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“You three are far too dangerous to let into the heart of our city.”

Eve’s argument was reasonable. Victor had never laid eyes on the Empire’s capital city, but he doubted the inside defenses could handle them without some loss of civilian life. He was somewhat limited in what he could accomplish if he wished to keep his stat-point expenditure down, but Toby could wreak complete havoc on the scale of a Senior dragon.

Toby approached Eve and loomed over her. She strained her neck to look at his face as he cast a shadow over her. “Is this your personal decision? Or by the will of the guild?” He leaned in closer and snarled, “Because we all know how defying the guilds goes.” He brought up his clawed finger and tugged gently on the chain from which Eve’s adamantite plate hung. “Defy orders and lose everything.”

Eve stepped back, clearly distraught, and didn’t know what to do. She brought out the parchment from her spatial ring one more time and gave it a once-over. “The guild told me to bring the necromancer to the capital, and technically none of you are the necromancer,” she declared as the parchment vanished again.

Victor’s avatar pointed at himself, but Eve shook her head.

“That is an illusion, a spell. Not the real you. Which raises some issues…”

“What kind of issues?” Victor asked, with his artificial voice that sounded like a chorus of many slightly different-sounding people.

Eve let out a deep sigh. “Many, too many to count. The guild has no idea what they are asking for, and if I honored their request, it would go against almost every law of the Empire and infuriate the Hackers guild.” She raised her finger. “Which is exactly the last thing anyone in the Empire wants; not even the Emperor can fully control them.

“Look,” she said after catching her breath, “even if I brought any of you to the capital’s gates and shouted to the clouds above that this was on the guild orders, they would not listen, and we would be blasted to the land of the dead. Well, I guess you guys might survive, but I certainly won’t.”

Although logical, this threw a wrench into Victor’s plans. He wanted to venture to the capital and explore what this world’s humanity had to offer, but alas, Eve’s words shot down his dreams. But there was one thing bugging Victor. Why was Eve so casual with them? Sure, she was strong, at least by human standards, but she stood against at least two S-level threats and engaged in casual conversation. So Victor communicated his question to Andrew and had him ask.

“Eve.” Andrew looked down at the bikini warrior. “Toby and I were once humans and worked for the merchants guild. Although I have never met an Adamantite Delver or spoken to one, I have to ask why you act so casually around us?”

The warrior let out a weary laugh. “Well, I might be able to outrun you after your…evolution? Change?” She waved it off. “Anyway, I have absolute confidence in my ability to get away if needed, and I feel having a civil conversation with the undead of this forest will lead me to many great things.”

“What kind of great things?” Toby cynically asked. “We already sold you two ice statues at a great price.”

Eve waved her hands across her chest. “No, no, by great things, I mean improving my reputation and guild credits. Because this area has gained a lot of interest from the higher-ups, you guys should know as former merchants. What was always the worst part of your job?”

Andrew spoke up. “By far, the travel time… Oh, I see. We were constructing a toll road for that very purpose. But Eve, do they know about our toll road?”

“No, but…the toll road is great and all. However, we can build one ourselves, you know? Now that the monsters are gone.” Eve smiled at Andrew, whose hand had paused mid-stroke of his goatee. “After my group returned, we reported a lack of monsters in the forest. The guild immediately sent official investigators to verify our claims. You should have seen the shock on the guild master’s face when investigators reported that there was not a single monster for miles in the forest, but there was a problem.”

Eve gestured around. “You and all this. Your town, Necron, is slap-bang in the middle of Eshnar and the Empire. But that’s not the only issue. If not for Sam, a member of my team, pleading with his master not to eradicate you, none of this would still be here.” She dropped her arms. “It’s been a stressful few weeks.”

“Well, thank your friend for us,” Andrew said from his platform. “And you raise some very valid points for concern… The monsters that previously made this land inaccessible to most people are now gone. But, once word gets out, there will be chaos and fear of war.”

Eve agreed. “I believe all this is outside my authority, so I will return to the capital now and report my findings to the guild master.” Then, before anyone could stop her, she summoned a stone from her spatial storage and crushed it. “See you soon!” Mana shot up her arm, and then she was gone in a flash of blue light.

An enormous necrotic slime, demon king, and shadow man gathered around a wooden table in a half-destroyed room. None of them spoke for a while as they formulated their ideas.

Victor wanted to hear their thoughts on the matter, but he had some of his own. “Before you two say anything, here is my proposal. The southern area, and eventually the entire cursed forest, will become our land, and I will rule over it with an iron fist. Thoughts?”

Toby glared at the table with his one golden eye. He seemed deep in thought. “It all depends on you, master,” he eventually said in his deep voice. “And by that, I mean on your power. We will follow your plan, but any method requires your strength.”

“Toby is right,” Andrew chipped in. “Hackers will try to kill us no matter what; alliances, laws, agreements, and contacts will only hold them back for so long. There are also the dragons to the north, who may attack here for fun, revenge, or to take something from us. And finally…”

Andrew paused as his ogre servant ducked its ugly green face around the broken wall. Then, after getting a nod from Andrew, it dragged a decapitated deer corpse into the room and dumped it before him. Then, in a shocking show of strength, Andrew leaned forward, grabbed the deer’s leg with his stubby arm, and tossed it into his enormous mouth. The corpse stopped at the back of his throat and slowly sank into his body. Then, like a fizzy drink, the deer bubbled as it dissolved. “Ahhh.” He burped. “That hit the spot.”

“Never eat in public again.” Toby glared at him. “That was disgusting.”

Andrew waved him off. “Anyway, as I was saying, the final thing we need to be careful of is human greed. These lands have remained a legend where only the strong could venture for centuries. But now, apart from the odd dragon flying over, it’s like any woodland.”

“Unless we want to change that?” Toby crossed his colossal arms and scowled at them with his eye. “We could repopulate the forest with the undead, or is there a way to bring back the monsters?” He eyed Victor’s shadowy avatar since he would be the source of the answer.

The shadowy man shrugged. “Both are possible in the long run but not right now. Populating such a vast land with the few corpses I still have lying around is impossible; it’s just not feasible unless we go and fetch fresh corpses from somewhere else, let’s say the Mystical Realm. And on the topic of monsters, I am still making my way through the dungeon, and if I ever discover a way to bring them back to the surface, I will let you two know. But for now, the forest will sadly remain monster free.”

“So what? We sit back and let them do whatever the fuck they want in our territory?” Andrew spat some slime onto the floor that dissolved the floorboard. “Because you know it’s only a matter of time until people start showing up.”

“Hold up. I never suggested that,” Victor interjected. “Hopefully, in a few months, I will have discovered a way to cement our position as the region’s powerhouse, but for now, we need to capitalize on what we have.”

With a sigh, Toby leaned back onto his outstretched arms. “And what do we have? A half-destroyed town, a few mines, and a load of undead minions.”

“Don’t forget the road,” Andrew added with some hope returning to his eyes. “It’s almost complete. Although the humans could build their own road or take ours…”

Victor’s avatar laughed. “Remember, I said I didn’t have enough monster corpses to cover the entire cursed forest in undead. But to protect a road and destroy other attempts at building one? Not a problem. But we have some time until the road is complete and humans start being a nuisance, so let’s focus on getting this town up and running.”

Victor hated the idea of spending more lifeforce on raising hundreds of undead, but the road needed to be protected. At all costs. Time for Necron to take the first step of asserting its dominance on the world stage, he thought as he left for the ice sculptures a final time. Things were about to get busy around here.