The inn’s registration, and a Baron

After I got over the increases in my status, especially my MP, MPR, and MPE, I decided that there wasn't anything else for me to be doing with my dungeon for the time being, so I left behind the mini skeletons, to free up some slots in my Control Undead skill, and then I warped back to the room I'd rented, left, and headed towards the commerce guild, as I would be running a business. Because of that, I needed to register, so as to avoid legal problems, and also to have backers in case of other issues, like nobles having a fit. Once I got there, waited for a few minutes in a line, and then got through the first part of giving my name, age, and so on, we reached the interesting portion of the process.

"And what kind of business will you be running? A street stall? A blacksmith's shop? A-" (Receptionist)

"A single building that encompasses an inn, a tavern, as well as something that, legally speaking, could be defined as a casino or other gambling establishment" (Hope)

"Name of this... wait. You're opening all of those at once? And this is the first thing you're running? Aren't you being a bit too ambitious?" (Receptionist)

I nodded to the first two questions, and then smiled and shrugged at the third.

"I have some skilled helpers, and the casino section, at least, practically runs itself without any input, thanks to all of the staff members who know what they are doing. The tavern has enlisted a few good chefs, the bartender and waiters have been selected for their performance too. The inn... let's just say that the cleaning staff isn't needed thanks to some magical formations in each room that can restore the room to its ideal state for very little cost, less than what ordinary innkeepers would have to be paid for the same job. Other than that... All that's left is reception and security staff, both of which are also taken care of by some people I hired" (Hope)

Now, the chefs are really just the dungeon's DP catalogue, but the rest is true, just, everyone is an undead.

"In other words, you're providing the initial funding and finding the staff, they do most of the work, and you distribute the profits and are the connection between the establishment and the guild?" (Receptionist)

"That's more or less correct. I also was the one who came up with the idea and designs for how to lay it all out and built the place. If you're wondering where I got the funding, I'm an adventurer, so I'll help out with security if needed" (Hope)

"Very well. I see that you think you can handle it, so I'll let you try. I mean, I can't stop you. So, what's the name for this business?" (Receptionist)

"Lazy Bones' Inn and Games" (Hope)

"I... it's creative. Well, the last thing is the location? Where is this place going to be operating?" (Receptionist)

"About half a day's walk along the highway through the forest, there's a well-used rest area. I built it into the foot of the mountain about a two minute walk east of there, and plan to make a road connecting the two spots in the near future" (Hope)

Her eyebrows rose, but she dutifully noted it down, then went in back. A minute later, she handed me a card with all of that information and my rank, the beginning rank of F, and I left for the adventurer's guild, because I still had that request they wanted me to handle. They also had my new A ranked card, so I had to pick that up as well.

"What can I do for you today?" (Receptionist)

"I believe that my new card is ready, and that the guildmaster has something he wanted to talk to me about. My name is Hope" (Hope)

"Ah, I see. I'll grab your card and check with the guildmaster" (Receptionist)

Less than a minute later, she came back and ushered me into the guildmaster's office while handing me a new card.

"Ah, you're back! Come, let's cut to the chase. I want you to deal with the undead in the Adolla Mountain Fortress Ruins from the Wartarch Empire" (Mirus)

"If I heard right, there's an ancient lich there, albeit a lesser one, and several death knights. Therefore, this is an S- ranked request, for a full party, no? Why are you asking the lone A ranked me?" (Hope)

He sighed, then spoke even more quietly than normal, such that I had to lean in to hear what he said.

"To put it bluntly, this isn't going to go through the official channels. I'm officially giving you a request to harvest some herbs in the area, and you'll 'happen to come across the fortress' and clear out the undead, as you saw it as an EXP farm. That way, you will have completed a request you shouldn't have been able to accept, and I will have the last bit that I need to increase your rank to S. After all, you have a skill at level 10, and that's something that is rare to see outside of S ranks, and is still quite uncommon among them. In addition, you've tamed a soul eater, an A+ ranked threat at the absolute minimum. If you'd been an A rank when that happened, your name would come up for promotion to S rank when all of the guildmasters meet at the end of the next month. With this request, your name would come up, but you'd only need 6 of 12 votes, instead of 8 of 12" (Mirus)

"Why are you doing this for me?" (Hope)

He sighed again, then spoke normally.

"Because, if you get up to S rank, you... well, first off, I'll get a raise for having facilitated the nurturing of a talent. However, that's not the main reason. You could tackle stronger quests, meaning that this city would be safer with fewer strong beasts, such as behemoths or ancient liches, roaming the surroundings" (Mirus)

"I see... Sure, why not. I might be able to get a good follower or three out of it too. Oh, by the way, I encountered an oregre recently" (Hope)

"What kind? Iron?" (Mirus)

"A partial pyrocite" (Hope)

"That's an A+ ranked monster... are you serious? There was one just roaming around near the city?" (Mirus)

"I could show you, if you'd like. Also, it was actually half a day into the forest" (Hope)

"Close enough. Let's go to the dismantler's building. I'm assuming that that's fine with you?" (Mirus)

We walked over in silence... well, I was silent, and he was muttering about my taking out an A+ ranked monster I didn't have much of an elemental or weapon type advantage over on my own. When we got there, we saw a large room with monster corpses stacked several meters high in some places, and a drop of a dozen or so degrees in temperature when we entered. There were several people of all races working on corpses taken from those piles, and one dwarf watching them while absent-mindedly skinning wolves like he was pulling off his boots. That was who Mirus spoke to.

"Ah, Kaijin, you're here. Can we borrow you for something in room three?" (Mirus)

"Sounds like it's something big. Sure!" (Kaijin)

Going through an open door, we came to a smaller room, and Mirus closed and locked the door behind us. I brought out the oregre's body, and they both inhaled sharply when they saw it.

"A pyrocite oregre... This thing's an A+ rank and the raw materials alone are worth at least 25 gold, even in this condition. Speaking of, whoever did this has little skill with a spear, but a high level. I'd estimate either level 60 for a physical class, or level 110 for a magical class. Am I wrong?" (Kaijin)

"I'm a level 90 mage who's had a bit of training on how to use a spear to defend myself without MP" (Hope)

"Then it must have been a really good spear. Who made it?" (Kaijin)

"Uh, just a moment... Hope, why didn't you just kill it with Holy Light? You should have enough MP to do so, right? And your Holy Light should be at, like... level 5? Level 7? You're a Saint and have that skill that doubles skill level gains sometimes, after all" (Mirus)

"It's only level 4. It never got doubled, sadly, and only one of my classes besides the Priest/Bishop/Saint line gave it a level" (Hope)

I didn't mention Shadow Light. Some things are better left unsaid, especially ones in regards to level 10 skills. After all, those are generally seen once a generation, among humans, that is. Monsters have them all the time, because many of them evolve every few dozen levels (like myself, for now) and some have a dozen or more evolutions to go through and gain skill levels from. A select few, such as dragons and those that were once humanoids, can have both evolutions and classes, gaining twice the skill levels for the same amount of EXP. By the way, I should mention that skills tend to max out at level 10, kinda. After that is Max level, but to reach that, you need some special methods, such as a gift from a god, becoming a dungeon master, or obtaining enough levels in that skill when already at 10.

Those are special in another way, in that the change from level 10 to Max is greater than the change from 1 to 10... no joke, if I got Control Undead up to level Max, I could control up to 150 undead, up 200% from the 50 it would be at level 10. Sometimes, skills gotten to level Max gain other properties. About a hundred years ago, someone who became a Hero had the most basic of sword skills, Slash, reach level Max, and it became able to cut anything with a range of several dozen kilometers, if he so wished, or be used with a bare hand instead of a sword. He later used that skill to cut off both arms from the Demon Lord of the time, and then to behead him, all from the other side of a mountain. He only killed the Demon Lord after the latter uttered the line "I was beaten... by Slash?" so... level Max is godlike. I have two skills that high, so I really need to keep them hidden, alongside Dungeon Management.

"Anyways, I assume you want me to dismantle this thing, right? It'll take a while, and so the fee'll be high, but... I estimate you'll be walking away with a solid 45 or 50 gold from this thing. Pyrocite is rare, and oregres of any kind are rare as hell, especially ones other than stone, copper, or iron" (Kaijin)

"Hope, use that money to get some equipment, mostly defensive equipment. You're fighting in rags and that's about it... actually, where's the spear you used?" (Mirus)

"It's made entirely of bone, and is thus able to be stored by one of my skills. Would you like to see it?" (Hope)

"Why not. I was a blacksmith before I started doing this, and I changed only because I busted my arm" (Kaijin)

I pulled it out, and Kaijin inspected it for several minutes.

"Well, kid. This thing's worth as much as the oregre. Where'd you get it? How'd you get it?" (Kaijin)

"The same way I got my current armor, from an undead" (Hope)

I showed him my bone chainmail armor, and he appraised it as being worth about 30 gold. Not bad for some things I made in five minutes, I'd say. Not bad at all. For reference, a good, mass produced, steel set of chainmail armor (both the mail tunic and leggings) costs about 25 gold, and a custom made, unenchanted set usually costs anywhere from 35 to 50 gold. If just the tunic is worth 30, the full set, which I have yet to make, would probably be worth 50 or so.

"Ah, right, I have work to do. Here, you can have these back. Take 30 gold up front for the oregre, and I'll give you the rest after it's dismantled and sold" (Kaijin)

With that, he ushered us out of the room, and so we went back to Mirus's office. When we got there, he closed the door and uttered one of the questions I'd been dreading him asking. Just kidding, he asked me a question I wanted him to ask me.

"So... what were you doing half a day into the forest, without having taken a quest?" (Mirus)

"I... well, to put it bluntly, now that I'm a necromancer, I decided to create a place to have my undead work, as a source of income. I figured out that when I release a mini skeleton from my control, it still follows my orders, if those orders don't involve combat, so I made a place for them to play games with people and manage an inn, a few minutes from the rather popular rest point on the highway half a day from here. I was in the area to put on some of the finishing touches before opening it for business next week, actually. I've got them making a road between there and the rest spot on the highway too" (Hope)

In reality, if it is within the confines of the dungeon territory, any monster I summoned with DP or tamed can be controlled perfectly, without using up control slots.

"Well, when I leave for the capital in two weeks, I'll be sure to stop by and stay the night, I guess. Now, onto the request I want you to handle... first, here's the official request for you to take at the front desk, and then, here's what we know about the lesser ancient lich. It's not much, but it should help. Also, don't try to tame it, it won't work unless your internal rank is at least A+, due to its high intelligence" (Mirus)

Well... its rank is the same as mine, B+, and since we're both liches, I should only need to be A- to have a chance at taming it... in other words, I need to gain another 34 levels, maybe just 29 if Saint of the Dead is good enough to increase my rank on its own. Humans increase their ranks purely with their class, but I'm not sure if that still works for me. Maybe its minions will give me enough EXP, maybe not.

"Damn. Maybe I can tame one or two of the death knights, at least? Those would be nice to have, they can each have up to ten squire zombies, and those can have up to ten normal zombies following them too" (Hope)

"Yeah, you don't have any zombie-type undead yet, correct? You have astral-type undead in the soul eater and knight mares, skeletal-type in the skeletal knights, terror stallion, and the mini skeletons, and object possession-type in the dullahan, but no zombies, which are what most necromancers start out with" (Mirus)

"Well, here's hoping I get some soon, I guess" (Hope)

"Enough about that, go, accept the request, then look over the materials I gave you" (Mirus)

I did exactly that, learning that the ancient lich was, at one point, a human necromancer named Janis, that he has 15 death knights as subordinates as well as 2 elder liches, each of which control 10 skeletal mages, and 3 normal greater liches controlling 5 skeletal mages, for a total of 35 of those mages. I want to perform a few experiments on them, so I'll have to tame as many of the death knights as I can, as well as as many of the liches and elder liches as I can. If, by the time I encounter Janis, I have evolved, I'll try to tame him too, to bolster my own forces. He's smart, very smart... We know that he sets traps and ambushes, targeting those who can use Holy or Healing magic first. Not much else is known about how he fights, anyone who knows died, the rest fled before seeing anything beyond the traps.

The fortress was quite straightforward, being a grid of buildings and more floors the further towards the center you get, but that's precisely where the difficulty comes from, as it means archers and mages in the center all have a line of sight to the walls unimpeded by the heads and bodies of allies, as well as there being no real cover inside the fortress from those on the same floor as you. It fell almost literally overnight, due to a coup d'etat that worked, but was planned poorly. Poison was dumped into the wells to kill those not in the resistance, but then the resistance had nothing to drink once they became the ones in control of the fortress. Due to said poison, the fortress has been abandoned ever since, as it still hasn't gone away, despite the fact that over a century has passed. Since then, it has been a breeding ground for undead, and it now has a thick miasma that can't be purified by any spell this area had access to. The S rank known as the Saint of Healing Jenna might be able to, thanks to her level 8 Purify skill, but she's monopolized by the royal family, more or less, and she wouldn't be allowed to make a month long journey to this remote city just to purify the miasma contained in a location that would still be useless, even after getting purified.

Maybe, if I get the Saint of the Dead class and it gives me a boost to Purify, I might be able to do something about the miasma? Unlike most people, the miasma has no effect on me, or rather, it heals me a bit, so I don't have to do the standard Purify-and-run tactics... but that's all dependant on if I can beat that lich, and if I get an upgrade to Purify, so let's save that for later. For now, I need... well, I just need to go there, I guess. Ah, first, I should free up some slots by setting some undead to work at the dungeon. I'm gonna be taming a dozen or so undead, hopefully. But still, good grief, 1705 undead under the control of a highly-intelligent undead like an ancient lich, well, if my math is right.

I warped over to the dungeon core room, left behind all 11 of my skeletal knights stationed in various places, mostly set up to be acting as bouncers and other forms of guardians, and returned to the outskirts of the city where I'd warped. Unfortunately, someone noticed my sudden appearance in an alley, fortunately, it was only a little girl walking past the entrance, and thankfully, she was one whose parents didn't believe her claims that I appeared from thin air.

"No, it's true! I saw him! He suddenly appeared from nowhere!" (Girl)

"People don't, or rather, can't teleport like that, not unless they're a great mage, the likes of which would never visit a dump like this city, and especially not these parts, or unless they're-" (Girl's Father)

"Unless they're some kind of undead... which I am, so if you don't forget about me right now, I'll haunt you until you diiiieeeee... nah, just kidding. I've been here for a while" (Hope)

I spoke in a silly and slightly spooky voice, so as to make a joke to prevent the author from having to come up with a more realistic second option, however, it made the girl grip her father's leg as she hid behind it.

"Papa, he's kinda scawy... ow... I bith my thun" (Girl)

"Heal" (Hope)

I casually healed her from a distance, not noticing that her arm was in a sling, so I healed that too by accident. That could've given away my having a high level Heal, but... they seemed not to have that level of info about the spell.

"Wow... thanks, mister... you're not tho sca... ow... I bith it athen..." (Girl)

"Heal... again... and, it's nothing. As for you, elder -" (Hope)

"Hey! I'm not that old! I'm only 23! I'm about the same age as, or younger than, you are!" (Girl's Mother)

"Dear, you've been 23 for over a decade now. Give it a rest, will ya?" (Girl's Father)

"Andy, you're the one who's in his mid 30s. I'm still in the prime of my youth" (Girl's Mother)

I sensed they would bicker for a while, so I interrupted them to finish my sentence.

"First, I'm only 18, and second, I was actually speaking to... Andy, was it? Anyways, as I was saying, I'm not a great mage, but I am a good healer, a Saint. I've lived in this city my whole life, so... there's that too" (Hope)

"A Saint could heal her arm, that's for sure. We were about to go to the temple to see if they could heal it, but they're charging an arm and a leg to heal bruises nowadays. It's all because that damned Baron forced them to contribute most of their saints, which were already low in number, and several bishops to some failed undead-hunting expedition. Now we, the common folk, have to pay the price for his poor planning and arrogance. It also doesn't help that he arrests or straight up kills those who speak ill of him, as well as those who hear someone speaking ill of him" (Andy)

Unfortunately, someone with several guards around him had walked up behind him as he was talking, a disgruntled look on his rotund face. That face went well together with his pudgy body, but the expression... not so much.

"Guards? Kill these four traitors! And here I was, thinking that I could have a peaceful day of just walking around in my own city to see how various projects are going, but then this happened" (Baron)

As he spoke, three men in chainmail armor drew their swords and attacked us, including aiming at the little girl. I summoned my spear, parried one slash while straight up blocking another with the other end of the spear, and then blasted them in the face with Holy Light. It didn't do much damage, but it did blind them for a while, giving me an opportunity that I took to knock their weapons out of their hands and into the gutter behind me. Andy had drawn his dagger and was struggling with the third man's sword while I did that, but I knocked the latter's blade out of his hand.

"Magma Wave!" (Mage)

In slow motion, I could see a big boiling ball of liquid rock forming at the tip of the mage's staff, and I knew that I was too far to stop his casting of the spell in time. Instead, I chose to block it, or rather, deflect it to either side of our group, disarmed guards included.

"Create Bone Wall! Create Bone Wall!" (Hope)

Two walls of bones, each a meter thick and four meters tall, shot out of the ground at an angle to both one another and the mage's line of sight to us, and just in time to have the wave of lava crash against them and split to either side, harming nobody and nothing but the street and a few buildings. Oh, wait, a bit splashed over the top and landed on the leg of one of the blinded guards, burning through to the bone. I dismissed my walls, and glared at the Baron, who was ordering his guards to attack us again.

"JUST A MINUTE! You destroyed the infrastructure of this city, the roads and buildings, and harmed one of your own guards to no result. In fact, if your target hadn't thought to defend your guards in addition to himself, three of them would have died. Oh, also... Heal... ugh... Dark Mending... That's better, isn't it?" (Hope)

"What would the Church of Lars say if they knew you had tried to kill a Saint? I doubt they'd be pleased" (Andy)

"And what would the adventurer's guild think if they knew you'd tried to kill an A rank, and one with several skills above level 6? They'd think you were a fool for trying, and a hindrance to their job of making the country a safer place to be in, wouldn't they? Especially since I'm on a designated request from the guildmaster" (Hope)

"Then why are you here, Mister On A Designated Request? Surely you should be getting to work, right? Oh, I get it, you're lying to get out of dying... Kill them!" (Baron)

"Express your intent to kill me once more, and I'll use the guild's authority to knock you all out for obstruction of official guild business. As it stands, I'm just going to hurt your guards enough that they stop trying to beat me up, then heal them, and get to doing what you've asked Saint Jenna to do in the past... well, no. I'm going to be dealing with that undead in the area, and if I can, do some purifying of the miasma while I'm there" (Hope)

He looked at me, blinked, and then laughed.

"And I'm supposed to believe that someone fully dressed in bone armor, holding a bone spear, who can summon walls of bones, is going to remove something that spawns limitless numbers of bones?" (Baron)

"I don't like bones as you are suggesting that I do, I use them because they work well enough and are cheap for those in my professions. I also dislike having there be bones that might cause great harm to large numbers of people of their own will, as does anyone sane" (Hope)

During the time in which I was talking, the little girl's family was moving away from us, and at around the time I finished, they turned and ran, leaving me behind. That's exactly what I wanted, though what I didn't want also happened, namely, the baron sending a few people to chase after them.

"Create Bone Wall. I'm sorry, but as a high ranking guild member, I cannot turn a blind eye to the attempted murder of innocents, even by a baron in his own domain. Now, if there was justification for those actions, I would have no choice but to let it go, however, I have heard none thus far" (Hope)

"They are traitors, just like you! KILL HIM!" (Baron)

"What is the evidence for that claim?" (Hope)

As I spoke, I blocked a sword swung down at me, then used the butt of my spear to hit another swordsman in the belly, which incapacitated him for a while. Four down, four and a mage to go. Right after, the baron spoke with a smug smile plastered onto his face.

"Well, for one thing, you've drawn your weapon in front of a noble, for another, you are impersonating someone with guild authority, and that includes lying about having a high-ranking quest from the guild" (Baron)

"I drew my weapon to defend myself. There are laws passed by the king himself that say I may do so at any time if there is declared intent to injure or kill myself or someone in the vicinity. As for the impersonation, well... I'd show you the quest documentation, however, you wouldn't let me, would you? Therefore, as you are not accepting evidence to the contrary, that claim would not hold up in court, and thus, since you cannot provide a point that is valid, and you are denying the opportunity to prove such, you are, legally speaking, attempting murder, and thus I have the legal right to incapacitate you and bring you in for your crime, noble or not" (Hope)

While I was saying that, I slammed the shaft of my spear into one man's head, knocking him out, then skewered the leg of another, before kicking him off of my spear's blade into a third man. I then created a Bone Wall between the legs of a fourth, drew a terror stallion's femur, and threw it at the mage's chest, winding him as he was chanting another large-scale spell, and thus interrupting his casting of it. The Baron fled during the time it took to take out those he'd set to attacking me, so I just tied them all up with chains of bones and brought them to my house, which was situated just down the street from the guild, where I went next.

"So, you're saying that you're not sure what to do with the men who tried to kill you you for, and I quote, 'being declared a traitor' on the justification that you were impersonating a Saint as well as someone on a quest from the guild, bearing a high rank?" (Mirus)

"Pretty much. Also because I drew my weapon-" (Hope)

"Why didn't you say that before?!" (Mirus)

"To defend myself when I had three swords coming my way" (Hope)

"Oh. That's fine. As you weren't legally being executed for a crime that had been shown nor stated, you had a right to defend yourself. Doing so in a non-lethal manner is a point in your favor too, I suppose. Well. Since you were on guild business, and you are someone whose name is going to come up for consideration for S rank, I must thank you for being a part of this incident. Thanks to you, we now have evidence with which to charge Baron Uther for something, which allows us to search his properties and interview those in his employ for evidence of other crimes and misdeeds, such as what we suspect to be knowingly endangering the city by sacrificing the backbone of the health system, the bishops and saints, on an expedition everyone was saying would fail. His soldiers suspiciously had much, much lower casualties than the adventurers or those from the church, and I suspect they ditched the others early on. He himself was in a group that had zero casualties besides the two bishops and a saint that were with him, hence his statement of 'they go for the holy people first' that I find... unnerving and improbable" (Mirus)

"Have you considered the possibility that he's working with Janis?" (Hope)

He blinked, then pursed his lips, almost as if pouting.

"I have, but he's not under any mind control spells, so far as I can tell, and he's not been turned into an undead either. Speaking of... were you ever going to tell me that you were? Now, I don't mind you being one, if it doesn't change your personality into something... undesirable? I guess that is an appropriate word" (Mirus)

"I... probably not. I don't think it can affect me that way" (Hope)

"What kind are you, anyways? You're the most human-looking undead I've ever seen, so if it wasn't for my Intuition and Status Sight skills both being at Max level, I wouldn't have been able to tell the difference" (Mirus)

"I'm a greater elder light lich right now, though I started out as a lesser light lich a week or so back. Also, Max level? What bonus does Status Sight get at Max for you?" (Hope)

He hesitated about telling me, then sighed.

"If you're going to be honest with me, I can tell you this much... I can see through any level of Status Concealment besides Max, and see things that the status orbs can't, such as current temporary bonuses, sometimes also your tamed monsters, and what gods have their eyes on you. In your case, I tell that you have Status Concealment (Max) due to your status not matching up with the information I have, and that's about it. You have Gudafegarn's eye on you, but I don't know that name. You also have Momonga's blessing, but he's the god of non-soulless undead, which makes sense in your case, and is part of how I figured it out that you're an undead. It means you won't succumb to the undead corruption as easily, and that's about it besides a slight bonus to your controlled undead and increased chances of taming untamed ones. Uh... yeah, that's it for what I can trust. The rest is bogus stats and skills from your Status Concealment beating my Status Sight" (Mirus)

"Anyways, I should probably get to taking out Janis. Take care of those guards for me, will ya?" (Hope)

"That's an overly-familiar way to talk to a guildmaster, but I'll do it. What's the address?" (Mirus)

I gave him the address and a key to the cellar they were in, and left.