So, I'm attempting to keep a 7 day update streak for this story. This is my first time writing a full on fantasy story so I want to get my readers up to speed on how I write and the general storyline of both leads.

I just left Char to experiment while hoping I wouldn't turn around to see half the house exploded or burned down, I should be able to trust him that much...I think.

"Alright...so two other options and then we're leaving here!"

I had finished looking through my STATS and SHOP, which left me with TERRITORY and TROOPS. The previous ones hadn't been too useful in terms of obtaining information but the next two should be much more ideal for someone in my situation.

Thus, I once again opened up the menu and this time clicked on TERRITORY (I'm really sorry but I don't think I can make a map in a table)

picking TERRITORY opened up a large map in which I could see the full extent of the place I was in. It showed a vast ruined castle with the estate I was currently in at the center of it with many other structures around, however most of it looked completely destroyed. I also saw multiple red dots on the outside of the castle perimeter. They were moving around either in groups or singularly, some of them periodically vanishing.

At the side of the screen was a whole list of the facilities that were located within the castle

FACILITIES

Blacksmith (Damaged)

Grand Kitchen (Damaged)

Armory (Partially Damaged)

Stables (Damaged)

Keep (Damaged)

Barracks (Damaged)

DUNGEON INTEGRITY

[50/3000]

DUNGEON STABILITY RATING

0/10

This is exactly what I needed right now, more problems.

If it wasn't obvious enough, this whole place was basically trashed beyond use. Every single thing in the castle was damaged and more than likely unusable other than the armory, which was still damaged.

If I understand what Integrity means then it means this dungeon- no - MY dungeon was basically collapsing in on itself and the whole place is completely wild and unkept at this moment.

Wonderful.

...and now we're moving on to Troops.

This was the single most exciting thing to me, since it would be great to not be alone in this large castle , although I have Char anyways so it won't be too bad since he can speak now. They would be able to both fill the ranks of an army as well as fill the place with a bit more movement, unfortunately not life because....well, you know why.

If what the scammer guide was being truthful, then I was probably at risk of being invaded at any point and time since Demon Lords were generally dubbed public enemy #1 by almost all other intelligent species. Although I don't see why anybody would try to invade this place since it had clearly been picked clean of anything valuable, from what I could tell it had been decades since this place was even touched.

I was never big on bothering others even back in my old life from what I remember, so invading other's was totally out of the question. I was what you would call an introvert and kept to myself most of my life, though I think I did have one very good friend... I can't seem to remember who that was though.

With a sigh, I bring the menu up one more time and click the TROOPS menu.

TROOPS

MELEE

N/A

RANGED

N/A

CAVALRY

N/A

MAGICAL

[Char] (Skeleton Mage)

FLYING

N/A

"Okay this is just ridiculous!"

This whole situation was just stupid. I was left with nothing but a worn and torn castle and a skeleton mage against whatever else was out there that probably wanted to eat me. Char could protect me for some time but it was extremely unrealistic for him to be here all the time or if he got overwhelmed.

I still wasn't sure on how I was supposed to do anything, but honestly, I didn't care at all. At this moment I was stressed, sad, and extremely hungry. I envied the fact that Char was an undead and didn't need to eat or sleep, but then remembering that he was, well, dead.

So maybe I shouldn't envy him.

"Alright, so I'm completely on my own now. Some Lord I am, I can't even feed myself."

I glanced over at Char, who was just idly standing there now that he knew how the whole magic thing worked. I wasn't sure if Char's mindset was really smart or that of a newborn, it's really hard to tell with something that made no facial expressions.

"Inventory"

Everything that I had on and around me popped up on the blue screen in front of me. I had figured out how the system mostly worked in terms of shortcuts, what I didn't know was that when I was in my territory all the things I , under many technicalities, owned were also shown.

So you could just imagine that I was a bit shocked when a new inventory screen popped up.

CASTLE INVENTORY

200 x Arrows x5 Skeleton's Spear (Rank D) Long Knives Of The Dark (Damaged) (Rank C) x2 Minor potion of healing

"This is probably what's left from the armory"

The armory was the only thing that was not completely damaged, which explained why all of these things were weapons or healing items. It was surprising that a Rank C weapon had just been left behind, although if these things were after this place got raided then the things were probably scattered about, which would explained the large amount of arrows.

I clicked the icon for the Long Knives Of The Dark which made them promptly drop from the screen right into my hand. I could tell that the blade was definitely chipped in some places but somehow the knife itself was still sharp.

It looked more or less like a KA-BAR, which meant it was completely straight and could be quite good for utility or fighting at the same time. There was also two of them so I could dual wield them.

Long Knives Of The Dark (Damaged) (Rank C)

Description - These knives were forged out of some kind of dark stone and are extremely effective against anything that isn't dark aligned or have dark attributes.

Damage: 30 (-5)

Effect: Blood Repair - This weapon will absorb the blood of fallen enemies and start to self repair, making the durability effectively unlimited.

There was a slight damage decrease but that in no way, shape, or form outweighed the usefulness of finally having a decent weapon. I flipped them around a bit, admiring the black sheen that was reflecting off of the blades. God, I'm turning into Char now.

Speaking of Char, he was now looking outside the window of the room they were in. We were currently on the second floor of the castle, whilst it would probably be a good idea to move down to the first floor or out of the castle entirely before it was repaired. The structural integrity of the place was hazardous at best and I really didn't want to be crushed by the ceiling.

I pocketed the knives since there were no sheathes that came with it and walked to the door, turning the handle and creaking it open before motioning to Char to follow.

"Alright Char, let's get out of here"

We left the room and headed down the massive hallways. They were lined with luscious red carpets and had unlit lamps hanging off the side of the stacked stone walls, giving the place a very medieval feel. However there were some windows, although mostly broken, that lined the outer walls so I could oversee the entirety of the castle, which wasn't a very pleasant sight since there were houses and keeps that had huge holes on the sides, probably from some type of magical attack.

Char led the way as we made our ways towards the stairs. Being the only moving thing in here for the past god-knows-how-many years, he knew this castle much better than I did. I couldn't really tell, but if he did have memories then it must have been painful to walk through the once thriving halls of the previous Demon Lord which had been reduced to this state.

We stepped down the flight of stairs in the center of the building which led to the grand entrance of the building. This was probably where guests and such entered the castles main keep or building. I really didn't want to think about the death and pain that ran throughout these halls, though if the army was already undead then they probably wouldn't feel these things.

I opened the large double wooden doors, which made sunlight pour into the place and partially blind me. I raised my arms up to shield my eyes from the light before slowly adjusting them, finally beholding what my territory looked like.

I stepped out of the building and onto the stairs that led to the main door, looking at the multiple buildings that surrounded the palace building I had stayed in for the past few hours.

Thinking back, there was definitely no light out the window when I was first brought into this world. This meant that I could readily assume it was around noon from the sun that was positioned directly above me.

Many of the buildings were still standing, but each of them were damaged to a various degree. Some of them had large holes that looked like were burned through or straight up caused by thrown boulders. Windows were mostly shattered and doors had been torn off their hinges.

I walked through the empty dirt street while poking my head into a few of the abandoned storefronts and houses.

The first thing I noticed was that there were skeletons everywhere. I had never considered the possibility that there were others living here that weren't undead or monsters up to now, but it these one's were wearing casual clothes and some of them had even died in their sleep.

"Char, were there people living here before?"

Char turned around while doing his-now signature - head tilt, probably contemplating the question I had just asked him. I probably should talk to him more since he knew this world much better than I did.

"..no..humans...dwarf...special..elves...lizard...others"

"No humans huh..."

I stepped into one of the houses and took a look. The skeletons in this particular house were quite stout and wide, which meant they were probably dwarves in their lifetime. There were two in a corner that were clutching each other, it sent some chills down my spine.

But I wasn't scared.

I was angry.

If it was just killing undead and army personnel it would have made some sense, maybe this Demon Lord was just like the normal stereotype and ran around killing massive populations, that I can understand. This is just murder.

These were clearly civilians, you wouldn't even need a store or houses if you had just an army of undead in yours walls in the first place. Something wasn't right here.

I shook my head,

There's no use of thinking of this right now, I have to be able to survive myself before worrying about what happened here.

I walked out of the house before shutting the still connected door behind me. Char followed me as we walked past the torn buildings and some watchtowers as well, the supporting wooden structures long rotted away leaving a pile of broken pieces on the ground.

kind of like this dungeon.

Broken.