Whispers of A Dead Empire

Chapter 70

I sat up and stretched. I felt fully restored and happy for once, and honestly, it was really lovely. With one last stretch, I stood up and gestured for my map to open to see what was going on. Three more parties of adventurers had gotten into my domain, and two were currently fighting at the stronghold, though they looked to be on the losing end of things. Another quick look over showed I was also at my essence max. Which was extremely exciting for me.

However, I will assume that upgrading will use all my essence, so I have to hold off and focus on respawning mobs first. Otherwise, I would only leave myself in a vulnerable spot. I quickly spawned in two more platoons of the undead with a heavy mix of all the templates at my disposal and sent them with the reserve force towards the stronghold. That should do wonders for keeping the adventurers interested in stuff and fortifying the surrounding area for a bit longer. The last thing that I did was go through and check my treasure chests out to make sure that they weren't plundered. The ones that were I refilled and found a new place for them.

With that task done, I watched the adventurers fight at the stronghold. So far, they seemed to hold their own, but I saw that they were slowly getting encircled from my bird's-eye view. I stared at them for a moment before I dismissed the screen. It would be better for me not to see their faces. That way, I wouldn't be overly affected by their deaths. But speaking of which, I think a party must have wiped early; otherwise, my essence wouldn't have filled up as fast as it did.

Quickly, I went through the domain and saw that they were wandering through shambling husks of their former selves. I counted at least eight of them that were zombies. Though for me, that begged the question. What determines different undead when they died, or was it deterministic on how they died? I stared at the undead adventurers for a bit before I shrugged the thought away. I'm sure that I would find that out, eventually, at least.

I guess I would have to have someone collect them to put them to rest. They deserved that much, at least. I panned the map out a bit, selected all eight of them, and directed them towards a spot where I could teleport them away from the central part of the domain and take their equipment. More than likely, we would just redistribute it through the ranks, with the veteran undead getting first dibs next to the bosses.

As the undead was busy traveling to the destination that I had in mind, I sat back on my bed a bit and wiped away my bleary eyes. I was getting used to all the administration that I was doing. Thankfully, I didn't really have to deal with the troop placements. If I had to micromanage everything to that degree, I would probably lose my mind. I cleared my throat and saw the door open as Alessia walked in. Her hair was braided this time, and she was wearing a fresh uniform. "Good morning Alessia." I flashed her a warm smile as I stood up and quickly changed clothing.

"Good morning, my lady. Did you sleep well?" She asked as she gave me a bow.

"Yeah, better than I have in a long time." I shook out my cloak and grabbed a stack of new clothing that I kept near my bed.

"I'm glad. Is there anything I can do for you today?" Alessia stepped into the room and closed the door behind her.

I sat down in my chair and fixed my hair the best I could. I felt dirty, but I didn't want to go up to the lake, nor did I want to create one down here. At least not until I had enough essence saved up to do something like that. "No, not really; I have no actual plans other than lounging around down here for the time being."

She stepped up behind me, and I stiffened slightly as I felt a pair of cold hands touch my scalp, knocking mine away. "Then let's spend some time together; you are always out and about. Take some time for yourself."I relaxed a bit as I let her work on my hair, and I couldn't help but chuckle. "It just seems like you want to keep me for yourself today, Alessia."