Chapter 6: The Death Lord’s Armor Set

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“I…” Li Bin suddenly froze. Yes, what did he want? Resources, or wealth? For a moment, Li Bin couldn’t decide.

“How about this—there’s a cloak I have here. It’s of no use to me, so I’ll just give it to you.”

“A cloak?” Because of his mummy form, Li Bin had never used any armor or cloaks, so he didn’t react at first.

“Yes, this one. Take a look.” Damon casually took out a black cloak and placed it before Li Bin.

The moment Li Bin took hold of it, he felt a rush of powerful necrotic energy. Wisps of darkness drifted from the black cloak, and in one corner, an emblem of a skull was sewn with golden thread.

“This is…”

“A level-four necromancy artifact: the Cloak of Corpse Souls. Putting it on boosts your Summon Spirit skill by twenty percent, and you can convert any corpse of level eight or above on the battlefield directly into a lich of the corresponding level,” Damon said offhandedly, describing the cloak’s properties.

“Directly converting corpses into liches—isn’t that a legendary ability of the Ghost King Cloak set?” Li Bin asked.

“That’s ancient history. Over the years, the original Ghost King Cloak three-piece set has evolved into the current Death Lord five-piece set. The pieces are: the Blood Soul Necklace, which summons level seven vampires; the Corpse Soul Cloak for level eight liches; the Knight Soul Gauntlets for level nine death knights; the Phantom Soul Belt for level ten liches; and the Dragon Soul Crown for summoning level eleven bone dragons.”

Damon glanced at Li Bin, who was swallowing nervously, and went on, “The set bonuses are: with any three pieces, your summoned troops’ level increases by one; with all five, everything you summon becomes a battle hero or magic hero.”

“Really? Where are the other pieces?” Li Bin’s eyes gleamed with excitement.

“How should I know?” Damon rolled his eyes. “This one took my country over a thousand years to find. You think such things are as common as cabbages in the street?”

Li Bin thought about it and realized Damon was right. He draped the Cloak of Corpse Souls over his shoulders, and it instantly transformed into a swirl of black smoke, circling his body once before settling on his back as a black mark.

From a distance, it looked as if his back had been scorched. But what caught Li Bin’s attention wasn’t the appearance; it was the user instructions for the cloak that had just popped up from the system.

The Cloak of Corpse Souls wasn’t as unconditionally powerful as Damon made it sound. To convert corpses into liches, it had strict requirements: the corpse must be at least level eight, have died within the past hour, not yet be fully transformed into a standard corpse, and only mage-type creatures had a relatively high success rate of 20%.

If these conditions weren’t met, forcing a conversion would only produce a level-one skeleton soldier.

Moreover, the full Death Lord set actually consisted of seven pieces, not five as Damon had said. The two additional components were the Great Pharaoh’s Bandages, for summoning level seven mummies, and the Soul-Reaping Scythe, for summoning level ten soul-devourers.

However, these two items seemed to be substitutes and were thus left out of the official Death Lord set. The system also offered an amusing tip: someone was planning to use these two substitutes as the core, combine them with three other items, and assemble an alternative Death Lord set.

Li Bin didn’t pay this unexpected system tip much heed. In his view, it was probably just bonus lore for obtaining a high-level artifact, with no real value.

Putting aside his thoughts of searching for more treasures for now, Li Bin shifted the conversation to Carter, the lord of Uyada City. “What are you planning to do about Carter?”

“However you want to deal with him is fine,” Damon replied offhandedly, pushing the matter back to Li Bin. “This time, it’s your call. After all, I’ve been his rival for years—if I act, he’ll know exactly what I’m up to.”

Li Bin considered this and saw the sense in Damon’s words. “Then I’ll need some information on Carter. I’m sure you have some?”

“Of course. Come with me, I’ll have them bring it to you.” Damon led Li Bin toward his city, Abila.

Along the way, Li Bin learned from Damon’s chatter that Abila had over a thousand years of history—a level eleven metropolis. Thanks to generations of the Damon family’s efforts, the city had every Sanctum-type unit imaginable, except for the Sky Castle for summoning angels, which was still unfinished.

On top of that, the city had the blessing of a certain deity from the Light domain, making it extremely hostile to necromancy units. If Damon hadn’t personally brought Li Bin, his troops might have been shot down by volleys of arrows before even reaching the gates.

Inside the town hall, Li Bin finally obtained all the information on Carter and his city, Uyada. Unlike Abila, Uyada was a public city.

Such public cities had their pros and cons. The advantage was that, without a city core, there was no level cap—it could be upgraded to a level thirteen capital as long as the town hall had funds.

But the lack of a city core was also a major weakness. Any faction that occupied the town hall could claim the city as their own, unlike private cities, where you had to dig out the city core and change its inscription.

Carter had seized control of this mechanist city, Uyada, which had been at odds with Abila for a millennium, just thirty years earlier. His arrival utterly destroyed the Damon family’s decades-long slow infiltration plan, and in one siege, Carter even killed Damon’s father.

Carter could be called a mortal enemy of the Damon family, but he was also extraordinarily capable. His family possessed an innate ability to passively grow their magical power, freeing him from spending long hours in meditation to increase mana. This let him focus more on city-building.

However, this family trait also brought them no end of trouble. Carter’s own son was murdered because of it, and his grandson had gone missing for years for the same reason.

Now, Carter had no heir left by his side. To ensure his family’s hold over Uyada, he had begun researching the ultimate mechanist project: man-machine fusion, in pursuit of immortality.

The other lords of the Bialu Empire were secretly undermining Carter’s research. They all hoped for his early demise so their own power could expand further.

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