Handy was unhard, but all over its body it had fresh pieces of moss and hanging slimy leaves clinging to it.
A green-brown sludge covered its legs up to the knee, showing it had been standing in a murky, muddy water or had found a deep puddle. Tiny jade green leaves clung to its bones as they stuck to the coating of muddy water.
Yet what made Jay curious was Handy's two-handed sword. Across its surface were black smoky marks. Looking a little more closely, Jay touched it with his finger.
It was like a sticky black power, which he guessed was soot or charcoal.
Another marking of black smoke was on the side of Handy's head.
"Hmm…" Jay checked its HP and found it was full.
A glance at Handy's teeth showed so tendons twisted through them, along with so blood.
"Seems like Handy got attacked by sothing and healed itself back up after eating. But did it eat its enemy or so other snack?"
(Handy, did you kill whatever attacked you or flee from it? Or maybe chase it away?) Jay asked, pointing to the scorch marks.
Handy shook its head, glanced at its sword, and then pointing it into the mist, it thrust the sword forwards.
(Good.) Jay nodded, taking this as a sign that it had won, or at least scared its enemy off. Jay let Handy do as it pleased, and it stood by his side, guarding him while it waited for its next assignnt.
(Handy, maybe you can guide through the fog. Don't let step in mud or water.)
Handy nodded back, accepting its new orders. Jay didn't want to enter marshlands as there was no Snake-raven inn around to bathe in afterwards, and before stepping into the fog, Jay checked the [Guidance] one more ti. A part of him also wondered if this fog was where Asra lived.
[Location locked - Luna]
[Sated]
[May this serve you well, my Aris]
Its red line pointed directly into the fog.
"Hmm… I'm sure her school isn't in this fog. We probably would've seen so… oh, but it's dayti. Well, none of the skeletons have died and if there were vampires in that darkness, they probably would have killed a skeleton by now?" he wondered.
"I suppose I'll find out once Asra is out of the blanket, but I'll get her out near the edge of the fog so I can escape if I need to… I should be able to make it back to the savage lands dungeon if I sprint. I won't get there before nightfall, but I would have a head-start in case any vampires chased ." He thought, making plans just in case.
Jay finally moved his party into the fog. The skeletons disappeared completely as soon as they stepped into the giant gray wall.
As Jay stepped closer, he watched Red. It was so thick that it disappeared after traveling a few steps more. The border of the fog was odd, as there was no gradual shift into thicker fog. It was like it was being held in by a bubble.
"I guess you guys are guiding ." He thought, putting his hand on Handy's shoulder, and slowly went in.
Sohow, it was quieter inside the fog, and felt warm. There was a faint sickly sweet sll of rotting fruit. Before going any further, he turned around to the wrapped blanket.
"You can co out now." Jay whispered as the skeletons lowered the blanket cocoon.
"Ah, finally." Asra stretched her arms as she pushed apart the blanket.
Standing up, she glanced around, squinting. She could only see the skeletons surrounding them and nothing else.
"Hmm, I don't recognize this fog." She frowned.
"You can recognize different fog?"
"Yep. This one is… filled with sothing different. It slls…"
"Like rotting fruit?"
"No, more like… burning tar."
"Ah, burning? I can't sll anything smoky."
"Vampires have an excellent sense of sll…" she glanced around, stepping closer to Jay. She held him close and whispered in his ear.
"Is anyone else here? Can any of your undead speak?"
Jay pulled his head back, but felt Asra's hand at the back of it, stopping him from pulling away. He glanced around, trying to see where she was looking.
Instead of answering, he slowly shook his head, not even whispering.
"What is she talking about? She's way too close. Does she have no sense of personal space?" he wondered. "Wait… she hears sothing?"
Asra pulled his head a little closer, so close that she could have licked his ear, and she whispered, "I hear whispers. Voices of children."
Jay raised a brow, and held his finger up, asking for a mont while he gently pushed her away, and went to sit down on the noon-leather blanket.
"Maybe the skeletons can see sothing?" He wondered, sitting cross-legged as he used the [Host] skill.
He chose Handy's eyes to see through, who was still standing by his side.
Jay saw darkness for a mont, but then the world ca back as black and white. Looking down at his own body sitting on the blanket, he made sure not to drop Handy's two-handed sword on himself.
"Ah, so they can see through the fog… sort of." He thought, looking around.
They were still in a field of stones and moss as the fog had shifted, but further down the hill he saw so gray leafless trees, which were dried out and dead, almost looking like they were made of bones.
Beyond them was a wall of white. The fog. He could only see about one hundred yards (90m) through the fog, even with the skeletons shade vision skill. Oddly, without the shadows, the fog looked pure white.
Jay looked around the rest of the field and saw no children or anything else unusual. Before using too much mana, he ended the host skill and returned to his own body.
"I see nothing out there. But there is what seems like a dead forest further ahead, so I'll have another look when we get there." Jay whispered as quietly as he could, knowing Asra would hear, even though he could barely hear his own voice.
Asra nodded back, so Jay slowly stood up and stashed his blanket away, giving himself a mont to think.
"Well, she doesn't recognize the fog, so this isn't a vampire magic of so kind… perhaps I was being paranoid, but it's better to be paranoid than dead." He thought, "So there must be sothing else in here, capable of speech. Perhaps it's an illusion designed to make Asra feel fear and there are no whispering voices at all? Or maybe it's just her hearing."
Jay recalled how he could have beco a spirit variant of a necromancer and wondered if there could be invisible enemies lurking around. He was sure that his mana could deal with such threats, as he could even grasp souls, but sensing them was another matter entirely.
"I really need to work on my mana sense skill. If only I had more ti to practice."
The mana sense skill was sothing Viladore had taught him back at the adventurer association. It was the art of dispersing mana and feeling changes in it to sense your surroundings, but it required a great deal of concentration to practice.
Jay already had a passive skill, called mana sense, but that was a utility skill to detect mana, rather than to use mana to detect other things.
Jay stopped for a mont as he spread an invisible bubble around him. He needed a mont to get used to the feeling again before he could walk forwards. Unfortunately, his mana dwindled, and he felt lightheaded before he could even get used to the feeling again.
"Dammit. Low mana again." He frowned, still walking forwards slowly.
"Co on. Don't be scared of children." Asra whispered, urging him forwards into the fog. Of course, she would not leave the safety of the skeletons.
"Mm." Jay mumbled, walking at a normal pace.
"I suppose I can use the goblin wand and send wide arcs of necrotic magic once I get my mana back. Plus, I can't even hear the voices yet, so I have so ti. Maybe when we get closer to the dead trees, we'll hear sothing." He thought, chewing on so bondtussle root and getting bonus mana regeneration. "I can probably take a few hits of whatever is out there before I need to launch a spell back."
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