Although not residing in Drachenhof Castle, there were still quite a few vampires working within the castle during the day. Most of them were engaged in alchemical experiments, manufacturing alchemical equipment, or creating high-level undead, producing more powerful magical weapons and armor for high-level undead and vampires.
The production of ordinary weapons and armor for skeleton soldiers was outsourced to human manufacturers in Sylvania. However, for high-level weapons, such as those made of black iron, mithril, and adamantine, the vampires produced them themselves.
Deep beneath Drachenhof Castle, there was a complete production line. Vampires worked on the production line, using their magic to forge metals, inscribe magical runes on armor and weapons, and enchant them. Sets of armor, weapons, and staffs were continuously produced, either sent to the front lines to replenish losses or paired with newly created high-level undead and stored in the armory beneath the castle.
This was arguably the most significant secret of the Carstein family, its importance likely surpassing the family's publicly known treasure, the Blood Grail. To this day, in the hollowed-out underground armories, more than twenty thousand high-level undead lay quietly, along with over ten times that number of ordinary skeleton soldiers. The precious Cairn Wraiths, Black Knights, Blood Grail Knights—and even three massive undead dragons—rested silently in the lightless armories, awaiting the call of their vampire masters.
This was the army accumulated over centuries by three generations of Carstein counts. Its combat strength surpassed the total military forces of Sylvania's hostile nations. The other three families—Lahmia, Nechrarch, and Abhorash—also had similar reserve forces.
The vampires thus amassed their strength, biding their time, waiting for the right moment to strike with overwhelming force! Whenever the time was right, or their numbers reached a certain threshold, the vampires would follow in their ancestors' footsteps and launch an assault on the lands of the living! At such times, the undead armies under vampire control would reach a terrifying scale.
Waled and Tris occupied a small, vacant alchemy lab. Tris then brought in several high-quality skeletons, mostly spoils of war from battles with enemies. Since Sylvania itself had no military training institutions open to the living, these skeletons were invaluable.
There were five skeletons in total: three of standard human build, one of a dwarf warrior, and one of a greenskin orc. Typically, such non-human bones would be ground into bone powder and reshaped into standard human skeletons using bone rejuvenation spells. After all, undead armies were disciplined forces, and discipline was inseparable from standardization.
However, since these skeletons were for training purposes, it didn't matter. Tris also had her reasoning: "In the heat of battle, you'd use a corpse as soon as you got it. There's no time for processing." Waled found her argument convincing and nodded, then focused intently on watching Tris perform the ritual.
Creating a true high-level undead was nothing like what Waled had done last month in the tomb, where he simply infused enough magic and slapped on a set of black iron armor. His shoddy creations were riddled with flaws, and if it hadn't been for the cat's help in completing those tomb guardians, who knows what chaos would have ensued.
Now, watching Tris work with such meticulous care, Waled felt a pang of embarrassment—first, the bones had to be soaked in a special potion to enhance their durability, a process that took at least six hours. Of course, the three human skeletons had already undergone this step. The dwarf and orc skeletons were just for practice, so there was no need for such rigor.
Thus, Tris didn't insist that Waled watch the bones soak in the potion. She simply copied the potion recipe for him to try mixing on his own later. Then, she moved on to the next step.
Using fresh blood, Tris inscribed magical runes on the skeletons to further enhance their strength and power. Most importantly, these runes connected the skeletons to souls in the underworld, drawing upon the most useful aspects of their former lives—their combat skills and military training.
After inscribing the runes, the process wasn't over. Next, she carved a magical array into the bones—the most critical step. If a mistake was made in the runes, they could be wiped off and redrawn. But with the array, once carved into the bone, small errors could be fixed by shaving off a piece of bone and starting over. Larger mistakes meant grinding the skeleton back into bone powder and starting anew.
This magical array was split between the bones and the tomb guardian's armor and weapons, ensuring the undead was perfectly attuned to its equipment and could master the combat techniques of a tomb guardian—skills like wielding a black iron halberd, sword and shield, or operating a crossbow, as well as formation tactics and coordination with other undead soldiers.
Once the runes and array were complete, infusing enough pale magical wind would bring the tomb guardian to life. Of course, it was essential to load the family's control commands, ensuring the undead would obey the vampires of the Carstein family.
Watching Tris work for over three hours to complete a single tomb guardian, Waled felt a bit speechless. He realized just how delusional he had been to think his shoddy creations could pass muster.
Seeing the tomb guardian's eyes ignite with phosphorescent flames as it saluted her, Tris nodded in satisfaction with her work. She then turned to Waled and said, "It's a bit slow when done individually. But nowadays, we use assembly lines to produce undead soldiers. A tomb guardian can be made in twenty minutes."
"I see," Waled nodded.
"Did you catch everything I just did?" Tris asked.
"More or less," Waled replied.
"Then why don't you try making a tomb guardian yourself?" Tris chuckled, thinking to herself that such a complex process couldn't possibly be learned in one go. This was purely to make Waled stumble and get a little revenge for him tricking her sympathy earlier and daring to hold a sword to her neck.
In truth, when teaching students to create tomb guardians, most instructors would spend at least a week teaching the required runes and arrays individually, then have the students practice inscribing and carving them on bones separately. Only after mastering these steps would they combine them into a complete process. No one ever started with the full procedure right away.
Tris planned to wait until Waled made a mistake or got stuck, then step in to mock him and teach the overconfident boy a lesson. But as she watched, her surprise grew. Waled had actually followed her earlier steps and completed a tomb guardian—and in less time than she had taken!
Seeing Waled frown and mutter, "First try, a bit clumsy, not perfect yet..." Tris felt so embarrassed she wanted to crawl into a hole. Compared to a genius like Waled, she felt utterly inadequate... This wasn't just about affinity for magical wind. Inscribing runes required artistic skill, carving arrays demanded craftsmanship, and above all, memory... Waled had memorized every single one of her actions over three hours of observation.
When the tomb guardian's eyes lit up with phosphorescent flames and it saluted Waled, Tris felt as if she had seen a ghost and couldn't help but cry out in shock.
"So noisy... that little girl," Silea, comfortably curled up in her nest, twitched her ears and shifted position, ready to go back to sleep. In her love for sleep, she was indeed quite dragon-like.