Whispers of a Dead Empire

Chapter 68

Hello! Sorry for the super late upload. I was working super long hours, and then to top it all I got Covid, so I was out of it for a while. I'm still sick, but I needed to upload a chapter here for you guys. If you see anything strange, point it out so I can fix it. I'm still not 100%

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"Oh, Kharon, I didn't expect to see you." I sat back in my chair and set down my pen, and pushed some of the papers that I was working on to the side.

"I figured I should drop by and check on you. It's been a little while since we last spoke." Kharon walked into my office and sat down in the chair across from me. His robe bunched up slightly across his legs, and his scarlet eyes bore into me.

"That's true. How are you doing?" Aw! How sweet of him to think about me. In all honesty, though, we haven't really spoken in a while, but work is work, and it's bound to happen.

"As well as I could be, I suppose. I really dropped by because I wanted to talk about the increase in essence and what the next steps for this domain are going to be." He crossed his arms, and his eyes dimmed slightly.

Ah yes, I almost forgot about that. I got caught up in planning out the next expansion for the domain. "I was actually going to ask about that. What happens at the next tier, and how do I get to it."

"The next tier of the domain will allow you to build past T2 mobs and will cut your essence costs down. As for your next question, you just have to expand the menu and click on the upgrade option once you cap out. It's really quite simple."

When he said that I felt a little stupid after everything I had been through, I really thought there was something elaborate behind that. But at least it was something simple. "Thank you, Kharon! On a different topic, what do you think of the domain so far?" I asked as I reached out and grabbed a new sheet of paper, and quickly prepared to take some notes.

"It's not bad. It shouldn't be too much as long as the parties are diverse enough to handle the mobs. But gauging from the party that was recently in here, then most would probably get slaughtered if they don't tread carefully, which isn't a bad thing. This is a domain after all, so the difficulty has to be much higher than that of a dungeon."

I nodded my head as I quickly jotted down what he was saying. I was glad that I didn't have to restructure. Hopefully, the parties that visited here were diverse enough to handle themselves. I was also happy that the following domain level would allow me to create higher-tier mobs. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy with what I have, but at the same time, some more variety wouldn't hurt anything. "I understand. I think I will leave everything as-is for now. Currently, however, I am working on an additional part of the domain for my first major expansion."

I slid the paper over to him, which had a skillfully drawn forest with a road and a small river that led to the lake. The forest traveled out about four more kilometers and encircled a small area that I marked out as a town with branching roads that went out in all directions. The issue that I was running into was the locality of the domain. Which was somewhat mind-boggling to consider. My domain currently was a sphere that totaled almost nine kilometers from point to point. With that being said, a spherical expansion inside would shift everything outwards while maintaining that same four-and-a-half kilometer radius and preserving the land's size. My mind almost couldn't comprehend that fact. It was all so much to take in. But, I started to realize I wasn't entirely human anymore, so things like this were going to be commonplace. Maybe I should make a map to keep better track of everything. As kharon looked over my drawing, I looked through my inventory and tallied up all the resources I had at hand. I still had a fair bit of stone and steel left. I had a surplus of wood, which sadly would dwindle once I had this town made.

My notebook made its way back into my hand as I jotted everything down and did the math in my head for what was to come."I like the idea so far. There are a few things, though, that I have questions about. The first is resources, aren't we low on them? The next is, how do you plan on allowing adventurers to traverse the size? If it's too large, then they will refuse to do so." He set the piece of paper down and slid it over to me, which I took and put in my notebook.

"Well, for the resources, I struck a trade deal with the adventurers. For two reasons. The first is that I need a steady supply of resources. If I can make them something simple that doesn't cost me much, I profit on resources that flow back. The second reason is a bit more complicated. I saw how they reacted to the undead, and it made me worry about my place here on this planet. I figured that people would be less likely to attack me if I did this trade deal. Money talks where I come from, and hopefully that holds true here too." I interlaced my fingers as I leaned forward and stared at my companion's face. He bobbed his head and chattered his teeth for a moment as he thought it over.

"That was actually an incredibly smart move on your end. You are putting yourself in a position where it would be more harmful than beneficial to attack you directly. Are you sure that you can trust those adventurers on the matter, though? What if they try to take advantage of you?" His hand moved to his chin, and I could almost see the gears turning in his head at this new information.

Mine was turning, too, as I realized the severity of what I had done. At first, it was a spur-of-the-moment idea, yet I still didn't quite think everything through. "Highly unlikely. I stand to lose very little. Anything I make for them doesn't cost me much as long as I have the resources, and I told him I wanted no part of whatever drama knowing him entails. It's a strict business relationship as far as I am concerned and nothing more." I crossed my arms and sat back, taking a deep breath in. This stress of figuring out what to do for resources was slightly lessened. At least for now, I may have to figure out what else I can make to expand on that trade deal. I had full intentions of creating a royal capital at some point, and I felt that it would make a fortune and a half to make sure I had enough of everything.

"Well, that's good. As long as they don't use another one of those stones, we should be able to handle any sort of siege if people try to attack us for being undead. The longer we stay alive, the higher the chances are of us being able to repel it."

That was also true. However, I wasn't scared anymore. The only way that we would get out of this is together, and if I hesitated, we would all suffer. "I know. Rikard is busy training the new generation of recruits that I created for him to bolster our strength. The veterans who survived the fights with those assassins prove useful in teaching everyone. Seeing how they can learn and put new skills to use, I'm going to pull them out and move them further into the domain at some point. Resources like them are going to be invaluable in the future."

"Be sure to leave a few around to be challenges for the adventurers. You did set up respawn timers for the undead, right?"

"Yep! Though I was trying to figure out a way to pass messages to each other, outside of using the bells and psychic communication. I wanted something that was discreet and would let the commanders pass information around to each other as needed, mostly to add some depth to the domain, but I wasn't too sure on what to do yet." That was an issue that was gnawing at me. On Earth, we had radios, cellphones, and the internet. Being able to communicate at enormous distances wasn't an issue there, but I had no clue how to make that stuff here.

"Why don't you use some of those undead templates that you have? You can use carrier pigeons, or even the linal and wolf to send messages to people." His eyes brightened a bit as he focused on me.

I wanted to slap myself in the face as I realized that. I was overthinking things again. "Actually, thank you. I didn't even consider those things. Would you like to accompany me to the surface to see what the templates do so we can make the best choice?"

When we appeared topside, it was at the old Royal Guard training area that was now fully underground. Honestly, at this point, I've taken this place over as my own testing area, which sadly had to come to an end once the adventurers came here in mass. I quickly opened up my inventory and started to work my way down from the top of the list. The familiar runic circle opened up, and a pigeon popped into existence. At least, what looked like one. Its feathers were the color of fresh dirt, and part of its ribcage was visible to the night sky. Its milky white eyes fixed on me, and it made more a croak than a chirp. I commanded it to fly, and it flapped its wings and flew around my head twice before landing on my shoulder.

While I was partially grossed out by that, I chose not to say anything. I glanced back at the list and saw that the wolves were next on the list. I clicked on it and decided to only spawn one for now, though I would spawn more later to fill the forest. A paw reached out from the ground, and then a second one. A scarred snout popped up next, which was dripping fresh blood. I could hear the sound of paws scrambling as the wolf was doing its best to climb from whatever hole it was coming from. It took a bit, but finally, it managed it. The wolf's fur was grey and looked a little sickly. Its teeth were blackened, and bits of fresh flesh hung precariously from its mouth, dripping flesh blood. I would peg it close to the size of an average wolf, all things considered. It stared at me for a second before it sat back on its haunches like a dog and tilted its head.

Ah, it was just like a dog, albeit a very dead one. I may have to keep this one for myself. I snapped my fingers and pointed to the spot behind me; thankfully, it didn't even think to defy me. Ah, yes, I will for sure be keeping this one. Anyways, I have one last template I want to see, and I honestly didn't even know what this one was.