“Not like much can be done about it. Though, since they are in a singular location, the defense and many effects are much stronger. I bet your right arm will be very strong in the future. Much better than mine well-rounded Emblem.” Mi-Yung Explains.
“Makes sense.” William nods and makes a note in his mind. Regarding the Emblem, there is not little that he is curious about.
“What else? What else... Those are the most basic stuff I could talk about... If I have not forgotten about something.”
“I guess this will do. What about the next room? I am quite an interest in others.”
“Alright, your word, your cause. Let's go.” Mi-Yung agrees while storing the documents in their cabinet under the latter H, number 13.
Moving out of this room. They meet in the same hallway as before. Spending an hour or two in this room, time will be enough to get the other one done before the end of the day.
The next room is on the other side of the hallway, with a rather similar layout to the previous one. Apart from the cabinets. There are many scrolls and this time, there are no locks behind any details. Instead, there are many stands with folded scrolls and posters with many photos.
“This room is for the sole purpose of understanding the backbone of the Dark age. Location, harvested location of the Dark beings, their nests, dungeons, and so on. These are the things regarding existing and pasts nests, valleys, canyons, ratholes, ravines, and wherever they could be even called. Those monsters like to make their homes in many locations. Away from the sun, waters, and usually underground. Almost like the cockroaches.” Mi-Yung explains while going around the room and opening some of the scrolls on the stands. Many depictions of things she talked about are revealed.
“This is the first important factor. The Fog of the Dark.” Mi-Yung points to the scroll on her left. It llustrates the charge and sight of some camp in the middle of the horde attack. The sky is dark, with the sun that is hiding beyond the dark fog.
“It stems from the movement of the hordes. It comes from the hundreds of the bodies of the Dark being and makes concealment. There is harder visibility for the target of their hunt. Dim visibility is not usually an issue for Dark beings, while humans are quite dependent on it.”
“I have seen this a few times with my own eyes. They could even make the eyes swell and hurt. Making it hard to see, and causing one to be helpless.” William adds.
“Exactly. There is no escape from this, apart from wearing goggles or masks. As far as I know, there are no issues with toxicity or poison with it, if it doesn't come from the Dark beings itself that is.”
“At least some good news. I bet that is because they want to enjoy the fresh meat without any poison inside of us.” William expertly adds, while glancing at the scroll before him.
Mi-Yung sights and massages her temples as he was right at it again.
“This is only a small effect. After all, the beast horde is almost unstoppable unless a few squads of rank 4 and above Walkers go against them. High-ranking monsters like to act more lonely, while the hordes consist of Rank 4 and lower. The Rank 5 to 6 as a leading force of the horde.”
“I see... I have seen this a few times with my own eyes, so that leaves at least something familiar to me.” Wiliam nods to himself as if he is very knowledgeable about this. Apart from the fact that there is a leader amongst the horde... that, he did not know.
“Next is this.” Mi-Yung palm strikes one particular scroll stand, which almost flew away from her strike. The unfolded scroll opens up and reveals the content on the stand.
“Crevices?”
“Right. I bet you have seen some, or know some, of them. They are the effects of the hordes, while the ground would cleave in half to unknown causes. Dark beings would crawl there, make their homes, or whatever else. Some are even making deep cave systems for whatever reason.”
“How in the world are those pictures so detailed? Don't tell me some madman actually went into such things?” Wiliam blurts out, as there is one picture of the deep crevices that run beyond the ground of Earth. It includes deeper, more hidden parts, where are even caves and vast distances of rooms and even halls.
“What if we did? I have been to plenty of them myself. Getting rid of their homes is an effective way to kill Dark beings in cramped spaces while we are smaller than them. It is quite a good tactic.” Mi-Yung says in the expertise of experienced Walker such as herself. Of course, she doesn't forget to puff her chest and nose up in importance.
“Madmans... Quite brave madmen.” William mutters in a speechless manner as he watches the detailed pictures, scribbles, and sketches of the complexes those monsters make. It resembles ant colonies, while no one knows if those monsters are reproducing or not. Not like it matters much.
“Impressive, but they must be quite terrifying spaces to go into.”
“Team of Walkers in charge of rank 6 or 7 leaders are the only ones allowed to cleanse such places. Unless it's important or known to have lower-ranked monsters. They are one of the most dangerous places to go to. Apart from the particular outside location which could be homes of the higher Dark beings.”
“Huh... I won't ask about that. I don't want to know the details of the rank 8 and beyond monster, Miss Mi-Yung.” William swiftly excuses another piece of information that Mi-Yung says, before she even retaliates.
“Not like it's something important. You see, a lot of such things are unimportant to not know, but are made restricted by...some people. Does it make sense to you? Not for me. Young Walkers need to know the bigger world. There are so many things that could be dangerous Outside, after all.” Mi-Yung sights in a helpless manner, with information and things she only knows herself.
Much to her disappointment, those are the things leaders of the Federation consider to be better in the long run. Like not including information that are not needed to be told by lower Walkers. It is the case of logistics, where the need to raise the ranks comes with progress to be made for them. Not like the death toll of the young Walkers is small. It is quite significant, but who would be ready to go head to head with the prime hunter of the world? Very few.
“I would rather not tell, otherwise you would pinch my cheeks or my scalp would suffer.” William jokes, while feeling rather more apprehensive about the terms she talks about. His opinions are changing, and it feels better to get to know things one bit at a time.
“Or I can punch you to your guts.” she jokes around while pounding her fist to her palm.
“N-no thank you. I am much fun of a meal in my stomach.”
“I bet. Anyway, those are the next ones....”
Mi-Yung goes to her lecture on the geopolitics of the Dark beings. Sometimes, they convert already made canyons, while most live through the crevices or made-up caverns or caves.
Of course, in major metropolises, the notion of living in humongous malls, or skyscrapers is also their potential home. It is to the tastes of higher rank monsters for the most part, as there are no humans there.
Those places are long obsolete since the beginning of the apocalypse. A lot of such cities were prime examples of focused hunts by hordes of Dark beings. Some cities were even blown by nukes, while most often than not, were left to their demise. People who could not do anything to help did nothing but flee or suffer death.
By the time the first platoons of the Walkers came to walk the paths of hunters, all major metropolises of the Earth were long destroyed. Be it New York City, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and its famous buildings, or the humongous conglomeration of people in Tokyo. They all did not survive the law of time in the last century.
William could not help but be impressed and terrified at the same time. The sheer amount of their style of living is as if they are converting the Earth for themselves. Those monsters are more like unleashed beasts with unhinged destruction and hunger. Their homes would not even have piles of bones. Everything that they are eating goes through their digestion systems which are secrets of the scientist.
As far as everyone is concerned, not many people would find it interesting. The knowledge of the organs of the Dark being or their structures. Perhaps only a madman, or... weirdo.
Some of those are scientists, but even those are not in many numbers. Most are in the charge of the procedures and research for the Emblems. There is a Federation, Academy, or as William became aware a while ago by Mi-Yung remark, the Xian Dynasty in China. As for the Dark beings and their... insides, as long as they are dead, that's what matters.
Mi-Yung included a few details about the Xian Dynasty, where hundreds of thousands of people lives in an underground city. It is the biggest cave system in the world, located somewhere in China. Spanning for a dozen or hundred square miles, it is beyond common sense how the city survives since the Dark beings love such spaces.
“That is about it, William. Places in the dark are what those monsters like. Their names are quite fitting.”
“Yea. Fog, dark places. It is like a horror story. Apart from this... is the reality itself.”
“That is true. Let's wrap this up. I am hungry, so let's eat out first, then go back home.”
“Thank you very much for this time. Miss Mi-Yung.” William bows to make it right for himself and also for her. As he guesses, she likes being pestered by such actions.
Taking his shoulder, she twisted him to the straightness with a painful expression on William's face. He cringes in grief but manages to remain calm.
“I did this to make it a little bit clearer to you. As for your future, I won't be able to be with you as much as I would like. While it is not bad, or good. There is some promise or deal if you would call it like that. Would it be interesting for you??”
“I... Depends on what it is?”
“I can't be a teacher or mentor because of my position. But, I can become a proxy or medium for you. Having some backup, or advantage in relation to someone powerful is a big deal. It makes some difference in this word.”
“Tha... What does it imply?” William looks at her serious face as what Mi-Yung says sounds like something important.
“I will become someone between you, and the organization that will try to hop you to their forces. The awakening and corresponding examination will be a hectic time for any young Walker. The results could determine your life, so I figured this could be the best thing I can do for you from my side. What do you think?”
“Proxy? Medium?”
“Do you even know what those words mean?”
“. . . no,” he mutters.
Sighting, Mi-Yung tells him a more brief overview of what she wants to do instead.
“A business partner. One without any restraints on you or dependency. It is like a free little tip of helping.” Mi-Yung makes herself clear, while unbothered by his lack of knowledge. Although her education was quite good in Korea, she still understands there are people out there who have it much worse.
“Oh!? That makes sense. So someone in-between the organizations, while acting as an independent force... That sounds quite impressive when I think about it. Won't you have trouble doing this?” William speculates.
“I guess. There are no rules that state not doing something like this in the Assembly, so I assume it is acceptable.” she smiles while feeling proud of her idea.
Like this, she could feel much better while figuring out things as time goes on. Only time would tell what would William accomplish. If he is like his father, he could be something special. That is at least the assumption of Mi-Yung who, at some point, was a bit obsessed with William's father Victor.
It was only a healthy obsession of an adolescent girl about her lord and savior in the apocalypse. The destruction of her home left much to be desired for a young teenager.
Calling it idyllic would be brave enough.