The corpse of the goblin chieftain is yet to be treated with special methods, to make it an undead directly is wasteful since it would be a lot weaker than the original. However, Mordred was in dire need of a vessel. He could make use of it. The soul phylactery was planted inside the goblin's brain by Kasumi through precise control.
Then, Mordred used various methods to connect his soul into this dead body. Despite all his methods, he wasn't able to resurrect the dead body. First, he wasn't a Divine Magic Caster, faith-path spells which are focused on restoration and blessings is not his forte. Besides, faith-path methods require divine force which is a grace from the gods. There's no way for him to receive any since he is an undead and an atheist.
The other method left was to convert the corpse into a zombie, which is the only way for him to move the body. But this was one of the worse options in the various available necro-path methods. Zombies are typically slow, and its body structure is a hindrance when casting spells, which is one of his fortes.
"That leaves me to convert this corpse into a skeletal mage… But I have to make arrangements first…" he wasn't going to leave this wealth of goblin aside. As an undead, his movement will be extremely limited so he has to grasp every opportunity that he could take, including gaining the reins of the goblin tribe.
First, was establishing a justification for his conversion into an undead.
Slowly, the dead chieftain's body moved sluggishly. It was like a neophyte marionette whose skills in manipulating puppets are insufficient. "It's a bit hard controlling corpses this way…" he commented.
The body no longer has a consciousness that controls it, making it indistinguishable from other corpses in general. However, Kasumi had stretched herself around the corpse. Since she was still a low-ranked slime, her volume was lacking, therefore, she was unable to cover all the surface of the corpse, but when she stretched her body like a string to a puppet to the corpse' most important areas, movement became possible.
After practicing a whole night while multitasking to read the memories of the chieftain, Mordred was able to move the corpse according to his desire. Melee battles are not possible with this method of control, but there was no need for one. He merely needs to convince his 'tribesmen' of his conversion into an undead.
"Chief!" one of the elite guards noticed the commotion and entered the room.
Looking at the fully clothed chieftain, the elite guard wasn't able to notice anything out of place. After all, Mordred used a sound-path soul art that possessed minor hypnotic effect to influence the minds of all near him to ignore small incongruences. It's effect on human or other smarter intellectual races is limited, but the goblins are one of the dim minor races, it's still effective.
"Assemble the tribesmen, I have a very important announcement to make," Mordred said in a fluent goblin tongue imitating the chieftain's original tone and dialect. The corpse was unable to make any sound, but he used sound-path methods to imitate the original goblin chieftain; it wasn't a problem.
"Yes, Chief!" The guards went back and started sending out orders. In no time at all, Mordred was brought into the presence of the tribesmen.
Young, old, wounded, healthy, male, female, all of them are gazing towards Mordred in hope and reverence. The original goblin chieftain was a charismatic leader who had both brawn and brains. The influence he had towards the tribesmen was absolute. As a kind leader, their followers respect him to the core.
"I have conflicting news to tell you…" he said as he manipulates Kasumi who has infiltrated underneath the chieftain's skin on the face area to create an expression as if he was in a dilemma. His control was near perfect, as the goblins weren't aware that the original chieftain had already become a corpse.
"Chief, tell us…." A few pleading gazes were starting to take form. They were already feeling guilty to the chief who had sacrificed his personal need over them.
"As you can see, our Blood Fang Tribe is in a dire predicament… I won't lie to you; our situation is extremely bad. There's almost no hope in defending against the kobold. Even now, they are searching around this location. The only question is how long it would take…"
Despair started to influence the group. "Besides, there's also a lack of food. We simply have no way to forage outside the cave. Doing so would hasten the time when the kobolds find our hiding place."
Fear, indignant, anger, all mixed into everyone's faces as they wouldn't accept the fate of dying inside the cave. If not for the kobolds, then their life would still be relatively peaceful!
"I have decided to make the ultimate sacrifice…I will turn into an undead to lower the food consumption so our reserve will last longer! According to the inheritance of the previous chieftains, once I convert into an undead, I will gain the power to overcome our predicament!"
The crowd became loud with murmurs and objections. Even the goblins know that there will be no place for undead in the world. There are simply too many negative consequences of becoming an undead. The issue of the chieftain's heir is also questioned if he became an undead.
Currently, the chieftain was single due to his partner dying under the hands of the kobold a few battles ago. As of now, he has yet to produce any offspring. He was still young, in the prime of his life. There was no question of how great the chieftain was, and his potential is grand. Looking at his future, it was bright, but if he decided to convert into an undead, then it's the same as throwing away his future.
"Do not question me!" He yelled, silencing the whole tribesman. "My decision is final; this is for the continuation of the Blood Fang Tribe. Without this sacrifice, the only options left are getting exterminated…"
The anger the tribesmen felt towards their fate cooled down, replaced with burning shame. The chieftain was right; sacrifices are needed to ensure the continuation of the Blood Fang Tribe.
In reality, not even a dumb person will believe his reasoning, but due to the previous chieftain's charisma added with Mordred's sound-path soul art that influenced one's thought and emotion, the incongruity in his words was ignored.
"Chief, I will follow your step!" one goblin screamed on top of his lung.
"Me too!"
"I want to sacrifice myself so my son could live longer!"
"Take me, chief! You don't have to sacrifice yourself!"
A wave of realization dawned upon the tribesman. The situation was so bad that the chieftain had to sacrifice himself. Few goblins instantly raised their hand to replace the chieftain's sacrifice, thinking it would be a lot better for them to die instead of the chief. Fortunately, their desire to kill themselves was thwarted by a wave of Mordred's hand.
"I have to sacrifice myself so that you can survive. If every single one of you wanted to sacrifice yourself for me, then my ancestor would not accept my decision. You want our ancestors to curse me from the Heavens?" he said with an angry tone.
Mordred waited for a moment until their emotion cooled down a little. "It's not like I did not accept your noble spirit, but there's simply no need for you to sacrifice yourself. At most, I will accept one goblin to accompany me. Other than that one, you will have to live on…"
The cave was silent. The atmosphere of the room was depressing, but there were simply too many who wanted to sacrifice themselves for the chief. The original chieftain was so charismatic and selfless that they willingly wanted to do it without being told.
"Kor, I'll await your decision…" Mordred said as he pats the shoulder of the most powerful elite guard.
The other goblins understood the chieftain's expectation. There were indeed life and death brothers. For the good of the tribesman, the chieftain and Kor, who have a solid relationship, understood each other the best.
"Got it, chief!" he nodded as if he had expected it. In fact, in Kor's mind, he would ask to accompany the chief even if that chosen person was not him. "I will not disappoint your decision…"
Mordred nodded. "Then, the sacrificial ritual is a bit complicated. It will be a long night. Please, expect us in different forms." He left the stage with Kor in tow.
Returning to his chamber, Mordred looked directly towards Kor.
In reality, the reason why he chose Kor was not out of bond the previous chief had with him. It was simply because even if Mordred had become a skeletal mage, Kor is still a liable danger that could threaten his control amongst the Blood Fang Tribe. His charisma was second to the original chieftain. With how dangerous his attempt of turning into an undead was, he needs to take precautions of turning the second most powerful goblin in the tribe into his slave.
It was a way out for the future, eliminating the chance of Blood Fang tribe being a liability before he grew powerful enough to overpower them.
And he had the method for it.
Mordred took an empty waterskin, "I need your help to get this waterskin filled with fresh blood."
"Don't worry brother, I will not disappoint you." Kor took it, then left the room with grim determination. A while later, he returned with the waterskin filled with goblin blood. The tribesmen were respectful towards Mordred's request to donate a small part of their blood, there wasn't a lot of hassle.
"Good. Now, help me clean this floor…" While Kor left the room, Mordred prepared a small sound-path spell formation that would mute every sound that came from within. After Kor returned, the two started to work together. The blood was used to draw a mind-numbing complex magical formation in the ground.
Kor, in his astonishment of how intricate the blood formation was, asked Mordred, "Where did you learn how to make this spell formation, it looks so complicated…"
Mordred patted his shoulder, "It's a secret inheritance of the previous chieftain. It is only spread amongst the Blood Fang Tribe's chieftain from generation to generation." Mordred lied as naturally as he breathed. He continues drawing the complex spell formation with his hands until past midnight.
"The tribesmen are warned not to enter the room, as per your instruction. There will be no one that bothers the conversion ritual." Kor reported.
"Are you ready?" he asked Kor for the last time.
There was only determination in Kor's eyes. "Big Brother, even though our mother hated us, it was your kindness that brought us together. Even in death, I will follow you."
"Brother, I will not disappoint your determination." Mordred nodded, as he chanted in strange and bizarre magical language. The vowels were like a tongue twister, while the consonant is hard to imitate. When Kor paid attention to the sound, it was like someone was whispering, screaming, and talking normally at the same time, making him feel dizzy and nauseated, he stopped paying attention after that.
All this while, Kor still wholly believed that the chieftain was still alive and is a noble soul. He was clueless about what this spell formation is for.
Inwardly, Mordred sneered. 'Rank 0 blood-path soul art, [Bloodguard Soul Conversion] …'
Soulforce undulated from his soul phylactery. It stirred up the blood-path soul art formation drawn on the ground. The blood rises in temperature from room temperature to scorching heat. The blood became animated, turning itself from a two-dimensional drawing into a three-dimensional multi-layered complex formation.
'I wouldn't be able to make a Bloodguard from the beginning, but your emotional attachment is a strong ingredient, I just couldn't resist…' Mordred thought inwardly.
The ingredient of a Bloodguard is mainly a strong blood relation and emotional attachment. If one's lover or partner is used as the main ingredient, it would become a Bloodguard with extreme potential. The Bloodguard will be loyal to the ones who refined them. In this condition, Mordred's current body was literally the blood brother of Kor, thus it fits the prerequisite perfectly.
Unfortunately, such methods were considered taboo so nobody in the order faction would openly use it to groom powerful servants.
However, Mordred has no qualm in using taboo methods. He had little care of the morals in this world. All he wanted to reach was immortality and returning to his original dimension.
"AAAAAARRGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" Kor screamed as the boiling blood suddenly wrapped him into a cocoon. The heat cooked his flesh and blood, but he wasn't dead yet. He couldn't. His brother had instructed him to resist the dying sensation as long as he could so he won't be lost in the conversion.
Of course, this was a lie again. Mordred needed to harvest the righteous fervor of sacrificial emotion as one of the main ingredients in converting Kor into Bloodguard.
One minute, two minutes… time continues to trickle down as minutes turn into hours. By now, Kor's screaming has become silent due to his vocal cord rupturing after his abuse. Kor's body has entered a quasi-dead state, while his brain is somehow active due to sheer willpower alone.
Mordred was too happy about this. 'What a perfect specimen…' he had never expected that he would meet an amazing individual in this dark and backward place. He proceeds with the ritual, the emotional attachment has accumulated sufficiently, now it was time to really turn him into a Bloodguard that's loyal to him alone.
The blood cocoon shrinks slowly, as it starts to show a figure of a goblin inside. The body was unlike its original, it was taller, had more muscle, while retaining the original slim figure of the goblin.
"Awaken!" Mordred manipulates the spell formation through his soulforce as the blood cocoon was absorbed by the goblin figure. Slowly, the blood dried up to reveal a tall, crimson humanoid figure.
"Master." The crimson goblin took a knee the moment it became aware. Now, Kor has truly become a Bloodguard, an undead with better-than-average blood-path talent while his upper limit has grown to rank 1.
"Guard the room, I will begin my conversion."
"Understood." Kor moved according to his instruction. The next scene was something that shouldn't be revealed to the public.
Unlike Kor's conversion into a Bloodguard, Mordred has to prepare a lot of things before he converts a dead goblin into a vessel capable of holding his soul.
'I lack the necessary soul-path and necro-path materials to treat this corpse, but I can supplement it with the goblin souls I have gathered just before…'
Soul-path material is mainly made out of or related to souls, while the corpse of the goblin chieftain is a viable necro-path material. A skeletal mage body made out of these two materials will have a low physical attribute, which is not a good decision, but thankfully, it wasn't merely a goblin corpse but a corpse of a goblin shaman. There's a significant difference between the two.
The result from this conversion would be absolutely better than being a motionless soul phylactery that has to depend on a slime for movement, or a zombie.
Mordred drains the slightly rotten blood from the body, then uses it to make a complex blood-path soul art formation multiple times more intricate compared to the one he used on Kor. It was so complicated that he had to use his soulforce to telepathically make hair-thin rune characters, lines, and shapes in the form of three-dimensional formations.
Being in the core of the formation, the dead chieftain's flesh melts, becoming a rotten gore matter and turned into fuel for the soul art formation. As the body lost its flesh and blood, only the skeleton and a few bits of flesh here and there was left.
'Now for the tricky part…' he pours all of his concentration to proceed to the most difficult part of the process.
The skeleton was like a doll, without a marionette manipulating it, the doll will not move. Therefore, he needs to inhabit the doll with his soul. Stretching his broken soul into a bad vessel has a high chance of failing, but he had decreased the failure rate by using the previous blood-path soul art.
Fortunately, it was successful. His soul managed to fill the skeleton, but it wasn't quite finished yet.
The goblin chieftain was a goblin shaman, a variation of the magic caster. One of the requirements of becoming a magic caster is to awaken an organ in their body called Mana Pool, located somewhere around in their belly. Mana pool is a virtual but at the same time, a real organ which can be used to store mana. It was the foundation of their magic casting capabilities.
He had specifically left pieces of flesh on his belly for this particular reason. The mana pool of the chieftain was there, left untouched by the blood-path formation.
Using an extremely complex soul-path method, he converts the chieftain's original spiritual force and mana pool into a vessel to replace an actual mana pool called [Mana Aperture]. As the skeleton couldn't hold any organ in its empty belly, the mana aperture became a floating pearl-like purple crystal on where his mana pool should be.
The mana aperture has its position permanently locked through the laws of this word, it would be impossible for anyone to move it without moving the skeleton body. As a matter of fact, the crystalline mana aperture would be destroyed before one managed to remove it from the entire skeleton, it can be considered a fatal weakness to skeletal mages.
As for his soul phylactery, he had hidden it inside one of his spinal bone segments, to ensure secrecy and survival chances should this skeletal body suffer massive damage. Now, he had truly lost all of his flesh, becoming a true blue undead.
"I have successfully converted this body into a skeletal mage…" muttered Mordred after the taxing and difficult process had been completed.
The skeleton does not possess any of the five senses, which is why he had to engrave a permanent sound-path investigative soul formation on his skull by himself that allows him to inspect the world through sound waves. There was currently no need for other senses since the sound-path soul formation grants him echolocation and synesthesia, granting him the ability to hear fragrance and color.
He was satisfied with the conversion. Nobody could've produced better results with the resources he had right now. Of course, he had the option to sacrifice the whole goblin tribe to fuel his soul recovery greatly, but that would cut his method of manipulating the outside world. He had merely converted a [2 Transparent Star] goblin shaman into a skeletal mage.
Although he had a body and possessed the ability to cast spells, it is still dangerous for him to travel in broad daylight, since rank 0 undead are greatly harmed by sunlight. And those are the main reasons why he had chosen to control the Goblin Shaman from the shadows. With an effective leader, the goblins could become a good slave that brings him cultivation resources from the outside world.
That way, he would be able to manipulate the surface world without being physically present.
Mordred draped the chieftain's original shamanic attire around his bony body while allowing Kasumi to wrap herself around his crystalline mana aperture.
"With spiritual force and mana to play around, I can use one of the most basic information-path spells, [Interface System]."
Quickly, he activated the spell on himself as an invisible interface only he could sense appeared in his mind.
Attribute Statistics
Name: Mordred
Title(s): Grimsong Spectre, Great Archmage, Devil King
Race: Skeletal Mage
Occupation: N/A
Rank: 0
Physical Attribute
Strength: 0.5
Endurance: 0.4
Agility: 0.5
Flexibility: 0.5
Perception: 0.4
Reaction: 0.6
Energy Attribute
Soulforce Development Quotient: 1%
Spiritual Force Development Quotient: 12%
Soulforce: 0.1/1.9
Soul Essence: 1/4(19)
Spiritual Force: 0.3/0.8
Mana Aperture: 2/8
Extra
Current Effect: [Faux Soul Configuration], [Interface System]
To give a reference, an average mortal human that lives without cultivation would have an average attribute of 1 all across the board.
Of course, training in martial arts, meditating, or depending on their living condition, diet, and other factors, it would be rare for mortal humans to have flat 1 unit in all physical attributes, but the difference is not too far away from it.
Every aspiring magic caster needs to increase their spiritual force quotient to become a true blue magic caster, but the conversion to skeletal mage damages a few percentages to his spiritual force quotient which translate to a reduced total comprehensive power.
As for why his Soulforce Development Quotient was so low despite having transcendental attainment on soul-path was because his soul foundation was broken thoroughly after receiving Lamost's [Myriad Soul Disintegration]. It was lucky enough for his truesoul to survive, re-cultivating from a blank state wasn't a problem.
However, it needs to be said that Mordred has consumed a lot of truesouls from myriad sources like the three dying goblins and the goblin chieftain himself. Thus his soulforce have somewhat recovered to the point of stronger than common mortal, reaching 1.9 units as his base foundation, despite using most of them as materials for the conversion. This meant he's almost twice as strong in terms of soul compared to mortals.
Soul essence is the equivalent of mana in terms of using soul arts. Soul essence capacity is ten times per unit of soulforce. Without a strong soul foundation, he won't be able to use them to dominate other lifeforms nor use soul arts, thus he had to be careful with allocating it.
To give a better explanation, Mordred has 1.9 units of soulforce which means his truesoul could hold 19 units of soul essence at one time. However, 15 units of soul essence capacity is because he is currently enslaving multiple lifeforms.
10 units of soul essence capacity was used to enslave Kor since after converting into an undead, he had stopped having 'blood' so he had to use a true enslavement-path method.
The other 5 units of soul essence capacity were reserved to dominate Kasumi. The difference between soul essence capacity usage was simply because of the difference between the strength of the subject’s soul.
The status effect [Faux Soul Configuration] is a permanent soul-path defensive killer move that was activated on his first life as a Magus of Holy Terra. It protects him from all intrusive soul-path and information-path investigative methods like the already well-known [Interface System] below rank 6.
In his second life as the Great Archmage, it was upgraded time and time again as his attainment in information-path deepened. It was this exact killer move that allowed Mordred to mislead Eleanora’s investigative method after the amplification of Alistair, allowing him to form the killer move [Light Strike Array] that destroyed most of Alistair's facilities in the final battle.
His current attributes are below average, at best. To get more attributes, he needs to start practicing a better cultivation method than what the living chieftain had, which is not that hard. When he seriously starts cultivating, the cultivation method that he used will be engraved in his karma, filling the blank in his [Occupation] tab.
He was satisfied with the return of his ability to cast magical spells, but it was merely the beginning. Skeletal Mage is too limited, he needs to modify his vessel into something that accommodates his ever-growing soul better, but it will require an astronomical amount of resources to achieve his final goal, which can only be worked on step by step.
"I believe Kor possessed more physical strength than mine…" he looks toward his Bloodguard in expectation while silently activated [Interface System].
Attribute Statistics
Name: Kor Bloodfang
Race: Goblin Bloodguard
Occupation: N/A
Rank: 0
Physical Attribute
Strength: 0.9
Endurance: 0.8
Agility: 0.9
Flexibility: 0.8
Perception: 0.6
Reaction: 0.7
Energy Attribute
Internal Energy Development Quotient: 27%
Internal Energy: 0.1/0.4
Extra
Current Effect: [Interface System]
As he expected, his attributes are a lot better than him, especially for being a meat shield. Despite having a weak foundation in cultivation. Kor was such a great meat shield that could react to most situations. With him by his side, it would be difficult for an uprising from the goblin tribesman to succeed. Any resistance could be quelled as soon as possible by raw strength.
With an illusory smirk, he exited his chamber.
The corpse of the goblin chieftain is yet to be treated with special methods, to make it an undead directly is wasteful since it would be a lot weaker than the original. However, Mordred was in dire need of a vessel. He could make use of it. The soul phylactery was planted inside the goblin's brain by Kasumi through precise control.
Then, Mordred used various methods to connect his soul into this dead body. Despite all his methods, he wasn't able to resurrect the dead body. First, he wasn't a Divine Magic Caster, faith-path spells which are focused on restoration and blessings is not his forte. Besides, faith-path methods require divine force which is a grace from the gods. There's no way for him to receive any since he is an undead and an atheist.
The other method left was to convert the corpse into a zombie, which is the only way for him to move the body. But this was one of the worse options in the various available necro-path methods. Zombies are typically slow, and its body structure is a hindrance when casting spells, which is one of his fortes.
"That leaves me to convert this corpse into a skeletal mage… But I have to make arrangements first…" he wasn't going to leave this wealth of goblin aside. As an undead, his movement will be extremely limited so he has to grasp every opportunity that he could take, including gaining the reins of the goblin tribe.
First, was establishing a justification for his conversion into an undead.
Slowly, the dead chieftain's body moved sluggishly. It was like a neophyte marionette whose skills in manipulating puppets are insufficient. "It's a bit hard controlling corpses this way…" he commented.
The body no longer has a consciousness that controls it, making it indistinguishable from other corpses in general. However, Kasumi had stretched herself around the corpse. Since she was still a low-ranked slime, her volume was lacking, therefore, she was unable to cover all the surface of the corpse, but when she stretched her body like a string to a puppet to the corpse' most important areas, movement became possible.
After practicing a whole night while multitasking to read the memories of the chieftain, Mordred was able to move the corpse according to his desire. Melee battles are not possible with this method of control, but there was no need for one. He merely needs to convince his 'tribesmen' of his conversion into an undead.
"Chief!" one of the elite guards noticed the commotion and entered the room.
Looking at the fully clothed chieftain, the elite guard wasn't able to notice anything out of place. After all, Mordred used a sound-path soul art that possessed minor hypnotic effect to influence the minds of all near him to ignore small incongruences. It's effect on human or other smarter intellectual races is limited, but the goblins are one of the dim minor races, it's still effective.
"Assemble the tribesmen, I have a very important announcement to make," Mordred said in a fluent goblin tongue imitating the chieftain's original tone and dialect. The corpse was unable to make any sound, but he used sound-path methods to imitate the original goblin chieftain; it wasn't a problem.
"Yes, Chief!" The guards went back and started sending out orders. In no time at all, Mordred was brought into the presence of the tribesmen.
Young, old, wounded, healthy, male, female, all of them are gazing towards Mordred in hope and reverence. The original goblin chieftain was a charismatic leader who had both brawn and brains. The influence he had towards the tribesmen was absolute. As a kind leader, their followers respect him to the core.
"I have conflicting news to tell you…" he said as he manipulates Kasumi who has infiltrated underneath the chieftain's skin on the face area to create an expression as if he was in a dilemma. His control was near perfect, as the goblins weren't aware that the original chieftain had already become a corpse.
"Chief, tell us…." A few pleading gazes were starting to take form. They were already feeling guilty to the chief who had sacrificed his personal need over them.
"As you can see, our Blood Fang Tribe is in a dire predicament… I won't lie to you; our situation is extremely bad. There's almost no hope in defending against the kobold. Even now, they are searching around this location. The only question is how long it would take…"
Despair started to influence the group. "Besides, there's also a lack of food. We simply have no way to forage outside the cave. Doing so would hasten the time when the kobolds find our hiding place."
Fear, indignant, anger, all mixed into everyone's faces as they wouldn't accept the fate of dying inside the cave. If not for the kobolds, then their life would still be relatively peaceful!
"I have decided to make the ultimate sacrifice…I will turn into an undead to lower the food consumption so our reserve will last longer! According to the inheritance of the previous chieftains, once I convert into an undead, I will gain the power to overcome our predicament!"
The crowd became loud with murmurs and objections. Even the goblins know that there will be no place for undead in the world. There are simply too many negative consequences of becoming an undead. The issue of the chieftain's heir is also questioned if he became an undead.
Currently, the chieftain was single due to his partner dying under the hands of the kobold a few battles ago. As of now, he has yet to produce any offspring. He was still young, in the prime of his life. There was no question of how great the chieftain was, and his potential is grand. Looking at his future, it was bright, but if he decided to convert into an undead, then it's the same as throwing away his future.
"Do not question me!" He yelled, silencing the whole tribesman. "My decision is final; this is for the continuation of the Blood Fang Tribe. Without this sacrifice, the only options left are getting exterminated…"
The anger the tribesmen felt towards their fate cooled down, replaced with burning shame. The chieftain was right; sacrifices are needed to ensure the continuation of the Blood Fang Tribe.
In reality, not even a dumb person will believe his reasoning, but due to the previous chieftain's charisma added with Mordred's sound-path soul art that influenced one's thought and emotion, the incongruity in his words was ignored.
"Chief, I will follow your step!" one goblin screamed on top of his lung.
"Me too!"
"I want to sacrifice myself so my son could live longer!"
"Take me, chief! You don't have to sacrifice yourself!"
A wave of realization dawned upon the tribesman. The situation was so bad that the chieftain had to sacrifice himself. Few goblins instantly raised their hand to replace the chieftain's sacrifice, thinking it would be a lot better for them to die instead of the chief. Fortunately, their desire to kill themselves was thwarted by a wave of Mordred's hand.
"I have to sacrifice myself so that you can survive. If every single one of you wanted to sacrifice yourself for me, then my ancestor would not accept my decision. You want our ancestors to curse me from the Heavens?" he said with an angry tone.
Mordred waited for a moment until their emotion cooled down a little. "It's not like I did not accept your noble spirit, but there's simply no need for you to sacrifice yourself. At most, I will accept one goblin to accompany me. Other than that one, you will have to live on…"
The cave was silent. The atmosphere of the room was depressing, but there were simply too many who wanted to sacrifice themselves for the chief. The original chieftain was so charismatic and selfless that they willingly wanted to do it without being told.
"Kor, I'll await your decision…" Mordred said as he pats the shoulder of the most powerful elite guard.
The other goblins understood the chieftain's expectation. There were indeed life and death brothers. For the good of the tribesman, the chieftain and Kor, who have a solid relationship, understood each other the best.
"Got it, chief!" he nodded as if he had expected it. In fact, in Kor's mind, he would ask to accompany the chief even if that chosen person was not him. "I will not disappoint your decision…"
Mordred nodded. "Then, the sacrificial ritual is a bit complicated. It will be a long night. Please, expect us in different forms." He left the stage with Kor in tow.
Returning to his chamber, Mordred looked directly towards Kor.
In reality, the reason why he chose Kor was not out of bond the previous chief had with him. It was simply because even if Mordred had become a skeletal mage, Kor is still a liable danger that could threaten his control amongst the Blood Fang Tribe. His charisma was second to the original chieftain. With how dangerous his attempt of turning into an undead was, he needs to take precautions of turning the second most powerful goblin in the tribe into his slave.
It was a way out for the future, eliminating the chance of Blood Fang tribe being a liability before he grew powerful enough to overpower them.
And he had the method for it.
Mordred took an empty waterskin, "I need your help to get this waterskin filled with fresh blood."
"Don't worry brother, I will not disappoint you." Kor took it, then left the room with grim determination. A while later, he returned with the waterskin filled with goblin blood. The tribesmen were respectful towards Mordred's request to donate a small part of their blood, there wasn't a lot of hassle.
"Good. Now, help me clean this floor…" While Kor left the room, Mordred prepared a small sound-path spell formation that would mute every sound that came from within. After Kor returned, the two started to work together. The blood was used to draw a mind-numbing complex magical formation in the ground.
Kor, in his astonishment of how intricate the blood formation was, asked Mordred, "Where did you learn how to make this spell formation, it looks so complicated…"
Mordred patted his shoulder, "It's a secret inheritance of the previous chieftain. It is only spread amongst the Blood Fang Tribe's chieftain from generation to generation." Mordred lied as naturally as he breathed. He continues drawing the complex spell formation with his hands until past midnight.
"The tribesmen are warned not to enter the room, as per your instruction. There will be no one that bothers the conversion ritual." Kor reported.
"Are you ready?" he asked Kor for the last time.
There was only determination in Kor's eyes. "Big Brother, even though our mother hated us, it was your kindness that brought us together. Even in death, I will follow you."
"Brother, I will not disappoint your determination." Mordred nodded, as he chanted in strange and bizarre magical language. The vowels were like a tongue twister, while the consonant is hard to imitate. When Kor paid attention to the sound, it was like someone was whispering, screaming, and talking normally at the same time, making him feel dizzy and nauseated, he stopped paying attention after that.
All this while, Kor still wholly believed that the chieftain was still alive and is a noble soul. He was clueless about what this spell formation is for.
Inwardly, Mordred sneered. 'Rank 0 blood-path soul art, [Bloodguard Soul Conversion] …'
Soulforce undulated from his soul phylactery. It stirred up the blood-path soul art formation drawn on the ground. The blood rises in temperature from room temperature to scorching heat. The blood became animated, turning itself from a two-dimensional drawing into a three-dimensional multi-layered complex formation.
'I wouldn't be able to make a Bloodguard from the beginning, but your emotional attachment is a strong ingredient, I just couldn't resist…' Mordred thought inwardly.
The ingredient of a Bloodguard is mainly a strong blood relation and emotional attachment. If one's lover or partner is used as the main ingredient, it would become a Bloodguard with extreme potential. The Bloodguard will be loyal to the ones who refined them. In this condition, Mordred's current body was literally the blood brother of Kor, thus it fits the prerequisite perfectly.
Unfortunately, such methods were considered taboo so nobody in the order faction would openly use it to groom powerful servants.
However, Mordred has no qualm in using taboo methods. He had little care of the morals in this world. All he wanted to reach was immortality and returning to his original dimension.
"AAAAAARRGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" Kor screamed as the boiling blood suddenly wrapped him into a cocoon. The heat cooked his flesh and blood, but he wasn't dead yet. He couldn't. His brother had instructed him to resist the dying sensation as long as he could so he won't be lost in the conversion.
Of course, this was a lie again. Mordred needed to harvest the righteous fervor of sacrificial emotion as one of the main ingredients in converting Kor into Bloodguard.
One minute, two minutes… time continues to trickle down as minutes turn into hours. By now, Kor's screaming has become silent due to his vocal cord rupturing after his abuse. Kor's body has entered a quasi-dead state, while his brain is somehow active due to sheer willpower alone.
Mordred was too happy about this. 'What a perfect specimen…' he had never expected that he would meet an amazing individual in this dark and backward place. He proceeds with the ritual, the emotional attachment has accumulated sufficiently, now it was time to really turn him into a Bloodguard that's loyal to him alone.
The blood cocoon shrinks slowly, as it starts to show a figure of a goblin inside. The body was unlike its original, it was taller, had more muscle, while retaining the original slim figure of the goblin.
"Awaken!" Mordred manipulates the spell formation through his soulforce as the blood cocoon was absorbed by the goblin figure. Slowly, the blood dried up to reveal a tall, crimson humanoid figure.
"Master." The crimson goblin took a knee the moment it became aware. Now, Kor has truly become a Bloodguard, an undead with better-than-average blood-path talent while his upper limit has grown to rank 1.
"Guard the room, I will begin my conversion."
"Understood." Kor moved according to his instruction. The next scene was something that shouldn't be revealed to the public.
Unlike Kor's conversion into a Bloodguard, Mordred has to prepare a lot of things before he converts a dead goblin into a vessel capable of holding his soul.
'I lack the necessary soul-path and necro-path materials to treat this corpse, but I can supplement it with the goblin souls I have gathered just before…'
Soul-path material is mainly made out of or related to souls, while the corpse of the goblin chieftain is a viable necro-path material. A skeletal mage body made out of these two materials will have a low physical attribute, which is not a good decision, but thankfully, it wasn't merely a goblin corpse but a corpse of a goblin shaman. There's a significant difference between the two.
The result from this conversion would be absolutely better than being a motionless soul phylactery that has to depend on a slime for movement, or a zombie.
Mordred drains the slightly rotten blood from the body, then uses it to make a complex blood-path soul art formation multiple times more intricate compared to the one he used on Kor. It was so complicated that he had to use his soulforce to telepathically make hair-thin rune characters, lines, and shapes in the form of three-dimensional formations.
Being in the core of the formation, the dead chieftain's flesh melts, becoming a rotten gore matter and turned into fuel for the soul art formation. As the body lost its flesh and blood, only the skeleton and a few bits of flesh here and there was left.
'Now for the tricky part…' he pours all of his concentration to proceed to the most difficult part of the process.
The skeleton was like a doll, without a marionette manipulating it, the doll will not move. Therefore, he needs to inhabit the doll with his soul. Stretching his broken soul into a bad vessel has a high chance of failing, but he had decreased the failure rate by using the previous blood-path soul art.
Fortunately, it was successful. His soul managed to fill the skeleton, but it wasn't quite finished yet.
The goblin chieftain was a goblin shaman, a variation of the magic caster. One of the requirements of becoming a magic caster is to awaken an organ in their body called Mana Pool, located somewhere around in their belly. Mana pool is a virtual but at the same time, a real organ which can be used to store mana. It was the foundation of their magic casting capabilities.
He had specifically left pieces of flesh on his belly for this particular reason. The mana pool of the chieftain was there, left untouched by the blood-path formation.
Using an extremely complex soul-path method, he converts the chieftain's original spiritual force and mana pool into a vessel to replace an actual mana pool called [Mana Aperture]. As the skeleton couldn't hold any organ in its empty belly, the mana aperture became a floating pearl-like purple crystal on where his mana pool should be.
The mana aperture has its position permanently locked through the laws of this word, it would be impossible for anyone to move it without moving the skeleton body. As a matter of fact, the crystalline mana aperture would be destroyed before one managed to remove it from the entire skeleton, it can be considered a fatal weakness to skeletal mages.
As for his soul phylactery, he had hidden it inside one of his spinal bone segments, to ensure secrecy and survival chances should this skeletal body suffer massive damage. Now, he had truly lost all of his flesh, becoming a true blue undead.
"I have successfully converted this body into a skeletal mage…" muttered Mordred after the taxing and difficult process had been completed.
The skeleton does not possess any of the five senses, which is why he had to engrave a permanent sound-path investigative soul formation on his skull by himself that allows him to inspect the world through sound waves. There was currently no need for other senses since the sound-path soul formation grants him echolocation and synesthesia, granting him the ability to hear fragrance and color.
He was satisfied with the conversion. Nobody could've produced better results with the resources he had right now. Of course, he had the option to sacrifice the whole goblin tribe to fuel his soul recovery greatly, but that would cut his method of manipulating the outside world. He had merely converted a [2 Transparent Star] goblin shaman into a skeletal mage.
Although he had a body and possessed the ability to cast spells, it is still dangerous for him to travel in broad daylight, since rank 0 undead are greatly harmed by sunlight. And those are the main reasons why he had chosen to control the Goblin Shaman from the shadows. With an effective leader, the goblins could become a good slave that brings him cultivation resources from the outside world.
That way, he would be able to manipulate the surface world without being physically present.
Mordred draped the chieftain's original shamanic attire around his bony body while allowing Kasumi to wrap herself around his crystalline mana aperture.
"With spiritual force and mana to play around, I can use one of the most basic information-path spells, [Interface System]."
Quickly, he activated the spell on himself as an invisible interface only he could sense appeared in his mind.
Attribute Statistics
Name: Mordred
Title(s): Grimsong Spectre, Great Archmage, Devil King
Race: Skeletal Mage
Occupation: N/A
Rank: 0
Physical Attribute
Strength: 0.5
Endurance: 0.4
Agility: 0.5
Flexibility: 0.5
Perception: 0.4
Reaction: 0.6
Energy Attribute
Soulforce Development Quotient: 1%
Spiritual Force Development Quotient: 12%
Soulforce: 0.1/1.9
Soul Essence: 1/4(19)
Spiritual Force: 0.3/0.8
Mana Aperture: 2/8
Extra
Current Effect: [Faux Soul Configuration], [Interface System]
To give a reference, an average mortal human that lives without cultivation would have an average attribute of 1 all across the board.
Of course, training in martial arts, meditating, or depending on their living condition, diet, and other factors, it would be rare for mortal humans to have flat 1 unit in all physical attributes, but the difference is not too far away from it.
Every aspiring magic caster needs to increase their spiritual force quotient to become a true blue magic caster, but the conversion to skeletal mage damages a few percentages to his spiritual force quotient which translate to a reduced total comprehensive power.
As for why his Soulforce Development Quotient was so low despite having transcendental attainment on soul-path was because his soul foundation was broken thoroughly after receiving Lamost's [Myriad Soul Disintegration]. It was lucky enough for his truesoul to survive, re-cultivating from a blank state wasn't a problem.
However, it needs to be said that Mordred has consumed a lot of truesouls from myriad sources like the three dying goblins and the goblin chieftain himself. Thus his soulforce have somewhat recovered to the point of stronger than common mortal, reaching 1.9 units as his base foundation, despite using most of them as materials for the conversion. This meant he's almost twice as strong in terms of soul compared to mortals.
Soul essence is the equivalent of mana in terms of using soul arts. Soul essence capacity is ten times per unit of soulforce. Without a strong soul foundation, he won't be able to use them to dominate other lifeforms nor use soul arts, thus he had to be careful with allocating it.
To give a better explanation, Mordred has 1.9 units of soulforce which means his truesoul could hold 19 units of soul essence at one time. However, 15 units of soul essence capacity is because he is currently enslaving multiple lifeforms.
10 units of soul essence capacity was used to enslave Kor since after converting into an undead, he had stopped having 'blood' so he had to use a true enslavement-path method.
The other 5 units of soul essence capacity were reserved to dominate Kasumi. The difference between soul essence capacity usage was simply because of the difference between the strength of the subject’s soul.
The status effect [Faux Soul Configuration] is a permanent soul-path defensive killer move that was activated on his first life as a Magus of Holy Terra. It protects him from all intrusive soul-path and information-path investigative methods like the already well-known [Interface System] below rank 6.
In his second life as the Great Archmage, it was upgraded time and time again as his attainment in information-path deepened. It was this exact killer move that allowed Mordred to mislead Eleanora’s investigative method after the amplification of Alistair, allowing him to form the killer move [Light Strike Array] that destroyed most of Alistair's facilities in the final battle.
His current attributes are below average, at best. To get more attributes, he needs to start practicing a better cultivation method than what the living chieftain had, which is not that hard. When he seriously starts cultivating, the cultivation method that he used will be engraved in his karma, filling the blank in his [Occupation] tab.
He was satisfied with the return of his ability to cast magical spells, but it was merely the beginning. Skeletal Mage is too limited, he needs to modify his vessel into something that accommodates his ever-growing soul better, but it will require an astronomical amount of resources to achieve his final goal, which can only be worked on step by step.
"I believe Kor possessed more physical strength than mine…" he looks toward his Bloodguard in expectation while silently activated [Interface System].
Attribute Statistics
Name: Kor Bloodfang
Race: Goblin Bloodguard
Occupation: N/A
Rank: 0
Physical Attribute
Strength: 0.9
Endurance: 0.8
Agility: 0.9
Flexibility: 0.8
Perception: 0.6
Reaction: 0.7
Energy Attribute
Internal Energy Development Quotient: 27%
Internal Energy: 0.1/0.4
Extra
Current Effect: [Interface System]
As he expected, his attributes are a lot better than him, especially for being a meat shield. Despite having a weak foundation in cultivation. Kor was such a great meat shield that could react to most situations. With him by his side, it would be difficult for an uprising from the goblin tribesman to succeed. Any resistance could be quelled as soon as possible by raw strength.
With an illusory smirk, he exited his chamber.
