And so, Wepwawet added a giant fort to his list of settlements.

Jarlack and Cynisca shrewdly negotiated their sellsword company's services and access to the local mana locus as a package deal. Their services didn't come cheap—besides the toll on the soon-to-be-expanded passage, they asked for a large share of any loot from fallen enemies and a retainer's salary—but Wepwawet partly one-upped them by promising benefits he would have provided anyway like Pyramid Warfare's boost and access to better equipment. Ganesha all but insisted on this tactic to stick it to his own civilization.

In any case, Goreville thus claimed the Altar on his god's behalf. A stone statue of Wepwawet arose at the center of the nearby lake and provided him with a welcome surge of mana. His Influence blanketed the region and overlapped with that of Ganesha's Wealthbringer to create a permanent connection between them.

"Neat!" Jarlack commented when Wepwawet blessed him with his light and claimed him as a Champion, his axe glowing brightly as he did so. All of his other worshipers present had gathered at his new Altar to celebrate the occasion. "I feel tougher already!"

"I'm glad you're enjoying your new employment benefits," Wepwawet replied as he and Ganesha checked his new recruit's stats. Jarlack was a Rank 6 Commander, making him his second strongest Champion behind Insupportable. At least that one would follow orders.

Name

Jarlack, Chief Mercenary Officer

Type

Humanoid

Rank

Commander 6

Class

Giant 1 (Monster/Fighter), Cavalier 5 (Fighter)

Faction

Wepwawet

Movement

Walk

Strength

Agility

Vitality

Skill

45

18

35

26

Magic

Intelligence

Charisma

Luck

10

21

18

18

Accuracy

+22

Evasion

+18

Innate Perk: Juggernaut

Chances of being affected by an ailment are cut in half, and you inflict bonus damage equal to your character Rank.

Rider II

Mounted Killer I

You can ride a monstrous creature or animal of equal or lower Rank without splitting your attention, allowing you to attack at the same time. You cannot be dismounted unless you wish to be.

All Swords, Spears, & Bows Weapon Artifacts equipped inflict +2 Damage.

Trample I

Mount Empathy I

Inflicts +2 Damage when mounted.

When you or your mount are targeted by a mental effect, one snaps the other out of it unless you are both affected.

So Jarlack was basically a tougher version of his new wife who specialized in riding animals rather than vehicles. Wepwawet had found the heart of his future heavy cavalry. Besides these two, the giants' mercenary company included thirty giants, two wyverns, and a large pack of winterworgs with a small fleet of chariots. All of whom would significantly bolster his army's strength.

Finally, claiming twenty champions allowed Wepwawet to finally complete one of his quests.

Quest: The Heavenly Pack III, complete! You've earned the Howl of Verglane Rank 9 Ritual.

Howl of Verglane

Rank 9 Ritual

You summon a ghostly wolf-head that unleashes a terrible and otherworldly howl within a fifty-feet radius before disappearing. Non-worshipers within the howl's range take heavy Soul damage; additionally, targets with a Rank equal to or below 6 suffer a Terror effect, and those with a rank of 4 and below take additional Frost damage and are Frozen solid. The howl also dispels all magical Silence effects in the area.

Whoa… whoa, now that was a heavy artillery Miracle! A full-blown area of effect attack that would also cripple most units caught in its range would definitely help against the magmorians! Considering it was a straight upgrade to Smite, he switched out one of his three copies of that Miracle for Howl of Verglane.

New Quest: The Heavenly Pack IV

Recruit the maximum number of Champions, for a total of forty.

Reward: Ritual Miracle.

Well, that quest was a big step up from the last one. It might take months for Wepwawet to complete it, if not years. He had probably exhausted most of Verglane's Champion reserve considering he only had two Altars left to claim.

At least the usual limit hasn't decreased compared to the normal System, Wepwawet thought. A deity might release a Champion from their service to claim another, change their stable as it were, but they could only deploy forty Champions at a maximum in a Godly Battle or Titan Incursion when war called. That had been the limit agreed upon by the Nexus' Pantheons and the Titanomachy to make their conflicts a battle of skill rather than numbers.

"So, Big Boss," Jarlack said while clearing his throat, catching Wepwawet's full attention. "I know I've signed on to fight the magmorians, but can I suggest we take on a side gig?"

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"Our contract demands exclusive work on your part," Wepwawet sternly replied through his Altar while hiding his growing annoyance. He liked his deals with mortals to be clear and simple, with no hidden clauses or changes of heart. He had had too many experiences with wicked souls trying to scam him or finagle for more benefits than he was willing to allow in Egypt. "No unsanctioned pillaging allowed."

"I'm offended by the lack of professionalism that your statement implies! We don't pillage, we loot!" Jarlack cleared his throat. "Anyway, I was only suggesting a treasure hunt!"

"A treasure hunt?!" Mistouffe asked with excitement. Wepwawet feared that the giants would soon become a bad influence on her. "I love those! What kind of treasure, how much does it glitter?!"

"I've already told you all that this place used to be a prison camp for Megaloria, till the prisoners revolted and killed their captors before disappearing," Cynisca explained. "Rumor is that they ran away with a precious treasure."

"A treasure?" Wepwawet asked as he double-checked his realm of Influence for any buried relic or hidden chest in the area. "You were lied to. I do not sense anything in the area."

"That's because the inmates fled north with it!" Jarlack replied as he stroked his massive beard. "The rumors are why I brought this dump and turned it into the best giant fort this side of the border, so that we could scout the frontier at our leisure."

"This is the only giant fort on this side of the border," Sagesse pointed out.

"Details, details. Anyway, we've tracked the prisoners' itinerary to a big creepy castle to the north. I was considering raiding it before you showed up, since I figured this would be our ticket out of the middle-caste."

"You must refer to Neigebleue Castle," Sagesse guessed with a shudder. "You would be a fool to venture there. Better warriors than you have vanished inside its halls."

"Neigebleue Castle?" Wepwawet asked, recognizing the name. "You refer to the Neigebleue River that flows into Roynimalia?"

"Indeed, Lord Wepwawet," Sagesse confirmed. "The river takes its source from a misty lake to the north. According to the legend, Neigebleue Castle rose one day from the fog without explanation centuries ago. No one knows who built it or why."

"I've heard of that place," Goreville said. "Our shamans say it's cursed, and that those who venture inside never come out."

"That's not quite true," Sagesse replied, her talons clutching her staff a bit more tightly than usual. "The council sent a few expeditionary forces there over the decades. Most never returned, but a few survivors managed to escape and report what they found."

From the look on her face, Wepwawet guessed they didn't find it a pleasant experience. "What did your scouts see there?"

"Monsters, ghosts, traps, rooms that rearrange themselves…" Sagesse shook her head. "Whatever treasures or secrets that place may hide could not justify the wereling losses required to clear it, so we elected to leave the damn place alone."

"Great, that means more loot for us," Jarlack said with a grin, his eyes shining with greed when he looked up to Wepwawet's Altar. "What do you say, Big Boss? We raid the place, finders keepers?"

Wepwawet could recognize a lousy plan when he heard one, but all this talk of a mysterious haunted castle aroused his curiosity. He checked his realm of Influence, seized control of an eagle, and observed his northern border through its eyes. It didn't take him long to trail the river and see a dense cloud of white mist hovering over its frozen source.

A great silhouette loomed within the thick fog, its ethereal outline blurring at the edges. Wepwawet recognized hints of white spire towers bound by great chains to glaciers and sharply immaculate walls. The mist was saturated with mana that obscured even Wepwawet's divine sight. The god immediately identified the place for what it was.

A Dungeon.

That's just my luck, Wepwawet thought. He was intimately familiar with Dungeons, having helped raise a few to protect the remains of dead pharaohs on behalf of his Pantheon. Dungeons were places with a consciousness—usually hostile—fueled by a mana locus and capable of manifesting either monsters or defenses to protect themselves. They were usually the creation of deities or powerful mortal sorcerers, though a few arose naturally, even without a godly System in place. That Altar will be as hard to claim as Citadel Sapphire's.

Two notifications popped up in short succession.

New Quest: The Cursed Castle

Clear the Neigebleue Castle Dungeon and lift its curse.

Reward: Ritual Miracle.

New Quest: Mortal Wonder of the World I

Collect one of the mortal-made Wonders of Elphion.

Reward: Animism Miracle.

Wepwawet had more or less expected the former quest considering the challenge it represented, but the latter one took him aback. Time slowed down to a crawl as he contacted Ganesha through their overlapping Influence, his friend's spirit manifesting at his side.

"Do you see this?" Wepwawet asked as he forwarded him the quest notification and a mental image of the castle.

"Oh, it's the same quest I received when I found the Colosseum Megafauna!" Ganesha scratched the back of his head. "I didn't know a Dungeon could count as a Wonder..."

The idea of dropping a monster-infested fortress on his enemies did appeal to Wepwawet. "If there are quests for artificial Wonders, would that mean that there are quests for natural ones?"

"I was thinking the same, but I've yet to encounter any of those," Ganesha replied. "Both must be extremely rare."

True, especially since both of their nations only covered a small part of Elphion. It wouldn't surprise Wepwawet if each civilization had no more than one or two Wonders in their respective territories.

"So how do I claim this Wonder?" Wepwawet asked his friend. "Would sending one of my Commanders to touch it suffice?"

"The issue is that I could only claim the Colosseum Megafauna once it entirely fell within my realm of Influence," Ganesha warned him. "You'll likely need your Champions to clear out that castle and build an Altar in it before you can claim it."

Wepwawet had feared as much. This greatly impaired his plans for the area and more or less put it at the bottom of his priorities.

Clearing a Dungeon would take a lot of time and resources for relatively unknown rewards. While these locations usually housed powerful treasures, Wepwawet had no guarantee they would be immediately useful. Supplying the exploration teams would also demand some logistics to be set up since the nearest Altar and settlement would be miles to the south at Fort Jarlack. He simply couldn't deal with that front when the threat of Lavaland loomed in the west.

Nonetheless, he couldn't ignore the castle either. He needed to unlock all of Verglane's Altars to complete his Land of the Faithful III quest and secure his control over the entire country. He didn't like leaving a Dungeon unattended either. The evils those places contained usually found a way to spill out of it at one point or another.

"That'll be a problem for another day," Wepwawet decided. "I'll be better off gathering information about that place before sending any Champion inside. The architecture alone seems beyond anything my werelings can build."

"Giants might have built it," Ganesha suggested.

"Or lunarians." Either possibility left Wepwawet shuddering, though for different reasons. "I hate to ask you this, but could you look for any rumors of megalorians venturing north in case your civilization kept any records of whoever built that castle?"

"No problem, Wepy. I'll contact you if I find anything." Ganesha gave him four thumbs up. "I've got your back!"

Wepwawet thanked his friend, broke the connection, and then focused back on his worshippers as normal time resumed.

"The threat of Lavaland requires our immediate attention," Wepwawet replied, much to the giants' audible disappointment. "However, the evil dwelling within this castle bothers me and stains Verglane with its corruption. I shall have scouts establish a base in preparation for the fateful day when you, my loyal Champions, shall cleanse it."

"It shall be done, Lord Wepwawet," Goreville promised.

"Fine, a contract is a contract," Jarlack said, his axe stomping the ground. "But none of you pipsqueaks dare clear that place without me! I invoke the Finder's Fee!"

"Until that day comes, I ask that your mercenary company travel to Promesse for training and outfitting," Wepwawet ordered. He had led enough mortal armies to know the importance of drills and battle exercises. "Noncombatants may stay here to tend to the fields and turn this place into a prosperous settlement."

Thanks to the mana burst provided by his new Altar, Wepwawet would have enough juice to raise a Terraformer in both Fort Jarlack and Roynimalia after further reinforcing Narc's defenses with Ice Barrier, Wolf House, and Barricade Kit. Otherwise, he would spend mana each day to summon Flying Elephants and more wolves to bolster his troops. All in all, Wepwawet thought he had gathered all the soldiers he could mobilize on short notice.

Well… I still have one option, Wepwawet thought. He had considered an idea to further bolster his military forces, but he wasn't sure how giants would react to it. I guess this is as good a time to broach the subject as any.

"I have a question for you, Jarlack and Cynisca of Megaloria," he said. "You told me that the corpses of dead mercenaries still belong to your company."

"Yes, they do," Jarlack confirmed. "Contracts of service don't end with death. If they sign for ten years, they stay company property for ten years."

Wepwawet found the idea deeply unsettling—a sentiment shared by a few of his Champions from what he could tell from their shifting gazes, even Mistouffe—but pushed on anyway. "What do you do with the corpses then?"

"Depends," Jarlack replied with a shrug. "Assuming their families don't buy out the rest of their contracts to claim bodies–which is uncommon–we usually turn bones into weapons or furniture, feed the flesh to the wyverns, or use them as fertilizer."

"You… you feed your dead to your beasts of burden?" Goreville asked, his voice wavering in horror. Sagesse covered her beak in a way that suggested she was fighting the urge to throw up.

"The person's relatives all take a percentage of any sales or profits," Cynisca insisted. "We aren't savages."

I doubt that, Wepwawet thought. Poor Ganesha. "In that case, there is something you must know," he said. "It is within my power to animate soulless corpses to protect a sacred place or a tomb. I am loath to do so, since I believe in letting the dead rest, but considering how you're going to treat yours anyway…"

While some of his fellow deities saw them as a violation of the natural order to be destroyed on sight, Wepwawet wasn't entirely opposed to the undead on principle. Yes, he preferred that mortals treat their dead with honors and dignity when possible, but his Pantheon often allowed cherished mortals to rise as mummies when their remains were desecrated or their tombs violated. Other gods like Allfather Odin had no compulsions against raising the dead to fight in their armies to protect the living, and the immortal gods knew mortals always ended up passing on no matter how long they delayed the inevitable.

In short, undead were fine in Wepwawet's mind when they existed to protect something, whether their honor, their resting place, or their families.

While the werelings looked unsettled by the prospect, Jarlack's eyes gleamed with greed. "I'll never spit on free labor!"

"The dead which I raise cannot be used for menial labor!" Wepwawet thundered back, his tone startling even the giants. "To continue fighting beyond death is a great sacrifice and a sacred duty!"

"Well-spoken, Lord Wepwawet!" Sagesse said while nodding vigorously. "Verglane is no necromancer's den!"

"You werelings are so impractical," Cynisca protested. "Who cares if the dead work to better the existence of the living? It's not like they're protesting!"

"I'm protesting!" Goreville snarled back. "I would give my life and more in the defense of others, but the idea of my corpse working to fatten the purse of people like you makes me want to puke!"

"Calm down, calm down, it was just an idea," Jarlack said to defuse the situation. "If protecting places is all they can be used for, that's fine with us. We'll just recoup our costs with the intruders' loot."

"Then we will place them in my holy city in Narc, so that they may rise as saints to its defense in times of need," Wepwawet declared. "They shall win the honor they failed to claim during their life in death."

In truth, that had been a lie. Wepwawet's Mummy Call allowed him to command the undead as he wished. He could have them labor in fields or build roads easily enough.

However… Besides the fact he found the idea disrespectful, Wepwawet knew that whatever material benefits undead workers might provide would pale compared to the damage to morale they would cause. Grand-Loup's tomb and his followers' reactions proved that the werelings took the burial of the departed very seriously. Most of his worshipers would be horrified at worst, or at best question him.

And that could never be allowed to happen!

His people seemed ready to accept the idea of the dead protecting sacred sites or their tombs because those were sacred duties—and such myths were plentiful in most mortal cultures—but anything more would be a bridge too far.

Jarlack complained a bit about 'outdated traditions' but agreed to the compromise. All in all, his crew had five giant corpses in storage for 'reanimation.' Wepwawet quickly assessed that casting Mummy's Call on one would raise it as a Rank 4 mindless draugr.

While wasting eight mana points to create a creature of that rank wasn't optimal compared to conjuring other entities through a Miracle, it was still one more body capable of protecting Narc should the magmorians manage to reach its walls. Weak-willed enemy soldiers might break rank at the mere sight of these creatures, if used judiciously.

I have an army of the living and the dead, Wepwawet mused. Now, I have to train and equip it.

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