Chapter 222 C222. The Gathering
After spending most of his time experimenting with his prowess of necromancy. Tyler had managed to create around 47 Tier 1 and 2 skeletons and Zombies, 10 Tier 3 Black Knights, 10 Tier 3 Liches, 16 Tier 3 Zombie Trolls, 1 Eldar Lich, 1 ArchLich, 47 Nightmare Wolves, and about 187 Undead Night Terrors. In total, he had created around 314 undead creatures.
This number did not include the two shadow creatures he had assigned to be his personal guards. He hadn't expected to have amassed so many dead bodies and the idea disturbed him for a while but using placate, he was able to quickly get over it.
After using the spell 'Placate' anytime his emotions spiked to a certain threshold for a while now. It appeared Uriel had taken note of his habit and will now automatically use the spell to maintain his mental state.
Tyler didn't think this information was anything special so he simply ignored it and continued his assessment of his creations.
Although there were still a few more corpses stored in the castle, Tyler thought it was best to stop here as he didn't have any more time to spare and had reached his endurance limit on the corruption.
He had already spent more than 3 hours on this project and the time he gave to the girls to gather the residents of the castle in the inner ward had already passed.
Changing his mind in order to buy more time, he ordered Cora to inform the girls to move everyone into a large hall in the North wing and prepare for his arrival.
Z who still wore his mask stood beside Tyler without any signs of getting tired or bored. He seems to have a great understanding of necromancy himself and Tyler had asked his opinions during the course of his experiments and he had gotten to know a lot more about the man known as Zomatsu.
Tyler's favorite undead creations besides Maeve, Nessi, Bones, and Emrys were the Nightmare wolves made from the corpses of Silver wolves and Dire Wolves. Their appearance was impressive as they were more than 6 feet tall standing on all fours and had furs as dark as the night.
They had fiery red glowing eyes and razor-sharp claws with the ability to merge with the darkness while gaining superior strength at night. They also had the passive skill of trapping their prey in a never-ending loop of their worst nightmares while instilling fear in them.
Although they were only Tier 3 creatures, their strength at night could match an Advance class monster. Tyler thought they would be of great help to the kobolds who were very weak in combat so he informed Z and teleported him along with the 47 monsters to the Grayad Plains.
Z returned with a teleportation scroll soon after informing the Kobolds of their new partners and continued helping Tyler decide what to do with so many undead creatures.
"I believe only the Black Knights are suitable for the castle defense. We can also assign the Liches to the towers for their long-range spell and near-infinite mana."
Z spoke from beside Tyler as he suggested the creatures' best assignment which Uriel agreed with, his analysis were clearly on par with hears which seems to make her a bit touchy so Tyler tried to move the topic forward.
"I see... indeed the Night terrors are more suitable for caverns and won't perform well in open spaces. The Zombies and Skeletons are a little too weak for the castle but in the narrow tunnels they could hold an Advantage."
Tyler nodded in agreement at those analyses. He had already planned on assigning the ArchLich and Eldar Lich to the Labyrinth where they can populate the tunnels with their summons but helping them out with the weak skeletons and Zombies was not a bad idea.
With that decided, Tyler left the rest to Z and teleported them to the underground labyrinth. Although the barrier did not extend there, its influence still reached the lake, and thus, Z was able to teleport back into the Castle without a problem.
Of course, this did not mean if he left the influence of the barrier he would be able to enter without Tyler's permission.
After tasking Z in locating the best places for Emrys and Bones to set up their lair, Tyler left the Black Knights and Liches in the room for Z to take care of when he comes back and exited the room.
He had been feeling a sting of pain in his left hand for a while now so he took a look and as expected. The negative corruption had affected his entire arm once again.
After creating so many undead and messing around with Negative energy for such a long time, he had expected it to have spread throughout his entire body but it seems the low resistance to negative energy he now had prevented that.
"Max Magic - Heal."
"Clear Impurities."
Using the Tier 5 and 4 spells respectively, Tyler was able to reduce the corruption by a bit but it seems he could no longer move his left arm properly.
"I guess I can't handle this myself can I? It would be bad if I turn into an undead just because I wanted some more negative resistance."
Shaking his head, he reached into space with his right and pulled out a pair of black dragon-scaled gloves. These were one of the two God Tier Items Uriel had recommended for him and they were called. 'Depths of the Abyss.'
They had the single ability to infinitely devour any and all types of Magic attacks sent their way. If aimed at an empty space, they could even consume the space itself and anything within it but that would cost mana and a lot of it. While feeding on those magic attacks did not.
They were essentially broken items that made Tyler invincible to all projectile-based attacks. However, he was referring to the glove as 'they' simply because— just like the artifact, Spatial Infinity, this artifact also had a Living property and was alive.
Its entire existence was to consume everything, especially magic and mana so it would not hesitate to suck its host dry at every opportunity it gets. Although when used to devour magic attacks it would only feed on the magic from that attack, it would greedily feed on the host mana when used on space or any non-magical attacks though.
Tyler then put on the gloves to hide his corrected hand. The dragon scaled design was simple but fashionable and it was a perfect fit for his hands. It immediately started draining his mana as it bonded to him but it became pretty docile after Tyler used Demon's might on it.
Feeling satisfied after wearing the item, he proceeded down the hall until he noticed Cora running towards him and after prostrating to him. She informed him that everyone had gathered in the Large Hall in the North wing.
Although what he wanted to do was something that would be perfect for the throne room. Tyler wasn't ready for that type of responsibility yet.
Anyway, the hall he had chosen was also used for such things. Tyler chose not to use telecommunications this time as he used the walk to the hall to activate most of the skills he had memorized their formulas and had managed to succeed before arriving at his destination.
He arrived in front of the entrance to the hall and saw two figures standing by the side of the larg arc double doors. They were guards assigned by Albert to await his arrival and usher him into the hall. Although he had walked there, they seemed to have not noticed him until he had gotten extremely close and were startled by his presence for some reason but Tyler ignored that and moved forward with Cora walking a step behind him.
The guards quickly got over their stupid and hurriedly opened the doors for him and entered the room as well. Aside from the elderly who were too old to fight and hadn't been invited. Everyone in the castle including children with promising potentials was in this room as they stood by each side of the room, creating a path in the middle as they awaited Tyler's arrival with their heads lowered.
There were only around 250 of them from a settlement that was originally around 1000.
A large chair was placed at the end of the room even though Tyler remember this hall as being empty but the chair was of exquisite make and made from quality wood from the Darknar forest by the dwarves as a temporary throne for him.
The castle had several large halls that were used for different occasions and needed their own thrones so the dwarves made some. The original must've been stolen by the great five and if they had been able to move the Main throne they probably would've done so.
Sighing internally, Tyler tried not to seem listless as he walked through the crowd and headed for the throne. Erin, Rain, Liz, and Albert stood ahead of the crowd and bowed towards him.
He had only organized this gathering to meet everyone yet they seem to have prepared everything like it was a ceremony. Well, perhaps this occasion would become a ceremonious one someday.
In resignation, Tyler walked towards the throne and took a seat in a manner he thought befitted a ruler. Cora who was the only one not bowing due to her job in escorting him seems to be in awe of his slightly exaggerated movements which had increased his confidence a lot.
As her master moved to sit on the throne, Cora then moved to the side of the hall and stood with all the other maids.
The moment he had taken a seat, everyone turned to face him in perfect unison as they genuflected before him. It was as though they'd practiced this countless times over and were only waiting for the time to show off their precise movements and coordination.
Tyler sat on the throne with his arms on the armrest as he cleared his throat and spoke:
"You may be at ease. I should probably apologize for calling you all out here on such short notice."
The four kneeling in front of him immediately shook their heads the moment he finished his sentence but only one of them reply to his greeting.
"Surely you jest your majesty. No one here would dare consider an order from you as anything other than joyous."
'Your Majesty?'
Albert spoke with determination as he stood up along with the girls, abiding by Tyler's earlier request to be at ease.
Everyone else nodded in agreement at Albert's answer as they did not dare speak without being spoken to. The only one they deemed could speak for them was Albert and even Erin, Liz and Rain did not speak.
Tyler turned his gaze towards Rain and saw that she was still wearing the gold and emerald bracelets he had gifted her earlier. However, she still didn't seem like herself and something may still be weighing on her.
Returning his gaze back to everyone else, Tyler then addressed them.
"Alright then, you have my thanks. Before we get to today's agenda. There's something I'd like to brief everyone on, but I'll let Z here explain further in my stead."
The moment he said that, everyone's attention suddenly shifted to the man who had just entered the room. And although his lateness would be considered an insult to his master. No one complained as they all knew this man was one of the most hardworking people they had ever met.
He was a man whose intellect surpassed their imagination. A man who could accurately analyze and predict any situation he was in after a only a glance.
Z politely bowed to the figure sitted on the temporary throne after finishing the task he had been assigned with in record time and walked inside the hall as he approached Tyler before kneeling.
"Please rise. I'd like you to explain in details, the information you shared with me earlier."
"Understood."
Standing up swiftly and elegantly like the Noble he was. He turned around and adjusted his mask as he spoke to the crowd.