The Rise Of A Porter

"They are dead." Bad-Breath channelled the inner gangster laying dormant within him and did the best mafia boss impression he could before destroying the communicator in a flash. 

Before Arnold left the dungeon, he had quickly grabbed the communicator of the one who he thought to be the leader of the bandits. When he checked the contacts he found that it belonged to a man named Jin Rong and Zing had been desperately trying to contact the man, but obviously, Jin couldn't respond because dead people don't say a word nor do they tell tales.

Moreover, Zing's number was saved as 'Zing bro's bit*h', which meant that either the guy was related to someone important or he just hated Zing. If Arnold had seen it before meeting Zing, he would've said without a doubt that the man had a bad relationship with his friend. 

But now that he had met Zing, Arnold knew he was no better than the people he hates. Still, the man whose communicator Arnold had brought out with himself might have been related to someone important. After all, Zing was trash and so was Jin and trash always ends up together. 

And if even one of the men who died in the dungeon were related to someone important, then Zing was done for. As he was the one who sent the men that dungeon in exchange for a personal favour.

"You actually sounded like some underworld boss. I knew if someone could pull it off it was you." Arnold was impressed with Bad-Breath after a long time, "Good job."

"Hehe, I used to do it a lot back when I was alive, like making calls for ransom and protection money etcetera. I can do it anytime you want me to... huhu." Bad-Breath smiled while scratching the back of his head.

"Of course you did. With that out of the way," Arnold mumbled, "Talos, you're done with the preparations, right?"

"Yes, Master. Whatever you requested have been handled accordingly." Talos replied. 

"If that's done, then all I can do is wait for the idiots to show up." 

Arnold and his summons were concealed within the dense forest surrounding the area where the dungeon was located. And have been waiting ever since the dungeon had closed for good.

Arnold had waited for the dungeon to close before making the call to Zing, as he had to make sure that no one could enter a dungeon once it closed completely. His reason for doing so was simple, as the people whose corpses were left inside could no longer be recovered once the dungeon was closed. And Arnold made sure that Zing couldn't recover a single corpse from there.

The Chinese people took pride in doing their people justice even after their death, which in hindsight, is something worth taking pride in and Arnold loved that aspect of his old culture. However, they can be easily exploited because of it as well. Just like Arnold was about to do.

Another reason for waiting for the dungeon to close was because he wasn't aware of the Golden Dragon's response time and hence he didn't want them to reach there before his preparations were complete. 

"But rather than wasting my time waiting for them, it's better to utilise it for something good, don't you agree?" Arnold had a light bulb moment and went inside his domain along with Talos, "The rest of you, be vigilant and do not engage with them until I'm back. It's not like we have to kill them or anything either way. Just observe them while being concealed from them."

"As you wish, Master."

***

Inside the domain...

"We're here to resurrect the Lich, aren't we master?" Talos asked Arnold.

"You know me well, T." Arnold smiled as the two of them headed towards the vaults, "But that's not the only reason. You'll see once the Lich is back to being... undead, I think."

After a quick walk inside the domain, they arrived at their destination. But unlike before, the vault was entirely filled with dead beasts. First off, there was the lich and his minions and then there were a few frost giants whom Arnold had been holding back from resurrecting for now. And what minuscule amount of space was left had been occupied by the beast crystals Arnold had obtained from the Lich's Dungeon.

"Let's get started then." 

With Arnold's approval, Talos went into action. Within moments the lich was back to enjoy his undead life. Arnold thought there would be some hostility between the Lich and him. But to his surprise, the Lich submitted to him as soon as it was back on his feet.

"Your command, master?" The Lich spoke in his hollow voice as he kneeled before Arnold, acknowledging him as his master. 

'Why is this happening? Is this basta*d plotting something against me?' 

< It's a good thing that you're using your intelligence for once but no, that lich is not plotting against you.>

'Then why is he being so submissive?'

<Liches embrace death so they can live for longer than their natural life span. But you killed the Lich, putting an end to his dream. But now, you resurrected him again so, he's just showing his gratitude to you by willingly becoming your slave.>

'That's some crazy thinking, not gonna lie. but first, I should check what I wanted to.'

Arnold quickly viewed the Archliches stats to confirm his suspicions regarding Talos' evolved resurrection spell.

___

CLASS: Undead Beast

NAME: Elf Archlich (Unnamed) 

LEVEL: 149

COSMIC RANK: D

ROLE: Mage/ Necromancer/ Summoner

HP: 20,000/20,000

STRENGTH (STR) : 110

DEFENSE (DEF) : 50

STAMINA (STA) : 99

INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 129

AGILITY (AGI) : 56

ACCURACY (ACC) : 100

EVADE (EVD) : 60

CHARISMA (CHA): 01

Damage Resistances: Elemental Attacks (20% damage reduction), Acidic attack (10% damage reduction), Slashing (10% damage reduction).

Condition Immunities: Exhaustion, Frightened, frozen, Close attacks, Necromancy spells. 

Weak Against: Blunt attacks, Light affinity, Holy magic.

THREAT LEVEL: Negligible

___

"Just like I thought... Talos looks like your resurrection ability no longer nerfs the resurrected beings' levels."

"That's good news then, master," Talos mumbled as he reverted back to his original form, "That is, as long as they are willing to submit to you without causing a ruckus."

"Hmm..."

"Master... please give me a name..." The Lich mumbled.

"Woah... I didn't know you could speak my language. Also, don't you already have one? I mean to say, you had a name back when you were alive, right?" 

"In my thirst for knowledge... I have learned a lot of things, master... and yes, I used to have a name given to me by the people I ended up killing with my own hands..." The lich hissed slowly, "However, I have long forgotten that name, my lord..."

'This guy can learn a foreign language and not forget it but forgot his name? What the fck is wrong with him?' Arnold shook his head, but in the end, decided to give him a name since he did not cause a mess for him after being resurrected.

"Fine, fine. I'll give you a name..." Arnold sighed before he started pondering about the name, "When since we're in China, how about... Yan? From Yanluo who is known as the master of death and overseer of the ten Kings of hell."

"Thank you, master, for showing your generosity to a lowly creature like myself." Yan bowed his head even deeper as if he wanted to reflect the sincerity of his words.