Rise of the Supreme Necromancer-Chapter 74: Not So Pretty Anymore

A bearded face poked from the window, together with a long metal tube that pointed at the nearest zombie. The face’s owner clearly didn’t struggle to see Aleric despite the darkness around.

"Yes, human! The Allwealth is neutral to your conflicts, and always has been. So tell your soldiers to stay back, or I will be forced to spend our capital on bullets we will put in them. And that would be a lot of bullets, so I’d rather keep them!"

Samuel got closer to Aleric and leaned to speak in his ear.

"Dwarves are incredibly greedy, master... They only care about money. ’Capital’, they call it," he said with distaste. "Even in the past, they didn’t bother attacking the Dark Spires when everybody else did. Instead, they grabbed the territory that was freed after this war..."

Aleric looked at the hole made in the wounded zombie’s breastplate. He imagined that if the bullet was enchanted with a Pain spell, it would be able to kill anyone short of a paladin or a cleric, even if the shooter missed vital organs.

He turned to the dwarf again.

"I’m Aleric Fenn. If I promise to not let my servants attack you, will you trade with me?"

The dwarf thought for a moment.

"I would have... But I doubt my wares will interest you, Dark one. I am Jolk Ark Dram, a representative of the Ark Dram trading house, and I arrange bulk orders for mechanical tools and toys. I only have samples on hand. And after today, I’m going to take my shop to some other place. The value of this land property has just fallen considerably, and I will demand extra salary for the health risks from my employer."

Aleric felt strange.

For the first time, someone alive didn’t care about his nature, but it felt wrong. Was he just a bag of coins to this person?

Aleric dismissed these thoughts. He only cared for the fire-weapon the dwarf used. He imagined he could just kill him and get it from his corpse... But then he would only have one weapon.

"What about bulk orders for weapons?" Aleric asked. "Sell me the one you have, and I will buy more from your trading house."

"Hm... Hmm... Hmmm... The local law about buying guns is clearly not applied here..." The dwarf looked at Aleric’s soldiers. "In this situation, the value of your wealth is multiplied by a thousand, Dark one. I will sell you my rifle, cartridges, and even instructions on how to use them for just a gold coin and a safe passage. Then, I will pass your offer to the Ark Dram. But I don’t promise that they will agree!"

Aleric nodded.

"This will do. Samuel... Do you have a golden coin?"

A short while later, the coin was exchanged for a rifle, a bag, a long lecture carefully written down by a zombie, and a promise to talk with the Ark Dram house.

The entire time the dwarf stayed inside his house, exchanging things through the window. Aleric’s desire to see a dwarf at full size wasn’t realized, but he wasn’t disappointed.

In his hands now was a fire-weapon, or a "rifle". A mystical weapon that shot metal pellets without magic and looked like a metal tube with a wooden handle.

"After we are done here, I will enchant these bullets, and you, Samuel, will make out best sharpshooter learn how to use this thing."

***

"I thought they were going to mount a defense in the castle. Instead, they just fled the city entirely... I don’t like that. It makes me feel that they are up to even less good than I know of," Aleric said.

"Inquisitors... They are all templars only in name. Cowards."

They were standing in the castle keep of Frinstoun, the seat of power of the Count of Diawale. Not much power now, in fact. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

Around him, the undead were carrying supplies, corpses, and prisoners.

After the inquisitors had left, the rest of the defenses were overtaken within hours, with only some city fighting continuing. Aleric had offered the civilians to submit and live, and some even accepted, but there were still plenty of fresh corpses and sacrifices.

Which was good, because the inquisitors dealt heavy damage to Aleric’s army. Thanks to them, the arrows and weapons of the city’s defenders took out a good hundred of Aleric’s undead servants.

Replacing them would take time, and fixing their equipment would take even more. Not to mention, these servants had a bit of training, which their replacements might not have.

And the chaff... Aleric feared that he might start lacking skeletons if he had to suffer a couple more such battles.

Now, Aleric gestured for Samuel to turn over.

"There will be more thinking about their plans later. Now let me look at the damage they did to you."

Although Aleric had already fixed the spell that held him together, he wanted to see how badly his best warrior was damaged overall.

In gloom silence, Samuel took off his helmet. Aleric winced.

When he was first reanimated, Samuel didn’t even begin to rot. But now everybody could say he was a zombie...

His skin mostly stayed on the inside of the helmet. The flesh beneath was badly singed, and in some places, bones peeked through.

"I failed you, master."

"I think the only worse-looking undead I’ve seen had been lying around for several days," Aleric said as a matter of fact. "At least your armor can be taken off. What about your range of movement?"

"It’s only slightly worse than it was. My joints and ligaments weren’t struck."

Aleric sighed.

"Well, you were wearing that helmet all the time anyway. Might as well keep wearing it. But put some bandages over your body to prevent chaffing. It probably wouldn’t do you any good to just leave more meat on the armor every time you need to take it off for repairs."

"Yes, master." Samuel lowered his head. "I will get these cowards next time."