"Well, at least they know hustle"

I was currently in the "courtyard" of the castle, though I don't think we can call it that anymore. 

What had previously probably been neatly cut grass was now overflowing with a collection of weeds, wildflowers, and many other unidentifiable species that had overtaken the entire courtyard, some of it was even growing out of the cracks in the bricked ground which probably hadn't been fixed in god knows how long.

This didn't really bother me too much since most of the castle was in even rougher shape, with windows being cracked and moths and other bugs having chewed out anything that they could, a little overgrowth wasn't too much to handle.

The skeletons were making their way down the long staircase as I watched them quickly hurry down the long flight of stairs, the ones that had armor on them made loud clinks and clangs as they ran down from their armor moving around as they headed down.

You may be wondering how I got past them, which was quite simple really. Even though I probably had the speed of an Olympic short-run athlete, I took the easier way down. 

 

I jumped from the window.

 

This was quite simple for me since I had wings on my back, so I just jumped out and unfolded my wings which allowed me to softly glide down the stairs without much trouble. It wasn't like I couldn't have just taken the fall, but this looked much cooler anyways.

"I don't envy them"

I glanced sideways to see Char looking at his "fellow" skeletons that were now starting to make their way into the courtyard. Since he could use air magic, now at an incredible degree, he basically did the same thing as me but used his air magic on the ground, allowing him to slowly float down from the third floor of the castle.

Char was a bit unnerving to look at now, half of his body was a human skeleton while the other half had completely burned black. It didn't make it any better that he sounded like a mystic when he spoke, is this the new coming of Rasputin!? I don't think we can drown him if he tried to overthrow me...

"Haha, I'm sure you don't."

As expected, Vilard was the first one who made it down before the rest of them started to come down as well. I wasn't very familiar with necromancy, but I was pretty sure that these guys were supposed to be barely standing up since they were just skeletons and they could only understand basic commands, but the skeletons that were in front of me were lined up in two military-style rows with Vilard in front of them in his slightly dented yet just as impressive Mithril armor.

When I first summoned them without removing the mindlock, it seemed like they were extremely rigid and unresponsive to their environment, but now they were acting identical to normal people, just without their skin. 

"...We're...here....sir"

Yeah, I think we need a way of fixing his speech. Oh well, should be fine for now.

"I didn't actually think you guys would be so organized, it's quite impressive actually"

The skeletons bowed their heads at my recognition, which made me extremely flustered. I had completely forgotten that I was technically a "lord" and this was the first time anyone had actually acted like I was one, I really didn't know how to feel about this but it felt a bit liberating that there were people that actually believed and followed me, though they are just skeletons.

I clapped as I started to talk.

"Alright! So, I need you guys to show me what you are capable of doing. Since you guys were previously soldiers, you probably know much more than me. Just, do a quick spar with each other or something and I'll see what I have to work with"

At my instruction, the skeletons started to pair off with each other. There was an intense amount of chittering from all the skeletons except Vilard and Char, probably talking some trash or something, it wasn't like I could understand or anything so I didn't bother with it. 

I glanced at Vilard, who was going to fight with another skeleton before I held my hand up.

"Vilard, c'mere for a moment"

Vilard paused, his metal boot clanking on the ground, before turning around and coming towards me while bowing. As I said, I am not ready for this.

"Uhh, I was just going to say can you spar with Char instead? Also, Char, can you only use fire magic? You just got it right?"

Both of them nodded before they got into position, Vilard unsheathed his longsword before getting in a fighting stance with his feet spread out and planted into the ground while his longsword blade was pointing directly at Char.

Char on the other hand threw his staff to the side and instead opened both of his hands. Long wisps of orange flame started to trail out from him and gathered in his hands, while his eyes had started to turn into a burning flame as well.

Oh god, what have I done!?

It was now my hope that Char wasn't going to one-shot him into nothingness, but I still had to see what Vilard was capable of.

"Alright, GO!"

As soon as I let out the go sign, Vilard made the first move. I stared wide-eyed as I felt a rush of wind as he ran straight towards Char. He didn't have his longsword up over his head like what you see in the movies, instead, it was constantly in a slightly slanted position to the side of him.

Char dodged to the side as Vilard brought his longsword up in a diagonal slashing motion before Char let out fiery orange fireballs at Vilard, who had just swung his sword and had to readjust his position towards him.

Unlike Char, Vilard didn't have such a high agility stat so he couldn't dodge the fireball that was speeding towards him. I thought he was going to get on the ground to dodge it but instead, he ran straight at Char with his longsword in a stabbing position this time.

The moment the fireball slammed into Vilard, he didn't even slow down and kept on running at him, before Char once again dodged his stab that was aimed right for his chest.

Oh, I see, even though he has a long sword he's getting as close as he can because he's fighting a mage.

[Booming Blade]

This was the first time I saw something that didn't specialize in magic use, well, magic. Vilard brought his longsword over his head and brought it down in a vertical slash, making a sonic boom type of shockwave as it flew towards Char faster than I could see.

This actually managed to hit Char, clipping him in the elbow as he couldn't move out of the way in time. Now Char, who was probably pissed off, started actually chanting a spell that made red and orange letters start to swirl around him.

[Flame Serpents]

In a burst of brilliant flame, two serpents wreathed in fire appeared in front of Char and cut Vilard off from rushing forwards. They snapped angrily at him as they attempted to sink their teeth onto his armor, which made him retreat back and slam into them with his sword. Though it looked like it was working, the serpents were just disappearing and reappearing again before attacking him again.

"Alright Stop!"

Just as quickly as the duel started, it ended just as abruptly. At my command, Char immediately canceled the flame serpents while Vilard just sheathed his sword.

"Alright, it looks like this wasn't the best matchup but I still got to see what I wanted"

Though Char was extremely handicapped or he probably would've wiped the ground with Vilard

Looking at the others, they were stronger than any skeleton other than liches and death knights I had seen depicted in animes and mangas, though they were probably raised by some amateur necromancer and probably had 0 IQ, which these guys clearly had plenty of.

Now...what to do with you guys. 

I just wanted to see their strengths, but now I actually had to think of roles for them. There was a lot of stuff I could get them to do, but the main thing was probably patrolling around the dungeon. From what I could tell, there weren't any immediate threats on the inside of the dungeon since the red dots had disappeared, though my dungeon's territory wasn't too large, to begin with. The vast forests could be taken once I had a larger army, but for now, I was going to just secure what I already had. 

Trust me, I won't invade another inhabited area. Just the wilderness.

As I was looking at the skeletons who had stopped sparring and awaited my directions, I suddenly noted something moving out of the corner of my eye.

NEIGH!

"The hell?"

Sounds of hooves stomping into the dirt became louder as three skeletal horses clopped over to us. They were massive to me, though I hadn't seen warhorses before so maybe this was the normal size? They already had saddles strapped to their back, though much of the leather had gone, it was still in usable condition.

"Ummm, I don't remember summoning you guys."

Char looked at them before looking back at me.

"There were three skeletons missing from the 20 you summoned, I guess you summoned horses instead of people"

Wait, this is actually good!

I wasn't too enthusiastic about summoning horses instead of people before I remembered that I wanted a patrol party, having these horses would make everybody's lives much easier.

I looked at everyone here. They probably wouldn't be tired if they were made to walk long distances but they could only walk or run so fast. It would be much better if some of them were mounted, though they would have to know how to ride a horse first.

"Which of you know how to ride horses?"

Prompted by this question, Vilard and two other armored skeletons raised their hands. They all had at least steel armor on which probably made them higher ranking than the others, so it made sense that they would be trained in horse riding as well. 

"Okay, you three take those horses and survey the outskirts of my territory. There shouldn't be any monster above D rank so you guys should be able to handle yourselves, oh yeah, please don't kill any innocents or civilians that might have wandered in, worst comes to worst  Vilard can talk it out with them but DO NOT kill anyone unless you know they're evil. Vilard will be able to tell. The others, go around and gather materials and kill any monster you see, I need materials to rebuild this place."

Vilard and the two others saluted to me before hopping on their horses, the cracked stone floor cracking even further from both the horses and their weight with all the armor on. 

I watched them ride out the main entrance through the courtyard, they were all armed to the teeth and would easily deal with most D ranking monsters, though one still had to worry...

"Eh, they'll be fine. Now you guys, don't go too far and bring in anything that looks useful."

The rest of the more lightly armed skeletons left as well, marching on foot towards the castle entrance. It was sort of eerie since they were all marching in sync and in two straight lines before finally splitting up and going their separate ways after going 

...I can't tell if this is because of them being undead controlled by me or because of their previous military history. 

It was just me and Char left, which was quite convenient because I needed to go somewhere so he could protect the castle while I was gone.

"Char, I'm gonna need you to protect the castle while I'm gone. I'm going back to the place where I killed the lizard, I need to check something really important"

"I'll do what I can, you do your thing"

Is it me, or is Char's speech even more laid back? 

"o-kay, so yeah, I'm off"

I unfurled my wings once more, flapping them downwards onto the ancient stone pathway, and lifted myself into the air. I stared at the sun that was now setting for a moment, before heading off into the darkening sky towards my destination.