Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night
Chapter 276: Fulfilling a Promise

The following morning, Zane got together with the Horde Kings currently in his service. He had an important announcement to make. One that surprised them all. And one that they all reacted to differently.

"I've been wondering for some time now… With how intelligent the Horde Kings are, why don't you craft your own armor, and weapons to use against the Living? You have all seen what the awakened are capable of.

And though I have a greater degree of potential than the average awakened human. You all seem to fight them with your blood and blood. Would it not be wiser if you all had your own equipment?"

The Horde Kings looked at one another with a bit of confusion in their eyes. None of them had ever really thought about using weapons or armor because they were the apex predators of the world. So what if humans had increased their power?

The only human being that was capable of contending with even the weakest of the Horde Kings was Zane, and he wasn't exactly human. He was one of them who was being molded by their mother to be her heir.

But Zane had a point, even if Eliza did not want to admit it. She, in fact, looked slightly pissed at the idea of wielding weapons, even though she was completely aware it was Zane's gear that gave him the advantage he needed in their encounter.

"We're not humans. We don't need to rely on tools to eliminate our prey. The only reason humans rely on such things is because they are weak!"

Zane narrowed his eyes at Eliza, shooting her a cold and chilling gaze. One that instantly caused the girl to shudder and yelp. As for Gwen, she was quick to voice her support for Zane's statement. Sayin how impressed she was with how he fought.

"You're wrong Eliza. It shows a lack of innovation on our part. Sure, we are all very powerful individually. But I have seen how Zane wields his servants. Each and every one of them is outfitted with weapons and armor, and operates as an army. Which individual components that highly organized?

Against an organized and rampaging mob of undead, it is highly effective. Hell, you died before knowing this, but his horde can easily defeat a standard horde ten times its size! It would be very wise if we accepted big brother's wisdom!"

Eliza was stunned by this statement. Zane had not only wanted to equip the Horde Kings beneath his command with weapons and armor, but had already done so to regular undead. This was unthinkable. And she was quick to voice her confusion.

"That's impossible. How are the undead in his horde capable of such coordination? I'll admit Zane is very powerful right now, but he should still be among the mid ranks of Tier I Horde Kings, if even that! There's no way his horde is composed of Tier III undead, which are barely intelligent enough to execute such complex commands!"

Gwen scoffed at Eliza's ignorance and wanted to berate her when, shockingly, one of her other siblings interrupted before she could do so.

"Gwen isn't wrong, Eliza… You were the first of us to fall. But I fought against Zane's horde, using the usual tactics of just mindlessly throwing my servants at him. They formed a wall with their shields and massacred my troops with ease.

He barely lost any of his horde, and at that time they were all around Tier III. By now, I dare say the majority of them are Tier IV, if not Tier V, and he probably has a lot more of the 2,000 I fought against!"

Eliza's jaw dropped when she heard Darren say that Zane's horde was so elite. He had so few undead and yet he massacred Darren's horde, which was already significantly larger and more powerful than the one she previously led? How?"

Gwen finally smirked and giggled at Eliza's ignorance with a smug grin on her face, before commenting on it in a teasing manner.

"Oh my, Eliza is really out of the loop, isn't she? Big brother, how large is your horde now, and how powerful is it?"

Zane thought about it for a second. If he was still the Mayor of Gravestone and its surrounding areas, he would be able to call upon more undead than he could actually field at once. And that was because he had absorbed the hordes of Beatrix, Jett, and Lawrence.

But he had distributed them across the core of his territory to act as a garrison, while filling his own horde limit full with the elites. Because of this, he was currently limited to 10,000 Undead, which he explained to Eliza.

"Right now I have 10,000 Undead that I can call upon to fight at any given time, minus you guys, who appear to be exempt from the Horde Limit rule. Among those 10,000 undead, all of them are at least Tier IV, with about a quarter of them being Tier V.

The type of undead in my horde varies per the use of the unit I sort them into. But you could say that when I am capable of evolving them, I do so with strategy and tactics in mind rather than individual power. Oh, and for the record, every single one of them is outfitted with armor and weapons crafted from a grim forge that improves their capabilities significantly.

So if you take one of my Tier V undead, like let's say a Vampire, for instance, and send him against a Vampire in the wild in a 1v1 fight. The odds are mine will win the fight 9/10 times it happens. That was actually why I wanted to bring this up.

Because if I wanted to craft equipment that enhanced all of your capabilities, I would have to invest a significant sum of resources. Which at the moment, I only have enough to craft a set of gear for Gwen. And before you complain, she's the strongest of you all, so she deserves the equipment first."

Eliza was dumbfounded by this news, and remained utterly silent for some time. Now that she knew that the gear Zane could craft for them could be used to such an extent, she wanted to go first. She felt that because she was the first Horde King that Zane had slain in his travels that she deserved it.

But Beatrix was quick to calm the girl, wrapping her arms around her, and patting her head, assuring her that it would be unwise to invest in her at such a stage.

"Relax Eliza, our master is right. Gwen is the most powerful among us. She's damn near the level of a Tier II Horde King. If anyone deserves such a massive investment right now, it's her."

Eliza calmed down after being soothed like an angry child by her older sister. Begrudgingly accepting the result. As for Gwen, she was excited that Zane would finally live up to his promise, and was quick to ask how he planned to do it.

"So, big brother, are you finally going to fulfil your promise to me? I'm sooo excited! But do you need anything special that we can help you gather? If not, why haven't you been able to make me my gear until now?"

Despite the blatant violation of his personal privacy the night before, Zane had forgiven Gwen for her intrusion, and was quick to settle her down by telling her what she wanted to hear.

"Until last night I wasn't able to make the gear for you, because I didn't fully have what I needed but now I do, so just give me a second, and I'll get your equipment crafted, alright. I'm going to go upstairs and get started. You all continue to keep guard while I'm busy."

As much as Gwen wanted to follow after Zane, she found she could not physically do so, which meant he had compelled her with an order. Causing her to pout and curse beneath her breath.

"Stupid big brother! Always has to be so fucking dramatic!"

---

The truth of the matter was that Zane needed to upgrade his camp in order to actually get the means to build his grim forge. But after fiddling with the Temporary Residence feature, Zane found it was linked to his Camp feature.

Meaning that by buying all the unlocks for his temporary residence in this mansion, he had boosted his camp's tier up to 3. Which was the required level for him to make a Grim Forge and Stygian Iron Works.

Which he constructed in a spare bedroom of the mansion, transforming it and everything in it from an ordinary bedroom into a crafting area. Once Zane had done this, he crafted a set of armor and weapons that were ideal for Gwen.

Gwen ran a similar build as himself, and because of this, Zane crafted essentially the same equipment he had for her that he made for himself. The Stalker's gear was not the part that was costly to manufacture. It was the amount of holy essence required to upgrade it all to level 45, and to make it all Epic quality.

After spending an exorbitant amount of resources to build Gwen's gear. Zane found something interesting to appear in his messages.

[New Hidden Achievement Unlocked: Master Craftsman]

[Description: You have mastered your craft so much that for a certain price, you can duplicate items that have been granted to you as a reward by the system.]

[Restrictions: Items duplicated can only be used by Horde Kings in your service. In addition to this, Items Duplicated will start at uncommon quality]

[Note: Wouldn't your little sister look adorable with a matching cape? – Love Mommy]

---

Zane stared at the shameless message left behind by his mother. Was she seriously granting him such an OP ability, just so Gwen could share the same look as him? He wanted to face palm then and there. But he couldn't deny it… Death's Shroud was an insanely OP ability for assassin archetypes.

Thus, he bit the proverbial bullet and duplicated his cape and his trinkets. The duplicated trinkets seemed to have minor changes in bonuses that reflected the fact that the Horde Kings beneath his command could no longer command a horde of their own. So the bonuses to horde size, or anything like that were swapped out with another useful bonus instead.

After crafting all the gear, and upgrading it all to legendary quality. Zane had thoroughly exhausted all of the resources he had gathered for the past eight months since the apocalypse began. And in doing so created an armor that turned Gwen into a terrifying being.

However, the end result was well worth the price paid. With Zane equipping the gear to Gwen's figure. Where he was shocked at what he saw. Zane was accustomed to the gear he wore, and assumed it would be identical on Gwen's body, albeit form fitted to the female figure.

But he couldn't be more wrong. The under armor that Zane wore beneath the more rigid components of his armor was completely removed, leaving behind only a strapless bra and g-string thong made out of black leather.

To say that Gwen's appearance was something straight out of a perverted modded armor set from a popular single player RPG series was no exaggeration, causing Zane to facepalm and sigh. As he cursed his mother beneath his breath.

"Damn it mom…"