The Necromancer Who Was Despised

Then, I had to adjust my schedule to take advantage of the opportunities that arose during that time.

“It’s three months.”

The speed is tremendous.

You could say that the plan has been shortened by several folds.

At that time, Valdyr returned, and I knew that he had shed his slave status.

“Pinbellum-nim is…”

“He said there’s no reason to stay here since the task is over and left.”

Girian let out a sigh at Valdyr’s response, but didn’t say anything else.

“We’ll make sure to send a message to the Rennet faction first. We’ll send a designated request every month.”

A total of three times. I think it’ll be okay.

But thinking about the map we obtained and the things we need to take care of, it’s going to be a tough schedule….

“I’ll do it.”

I’m not foolish enough to let this opportunity slip away. I’ve even taken on the penalty of temporarily protecting Anelis….

Girian nodded at my words, and then Colmail opened his mouth.

“Now that the procedure is over, we’ll exchange it for a new mercenary badge. Since Valdyr-nim has shed his slave status, you can use the new badge as proof of identity.”

A mercenary guild-issued badge has a high level of credibility, exceeding that of an ordinary status badge.

Valdyr bowed his head towards Colmail.

From now on, I’m no longer his master, and he needs to take responsibility for his own life.

Of course, he can’t just leave me because he’s been freed from his slave status. It means he needs to act as a free citizen, not a slave, in the world.

“Like Kailana Atina said.”

“Anelis-nim.”

“Please stay quiet. If another problem arises, we won’t be able to protect you anymore.”

We. Anelis would know that it refers to the royal family.

Girian finished speaking and bid us farewell, saying he would leave first and go to the mercenary guild.

“The requests will come through me.”

I nodded at Colmail’s words.

“I think the designated requests won’t be that difficult. It’ll probably be favors or monster subjugation.”

Simple things that won’t take too long. But the requestors won’t be ordinary either.

“It’s not like we can suddenly take on difficult and complicated requests.”

We’re just setting the stage, but we haven’t shown much yet.

What we’ve proven is our military power, so it’s only natural that we’ll receive many requests that can be solved with military power.

And with the three-month time limit they’ve set, there’s no room for long-term requests.

“You’ll need to resolve your personal requests in the meantime.”

Of course, we can’t just take what’s given to us. We didn’t think that from the start.

“Then I’ll see you at the first designated request.”

After bidding farewell to Colmail, I returned to the inn, where Atina asked me:

“With the designated requests coming in three months, and the schedule being tight, are you going to move right away?”

“I will.”

I turned my head to look at Anelis.

“Anelis.”

“While acting with us, you’ll have to take on all sorts of miscellaneous tasks. Don’t even think about holding a weapon.”

She wouldn’t tolerate any nonsense.

As a party member who had once been in charge of the rear, being demoted to handling miscellaneous tasks was humiliating, and she bit her lip.

“Your abilities are of no help to us. So, don’t do anything useless and just stay quiet. You won’t be in danger, anyway.”

It seemed like she had something she wanted to say, but she chose to remain silent, thinking it wasn’t the right time.

Before we knew it, we were heading towards the mercenary guild.

Meanwhile, rumors had spread that we had received the guild’s guarantee, and many mercenaries were watching us, whispering to each other.

Among them were high-ranking mercenaries and those belonging to mercenary groups that had been active in this place.

“Some of them are protesting, I suppose.”

It was a precarious situation for Colmail.

Having received the guarantee, I could take on any request I wanted, even if I was a black mage.

Although I lacked experience, it wouldn’t be a problem if our party had five classes of mages and high-ranking experts.

“There’s one nearby, and another a bit farther away…”

Naturally, I would decide which request to take based on the profit I could gain.

The one nearby was something I already knew about, and the one farther away was a ruin I remembered, marked on the map.

“The dimensional rift is a bit late in appearing, which is a shame.”

I knew where it would appear. The reward was too great, and I had to keep it a secret.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t go now.

“I’ll take on this monster subjugation request.”

I handed a request form to the receptionist.

As an employee, he had been taking care of me, so he received the request form I handed him with a bow.

However, he soon looked surprised.

Orc tribe subjugation.

It was a large-scale request.

Normally, two or more large mercenary groups would be recommended to work together to complete this request, but with only four, no, five people, it was no wonder he was surprised.

“…Please reconsider. If we fail, it’ll be a huge headache…”

The risk was too great if we failed.

The orcs’ sense of revenge was not ordinary, and if we failed, it could have a bad impact on the territory.

That’s why this request had been left unresolved for a while, even though it had been posted for a long time.

If we failed, the guarantee that Colmail had managed to secure through his connections with the royal family would be revoked, and the consequences would be severe.

It seemed like the receptionist thought highly of the guildmaster. Or maybe he thought highly of me.

“Or maybe the guildmaster had given separate instructions.”

Normally, the mercenary guild would want to resolve a neglected request like this as soon as possible.

“According to the recent scouting results, there are over 700 orcs. With only five people, it’s… and Anelis’s abilities are also insufficient, don’t you think?”

The receptionist didn’t address her with honorifics, knowing she was a slave.

“It’s okay. I’ll do it.”

But I was confident.

After all, I had already defeated the orc tribe twice. And…

“This orc tribe is located right above a dungeon.”

It was a natural opportunity to prove my strength and qualifications while simultaneously taking control of the dungeon.

Sebisu’s expression said she didn’t want to, but she seemed to think it was impossible to stop someone who had the guild’s guarantee, so she nodded her head.

“Alright. The deadline is….”

“A fortnight. That should be enough.”

“…Is that too short?”

It was indeed a short time. The Orc tribe could be annihilated in a day if you excluded travel time. I had planned to crush them head-on.

“The only problem is, we don’t know how long the dungeon will take.”

I had heard it wasn’t that difficult, but you never knew. So, I had allocated a generous amount of time.

“Instead, please adjust the payment accordingly.”

Since it was a large-scale subjugation request, the reward was calculated separately based on the rank of the mercenaries participating.

“The allocated budget is currently only 5 gold, but….”

It was an awkward position, but it had to be handled, and at the same time, it wasn’t an urgent request, so the budget allocation wasn’t that large.

“It’s a relatively small amount for a large-scale request.”

The more people participating, the lower the difficulty, but the budget was limited, and the risk of failure was high, making it difficult to leave it unattended for a long time.

However, there was something the mercenary guild didn’t know – a few genuine mana-wielding orc warriors were part of this tribe.

“That’s why things might get out of hand later.”

The orc tribe had been left unattended for about two years, growing rapidly and eventually clashing with humans.

By the way, they were still expanding their power even now.

But our opponent wasn’t them.

“…Alright. We’ll take it.”

“The down payment is….”

“No need. We’ll settle it all at once.”

There was no need for a large preparation. So, we’d take it all at once.

Sebisu silently registered the request without a word.

“Then, let’s meet again in a fortnight.”

Of course, it was highly likely that we’d meet before then.

My companions silently supported my decision, even during the request selection process.

We packed our gear and headed towards the orc tribe’s location.

We took a carriage to the nearby village and then walked from there.

After entering the monster’s territory, we moved without hesitation.

Every monster we encountered was killed by Atina’s hand, and the monsters that suddenly appeared, recognizing us as prey, were intimidated by our military power and fled.

It took us about a day to move.

Using the Life Artifact, we took a good rest in the monster-infested forest and prepared for the ambush.

And then, finally…

Clang, clang.

Rattle, rattle.

My undead minions, who had evolved to the next level, revealed themselves.

Question

“Wow….”

Since we were in the orc’s territory, we had been hiding our presence, not deploying our undead minions.

However, it didn’t matter now, so I deployed all of them, excluding the main golem.

“This is Skeleton Knight, isn’t it?”

Unfortunately, I couldn’t make a skull horse, but unlike before, it wore sturdy armor made of bones, and its sword and shield looked quite cool and solid.

It had also grown much larger. Its height was over 180cm, and its skeleton had expanded, giving it a sturdy appearance.

And it wore bone armor on top of that.

“It really looks like real armor…”

“Unfortunately, its defense is lacking compared to real plate mail.”

Its defense would increase according to my abilities and efforts, but time was limited, so I could only make it a Knight for now.

Therefore, it would need to receive my strengthening to reach the level of plate mail-grade defense.

“It would be great if it had a self…”

When it becomes a Knight, it’s around the boundary of upper-tier.

If it gains a self, it will rise even further, or it will stop here.

At that time, it will have its own name.

“I wonder if I should give it the same name as before.”

The name of its physical body. Its spirit had already left, and its newly created self was connected to me and influenced by magic, so it would be a completely different entity, but there wouldn’t be a problem with giving it the same name.

“So, what’s this? It’s a bit bigger, but there’s not much difference.”

“Elite Living Armor.”

It’s just a higher-ranked Living Armor. However…

“This one’s also on the path to becoming an upper-tier undead.”

I even added a shadow of its soul to it.

The armor had become even more solid, its regenerative power had increased, and above all…

“Its combat intelligence has risen.”

It meant that it had become a more efficient and ruthless combat machine than before. Having absorbed the combat experience of the soul it had consumed, its growth would accelerate. And…

“But this

At that time, Atina pointed to one of the Living Armors and said so.

“Ah, that one…”.

“What a jackpot. That’s…”

The Elite Living Armor was distinctly different from the others.

It wore a sword and shield instead of a flail, and they were all black bone weapons that I had specially made.

“It’s a special one, after all.”

It was supposed to be a high-tier undead that had transcended its limits by absorbing some experiences and souls, but that one was an exception.

“Was it quite resentful?”

Cereo. His soul had entered the Elite Living Armor.

My arch-nemesis and the mid-tier mercenary who had used the Oracle in the final moment.

Even in death, he couldn’t let go of his grudge, and in the end, his soul’s shadow became a Living Armor and awakened.

In other words, it was a high-tier undead with a self.

“It doesn’t seem to have perfect memories, though.”

It couldn’t speak, but I could sense its will. If it grew a bit more, it would be able to converse by spreading its will.