Chapter 316 Ground Slithers

"How far away are they? Can you hear what they're saying? Do they sound frightened?" Jay whispered.

Asra pulled closer to him again, "It's hard to tell in fog. I think they're talking about each other, about some of their friends going missing. I think I heard one mention your skeletons, but they seem uninterested. They don't sound frightened, but they don't sound evil either. And I know what you're thinking - there shouldn't be children out here."

Jay nodded, deciding not to say anything else.

"I commanded the skeletons not to slay any humans, so there's no risk of that happening." He thought.

He sensed four of Blue's smaller skeletons still running through the fog in groups of two, finding things to slay. They were about 200 to 300 yards (230m) deeper in the fog, and it seemed that Lamp had ditched the smaller skeletons as it went much deeper, about half a mile (0.8km) away, and still going further.

Suddenly, one of Red's guardian skeletons stepped forward, piercing its sword into the ground.

[8 Exp]

Yet no other skeletons paused their march. It was just a minor threat.

The guardian returned to formation by Red's side, and Jay curiously walked further forwards, seeing what it had slain in the fog.

Its body was half-way in the earth and had a moist black lizard-like skin. It had no limbs, eyes, or anything. It was like a bloody sack with a red stripe going from its belly to its teeth-lined, circular mouth. Jay recognized its kind immediately, though it differed from the ones he had encountered previously.

"Ugh. Fucking leeches…" Jay thought, his face twisting in scorn.

"Don't tell me those children's voices are coming from another leech queen?" he wondered, scratching his chin. "Hmm, there's not enough evidence for that yet. Ive already got enough parasites, I don't want more." he glanced at his arm.

Thankfully, the parasites under his skin seemed dormant. They weren't breeding, growing larger, or feeding on him, and Jay wondered what use his flesh would even have to such creatures if not to be eaten.

He stood over the leech corpse, trying to find any weakness or advantage. So far, he had only seen this one leech, and there were not enough of the [8 Exp] notifications to indicate a swarm of them. He doubted these ground-burrowing types even could swarm. And because it embedded itself half-way into the ground, it was clearly a vastly different type of leech to the ones Rosa had created.

"… Not a threat." Jay thought, prodding it with his sword. It was like a tentacle coming out of the earth and about the size of his lower leg.

He gave it one last glance and then kept the party moving forwards, continuing further into the fog.

"I'm betting it responds to ground vibrations and pokes out of the ground. The scouting skeletons probably didn't find it and kill it because they're lightweight."

As if responding to Jay's thoughts, two more poked their heads out of the ground as he marched closer. They reached up, swaying around with their teeth-lined circular mouths, searching for anything warm to latch onto.

Yet their search was futile and short-lived as skeletal swords pierced through their bodies, severing their asses from their mouths.

[8 Exp] [8 Exp]

"Hmm, I don't think I'll walk anymore." Jay thought, glancing at their drooling mouth openings.

He didn't take out his throne with the comfortable chair, as he didn't want Asra knowing about it. Instead, he took out the large flat rectangular slab of bone, which was his sleeping spot.

Handy, Blue, Sweeper and Red each grabbed a side and lifted Jay as he sat cross-legged on the front. He would not let even the dead bodies of the leeches touch the sole of his boots.

Asra curled her lips cheekily, and hopped onto the throne, standing up behind Jay.

It forced the skeletons to slow down for a moment with the extra weight, and Jay had Archers, along with Blue's remaining sub-skeleton, to help carry them, using six skeletons in total to hold up the bone platform.

There were still two of Red's guardian skeletons, Heavy and Dark, on leech killing duty, so it wasn't like they were defenseless. Plus, the skeletons only used one hand to carry.

(Blue, recall two of your subordinates. Have them scout closer to us. You can leave the other two out there. Make sure they always loot whatever they kill.)

Blue nodded at Jay, accepting his order, and Asra not noticed this silent interchange until now.

"What was that?" Asra whispered in Jay's ear.

"What was what?" he raised a brow.

"You just looked at your skeleton and it nodded back. What was it?"

"Shit. I don't want her to know I can give them telepathic orders." Jay paused, trying to think up a lie as he spoke. "Uh. Well, you see, the thing about Blue is, it takes care of the other skeletons. If I glance at it and it nods, it means everything is okay. If it doesn't, it usually means they need bones." Jay said the first part really slowly as he made up the rest.

"Hmm. I see. It never nods at me."

"It doesn't know you. I suppose I can get it to, but you can't really supply it with bones."

"I cannot… but I would like a nod." Asra whispered, as proud and as dignified as she could, though Jay couldn't help but see an immature girlish side to her.

"Very well." Jay shrugged, "Blue, you can nod at her too."

(Whenever she looks bored or angry, I want you to nod at her. Make some of the other skeletons do it too… but don't do it if you're not full health.)

Blue nodded at Jay, and then at Asra.

He couldn't see Asra's face, but could tell she was trying to hide her smile.

Soon enough, the moss covering the ground got thicker, but not thick enough to stop fresh swamp grasses from sprouting through. The boulders and rocks peeking through the moss carpet disappeared, and Jay came to the first dead ashen tree he had seen through the eyes of his skeleton.

"The moss can grow here but the trees cannot?" he thought, scratching his chin.

"Perhaps the trees need more sunlight, but since there are trees at all, it means the fog hasn't always been here." He thought, though he was unsure how long it would take a tree to die and turn into an ashen-gray husk of its former self.

Jay glanced up and saw that part of the top was burned, turned to charcoal. It had no branches and was simply a tree trunk.

"Bob, can we get moving already?"

"Oh yeah…" Jay thought, hiding a cunning grin, remembering that he still had the disguise stone activated. "I'm just inspecting things. It pays to be cautious and I don't want to end up trapped. You, of all people, know what that was like. And even though I was cautious, you have still trapped me." Jay said, referring to how he found her trapped in the vines, and that Asra thought she had him trapped under her vampiric compulsion.

Of course, he was still just playing along.

"Okay… I'll allow it. Continue your inspecting." She slowly nodded.

"Thanks." Jay whispered, hiding his sly smile.

As Jay walked around the dead tree, a small white frog suddenly hopped off, but before it landed, a skeletal blade flashed, slicing it in half. One of Red's guardian skeletons' blades dripped red.

"Hmm. The frog gave nothing?" Jay thought, and immediately gave a new order to all skeletons.

(Don't kill things that don't give exp unless it's a threat. It's a waste of life.) Jay ordered, but after another thought, he added a second order. (Actually, don't kill things like glade deer, ox-badgers and other non-threats unless I send you out to hunt them. Juvenile animals are also off-limits.)

He then glanced at Blue, explaining the orders, (If you kill everything, I'll have nothing to eat.)

"… Perhaps I should train them on how to raise animals. Maybe I could have a farmer skeleton at some point? I only need enough food for myself, not an entire nation… It would be nice to have some plump milk bilbies or oak birds… But, I can't go back to Astrata to get some stock, so I'll need to find some first, or at least something similar. Oh, but then I'll need to secure a food source for them too. Maybe I will need to teach a skeleton gardening, too." Jay thought.

"But I have no clue about raising animals or farming, and it seems like a lot of work, but nothing ever comes easy… Well, except for someone with tireless workers."

Jay walked around the tree, trying to find anything peculiar about it, but after checking everything, he found it was just a normal tree with weird burn marks.

He wondered what kind of enemies were causing it and guessed it was a sort of fire or flame elemental - but what flame elemental could live in a marshland? He couldn't make sense of how one could live in a humid fog, surrounded by water and mud with little fuel to burn… but he didn't think elementals could talk, either.

Jay couldn't hear any voices so far, so he kept the party moving deeper into the fog, guiding himself with Asra's blood compass, and stepping over the occasional hacked up leech corpse.