Undead Undercover Agent, Plan to Freeload off Queen Sylvanas

This time, Rod's Eagle Eye had copied two more spells: the mage's Ice Lance and Arcane Shield.

Both spells were extremely practical. Ice Lance could be used in a repeating attack cycle with Frostbolt.

Arcane Shield, meanwhile, could be used as armor. One point of mana could cast five Ice Lances or two Arcane Shields. Forming an arcane energy shield over the body, it could block and absorb some damage.

Both spells benefited from hero power bonuses. The shield's duration and defense were enhanced, while Ice Lance's damage also increased.

Ice Lance benefited from Water Magic bonuses: Basic increased its power by 10%, Advanced by 25%, and Expert Water Magic by 50%.

Arcane Shield was classified as Air Magic. Its bonuses were the same as Ice Lance's; Expert Air Magic also increased its power by 50%.

"Lord Rod, Jaina, we must head to Hearthglen. We have to stop this infected grain from reaching Stratholme," Arthas said, turning around.

"That's right, Your Highness."

"No time to lose. Let's go."

Everyone nodded. Led by Arthas, they quickly headed toward Hearthglen, while Rod took the opportunity to inspect his gains.

Rod's skeleton soldier formation had now reached more than 170 units. That was a terrifying number. That was how Necropolis faction forces worked—the longer the war went on, the more they fought, the more troops they gained.

The skeleton swarm tactic. Brother, have you ever heard of the Necropolis faction skeleton soldier's wind-cleaving slash? I don't care what you are—I'll cut you all down in one stroke!

Basic Necromancy was already this powerful. Once he built the Necromancy Amplifier and raised Necromancy to Expert level, roughly forty to fifty percent of the units killed in every battle would be converted into skeleton soldiers.

For now, he could not upgrade his skeleton soldiers into skeleton warriors. He had to maintain the skeleton soldiers' numbers.

In Heroes of Might and Magic III, experienced players would refrain from upgrading skeleton soldiers and keep using them instead.

Some newcomers would wonder, why not bring skeleton warriors?

If you used Necromancy while bringing skeleton warriors, the summoned units would be upgraded into skeleton warriors for free. Skeleton soldiers would not be upgraded, and they could not beat skeleton warriors!

The logic was simple. After enemy troops died, the number of skeletons summoned was calculated based on unit count and health.

After upgrading Necromancy to Expert, 30% of fallen enemy units would become skeleton soldiers. With a Necromancy Amplifier, that became 40%. With other artifacts that boosted Necromancy, the number could rise even higher.

For example, if you killed 1,000 spearmen, Expert Necromancy plus the Necromancy Amplifier would give you 400 skeleton soldiers.

That was because spearmen had more health than skeletons, allowing for nearly full-count summoning. But if you killed weak creatures with less health than skeleton soldiers, you would not get 400 skeletons—at most, a little over 300, and so on.

But if your army consisted entirely of skeleton warriors, then one-third of the skeleton soldiers would mysteriously vanish during summoning.

For instance, killing 1,000 spearmen should have given you 400 skeleton soldiers. But if you had brought skeleton warriors, you might summon fewer than 300 skeleton warriors.

You would lose 100 skeleton soldiers out of thin air. (Fun fact: you can summon skeleton soldiers even after defeating undead in the wild. Even if you kill a bone dragon, one bone dragon only summons one skeleton soldier. Amazing, right?)

That was why veteran Heroes of Might and Magic players would absolutely never upgrade skeleton soldiers into skeleton warriors during early-game expansion and field battles.

Only when facing the computer in a decisive battle would they upgrade them, returning home to convert all their skeleton soldiers into skeleton warriors for the final fight.

If needed early on, they would leave the skeleton warriors at home in the city, then head out to summon skeleton soldiers with Necromancy.

This effect of Necromancy also applied to zombies, wraiths, vampires, and liches.

If he had the Cloak of the Undead King, then once his lich army took shape, it would be practically unstoppable. Even Azure Dragons would be no match for it.

What a pity! He was human now. Under normal circumstances, it really was difficult to bring these undead forces out with him.

But if someone asked Rod to turn himself into an undead creature, he refused. I haven't lived long enough yet! I still want to use my adventure rod to poke around caves!

Still, his heroes could head out on their own. Rod considered sending his undead heroes, such as Skeletor, to infiltrate undead factions in the future!

He wanted to see whether Azeroth's necromantic spells and undead transformation techniques could strengthen his heroes or units.

With Skeletor's raw strength, hero attack and defense bonuses, group spells, and special zombie troop bonuses, he could definitely climb to a high position.

But he absolutely could not join the Lich King's forces. Because of the Helm of Domination, all undead would be unconditionally controlled by the Lich King, with no freedom whatsoever.

Even their memories would be laid bare before the Lich King without condition, their souls enslaved by him forever.

If Skeletor approached as a wild undead seeking allegiance, he would never earn the Lich King's trust.

Instead, the Lich King would use special methods to control him. Rod's secrets might even be exposed, so that path was impossible.

That left only one undead faction he could join: the Forsaken.

Once Illidan attacked the Lich King's Frozen Throne and large numbers of undead gained their freedom, Skeletor could join Sylvanas as an undead who had broken free.

After witnessing Skeletor's bugged abilities, Queen Sylvanas would definitely welcome him with open arms.

Then Rod could mingle with the Alliance, while his undead hero mingled with the Horde.

Although some Forsaken were nothing but skeletons, many were actually in a zombie-like state. Those Forsaken might all receive bonuses from Skeletor's zombie specialty.

The Forsaken faction could also carry out some skeleton and zombie modifications. Rod had always greatly admired the Queen's Royal Dreadguards.

And the Queen was especially skilled at handling banshees. He could ask her to take a look at the wraiths and see whether they could be modified.

As for zombies, Undercity had quite a few abominations. He could also ask the Queen to help develop zombies into abominations.

Vampires, though, were impossible for the moment. Rod did not have many ideas yet. He could not exactly imitate a dreadlord, could he?

The future upgrade path for dread knights would definitely be death knights. Once the Knights of the Ebon Blade rebelled against the Lich King in the future, he could look into that.

As for bone dragons, frost wyrms were a good direction for development. Only the Scourge had those, so he would have to find a way.

In the future, he could freeload some from Arthas or Kel'Thuzad's Naxxramas.