A couple of hours later…
Leaning against a tree, Liam panted as he tiredly gazed at the small group of spectral beasts in front of him.
In total, there were 10 chickens, 5 rabbits, 5 dire wolves, and 5 spiked mountain bears.
And every single one of them looked fierce and ready to fight.
Liam stood up, dusted his back, and walked around the group observing all the beasts from top to bottom.
Each had an individual level, and he was pretty sure that each of them also had different growth potentials.
His skill level had steadily increased since he first began forging, so it was only logical that his latest creations were more sturdy than his earlier ones.
Liam took another two laps, inspecting all the beasts in silence, and then stopped at the front.
In his last life, Kouske had a strong undefeatable army of humanoid undeads, but now he was starting with chickens, rabbits, wolves, and bears.
Liam chuckled helplessly, shaking his head. "Well, whatever. This is not a bad start."
Standing next to him, the small white fox was also imitating each and every one of his movements.
She pointed her nose up and walked back and forth with her small paws, eyeing the small troop of ghosts.
Kyuuuu! You are not as good as me, but you will do!
Liam chuckled at her antics and picked up the little thing by her scruff, tossing her on his back. "Let's go. Time to test some things."
He dashed through the forest, closely followed by his ghosts, and soon they spotted another mountain bear.
Luna was immediately about to take off and roast this bear as well, but Liam hurriedly grabbed the little white fur ball by one of her tails.
"Wait. Not your turn."
Kyuuuu!
The little fox immediately sulked.
Liam ignored her and turned his attention to the three bears. He wanted to see how their strength compared to a live one.
However, this wouldn't be a hundred percent accurate comparison as the levels of three ghosts bears were 17, 15, and 20, while the live one was a Level 25 beast.
But still, it was good enough. At least he would get some idea about their fighting capabilities and their potential weaknesses.
ROAR!
The big black spiked mountain bear caught sight of the motley group in its territory and bounded towards the intruders in anger.
"Go." Liam as well ordered his three undead bears.
ROAR! ROAR! ROAR!
Immediately, the three ghost beasts bellowed even louder and pounced on the incoming live one.
ROAR! CRASH! GROWL!
The four of them rumbled and tumbled, blood and black fur flying out.
They punched, swiped each other with their paws, sunk their canines into the other, and raised a huge ruckus.
After a couple of seconds, even Liam could no longer observe the fight properly as he saw only dust and sand kicking up and flying everywhere.
But another couple of seconds later, a notification promptly chimed in.
[Ding. You have gained 10 experience points]
The Level 25 spiked mountain bear was already dead!
And the three ghost bears looked back at Liam, their jaws dripping with blood.
Round1: The Living vs The Undead goes to the Undead!
Liam pulled up and observed each of their statuses and saw that they had lost about three-fourths of their health in the fight.
So though it looked like they has easily ganged up on the single bear and mauled it, in reality, they had also taken a lot of damage.
"Ok, let's keep going," Liam muttered in deep contemplation and began walking forward when he suddenly stopped, noticing something strange.
The three bears weren't following him, or rather they seemed to want to linger behind for a couple of seconds.
They were still sniffing around the corpse.
"Hmmm?"
Liam walked back to them to check what was happening when he unexpectedly saw their health bars rise up slowly.
"Your health recovery is so fast?" He was shocked, but the recovery stopped mid-way before he could finish his words.
Huh?
The bears as well then let out a low growl and moved closer to him as if they were now ready to leave.
Liam knitted his brows together. What was going on?
He looked at the three undead bears and the one dead bear on the ground that was recently killed.
What was going on? Why were these guys sniffing that one?
A thought then suddenly cropped up in his mind. Could it possibly be?
His lips curled upwards, and he rubbed his hands in excitement. There was only one way to find out!
He once again commanded his ghost followers to move and then dashed through the forest.
Not longer, he came across three spiked mountain bears, and this time Liam unsheathed his sword, finishing all three of them in a quick succession of sword moves.
"There you go. Fill up on your health." Liam said and observed the three ghost bears carefully.
He did not know whether his conjecture was true or not, but if it was…
The next second Liam's eyes widened as right in front of his eyes, the soul beads from the newly killed mountain bears disintegrated.
This was not surprising.
This was the usual but after disintegrating, the small bluish-white spots unexpectedly started moving towards the undead bears.
And correspondingly… their health bars as well once again rose up!
Voila!
Liam instantly knew that he was right!
The process was not as efficient as he would like it to be, but it was there alright.
The undead bears were clearly able to absorb the souls from their kills. No, it did not matter who killed the target.
As long as it was just killed, they were able to tap into the soul of the dead and recuperate their own health and perhaps more?
So with every kill, they were able to gain experience points and also replenish their health. This was simply unbelievable!
Due to their undead status, they already had formidable stamina, so when combined with the new traits, his army definitely had the potential to grow exponentially stronger with each fight!
