[Original cost = 1,000 Soul Points]
[3% discount applied]
[-970 Soul Points]
[Total Soul Points, post upgrade = 2,850]
'That was quick,' He smiled, 'You're starting to be more and more useful by the hour, system. Once more, I apologize if I treated you harshly before. I didn't understand most of what you said, so of course, I got angry.'
[I hope you will remain apologetic. Although any new slave I raise from the dead will 'live' or walk the grounds for ten days, your current slaves only share half of that added benefit, since their bodies started decaying the moment I resurrected them. They will last for 7 + 1.5 days, basically.]
'I sincerely hope they survive through this horrid mountain that long,' He let out a light chuckle, 'It's impossible to get them to the City of Fik in time anyway, so their longevity is no longer something I care about… as long as they make it to that village, I mean.'
[I cannot predict that.]
'Will the princess live a month longer, or does this upgrade not work like a percentage increase?' He asked.
[Just like every other one of your current undead slaves, her longevity is adjusted to +1.5 days.]
[So, 3 months + 1.5 days.]
'I might need her to live longer,' He followed along, 'I don't know how, or when I will put her into use, so let's help her live three months and three days, system. Upgrade the longevity of my slaves again.'
[3 months + 6.5 days, technically.]
[The branch of upgrades, regarding anything I offer, is never linear. It's always better than the prior upgrade in that specific branch, and of course, it's more expensive.]
[For that matter, I have to ask you if you're sure you want to spend 1,500 Soul Points to bump the longevity of your clones to level two, or 10 extra days per every new clone, totalling 20 days total per every new clone.]
The system was spamming him with numbers, so likewise, he had a hard time keeping up with her. When the system popped up in his head twelve hours ago, and offered him great power, power beyond comprehension, the last thing he expected was math. He did not like the fact that he had to do so much math in his head every time he considered making a purchase, but other than that, he now fully understood why the system had advised him to bump up his IQ earlier on. He was definitely going to need it.
However, he was in no condition to make an informed decision right now, so he simplified the process.
He asked, 'What do you think, system? Should I bump up their longevity a second time?'
[It can be significantly helpful if you build a large undead army, in the future, but I'm not sure if it's so helpful to you right now. Not to mention, you'd be spending more than half of your remaining Soul Points on this upgrade, and you may not be able to gain more Soul Points anytime soon.]
'It's settled, then,' He nodded along, 'We won't be tampering with their longevity anymore. Not tonight, at least. I only care about keeping the Princess alive, but she'll be kicking and swinging for three months, so I have plenty of time to figure crap out.'
[Smart. Your IQ upgrade is already coming in handy, hehe.]
[Would you care to explore page three and four? There are eight more purchase options revolving around slaves, and I'm sure we can put your Soul Points into better use.]
'Sure…' He nodded.
However, before the pages on the black book even flipped, he heard a large commotion on the other side of his brigade of undead slaves. His slaves were too senseless to scream, they did not know fear, but he could tell that something was wrong. He could barely focus his eye-sight on a single point, but he was pretty damn sure that neither one of his slaves were strong enough to knock an entire tree down, roots and all.
At last, he snapped out of his little personal world of conversations he held with the system, and yelled out, "What the fuck is going on over there!"
Afterwards, he rushed across the forest, so as to get closer to whatever caused the commotion, but he tripped.
The few hand-held torches that his slaves held were not nearly enough to light his path, but other than that, even though a quarter of his headache had gone away, he still had double-vision, so it wasn't easy to run under his condition. He fell on his face again, and nearly broke his nose this time!
[-20 Life Essence Points]
[Total Essence Points = 4,540]
Clayton did not care about the points his body spent, automatically, just to fix his nose. He stood up, and rushed towards the commotion.
Even within the depths of night, lack of illumination, and everything that bothered him, he managed to see one of his undead slaves flying above the ground, and through a couple of trees. Something was hunting his slaves, something was killing them!
"Esmeralda can't be doing all that…" He grunted, and finally got to the scene. "Of course she couldn't…"
Clayton got a faint glimpse of what ragged through his troops, and in an instant, he shouted, "Rufus! Lara! Hide, and stay hidden until I come and get you!"
Survival seemed grim. Not for Clayton, as he was certain he had enough Life Essence Points in him to regrow his entire body four or so times if he had to, but everyone else was in danger, be it friend or undead slave.
As he saw a few of his slaves being slapped around, some with their bodies slit in half, as whatever attacked them ignored their thick iron armors completely, a small wave of fireballs broke out, and headed towards whatever monster was attacking them. His slaves finally gained the wisdom to fight back, and Clayton got close enough to lend a helping hand.
"A Basilisk?" He pulled his head back in shock, as he finally got a good look of what was attacking them. "How!"
[Oh, so you can't do math but you know what A Basilisk is?]