"Eighty thousand Beastmen transcenders… that's quite a haul of spoils."
Hel left the little villa inside her Undead Space and stepped out onto the wide, open plain. There, laid out before her, were countless Beastmen corpses — the remains of the Silver Wolf Cavalry led by the Insect Queen.
"It's just a pity about that other Beastmen army that retreated."
Even as she looked over the mountain of corpses, Hel's thoughts lingered on the main Beastmen force led by old King Aira — fifteen thousand strong.
Back then, she'd suspected there might be a Saint-rank powerhouse lurking in ambush, so she chose not to march toward Riverside Fortress.
Even so, these eighty thousand Beastmen would still bring her a tremendous boost.
Counting their mounts, there were more than five hundred thousand "entries" to collect. It took Hel an entire day to harvest them all.
Then came another long session of fusing and refining.
But the rewards were worth it. She'd managed to synthesize several epic-grade (pink) talent entries from them alone.
Unfortunately, the Beastmen' talents weren't uniform — meaning she couldn't combine identical ones to try for something even rarer.
Most of them had awakened to Shadow-type Battle Qi, while the rest used ordinary elemental Battle Qi.
As for Death or Corruption attributes — she hadn't found a single one.
"That's strange… Could it be the Beastmen separate church and state now? Anyone who awakens Death or Corruption must be taken in by the Church?"
Hel shook her head. No use thinking about that now. What she needed to decide was what kind of undead to make from these bodies.
"Shadow-type talents, huh…"
She rubbed her chin thoughtfully. Most of these Beastmen had shadow affinities — and each came with a wolf mount. Turning them into mere Bone Knights would be a waste.
Shadow, though technically part of the "real" element series, was closest in nature to Corruption and Death.
Using Shadow-attribute elemental crystals as catalysts could create rare undead — for example, Shadow Warriors, beings that could merge into another's shadow and strike from it unseen.
However, such undead couldn't be summoned automatically by her Necromancer's Crest; Hel had to personally perform the ritual to create them.
The last time she'd been this exhausted was probably during the Undead Invasion.
Hel sighed and began casting. A vast necromantic circle unfolded beneath the corpses, as waves of Death energy seeped into them. The Death element reacted violently with the Shadow crystals within their bodies.
Their flesh rapidly turned pitch-black, and soon every one of them was shrouded in darkness — transforming into shadowy silhouettes.
Hel stepped closer and reached out — only for her hand to pass straight through one.
"No physical form?" she muttered. "Try attacking something."
From her storage ring, she pulled out a chunk of red copper and tossed it before one of the Shadow Warriors.
At her command, the shadowy figure condensed a curved blade of darkness and cleaved forward, splitting the copper cleanly in two.
"Now without elemental energy."
This time, the Shadow Warrior hesitated. It stared blankly for a while before letting its blade fade, then swung a fist at the copper block — only for its hand to pass harmlessly through.
"So, purely elemental attacks… and physical immunity. Almost like ghosts." She frowned. "What about magic defense?"
Hel formed a small fireball and flicked it toward the figure.
The weak spell struck — and left a huge gap in the creature's body.
"That's some terrible magic resistance. High attack, high agility, but paper-thin defense… A fragile assassin type? For a rare undead, that's disappointing."
She rubbed her chin again, looking at the horde of Shadow Warriors.
As a burst-damage mage, what she really needed were durable warriors to act as bodyguards — not glass-cannon assassins.
Her gaze then shifted to the remaining half of the corpses — those of other elements.
They couldn't become Shadow Warriors, but they could be made into Undead Knights.
What if she combined the swift, deadly Shadow Warriors with the tough, resilient Undead Knights?
Would that create something stronger?
The thought excited her. Hel immediately summoned an Undead Knight and ordered it to fuse with a Shadow Warrior.
The Necromancer's Crest's fusion ability wasn't limited to merging identical undead. In the past, she'd mostly used it as a way to "upgrade" them — fusing two of the same kind to raise their tier.
But the description clearly stated it could fuse an undead with anything.
For instance, if she wanted to make a skeleton's bones harder, she could fuse it with a lump of Aureumsteel — producing an Aureumsteel Skeleton.
Of course, for that to move, the skeleton would need enough strength to actually bear the metal's weight.
And fusion came with great uncertainty — just like alchemy. Without a proper formula, even the alchemist wouldn't know what the final product would be.
That was why Hel rarely used this feature — too costly, too unpredictable.
But now that she'd hit the jackpot, she could afford to experiment.
She chose two first-tier undead to test with — expendable.
Before long, the two distinct undead fused into one.
The result looked much like the Shadow Warriors — a black silhouette wrapped in darkness.
But after testing, Hel found this new creature could switch freely between tangible and intangible states.
Even in its ethereal form, its resistance to elemental damage had greatly improved.
At least, her small fireball no longer blew massive holes in it — it only staggered the creature.
"That's more like it," Hel said with satisfaction. "From today onward, your kind shall be known as the Shadow Knights."