The Necromancer's Church Management Manual

"Bishop Garr." Eugenie's childish voice interrupted Garr's thoughts.

"What's wrong, Eugenie?"

"Um...excuse me, is there anything I can do for you?" Eugenie crossed her fingers in front of her chest, then lowered her head again when her eyes met Gar's.

"I want to do something for God, for Bishop Garr, that I can do."

She wanted to do something within her ability, but when she helped shovel snow in the morning, she was criticized for being too weak and taking up too much of the tools.

"Yes, you are a follower of the God of Light, I will definitely arrange a job for you." Gar smiled reassuringly and patted Eugenie's head. "You should have received the rule for advancement in rank on yesterday's day of oath, right?"

"Yes!" Eugenie answered without hesitation.

"My profession is a messenger of light. The gods say that the way to advance in rank is through transmission. By guiding the lost, helping the wandering, and passing on the flame of faith, I can receive rewards and advance in rank."

Garr nodded. Depending on their profession and beliefs, everyone advances in rank in different ways. For example, berserkers advance through training and combat, while priests like Selena and light-bearers like Eugenie advance by helping others.

Gal's necromancers, on the other hand, need to contract more undead in order to advance their rank.

"Yes, with the blessing you have received, go and help more lost souls! That is what you must do next, Eugenie."

"Bishop Garr, I understand." Eugenie found her goal, nodded excitedly, and skipped away.

Gar continued reading the intelligence, beginning to examine the current power structure of Darkmoon City.

One force consists of large and small chambers of commerce, led by the Black Gold Society. They have almost monopolized the shops and commercial routes in the city. However, in return, they have recruited a large number of laborers, providing jobs for ordinary people to some extent.

The other force is Earl Zane, who has a large number of elite troops and regular knights as his support, and at the same time controls the governance of Blacktwilight City.

The last force consists of the Temple of War and other churches, who control the vast majority of the local believers and are also Gal's rivals.

Gal needs to seize resources and followers from these various factions to grow stronger during this chaotic time.

So, what should we do next?

The safest approach is to focus on using priests' healing abilities and free food to attract refugees, thus achieving rapid expansion.

However, Gal's money had been almost gone in the past few days due to various necessities, and he needed to earn money to develop steadily.

As for other methods... Gar searched through all this information but couldn't come up with a solution for the time being.

"Gal, the building materials are all on the ground. So when are we going to repair the church?" Selena walked up to him and stuffed a bag of money into his arms.

"If this isn't enough money, this is my savings from all these years."

"Thanks."

Garr desperately needed the money, and he knew he should take it, so he showed a hint of apology, put the money away, and hugged Selena again.

"Garn, don't you have anything you want to say to me?"

Selena closed her eyes and felt Gar's tenderness, but her voice was very calm, so calm that Gar's body stiffened.

He knew Selena was asking about last night, but he was too tired at the time and hadn't thought it through, so much so that he had forgotten how to phrase his answer.

"I..." Garl's lips parted slightly, but he couldn't utter a word.

Selena looked at his silent reply, broke free from his embrace, silently stood up, and smiled:

"Ah, there are still children over there whose injuries haven't healed yet. I'll go help them first."

Selena walked toward a group of children in the distance, and Gard tugged at his sleeve but ultimately did not stop her.

Sorry, Selena, at least, at least these 85 days have passed.

-

Eugenie approached the little boy, who was huddled in a sheltered corner, hugging his knees, his empty eyes filled with a dull gray.

She sat down next to the boy, flashing a bright smile: "Hello, my name is Eugenie, what's your name?"

"...Loris"

-

"Tsk, this job is impossible!" Smithson looked out the window at the pitch blackness and couldn't help but yawn. "All day long, apart from seeing a bunch of poor bastards jumping around, I really haven't noticed anything unusual."

"Isn't it a good thing that everything is normal?" Claude took the teapot off the oven, elegantly poured himself and Smithson a cup, and savored the rich, warm black tea. "Enjoying life leisurely here, and still getting paid as usual, is clearly a very pleasant thing."

Smithson didn't refute, but instead picked up his black tea, downed it in one gulp, and began to nitpick: "Tsk, if you ask me, this black tea is no better than boiled water."

Claude: "..."

Smithson glanced at the church again, but this time it was no longer pure darkness; a figure holding a staff moved in the moonlight.

"Why is that priest going out in the middle of the night?"

"Here comes the anomaly you wanted." Claude stood up, concealed the short blade in his sleeve, and put on his coat, but his eyes never left the priest.

"Ugh, this job is impossible to do!"

Smithson extinguished the fire in the fireplace, and the last light in the room disappeared. The two left the house and, under the cover of darkness, groped their way to the opposite side of the church.

He went into the church.

"Isn't the church completely empty? What would he be doing going in?"

Soon, the purple light that suddenly illuminated the church answered Smithson's question.

For a time, the small church was filled with dozens of skeletons.

"It is... Necromancer's Summoning," Claude stated.

"This... priest? A necromancer?" Smithson's mouth dropped open.

Although in his mind, necromancers were indeed a rare profession, they weren't so rare that you couldn't find one at all. But it would be very interesting for a necromancer to be a priest in a church.

It should be noted that gods of evil factions, such as the God of Death, are beings that are banned by the Federation. There are special Federation Tribunals that regularly patrol the areas near each region of the continent, so the Temple of the Dead cannot be known to the public in the open.

"Wow, he's building a necropolis here, isn't he afraid of getting arrested by the Federation?" Smithson exclaimed.

"Not necessarily. After all, there's the necromancy summoning circle scroll. Let's see what he's up to first."

Soon, a skeleton holding blueprints began directing the other skeletons, who then began to systematically move the building materials that had been left in the open space during the day.

"Huh? His necromancy summoning was just for repairing the church?" Smithson cursed angrily. "You're insane! So many poor bastards eat your food and use your things, and you won't even let them do this little bit of work, yet you're rushing to secretly repair the church in the middle of the night! I'm asking you, are you insane?"

"Whether he's mentally ill or not, I'll continue to watch over things here. Go and report this to Melison."