Several hours had passed since Charlotte tore away the wolf girl's arm and now it was evening with the sun setting on a rather uneventful day, well at least in Nero's perspective.

 

While he silently watched the wolf girl from across the fire, his pitch black eyes were deep in thought.

 

As usual, Nero had already sent his most capable which included 6 skeletons, Charlotte and Marion to capture more soul points for his dungeon earlier in the day and he wasn't disappointed.

 

Unlike previously when the soul points he gathered from hunting was pitifully small, this time they had quite the haul which included a large herd of deer.

 

Of the ones they managed to catch, they numbered a total of 11 which supplemented his 230 soul points with an additional 110, totaling 340 soul points.

 

He was very satisfied with the results, especially with what he heard next.

 

From what Charlotte described, the herd of deer they encountered was just a small branch that had broken away from a larger herd.

 

Nero didn't know why such a large herd was passing through his area of the forest but he had a few ideas. Though he was no zoologist, he suspected it was either migration or the threat of predators.

 

The former was uninteresting to Nero but that latter made his eyes shine.

 

"For such a large herd to move... surely there would be a lot of predators?" He thought with a smirk.

 

Just the thought of so many careless deer and predators falling to his 'future' horde of undead, all the soul points he would gain...

 

"Ahh.. " Nero sighed as he shook his head. "It won't be so easy.."

 

He had two problems, the first of which was what he should do with his soul points.

 

Either he could spend them on his rather shabby dungeon which was just a cave with three floors or he could create more undead to fill in the hole that the previous attack had caused.

 

As much as he wanted to upgrade his hobo-like residence, Nero's mind was nevertheless swayed when he heard about the large deer herd.

 

Though Nero had already decided to turn 5 of the previous intruders into ghouls, not including the skill user who he had other plans for; he also decided to purchase the ghoul claws upgrade as he was very satisfied with their performance from before.

 

This is where the second problem appeared.

 

Nero was going to spend the remaining 95 soul points on skeletons which would bolster his skeletal forces by 18, giving him a total of 30 skeletons.

 

The problem he encountered was equipping the skeletons with weapons.

 

Even with all his intruders weapons which included a shortsword, 6 longswords, two hammers a few daggers, though one skeleton in particular had taken a liking to them and two bows.

 

This left only 9 of his skeletons with any sort of decent weaponry, not including the bows which his skeletons were terrible at using.

 

Although Nero's skeletons could pick up weapons and use them rather brutishly, their movements were stiff and predictable. This was further exaggerated when they tried using the bows.

 

A skeleton couldn't even hit a tree 3 meters away two times out of ten. With such poor results, Nero could only leave the bows to Charlotte.

 

He thought that if it wasn't for their high numbers, the skeletons would have never succeeded in defeating any of the intruders. Nero suspected that the skeleton army upgrade would remedy this flaw in his skeletal troops but at the moment, it was too expensive.

 

So with only 9 of his skeletons equipped, that would leave a whole 21 skeletons using nothing but their fists and although they could dodge and distract, that would only work against a small number of intruders.

 

If there was ever any large force that his skeletons went against, they would have no choice but to be ground into bone meal.

 

Nero looked to the outside of his cave, his gaze wandering on the distant red horizon.

 

Nero chuckled as he muttered. "Any chance of it raining swords?"

 

"What nonsense are you on about?" A distant husky voice replied.

 

"Oh Charlotte, Marion, welcome back." Nero replied.

 

Several figures appeared from the tree line as they walked towards the cave.

 

"How was it, did you find the main herd?" Nero asked as Charlotte and a group of skeletons entered the cave, Marion silently appearing beside the fire.

 

Charlotte shook her head as she sat down, grumbling she replied. "No and don't expect me too either, I'm no tracker."

 

"It's fine. We can try again tomorrow." Nero waved his hand. Turning his head to the wolf girl, he smiled. "You're just in time, our guest has awakened."

 

"Oh?" Charlotte's stomach grumbled as she remembered the taste of that slender arm, she couldn't help but lick her lips.

 

The wolf girl slowly sat up and groaned in pain, she glared at Charlotte and said. "B-back off!" 

 

"You have nothing to fear child, Charlotte has gotten her payment and will have no further intentions, isn't that right?" Nero turned to Charlotte.

 

"Right.. " Charlotte answered with a hint of disdain in her voice, though her eyes gleamed with a dark light as she added. "Just remember, if you happen to die in Nero's service, you're getting cooked and going straight into my belly. That arm of yours was quite delicious."

 

The wolf girl snorted in disgust. "You probably ate them too right? My Companions? You make me sick!"

 

"Nope, I don't eat men, they're too gamey for my taste. They're right behind you." Charlotte pointed.

 

"What!?" Quickly the wolf girl turned around and saw her crow companions neatly laid upon the cave floor being guarded by a couple skeletons.

 

When she saw them dead as a doornail, she sighed in relief. She thought they had already been turned into those creatures that had ripped 19 and 20 apart.

 

Calming her heart, she gave a glare to Charlotte before turning to Nero.

 

Asking with a lingering pain in her voice. "What do you want to know?"

 

"Well let's start with your name." Nero looked the wolf girl curiously.

 

She hesitated before replying. "18"

 

"A number.. or is it a code name? No that won't do, I'm sure you have a real name, what is it?" Nero frowned as he crossed his arms.

 

18 balled her fist as she replied through gritted teeth. "Cirith."

 

"Cirith.." Nero repeated the name, tasting it with his lips.

 

"What a lovely name." Nero clicked his tongue.

 

"Now Cirith, can you tell me why you came here? Was it for this?" Nero took out the defensive artifact that he had found.

 

Cirith's eyes opened wide in surprise, she gulped as she nodded. "Yes."

 

"And who sent you on this little.. errand?"

 

Cirith looked at the fire and replied. "Dahkra, our employer."

 

"Your employer? Tell me about him." Nero stroked his chin, listening intently.

 

"Dahkra is a powerful warrior who works for Reaver, he keeps mostly to the main building in southern valley so we didn't see him much. We had a contract with him that was supposed to end in a couple weeks.." Cirith replied, adjusting herself so she could sit against the cave wall.

 

Hearing the name 'Reaver' Charlotte frowned in thought. "I've heard that name before.."

 

"This Reaver must be the one looking for this right." Nero asked as he flicked the artifact upwards like a coin before catching it.

 

"Maybe, though I don't really know. All I know is that Dahkra said that we were the best for the job and that we should kill the three thieves and return with the artifact within a few days." Cirith replied.

 

"Best for the job? Really?" Nero chuckled with a smile.

 

Cirith glared at Nero. "Yes we were! We were the fastest through dense forest and the best at tracking, our strength was nothing to scoff at either, especially for trainee crows. Of course we wouldn't be a match for one of the southern valley guard battalions but why would Dahkra send a group of ex-soldiers after three thieving bandits? It would be like killing a chicken with a warhammer."

 

"I see." Nero muttered as he nodded his head in thought. "What little Cirith said does make sense. Those three bandits who first entered my dungeon were quite weak, her group would easily take them but instead they met the same fate. They also only had a few weeks left before they were free from this contract...such a pity they had to run into me..." He was smiling gleefully contrary to his last thought.

 

"Now last question, do you think this Dahkr- no Reaver will send more of his people here? If so, how many?" Nero narrowed his eyes as he asked the questions, this was what he was truly interested about. He needed to know what he must prepare for in the best and worst case scenario.

 

There was hesitance in Cirith's eyes. She knew exactly what Reaver would do as unlike her and her other trainee crows, he had the strength to secure and farm a dungeon for resources instead of taking the core and selling it off to the highest bidder.

 

"Should I tell this Nero a lie and wait for Reaver's forces to come and save me?" Cirith thought about before inwardly shaking her head. "No, even if they did come, they wouldn't save me because of our failure, not to mention I'm a cripple with a missing arm... I'd be carted off to be a slave or... worse."

 

"I won't stand a chance alone out this deep in the forests, especially when I'm on the other side of the wall.. and the only entrance back in is guarded."

 

"This Nero is now the only shoulder I've got to lean on. Even Mr Crow.. is too busy to care or remember me.." With eyes filled with determination, Cirith made a decision.

 

"Yes, 16 sent off a messenger bird that revealed your existence. It won't be long before Reaver sends a force to occupy your dungeon and.. it won't be small." Cirith replied seriously.

 

"How many do you expect?"

 

"No less than thirty and they'll be from the guard battalion, they will not as easy to defeat as-" Cirith bit her lip. "As we were.."

 

Nero's eyes focused as he asked with a deep voice. "How so?"

 

"The people in the guard battalion are ex-soldiers, deserters from the kingdom of Rudenfell. They most definitely have experience fighting against the demon hordes and are hardened warriors... any noble would pay highly for such soldiers." Cirith explained with a grave expression.

 

Charlottes violet eyes narrowed into thin lines. "If what she's saying is the truth, these soldiers will be very hard to defeat. Shield walls, armor, good weapons, tactics.. just 30 of them will be enough to send your little band of bones and rotten flesh back into the embrace of death.."

 

"Oh? You've seen these soldiers fight before?" Nero asked Charlotte curiously.

 

Charlotte shook her head and replied. "No but I've heard rumors from those within circle of demon nobles that the armies of Rudenfell are a very tough nut to crack considering that they've held off our weaker forces for several millennia.."

 

Nero smiled and asked. "And what of the demon's strongest forces? Where are they?"

 

Charlotte crossed her arms, a smirk on her face. "They're too busy fending off the ancient empires."

 

Nero nodded in thought. The information on the demonic army's movements were of no particular use to him right now so he threw it to the back of his mind.

 

Right now he had to deal with the soldiers that Reaver would send...