Building the Strongest Undead Empire from Scratch

Chapter 37: I'm rich

Alex removed all the Essence Shards from the staffs of the surrounding Goblin Mages, totaling seventeen.

She felt incredibly delighted.

"I'm rich, I'm rich!"

She glanced at the nearby Goblin lair, certain that it contained a treasure trove. However, the entrances on the hillside were too small for most undead to enter, so she had to send in the Skeleton Soldiers for a thorough search.

The Skeleton Soldiers, slightly taller but similar in size to Goblins, had no trouble entering the caves.

The Goblin tribe's cave system was extensive, with over a thousand members. Alex sent three hundred Skeleton Soldiers to search, instructing them to bring out anything they could carry.

Alex approached the largest cave, which was the residence of the Goblin leader. Curious, she picked up a torch and cautiously entered.

The cave was spacious, over two meters high, so Alex didn't have to stoop. It was dark and damp inside, with a particularly foul smell that nearly made her vomit. She wondered if the Goblin leader liked to defecate while sleeping.

After a short walk, Alex reached the end of the cave. With the dim light of the torch, she could see the layout.

There was a pile of straw with a burlap mat on top—presumably the leader's sleeping area. It was incredibly crude; she couldn't understand how such slovenly creatures could be considered intelligent.

At the back of the cave were two smaller openings too narrow for Alex to enter. She approached with the torch to get a better look.

!!!

Using the light from the torch, Alex thought she saw several boxes made of bones, more like open-topped containers. She saw them filled to the brim with magic crystals, poking out.

"Hmph, I can definitely get in there!"

Alex stepped back, raised her left hand to gather magic, and blasted the entrance open with a Black Flame Blast.

She stooped and walked into the cave, reaching the bone boxes. Each box was about one meter long and half a meter wide, filled entirely with magic crystals!

Inside the cave, Alex also found a special structure blueprint, a map, and a magic book.

"Holy fuck, there's even a magic book!"

Alex was stunned; she had thought Goblin Mages naturally knew how to cast fireballs, but they had learned it from this book.

She opened the magic book to find it was an intermediate-level fire magic book. Fireball was just the most basic spell in it. The Goblin Mages had been practicing from this book, but their talents were so poor that only a few could master even the simplest fireball spell.

Since all humans who arrived on Eldoria automatically learned the common language of Eldoria, Alex could understand the language of other native forces and read their books. This was part of the 'newbie package' given to all Lords by the system.

This intermediate fire magic book was incredibly simple compared to Alex's dark magic. The basic principles were the same, involving chanting spells to manipulate elemental forces around and concentrate them on the staff.

Thus, Alex could definitely learn from this fire magic book.

She tucked the special structure blueprint and map into the magic book to examine more closely back at the castle. Additionally, she placed the Essence Shards and magic crystals she was holding into the box. The value of this magic book was immeasurable, far more precious than a box full of magic crystals.

Alex exited the small opening and returned to the larger cave of the Goblin leader. Her heart was pounding with excitement as she eagerly looked towards another opening.

"Damn it, why even look? Just blast it open."

Boom!

Alex slowly lowered her left hand after successfully blasting open the other entrance with magic.

Excited, she stooped and hurried inside.

"Ah, why is it like this..."

Disappointed by what she saw inside, Alex was puzzled why the contents of the two caves didn't match in value.

What was Big Greenbean thinking?

The cave was filled with miscellaneous items that seemed useless at first glance. There were some of the Goblins' usual equipment, unfinished staffs, some stinky food, and a pile of rocks in the corner.

"Are their brains broken, putting rocks in a cave? What's that about?"

Alex approached with the torch to take a closer look.

"Huh, these seem a bit different. Why are all these rocks black?"

Upon closer inspection with the torchlight, Alex realized that nearly half the cave was filled with black rocks.

"They look familiar, what do they remind me of... Hmm... they kind of look like iron ore?"

?!

Could it really be iron ore? Where did these Goblins get so much iron, and they don't even have the technology to smelt it.

Never mind.

Alex exited the cave, quickly stepping outside to breathe in some fresh air; the inside was truly too foul, almost suffocating.

After this campaign, besides strengthening her undead army, the greatest gain was probably the magic book.

Alex instructed a few Skeleton Soldiers to carry out the items she had just seen; she supervised from outside.

It took the Skeleton Soldiers nearly an hour to completely empty the Goblin caves. There were quite a few valuable items in the other Goblin caves as well, but they paled in comparison to the Goblin leader's hoard.

By now, all the Goblin corpses had been transported in one batch, and the remaining Skeleton Soldiers returned to carry the treasures from the Goblin caves back.

Alex carefully climbed onto Arthur's back.

Rip...

Her black stockings were torn again, revealing enticing thigh skin.

Alex was speechless; her black stockings had been snagged by Arthur's bones again. The quality of these stockings was really poor; the more careful she was, the more likely they were to tear.

Alex was used to it by now and decided to just make do.

She looked back at the Goblin tribe's site one last time. There were no Goblin corpses left on the ground, just puddles of green fluid.

The contents of the Goblin caves had been completely emptied by the Skeleton Soldiers. It must be said, the Skeleton Soldiers were quite thorough.

Alex had instructed them to take everything they could carry out of the cave, and they did exactly that, not even sparing the Goblins' underwear—everything was brought out.

Outside the cave, there was a pile of miscellaneous items, including the clothes worn by the Goblins, all of which were useless.

Looking at the scene, Alex felt as if the Goblin tribe had been robbed by thieves who, upon being discovered, had no choice but to kill everyone—a classic case of burglary turned robbery and murder.