This Lich is a Better Landlord Chapter 5

Under the night sky, Raul walked through the wilderness with the alien skeleton.

Ambrose’s castle was far from any town, and tonight, not even starlight pierced the gloom. Raul had to rely on the ghostfire in the skeleton's eyes to see the path.

He walked slowly, not just because of the dark, but because of his own hesitation.

He didn't want to capture living people for the lich's experiments, especially not his fellow townsfolk who were also fleeing. The lord's sudden tax hike had already torn their lives apart. As a refugee himself, Raul felt their pain. How could he bring himself to harm them?

But if he didn't, what would happen to his sister, Isabel?

As he hesitated, the sound of hoofbeats and the flicker of torches approached from up the road.

Raul immediately dove for cover at the roadside. He didn't need to get closer to know it was the lord's men, sent to hunt down the runaways.

Sure enough, a knight in soft leather armor, leading several retainers armed with various weapons, came into view. The torchlight revealed a group of ten men, with hunting hounds in tow.

Raul lay flat in the tall grass, not daring to breathe. There were ten of them, including a knight on horseback. Even without his heavy plate, a knight was no match for a commoner like Raul. His only hope was that the hounds wouldn't catch his scent.

The wilderness was full of smells; maybe they wouldn't find him.

But fate was not on his side. The hounds seemed to lock onto his position, veering off the road and heading straight for him, their low growls growing louder.

Raul knew the lord's dogs well. They had found him. Soon, they would charge, bringing the men behind them. Unarmed, Raul would surely be captured, or even killed on the spot.

Wait. He wasn't exactly unarmed.

Raul clutched the gem-studded bone in his hand. When the hounds were less than thirty feet away, he pressed the attack gem.

In the darkness, two faint green lights ignited. The hounds, which had been growling menacingly, suddenly froze as if they'd encountered something terrifying. Before the handler could figure out what was in the darkness, the green-glowing thing had pounced on one of the hounds with astonishing speed.

In the flickering torchlight, they saw a monstrous shape, a demonic creature, pinning the hound down. The scythes on its arms slashed wildly, disemboweling the animal in an instant.

The handler was about to cry out when he saw the creature lunging at him, moving as fast as his own hounds. He quickly dodged aside, but this monster was smarter than any dog. Missing its first target, it immediately charged toward the others behind him.

In the poor light of the night, with only a few torches for illumination, it was impossible to track the creature's movements. Soon, an unlucky soul was caught. The scythes tore through his trousers and up into his chest. Thin cloth offered no protection against the sharp blades. Though small, the creature was stronger than a man, and a single thrust could pierce through ribs.

And it was clever. It never lingered on one target. It would pounce, stab a few times, and immediately move on. If it caught someone, it would scramble up their leg, its sharp blades digging in like ice picks, providing purchase for its ascent.

This simple, repetitive motion inflicted devastating injuries. If a man panicked and fell, he would die even faster, as the creature would quickly find his throat and deliver a final, fatal slash.

The knight on his tall steed tried to give chase, but his longsword couldn't reach the monster, which was smaller than a hunting dog.

Before he could even dismount, three of his retainers were dead. The torches they dropped were quickly extinguished, plunging the surroundings into deeper darkness.

In the gloom, the two green lights seemed like the gaze of death itself. The knight lost his courage to fight on foot, wheeled his horse around, and fled.

But the slaughter continued. The knight could escape, but men on two legs could not outrun the alien skeleton, which was as fast as a hound. Men would panic and lose their way in the dark, but the skeleton would not. The senses of its soulfire were unaffected by the light.

One scream followed another, and soon, the once-formidable patrol was utterly defeated.

Raul stood up from the grass, his hands trembling as he stared at the carnage.

Its targets eliminated, the alien skeleton automatically returned to its follow state and slowly approached him. The sight sent a fresh wave of terror through Raul, causing him to stumble back, nearly falling.

He shuddered, looking at the creature now drenched in blood.

The undead were this powerful. And the lich who created such a monster... how terrifying must he be?

What had he gotten himself into?

Raul was filled with regret. He never should have climbed that damned fence. His sister, Isabel, had tried to stop him, but he hadn't listened.

It was too late for regrets now. To save his sister, he had to complete the lich's task. But as Raul looked at the corpses on the ground, another idea formed in his mind. The lich just needed bodies for his experiments, right? The bodies of these lackeys of the lord should work just as well. There was no need to hunt other refugees.

But there were only six dead here. He was still short of the lich's quota.

Raul looked down at the alien skeleton, now stained a dark crimson, and gritted his teeth. "Isabel, wait for me. I will come back for you."

Back in the castle, the girl named Isabel was focused on brewing alchemical potions. Ambrose watched her for a while, confirming that she was a genuine apprentice and not wasting his materials, then turned his attention to the footage he had just received.

The controller in Raul's hand did more than just command the skeleton; it also contained a Memory Crystal, which transmitted a live feed back to Ambrose.

This was a field test, a real battle that proved his alien skeleton was far more effective than an ordinary one. He admitted there was some luck involved. The darkness gave him an advantage, as humans lacked night vision. Plus, the knight had been a coward. If he'd charged on his horse, a few stomps from its hooves would have been enough to crush the skeleton. The creature might not have even had a chance to leap onto the horse's back.

But a win was a win.

"Field testing confirms that reducing unnecessary bone structures significantly lowers soul energy consumption, allowing for greater efficiency with fewer joints. While this alien skeleton lacks the evolutionary potential of a normal one—it will never grow into a skeleton knight or other powerful forms—such evolutions are rare miracles anyway. The key feature of my creation is that it is cheap.

"You have all witnessed the entire process. Using a low-grade soul of the same strength and less than half the skeletal material, we have created a far more combat-effective unit. In the current market of inflated magic material prices, a design like this should have vast market potential..."

Ambrose re-recorded his presentation, then opened the Codex of the Undead and transmitted the video data to the chat group within.

[Tiga Ultraman: Accepting custom orders. Favorable prices.]