Walking down the roads of these deserted ruins.
A small army of the dead was being guided by a hooded ominous figure.
Dozen of undead, some being mere skeletons ( with still flesh sticking in their body) of humans while others being zombies of skull wolves that each was a bit larger than three meters tall and long.
Including the still fresh blood that was coming oozing out of their body. It created a nice picture for all kinds of nightmare purposes.
And the master of that undead was looking at the new contraption that he got his hands to.
A compass.
"Now I won't have to worry about getting lost in the desert...As if it would be so easy." Danzel sighed to himself as he put his newly acquired compass into his storage ring.
Among the items that weren´t devoured or laying in the stomach of his undead in who knows what condition.
Other than the weapons humans and stuff that they had in the bag, there wasn´t anything worth mentioning. At first, when he saw those guys being fairly strong, he placed his hopes to find something similar to the staff that let out lighting.
So with his hopes raised by quite a bit, the disappointment was to say the less quite bitter.
Except for the few maps that overlapped with the map that he received from the Union, the compass was the other thing that he got his hands on.
At first, he was fairly excited as of now he could orient himself with the man and not walk aimlessly through the desert.
Alas, such though were quickly dismissed as he, in fact, still had not the sightless clue of where he was currently was on the map!
If he were to follow the direction of the compass towards a destination, he neither would know if the destination is now behind him nor how long it would take him to reach it.
`I could brute force it and just go back if it was the former, but the time I would have wasted doing that is...´ Danzel thought as he put his compass away.
Sure, he was an undead who never tired or hungered.
But that didn´t mean that he liked walking aimlessly for hours if not days just so that in the end it turns out that it was all for nothing.
The days he would waste would be of not acquiring the necessary XP for his goals.
Although he wasn´t feeling under pressure to earn them or anything.
Danzel for a while felt quite uneasy.
Be it losing his one arm, letting the remaining humans escape, or even the hunting dogs of either Berum or the Arcana kingdom.
He just couldn´t brush the feeling that something was going to go wrong no matter how much he assured himself that he did everything so that the worse won´t happen.
The environment was to his advantage, unfitting for the living to strive.
He created a small force of undead that although rather weak compared to him, could be deadly if underestimated, especially his skull wolves.
Both Berum and Arcana as far as his knowledge went, didn´t have a base of operation here. Meaning that the chances of him being hunted down by Hanson hunting dogs or the army of the Berum were bottom tier low.
The only thing that remained in his eyes were those humans that escaped him.
`They shouldn´t be much a threat though...´ Danzel though.
Even if they came back with more people, Danzel was confident that he could escape.
Be it one way or another, he always found a way.
But that alone was the reason that he was feeling uneasy.
The fact that he had to escape so many times.
Time and time again, something happend that put him in a bad situation.
To when in actuality he purely wanted to lay low and carve runes somewhere alone as they were the best way to earn XP.
But Danzel gave up on the idea.
The idea of carving runes to earn XP was no more.
Having tried it twice by now.
Trying it once more would be signs of insanity.
So in the end, Danzel thought of himself as unlucky.
Be it through the result of his actions or mere lady luck hitting him on his face.
He feared that that damned luck of his is going to bring him into a tough situation.
But staring ahead of him, he reassured himself.
"I should be able to earn the required XP in peace in this place." Danzel mumbled to himself.
Ahead of him, there was a large radius where there weren´t any buildings in sight. And in the center of that place was a large tower casting a large shadow under him and his undead.
Danzel couldn´t help but mutter to himself upon staring at his new base.
"Rather grand, huh?"
He did hear that the king of the arcana kingdom was living in a magic tower back when he was working for Hanson.
Although he personally didn´t manage to witness the so famous tower, if he had to imagine how it would look like, then it would be the exact tower in front of him.
But if he had any complaints, then it would be...
The door.
Staring at the huge door made out of some sturdy wood reinforced by some sort of metal that had a huge hole in the center, Danzel sighted to himself.
"Couldn´t the one who broke it just use that door?" Danzel complained internally.
Moving along with his undead beside him, with the skull wolves in front and the human undead following lovingly behind, Danzel neared the door.
Once he walked closer to the door, he halted his steps while drawing his sword out of his sheath.
"Those presences..."
With his skill [Sense of the Damned] sensing living beings not far from him, Danzel sent a command to undead skull wolves that we're beside him.
'Kill those hiding under the sand!'
Having his intent also as his command being heard by the undead, they imminently understood what their liege wanted to do.
Taking a fast step forward while biting towards the sand, a shrieking voice of pain came out of the sands.
"Gweeegh!"
"Gweaagh!"
Coming of the sands, two much larger than the average skull solve emerged.
The truth of his undead could only dig deep into the flesh without being able to bite the flesh off with their current strength.
Danzel immediately recognized that those two were much stronger than the others.
But even if they were, that didn't matter.
Swinging his sword in the air, the mana on the blade flew onwards in the form of a blade.
"Gwaaagh!"
With the blade slashing one of the skull wolves necks, Danzel dashed to the next, where he personally finished the job by a swing.
[You received 35 000 XP]
[You received 36 000 XP]
Commanding his undead to stop biting the now dead skull wolves, he sheath his sword back in the sheath.
"So those guys can give under the sand, huh? If I were to consider their leaps being so fast together with the element of surprise, then those guys are much more dangerous than I thought." Danzel said before turning them shortly as undead.
'Push the door open Danzel commanded to his newly made undead, who in turn did as ordered.
"Hmm, now I can see why others see consider necromancy as some evil magic" Danzel joked to himself
Being able to turn your enemies who wanted to kill and even eat you into a harmless puppy was indeed evil.
'Though most likely my race should the main reason'
As undead who hated the living, the reason should be obvious as the necromancy school isn't practiced in the open.
Although Danzel could understand their reasoning, he also found necromancy damn convenient to use.
As Danzel was on his own thoughts, the creaking sound of the door stopped.
The two newly created undead skull wolves having done their job, turned around and walked in front of Danzel.
To Danzel, they looked as if they came back to get a reward after doing a good job.
'That's shouldn't be the case though' Danzel thought as he entered the tower.
He knew full well that those guys were essentially mindless.
Beings drove by their instinct.
"Hmm..." Gazing at the insides of the tower, Danzel could only describe it as a mess.
It looked like some won't of a lobby, but with every piece of furniture destroyed and thrown to the ground aimlessly.
He could see a few bones here and there with some rags for clothing.
He tried restoring those bones into complete skeletons so that he can raise them but found sadly no success as the bones shortly after turned into dust.
"I guess too much time has passed, huh?" Shaking his head, he looked some more before he found a staircase going to the next floor.
"Hmm, it's going be a pain bringing all the undead with him. They might even collapse the staircase seeing how old this place is."
Having decided, he gave his commands.
'You two, the new ones will follow me. All of you wolves will go outside and hide under the sand, kill any living being that comes near the tower!'
'And you guys, just stand on this floor until otherwise said so!'
Finished had he had to say, the undead started to follow his command.
The undead skull wolves went out and clumsily tried to go in the sands. Although they looked ridiculous by that, in the end, they managed to do it.
As for the human undead...they aimlessly walked on the floor with some just staying still as if they were frozen in the spot.
"Hmm...I guess that's good enough for now"
Turning his way towards the staircase.
He walked forward with the two larger undead skull wolves following behind him as his bodyguards.
Going up the second floor, they were similar to the first-floor bones lying on the ground.
At for what the floor was for Danzel didn't know.
They were three separated large rooms with rows of stairs.
Finding nothing important, Danzel together with his bodyguards went to the next floor.
"I wonder what this floor will be for."
Going up to the next floor, Danzel halted his steps as he looked surprised in front of him.
At least as much as a skeleton could look surprised.
The third floor was by far the largest among the other two.
The walls seemed like they had some poles sticking out with the side being broken up dummies of some kind. Danzel couldn't say for sure what they exactly were as of how decayed they were.
But the most noticeable thing that was on the floor was the double as big skull solves on the middle resting.
His feet had claws similar to that of iron and sharp as a scythe, while his muscles were much more well built compared to his newly made undead.
His jaw as his skull generally had a much pure white color of that of a bone compared to the other.
Another noticeable feature was that the left eye socket of the skull had cracks, making one subconsciously focus on the eye of the beast.
It reminds Danzel of that Alpha wolf that he had killed years ago, but the aura that this thing was letting out is much stronger.
Worst of all, the beast that was supposed to be resting imminently woke up as soon as it felt the presence of those three.
Raising his huge body and standing on his four legs.
The eyes of the beast turned bloodshot as it let out a reading howl towards Danzel.
"GEAAAAAAAAGH!!!"
Creating a small shock wave by his voice alone, Danzel drew his sword once again.
"I see..."
Stealing a glance at the two undead of his, Danzel realized something.
'So those two were the guards, huh?'
Seeing the giant skull wolve about to dash forward, he guided his mana on his body while cursing internally.
'Me and my damn luck.'
