Chapter 37 - A Scent Of Undeath
Shortly before I left for the journey I took another look at the possible avatar forms, now that I was a Tier 7 Cheruard Dungeon core. I had had the choice to either diversify and increase the number of creatures I could change into or only select the strongest and most adaptable ones.
Again looking at my decision I didn’t regret it one bit. The Forms of the Boring Behir and the Deep Aboleth had combined with some aspects of the griffons I could now create and formed the Tier 8 Minor Wanetic Tempest. It was a feathered serpent with a sand worm-like mouth, enabling me to not only traverse through water and air but also the earth.
This was by far my most diverse and useful creature, though its aerial travel speed and maneuverability were limited due to its large size. Luckily, to balance this aerial disadvantage I had was the Tier 8 Blink Drake, allowing me to come out on top of aerial maneuverability and fighting force against anyone the same Tier as me.
Furthermore, the Blink ability would allow me to even traverse stealthily through any location, or make my way through a crowd of enemies without anyone seeing me. Though I had to be honest that the Drake's raw power was quite minuscule in comparison to the minor Wanetic Tempest. Counterbalancing that was the drakes special draconic blood, that would give me an advantage in niche situations such as no air, poison, unhealthy amounts of mana, or even various dangerous miasmas.
With all forms of transport, aerial, aqueous, subterranean, fulfilled the only thing missing was a humanoid creature for diplomatic purposes. For this I chose to combine the elemental Human with the lycanthropic elements of the Lycamwerift, the creature concept influencing all my avatar choices, and adding to that was the new fey race allowing me for a more intelligent avatar that could house my wisdom and intelligence without limiting me in any way.
The creature coming forth from the combination of the three progenitors was a lesser weregenasi. One form a further evolution from the elemental human, with a lot of potential in innate spellcasting, the other a Wild Hunt Dire Nakata, a late evolution from a fey attributed wolf. They both combined perfectly to create the lesser Weregenasi and allowed me magical, diplomatic, and brutish strength combined as no other creature could.
A special little trait from the Genasi that was quite cool to see was when they used differently attributed spells, their skin changed in color according to the color of the element. This meant that when I was using fire mana my body would turn a blazing red, which accented perfectly with the natural glyphs I got from the Wold Hunt Dire Nakata.
All in all, I was ecstatic to finally try out all my new avatar forms and test them in a real fight. Taking on the form of the Blink Drake I lifted from the air and began my journey to the “Rogue Dungeon”. I flew over the small, grass-covered, hills surrounding the city of Exulcastra and flew alongside the coast towards the Orcish Tribedom.
Small fishing Villages below me took care of the extensive agriculture that brought so much power to the Human empire. The Expansive plains presented the perfect environment for farming and allowed so many creatures to live in Exulcastra without destroying the surrounding nature.
The closer I got to the Orcish Tribedom the darker the ground got. The Harsher weathers from the Thunder Islands killed most of the weaker plants and created the dangerous plains at the orcs' borders. The Harsh environment killed the weak and empowered the strong, presenting the perfect environment for more dangerous plantlife, such as tanglethorn Bushes, Trip Weeds, Tinkle Flowers, or Hungry Moss.
What ripped me from the trance-like observation and calming flight was the undead influence I saw on the surrounding land. Here and there the rising death mana had changed some of the plants into their necrotic counterparts and occasionally even created a skeleton or even a rare zombie. Every time I saw one of them I took a quick dive and finished off the nuisances, they presented no danger to me whatsoever, but if they grouped up they could quickly overwhelm a small village. From there on things would quickly go downhills for the afflicted region and the problem had to be dealt with quickly.
The rising death mana got me thinking about its origin. It had to come from somewhere, though no exact location could be found during all the scouting trips the alliance send out since the outbreak. It was as if there was just rising from the ground like weeds from the soil. Though throughout the scouting trips the Alliance had found some clues hinting at something coordinated going on, a scheme.
At first, we assumed this to be a ploy from “The First”, another land grab from these self-alleged “gods”. Though lately, we have been getting closer and closer to the truth, the recent sightings of ritual sides were hinting at a third party being behind this outbreak. Giving us the last piece of the puzzle was Aliet, the Avian King, he told us of the undead tip region, bordering his Thunder Islands. Apparently, they had recently discovered a way to safely travel through the gigantic everpresent thunderstorm, that had before been able to hold them off.
Before I could go on complaining about the undead nuisance that was growing to threatening size, I was interrupted by an intense scent of death mana touching my sensitive nostrils. Following my draconic nostrils, I quickly discovered the origin of the necrotic energy.
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Behind a small hill about 5 kilometers from the coastline I found a raised stone platform with an altar on top of it. Standing upon the platform were 4 individuals, one in the center and the other three standing in a triangle around the central one. The Undead in the center, a Tier 4 peak Karbaneri, a race of intelligent undead, was currently citing ritual lines written on the book before him. The three other undead around him were a Tier 4 weak, Wither Skeleton, a Tier 4, Dhamyre, and a tier 4 peak, Soulless.
The Undead prostrated on the platform represented the three main races of their species. The Skeletons, the Zombies, and the Ghosts, all three of them were the necrotic part of one aspect of the living body. The Skeletons represented the absence of everything, soulless, mindless, and without a body. The Zombies represented the corruption of the body and the absence of Soul and mind. Lastly, the Ghosts were corrupted souls without a body or mind to speak of.
Together with the different intelligent undead races that were mostly grouped up under the term necromancer, they build the four pillars of the undead. The undead species were one of the easiest to categorize because they could roughly be put into those 4 groups. Thereof course were outsiders at the lower tiers, such as living things, the greatest example being a scarecrow or another example would be the mummies, a skeleton with a mind. The further evolved a creature was the more complicated it would be to analyze its origin, though this was a common problem amongst all races.
The reason for my little mental excursion was to understand the goal of the ritual conducted below me. With my limited knowledge of Necromancy, I was able to roughly pinpoint the end result of the ritual. By combining all four basic forms of the undead race the ritual could result in two different outcomes. The result would either be a horde of all the four types of Undead used or a creature combining all the attributes of the four races.
In case the necromancer planned to create the second result, the region was lucky that I came upon this ritual sight. A creature using all four main aspects would at least be Tier 5 peak, or even Tier 6, and had a colossal Mana cost because the offerings were so weak. The safest bet would be to immediately destroy the ritual and instantly kill the caster through spell backlash, though I wanted to observe the ritual's outcome and maybe even get some important information about the necromantic outbreak.
Having decided to remain unknown, for now, I hid in the nearby wood and waited patiently for what was going to happen. The Necromancer finally got to the rituals crescendo, and the sigils surrounding and etched into the platform began to light up. The necromancer cut open his hand and dropped the blood on the book before him before he slashed open his windpipe and fell in the small depression in the platform.
The undead surrounding him joined him in the pool of blood that slowly ran along with the carved sigils and fell to the ground, now dead for good. I was now sure that a sole Tier 6 creature would come out of this ritual, sacrificing all participants and damaging the book by dropping blood on it was sure to create a strong ritual.
And as expected, after the blood-filled all crevices of the carved sigils and the magic in the area concentrated above the book, my assumption was confirmed. The Ball of mana slowly descended upon the heap of bodies and the blood began to coalescent together with the heap of bodies and the mana. The swirling mass of mana-filled organic material slowly began to form a roughly humanoid shape. The ghost incorporeal form began to shift the zombie’s flesh into a new state and the skeleton’s bones created the new materials anchor in the living world. The Mind of the sentient Karbernerie imbued the creature with a generous amount of information and intelligence.
I was just about to update my assumption of the creature's strength and begin for a hard battle to come when everything went wrong. The sigils that were being inlaid on the bones somehow failed and the flesh began to rapidly decay, the imbued intelligence that had slowly begun to form a brain, exploded and dispersed into the whole body, instead of forming a singular mind.
The potentially quite powerful undead the necromancer sacrificed his life for slowly corrupted but still formed a not-living creature. Upon an enlargened skeletal structure, pieces of black and rotten flesh hand on desperately, like they were separate creatures. After analyzing the creature, I couldn’t stifle the laugh escaping my mouth, the failed ritual created a literal skeletal Christmas tree or more specifically a Hulking Zomton Hive at Tier 6 weak.
Interrupted from its birthing moment, the monster slowly made its way towards my, placing one giant foot after the other, shaking the “jingle bells” hanging onto its skeletal branches. With how slow the creature was moving towards me I would probably not even need to destroy it, once it reached the nearest village the planet's average Tier would at least be Tier 10.
Nevertheless, I blasted the Tier 6 creature off the face of the planet after witnessing the small pieces of flesh descending from the hive body and corrupting the dead mice that were killed by mana poisoning from the ritual. The creature was akin to a moving breeding ground and safe place for the undead and would surely develop into a colossal problem if I let it evolve, thus my over-the-top usage of violence to destroy it.
On the ascent into the air, I quickly wreathed the ritual sight in drake flame, a lesser version of the rumored dragon’s breath a draconic creature had access to at Tier 10, at least this is what the scholars of Exulcastra theorized.
Back in the air, I was able to make my way to the “Rogue Dungeon” relatively undisturbed. I obliterated the undead I saw, though they got increasingly rarer the closer I got to civilization, here and there I flew down and observed the life of the orcs. I had heard that lately the orcs were getting more aggressive and showing hints of splitting up the Tribedom, which would greatly weaken the alliance.
One thing I observed that got me thinking about the problem was that the orcs living on the outskirts of the tribedom were the calmest out of the bunch, even though they lived in the harshest and most dangerous areas of the Tribedom. Saving up this piece of thought for later, when I would visit the Orc Capital to discuss diplomatic topics, I finally arrived at my destination.
I flew down to the entrance of the only other dungeon core I knew existed, the sorrow from the day I heard of its day was threatening to overwhelm me. Nevertheless, I pulled myself together, lives depended on my decision and I had bottled up for long enough, now was the time to act!!!