Undead (2)
Another week passed inside the storeroom.
“Clack-clack! Clack-clack-clack—!”
‘Aaaah—
I can’t do this—!’
The idea and the method weren’t wrong. Since I had experience using 「Avatar」, after repeated trial and error, I did eventually succeed in moving an undead.
Flail, flail—
Sitting there, I blankly watched a zombie in front of me flounder its limbs around as if dancing.
Yes, all I could move was a single zombie.
The total amount of “black mana” inside my body was absurdly small for controlling multiple undead.
Even after scraping together everything except the bare minimum power needed to maintain my body, the weakest zombie was my limit.
Well, even if I was an elite, I was still only a skeleton.
I hadn’t been a commander-type individual to begin with, and I certainly wasn’t capable of using magic.
Perhaps thanks to 「Mana Affinity」, I was absorbing the surrounding energy as time passed and increasing the amount, but at this rate of growth, it was nowhere near enough.
‘If I’d been a skeleton mage, I wouldn’t have to worry about this.’
I was lamenting pointlessly and racking my brain for some other solution when—
“Squeak—”
A rat I’d grown used to seeing scurried over to where the skeletons stood and began gnawing on their toes.
‘That little bastard sure is diligent… wait. Maybe this could work?’
Watching it, I lit up my eye sockets and quietly rose from my seat, then slowly approached the rat, which was absorbed in grinding its teeth.
***
The undead I could move was one zombie.
But the zombies standing here were of no help in this situation.
Then what kind of zombie would be useful?
“Squeak—
Squeeeak—!”
I quietly looked down at the rat struggling between my finger bones.
For a creature that must have lived lazily in such a plentiful environment all this time, it was quick on the uptake.
I thought I’d be able to catch it easily while it had its guard down, but it noticed me before I could even get close and ran, forcing me into a truly desperate struggle.
I blocked its mouse holes and even used “Life Detection,” throwing myself at it together with the zombie.
‘When I thought I’d caught it by pouncing on it with my whole body, only to see it slip out between my ribs… my heart just about collapsed.’
In the end, I managed to catch it by suddenly having the zombies in the direction it was fleeing pounce on it.
Thanks to the unintended practice of rapidly switching my control target, my undead control ability improved even further.
‘I’m sorry. I won’t forget your sacrifice, Alfred.’
I thrust a finger bone infused with “black mana” into the lower jaw of the rat I had arbitrarily named.
The tip of my finger bone, sharpened after becoming undead, sank deep inside.
Alfred, who had been thrashing, slowly stopped moving, but I didn’t pull my finger out and continued injecting “black mana” into his small body.
And then… the body that had gone still began to twitch again.
I carefully set Alfred down on the floor and concentrated as I watched him circle around nearby.
‘Is it because I infected him directly, and because he’s a small individual? Controlling him is much easier, and the connection feels smoother too.’
Now I had an excellent comrade.
I decided to send him out the next time the door opened.
***
The opportunity came before long.
Clack, creak—
“Ah—
What a pain. Such a pain. Why do I have to do this every single time?”
As luck would have it, the one on duty who entered the storeroom this time was the grumbler, Jepi.
After he came in and before he closed the door, I had Alfred, whom I’d stationed in the corner by the entrance, escape.
He was so inattentive that he didn’t even notice something passing underfoot, busy grumbling as usual.
“Just wait and see. Someday, I’ll take that old man and…”
Leaving the muttering man behind, Alfred slipped out and cautiously moved into the shadows.
The way I controlled Alfred was different from the way Jepi controlled me.
Perhaps because we were both undead, and because I was applying the method I’d used with 「Avatar」, the connection had strengthened to the point that I could share his senses to some extent.
It wasn’t as perfect as an avatar, but this was plenty for gathering information.
Alfred busily moved around like that, but unfortunately, there wasn’t much information to be gained.
All there was were paths that seemed to lead to other storerooms and a passage that looked like it might go outside.
Even that much couldn’t be confirmed because…
Naturally, all the doors were closed, so there was no way to check.
‘Ah, then this is a bust. Well, this is supposed to be a somewhat secret location, so there’s no way I’d be able to get straight outside just by getting past one door.’
But I had a helper who always came to my aid whenever I was in trouble: Jepi.
“I’m really not the kind of talent who should be rotting away in a place like this. It’s always the incompetent ones who swagger around just because they’ve got someone backing them…”
Just then, I saw Jepi, who had roughly inspected the storeroom I was in, come out into the passage.
Alfred carefully moved through the shadows, following behind him.
Even while walking toward another storeroom, Jepi kept grumbling without pause.
‘Does that guy never get tired? Anyway, what’s in that storeroom? Other undead?’
Clack—
When he opened the underground storeroom door and went inside, Alfred swiftly followed him in.
Whatever was inside this storeroom, even the guy who had been grumbling nonstop began to silently inspect the interior this time.
No, in truth, I naturally understood the moment we stepped inside.
Why he was acting that way.
‘This place is…?’
The interior was packed full of undead, but their presence could barely be felt.
Because in the center of the storeroom, there was something emanating an utterly overwhelming presence.
‘…What the hell is in there?’
Alfred, who was nothing more than a zombie rat, couldn’t even go near to confirm it.
I instinctively felt it.
If I so much as approached, “that thing” would steal everything from me.
As I waited for Jepi, who was inspecting the interior with a serious expression I’d never seen before, I hid near the entrance and thought.
‘That’s what they want.’
It was surrounded by undead, so I couldn’t tell what they were doing right now or what their goal was.
But wasn’t it only natural to disrupt whatever bad guys were doing first and ask questions later?
‘For now, let’s watch the situation a little longer. The “Jepi chance” isn’t over yet.’
After looking around and checking something, he hurried out of the storeroom.
“Whew, that place really drains me every time I go in. How did I end up…”
Following him as he slowly began revving up again, I headed toward the door leading outside.
That door didn’t have the ordinary lock mechanisms I had seen so far.
Wuuung—
When Jepi placed his palm on it, a strange pattern appeared, and the door slid open.
‘Uh, then I can’t just leave normally, can I?’
I was flustered only for a moment before hurrying after him out the door.
“Oh, you’re out? Good work.”
“Yeah. That place seriously drains me every time I go there. When is the maturation going to be finished? Have you heard anything?”
In front of the door sat a young man who had brought over a desk and was doing something.
He was one of the people who periodically visited the storeroom, like Jepi.
He was probably guarding the entrance to the passage.
“Who knows? Shouldn’t it be soon now? Master’s been checking on it every day lately. He couldn’t come today because he had to communicate with the higher-ups, though.”
“Yeah, I want to finish this quickly and get out of here. Fragment of the Undying King or whatever, I’m sick to death of it now.”
“Same here. The storeroom where that thing is has to be checked every day.”
Hiding Alfred in the shadows under the desk and eavesdropping on their conversation, I earnestly cheered on Jepi, who was helping me yet again.
“Hey, but isn’t it kind of ridiculous that we’re guarding this place like this? With this door, and barriers not only around the building but the whole village too, who could possibly sneak in all the way here?”
“It’s just in case, you know. Can’t be helped.”
“In case of what? As long as something’s alive and breathing, there’s no way it can avoid these layers of barriers. A corpse, maybe.”
Jepi chuckled, then said he was going to rest and wandered away.
‘That guy… maybe he’s actually a good person, if you think about it? Anyone watching would think he was helping me on purpose.’
In any case, with this, Operation “The Rats Hear Your Night Whispers” was a great success.
Deeply grateful to Jepi for his cooperation, I quietly left the building.
As luck would have it, it was nighttime outside too, so I could move around more comfortably.
Alfred cut through the darkness of night, roaming freely throughout the village.
Most of the buildings had closed doors, but Alfred made use of his specialty and successfully infiltrated by finding small mouse holes.
However, there was no information beyond what I’d gained through Jepi.
If there was any gain, it was that there were about forty of them, and most weren’t dark mages but their lackeys.
I was moving along, pleased with the fairly decent harvest, when—
Puk—!
A black thorn rising from the ground pierced through Alfred’s body.
“Hm… I was wondering what it was, but it’s just a rat.”
The voice of the village chief—no, the dark mage Malcolm—rang out.
‘Damn it, did he notice me?’
“An undead? I don’t sense the energy of dark magic… Is it an individual that naturally occurred due to dark mana? Where did this come from?”
As Malcolm approached, I quietly severed my connection with Alfred.
‘He hasn’t noticed my existence yet. Slowly, so he won’t detect anything strange… naturally.’
“Its body is strangely full of dark mana. It doesn’t seem to be from magic. Where was it exposed to this much dark mana…”
Through the fading connection, I could hear Malcolm stop speaking and let out an irritated sigh.
“There’s only one place here overflowing with dark mana. Right, the one in charge of the storeroom today was Jerapeu, was it?”
Jepi, I’m sorry after you helped me so much!
Pwaak—!
***
The connection was completely severed.
I could tell Alfred had been utterly destroyed by Malcolm.
I held a moment of silence in memory of Alfred, who had performed splendidly today and died a heroic death.
‘Alfred. I will definitely avenge you. Watch over me from there!’
Alfred’s enemy was Malcolm. I decided so.
Doing my best to ignore the conscience stabbing at my chest, I organized the information I had gained this time.
‘Jepi’s real name is Jerapeu.’
Hm, useless information.
‘What they want is the “Fragment of the Undying King” currently maturing in the next storeroom, and Malcolm is watching over it with great care. The undead are unaffected by the barrier.’
What they intended to do with the “Fragment of the Undying King” wasn’t important.
I simply racked my brain to screw them over to the best of my ability.
‘If I can just shake off Malcolm, I think I can manage somehow…’
Yes, methods were all in how one made them, weren’t they?
‘Just you wait… Alfred’s enemy!’
***
Jerapeu was in a bad mood.
It was annoying enough that he had been on storeroom duty yesterday, but he had been severely chewed out by his master for not managing it properly.
‘No, how was I supposed to know some rat would crawl out of there!’
It was unfair.
As punishment for negligence, he would be in charge of the storeroom by himself every day for a while.
Huyan, who had been guarding the entrance that day, received the punishment of guarding the entrance for the same period.
‘This rotten world! How is someone without backing supposed to live when everything’s so unfair! And what’s the big deal about a single rat crawling out! Damn old geezer.’
Jerapeu couldn’t spit it out loud like usual and only swallowed his anger inwardly.
Because here, he was anxious that his master might suddenly barge in at any moment.
Clank! Creak—
Bang!
Jerapeu, walking almost as if he were running, irritably flung open the storeroom door and strode inside without hesitation.
And as soon as he closed the door, instead of casually glossing over things as usual, he inspected the place with his eyes blazing.
“You there! You’re sticking out! [Line up properly!] You stupid things!”
He shouted at the skeletons standing in rows, taking out his irritation on them for no reason.
“What the hell? What’s wrong with this one now! Hey! [Stand straight!]”
He barked at a zombie standing crookedly with one ankle cut off.
But when it only staggered and failed to follow his command properly, he immediately rushed over and began kicking it.
“Oh, so you think I’m a joke too, do you? Huh? Do it properly! [I said stand straight!]”
After huffing and puffing and venting his anger for quite some time, Jerapeu finally stopped kicking and looked around.
Everyone here obeyed his commands absolutely.
It was satisfying.
This was the world as it ought to be.
He lowered his gaze and looked displeased at the zombie that was still staggering, then moved on.
“Hm? Who do we have here? Aren’t you that arrogant bastard from back then?”
Jeraph snickered as he approached the zombie standing motionless and prodded its shoulder with his staff.
“Hey, say what you said back then again. Huh?”
The zombie, appearing to be a man in his early twenties, merely swayed with each prod without any reaction.
“Why so quiet? Aha! I’d had your tongue pulled out, that’s right! Kekeke.”
Jeraph twisted his face into a smile.
Stress had been building up, and hadn’t a wonderful outlet just appeared?
“Huu—
—that was a nice time. When I was hunting down those village rats one by one.”
Thud! Crack!
He kicked the zombie and muttered like a lunatic.
“You were especially noisy. Yapping so arrogantly. What was it you said back then? That you wouldn’t let me go if I touched your family?”
Creak.
From somewhere came the faint sound of grinding teeth, but Jeraph, immersed in his own world, failed to hear it and continued mocking him.
“Kikiki, I went to special lengths for you. When you could only watch your family wailing before your very eyes—that expression was a true work of art.”
He vented his stress on the zombie, recalling that scene.
The eyes of the young man who had glared at him while being subdued by the undead, his tongue torn out and shedding bloody tears.
Recalling the thrill he had felt then, Jeraph twisted his lips.
“But so what? Where are the family you wanted to protect so badly, leaving you standing here all alo—.”
Crunch—!
A chilling sound rang out as blood sprayed.
A skeleton that had silently crept up behind him had grabbed Jeraph by one shoulder and the head, biting into the nape of his neck.
“Kkuh—! What is this?!”
The mana barrier he constantly maintained shattered from the sudden assault.
But thanks to that, he managed to turn his head in that instant, avoiding having his nape completely torn out.
Boom!
Jeraph immediately surged dark mana through his entire body, throwing off the skeleton clinging to his back.
Then, pressing one hand against his gushing wound, he quickly retreated to identify his attacker.
“A skeleton? Why is this suddenly...?”
But there was no time to be bewildered.
The skeleton that had tumbled backward had sprung up and was charging at him again.
“Keuk... [Stop!][I said stop!]”
The skeleton ignored Jeraph’s command as if it couldn’t hear and lunged.
Though injured by a surprise attack in a completely unexpected situation, Jeraph was, after all, a dark mage.
He had reflexively used a command spell upon seeing an undead opponent, but even if it didn’t work, there were plenty of ways to respond.
If only his opponent had been the single skeleton before his eyes.
Crack—
—the moment he tried to cast magic, something entered his mouth, and violent pain shot through his throat.
The zombie that had approached behind him had shoved its hand into Jeraph’s mouth while biting into the opposite side of his nape.
The fatal attack, launched while his mana barrier was down, scattered his focus and cancelled the spell he had been preparing.
Falling into panic, Jeraph soon locked eyes with dead, unfocused pupils.
It was the zombie he had been mocking until just moments ago.
They were eyes that had glared at him, vowing not to leave him alone until the very moment of death.
Mana release was not a technique that could be used consecutively, and right before him, the skeleton that had closed the distance to his nose was opening its jaws wide.
Terror filled Jeraph’s eyes.