Lane

When Karen requested the "Whisper of the Dead" and a large quantity of high-quality corpses from Dima, Dima agreed without much hesitation, patting his chest and promising to do his best to help Karen collect them.

With Dima accepting Karen’s request, their conversation came to an end.

Watching Dima depart, Karen withdrew his gaze and glanced at the crude wooden hut beside him, sighing, "Everything is fine, but this hut really lowers the tone. Looks like once all this is over, I need to build the Bone Tower first. Regardless of its function, at least I’ll have a decent place to stay."

"This shabby environment truly doesn’t suit you, my great master. How about I have someone build you a castle?" Seeing Karen dissatisfied with his surroundings, Cliff, who had just emerged after Dima’s departure, immediately sidled up in a flattering manner.

Almost at the same moment, Alice’s figure appeared behind Karen. The little girl was stuffing a handful of immature "Whisper of the Dead" into her mouth with one hand, while the other arm hugged Karen’s neck, making playful noises.

Meanwhile, the usually obedient Little Green, who stood guard by Karen’s side, cast a slightly hostile glance at Cliff—the human who had won Karen’s favor recently—and then began to observe Cliff seriously, occasionally nodding its tiny head, seemingly learning Cliff's techniques for pleasing Karen.

In that instant, Karen found himself surrounded by lively activity. Yet, his feelings were complicated.

Among his trusted followers: Little Green, the combat specialist, was an undead obsessed with acting cute, and recently, seeing Cliff favored, had begun earnestly learning from him. Cliff, the brains of the group, appeared wise and composed when his eyes were closed, but turned into a cowardly sycophant the moment he opened them. As for Alice, the beauty, she was not only clingy but also a glutton—when they were alone, she would stubbornly cling to him, and if Karen let go, his flower fields would suffer.

The other undead hadn’t matured yet, but each already exhibited various odd quirks. Ironbone was obsessed with looking at flowers and mining, while the goblin skeleton priest, Kira, had a tendency to zone out anywhere and anytime, and in just a few days had collided with countless undead due to his absent-mindedness.

Surveying his followers, Karen couldn’t find a single one who seemed remotely normal, making him seriously question whether all undead suffered from some kind of personality defect.

Nonetheless, odd as their personalities were, thanks to their presence, Karen was no longer alone. It was chaotic, but this feeling was not unpleasant.

...

Elsewhere, Dima.

After leaving Karen’s territory, he didn’t return to the Black Iron Mine Tribe. Instead, he circled around and headed to Moon Worship City.

Dole Village was about fifty kilometers from Moon Worship City. For ordinary people, the journey would take a day on foot, but for a third-tier powerhouse like Dima, it took only two hours. He entered the city with ease and waited quietly in a residential house.

The man he awaited did not keep him long; within half an hour, Ryan arrived, dressed in simple attire. "What’s so urgent that you needed to see me?" he asked.

"I was just invited to meet that necromancer," Dima replied.

Ryan, who had just sat down, immediately furrowed his brow, his index finger unconsciously tapping the table. "What for? No, it should be—what does he want from you?"

"He asked for peace, said he didn’t want to get involved in this mess."

Dima then recounted his meeting with Karen in detail.

After hearing the story, Ryan’s brow creased even further. "What do you think?"

"Two possibilities.

First, as he said, after realizing the complexity of the situation, he genuinely doesn’t want to get involved.

Second, he’s feigning weakness to lull us into lowering our guard and hostility, while his true aim is to seize this moment to gather enough resources to strengthen himself.

I don’t know him well, but I think the second possibility is more likely."

As expected, no one was a fool. Dima’s analysis wasn’t perfect, but Karen hadn’t fooled him completely.

Ryan’s fingers continued tapping the table. "What’s your suggestion?"

"Give him some supplies, but not too much—especially not corpses. I don’t know how undead are made, but corpses are surely the most critical component. So, I advise both the ghosts and Moon Worship City not to give him too many corpses, and certainly not high-quality ones. Keep him stable for now, and once our affairs are settled, deal with him then."

Ryan’s brow furrowed even deeper as he pondered for a while. "I have a feeling this necromancer is very dangerous. Previously, One-Arm’s intelligence reported he only had a few dozen second-tier undead, but after just a few days, he now commands hundreds of first-tier undead, over a hundred second-tier, plus a handful of third-tier. Isn’t this power growing too quickly? Even if he hid his true strength from One-Arm, the force he now displays is unsettling. Who can guarantee that what he shows now is his full strength? Keeping him around will eventually cause trouble."

"You mean we should get rid of him?"

"Exactly! We must eliminate him. No matter his intentions, we cannot allow uncontrolled power in Goblin Forest," Ryan said, tapping the table.

Dima considered for a moment, then nodded carefully. "Alright, let’s go with your plan. In any case, we need to weaken the goblins’ power, so we’ll use them to deal with him."

As for whether Karen could be taken down, Dima saw no problem. He had discovered a fatal weakness in Karen’s undead while in Karen’s territory. Despite Karen’s efforts to conceal it, Dima realized that Karen’s undead could not unleash their full strength during the day.

Moreover, since Karen sought peace, as long as Dima and his allies sent him a batch of surprising supplies before acting, they could easily deceive him.

Dima had no concerns about inadvertently aiding the enemy. He simply didn’t believe that if he sent supplies in the morning and launched an attack in the afternoon, Karen would have time to convert them into power.

Even a necromancer must abide by the basic rules when creating undead, surely?