Death Warrior

Fwoosh—

I waited until I saw the embers swell inside the forge, then set out my materials.

"This is perfect for the main piece."

The corpses of the Chinese hunters. Quite some time had passed since the ambush, but I'd kept them carefully stored in my Death Space. Two of the bodies had already gone into remaking Sir Isra and Ingrid. That left eight Chinese hunter corpses. I needed to use them sparingly. It wasn't as if I was going to get into another scrape with hunters anytime soon.

Slice, slice, slice—

With practiced hands I finished the deboning, then discarded every part I didn't need for the undead.

"The heat in the forge has risen considerably."

"Shall we begin, then?"

I sprinkled mana-stone powder over the cleanly extracted white bones. Without that step, they would never survive the forge's heat. I drew out the bones once they glowed a deep scarlet.

Clang! Claaang!

I shaped them, then folded them under pressure.

Clang!

As I folded the bones and poured mana into them, the collision of mana erupted into fierce blue flames. After three folds I shaped the pieces again, then finished with a quench.

Hisssss—

If I used Corpse Crafting now, I'd get a sturdy skeleton. There was still far too much left to do. While the shaped bones cooled, I started on the next process.

I cut free a thick, massive tendon that matched the creature's bulk.

"How's the reagent mix?"

"Perfect!"

With Ingrid assisting, I finished the reagent and injected it into the ogre tendon. After making the Armed Zombie Strengthened Soldiers and Tigris, I was thoroughly used to working with reagents. The tendon swelled, then stabilized. I doped the remaining parts with reagent as well, then turned back to the bones.

An essential skill for crafting mid-tier undead and above. My comprehension had maxed out at one hundred long ago. Even so, maxing comprehension and applying it in practice were two very different things. That was something I'd learned analyzing the remains of the Death Knight and the Lich.

"If you alter the structure of the spirit circuits, the output rises as well."

Among the traces left on the Death Knight's remains, I had found spirit circuits twisted into a spiral.

"For now, imitation is the best I can manage—but it's worth trying."

If the circuits collided wrong, they shorted out. I'd sweated plenty over that when I made the Skeleton Wizard.

"So you have found your answer, my lord."

"I've gotten it to the point where it won't short, at least."

Not shorting was no guarantee of a good result. The Armed Zombie Strengthened Soldier I'd made as an experiment had proven that. Twisting and overlapping the form had tangled the mana flow and dropped the specs instead. After a few more trials and errors, I'd arrived at this arrangement. Whether it became the key to a new undead—or poison—I would only know by trying.

"Master, magical research has always used failure as a stepping stone. Don't worry!"

"Ah, it's fine. I've had more than my fill of failure."

My retainers wouldn't know. Lately everything I touched seemed to work out. The truth was, most of my hunter life had been paved with failures. Failure didn't scare me. It was only another attempt on the way forward.

The spiraled spirit circuits locked together. A single spark jumped—then the whole array stabilized without a major reaction. It was the closest imitation I could manage of the circuit traces from the Death Knight's remains, etched denser than anything I'd used for the Skeleton Wizard.

"My lord, wet your throat a little."

"My, my. Who was it that nagged so much last time?"

"Silence, mage. Do not insult my loyalty to our lord."

I worked the skin as well, fastening the Chinese hunter's flesh, monster muscle, and ogre tendon firmly onto the bones. I also packed in the Wraith's Lament—the core material of the Abyss Revenant.

Connecting the pre-made bone armor and sword would finish it.

"Let's take out a little insurance."

Last of all—click—I fitted a soulstone whose properties I had converted through the Cursed Gravestone into a groove in the armor. Split soulstones had saved me when I made the Armed Zombie Warrior. I hoped they would prevent a collapse this time as well.

"Open your eyes."

I released mana and spoke the activation words.

The corpse creaked upright. Bluish light leaked from its dry pupils.

Success? Or failure?

"Kroooogh!"

An undead in a form close to human heaved itself up. Its skin bulged and strained, looking ready to burst at a touch.

Surely not…

Please, no.

Even without Spirit Eye or Origin of Magic, anyone who faced the corpse that had just lurched upright would have known something was wrong.

"Master!"

The corpse writhed as ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠if it might explode at any second. Failure, then. I clicked my tongue in disappointment—

"Yes!"

It was just like the first time I'd made an Armed Zombie Warrior. Mana runaway from an incomplete crafting method—and the soulstone had stabilized a corpse that had been about to collapse under excess output.

Whew.

Honestly, I'd put the odds at fifty-fifty. The mana reaction had been far stronger than when I made the Armed Zombie Warrior. The materials and processes involved weren't even in the same league, so that was only natural.

"A split soulstone alone never would have been enough."

Even the barrier Ingrid had raised in advance might not have held. The mana shockwave had been that violent.

"You have succeeded, my lord!"

"Half a success."

Without the soulstone set in place, things would have gone very badly.

"You've created an entirely new concept in necromancy. Half a success is already incredible!"

【Think this body's good enough for me now, don't you?】

"Shut it, thief."

"Wouldn't it be a waste on a thief whose specialty is hiding?"

Zaug flinched under the cutting remarks. He'd done outstanding work in the Black Sky Society's trap; I shouldn't be too hard on him.

All right. Time to see what the new family member was made of.

"I will obey Master's command."

A crisp, disciplined voice. A little rough, as if something clung in its throat, but close enough to human. Communication: pass.

"Who are you?"

"Your servant, Master."

"One plus one?"

"Two."

Basic intelligence: pass! Tigris and the Armed Zombie Strengthened Soldiers had only managed a guttural guuuuh? At this level, it should be able to handle more than simple orders—two-dimensional instructions, even. I'd have to confirm it in real combat, but so far I was satisfied.

"Manifest Aura."

"Sir!"

Huuuum—

The sword I'd made in imitation of the Fallen Knight's blood-red longsword. It hadn't come out Unique-grade the way it had during the promotion exam. Roughly upper Rare performance, maybe. Either way, a blue aura shimmered along the similarly shaped blade.

"Truly magnificent!"

"Even the Necromancer Slayer thinks so?"

"To manifest Aura, one must at least reach the level of a Dullahan."

So only high-tier undead that played volleyball with their own heads could use Aura. I hadn't known that.

"To command a retainer of this caliber, one would need to be a Sanctum-rank necromancer."

"Sanctum-rank?"

"In this world, that would be about an S-rank hunter."

"You're laying it on a bit thick."

I snorted. I had no reason to doubt Sir Isra's loyalty, but now and then she overreacted when she was competing with Ingrid. If you were an S-rank necromancer, commanding a Death Knight should be the norm, shouldn't it?

"Not necessarily."

Ingrid shook her head.

"Even a Sanctum-rank necromancer has trouble commanding a Death Knight."

It only worked, she said, when a first-rate knight died nursing a powerful grudge, or when there was a grudge-soaked relic to use for the raising. And if the necromancer's control was weak, the Death Knight often turned its blade on its master.

"Reminds me of the Abyss Revenant."

"Death Knights are far harder to command."

That, she added, was why necromancers excelled in large-scale war but faltered against true powerhouses. Against a Master-class knight who could deploy an Aura Blade—an S-rank by hunter standards—a necromancer simply didn't have many options.

"Had a retainer like this existed back then, the subjugation would have been rather more troublesome."

Oh. Praise from the Necromancer Slayer herself made my cheek twitch. Sir Isra was, after all, the foremost authority on anti-necromancer combat.

"Hmm. A true pity."

An unsettling light flickered in Sir Isra's eyes as she clicked her tongue.

"I would rather recruit them into the knight order in place of the Abyss Revenants."

"You iron-headed fool. You want to turn loose the ones who bare their teeth at Master?"

"That is precisely why I called it a pity, mage."

"Once I refine the crafting method, I'll swap the roster for you later."

"Th-thank you, my lord!"

Refining it was still a long road, of course. A B-rank hunter's corpse. The Banshee's Lament I'd also used for the Abyss Revenant. And a soulstone on top of that. Soulstones couldn't be used carelessly either—when I'd swapped Old Man Alphonse's bag, the skill had evaporated with it.

"It'd be nice if I could harvest a warrior-type hunter's bag."

Maybe I should stop by a room when I went to collect my reward from Sir Gerard. I needed to thoroughly analyze the new undead, refine the method, and try again.

"By the by, have you a name in mind?"

"Heh heh heh. Of course."

"I can't wait! What name has Master decided on?"

"Death Warrior."

I'd built it by analyzing Death Knight ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠remains, and its stats were a lower-tier equivalent, so calling it a Warrior felt right.

"Hmm. Rather ordinary."

"Even Master can't be good at everything."

Why… were their reactions like that?

【Great Lord's naming sense is truly magnificent, sir!】

Don't. Hearing it from you just makes it worse.

Anyway. I didn't want to think about it any further, so Death Warrior it was. If they didn't like it, they could take off their ranks and settle it with me.