A Generous Donation
During their journey, Tvalier named the ghouls One through Ten, in order of their size.
It was a rather half-hearted naming scheme, to be sure.
But in terms of sheer convenience, it was unmatched.
Swoooosh—
The incomplete high-grade ghouls moved at a truly astonishing speed.
Though their durability remained untested,
their movements alone made them look like the knight commanders of some grand kingdom.
“What is this? Setting aside the capacity of their vessels, what kind of post-treatment did they undergo to move this fast?”
His academic curiosity flared up, but Tvalier barely managed to suppress it.
For now, escaping this place was his top priority.
Is it over there?
At the end of the corridor, the path split once more into left and right.
Following the scent of blood, Tvalier traveled down the left path for a long while until...
He gestured with his chin toward a small stone door visible in the distance.
“Number Six. Break that down.”
The moment Tvalier's command fell,
the slender ghoul following right beside him stepped forward and kicked the stone door blocking the entrance.
CRASH!
The stone door shattered with ridiculous ease.
Through the opening, the ten Blood Jiangshis leaped out into the open air.
Looking up at the moon hanging in the night sky, Tvalier murmured,
“Ah, there's only one moon here.”
In his original lower dimension, there had been three.
This place was clearly a different world from the Seven Continents.
Feeling a rush of exhilaration at the realization that his gamble had succeeded completely, Tvalier turned to his waiting ghouls.
“Let's head east.”
Looking at the reeds trampled in various directions,
there were clear traces of people fleeing to the west.
Without a doubt, those were the bastards of the Mansi Sect who had fled the scene.
What if I run into those necromancers right now?
There was no telling what might happen.
Avoiding them was the wisest course of action for now.
And so, using the cover of the night,
Tvalier ran toward the east for a long, long time.
“What should we do, Leader Hong?”
“Hmm... What do you want to do, Leader Byeok? Do you want to keep pursuing them?”
“Of course I think we should. Our losses are far too heavy, and we've gained practically nothing.”
In raiding one of the Mansi Sect's resource bases, the Cheonhyeol Sect hadn't merely been focused on weakening their enemy's forces.
They had intended to seize the precious resources
the Mansi Sect bastards had hoarded away like greedy rats.
“It makes no sense for them to have carried away all their resources in the midst of that chaos.”
“Still, rescuing the children who have awakened their spiritual vessels is a decent harvest.”
Children untainted by the secular world were excellent ingredients for refining spirit pills.
Furthermore, these children had been painstakingly raised and fed spirit pills over a long period.
Their value was truly astronomical.
But...
“Tsk. Two squad leaders deployed, and that's all we have to show for it? The elders will throw a fit.”
“So you intend to pursue them as well, Leader Hong.”
The two squad leaders of the Cheonhyeol Sect.
Both were swordsmen rated at the 6th-grade.
Though they were somewhat lacking in sorcery, their martial prowess was more than enough to overwhelm the Mansi Sect.
They couldn't afford to let such a golden opportunity slip by.
Moreover, there was at least one squad leader-level sorcerer among those who had fled.
“Indeed. Opportunities like this don't come often, so pursuit is a given. The only problem is that the tracks split in two directions...”
Judging by the depth and nature of the footprints, the ones who went west were definitely the Mansi Sect's sorcerers.
Since they only practiced sorcery, their movements and steps were clumsy.
From the perspective of the rival Cheonhyeol Sect, such sorcerers were the absolute highest priority targets to hunt down and kill.
In particular, the Mansi Sect's sorcerers were practically defenseless without their jiangshis.
And for some reason, it seemed they currently had no jiangshis with them.
“The issue is the eastern path.”
“Yes. Those tracks were undoubtedly left by high-grade jiangshis created by the Mansi Sect.”
The footprints heading east were incredibly shallow.
Anyone could see that these were traces of martial arts or some specialized body-refining technique.
“If we're unlucky, we might run into a Blood Jiangshi.”
“Surely not. There are only a handful of corpse-controllers in the Mansi Sect capable of properly commanding a Blood Jiangshi, aren't there?”
“Still, we mustn't let our guard down. If we encounter one unprepared, even escaping will be difficult.”
“Hmm... Then I'll head east. You take the west, senior.”
“No, I want us to go west together.”
“What? Are we giving up on the ones to the east, then?”
Squad Leader Byeok Dong-won of the Cheonhyeol Sect.
He was the leader of the Blood Soul Squad, one of the six martial units within the Cheonhyeol Sect.
His eyebrows twitched, his expression showing absolute refusal to accept this decision.
It was a reaction of utter disbelief.
However, as his senior, Squad Leader Hong Sun-won of the Cheonlang Squad, spoke with a grave expression, Byeok Dong-won fell into deep thought.
“If this is a trap, you will surely die. And not just you—the entire vanguard of your Blood Soul Squad won't survive.”
“Ugh...”
“Do not underestimate the Mansi Sect. They may be mere scum who play with corpses, but the fact that they've survived without being wiped out until now means they are incredibly cunning.”
“...My greed got the better of me. I will heed your advice, senior.”
Ultimately, the two squad leaders agreed to pursue the tracks leading west.
And so, quite unintentionally...
Because the two squad leaders of the Cheonhyeol Sect had safely avoided the trap,
the Mansi Sect was forced to face yet another fatal crisis.
“Finally, a village.”
It was a village he had reached after fleeing for half a day.
Bathed in the morning sunlight, Tvalier rummaged through the memories of the child he had possessed, but...
the kid had possessed far too little information about this world to begin with.
Consequently, he had no way of knowing the name or location of the village.
“For now, let's head to that cave over there.”
The village visible faintly in the distance at the foot of the mountain...
was a place Tvalier would eventually have to visit, but there was something he needed to take care of first.
“You guys, hunt around this area for the time being.”
Since he couldn't just abandon the precious ghouls he had worked so hard to acquire,
Tvalier entered the cave and spent a long time performing various modifications on them.
First, he altered the magic formulas inscribed in their heads.
To avoid the hassle of giving verbal commands, he forged a tight bond connected directly to their souls.
Now, even from a considerable distance, he could issue simple commands through sheer will.
By linking himself with the ten ghouls, he had established a remarkably robust mana network.
“Next is...”
The rest was easy.
After designating a specific boundary for the ghouls,
he simply issued an 'auto-hunt' command for them to catch beasts nearby.
These creatures possessed a higher intelligence than he had initially anticipated, understanding his orders perfectly.
Superb performance, fluid movements.
This was far too efficient for the inherent capacity of a mere ghoul's vessel.
“Honestly, at this rate, they're almost comparable to Death Knights.”
Sharing a portion of his senses with the ghouls, Tvalier could feel them hunting wild boars and deer nearby.
He was genuinely impressed by their highly efficient movements.
And he had to give credit to the necromancy of this world.
Though their vessel capacity was, at best, on par with high-grade Dullahans,
their fluid movements and cognitive intelligence were overwhelmingly superior.
In short, the cost-to-performance ratio was incredible.
“How is this possible?”
Tvalier marveled as he examined the bodies of the ghouls returning from their hunt.
This wasn't merely a difference in magical elements.
Beyond the vessel inside the ghoul's brain...
...and the magic circle engraved upon it,
the secret seemed to lie in some highly specialized chemical treatment applied to their physical bodies.
Unfortunately, this was something that would require considerable time to research, so there was little he could do about it right now.
“Phew. Well, at least I've cleaned up their crude magic formulas.”
From Number One to Number Ten.
He had significantly upgraded the magic formulas engraved in the ghouls' brains.
Spending a full ten days in the cave to stabilize them, Tvalier...
roasted a venison thigh brought back by a ghoul over the fire, chewing on it as he let out a soft sigh.
“Everything is great, but why isn't the spirit realm responding?”
Tvalier muttered to himself, his brow furrowing.
Over the past ten days, he had diligently refined mana and gathered it in his heart to form a circle.
Ten days was too short a time to complete a circle,
but if he had a stable 'assist' right now, he was at a level where he could form one immediately.
Normally, such assistance would be provided by other wizards, but the best option was to receive aid from spirits.
Spirits were, after all, pure masses of mana itself.
Thus, Tvalier had set aside a portion of his mana over the last few days and repeatedly knocked on the gates of the spirit realm, but...
there was no answer from the other side.
“Strange. I can definitely feel the existence of the spirit realm. Why isn't Vargas responding?”
Vargas, the Earth Spirit King.
He had sent endless messages to his blood-contracted ally,
but the entity remained silent to the end.
Though the situation was frustrating, he couldn't force open the sealed gates of the spirit realm.
He lacked the power to do so,
and he had no desire to suffer the immense backlash.
“The message must have been delivered. Ah! Come to think of it, do spirits go by different names in this world?”
Indeed, high-ranking spirits possessing true names might use entirely different names here compared to the lower dimensions.
“Ah... No wonder. Is that why there's no reply?”
Still, since the message was addressed to the 'Earth Spirit King,' they should have responded even if the specific name differed.
“I don't know.”
Smacking his lips in disappointment, Tvalier patted the shoulder of Number Seven, the ghoul standing before him.
“There, all done. Barring any unforeseen issues, it might take some time, but you'll be able to fully fill your deficient vessels. I've modified your magic formulas to do just that.”
The ghouls, which had been incomplete when he found them,
would now replenish themselves with the blood of beasts through hunting.
And by automatically absorbing the surrounding mana using the breathing technique he had programmed into them,
it would take some time, but they would eventually fill their vessels completely.
If this system functioned properly, there was a high probability that their vessels would grow even larger than what the Mansi Sect had originally designed.
“You ghouls are great, but thanks to the artifact I stumbled upon, I won't have to struggle for a while.”
Watching Number Seven roll his shoulders obediently before retreating, Tvalier...
ordered Number Eight, who was standing nearby, to go chop some firewood.
Tvalier hadn't spent the last ten days in the cave solely modifying ghouls.
He had also been busy figuring out how to use the artifact he had looted from the Mansi Sect sorcerer.
He had been frantically occupied with deciphering the function and application of this object, which looked like nothing more than a small block of wood.
The result of his research was astonishing.
This item was, incredibly, a space-expansion pouch.
A space-expansion pouch—essentially an inventory—which had been extremely rare in his original lower dimension,
had fallen into his hands by pure chance.
Not only was the crafting process incredibly complex, but obtaining the raw materials was practically impossible.
Yet, he had acquired one with ridiculous ease almost immediately upon arriving in this world.
“Could it be that the materials are common here?”
If so, it made sense.
Furthermore, the internal space of this artifact was quite substantial.
“It's roughly five *jang* (about 15 meters) in width, length, and height. But why did they make it in a cubic shape? Is the material here unique?”
Inside the inventory were various currencies of this world, low-grade magic stones, and a wooden identification tablet.
There were also round pills that seemed to be low-grade spiritual elixirs, and several low-grade magic scrolls, which people in this world apparently called talismans.
“First, I burned the identification tablet.”
With the final modifications on the ghouls mostly complete,
Tvalier neatly organized the resources in his inventory before heading down to the village.
“One hundred and forty-one copper coins, twelve silver coins, and one gold coin...”
According to the kid's memories, two copper coins were enough to buy a decent meal.
A silver coin was worth a hundred copper coins,
and a gold coin was worth twenty silver coins...
“I won't have to worry about food and lodging for a while.”
Those Mansi Sect bastards.
He had guessed as much from the size of their underground facility, but they seemed to have been quite wealthy.
Chewing on the tough venison roasted over the campfire,
Tvalier suddenly felt a warm sensation in his chest.
It was a deep sense of gratitude for the Mansi Sect's generous donation.
When he thought about it, they had given him money, and they had given him ghouls.
They even threw in an inventory.
He couldn't help but feel a special fondness for the Mansi Sect.
“Well then, shall we head to the village?”
With a smirk, Tvalier lightly pushed himself up to his feet.