Chapter 5: Chapter 4: Discovering Wanderers

The sun slowly sank below the horizon, its afterglow painting the sky a bloody red and adding a sense of ancient desolation to the Wasteland.

The eerie, ghastly white Skeleton Fortress stood in silence, waiting for the last of the light to fade and for Darkness to arrive.

Feeling excited, Li Ziyu woke up very early today. He didn’t wait for the sun to set as usual. Instead, he ended Hibernation Mode early and raised the Mobile Fortress.

Looking through the fortress window, he could see a new building on the platform outside. It was a structure with a stone foundation and walls of bone, resembling a small Warehouse. The faint glow of a fire was visible through the cracks. On its front were two thick, heavy doors. The left door was painted with a sword, and the right door was painted with a saber. When the doors were closed, the sword and saber crossed, exuding a murderous aura.

The physical Weapon Workshop was a perfectly scaled-up version of the model in the system; every detail was identical.

Opening the Weapon Workshop interface, he saw a variety of melee Weapons: broadswords, swords, bows, crossbows, hammers, axes, spears, and more. However, these Weapons couldn’t be manufactured yet. They had to be researched before they could be crafted and equipped to the Skeleton Undead, allowing the Skeleton Undead to complete their first class change.

Researching Weapons required Soul Energy, and the amount needed varied for each type. The cheapest was the broadsword, requiring only 30 units of Soul Energy to research.

[Small Bone Saber: The most convenient and easily obtainable Weapon. Trust me, you won’t find another Weapon this effective and affordable.]

[Research Requirement: 30 units of Soul Energy]

After checking the requirements for the other Weapons, Li Ziyu felt the system’s description was right. The Bone Saber was the best choice. The only reason he’d reached this conclusion was because... he was poor!

’Based on my observations over the last three days, everything consumes resources. While things might not be terribly expensive, I can’t get around the fact that I’m just plain poor. Out here in the Wasteland, resources are limited. I have to save every bit I can.’

At this stage, the Bone Saber seemed like an excellent choice. Li Ziyu didn’t hesitate any longer and decisively chose to research it.

It was called "research," but it felt more like an unlock. After consuming 30 units of Soul Energy, Bone Sabers could now be crafted in the Weapon Workshop.

Just as he’d figured, crafting Bone Sabers also had a cost: it consumed Skeletons. Fortunately, 1 unit of Skeleton could produce five Bone Sabers. ’A real bargain,’ he thought.

’I’ll make five Bone Sabers first and see how they are.’ Li Ziyu gave the order, and the Weapon Workshop started up, emitting the sounds of CLANKING metal and the SHHFF of sharpening blades.

Before long, a system notification informed him that the Bone Sabers were complete and had been placed in the temporary Warehouse.

’That’s it?’

’Shouldn’t this have unlocked a class or something? Like a Skeleton Warrior?’ Li Ziyu was a bit baffled. He waited a moment, but no system notification appeared. Only then did he realize that a class hadn’t been unlocked at all. He had simply crafted some Weapons.

’Alright, when it comes to being cheap, you’ve got me beat.’

Though he grumbled internally, he couldn’t help but have one of the Undead retrieve the newly crafted Bone Sabers from the temporary Warehouse.

Taking the Bone Saber from the Undead, Li Ziyu held it in his hand and examined it closely.

The Bone Saber was about half a meter long, hilt included. It wasn’t the smooth, jade-like object he had imagined, polished to a sheen like an heirloom passed through generations. Instead, its craftsmanship was crude and its color was a dull, dark gray. The selling point was the edge; despite the blade’s coarse body, it was surprisingly sharp and exuded a chilling air.

’In short: practical, but ugly. For the Undead, that’s more than enough. They need practicality. A blade is meant for cutting people, why does it need to be pretty?’

He beckoned over five Undead and had them equip the Bone Sabers. ’Hmm, not bad,’ he thought. ’They’ve gone from bare-handed rookies to sword-wielding Little Kalami.’

Factoring in the Undead’s fearless Trait, the threat level of the Sword-Carrying Undead skyrocketed. At least, Li Ziyu felt his resources hadn’t been wasted. He had managed to level up his forces a bit.

He crafted another 15 Bone Sabers. Including the previous 5, Li Ziyu now had 20 equipped Sword-Carrying Undead.

’I still have some resources, enough to equip more Sword-Carrying Undead, but I should test their effectiveness first. If they’re useless and not much better than the bare-handed ones, then it would be a waste of resources. I’d be better off just making more regular Undead.’

By this time, the sun had completely set, and Darkness enveloped the Wasteland.

"Move out! Hunt!"

Glancing at the Sword-Carrying Undead standing in two rows, their swords in hand, Li Ziyu gave a sharp wave of his arm and issued the command. It was time to see what they were made of.

The Mobile Fortress’s flickering Soul Fire lit up. The Bone Wheels began to turn, grinding against the barren earth with a loud CRUNCH-CRUNCH-CRUNCH as it set off into the wilds.

He didn’t know if it was bad luck or what, but after traveling for nearly two hours, they hadn’t found a single trace of prey. Li Ziyu was getting annoyed.

’No prey means no resources. No resources means my development is delayed. If my development is delayed, my sense of security plummets. And most importantly, I just got twenty new toys and I haven’t even had a chance to test them out yet!’

Just as Li Ziyu’s mood soured and his eyes grew grim, an Undead materialized out of a wall. It swayed unsteadily toward him, and as its Soul Fire flickered, it relayed a message.

"Nomads spotted ahead."

"Nomads" was a general term for wanderers in the Wasteland. It included people who had lost their homes, traveling merchant caravans, and even robbers and Hunters. Their identities were many and varied.

The Otherworld wasn’t just home to Giant Beasts, Monsters, Wild Beasts, and other Transmigrators. There was also a large population of Natives from various Races. These Natives had their own powers, such as Tribes and City-States, and some people in the chat channel even claimed that there were entire nations.

Li Ziyu was careful not to provoke the Native factions. After all, he hadn’t been in this world for long and his foundation wasn’t strong. He wouldn’t gain any advantage by fighting the Natives. Most of the time, he chose to hunt Wild Beasts instead.

But nomads were different. They had no faction of their own.

Nomads who had lost their homes were essentially refugees. Merchant caravans usually had pack animals and guards protecting their goods, making them easy to identify. Neither of these groups would typically wander about at night; the Wasteland was very dangerous after dark, and an encounter with a Fierce Beast was no joke.

Nomads active this late at night were most likely robbers or a Hunting Corps. Attacking them would be considered a public service—the kind of thing that wouldn’t get him hunted down by the Natives.

Still, he needed to ask for more details to see if he could actually take them. It would be a disaster if he picked a fight only to discover they were a merchant caravan.

A City Lord on the chat channel had once talked about attacking a merchant caravan. He’d felt pretty powerful at the time and went for it. The loot was indeed substantial—he’d raked in all sorts of supplies. But after the attack, that Transmigrator City Lord was relentlessly hunted by the Natives. He eventually went dark, and the rumor was that the Natives had killed him.

Because of this cautionary tale, all the City Lords were very wary of merchant caravans. Even if they couldn’t build good relations, they did their best not to offend them. Of course, if the other party came looking for trouble, that was another matter entirely.

"How many nomads are there?"

"Fewer than ten. Surroundings... unclear."

The Skeleton Undead delivering the report seemed to have stalled. After a long pause, it conveyed the rest of the information with a flicker of its soul fire. They were only Low Level Undead, not very intelligent. They could scout for prey and even gauge its strength, but counting was a bit of a struggle.

’That confirms it. They’re either robbers or a Hunting Corps. Refugees or a merchant caravan would never be that small. A small caravan would have at least a hundred people, and a large one could have ten thousand or more.’

"Forward! Take them down!"

Li Ziyu stood up and gave the order with a wave of his hand.