Summoning the Undead

How to make someone disappear without a trace?

Answer: Secret execution.

Aokiji certainly didn't want to kill people carelessly; he wasn't Akainu. So, his intention was to erase all traces of Lowett's existence!

As long as "Lowett" disappeared, the government wouldn't bother with such trivial matters.

The Navy was well-versed in such actions, like an old horse knowing the way.

It all depended on whether Branch 153 was willing to keep Lowett's secret... and Lowett's own wishes.

But the answer was quite obvious.

Several days later, East Blue, Shells Town, Navy Branch 153.

A wide plaza was packed with people who had come to mourn. The crowd was dense but silent. The bodies of the fallen soldiers had already been sent to the cemetery for interment; today was a collective funeral for them.

After a few days of rest, Lowett, having recovered from his high fever, showed no obvious signs of weakness apart from a slightly pale complexion. Of course, soul injuries were not something that could be healed overnight; many Great Liches took hundreds of years to recover after their life-bound objects were destroyed.

Standing in a secluded corner at the edge of the plaza, Lowett turned, his empty left sleeve swaying with the movement.

"Is it really okay for me to be here, Colonel Morgan?"

The higher-ups' intentions had been conveyed to Branch 153. Morgan had successfully been promoted to Colonel and was in charge of Branch 153. As for Lowett, due to his meritorious service in capturing Kuro, his bounty was canceled, and he was appointed as a Navy Ensign...

Except for a few staunch opponents who disagreed, most of the fence-sitters felt it didn't matter.

In any case, the message from Headquarters was clear: Lowett could not be promoted in any form, hold any real power, or even leave the East Blue. They were essentially keeping him as a mascot.

With Aokiji's endorsement, this would suffice as an explanation to the World Government.

Lowett didn't care about the higher-ups wanting to erase his existence; he didn't belong to the "past" anyway.

He might as well take this opportunity to change his name, which was unsuited to this world's customs, to Francis Lowett, and shift his focus.

As for "Triangle Spellbreaker" Lowett...

He had died long ago in that battle.

If you're arresting the Spellbreaker, what does that have to do with me, Lowett?

Hearing this, Morgan, his chin wrapped in bandages, stared at the plaza not far away and replied, "Since everyone has agreed to keep your secret, then bygones are bygones... As a Navy Ensign, what's wrong with you being here?"

His personality had issues after all!

Based on the intelligence Lowett had gathered over the past few days, Morgan was originally a very rigid person.

But that suited me perfectly.

The corners of his mouth curled up, and Lowett smiled, "Understood."

"Then that's that... I'm leaving. There's a pharmacy in town; you can wander around as you please."

With that, Morgan strode away, following the gaze cast in his direction.

"So touching, taking such good care of me..."

After Morgan left, Lowett's smile faded. He spoke with a detached expression, "Too bad it's all a lie I wove myself... Not even as good as the affection one has for a pet!"

He lowered his head and clenched his fist, his eyelids drooping. His hair obscured his gaze as he looked askance at Morgan's retreating back. "I can't wait to see what kind of expression you'll have when you discover the truth and awaken your memories."

"Having tasted the sweetness of power, you who have savored it to the bone... you'll surely be very interesting then."

He loosened his fist, and a dim, lusterless soul orb magically appeared in his palm, flickering incessantly.

Lowett placed his fingers on his face and took a deep breath.

Hiss...!

A sharp, stinging sensation surged through his entire body, making him tremble.

For a Necromancer, Soul Devour wasn't just a skillful act; it was also physically demanding. Without a strong soul as a foundation, this was the consequence.

His head buzzed, and chaotic memory fragments rushed in, which Lowett skillfully controlled and quickly cast aside.

Memories could affect personality and even distort perception.

Therefore, although Necromancers could directly devour fragments of others' souls through "Soul Devour" to strip away memories, they more often chose "Soul Search" to watch a movie.

The soul orb, stripped of impurities, plummeted in volume again. The actual remaining soul energy was less than a tenth of the original, but it left behind the purest and most harmless nourishment.

Given Lowett's current soul condition, this was more than enough to satiate him.

Placing his fingers beneath his nostrils to take a deep breath and alleviate the throbbing in his head, Lowett exhaled deeply and turned to look at the forest behind the town.

"Ten days, it should be about time, right?"

The moon was bright and the stars were sparse; magpies flew south.

In the silent forest, a dark figure moved slowly. The eerie, unknown whimpers of animals occasionally reached his ears, complementing the night sky obscured by dark clouds, creating a bone-chilling scene.

After an unknown amount of time, the dark figure stopped beside a man-made fence. The bright moonlight overhead broke through the dark clouds at just the right moment, scattering down like a curtain and illuminating the gray and white, broken, and eerie tombstones before him.

This was the Shells Town cemetery, adjacent to Branch 153.

"The town cemetery has been around for decades, with an expansion in the middle. This half belongs to the older generation, and almost no one pays respects here."

Using the map he'd noted down during the day, Lowett tightened the black cloak around himself, his face, paler than a tombstone, looked towards the not-too-distant, noticeably newer, other half of the graveyard.

"Is it over there?"

With rustling footsteps, walking alone in the eerie graveyard under the moonlight, this scene would be enough to make an ordinary person's hair stand on end, but for a Necromancer, there was nothing to get excited about.

Would you be terrified by braised pork on a table?

It was probably that kind of mentality.

Arriving before a tombstone in the newly built area, Lowett glanced at the graveyard keeper's hut in the distance. Through the window, he could see the old graveyard keeper sitting in a wicker chair, holding a newspaper.

The dim light inside was on, but he had been asleep for a long time.

Confirming that no one was around, Lowett bent down and placed his ear against the tombstone.

What could be heard in a graveyard at night?

Only Lowett knew the answer.

He held his breath, concentrating, and waited quietly...

Suddenly, thump!

In the graveyard of the dead, a dull thud suddenly rang out!

Transmitted through the tombstone, Lowett heard it clearly!

A hint of a smile appeared on his pale face, Lowett's lips curled, and he chuckled, "Good luck, a good start!"

Necromancy has three basic and five advanced branches, but it's fine to only know the five advanced branches, as they all evolved from the three basic ones into distinct types before being categorized.

These five advanced branches are Summoning Magic, Bone Magic, Flesh Magic, Soul Magic, and Curse Magic.

Among the Soul Magic branch, there is a basic spell comparable in status to the "Skeleton Revival" from the summoning branch. It's not the Soul Shock that he used on Sam and Buchi of the Black Cat Pirates, but...

Forced Obedience!

This technique was originally developed by Necromancers when exploring certain deathly forbidden lands, used to deal with the naturally born undead creatures there.

Some powerful undead, with their immortality, were troublesome even for Necromancers to handle themselves.

Later, it was improved by Soul-path Necromancers, turning it into something with an extremely high ceiling and an extremely low floor.

The most significant change was that powerful mages could forcibly strip other Necromancers of control over their summoned creatures using this spell.

It was control, not destruction.

The impact was unprecedented!

When this spell was improved, it coincided with a thousand-year war in the necromantic academic world, resulting in...

The enemy rapidly improved summoning magic, strengthening their control over summoned creatures!

Truly... congratulations, congratulations.

This is why Necromancers are good at fighting; it's all forced by their own kind.

However, Lowett didn't have such complex thoughts at the moment; he just wanted to find some pawns to help him with his work and to subdue some... artificially created wild undead.

Obscure, low chants filled the empty, cold graveyard. The chirping of insects quickly ceased, as if some unspeakable monster had descended upon this place, terrifying everything.

The old man in the keeper's hut felt his nose itch, rubbed it, turned over, and continued to sleep.

Woo... woo...

The airflow around suddenly began to accelerate, blowing at his clothes.

Lowett spread his only right arm outward, his chanting changed rhythm, becoming impassioned and powerful. But strangely, the sound in the outside air didn't increase; those syllables only resonated within the soul.

Swish! Swish!

Suddenly, a black pillar of smoke appeared with the sound of the wind, swirling around him.

Then two, three...

When dozens of black smoke pillars were swirling around him, sweat dripped from Lowett's forehead, and his eyes were no longer so bright.

"That's about it. Even with energy-saving casting, this is my limit... nearly a fifth conversion rate. It's already perfect in my current state."

Not every corpse can be transformed into an undead creature, nor will every undead naturally obey a Necromancer. Controlling twenty-seven Zombie Puppets at once, if the full score is ten, Lowett would give himself nine points.

The remaining point was for humility.

Pulling his arm back to his chest, controlling his limited mental energy, Lowett pushed outward heavily.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Streams of black mist shot out, each finding its own path, circling in the air, and precisely entering the newly made tombstones, which had been there for less than ten days.

That's right!

Even before the support troops arrived that night, Lowett had planted the Corpse Transformation Curse on every corpse on the ship, waiting for them to trigger it.

What good would old corpses resurrected in the graveyard do? He needed fresh undead warriors!

If it weren't for his insufficient mental power to use large-scale resurrection magic, he wouldn't have let that boatload of people go.

The Corpse Transformation Curse, a minor spell from the Curse Magic branch, is difficult to take effect on living people; in most cases, it would be treated as a skin condition.

However, on the dead, the effect was outstanding!

After completing all this, feeling the faint but real twenty-seven connections in his mind, Lowett took a deep breath and smiled.

"Rise, my servants! I command you in the name of your master, rise!"

Crack... Crackle!

As the words fell, a pale hand with obvious corpse spots pierced through the soil and reached for the sky.

The soil all over the graveyard began to tremble non-stop. Hands lifted coffins and broke through the earth, creating an extremely eerie scene.

Before long, twenty-seven zombie puppets of varying heights and builds crawled out of their graves one after another, standing silently under the moonlight.

Looking at the undead army (?) with missing limbs before him, Lowett's tired face was filled with a smile.

"This will be an epic adventure."

Even though their appearance wasn't great, the emergence of these undead announced that the Necromancer class had officially established itself in this world!

The title for Chapter 4 disappeared, then reappeared after being changed. So, here's the question... Is there a difference between "The Navy Headquarters' Reply" and "A Reply from the Navy Headquarters"?

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Thank you to everyone for your recommendation votes. It's still annoying that I can't post on the web version. Thank you all for your support!

One update per day before signing the contract, but the word count still needs to be guaranteed.

Also, it's been so long since the review ended, over ten thousand words, and I haven't received a contract notification. To be honest, I'm a bit panicked right now.