Chapter 50 Code Red

While Alexander, his wife, and Sarah left, Zayn his two Human Spirits spent their time collecting the Cores of the Undead from the Goblin Skeletons without even realizing that he had escaped death by a hair's breadth.

He was spared even though he had enslaved the souls of two humans in their Spirit form, which was essentially what happened when a Spirit was materialized out of the Essence of a Soul.

Zayn didn't feel bad about the fact that his Spirits were enslaved. They had been too weak to kill him and ended up becoming his subjects as a result. The strong reigned supreme and the weak were at the mercy of those who defeated them. It was as simple as that!

"If Goblin Skeletons escaped from the Undead Caves, the other Undead are either outside already, or they will follow soon," Zayn mumbled to himself, and his expression soured at the realization.

'So I won't be able to avoid fighting more of them…that's troublesome…'

It was no problem for him to fight hundreds of ordinary Goblin Skeletons since he was growing more powerful the more soul particles he absorbed from his opponents but the thought of fighting hundreds of Human Skeletons who may as well have one, maybe even two Soulrings was not exactly pleasant to imagine. His body gave an involuntary shudder at that.

Furthermore, there were not only Human Skeletons if he had understood the drunken Blessed, Paul, properly. Other monsters had been sacrificed inside the Undead Caves as well. That could become quite troublesome which was also why Zayn chose to change his path to approach the closest town.

Undeads were very adept at sensing the Life-force of other beings. That meant most Undead would approach human settlements and towns soon. With that in mind, it should be best to keep a distance from towns and other people. However, the problem was that Zayn was too weak to face even a single Undead with a Soulring all alone right now.

Undeads didn't feel pain and they would tear him apart using their terrific strength and speed the moment they encountered him. Zayn knew that some Undeads could even sense and attack him since he had yet to put considerable distance between himself and the Undead Caves.

Taking all of this into consideration, he chose to believe that it was better to fight side-by-side with other humans rather than desperately trying to flee from the masses of Undead.

Taking a look at the two Human Spirits after they were done collecting the Cores of the Undead, Zayn retrieved the black bandages which he had bought for exactly this predicament.

"Bandage each other to cover your transparent body completely, and put on those masks once you're done," Zayn ordered after handing them the black bandages and mask. Afterward, he put away the Cores of the Undead. They were safely secured inside the expanding pouch where everything else in his possession was also stored.

He retrieved three different types of potions and put them down on the ground one after another carefully.

One of those potions accelerated the healing process of wounds, the other potion energized the body while the last potion replenished the used-up soul particles. Zayn was just about to attach them to his belt when he looked at the bandaged Human Spirits that looked just like mummies wearing random black masks when he got an idea.

"Bandage me as well!" He ordered while removing his belt. The Human Spirits put the remaining black bandages around Zayn who put on the belt once again after he was wrapped in black, just like them. Zayn also wore a mask which made it difficult for others to doubt whether his two Human Spirits were actually humans. They couldn't speak but that was something he could solve by speaking in their stead, or by leading the conversations in the first place.

Now that everyone's identity was covered up, it wouldn't be a problem to enter the towns with his Spirits. The Sparrow Spirits sat down on his shoulder for a moment where they shared a few memories with him.

He got a weird feeling as if someone was watching them while the Sparrow Spirit's memories entered his mind but he quickly dispelled that feeling when he regained his senses.

"Weird…nobody is here, so how could their memories make it feel as if I'm being deceived by my own perception…" Zayn mumbled into the black bandages that covered his mouth.

It was hard to explain how he felt and the unease was not something that he could get rid of easily either, if there was something off, to begin with. He chose to ignore the weird feeling he received from the Sparrow Spirits' memories and sent them back into the air. One of them was supposed to check how far the closest town was located while the other Sparrow Spirit scouted the surroundings to see if there were some more groups of Goblin Skeletons around.

Zayn was also fine with groups of Human Skeletons but they were harder to deal with since their strength might vary a lot. Their equipment was bound to be better as well which would make things more difficult. The gains were equally higher but Zayn was more focused on increasing his strength in a manner that allowed him to survive rather than blindly storming anywhere and inviting unnecessary trouble.

He learned from his mistake in the Goblin Cave since he had had a near brush with death inside there.

A few hours passed and Zayn encountered a few more groups of Goblin Skeletons which he obliterated with the help of his Human Spirits. Zayn absorbed the soul particles of every single Goblin Skeleton which rewarded him with more than 1500 soul particles over the course of more than six hours.

They killed many Goblin Skeletons, so it was only obvious that Zayn gained a lot until he could finally see the next town. The town was a little bit bigger than the town in which he had wreaked havoc earlier at the Inn, which was a good sign since he hoped that a bunch of C-rank Adventurer groups would be resting there.

He was hoping for the best while munching on some jerky which he hastily gobbled instead of a proper lunch.

'If I eat alone, clothed like this, I would attract too much attention.'

Zayn had nothing against attention but he didn't want to overdo it for the time being. The letter of the Assassin Legatus, whoever that may be, was something that kept nagging at him every now and then. He was bothered by the letter and couldn't help but wonder what he could have done better to eliminate Phillip and the others silently.

In the end, Zayn figured that there were simply too many things he could have done better. There was too much that he missed out on before and it was only obvious that someone had seen through his well-planned act and found out about his assassination.

'I am really lucky to be alive right now, ain't I?' He thought while smiling foolishly as he entered the town flanked by his two covered-up on either side.

The town was already in an uproar and it didn't take long before a bunch of injured adventurers entered his sight.

'Looks like they already found out about the Undeads.'

Zayn attracted some attention from the surrounding people due to his weird getup but nobody could really focus on him. Everyone was too focused on the announcement that rang through the town for the Xth time.

"Code Red! Code Red! Undead Outbreak detected, all Adventurers and volunteers should head to the Adventurer Hall!"