A constant rumbling noise echoed from the jungle gym corridor, as my pet basilisk was busy cleaning out the wreckage from his past misbehavior. I, however, lazily relaxed on the nearby walkway, flipping through the books that my loyal brownie servants had left behind for me to find. Neduzar had brought the little housekeepers into his fold early on, since cleaning up places was not really a strong point of the undead. From his memories, I realized that the car wheel height creatures that looked like a cross between a gnome and a goblin, had been hard workers and had probably been one of his loyal followers without an enslavement spell. From what I could tell from my memories, the creatures had some built in desire to please those they accepted as their masters. It seemed like a really weird thing, but then again, this was a fantasy world in which I was a lich, who was remote controlling a body that I had crafted from a couple of dead creatures. So, go figure.

Though I wasn't ecstatic by any means about my current predicament, I wasn't unhappy either. The brownies had left behind six volumes full of spells that they thought would be useful for Neduzar, if he ever got free. From the small but fastidious handwriting filling page after page, I could tell that the little minions had carried out their task with great care. Though, I wasn't sure what I was going to do with a spell that produced honey of all things or with one that cleaned stone surfaces with great efficiency. All in all, while I was grateful, the brownies also had much to be thankful for, since it wasn't their former overlord, who had shown up. There was a good chance Neduzar would have probably made it his goal to find and slaughter the lot of them for taking his things.

In either case, the brownies' letter had also solved a couple of mysteries for me, including the case of the eternal torches and the case of Neduzar's fortress being easily breached. The little twerps had carefully recorded how Neduzar's second in command, a necromancer name Wylis had led some of the brownies into the library's forbidden room using a Prime Talisman at the time of the heroes' invasion. The necromancer's purpose had been to supposedly ensure the 'safety' of the forbidden room.

Neduzar's memory of the battle might be hazy, but I was more than sure that the crazy lich had never authorized the use of a Prime Talisman by anyone to access the forbidden room on that day. However, I didn't need to be Sherlock Holmes to put two and two together. Neduzar had obviously been betrayed by his subordinates, explaining how the damn heroes had been able to penetrate through the fortress defenses to easily. Though, I wasn't sure about how smart the dead necromancer had been in trying to steal stuff in the middle of trying to escape from an ancient enslavement spell. Mind you, there was a good chance I was missing something, since the necromancer was able to actually betray Neduzar to some degree in order to get access to the forbidden room. Still, that left me wondering how many others had been involved in the betrayal, since a coup usually required more than one traitor.

Almost immediately, I felt the anger that I had restrained earlier, straining at its leash. However, I was ready this time, so some quick 'finding my happy place' thoughts stopped me from going all dark and gloomy looking. Still, it made me realize that I had to take revenge, if I found any of the traitors. It was that weird Chinese cultivation, web novel idea of inheriting my new host's desires and seeking vengeance upon his enemies. It sounded tedious, especially since I didn't know if any of the bastards were still alive, but I figured it was 'the' thing to do. Almost in response, I felt the tense feeling in me subside. “For fuck's sake...”

Sighing at the absurdity of it all, I looked up to see my new pet pushing some large stone and metal debris out from the corridor. The clean, grayish skeleton would have fit nicely in some natural history museum back on Earth, except for the green flame burning inside its massive rib cage and inside its vicious looking, horned skull. Black smoke also surrounded its form, as it crawled out of the corridor with the same litheness it had displayed when it was alive. It glanced in my direction, before quickly moving on with its work, no doubt remembering its taming process.

I had used a 'book' spell called [Raise Skeletal Beast] on the dead basilisk, creating a mid tier undead using only its bones. It was one of those specialized necromancy spells that Neduzar had developed using his mastery of necromancy. Not only did the spell allow me to keep the basilisk's form relatively intact, the new undead's soul was also a permanent summon and did not require any further mana support from me, allowing it independence for the most part. As such, The basilisk's soul had also quickly remembered how I killed it and unfortunately decided to attack me once its soul got settled back into its body. Suffice it to say, I hadn't gone easy in teaching it to obey.

Still, Bas wasn't exactly moving fast enough. Watching it get ready to go back into the dark corridor, I decided I needed to take a direct hand in matters. Telling it to wait using my metal link to it, I collected up my precious books and made my way into the corridor. For the most part, Bas had done its job well, so I patted it on its skull as a reward. Maybe it was my imagination, but I saw the soul fire in its head flare up a little in response and then a thought funneled into my head. “Doooo... gooood....”

I was somewhat surprised by the fact that Bas was actually responding to something, rather than just mentally screaming about killing and rending. “Yeah, do good.” I felt it would have been a touching scene if I wasn't some demonic looking humanoid petting a large undead monster that was enveloped in dark smoke. It was definitely not the same as a boy and his dog, but somehow, I felt it was still worthy of a Oscar nomination

When I finally reached what was left of the debris blocking the corridor, I began reading the right spell from one of the books. About a minute later, I completed the spell for [Greater Stone Manipulation]. Almost immediately, I felt a drain of mana in me and a conglomeration of mana gather around me. Something in my soul, almost like a hunch, told me that I could shape the stone around me however I wished.

Directing the gathered mana ahead of me, I wrapped it around the stone columns and blocks collapsed in the corridor. The stone literally turned to putty, allowing me to flatten it or bend it however I wished. I didn't waste any time in reforming this section of the corridor into a usable state, while having Bas drag off any metal debris that was left over. It took a while as I had to repeat the spell a dozen or so times, but eventually I made my way back to the industrial zone.

Launching a few globes of light into the metal works area, I strode nonchalantly into the place with my books, watching my old friends scramble around in the distance no doubt in terror. There were more of the metal eaters than I last remembered seeing, but they were nowhere near a danger to me or my new pet. Bas rumbled to a stop beside me, and I saw it raise its skeletal head, while sending a thought to me “Fooooodd...”

Stroking my scaly chin in thought, I casually replied, “Only if negotiations fail...”