Aleric jolted.
Then, another skeleton screamed, too!
In shock and bewilderment, Aleric watched as over a dozen old skeletons in front of him began to move and howl. At the same time, he saw Dark energy permeate their bones and ignite malevolent green lights in their eyes.
A few seconds later, the skeletons finally stopped screaming and rose to their feet. But before Aleric could consider his magic a success, a bony hand broke through the soil underneath his feet!
He stumbled back and saw two more hands come out from the ground. Gradually, five skeletons dug themselves from underneath the shallow soil.
In total, Aleric slowly counted 23 skeletons. But they looked very different from his undead slaves.
Instead of standing still when without orders, these skeletons kept twitching and looking around with their glowing green eyes. They didn't scream anymore, but sometimes let out short hisses. Their malevolence was palpable.
Despite that, Aleric felt his Dark magic within them and knew that they would be as loyal to him as any other undead. If not for this, he'd be concerned.
"Oh… How astounding, master! You raised even some undead underground—your magic reaches not only wide, but also deep!" Spine Staff exclaimed. "This place is as wonderful for your practices as I imagined. The undead that you have just raised are, without a doubt, wights!"
"Are they actually stronger than undead slaves?" Aleric asked, walking around the group of wights. "They look very… unstable."
"Wights are undead created from bodies of those who died with a lot of unresolved hatred, or spent a long time lying in a Dark-filled place like this. Unlike with undead slaves, the remnants of their souls cling to existence out of their own will. They hate the living so much that just for this, they strive to walk the earth again. Their hatred is why weak necromancers were sometimes torn apart by their own wights…"
Aleric stopped sharply.
"…But this is not a danger to you, master! Not only are you a much more powerful necromancer than these fools, but since you are a death-touched, the wights consider you one of their own. However, if an ordinary man were here, they'd attack him even without your order."
"I see. This seems problematic, but it seems that the wights are more self-sufficient and deadly than slaves."
"That's right, master. These are still made from skeletons, but even so, they should be at least on the level of your templar zombies."
Aleric smirked.
"Why not test this?"
With a gesture, he made one of his older templar zombies and a single wight walk to an open space in the courtyard. The wight skeleton obeyed as easily as the undead slave zombie, but Aleric felt the wight's will in its body.
He knew, thanks to the Staff, that if there was a living creature nearby, the wight's will would call to attack it. But Aleric also felt that if there was a need for it, he could easily overpower this weak will with his own.
"Now, fight!" Aleric ordered.
Both the skeleton and the zombie had no weapons, but had armor. Aleric knew they wouldn't be able to damage each other much.
The zombie clumsily tried to reach and grab the wight. Aleric clicked his tongue. Now the zombie was going to just overpower the wight with its mass…
But to Aleric's surprise, the wight actually dodged! This was a first for undead under his command—they only dodged on command earlier.
After that, the wight swiped at the zombie's throat with his bony hand. The quick strike tore through the skin, releasing putrescent liquid.
The zombie didn't care, of course. It just tried to grab the wight again, to the same result as before.
"Enough," Aleric said. The undead stopped. "I can already see that the wights are stronger and smarter than undead slaves. If the zombie were alive, he'd be dead already. Very impressive."
He ordered the other wights to join the zombies in sorting the old bones. Some of them weren't in full sets, and skeletons had to be gathered by pieces.
The wights seemed to be better at searching for bones, too.
"A pity that I can't upgrade my existing zombies to wights," Aleric said. "And dead suitable for wights aren't lying on every corner, either."
"There are ways to make bodies suitable for the creation of wights, master. For example, you can torture a person for long enough before death. Although if you torture them long enough, they will become restless ghosts instead… A simpler way is to place a dead body in a place extremely thick with Dark energy for a few months or years."
"What, you mean pickling them? Like vegetables?"
"I apologize, master, but I carry no knowledge of mortal food…"
Aleric smirked.
"Another thing you don't know, Staff. So much for the knowledge of the 'great Xarvain'!"
Spine Staff sputtered.
"The great Xarvain—he didn't need—why would I need the knowledge of pickling?! Master… Oh, I understand. It was a joke! Ah-ha-ha-ha, master, this was so smart that even I didn't understand at first! So hilarious!"
The staff was still laughing while Aleric sat down to meditate and rest.
He had to regain mana as quickly as possible so he could raise the rest of the wights available in the fortress. There were also other ways in which he had to prepare for the army that gathered to fight him.
"Two hundred people…" Aleric muttered to himself, staring at the broken gate of the fortress. "That's… Two times a hundred. Ten… Twenty? Times a… Five? No, ten. Anyway, I should make the zombies fix this gate."