Chapter 7: 7 GoK
"So I got a cave that is full of resources t,,hat nations will go to war, an underground land that has a gem mine, and a whole fucking port that is the only route that can be used to contact with the outside world other than air transport and teleportation magic." Leo summarised if he had known that he would have to do so much work after upgrading Town Hall, then he would have waited a little longer, but there is no medicine for regrets, so he could only bite the bullet.
"Fortunately, I have Gran and Venelana to share my workload." He sighed in relief.
The port was in terrible shape but nothing a swing of the hammer from Master Builder could not solve he had left the management of the builder base to Gran and Venelana and he will manage the home village though it won't be for long, Leo is just hoping he would get someone who will manage the village on his behalf so he could slack off or train.
The more the village grows, the more paperwork he will have to do. Although it is negligible now, it will increase, and Leo isn't going to take risks. He has seen enough examples of how it ends for the rulers who have large territories, and he doesn't want to be one of them.
After confirming nothing was wrong apart from the shortage of the workforce, Leo kept a stone in his heart and decided to buy another builder. This guy cost him 500 Gems, and he named the guy Jake, and the progress was visible.
Next, he went to check his army and realized that while he had elites, he lacked numbers or, more specifically, canon fodders, and currently, he had two options for the concerned category: Goblins or Skeletons.
Leo would have preferred the former but he had no clue how to get them to join him not to mention their maintenance, the Elixir they would consume would be enormous, not individually but due to their numbers not to mention their greedy nature stealing anything that shines so he could only settle for Skeletons for which he would have to Graveyard of Kings the territory of Death Monarch (Skeleton King) also 'Demon King' of Clash Continent or Demon Lord for Magic Continent.
That guy is another powerhouse if what Gran told Leo is true, Death Monarch has control over the souls of the deceased and the living to some extent that guy is Hades of Clash Continent like his title he is a solid monarch whether he is stronger than Barbarian King is not clear but both are beings not to be trifled with and I am about to go to his territory, it was earlier than expected but he had to go and Gran has assured that nothing will happen to him there as long as he has Key of GoK even without I could survive there with my body and being holed up inside the village because I was afraid was not a good thing.
Yeah, the GoK is a land filled with Death energy and can kill any living being. It is a place for the dead. There is no joke there.
And with that, Leo used the Key to summon himself in a Clan Castle of GoK, the Souls and Contract, one of the branch Clans of GoK that specializes in Contracts.
(Souls and Contracts)
A magic circle appears on the floor of the visiting hall of the castle and the attendees get ready to receive their visitor, the attendant is a witch with deathly pale skin and glowing purple eyes, she has a headdress that covers her forehead, and she wears a purple skirt and a blue cape with a banner on the back of it which was the clan's symbol.
Leo appeared his eyes fell on the witch remembering Gran's words he didn't panic and greeted the witch and showed her the key, the witch was a bit surprised to see the key but didn't say anything and took him to another room, there was another identical looking witch but she had a green headdress with golden embroidery.
"Ms. Daria, this is Mr. Leo of Monarch's Nest, and he has come here for a contract." Then she looked at Leo and said, "Mr. Leo, she is Ms. Daria. She is an elder of our clan; you can talk to her about the contract."
Leo was surprised to hear that she was an elder but didn't show it on their face as he greeted the elder. By her aura, he could tell she was A:rank while the attendant was a B+: rank individual.
After they were alone Daria inspected the key as if examining it while Leo sat calmly looking at her.
"It is a real one; I didn't expect to see one after so much time. Do you know, Mr. Leo, what significance this key holds?" Daria asked keeping the key on the table.
"I know it's significant; the Monarch has made several such keys and hid them across the Cardinal World as some sort of treasure hunt. The winner would be able to gain some special privileges like special contracts, trade with the land, and much more." Leo internally thanked Gran; that old fossil had a lot of knowledge about the world, making Leo grateful that he had met the guy earlier.
"You are right, Mr. Leo, but not entirely correct; this key also grants you the privilege to meet the Great Monarch and ask anything." She said her eyes glowing with such intensity that Leo felt that she would have shot lasers from it fortunately she realized what she was doing and was slightly embarrassed "Sorry for the sight, it is just that I can't fathom the greatness of our Monarch, you don't know how lucky you are Mr. Leo." However she didn't forget to praise her lord.
Leo was impressed with their devotion. "It is all right, Ms. Daria, I am impressed your Monarch's greatness must be vast to have such competent and beautiful subordinates like you." He didn't understand why he said the last part, though, but the reaction baffled him more.
The elder witch started blushing at his word!
(Un)Fortunately, she regained her composure and humbly said "What are you saying, Mr. Leo, I am a witch!"
'I don't understand what is a problem with being a witch?' but Leo didn't push it as he hadn't come here for flirting but for business.
"Ehm, Sorry, Ms. Daria, let's go back to our business, so can you tell me about the contract?"
"Oh, yes." She sounded disappointed but continued to explain.
"Usually the contracts made for the first time only allow you to summon a hundred skeletons but since you have the key and I can feel that you are a strong individual with vast reserves you can skip stages and will be able to summon a skeleton army (1000) or a squad of big boys (5) or two skeleton dragons."
"What are the conditions for the contract?"
Daria stated the conditions.
-I will need to have the vast magical capacity, which I have.
-Need a lot good amount of elixir to feed them, which is not a problem. The troops don't consume it that much, with Giant only having the highest consumption of 500, a weak and a skeleton consuming 1.
-Space to accommodate them, which I have.
And some minor conditions which I have fulfilled.
"So which combination would you like?"
I have already decided, as I need numbers, that I would have only taken the skeletons, but the mention of skeleton dragons was a bit tempting. After all, they were DRAGONS, and I also needed air support.
Air troops can change the course of the battlefield single-handedly, so "I will take half a skeleton army and a skeleton dragon. Is that viable?"
"Yes, it is viable, Mr. Leo. I will prepare a contract. Would you like to add anything?"
"No, I will leave it to you, Ms. Daria."
After that, the elder said, "It will cost around 100 gold coins to prepare the contract."
Leo paid for the contract, and the elder told him that it would take some time and asked if he would like to go to the library or do something else so time would pass.
Since Leo was already thinking of looking into the library and looking around the GoK, he saw no problem, and after asking for directions, he went away.
(Leo PoV)
The Clan's library was massive. It was the largest library I had ever seen. It had different sections, each carrying a different level of knowledge, and there were some spells too in level 2; I spammed and used magic to copy the knowledge of almost all books, but nothing suspicious.
Normally no one would be able to do what I am doing but Gran told me that due to my origins as a God my magic had a lot of advantages but it was equally difficult to master thanks to Magic Manipulation I was able to cheat in this and I am using it here since the magic that was protecting the knowledge here was not able to register it was fairly easy and by the end, I was able to copy almost all levels though I have to spend few coins to go higher sections the only thing that was missed was the more important section that contains high epic level spells.
There was not even a single legendary spell in the library, and it was understandable those spells were extremely dangerous. I am sure they must be in the treasury if it is there.
But I wasn't disappointed I gained plenty of spells by the end.
Death Ball - Creates a ball of death energy on contact. It explodes, killing anybody that comes in contact. (Rare)
Undead Fire - Summons green flames that turn the target into a skeleton to fight for the user.
Poison - Covers an area into toxic poison made from dead energy.
And much more.
All these spells were categorized under a new section based on my status.
[Necromancy]
I also took time to look around the place I was in. It was named Skeleton Park, a weird name, but it suits the theme here.
The sky here was green in color, and the air was chilly but not uncomfortable, but it was mostly due to my physiology; a normal human would, not survive here.
The whole place looked like a horror movie set, with skeletons walking here .and there; I even spotted zombies here; they looked similar to Minecraft zombies but more intelligent, and they the behaved lik.e normal humans but with less intelligence.
They eyed me curiously as it was rare for someone human-looking to be seen easily the closest thing to humans they had were witches and zombies so it was understandable though witches were far better looking than any of the residents here heck I found Daria more charming thad han many human models from my previous world she would easily rank second in the most beautiful women I have encountered, Venelana being the first obviously.
I walked towards a shop that looked like a gift shop. I doubted it had anything that would suit Venelana's taste, but I was not going to risk it; women are one of the most unpredictable beings in Omniverse.
The owner of the shop was a zombie 'soldier' a named one which was rare as the only named people I met outside of my village were Daria, the attendant, and now this zombie soldier evolution of zombie.
His name was "Rugh." Yep, whoever named him must be joking or was just bad at naming.
His intelligence stat was higher his strength was stronger than D:rank in physical strength.
He appeared far more human than his peers, his skin being grey rather than green, and the store surprisingly had good items that would suit humans.
I bought a statue of the Death Monarch and it was really life-like whoever made this must be skilled, this was for me I liked to collect such things in my previous world too, and since this world didn't have anime or other fiction I decided to settle for these guys they were game characters so it counts and man Death Monarch really looks cool.
And for Venelana, I bought a book. It was the story of Dewth Monarch and his wife, Undead Queen, a romance. I don't know how much truth is there, but Venelana has an interest in such things so I bought it.
I also bought hammer decorations for the builders and I am pretty sure they will love them.
After roaming here and there I went back to the Clan Castle as I received a thought communication from Daria.
She gave me the contract and it was all right,
"Perfect" and I signed it the contract burst into golden light and entered my body and it showed in my status-
[Summon: Skeleton Army X 500 (B) and 1 X Skeleton Dragon (B)]
After that, we talked for some mostly due to the elder's insistence, and I also felt it would be wrong to refuse an invitation from the Goth beauty, I can't blame her. After all, I am a beautiful god.
After some time I parted with the reluctant Daria asked me when I would meet with the Monarch and ask something I avoided the topic and decided to go back to the village.
(Monarch's Nest)
Venelana is waiting for Leo inside clan castle Leo was taking longer than he said, and she has been having a weird feeling in her chest ever since.
And then He appeared she would have greeted him with a hug if not for the cold fragrance of wither flowers on Leo's body, she scowled at him and Leo noticed it.
"So who was she?"
Leo genuinely seemed to be confused and a look of realisation "Ah, it was an elder witch who helped me in forming contract."
Venelana's scowl deepened if it was couple of days ago she wouldn't have questioned her chief but after what happened that night there relationship evolved while Venelana knew Leo didn't 'loved' her and even if he did she won't be the only one to receive it but she had taken responsibility that she would not let any thirsty bitch- witches near HER chief, even her creator or should she say 'father' agreed with her by giving her a class/skill for it.
~~~~~~
I tried to show some relationship thingy here give a review of this chapter in comments 🥺