The Black Necromancer

Time passed by quickly but also slowly after the battle on the shore of the Desolate Lands. Repairs to the Wall were made, and greater defensive fixtures were made. Leonidas threw in his entire support to the defensive measures, transporting a great amount of manpower and resources to the Desolate Lands to bolster up the defenses of the place against the invasion.

In just a few days, several magic cannons had been affixed to the top of the Wall. Each magic cannon was capable of unleashing terrifying spells of up to Peak B rank! However, the expenditure and the amount of resources that went into keeping up the output of the cannons was great.

It was there that Leon stepped in.

A magic cannon's source of power was a Mana Crystal. The purer the Mana Crystal, the greater the output of the magic cannon. Fortunately, Leon just so happened to possess a Mana Crystal mine that had a shocking amount of pure High Grade Mana Crystals.

'Truly, Nedra's former master must have been a genius to put something so good together.' Leon thought to himself as he examined the runic formations that was surrounded by pillars of High Grade Mana Crystals of incredible purity. Even now, the purity of the mana in them surprised Leon. He had thought that it would not be too impressive after attaining his level of strength, but it still shocked him up till now.

"This purity..." Gizmo Baldfreak held the head-sized mana crystal in his hands as if he was holding a baby. He still could not believe that he was holding something of such high purity. The number of times he had worked with something on a similar level was so few that he could count it on one hand, but in the past week, he had overseen the creation of several powerful magic cannons with High Grade Mana Crystals as their power sources. It was a dream come true for a craftsman like him!

"Stop drooling and get on with it." Beside Leon, Dorian rolled his eyes exasperatedly. Gael stood to the side with a hopeless expression on his face. They had paid a huge amount of money to secure several High Grade Mana Crystals from Leon. Their goal was to have Gizmo make some high grade equipment for them. Equipment that was good enough to withstand the rigors of A rank battles.

At first, Leon had wanted to give it to them for free in virtue of his friendship with Jet, but they had firmly refused his offer, choosing not to accept the mana crystals for free, and instead buying them off him.

The only person that was absent right now was Dion, the patriarch of the Armstrong Family. He was in a meeting with Leonidas, concerning more personal matters.

"Yes, yes. What will I be making for you?" Gizmo snapped out of his daze and placed down the mana crystal beside two others that were of similar size to the one he was holding.

"I want a staff." Dorian said.

"A pair of swords for me." Jet also voiced his needs.

"...Can you make a set of light armor for me?" Gael asked with a smile.

"Hmm... I can do all that. But it will take some time." Gizmo rubbed his chin. "Making the magic cannons was relatively simple with the proper knowledge. But crafting more intricate items, where I would need to integrate the essence of the mana crystals within them in every step, would be much harder." He explained to them.

"We understand. Take as long as you need." Gael stepped forward and said with a smile.

"Alright, I will get started. Come back in a week to check my progress." Gizmo said and proceeded to chase them out of his workshop.

The men began to walk back to the house that they had been given, along with Leon. Leon and Jet poked fun at each other as they walked when Dorian suddenly spoke up.

"This is quite a nice place. The abundance of Holy energy is also a surprise to me." He spoke, casting a side glance at Leon, before continuing. "Holy energy invigorates the body, and continued exposure to such rich and abundant amounts of it will be sure to have long lasting good side effects on the people living here. This is truly a surprise. That said, I was wondering... How does it not bother you?"

"Oh, this?" Leon hummed. "It just doesn't."

"..." Dorian stared at Leon for a couple of seconds before turning away. 'He does not want to reveal his secret... Understandable.' He nodded his head and decided not to push for answers. He did not like Undeads and Unholy beings in general, but Leon did not seem like the Unholy beings that he had the misfortune of crossing paths with in the past.

'He seems to be a nice person. Caring. The people actually seem to love and respect him, even though they have not been here for long.'

Dorian had been making his rounds through Fort White, and had collected a lot of information from the people. It was one of the traits of Priests. They had a much easier time getting along with people and finding out information from the masses.

'I will continue to watch him for now. If I see he has ulterior motives, then I will not hesitate to strike him down!' Dorian decided and turned to look into the distance where people mulled about on the streets.

Already, commerce was blooming on the streets of Fort White. Leon's Undead Priests had done a great work with cleansing the surrounding areas. Not only that, but the abundant and overflowing Divinity and Holy energy from Fort White caused the surrounding areas to become rich with life and vitality, causing the surrounding areas to be perfect for raising livestock and growing crops.

Already, there were several patches of land that had been marked out for crop production and raising livestock. A lot of merchants had settled in Fort White after hearing the news, so there was a small but steady stream of back and forth where good flowed to and from Fort White.

Things were already going according to Leon's plan! The fruits of his labor had begun to ripen!