Whispers of a Dead Empire

Chapter 25

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 slid my arm through the metal rungs I created and held the shield. It was heavy, but not as heavy as it could have been, thankfully. The undead shouldnt have too big of an issue with it. But Ill do my best to keep the weight reduced. It felt nice, though maybe it was a little uncomfortable. I set the shield down and walked over to the sword, which was almost done being created.

Thankfully, the template held a scabbard for it, which would mean easier transportation. Maybe for the undead, it wouldnt matter, but it was more than good enough for me. I still had to create a few more templates for weapons, along with armor. Ugh, so much work, such little time.

I set the shield down on the floor next to my desk and walked over to the crate of swords. Since I wouldnt need these anymore, I shall consume them for their material. I picked up a sword and studied it for a moment. I should keep one, mostly for memorys sake. I set the sword to the side and selected the entire box, and consumed everything with it, watching as the steel resource pile quickly grew. I wish I got the leather with it though, that would have been nice.

I walked back over to my desk, grabbed the blade's handle, and pulled it from its scabbard. It felt heavy, and the balance seemed to be good. However, I wasnt quite certain since I have never held a sword before this point. I gave it a few test swings before placing it back into its sheathe. Good, I should get a few more created. This, however, will join the other sword as a memory. I placed it on the ground next to the old sword variant and sat down.

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Now I should design some other weapon templates: nothing too extreme, but enough for variety in my domain. I was stuck in a fantasy world. So what weapons would excel here? I need for sure a spear, and a polearm, and maybe a weapon for blunt force. That would be the collection of weapons I work with at the moment, though I do want more variety later on. I quickly glanced towards the other crates as I thought about future weapons and saw some arrows. Maybe I could also revamp the bow template?

I already had a bow template to tweak, so my job was already slightly easier. I selected the template and spawned it in, and saw that it was in horrible condition. The wood was rotting and flaking away, and it looked ready to snap at any moment. I gripped the moist bow handgrip and ran my fingers across the string. I wished I took the time to learn how to use the bow. Never once thinking that I would ever have to use one, but nothing that I could do about that now. I picked the bow up and pointed it in a random direction, and pulled the string back as far as I could.

It bent and creaked as the force threatened to tear it apart. Once it hit its maximum point, I let the string go. The bow immediately shattered, and the string whipped out, and a stinging pain immediately spread across my cheek before I could react. A yelp escaped my lips as I dropped the shattered remains of the bow.

Stupid fucking bow, I muttered under my breath as I brushed my hands off. I could feel a warm trail running down my face, and I instantly knew it was blood. Fucking great. I walked over to the cot and grabbed the towel that I created, and pressed it to my face to help staunch the flow of blood. Common sense told me I shouldnt have done that, but hindsight is twenty-twenty.

I shot a glance at my health bar and saw that it trickled down a few points, and I had a minor bleeding status effect. I pressed the towel harder against my face and stared at the string, trying to draw my attention from the rhythmic throb of the fresh wound. With a quick gesture, I consumed the destroyed bow. Much to my surprise and chagrin, I absorbed the various pieces individually and even got the bowstring.

Really? All I had to do was that? I really just lost all that leather for nothing? The pain radiating from the open wound on my face, plus the irritation of realizing that I messed up, was too much for me. A scream forced its way through my mouth as my irritation turned to anger.

Once I got it out of my system, I took a deep breath and tried to calm down. It just really annoyed me. I just lost so much in the way of material over something so stupid and avoidable. I pinched my nose and pressed the towel to my face a little harder to staunch the flow of blood. I should drop it. Otherwise, I am only going to get angrier at it. With a soft sigh, I l threw myself onto the cot; Im just gonna sleep it off.

When I woke up, I ran my fingers across my face and, much to my surprise, the wound had already vanished. I shot a glance at the clock and saw that I had slept for about five hours. I sat up, wiped my eyes, and thought back to what I was doing before taking a nap. Weapon designs had to be finished, then armor templates. I didnt want to overarm the undead at the moment. They needed to be weak, though not so weak as just to get steamrolled by the adventures and not too strong to where the adventurers would get slaughtered.

Though the further into the domain they got, the more I would amp up their strength. Maybe some simple chain mail would do. It should help cancel out a large portion of damage dealt by most of the weapons. It wouldnt do much for the skeletons, but I would give them some pieces just for looks. Maybe I would create some better armor for them or padding to negate a lot of the blunt force coming their way. As for the ghosts and spirits in my realm, Im not sure armor would work for them. I doubt that many of them were like Alessia and could wear anything. Besides, they were highly immune to physical damage. But I didnt know how to build against magical attacks yet. But I wanted them all to look the part well, at least those in the military. The ones outside of the stronghold didnt really matter.

Not to mention I had to consider classes so that way they could fight at maximum potential. I would hate to outfit the undead wrong. I already outfitted Kharon, so that would leave me with Alessia, Rikard, and Aaron. Alessias class made her a weapons master, which means I could experiment and give her various items. Rikard had a sword-based class, so I could give him any sword variation, and that would be good. Aaron was a close combat fighter that used his fists, so he had to be protected while throwing out an enormous amount of damage.

The longer I sat here thinking about this, the more I realized I hated just sitting here, not really doing anything. I want to get out and explore and interact with people. But I wasnt yet strong enough to protect myself. If I were to die, then all of this would be lost, and I would never get to go back home.

I glanced at the clock and decided that I sat here long enough, and I actually had to get up and get back to work. Thankfully, the vast amount of swords I consumed earlier really amped up my reserves of steel so I could afford to outfit a vast amount of the legion with swords. However, I couldnt afford to give them all chain mail. I didnt have enough, so that would go to the important ones. I could also give most of them a shield, though we also fall back on not having enough for everybody.

Ill have to figure out the best way to distribute all the weapons, at least somewhat fairly. Hell, maybe I shouldnt even give most of the gear, considering if they die, they might just get stolen, and I would be out of a bunch of gear. I really need to get more resources coming in. Yes, I could easily use essence to create it, but thats not a resource that I want to use all that much outside of vital domain functions. But maybe I am thinking too far ahead at the moment. Lets get my bosses outfitted, and then we can go from there.

A few hours later,

I held a poleaxe in my hand. It was a wicked-looking thing. The axe portion was long and slender and came from the bottom of a large metal band near the end of the polearm and curved upwards toward the top. On the back was a large, flattened piece of metal that would be used as a hammer. Right at the tip was a decently sized pointed tip of metal. I, of course, did not know how to use a weapon like this. But it still made me feel like a badass having it in my hand. This one I named Heart of Asteria. I set it down next to my desk and picked up a mace.

I made entirely it of steel. The mace was under a meter in length. The head of the mace was filled with large ridges running vertically from the base to the top. Carved into the entire weapon was long, flowing lines that crisscrossed it in a beautiful pattern. I named this one Law Bringer. A little strange for a name, but one that made me chuckle nonetheless.

The next weapon was a set of gloves that I hoped would fit Aaron. They were a little more costly since I didnt have the material on hand for the foundation of the gloves, but I dont mind since they were bosses; they should pay for themselves. These bad boys were leather gloves that stretched down to the wearers elbow. However, near the knuckles was a large strip of steel about three and a half centimeters thick. They would definitively do some damage to unarmed foes. Hell, Im sure that he could do damage through some armor if he is powerful enough. These bad boys I aptly named Haymakers.

The last weapon I made was for the captain of the legion. Originally, I was going to give him a giant sword. One of those comically large ones, but I decided against it. This may be a fantasy world, but I still had standards of living by. So I settled with a slender long sword. One that would best be used for accurate pinpoint attacks instead of large sweeping attacks. I named her Heart Piercer.

With the boss weapons out of the way, I just had to design them armor, decide on an overall design for the rest of the troops and then work out chest locations and finish the domain redesign before I work on myself a bit more.