I became a legion lich

107 Information collection

“Check your surroundings.” Athos ordered as soon as they arrived. Emilia and Caio checked the windows for any enemies, but there was no one nearby.

“There is no one in sight, master.” Emilia informed.

“Fine. Caio, get rid of the dirt that came with us when we teleported.” Athos spoke as he looked around the building to try to identical what it was used for. There were straw dolls and spears with the ends covered, so it must be a room with training equipment.

Gaius took a black wand from the pocket of his cloak and made the earth slip through the wooden planks on the floor. The wand was made of glowing willow wood and replaced the spellcasting ring that Caio lost in the battle with Treevor

The spells the skeleton mages cast were even stronger now, as the wand drew corrupt world energy.

“You two are the infiltration experts here. What should we do now?” Athos asked bluntly.

“The priority is to keep a low profile while we try to look for a little-visited location. We can also take advantage of being here to find strategic locations to destroy when the attack starts, but that would be risky.” Emilia began to explain.

“Unlike ordinary spies, we cannot disguise ourselves among the crowd to gather information and we only have one day before the attack, so I suggest killing a soldier without anyone noticing and questioning him. The disappearance of a single soldier will not be realized until it’s too late.” Caio suggested, his almost perfect diction.

Athos had slightly reorganized the army’s chain of command. Caio now held the position of Sevenus.

.....

“Sounds like a good idea to me, but we can’t move much without being discovered and most soldiers move in groups to patrol.” Athos spoke.

“It won’t be a problem. We can look for a soldier who isn’t on duty. The only reasons traders come to this distant stronghold are the metal mines or selling their wares to soldiers who have no form of entertainment. The only people buying in the markets were men remember?” Emilia spoke, making Athos scratch his head in shame.

He hadn’t noticed these small details and only saw the general structure of the fortress and defensive weapons.

“I saw what looked like a makeshift brothel from above. It was far from the market for obvious reasons, so ambushing one of them without being seen should be simple.” Emilia spoke, remembering some tents erected far from the market with women in front. A few men who were clearly drunk from the way they walked called out to one of the women and entered the tents.

‘It seems that regardless of where I am, the answer is always in brothels.’ Athos thought, but kept the thought to himself.

“I’ll leave the capture of a soldier to you, bring me results.” Athos ordered and Emilia nodded.

“You can count on me, master.” Emilia said.

********

Emilia and Caio left as Athos ordered, blending their presence with their surroundings as they moved along dimly lit paths, avoiding the crowd. They approached the makeshift brothel slowly and waited for someone to come out.

‘I find this mission very reckless.’ Caio spoke suddenly through the mental link between them.

‘What are you talking about?’ Emilia asked confused.

‘We just invaded without planning or preparation. Our master just came up with a plan on the spot and invaded. Even now we are just improvising.’ Caio complained about his master’s imprudence. He wasn’t worried about himself, but about his master putting himself in these dangers.

This feeling of concern was conveyed in its entirety to Emilia and she nodded happily. ‘I understand how you feel, but there’s not much we can do. Our master is reckless and doesn’t care about his own safety. It’s up to us, your servants, to make sure your crazy plans work.’

‘I think you’re right.’ Caio replied and the conversation ended there. They waited in silence for approximately 10 minutes before a couple of drunk men emerged from the tents with a goofy grin on their faces.

‘Here they come.’ Emilia spoke. The two men went into an empty alley and started pissing as they talked.

“Dude, do you know how long the traveling brothel is going to be at the keep? It’s been months since I had this fun and I still have a lot accumulated. Serving in the keep pays well, but it’s useless because I don’t have anything to spend.” One of the men spoke with a vulgar smile on his face.

“They will stay in the keep for a while longer. I don’t know all the details, but the general has given an order and all merchants are prohibited from leaving until an inspection is made.” The second man replied.

“Better for me then. I-” The first man was about to make another dirty joke, but bony hands grabbed his head from behind and twisted his neck. So did his friend a second later and they fell to the ground.

‘You could have let him talk a little longer. He gave some very useful information.” Caio spoke as he transformed the corpse into a skeleton.

‘He was just going to tell another stupid joke. We can get all the information we want later. Now let’s go back.’ Emilia replied while doing the same.

‘Did you take two? Great, get back to my position. Athos spoke in their minds, feeling the life force of the new skeletons. Emilia, Caio and two new skeletons were reunited with Athos.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you. I need you to tell me everything you know about the inner workings of the fortress.” Athos spoke as soon as the skeleton soldiers entered the building and Caio made sure no one followed them.

The skeletons nodded, but their bodies trembled slightly as their minds tried to resist.

“I’ll get you something so you can communicate, wait a minute.” Athos spoke and left the building for a few minutes. When he returned, Athos was carrying sheets of paper and a quill.

“Caio, I need some dirt here.” Athos asked and Caio obeyed, conjuring a small ball of dirt on the floor.

Athos soiled the tip of the quill in the dirt and handed it to one of the skeletons. “Here, use this to answer my questions.”

The skeleton nodded and picked up the quill and papers.

“Where do court mages live? I doubt they stay at the garrisons with the rest of the soldiers.” Athos asked.

“In the fortress, along with the army officers and the general.” That’s what the skeleton wrote.

“Where do they keep their weapons and equipment?”

“In the armory, near the fortress.” The skeleton pointed to a large building outside the inner walls. It was a simple building that didn’t stand out, so Athos had ignored it as he looked through the hive hawk eyes.

“What about alchemical items? Where do they keep them?” Athos asked.

“Inside the fortress. It’s dangerous to leave them in very exposed places, so the general keeps them under surveillance, but I don’t know where exactly.” The skeleton replied.

“Tch, couldn’t it be a little more difficult? Maybe a dragon to guard the place?” Athos asked sarcastically. Emilia and Caio sighed, knowing that Athos would decide to invade the fortress next.

“Is there an underground sewer here?” Athos asked.

“Yes, but all entrances are inside the fortress.” The skeleton wrote.

“That won’t be a problem. There is an enchanted item generating a great spell in this fortress. Do you know where it is?” Athos asked, but he already imagined the answer.

“I don’t know. I only know that a mana barrier activates when the fortress is under attack.” The skeleton replied.

“I see. One last thing, where is the nearest bathroom?” Athos asked and the skeleton pointed to a small solitary room among the small buildings in the training area.

The small group approached the bathroom and Athos opened the door.

“Hey, it’s busy- what the fuck!” A man was shitting inside and yelled annoyed at the intrusion, before realizing the intruder’s identity.

Athos said nothing and just strangled the man to make sure he didn’t scream for help. The man struggled with his pants down, but Athos broke his neck and spared him further embarrassment. Athos turned him into a skeleton and touched his shoulder in solidarity, feeling pity for the first time since becoming an undead.

“I promise I won’t tell anyone how humiliating your death was.” Athos spoke, but he didn’t have much confidence in keeping his promise. The skeleton moved out of the way and Caio took a step forward.

The bathroom was just a dirt hole in the floor, so it was simple for Caio to dig a hole big enough for a skeleton to get through. The sewers were a little different from the sewers in Faltra. There was 5 meters of earth between the surface and the sewer, with what looked like cement forming the walls and roof of the sewer.

Caio used earth magic to close the path after they descended, erasing their tracks. The land corrupted by his magic would return to normal after half an hour, so there would be no problems.

“Emilia, Caio, I want you two to find the way to the keep. I’ll stick around and prepare the distraction for when Treevor arrives. Let me know when you find the entrance.” Athos smiled at them. The sewer had the same musty smell as the city of Faltra, so there would also be slimes here.