This Lich is a Better Landlord Chapter 57

Inside the castle, Ambrose looked at a pile of bones soaked in nutrient solution and nodded in satisfaction.

The Osteo-Colony Virus had been perfectly injected into the bones. After soaking in the solution, these bones would be capable of self-repair and continuous proliferation for a long time.

"Well done. You're almost qualified to run a laboratory independently."

Ambrose's praise didn't bring much joy to Isabel. The poor girl had dark circles under her eyes, and her body was swaying slightly.

Although there were many steps, the experiment wasn't difficult. The only problem was the danger.

Isabel didn't dare make a single mistake during the process, terrified that if she got infected by the virus, Ambrose would turn her into an undead.

The more nervous she was, the greater the mental pressure. After enduring a day and a night of this, Isabel felt completely drained, unable to even stand steady.

"I... I'm going to rest..."

Isabel wobbled toward her room. Ambrose stroked his chin, wondering if he should just turn her into an undead. Human bodies needed to eat, drink, and sleep—very poor cost-performance ratio.

But thinking about it, he decided against it. Undead had their benefits, humans had theirs.

Isabel would die in a few decades anyway; there was no rush.

Turning back to the bones in the jars, Ambrose gathered a massive amount of mana around him. Pale blue energy coalesced into the shape of hands, floating around him.

Over a dozen *Mage Hands* began working swiftly and orderly.

Bones were removed one by one and assembled according to Ambrose's design.

These were not human bones, but bones from a creature called the Deep Rothé.

This creature hailed from the Underdark. It was a massive beast that looked somewhat like a yak but was larger and stronger. Some cruel Drow liked to use the heads of Deep Rothé to break rocks, which showed just how powerful the creature was and how hard its skull was.

These bones were a gift from Withered Rose; a large part of the initial payment was in materials rather than gold coins.

Deep Rothé were massive, so their bones were naturally thicker and sturdier. These bones weren't suitable for creating small mantis skeletons, so Ambrose was creating a special kind of skeleton this time.

The massive bones combined under Ambrose's control. A heavy base, still using a multi-legged structure similar to an insect, but the thick joints only provided simple forward, backward, and turning movements. Structure and load-bearing capacity were reinforced at the expense of agility.

The upper body was purely stacked armor, composed of heavy Deep Rothé skulls forming a dome covered in bone spikes, leaving only a large opening.

Then, Ambrose used *Mage Hand* to bring over a portable magitech cannon.

This thing was manufactured according to the original blueprints from the City of Alchemy. Because the materials weren't quite up to standard, there was a risk of the barrel exploding.

But that wasn't a big issue. Ambrose excelled at using low-end materials to create cheap, effective skeleton puppets.

Once assembled, a bizarrely shaped skeleton appeared in the center of the laboratory. Its form could hardly be called a skeleton anymore; it was essentially a round tank.

Two meters high, nearly four meters in diameter, with a cannon barrel fully three meters long.

The hard skull armor encased the entire body, protecting even the multi-legged structure at the bottom. The sturdy body revealed only a single cannon barrel.

Ambrose inserted a tuned Simulated Soul, and the Skeleton Tank rumbled to life.

*Thud, thud, thud.* Muffled sounds echoed as the multi-legged joints at the base operated smoothly, causing the floor to vibrate slightly.

Then came forward movement, backward movement, and slow turning... The actions were a bit sluggish, but overall, there were no issues.

Next was the firepower test.

Ambrose controlled the Skeleton Tank and walked it into a teleportation circle.

With a flash of light, the massive mechanical bone construct was sent to the sewers of the City of Alchemy.

The behemoth attracted the attention of the sewer monsters as soon as it appeared. Red lights lit up in the darkness as twisted, disgusting slimes began to crawl toward the Skeleton Tank.

After some time, it seemed the slimes in the sewers had mutated again.

These slimes had many metal parts embedded in their bodies—nails, blades, rebar, saw blades, and the like. Who knew who was dumping this industrial waste into the sewers? If a mortal were enveloped by such a slime, they would be lacerated all over in an instant.

The Skeleton Tank was an emotionless undead machine. Its soul fire burned brightly as slight ripples appeared around the cannon barrel.

Then came a sound that wasn't loud but was very dull—an air burst. A mass of gray-white matter spewed from the barrel, scattering and splitting as soon as it exited the muzzle.

Bone shrapnel covered a large area in front. Over a dozen mutant slimes were hit by these bone fragments.

*Splutch.* The sound of shattered bone embedding into soft, slimy bodies. *Clang, clang.* The sound of bone hitting metal fragments.

The powerful impact blew the soft, rotten slimes away, tearing them to pieces under the barrage of countless bone shards. Even the metal parts embedded in them were visibly deformed and sent flying.

Slimes were immune to many physical attacks, but they couldn't withstand the power of this portable magitech cannon. A single shot tore them apart with sheer force, plastering their remains all over the ground.

But the power of this shot didn't end there. A few lucky slimes were only grazed by the bone shrapnel and didn't die immediately. However, once the bone fragments entered the slimes' bodies, they began to grow and proliferate rapidly, healing and fusing with nearby bone fragments.

Bizarrely shaped bone corals grew out from within the slimes, tearing their bodies apart.

Some slimes died instantly. Others barely managed to use their digestive abilities to consume the constantly growing bones. The growth and consumption forces were in a constant tug-of-war, rendering them completely immobile.

Then came two more bangs, and all the slimes in the area were dead.

Ambrose inspected the Skeleton Tank. The bone structure was fairly stable. He had cleverly restricted the growth of the Osteo-Colony Virus to the loading chamber. Here, it could continuously generate bone shells, which were then fired by the wind pressure of the magitech cannon.

The materials of the magitech cannon were trash; its firing lifespan was estimated to be under ten shots. But that wasn't a problem because the internal magic array could only hold enough charge for six shots. It would run out of mana before the barrel exploded.

Sales of this portable magitech cannon in the City of Alchemy had always been poor because mobile barrels were hard to recharge. And if placed on the city wall to link with a recharging array, the caliber was too small—it felt like a high-end toy.

Despite various inconveniences, this was the simplest reinforcement method in the short term. Ambrose still wasn't sure what exactly had taken his head off, so it was better to be prepared.

He walked the Skeleton Tank around the sewers, firing all six shots. The power was indeed impressive; anything within twenty meters died if hit and was maimed if grazed. At close range, even Ambrose wouldn't be able to withstand a six-round burst of osteo-colony shells with his magic shield.

However, it wasn't very meaningful against Legendary powerhouses. The Skeleton Tank was clumsy, with a noticeable pause and charge-up time before firing. That window was plenty of time for evasion or a preemptive strike, unless the opponent was brain-dead enough to face-tank it, or terrain restrictions forced them to take the hit.

Just as he teleported back to the castle with the Skeleton Tank, Ambrose sensed something was wrong.

The castle had been invaded. Magical traps had been triggered, but the intruders seemed skilled—they had dismantled the traps directly.

Ambrose thought the Paladins had acted this quickly. He hurriedly turned on the crystal monitor to check the situation, only to see two familiar figures.

Blackie and Husky. These two "clients" who had been fleeced of their wealth by Ambrose were now sneaking up the back of the castle. They were the ones destroying the magical traps.

Just as Ambrose was preparing to take them down, a massive black shadow over four meters tall appeared on the crystal monitor.

Ambrose sighed.

Those two were done for.