The Ruined Death Knight

After "asking" the fox people "gently" to serve under him, the first thing that Danzel went to do was to command hid undead to gather the supplies of the mine for them to take back to the Vashara village.

Afterward, he ordered his new, "willing" subordinates to start to explain to his undead how mining works. Be it where to find the ore for the certain metal they use, how to strike it, and further smaller details.

As he couldn't just tell his Draugr to bring him the ore from the mine, expecting his orders to be fulfilled.

He was sure they would try to fulfill his request, but that will result in them doing a trial-and-error process.

Till they found the right way with questionable efficiency, time would have been lost, which might result in his endeavor to walk to this mine kinda pointless.

As he was currently aiming to exterminate and drain the blood from the ice trolls while also gaining XP and exploring further the frozen lands that he was in.

Those were the most important aims at the time. The mine was merely a bonus as it was in the middle of the exploration.

It was 3 birds with one stone to say.

Though if the mining took too long, they might have found their way out of those frozen lands. Making it time-wise his loss as he slowed down his advantage towards the mine with all his draugr.

'I also can sense the other 4 of them coming back from their mission. They shouldn't be far.' Danzel thought as the connection of the other Anabast, Talon, Sylas, Leyone, and Rayone grew faintly stronger by the second.

Although his connection with the Anabast never left his side by the nature of the spell, [Call of Anabast]. It was only natural for the connection with them to weaken if they are far enough.

'I guess I should deal with those first though.' Danzel looked at the 4 strongest before looking at Baron.

"Baron, the other 4 are soon to arrive, go and receive them, also explain to them not to kill any of them. At least not without reason." Danzel's cold voice sent chills to the 4 strongest fox people.

Baron glanced briefly at Shiro before turning around and flying out of the mines.

Once he left, Danzel stopped, making the whole group come to a halt.

Touching his sword to the ground, the ice quickly raised up in the shape of a throne before seating on it.

The ice made out of the throne wasn't smooth and they were a few pointy pieces of ice here and there.

For others, a freezing torture device with a seat full of spikes. For him though that was not at all uncomfortable.

"I will let you borrow it till I am finished with those guys." Danzel said as he pull out his gauntlet and gave Shiro his spatial storage ring that had his magical books in the pocket space.

Revealing his skeleton hand to the 4 strongest.

They expected it already seeing his head as a skull, but it further spoke to them of what kind of existence they were aligning themself with.

'A cursed warrior with intelligence and enormous strength. Also capable of creating lesser cursed warriors...' The many-tailed "fox" thought to herself as she was reminded of his iron grip.

'Also, it doesn't seem for us to be the first to be caught by him, but those people are...' She gazed at the people of the Vashara village who followed behind him and settled behind his throne.

The other 3 also noticed the presence of the people of Vashara and their gaze toward them wasn't all that friendly.

Danzel in turn didn't pay any need to that and went to ask his question.

"Now, I will be talking to you 4 as the leaders of the people who were enslaved. We will skip the introduction as it would be a waste of time. You can ask those guys later on who were are. As for your names, I ain't that interested." Danzel said while pointing at the people of Vashara.

"What I am more interested in is how you people arrived here, where you came from, and why you look different from each other... satisfy my question and I will allow a single question from each of you. You first, many tails." Danzel pointed at the girl he grabbed not much long ago by the neck.

Being now the focus of those ethereal eyes that urged her survival instinct to run, her voice trembled for a brief moment.

"Y-Yes, well, most of us were dragged here after our tribes were attacked by the hunters. Though the majority of us come from different tribes. My tribe in particular came from the lands of the primordial god of Wild Hunt. We inherited the numerous tails of our ancestor, The Frozen Claw, Wallren Sengata."

Nodding at him, Danzel stared at the golden-tailed man.

"You?"

"A similar situation as many tails over there. My tribe was also inside the lands of Wild Hunt with us men having tails unlike everyone else. We fought against the hunter for a long time, but eventually lost and became slaves, our ancestors were also The Frozen Claw..." The golden "fox" said with a deadpan face.

"My tribe ancestor was also The Frozen Claw and inherited his sharp claws. We lived under the providence of the primordial god of Wild Hunt. We were a small tribe and we tried escaping the hunters, though it didn't work out as you can see." The claw "fox" said with a frown on his face.

"It's about the same for me. My tribe was destroyed and I got enslaved by those bastards. My people left at the lands of the wild hunt. The elders of my village told me that we inherited the black and white hair of that Wallren. As for why those guys are different from us, aren't they one of the forsaken tribes?" The black and white-haired "fox" said while pointing at the people of Vashara.

"You-" The one who pierced Danzel's skull frowned as bits of killing intent leaked out.

"Shut up." Danzel interrupted the man as his ethereal eyes washed over him, making the man close his mouth afraid of receiving another beating from him.

Danzel then went ahead and considered what those 4 said to him, particularly the last one with the double-colored hair.

He found it somewhat weird that every one of those guys had the same ancestor.

As to their lives before slavehood, he foresaw it ahead of time. It wasn't hard to guess that the ice troll's hunted them down considering that they could be used as food for them.

Having known Sartan for quite some time, he knew that those of the troll race pretty much eat anything that was breathing.

Considering also the fact that the frozen lands lacked food, it wasn't that much of a surprise that the ice troll would result in hunting down villages.

What gained his attention though was the last thing the black-haired "fox" said.

"You with the ice needle, what does she mean by forsaken." Danzel questioned the guy who seemed unhappy about being called like that.

"...She refers to the ones who left the lands of the primordial god of Wild Hunt and arrived on this part of the vast white lands."

"Mhm, basically moved places here, huh?" Danzel said as he pulled the map he got from Vashara.

'The lands of their god, huh? It's on the side where I left Koji and Niyuki with the others. And if the map is right, it is quite far away. If the ice trolls are really hunting down those fox people and they still arrived here, then pretty much every one of those fox people must have gone extinct on that part of the frozen lands.' Danzel thought internally as he pulled the dagger that had the soul of Skull Claw inside.

The others around him flinched, but he paid them no need as he concentrated on the weapon.

Activating its ability, he felt a connection with the one ice troll that he left alive in that settlement.

It wasn't a connection like he had with his undead or the Anabast.

Unlike having a link with them, the connection while using Skull Claw's dagger was more like having applied a curse at someone or in simpler senses, attaching an invisible threat to someone that he could follow.

'After clearing this side of the frozen lands, I guess I should make a visit to the lands of the supposed god.' Danzel scoffed internally before rising up.

'The idea of the existence of gods is a fault on its own, there are only powerful beings that are mistaken as gods.'

"Those answers should be sufficient enough to allow each of you to ask a question." Danzel said in his ice-cold voice while staring down at them.

"So what will it be, mortals."