After mapping the two unfortunate souls, Orcus branded their image into his mind. After doing so, he ordered the skeletal lieutenant to take his troop to guard the tomb entrance.
"Yes, my Lord." the towering warrior replied in a raspy, spectral voice.
With the location somewhat protected for the time being, Orcus stood in the center of the chamber with his arms outstretched, directing the death energy flowing through his body. At Orcus' command, the green death energy flowed from his fingertips, forming a runic circle on the floor. As the circle came into being, death energy leaped out of Orcus, coalescing into three skeletal soldiers, wearing the same iron breastplate over leather armor as the other skeletons raised by Orcus. As Orcus dropped to the floor in exhaustion, the trio turned and bowed in unison.
"Greetings to our Lord." they said in raspy voices much like the skeleton lieutenant's.
In response Orcus merely nodded, sitting down to recover his death energy by converting nearby mana. 'It seems like three a day will be my limit for now. Soul creation is still as taxing as ever it seems.' he thought to himself. While almost no actual energy was required to create a soul, it was extremely draining for one's mind, which consumed energy to recover. All of this is also considering that Orcus had thoroughly mastered the art of soul weaving, and thus only had the minimal amout of strength to do so. A normal or even a powerful necromancer would have to pay thousands of times the price for a far worse result, which they might not even be able to control.
Holding up and summoning for ten days, Orcus now had a force of 60 skeleton warriors, 1 skeleton knight, and 2 skeleton mages. With these forces, Orcus decided that it was time to move, as whoever sent Orcus his recruits would probably be suspicious by now if they were close by.
As such, Orcus sent ten skeletal warriors to scout the surroundings the previous night. Since those he raised did not retain their personal memories, only combat experience, so they could not assist. Even with that being the case, Orcus now knew the location of the nearest town, the villages surrounding it, and two bandit camps. He planned on striking the bandit camps first, as they were farther from the eyes of any major forces in his hopes.
After a few hours, Orcus and his entourage reached the first bandit camp. Not bothering with stealth, Orcus and the two mages quickly mowed down the dozen and a half bandits with their spells. Raising said bandits as skeletons, Orcus had his new recruits sack their former home. Finding a decent amount of coin and two captive women, Orcus cared more for the former. Killing the two women, he tore their skeletons apart and reformed them with his death energy, granting Orcus a bone chestplate with pauldrons. After reinforcing his new equipment with his power, Orcus headed for the second bandit camp.
Unlike the previous group, the new bandits were better equipped and disciplined. After reanimating the fallen from both sides, as undead could be revived indefinetly so long as one had the skill, Orcus' party members grew from 81 to 147 with 31 skeleton bandits, 110 skeleton warriors, 3 skeleton knights, 1 skeleton knight captain, and 2 skeleton mages. Another difference was that Orcus had stumbled upon a human trafficking operation. Ten young men and an equal amount of young women were shaking in terror as they were surrounded by the living dead, before Orcus emerged to speak to them.
"You fellows still seem to have at least some of your wits left to you, so how about you earn your lives and tell me where we are?" Orcus prodded.
Seeing someone standing amongst the walking corpses gave the group even greater horror, as everyone had heard tales of necromancers and their evil ways. It went so far as to say that if even a single necromancer was found, a strike force of battlemages supported by two knight captains would be sent in to kill the necromancer before their undead army could grow. Bringing up his courage, one young man stepped forward.
"W-we only know that the nearest town is called Matyr, a-and its supposed to be a trading h-hub." He answered pleadingly.
Orcus frowned before speaking coldly, "Not much that I didn't already know, you haven't earned your right to live just yet."
The group of slave's faces blanched before they prostrated as one.
"Please spare us, Lord!" they cried, clinging to what they believed the only chance of survival.
Seeing them prostrate gave Orcus an idea, as he thought, 'As I am not a god, I have no need for faith energy, but if I can change that into death energy...' a maniacal plan crept into Orcus' mind. Looking down at them, he began to speak.
"There are two choices before you: to worship and serve me in life, or do the same in death."
Hearing the ultimatum, the slaves actually sighed in relief. They had already lost faith in the gods when their homes were pillaged and kinsmen slaughtered. If they were sold as slaves, their fate was sealed, the girls would be thoroughly violated each night while the boys served as practice targets for mages or warriors should they not work in the mines.
"We worship you, our Lord." they said as they prostrated.
What they didn't notice however, was twenty wisps of death energy entering their foreheads, which would bind their souls to Orcus, guaranteeing their loyalty. With that knowledge and the influx of faith energy, Orcus began to convert it into death energy and grow stronger.