After her bath, Alex casually slipped into a white dress, opting to go commando since she was just going to sleep soon anyway and couldn't be bothered to change into more clothes.
"Eh~" As she stepped out of her bedroom, she felt a cool breeze down there and quickly covered her skirt.
"Phew, it was just my imagination. Thought my skirt flew up for a second."
That settled, she decided it was fine to just make do.
Three days had passed, and Alex had been cooped up in the castle for all of them, nearly going stir crazy. It felt like being quarantined, especially with no internet!
The world was vast, and Alex was eager to explore it. However, her own strength was still too weak. She had barely stepped out of the castle gates when she was almost caught by werewolves.
Alex had considered riding Arthur to see the world, but she gave up after a brief attempt. Arthur, being a bone dragon, was all bones with no flesh, offering no stable place to sit.
Unlike in other novels where characters could stand on a dragon's head like a dragon-taming sage, that just wasn't feasible with Arthur. The moment Arthur took flight, Alex nearly fell off; riding a bone dragon provided no comfort at all.
"According to my past life's web novel experiences, I should be able to fly once I level up enough. Surely not even a Divine being can't fly, right? That would be too low," she mused.
She checked her attributes:
[Lord: Alex]
[Strength: lv8 Standard (can be increased by personal and troops' kills)]
[Territory Level: lv9 Initial Castle]
[Troops: undead race]
[Equipment: Grim Reaper's Scythe]
[Health Points: 200]
[Mana Points: 70]
[Strength: 41]
[Stamina: 40]
[Agility: 41]
Emm… Besides the usual attribute increases, there seemed to be no changes. But Alex never lost hope, always expecting some special reward with each level up.
"This monster killing gives experience points, but there's no experience bar. I never know when I'll level up; it's always so sudden, no time to prepare mentally."
She was close to reaching level 9, the excitement palpable, hoping for additional enhancements after reaching level 9.
The undead army had brought all the werewolf corpses into the castle, and Alex used magic to transform them into bone beasts. These werewolves couldn't be directly thrown into the Blackwater Altar; otherwise, they might randomly summon other undead creatures.
After completing the magical summoning, Alex then ordered these bone beasts into the Blackwater Altar. She discovered that bone beasts were actually a variant of skeletons, with the same fixed skeletal enhancement effects. Nothing new there.
However, adding over thirty level 5 bone beast werewolves did strengthen her undead army a bit. Among them were thirty-two level 5 bone beast werewolves, two level 6, one level 7, and one level 9 leader.
[Bone beast werewolves]
[Race: undead race.]
[Life Tier: Standard (non-upgradable).]
[Level: lv9 (max)]
[Health Points: Undead trait, immortal as long as the soul fire burns]
[Mana Points: 0]
[Strength: 50+7]
[Stamina: ∞]
[Agility: 40+7]
[Growth Limit: Monarch level]
[Enhancement: increases attack power and defense, Strength and Agility +7 points.]
The attributes of this level 9 leader wolf were enhanced just like the other werewolves, with no special changes. Although it was a bit troublesome being targeted by the wolves from the snowy mountains, at least for now, it was a good thing for Alex.
The castle's invincible barrier meant she feared no enemy. As long as she was within the newbie protection period, any number of enemies would just be sending troops her way, providing her with extra food and resources.
Alright, it seemed unlikely that any enemies would come now; the wolf pack had been severely weakened. Currently, there were only a few forces around Alex's castle, and as for the Goblins, Alex guessed they didn't have the courage to initiate an attack.
If a frost dragon went mad and attacked Alex, she would have to resort to a turtle strategy, hiding inside the castle. Of course, Alex had no quarrel with the frost dragon, so there was no reason for it to attack her.
"The long night continues, everyone please keep up the effort, those who need to hunt, hunt; those who need to level up, go level up!"
Alex couldn't miss the opportunity for double loot drops, she had to cherish the time and make good use of these endlessly laboring undead.
Although the undead's work efficiency wasn't high, their stamina was infinite, allowing them to work 24 hours a daynon-stop.
Once all the undead had left the castle, Alex planned to disassemble all the werewolves, as well as the animal corpses the undead had hunted that afternoon.
The animal corpses were quickly summoned by Alex, and the castle instantly gained eighty undead ranging from levels 1 to 3. Alex ordered them to strengthen themselves in the Blackwater Altar and then disassemble the corpses.
[Congratulations Lord on successfully disassembling 40 wild boar corpses, obtaining 800 units of food, 80 wild boar tusks, 40 wild boar skins, and 25 magic crystals.]
[Congratulations Lord on successfully disassembling 20 antelope corpses, obtaining 400 units of food, 20 antelope skins, and 19 magic crystals.]
[Congratulations Lord on successfully disassembling 20 rabbit corpses, obtaining 200 units of food, 20 rabbit skins, and 10 magic crystals.]
Since these corpses were hunted by the undead in the afternoon, there was no double loot drop. The haul was still decent, with 1400 units of food and 54 magic crystals in total.
The undead laborers also brought Alex 3000 units of wood and 2000 units of stone. Although not a lot, it was better than nothing. After all, who would complain about having too many resources?
Now for the main event of the evening: the thirty-six werewolf corpses, each a Moon Silver Wolf of at least level 5.
Alex had previously obtained Essence Shards from Moon Silver Wolves, and if she remembered correctly, monsters above level 5 always dropped an Essence Shard. That meant Alex would directly obtain thirty-six Essence Shards.
"What a massive haul!" Excited heart, trembling hands. Alex's fingers eagerly pressed the Disassemble button.
[Congratulations Lord on successfully disassembling 32 level 5 Howling Moon Werewolves corpses, obtaining 1280 units of elite food, 100 magic crystals, and 32 Essence Shards (double loot drop).]
[Congratulations Lord on successfully disassembling 2 level 6 Howling Moon Werewolves corpses, obtaining 80 units of elite food, 8 magic crystals, and 2 Essence Shards (double loot drop).]
...
[Congratulations Lord on successfully disassembling a level 9 Howling Moon Werewolves corpse, obtaining 38 units of elite food, 20 magic crystals, and 4 Essence Shards (double loot drop).]
"Cool, there really are surprises, wait, wait, wait, too many surprises!" Alex was almost overwhelmed.
Firstly, what caught Alex's attention was the elite food.
What exactly was elite food? How did it differ from regular food?
The level 5 werewolves dropped elite food, but Alex, who had previously killed a level 7 griffon, only found it dropped regular food. Strange!
Right, Alex had also killed level 5 Moon Silver Wolves before, and they dropped regular food too.
After a minute of thought, Alex seemed to understand. It was because they had transformed into werewolves that they dropped elite food!