This was already the third day since Jason had made a contract with Lumba.
Jason had spent all of yesterday helping Lumba improve his strength. Of course, his spiritual force couldn't sustain him in the Netherworld for an entire day, so he could only enter it intermittently.
As a result, Lumba was now a level-four undead.
The undead grew stronger extremely quickly in the early stages, becoming more powerful simply by devouring other undead's Soulfire. Of course, the chance of perishing was also high.
Lumba was now far stronger than Jason, who couldn't summon him into the real world at all. But Jason didn't care. Lumba was only level four, after all, and Jason wasn't in any danger now. He only needed a few years of secluded training. After level seven, the undead's breakthroughs would gradually slow down, and Jason would catch up then.
By that point, the undead would be fairly intelligent, and some powerful undead also had many servants. Hunting down even one undead of the same level would be extremely difficult.
Besides, some of the Soulfire was lost when an undead absorbed it—roughly thirty to fifty percent. Above level seven, the difference between each level was also enormous, and a large number of Soulfire from undead of the same level were needed.
Jason's current goal was to make Lumba as strong as possible, then have him subdue undead a level below him. Jason could then summon the lower-level undead Lumba had subdued to help him fight.
Most necromancers did the same. After all, the death of an exclusive contracted undead would cause a certain backlash to its master's soul, and the undead legion a necromancer built depended on the exclusive contracted undead to hold it together.
A necromancer would never let a contracted undead fall into danger.
Jason was currently directing Lumba forward. Beside Lumba was a zombie he had subdued yesterday.
Generally speaking, only human mages became zombies, and they would awaken the ability to cast spells after reaching level seven. The stiff tissue currently covering the zombie's body wasn't flesh and blood, but the result of an accumulation of the elemental power he had an affinity for.
The main structure of an undead's body was composed of the power of death. Other elements the undead had an affinity for would attach themselves to its bones, giving it an appearance resembling a zombie.
There were very few undead with good potential in this area. After all, not every genius died young, and even when those humans died in accidents, they rarely became undead below level three.
Lumba and this little zombie were probably just such unlucky souls.
The little zombie had it better. Judging by his appearance, he had already begun studying magic in life, which was why he had become a zombie. That was precisely why Jason had Lumba subdue him. Lumba, on the other hand, probably never even discovered in life that he had an affinity for both earth and fire.
Their target this time was the zombie leopard Jason had spotted before.
Along the way, Lumba killed the undead they encountered and shared a little with the little zombie. They were now a level-four undead and a level-two undead.
"Is that the one? I'll go chop him down." Lumba had already spotted the leopard.
Jason had taken a liking to the zombie leopard because, judging by its size, it had probably been a magical beast in life. Its speed in the early stages could make up for Lumba's weakness. Besides, it was a zombie, so it should be able to cast spells in the future.
"Try to subdue it," Jason instructed.
"Oh, so I chop it down but don't eat it." Lumba indicated that he understood, then charged forward with his underling.
Jason hoped to subdue and nurture an undead skilled in speed early on, because undead at this stage had extremely low intelligence and only fought head-on, making them relatively easy to subdue.
If he waited until after level seven, the leopard would probably turn and flee as soon as it saw a stronger undead, and there would be no catching up to it.
When the leopard saw Lumba, it charged straight at him.
"It really is fast, but its intelligence really is low," Jason remarked.
A leopard's way of fighting was to lie in wait and then rush out to ambush weaker targets, while turning and fleeing from strong enemies. But this zombie leopard was only a level-three undead and clearly lacked the intelligence for that, charging straight at them instead.
The zombie underling was named Brandon. That was his only memory of his previous life.
The zombie Brandon grabbed the leopard's hind legs and pulled back with all his might. The zombie leopard instinctively bit and tore at Lumba's left arm, but Lumba ignored it and hacked viciously at its spine with his bone sword.
With a crack, the leopard broke apart at the lumbar vertebrae.
Although the zombie leopard's upper body was still struggling, it no longer posed much of a threat. Lumba forcibly pulled out a small wisp of its Soulfire and swallowed it.
Instinctively sensing the danger of perishing, the zombie leopard promptly prostrated itself at Lumba's feet.
Under Jason's direction, Lumba and Brandon put the leopard's upper and lower halves back together. After about half an hour, the zombie leopard was restored to its original condition under the nourishment of its Soulfire.
Even so, it was clear that the exertion and the Soulfire Lumba had taken had caused the zombie leopard's strength to fall from the peak of level three to the early stage of level three.
"Rest for a while. I need to return to my world and recover too." Jason could see that all three undead had sustained considerable damage to their bodies and needed some time to repair themselves.
When his consciousness returned to the Yulan Continent, Jason saw that most of the others were still immersed in cultivation.
Lucy happened to be eating in a pavilion in the distance, so Jason walked over.
Picking up a bottle of mind-clearing potion, Jason sat down casually. "Lucy, how have things gone for you these past two days?"
"The zombie eagle I started with reached level three, and I have three other level-three undead. What about you, imperial brother?" Lucy replied with a smile.
Lucy had high spiritual force and had practiced magic before, so she could summon level-three undead, though only one at a time.
"The Dark Warrior I started with reached level four. I also have one level-three undead and one level-two undead."
"Looks like you're taking the elite route too," Lucy said with a smile.
In the early stages, a necromancer's undead army followed either the elite route or the human wave route. After level nine, there was no difference; neither would lack undead under their command.
Jason suspected, however, that Lucy was hiding her true capabilities. With her spiritual force, she could remain active in the Netherworld much longer than he could. There was no way she had so few undead.
"Imperial Brother Jason, do you know about Imperial Brother Barek?"
"What do you mean?"
Barek Rhine was Jason's eldest brother and the strongest contender for the throne.
"Imperial Brother Barek has an affinity for both destruction and fire. By his fifteenth birthday last year, he had already become a Sixth-level Warrior. He also volunteered to earn merit on the western front of the war against the Yulan Empire."
A fifteen-year-old Sixth-level Warrior. Although Linley was also level six at that age in the original story, he was a mage, and mages cultivated more slowly than warriors to begin with. Even within the Rhine Empire, several fifteen-year-old Sixth-level Warriors could be found, not to mention that Barek was a prince and naturally had abundant resources.
Jason made a rough estimate of his eldest brother's strength. Hmm, not bad.
"Eldest Brother is exceptionally gifted. That's a good thing, of course," Jason said perfunctorily.
"Imperial Brother Jason, don't you have any interest in the throne? You're a man, unlike me, a girl who's naturally a step below everyone else."
Lucy said this purely to trick Jason into sharing the pressure with her. After all, succession to the throne of the Rhine Empire made no distinction between men and women, and even Jason's predecessor had seen through Lucy's intention to compete for the throne.
One could only say that Lucy had more than enough cleverness but lacked composure.
The Rhine Empire had a rule that each emperor could reign for only fifty years. The members of the Rhine Clan were all quite powerful, so fifty years wasn't very long.
Jason's imperial father, Maisiji Rhine, had already reigned for fifteen years. That meant Lucy still had thirty-five years to compete for the throne.
Lucy should still have a chance, Jason thought, but he had no intention of getting involved.
"I just want to live a leisurely life. If I can get a princely title someday, even better. If not, so be it."
"Oh~~ is that so?" Lucy neither agreed nor disagreed. "My spiritual force has recovered, so I'll be going."
"Good luck."