Chapter 90: Chapter 90: Watchtower Blueprint

Time passed quietly.

In the end, four bodies stood behind him.

Their eyes were empty, and their presence cold.

Aiden exhaled lightly.

“Four out of nine…”

He glanced at the remaining corpses.

Then his eyes stopped on one.

The Town Lord, he clicked his tongue.

“Too bad.”

He stood up straight.

“The strongest one failed.”

Carrion spoke from behind.

“The resistance of stronger individuals appears higher, my lord.”

Aiden shrugged.

“Yeah, I figured.”

Four new body tempering undead wasn’t bad.

That brought his forces up even more.

He turned his back on the corpses.

“Clean everything up,” he said casually.

“Coins, valuables… same as before.”

Carrion lowered its head.

“Yes, my lord.”

Aiden walked back toward the carriage.

Behind him, skeletons were already moving again.

Inside the carriage, Aiden leaned back against the worn cushion and opened his status screen. A faint glow flickered in his eyes as the familiar panel appeared before him.

Level 26.

He had jumped two levels in a single battle. Not bad.

Still, the strain from earlier hadn’t fully faded. His mana felt hollow, like a well that had been drained too quickly. Grave Calling… Just thinking about it made his chest feel heavy. It was powerful, no doubt, but it devoured his mana faster than all his summons combined.

“…Not something I can use carelessly,” he muttered under his breath.

Outside, the sound of wheels rolling over uneven ground continued for hours. The journey back was long, but quiet. No more ambushes. No more interruptions. Just the steady rhythm of the carriage pushing forward through the dark.

By the time they reached his town, the sky had already dimmed.

The moment the gates opened, a wave of noise greeted him.

Cheers.

Low, eerie, but unmistakably filled with excitement.

His undead citizens had gathered near the entrance, their hollow eyes glowing faintly as they welcomed him back.

Their lord had returned.

He didn’t linger long. After a brief glance over the crowd, he made his way toward his residence, his steps steady but slightly heavier than usual. Fatigue was catching up to him.

When he finally reached his room, he shut the door behind him and exhaled deeply.

Silence.

At last.

He walked to the side of his bed and sat down, running a hand through his hair before opening his status once more.

[Name: Aiden (Level: 26)]

Class: Necromancer (Death God — Locked)

Basic-Grade Summon: 19

Bronze-Grade Summon: 16

Iron-Grade Summon: 0

Silver-Grade Summon: 0

Gold-Grade Summon: 0

Legendary-Grade Summon: 0

Mythical-Grade Summon: 0

Summon Slot Available: 35/50

Active Skills:

Lord of the Dead, Bone Shield, Bone Spear, Undead Reinforcement, Undead Sight, Possession Command, Fear Pulse, Bone Armor, Grave Calling, Bone Prison

Passive Skills:

Mana Channeling, Necrotic Sustain, Necrotic Reservoir, Undead Dominion, Death Aura

Skill Points: 2

Subordinate: 2

Gold Coins: 5,437

Aiden stared at the screen, his gaze lingering on the numbers.

Two skill points.

“…I’ll decide that later,” he murmured.

Aiden lay back on his bed for a moment, staring at the ceiling. The exhaustion was still there, lingering in his bones, but his mind refused to rest.

“…Right. The town.”

With a quiet sigh, he raised a hand and opened the building system. A translucent panel spread out before him, filled with blueprints and structures he could unlock.

His eyes moved across the list before stopping.

Stone Wall Blueprint — 2,800 Gold Coins.

Watchtower Blueprint — 2,400 Gold Coins.

Aiden narrowed his eyes slightly. “…Expensive.”

Still, after what just happened, he wasn’t about to leave his town vulnerable.

Without hesitating further, he selected both.

“Purchase.”

The moment the command went through, his gold dropped sharply, but something else happened.

The ground trembled.

He immediately got up and walked to the window, pushing it open.

Outside, the entire town was changing.

The old wooden walls that surrounded the settlement began to crack, not from damage, but from transformation. The wood darkened, hardened, and then, almost like it was being rewritten, shifted into solid stone.

It didn’t crumble or collapse.

It became stone.

Layer by layer, the walls thickened, rising higher, sturdier. What was once a simple wooden barrier now stood like a fortress, cold, gray, and unyielding.

The undead citizens paused, their hollow gazes turning toward the walls. Even without emotions, they seemed… aware of the change.

Then, something else caught Aiden’s attention.

Two empty spots near the edges of the town began to distort.

The air itself twisted, like invisible hands were shaping something out of nothing. Dust and fragments of bone gathered from the ground, pulled together by an unseen force.

And then.

Structures began to rise.

Watchtowers.

They didn’t get built piece by piece like normal constructions. There were no workers, no tools, no sound of hammering.

They simply formed.

Stone spiraled upward, assembling itself into tall, narrow towers. Bone fragments fused into their structure, reinforcing them like veins running through rock. At the top, a hollow opening took shape, dark, deep, and ominous.

Aiden’s eyes sharpened.

“…So this is the watchtower.”

As if responding to his thoughts, a faint glow flickered within the tower’s opening.

Then, suddenly. A sharp crack echoed.

A bone spear shot out from the tower, slicing through the air at terrifying speed before embedding itself into the ground far beyond the walls.

Aiden’s gaze followed it, impressed.

“No delay… no command needed…”

The tower didn’t move again after that, returning to stillness as if nothing had happened. But Aiden could feel it, an invisible awareness spreading from it, scanning, waiting.

Anything hostile that stepped within range…

Would be killed instantly.

A slow smile formed on his face.

“…Good.”

He leaned slightly against the window frame, looking out over his town once more.

Stone walls. Automated defenses. A settlement that was starting to look less like a refuge, and more like a fortress.

Now, it felt a little safer.

Not enough.

But it was a start.

—-

The next day, under a pale morning sky, a group of travelers made their way along the dirt road leading toward Riverfall Town.

They were body temperers, men and women who had hardened their flesh through brutal training. Wanderers by nature. They moved from town to town, city to city, taking whatever work they could find. Escort missions, monster hunts, guard duty… anything that paid.

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