Chapter 913 913 Dangerous Developments



"Why is it a bad thing if there are less undead around? Doesn't that make it easier for us?" Igna asked.

"No, this place is normally pretty consistent with the density of undead monsters. The only time that changes is when a stronger undead is commanding the weaker ones. If there are less here, then that means that something likely is going on further in." Aziz said, his stressed tone conveying his worries.

While it had been a long time since any of the undead had broken out from the wall the contained them, the current situation was signaling that something big was likely to happen soon.

"Sir, we still do not have enough information to confirm that the undead are congregating. It is possible that we just got lucky to run into so few so far. We should continue and see for ourselves what is going on." Fasil, one of the members of the Sulb Clan who was a part of their group said.

He along with his partner in the Muharib Festival Casildo who Mrazivý had beaten in the first round had joined the expedition under Aziz's command.

"Yes, you are right. I may be seeing a problem where this is none. Our goal was already to head deeper in, we will find out what we need to know as we carry on."

With that their group began moving again and Aziz took the lead in guiding them towards an area that the undead were known to congregate in.

However, when they arrived, everything was mostly quiet with only a few weak undead shambling around.

Over the next couple of days, they trekked around the outskirts of the Desolate Desert, slowly making their way closer towards the center where the Font of Death was located.

...

"This is definitely not good. I have never heard of so many undead gathering before." Aziz said, a grave expression on his face.

After searching around the Desolate Desert, they had found many anomalies, but now their team had come across their target in the worst way possible.

At a bit further than the halfway point between the wall keeping the dead out and the Font of Death, they had discovered a massive group of undead that had assembled under the command of the Mummy Lord, Baluea in an area that was filled with sand dunes that rose up from the ground like small mountains.

There were several hundreds of thousands of monsters that were just standing around and being led by powerful undead. It was apparently a far greater army than Aziz had ever seen or even heard about.

"We need to warn all of Aezam. This is truly the worst-case scenario." Aziz said, pulling out a sending stone and messaging his brother.

If such a force of undead were to attack anyone spot along the wall, it would be easily overrun and the undead would begin pouring out.

However, the main cause for concern was not that they undead had organized themselves into a far lager group than ever before, but what had caused things to change.

Among the ranks of the undead most of them were just mindless monsters that only acted instinctually and hunted down the living on instinct. In order to control them a high ranking undead with at least some sort of ego was required to give them commands and keep them in line. As powerful as the Mummy Lord Baluea was, he was not capable of controlling so many undead on his own.

Never before had he worked with other intelligent undead, but Aziz was able to identify several other powerful monsters that were known to inhabit the Desolate Desert that were now working together.

"Something or someone must be instigating them to coordinate. Do you know of any undead that might be powerful enough to do this?" Marcus asked, looking towards Aziz.

Unfortunately, he had not heard of anything that would be strong and smart enough to organize so many undead. Not to mention getting numerous of the strongest undead to work together. If Baluea had been capable of this, he would have done so decades ago, whatever was instigating this was clearly far more dangerous.

The most likely possibility that they could come up with was that some powerful undead that already lived within the Desolate Desert had finally decided to take control of things or that an outside source could have arrived to form an army out of the already large number of undead that resided in the region.

An extremely powerful necromancer or perhaps a lich like Daniel would be capable of such a feat, but whatever had taken the regions on the undead here was clearly bad news.

"This is far worse than what I had anticipated. We need to get back an fortify our defenses." Aziz said.

He then turned to Marcus and Mrazivý and apologized that he would no longer be able to assist them with their goal. Preparing the defenses of the nation was more important.

"I see, that is a shame. I suppose that we will be going it alone now. Thank you for all of the support and the information you have given us." Mrazivý said, not looking discouraged in the least.

"Wait! You cannot mean to continue. You two are strong, but handling an army like this on your own is impossible. You do not understand just how strong the undead are here." Aziz said, frantic to get them to reconsider.

Except, both of them actually did know exactly how much more powerful the undead were here than they normally would be. Far better than Aziz did.

Thanks to Marcus receiving the same buff from the Font of Death due to being a ghost, they knew that the undead in this area had all of their stats being buffed by thirty-three percent.

"We already have our objective, and we are not going to stop now just because something unexpected happened." Marcus said. "Still, that does not mean we have to stop helping each other. I am sure that we can come up with a strategy that is mutually beneficial for all of us."