Necromancy is a branch of magic that is generally condemned and reviled. The ethics surrounding reanimating the dead is viewed as morally wrong. Mages who deal with death magic often establish contracts with the living to have their corpses reanimated at a price. Those who are reanimated are often used for menial labor and construction work. Studies which prove the continuous use of death magic have a negative impact on the environment make it so necromancer services are rarely employed. Necrotic energy has been shown to corrupt land, and make it unable to support life. Necrotic energy, otherwise known as Blight, has been shown to even reduce monster and dungeon spawns. Occasionally, a dungeon core will form even in an environment that has high levels of Blight. This results in an undead, necromance-themed dungeon. The Godless Lands, home to the most powerful necromancer in the world, Arkosa, is filled with Blight due to the constant use of necromancy. Many surrounding kingdoms, including Idil, the Highlands, and Pearl Island do their best to prevent the spread of Blight. This requires the purification skills of the Church of Pernatia along with military forces to combat the undead spawns. Arkosa has not responded to the surrounding forces, but there is an immediate spike in the strength of the undead once forces cross the Kill Zone, regarded as the unofficial border of the Godless Lands.

~ Necromancing and the Godless Lands by Ska Oar

The amount of workers had increased on the second day. An additional ten people had come to help with the mines after seeing how much they were able to produce and wanted to cooperate. With the amount of people they had to protect doubling, Chester and Damien had to be on guard.

"This is good experience. We're learning how to be proper adventurers." Damien said, flicking the blood off his sword before putting it back on his back. There was a greater amount of monsters after them, but none were strong enough to be noteworthy.

The illusionist snorted. "Proper adventurers learn how to protect weaklings? Boring."

Only a couple of the new villagers had prior experience mining, and the rest had to learn quickly. The two bottom tunnels were still occupied, with Chester and Damien acting as faithful guards after the monster encounter. The rest were helping to push the minecarts to the surface, along with clearing out the rocks from above. Jeffrey was stationed above, handling the smelter with a few of the other workers. Occasionally they'd swap shifts in order to give the miners a chance to rest.

The efficacy of their mining operations increased significantly. Chester peered through the hole that the robots previously made, noticing that it went far deeper than he anticipated. The workers chipped away at the rock surrounding the massive hole, doing their best to get as much work done as possible while under the careful watch of the illusionist.

The duo had their own fair share of work to do; more robots had come in, coming through the same path and also creating new holes in the other tunnels. The illusionist had to chase one down as it almost escaped, full of ore and rocks. Thankfully none of the miners were injured since they evacuated on command. He had hoped that the robots would have some more ores stored inside of them, but they only had cold iron chunks. Chester surmised that any other

He noticed that every robot looked similar, but were created from different assortments of materials. None of them were perfectly uniform, and resembled patchwork.

Throughout the battles, the robots had displayed no hostility. Chester and Damien had a bad feeling and conversed about it during their short break.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” He asked the boy, sipping from a canteen filled with water.

“Yes, it’s clear that these things aren’t natural. Someone made them.” The vampire said with a serious and worried expression on his face.

“Yeah...of course.” Chester nodded. He was thinking along the lines of selling the scraps from the mysterious robots but decided to follow with Damien’s thinking instead. He honestly hadn't thought about it much and just blamed it on magic energy making them come to life. Damien's words told him that moving robots weren't a regular occurrence in Aetheria. “Think whoever made em’s gonna come by and notice the robots are missing?”

“Maybe. We’ll have to pay attention.” Damien wiped the blood off his mouth, having taken a sip from his blood bag in order to rejuvenate himself. He wondered if investing in a halberd as a secondary, or even main weapon would be a good idea. The young vampire knew that it was a superior weapon than the sword in almost every aspect, and could function better than one against robots or heavy-plated enemies. The idea would have to wait until they got to Welton.

So their day continued. A few hours passed, and they had produced over twenty bars of cold iron, along with several tons of bricks. They had brought a few horses along for the journey this time to help with carrying the load. Chester played with his illusions, standing a bit further away from the workers but close enough to spring into action. It had been awhile since any new robots came forth.

He was practicing how to make realistic humans and other large illusions. With the size limit doubled, he had much more variety available for his spell. He created life-sized humans, basing them off people he’d seen before. Chester summoned Cerebella, inspecting his creation and tweaking it to be more accurate.

Adding shadows was important; because perceptive people could just as easily tell if one was an illusion by looking at the ground. The shadow didn’t change shape or size, but followed his illusion’s movements.

Making it move naturally took a bit of work. He even simulated a fake attack, making the illusion cast a fake lightning spell that fizzled out harmlessly once it reached the two cubic meter limit.

He dispelled Cerebella, before trying to make a clone of himself. It was identical, from the cloak, tunic, and boots. His facial features seemed off, and he corrected it.

“Jeffrey! Does this look like me?”

The older man turned to see Chester strut up towards him, and point at the stationary clone behind him. He squinted, and noticed that there were some inconsistencies.

“The illusion is…uglier? Not noticeable, but I think you’re doing yourself a disservice, sir.”

His ‘clone’ could be seen with a vein throbbing on his forehead. The true illusion, which walked towards Jeffrey had disappeared.

“So, you think I’m ugly? Is this what you say to your benefactor?"

Jeffrey began to backpedal and put his hands up. “I misspoke! You’re-”

The illusionist put the older man in a headlock, and the workers watched as the powerful adventurer delivered a painful noogie to the man’s head. Some of the younger teens laughed, and others shook their heads at the comical display. It was a breath of fresh air during their hard labor.

However, Chester abruptly stopped and shoved the man away. He detected a faint mana signature coming from the hole. Loud stomping noises could be heard, far different from anything that had come so far.

“Get out of here! There’s another robot coming!”

The miners followed the man’s commands as the slight tremors grew more violent. Chester readied his flail, but his guard was down slightly as the robots had been non-hostile so far.

But instead of a large, bulky machine like the previous encounters, what came out was something far different.

It was shaped like a humanoid; bipedal with two arms. Where its face should’ve been was a blank slate and a singular circle that glowed a dim blue light. Comparing the quality, it was on a whole other level. With a steampunk design, it still looked somewhat patched together. Not only was it nearing seven feet tall, it possessed hands and fingers that moved clunkily. The robot marched towards him, a whirring noise could be heard with a few hissing clicks. Chester threw a rock at it, watching as the projectile bounced off harmlessly. The lone orb resting in its skull turned red.

“Target found. Eliminate.”

It lunged for him, and he swung the flail with reckless abandon. The robot tried to weave through and dodge the attacks, but took several hits in the process. It was much slower than anticipated.

Chester gritted his teeth as the robot seemed to sustain little damage. The force he put into the blow was strong enough to bend steel, and he readied himself for a long battle. It seemed that the robot possessed high resistance to physical blows. He withdrew and took out an item from his bag, and tossed the pack further away from the entrance. Equipped with a shield and flail, Chester smirked at the approaching bot.

“Dead meat. Or scraps. Are you even alive? Either way, you're fucked.”

The robot didn’t respond, and two more crawled out from the hole, staring at Chester without any fear or hesitation. In sync, they stepped towards him with their metallic voices ringing out across the tunnel.

“Target found. Eliminate.”

Chester groaned. “Oh, I'm fucked.”

Damien skidded back as he deflected a blow from one of the robot monsters. He did his best to avoid getting surrounded by the two enemies, thankful that he had brought his full set of armor this time around.

Moving in the armor wasn’t so bad. Mithril was meant to be lightweight, and the chainmail weighed down on his body similar to how a heavy article of clothing would. The steel proved to be a bit more restricting, but for some extra protection he didn't mind.

“Shadowshield!”

Darkness came forth and protected the vampire from a machine’s blow. His mithril sword jutted out and pierced through the robot’s eye, dissipating the shield as he ran his sword through the critical point. Despite the damage the robot continued to move. He pulled his sword back before they could grab it, and cast Shadowbolt to tie up the other one running towards him. It arced through the air and immobilized the automaton.

The vampire struggled, watching as his enemies looked no worse for wear. His sword was not good for dealing with enemies who couldn’t feel pain or had no weak points. The entirety of their bodies seemed to be composed of hard metals far surpassing that of the previous monsters.

Although they weren’t fast by any means, it was tough dealing with two at once. Damien did his best and ran circles around them, trying to hit their eye in the hopes that it would take them down. He elected to use Darkfire and Mana Blast in tandem to deal more damage, but his mana reserves weren't large enough to toss those skills around so easily.

Both of the machines' eyes were broken, but they managed to pursue him regardless. Their accuracy was lower, but it seemed they could still detect his general presence.

“Mana Infusion.”

As the boost coursed through his body, he didn’t hesitate to send a Darkfire spell towards one of them. The one on the right was enveloped in an explosion, and he took this chance to strike at the other, causing small scratches along its thick, plated armor. Seeing how ineffective his sword strikes were, he cursed. It was difficult to aim for their joints and neck while dodging multiple blows at once.

“Damien! I’ve come to help!” Chester's voice cried out.

He watched the man run towards him, and Damien sighed in relief. The boy had needed support and knew that the man's flail would deal great damage to enemies like this.

“Great, these guys are se-YOU IDIOT!” The vampire’s thoughts changed completely upon seeing two additional robots chasing after him. They were heavily dented, and one seemed to be limping. Chester had done a great deal of damage to them.

“Shut up! We work together to take the four of ‘em down! Two heads are better than one!”

Without another word, they leapt back into battle. Damien did his best to tie up the machines that Chester had injured, while the illusionist ran circles around the robots and pelted them with hits using his flail. All their attacks bounced harmlessly off his shield, and he took ruthless advantage of their slow movement.

Occasionally, he shot out a Minor Illusion spell that distracted the robots. They would blindly swing on clones he had made, which dissipated into thin air as soon as they were struck, giving him an opportunity to strike the robots even harder. Damien distracted the ones chasing the illusionist, giving him ample room to operate.

With an added Mana Infusion boost, Chester swung his flail hard enough to dislodge a robot’s head from its neck, and the heavily dented body collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.

“Little help here!” Damien cried out, as he was doing his best to get away from the two robots Chester had damaged. They were ridiculously strong, and he struggled as he did his best to block its strike. The man hurled his shield as hard as he could, and the weighted equipment rocketed towards the robots like a weaponized frisbee.

It made a loud clanging noise as it bent the opponent’s chest inward, forcing it to stumble backwards and ease the pressure on the vampire. Damien took this opportunity to blast the second one with another Darkfire spell and picked up the shield to use as a secondary weapon.

They made quick work of the other three. Chester was fully capable of damaging them with his flail, and Damien used the shield to smash robots he was against. The bludgeoning ability of the shield was more than enough to damage the mysterious machines.

Laying among a pile of robot bodies, Chester’s face twisted upon receiving no notification. The triumph he felt was eclipsed by his disappointment.

“Oh, come on! These guys were tough and we don’t get anything?”

“Chester, look! These guys are made of titanium!”

He eyed the dented parts, and quickly realized the materials they were made of. Most of them were high-end metals that would cost a significant amount. He even saw smaller parts with mithril and orichalum.

Chester grabbed a minecart from the other tunnels and brought it back, placing the robot scraps inside. With Damien’s help, they pushed the cart of scrap metal to the surface.

“Oi! Jeffrey! Can we smelt these bad boys in there?”

Jeffrey looked stunned as he eyed the damaged robot scraps from within. He stuttered, before thinking about the possibility of that happening.

“Well, these ones are mixed together. What comes out wouldn’t be pure ingots, but rather alloys of these various metals. I can’t guarantee their quality. Unless you're willing to break them apart and separate the pieces?”

Chester didn’t care. He wanted as many magic metals as possible. Together with the workers, they dismantled the machines and separated them into various piles. A majority of the pieces were made of tungsten and titanium, and tiny scraps were composed of orichalcum and mithril.

They tossed them all in. Whatever magical properties they had disappeared after they sustained enough damage, as there was no magical component apart from simple wiring that kept the construct together. In a way, they were less advanced than the wheeled robots from before. They had less moving parts, and seemed to be reliant on some sort of magic to keep going.

Roaring to life, the machine began the process of crushing the parts and melting it down. This time, the amount of ingots was considerable. Seven-foot tall machines entirely composed of metal, they yielded great rewards. Almost three dozen bars were created from the metal scraps. Nineteen titanium bars, thirteen tungsten bars, two mithril bars, and one orichalcum.

These weren’t part of the deal, and Chester was able to keep the entire stack for himself. His bag was filled with over fifty pounds worth of precious metals.

The workers cut their day short, as the two worried about the possibility of more of those robots coming in. Chester and Damien advised them against going back in, not knowing how the situation could escalate or if there were stronger variations that would continue to trickle into the mines.

As they walked, the illusionist felt the lightbulb in his head turn on.

“Hey, Jeffrey. We’ll follow you to the church. I need to ask someone a favor. Might give us the help we need to deal with those damn robots.”

“So let me get this straight.” Christopher said. The priest was sitting down with Chester, who looked at him expectantly. “You want me to join you to try and stop the monster infestation in the abandoned mines?”

He had propped up some seats for the three to initiate conversation. Further away, Jeffrey and the villagers were giving the deacons the cold iron bars they had produced.

“Exactly.”

“Our church isn't a military force, and putting ourselves in needless danger when our main mission is to help this village get back into shape isn't part of that."

“Isn’t your whole religion based on gaining more wealth? Those robots were made from valuable metals. Tungsten and titanium, some mithril and orichalcum as well. We’ll split our profits with you. Not to mention it'll help Stillwater back on their feet even faster.”

The illusionist noticed how everything about the religion seemed to be centered on wealth. The lavish decoration, the decorative robes, and even the commodities they provide from healing services to alcohol. The Church of Pernatia was closer to a large corporation that did acts of charity. He knew that they could be moved by opportunities of profit.

Chester knew that the priest was hiding some serious power. Although he was willing to play it safe, Chester knew that someone like him would be critical if they wanted to take down the source of this infestation. He hoped that there'd be more robots made of mithril and orichalcum, and to take machines like those down they'd need some additional support.

The blonde priest was still unconvinced. “See, I am unable to act of my own accord. I will need to at least consult my superiors. The bishop in charge would have to approve my request.”

“That’s fine. But remember, if we nip this in the bud, the cold iron mine will open. Your church will undoubtedly profit from that, no? The machines have some incredible value, and even we could take them out.”

Chester was trying to appeal to the man’s greed. Although from what he’d seen, they weren’t willing to hurt others in their quest for wealth. He could respect that. Damien looked at the priest and the deacons surrounding him.

“Please, Priest Engel.” The vampire looked at him with a sense of duty in his eyes. “The villagers need this mine. Otherwise they’ll continue to suffer, despite the support you’ve given them so far.”

Christopher’s answers were non-committal, but he did show some sort of agreement with Damien's statement. But that was understandable. Two adventurers requesting the aid of the local church to take down monsters was quite an unexpected situation.

The illusionist couldn’t believe how the situation got out of hand. What was originally a quick job became an expedition. The idea of asking the Idil soldiers for help crossed his mind, but Damien shut that down. Furthermore, Chester didn't want to split the loot with them. Compromising with the priest was already toeing the line as it is.

He remembered his original way of thinking, believing that helping others would be too much of a pain. That killing monsters on behalf of other people would be too dangerous and with too little reward.

‘Helping people is…strangely fulfilling. Not to mention all the loot we’d get. Haha! We're gonna be fucking rich! I'll be studded in my dream armor!’

Every robot was a veritable gold mine. Each one was made of high-grade materials, and the danger to profit ratio was quite good in his eyes.

‘Well, they weren’t weak. Its probably because me and Damien are so overpowered. Four of them probably would’ve killed us if we were regular humans.’

Chester knew that progressing into the tunnels was dangerous. Employing a person with healing skills was a necessity. Their supply of healing potions was scarce, and he knew that they couldn’t fix mangled limbs or broken bones.

They told the villagers that further mining would be dangerous, and the two promised that they’d try to stall the robot uprising from deep underground. Not only was it more profitable than the mining, it provided them with a somewhat safe experience to practice their combat skills.

The robots were slow and durable. They didn’t provide experience that would help level them up, unless Chester cast his illusion spells repeatedly. But they provided a different sort of experience; one that would help refine their skills and make it much more practical for combat. He knew that his skills leveled up faster during combat.

The illusionist decided to give Damien the shield. He wanted the boy to act as the tank, and he knew that the boy had less HP and would be more vulnerable to getting injured than he was. The shield would let him distract the robots while Chester acted as the damage dealer. His illusions and AGI were more than enough to evade the robot’s clumsy swings.

During their time in Stillwater, they skulked around the town. Chester casted Invisibility on the both of them, making sure to traverse as quickly as possible and doing their best to avoid being seen on their own.

“You think there'll be enough for a set of armor for me?” The man asked as he chewed down on dried rations. He had gotten used to the overly salted flavor over the course of a few weeks. He considered the idea of forging armor from titanium or tungsten, but knew that they were a step below the magical metals in terms of hardness and durability. Not to mention there wasn't any blacksmiths or equipment shops in town.

“Undoubtedly. But they’ll probably have to purify the ingots. Might lose some in the process.”

Chester shrugged. “Well, that’s why we’re going back to the mines. To get more loot.”

The vampire looked at him, exasperated. “No, it’s so that the villagers can actually avoid starving to death and start working in the mines safely.”

“That too. But that’s more your goal than it is mine.”

Damien shook his head. He forgot how selfish the man was sometimes. Although they were getting sidetracked from the original journey, the boy didn’t mind. Waiting a few days longer to secure an entire village’s finances was more important in his eyes. He felt pity for Lily and her family. Seeing the war-torn village on the steps to rebuilding brought a smile to his face. The villagers had been hard at work, repairing the roads and buildings with the bricks produced by the smelter.

The vampire felt a sense of obligation. To help those weaker than him came as naturally as breathing. He didn’t know why. Everybody in his family didn’t hold the same values, except maybe his great-grandfather.

Even Braham had commented on his aptitude for charity when they were younger. The memory resurfaced, leaving the boy with a hint of nostalgia.

‘You’re a good kid, Damien. Maybe you’ll turn out different from our bloodstained family?’ His soft-spoken brother’s words resounded in his head. It stuck with him for some reason. Damien didn't know why, but it made him even more convinced that helping others was the right thing to do.

He hoped so. Maybe this journey would prove him different, after all.