Whispers of a Dead Empire

Chapter 41

Hello, hello, another day another chapter. This arc comes to an end in about 3 chapters I belive before the adventurers arrive ^^. Let me know what you think! I have also rewritten my first book, and it is out. 

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I gripped the bow's string and pulled back on the arrow as I aimed it towards the log that Alessia dragged out. I slowly released my breath as I adjusted my grip. I've never held a bow before in my life, yet my body seemed to know how to instinctively. I think that was because of the martial acumen title that I got earlier.

I slowly released my pent-up breath and sent the arrow flying. It soared true and smashed into the log, though not quite in the area that I wanted it to. Inaccurate, but it was a start. I grabbed another arrow and pulled it back, and cycled through each shot. The dull routine was doing wonders of letting me shut off my mind and not think about anything vital. I've been so high-strung the last few weeks, with all the training, and the battle, that my mental state has been out of whack.

After running through all the arrows at my disposal, I checked my cluster to see how it looked. I managed to cluster together three arrows, with another four spread around the log. The rest were, well, gone with the wind. I glanced at my notifications and dismissed the one for the bow proficiency. Good, I think with that, I was done for the day. I wanted to get back to my office and work on a few things.

I motioned for one of the zombies next to me and handed the bow off to him. I mean, I had no actual use for it at the moment. It would serve them better for the time being. Maybe now that I had time before the ceremony, I could create some gear just for myself and work on the lore a bit more while I had the time. Because after the ceremony, I had to throw myself into training and building like never to make sure that this place was ready for the adventurers. "Alright, Alessia, I'm going to head to my office. Would you like to join me?" It was getting easier to talk to her, and I found myself becoming more and more comfortable with her.

She gave me a bow and walked over to me. Her cape fluttered softly in the wind. She crossed the distance and took her spot to the right of me. I placed my hand on her shoulder and teleported back to my office. The world spun around me and stretched out as the ability worked its magic and then the faint trace of nausea that followed shortly after. I screwed my eyes shut as I fought away the urge to vomit before heading over to my desk.

I brought my menu up and selected the creation tool. If I wanted to specialize in fighting, I wanted gear to go with it. I know I wanted to keep my personal defense budget down, but I wanted something comfortable and would fit me well enough so I wouldn't have to cannibalize my mobs gear.

I took the main sword that I had created and made a new design based on it. I removed the crossguard on a new template, extended the bottom of the blade out a small way, and slowly decreased its thickness as it grew in length to an acute tip. I wanted it to be both a beautiful and elegant weapon that I can use in my left hand to free up my medium.

For the blade's handle, I merged it into the metal so it would be one continuous piece and painted it with the same colors that my mask had. Once I was happy with it, I saved the template as the Empress' blade and confirmed its creation. As the blue motes fell from the ceiling, I kicked back in my chair and tried to relax a bit. My body really ached, and my head had a steady thrum of pain from all my work.

I could handle long hours, but I really have had no time to myself, and that was one of the biggest things I needed to handle long work hours. I yawned as I opened up my menu and checked through my templates. Curious about what I had and what I could make, I could spread them around my domain.

I scrolled through the list, and my eyes lingered on the cooking templates. It's been so long since I have done anything with cooking, and I kinda miss it. It's been a significant part of my life so long that it feels kinda lonely. I wish I knew what herbs were in my domain and what was edible here, so I could make something for old times' sake. But it was a little beyond me, and not to mention that it probably wasn't safe with all the zombies and ghast running around, and that was a risk that I would not take.

As I looked through the list, my eyes landed on the rusted old chef knife template. I opened it up and looked it over. The blade was rusted and chipped in various places down the length of its blade. It was something that I would be ashamed to use. I stared at it for a moment, and an idea dawned on me. Why don't I make one? A personal template for me to use cause once I get a steady flow of resources in, I could finally cook once more, and I refuse to use a knife as downtrodden as that.

I opened up my menu, copied the template, and began working out the kinks on the blade and making it slightly larger. I removed the handle, replaced it with a simple wooden one that I sanded down, and secured it with a few metal rivets. Once I was happy with it, I tweaked the blade a few times and made it closer to a gyuto since I preferred them over most western chef knives. They were thin, light, and didn't wear down my wrist nearly as much as the heavier blades.

I tweaked the blade's color a bit, turned the steel almost black, and worked on fine-tuning the edge a bit. While I was not well-versed with swords, I could still create a near-perfect chef knife since I knew what I wanted.. Once I was happy with it, I saved the template under Calixa's Chef Knife and created the item. As my new items were being created, I decided to work on lore for the domain. I wanted to work out the entrance and cross the river and maybe get a rough idea of how the docks looked. I wish there wasn't so much work to be done, but thankfully the undead was working on stuff on their own. It really helped cut my workload down quite a bit.

So, in here, I wrote a clue for the adventures to easily cross the river. I closed the cover of the book I spawned in and set my pen down. I mean, it wasn't anything special, just a tiny excerpt about a merchant who travels to places who heard a rumor about a ferryman, who will happily take you across the river, for a small toll. Now, I would probably rip the page out and set it to respawn where I place it so they could always use it as a reference.

I grabbed my notebook and doodled out a design for the docks. I came up with something in the shape of a T with a few branching parts. I would fill the principal part with barrels and crates and have a few lanterns that would hang in a staggered pattern down the length of the dock. I would leave this note on a barrel underneath the light so that it could always be seen. My drawing skills were still horrible, but they passed for what I needed. The rest I could leave to my imagination as I built it. I should still hopefully have the wood for it. If not, I would just have to wait for the soldiers to cut some more trees down.

I sat back in my chair and chewed on the end of my pen as I worked through more ideas. I had to figure out the next zone, which, thankfully, I wouldn't have to build for some time. I could go ahead and maybe get an area portioned off. I opened up my map, clicked on the expansion option, selected the area directly behind the stronghold, and only selected the one-kilometer option. Since it wasn't classified as the entrance, I could keep it blocked off, so no one but myself could enter. I confirmed my choice, and the ground trembled as it expanded outwards. On the map, a large, storm-grey fog wall appeared that stretched into the sky. The surrounding fog meshed with it and obscured its view. In fact, it blended in so well that if I wasn't looking, I probably wouldn't have noticed it.

There, I knocked out more work today. Now all that was left was for me to take a nap and then get back to training. I had one more free day before I had to get ready for the ceremony. After that, I would throw myself into training and work so that my domain would be ready once it opened.

I cast a glance towards my cot and decided that I wanted to lie down. Sleep did wonders for my aching body, and thankfully the more that I worked out and trained, the less that it hurt. But I wasn't a fan of the ache that came from it. I didn't like the burn and then the self-hatred for the next few days after as my body worked through it all. I opened up my menu, brought up Aaron's tab, and told him that I would need him to practice with me tomorrow. I wanted to work on my hand-to-hand combat a bit more.

Next on my list was the captain. I wanted to train with him, but I would feel bad if I pulled him from his duties. It didn't bother me much with Aaron since I saw him screwing around with a lot of the others anyways. But it wouldn't hurt to ask, I suppose. As I was typing a message to Rikard, a thought crossed my mind. Is the undead mourning the same way that I am over the undead? Outside of my unhealthy fixation of using work to bury my pain, I wonder if the loss of their comrades affected them. That was something to ask around about and see, I suppose. But that was tomorrow's problem. Now I wanted to get some rest so I could tackle my day in full force.

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