The Target Cemetery

Before the two summoned creatures disappeared, Donald had been protected by the infantryman Clinton and had successfully hunted two level-two magical beasts and five level-one magical beasts. It was already late afternoon, and dusk was falling, so Donald prepared to head straight home.

Even with the powerful protection of Clinton, who was fully armed and could stand against a level-three magical beast with the strength of a high Black Iron fighter, Donald didn't dare spend the night in this danger-ridden forest. After all, whether in his previous life or in this world, most wild animals were active at night, especially carnivores.

Hurrying back along the way they had come, Donald made it to the old manor in town just before night fell. Butler Code, who had been worried all day, immediately came out to meet him.

"Young master, you're finally back!"

Donald smiled and reassured him with a few words, then pointed to the infantryman following behind him.

"This is Clinton, a Knight Attendant I took on along the way. Code, go prepare a room. From today onward, Clinton is a retainer of our house!"

Though the butler couldn't judge a warrior's strength, this man was wrapped in at least three hundred pounds of steel armor and still moved with ease. He could hardly be weak.

The only concern was his loyalty. The young master seemed to have complete confidence in him, though, so Code couldn't very well object. He would watch him for a while and see how things went. After all, House Merlinar was too weak at the moment, and having a powerful warrior like this to stand at the front would help deter troublemakers.

Still, Code took Clinton aside and questioned him carefully about his origins. But Clinton had been created from scratch by Donald. Though he was essentially no different from a human born and raised in this world, and could even have children with a woman from this world, there was one distinction.

From the moment he had come into being, his soul had been utterly loyal to Donald. He wouldn't hesitate for an instant to die for his master. When the Book of Truth created him, it had given him only basic common sense and powerful combat instincts. It had naturally seen no reason to waste energy giving him anything else.

As a result, Clinton seemed somewhat dull in conversation. Apart from his master and fighting, he had little interest in anything.

Code questioned him for a long time but couldn't get any useful answers. Only after Donald vouched for him did Code set aside his doubts and go prepare dinner.

Donald didn't intend to reveal the Book of Truth's secret, not even to someone as close to him as Code. After all, a secret was a secret because no one knew about it. The more people who knew, the greater the risk—and there was no benefit to be gained.

As a Knight Attendant, Clinton was of high enough standing to dine with his master. Besides, he was certainly capable of earning that privilege. Following Donald's orders, Clinton sat at the table and mechanically put the food in front of him into his mouth.

Even when Donald spoke to him, he only replied with things like "Yes" and "As you command." Dining with someone like him was no fun at all, and Donald soon finished his meal.

The butler came to clear the dishes. Just then, two chimes rang out from the town.

"It's nightfall, young master. Get some rest. I'll have the bathwater ready!"

"Go ahead! You should get some rest too, Code. Tomorrow you'll have to sell the magical beasts we hunted!"

Donald nodded. He knew the night watchman at the cemetery outside town was ringing the copper bell to warn the townsfolk that night had fallen and they shouldn't leave town. The wilderness was often dangerous at night in this world, especially around towns like Red Maple Town, which lay near the edge of Green Cloak Forest. That was why towns and villages usually had warning bells.

Thinking of the night watchman and then the cemetery outside town, Donald suddenly clapped his hands in excitement.

"A cemetery? Of course! How did I not think of that?"

Just like the world he had lived in before, this world did not practice cremation. People wanted the dead to be buried so their souls could return to the Kingdom of the Dead.

Whenever someone in town died, they would invite the only Priest in town to offer prayers and blessings. Then the dead would all be buried in the cemetery outside town. This led to a problem: the corpses in the graveyard could easily be tainted by negative energy, giving rise to Undead and other undead creatures.

Normally, the local lord would pay a Priest from the church each year to hold a ceremony at the cemetery, soothe the spirits, and cleanse the graves. This was to prevent mutated undead creatures from appearing and harming the people under his rule.

The Shrine in Red Maple Town had only one Cleric stationed there: an elderly, low-ranking Priest. He was responsible for teaching the faith to the people of the town and the two nearby villages. He also conducted funerals and treated the sick, among other duties.

The churches in this world were divided into Temples and Shrines. Apart from the main Temple, which was usually built at the holy site where the deity being worshipped had first descended, other Temples of all sizes were scattered throughout the towns and cities of the various dioceses. They were built with donations from local worshippers or funding from the lord.

A Shrine beneath a Temple was simply an altar bearing a deity's Holy Symbol or statue. It was simple and inexpensive to build, yet could perform some of a Temple's functions, so Shrines were usually established in small towns and villages.

A remote territory at the edge of North Shire like Red Maple Town had developed reasonably well, but it still had only a Shrine. A Temple cost far too much to build. Even a small one would cost more than five times as much as the lord's manor in Red Maple Town. The Baron of Red Maple, whose miserly nature had persisted for two generations, would never spend a fortune on one. As Donald understood it, the merchant noble didn't worship a true god. He worshipped the great Gold Sol!

Because of this, both the Temple in Giant Stone City and the elderly Priest in town were dissatisfied with the merchant noble. The former disapproved of the Baron of Red Maple's attitude toward the Temple, while the latter resented being assigned to a place with little money to be made and a stingy lord.

"I remember the last time the cemetery was cleansed was before the autumn harvest festival last year. Given how old Clifford treats the Baron of Red Maple, I doubt he did a very thorough job. Nearly a year has passed since then, so the cemetery should have changed a little. I need to go take a look!"

It wasn't that Donald cared about the safety of the cemetery. His goal wasn't to cleanse the Undead; he intended to harvest the Soul Fire of undead creatures. Destroying them was just a side benefit.

So he quietly gave Clinton a few instructions. After the Silver Moon had risen halfway into the sky and most people in town were asleep, the two of them slipped out of the old manor without Code noticing. They climbed over the wooden wall and headed toward the cemetery outside town.

People feared the dead in every world. The vast cemetery of Red Maple Town was watched by only one person: an elderly night watchman. With Clinton's help, Donald easily slipped past the watchman in the gatehouse and made his way inside.

The cemetery was quiet and eerie. It gave Donald the same feeling as that barren patch of land in the forest where he had encountered undead creatures.

"It seems pretty likely there are undead in here. Clinton, we'll head over there. If we run into any, just defend yourself. Try not to attack!"

"Yes, master!"

With Clinton the infantryman at his side, Donald cautiously made his way toward the older section of the cemetery.

The two generations of lords who had ruled Red Maple Town had established the territory more than fifty years ago, so it was still relatively young. But the town itself could be traced back a hundred years, when it had been no more than a small village. Even so, there were already too many graves in the cemetery to count. Many commoners had no tombstones after they died; they were simply buried in earthen pits, and most of their remains had long since rotted away.

Using the Book of Truth's ability to sense energy, Donald found a place where negative energy was most concentrated. There was only a small patch of broken tombstones there, making it look like a mass grave. It was the oldest part of the cemetery.

"This is the place!"

Donald took out a level-one Magic Core and opened the Book of Truth's summoning list.

"Come forth, Sand Worm!"

A two-foot-long, ochre-colored creature appeared at Donald's feet.

Its body was covered in soft but tough hide. Its head was fearsome, while its body resembled an earthworm, making it look like a cross between a cobra and an earthworm.

This was the Dune Worm, a wild creature that had appeared in the Warcraft expansion. It was a creature of the desert, sometimes called a Sand Worm. It could spit sand and stones at its enemies. Its attacks weren't especially powerful, but its ability to burrow was formidable, making it an excellent ambusher.

Donald had summoned it because of its digging ability.

If he wanted to find out whether there were undead here, he couldn't very well start digging up people's graves himself, could he?

Watching the Sand Worm burrow back and forth through the old graveyard, occasionally tossing out one or two rotten bones, Donald silently murmured to himself:

"Don't blame me. You've been dead for so long that your souls must have returned to the Kingdom of the Dead by now. Maybe you've already been reincarnated. Surely you won't mind if I move these bones!"

As it turned out, the Sand Worm's commotion really did draw out an undead creature.

It looked truly wretched, though. A half-skeleton had just crawled out of the ground when two of its ribs fell off, leaving it on the verge of falling apart.

As Donald watched with pity, Clinton stepped forward and dismantled the skeleton in a few quick blows, leaving only its skull, still holding its Soul Fire, for his master to collect.

After collecting the Soul Fire of the battered skeleton, which contained only twenty units of soul power, Donald found that no matter how much the Sand Worm disturbed the graveyard, nothing else stirred. He had no choice but to leave.

"Forget it. I wasn't expecting much in the first place. Tomorrow we'll go to the great cemetery outside Giant Stone City. There'll definitely be more resources there!"

He dismissed the Sand Worm, letting the Book of Truth reclaim its remaining energy, then prepared to return home with Clinton.

As they passed a grave that had been built not long ago, a dark, icy aura suddenly rushed toward them. The attacker was fast. Clinton, who had remained on guard, reacted just as quickly and swung his sword at the shadow. A normal creature would have been cleaved in two by now, but after Clinton struck it, the shadow split apart and then rejoined without a scratch, continuing its attack.

The unexpected turn of events left Donald no time to dodge. He could only move out of its direct path before it passed straight through his left shoulder.

"Damn it!"

Only after being attacked did Donald see what his enemy really looked like. It was a blurry figure floating in midair, poised to strike.

"It's a Ghost!"

Just when his search for undead creatures seemed to be going nowhere, a Ghost had appeared out of nowhere.

Ghosts were also called specters or spirits; the terms meant roughly the same thing. They were spirits of the dead, not undead creatures.

Undead creatures and undead spirits both belonged to the same faction and shared the word "undead" in their names, but they were fundamentally different.

Unlike physical undead such as skeletons and zombies, Ghosts were spirits. The former were usually created when a creature's soul returned to the Underworld, leaving behind a remnant of its soul in its body that mutated under the influence of negative energy. They were creatures of negative energy, with almost none of their former memories remaining, and were essentially new beings. Ghosts, on the other hand, were spirits that lingered in the living world after death because of some unresolved grievance or resentment, becoming entities made of negative energy. Lacking physical bodies and the ability to attack physically, they hated the living and could drain their life force with negative energy. More powerful spirits also possessed strange abilities that non-magic users could not resist.

Fortunately, this was only an ordinary Ghost. After it attacked him, Donald felt a chill throughout his body, and half his arm went numb. But unlike a mage, he didn't need hand gestures to summon creatures. Otherwise, the Ghost's surprise attack would have completely shut him down, leaving him no way to fight back.

"Summon an Undead Banshee!"

As soon as Donald spoke, a figure resembling the Ghost appeared in front of him, blocking its follow-up attack.

The figure seemed like a phantom made of shifting light and shadow. A cold, dark-blue energy swirled around her, and her once-beautiful Elven face was twisted as if she were suffering endless torment. She was a Banshee, a level-two Undead spellcaster.

Banshees had once been beautiful female Elves. When the Kalimdor Continent fell, they were brutally slain by demons. Having suffered unspeakable torment, their restless souls remained in this world, wailing silently with pain and resentment.

Their terrible voices, a ceaseless and heartrending sound to the living, were considered the howls of death. The Banshees later became warriors of the Undead army, using the power of their mournful cries to attack enemies on the battlefield. Their bone-chilling, evil shrieks could be heard from miles away.

Seeing the Banshee open her mouth to attack the approaching Ghost, Donald hurriedly shouted:

"Don't attack! Take control of it!"

The Banshee obeyed, immediately using her innate ability, Possession. The Ghost across from her froze in place.

Any living creature or undead spirit, except for alchemical constructs and mechanical units, could be controlled by this ability unless it was immune to magic. When the ability was used, the target was first immobilized for several seconds. During that time, the Banshee took extra damage. Then she disappeared and possessed the target's body without harming it. Of course, Possession wasn't invincible. It was basically ineffective against creatures above level five and heroes—in this world, Silver-rank fighters and those of even higher standing. Against targets below Bronze rank, its success also depended on their willpower and the strength of their souls.

Donald was afraid that any attack would hurt the Ghost and cause it to lose energy, so using the Banshee—a spirit herself—to deal with its kind was the best option.

The Ghost struggled against the Banshee's Possession. Donald summoned the Book of Truth and spoke to it sympathetically:

"Give up. Whatever happened to you in life, whatever grievances or resentment you have, you can't accomplish anything like this. Even if I don't act, you'll still be cleansed by a Priest. You might as well turn into energy and let me put you to use!"

With that, the Ghost and the Banshee's body both turned into black streaks of light and were absorbed by the Book of Truth.

Then he communed with the divine artifact to check what he had gained. Donald couldn't help grinning.

"Fantastic! One Ghost had more than three hundred units of soul power. That's ten times the energy in the Soul Fire of a low-level skeleton. This is much better than killing skeletons!"

The spoils from this single Ghost had already made the trip worthwhile.

Unfortunately, the Book of Truth wasn't designed specifically to collect souls, so it couldn't absorb the residual soul power in the cemetery. Otherwise, he would have gained a great deal even if no spirits or undead creatures had appeared.

In this situation, the Book of Truth suggested that he could exchange for the secondary divine artifact, the Soul Orb, which was designed to absorb souls. It could absorb the soul power of living creatures and dead spirits alike, and could even absorb and make extensive use of the faint traces of soul power lingering in the surrounding space.

With one, he would only need to visit a place where many creatures had died, such as an ancient battlefield or a great cemetery, and walk around to gather large amounts of residual soul power. He wouldn't have to go to so much effort for so little, and could easily collect enough soul power to create creatures.

The conditions for exchanging for a secondary divine artifact were completely out of Donald's reach for now. Even though the Soul Orb, like in the game's storyline, could be broken down into ten Soul Orb Fragments, each fragment was still a low-tier legendary magic item. Donald couldn't exchange for one at his current level, let alone the complete secondary divine artifact, which would also require divine essence to create.

After dealing with the Ghost, Donald made several more rounds of the cemetery, unwilling to give up until he found nothing else. Only then did he leave under cover of night with his subordinate.

As for the undead creatures and Ghost that had been eliminated in the cemetery, no one would know unless he told them. People would probably just assume that the cleansing in previous years had prevented any mutations from occurring.

As for the elderly Priest, the only person who might have noticed anything, Donald wasn't worried about him at all!

Most low-ranking Priests assigned to remote areas were unimportant to the church, so they were hardly likely to work very hard at their duties. Besides, that old Priest didn't get along with the local lord.

So even if Clifford realized Donald had done what should have been his job, the old Priest would only thank the goddess for making his work easier. He probably wouldn't become suspicious.