Shut the Gate and Beat the Dogs

"Those skeletons really are stupid!"

The bandits whistled as they pursued the skeletons retreating into Kurd City District.

Seeing that the skeletons hadn't even closed the city gate and were simply running inside the walls, they laughed even more brazenly.

The skeletons' heads were empty. They really had no intelligence at all.

With the city walls in the way, attacking would have been difficult.

Now the skeletons had opened the gate and let them in. Weren't they leading lambs straight into a tiger's den?

"So there's a castle inside!"

"Ha! You think that'll stop us?"

After chasing the skeletons into Kurd City District, the bandits spotted Armory District in the very center.

It had another ring of walls around it, but they were only ten meters tall. Compared with the towering walls of Wall District, Armory District's walls would be much easier to attack.

"Shut the gate and beat the dogs!"

The bandits thought the skeletons had forgotten to close the city gate. In truth, Medivh had deliberately let them in so he could kill them.

It was better for every enemy to die. He had no intention of letting a single bandit escape.

Luring them into Kurd City District was like catching turtles in a jar.

The bandits hadn't even noticed that the city gate had closed behind them. Their eyes were fixed on Central Castle.

Once they captured Central Castle, the town would be theirs, along with all the food and wealth in the district.

"Loose!"

Once the bandits came within range, the Skeleton Hunters and Skeleton Rangers, acting on Medivh's command, drew their bows and fired. Bone Arrows flew from the walls one after another.

There were plenty of archers atop Armory District's walls. The Skeleton Hunters and Skeleton Rangers numbered more than two hundred in all.

Firing together, they unleashed a rain of arrows.

"Argh..."

The bandits had little in the way of decent armor. Beneath the hail of arrows, they let out bloodcurdling screams.

The arrows fired by the older Green Bone Rangers, whose strength rivaled that of veteran Apprentice Knights, could even pierce fine leather armor.

The bandits were marauders, so mobility was essential. Few of them wore heavy armor.

"Don't get cocky!"

The bandits who had pursued the army from Winter Fortress were naturally no pushovers.

Seeing his men fall in droves under the rain of arrows, the knight-level bandit leader roared and charged forward.

They unleashed their Battle Qi and bounded up the walls in just a few steps.

"Flame Slash!"

Kurd City's Transcendent Skeletons weren't wooden statues. How could they let the bandits run amok?

Before the attackers could even reach Armory District's walls, the Flame Skeleton Knights, Bone Spirit Warriors, and Spirit Rune Warriors intercepted them.

"How can there be so many Transcendent Skeletons here? Does a high-level Necromancer live here?"

Surrounded and battered by dozens of Transcendent Skeletons, the bandit knight, who had been gloating moments earlier, looked terrified.

Necromancy was indeed considered a gutter profession, but reaching a high level in a gutter profession still made someone formidable.

Hospice Blessing had only reduced the number of corpses a Necromancer could use and lowered the quality of their spell components. It didn't suppress the Necromancer themself.

The strength of Transcendent undead remained largely unaffected. They were not to be taken lightly.

"Great Mage, we're willing to serve you! Please spare our lives!"

After the Transcendent Skeletons attacked, Common Skeletons swarmed in from all sides to clear out the ordinary bandits.

Each Common Skeleton fought with astonishing courage. The blood-hardened bandits fell like stalks of wheat.

The Common Skeletons' unusual strength only made the bandits more certain that a high-ranking Necromancer lived in this town.

Medivh didn't answer their pleas. The moment they set foot in Kurd City District, their death warrants had already been issued.

Medivh had loyal Transcendent Skeletons under his command. These bandit knights with ulterior motives were of no use to him.

Male or female, beautiful or ugly, every bandit who had charged into Kurd City District fell beneath the skeletons' merciless blades.

From the High Tower in the center of Kurd City District, Medivh watched the skeletons clear the battlefield, his expression unchanging.

More than two thousand bandits had come in this attack. Every one of them had died in Kurd City District.

Killing more than two thousand bandits was like slaughtering two thousand pigs. It didn't disturb Medivh's composure in the slightest.

Medivh possessed a maturity far beyond his years. He knew this was a cruel world where the strong preyed on the weak. When coldness was called for, there was no need for compassion.

Audrey was just as unflappable. She was busy boasting to Medivh about her exploits.

The noble girl, whose head was filled with strange fantasies, was nothing like the affected ladies of Loran City.

Suixiang and the other Alien Maids had grown up in the Odyssey Region. They were used to bloodshed and were just as unfazed.

The corpses in Kurd City District were soon bundled up and taken away.

After undergoing several stages of processing, they would be buried in Graveyard District, where they would settle into history.

Kurd City District soon returned to its quiet, efficient routine. It was as if the bandits had never come; their attack had not disrupted the district at all.

That bandit gang had been the last of the bandits heading east.

After destroying them, Kurd City District seemed to be forgotten once more.

The bloodshed and turmoil in the Odyssey Region stood in stark contrast to the calm in Kurd City District.

Another month passed in peace.

During that month, Medivh learned the earth-type Battle Qi technique Savage Stone Charge and directed excavations at several Residential District ruins.

That month, Medivh refined 212 Grey Bones, 196 White Bones, and 84 Green Bone Skeletons.

Nearly five hundred skeletons, and not a single one was Transcendent.

It was clear that to obtain the skeletal materials of Transcendents, he still needed to excavate ancient battlefields.

Ordinary Residential District ruins rarely yielded the remains of Transcendents.

No skeleton naturally awakened Bone Spirit Power that month.

Kurd City District gained two first-tier, low-level Bone Spirit Rangers raised using the blood of Big-Horned Ox magic beasts.

At present, Kurd Region had a total of 1,918 ordinary Grey Bone, White Bone, and Green Bone Skeletons, and 38 Transcendent Green Bone Skeletons.

With so many skeletons, construction proceeded at an impressive pace. In just one month, they had completed the walls outside East Reservoir District in Kurd City.

The skeletons were now digging the foundations for the walls of Livestock District in the southeast and Graveyard District to the south.

Medivh was called a Pioneer but was really an exile. He had no team and no time to prepare for settlement.

He had brought only some dry rations when he arrived in the Odyssey Region, and had no seeds to plant.

However, the skeletons had captured plenty of tameable herbivores while the Bloodthirsty Mosquito Swarm was rampant.

So the first supply district Medivh built was Livestock District, not Farmland District.

Graveyard District would be Medivh's source of bones in the future. More and more corpses were now buried there, so the area needed protection from outsiders who might disturb it.

"Swim, little fish, swim!"

In a pond in East Reservoir District, Audrey and the Cat-girls were releasing fish the skeletons had caught in other waters.

Fishing was also a worthwhile industry for supplies. Once the reservoir district developed, it could provide Kurd City with a steady supply of fish.

"We're having fish for dinner!"

Seeing Suihua lying by the shore, staring blankly at a big fish that hadn't yet swum away, Medivh was drawn over by the splashing. He grabbed her and laughed.

These Cat-girls seemed to like eating fish. But before dinner, he wanted to have a good taste of the fair-skinned girl.