Iris held Kia's arm as they entered deeper into the leafy forest. From in between the light green tree crowns above them beams of light shone down, turning the forest floor into a verdant city of white pillars. The elf absentmindedly reached out toward one of the pillars trying to feel its warmth as she stared at the sight all around her.
"Wow." Kia's voice reached the elf. "Pretty."
"Indeed, but something in this forest is prettier~," The elf teased.
"What?" A pair of different colour eyes stared at the elf.
"Secret~"
The two undead adventurers continued their journey, the shorter undead eyed her surroundings carefully, trying to find the prettier thing the taller undead was talking about.
As they went deeper into the forest the woods around them turned darker. The two stepped off the path as it turned from their destination.
The soil on which they walked turned into sludge as Iris gradually sank up to her knees in the mud. Even with her unholy strength and perfect vigour she still struggled to waddle onto a dryer patch of land. Beside the struggling Iris, Kia gently strolled, mockingly not sinking in the mixture of more water than soil.
"Kia, why do you not sink even a little in this," Iris said. "You sank like a stone previously." The elf's frustration leaked with every word as she felt water getting into her shoes.
"Because I don't want to be wet?" Kia answered.
"Me too," Iris narrowed her eyes. "You casted a spell or something not sink."
"I just don't want to sink that's it," Kia said. "Oh, I remember you can't do that."
"Do what?" The elf slowly rose from the mud as she found solid ground.
"Regulate your internal mana to change your weight, density and a couple of other factors," The girl climbed onto a big boulder under a weeping willow. "You can't do that 'cause you have your non-magical soul almost intact."
"Thanks," A small ball of water appeared beside the elf. " What you mean almost?"
"The ritual caused your soul to bind to the body I made and I had to fit your soul to the new body without some changes to your soul you would go insane. In other word your body is more able than your soul can comprehend." Iris watched Kia's mouth work as she was explaining, but the elf felt that her talent was failing for the first time.
"Oh." The elf said pretending to understand, not wanting to continue the possible harming conversation. She looked around and sighed. "We have to go Kia."
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The girl let go of her legs which then dangled freely, black smoke with pale blue veins covered both of her arms. She trusted her arms down covering the swampy ground in a thick layer of smoke.
"Kia?!" The elf stepped back from where she stood as dozen skeletal arms burst violently from the ground below them.
"Mmm?" The necromancer casted an innocent look toward Iris.
Dozens of black skeletons rose from the ground, their bodies were covered with blue veins resembling some archaic script. They stood in front of Iris and Kia's obediently awaiting their master's orders. Iris watched as a war host capable of destroying a village moved as one scattering in all directions.
"Kia, could I ask why?" The elf rose a questionable brow towards the girl clad in black.
"If I understand this correctly we need the metal plates to buy food, yes?" The girl said.
"Yea we need coins to buy food," Iris retorted as she crossed her arms. "What of it?"
"If we gather LOTS of iron for the small man we will get LOTS of coins to buy LOTS of food!" Kia flashed Iris a big grin which showed the girl's pearly white teeth with elongated canines.
"Should have guessed that," The elf shook her head dismissively. "But what would happen if anyone saw this." She gestured at the many skeletons walking through the swamp back to their master with as many stones as they could hold.
"Ehhh, don't know."
"They would get guards or worse, adventures to investigate and that would be bad," Iris said. "Just make sure no one sees them, okay?
"O-of course!"
Iris tilted her head in understanding and turn to overlook as the black figures tirelessly rummaged through the swamp for the bog iron. Iris saw as some of the summoned undead disappeared under the surface only for their burning blue eyes to emerge in a different part of the swamp carrying the iron chunks. Before the elf could noticed a large pile of bog iron formed under Kia's dangling feet.
A thunderous roar came from behind the girls causing the two quickly turn to see the source of the sound. From the thick vegetation surrounding the swamp, a massive bear charged at a skeleton closest to it, swapping its massive front paw tipped with long claws at the summon.
Iris steadied her spear for a formidable fight as the black skeleton flew into the swamp with force.
[Inspect]
[???]
All around her Kia's summons dropped their payloads and ran towards the new threat. A construct approached the beast from behind and without fear closed the distance, the summon tried to punch the giant bear in its hind leg and to Iris's surprise, the punch split the air in front of it as it connected with the bear's leg. The bear roared with pain as it swung its paw at the attacker. More constructs reached the beast and started to punch the bear sending grey mist with each punch. The bear desperately started to swing its paws in an attempt to get rid of the skeletons which dauntlessly attacked the high-level monster.
The bear fell on his stomach due to the deluge of punches directed at it, and its bulky body sunk a bit into the wet soil.
The black and blue skeletons started to mercilessly bludgeon the bear until in unison they stepped back from the beaten corpse and faithfully returned to their task.
"Kia what was that bear!?" The elf turned her head to the calm girl sitting on the boulder. "And what level are those skeletons!?"
"Ehh, the monster was level sixty-five I think," The girl answered. "And the summons are level eighty."
Iris gulped at the innocently delivered answer, "Why are they such high level!?"
"They are a bit smarter than their lower levels version and I don't have to oversee every one of their actions which is a pain to do," Kia said as she dangled her legs in the air.
The elf looked around at the black figures which could heavily damage if not destroy a heavily fortified town. "I am going to disassemble this thing." She pointed at the half-sunken corpse.
Iris walked over to the corpse giving it a good look over. On the grey fur of the monster rocky protrusions grew in places along with green moss which gave the bear a pale green colour. The beast had to be three and a half meters tall if not more. Beside its snout dried-up blood mixed with the monster's fresh dark red blood leaking from its mouth. She looked at its back, seeing many scars and what looked like a hilt of a dagger embedded deep in its stony skin.
The elf found that she could not pierce the monster's skin, she stood up and found Kia silently standing behind her.
"Hello."
"Hi need help?" The girl asked.
Iris nodded and Kia approached the bear, she grabbed a piece of skin which looked to have cut itself and she slowly skinned the beast. Later the half-skinned bear's eyes glow with blue light. The towering monster startled the elf as it walked onto dry land and lay down like a dog going for a nap. Iris rejoined in the disassembly as the crimson muscle showed itself.
The two reduced the behemoth into neatly organized piles which disappeared inside the necromancer's inventory along with the small mountain of iron gathered by the absurdly high-level summons.
"Going back?" Kia said.
"Yes, but what are you going to do with them," The elf pointed at neatly lined up skeletons. "Oh, guess that works." She watched as the blue veins faded from their bodies and the summons were reduced to black sludge indistinguishable from the swampy ground.
The two headed back to Marinya to fulfill their quest.