Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night

Chapter 183: New Units

The following discussion was a lengthy and boring one. Zane negotiated for Olivia to visit New Reno once a month to maintain their power grid. Which was simple enough. She simply needed to send a jolt of electricity through a nearby power station and it would redirect the current throughout the rest of the area.

Zane also sold the excess goods to New Reno, which included armor, weapons, and, most importantly, fresh food. From there, he promised to send routine convoys into New Reno with supplies that would be purchased at a fixed rate of blood crystals.

Without a judicial system, the only thing that this agreement was secured by was a man's honor. And honor wasn't genuinely found in the modern world, let alone the apocalypse. Still, Zane was a man of his word, and he would continue to send his excess supplies to New Reno so long as they could meet the demands which they had agreed to.

After this, Zane and the girls drove back to Gravestone with the ranchers in tow. The Ranchers settled the livestock in the fields outside the city. Fields which were protected by Zane's undead servants, and Lily's control over the local plantlife.

If any random and leaderless undead dared to try to attack the livestock, then they would quickly find a small army of Undead Spearmen ready to take them out. Along with the local flora attacking them in ways that were straight out of fantasy.

Over the next week, Zane and the girls continued to grind the undead minions within the ruins of Old Reno, while Zane silently worried over the idea of Elysium. Were the men he killed at the gates of the gravestone from Elysium? Or were they from some place else?

Had he unknowingly made two powerful enemies? Enemies he knew very little about? Or had he just made one enemy? These were the thoughts that plagued Zane as the week went by. But by the end of it, he had some bountiful rewards.

For starters, He had raised his undead horde to the maximum of Tier One, all 550 of them. Not only that, but he also unlocked a hidden achievement which allowed him to gain an additional 10 undead within his horde for every point of charisma he had. Thus, Zane now controlled a horde of 720 Undead Servants, all of which were level 4 and equipped with Uncommon Level 5 gear.

Of the 720 Undead Servants in his Ranks, 12 of them had advanced to Level Five, giving Zane the ability to upgrade them to Tier II. At first he thought he might be able to advance them into Leapers, or Howlers, and though this was an option. There were several other types of undead which they could evolve into. Undead, which he had not yet met in the wild.

Apparently, the Undead could evolve in a variety of ways. For example, if he equipped the Undead with Melee weapons, and they gained experience through Melee kills. They could evolve into more powerful undead foot soldiers.

Two of which immediately became interesting to Zane. The Skeletal Hoplite was attractive. The rotting flesh would fade away from its bones, and its internal organs would fade away. Instead, what would remain was merely an animated skeleton, one that was equipped head to toe with armor from the grim forge, and expertly wielded a spear, a round shield, and a short sword as a sidearm.

It also had an increase in base stats and allowed it to more effectively coordinate into formations. Over all it was a vastly improved version of the Undead Spearman.

The second Melee based Undead unit that caught Zane's interest was the Skeletal Man-At-Arms. This Tier II Undead wielded a long sword, and was equipped from head to toe in armor crafted from the grim forge. It was basically an improved version of the Undead Swordsman, which Elena liked to lead.

There were, of course, several other offerings such as the Skeletal Skirmishers, which were light footmen prioritizing in ambushing tactics. Among other unique variations, like the Skeletal Berserker. But ultimately, the variation of Tier II Undead in the melee category, including Skeletal units.

Sure, he could also evolve his units into Tier II Undead found in the wild, but only those he had come across so far such as Howlers and Leapers, neither of which were particularly useful for his tactics. Thus, Zane ultimately decided to upgrade six of the twelve undead into Skeletal Hoplites, and the other six into Skeletal Man-At-Arms.

When Zane manifested the Skeletal Hoplites and Man-At-Arms, he gave them different orders from their Tier I counterparts. These Tier II Undead had a natural increase in intelligence, making them ideal officers among his ranks.

Zane believed these units would be best operated as small units of 80 spearmen each. One of which was the unit commander. in other words, they were the Skeletal Hoplite, which acted as a Centurion.

In total, he had six of these centuries, which all answered to Madison, or they did in a battle where Madison was present. In other words, Madison was the leader of his Cohort of Undead Spearmen. Making her a Primus Pilus or a Primus for short.

At the same time, Zane ordered the six Skeletal Man-At-Arms to do the same for his Undead Swordsman, which were at the moment much smaller in number. With there being six groups of 19 Undead Swordsmen, plus one Skeletal Man-At-Arms as their commander.

Zane would dispatch these six centuries to patrol outside of Gravestone. Specifically, the fields with the livestock and crops, as well as the ruins of Old Carson City. If they came across and undead stragglers, their orders were to eliminate them, and if they came across any survivors, their goal was to be neutral.

Unless, of course, the survivors attacked them first. Then they were free to kill and devour those who were foolish enough to attack them. With this system in place, Zane had a relatively robust defense network protecting Gravestone and the area which it wished to expand into. Something which he wanted to improve upon in the days that followed.