066 Mark of the Departed

In truth, ever since the territory’s advancement had hit a bottleneck, and from the moment Liu Cheng learned from the masked woman that Old Jack might know about an undead domain, Karen had already prepared herself to lay her cards on the table with Old Jack. Even without yesterday’s sudden attack by the Phantom, Karen would have sought out Old Jack to come clean; the words she had planned would hardly have differed from what she said today.

After all, as the number of undead in her territory grew, their impact on the environment became increasingly pronounced. Hiding the domain was becoming more and more difficult, and exposure was only a matter of time. Thus, Karen had been contemplating how she ought to conduct herself once her domain was revealed.

For Karen, the best possible outcome would be to have the Bourbon Kingdom at her back, leveraging their resources and power to strengthen herself and seize control of the Goblin Forest. Initially, Karen had little confidence in this prospect.

During this period, she had come to realize that the authority of the world’s Holy See was not as all-encompassing as she’d thought. When humans discovered undead, as long as they weren’t a threat to daily life, they tended to avoid them rather than hunt them down. Necromancers were more often feared than universally despised.

While this was far preferable to being the enemy of all nations, relying on the Bourbon Kingdom for support in securing a foothold in the Goblin Forest would still be immensely challenging. Unexpectedly, the Phantom’s actions presented her with a golden opportunity.

Barring unforeseen circumstances, Moon Worship City would likely agree to sponsor her and employ her power to deal with the Phantom, for the city’s current situation was far from optimistic. Now that the Phantom had taken refuge within the Goblin Forest, Moon Worship City would never dispatch troops to attack. The forest’s own forces were formidable, and its location problematic; any military action there would have unpredictable consequences.

Thus, Karen was ninety percent certain that Moon Worship City would choose to borrow her strength to eliminate the Phantom. Of course, the process might not go smoothly—they would likely try to use her and then discard her. But that hardly mattered.

After all, Karen’s original and worst-case plan had been to face the goblins, the Silver Hand, and the Bourbon Kingdom alone. The current situation was already significantly better than what she’d prepared for at the outset.

More importantly, with the system at her side, as long as she secured adequate support, the final outcome remained uncertain.

…

After receiving the 2,112 stalks of “Whispers of the Dead” delivered by the “Forest Ranger,” Karen began to act.

She threw the 2,112 Whispers of the Dead into the territory shop, causing her system energy to soar to unprecedented heights.

…

Karen (Lord)

Territory Owned: Unnamed

Territory Level: 2

Territory Energy: 22,032 (912 obtained from slaying the Phantom, 21,120 from selling Whispers of the Dead!)

Territory Buildings: Common Graveyard (1), Small Crypt (21)

Corpses Available for Conversion: 912 (Tier 0), 321 (Tier 1), 7 (Tier 2), 2 (Unknown Tier)

Undead Minions:

Tier 0 Undead (63)

Tier 1 Undead (162)

Goblin Skeleton Mages (Tier 2) (10)

Goblin Skeleton Warriors (Tier 2) (38)

Special Undead: Little Green (Tier 2—Exceptional), Ironbone (Tier 2—Common), Alice (Tier 2—Common), Skeletal Boar (Tier 2—Trash)

Flower Field: Whispers of the Dead Seedlings (2,812), estimated 74 days until maturity

…

Holding over twenty thousand points of domain energy in her hands, Karen fell into deep thought as she gazed at her attribute panel.

Twenty thousand energy sounded like a lot, but upon acquiring it, Karen realized it was not as much as she had imagined. Converting all of it into Tier 2 undead would only yield sixty-two such minions.

Therefore, Karen had to be cautious in deciding how to spend these twenty thousand points.

“If I consider both the Black Iron Mine Tribe and the Phantom as hypothetical enemies, adding sixty-two Tier 2 undead won’t make a significant difference against such formidable foes. Now that I’ve already come clean with Old Jack, and Moon Worship City likely knows of my presence, there’s no point in hiding anymore. I should focus on upgrading my territory first.”

With that, Karen opened the operation interface for the Common Graveyard and began using the “Undead Conversion” function.

Currently, all her undead combined totaled 277, just 723 short of the thousand required. These would obviously be converted using Tier 0 corpses—Karen would never waste Tier 1 corpses, which she’d specially reserved as the primary material for synthesizing Tier 2 undead. With a wave of her hand, she spent 9,300 domain energy to convert 723 Tier 0 undead.

Most of these newly converted undead were of the common Tier 0 class, with some elites among them. The corpses had all been acquired when Karen wiped out the goblin tribe.

Once converted, she had Little Green send them to the Goblin Tribe’s mine.

At the same time, Karen built two new Small Crypts, placing them about three kilometers south of the Common Graveyard—thus expanding her territory.

With 9,400 points spent, Karen finally met all the requirements for upgrading her territory to Level 3.

The final condition was even simpler. Karen opened the territory panel and entered “Land of Death” in the territory name field.

Almost as soon as she filled in the name, the system prompted her to design a domain emblem.

“So much fuss for a name!” she muttered, but took the task seriously.

She designed a sigil: a mass of black flames as the backdrop, with a skull clutching a longsword in its jaws at the flame’s heart.

[Ding! You have successfully named your territory and gained the Domain Talent: Mark of the Dead!]

Karen was startled. She hadn’t expected something as simple as naming her territory to yield such a benefit. She hurried to check this new talent.

…

Mark of the Dead

Talent Level: Lv1

Talent Type: Domain Talent

Talent Effect:

Effect 1 (Mark of the Dead): You may place a mark upon individuals of sufficient strength, thereby gaining control over their life and death. Upon their demise, those marked can be granted power and transformed into undead.

Note: The marking requires the target to be either completely willing or utterly defeated and unable to resist.

Additional Note: Only three units may be marked at any one time. When a marked target dies or is converted into an undead, a new slot opens up after half a month.

…

All things considered, while not a direct combat ability, this was an excellent talent.

Even as Karen studied her talent, another system prompt sounded—her territory had finally risen to Level 3!