The ground was dyed red by the time the skeletons finished their work. The body of the female ranger, Gale was sprawled out near the cave entrance. Her shattered skull leaked blood and pieces of her brain onto the floor. Cloud’s corpse was significantly farther from his partner’s body, being placed near the riverbed, cuts visible on his legs and throat.
Once again the skeleton knights proved their worth. The skeleton goblins failed to properly pierce through the rangers’ padded armour with their primitive stone weapons. They only managed to damage the outer layers of the ranger’s armour. They didn’t even scathe their targets’ skin.
The case was not the same for the skeleton knights. Thyvin may only have a few of them but it was proven time and time again that skeleton knights were indeed valuable assets.
One skeleton knight crushed Gale’s skull with a ferocious but quick stomp. On the other hand, another two skeletons expertly cut Cloud’s legs as he tried to run away, preventing his escape by crippling him before they mercilessly slit his throat and left him to choke on his own blood.
Unfortunately Walter’s other assets, the rangers were now dead, leaving none alive who could lead them back to Belmud. The keyword being ‘alive.’ With that in mind, Walter turned to face the necromancer before questioning him.
“I trust that the skeleton knights should be able to lead us back home my lord?”
“It should be no problem. They may not have a conscious but they have an excellent memory my lord.”
Thyvin confidently answered Walter’s question before he proceeded to jokingly ask Walter a question of his own.
“But give me a warning next time you’re gonna do something like that. It would be nice to know beforehand if you wanted them dead. Especially since you antagonised them like that.”
“I like to think that me antagonising them is the signal to have them killed. I know that you’re used to working solo but in order for this to work, we need to be able to communicate seamlessly. Otherwise…”
Walter turned his gaze towards the dead bodies of their former employees as he spoke.
“We’re gonna end up like them.”
“Hah. Except unlike ‘them,’ we have a horde of skeleton minions on our side.”
In response to Thyvin’s arrogant statement, Walter only shrugged and gave a casual reply.
“And how many of those skeleton minions are we bringing home with us?”
“Well that…”
The necromancer was temporarily left at loss for words before he could properly respond.
“Is irrelevant. And wasn’t it your idea for us to return home with only the skeleton knights anyway? ”
“We both know that this is necessary if we want the plan to succeed. No offence but your subjects get disgusted whenever they see you alone. Now imagine what they may feel when they see an entire horde of undead goblins at your beck and call?”
Thyvin didn’t bother to answer Walter’s rhetorical question. Instead, the expression on the former’s face displayed that he shared the same thoughts as the latter. Since Thyvin gave no reply back, Walter casually resumed speaking.
“Exactly. Until the time comes that there is no longer any stigma against necromancy, we can’t risk displaying too much of our current power. Our main advantage is that people turn a blind eye to your necromancy because as far as they are concerned, your mastery of necromancy is ‘inconsequential.’ Once it is revealed that balance of powers is actually massively in our favour…”
Walter stopped speaking halfway through his sentence, prompting Thyvin to finish it for him.
“They will have a reason to kill us.”
A slight look of irritation grew on the necromancer’s face while he spoke. Whether this irritation was due to Walter, their society who condemned necromancy, or both, Walter didn’t know the answer. Not that he cared in the first place. Nevertheless, Thyvin then gave a casual remark.
“You don’t need to repeat these points to me, my memory isn’t failing me yet.”
“Then stop making it seem like it is. Besides...”
Walter shrugged casually as he replied to Thyvin’s remark.
“I believe that doing ‘this’ is a more economic and efficient way to utilise the goblin skeletons. Instead of wasting the potential of these assets, we can put them to good use without fear of reprisal from anyone else. It won’t even cost us a single bronze coin.”
The ‘good use’ that Walter was referring to was the creation of more ‘artificial’ goblin caves. In contrast against the skeleton knights which were limited in number but were each individually valuable, the goblin skeletons and goblins in general were virtually ‘limitless’ in number and thus, valuable as a collective.
It was because of that reason alone that Walter decided that the goblins are the perfect monster for the initial stages of his plans. According to multiple sources ranging from rumours on the streets to the Frankonian Adventurer’s Guild, greenskin fungal pods are spawned from greenskin fungal spores. And these fungal spores are continually released from goblin corpses as they decay.
As long as the environmental conditions are well suited for the growth of greenskin pods, then the greenskin spores will take root. These environmental conditions usually being dark and damp locations where no other competitive plants can compete for water consumption. Usually only caves near mountainous areas like the Valhan Mountain Range fulfilled these conditions.
These spores typically traveled via the wind and relied on chance to find suitable conditions. Walter intended to subvert the ‘natural way’ greenskin pods develop. The goblin pod they secured will be used for the creation of ‘free’ goblins who will either be used for the creation of more goblin skeletons or greenskin pods.
Their prodigious ability to reproduce will be exploited for Walter’s own benefit, especially since, it was completely ‘free’ to create more skeleton goblins and greenskin pods.
In economic terms, greenskin pods as well as skeleton goblins are referred to as ‘capital goods,’ goods used within the economy for the production of more goods. And Walter just could not describe the overwhelming usefulness of a capital asset which virtually costs no expenditure to produce more goods and assets.
It was on the same level of printing money.
And best of all–
“It wouldn’t even be a problem if some random person encountered the skeleton goblins via chance. There is no way for us to be implicated in their creation. It won’t even count as a loss if any of them were destroyed. Not when we can so easily create more.”
While Thyvin remained silent, Walter himself couldn’t stop smiling to himself as he spoke. Not even the foul odor of the goblin cave mixing with the rotting stench of decaying flesh affected his good mood. Now that the first goblin pod was secured with the first artificial goblin cave created, the preliminary phase of his plan was now completed.
Truthfully speaking, he could still make a living selling the goblin hides at the market price and splitting the share evenly with Thyvin. The low market value of goblin hides can easily be offset by selling a sufficient amount of them. Quantity is still in of itself, also a quality.
But why should Walter stop there?
This current plan which was dubbed under the name, ‘Project Green Thumb’ was only the stepping stones for Walter’s grand plan. There were still many more things that can be done, that needed to be done once Project Green Thumb was successfully fulfilled. As the saying goes ‘a big business starts small.’
Unfortunately, Project Green Thumb, like most plans required time to grow and prosper. As another saying goes ‘Rome wasn't built in a day.’
Fortunately, Walter was a patient man.
After confirming all of that to himself, he asked the currently silent Thyvin another question.
"Now that all of that is behind us, why don’t we finish up here and head home? The smell is getting really unpleasant.”
“The smell isn’t too bad. But to be fair, I shouldn’t mind the smell as a person who literally has dead corpses as his bodyguards. Although…”
Like Walter before him, Thyvin glanced at the dead bodies of the rangers for a short moment while he was speaking.
“What should we do with them? They weren’t exception warriors so resurrecting them would be a waste of my magic. Especially since I already exhausted much of my mana on the skeleton goblins.”
Walter only replied indifferently.
“Leave no evidence. Throw them into the river.”
…
The sounds of steel plate armour clanking together rang in ‘its’ ear as it carried the object, aided by another one of its kind. What was its gender? Did it even have a gender? It didn’t even have the capability to care about the answer, let alone actually know it. The only thing that it knew was the same thing that it repeated in its mind over and over.
I hear and obey.
It would attempt to speak those words out loud whenever it responded to its master’s commands but its lack of vocal cords, lungs, and many other essential organs prevented it from doing so. Instead, all it could do was silently comply, letting their actions speak the words they never could.
Like right now, when it, along with the aid of another it carried a dead body towards the river. Blood leaking from the gaping hole where the body’s head should have been stained its plate armour. But as with most things, it didn't care.
I hear and obey.
Those words repeated again in its head as they threw the body into the river. Quickly disappearing from their sight as the body sunk underneath the river’s steady water stream. With its duty fulfilled, it only stood at the river bed, its arms hanging by its side as it stood up straight, its ‘eyes’ looking forward but seeing nothing.
Return to my side now.
That was when another voice sounded within its head. Its master has issued it another order. There is only one possible response.
I hear and obey.
It quickly lumbered its way back to its master and was rejoined by a few of its brethren, in particular the ones which were the same height as it was. All the hunched shorter ones returned to the cave, following a different order bestowed on them by the master.
Protect and lead me home.
Along with the other its, it immediately set a course for ‘home’ within its mind. Memories that it didn’t know existed resurfaced within its mind, showing it exactly the way back to its master’s home. In a split second, it knew where to go and how to lead the master home. And so did the others.
I hear and obey.
Brandishing its knightley arming sword, it began cutting its way through the vegetation to clear the way for its master as they made their way for ‘home.’ It didn’t even register the passage of time, it was just concerned with completing the task at hand. That and either slaying creatures which stalked the group or forcing them to rout.
Because above all, unless it was specifically told otherwise, it must ensure that absolutely no harm comes to the master.
“By the way Thyvin. I need to ask a favour of you.”
“By all means go ahead.”
During their journey both to and from home, a man had stood by the master’s side. It didn’t understand why this man was allowed to accompany the master but since it wasn’t given an order to kill this man, it just ignored his presence.
“I need to borrow two of your skeleton knights for a couple days. Is that fine with you?”
“By all means go ahead. Just ensure that they return to me in one piece.”
After we return home. Accompany this man and do as he commands.
Another command sounded within its mind at the exact same time that its master responded to the man.
I hear and obey.
