Everyone in the team were surprised when they heard Tamas' question.
They involuntarily turned around to take a look. From what they could see there are over a hundred undead creatures roaming around in the room and this question didn't seem so hard.
"There are a hundred and eight undead. What is so tough about it to be considered a test?" Saber Monarch blurted out.
But Gran was the one that replied to his question.
"No, there are around one hundred and forty undead creatures. There are shadow undeads hidden. I could sense them a bit."
Five elemental King also looked at the whole room and then at Tamas who is smiling and Sam who is looking around casually.
He didn't want to speak, because he knew that neither Tamas or Sam are stupid enough to ask such a simple question and take such a simple question seriously if the answer is that simple. As usual, he is most patient guy in the room.
Sam used energy vision and took a look. He must say that the metamorphosised eyes are as good as that telescope he got from the Charbhum realm, maybe he could even see better than that.
And for his own vision he could use the enhancemenet along with the energy vision which is not possible with the telescope.
After he looked at the surroundings, he replied.
"There are three hundred and twenty four undead creatures in the room. And if we count you, it would three hundred and twenty-five."
When Sam said that, Gran and Saber Monarch were shocked. The number Sam gave and the numbers they gave are not even remotely close.
And the last sentence about Tamas being an undead creature, that was another shock, they became vigilant and got ready in case Tamas made a move.
But the expected display of rage didn't come from Tamas. Instead he smiled and said.
"Well, done. You are great. I didn't expect that you would notice me. I was really sure you are going to miss that."
"It is actually impossible considering I am also kind of similar to you. But I couldn't pin point exactly what your part is. Ghoul?"
"Yes, what are you? I couldn't even sense your part at all."
"Vampire."
As their conversation went on the rest of the team became confused. They are openly calling themselves as undead creatures, ghoul and vampire. They couldn't understand this at all.
"Wait, you mean that he is right about the three hundred and twenty four undead creatures?" Saber Monrach focused on the number more than their undead creature exchange.
"Yes, he is right."
Tamas replied and clapped his hand twice.
The whole room suddenly dimmed a bit, but a lot of creatures came out. Some shadow undead rose from the shadows and the souls or specters made themselves visible in the air.
Saber Monrach once again counter the undead creatures and was stunned.
He didn't expect that he wasn't able to identify a soul roaming that close to him. Suddenly he felt unsafe.
As if sensing his emotions, Tamas replied.
"Don't panic. If they were attacking you, then you would have definitely sensed their presence. It was just that their nature is to be hidden and your instincts didn't warn you because they don't have any intention of hurting you."
Even though, he reassured them, it is hard for them to just let it go.
"I guess, I passed the test. So, what about the competition?"
"A battle of necromancy. We are not going to use our already piled up undead creatures.
We are going to use fresh corpses, in the field. We wouldn't use any other elemental attacks, phyiscal attacks and such. You can only use spontaneously created undead creatures to attack each other. We can move all we want, but even then we are not allowed to use other elemental energies.
I will suppress my cultivation to your level. Are you okay with that?"
"That sounds fair. But the real question is where do we get the fresh corpses? It is not like they are lying around."
"There is a reason why I chose this realm. They are just too many creatures killing each other. Stay in the Front beak city's Mavin Inn. The Inn owner will inform the location and time of the battle. And take this token. You will get some special treatment."
Sam took the token and the team left in the same way they came in and they went to the Inn in the city.
When they gave the token to the Inn's receptionist, he was stunned and went to get the owner. The owner came and behaved extremely docilely and brought them to a special section of the rooms.
They were given finest food and liquor.
Sam and the team stayed for the three days and in these three days, Sam focused mostly on testing the eyes.
The few conclusions he reached is that now his range of normal eye sight increased by ten fold at least and even within that range, he could see every detail like he was looking at it throw a magnifying glass.
His peripheral vision increased two fold. He could see what a person beside him is doing without even trying even when he is looking straight ahead.
And the final enhancement is the focus. When he channeled spiritual energy into the eyes, he could zoom into a object or a person and in case he did it to a person, he could see the energy flow of his body a bit without the help of energy vision.
When he used the energy vision and this focused vision together, he could directly see the energy flow in a person's body. Of course, it helps if the person's guard is down and when the other party is stronger than Sam and had a lot of energy, it is hard for the focused vision to get the clear picture, but because of the energy vision which could read the energy in normal, he could get a clearer picture even if the person is a bit stronger than him.
If the person is too strong and the energy is being masked deliberately, the more he focused the more confused he would get.
After three days, the message they are finally waiting for came.
Sam and the team were escorted by the inn owner directly to the location where Tamas is already waiting.
After greeting Tamas with utmost respect, the inn owner left.
Tamas then gestured the group to follow him before they reached a certain location.
It is a large open field in the middle of a forest and a bunch of beasts, humans, yakshas and even some barbarians and finally the birdmen which are highest in number laid dead.
"The talon realm is like a migrant nation. Many other races come here to make a living because of the rich resources, but the talon realm doesn't like that and considers this as someone raiding their home.
They are not against some other races coming here and developing an unexplored land and getting rich, but they are against peope that come specifically after the land under the birdmen's control.
So the disputes go on and on.
I need a lot of corpses for my research and collection, so I made a deal with the rest of the city here.
I explored a danegrous zone and created a bunch of resources for the city. And within a few miles radius around the city, every dead body that appears is mine.
I was looking for a battle that might have happened here and here it is.
So, shall we begin?"
Sam and the group looked at the large patch. The battle seemed to be a bit brutal. They could still feel the energy residues left behind by these dead men.
The battle must have happened a few minutes ago.
This is a perfect place for a nercromancer.
Sam and Tamas walked to the either side of the battle field and they got ready to make their move. Tamas suppressed his cultivation and looked at Sam and both nodded at each other, indicating they are ready and the battle began.
Unlike other times, the battle didn't begin with a flashy first move, rather it began with creating undead.
As both of them are Astral Plane cultivators, the range with which they create undead increased a lot, although it doesn't even cover the half of the field, they can control the created undead throughout the whole field.
Tamas turned the corpses near him into undead and he did so faster than Sam, who is late by more than ten seconds.
Tamas was confused a bit by this delay, if Sam is this slow in creating undead, then things wouldn't be as easy.
As the undead creatures from both sides of the field ran forward, they threw the corpses that are lying in the middle towards their masters so that they would fall within their range of undead creation.
Sam has sent four undead creatures and while Tamas has five. The timing and the number both indicated that Sam is on the losing side. And what surprised them even more is that Sam's undead didn't stop Tamas' undead even though he is clearly on the offensive.
In fact, they gave way to let them go and moved towards Tamas.
Tamas' frown deepened as he thought his judgement might have been wrong, but it didn't take long before the frown turned into surprise.
