The Ruined Death Knight

Tomorrow morning in the Vashara village...

The newly build gate of the Vashara village started to slowly open, revealing the vast white land outside the villages.

And waiting in front of the gate, were the 4 fox people that had been visited by the personification of the chilling cold and death. 

Or at least that was what they thought that Danzel was.

The 4 of them looked at the vast white lands lost in thought, but not long after, their attention was drawn to the sound of several footsteps stepping at the snow. And from all the footsteps, one particular made them flinch.

Without even turning around, they felt the ominous aura of death radiating from him.

Of course, the being in question was the death knight known as Rue Danzel.

Or to them, as Harsch Death.

"It seems that all 4 of you have decided to take upon the task." Danzel\'s chilling voice said with amusement.

"Your will is our command, O primordial one." Sernatta said while bowing the same the Anabast tent to do.

The others nodded at her words, despite a few of them not completely believing in her words.

In fact, Sernatta herself was one of them who didn\'t mean her words.

Danzel stared at her in silence with his ominous flaring eyes. Aware that not all of them if not any of them truly meant it.

\'If I truly want, I could figure out wherever they lie or where their true allegiance is with the rune of Uzal. But that would be a waste of paper and effort.\' He thought while pushing the idea to the back of his mind.

In the first place, making them completely blindly follow his will was extremely difficult for beings that weren\'t his undead.

"Words are easy to say, but actions..." Danzel said as kept his gaze on Sernatta, which made her flinch.

Walking towards her, Danzel raised his towards her, making the 4 of them flinch.

Sernatta in particular started to imagine her head exploding, being strangled, and many other things that this hand could do to her.

"Here, you guys would need that." Danzel brought out a map from his storage ring, waiting for Sernatta to take it.

Realizing their mistake, they all rose from their bowing position, and Sernatta who was being offered the map stared with a lost look before accepting the map.

"It contains the vague directions of where you need to go. I will also give you 4 of those guys." Danzel pointed at the 20 Draugrs that were behind them.

The Draugrs acted swiftly, a few taking the role of holding the supplies of the 4 fox people that were soon to depart.

The 4 of them looked at the undead working in silence until Kuroshi opened her mouth.

"By all the respect O Harsch Death, I believe that the 4 of us would be sufficient to fulfill the binding that you have given us. Though not as great as the five lording shadows... we also are strong. We alone can fulfill the mission without the help of our followers. There is no need to waste manpower-"

"If I wanted manpower, I wouldn\'t have sent any of you to do my binding in the first place. If I wanted manpower, I would have killed the unneeded ones and made them serve me for eternity. Never tiring, never hungering. And lastly, never fearing to perform my will." Danzel said as he turned his back on them, starting to walk away.

\'And If I really wanted, I could finish the task in just a few hours if I wanted. The whole reason why I make you do such minor binding is to make you believe that you earned the right to have great runes carved in your bodies and to also give me time to get more familiar with them. As they are only 5 realistic candidates. 7 at best.\'

Danzel thought as he left the group to do his binding, walking at the "streets" with one Draugr at each of his sides. Deep in the thought of how to perform the great runes at livings beings.

The process was quite simple for corpses and undead despite how complicated the runes were to carve. But using the same technique towards the living was torturous.

For obvious reasons.

\'It might have been better if my first test subjects were Azrael or Sartan. Maybe Vanessa would also have been suitable to withstand the process, but as of now, I am stuck with 5 tries...\' he thought.

Not even considering the other people who were of the 1st and 2nd-tier to able to survive a quarter of the carving process.

"Maybe I will have to figure out how to use blood magic while carving for it to be a success, but still using magic while carving would be..."

While considering the application of runesmithing and using the magic of how to best make it work, one of his Draugrs came towards him.

"O Great Master and Creator. Is it now an appropriate time?"

"Hmmm? What is it?" Danzel looked at the newly arrived Draugr confused.

"As we have been tasked, me and the others tasked to produce weapons with the help of that blacksmith, have finally created the first patch of weapons and are ready for inspections."

Hearing that news, Danzel\'s ethereal eyes flared up.

"Really now? I expected it to take a bit longer considering how long it took for that dwarf to make one... tell me, how many did you guys make?

"A total of 20 weapons. Half of them are swords and the other half are polearms of different arts."

Nodding his head, Danzel thought of going there to inspect the work that they have done in person, but after thinking of it for a bit he shook his head.

"Well done, for now, organize those weapons to be sent at the mountain to where I work for the inspection. Inform those who worked at them to await my report before continuing their work. Till then, you all are to take a break. Or rather, the blacksmith is to take a break, you all are free to better your skill if you so wish or train with the others in combat. But leave the blacksmith alone for now, as he is only a mortal compared to us."

"It shall be done." The draugr said while bowing his head and heading off to do as he was told.

Danzel nodded at his answer before continuing his walk through the village.

He spend half an hour just walking around and looking around at what people were doing before getting bored of it and going out of his way to meet his Anabasat to teach them a part of his magical knowledge while also talking to them about what they found out about much, their difficulties in some aspects of magic, theories that they had and such.

The time he spend talking with them was quite refreshing as he watched them stumble into some problems that he stumbled before in magic. And hearing of what they learned was interesting as he himself didn\'t know the spells that they knew. Also, the progress that they made in learning [Necromatic Restoraction] wasn\'t too bad.

After leaving them on their own, Danzel finally decided to go and inspect the weapons that his Draugr had made.

Turning into dark mist, the mist traveled so fast that it took him but mere seconds to come to the house of the mountain.

Opening the door, Danzel found the boxes with weapons and Shiro who was also holding one of them while sitting in the bed.

"So you woke up?" Danzel said while closing the door.

"Hmpf, who wouldn\'t be awake after a few undead comes inside the house where you are sleeping?" Shiro said annoyed, as she knew that the Draugr had to be commanded to come to the house by him.

Using his own soul essence, he created an ethereal hand that snatched the halberd sort of weapon that Shiro had in her hands.

Making Shiro puff her cheeks at Danzel who had his eyes on the halberd-looking weapon.

[Frozen Iron Rough Halberd]: A weapon made out of frozen iron with the hands of an undead whose skill is worse than an apprentice. The balance of the weapons is off and the edge hasn\'t been sharpened thoughtfully or skillfully. It\'s better suited for tearing than cutting with such an edge. The weapon is constantly cold from the result of the material. Overall, a weapon of awful quality that shows the lack of skill of the blacksmith. Despite that though, the weapon\'s durability is decent enough to last throughout a battlefield.

"..."

Reading the description, Danzel would have cringed if he had a face.

He didn\'t even have to read the description to see the quality of the weapon.

Just holding it made him feel the imbalance of the weapon and the edge wasn\'t smooth. Making him somewhat disappointed, but also at the same time satisfied with the work of his undead.

"The durability isn\'t that bad so few runes could fix the shortcomings, for a first patch not bad." Danzel said as he put the halberd down, focusing on the Shiro who looked at him with anger.

"Sorry for calling them, I forgot that you sleep..."

Hearing that Shiro, scoffed and picked her staff from the bed before jumping off the bed.

"Hmpf! If you are really sorry, then let\'s practice combat!"

Hearing that, Danzel shook his head.