Chapter 43
Episode 43
As always, I woke with a start at 4 a.m.
I did my morning training.
Si Ha-rin said we were running low on medicinal ingredients, so I told her to order more online before entering the Dimensional Tower.
My heart had been pounding at the thought of simmering the Copper Jiangshi in the Medicinal Infusion Method.
Ah~ simmered jiangshi~ This might actually work.
However.
There's a penalty that you can't bring real-world objects into the Dimensional Tower, so...... I'll have to get the ingredients on this side.
How do I get them?
I thought about it for a moment.
Then I summoned the three intelligent undead currently serving under me.
Whiteram the skeleton, Asra the witch, and the orc death shaman.
Come to think of it, the orc never even told me his name.
I didn't care back then, but now that I look at it, it bothers me.
"We greet our master."
Three Vassals rose from my shadow in a line.
Whiteram the skeleton bowed his head politely and greeted me.
No matter how often I saw him, for a pile of bones, Whiteram was an exceptionally courteous Wizard.
-We greet our master.
Asra the wraith witch smiled softly as she greeted me.
She had supposedly drowned in life, and that gloomy charm gave her an oddly haunting air.
"Master! Me! Here! Glad!"
And finally, the orc death shaman shouted, flaring his upturned nostrils.
His vocabulary was still at the level of a game character who only had short preset responses.
"Yeah, yeah. Glad to see you all."
Seated on the throne, I waved lightly.
"I called you today because I have something to ask."
The three Vassals all turned their gazes toward me at once.
"Among the three of you, who knows the most about medicinal herbs and minerals used as ingredients?"
At my question, the three looked at each other for a moment.
Then.
Slowly.
Asra the wraith witch raised her hand.
-I probably know that best, Master.
"Oh. Is that because you're a witch?"
-Yes. In life, I studied both herbology and alchemy. Poisonous herbs, elixirs, minerals—I know most of them.
Talk about getting lucky.
The exact talent I needed happened to be among my Vassals.
"Good. Then Whiteram and you, orc—go back for now."
"Understood, my master."
"Me! Go! Later! Again!"
Whiteram and the orc slipped back into the shadow.
Even that orc's exit line came in fragments.
I wonder if I should expand that guy's vocabulary someday.
"Now then, Asra. I have something to explain to you."
I began speaking to Asra in earnest.
"Do you know what a jiangshi is?"
-I do not know. What is it?
Hm. She doesn't know.
I had to explain what jiangshi were.
What a jiangshi was and how one was made.
I explained how special medicines were fed to a corpse and how it was steeped in medicinal ingredients to strengthen the body itself.
Only then did Asra seem to understand a little.
-A special kind of undead, then. Truly fascinating.
Asra's eyes sparkled as she became absorbed in my explanation.
-Steeping a corpse in medicine to strengthen the body... it feels closely related to alchemy.
"Does it look that way?"
-Yes. The basic idea—combining ingredients and using medicinal power to raise the grade of a material—is exactly the same as alchemy. The only difference is that the material happens to be a corpse.
Experts really are different.
She instantly connected my lengthy explanation to her own field of knowledge.
"So here's the problem. This lord needs medicinal ingredients to strengthen the jiangshi, but I know next to nothing about the herbs and minerals found in this world—the Dimensional Tower."
-Ahh. So that's why you called me.
"Right. Can you teach me a bit?"
-Of course, Master. However.......
Asra tilted her head slightly.
-There are simply too many medicinal ingredients to explain one by one. Hundreds, even thousands.
True.
Herbology isn't something you can just recite out loud.
In my previous life, this lord once tried learning medicine, took one look at the endless list of ingredients, and gave up.
-So I'll make a book for you. Or rather....... You could learn a soul-type necromantic spell, Master.
"Soul-type?"
-Yes. There are necromantic spells that extract or copy a soul's memories.
Necromancers can do things like that too?
Well, even the Mythic Grade skill I got this time is a skill that creates an ego however I want....... So there must be things like that.
That seems better than making a book.
"Then let's get that skill first."
I immediately connected to the Dimensional Tower marketplace and tapped the search bar.
When I'd browsed the marketplace while buying my Vassals, I'd seen just about everything imaginable for sale, so a necromantic spell skill was bound to be there.
When I typed in [soul memory] as the search term, related listings scrolled up.
As expected, the Dimensional Tower marketplace was a one-stop shop for practically anything.
[Soul Memory Duplication]
Duplicates the memories dwelling in a target soul and converts them into a memory crystal.
[Memory Injection]
Injects the memories contained in a memory crystal into a target.
"Oh. They even come as a matched set?"
The extraction skill and the injection skill were paired side by side.
It almost seemed like they were bundled together to be used as a pair.
The prices were 3,000 DP and 2,500 DP respectively.
Well, compared with this lord's DP balance, those prices were pocket change.
"Purchase both."
Flash!
[You have acquired Soul Memory Duplication.]
[You have acquired Memory Injection.]
"Good. Then let's put them to use right away. Asra."
I activated the soul-memory extraction effect on Asra after summoning her again.
Whoosh.
A shimmering mana crystal floated up above Asra's head.
Within it, vast knowledge of herbs and minerals was condensed in its entirety.
"Then this lord will take this. Memory Injection."
I brought the crystal to my head.
Whoosh!
Thousands of pieces of information about herbs and minerals poured into my head all at once.
[Herbology and mineralogy knowledge has been injected.]
"Heh. This feels like downloading a whole lecture over USB."
It felt like an entire pharmacopoeia had been installed in my head.
In my previous life, I quit learning medicine after seeing the list of ingredients, and now I've memorized all of it with a single click. The world really has gotten better.
"Asra. Thank you. This was a huge help."
-I only did as you commanded, Master. I'm glad it helped.
Asra answered with a soft smile.
"Right. Then go back for now. I'll call you if I need you again."
-Yes, Master. I will do as you command.
Asra slipped back into the shadow.
"Hm. Good. Now I can gather herbs myself."
With an entire pharmacopoeia's worth of knowledge in my head, I could now recognize medicinal ingredients inside the Dimensional Tower.
That meant I could procure the ingredients for making jiangshi myself.
"Then shall I make some preparations for the tower conquest now?"
I summoned Heukgang and Baekgang from my shadow.
Whoosh.
The two sturdy Copper Jiangshi appeared side by side on either side of me.
Come to think of it, these guys.
Their combat power is incredible, but they're at the level of simple dolls with nothing you could call consciousness.
So I have to control them one by one.
Actually, that's not a big problem, but...... I'd like them to move autonomously.
And since I had just acquired the perfect skill, this was a good chance to upgrade them.
"First, Self-Reclamation."
I activated [Self-Reclamation] on Heukgang.
But.
[Restoration fails because the target has never had an ego.]
"Ah. Right."
Come to think of it, these guys were experimental corpses that the Dimensional Tower created and tossed out.
They were empty shells with no ego from the start, so there's no ego to reclaim in the first place.
There's no backup data to restore.
"Then Self-Reclamation is a pass. I'll have to use the new skill."
I immediately activated [Blended Ego Formation], which I received as a Mythic Grade reward.
Then system messages I'd never seen before scrolled up one after another.
[An ego can be formed.]
[Please select the tendency of the ego to be formed.]
"Oh? I can even choose the tendency?"
Isn't this totally character customization?
I can even set the personality to my taste while molding an ego.
The Dimensional Tower really is amazing.
"Hm. Then......."
I sank into thought for a moment.
If I'm going to create a new ego anyway, it'd be best to make one optimized for combat.
One with absolute loyalty, but without useless emotions.
"Make them warriors with absolute loyalty, but without emotions."
As I said that, a perfect model came to mind.
"There are two perfect models in this lord's memory: the Black and White Impermanence, guardians of the Demonic Cult. Build their egos from those two."
The two guardian warriors who moved like shadows under the Demonic Cult leader in my previous life.
They were living weapons who carried out only orders, without a single speck of emotion.
Aren't they the perfect model for Heukgang and Baekgang right now?
[Reviewing conditions.]
[Possible.]
[Proceed?]
"Yes. Proceed."
[Please set the knowledge level of the ego to be formed.]
"Oh. I can set this too? Amazing."
I can even adjust the knowledge level. Isn't this totally a god-tier game system?
Molding an ego is at the level of assigning stats to an RPG character.
Then a thought suddenly crossed my mind.
If I make them too ignorant, it'll take forever for them to even understand orders.
Giving them basic common sense would be convenient in many ways.
"The martial-arts knowledge of the Demonic Cult's Black and White Impermanence, plus the common sense of an average adult man."
[Reviewing conditions.]
[Possible.]
[Proceed?]
"Yes. Proceed."
[The skill is being activated.]
Flash!
Heukgang and Baekgang's eyes flashed with a blue light for an instant.
And the next moment.
Slowly.
The two Copper Jiangshi simultaneously knelt on one knee and bowed.
"We greet the Sect Leader."
"......!"
For a moment, even I, the peerless Lee Mu-seon, couldn't help but widen my eyes.
The ones who had been mere dolls moving according to commands just moments ago.
With a single skill, they had gained egos, knelt of their own accord, and shown proper respect.
"Ha......."
I couldn't help but let out a hollow laugh.
"In the Dimensional Tower, is a human being nothing more than a toy?"
I never expected an ego to be created so instantly.