Chapter 3: Undead Creatures

Ever since he caught his first prey—a two-horned deer—and sold it to earn three Silver Moons, Donald became eagerly devoted to hunting magical beasts. After briefly instructing his butler, he rushed outside the town to meet his wolves and once again ventured into the dangerous forest.

This time, with summoned creatures leading the way, he could anticipate many situations in advance, making it much easier for him to navigate the forest. He no longer had to be cautious at every step, and his speed increased significantly.

It wasn’t long before they reached the area near the forest’s edge, where lower-level magical beasts roamed. Donald and his summoned creatures were suddenly attacked by the first such beast.

A dark brown shadow flashed suddenly from the bushes. The vigilant wolf leading the way froze instantly, then let out a fierce howl as it fought back against its attacker.

Upon closer inspection, Donald saw that it was a dark brown, snake-like creature resembling withered wood and stones, gripping the wolf’s front leg tightly and refusing to let go.

“Is this a Level 2 magical beast, the Stone Snake?” This discovery shocked Donald, filling him with both fear and relief. If he had been in front, he would likely have been ambushed and be on the verge of death.

Although Stone Snakes weren’t much more aggressive than ordinary snakes, their natural camouflage made them excellent at ambushes. For hunters in the forest, the real threat wasn’t facing large magical beasts but rather such small creatures launching surprise attacks.

To achieve the status of a Level 2 magical beast despite their relatively weak abilities, Stone Snakes must have their unique strengths—namely, a hard outer shell and a toxin that didn’t kill instantly but could paralyze prey immediately.

Fortunately, his summoned creatures were ahead. If he had been alone, he would never have noticed the Stone Snake’s camouflage and would have waited to die in the forest.

Wiping away a cold sweat, Donald drew an arrow from behind and stepped forward.

Ordinary beasts or even powerful magical beasts would go rigid and paralyzed within seconds once bitten by a Stone Snake. But his wolves were life forms manifested from energy, so although the paralyzing toxin was powerful, its effect on them was greatly reduced—this was why they could still move.

“The defense of these Stone Snakes is truly formidable!”

Seeing that the snake’s body showed no wounds despite being torn at by the wolf for so long, still firmly gripping its prey’s leg, Donald marveled at its tenacious vitality.

However, knowing the well-known weakness of the stone snake, Donald had an easy way to deal with it. Thinking that a second-tier magic core was about to fall into his hands so easily, he couldn’t help but laugh. After approaching the jackal, he ordered it to use its mouth and claws to hold the stone snake’s body in place. Donald stepped on the snake’s tail with one foot and grabbed its neck tightly with the other, then thrust a sharp arrow through the gap where the snake’s mouth was clamped around the jackal’s front leg. “Die!” With a few sharp sounds, the stone snake, with an arrow in its belly, fell off the jackal’s front leg, rolled on the ground a few times, and soon lay motionless. Over the years, many people had died at the hands of stone snakes in the forest. These little creatures were skilled at sneaking attacks and were far more dangerous than many higher-tier magical beasts. Yet they had one major weakness: although their outer bodies were highly defensive, their insides were relatively fragile. As long as one avoided their ambushes, it was easy to defeat them. Didn’t he just use a wooden arrow with an iron tip to easily end its life? After dealing with his prey, Donald frowned at the jackal with its injured front leg. Since it was a temporarily summoned being—an energy entity rather than a permanent summon—its wound healed automatically after a while. The jackal seemed a bit listless, and its size also seemed slightly smaller than before. “Never mind! You can’t get a magical beast without sacrificing a magic core. Having one more summoned creature makes hunting safer!” Reluctantly, Donald took out the remaining first-tier magic core, which he had just obtained and hadn’t had time to use yet, and summoned another creature. This time, he summoned a spiny beast, one of the common first-tier wild monsters among magical beasts. It was at the same level as the jackal, but its back spines, similar to those of a porcupine, allowed it to attack from a distance, and its defense was also stronger than that of the jackal. Together, their combat strength increased significantly, giving them some confidence even in dealing with some second-tier magical beasts known for their physical strength. With a second helper now, Donald continued deeper into the forest. Before long, he arrived in an unfamiliar area. Before him was a small patch of jungle with withered and yellowed plants. Compared to the lush forest full of tall trees he had come from, this place resembled a diseased patch in the larger forest. As soon as he stepped in, he sensed an uneasy atmosphere.

It was only later that Donald learned such areas were called the Withered Lands by many adventurers—places where negative energy gathered, making it difficult for normal plants and creatures to grow, thus resulting in a desolate landscape. Whenever wild beasts or magical creatures died there, or the souls of dead hunters or adventurers rested, their corpses would gradually be infected by negative energy and mutate into undead creatures.

Two figures wandered in from afar. Due to the withered bushes blocking the view, their shapes were blurred. Donald thought they might be other adventurers or hunters. Only when they got closer did he realize they weren’t humans at all—they were two eerie and terrifying skeletons!

“By the gods, even skeletons exist in this world? Could it be that the creator god here also played single-player games or online games from Earth?”

Even after experiencing a series of strange events such as traveling through time, being reborn, and having the power to summon through the Book of Truth, he was still shocked by the appearance of these skeletons and was left speechless.

In fact, in this high-magic world, with abundant elemental energy, negative energy was equally prevalent. Especially in dark valleys, jungles, or gloomy cemeteries, undead creatures could easily thrive. It was quite normal to encounter them in the wild.

Such undead creatures had no souls—only a simple consciousness in the form of a soul flame. Compared to the valuable magical beasts, they were utterly worthless. And since Donald wasn’t a necromancer who could control corpses, he hadn’t intended to attack them at first.

However, when the two skeletons sensed the presence of a living being, the red lights in their empty eye sockets flickered violently. They raised their nearly useless rusty swords and, with a silent cry, charged at Donald.

If Donald had quickly left that wasteland at that moment, the skeletons, unable to sense a living being, would have stopped. Undead creatures generally didn’t leave their lairs, as they only felt comfortable in places with abundant negative energy. So, as long as he got away from that area, he could quickly shake off their pursuit.

Most adventurers who encounter undead in the wild will take a detour; they won’t deliberately provoke these undead unless necessary. Eliminating them generally yields little reward, and the negative energy carried by undead, along with plague viruses, poses a great threat to humans. Apart from spellcasters, it’s difficult for warriors to drive them away on their own, unless a priest or mage uses divine or magical spells to purify them.
If one gets exposed to those negative toxins in the wilderness and fails to reach the nearest temple or altar in time, it can be fatal.
Thus, unless the undead was once a powerful adventurer who might have left behind valuable treasures and equipment, adventurers are reluctant to deal with them.
But Donald thought that he might encounter undead in the future, and as a living being, his stance would inevitably be hostile toward them. It would be better to assess their strength now so he could deal with them later.
So Donald loudly ordered his two summoned creatures to attack.
“Go, tear apart these bone frames!”
The wolves, with strength equivalent to that of early-stage black iron warriors, bravely charged at the two skeletons and began tearing at them. In no time, they broke one of the skeletons’ thigh bones. The attacks from the newly summoned spiky beasts, however, caused little harm to the hollow skeletons, which could only cheer from the sidelines.
Through Donald’s observation, he determined that this human skeleton had roughly the strength of an ordinary strong adult man. But without flesh, its mobility was far inferior to that of a living person, and its movements were clearly slow and stiff.
The advantage of skeletons was their fearlessness of death—even if their bones were shattered, they would reassemble after being nourished by negative energy overnight.
So after the wolves tore apart those poor skeletons, Donald immediately picked up his iron sword, ready to extinguish the soul fire within their skulls and eliminate them completely.
But as he approached the skulls, he remembered a reminder from the Book of Truth.
“A soul force source has been detected. Do you wish to absorb it?”
Donald was shocked at first, then overjoyed.
“So the Book of Truth only absorbs soul force by eliminating enemies—these undead are actually one of the sources of soul force! Then if I kill humans, will the same thing happen?”

Thinking of this, Donald shook his head sharply and dismissed the idea immediately. Killing immortals was essentially eliminating threats to the people, carrying no psychological burden, but killing ordinary humans was different! Having lived in a civilized society for nearly thirty years, he couldn’t simply kill people for the sake of soul power without reason.
“It’s better to kill a few more skeletons. They’re all immortals anyway. Once I have enough soul power, I can create my own subordinates!”
If there was one immortal, there would surely be more—immortals usually appeared in groups. Donald ordered the wolves to lead and the bristly beasts to follow, protecting him as they ventured deeper into the wasteland.
The energy required for permanent summons varied depending on the rank of the creature being created.
In addition to the energy needed to create the physical body, humanoid intelligent creatures below level two required 50 units of soul power, while non-humanoid creatures only needed 10 units.
Formal military units at level two, due to their inherent strength, required at least 200 units of soul power to create, level three required at least 500, and level four required as much as 1,000.
As for creating heroes and rare military units or monsters at level five and above, a perfect soul of 5,000 units was necessary.
A low-level skeleton provided about 30 units of soul power. In other words, after absorbing the two soul flames earlier, he could now create a permanently existing human farmer and one non-humanoid creature.
However, he didn’t plan to create farmers, as they were of little use beyond tending farms, and even if converted into militia, their combat strength was very low.
Relatively speaking, creatures below level two were quite inexpensive but basically useless. Therefore, he planned to accumulate enough soul power first before creating powerful combat units.
This desolate jungle wasn’t large, and few immortals could be generated here. Donald quickly swept through the area, only finding and killing three humanoid skeletons. He couldn’t locate any more skeleton beasts.
The soul flames from low-level immortals provided too little soul power—only just over 300 units in total—but that was enough for him to permanently summon his first level-two unit.
Since he also had a level-two magic core as an energy source, Donald didn’t hesitate. He immediately opened the Book of Truth and reviewed all the options for level-two units, including those in the wild.

“Undead creatures and the like are taboo among human forces. The orc race has been at war with humans for thousands of years, so they certainly can’t appear either. In this world, dark elves are considered evil creatures, leaving only humans, dwarves, and high elves as options!”
In the end, Donald chose one of them. Having dwarves and high elves appear now would be too conspicuous for him. It was said that after the Great Elven Migration, they rarely came to the northern regions of the continent, let alone the frigid Northern Kingdoms. If an elf suddenly appeared, it would surely attract a large crowd.
So Donald chose the infantry produced by the human military’s barracks, a basic unit of the human race.
“You’re the one! Come out! Human infantry!”
A holy light flashed—different from the summoning circle that appeared through temporary invocation. A human-like creature with a high nose, broad face, brown hair, and eyes, looking no different from the native human men of this world, appeared before Donald.
With his sturdy steel armor, heavy sword, and shield, he was indeed a fully armed basic unit of the human race, equivalent to a mid-tier black iron warrior in terms of strength.
“Master!”
Seeing this strong warrior kneel on one knee to show his loyalty and respect, Donald felt greatly satisfied. He asked, “Very good! Get up! Do you have a name?”
“Master, I have no name. Everything I have comes from you. Please grant me a name!”
After thinking for a moment, noticing that this infantryman resembled someone from his past memories, Donald said with a mischievous tone, “Very well, from today onward, you shall be called Clinton! From now on, you will be my infantry captain and eventually the commander of all infantry!”
“As you command, great master! Clinton will follow in your footsteps until death!”
With his first permanently summoned creature, his safety in this world was finally assured. He even played a prank on the former president from his past life. A smile couldn’t be hidden on Donald’s face as he set off deeper into the forest, beyond this wasteland, under the protection of his two summoned creatures and infantryman Clinton.
With this heavy infantryman’s protection, this forest expedition was bound to be fruitful!
……
Character Attributes
Human Infantry:
Due to the continuous wars over the years, which caused heavy losses in the alliance’s forces, many new recruits were added to replenish the troops. Infantrymen trained in formal swordsmanship served as the alliance’s vanguard and defensive forces. Equipped with broadswords and heavy shields, they could effectively repel enemy attacks.

Soul level: LV2-1. Growth points: 35. Growth directions: Guard, Swordsmen, Shield Guard.
Equipped weapons: Precision steel longsword (a standard longsword 1.1–1.2 meters long, determined by height), standard swordsman armor, precision steel shield.
Energy required to summon: 130 points, of which 70 are for summoning the character, with 200 units of soul power needed.
Abilities:
Masterful swordsmanship: Skilled in using a longsword for close combat.
—A robust man from Lordaeron can become a skilled longsword fighter in the Lordaeron Infantry after 3 years of national defense training.
When the soul level reaches LV2-2 (promoted to veteran), the ability “Shield Blocking” is acquired: You are proficient in using shields and can now skillfully use them to parry attacks and dissipate force.
When the soul level reaches LV2-3 (promoted to sergeant), the ability “Qi Sensing” is unlocked: You have gained a basic understanding of using Qi and can employ certain warrior techniques.