Whispers of a Dead Empire

Chapter 12

I opened my eyes and stared at the cealing. The blinking of my screen bore its way into my restless dreams. I have only been here for a few days, and yet I still haven't gotten used to seeing it all the time. I mentally selected the notifications so the incessant blinking would come to a stop.

I read through the list and nodded my head. Not a bad haul; I brought in two thousand essence points as a reward plus another couple hundred total from the squirrel doing its job. I went ahead and added experimenting with the new templates to the future to-do list. It wouldn't hurt to have variety after all. I dismissed the notifications and laid there for a bit, trying to shake the exhaustion. So, my first course of action today was going to be getting with Kharon and seeing how I can condense all my tools into an easy-to-use folder or something. After that, I want to investigate that locked room and then figure out what that strange room is upstairs. With a groan, I sat up, and a giant yawn escaped my lips. My eyes traveled across my room, and I saw that Alessia settled into my chair.

She swung her head towards me, and she quickly looked me over. For a moment, I felt the excitement bubble in my chest until I realized that she wouldn't become sentient overnight. I stood up and stretched before I walked over to my sports bag. I fished out some deodorant and my hairbrush. A girl has to stay pretty after all, right? I lifted my arm, and the harsh smell of body odor immediately bombarded me. I felt my lips shift into a grimace, and a groan escaped from my mouth. I wanted nothing more than to take a hot shower. But sadly, that was out of the question. The closest substitute a the moment was the lake up top, so I could probably take a dip pretty soon. As for the clothes, I would need to wash them. I could probably create some once I had an idea of my budget.

Once I finished brushing my hair, I slide all the items back into my sports bag and grabbed my notebook and a pen. I would need this later, so it would be best to keep them on me at all times. I did a quick once-over on the room to make sure that I didn't forget anything. "Alessia, come along. We are going to explore today," I called out to her. She stood up from the chair and gracefully walked over towards me. I placed my hand on her shoulder to teleport, and much to my surprise, she was partially tangible. What a strange spirit you are. With a mental confirmation, we teleported back to the steps in front of the outpost.

The sun sat near the sky's halfway point and cast dark rays of light onto the ground. Clouds slowly crawled across the sky and absorbed some of the light, trying to make its way down. It felt like there was a storm coming, yet there were no storm clouds in sight, just white clouds that stretched into the distance. Though it was creepy, the lighting felt off, and it was gnawing away at my mind like something was about to happen. Perfect, all I needed now was just some fog, and the theme would be completed. I shifted my attention to the courtyard and saw that some of the undead were milling about mindlessly while others were busy moving some logs. They have been working relentlessly and managed to clear out a large portion of the forest. That was good; it would give me room to work with to expand the size a bit. I summoned my menu real quick and selected the massive pile of lumber, and stored it. With that finished, let's take a gander inside, and while I am exploring, I'll send Kharon a message.

The ghost managed to collect a lot of the loose rubble and get it into one spot. So I went ahead and collected all of it with my storage tool. Afterward, I inspected the area to see how well they did. Overall the outpost looked a little cleaner than before. But there wasn't much that could be done here without a full overhaul. But that was coming sooner rather than later. Once I was finished inspecting the surrounding area, I walked over to the first floor's locked door. The sound of my feet echoing in the lobby filled my ears as I walked at a brisk pace.

Once I got to the door, I looked it over carefully to see if there was any way that I could get it open. After realizing it was a fruitless endeavor, I glanced at my companion. "Alessia, can you get in the room and unlock it from the other side?" The spirit looked at me for a moment as she considered my words and then the door. She nodded her head and walked over to the door and pushed a hand through, and then the rest of her body a split second later.

I waited for a second and jumped when the door frame shuddered. Dust blew away from it as it rattled heavily on its hinges. What was she doing? I asked her to unlock it, not whatever this was! The door rattled again and swung open with a heavy crack. Alessia stood behind it and gave me a questioning look. "Well, not exactly what I asked for, but it works. Thank you." I took a few steps forward to check out the room.

Dust caught the light that rushed into the room as it lazily danced through the air. Dozens of crates lined the walls, and dozens of miscellaneous objects sat in containers that were spread throughout the room. Oh, nice. This was a storage room, from the looks of it. Maybe I could find something useful here. I walked over to a large crate and pulled it back, only to realize that it was far too heavy for me to move. I attempted to pull it back again. I strained against the crate for a moment before it budged an inch and stopped moving again. There was no way I was this weak.

"Can you go get one of the zombies for me, please?" I asked the spirit behind me as I decided to look around the room and see what was in the open containers. The first few were nothing more than cooking utensils. I had no use for these, but I'm sure they were suitable for the ambiance. I discarded the spoon and glanced into the next one, and saw some metal tips of arrows. I reached in and pulled a single one. The wood looked like it was in good condition, and the tip still felt sharphowever, the fletching was some strange synthetic material.

I placed it back inside of its container and went to another. In this one sat a couple of dozen short blades. I pulled one out of the box and looked it over. It was in a leather sheathe that felt incredibly dry and brittle. I pulled it out, and the sound of metal scraping leather filled the room. I glanced over the blade for a moment and saw that there were no blemishes on it. It was a short blade, more along the lines of something made for stabbing instead of slashing. But it was nice nonetheless; that means I didn't have to spend as much on creating blades for the mobs to use. I decided to keep this for the time being. I slide my sports bag across and slide the sword in. I had no idea what the world was like outside of this domain. I would need to practice with this if I wanted to stand a chance against whatever may enter here.

In another crate, there were some torches and some stuff that looked like quills for writing, which I wouldn't need since I have a few pens. However, I would take some ink so I could refill my stuff at some point. Maybe if I were lucky, I would find a case of it in here. I heard the sounds of feet shuffling towards me, and I saw a zombie that was missing the lower half of its jaw coming towards my direction. "Can you grab the crates that are stacked on top for me and move them?" I know it couldn't talk, and I didn't feel like trying to convey what I wanted it to do mentally.

The zombie emitted a low moan as it stumbled over to the first crate and pulled it down without an issue, and set it on the floor with a heavy thud. I ran my fingers across the top. Eventually, I found a small dent just under the wooden lid. I hooked my fingers underneath it and pulled on it with everything I could muster. The wood creaked for a moment before it gave. Inside sat blocks of grey metal. Oh boy, I hit the jackpot! I cast storage on it, and a message appeared on my screen.

You have stored a lumber crate.

You have stored several hundred units of refined steel.

Fucking sweet! This was a godsend. I could create them from nothing if I needed to, but I didn't want to shell out any more essence than required. With a grin plastered to my face, I had the zombie pull down every crate in the room.

So far, I have collected many swords, arrows, bows, old leather, and various metal types. I also found a small container of books that had nothing written on them, which I immediately sent to my office. I needed those to write in to set up this area for exploration. This was such a relief. Now I didn't have to panic for a bit. I went ahead and started to sort through my haul of materials.

Close to an hour had passed before I was finishing rummaging through the storage room. I never found any ink, sadly, which was my main desire at the moment. "Mistress, what can I do for you?" My companion's familiar voice broke through the silence. The zombie had already wandered away to do god knows what, and I was thankful. That one reeked.

"Hello, Kharon. I do have a couple of questions. Firstly, is there a way to condense all the tools I use most? This system is kind of cluttered." I asked as I pushed a few more books into my bag to take down into the office. He stared at me for a moment before he replied. "I can access your system and move stuff around for you. However, you should have the power to do so yourself. "

A nervous chuckle escaped my lips, and I found myself scratching the back of my neck. "I am still learning. I'm doing my best here." A moment later, a notification appeared.

I confirmed the choice, and I heard him hum something that sounded confused. 'What is it?" That sound made me a tad bit worried. Was something wrong with me?

"Your system is extremely cluttered, but I will clean it up while I am in here. What do you want me to do with it exactly?" I glanced over at my screen for a moment before I replied.

"Can you put all of the most important tools into one folder so I don't have to shift through things to find it constantly?" Kharon nodded his boney head, and I saw my screen start to rearrange. "So, why does my system look this way?"

He glanced at me for a moment before his eyes dulled. "The system conforms to whatever you are the most familiar with. My best guess is that it tried to adjust to your memories of whatever was used on your world and ended up messing up a few things."

I nodded my head. That would explain a lot about why it looked like computers I have used along with various software that I dabbled within my life. "I see. Thank you. Do you like what I did to the sky sphere?"

He bobbed his head. "Yes. It's nice; I also see you created your first boss as well."

"Yeah, I was experimenting with the ghost template and made a spirit. After I finish my tasks for the day, I am going to work on the zombies and skeletons next." Kharon's eyes brightened again at the mention of skeletons, and he stepped back.

"There. That should do it. I hate to cut this short, but I have to head back to the mines to make sure they stay on track. Good luck, and I can't wait to see what undead you make next." Without a word, he vanished in a puff of grey smoke. I happily opened up my menu to see what changes he made.