Chapter 189 - Undead Army (3)

Over the course of the next week, Luke, Rina, and Shalia found five groups of elves. So, they had three hundred allies on their sides. It was quite the crowd, so they decided to return to the mountain and see how much progress the others made. It was also time for Luke to give them orders to train different skills. Despite the difference in Level, Luke was certain that his parents were stronger than most elves due to their lack of skills. The trip back would take two days, so Luke decided to bring that topic to Rina right now instead of surprising her as well.

"I was thinking that your followers need some rough training," Luke said when his group had the chance to be alone while watching their temporary camp. "They have their specialties, but because you guys favored those too much, your status is kind of low."

"I can always tell them to learn new skills and train them," Rina said.

"That won't solve the problem… the issue here is the fact that they kind of worship you. If you give them harsh orders, it will probably backfire on your image," Luke explained. "So, while you keep being yourself as the perfect queen that they envisioned, I will train them as harshly as possible. Until I become even more hated by them."

"You are being hated?" Rina frowned. "And I don't think that I am that worshipped, they just want a symbol that represents our history... this is kind of dangerous, don't you think? And scary too..."

"Right now, it is just jealousy since I am someone who is helping with your goals, someone that they can't be… at least not yet," Luke replied. "Essentially, with the harsh training, they will think that I don't deserve my spot at your side, so they will strive to become stronger than me. This will improve their mindset."

Rina understood where Luke was coming from. It was the bad cop and good cop routine, somewhat. Over the last few months, Rina understood that her elves were too soft. They managed to survive for four years, relying on their natural skills, but they never did more than that. They never tried much more than that. Humans, on the other hand, didn't have natural magic talents like they had. Still, because of some individuals, they managed to survive even in harsher conditions.

"Try not to be too harsh, all right?" Rina asked.

"I will see what I can do, but ultimately, it will depend on their attitude," Luke replied.

Two days later, they arrived in the mountains without finding any unpleasant surprises along the way. However, the progress regarding the elves that were left behind was disappointing. They had magic enough to keep opening paths inside the mountain non-stop, but they didn't have the willpower to keep doing it. Either they think that they were fighting a lost war, or they were just lazy… Luke assumed that it was the second option since they lived very comfortable lives before the monsters appeared. However, Luke wasn't the one to judge them, he was quite lazy himself, but he improved himself when he found his home planet in a do-or-die situation.

In any case, Luke let the elves rest for another day since they had to unpack their things and find new places to sleep. Naturally, the newcomers didn't like the idea of using a cave as their new home. Still, they respected Rina so much that they didn't dare voice their complaints. After all that, Rina and Luke separated the elves into two groups, those who had what was necessary to fight and those that didn't have the right mindset. Still, even the first group was lacking in several points. Luke wasn't a battle instructor, and as far as everyone was concerned, he had a lot less battle experience than them. So, there was only one thing that he could teach them...

"Tonight, all of you will buy from the shop all the Resistance skills available," Luke declared. "Electric Resistance and Poison Resistance cost 64 thousand coins each, so only a few of you can buy it, but eventually, all of you will have that. I will make sure of it."

Although that hurt his pocket, Luke learned those as well. He had to set the example, after all. In any case, the elves didn't like Luke's tone. From their perspective, he was just a servant of their queen. They couldn't be more wrong…

After saying that, Luke ordered the elves to make a line, and then Luke made his skeletons also approach. While they had seen him controlling those during the trip, it was clear that they didn't like the presence of those.

"Each one of you will get hit by my skeletons several times in order to increase your resistance," Luke declared. "Your task is to endure that as much as possible without using healing magic."

It was a pretty spartan method of training. Rina also seemed like she wanted to complain, but doing so right now would only cause more problems than anything else. In any case, since Rina didn't say anything, they assumed that she wasn't against it, and it was necessary. Without wasting any more time, they began the training. At first, they frowned since the power of the skeletons' attacks didn't hurt them all that much, but then the damage began to pile up, and the first guys prepared to complain… However, then they saw Luke using Spark Ball against himself. He trembled all over since his Magic was higher than his Resistance. He kept using that until steam began to leave his body.

Upon seeing that, the skeletons realized that their training was being quite warm if compared to Luke. Soon, they also realized that Luke was looking down on them.. It was like he was saying that their difference was that big… Eventually, Luke stopped using Spark Balls and then began to poison himself with Rina's whip.