Necromancer, summoning 055? What the heck?

Chapter 213 The Valley of Exile, the Home of the Dead
The Silver Principality's hospitality stems from two sources: its wealth and its deep-seated sense of insecurity.

This tiny place, sandwiched between major powers, has managed to secure a place in the ever-changing global landscape thanks to its unique resources and decisive methods—no small feat indeed!

The core capital of the Silver Principality is not the vast, sprawling silver mine in the mountains of the central region, but rather certain more unique resources.

Over countless years, under the influence of psionic energy, in some special areas of vast mining regions, metals undergo certain magical changes and reactions, giving birth to rare and precious super metals.

Mithril, silver marrow, and silver core.

Having more silver mines is just money, but these special materials related to psionic affinity, magical amplification, and alchemical construction give the Silver Kingdom the capital to curry favor with the major powers.

The defeat of the Sky Empire, the rise of the Moonlit Dwelling and the Mist Moon, the conflicts between great powers, and the twists and turns of history all contributed to that special historical opportunity. After successfully legitimizing its regime, the Silver Duchy also demonstrated its fierce and decisive side.

When the Qiyue Dynasty cavalry marched south and crossed the border of the Silver Kingdom, the Silver Kingdom not only emptied its treasury of all its silver reserves and hired mercenaries to launch indiscriminate attacks on Qiyue, but also detonated its national treasure in front of all the envoys of the various countries. Several tons of mithril and silver marrow were completely destroyed in the turbulent flow of psionic energy.

A blinding silver light shot straight into the sky, eclipsing even the midday sun.

The then-Grand Duke of Silver declared that if the enemy advanced any further, we would destroy the entire mining base! After that, there was no more Silver Marrow on the continent!

This incident caused many serious consequences.

For several years, the entire continent had been without a significant amount of advanced magic array foundations and enchanting materials, causing not only a stagnation in magical academic research but also impacting the realization of advanced military power. Many nations seized the opportunity to pin the blame for the orcs' resurgence and the humans' forced defensive posture on the Qiyue Dynasty.

Secondly, the widespread trend across the southern part of the continent of receiving money for opposing Qiyue led to extremely serious ethnic and national conflicts. Coupled with the instigation of other forces, this ultimately caused the Federation and other forces that were originally Qiyue's vassals to turn against them, bringing the flames of war to the Crystal Plains north of the Dark Forest.

As a result, the Silver Duchy gained a relatively stable environment for survival, since no one wanted to be dragged down with this guy again.

Of course, after threatening, it's time to appease.

The Silver Duchy maintains friendly relations with all sides and spends money everywhere, which has become its core philosophy for survival. As long as they are not attacked, they are friendly to all without discrimination. Even a small local lord like Chen Mo, who seems to be just a nobody from the outside, can receive such a warm reception, which speaks volumes.

Internally, they accommodate all professional groups, organizations, and forces, and even some followers of evil gods, as long as they do not disrupt the order of the Silver Empire, they can find a place to stay.

There is a widely circulated saying on the mainland that describes the Principality of Silver: "Those within the city belong to the household registration system, and those outside the city belong to the labor force."

This naturally led to the creation of the largest gathering place for necromancers and undead creatures—the Exile.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Far from the spectacular atmosphere of steam and metal, the landscape of the wilderness became increasingly desolate, with vegetation gradually being replaced by drought-resistant thorns and low shrubs, and bare rocks and gullies everywhere.

The Valley of Exile is situated on the edge of this barren region.

Guided by the governor's men, Chen Mo and his party arrived at Rustbone Town outside the Valley of Exile.

What came into view was a mountain of bones, piled up haphazardly and in disarray.

Huge animal skeletons lay on the ground, with twisted, branching horns pointing to the sky. The skeletons of small humans and orcs were roughly woven into the skeletons, and some dense clusters of skulls intertwined like a fence.

Deeper still, the enormous pelvis of an unknown race, its multi-segmented spine, and fragments shimmering with a dim phosphorescence could be vaguely seen…

The closer you get, the stronger the smell of dust and humus becomes. Between the bones, you can see torn clothing, rusty metal ornaments, and even some body tissues that cannot degrade on their own.

There is no greenery, no moisture, only rocks, scorched earth, and these boundless, silent, roaring hills of bones.

As a gateway to the Valley of Exile, Rustbone Town has a dedicated mercenary outpost open only to necromancers and undead creatures. It is also the only place officially permitted by the Silver Duchy to conduct mercenary and quest transactions with the Valley.

However, Chen Mo did not linger there; he was not there to issue a mission.

After briefly reporting to the mercenary outpost in Rustbone Town, they continued deeper into the town.

According to the regulations provided by the Silver Kingdom, only necromancers and undead creatures are allowed to enter the valley, and each may bring a maximum of one warrior follower.

Chen Mo's group consisted of four people: two necromancers, the lord himself and the mage Doyle, two warriors, the short Princess Liushuang, and the tall Kane Stonehoof.

That was the bull warrior who was defeated by Liu Zaiyue with his exoskeleton. After Lao Niu became the commander of the Fourth Brigade, he took over the job of guarding the lord. A three-meter-tall, fully armored bull-headed warrior, he could shield the lord from most of the ill-intentioned gazes.

"My lord, the atmosphere here is very uncomfortable... It reminds me of some unpleasant legends," Kane muttered softly, his voice echoing gently at the valley entrance.

Of course it's uncomfortable; this is a gathering place for undead creatures, the stronghold of remnants of the underworld.

Or rather, the very foundation of the Valley of Oblivion is a large group of undead creatures without masters.

In theory, undead creatures are born in the underworld. The necromancers of the Stars summon warriors by making sacrificial pacts with the lords of the underworld, bringing these lords' warriors into the real world to fight for the necromancers.

When the necromancer no longer needs them, or due to the death of the necromancer himself, these undead creatures will be recalled by the lords of the underworld, or banished back, in accordance with the pact with them.

However, things don't always go as planned.

Undead creatures are not immortal creatures, and even most of those that are called undead are not truly immortal.

The powerful lords of the underworld also have a certain chance of perishing due to war or other accidents. Once this happens, the undead warriors under their command who come to the stars will have no way back.

Without the lord's reverse summons to guide him, and without coordinates to be exiled—there's no going back!
Under normal circumstances, these wild, unclaimed undead have a special recycling and disposal method. Weak skeletons are smashed at will, and powerful undead creatures are sent to some random underworld by expending extra mental energy, to be left to fend for themselves.

Until a particularly big event occurred.

Many years ago, during a war, a necromancer summoned a large number of undead creatures from a lord of the underworld. As a result, perhaps because too many of his troops were "borrowed," the lord of that other world perished during this summoning.

Then, during the war, a powerful enemy air force bypassed the main battlefield and attacked the necromancers in the rear at great cost. After winning a great victory, they found that the main battlefield was full of undead creatures that had not been banished and were not owned by anyone.

This is troublesome!
Undead creatures have very clear target guidance, but they do not have the characteristic of killing. For example, an undead like Aurelio Zelin Lee will only attack orcs who are enemies he has never forgotten, without affecting the human warriors next to him.

After the air force, which the undead considered "enemies," scattered, they lost their command. Most undead creatures lacked the intelligence to find their future goals and visions, so they could only wander aimlessly across the battlefield.

They have become a group of unorthodox, earthbound spirits.

Fighting is too costly. If it were that easy, there would be no need to risk ambushing the backline.

If we don't fight, what if so many undead wandering around here and are used by people with ulterior motives?
Forget it, I don't want this land!
This is the origin of the Valley of Exile. Those who are exiled and cannot return to the underworld can only be exiled and left in this valley.

Now that this precedent has been set, other necromancers, when they occasionally encountered similar cases of lords falling, simply stopped bothering to send them to the underworld and instead tossed them directly into the Valley of Exile, saving themselves the trouble.

Such places should have been targets for warriors and professionals, but unlike the immense profits from skinning, fleshing, and extracting soul cores from magical beasts, these undead creatures yielded almost nothing; even dogs wouldn't gnaw on their old bones. Thus, year after year, the Valley of Exile accumulated a vast number of undead creatures.

Following the normal trajectory, without the special environment of the underworld and the magical power of mages, the strength of undead creatures will not increase. They will only remain here forever in the basic state they were summoned to, and eventually slowly decay.

However, some genius necromancers eventually set their sights on this area. After the "Elemental Tragedy" incident, the summoning profession gradually declined. Several renowned necromancers repeatedly entered the Valley of Exile and, through communication with most of the undead, actually reached an agreement.

The necromancers built a large magic circle here, creating an environment similar to the underworld, filled with dark energy, allowing the undead creatures to continue to grow slowly in strength, and their minor injuries to heal gradually.

In exchange, the undead creatures that enter this magic circle must respond to the call of the necromancer who has come here, establish a temporary contract without a lord's arrangement, and fight for the necromancer.

Because there are no "middlemen" like the lords of the underworld, the necromancers will pay a relatively lower price, meaning that "summoning" will be "cheaper" here.

The corresponding cost is that these necromancers can no longer summon anytime, anywhere; they have to come to the valley every time.

With necromancers now largely obsolete, the Exiles have become a haven for low-level necromancers.

For Chen Mo, this place has a complete necromancer training system, a large number of low-level and mid-level necromancers, and a massive number of unclaimed undead creatures... It's simply the army-building ground that every lord dreams of!

Kane is uncomfortable, but Doyle is very comfortable.

Doyle took a deep breath; the faint negative energy in the air, characteristic of necromancy, invigorated him.

The old mage stepped forward and said in a hoarse voice, "My lord, according to the rules here, we need to register at the 'Guide's House' before we can issue recruitment requests or apply to enter the valley."

The so-called "House of the Guides" is a huge wooden carriage, which, according to Doyle, was the chariot of the Titans.

Several openings were made on one side of the carriage to serve as doors and windows, and a crooked wooden sign hung at the door, with the name written in Common Language and a kind of graffiti-like symbol.

Pushing open the door, the carriage resembled a rudimentary version of a mercenary guild, except that the mercenaries here were only undead.

The interior of the carriage was more spacious than I had imagined, roughly divided into several areas. A few figures sat scattered around several metal tables; some were talking in hushed tones, some were wiping and maintaining some oddly shaped tools, and others were just sitting quietly, their eyes vacant.

A middle-aged man who looked like the owner sat behind the innermost counter, engrossed in studying a complex lantern. He glanced up at it, then looked away.

"New here? To banish the dead, or to recruit them? Read the rules on the wall first!"

A thick metal plate was nailed to the side of the carriage, covered with densely packed rules engraved with a sharp object. These rules can be summarized into a few key points:
First, the Exile prohibits any form of private combat, whether between a summoner or a summoned creature. Violators will be punished and expelled, never to be accepted again.

Secondly, to enter the Valley of Exile, one must be a necromancer and his direct retinue, and must be confirmed by the valley's gatekeeper.

Third, within the valley, no magic array may be set up without permission, the structure of existing magic arrays may not be interfered with in any way, and "ownerless" undead creatures may not be abducted without prior contractual approval.

Fourth, all tasks, material transactions, and information consultations must be handled through the Guide's House. The Guide will charge a fee, which will be used to cover the Spirit Crystal consumption of the Valley of Exile's magic array and the remuneration of the staff.

……

It looks perfectly reasonable!

"I want to take a look at the undead here. If there are any suitable ones, I'd like to hire some. Also, if the summoner's commission is reasonable, I'd like to hire some as well!"

Wow, a big client?

The owner of the Guide's House looked up and sized up the group of people.

A young man, a little girl, an old man, and a minotaur!

This strange combination seems like something not to be trifled with.

"A minotaur? A novel combination. You can go in, but keep your big guy in check; some old guys in the valley are allergic to raw blood."

“We understand the rules,” Doyle continued, taking a small bag from his pocket and placing it on the counter with a crisp metallic clinking sound. “This is the deposit. We want to enter the valley, and we also need a guide who knows the area.”

The shopkeeper weighed the money bag in his hand, then casually stuffed it into the drawer. "Okay, just remember the rules!"

Then he gestured towards an open space outside the carriage: "Look, those kids over there, they all make a living this way. Pick yourselves, you can negotiate the price yourselves."

"They're all the necromancer's own children, don't worry, they won't cheat you!"

Stepping outside, they found seven or eight children, aged between eight and fifteen, standing or sitting in the small open space. Dressed in thin, old clothes, they stopped what they were doing and looked at Chen Mo and his companions with expectant eyes.

As the owner of the Guide's House said, these "guides" are actually the children born to the necromancers who have lived here for a long time.

Many of them have little or no talent for magic and can only live as ordinary people. In this difficult world, they also need to create their own value.

Most of the children were cleaning bones, using small sticks to pick out stones and dust from the crevices of the skeletons, and wiping the joints with soft cloths... This scene inexplicably reminded Chen Mo of the days a few years ago in Black Crow Castle, when he was exploring the basics of necromancy little by little in front of those silent, cold, and hard skeletons.

Chen Mo pointed to a black-haired boy who was "maintaining" a skeleton, and he seemed to see himself in him.

"Just him."

The other children stirred slightly, a mixture of disappointment and envy, before quickly quieting down and continuing with their work.

The boy who was chosen paused for a moment, whispered something to another boy next to him, handed the unfinished skeleton he was working on to his companion, quickly packed up his tools, and ran over.

"Greetings, gentlemen. My name is Little Thumb. I know everything here very well. If you want to know anything or go anywhere, just ask me, and I'll make sure you get it done!"

Doyle instructed, "Take us on a tour first, let us see what's going on!"

"Alright, gentlemen, would you like a ride? The Guide's House has carriages, and they're cheap. One silver coin will last you a day, so you mages won't even have to get your feet dirty!"

"And there are such pretty young ladies, sitting in the car enjoying the scenery without having to walk a long, long way, saving their legs from getting tired, right?"

"You must be really tired from walking. Your master will be worried about you!"

Chen Mo instantly overturned his previous thoughts. This is nothing like me... so much smarter than me at such a young age!

Of course, her eyesight isn't great. Is our little princess someone who's afraid of getting tired legs? She can carry me all day without even panting.

Since the other party had gone to such lengths to sell, and money was indeed not an issue for the lord, Chen Mo casually called two carriages, one for himself and Liu Shuang, and the other for Doyle and Little Finger.

As for Kane Stonehoof—he can't sit down, so he'll have to hop on his legs.

The moment the carriage was led out, Chen Mo's eyes lit up. He'd hit the jackpot!
A skeletal warhorse! Although it looks a size smaller, it is undoubtedly a skeletal warhorse!

This is the Death Knight's vehicle; why are you using it to pull a cart here?

Looking up at the misty valley ahead, Chen Mo's anticipation for this observation trip grew even stronger.

(End of this chapter)