Li Ziyu was thrilled, as was the alpha wolf.
Just moments ago, they had seen a massive figure in the darkness. Naturally, they were startled. Who wouldn't be, seeing such a large creature charging out of the dark?
But as they got a clear look at the giant, their anxiety turned to confusion, then delight.
Bones!
So many bones!
Piled up like mountains, so many bones!
They hadn't expected a late-night delivery, especially one right to their doorstep.
Talk about a pleasant surprise, this was it!
Run?
There was no way they could run!
Even if the wolf king wanted to, its pack didn't. Finding food on the plains wasn't easy, and now bones were delivered right to their mouths. How could they resist?
Led by their alpha, the wolves pounced eagerly towards this "paradise."
The alpha, the biggest and fastest, was the first to reach the mobile fortress. It snapped at a bone, trying to pull it off with a shake of its head.
It did succeed, but not in pulling off a bone—instead, it pulled off a skeletal undead!
Grabbing its arm, the alpha undead didn't care. It had no pain sensation, so it simply clung on and leaped onto the wolf king.
Before the alpha could react, like dumplings, more skeletal undead emerged from the mobile fortress.
These basic skeletal undead were quite weak, lacking even weapons. Their attacks were limited to hitting with bones, scratching with claws, and biting with their fangs. Fortunately, being undead, they felt no pain and were strong, giving them some combat ability.
One or two undead were no concern for the alpha, but with eight or nine pouncing at once, it was overwhelmed. It was pinned down and emitted a pitiful howl.
It hoped its wolves would come to the rescue, but looking through the bone gaps, the alpha wolf lost hope.
All the wolves, including itself, met the same fate—pinned down by layers of skeletal undead, attacked relentlessly. No matter how the wolves resisted, it was futile.
With the wolves' cooperation, the battle lasted less than ten minutes. More than a dozen wolves, not one escaped, all turned into corpses, dragged back onto the mobile fortress and brought into the main castle.
Li Ziyu looked at the wolves' bodies dragged in, piled up like a small mountain, with a satisfied smile.
The wolves that dared to die were the good wolves!
Counting them, there were a total of fourteen wolves. In this wilderness, this was a decent harvest.
As for handling the wolf carcasses, Li Ziyu didn't need to worry; the system would handle it.
[Decompose wilderness wolves +1, obtain fresh wolf meat * 10 units, bones * 1 unit, damaged wolf skins * 1 piece, soul energy * 3 units]
[Decompose wilderness wolves +1, obtain ...]
...
The system's prompt sounded, and the mountain of wolf carcasses visibly decreased, decomposed one by one by the system, transformed into materials stored in the warehouse.
Fourteen wilderness wolves exchanged for 140 units of meat, 14 units of bones, 14 pieces of intact or damaged wolf skins, and 45 units of soul energy.
Li Ziyu glanced at the system prompt and found that the alpha wolf gave more soul energy than the other wilderness wolves, a small pleasant surprise.
As the lord of skeletal undead, other resources were secondary; bones and soul energy were the primary resources directly related to the number of skeletal undead.
Especially soul energy, not only could it be used to birth new skeletal undead, but also for the evolution of undead.
Li Ziyu hadn't expected to have a harvest so soon after nightfall, which was truly delightful.
Without hesitation, he ordered the conversion of 14 units of bones into skeletal undead. Basic skeletal undead required consuming 1 unit of bones and 1 unit of soul energy.
Opening the system and checking, including those just converted, there were exactly 200 skeletal undead.
Not bad at all, adding to his sense of security.
Li Ziyu looked quite content.
Thinking back to when he first crossed over, he was given only 10 skeletal undead and lived cautiously, fearing encountering powerful creatures and losing his life.
Now with 200 undead at hand, his sense of security was greatly enhanced.
The newly formed skeletal undead, along with the earlier ones, were attached to the main castle, transforming into the walls of the main building. This not only enhanced the castle's defense but also allowed them to swiftly appear in battle, the origin of the "skeletal architecture" feature.
After spending some time tidying up, Li Ziyu ordered the castle to continue moving forward. On one hand, he continued searching for prey; on the other hand, he sought a way out of the wilderness.
The wilderness was too barren, with few prey and few resources. To develop further, he needed to find a new environment.
The skeletal fortress resumed its advance, clanking forward, restoring peace once more.
Li Ziyu returned to his chair, continued eating the meal he hadn't finished, and absentmindedly opened the system. He clicked on the construction section, looking at the buildings inside with some helplessness.
A mobile castle certainly didn't only have one main building; it included many other buildings and technologies that needed to be constructed step by step, upgrading technology levels.
The types of buildings and technologies were diverse: some increased resource collection speed, some enhanced undead combat power, some improved the castle's mobility—all sorts of buildings and technologies were laid out before him.
What Li Ziyu needed most now were buildings that enhanced skeletal undead combat power and technologies that improved mobility. Indeed, the system had such buildings, but unfortunately, resources were lacking, making construction impossible.
[Weapon Workshop], [Armor Workshop], [Skeleton Engine]... All were fascinating things that he could only drool over. This was also why he was determined to leave the wilderness.
Without resources, not only summoning more skeletal undead became impossible, but even the castle's development was a major issue.
Glancing at it was fine, but looking at it too much was distressing. Li Ziyu rubbed his temples, closed the construction page, and opened the chat channel.
This was the system feature he was most enthusiastic about after arriving in the other world. After all, there were no entertainment options after crossing over—no movies, TV shows, variety shows, online novels, or anime, none of those existed in this other world.
To have some fun, he could only focus on the information shared in the chat channel. Without the chat channel, Li Ziyu didn't know how he would have spent the past three days.
The chat channel remained lively as ever, full of gossip, information sharing, and trade negotiations, with messages refreshing rapidly. Li Ziyu flipped through them slowly, eating barbecue.
[A Big Iron Hammer]: Long-term sales of stone and various ores, in exchange for alcohol and food, especially alcohol, as much as you want.
[Grandmaster Fishing Master]: Looking for food? Go to the river. Plenty of fish, no bait needed, just drop the hook. It's strange that someone still needs food at this time.
[Gold in the Desert]: What's a river?
[There are monsters]: There are indeed fish in the river, big enough to swallow a castle (/hand dog's head)
...
Li Ziyu paused, looking at the information about a Big Iron Hammer, his eyes narrowed slightly.
(End of this chapter)