That's How We Necromancers Do Things

Chapter 148: Chapter 96: Lynch! You Refused the Path to Heaven

With a population, they could talk about restoring production, reorganizing defenses, and ultimately revitalizing the entirety of Lakefront Town.

And to solve the food problem, the most direct and "abundant" source of food right now was the fish in Mirror Lake, and... the Fishmen who had taken over the fishing grounds.

’Fishmen, hmm...’

A smile touched the corners of Lynch’s lips.

They were "old friends," indeed.

The very first wild monsters he’d ever hunted were Fishmen. And hadn’t his Fish Priest ’risen from the ranks’ of a Fishman horde? frёewebnoѵēl.com

His gaze swept downward.

In the garrison courtyard below, the Fish Priest was strutting about with its hands clasped behind its back, making its "rounds" with an arrogant stride.

Ever since its promotion to Tier One, the creature’s Soul Fire had grown stronger. It swaggered around all day, even having the gall to boss around the Bone Mages and assign them "resurrection work."

’It’s time to get the Fish Priest a proper unit of its own. As a bonus, it’ll help solve everyone’s food problem.’

Heh heh... Lynch chuckled in amusement.

***

「The next day.」

Organized by Old John, the town’s mayor, about twenty "militiamen" and another twenty or so women who still had some strength left were gathered in the central town square.

They stared at the surrounding Skeleton Soldiers and black-robed Mages, who stood stock-still and emanated a chilling aura. Every one of them looked terrified and confused, but none dared to disobey.

"We’re moving out. To the lake," Lynch said without further explanation.

Under the "escort" of the Skeleton Soldiers, the group moved along a path thick with weeds, heading toward the shore of Mirror Lake.

Fishmen were typical amphibious monsters. While they excelled at moving and hunting in the water, their habitats were usually crude encampments near the lakeshore.

They needed to come ashore to rest and reproduce, and would also dry their catch to store it.

Sure enough, the Fishmen of Mirror Lake were rampant.

The group had followed the shoreline for less than a few hundred meters when Lynch’s Squirrel Skeleton discovered a Fishman encampment of roughly a hundred.

However, the most troublesome part of exterminating Fishmen was their cunning. As soon as a fight turned against them, they would dive into the water, making them much harder to kill.

Unfortunately, Lynch had left Serena and the Naga Squad to garrison the Silver Sand Bay Fishing Port. Otherwise, the Nagas’ natural advantage in aquatic combat would have been perfect for dealing with these Fishmen.

But even without the Naga, there were other ways to fight.

Lynch fell back on his most trusted tactic: luring the enemy into an ambush.

First, he ordered his Skeleton Soldiers to lie in ambush within a patch of trees. freeωebnovēl.c૦m

Then, he picked out a few of the militiamen who looked relatively healthy.

"You few. Go wander near the camp and make some noise. Lure as many Fishmen over as you can," Lynch ordered, dangling a carrot. "If you do this, you’ll each get an extra three days’ worth of food rations. And it will be meat."

Under this combination of threat and incentive, the chosen militiamen’s expressions flickered. Finally, gritting their teeth, they tightened their grips on their crude weapons, gave each other words of encouragement, and crept toward the Fishman camp.

A short while later, they had drawn out dozens of Fishmen.

Once the Fishmen entered the kill zone, the Skeleton Soldiers swarmed them, easily slaughtering every last one.

After dealing with that group of Fishmen, Lynch immediately ordered his forces to encircle and clear out the Fishman camp.

The tactic was executed with considerable success.

The camp was almost completely wiped out; only seven or eight Fishmen managed to escape.

"Clean up the battlefield," Lynch commanded.

Under the supervision of the Skeleton Soldiers, the militiamen and women began to clean up the Fishman camp. They were trembling with fear, yet also buzzing with excitement.

They dug out smoked fish and gathered catches that were still relatively fresh—in short, they collected anything that looked edible.

Of course, the most important "spoils" were the ninety-odd Fishman corpses.

Fishmen might be ugly, with slimy, scaled skin, but once you got past the inedible parts, a single adult could yield ten to twenty pounds of meat.

Lynch had never eaten Fishman meat himself, but he’d heard the texture was somewhere between frog and chicken, with a very strong, unpleasant, fishy taste.

But it was meat, nonetheless!

When you were about to starve to death, who cared if it was Fishman meat or something else? If it was edible, that was all that mattered.

Seeing the mountain-like pile of fish and Fishman corpses, the militiamen and women worked with an unprecedented fervor. For the first time, a spark of hope ignited in their eyes.

’The process was terrifying, but this new Lord Mage... he seems to... actually be leading us to food?’

While the main group was hauling the spoils back to town, Lynch didn’t rest. He took the militiamen who had served as bait and immediately headed for the next Fishman camp...

「At the same time.」

When the first group, groaning under the weight of their haul, made it back to Lakefront Town, the sight of the mountain of Fishman corpses instantly brought the deathly-still town to life. A huge commotion erupted from the crowd.

"Food! It’s food!"

"Meat! We have meat to eat!"

"Oh, good heavens... That Lord Mage, he... he really brought back food!"

"Mama, it’s meat... I’m hungry..."

The crowd immediately surged forward.

Starving for so long, the sudden sight of meat made their eyes gleam with a feral, green light. Only the intimidating presence of the Skeleton Soldiers kept them from getting too close, let alone rushing forward to snatch the food.

Old John, the mayor, was so moved that tears streamed down his face, and he fell directly to his knees.

But this was only the beginning.

As wave after wave of "food" was brought back, Lakefront Town’s dire food shortage was, unbelievably, solved by Lynch in a swift and brutal fashion.