them.
“That would be me,” I said and stood up. Are these girls here to cause trouble? “What may I help you with?”
“I am Lillian Az’Grotil Voznesensky, Commander of the Demonic Order.”
Demonic Order? They all looked quite serious and proud, so I guess that’s a real name. I mean, she’s the only one there who looks like some kind of demon, about half of the girls are human, and the other half are members of various beast-kin races. Even the adventurers seemed to recognize them as silence spread over the area.
