NGJ Chapter 57: Necropolis
After my spar or should I say me demolishing Akeno I made up my mind on her training. It was actually quite a simple method that did not involve my direct interference.
I created 20 Skeleton Thieves at level 100, they would last long enough. Her training was to defeat all of them before 7 hours passed. The thieves would not hurt her they have only wooden knives, after all, they would also try to hide and even fake death too.
The purpose of this training was to teach her to deal with trickier opponents and innovate more with her spells, because with her current spells, there was basically no chance of her hitting the thieves unless they threw the battle.
That should keep her occupied, Kiba and Koneko were sparring, lastly, Rias was training her power of destruction.
I supposed it's time for my own training.
Walking into the woods I set up a chameleon curtain before using Instant Dungeon.
And choosing Necropolis finally.
...
The moment my feet had touched down on the grimy, grey dirt ground of the Necropolis I summoned my entire army without hesitation as dozens of Skeleton Demons, Death Knights and several Archers lined up behind me with Fido, Alpha and Wiz by my side.
I have already experienced the dungeons fucking me in the asshole with all of their might before. And in a place like the Necropolis where just about any hero can fling a magic arrow capable of killing at least a dozen people minimum I need to be prepared.
Black smog covered the sky, the air itself was oppressive, skeletons poked out of the creepy dead dirt ground. Tombstones stretched to the horizon. I could see buildings that had rotted down to mere ruins.
And the cursed energy in the atmosphere was so... dense. Like several times denser than Kuoh. Due to just how much cursed energy was here even though my Photosynthesis is turned off due to the smog my CE regen is still high.
In fact, I think maybe I can figure out a way to absorb ambient cursed energy faster. If I could do it, it would greatly increase my CE regen.
Anyway, I focused on my cursed energy sense, since there weren't any giant landmarks in the distance due to the smog obstructing our vision even with his cursed eyes he could only see as well as the average person.
I do not want to bump into a creature dwelling or a creature bank, as those places seem like they would have the most concentration of enemies. And I do not want to face a horde of tier 4 enemies anytime soon.
When suddenly a great idea came to my head.
I had a feeling that now I could probably use necromancy on dungeon dwellers since they are capable of dropping souls, maybe my game updated them to do so. So I had my undead dig up several intact skeletons before using Create undead to create several skeleton thieves to scout ahead for me.
As they were scouting ahead I felt one of the skeletons inform me of something. And I switched my vision to theirs just in time to see them get beheaded by a skeleton soldier.
But before it died I managed to see a decently large army heading in my direction. But for now, I decided to stand my ground, it did not seem like the army of a strong hero, I needed to see what I was up against ahead after all.
Of course, I had my rangers spread out and sit on top of the nearby hills and broken houses. And soon an army came into range. Led by a rotting man in armour riding upon a black undead horse.
[Straker the Death Knight - Lv. 170]
He led an army of several hundred Zombies, some were equipped with light armor wielding sledgehammers while the other zombies were only wearing bare necessities and wielding butcher knives. The first were Zombies around lv 70 while the others were Walking Dead the lesser variation at around 40.
Around 100 Skeletons and Skeleton warriors. The skeletons only wielded straight swords and nothing more while the warriors actually had armor and shields along with their swords. The normal skeletons were around lv 25 while the warriors were around 50.
Around 50 Wights and Wraiths. In fact the wights there were the same kind of wights I create. Though the ones led by the death knight were around level 75 while the Wraiths were around 110.
Nothing above tier 3 that was good, I don't know how well I would face off against vampire lords or god forbid Power Liches and Dread Knights. With my current army, there was no way. Thankfully due to my previous dungeon runs some of my skeleton demons were more equipped than others.
But at an uncomfortably fast rate, Straker's army arrived and I knew why, it was because of his specialization.
[Zombie Specialist: Increases the stats of all Zombies under your command by 20% and their Agility by 33%]
Straker himself was no slouch either although his magic stats were tiny compared to mine he could easily defeat me hand to hand. I needed to take care of him first so that he couldn't buff his army and his command would fall into disarray. This wasn't going to be an easy battle.
My Death Knights fell into position as a wall between me and the army ahead. I was massively outnumbered. I had around 20 Death Knights around level 100 around 30 Skeleton Demons around level 70 and 10 Skeleton Rangers level 60. Alpha was at level 121 while stats were higher than his level would suggest. And then there was Wiz who was higher level than everyone here but was a glass cannon.
Suddenly Straker raised his hand and I saw his horde of zombies get SIGNIFICANTLY faster as if they were carried by the wind. Seeing as they were in range, I gave Wiz the signal as suddenly the Cinnabun that was Wiz suddenly turned serious and a ludicrous amount of blue magic power was released out of her.
It was one thing to know and the other to experience it. An intricate and large magic circle appeared on Wiz's hands as he released the spell.
"{Blizzard}!" *Whooosh!*
A hundred-meter-wide gale of freezing winds hit the army of Straker, arresting the momentum of the zombies in place as their feet were frozen to the ground, some skeletons and wights even directly died from the impact.
Immediately I sent my undead toward his army as Straker looked enraged, He held his hand up as I saw magic energy gather in his hand with my cursed eyes seeing even through the smog. I created several ice lances and intercepted the magic arrow he had shot at Wiz.
With their bodies frozen from the blizzard, my Death Knights were easily mowing through the zombies and tanking their blows while my skeleton demons punched the heads off of the skeletons around. While I sprouted bone spikes out of the ground to intercept any of the stronger combatants before Straker suddenly jumped off of his horse.
Despite how decrepit he looked his physical stats were incredible at the cost of his mediocre magic. He dashed toward me before he was suddenly intercepted by Alpha, boosted by the cursed energy I was funnelling into him he was matching Straker blow for blow.
But he was at a disadvantage due to the Artifacts Straker had, particularly his axe. But he wasn't just fighting Alpha as I threw the occasional icicle and bone spike his way to worsen his position.
With the aid of Wiz who was basically an intelligent ICBM launcher, Straker's army was falling quickly. And as they were falling my army was getting stronger as they levelled up.
To end the battle I launched 3 volleys of overcharged Icicle Lances right into Straker as Alpha took his head off.
Now the entire army was clear, my army's average level had gone up by 10 while my own level rose by 8. Finally granting me the 500 Wisdom Perk.
[Boundless Wisdom]
Lessens the restrictions of learning skills and spells.
That's great, Maybe I can even learn some holy and light spells even as a Necromancer. Thanks to this I wouldn't even need a white mage class it seems. Good shit.
I had my undead loot the army, arming themselves with what the undead used while I looked over Straker's corpse and found two Treasure Class artefacts. Honestly, considering Straker is the weakest Hero of Necropolis having even 2 is good.
The first was the [Centaur's Axe].
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[Centaur's Axe]
Tier: Treasure
An unusually powerful one-handed war axe once used by a notorious Centaur warlord.
Options:
+20% Strength to the wielder and all troops under their command.
_____________________________
Obviously, I have this axe to Alpha as I had selected him as a general of my army so him wielding it still counts as a bonus to the undead I put under him. So I put all the Skeleton Demons and Death Knights under him.
The next one was something that interested me more.
_____________________________
[Quiet Eye of the Dragon]
Tier: Treasure
An ancient ring with the eye of a dragon embedded into it.
Options:
+10% Strength to the wielder and all troops under their command.
+10% Endurance to the wielder and all troops under their command.
_____________________________
Obviously, this one I slipped onto my own finger as it automatically adjusted size. Feeling the ring empower me I smirked, I would eventually get even Major class artifacts from this Necropolis but I had to be patient. I could feel another army approach me and I had to come back soon anyway.
But just before I headed I noticed one last thing on Straker's corpse.
His Magic Tome.
Grabbing it off his... corpse? He was already dead before so I guess his corpse squared?
Grabbing that last little trinket I had my soldiers return before I skedaddled out of the Necropolis. Not knowing I had avoided an entire legion of high-level skeletons led by a skeleton specialist marching toward me.
A/N: What did you think about the chapter? I would love to hear your thoughts, I really enjoy reading your comments even if I do not respond sometimes.
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