Whispers of a Dead Empire

Chapter 80

and last chapter for a bit! Time to start grinding out more back logs, I'll see ya gents in a week or so :). as usual if you want to read ahead check out my patreon!

I selected Poltergeist and spent a staggering three hundred and seventy essence, and the familiar rune appeared once more. This time, though, instead of the baleful red hue that saturated my office, in its place was a soft gray light that filled every nook and cranny. Then, just as quick as it appeared, it vanished. I looked around the room and didn't really see anything, which made my hair stand on end. I could feel a set of eyes staring at me, but it originated from the ceiling. "Show yourself."

The faint outline of a child-like shape appeared hanging from the ceiling, followed by a quiet giggle of a little boy. I shivered slightly as I realized just how creepy this was going to be. "Show me what you can do."

The little boy vanished from the ceiling, a few of the chairs shook, and some blades I had sitting in the office rose from their racks. The sheathes were violently torn away, and the blades flew as if they were caught in a tornado. Ah yes, this reminded me of a few horror films that I watched growing up. It's funny that you never really give much thought to that stuff growing up. But then, when it's staring you in the face, it makes you question everything. Regardless, I'm just happy that I'm not on the receiving end of it. Though I felt terrible for whatever poor people had to deal with this.

I motioned for the Poltergeist to join the dark wraith, and I looked at my next option. Skeletal Abominations, huh. Let's see what this bad boy is. I selected it, and dozens of minor runes appeared in my office, and bones of all sorts formed from the air. But as the runes vanished, the bones all quivered and shook before they were drawn to a single skull that sat just across from my desk. They all clattered as they scraped against my floor. The bones quickly flooded over one another. They clicked and clacked as they slammed into place. But the result was something that I wasn't ready for.

Dozens of extended hands reached out and groped the ground. Femurs formed the various spider-like legs, and a single skull sat on top of the pile of mismatched bones. Dozens of fingers clacked into the ground as the monster crawled across the floor like some sort of insect. It took everything I had to repress the desire to vomit at the sight of the monster. Truly, this thing was an abomination, especially at the cost of three hundred and seventy-five essence points. I quickly gestured for the skeleton to get out of my sight as I tried to process what it was I just saw.

I tried my best to suppress the sight as I summoned the last undead I unlocked.

A single rune appeared on the ground. This time, it was the color of ice and radiated a chilling air that seemed to permeate every fiber of my being. The air chilled even more as a head filled with white hair rose from the ground. A set of blue eyes that followed next seemed to be filled with predatory intelligence. Its flesh was a far cry from the decaying zombies. Instead, it was grey and pulled taut, revealing a wiry frame of muscle. Its long, talon-like fingers twitched as it breathed heavily, and it looked around the room. It took a deep breath and broke into a feral grin, revealing a set of long blood-stained canines.

This being was monstrous, far more so than even the others that I had spawned in. The way it carried itself was with pure and unabated confidence, and yet, I knew the wight was quickly the most powerful thing in the room. I glanced at its total essence cost and saw that it cost almost five hundred.

Spawning these four cost me so much essence. Unless I'm creative about it, trying to populate the second zone with these mobs will be painful. I glanced over my menus and saw that I now had access to three more boss slots, so I would have to think hard and long about what I wanted to do when it came to them.

I sat back and looked at my map to see if Rikard had finished what I asked him to do. It took me a bit to find them, but I saw they were in the expansion I started when I did. A dozen of them were standing in a square formation, with their weapons at parade rest. Something that I for sure didn't teach them. I glanced at the clock and then at the time I sent the message, and I immediately felt terrible. There was no telling how long they had been sitting there waiting for me to arrive.

I quickly stood up, grabbed one of my swords, strapped it to my back, and made sure that my cloak was cleaned and my mask was on. Once I was satisfied, I checked over my essence points and made sure that I filled the domain with troops and I didn't have to refill anything. Once I was happy with it, I did the math for how much more I could expand the domain and still have enough left over to pull out resources from storage. At most, I would expand the domain by four kilometers and bring out all the stones that I was sitting on, along with metal and wood. But as I was finishing up, I realized that I still had those four mobs I spawned behind me. I'll take them along with me, I suppose, and get them acquainted with the next zone. I grabbed my bag and notebooks and did a massive teleport, eager to start expanding. This time, I will do it by myself.

As I read, I groaned. No, this can't be happening. I refuse to have another child hanging around me. Nyx was a handful as it was. Once I finish, I will figure out how to get the Poltergeist out. With a wave of my hand, I told the four mobs that they had to stay there and quickly apologized to the leader of the veterans for taking so long.

I brought up my menus, selected the expansion option, and chose the four-kilometer option. However, I only got hit with three thousand and eight hundred essence instead of the four thousand essence tag. It wasn't much in the way of savings, but at this point, I'll take anything I could get. I confirmed my choice and dismissed the screen.

The ground trembled violently as the edge of the domain shifted and stretched back. Motes of earth-brown light fell from the sky in a torrential downpour, drowning out the violet light that radiated from the barrier. I caught my footing as I stepped to the side and quickly shifted through my menus. Now, all I had to do was spawn in all the materials that I needed. Which sadly meant emptying my total stone reserve and a lot of the wood as well.

I found a suitable spot far away from everyone and organized the pile of stone into something that could be accessed easily. Though that was pretty difficult, based on the amount of stone, I had at my disposal. Maybe I won't dump it all at once. Instead, I dropped a quarter of it down and organized it in small stacks that should be easy to move around. As for the wood, it was placed much like firewood.

As I waited for that stuff to be created, I made a large table so I could place down my backpack, along with the design plan. Granted, four kilometers wasn't massive in the grand scale of things. I still wanted to be prepared. Mostly since I decided that instead of just letting them slave away at this, I would be out here helping them. Though I will say, since becoming a level two domain, things seem to be created much faster than they have been before.

The large planning table was ready in moments, and I threw my bag across its surface and quickly brought out all the paperwork. "Warrant officer!" I called out behind me while I opened up the large, folded map that held the contents of the next zone.

The zombie shuffled in behind me and gave me a rough semblance of a bow. I nodded at him and pointed to where we were standing. "So, from now on, you are in charge of everyone here. Every order that you issue will be as if it came from me. With that being said, we will be working on the outskirts of the town." I pointed toward the part of the map that we were standing on. "So, from here, to here." I pointed to a spot that was mapped out to be four kilometers away. "We will make a road. So, we need to level the pathway here and lay out the stone. I will stay behind and tamper with our supply so it can be used."

While I didn't know how to make concrete, I still had a few ideas to test out to see if I could turn the stone into something I would find on earth. Maybe stretch the rock out, see if I can harden it a bit, and then use my settings to see if I could keep the ground locked in a state where it wouldn't erode or break.

I reached out to my notebook and grabbed another sheet of paper with a four-lane road drawn on it. "This will be the road. It will branch off in the spots, which will lead to various points, like houses, stores, and farms." I pointed at all the intersections as I spoke, trying not to overwhelm the poor zombie.

The warrant officer quickly bobbed his head in agreement, and I stepped away from the table. "Good, good. Let me spawn in the carts and tools we will need, and let's get to work!"