After Dezen made all the needed spells in over a week. In the meanwhile, the Church of Alen priest informed the villagers to not leave the village, or at least not go into the forest too far from it. Although there were some explanations, he wanted to ask the Church mages himself, hoping he will get more information.
Dezen entered the church, and greeted the priest, who greeted him back, before contacting with the Church's higher ups. A little over 20 seconds passed, and a blue portal appeared in the centre of the building.
The black haired mage, whose name is Darren, came out of it, but instead of keeping the portal open, he closed it, and took out of his enchanted item the corpses, that Dezen has to turn into undead. He also looked wary, like if he was expecting someone or something to attack him. It made Dezen and the priest unsettled, but it didn't make them forgot culture.
- Welcome.
- Greetings.
- Hello. Unluckily, some unforeseen problems occurred, and thus, for your safety Dezen, we want you to do the modifications in your house. I hope it will not be a problem.
- Well, I wanted it that way, so there is none. I just want to ask you why the Church told us not to leave the village.
- I can tell you, but do not spread that information. We do not want the people to panic more. We are not sure yet why, but many new magical creatures appeared. Some of them with strange abilities, that are hard to counter. There are also landscapes that appear, disappear, and even seem to be replaced with new ones. - He looked around, like he was expecting something to happen. - The most terrifying part is that it doesn't leave any anomalies, nor traces, and there are also no signs that it will happen. They just get replaced like they were always there. But you do not have to worry too much. Tomorrow, mages and enchanted items will arrive to protect this village. Although you will be able to leave it, I suggest you doing this only via your undead. Otherwise, there will be risk.
Dezen looked at the floor and started thinking. After 17 seconds, or so, he finally asked.
- Can the Church grant us safety? Not protection from magical creatures, but from these replacements.
- Of course it can. Just, if you want me to be honest, I am not sure whether it can protect all of us. Every single one of us. Though, our God is already helping, so there is a real chance that all of his believers will be safe from what is happening.
- But, you said that there are no sings of these replacements, so how will the Church protect us?
- I heard our Leader is making artefacts that will warn people about them. Thus, I am sure we will be prepared for them. If you do not believe me, I understand, after all you do not know what power he holds.
***
After coming back to his home, Dezen preferred to focus on his work, rather than thinking about the future.
The next day, 3 mages from the Church of Alen arrived, and soon after it, the whole village with part of the woods surrounding it, were covered by a giant golden barrier. Then, everyone, except Dezen, went to the church to get better explanation of what is happening.
2 days passed and Dezen ended the Church's assignment. Thus, he took the undead to the church, where he waited for Darren to arrive.
When he appeared, the undead went through the portal, Dezen checked if the payment came, but instead of going back, Darren asked.
- Will you need human corpses to create undead?
- Human corpses?
- We are killing more criminals lately, and we can preserve corpses to give them to you. Perhaps, human undead will help you develop.
- Are they going to be my future payments?
- Yes. But we can give you some of them now, the assignments you can do in the future.
- Well, now I do not have high enough mana production to keep so big undead, but in the future I will be interested.
When Dezen came back to his home, he started cultivating. In fact, he could keep even 8 human undead, but it would drastically lower his mana production, affecting his development in the near future. And he also needs mana to create spells and experiments, like now.
After ending his cultivation, Dezen summoned one of his undead bugs, undead bird, and one of the undead wolves. He wanted to see if they will be able to cast spells, if he orders them to.
The first was the bug, which did nothing. Dezen didn't have high expectations towards it, so he wasn't really disappointed. Then, the bird also failed, but it at least used some mana of his, trying to cast a spell, but it didn't know how to.
After seeing this, Dezen realized something, and thought to himself.
"Right, they don't know how the spells structure looks, so they can't use them. Maybe I can teach them, but I'm not sure how intelligent they have to be to get it. Maybe if I had mind magic, I could place that knowledge in their minds, making them able to do this. Church of Alen probably has it, so maybe I will be able to get it in the future. Making it myself could be possible, but how long will it take? Month? And only to create, I don't know how long will the development take."
Thinking there is nothing more he can do, Dezen wanted to dismiss them, but right before saying the first word of that order, he remembered that there are magical creatures that have magical abilities, even though they possess low intelligence.
He told to himself.
- Is it because they have mana in their bodies? Or because of something else... Like having a soul.
Curious, Dezen started filling bodies of the 3 undead with fire mana. After making sure it doesn't leave them, and there is no need for a new spell, he ordered them to try to use any ability they can. Unluckily, it was also a failure, so he gave up, and started creating spell to control undead. From time to time, he was also checking on Alex, afraid something could happen to him.
***
Over a 10 days later, Dezen ended the spell. He first tested it with his one of his wolves, since their shapes were the closest to the human one.
First steps were hard, due to the differences in their bodies. However, Dezen knew it will happen, since the wolves also had that problem. Thus, he was ready to spends hours to learn how to walk, run, or do simple tasks.
The process was quite annoying to him, and this, combined with the fact that he will have to spend a lot of time in the future, repeating this with other undead, made him wonder if there is another way to get used to a body that is not his. His first idea was to make a spell that will speed up the process itself, but he gave up since it would require knowledge too advanced for him.
The second idea was to make a spell that will let him see memories of his undead, letting him get their experience. Dezen believed it will be easier, so he tried making it.
Days passed, and the progress was slow. In the meantime, his mana production enlarged. Thus, he decided to get a human corpse, hoping getting used to control it will be easier, and that human undead will be able to cast spells.
This time, he was paying with knowledge about necromancy. Surprisingly for Dezen, he could get over hundred corpses of normal humans, or 1-2 of mages of his chose. It was because human corpses are useless for everyone except him, but the mages, if they were caught, instead of killed, could be used.
Wondering what would be the best to do, Dezen sacrificed a while, before making the decision. He chose 2 weak mages and 1 normal human. He could get more of the latter, but he didn't want to affect his mana production too much.
After the bodies were transported to him, Dezen covered them with a green fire, creating new undead. Without any order, they just laid there, motionless. Dezen gazed at them for a few seconds, before he told them to get up, and follow him to his home.
Without a word, they stood up and walked after him, like normal humans. Even the colour of their skin was normal, so it was hard to tell that they are undead.
Back at his home, he made short tests of their intelligence, and was delighted to tell that it wasn't lowered. Then, excited, he ordered the 2 undead mages to cast non-harmful spells.
One of them created shadows, that were wandering on his body, protecting him. The second one raised her hand and illuminated the whole room, though there was no visible source of the light.
With a smile, he asked them what spells they have, wanting to check if they know something worth learning. Then, he started teaching them necromancy and body magic, at the same time planning the most efficient way to use them.