The Prison of the Dead was a gargantuan maze that stretched on endlessly. While she said that the dogn were nearby, it still quite a bit of travelling to reach them.
One of the most troubleso aspect of a maze was that one could easily get lost within its convoluted passages. Thankfully, the hellhounds had an inborn gift for navigation making them a whole lot more useful than my directionally challenged self.
During our travels, we were waylaid from ti to ti by wandering undead. These undead attacked us in groups of ten to over a hundred. Each of them were at the very least one-star while very few of them actually reached two-star. As for three-star, we hadnt encountered anyyet.
Thanks to the hellhounds, we always had the initiative during these fights. Their sensory abilities warned us well in advance of any potential encounters and so we had ample ti to prepare for the battle.
As of now, our losses hadnt even crossed the ten mark thanks to our good fortune and the warnings of the hellhounds.
What struck as strange was that since we t with Violet Snow, we had only encountered one undead party and it was a small sized encounter. But, ever since we left that ratn nest, we had been ambushed by over ten parties of wandering undead and this was all within a day of travelling!
Isnt the sudden spike a little much!
Exactly what is going on here?
Due to the lack of a day night cycle, we scheduled our rest ti based on our fatigue level. If we were tired, we rely rested at a nearby corner of the maze. The normal devils and the hellhounds would sleep on the outer edges of our campsite while a rotating roster of hellhounds and devils went on patrol duty.
With our relatively large numbers and patrols, our campsite almost looked like a small base. Only the lack of actual tents marred this otherwise satisfying scene.
The undead are too densely packed, cant we find a way to circle around and avoid them?
I quietly pondered as I leaned against the bone walls of the maze. The recent deaths of my subordinates had frustrated . In my mind, the hellhounds shouldve been able to lead us around the ambush in order to reduce our casualties.
Our main goal was to recruit the dogn, without sufficient military force, the plan might just fail before it even started. And so, I decided to discuss this matter with Violet Snow.
Circle around? Putting aside the fact that this maze is extrely complicated and taking a detour might never lead us back to our desired path, if we avoid the undead, exactly what are we going to feed on?
Being on the receiving end of my griping, displeased her greatly. As she roused herself from her nap, she glared at and said: Besides, fleeing is for cowards.
I never said that we were fleeing, this isnt called fleeing, its called a change of tactics. As the word coward left her mouth, it rcilessly stabbed in the heart, I sub consciously raised my voice.
Tactics, its called tactics, you get it?
I dont know any so-called tactics, all I know is that if we dont fight, we will starve.
Alright, you win. I have nothing to counter that argunt.
The loss of my subordinates had blinded to the issue of food. This was an error on my part.
Whats with those wandering undead? Arent their numbers a little too much?
This is their territory. To them, anyone that is alive is an outsider. She then proceeded to explain so of the basic knowledge of this world.
As you know, this vast maze was at the very beginning an undead territory. The undead weve been fight are basically patrols tasked with the mission of cleaning this entire maze.
So those undead we t at the ratn nest wasdont tell those undead were actually on their way to attack the ratn? I blurted out my thought.
You can see it as that. She nodded. To be exact, those patrols are more like janitors. Their true goal was to clean up the bones stacked at the entrance of the ratn nest. As for attacking the ratn, its more of a why not? matter to them.
Cleaning? Haha, such a good cleaning I was actually attacked by this cleaning.
If you return to that nest, you will find that that area has already been cleaned by a different group of undead.
Im still a newbie when it cos to the ecology of this place but there was one thing Im sure of: if those were just janitors, then that ans that there were other undead in charge of fighting. The janitors themselves were already one-star, what about the actual warriors? Two-star? Maybe even three. Gives the chills just thinking about it
Then how far are we from those dogn? We need to pick up the pace.
I know youre worried about the safety of your subordinates but in this Prison of the Dead, a lot of things cant be avoided. In an uncharacteristic move of concern, she continued trying to console .
Dont think too much about this, believe , once we find those dogn, you will have more subordinates.
Making that dagger for her mustve softened her slightly.
What Im really concerned about isnt my subordinates. For so reason, I wanted to make sure that she didnt misunderstand .
Then what are you worried about?
Leaving this place.
Leave this place? She paused for a second, her expression imdiately switching from nonchalance to shock. Did I hear that correctly? Did you just say that you wish to leave this place? Leave the maze? Leave the Prison of the Dead?
You heard right. As those words left my mouth, my gaze changed, gone was the indecisiveness within them, what remained was only a steely resolve.
I must leave this place. Theres sowhere I must go to no matter what.
Sowhere you must go to?
The western human realms.
Thats a really faraway place. I heard my mother ntion that thats the territory of the humans.
As she ntioned the human realms, her eyes lit up like a child picturing the wondrous scenes within her fairy tales.
You wish to go there as well? I was slightly surprised that she actually knew of the human realms.
Mhm. You can say that.
Thenthat mother you were talking about
As those words left my mouth, her face imdiately beca solemn. She lowered her head and laid back on the ground once more, her chin resting on her tiny paws and her eyes closed. She laid there silently as if avoiding the topic or perhaps she was just crying silently.
Im sorry Even a thick headed buffoon like knew that I had just stepped on a landmine, for all I know, that skull might just be her mothers.
From that mont on, we maintained that awkward silence between us.
After another day of travelling we made camp once more but this ti, we were attacked by a bunch of strange creatures.
We had just made camp after a tiring day of fighting during which we encountered over ten groups of undead. Outside of these undead, we didnt encounter another race.
Even after these two days of travelling, we still hadnt left the hunting grounds of the ratn which was to be expected. This was the territory of large clan that had over 1500 mbers after all; a large hunting ground is definitely required to support them.
These two days of fighting nothing but the undead made relax my guard. To , all we had to deal with were the wandering undead. It had never occurred to that we might et another race while in this hunting ground.
The strange creatures numbered over a hundred and had a humanoid form to them. These humanoid monsters wore a primitive set of hide clothing and wielded bone clubs. Before they even closed in on us, their revolting stench had already assaulted my nostrils. The source of this stench was their grayish black body that had a coarse look to it.
Paired with their off putting appearance was a dishevelled head of hair that was littered with nurous specks of black and dark gray matter. As for the other parts of their body , they were mostly fur-free.
They had a large mouth that revealed a jagged set of teeth within them that painted a picture which would make any dentist cringe in disgust.
They had a muscular build and were around 1.8 to 2.0 ters tall. If you didnt count their skin color, they looked very similar to orcs described in fantasy novels and gas.
Woo Woo Woooo Woo Wo~~~
A weird cry left their monstrous mouth, signalling the start of their attack. As they waved their primitive bone clubs, they charged at us.
Thankfully, we were warned by the hellhounds prior to their appearance. That horrid stench mustve been terrible for their sensitive noses.
As they closed in on us, I swiftly prepared a spell to attack the foremost orc. A split second later, a bone spear hurtled through the air, heading straight at that orc. His eyes narrowed as he focused on the incoming spear and with a quick swing of his club, knocked down the incoming spear.
In order to buy my army more ti to ready themselves, I imdiately followed that bone spear up with five bone walls raised right in the path of their advance.
Defense! Hurry up and get into positions!
Thanks to the hellhounds and my bone walls, they had plenty of ti to prepare for the charge.
These orcs were surprisingly quick. It had only been slightly over 10 seconds since we had received the warning from the hellhounds.
Prior to that, most of the devils were still resting. Having fought for an entire day, they definitely didnt get much rest before they were reluctantly dragged back into formation. They werent professional soldiers after all, the lack of discipline made their response sluggish and left our formation full of weaknesses.
If it hadnt been for the bone walls, the enemy wouldve reached us before our formation was even ready.
A vexed One-eye shouted and kicked at the devils who still hadnt taken up positions yet. This bit of violence of his part seed to have worked as the 30 shieldbearers finally ford up our defensive line.
The orcs ramd into the heavy bone shields like a bunch of enraged bulls. In this initial charge, five of their stronger mbers actually managed to knock away one of the shieldbearers with their combined might. However, this success was in the minority as the majority of the orcs were rely deflected by the sturdy shield wall.
Of course, the shieldbearers who deflected them werent in a great shape either. So of the weaker shieldbearers fell to the ground imdiately after deflecting their powerful charge.
With so many of the shieldbearers caving in, the shield wall collapsed, exposing the Mo sabre wielders to the orcs.
Even though the shield wall was compromised, a vast majority of the orcs had been deflected. The sabre wielders made use of this opportunity to stab at the humanoid monsters.
Having just traded blows with the shieldbearers, these orcs were naturally in no position to react to the deadly sabre thrusts and ended up getting skewered. Only those five who managed to knock away the shieldbearer, were able to charge at the sabre wielders.
What awaited these unfortunate sabre wielders were a tragic fate.
Due to their limited close range abilities, they were defenseless against the giant bone clubs of the orcs. As the primitive clubs swung down, one of the imps was struck squarely on his temples and died instantly, his eyes opened wide in pain.
Thankfully, the other sabre wielders were rely knocked unconscious.
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