"Keep talking," Dave spoke.
"Yes. My great grandfather was the heavenly general of the Qin Kingdom. He led the armies of the kingdom raiding the world and had managed to conquer half of this world by the age of 30. His glaive was always by his side. If it could speak, it would have told you that what I said was the truth."
"Okay, okay old man, we get it, your grandpa was bada.s.s. But what does it have to do with those soldiers wanting to kill you?"
"The current ruler of Qin was nothing but a mere slave. He used some unwholesome power to kill the true king and his offspring and took his place by changing his appearance. General Ouki had known of this, and when he tried to stop him, he was called a traitor and was publicly executed."
"So, let me get this straight, you are the descendant of Ouki, and because you know of this secret, the king of Qin will not stop until you all die?" Dave said.
"Yes, that"s our fate, to escape with this weighty secret. If we dared speak it, we shall be executed, and if we are discovered we shall also be executed. Our fate is to run forever from the oppressive fake king of Qin."
"You think like a defeated man," Dave replied.
"What else can I do? I can"t win against a kingdom." The old man said.
"Yes, but your grandfather knew that he couldn"t and still spoke up. You are dishonoring your great grandfather by running around like mice."
The words fell heavy on the old man. Teardrops welled in his eyes. He was not a coward, but he was helpless, that much at least was visible to Dave.
"First off," Dave spoke, "I don"t like this king of Qin, he tried to take Urburg from me. And that alone has won him a one-way ticket to the underworld." Dave said.
"So you"ll kill the king?"
"Not for you, old man. I said that guy crossed me. He wanted to take what"s mine. And I don"t like that. I"ll kill him for myself. But right now, even I know I don"t have the strength to defeat the whole kingdom alone. In time, however, things will be different."
Dave looked at the army that was slaughtering the remaining Qin Knights and thought to himself, "Right. 100,000 Undead are sure powerful, but 100million undead is a whole other story. That"s enough to raid the East. All by myself. I just need to become an abyssal Knight."
Dave turned back to the old man and said, "So, just sit down and relax, and watch how I bring that kingdom to its knees." Dave smiled in his draugr smirk and left the old man with his family.
As he left the crumbled house, Dave realized that his troops had already ended the lives of all of Qin"s soldiers.
Dave activated his [Death Vision] and located the captain Zhu-Chi"s body. He wanted to revive him into Undeath. Yet sadly, after three failed attempts, Zhu-Chi"s body became useless and could not be revived again.
"Can"t expect it to work every time, huh," Dave sighed and decided to loot the body instead.
***
Qin-Captain Plate armor
Qin-Captain Greaves.
Qin-Captain Cape
Qin-Captain gauntlets.
Qin-Captain Helmet.
Secret Letter -Miscellaneous item.
23 Gold.
***
Dave inspected the items, finding them much weaker than his Doom Knight armor. Dave placed them in his inventory.
"These might be less powerful than the Doom Knight equipment I have, but I think they are still much better than what Ralph"s wearing."
Dave decided to save them for his friend.
"Alright guys, loot everything and give me a full inventory. Also, I want all these corpses thrown outside of the city."
Dave gave a few commands to his troops, and in mere minutes all the loot was gathered next to Dave, and the corpses were thrown out.
Tiny turned to Dave and muttered, "Me, food. Me eat!"
Dave waved at the Grave Lord, saying, "Enjoy the feast."
"What"s the plan Davidskin?" Lone asked.
"For now, we"ll rebuild Urburg. I"ll contact Dikenz for supplies and raw materials to start the work." Dave said.
"He skelly, can I take some undead around Urburg?" Flanker asked.
"Sure, but why?"
"Well, I gained quite a lot of Exp, and they are a much better tank than Fortress," Flanker said.
"That"s actually a good idea," Mercy said. "If each of us take a group of undead, we can clear the area around Urburg. And also grind a good chunk of EXP each. Not to mention you still get your cut of EXP even if you didn"t join." Mercy said.
"Right. Then knock yourself out. I"ll be back soon." Dave tore a teleportation scroll and left his friends with the undead.
The boys randomly picked a group of undead and went hunting around Urburg. As for Lone and Mercy, they spent a lot of time deciding on who to join, and who gets to take Bud and Dog with them.
Dave appeared in the underworld. He summoned Grumpy and headed to his settlement.
"d.a.m.n, I need to build a teleportation gate directly into my settlement. Dikenz should probably have a blueprint for that."
Dave arrived at the Zombie"s shop in less than 10 minutes. He found the rotting merchant busy with his usual habits; cleaning dust off his wears with a rag so filthy that it made them dirtier than before.
"Dikenz!" Dave shouted.
The zombie jerked from his spot, "Beg thee, par"dn, ye had me heart skippen a beat and it aint beaten, since ages!"
"Undead don"t fear!"
Dikenz frowned, "Ye, undea"d don"t fear, yet ye jumped me outa nowhere, dat ain"t fright, that"s ye being a bully."
Dave laughed and apologized.
"So, what can me do fer me favor"it costom"er?" Dikenz asked his usual question.
"I need some material to rebuild a city."
"A city? Lad, ye be mad if ya think I have,"nough ta build a city."
"Well you had enough to build the leviathan."
"Yes lad, that"s a s.h.i.+p. A city need lots a logs, lotsa stone and lotsa workers. Yea think yak an pay far all that?"
"Yes, I do have enough."
"Where might this city be?"
"Urburg."
"The city of devils, ai. Quite a good spot, ya won"t be needing much materials then."
"How come?"
"Ya never struck me as a dunce, that city is in the wilds. Ya have all da wood ye need from ere. And stone you can dig for it. I can send you workers, and you can have yer own undead help in the work. Shouldn"t take ye much time."
"Okay, sounds like a plan. How much?" Dave asked the question that Dikenz used to love but now fears the most.
"Where"s that lill pal of yers?"
"You mean Tiny," Dave said as he gazed at his inventory. Tiny was actually still back at Urburg, but Dave didn"t need for Dikenz to know that.
"He"s asleep. I don"t want to wake him up. He becomes cranky and hungry."
Dikenz lowered his voice and spoke almost whispering, "Ah, nay, don"t need ta wake em up let the little fella sleep some more. Yer discount is the same as always."
"90 percent,"
"Aye," Dikenz said with a rueful smile.
Dave left Dikenz"s shop headed back to Urburg. There were a few hundred new undead all dressed up in worker clothes standing around Urburg"s gate.
The rest of Dave"s troops were wandering Urburg with a bit of interest and a sense of curiosity.
One of the workers near Urburg approached Dave and said, "Commander, we would like to know what are we supposed to do here."
"I need you guys to clear the rubble. And rebuild the houses."
"This will take a few months. But we can do it."
"You can ask the rest of my troops to help you," Dave said.
"But they are knights, that"s not appropriate."
Dave frowned then turned to the nearest undead of his sub-division, "You come." Dave called
The undead came rus.h.i.+ng over and stood at attention in front of Dave.
"Do you find it beneath you to rebuild this city? My city?"
The undead archer said," For you, commander, if I had to shovel the dirt with a spoon, and build the whole city alone, I would do so with honor."
"Good answer," Dave said then turned to the other undead, "You heard him. Now get cracking." Dave said, and began walking toward a small house.
Peking from behind one of the crumbled walls of the house, Dave spotted Onixya sleeping soundly on the ground. What was left of the carca.s.s was nothing but bones, and even the bones were half-eaten.
Dave smiled to himself and took the baby dragon in his arms. The small dragon opened her eyes and gazed into Dave"s. Then after a little yawn, the baby-dragon began licking Dave"s face.
Dave laughed and asked, "Wanna go out for a walk?"
The dragon, as if understanding, began nodding.
"Alright, let"s go then."
Dave took the dragon and began walking toward Urburg"s gate.
When he was about to leave the city, an undead approached him. It was a Death Knight, but this one wore red ceremonial robes.
"Spark, what"s up?"
"I saw you going out of the city. As fascinating as this place might be, I would rather explore the Wilds."
"Tag along then, I was feeling a bit bored and wanted to do some hunting. You can come along if you wish."
A loud thud sounded next to Dave. Turning, Dave saw the tengu standing next to him, with arms crossed as he said, "Then I shall also join."
Dave shrugged. "Suit yourself."
"Hold! I wish to come. I want to see if I can meet my former clansmen. By now, they should have elected a new Orc-Chieftain, I want to see if he is strong enough to lead them. If not, I"ll slay him myself!" Singund said in a single breath.
Dave shook his head. He only wanted to take a stroll with Onixya to show her around Urburg, and now he had four Death Knights following along.