For another day, Aleric's journey continued without interruptions. Taught by experience, he had sent several skeletons to move ahead and behind his horde to act as scouts, but they didn't meet any templars.
By then, his path led him to a tiny village. The place was special in only one way—there were people inside.
"We will pause here and harvest corpses. Even if they are weak, they can still win me time in a fight," Aleric said at the sight of it. "Zombies, march!"
"Oh, this will take a lot of time, master… Your mana reserve still isn't large enough to start practicing the Greater Raise Dead spell, which can raise several undead at once. Even with my help! Or, do you plan to practice here to expand your reserve?" Spine Staff asked.
Aleric smiled.
"I think I will manage to raise the undead quickly if I use sacrifices to recover mana faster. And yes, it will be good practice. Also… This place will have a bed and fresh food!"
The villagers were terrified by the sight of the undead horde coming to their village. Only the most reckless could think to resist a force that had as many zombies as there were people in the entire place!
Some broke into running or went into hiding as soon as Aleric appeared on the horizon, but most ended up rounded up by Aleric's zombies. Now they could only cry, plead, and stare dully at their doom.
He sat on his horse in front of the terrified farmers and pondered the best approach for his plans.
All these people would end up dead. Some of them already died while resisting the zombies. However, for Aleric's purposes, they had to die in batches, not all together. There were some farm animals that could serve as sacrifices, but Spine Staff already told Aleric that weak-spirited creatures like goats and chickens would require ritual torture to fill his reserve.
He had no idea how to do ritual torture, and this wasn't the time to start learning.
Instead, Aleric decided to satisfy the small amount of conscience still left in his soul and play on the people's heartstrings at the same time.
"All of you will join my undead army. But, you have a choice of how that will happen!" Aleric declared, raising his staff. "Sit still and wait for your turn, and I will spare your children. I don't need their tiny bodies, anyway."
Some kid in the crowd cried louder. Aleric scowled.
How people lived with younger siblings, he couldn't imagine.
The villagers couldn't easily accept a deal like that. But Aleric only had to make one zombie to pick a crying child, when his mother, sobbing, threw herself on the ground before Aleric's horse.
"Please, please, take me! But spare my baby! Anything!"
Aleric nodded. The woman was middle-aged and fat… Probably richer than most who lived here. She would make a good zombie.
"Yes. I will even let all of you pick one adult who will keep an eye on these kids after I leave with the rest of you."
Still, not everybody agreed, but there were enough obedient people that Aleric could simply order his zombies to kill the rest of them. As promised, he let a designated adult—a very young man himself—take the children away. He didn't care where they would go.
Then, Aleric raised as many dead as he had mana for. Abundant practice let him read the long incantation within a minute, not stuttering once.
And when his mana was over, he ordered a zombie to slit the throat of a nearby farmer and gathered the energies of his death.
Although he died almost immediately, the energy released by a human's death was enough to fill Aleric's mana reserve in an instant!
The process repeated itself until the entire populace of the village was gone, and Aleric had…
"23 new zombies, master," Spine Staff counted. "And it's not even sunset yet! You truly worked fast."
"Not sunset, but evening," Aleric agreed. "A perfect opportunity to rest in one of the empty houses…"
He thoroughly enjoyed making himself a meal on a stove and spending a night in bed.
If Aleric could take the bed with him, he'd do that.
Instead, in the morning, he just took the feather mattress and pillows, making a zombie horse carry them.
His journey continued for three more days, during which he reached one more village—but people there all hid long before that.
The same repeated in the second village they passed—this time, Aleric paused there to hide from the rain under a roof.
The entire time, there wasn't a sign of the Church, except for the local chapels that stood empty in the wake of Aleric's arrival. With each hour that passed without a templar attack, Aleric grew more sure that it would happen soon.
However, his next major obstacle came not from the Church.
Aleric's army was forced to stop in front of a river. It was flowing in a valley between forested hills, still carrying with it extra water from the rain that poured on Aleric and his army yesterday.
"Damn it. I remember that there was a shallow crossing somewhere, but the river is fuller than usual," Aleric said, looking left and right from the height of his horse. "Even if I can find it, it's probably too deep to cross now…"
"Oh, this is a problem, master. But… you've made such improvements in your studies recently. While you wait for the water to leave, you can study more!"
Aleric scowled.
"I'd rather study under the fortress's roof, Staff."
It didn't seem like he had much choice in that, though. However, a moment later, Aleric had an idea.