15: Chapter 15 The Birth of Humanoid Undead

What kind of undead unit would be converted from a humanoid skeleton?

Would it be a Skeleton Warrior?

Or a Skeleton Spearman?

Or perhaps, an Undead Jackal soldier...

Xu Qin forced himself to stop thinking about this for a moment and looked down at the bottom of the panel.

[ Experience points full! Lord level increased! ]

[ Level 15 → Level 16! ]

[ Attributes increased: Attack Power + 2, Defense + 1, Health + 10 ]

Current Attributes:

Xu Qin

Level: 16 ( 298 / 1400 )

Attack Power: 40 ( + 2 ) ( Physical - Slashing )

Defense: 18

Health: 180 / 180

"Good."

Xu Qin took a deep breath, suppressing the excitement in his heart.

He turned around to look at the remaining structures within the base.

There were still a few mud-brick huts that hadn't been knocked down by the Skeleton Warthogs, as well as the low walls themselves.

"Tear them all down!"

Xu Qin waved his hand.

"Mud bricks, timber, stone materials—tear down everything that can be dismantled. Don't leave a single piece of wood behind."

The Skeleton Warthogs and Skeleton Soldiers moved forward in unison.

Tusks slammed into walls, bone blades hacked at pillars.

The low walls collapsed section by section, and the huts fell one by one.

The Acolytes followed behind, using their Undead Construction skill to sort and salvage the debris.

Fifteen minutes later, the entire Sand Jackal base had been razed to the ground.

Even the stone circle of the campfire had been dug up.

Xu Qin stood in the center of the ruins, looking at the pile of materials that had appeared in his inventory.

[ Demolition Salvage: Mud Bricks × 180, Timber × 95, Stone × 120, Fur Tents × 12, Campfire Stones × 30 ]

Including the combat settlements, he had gained nearly four hundred stone materials alone on this trip.

Over three hundred timber.

Over a thousand meat.

"Sieging is indeed profitable; huge profit!"

Xu Qin had no other adjectives.

It was just a huge profit.

But he wasn't carried away by victory.

He looked down at his legion.

Seventeen units lost in battle.

There were also quite a few Skeleton Warthogs and Sand Scorpions with cracks on their bodies, some even with broken ribs.

"Go back first, strengthen our forces before coming out again."

Xu Qin bent down, picked up the scattered bone fragments of his own units from the battlefield piece by piece, and stuffed them into his inventory.

The shattered skeletons of Skeleton Warthogs, the broken tails of Sand Scorpions, the shattered spines of Sand Snakes.

He picked up everything he could.

He would have the Acolytes piece them together when he got back; maybe they could resurrect a few.

"All troops, retreat."

The Undead Army turned around and marched toward the territory in a grand procession.

Xu Qin rode on the back of a Skeleton Warthog, flipping through the icons of the 282 Sand Jackal skeletons in his inventory, the corners of his mouth curling up sharply!

"My Scourge Legion..."

"Is about to exceed six hundred."

He looked up at the countdown for the Novice Protection Shield.

48 : 41 : 08 .

There was still about two days left.

Enough.

Quite ample.

...

Xu Qin rode on the back of a Skeleton Warthog, opening the area map while rushing toward the territory.

On the map, the explored area covered more than two thousand meters around the territory.

Further out, there was a large expanse of black fog.

He placed several markers on the edge of the map.

Northeast, due north, northwest.

"Vulture Squad."

Eighteen Skeleton Vultures flew up and circled in the sky.

"Scatter, three groups of six, scout in these three directions respectively."

Xu Qin pointed to the markers.

"Fly higher, don't get shot down by things on the ground. Mark any bases you find, don't get bogged down in combat."

Spreading their bone wings, the eighteen vultures split into three groups and glided into the gray sky in different directions.

Xu Qin watched them disappear at the edge of his vision and patted the skull of the Skeleton Warthog.

"Let's go, time to go home."

The army turned around.

...

When he returned to the territory, the first thing Xu Qin saw was the bone melting furnace.

The furnace body was a size larger than before, dark purple soul fire shot out half a meter high from the furnace mouth, and heat waves distorted the surrounding air.

[ bone melting furnace has been upgraded to Level 2! ]

"Good."

Xu Qin dismounted from the pig, not in a hurry to deal with the furnace.

He scanned his legion.

Seventeen units lost in battle.

There were still quite a few Skeleton Warthogs and Sand Scorpions with cracks on their bodies, some with ribs about to fall off.

"Acolytes, all out."

Four Acolytes walked forward.

A pig-headed one, a lizard-headed one, and two snake-headed ones.

"Heal the injuries first, then piece together the bone fragments. Resurrect what can be resurrected, and store the unusable skeletons in the bone vault."

The Acolytes scattered, and dark purple light enveloped the damaged undead units.

Xu Qin didn't idle.

He walked to the bone melting furnace and clicked on the upgrade interface.

[ bone melting furnace Level 2 ]

Currently upgradeable modules:

[ Bone Armor Tempering (Level 2) ]

Effect: Defense of all undead units + 2

Cost: Bones × 300, Stone × 250, Iron Ore × 50, Soul Energy × 800

[ Soul Fire Infusion (Level 2) ]

Effect: Attack Power of all undead units + 3

Cost: Magic Crystal Fragments × 15, Iron Ore × 120, Soul Energy × 1200

[ Skeleton Reshaping (Level 2) ]

Effect: Health of all undead units + 10

Cost: Meat × 800, Bones × 400, Soul Energy × 1000

Xu Qin scanned the resources in his inventory.

Enough.

All enough.

"Click."

"Click."

"Click."

[ Upgrade complete! ]

[ Defense of all undead units + 2! ]

[ Attack Power of all undead units + 3! ]

[ Health of all undead units + 10! ]

The soul fire rose again, dark light spread, sweeping over every undead unit in the territory.

The bone armor of the Skeleton Warthogs became a layer thicker.

The tail hooks of the Sand Scorpions glowed with a deeper purple light.

Even on the shattered bones being repaired by the Acolytes, new soul fire patterns emerged.

Xu Qin nodded in satisfaction, then looked at the furnace upgrade panel.

[ Prerequisites for upgrading the bone melting furnace to Level 3: ]

[ Crypt Level ≥ 3 ]

"As expected."

Xu Qin had a hunch about this.

He opened the Crypt panel and checked the upgrade progress of the Level 3 Crypt.

There were over five hours left.

"It seems that the prerequisites for upgrading the Crypt to Level 4 should also have level requirements for existing buildings, not just simply building them."

Xu Qin analyzed, rubbing his chin.

The Crypt, from the moment it starts upgrading, cannot be stopped.

To stop is to fall behind.

To fall behind is to be crushed by others.

"soul hall and bone vault, upgrade to Level 2 first."

He flipped through the resource requirements.

[ Upgrade requirements for soul hall Level 2: Timber × 200, Stone × 150, Magic Crystal Fragments × 8, Soul Energy × 600 ]

[ Upgrade requirements for bone vault Level 2: Bones × 100, Stone × 120, Timber × 80, Soul Energy × 400 ]

"Resources are sufficient, start upgrading."

[ soul hall upgrading... Estimated completion time: 1 hour ]

[ bone vault upgrading... Estimated completion time: 45 minutes ]

Two Acolytes walked toward the two buildings respectively and began to infuse energy.

Done!

Xu Qin walked to the Crypt.

Now, it was time to do the real work.

He took out the 282 Sand Jackal skeletons and the 6 Sand Jackal Leader skeletons from his inventory.

The humanoid skeletons were piled at the entrance of the Crypt, forming a small hill.

They were more than a size larger than those beast skeletons like Warthogs and Sand Lizards.

Xu Qin looked at this mountain of bones, filled with immense anticipation.

"Convert all."

[ Undead conversion started. ]

[ Cost: Sand Jackal skeleton × 282, Sand Jackal Leader skeleton × 6, Soul Energy × 1728 ]

Deep inside the Crypt, purple light surged.

This time, the commotion was greater than any time before.

Light erupted from the tunnel entrance, carrying a thick aura of death.

The crackling sound lasted for a full minute.

Then...

Sharp footsteps emerged from within the tunnel.