Demonic Skeleton God

Alnor, who had remained silent until then, looked up and said, "First step..."

His voice was weak but precise. He proposed an escape corridor that automatically connected with Zheren's power line and Harur's fast unit. All five stopped and looked into his eye sockets, where a faint flicker of astonishment flashed.

"Excellent," Steward praised him, with the first genuine smile on both of his heads.

"This is the moment when we make no mistake: you have managed to connect your strengths into one complex plan. This will be the foundation of your tactics until the end of the war."

Under the starry sky, where only the cruel cut of the wind's whisper intertwined with the voice of drawn strategies, the five unfeeling undead understood that they were no longer just soulless bodies under command, but the first stones on the path to a true army of the Black Devil.

Itai, meanwhile, sat on a rock a few meters away. He was thinking that he might also ask Steward for a strategy lesson—he already knew some basics and tactics since he had attended Mind Range at the Academy. But he still believed he had a lot to learn.

In any case, he left the role of general to Steward, since it was far more important for his commanders to know how to lead than for him—Itai was responsible only for animating and resurrecting as long as he had mana. Of course, in the future, he wanted to take on a different position, since animating and resurrecting consumed only his mana and not his brain, which remained free.

An hour passed, but Flain remained in Dimension X. He decided that in an area with this level of mana density, it wouldn't be worth training for EXP, since it would only give him 150 EXP per hour. In the Empire of Light, he earned 500 EXP due to the enormous mana density, and at the Academy, 580 EXP due to the mana density and Nitram. So for Flain, instead of 150 EXP per hour, it was far more worthwhile to continue creating his spell, which doubled his progress.

The spell Flain was creating would already be quite useful from the start, but above all, it had great potential for the future.

Two days passed, and just as Flain had estimated, Itai resurrected all the bandits and saved enough mana to also resurrect the Head Bandit. The zombies ate only meat, not bones, so all the bandits could be resurrected without any problem. Meanwhile, Flain continued crafting his spell, and Itai trained his brain.

He needed more mana and to advance to Stage 3 in order to have Undeath Stage 4 as well. For now, he didn't need to train his body, since at his age he wouldn't die from simply standing still for a long time, and he didn't engage directly in battles, so a strong body wasn't necessary at the expense of less brain training.

At that moment, Itai and Flain stood before the body of the Head Bandit. Most of the flesh on his body had been eaten, and what remained had rotted and fallen away, making it clear he would become a skeleton.

"Begin," Flain said.

Black flames appeared on Itai's hand, which he aimed at the body of the Head Bandit. Those same black flames engulfed the body, which began to tremble.

The body trembled in the air for a moment before falling back to the ground, and the flames around it did not dissipate.

"Continue until it succeeds," Flain ordered coldly while standing motionless.

Itai repeated the exact same procedure, and again it failed. It took him 30 tries before it finally worked—mainly because the Head Bandit was Pioneer Stage 3.

His bones began to stack together and grow to absolute proportions, his height reaching 4 meters, he looked like a definition of class Tank. Crystals began sprouting from his shoulders, and his eyes started glowing blue.

Flain stared at him—one of the evolutions of a Bone Golem. It seemed fortune had smiled upon him; this was a perfect tank for the front lines.

Flain's army did not have significant problems in the front lines, but they had been fighting bandits who were also twice fewer in number.

If they had struggled in such conditions, it would have been laughable. The only real problem had been the Head Bandit and his Night Communicator, but thanks to Harur's excellent performance, that had not been too great an issue.

Also, since the Head Bandit retained his memories and part of his personality, he would possess the abilities of a commander. This meant he could be an excellent leader on the front lines, though Flain preferred to use him purely as a tank in the very front.

The enormous head of the Head Bandit turned to Itai. "Master, please name me," he said.

Itai thought about a name—he didn't want to use "Head Bandit" because it was two words and he didn't want a soldier in his army whose name contained "bandit." Since he looked like a tank, why not simply name him Tank?

"You will be called Tank," Itai said.

Tank knelt down and bowed his head. "I will gladly serve you as a tank," he said.

"You will be at the very front of the front line under Commander Zheren. Your task will be to break through the enemy, allowing the army to advance," Flain said directly.

Tank fixed his eyes on him. "I will follow Master's orders primarily," he said.

Flain's cold expression grew even colder, and a dangerously powerful aura began forming around him. "I am here as your Chief, and you will follow my orders first. Itai is your Master, and I am your King," Flain said.

"Flain is right. Obey him," Itai said.

Tank turned to Flain. "At your service," he said, bowing.

"Itai, recall all undeath. We are going to Dungeon 31. The army is not needed for this—I can handle it easily by myself in at most an hour. You will focus on resurrecting the dead," Flain said.

Undeath monsters or Enlightened have the advantage of being able to fight naturally—of course, some Mortals can too, like the Stage 1 bandits they had just fought—but there are few Mortals who can truly fight.

When Itai resurrects villagers, as he had already done, those villagers cannot fight at all. Altogether, he had around 60 undeath villagers in the army who could only fight thanks to basic undeath instincts, which were nowhere near as effective as when a person knew how to fight before becoming undeath. That made a huge difference.

But now, it was time to once again adjust Dungeon 31...