Rumors indeed had not been mistaken, liches are all evil creatures!
They are just too evil!
Isabel's face flushed as she fled from Amberser's study, if this were a human lord, there would probably have been some unsavory rumors spreading about.
But within this ancient and gloomy castle, nobody cared about such trivial matters.
A group of nervous people gathered in the center of the hall on the first floor of the castle, each with their own thoughts, staring at Isabel atop the stairs.
They were finally about to announce the reclamation plan, which for them was a turning point in their lives.
Isabel had never tried to speak in front of hundreds of people, and even though she mustered as much courage as she could, she still stumbled over her words.
"This... the Lich Lord has said, we can start reclaiming land today... the specific arrangements, we'll divide up according to the number of able-bodied people..."
But before she could finish, someone impatiently interrupted.
"What about our previous lands? I had two acres of land and a house in my former territory!"
"Yes, I had an acre too."
"And I had a cow!"
"Wasn't it said that everything would get better once we came here? If we start over, we'll be ruined!"
...
A crowd of people talked all at once, completely drowning out Isabel's voice.
The inexperienced young girl had never seen such chaos and was immediately scared pale, collapsing on the stairs.
Just as the scene turned into a complete mess and Isabel began to panic, the crowd, becoming more and more agitated, seemed to press in on her, as if they were going to surround her.
Hadn't everything been fine just before? How had these desperate refugees become so frightening just as they were about to start a new life?
Just as Isabel was about to be scared into running away, a grating sound pierced the air, like a blade scraping against stone.
Everyone followed the noise and saw the stern-faced Raul standing in the center of the hall.
In his right hand, he held a large iron hammer, and beside his left was a strangely shaped skeleton; the grating noise from a moment ago was the sound of this skeleton's scythe-like arms scraping against the ground.
This was the Alien Skeleton Kazik No.1 created by Amberser, and many present had witnessed the might of this skeleton. As they fled their lands, they were pursued by the lord's soldiers, and it was this bizarre skeleton that had stepped in and driven off the pursuers.
Despite its bizarre appearance, this skeleton was powerful enough to crush an entire militia squad fully armed.
Raul, with the iron hammer on his shoulder, walked step by step towards the crowd.
The same crowd that moments ago was agitated enough to nearly revolt, now silenced as cicadas in winter, voluntarily parted ways, clearing a path for him.
Without a word, Raul walked on, and the Alien Skeleton silently followed behind. The sound of footsteps and the scraping noise of bone claws echoed within the castle, as if more deafening than the quarrel that had preceded.
Raul walked up to Isabel and said sternly, "Stand up, Isabel. Don't disgrace the Lich Lord."
Isabel hurriedly stood up, and quickly apologized, "I'm sorry, I..."
Raul cut her off, "Now is not the time for apologies, have you done what the Lich Lord has tasked you with?"
Isabel didn't expect Raul to speak in such a manner, coming across as if he were a loyal servant to Amberser.
Raul helped Isabel to her feet, and then turned to address the cowering refugees, "Do any of you have objections to the Lich Lord's plans?"
Everyone's eyes fell on the menacing, bizarre skeleton, and they had completely calmed down, remembering anew that the lord of these lands was a lich.
In the depths of the ancient castle, Amberser watched everything happening in the hall through a magic projection. It was he who had arranged for Raul to help Isabel steady the situation, and now it seemed that there was no need for him to worry anymore.
Raul's transformation pleased Amberser greatly, for once one had personally experienced slaughtering one's own kind, even the tamest sheep would begin to turn into a ferocious beast.
With a wave of his hand, Amberser dismissed the investigative magic and once again focused his energy on research.
He had already browsed through "Research on Ghost Breeding" once. Although he may not have fully grasped the experimental details, he had thoroughly understood the basic principles.
Master Morgan was inspired by the process of human reproduction.
Humans reproduce, and after ten months of gestation, a child is born with a soul. If one disregards the body and looks solely at the soul level, it is as if two independent souls have come together in some way to give birth to a new soul.
Similarly, all species with souls have some way to increase the number of souls.
And these nascent souls have not experienced the process of physical death, so they do not inherently belong to the undead.
If one could replicate this soul multiplication process, where one plus one is greater than two, through magical means, then the newborn souls could be turned into spirit puppets, a special type of undead not susceptible to holy magic.
This might sound simple, but to replicate soul reproduction without the aid of a physical body is more difficult than for a mortal to become a legend.
Master Morgan spent a thousand years and finally created a special ritual magic, capable of soul-level breeding, which he named "Soul Embryo".
The entire "Research on Ghost Breeding" revolves around the ritual magic of the "Soul Embryo," detailing all the principles clearly and comprehensively.
Creation is difficult, but duplication is far simpler.
Amberser was confident he could replicate this ritual magic, the only problem being—the cost was prohibitively high.
Just to successfully complete one ritual magic, the cost would be nearly fifty thousand Gold Coins.
And that was just the cost needed for the nascent souls. After that, one still needed to construct a suitable body for the fragile souls, or else these newborn souls would quickly "die" due to the loss of a physical sustenance.
This "death" does not mean the soul dissipates, but rather that it cannot maintain a state of "living" and will rapidly transform into the undead. Only specially made spirit puppets can keep the soul active while also having the undead's convenience of being easily disassembled and reassembled.
The creation of a spirit puppet body would again require a substantial amount of Gold Coins, and if one wanted it to possess any significant combat capability, the cost would be astronomical.
To create a spirit puppet comparable to high-order undead would conservatively cost two hundred thousand Gold Coins.
Amberser muttered to himself, "To spend two hundred thousand Gold Coins on a spirit puppet, which only has the combat power of a high-order undead, I'd be better off hiring a few human professionals of high rank to serve me with that amount of money. It's no wonder this invention has not become widespread—its cost is simply too high, offering no value for money whatsoever."
However, Amberser was not disappointed; instead, he was so excited that the Soul Fire almost burst from his eye sockets.
Because he discovered that he could significantly reduce the production cost of the spirit puppets.
Pseudo-Soul, this was a special magic Amberser obtained when he ascended to a legend. He could create different souls according to his needs. The perfection with which those Alien Skeletons functioned was due entirely to the exclusive souls Amberser had crafted for them. Otherwise, having human souls control eight bone claws, for example, would be highly inefficient.
After reading Master Morgan's work, Amberser estimated he could use the Pseudo-Soul magic to replace the "Soul Embryo" ritual magic, which would greatly reduce the cost.
As for the body of the spirit puppet, Amberser looked at the large glass bottle on the table, which contained the cheap Living Mercury. The Living Mercury, which had a body with high Magic Resistance but lacked a soul, could be perfectly adapted with minor modifications to the Pseudo-Soul that Amberser customized.
Magical research is truly an interesting endeavor; perhaps even Master Morgan could not have imagined that, centuries after his demise, a Lich would receive the legendary gift of Pseudo-Soul. Nor could he have anticipated that the madmen of Alchemy City would have created Living Mercury, the perfect material for spirit puppets.
And now, Amberser stood upon the shoulders of giants, about to embark on a glitteringly lucrative path to riches.
"Master Morgan, if you hadn't passed away, I would have truly wanted to exchange thoughts with you," Amberser said with a sigh. If that master had lived to see this day, perhaps Alchemy City could indeed have completed that mysterious project of deification—such is the power of knowledge.
Having finished his reflection, Amberser began to prepare his materials.
The first spirit puppet creation experiment was about to begin!