21st Century Necromancer

Chapter 181 Visit · Part One

Although the castle that was originally planned for the marriage with Jounouchi Hiromi had less than one-third constructed, and the greenhouse for growing roses and other magical plants wasn't even built yet, that didn't stop Jounouchi Hiromi from visiting the castle with great enthusiasm under Chen Yu's company, which was to be their love nest.

The design of the castle was an expensive endeavor as Kyuuzai Ryousen paid a hefty sum to a design company, and although it cost a lot, the company nearly worked itself to death with overtime. Driven by money, the design company operated around the clock and managed to present the complete set of design blueprints for the castle, including the Mage Tower, in record time.

Of course, being able to produce the blueprints within a week owed not only to the compelling power of money but also to the fact that Chen Yu provided sufficiently detailed specifications and requirements, which saved the time that would have been spent on the frustrations of the demanding client asking for countless revisions.

For Chen Yu, all that mattered for the castle's design was that the appearance was pleasing, the structure reasonable and practical, and all functional areas met his requirements. As for the tower, intended to be his Mage Tower and Spirit Gathering Tower, it was beyond the capacity of the real-world designers ignorant in spellcraft to create design plans for.

They were asked to help with the architectural layout and aesthetics, and to modify the original blueprint templates where Chen Yu felt they lacked modernity or comfort.

After all, the diagrams provided in the Multiverse Universal Necromancy Spell Compendium were standard Mage Tower templates, and each mage would modify and adjust them according to personal preferences.

In reality, no mage would construct their Mage Tower strictly following the blueprint, as doing so would only facilitate invaders to breach the tower by following the design plan, rendering the exercise pointless.

And after acquiring the design blueprints, it was time for the Necromancer's showtime.

Using the power of rituals to project a part of the Nether Plane into this space, and making it overlap with the entire area, was a basic operation in transforming an entire island into Necromantic Space and even extracting resources from the projected piece of the Nether Plane.

After necrosifying the island, Chen Yu only needed to capture a few souls plundered from the Netherworld, insert them into clay dolls made from Grave Soil after some adjustments, and voila – a cheap, efficient workforce skilled in self-replication was ready.

"Mr. Chen Yu, speaking of Necromancers, I remember they usually summon skeletons in the video games I've played," said Hiromi, walking through a corridor yet to be completed, looking at the clay dolls working hard on both sides. Originally bracing herself to see a scene of stark, white skeletons, she was surprised, "Why are all these workers dark clay dolls instead?"

Hearing such a question from Jounouchi Hiromi, Chen Yu couldn't help but feel amused.

This was the typical stereotype most had of Necromancers – that they should only deal with skeletons or decaying, smelly corpses, oblivious to the fact that mages, even those with more unique hobbies, were wise enough to discern the quality of materials; any layperson could tell the difference between bone, metal, and stone, much less the highly intelligent mages.

"Hiromi, you're a doctor, don't you agree that human bones can't compare to stone in strength?" he said with a smile to his girlfriend, summoned a clay doll over, and had it stand in front of them before continuing, "It's true that human bones are both hard and tough, or they wouldn't be able to support a human body.

But once a person dies and the flesh decays, turning the bones into mere skeletons, both the strength and the toughness significantly diminish."

Ordinary White Skeletons are indeed a staple for Necromancers in many fantasy works, and I can summon those things too. But their intelligence is very low, they can only understand simple instructions, and the strength of their whitened bones... makes them utterly unsuitable for heavy construction work.

However, these clay dolls are entirely different. They are strong, their bodies are robust, and with a complete soul inserted inside for control, they can not only understand complex instructions but also work autonomously. They don't need to rest 24 hours a day. For a Necromancer, they are simply the perfect workers."

"Eh~! Is that even possible? I thought Necromancers were always those guys in video games who are accompanied by skeletons and zombies!" Jounouchi Hiromi expressed her surprise while deliberately dangling her arms to mimic the pose of a zombie.

Watching his girlfriend pretending to be a zombie, Chen Yu wasn't frightened at all; instead, he found her very cute.

After sending the clay doll back to continue working, Chen Yu took Jounouchi Hiromi to the greenhouse, which was not yet fully constructed.

It was a greenhouse with a steampunk style. A massive steel structure supported a dome paved with thick glass, and inside the greenhouse were planted a field of vividly colored... no, pitch-black roses.

Looking at these roses whose leaves were also somewhat blackened, Jounouchi Hiromi thought their color matched the Gothic aesthetic quite well, but she curiously asked, "Are these black roses by any chance? Mr. Chen Yu, why don't you plant red roses?"

"These are Death Palace Roses, a very precious type of magical plant. After they bloom, their petals can be collected and used to make magic potions." Chen Yu casually plucked a black Death Palace Rose from nearby and handed it to Jounouchi Hiromi. Although he claimed it was a precious magical plant, it didn't really matter to pluck one or two when he had a greenhouse full of them.

Taking the flower that Chen Yu handed to her, Jounouchi Hiromi instinctively smelled it but couldn't detect any scent, which she found odd: "Why doesn't it have any smell? Do these roses not have any fragrance?"

"It's not that, but the fragrance of the Death Palace Roses cannot be perceived by the living. Only the dead and souls can smell their fragrance," Chen Yu shook his head but added with a touch of mystery for his girlfriend, "However, after the petals of the Death Palace Roses are refined through a special method, they can be used to create a very unique perfume.

Not only can it intoxicate the living, but even those who have passed away will remember this scent in their soul, achieving a literal captivation of the divine soul."

While Jounouchi Hiromi was carefully sniffing the Death Palace Rose, trying to imagine what the mysterious fragrance that could be made into the special perfume Chen Yu mentioned might smell like, a huge four-legged mechanical beast as tall as a three-story building passed by them. Hiromi couldn't help but look up at the massive steel monster, a strong sense of incongruity rising in her heart.

Isn't her boyfriend a Necromancer? Why is everything around him not related to corpses in the slightest?