Xiotal looked at Ritzy, clearly not in the mood to indulge his wishes.
"Why would I know where there are ruins like that? Besides, don't you already have enough treasure?"
Xiotal still answered his question, and she finished with a nod toward the ground, where Ritzy had stored the things he had taken from Xiotal.
Ritzy shrugged.
"You're old. One can never have too much treasure. Do you know where I can find stuff like dragon hearts, giant bones, unicorn horns, or mermaid scales, then?"
Xiotal hesitated for a second with a thoughtful expression before lighting up in realization.
"Oh! I do know where you can find stuff like that!"
"Really?! Where?"
Ritzy beamed in a more childish excitement than when they had watched the forest catch fire.
"Dragons, giants, unicorns, and mermaids, respectively."
Xiotal looked at Ritzy with a deadpan expression and spoke with a matching tone.
Ritzy matched her expression.
"Uh-huh."
Ritzy kept walking while glancing at Mognog.
"I think we might have picked up an idiot. Of course, you find dragon hearts in dragons. But where the fuck am I supposed to find a dragon?"
"Yeah. You might have to be overly clear when asking Xiotal things in the future. Otherwise, she might not understand. But if I am honest, I think it might be a tad early to start thinking about besting dragons right now."
Ritzy nodded.
"Yeah. Let's focus on expanding my army until we're strong enough then."
"Sounds good. Any ideas?"
Although Mognog had done his best to learn how Ritzy's magic and necromancy in general worked, he was still missing a lot of information, especially compared to Ritzy. It was naturally best if Ritzy, who was also the one who would be doing the army expansion, was in charge while Mognog simply helped with executing and refining the plans Ritzy made.
"A bunch of the treasures from Xiotal are useless but possibly valuable. I'm thinking we hit up a city and sell them to buy some high-quality Bone Chalk and a couple of enhancement spells. I should also look for a proper reanimation spell."
"Mmm. We can also use Unholy Avatar to source our own resources, right?"
Ritzy nodded at Mognog's suggestion.
"We can. But with some supporting spells, we can boost Avie's strength and get better quality materials."
"That first, then. Now we just need to find a city."
"There's a road over there. Let's just follow that."
"Oh, you should also set aside some time each day to train your mana, kiddo. The stronger you are, the stronger your army, right?"
Ritzy nodded. It was a real head-bobbing conversation.
Ritzy and Unholy Avatar walked on the road, following it in a direction Ritzy decided by letting a stick fall. Mognog rode on Ritzy's shoulder. Xiotal hovered in the air, dumbfounded by how even Mognog had roasted her intelligence. Eventually, she flapped her wings to catch up and flew slightly behind Ritzy, hoping to stay out of his sight. Unfortunately, that meant he was in her sight.
But it was better being forced to look at Ritzy than to converse with him, so Xiotal endured her plight without complaint.
After a while of following the road that luck had chosen for them, they arrived in front of a city.
"Hey…kiddo?"
"Yeah?"
"This is totally Benin, no?"
Ritzy nodded.
"So it seems."
Xiotal had calmed down and reinforced her nerves during the walk, and she felt brave enough to voice her curiosity.
"What's the matter with that?"
Ritzy pointed at Unholy Avatar with his thumb.
"That's where this guy is from."
Xiotal shied away in fright.
"I suggest we turn around."
If it was a place that could create materials for Ritzy to make such abominations as the Unholy Avatar, it was certainly, without a doubt, a horrible place. Xiotal did not want to enter. She even began tugging on Ritzy's clothes, trying to urge him the other way.
Ritzy ignored that and looked at Mognog out of the corner of his eye as he tilted his head.
"Since…that guy is dead, we shouldn't have any problems, right?"
Mognog would have shrugged if he could, even if it were an unprofessional gesture.
"Not unless he was working for someone or set up some kind of insurance in case you decided to circle back after he and his men left the city."
Ritzy nodded decisively.
"Good thing I'm not the same as I was back then."
Although it had only been a few days, almost a week, since Ritzy had left Benin behind, he had changed a lot. He had also reinforced his troops. He no longer had solely Mognog to rely on. Thanks to Unholy Avatar and Xiotal, he had started building an armed force capable of violence and self-defense.
Ritzy strode through the city gates.
The guards paid attention to him, but that was because of the Unholy Avatar and his grotesque appearance. Xiotal hid for obvious reasons. Unfortunately, she had to hide in Ritzy's shirt. It was surprising, but he, fortunately, smelled nice, so it wasn't as horrible as she had feared.
One guard stopped Ritzy and asked what the deal with Avie was, but they were in Drychness, the home of necromancy. So, after Ritzy explained that he was the result of an experiment, they just nodded and let him enter. Necromancers weren't rare, and neither were their minions.
Besides, Unholy Avatar looked dangerous and threatening, but after living in Drychness long enough, the line between harmless and dangerous grew blurry. They had also seen worse things. Ritzy couldn't help but grow a little curious when he overheard the guards talk amongst each other about the worst they had seen, either watching the gates or around Drychness, but he had to keep walking due to the stream of people.
He also had business to finalize. Besides, Ritzy was going to uncover every last riveting secret of necromancy on his own. He would sooner or later learn everything there was to know about the magic arts of the dead.
Ritzy's head turned from side to side as he and Mognog scouted their surroundings after entering the city.
"Doesn't look like anyone's itching for a beating."
"Yeah. Mercel might have been the top dog of those aiming for you, kiddo."
"Who's that?"
"'That guy'. You know?"
"Ah. That guy. Good riddance, I guess. But it's a shame. I wanted to try out Avie and put his strength to the test."
Ritzy shook his head as if it was a loss not to be attacked as soon as they entered the city.
"Yeah, a real shame. Guess you will have to finish your business quickly and enter the wilderness again so you can test him against monsters or something."
"Yup."
"Psst."
Xiotal carefully caught Ritzy's and Mognog's attention from her hiding spot within Ritzy's collar.
"That looks like a market. Should we look there?"
She stretched out a hand and pointed in a direction where a bunch of people had set up stalls selling various things.
"We're looking for spells and necromancy resources, not vegetables, Xiotal."
Ritzy spoke with a disappointed, almost disgusted tone.
"What's the difference?"
"What's the—What's the difference?! Goipers! Can you believe this chick, Moggy?"
"Nope. Now that we've mostly escaped the galére, we can just ditch her, right?"
Xiotal gaped as she looked at Mognog. She hadn't expected him to betray her like that.
"H-hey! You can't do that!"
Ritzy raised an eyebrow as he glanced down at Xiotal.
"We can't?"
"No! Not after everything I've done for you!"
"You mean like making me an enemy of your galére?"
"...Putting that aside, I've given you a lot of treasure—"
"Payment for my work."
"...I set fire to the forest as you asked."
"Diversion to help us, including you, escape the galére."
"..."
"You're not making a strong case for yourself, Xiotal."
Mognog snickered slightly. He still found Xiotal slightly suspicious.
"I can help out! I can use magic! Can either of you do that?"
Xiotal stared at Ritzy and Mognog with a triumphant smile as she crossed her arms. She had noticed earlier that they didn't have a proper mage on their team.
"Hear that, Moggy?"
"Loud and clear. She promised to be our little magic errand girl."
"Wha—? No, I didn't. I said I can use magic to help you guys out!"
"Good. That means it's not the entire world if I don't get a lich or mage-type next time I try to summon or make an undead."
Ritzy let out a short, menacing chuckle that sent shivers down Xiotal's spine.
'Did they plan that? When?'
Xiotal couldn't help but think that the entire conversation had been a setup. She tried to get Ritzy to change his mind about subjecting her to slave-like working conditions. But Ritzy turned a deaf ear to her pleading, which wasn't that loud since she still had to remain hidden.
Instead, he focused on entering the depths of the market Xiotal had pointed out. While it had vegetables and common goods on the surface, Ritzy saw several individuals who were as likely to touch a vegetable as cats were likely to touch dog poop.
"Hehe. Black market time!"
Ritzy's excitement bubbled up as he looked forward to entering his first black market in search of necessary, hopefully, illegal goods.