After tasking every undead, Dezen came back to his house, and prepared a map, showing the region he lives in, along with the neighbouring ones. Then, he waited for Alex and Chloe, using this time to rest a little.
Not long after, they entered the living and saw Dezen. With a gesture, he invited them to the table.
- I thought that I should tell you the whole plan of creating a merchant company I have, and places I want you to take in it. Well, if you want it Alex, I already hired Chloe, so I know she is willing.
- I do.
- We will be only transporting goods from town to town, at first between Harben, Ternen and Aren. I won't be participating in this, since I have other important plans regarding future, which need me to personally take care of them. Chloe, you will take my place and will have help of human undead. Unluckily, I lack knowledge, so at first there may be some shortcomings, we will have to deal with. You will be overseeing the transport, delivering it to the clients, and receiving them. Besides this, you will have to prepare human undead to take this position in my next caravans in the future. Manual work, guarding and so on will be done by the undead.
For her, it was like a dream job. Well, to be honest, after being a prostitute, probably the majority of other jobs sounds like one, especially the ones which seems to be easy, safe and well paid, thus Chloe visibly happy.
- I will do my best.
Dezen nodded and said.
- Since the undead don't need to rest, nor have any human needs, I want the caravan to travel the whole day. I will buy a carriage that will make it comfortable. If there is none like that, I will order a specially made one.
- Thank you. - Chloe smiled even more, and wondered how to show her gratitude.
Dezen told to Alex.
- You, on the other hand, will be going between these 3 towns, and new ones in the future, to looks for possible new clients, and regularly checking out current ones, to see if there is something we need to know about. Also, you will be our connection with the world, looking for information about what happens in the country, and region. Possibly the continent too. Church of Alen will be a good source, so I already asked my friend, Zan, to help you, but you will have to look for others ones by your own. About the payment for Zan, I will take care of this.
- I will try my best too... Though I don't know how to do it. I guess I will use the trial and error method.
- I have already taken care of the formalities. Now, we only have to find the best shops, and places to leave the caravan if there will be such a need, though I doubt it.
Before Dezen continued, Alex interrupted him.
- I wonder... If the caravan will be made from the undead, can you use to make task, like killing criminals? It could be an additional source of income.
- Not really. Assignments of killing bandits are not so often, I don't want to lose undead, protecting the caravan is more important, and there are other reasons for this, but it is good that you try to... Find a way to earn more. I appreciate it. - He smiled, and started talking about the details.
Chloe, who heard Alex's idea, even though it wasn't good, didn't want to be worse. Because of it, she focused more on how to earn more money, than on what Dezen was saying.
When he ended, she added, a little stressed.
- I thought that you could also use your undead for production. Like, hiring a blacksmith, or a tailor to teach them, and then sell what they make. Maybe even writing newspapers? From what I heard it takes a lot of time, they are made only in small amounts, and people can always make mistakes. Maybe your undead will be better.
- That's... A good idea. Excellent. Though, if I used them on a large scale, I could take the jobs of many people, and I wouldn't want it.
Alex added.
- You could use them in jobs that always have little people in them. Or to do something people won't. Like working in the deepest mines in Charbert Mountain Range (mountain range where Harben is), there are surely more resources that could be mined, but no one is willing to risk their lives for it.
- That's... Not bad either. However, I will need more undead to do this, and their lack is my main problem now. Besides this, my mana production is limited. I've already planned to focus on cultivating, but the second problem... - He looked at the table and said nothing. After a while of thinking about the solution, Dezen looked out the window, on the trees outside. - Alex, where are the trees my undead cut down, to make place for prison (the place where he keeps caught animals)?
Alex answered, and they all went there. Besides trees that were cut down, the undead also took the dead ones they've found. Dezen revived them all, and with help of his servants, started modifying them.
They ended in 2 days, during which Alex and Chloe prepared teachers for the undead.
As for now they were enough, but Dezen still thinking from where he can get more undead. He could always get them by hunting and killing plants, but it wasn't an option for him. Even though he doesn't understand ecology, he understands that mass murdering creatures will negatively affect the area they are living in, and he doesn't want to cause it. Besides this, he could be suspended of ecocide and executed.
After an hour, he didn't come up with anything, so he went outside and started walking in the woods, partly to relax and let his mind rest a little. Sometimes he was appreciating the trees, sometimes the dead organic matter, like leafs, was catching his attention. The latter was rather annoying, thus he was often thinking about it. For him, the dead matter was useless, but started thinking if there is any way to use it, since finding the solution of lack of undead didn't seem to be close to achieving.
"Maybe I could use this to feed animals, or burn it. Wonder what would happen if I used revive spell on them. Probably nothing, after all, they are dead part of a living body, thus they can't become undead as living creatures cannot be changed into them. But, maybe, after all, it is dead, so maybe I could use it somehow."
In a minute, he came up with something, but his idea needed a new spell, so he went back to his house to create it, while also ordering his undead insects to collect as much dead organic matter as possible.
In the next few days, Dezen focused on creating a new spell, since it could solve his biggest current problem. Alex and Chloe bought and made orders for everything to create the first caravan, also signing contracts for him.
To test the spell he made, Dezen ordered his undead to divide the collected dead organic matter, not wanting to create one big new undead. He looked at them, then at his undead who were close, and said the name of the spell.
Dark-green-black fog appeared around him, and flew towards the dead matter. Dezen watched this, a little dissatisfied with the colour he didn't like. Personally, he would prefer it to be purple, instead of green, but he couldn't do such a trick yet.
All that matter - leafs, branches, flowers and others - rose, and created human shapes. It looked really unusual, since they were just kept together by some force, and not merged, but Dezen didn't complain. For him, quality was more important than looks, right now.