I became a legion lich

208 Neighboring territories

The skeleton wyvern Wilver suddenly approached and spoke some words that Athos was not able to understand, at least until someone translated for him.

“He said he accumulated treasures over the years and kept them safe inside his nest. The demihuman tribes offered items to them as offerings to live in their territory, so anything of value is under the landslide at the moment.” Treevor stayed by his side and acted as an interpreter.

“So dealing with the cave-in is a priority. Have the earth mages and dwarf mages work to dig up the corpses and create a safe tunnel to the wyverns’ nest. A lot must have been lost during the cave-in, but try recover everything that’s can.”

The wizards and dwarves set to work, using earth spells to detect the corpses under the rocks and digging several tunnels to retrieve them. They also managed to dig a tunnel that led to the nest, discovering that the wyvern’s treasure was several kilograms of different magical metals, magical wood of different types, herbs and magical roots, as well as teleportation crystals.

The most sensitive magical materials had been destroyed, but the most resistant ones were still useful.

According to the wyverns, some tribes used the teleportation crystals to try to invade the camp in the past and after killing them, the wylver claimed the crystals as loot, even though he wasn’t able to use them because of their size.

It was a petty act and the clans that lived under their rule could have benefited greatly from these crystals, but the wyverns didn’t care about the demihumans. They were servants, not something worth protecting.

The skeletons didn’t care about the history of the items and just collected everything that had mana. Using what was left of their mana, the mages and priests cast the undead raise on the gathered corpses, but it wasn’t enough and the high-ranking skeletons had to step in and spend their own mana to finish the job.

His troops gains were approximately 10,300 goblins, 6,700 orcs, 2,400 trolls and 2 wyverns.

.....

Their losses, however, were not small either. 10000 monster skeletons were destroyed, 5000 skeleton soldiers and 200 dwarf skeletons. For Athos, the dwarves were the greatest loss, as it was nearly impossible to replenish their numbers.

In the end, their total numbers rose to approximately 70,000 skeletons and Athos made a new redistribution of the skeletons among the generals and placed the wyverns to fill the general positions that opened up with the new skeletons.

Athos did not order them to leave immediately after they had finished collecting the corpses, but they decided to camp in the ravine and prepare before setting out again.

The dwarves would have to corrupt the weapons of the orcs and Athos took advantage and ordered them to be enchanted too, so they would stay at least a few weeks camping. Even if human mages help runesmith, there were still thousands of weapons that would need to be enchanted.

Dominating the region also gave access to new hunting grounds, and the undead spread out across the land to hunt them, further increasing their numbers.

During these weeks that were stopped, Athos and the generals met with the wyverns a few times, as they would have knowledge of the nearby regions and the enemies they would have to face when they began to expand.

They had found a crude but useful map among the wreckage of the camp in a tent larger than the others, presumably the patriarch’s tent. The map roughly showed nearby regions, clearly marking where the territory itself ended.

The closest regions were also marked, but anything further from that was off-limits on the map.

Wyverns explained to him that most of the nearby regions were ruled by intelligent and powerful monsters like themselves or some were the territory of stupid and violent monsters.

There was only a nearby territory ruled by demihumans, but there were also clans living under the rule of intelligent monsters, in addition to nomadic tribes that were impossible to predict where they would be.

“According to the map and wylver, there are a total of seven nearby regions, and three of them are ruled by intelligent monsters, two regions are territories of powerful and violent monster groups, one era ruled by a demi-human tribe, and one era a special case.” Athos spoke looking at the map in front of him.

Enemy territories were marked with numbers, as they were conveniently in the same position as the numbers on a clock.

He was meeting with his generals in the patriarch’s tent, the top of which had been removed so the wyverns could stick their heads inside and join in the meeting.

“The first region was ruled by a 4-headed hydra, a kind of lesser dragon like wyverns. They have less agility and are not able to fly, but they have exceptional defense and can cast magic from all four heads.” Treevor spoke, placing a small statue of a four-headed lizard made of stone in one of the regions of the map.

“The next one is ruled by a basilisk, a serpent capable of petrifying with just a glance. We don’t know much about this region, as the wyverns hated and tacitly ignored them.” He placed a second statue of a coiled snake with unnaturally large eyes.

“The third region belongs to a species of manticore, a chimera monster with the body and head of a lion, tail of a serpent, and wings of an eagle. Manticores are weaker physically and magically, but they are a group rather than an individual, so their powers cannot be underestimated.” He spoke and placed a statue of a lion with wings.

“The fourth and fifth regions are dominated by different stupid and territorial monsters that attack anything that enters their territory, so the other species avoid approaching.” Treevor placed two statues of random monsters on the map, as they wouldn’t know what they would find when they attacked.

“The sixth region is the most interesting for our army, as it is dominated by demi-human clans, something rare in the deserts. There is a main clan of ogres that dominate the region, but there are other clans under their dominion and they were very powerful .” Treevor placed a small statue of an ogre on top of the area and paused for a few moments.

“The seventh and final region is special. Rather than monsters or demihumans, it was spirits who ruled. It was a forest more than ten kilometers long and nearly a dozen spirits. There were monsters and demihumans who lived under the domain of the spirits, but they were few in numbers.” He placed a statue of a tree in the last region and stopped talking.

All the generals looked at the map, trying to think of the best course of action to take. The army would be able to overcome the regions infested with monsters or with intelligent monsters, but it would be doubtful if they would be able to face the demihuman clans or the forest of spirits.

If each spirit were as strong or had a power close to that of Treevor, it would be almost impossible to face them with their current power and even if they won, they would suffer so many losses that it would not be worth it.

“Does anyone have any ideas where to start? I personally think we should start with monster regions, but they’re between the territories of demihumans and intelligent monsters.”

“If we’re discovered by either side, we run the risk of being ambushed. Communication between the different regions is minimal, but it’s likely they’ll be watching their neighbors for a chance to expand and eliminate an enemy.” Athos spoke and looked at the wyvern skeletons, who nodded in agreement.

“That’s true. We keep minimal communication with each other, but it’s rare and only happens a few times a year. I also ordered the goblins and orcs to keep an eye on the enemies to make sure no one has accumulated too much power.” Wylver spoke and Treevor translated his words for the rest of the generals to understand.

“If they are not stupid, they must have done the same to us and in a few days they will already be aware of our presence.”

“If you were spying on them, you must know what the best decision is. Any ideas?” Emilia asked. She was also analyzing the map and trying to decide which route would be the safest and the one that would lead to the fewest losses for the army, but she was still undecided.

“I suggest we start in the hydra’s territory. They’re the furthest away and only border us and that damn basilisk, so it’s impossible for us to be surrounded.” Malic suggested, nodding at the small four-headed lizard.

“Hm... are the demi-human tribes that live under the hydra’s rule strong?” Astrus asked.

“Not much. It’s just desert lizardmen, kobolds and minotaurs. Both desert lizardmen and kobolds are just more intelligent than normal monsters, so it wouldn’t be wrong to say that the only demihumans that serve the hydra are the minotaurs.” Wylver informed him, but Athos ignored the information as it was not relevant to him.

“The enemies’ origins don’t matter, only their power. If we start with the hydra’s territory which is north of our position, the only viable option to follow would be to attack the basilisk’s territory and descend clockwise to destroy all neighboring territories . What do you think?” Athos suggested.