I woke Selly up and got to enacting my plan. And with the weight of the prior fights lightened and a little rest and recovery, I felt almost halfway too good. The moment I started moving, however, I knew it would slowly get worse again. While I moved, my [Wellspring of Renewal] couldn’t produce enough death mana to stop me from picking up more of the festering dark magic affecting the area, which meant it would get sucked into my body through my legs.

So, I know I have to work fast and effectively.

And buy a pair of proper shoes when I get back.

That might help too.

I rigged up the dam first, messing with its foundations and reinforcement, leaving it solid enough not to collapse on its own but close enough that I could quickly release it. After a little prep, it was almost ready, but I was interrupted.

I had to hide when I picked up on some Gremlins making a ruckus and got into the brush before a new party left down the path. They were eight strong, but this time, I hid well and didn’t give them a way to find me. I checked the path and stayed hidden, and in doing so, I managed to spot a returning party that passed one another as they moved along the path; they smelled off, but I almost gagged from the stench when I got closer to check.

The source of the stench became clear the second I saw them; they were undead. They smelled like rotting meat and jerked as they moved like they were in the grip of palsy, inhuman movements from a humanoid form. I could see the things rotting, flesh holding on them like loose cloths. I saw one of their eyes and noted nothing was off there, just milky dead eyes.

I checked, and I could feel no soul riding in them either. There was no jade chip to fuel this set of the undead, just a void of dark magic.

It was the first time I had seen a normal undead, the type that occurred in nature sometimes; though they were somehow working for the Gremlin, they followed the robed one, which made me think they were a mage.

I decided to check them properly once I saw them. See how many there were and if I could get the drop on them. They were finishing their patrol, and while I had no idea how long that was, they would be tired at the very least. If I could get the drop on them, it would be that many less to deal with in an escape scenario, that many less that could cause trouble or give chase.

I slunk through and towards, taking proper stock of the group. Two of them were physical types, each with a short blade. They escorted a third, the robed one that looked different from any other Gremlin I had seen. The thing had no proper weapon, just a strange short knife on its hip, instead holding a rod in one hand made from carved wood and an orb of pitted metal in the other.

It had the magic caster look going, with a hooded robe and the things in its hands. It was similar to what I thought of when I thought of death mage sans black robe and with strange items.

It was weird that it wore something approximating normal clothes. Most wore nothing; they were covered in patchy fur and didn’t need clothes. Having a set of clothes made me consider it the more important target.

I was immediately drawn to its hands, but I didn’t know if it was the rod, the orb, or a spell, but I was sure it was using one of them. Otherwise, the corpse things would move around and do things, not follow along after them like a set of disgusting-looking meat puppets.

There didn’t seem to be a rhyme or reason for their group sizes: two sets of three, a set of five, two sets of eight and three with two undead corpse things.

Gods, but they make me nauseous, whatever they are. Please, world, bring back the skeletons; they didn’t stink bad enough to give me a migraine.

I supposed they had skeletons inside them; their clean, stenchless bones were looking for a way out. I could help them escape and do my part to fight [Necromancers] simultaneously.

I decided to fight for team Skeleton.

I moved back through the brush, ahead of the Gremlins and set up an ambush.

I hadn’t ever used any of my spells on someone else, or I supposed after earlier, anyone living anyway. I was intrigued at what I might see if I used [Inspect] on them. I didn’t need to know their stats, and even if I used [Analyze], I would have just given the Gremlin its stats. The window appeared in front of the person it was cast on.

[Inspect] was also quick and cost little; it was a boon of a spell. Even if I thought it might be less than I hoped for, that would be fine. I lined myself up and began casting, tracking them as they came in range before giving it a little lead, like a slung stone.

The tiny bolt of light fired out, and I followed it in, not waiting for the second it took to connect with the hooded figure.

I got the notification as I left the brush and charged them.

Level 12 Gremlin, Condition: Tired, Type: Fallen.

Description: An un-named Gremlin [Cultist] Level 15, [Death pact Acolyte] Level 9.

Gremlins are a fallen people, those who have greatly regressed but have not become Monsters. Gremlins are attracted to and seek places of corruption and devastation, such as temples to fallen gods, places touched by the Darkness, ruins, or places like deserts, swamps, or frozen wastes where places of power are more prevalently skewed towards tenebral power.

[Cultists] revere dark or fallen powers and work to bring those forces power in the material world, like a [Priest] would for their god. [Cultists] are not mages but can utilize magical skills and items at a lower tier.

[Death pact Acolytes] are Acolytes of a being in a Death pact and serve their masters dutifully. Acolytes aren’t mages but can cast magic lent to them through their master's pact-like any other Acolyte.

That is so much better than I thought it would be. That’s so cool.

It was like getting a new toy as a girl, my imagination wanted to go wild on what I could use it for. I wanted to ask Anna about stuff and spend some time indulging the childish curiosity that remained with me because of my wisdom stat.

But I had to tamp that down, but it put a little spring in my step. A spring that brought me right into the fray, the light that pinged the Gremlin [Cultist] had not gone unnoticed by the living.

I hurtled out of the brush. Holding my spade with two hands again, my second hand was still weak, but it gave me more control over how I moved it. Fighting with one hand was beyond debilitating, but so was how bad the build-up of dark gunk had been.

Now, I was far more prepared to fight again.

The Gremlin I aimed for could barely react, trying to intercept the carved stick between us while it did something with the orb.

The orb, then.

I faked it out, hefting my spade in a way that looked like it might be an attack, before I changed my grip, not hewing in from above at its raised arm but spinning it around to hit from below at the arm holding the orb. I followed it with a [Rapid Action], getting a second strong hit. It landed with a solid thunk on the second swing, and the Gremlin dropped the orb as my spade cut in.

All I had to do was look in its beady little eyes and smell the fear and indecision to know that whatever it could do with its little stick, it was too caught off guard to be an immediate threat for retaliation.

Instead, I turned to the two with the poorly made short swords to protect myself. One of them practically tripped over itself as it turned back to me, its hunched form stopping it from getting in an attack. The other one, however, turned to me far smarter, moving so it could swing at me at the same time. As it came in, leaning into its turn, I turned my moving shovel into its path, throwing off its blade.

I turned back to swing at the one that might be able to use magic and noticed that the corpses had caught up to it, standing motionless about two feet behind them.

I started to grin.

My spin had been almost without interruption, and I didn’t need a second hit this time. It barely moved its neck an inch before my shovel cleaved its head straight off its shoulders.

My spin spun me off balance, but I managed to get most of the way around as the two lashed out at me again, blades seeking me as they yowled and chittered for my blood. The first caught the haft of my shovel and didn’t even bite into my skill-enhanced tool. The second, formerly unlucky, managed to get a good cut on my unprotected side this time, obscured to my right as I spun. I grit my teeth as I twitch. It was a good one, but not life-ending.

I changed my grip again, shedding the blade from my haft and going towards Lucky, the stinking corpses not moving behind me to defend their compatriots in the slightest.

It had overbalanced on its slash, so I smacked it to the back of the head, once again [Rapid Action] doubling it. The bone broke, and it collapsed. At the same time, the one behind me fell, too. Great minds might think alike, but there was none of that for the two corpses, and I doubted they were mentally of the greatest standing anyway. Neither had a good head on their shoulders.

Oh gods, that’s a terrible joke. Not even an accurate one. Bad head. No low-effort gallows humour.

I could see the eyes of the one remaining Gremlin go wide, only for it to flame up to rage.

“[Quick Slash], [Deep Cut]!”

It lashed out, one strike catching the end of my shovel, only for the blade to flashback and around, flicking out and biting into my upper arm.

I shouted a mindless noise, not putting any effort into it as I pulled the head of the shovel back and away from the body, simply slapping it back into the last Gremlin.

I slammed into its jaw, but between the first hit and the skill-enhanced second, it muttered, “[Draw Blood].” While spoken by something with a broken jaw, the skill was easily understandable. You could always understand what was said when you used a skill. And I could hear the vitriol as plain as day in its voice as it spoke.

My shovel slammed the second time, and my wounds started bleeding.

I started breathing, only for the urge to fight to ebb away and leave me gagging at the ghastly rot of the undead.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Gods, those things reek. You doing okay?” I asked Selly.

“Aye, though all the spinning makes me dizzy and tired. Bleeders are always the worst, and you’re far bigger than a Sprite. Can we get rid of the undead and get on with this?” She asked, low on breath.

I nodded, getting to it, cleaning the blood and bodies, sweeping up the souls of the departed. Then there came the undead. And I got a second idea to add to the plan. I had already eaten my food while I rested, so I placed the orb, weird knife and carved wood into my sack.

“Selliban, can you smell?”

“Yeh, kind of, it’s a bit different. Why? What are you thinking about?”

I grimaced.

“Well. I have an idea, but I don’t think you’ll like it…”

***

“This isn’t going to work, you unhygienic freak,” Selly whispered aggressively from my tunic's neckline.

I smirked down at her. She was hiding in my cleavage and had significantly protested, but when I pointed out she needed to be both hidden and secure, she had caved that it was also safer than the alternative of my hair.

“Not with that attitude, it won't. Didn’t you think I was an undead? Now I look the part, so quiet, you don’t want to give us away.” I teased.

She hmphed and shimmied back down.

I had finished my work with the dam and stalked around the wall until I found an isolated area, it was a bit tricky to get the dam just right, but possible.

As for the wall, feeling through the wooden fence for people-shaped blobs was easy enough. Each piece was a felled tree, each post lashed together and pointed on top like a palisade. The other side was well within my sensory range of [Magi], hells, within my aura range and physical reach. My skill set made the process easy in the moist yet compact dirt to tunnel under the wall, stiffening the passage so I didn’t need to fill it in after I passed below the wall. From what I had seen, there were no patrols outside the wall, just a few Gremlins going to and fro from the camp every so often from a front gate, and most of the Gremlins within were not patrolling either.

I smelled terrible; it made me want to be sick every breath I had, but I bet I could sneak in like this.

After all, I had been mistaken for an undead a few times, and I was similar despite my supposed holy nature. I just needed to fit the crowd better to sell it. With the smell of rot, many open wounds, tattered clothes covered in blood, and my flaming eyes. I was somewhat similar at a glance; add a shuffle and a vacant look, and I started to wander the camp with impunity.

I got a few looks, but from the tone, they were more the ‘huh, I’ve never seen that one’ than, ‘that’s not supposed to be there.’ I dragged my shovel with me, letting it trail behind me a bit instead of tying it up and sloppily clattering around to sell the act further.

I paid a little attention to my surroundings, but I primarily opened myself up and just felt the mana around me, checking for a tiny sprite-sized blip of mana.

All around me were tiny shanty huts. Constructed of mud, twine and branches, there were burrows of little Gremlins in the camp nursery. Children were left to roll around and bite one another unsupervised. Shacks stacked full of far too much darkness to be anything but a holding pen for the walking corpses stood next to areas that could barely pass for a kitchen, composed of a campfire, blocks of wood, meat and scavenged green stuff I didn’t think was edible along with shattered pottery to hold everything. I swore I saw nightshades and little red bird berries.

Plants that would do a lot worse than give someone a bad tummy ache. Nightshade could be used to make poison. Sometimes, it could be used as medicine, but eating it straight up? A bad idea.

It was cramped, but everything in the camp was cramped. The only place that wasn’t was a cleared parcel of ground with a small mound, with a lashed wooden frame around a shaft that led downwards and into the ground, little more than a hole with a ramp, but it was clean and free of anything.

I took a second pass around the camp to get a good head count, but I only saw something like sixteen grown Gremlins and no [Cultists] or [Necromancers] or anything like it, so I made my way back around and down into the hole.

Sixteen was still too many, and any returning party would notice mounds of dead gremlins or the lack of any living ones, and my goal wasn’t up here. The hole itself was also near a wall, near even to my tunnel, so I knew I could get anyone out if there were others down here.

Assuming there was anyone other than Selly’s queen.

The hole was too short for me, so I changed my posture to fit in. Hunching down into the tunnel, the smooth tunnel took me off guard. It looked more like it had been carved from stone instead of dirt, smoothed by some kind of skill, into almost organic-looking walls.

There was no torchlight farther down, no way to see beyond my skills, lending me their faux vision.

The tunnel wound down, and down the ribbed wall was followed by more ribbed walls until the tunnel passed properly down into the stone below the dirt. The walls became a roughly chipped and uneven circular tunnel. My only company on the walk was the slight slap of my sandals. I had lifted the shovel so the racket didn’t cause me problems, but so far, there was nothing special down here that I could sense mana-wise, but I also couldn’t sense the end of the tunnel, so down I walked.

I walked for quite a while, on and on, into the earth, until I came to an intersection of older, more solidly built construction. It led four ways, one the way I had come, but three off into the dark.

I still couldn’t sense anything important, so I decided to use a less magical sense.

My sense of smell.

I gave Selly a sniff, which got her to punch me with all the force she could muster, which wasn’t much, but I could still feel it. But that was all I needed.

To the left, I smelled nothing, just dust and the smell of old, undisturbed places. To the left, the stink of Gremlins, along with rot. As well as a strange scent that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. But it didn’t remind me of Selly, so I checked the final path and smelled something I didn’t expect.

Humans.

I could smell Humans, or more accurately, human blood, sweat and the miscellaneous smells they gave off. I was not expecting to find any down here, but the only reason for them being down here would be as captives or as cultists, which meant I had a 50/50 on my fallback plan being needed.

I didn’t know what else to do. Neither path had any other clue as to what was down them, nor did they have anything that smelled like Selly, so I decided to check the Human path, avoiding the other one, whose scent made me feel off and uncomfortable.

I set off down the darkened pathway and made my way through more four-way intersections. Each time, I checked for familiar smells, but there was never the smell of a Sprite. The only verifiable thing I found was more human smells, and as I followed, noticeably different Human smells. There was more than one of them, I was sure.

I came down the halls, increasing my pace until I spotted light. I slowed down and started to do my best to sneak. I kept my footsteps light and rolled my feet at a slow, steady pace, altering them until I could barely hear them.

I stalked through the gloom towards the light and found it coming from around a corner. I could also hear from beyond the corner some Gremlin voices and their skittering speech.

I listened, but like always, I had yet to learn what they said. They didn’t speak any language that I knew of, not just one I couldn’t understand, but one that I had never even heard before today.

I could tell they were some distance from the corner where I sat and, after a few moments, that there were only two of them speaking. I decided to take a sniff and found that there should be a third. There were three Gremlin scents.

So, I also decided to reach out and check the mana. I could only get minor, hazy images through solid stone walls, but there did appear to be one leaning against a wall, one across from it, and one farther in, doing something.

I saw it move, and there was a definitive yelp from one of the figures in what my senses showed me were likely cells hewn into the earth long ago to hold something. I could tell there were vertical bars of something similar to earth that I took to be metal.

Something occurred to me that I could feel the walls and stones while paying attention to mana with [Magi], without needing to disturb any air or for them to be in contact with soil. [Magi] was showing me that there was earth mana, and [Sense Stones] filled in the blanks. No smoky trails from where the air moved or anything of the sort. They worked together in unison.

I’m honestly surprised, though I probably shouldn’t be. Sensing through mana was similar enough to feel through my other sense-based skills, they probably work the same way. I could tell there were things there, though it was hazy. If one skill told me there were things there, why couldn’t my skills use that to fill in the details?

It was like how I could use [Displace Dirt] through my [Aura of Soil], whereas before, I had to use my shovel. What was the word? Synergy? That sounds like a Skipseo word.

I’ve just been so narrowly focused on finding the queen that I overlooked it, and I had also levelled up from fighting skeletons, so I guess it was just less helpful before. Does it get stronger as I get stronger? That would be super useful.

If I’ve been too focused to notice that I should pause, pull back from go-mode and think this through.

So, I did. I turned on all my senses and just planned.

The two had spears, I could tell from the wood hafts and metal bit on the end. The other one only had a tiny metal thing in his hand. And he was… doing something to a human. The last one had many dark spots, which made me think cultist, but the others were normal, similar to the ones above.

I got myself ready and turned the corner in my shuffling walk.

I approached, and while I got the guards to turn and look, they quickly turned back to bickering when they noticed I was undead.

Suckers.

I wandered to the cultist, who took notice of me and got a look of confusion.

There were cells, and he was torturing a man or what was left of a man. I doubted he would make it. There were two more people left in a state I would consider ‘alive,’ two skeletons piled in a corner for later use, and one man missing far too much of his body to fight back or continue living. I had to wonder what they were doing. But my mind connected the two disparate factors too quickly.

They had meat, but there were very few animals around right now. The fog had driven them away.

I moved towards the Gremlin as it reached into a pouch and grabbed an orb to attempt to control me.

Fortunately, I wasn’t an undead.

The gremlin started muttering as he handled the orb and looked down to check it. I walked past a woman staring at me with horror, some sort of recognition in her eyes that I didn’t share.

Maybe she was from the city, perhaps she was in the mob, or she had bumped into me on the streets. I didn’t care at the moment; I made sure to turn to her when I dropped my act, and I winked.

Then I got in a [Rapid action] enhanced strike to the back of its neck.

I didn’t even stop, turning with my shovel in one fluid motion and ran to the guards. [Land Strider] ate up the distance between us, and I did the same for the one that could see me. It wasn’t expecting it either, and the unsuspecting one fell without even getting to ready its weapon. It took maybe ten seconds. Ten seconds of cutting and skills before the three were cooling meat.

“Selly, can you go check for your queen? We might as well see if she’s here. I can’t sense her, but she might just be further out.”

“Will do,” she squeaked, crawling out from my tunic before taking to the air and zipping off down the corridor.

I checked the bodies and found a key, made my way back, and unlocked the woman's door.

“Can you stand?” I asked her.

She stared in incomprehension, just staring at me in confusion.

“Can. You. Stand. I need to know if you can move. I’m going to get you out of here, but I need to know if you can move. There is… one other person here that hasn’t been cut up for food. I need you to focus. Whatever is going on in your head right now, I need you to toss it out and work with me here,” I told her, reaching out and putting my hand on her bare shoulder.

She gawked at me, her mouth opening like a fish. I decided to give her a shake.

“If you can speak, I need you to use your mouth. If you're mute, grab my hand instead,” I told her, moving my second hand, clean of any of the muck on the rest of me in front of her.

I wasn’t angry, only tense. I needed her to focus. God knows what she had lived through, but I just needed her to focus for a bit. She could break down later.

“It’s… you,” she whimpered.

“Ok, you’re not mute. I don’t know you, and right now, I don’t care. I don’t care if you threw rocks at me or not, not here, not now. Right now, I need to know if you can stand, if you can move on your own, okay?” I told her before giving her a smile.

She didn’t seem to like that and started mumbling, scooting away from me into the corner.

I decided to take a closer look, checking her over with [Magi] and was unnerved at what I saw.

Black pockets, giant empty pool of nothingness floating inside of her where her mana should be, dark flows of mana trickling around far too slow for a living person, each moment the flow slowed at the edges of the dark spots as they sucked down on the energy on their body. She looked far, far worse than I had inside.

By all the gods and their many faces, she must be out of her mind right now.

Should I draw up life mana, get some in the wounded one, and then use the Death mana to help? That would use a lot of mana, but maybe I can use the death mana to fill me back up a little like before.

I can tell I’ve filled up with more mana, but I feel emptier, which means that I should have plenty if I draw the death mana out to free up my reserves, then I can help her out, and she can help the other two, assuming the poor sod over their keeps living for long enough to escape.

Maybe he’s rich enough to get proper healing; a potion or something might save his life, though I doubt he will ever fight again…

Her mumbling clarified, coherency peeking through, along with her fear, and I turned back to face her, leaving one ear cocked to hear around me for possible footsteps.

“Didn’t know, we didn’t know. I promise. Please don’t kill us.” she whimpered while defensively covering herself like she believed I was about to beat her.

“Why would I kill you? I came here to help you. Listen, you're being affected by this place. It’s messing with your emotions, making you more afraid, emphasizing your pain and paranoia. I’m not going to kill you, so tell me why, get it off your chest, and help work with me here. If we don’t help your friend, he’ll bleed out in no time.” I told her, making my voice so gentile that it reminded me more of trying to attract an alley cat than talking to a person.

She let out a quiet wail in response.

“We killed you. We killed you, and now you're going to kill us back.”