Whispers of a Dead Empire

Chapter 8

 "What did you have in mind, mistress?" He asked as we watched the mob mindlessly stack the various materials for us to use, though it wasn't as neat as I wanted it to be.

 "I was thinking of a fallen empire. One that was was torn asunder by an invasion and then betrayal. Though I am still working on the idea a bit. I can't go completely all out without a few things." I placed my notebook on the steps next to me and sat back onto my hands. The loose stone bit into my skin, although it wasn't an unpleasant feeling.

 "What things do you need to do to complete this?" He asked as I closed my eyes, trying to enjoy the warmth of the air, which was a stark contrast to the biting cold from earlier in the day.

 "Well, Bosses, for starters. I need to write stuff about them and create a back story. Afterward, I will probably attempt to link it to them to be with that knowledge if they awaken. That and essence. What can I create with it? How far can I expand my domain? What can I add to it?" The questions flooded out of my mouth since they were finally free.

 "The bosses will come in time. As for the rest, we can work on it together. With essence though, you can create almost anything you want with it. You just have to visualize it down to even the most minute detail. Otherwise, it won't come into existence. It's a bit more expensive if you dont have the materials for it on hand." I opened my eyes and saw that I had a massive pile of stone and wood, so that shouldn't be too big of an issue for me, at least at the start.

 "What about the domain? How does that work?" I sat up and grabbed my notebook and scribbled down the brief conversation.

 "Well. You can't change the size of the foundation. However, the interior you can change at will, as well as the positioning of everything. Each new zone cost essence, and naturally, the amount increases with size. But it's a flat rate."

  I raised my eyebrows and looked over at him. "Isn't that a little busted?"

 "You would think. But grow too much too quickly; you are pushed to the side and will forever stagnate or be killed off. Grow too little, and it's the same. The weak will always get culled." His response was off-handed and sounded like he didn't care, but honestly, that was just his tone. I knew that bothered him a little. I would just have to be careful. I nodded my head and thought it over. Thankfully the cost would be manageable.

 "Would adventures build cities in here if they had the chance?" It was a random thought but one that I was curious about. If they could, then I can work out trade deals and bring in more resources.

 "In theory, they could, as long as they had a safe area. It would provide a steady source of essence for you and protection for them. But that is a rare occurrence." I nodded my head and jotted down the idea before closing my notebook. I slid it back into my bag and realized I still had this squirrel in here. I had to get this creature cooked, so I can eat.

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 "I see. Well, thank you, Kharon. I would love to finish this conversation, but I want to cook some lunch first before I starve to death." I explained as I stood up and threw it over my back.

 "Why would you cook food? You are a domain god. You don't need to eat." He asked as he tilted his head much like a dog would.

  Wait, you're kidding, right?" I asked as I stood, dumbfounded.

 "No. You no longer need to eat, sleep, or consume water. The domain sustains you and all of your needs." The skeleton stood up and cracked his knuckles, and rolled his shoulders.

 "Damn, that would have been nice to know before I panicked; Wait, you said I didn't have to sleep. So why did I before?" I asked as I reached into the bag and grabbed the dead animal. What was I going to do with it?

 "I said that you didn't have to. Not that you can't." He turned his head towards the dead animal and gestured towards it. "What are you going to do with that?"

  "Can I turn this into an undead too?" I asked as I stood there, with the corpse hanging from the scruff of its neck. The idea seemed a little morbid, but every little bit counts.

 "Yes. All feel the touch of undeath." Kharon replied, and I glanced at a zombie and mentioned for it to come over. The lumbering creature shuffled its way over, dragging a leg behind. Even though this creature was dead, I wouldn't just toss its body to the side. That would feel wrong. Instead, I waited for the zombie to get closer, and I handed it over to it like an average person and commanded it to take a bite.

  The zombie ripped the corpse from me and bit into the creature's flank. The sound of flesh getting torn apart filled the air, followed by wet smacking at the zombie chewed. Each time the zombie bit down, it opened its mouth wide, causing blood to run down its grey flesh. It swallowed its meal and stared at the squirrel for a moment before tossing it to the side and stumbling away to complete its task.

 I dry heaved as the zombie left. That was gross, so very gross. I glanced down at the oversized squirrel and saw it twitch a few times before it stood up. Its flank missed a massive chunk of flesh and poured its life-giving liquid onto the earth below it. It shuddered and turned its head towards me. Its beady eyes stared lifelessly at me as it waited for me to issue a command. I stared at the little guy for a moment in sadness. I'm sorry that I had to do this to you; I hope you find it in your heart to forgive me.

   I shuddered as I realized the implications of this. I like zombies; I really do. But watching them in action in person is a bit terrifying and a lot different than I expected. With a heavy heart, I told it to spread undeath to all that it meets. The giant squirrel gurgled and bounded into the forest beyond. I stared at it as it ran into the woods. I felt guilty for condemning the entire population of wildlife within my domain to their death. Please forgive me, I whispered quietly before turning back to Kharon, desperate to take my mind off of what I just did. "How do I gather more essence?"

 "Life essence is in every living thing and can be even be drawn from inanimate objects. You can get it from converting the trees in the forest or having your mobs kill the wildlife. But once you run out of it here, it gets much harder to come by. You can also get it back by your mobs killing each other." I nodded my head and listened along to him. Well, at least there is always a way until adventures start to come in. I opened my menu and looked at my essence pool at my disposal. The current mobs really didn't even scratch the total amount of my essence. At least that meant that I could experiment a bit and see what I could do.

  But now, I was itching to get to work at crafting my domain. First, I wanted to create a small room away from everything to work in peace and quiet. "Alright, so I can do almost anything in here, right? Can I create a room somewhere that has no access except to those I allow?"

 "You can, mistress. However, please be aware that you can not teleport there if you are in combat or if you have been issued a direct challenge by someone." Well, I fully intend on avoiding the crowds anyway, so it's not like it really matters all that much to me.

 I opened the map and began to interact with it and explore the various tools that exist within it. After scrolling through, I found a tool that allowed for three-dimensional interaction with the terrain within my domain. That made me incredibly happy. I wanted to craft this room somewhere far away so no one can accidentally stumble into it. I went to where the center of the outpost roughly was and began to quickly shift the map down as far as I was allowed to. Once I hit the furthest point, I went through the tools once more and found a sculpting one. I selected it and carved out an area around one hundred meters in all directions, which yielded me about two hundred life essence in total. That was terrible efficiency considering the stone's weight that I just absorbed, but I wasn't surprised. I mean, it's all rock and dirt anyway.

 I selected the newly formed area and reinforced the walls with multitudes of reinforced rock and other materials; at least that was the plan until I stumbled across the unchangeable option in the tool list and selected it. Making my workroom almost indestructible. I wasn't worried about it getting invaded, just the walls collapsing down around me.

 I looked through the menu and saw the teleport option. I rested my hand on Kharon and the ghost that sat behind me and clicked it. With a lurch, we appeared in a pitch-black room. The air was warm and very humid and made me very uncomfortable. I quickly looked through the tools and saw that I can increase the brightness, along with ambient air temperature. I clicked on the lighting first and was immediately greeted by a slider and a preview. However, the further I pushed the slider up, the more essence it would cost me.

 Thankfully for me, I only wanted something decently bright. I slid the key over until the preview showed something that was near the perfect amount for me. I selected it and spent one hundred essential points on it, and placed it in the room's center. The light shot out and lit up the various stones that dotted the room. It looked like something cut a chunk of the room with a surgical knife, but it was ugly for the most partjust brown and grey stone everywhere. I clicked on the ambient temperature, set it to twenty degrees celsius, and shifted the humidity to something much more bearable than this. This action cost me thirty more essence points, but at least this was perfectly livable.

 "Alright, Kharon, how do I create things?" My voice echoed around the empty room, causing me to cringe. I hated hearing the sound of my own voice.