I became a legion lich

259 Sudden inspiration

They could use dark magic while using corrupted wooden wands, so Athos planned to add them to the mass magic training that would begin once the construction of the fortress was complete.

The bone abominations’ magic was also extremely powerful, their effects similar to large-scale spells cast by first-tier mages. Bone abominations used mana from their multiple cores whenever they drew darkness or circulated mana through their bodies.

The bone abominations had an incredible learning capacity that surprised Athos and all skeletons. The multiple minds of the abominations worked together and shared their learnings with each other in ways that reminded Athos of what he was capable of doing with his magic organ, but on a much grander scale.

Other experiments Athos did with the abominations was whether they would be able to absorb bones from species other than humans. Athos had created them using exclusively human corpses and if they were able to merge with new undead, they could grow to new heights.

The result, however, was a complete failure. The bone abominations were able to merge with undead monsters created purely by Athos’s mana, but the bone abominations themselves became confused and were unable to adapt to the mind of the monster that joined the hive mind.

A monster’s thought process was very different from an ordinary person’s and they often followed their basic instincts rather than using logical reasoning.

But it was their cores that rejected the merger. The main core tried to form a bond with the foreigner to try and absorb its energy, but a monster’s core was different from a human core and they weren’t able to connect, even though they had the same energy signature.

The main core and the auxiliary cores tried to expel it after failing to connect, but they were unable to because they had the same signature, so the foreigner was just isolated in the body.

The hive minds also did the same and attacked the new mind in an attempt to expel it, causing the foreigner immense pain. In the end, the bone abomination physically attacked the skeleton monster, destroying the body of the saber-toothed tiger that Athos used in the fusion.

.....

The skeleton was destroyed and its core dispersed, its mana spreading through the bone abomination’s body and temporarily empowering it, before all the mana was consumed and disappeared.

The bones were still fused into his body, but they didn’t add anything other than extra weight, even his ability to vibrate fangs was lost and Athos ended up pulling out the newly added bones so as not to upset the balance of the abominations.

Athos continued to experiment further with the abominations, while also trying anything that came to mind.

While Athos was busy with his experiments, Treevor was seriously working as the commander for the first time.

He was responsible for commanding the different groups that went out hunting, in addition to making sure to send groups of flying monsters with human skeletons to map the route they should take when they left and the enemies they would face on the way.

Most of his decisions, however, were given after taking advice from the generals. He might be a general, but he had even less experience with people than Athos, despite having more than a century to live.

He lived most of his life as a solitary nomad, so the idea of ??giving orders and commanding thousands was foreign to him.

Lastly, the gold mine base discovered by Ruy and Astrus was also under construction, albeit at a much slower pace than the main fortress.

There were only two hundred dwarven skeletons among them and even after sending an elite team to try to raid the nearest mountains, all the dwarven villages they found were empty.

Somehow the dwarves had discovered their presence, be it the dwarf patrols that spotted them setting up camp or perhaps some magic item, the important thing is that they were unable to get their hands on even a single dwarf corpse.

The basilisk insisted that they go deeper into the mountain range and follow the tracks left by the fugitives, refusing to accept the failure in the mission, but Astrus and Ruy were against it.

The story of the church and order’s defeat in the mountains is still fresh in their memories, so they refused to fall into the obvious trap.

In the end, the basilisk only gave up on the idea of ??chasing the dwarves when Astrus threatened to contact Athos, causing the snake to cower in surrender.

The black skeletons were slowly but surely developing, though it was uncertain if they would be able to withstand the oncoming storm.

***********

Within the walls of the Black Skeletons’ Fortress, in one of the chariots they brought from the Platinum fist Fortress.

Athos was standing inside the empty carriage, completely silent as he worked on brewing a new type of potion. He wasn’t used to working on creating new potions, preferring to create alchemical items for their destructive power.

There weren’t any completed buildings at the moment, so inside the carriages was the only place where he could have privacy. Athos had abandoned bone abomination training and hidden inside the carriage for the last three days after having a sudden flash of inspiration.

Unlike alchemical items, there was no risk of explosion or great danger when creating potions, so he could work in an inappropriate place like that with minimal risks. The maximum danger that could happen was losing the contents of the potions when they were vaporized if the bottles were not perfectly sealed.

None of the skeletons were allowed in the carriage in question, so Treevor just ordered them to stand guard around the carriage in case Athos needed anything.

‘How could I have been so blind as not to have thought of this until now? It was so obvious this whole time and I was an idiot for not realizing it until now.’ Athos thought irritably to himself as he worked seriously.

‘Hmm, I think I overdid it a bit with the amount of potions before testing the result in the field, but the materials are easily obtainable, so I guess it doesn’t matter much.’ Athos thought as he finished his work.

‘Hey y’all come here, I have something I need to show everyone!’ Athos spoke through the mind link, calling Treevor and all the generals present in the stronghold.

“What is the master up to now?” Treevor wondered as he approached the carriage Athos was in.

“No idea, but it must be as absurd as ever. Our master has a taste for strange things and from his excitement, it looks like it’s going to turn out to be something big.” Emilia who was following right behind him replied.

“Hey, how long are you going to keep hiding there, master? I have my hands full thanks to someone dumping all their responsibility on me. Just come out at once and explain why you called us.” Treevor shouted after reaching the carriage.

“No need to be grumpy, I’m on my way.” Athos got out of the carriage with a bright smile on his face, several glass bottles floating behind him thanks to air magic.

The bottles contained a grayish-black liquid that the skeletons were unable to identify, leaving them alarmed and uneasy. Athos more unknown items was never a good thing.

“You’ll understand once you drink it.” Athos responded cryptically as he offered one of the potions to Treevor, but the latter took a cautious step back, refusing to drink the unidentified liquid.

Even Emilia took a step back, hiding behind Treevor, using her massive tree body to hide.

“Hey, that’s offensive, you know! I worked really hard to create these potions and I’m sure you’ll be quite surprised by the effects!” Athos spoke indignantly at the slight of his work, but the two undead moved further away after hearing the word surprise.

All of Athos’ surprises and sudden inspirations so far always ended in death and suffering, so his hesitation was well founded.

“Master, I was busy teaching archery to the demihumans, did something important happen for you to call us here?” Malti asked as he approached, with the other generals arriving soon after.

Interestingly, the former ogre patriarch was among them, being chosen to fill one of the empty positions among the generals. The ogre had made the same heartfelt request to Treevor, who had readily agreed to accept him as a general, glad to have one less task to worry about.

“Hey rookie, come here a sec.” Athos noticed that the generals were apprehensive about the unknown potions and called the ogre to break the stalemate. The ogre hadn’t known Athos long enough to know about his personality, so he didn’t understand the hesitation of the others and proudly stepped forward.

It was his first and perhaps last chance to prove himself to Athos and he intended to take it.

“It’s a pleasure to see you, patriarch. I couldn’t introduce myself last time, but my name is-” The ogre patriarch tried to introduce himself, but Athos cut him off angrily.

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