Necromancer, summoning 055? What the heck?

Chapter 391 The Undead Prepare for the Frosty Storm Agreement
The forward command post outside the battlefield in Crackclaw Canyon was filled with a smell that was a mixture of earth, wood, metal and a faint tobacco scent.

This is a semi-underground bunker. Sunlight streams through the skylight in the top, falling heavily onto the ground inside the bunker, sometimes shining on Makaga's right hind foot, sometimes on his left hind foot.

The sun can't move that fast; it's Macaca switching legs to bask in the sun.

As the field army commander, Makaga stood in front of the video communicator and first gave a detailed report on the recent battle situation.

His voice was a little hoarse; he had been shouting a lot these past few days and had also smoked quite a bit.

On the other end of the communicator was Chen Mo.

The battle report numbers still sound pretty good: skeletons traded for orc casualties, and the orcs were utterly defeated.

But the orcs reacted quickly, and there was a clear trend of them responding to situations on the battlefield faster and faster.

Macaga showed a series of photos to the Supreme Military Command, specifically to Commander-in-Chief Chen Mo. These were shots taken by battlefield drones. The images gradually cleared, revealing that on the vast land, the enemy's crisscrossing trenches were no longer the straight, hard lines rushing towards the human positions.

They began to wriggle.

Like giant earthworms that have been startled and are frantically burrowing into the soil, the rear of the trench looks fairly straight, but the front has twisted into a long, crooked, and abrupt "Z"-shaped dragon, with some places even showing sharp, almost right-angled bends.

"Reporting to the Commander-in-Chief, in the past few days, their forward tunnels have begun to twist and change direction, greatly reducing the effectiveness of our assault!"

The optimal range of the broadsword is fifty meters, and its maximum range can reach two hundred meters. However, it ultimately fires steel balls, not boomerangs, so they can only travel in a straight line and cannot turn.

The orcs have now dug the tunnels crookedly, turning every corner into a dead zone for the claymores' firepower. The orcs in the tunnels only need to shake off the slow-moving skeletons, quickly rush across the short straight sections, and retreat to the corners to completely avoid the damage from these powerful weapons.

"Not only the Claymore, but also the indirect fire capability of our mortars and the bombing capability of drones have been greatly reduced."

"A single bend can provide cover for the orc warriors and laborers in the entire tunnel behind."

"Although this tunnel structure significantly increased the orcs' digging workload, it was extremely effective in defense!"

Chen Mo stroked his chin and pondered for a while.

Because the opponent is an orc without firearms, even the trenches in the Vast Ocean Territory are still being built straight and have not yet been changed direction. In other words, the enemy has no reference point.

"These beasts, have they improved so quickly?"

In less than a month, trenches, hiding places, and blast bends have been built. Is this the war instinct of these orcs, or...?
"What else? Go on!"

"Yes, Commander-in-Chief. Just yesterday morning, the enemy added new traps to their tunnels. Nearly a quarter of the Seventh Skeleton Group's skeleton warriors who entered the tunnels are trapped inside and can't get back!"

Chen Mo frowned again as he carefully reviewed the video transmitted from the cameras embedded in the skulls of the undead warriors on the front lines.

Each attacking skeleton squad will have one or two skeleton warriors carrying cameras with self-destruct mechanisms for recording the battlefield.

The footage was recorded from a first-person perspective. It was a bit blurry and shaky at first. In the line of sight, a skeleton warrior carrying a bone spear rushed around a corner of a tunnel. In front of him, you could vaguely see the backs of several orc laborers fleeing in panic.

However, right behind the corner, in the blind spot where the view had just shifted, a dark hole suddenly appeared without warning!
The skeleton at the front couldn't stop in time, stepped into empty air, and its entire skeletal frame crashed down. The view plummeted rapidly, finally settling on the bottom of a deep pit with a narrow opening and a depth of over four meters.

The pit walls were smooth, and looking up, one could only see a small patch of pale sky.

The enemy was very cunning; they dug new pits within pits in the blind spots behind each tunnel bend, that is, they dug caves four or five meters deeper than the original tunnels.

When orcs travel on their own, they place a hardwood plank on the cave floor, allowing them to move freely. However, if they discover that the undead of the Vast Sea have rushed into the tunnel, the retreating orcs will remove the plank.

The poor skeletons chased after them, only to fall into the pit without a sound. The design of the pit, combined with the skeletons' agility, made it impossible for them to climb out.

Well, they don't make a sound because skeletons really don't have vocal organs.

"What's most hateful is that the orcs will immediately fill the pit with earth, burying our skeleton warriors. These undead warriors won't die, but they can't get out either, and they'll take up a spot in the resurrected undead summoning..."

Each resurrected undead can only carry sixteen skeleton spearmen. If they are lost, they can be resummoned after some time and energy are spent, but if they get stuck...

Although this move did not cause much harm, its targeted intent was extremely obvious.

"In addition, they also ambushed orc warriors of the rank of centurion in the front-line labor camps."

"After discovering that the skeleton warriors were trapped, Dean Lin sent the Black Knights to reinforce them, but they were ambushed and surrounded by the enemy, losing an arm equipped with a self-destruct device before barely managing to retreat..."

"Ambushes, camouflage, targeted traps, and even anticipation of our reactions!"

Chen Mo already had a pretty good idea of ​​what was going on. This was definitely a very clever person, someone who was very familiar with the combat methods of necromancers and even had a certain understanding of the combat style of the Vast Ocean Territory. This person was constantly giving the enemy advice.

"Any more?"

"Reporting to the Commander-in-Chief, the Reconnaissance Division and the Technical Reconnaissance Battalion jointly report that the Orcs' engineering operations seem to extend beyond what we can see on the ground."

"On the surface, they dug thirty-nine trenches leading to our positions, but the reconnaissance department discovered at least three more hidden trenches."

"The area is located in the hard soil region to the north and northeast. It looks normal on the surface. It must be an underground tunnel dug into our position by 'shoveling'."

"The orcs used the noise of digging the open trenches to conceal the hidden trenches. They dug very carefully, so their progress was relatively slower than that of the open trenches."

"The technical department has repeatedly confirmed with ground-penetrating radar and micro-motion exploration instruments. Although the specific progress cannot be accurately grasped, there is a rough assessment that it will take about two to three weeks to reach our position."

"As for what the enemy intends to do with these hidden trenches, we cannot determine that at the moment!"

Chen Mo sighed softly.

They've even learned how to dig tunnels!

Isn't this my technique?

From the year 1428 of the Heavenly Vault, which is three years before the summer month, starting from the first spring hunt of the orcs, when they passed through Frost City, the Vast Sea and the orcs have been fighting sporadically for four years!

In these four years, Chen Mo has met Sargeris, the so-called strategist of the orcs, as well as Goldenmane Ig, the brave general of the orcs. He even executed Groom, the "Skullbreaker," at Fang Pass. His opponents kept changing, but his fighting style remained the same.

The orcs have always followed their traditional fighting style of hundreds of years: tough, fierce, frontal assault, flanking maneuvers. Even if they lose one moment, they will still roar and charge in the next.

This is the fighting style they are most familiar with and rely on the most. It's not something that can be changed so easily. Chen Mo absolutely does not believe that the orcs will suddenly become more agile.

After careful consideration, Chen Mo issued the latest instructions to Macaka.

"The methods the orcs are currently using have already caused us considerable trouble. It's hard to say whether the enemy has any tactics we haven't discovered, or how many cards they're hiding that we haven't seen."

"Be careful!"

"I will send you another batch of reinforcements. You must be prepared for a major battle, a decisive battle!"

"Also, set up the minefield!"

Upon hearing this, Macaja involuntarily straightened his back.

Prior to this, the field army had laid out multiple layers of trenches, stretched out layers of barbed wire, and dug a large number of horse traps for cavalry on the front lines, but had not laid landmines on a large scale.

The commanders were full of confidence and ready to strike at any time. The barbed wire was easy to remove and the horse traps were easy to fill. The only thing that would take too much time to deal with was the minefield.

Even on modern Earth, mine clearance is not something that most countries can do.

Chen Mo's consistent style has always been to fully respect the command at the front, so he tacitly approved the front's decision not to lay mines for the time being.

He himself was not a soldier by training, and his tactics relied nine-tenths on the Dongxia advisory group behind him and one-tenth on the Hanhai staff office in front of him. Therefore, he delegated authority to generals like Makaga who had fought on the front lines very readily. Seeing Makaga nod to confirm the order, Chen Mo hesitated for a while, his fingers unconsciously tapping lightly on the table.

Finally, he slowly spoke, "Have the mages in the cemetery summon and stockpile liches, set up energy replenishment arrays, and make all necessary preparations. Once the frontline battle requires it, initiate a large-scale 'bone awakening'!"

Makaja's expression immediately changed.

"Commander-in-Chief, aren't necromancers forbidden on the mainland?

It's no wonder that Macaja was unsettled. In the Starry Continent, although necromancers are not mainstream, they are at least a recognized and legitimate profession.

Necromancers, on the other hand, are taboo beings, symbols of blasphemy against the dead and disruption of the order of life and death. They are universally hated and despised in every human nation.

The reason is that necromancers summon warriors from the underworld, while undead necromancers summon warriors from the real world.

For each human nation, the most immediate thought that arises when they see their dead brothers, relatives, comrades, or even lovers rise up to fight them, or humbly guard the culprit, is to kill that necromancer.

Therefore, the necromancer lineage was listed as taboo long ago. Even though some people tried to explore and research this area in ancient times for various reasons, after the continent's environment became more stable, necromancers, like plague mages, were gradually eliminated from the list of professions on the continent.

Although Macaka did not study magic, he had a vague understanding of it.

Chen Mo seemed to have a bit more free time today, unlike the previous times when he was in a hurry. So he patiently explained to his field army commander.

First of all, as one of the signature abilities of the necromancy faction, the skill of resurrecting the dead can never be completely banned.

Or rather, because of certain special interests involved, it is impossible to completely ban it.

Morality, or justice, has never been a core consideration for a nation.

It's all about profit!

After delving deeper into the historical context, Chen Mo discovered that the story behind it was not merely the seemingly legitimate reason on the surface.

On the surface, the public's outcry is that the desecration of the remains of close acquaintances is an intolerable and will cause a huge psychological impact on the living.
This seems understandable, since even on Earth, there is a crime of desecrating a corpse.

But in reality, what is truly untouchable are the lingering memories in the minds of some of the deceased.

There's a saying on Earth that only the dead can keep secrets. But if necromancers exist, this saying wouldn't hold true on the planets.

It would be terrible if even the dead couldn't keep a secret.

For most nobles, the benefits of getting the dead to speak far outweighed the potential risks.

In that era of lack of restraint, there were countless nobles whose families were ruined and their clans wiped out because the emperor or their enemies heard the "voices" of the deceased.

There have even been cases where descendants, suspecting their deceased father hadn't properly accounted for his assets, hired a necromancer to resurrect him. The necromancer then exposed the father's dark and sordid thoughts, leading the entire family to unanimously agree to grind the old man to dust, inadvertently implicating a large number of family members as well.

After experiencing a series of tragic lessons, the nobles of that time reached a consensus: this precedent must never be set!

Therefore, as early as five hundred years ago, more than nine hundred years ago, the Sky Empire, which was the human empire that swept the world at that time, and the Elf Kingdom, which was already fighting fiercely but was still evenly matched, reached a common agreement to resolutely crack down on the existence of necromancers on the Starry Continent.

Because the signing took place in the Frostwind Plateau, it is historically known as the "Frostwind Spell Agreement".

This includes restrictions on plague spells and a ban on necromancy.

Later, although new human nations rose up one after another, and although they had different positions and perspectives, the ruling classes of each nation were surprisingly consistent on the clause of 'prohibiting necromancy'. They inherited the core spirit of this agreement in various forms, which eventually evolved into one of the 'bottom lines of civilization' recognized by the entire continent.

It's all business!

As a lord of the Vast Ocean who has a passion for collecting historical documents, Chen Mo gradually pieced together the complete truth of this event from several different sources, including the elves, the Misty Moon, and the Sky Dome. He even obtained a copy of the [Frosty Storm Spell Agreement] left behind by the Elven Kingdom.

Chen Mo showed this part of the content to Macaga.

"The restrictions on necromancers' resurrection and summoning in this agreement come from two aspects."

"The first restriction is that the image of the deceased must not be used again. Therefore, it is stipulated that corpses with flesh and skin are strictly prohibited from being brought back to life."

"It can also be understood that a mage can resurrect skeletons, but not zombies."

Macaja seemed to understand something, and his breathing became slightly heavier.

"The second restriction corresponds to the memories of the deceased!"

"Generally speaking, after a living being dies, its memories and soul imprints do not immediately disappear."

"If the body is relatively intact, the resurrected body may retain fairly clear fragments of memory in the first three days after death; within three to seven days, the memory will quickly become blurred and fragmented; and after more than seven days, the remaining soul imprint will completely dissipate, and even if the remaining body is resurrected by a necromancer, it will no longer carry any of its former personality and memories."

In the video, Chen Mo revealed a mysterious smile.

"Now, do you understand why I arranged for you to collect the bodies?"

Macaja suddenly realized.

The Han Navy has a long-standing tradition of promptly cleaning up the battlefield.

After a battle, once the wounded are sent to the field hospital, the bodies of the fallen soldiers are collected and awaited repatriation if they are from our own side. The bodies of the enemy are buried together and disinfectant is applied to prevent the putrid smell from worsening the battlefield environment and causing unexpected epidemics.

Makaga was well aware that the battlefield disinfectant used in the Vast Ocean Territory had a special effect: it accelerated the decomposition of corpses, quickly forming skeletons.

Since everything has turned to bones, there's no need to worry about germs growing; that makes perfect sense.

"They are no longer 'corpses,' but rather pits of skeleton soldiers awaiting awakening, their memories blank. This perfectly falls within the gray area not explicitly prohibited in the 'Froststorm Spell Agreement.'"

Currently, dozens of mass graves have been dug at the front lines of the Hanhai Field Army's positions, each containing a large number of orc corpses.

Densely packed, layer upon layer!
Moreover, the lord specifically instructed that the enemy corpses be buried in different pits according to the different times of battle and death, and that records be kept at the same time.

This is to make it easier to calculate when the "seventh day after death" has passed!
Thinking of this, Macaja was in high spirits after his opponent ambushed and killed dozens of skeleton spearmen with a pit.

You've only buried a few of my soldiers, haha. The ones I'm burying here now are all future elite troops.

"By the way, we must be very careful and never let our guard down!"

"I suspect the enemy may have other plans or backup plans, so we need to make as many preparations as possible in advance."

Makaga raised his arm, and with a sharp whistling sound, gave Chen Mo a perfect military salute.

"Rest assured, Commander-in-Chief! The First Field Army of the Hanhai Army is determined to hold its ground to the death and resolutely complete all combat missions!"

Chen Mo laughed heartily.

"Well, when it comes to fighting, I'm no match for you!"

"In case of special emergency, you do not need to ask for permission. I authorize you to use all backup plans without exception."

"Oh, by the way, just one more thing."

"The Froststorm Spell Agreement I just mentioned was signed between humans and elves."

"The treaty doesn't mention any orcs, neither the spellcasters nor the materials to be spellcasted!"

(End of this chapter)