Chapter 44: 43. The Shadow Man

"I am never doing that again," Victor murmured as he checked his stats. Unfortunately, to defend the town, the zombie merchants had borrowed a sliver of his power through their link, which had cost Victor dearly. 'This is a severe problem. I will die if I have to waste a million stat points every time some dumbass turns up and causes trouble in the town. I had already cleared out all the monsters in that part of the forest, but I should have left them more guards or high levelled zombies... hold on, what happened to those monsters I made?'

Although out of bordem, Victor had turned many monster corpses into ice statues, he had turned a few of them into zombies. Unfortunately, his stat points had been miserably low back then, so he only converted a few, but they should still be on the surface. "Toby," Victor asked over the black ocean. "What happened to the zombie monsters?"

***

Back on the surface, Toby halted in his tracks. Eve and Andrew were a few houses behind him, and he was near the town's gate. A shiver went down his spine as he heard that ancient voice crawl its way into his skull. "Master." Toby bowed but then felt silly. Could the master even see him? Deciding it was best to be safe, he stayed in his respectful pose and was glad there was nobody around to see him. "The zombies, my lord? I do not know of them." 

Green sweat dripped from Toby's furrowed brows. He desperately tried to remember if he had been given control over any zombies... "Unless my lord is referring to the goblins? They were put to use in the mines and forests. We are also constructing toll roads to connect Eshnar and the Empire..." Toby gulped, "B-but that's not all! We also have them practising with weapons, but progress is slow."

The link remained silent, and Toby almost couldn't control his breathing due to stress. They had handled the situation poorly, and as the self-proclaimed chief of security, the fact half the town was now destroyed was technically on his shoulders, even though that gem golem and Andrew did more damage than the vampires. Speaking of that gem golem, it had learned cooking from Bob surprisingly fast. Its food tasted awful as it lacked the finesse required to create the more refined meals, but it could make a great pumpkin soup. 

Toby had silently begged and even requested the gem golem on multiple occasions to help with defence, but it wasn't until its cooking was ruined by the vampires did it help at all. 

***

Meanwhile, in the dungeon's depth, Victor scoured his black ocean for any sign of his zombies. It was incredibly hard since the area was blindingly bright, with thousands of goblins moving around like fireflies. The monsters he turned into zombies ranged in strength and were hard to nitpick from the clumps of goblins. He scratched his head as he tried to remember the last order he gave them, if any. His hand paused, and a sudden realization hit him. 'I told them to explore the north, especially around the large mountains in the distance and bring back any prey they found.' At the time, Victor hadn't run out of prey to slaughter in the southern half of the cursed forest. But since the monsters were getting stronger the further north he went, Victor sent the undead zombies he made that he didn't care about ahead for safety reasons as scouts. 'No wonder the dragons came searching for me... they must have run into my scouts.'

Victor didn't know whether to laugh or cry. If he had run into the dragons a month ago, there was a chance of death. But, on the other hand, the mismanagement of his undead had led to his downfall. 'Well... I would hardly consider this a downfall.' Victor looked at his stats and smiled. Sure there had been some close calls recently, but the end result was well worth it. He was so wealthy in life force that the system had stopped showing him the exact amount and simply showed him in millions. Victor said a silent prayer for the poor zombies he sent to die a second and likely more gruesome death. 'Whoops, I should reply to Toby.' Victor thought, but he had nothing to say, so he stopped wasting points and cut the connection.

***

Toby stopped bowing at the air and stared wide-eyed at the wooden wall. He unleashed a flurry of curses and barely stopped himself from smashing the wall. He released his fist and rested his palm on the wall as he caught his breath. "We disappointed an eldritch being..." the words flowed from his mouth as horror masked his face. Toby feared for his own existence, but he also feared for the whole of humanity. He still had a family somewhere out there, likely back in Eshnar, and the last thing he wanted was that void creature going on a rage-fueled rampage.

With a deep breath, Toby calmed. "The hackers will deal with it," he reassured himself. He had never seen a hacker in person, but their legends were widespread throughout the land. 

Despite the rampant necrotic corruption plaguing the continent, especially in the southern Mystical Realm, the hackers guild quickly dealt with it. 

Toby thought back to one of the more questionable merchant adventures he did back in his youth that took him far north, near the Frostlands territory, where he saw an area of corruption. Dense necrotic mana coated the land and mutated everything it touched. A ghost village he narrowly passed was festering with skinwalkers and ghouls, and wildlife had been twisted and corrupted into abominations; not even the trees were spared.

 

Yet after reporting the issue to the guild, on his return trip a mere week later, the area was completely cleared with no sign of the village or corrupted mana. "Wait... aren't I a corrupted now?" Toby looked down at himself. Besides the green gunk dyeing his tattered clothes and the hole in his chest, he didn't feel corrupted. Toby shuddered. Would he survive if a hacker saw him right now? "Who knew unlife could be more terrifying than when I was alive..." Toby shook his head and wandered down the dirt road out of the town. He needed to clear his head.

***

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With the connection cut, Victor surveyed the endless arctic landscape while debating his next move. Luckily this floor and the next ten should be nothing but freezing wastelands. He could unconsciously hover along at insane speeds and was unbothered by the freezing winds or lack of warm food. Genus was worse for wear, but unsurprisingly, a dragon's body could deal with a lot. Alice also seemed unfazed, her new mana body proving perfect for coping with harsh conditions. 

"Do you need to drink, eat or even sleep anymore?" Victor questioned the girl as she sat on the floating platform with her legs dangling off the side as she watched the world go by with a distant expression. "Huh? Me?" Alice looked around and pinpointed his location, despite his stealth. "No, I don't, but I can still do them all if I wish. I imagine staying up for days after being used to sleeping every night will drive me mad. Especially since it will be months before we reach the last floor. Might as well sleep away... Actually, I am going to go do that now." With a yawn, Alice pushed herself up and floated over to the tiny house. Before entering, she shouted, "Wake me if you need anything! Anything at all!" Then with a laugh, she closed the door. Genus briefly opened his eye and saw the dragon corpse Victor had left for him, but he also fell asleep.

"And this is when being undead sucks," Victor muttered. "Everyone can pass the time with sleep, and I'm left alone with nothing to do." But, of course, he couldn't sleep even if he wanted to, a true curse, especially after living a life as a human. "Hmm, that reminds me. I still need to go and see what the world has to offer. Since I still have no idea about this world's technology level. Only seen goblin settlements so far and a dragon prison."

As Victor fell deep into thought, Andrew's voice sounded in his head. 

"Master, I am currently speaking with an Adamantite Delver named Eve. She came here a few weeks ago, and I sold her group two ice sculptures."

"So?" Victor replied. "Sell her more if you wish."

"No, that's not the problem... she came with a letter straight from the guild master, apparently." 

Victor debated waking Alice up, she would know more about guild activities, but he decided to ask for curiosity's sake. Maybe it wasn't that serious.

Andrew paused. He looked at the eagerly awaiting Eve, who shifted nervously on her feet. Andrew had told her he would ask his master and decided to put his hand up to his ear for added effect.

"Continue."

Andrew shuddered as the voice echoed in his head, but he quickly recovered. Gripping the parchment in his hand, he carefully read, "The letter says the merchants guild is interested in our planned activities here and wishes to discuss a potential partnership. However, the guild master also demands you attend in person."

Victor looked over the bland frozen land. If he had to look at the scenery for the next few days or even weeks without the sweet embrace of sleep to numb the bordem, he might as well do something fun. 'It will cost a lot, but it should be fine for a few days, right?' Victor decided life was too short... well in his case, he was immortal, but that was beside the point. 'It's for research purposes... I have no choice in the matter.' Victor nodded to himself.

Using Andrew as a proxy to reduce the burden. Otherwise, it would likely cost him a million points a second; he used his shadow magic to conjure up his beloved avatar. 

Red mana coated Eve instantly as she stared at the space beside Andrew. The zombie merchant followed her gaze and saw a crack in space. It looked impossible, just a black line with no shadow or depth. From within, a shadow of a man crawled out. 

He was tall and had a nobleman attire, including a comically large top hat but other than that, his face was entirely featureless, just a blank slate. Then, finally, it turned to Eve, and she cautiously stepped back.

"Greetings." The shadow man said in a cryptic voice that sounded like ten things talking at once. "I heard you wished to speak with me?"