Chapter 71 - Indifference and Passion
They moved forward. This time when they encountered villages, there were still people, which made Zhao feel relieved.
But seeing the villagers, Zhao had mixed feelings. To be honest, the sixth level black mages, although very strong, were nothing in the eyes of those with real strength, like against Meirin or Green.
In Meirin's eyes, those ordinary commoners were like ants, and she was a god that was free to kill them.
Zhao knew that if it weren't for the existence of the space, he would be no different than those commoners in the eyes of the strong. He was like an ant.
He wanted to become strong, but unfortunately he drank the Water of Nothingness, so he couldn't learn magic or martial arts. The only remaining thing he could rely on was the space.
But Zhao understood that living an easy life was not easy. Just because you try to avoid trouble, doesn't mean that it won't come to you. If you want to have a stable life, then you have to ensure that you have the power to keep your life stable.
Strength! This was the first time since he was born that Zhao felt such a strong desire for power. Unfortunately, he didn't have a way to enhance his own strength.
The space was amazing, but it lacked offensive power. Although he was able to rein in some undead to use for his own purposes, he couldn't go into the carrion swamp to collect the undead. That was no different than courting death. Zhao still clearly remembered that day he stood on the castle walls, shocked by the overwhelming number of undead spirit beasts that came out of the swamp.
If you don't have the power to protect yourself, then how can you live peacefully? There's only one answer. Look for a place to hide where people can't find you.
The Black Waste was a good choice. Because of the ground, it was a place that no one paid attention to. But there was a problem that left the Buda clan in a mess.
Others may not pay attention to them, but those old nobles definitely would. If they wanted people to not pay attention to them, then they would have to think of a way, otherwise they would make life difficult for Zhao and the Buda clan.
But the only way Zhao could think of was by improving the level of his spatial farm a little faster. As long as his space's level goes over ten, he would be able to open a ranch.
Once he gathers a variety of plants in his farm, he could enhance the level of his space and open a ranch, then it wouldn't be long before he could put animals from the Ark Continent into the space. If that is so, once he reins in some spirit beasts, then this will add to his power.
In fact, back in the Black Waste, Zhao had tried to gather spirit beasts inside his space, but without success. It was clear that the space couldn't store spirit beasts for now. He would have to wait until after he opens the ranch.
Ah, levels. If you play a game with a low level, you'll just get bullied everywhere. Just you wait until I get a high enough level.
While thinking of these things, his undead was moving towards the city. Along the way, they passed by towns, but Zhao didn't go into those towns because they just needed a secluded spot outside of it, then hide in the space overnight.
However, recently Zhao let Green go into those towns to get a better understanding of what they knew. The Immortal mercenary group was such a big thing that it was impossible for people not to have heard of it.
The result was contrary to Zhao's expectations. He thought that it would be a very serious matter, after all, a lot of villagers have died. But he didn't think that this kind of news would turn out to be so common. When the Purcell Duchy heard of what the Immortal mercenary group did, they just took the land that the villages were on, then sent slaves to plow it.
Listening to Green's words, Zhao felt a little faint. For the first time he understood how much power the nobility in the Continent had.
The life and death of those commoners didn't even reach the eyes of those nobles. Maybe they even wanted those commoners dead at some point, so they could increase their area of land.
Zhao gave a helpless smile. He still hadn’t fully adapted to the thoughts and ideas in this world. Perhaps in the eyes of those nobles, commoners and slaves weren't people, but in the eyes of Zhao, even a slave was a person.
However, although the way the Purcell clan dealt with those commoners who were killed by the undead mercenary group was very cold, the way they dealt with the attack on the Markey caravan was with passion. When they heard that members of the Markey clan were attacked, the Grand Duke himself, personally came by to give his condolences.
Also, there was another thing that Zhao had heard. Zhao's identity as an advanced black mage had emerged, and was now spreading everywhere. Such a person was very dangerous, so the Purcell clan was paying attention to Zhao.
Of course, these were just rumors that Green had heard from merchants and mercenaries, but there's no smoke without fire, so it may be true.
It was just as they expected. When an advanced black mage suddenly appears in the Purcell Duchy, of course the Purcell clan would pay attention to them. This was the result that Zhao wanted to see. When the Purcell clan notices them, it might give them a lot of trouble, but in general, this was a good thing. If they focused their attentions at Zhao's identity as a black mage, it would make his Adam identity more secure.
These days, Zhao had found that there were mercenaries and adventurers always around them. He was aware that they were there for surveillance.
They didn't show themselves much on the road, but at night, they would monitor them when Zhao entered the space while leaving his undead to stay outside.
Zhao didn't know that the people who were monitoring them were envious to death. In the Continent, although there were a lot of black mages, the Necromancers who could summon undead were rare. Even if they could summon undead, it would just be skeletons or zombies, the lowest level of undead. And this didn't mention the fact that they certainly couldn't ride a skeleton. The best they could do was have a few skeletons carry them in a palanquin.
Although a Necromancer could summon the lowest level of undead, this was obviously completely different to the skeletal undead that Zhao summoned. The dark green color, the hideous bone spurs, and its traveling speed showed off its power to the point that the people who were monitoring Zhao felt scared. They really wanted to know what spirit beast Zhao had to kill to make this undead.
Necromancers could generally be divided into two types. One of them could directly summon an undead from the ectopic surface. But this type of summoning is by chance, meaning that if you wanted to summon a skeleton, you might suddenly get a zombie. You don't know what you're going to get at that level.
For example, if you want to summon a skeleton to fight, then you might just call out a gray skeletal bust. This kind of thing, not to mention having no feet, it couldn’t even fight. It is of the lowest level, just like weeds. No attack power and no value to its existence other than nutrients for other undead.
However, summoning undead is what is most commonly used by Necromancers. That is because this type of magic is less demanding, even a low-level Necromancer can use it many times. Of course, the higher the level the mage is, the stronger the magic, and so they would be able to summon dark creatures of a higher level as well.
Translator Notes: It's actually translated as "Dark Summoner" but I changed it to "Necromancer".
Translator Notes #2: "Ectopic surface" is probably some kind of other dimension where you could summon undead from. I have no idea what "ectopic" means. When I google it, I just get scientific pictures of vaginas.
Translator Notes #3: This chapter was MTLed by Trung and edited by theno1fan. Please leave a comment if you've spotted anything that looks wrong.