Lich for Hire

Many people assumed that a legend had to be extraordinary down to the smallest detail, from hair to toenails.

In reality, that wasn't the case. A bit of bone from Ambrose's body was hardly a panacea. Feeding it to a dog wouldn't turn the animal into a high-tier undead either. At best, it would poison the dog and make it rot faster.

This principle applied to all legends, not just undead.

Back during his adventuring days, Ambrose once heard an old joke: a drunken legendary warrior had his kidney stolen by a drow rogue and sold to an ogre. The ogre reportedly complained that the legend's kidney wasn't nearly as chewy as an ordinary human's.

Whether the story was true didn't matter. It served as a warning that no matter how high your level, there were countless ways to die in this world.

Ahem. A legend did not require a legendary soul. What truly mattered was the strength of the soul and the "abilities" it carried.

Ambrose's artificial souls could be preloaded with specific abilities. For example, the shapeshifting ability of the living mercury spirit golems had been woven directly into their souls and had become innate to their being.

There were many types of undead. For simpler ones like zombies or skeletons, the focus was often combat capability: they could be granted haste or fear auras, for example.

Of course, precise adjustments required examining the actual undead body after creation. For now, Ambrose could only prepare the groundwork for strengthening the soul.