The Undead City - Altraud
Inside the grave with a blue roof.
"Maya, pick me up too"
"Come play with us"
"Can I climb too"
Maya giggled while gazing at the many tiny undead skeletons around her. She was inside the city's main library. The undead looked excited upon seeing her and surrounding her, asking her to carry them and play together.
"Alright, hop on, let's have fun"
She squatted down and picked up a tiny skeleton, making it laugh in happiness, many other undead held her robes and started climbing, while a few others poked her bones, demanding her attention.
Maya smiled at their antics and played along, but stopped when an angry voice called out to her.
" Silence, this is a library"
The tiny skeletons looked around in panic upon hearing the voice but calmed down when they saw black smoke seeping out from the ground they were standing on. The smoke formed a vague image of a female who was holding a book in her hand.
She was a ghost.
" Anne! It's just you" Maya spoke and turned to the little kids in the room.
"Ok kids, let's ignore the old hag and play hide and seek".
Nodding at her, all the kids started to run but were stopped by Anne who turned into black smoke and caught every one of them.
She then turned back and glanced at Maya,
only to see her busy measuring how long her smoke could reach.
Sighing she spoke,
"Do that one more time and I will kick you out"
"Do what, measuring you?" Maya questioned while tilting her head in confusion.
"No, disturbing the kids, you can play with them later, why did you come here anyway?" Anne asks while cursing Arthur in her mind for giving her the grave entry crystal.
"Right, I wanted to read some books, but can't make up my mind on which one to read " She looked at the enormous collection of books, each one more interesting than the other to her, but as she looked around a single book grabbed her attention.
"Hey old hag, which book is that?" she pointed at the book Anne was holding and asked, curious.
"I look young"
"Hm, ya you look young, but you are old, now tell me about the book"
Sighing at her disrespectful attitude, Anne placed the book on a nearby table and spoke,
"It's called, ' 15 great cities and 5 major dungeons ' it's about world geography"
"I see, so there are 15 great cities and 5 major dungeons. Wait what are great cities?"
Pondering for a moment, Anne opened the book and showed her a map, Pointing at it she explained,
"This is a world map, There are three main continents, the eastern evergreen continent, the western volcanic lands and the central dark continent"
Maya concentrated on the map as she listened to the explanation.
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"Why is this continent called dark continent?" she asked while pointing at the central continent.
Looking at the area she pointed, Anne nodded and explained.
"There are three species living in the central continent.
Humans, undead and vampires.
The human territory is always covered in a thin mist, dark clouds obscure the sky in the undead territory and the sun never rises in vampire territory, so the continent is called the dark continent"
Maya nodded her head in understanding, She then looked around and saw that a few kids were also sitting around her and listening attentively, Smiling she placed them on her lap and turned back to listen to Anne's explanation.
"There are 15 great cities scattered around in all these three continents, A place is called a great city if it has at least one minor dungeon within its boundaries, there is only one great city in Evergreen continent, two in the undead territory, three in human territory, four in vampire territory and five in western volcanic lands"
Anne smiled while explaining, she loved anything related to studies and spreading knowledge in the undead territory was a job that the sovereign had appointed her to do.
"What about this?" As she was reminiscing, one of the kids pointed at the word '5 major dungeons ' and asked. Anne put a finger on her chin and after some pondering answered.
" Major dungeons are areas that are guarded by a huge magic circle and are virtually indestructible,
There is one on the top of a world tree in the evergreen continent,
One inside a volcano in the western volcanic lands,
One inside a grave at the centre of the undead territory,
One underneath an ancient abandoned castle in vampire territory and finally
The last one in the misty forest of human territory"
While she explained, she also pointed at the five marks on the map to show their general location.
Carefully scrutinising the map, Maya scratched her head.
"What's so special about major dungeons?" She asked confused, they were all dungeons, so she couldn't understand why major dungeons were given such special attention.
"They are very different. Minor dungeons don't give any additional rewards for killing a monster, you just get the monster meat and its magic crystal, but in major dungeons it's different. Major dungeons have a magic circle every ten floors, and on placing the beasts that they killed inside the circle, one can exchange it for something else, like a skill scroll, or if you meet requirements then even evolution"
Getting up abruptly Maya snatched the book and studied the contents of the major dungeon,
"Hey return that" Anne growled
"Fine, you can have it old hag" Returning the book Maya gently moved the kids away from her. She then picked a book from the neatly arranged books, it read 'Major and minor dungeons' She took it and went to the nearby table.
Placing the book on the table she started to study. Anne smiled at her and gestured for the other kids to follow her lead. She then turned back into a black smoke and disappeared.
***********************
Inside the vampire territory
In a great city of one of the four main clans,
The vampire territory was divided into four clans, each occupying a great city. The main clan, also called the imperial bloodline occupied the central city, while the other three count clans occupied the remaining 3 great cities.
In one such city, called Duncanville, inside a room in the city Mansion.
An elderly male and a young female vampire kneeled on the ground, sweat was pouring down from their forehead and fear was etched in their eyes. The reason for their fear was the figure of a woman sitting on a chair in front of them, she had an authoritative aura around her as she gazed at the two kneeling vampires with cold, calculating eyes.
"Have you found her location"
Hearing her speak sent a chill down the spines of the kneeling vampires, they stuttered but ultimately the elder of the two, the male vampire spoke
"Please forgive us, Miss Selena, We were able to determine her general location but could not verify the authenticity of the information "
He bowed his head even lower than before to show his sincerity and also to hide his fearful expression.
"And those locations are?" Selena asked as her cold gaze shifted to him.
"We suspect she is hiding in either Edinburg or Altraud" he answered without raising his head.
"Tch, one under the control of Fiona, the other in Arthur's hands, both are suspicious" Selena clicked her tongue while mumbling to herself.
"What do you think is the most probable location?"
Hearing her question he hesitated a little but still answered
"The imperial black bat was last spotted heading into Altraud and vampires do not worry about being exposed to the sun in that environment "
A long silence ensued as Selena pondered the chances and then got up from her seat, swiping her hand she decapitated the female vampire who remained silent the whole time and walked away while saying "I don't need useless people around me".
Wiping the cold sweat from his forehead the elderly vampire got up and clapped his hand. Hearing the sound 4 vampire servants rushed in.
"Clean the mess" the elderly vampire pointed at the decapitated body and ordered.
"Yes" saying that two of the four vampires cleaned the room and took the body away, after their departure the elderly vampire turned to the two remaining servants.
"We are heading to Altraud, we need to kill Arya at all costs, assemble a force of 20 vampires, we are departing immediately"
Nodding their head the servants walked away leaving the elderly vampire alone in the room.