— Keira —
As Keir walked again through the dilapidated village streets, she noticed the villagers were moving around with a bit more purpose. Some were busy trying to see how much of their lives had survived the intervening years. Others were assembled into groups searching for and trying to retrieve those who reanimated buried under debris or in now inaccessible parts of buildings. A few of the villagers she passed spoke to her but for the most part they simply acknowledged her and moved on.
Her path soon took her to an open square that was apparently a market according to the Village Interface. Even without that the broken remains of a number of stalls and the handful of shops with intact signs would have been enough to identify it as such. A fair bit of resources must have been invested in the market square as it was one of the few areas she’d seen with flag stones rather than dirt and wood paths.
Apparently it had also been the site of considerable carnage during the fall of the village. Large sections of stone were stained with old blood.
Mostly those stains were visible along paths cleared by the repeated passage of the now deceased serpent. The rest of the ground was littered with piles of bones; both snakes’ and even some villagers’ who either decided to remain dead or returned incorporeal.
Scattered throughout the square were a few groups digging through the bone piles. From the look of it they were separating the bones of their fellows from their killers. They also seemed to be gathering what few items were still salvageable. The personal possessions, including those too badly damaged to be useful, were gathered in one area and the still useful trade goods were gathered in another.
Keir walked as carefully and quietly as she could without actually sneaking. Both to avoid stepping on anyone’s bones and to avoid drawing the attention of the villagers. She felt a little cowardly but she wasn’t sure how they would react to her presence while they gathered the remains of their friends or family she had failed to save.
Fortunately none of the undead working around the square noticed her and she soon reached the broken wall. As she approached the wall she saw a rather peculiar elven woman emerge from behind a pile of rubble with something clutched in her normal hand. The woman then carried it over to a mostly level chunk of stone and added what Keir then saw was a finger bone to a mostly complete skeletal arm and hand.
The elf was a fairly young woman. Most races had trouble determining elven ages, but elves tended to not have much trouble with it. From what Keir could tell the woman was likely somewhere around a century and half in age. Her curly gray green lichen colored hair and skin that still showed a strong tan despite the pallor of death revealed she was a wood elf.
More than those more typical aspects, what drew Keir’s attention was the woman’s other arm and her clothes. The woman was wearing relatively basic leather and plate armor common among guards and mercenaries. She was also the first person aside from herself Keir had seen with clothes that were enhanced by returning to life. The metal had thin oil like sheen of the pearlescent color Keir had come to associate with souls. Her armor was also entirely intact aside from her right arm. The armor as well as the arm it had held were missing a few inches below her shoulder. In its place was an arm with semi translucent flesh composed of the same mist like soul stuff she’d seen in the soul sea. Visible within the arm was bones made from more solid and opaque silvery soul stuff.
As Keir approached the wall she inadvertently kicked a small piece of debris. When the stone clattered away the woman spun around to face Keir. In the same motion the woman reached down to her belt where an empty sheath dangled, with her ghostly arm. With a smooth motion the woman drew a sword that hadn't been there before she drew it. The sword was the thick forward bent style popular among wood elves that acted as much as a survival and utility tool as a weapon.
Keir shifted her grip on her sword but before she needed to do more the woman let out a small squeak and quickly sheathed her blade, which immediately vanished, and said “Wow, sorry about that. You startled me. No one has really come this way much since we all woke up.”
Keir relaxed her grip and approached as she said “My apologies, I didn’t mean to startle you. I’m Keira. I was sent by the guild and was given the Title of the village by the System.”
“Oh, it's nice to meet you, I’m Lovisa. You can probably tell that I am a guard.” Lovisa cocked her head slightly and continued “What are you up to? Just exploring what's left of the village?” There was no accusation in the woman’s tone, just curiosity.
Keir nodded slightly and replied “Sort of. More specifically, I'm on my way to check out the quarry and lumber mill. Both will need to be reclaimed in order to properly repair the village.”
Lovisa Grinned and said “I could go with you if you want.”
Keir gestured to the mostly complete arm and said “Are you sure, you seem busy.”
From her expression Keir suspected that if she could have Lovisa would have blushed as she said “Not really, no. When I started to gather this up, I had the vague idea I could just sort of pop it back on. It was obvious pretty quick that I couldn't but, I mean I had already started and it felt sort of odd to just stop part way through. Like putting half a puzzle together, then tossing it back in the box.”
“Well if you're sure you want to join me I won’t say no to a local guide, or another sword arm if things go poorly.”
Lovisa looked down at her bones before saying “Do you think I should bring this along? It feels a little odd to just leave it here.”
“Do you actually have anything to carry it in?”
Lovisa grinned brightly and answered “I do not.” and after looking around for a second continued “But I do see most of a barrel. Do you mind helping me out for a second? This will be a lot quicker with more than one hand.”
With that said Lovisa grabbed a handful of finger bones and walked over to the barrel in question. After a second’s hesitation Keir grabbed the arm bones. She couldn't help but wonder if handling the remains of someone who was still present was just something she would have to get used to as an undead.
After only a couple of trips the arm was safely ensconced in the barrel and the pair of elves were making their way over the remains of the wall.
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It quickly became apparent as they made their way towards the barely noticeable path into the treeline that traveling through the Gateway Forest with Lovisa was almost entirely unlike her experience doing so alone. The forest around them was just as dense and antithetical to most noises. Keir barely even noticed the normally foreboding atmosphere, however, as Lovisa excitedly pointed out everything from useful mushrooms and almost hidden berry bushes to viper trails.
Keir hated to put an end to the amusing and entertaining stream of consciousness coming from Lovisa but she was beginning to see glimpses of the quarry through the trees. Keir waited for the other elf to take a breath and said “I’m rather enjoying this chat, but we should probably know at least the basics of what the other can bring to a fight. You can probably guess from the sword, but I am a low tier three warrior with a mixture of blood and tide based abilities. In a fight you can mostly expect me to charge directly into the heaviest resistance.”
Lovisa seemed to give it some thought before answering “Well, you know I am a guard. In fact I was right on the cusp of tier two when…” She paused, staring off into space for a second before shaking her head slightly and continuing “Well, you know what happened. When I woke up I was something called a Soul Blade Guard. It's a tier two guard class. And from the initial skills it seems to be focused on creating and using blades that directly damage the soul. Eventually I plan on getting a new physical blade for my flesh and blood hand.”
The last leg of the walk was much quieter but not especially tense. Both women had decades of combat experience even if Lovisa’s were more policing and defense rather than a conventional battlefield.
That aside it was hard to be too stressed when her companion clearly noticed or thought of something she wanted to talk about every few minutes, before remembering they were supposed to be being quiet. Over the final few minutes before reaching the tree line they began seeing scraps of shed snake skin clinging to the trees and rocks.
When they reached the edge of the trees, Keir saw that the quarry was cut into the side of a mostly isolated foot hill of the nearby mountain range. It was clear that when the snakes began to make the area too dangerous to move about freely the quarry workers had left their work unfinished but they clearly hadn’t rushed off in a panic.
There were partially cut blocks of stone and properly cut blocks sitting on rotten wooden sleds. What there weren’t were any discarded tools or unsecured equipment that she could see. If there were any they were concealed by the hundreds of eggs both hatched and not as well as dozens of young vipers. The snakes were spread in tangles throughout the quarry. The smallest were the size of large mundane pythons and the largest were almost as large as the adult giant vipers Keir hunted throughout the forest.
Keir turned towards Lovisa and said “Do you want to spend some time testing your new skills?”
Lovisa stared at the snakes, caution warring with anger flicking across her face as she said “This is probably a good chance to do so. Do you have a way of dealing with the bulk of them? My old class had a few crowd control skills but none of them are much use for this situation and my new skills seem better against single targets.”
Keir thought about her skill to channel the waters of the Phlegethon into her other skills and said “I sort of have a plan but it might be a bit self destructive. When I use it, I may need you to give me this if it incapacitates me.” and held up her lesser healing potion before re-stowing it. Keir stood as she lifted her sword from her shoulder and said “You ready?”
— Lovisa —
While Lovisa had tried to project calm she was more than a bit worried about facing vipers again after dying the last time. With Keira presenting such a striking figure with her greatsword held at the ready against the backdrop of the starry sky it was hard to remember why she’d been worried.
With a thought and a twist of her wrist Lovisa called on her “Soul Blade Creation” skill and formed a throwing knife in the same wood elf style as her sword. With that she said “I’m ready, let’s go.” and threw her knife at the nearest clump of serpents. The blade flew true and embedded in the top of the head of a mid-sized serpent. No blood was spilled and the flesh was pristine even as the snake slumped dead.
With proof of her skills effectiveness, she began raining razor sharp death onto the snakes below as Keira charged forward. As Keira swung her large sword into a tangle of writhing snakes it was followed by an echo formed from blood, which ripped apart at least a dozen snakes and scattered the few survivors. In an instant the dusty reptile smell was replaced with a mix of blood and sea spray.
Lovisa replaced the throwing knives she’d been creating with a copy of her sword she lost along with her arm. While a bit less recklessly, she joined Keira in the melee as the sleepy snakes began swarming them. One of the largest snakes in the area struck at Keira’s back and Lovisa tried out her other skill, “Phantom Riposte”. The world blurred into a black and white swirl for a split second before Lovisa found herself between the striking viper and its elven target, her sword already mid swing. As her blade carved into the snake just behind its head its strike was redirected to the side.
The serpent almost immediately spasmed and fell still after missing its target. After killing a few more snakes Lovisa said “Well, I think I tested my new skills enough for now. If you have a plan you might as well use it now rather than spend ages killing this lot.”
Keira nodded and said “I haven’t tried this so you might want to step back.” When Lovisa stepped back and returned to throwing knives Keir activated a skill. In a split second Lovisa could see the majority of Keira’s blood vessels not covered in armor as they glowed a bright greenish blue. Keira staggered slightly pain clear on her face before she steeled herself and swung her sword in a wide horizontal strike.
To Lovisa it appeared the blade opened a wound in the air that released a wave that glowed the same color as Keira’s blood. Even from over ten feet away Lovisa flinched back from the wash of heat that flowed back from it. The snakes were not as lucky. The molten wave smashed into them with an audible crunch and sizzle. For several seconds the wave gushed forth uninterrupted before cutting off. As the wave settled in a thin layer of burning liquid, only the snakes at the outer edges escaped with only minor wounds. The rest that were still alive were writhing as their skin and flesh sizzled and sloughed off.
As the glow faded from Keira’s blood vessels the only sounds were the sizzling snake flesh and the occasional wet rip of bursting eggs. Keira fell to a knee and Lovisa saw that while its effect had been muted, having her blood filled with that burning hot fluid certainly affected Keira. Burns covered most of her visible skin and Lovisa suspected it was at least as bad under her armor. Fortunately it didn't incapacitated the lovely elf. The wounds recovered in seconds after she drank the potion she’d indicated.
Lovisa was about to ask how they were going to properly explore the quarry with almost half of the lower level covered in the strange liquid. Before she could, the glow began to fade leaving only a layer of the sea scented blood.
With the majority of the threat eliminated and Keira mostly recovered from her skill, they split up to check out the state of the quarry. The little office and the worker bunk room were both almost entirely destroyed. Fortunately the sturdy little stone storage room that held most of the tools was in far better shape.
It took them a few minutes to break off the sturdy lock and get the rusted closed door open. Inside only about half the tools they found showed considerable rust damage and only a small portion of those were unsalvageable.
Keira grumbled in a way that Lovisa found oddly endearing as she claimed the cleared out quarry. She then turned to Lovisa and said “Are you ready to make our way to the lumber mill.”