"This cemetery seems to only come to life at night."
Night Three More shook his head and beckoned to the four emerging little skeletons.
The goblin corpses certainly couldn't transform into human skeletons for him. However, what surprised him was that one of the skeletons pulled a hand bone from the ground, put it on its hand, and it actually worked.
"Dust, Old West, how about you give it a try?" Night Three More turned around, but Dust and Old West just glanced at the severed arm, shaking their heads.
"Nothing? Well, I'll get you both a new dragon arm later."
With a simple attempt, Night Three More discovered the downside of basic skeletons: they were too... clumsy!
They could only execute very simple commands, like walking, running, and chopping. Any slightly complex order turned them into clowns.
For instance, when Night Three More instructed them to find a tree in the woods, chop it down, and drag it back, the first skeleton smashed a nearby tree with its hand, the second got its pelvis stuck in a small bush, the third broke a twig the size of a finger, and the fourth seemed confused and just stared at Night Three More.
Their intelligence was making Night Three More regret using his soul energy.
However, he found a solution later—let skeletons lead skeletons. He had Dust and Old West guide these four "intelligent" skeletons to the woods to chop wood.
With imitation, these skeletons finally showed their worth. The rhythmic sound of axes chopping wood continuously echoed, though it looked a bit foolish with single-handed operation.
Sighing, Night Three More took advantage of the skeletons chopping wood to assess his resources:
Soul Energy: 1096/15.
Life Energy: 1502.
Gold Coins: 180, Silver Coins: 200, Copper Coins: 153.
Common Wood: 3 units, Thornwood: 1 unit.
Goblin Corpses: 5.
Cart: 1, Cow: 1.
Lastly, some weapons, armor, and various tools.
"The soul energy limit is too low..." Night Three More frowned.
Under the current circumstances, he was deducted 1604 soul energy every dawn, surpassing his soul energy limit. However, the massacre yesterday revealed that excess soul energy could be absorbed beyond the limit, like 20/15. Yet, he understood that the limit had its reasons. Would exceeding the limit lead to his spontaneous combustion? Would excess soul energy be erased during dawn settlements? Especially the first scenario, many greedy mages had exploded due to uncontrollable magic power, making it highly likely.
"How to increase the limit..."
Night Three More rubbed his temples. While he held extensive knowledge from his past life, recollecting it caused sharp headaches.
"Ah, found it, maybe through consuming training and drug amplification?"
Consuming training involved continuously using energy, gradually raising the limit, similar to building muscle. Drug amplification was simpler—just one word:
Spending!
However, the energy system for undead like soul energy differed from magic, psychic, and divine energies. There was no known drug to amplify it. In other words, no matter how rich he was, he couldn't spend his way to amplify it.
In the midst of his contemplation, the sound of bells rang from the stone door again. Night Three More turned to look, but Weng Ling was nowhere to be seen. He rushed to the entrance.
"Great Ranger, um, sorry." A big-bearded uncle hurriedly pulled the tangled bell string aside, looking a bit embarrassed.
"No problem, why are you here..." Night Three More waved his hand.
"Lord Weng asked me to bring you some seeds. The stuff is already on the ground. I'll leave now!"
"Wait!"
Night Three More stopped Jeff, holding the big-bearded man.
"Didn't Lord Weng come today?"
The bearded man shook his head, "A lot of people suddenly came to Lolan City today, and there was some conflict due to martial law, so Lord Weng is handling it and didn't come."
"Outsiders? How many?"
"Maybe thirty to fifty, I'm not sure of the specifics..."
So many?
Night Three More narrowed his eyes. In a small place like Lolan City, outsiders rarely visited, especially in such large numbers. It seemed Lolan City had been uneasy recently.
"Alright, keep this gold... silver coin. If anything big happens in the city, I hope you can come and inform me, okay?"
"Alright... alright." The big-bearded man watched as Night Three More put the coin back into his pocket, nodded blankly, and prepared to leave.
"Um, wait, there's one more thing."
"Please, sir." Jeff turned back, rubbing the silver coin.
"You haven't told me your name yet, have you?" Night Three More stared seriously into the big man's eyes.
He had given away money; what if the man ran away?
"I'm called Jeff, sir."
"Jeff?"
Night Three More paused, then waved his hand, letting the big-bearded man go, who wore a face expression as if he had constipation.
"What a strange name. Next time, ask him if he has a sister."
Picking up the seeds brought by Jeff, Night Three More weighed them. They were very light, indicating there wasn't much inside. He spread them on a linen cloth on the cart.
"A handful of wheat, two potatoes, and a... handkerchief?"
Night Three More unfolded the neatly wrapped handkerchief, revealing three dark seeds.
"So well wrapped; these must be vegetable seeds."
Although he hadn't entered Lolan City, he had seen the fields outside the city. The sloping hill was filled with poorly grown wheat, obviously lacking maintenance. However, considering the city had only a few hundred people, the harvest should barely be sufficient. But don't forget, there was still a large group of goblins in the forest eyeing the crops. Night Three More roughly calculated that the harvest was still two to three months away, and there shouldn't be any goblins coming out to grab food before that. Even if some goblins dared to snatch, after humans warned in advance and urgently harvested, only a small amount of food would be left for the goblins. It wouldn't be enough for everyone, so why bother? The number of goblin bandits would ultimately be maintained at a moderate level, at most a little over a hundred. If it weren't for Lolan City lacking soldiers and having to return to the city for defense, they probably wouldn't be able to grab even a mouthful of food.
Precisely because he saw through this point, Night Three More dared to build his structures near the chaotic burial mound.
In two months, if he couldn't accumulate enough strength to deal with a hundred goblins, he might as well cut his own throat.
"So the most urgent task is to develop!"
Watching the skeletons dragging back chopped wood, Night Three More clenched his fists.