This Lich is a Better Landlord Chapter 69

Inside the City of Alchemy, two Drow carefully followed behind Withered Rose, holding up a magnificent umbrella for her.

They had to pay constant attention to Withered Rose's pace—not too fast, not too slow—and ensure not a single ray of sunlight fell upon the Queen.

A little sunlight wouldn't cause much harm to a Legendary-rank undead queen, but if Withered Rose so much as frowned, the two of them would be turned into materials for creating undead.

In the Underdark, everyone knew of Her Majesty's cruelty. She was indifferent to all living things, using them merely as tools.

Once a tool was no longer handy, it was naturally discarded.

Rose was also flanked by two grim-faced Justicars—people sent by the Alchemists' Council to monitor her. The sudden visit of this famous Undead Queen from the Underdark made the entire City of Alchemy nervous.

These two Justicars were quite unlucky. Even though Withered Rose completely ignored their existence, just standing near her felt like fear was a virus constantly invading their bodies.

This was the power of a true Lich. Unless she deliberately restrained her power, the dense dark mana would leak out just a little and contaminate everything around her.

Naturally, Withered Rose had no intention of being considerate to a few humans. She wandered randomly through the City of Alchemy, occasionally buying alchemy materials without asking the price.

Among them were three bottles of Living Quicksilver Solution—a meeting gift she prepared for Ambrose.

Although she didn't know how the undead dated, giving expensive gifts shouldn't be wrong according to his personality.

By this time, Gareth and his wife should have met at the third party's house. She wondered if they could restrain themselves; if a fight broke out, it would be another troublesome mess.

Withered Rose had wanted to witness the melodramatic romance between undead to see if she could gain some reference material, but with the city's agents sticking to her, she couldn't expose the private affairs of the undead couple to others.

Thus, she could only walk out alone, pretending to shop while actually drawing the city's attention.

However, that was only one of her objectives.

Ambrose had asked her to investigate the secret of the sewers, and Rose was also quite interested in this secret the City of Alchemy kept so tight-lipped about.

Her wandering seemed aimless, but unknowingly, she had walked near a certain sewer entrance.

Rose carefully observed the two "escorting" Justicars. As they approached the sewer entrance, both men showed obvious expressions of disgust, yet there was very little vigilance or panic.

Disgust was likely due to the drifting stench, but the lack of vigilance suggested these two knew nothing of the sewers' secret.

"In that case, I can be a little bolder."

Rose pretended to walk unknowingly toward the sewer entrance. The closer she got, the stronger the stench became. The two Justicars were already covering their noses.

Seeing that she intended to continue, one Justicar hurriedly said, "Your Majesty, the area ahead has been designated a restricted zone due to a leakage of alchemy waste. Since it hasn't been cleaned up yet, it's full of snakes, rats, and insects. It is not very suitable for visiting. I suggest going in another direction; there are several good enchanted equipment shops over there."

Rose feigned curiosity. "Alchemy waste leak? Sounds like a serious accident. Has the City of Alchemy not dealt with it yet?"

The two Justicars were a bit embarrassed, but they genuinely didn't know what the problem inside was, so they stammered and changed the subject. They didn't notice Rose taking a few more steps toward the stinking sewer entrance, nor did they see her eyes sweeping over the swarming mosquitoes and insects.

In a single glance, hundreds of small insects died and were instantly transformed into controllable undead puppets.

This was Withered Rose's Legendary Grace—*Death Gaze*.

As long as a creature was locked onto by her soul fire, she could transform it into an undead without any other action. Depending on the vitality of the individual, the time required for this transformation varied.

Even a high-level Paladin like Starlight, if he didn't notice in time, would become undead within a few minutes. For insignificant insects like these, the conversion was completed in the blink of an eye.

"Fine, it doesn't look like there's anything worth seeing. Let's go another way."

Rose turned and left, arousing no suspicion from the two Justicars. Even the two handmaidens beside her didn't notice their Queen's little action.

As they left, the insects turned into undead quickly burrowed into the sewers.

Thanks to the deteriorating sanitary conditions of the City of Alchemy, rats and insects were everywhere. As Rose walked, she silently converted thousands of pests into undead, sending them to explore the sewers. Soon, they mapped out the underground tunnels for her.

claiming she was tired of shopping, Rose returned to her silver carriage, which resembled a small palace, and began to draw the map of the sewers.

In just one day, Withered Rose had explored most of the sewers.

She pieced together the scattered map fragments, forming a unique pattern.

"Why does this look like some kind of alchemy magic circle?"

Rose wasn't very skilled in alchemy and could only barely make out some traces, so she sent the map fragments directly to Ambrose.

[Withered Rose: Look at the sewer map I drew. It looks like some kind of alchemy magic circle.]

Back at the castle, Ambrose was currently dismantling Hales's corpse to separate the bones.

After careful consideration, the Half-Elf Ranger had decided to choose a skeleton as his reincarnation form. It wasn't that he didn't like having flesh, but the maintenance cost for keeping an undead body fresh was high—it was either rotting or becoming a dried husk, and both were uglier than a clean skeleton.

As a Half-Elf, faced with the choice between "very ugly" and "moderately ugly," Husky chose the moderately ugly skeletal form.

Besides, as an undead with independent consciousness, there wasn't much difference between a skeleton and a zombie; advancement depended entirely on luck and effort. Ambrose intended to grant Husky as many innate spells as possible during the modification process—basics like *Summon Skeleton* and *Chill Touch*—so he would have some combat ability immediately upon rebirth.

Just as he was removing a rib, the Codex of the Undead vibrated. Ambrose had to summon a Mage Hand to open it.

Poor Husky could only lie on the operating table, awkwardly maintaining an open chest.

When Ambrose saw the sewer map sent by Withered Rose, he was so agitated that he crushed the bone in his hand.

Ignoring the need to reconnect Husky's bone, Ambrose hurriedly replied to Withered Rose: [That's not an alchemy magic circle. That's a modified *Wish* spell circle! Those lunatics are actually trying to create a god!]