After struggling for 18 days in the desolate Plains of Bones, Ande finally stood back and admired his five skeletal servants wielding massive axes, feeling a sense of accomplishment. It hadn't been easy, working day and night. Aside from these five loyal followers, Ande had "mercifully" destroyed over fifty skeletons that resisted his call.
Through experience, Ande had learned that giant axe skeletons were the easiest to summon. Other types, like skeleton swordsmen, spearmen, and archers, were much harder to tame, stubbornly refusing to "submit" despite Ande draining his mana trying.
He also attempted to mess with some zombies, knowing that even a Level 0 zombie had soul flames equal to a Level 1 skeleton. This difference in rank was significant—like how a hundred sheep would stand no chance against even a single low-level black knight. Although undead of all kinds could reach Level 40, the power gained varied greatly among types. Still, zombies were slow-moving, and Ande took some comfort in that.
Frustrated after failing once again to face off with zombies, Ande patched up his five skeletons overnight and set his sights back on targeting skeletons instead.
"Move out!" Ande imitated the hand gestures of famous commanders. Unfortunately, his "army" wasn't much to look at—just five skeletons, with only Dagama, his first recruit, glancing back at him for direction. The rest scattered in a messy line as soon as they sensed his command.
"Idiots!" Ande fumed, watching his soul flames flicker inside his skull.
After some yelling and orders, he finally got them in formation—a 3-2-1 pattern, with Ande wisely hanging back in the rear. The skeletons, although useless against zombies, became fierce when facing their own kind, slashing through stray skeletons with their axes.
Ande noticed that the undead population seemed to be on the rise. At first, the Plains of Bones had been relatively quiet, but after about two weeks, more skeletons and zombies were showing up and aimlessly wandering. Whenever he saw a zombie, Ande would slip away, but any freshly spawned skeletons were fair game for him and his followers.
After each battle, Ande would consume the majority of the soul flames for himself, passing on only the leftovers to his five skeleton servants. Despite this unequal division, the five minions had leveled up after several weeks. Ande, however, found his progress frustratingly slow. The bulk of the soul flames he devoured were absorbed by a black-and-red yin-yang shape at the center of his soul flame, converting most of the energy for its own use, leaving Ande with mere scraps.
The only noticeable improvement for Ande was that his mana capacity had grown enough to cast two more "Raise Skeleton" spells or five extra "Control Undead" spells. But memories of the skeleton mage temple still haunted him—if he reached Level 10 without a satisfactory gift for the death god, Heinrich, he might be in serious trouble.
As dawn approached, Ande shook off his concerns and rallied his slightly stronger skeleton servants for another day of hunting. The scarlet moons dipped below the horizon as he led them toward a forest of withered trees he'd scouted the previous evening. With his Level 2 skeletons, Ande planned a massacre.
The plan worked flawlessly as he commanded his squad to ambush a group of lower-level skeletons. He quickly lost interest in controlling the fight, letting his servants run wild while he climbed atop the skull of a long-dead giant beast to watch the mayhem unfold.
But then something felt wrong. Jumping down from his perch, Ande examined the massive skull and was nearly paralyzed with fear—it was a skeleton war elephant!
Skeleton war elephants were legendary for their toughness, strong enough to challenge a death knight head-on. And here lay seven of them, each with a fist-sized hole straight through the skull. They were all facing the withered forest, as if some terrifying force from within had struck them down.
Ande didn't wait around to find out more. He called his skeletons back and fled, his mind racing. He stopped only when the forest was out of sight. Now that he was a safe distance away, curiosity started to creep in—what was lurking inside that forest?
The urge to explore tempted him, but Ande quickly suppressed the thought. He knew he'd need to be much stronger before daring to investigate a place like that. For now, he'd focus on leveling up, whatever it took.