Golden Experience

The day slowly faded away. The treants didn’t seem to have trouble moving or anything, but Rare still ordered them to become trees and rest while they waited for the undead to appear.

<Princess.>

“Yes, I know. Let’s go take a look.”

Just then, the scouts had reported back about one place where undead were gathering. As a whole, the undead in this forest hadn’t all awoken yet, so if there was already activity at a certain location, that must be the epicenter of undead activity. Even if it wasn’t a jackpot, it was still some kind of key location, no doubt.

<I am loath to recommend splitting up our forces, but shall we leave any here?>

“No, everyone will come. While this may be our temporary base, there’s nothing of importance here, only the sleeping treants. There’s no merit in protecting this specific location.”

They knew the distance and topography to their destination from the scouts’ report. No undead were active in this area yet, and all the treants were already converted, so there were no enemies. Therefore, they could safely prioritize speed.

Even if they were only going to another location around the central area, this forest was huge. It would still take a decent amount of time to get there. At some point, the sun had completely set, and they began to encounter undead starting to wake up. Since they were crawling up from the depths of the earth, normally they would have suffered from ambushes, but Rare and Deas could both generally tell where they would emerge. This was probably because they both had quite a lot of XP invested into [Necromancy]. They hurried along, trampling over any zombies that rose in their path or inside their formation; it felt a little like whack-a-mole.

“I knew it; skill trees aren’t only for learning skills, you can also get some kind of bonus based on how much total XP you’ve spent in that tree. It’s not represented in any way in your stats or anything, though.”

She would have liked to study this hidden feature more, but if it only showed up as masked data, it would be very difficult to do any research. Even more so when it was this feeling that acted as an undead sensor earned from [Necromancy]. If, for example, [Fire Magic]’s bonus effect increased firepower, there was a logical way to calculate the difference. However, since Rare hadn’t used magic all that much in combat, the only data she currently had was her firepower after having dumped a ton of XP into those trees.

“We did feel like the strength of our magic had gone up, but we thought that was because of our INT…” Kerry remarked.

“You girls had every element of magic maxed out, didn’t you. I suppose the only way to test this is to kidnap someone from the human races who hasn’t learned any magic at all. Maybe I should ask Remy to get an NPC sellsword to venture into Liebe.”

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The only people who went to the Great Liebe Forest were more or less players. Players went there because, when all was said and done, there were a lot of things they could obtain there, although if they earned too much XP then they’d be hunted down and lose 10% of it. That was how things went for players, but that wouldn’t fly for NPCs. If they got in over their heads, they would definitely die. Without some kind of fallback, such as belonging to a knight order or being someone’s follower, your average sellsword would simply perish and that would be the end. They wouldn’t want to take that gamble.

However, if it was a request from the young girl who ran the city’s famous potion shop, they might be willing to go gather medicinal herbs from the edges of the forest. There weren’t many ants to be found along the outskirts, so there wasn’t as much risk of death.

“Or, I could work on gathering the materials for the Philosopher’s Stone, then try to make homunculi.”

Maybe that wasn’t such a far-off future. Now that she had a map of this country, they could efficiently go on expeditions just like this one. This area was completely occupied by the forest, but if they found a completely different biome, then they would be able to gather a greater variety of materials both known and unknown.

Or perhaps they could find a city to attack. That would result in new monster territory in the form of “ruins.” If she took more undead under her wing, she could have them live in and manage that city. It would be hard to turn into a source of fixed XP income like the farms in the forest, but it should be manageable as a theme park, the way Liebe was set up now. Surely the kingdom would send many “guests” that way, hoping to liberate the city.

“Hmhmhm. I can’t wait.”

But first was this forest. She wanted these undead. There was nothing wrong with the carknights, but setting the mood was important. Carknights simply looked too pristine; they wouldn’t belong in a ruins locale. And since they were too powerful, players and NPCs wouldn’t be able to explore those ruins.

“Without suitably weak trash monsters, it’ll gain a reputation as an overly difficult zone and no one would come. That’s just how it is.”

As Rare considered various topics, they continued trampling over the undead that rose up from under their feet. A lot more were appearing now, but they were also closing in on their destination. The reason she was able to sink into thought without worrying about anything else was because Yoroizaka was the one walking for her. She only needed to speak up whenever she detected an undead coming up, then it would automatically get whacked like a mole. Truly the height of convenience.

<Over there, Princess.>

There was a conspicuous tree in that part of the forest with malignant air stagnating around its base. Rare wasn’t sure whether it was some kind of visible energy or the [Necromancy] skill was allowing her to perceive something invisible, but it was clearly there before her eyes. Inside the cloud stood a skeletal knight who looked similar to Deas. All around him, more and more skeletal knights rose up out of the ground. This was definitely the epicenter.

“Someone you know, Deas?”

<I am unsure… Just from the armor, it would seem likely that we were comrades, but since his appearance has changed so much, I cannot be certain.>

“You’re one to talk.”

It was time for Rare to step forward and try to tame him as quickly as possible. Since [Mental Magic] was largely ineffective on undead, she would have to make him yield via combat, then try to force through a [Subordinate]. Back when she tamed Sugaru, she didn’t have the strength to best her in battle, but now she was more than capable. Plus, thanks to Deas, she had a general idea of what kind of attacks he could use; he wouldn’t be able to hit her with anything completely unexpected.

“All right, fall back and leave this to me… Wait, actually, keep the skeletal knights in check. I’d like to convert as many as possible, so try not to deal too much damage.”

<Understood. Please be careful.>

Silently leaving the rest of the group behind, Rare headed toward the undead boss. The closer she got, the more oppressive that strange air felt. It almost felt like her steps had gotten heavier. But she wasn’t just imagining it; her steps really were heavier, it was just that Rare wasn’t the one doing the walking, it was Yoroizaka.

“He’s got an aura that debuffs nearby enemies! He’s stronger than Deas!”

He seemed stronger than any other character Rare had met to date. And that was before factoring in this debuff aura. He must definitely be a raid boss. Furthermore, more monsters were regularly spawning as reinforcements. It was hard to estimate how many players would be needed to put up a decent fight against this boss.

“Okay, let’s go, Yoroizaka.”

She instantly closed in on her target with [Flash Step], swinging down with Kenzaki. She also used [Slash] at the same time. By this point, Yoroizaka’s attack could not be dodged or blocked. Even if someone knew that this exact move was coming, it was still far too fast to deal with.

“Whoa!”

However, the boss before her parried it. He instantly judged that evading was impossible, and even realized that his sword could not match hers, so he ended up parrying. He had strength beyond his stats. It really did feel like he was another knight captain just like Deas was.

Yoroizaka continued attacking, but the enemy was able to avoid taking any critical hits. He mostly parried or dodged vertical strikes, and for horizontal ones that were hard to evade, he let his shield take the hit while backstepping to minimize the damage to the shield. He avoided thrusts by a razor-thin margin; his armor and cloak became peppered with holes, but his actual body, his bones, had thus far taken no damage.

“[Flare Arrow].”

During one such instance, Rare kept him in check with some magic. Since she wasn’t trying to kill him, she aimed for his feet and shoulders, intending to incapacitate him. None of the spells hit cleanly, but he didn’t completely avoid them all either; his shoulders and greaves were rather scorched. His moves were slowly losing their sharpness as well.

“[Thunderbolt].”

Out of nowhere, this fast spell struck his leg. While dodging Yoroizaka’s attacks, he had gotten used to [Flare Arrow]’s speed, so even he couldn’t avoid this; the undead boss had finally fallen down on one knee.

Rare took a step back, observing to see if he would get back up or take some other action. He tried to use his sword like a cane in order to stand, but one of his knees had been completely obliterated; it was all he could do to simply stay kneeling upright. Considering his STR and DEX values, she thought that he could continue fighting with just one leg, but all the other damage he had accumulated probably weighed him down.

Rare stared into the undead’s eyes… well, since they had long since rotted away, she looked into his skull’s eye sockets instead. As far as she could tell, rather than resolving himself to keep struggling, it felt like his hostility had waned instead. Perhaps he had yielded to Rare.

“If you have, then accept my [Subordinate].”

Without any resistance, the undead—the Terror Knight [Sieg] became her follower.

“No resistance… Or perhaps our battle just now could be considered your resistance.”

Thinking of it that way, if there wasn’t a huge difference in MND, forcing an enemy into submission via combat first could increase [Subordinate]’s chance of success. At present, there weren’t any characters out there who had comparable MND to Rare’s, so she couldn’t easily test this theory. If she were to ever meet someone like that, it might be better to just hit first and ask questions later.

With Sieg under her control, more undead stopped emerging from the ground. They were apparently an effect of Sieg’s [Conscription] skill in the [Necromantic General] tree. It produced undead for a short period of time that could be controlled at will, but they would be destroyed if exposed to sunlight. The skill cost both LP and MP to use.

<So you’re Sieg, huh… Long time no see.>

<O…a…aah. Ah, you are, Sir Deas… Yes, it has been a long time. I am glad that you seem well…>

Interesting how Sieg looked at Deas’s current appearance and concluded that he was “well;” he seemed to be pretty broad-minded. Or maybe it was the opposite—his head was too empty so he just reflexively spouted out canned greetings.

“So you really did end up knowing each other. Were you Deas’s colleague or something?”

<Ye…Yes. Knight-Captain Sieg of the Third Order. I am Sir Deas’s junior.>