After I had encountered Albert's group, I found six other groups of bandits. I killed every single one of them and looted their corpses. My corpse count increased until I had all the zombies I could and my skeletons reached two hundred or so, I was now closer to the capacity of a thousand skeletons.
Still, their loot wasn't as good as Albert's, they were all bigger groups but without a single one that trained in Mana, so I just got little more than two golds and thirty silvers from them….
We had already spent the entire day walking, I was extremely tired and at the same time envied Albert's undead constitution. We had stopped for the night and set up camp, it was already dark by the time it was set up.
We had cleared a small place in the overgrowth where we put our camp. Albert had lit the fire and was stoking it, putting some small dry branches every now and then so the fire would burn brighter. We were quite conspicuous, anyone in hundreds of meters from us or who had an advantage point would be able to notice our camp.
That was on purpose though, since I hoped some bandits would attack, which didn't happen, unfortunately.
Instead of my usual scholar's robes, I wore my Death mantle that wasn't conspicuous-looking, it would be hard to differentiate it from normal black robes. I also bought a cheap mask with a smiling expression back in town, and I had it by my side. Hiding my identity is important and caution is never enough. (Says the guy trying to attract threats…)
Albert was still the same, but I covered his face with a hood and a piece of brown cloth I found earlier. He looked like a ferocious warrior, sworn to die on the battlefield… Even though he's already dead.
Sixth was by my side, ceaselessly typing on his phone. I guess he was speaking to his brothers or something.
"Hey, Sixth… Who are your brothers? Are they known Gods on earth or here?" I asked, curious about their origin.
"My brothers are ascended mortals, each became omnipotent through different ways and circumstances." He answered, not looking away from his phone. "None of them but my second brother is worshiped anywhere… But three of them came from planets that resembled earth in many ways." He said, putting his phone on his pocket. For some reason, he looked sad when he talked about his brothers.
"So… You are the youngest one? Wait… Do you guys even perceive time as important?" I asked, getting more curious, I didn't even notice Sixth's changing mood.
"In a way, I am indeed the youngest one. We don't perceive time as you do, actually, we weren't even supposed to be affected by any type of chronology." He explained, now looking visibly proud of himself and his brothers. "However, my first brother decided to make a unified timeline throughout different realities, so we ascended in chronological order, making me the youngest. Every ascended being lives by his timeline, not just my brothers." He added, with a look of admiration when he spoke of his first brother.
I was going to ask whether his first brother was the most powerful among them, but Albert interrupted me before I was able to do so.
"Lord Knight. I am sorry to interrupt the Lord's conversation, but it seems a large group of enemies is fighting northwards." He said, looking towards the north, where I could now see a bright horizon in the middle of the night... I wonder how I didn't notice this before?
"Yes, there does seem to be people there… Wait, you can see Sixth?" I asked, surprised that he noticed I was having a conversation with someone, anyone that looked at me now would only see me talking to myself.
Albert nodded, seeming to find the question weird. Being conscious for so long, Albert was starting to show the ability to have opinions and emotions, so he was already able to change his mood and have truly independent thought.
"I think I said before that I am invisible only if I want to be. Your minions can see me just like you, so there's no need to be surprised." Sixth said, not even looking away from his phone. Still, he had his usual mocking grin on.
When we had just met, I was always inwardly angry at his antics, especially at his smile. But now I notice that's just the way he is, and since he's a companion that's with me 24/7, I grew used to it… You tend to get more familiar with someone that sees you taking a dump.
"Albert, we are going to see what is happening... Covertly." I said while putting my mask.
"Yes, my liege!" Albert answered, getting up and standing ready, his right hand ready to unsheathe his sword at any time.
Both of us started walking towards the lights, Albert stood in front of me for protection...
The further we walked, the brighter the lights became, and after a little while we started hearing screaming noises.
When we reached a distance where the screams were extremely clear, and we could already hear the sound of metal clashing, I gestured for Albert to scout ahead.
He walked towards the source of the noises, and after ten minutes he came back.
"There are two parties, one has fifty-odd people and the other has more than a hundred. The former has two apprentice martial artists, the other has four apprentice martial artists. The first party is losing and one of its experts is heavily injured. The losing party is a merchant caravan, probably from a small-sized guild, while the other is composed by more than one major bandit group of the region." Albert reported, explaining the situation in a single breath. He also explained to me that bandit groups usually don't have martial artists, having even one is enough to be a major bandit group.
"Okay. We are helping them." I said matter-of-factly.
When I declared my intention of helping them, Sixth looked at me as if I was some kind of mentally challenged person.
"Why the fuck are you helping them?! You are a necromancer, so you shouldn't be exposing yourself easily!" He jeered, scolding me for my idiotic idea.
"You are wrong." I retorted. "My reputation is already bad for the simple fact that I am a necromancer, so everyone will try to kill me when they discover me anyway, and it's just a matter of time before they do... But if I build my personal reputation to be good, I will definitely have fewer enemies, and maybe I even acquire allies."
What I did came from my knowledge from my previous world that, only the weak people know good and evil. The elite people of society know no eternal friends or enemies, only eternal benefits. It's not far-fetched that some people already befriended necromancers, especially since they can provide exclusive services. It is even more unlikely that secular powers would be keen on obeying a church, which I already know they aren't.
When Sixth heard my line of thought (Literally, he read my mind.), he acknowledged that while risky, it really had its own advantages. Fighting the world is a difficult thing, after all, so he ended up agreeing with my line of thought.
"I sometimes forget you are actually smart, I hope this goes well for you. Or not. It's interesting for me either way." Sixth chuckled after saying what was both a praise and an insult.
I ignored his antics, while feeling inwardly smug that he acknowledged my intelligence, and started preparing for battle.
Making twelve short gestures and two longer gestures, the two cores flew out of my hand. When the cores came out, they floated in front of me and started dissipating into black mist, becoming my undead minions.
"Charge at the Bandits! Protect the Merchants!" I said with a loud yell, declaring my stance. If I just charged without saying on whose side I was on, they would probably attack my undead as well.
Like the starting shot from a race, my scream started the charge of the undead, the hundreds of skeletons charging in front, followed by the slower zombies.
The bandits were caught by surprise and were flanked from both sides by the undead and the guards. The skeletons stabbed many bandits and killed them instantly before retreating and letting the zombies attack, the zombies took damage before letting the skeletons behind attack, the zombies that retreated were healed by me before going back to the fight. That was the battle strategy I thought of after seeing the undead perform in the other battles.
The man that was being attacked by three Bandits had much more leeway after two of them were attacked by Albert, and they were able to defeat their opponents in little less than ten moves before moving to help the other one that was battling the bandit Martial artist, killing him instantly.
They were of the same level, but it seems like the skill of those guards was much better than the bandits. Albert himself was far from them in swordsmanship, even though he made up for that with the extra strength and the power of necrotic energy, which is greater than mana.
After that, the experts joined the guards to kill the remaining bandits before emerging victorious. It was a one-sided massacre with so many against so few, and with three experts helping it was over very fast...
However, no one celebrated.
The survivors separated into two groups, my rotten undead army looked at the merchants, exuding a naturally menacing momentum. The guards, on the other hand, looked at the undead warily, none daring to sheathe their swords. All of them were afraid, something the undead could not feel.
The Merchant Experts were also ready to attack Albert at a moment's notice but waited for our actions first.
"Lay down your weapons! We mean no harm!" I exclaimed, going through the undead and walking towards the guards.
Like the red sea in the Bible, the guards opened the way for me. That was the deterring force of the title 'Death Lord', a name that was equal to calamity in the hearts of many.
I reached the wagons of the caravans and stood by the side of Albert, looking at the experts.
"Who… Who are you? Why did you help us?" Asked the martial artist with light injuries, obviously suspicious and afraid of me.
I looked at him through my mask, with cold eyes that made my figure even more menacing along with the added effect of the blood-stained black robe. The man started shivering after I looked at him, but was surprised by my next action.
Lightly, I bowed towards him, showing my friendly disposition.
"My name is Vrygewig, I am just a friendly neighborhood necromancer."
I hope master Lee doesn't get angry at this pun in heaven...