"What do you command, my liege? I, the one named as Yan, shall serve you for all eternity." Yan said with nothing but utmost respect in his voice.
"I won't be wandering here for eternity. Nor am I interested in doing that." Arnold shrugged his shoulder, "Either way, I do have a task for you."
Arnold pointed towards the pile of corpses next to Yan. He didn't say a word but Yan heard his master's command loud and clear.
Yan got back to his feet and started mumbling to himself. It sounded like some ancient gibberish language when in fact it was a spell, the reanimation spell that was created by Yan over the centuries during which he had spent his life as an elf. He finished his spell and within moments, thousands of corpses rose from the pile.
The minions did not have a special stat of anything that could differentiate them from any other undead being. They didn't even retain the skills they might have had from when they were alive. However, their sheer numbers more than made up for it.
Also, it wasn't like Arnold wanted to use Yan's undead in combat. The only reason they were there was to help in the expansion of his domain and to serve as cannon fodder whenever the need arises. After all, they were the only expendable creatures in his arsenal. But after seeing them, Arnold thought about using them for a tertiary reason as well: Intimidation.
Only a few steel-hearted individuals would be able to take in the sight of over a thousand bloodthirsty undead chasing after them. The rest would be shocked and might even submit to him in fear. As for the civilians, they were scared of seeing goblins, let alone the undead.
Strangely enough... unlike the beings Talos resurrected, the ones resurrected by Yan were not associated with Arnold directly. Instead, he had to ask Yan to make them do even the meagre tasks like walking around and picking up things, basically the things the undead would have to do once Arnold got enough money to start expanding the facilities inside his domain.
Still, Yan assured him that he can make his undead do whatever his master wished from them. Arnold decided to leave it at that for the moment. After he had thoroughly analysed the undead, it was time to move towards the next and the most important task.
"I'm somewhat sure it would be a dud... but let's see whether you can resurrect beings who were stronger than you before they were slain by me."
This was Arnold's true purpose behind resurrecting Yan. If Yan managed to not only resurrect the labours for him, but the giants as well, it would drastically improve his battle prowess. Arnold thought so as he was sure with the given state of the warriors' power levels, none of them would be able to kill even a single Frost Giant. That is, with the exception of Nicole, but even she would eventually get exhausted if she used her abilities continuously.
So yeah... even though Arnold was already unbeatable, with the giants backing him up, even the demigods would hesitate before making a move against him.
"As master wishes..." Yan said and immediately started mumbling those same ancient words which he had before resurrecting the minions.
However, it was a dud just like Arnold had expected. But Yan did not give up. His Master had asked something from him and he wasn't going to give up so easily.
Yan kept using a variety of spells but nothing worked. Eventually, Arnold had to order Yan to stop.
Arnold already knew why Yan couldn't resurrect the giants on his own. With the demonstration from last time, it was clear as a cloudless night that Yan could only resurrect the beings who were weaker than him. Unlike Talos who could resurrect beings that were stronger than him as long as there wasn't a drastic difference between their levels.
Whereas, Yan couldn't resurrect a single giant because the giants had been stronger than him back when they were alive, unlike the rest of his minions. Thankfully Arnold already had a solution for the problem.
"Talos, take Yan along with the needed amount of beast crystals to Devon and tell him to unlock Yan's true potential. We'll try once again after that and then I'll think about what do I need to do next." Arnold instructed the two of them before walking out of the vault, "And if I don't return before the procedure is completed, then try to assess the undead's potential in combat. In the meantime, I'll go and welcome our guests outside. I don't feel comfortable with just leaving everything to Bad-Breath."
"Rest assured, it will be done, Master. I'll make sure of it." Talos replied as Arnold disappeared.
***
Meanwhile, on the outside, a group of over a hundred top-ranked warriors had gathered where the dungeon entrance was supposed to be. It was reported that there was going to be a dungeon break in the area as the attack team A of the Golden Dragons had unfortunately met their demise and thus failed to close the dungeon on time.
However, when they got there, the dungeon had already been taken care of. The one leading the group was none other than Yu Zhung. Standing 6' 1" tall, Yu Zhung was a white skinned man who had an attention-seeking vibe around him, and he has a small red scar on his left cheek, right below the left eye which resembled the shape of a serpent or a dragon.
He had a lean face, a well-formed nose, and thin lips. His brown eyes were unusually thin and he had angular eyebrows. His elbow-length, straight, jet-black hair worn in a top knot. Basically, he looked like everything a girl would die to have in her man. Yet his dreadful expression clouded over his beauty.
He was clad in golden armour that reeked of blood. It was his special set of armour, one he wore when he was raging from within. The armour itself wasn't anything extraordinary, but it looked intimidating. On his back were 4 swords along with the two swords which he held in his hands. All in all, he had brought everything he had with him to rescue his fiance's beloved brother.
But now that the dungeon was closed, no matter how many weapons or men he brought with himself. Not even the gods would be able to rescue him now.
"Bring Zing over to me now..." Yu growled when he saw the dungeon was closed.
Zing in his fear of life contacted Yu Zhung after he received the call from someone he did not know. But he couldn't tell him the truth behind why he sent Yu Zhung's brother-in-law into a dungeon without his permission.
So Zing made up a lie and told Yu Zhung that Jin Rong went into the dungeon on his own and only informed him about it once he was already inside. He also lied and told them that Jin had called to tell him that something went wrong inside, not long after and that's when his communicator went silent for good.
One of the warriors dragged Zing by his collar before Yu, who did not even bother looking at him and pointed towards the closed dungeon.
"Care to explain what bullsh*t is this?"
But before he could answer, Chiang Ling appeared on the scene. He had gotten the news that Yu Zhung was on the move along with his personally trained warriors. Something that didn't happen usually but whenever it did, it ended up in a mess.
The last time something like this happened, Yu Zhung ended up taking the entire parliament as his hostage just because one of them made a snarky comment about his now fiance. It was a scandal yet the world did not know about it. All thanks to the control of the government over the press.
So Chiang wanted to see for himself and make sure that nothing of that sorts happened ever again.
"What's going on here?" Chiang asked the two of them.
"You should ask your pet about that." Yu replied, "I'm thissssss close from killing this basta*d."
"Zing, you motherfcker, what did you do this time?" Chiang rushed over to Zing and slapped him hard across the face, "I made you the manager so I don't have to clear your mess and live peacefully and yet all you do is make my life miserable!"
"I-I swear Master Chiang, this time I'm not at fault. Jin Rong ran into the dungeon without my permission!" Zing pleaded before breaking down in tears.
"Oh... my... god..." One of the members of the group found something, but that something wasn't good for any of them, "Master Zhung... there's blood all over the ground here!"