"Ugh… young master, is this your new poison?"
"It's wine, Anna. Wine! Distilled wine."
Hel glared helplessly at his little maid, Anna, who had just taken a lick of his newly made liquor and was now sticking out her tongue in agony.
"Wine?"
Across the table, Lily raised an eyebrow, picked up her own glass, and took a light sip.
As the burning liquor went down her throat, her delicate brows furrowed.
After a while, she finally commented,
"The young master's brew tastes similar to the strong spirits made by northern dwarves.
But yours is richer—more mellow than the dwarven kind."
"Dwarven spirits, hmm… I remember tasting that once, about twenty years ago, at the Duke's banquet."
Sebas stroked his beard thoughtfully.
"The Duke had paid a fortune for that bottle of dwarven liquor, but honestly, it didn't really suit our Selphis people's taste.
We're closer to the Ymir Federation, so our cuisine—wine included—leans toward sweetness."
He poured himself a small glass of Hel's distilled wine, took a sip, and nodded slowly.
"Rich in fruit aroma, yes… but completely lacking sweetness.
Such a drink might suit those living in the cold northern regions more than us."
"Great…" Hel sighed, collapsing bonelessly into his velvet chair, looking every bit the defeated salted fish.
He had spent the entire morning brainstorming money-making ideas—
and yet, every viable option had been shot down.
For one thing, he didn't have enough manpower.
The number of shops under his name could be counted on one hand.
And besides, the only people in Heim City with money were nobles and rich merchants.
So, from the very beginning, Hel had aimed his business ventures squarely at them.
That meant introducing exotic "Earth specialties" would be his best bet at breaking into the market.
Except…
All three of the classic "transmigrator money-printing holy trinity"—stir-fry, distilled liquor, and glass—had utterly failed him.
Stir-frying already existed in this world, though it was popular only in the western Magic Empire of Mosol.
Here, in the Knightly Empire of Nait, people preferred soups and bread—European-style fare rather than stir-fried dishes.
The locals liked mild, sweet, and sour flavors, so only a few stir-fry recipes would even suit their taste.
If Hel wanted to introduce Earth's cuisine, he'd have to completely adapt the recipes to local preferences—a time-consuming, thankless task.
It was just like how he couldn't get used to the local food—and likewise, the locals couldn't stomach his.
Dietary habits were deeply regional.
As for glassmaking, the technology had already been spread throughout the continent long ago by the Ymir Federation.
Glass was cheap and common—hardly a profitable venture.
Still, the morning hadn't been a total loss.
He had discovered that while magic here served the nobles, the productivity of the common folk remained abysmally low.
In other words—if inventions like the spinning jenny or the steam engine ever appeared,
the results would be explosive.
If he could build one, he could monopolize the textile market.
But those were long-term goals—he couldn't make them yet.
More importantly, this world—though it had beer-leavened bread and rich royal milk bread made with eggs, milk, and honey—had no such thing as cream.
That meant every cream-based dessert in existence… didn't exist here.
And Hel could make all of them.
Cream cake, egg tarts, ice cream, puddings—even milk tea and cold beverages.
If he could pull it off, he'd have enough profit to fund an army.
"Selling milk tea to raise an army," Hel mused,
"Now that sounds like a fun plan."
With the plan laid out, Sebas and the others immediately began implementing it.
By noon, a dessert shop had already opened in the lower district's main commercial street.
The moment their sweets and drinks hit the shelves, they became a sensation.
Customers flooded in, singing endless praises.
Riding on this success, Hel quickly expanded—opening dessert shops across every corner of Heim City.
While Sebas and his team handled the money-making, Hel finally found himself with some free time.
Naturally, he turned his attention back to the corpses inside the Holy Coffin of the Undead.
He used the blood to let Lily summon blood bats, harvesting their skill traits ("entries").
The results weren't as spectacular as he'd hoped,
but he did manage to obtain a few decent combat-related traits—better than nothing.
As for the leftover bones, they were used with the Coffin's aid to summon skeleton soldiers.
With just a single thought, nearly 300 skeletons filled the dungeon in a clattering wave.
Most were mere unranked skeletons—ordinary soldiers turned into the undead.
Only a few reached the first tier (15 skeleton soldiers),
and just two reached second tier—skeleton warriors.
They had no intelligence,
but retained their combat instincts from life.
Combined with their undead resilience, they were about as strong as they'd been before dying.
Still, to Hel, they were too weak.
Fortunately, the Holy Coffin of the Undead had another feature—Undead Synthesis.
Compared to entry (trait) synthesis, undead synthesis was far more complex.
Ten unranked skeletons could be fused into one first-tier skeleton soldier.
But to create a second-tier skeleton warrior, ten first-tier skeletons were needed—
and one of them had to possess a Green Elemental Affinity Trait to serve as the core material.
A green affinity meant the person's maximum potential in life had been Tier 2—
and thus, their undead form could retain that full potential.
For most necromancers, this function would be nearly useless.
Anyone with a high-grade affinity was already powerful in life—why turn them into material?
Typically, such necromancers could at best use this ability to mass-produce first-tier undead.
But Hel was different.
He wasn't short on traits.
Since undead creatures technically counted as "dead beings,"
he could directly harvest traits from them at will.
If he wanted better affinity traits, he could simply synthesize them himself—
and reimplant them into his undead later.
After a series of experimental fusions,
Hel's army of skeletons was cut down by more than half.
When the process was over, only one Tier 3 Skeleton Knight and eight Tier 1 Skeleton Soldiers remained.