Chapter 99: Chapter Ninety Nine: Dead

Tessa, a [Scout Captain], giggles with glee as she practically glides across the sand. The ability known as [Sand Surf] that she is currently using from her armor is an amazing mobility skill. Quasi had described it as ice skating but on sand. Of course, she has no idea what Ice is, but she can agree that it is extremely fast and efficient. Combined with her many mobility skills she had obtained from her old [Scout] class, and she is able to outrun anything and everything.

Tessa leans forward and tilts onto her left leg. She swerves left. Then she leans forward and begins to accelerate. A cloud of sand forms behind her as her speed exceeds a hundred miles per hour. This attracts the attention of many monsters, but few are able to keep up. The only exception are those monsters known as Zerebran who share the same ability as her. She chuckles as three of the Zerebran in question quickly glide over the sand towards her. They accelerate as well, creating a sand cloud behind them.

“Ha! Too slow.”

She begins to move her feet, leaning right and left as she begins to run and skate at the same time. It’s a movement that Zerebran bodies are incapable of mimicking. She accelerates faster, outpacing them as her speed hits one hundred and fifty miles per hour. The wind buffets her face, but the [Sand Veil] ability and armor protects her from any sand that could harm or hinder.

After another ten minutes, she slows down as she makes it to a nearby camp. Or, more like a mosh pit as an army of one hundred thousand undead stand at attention, waiting for orders. She weaves through the army, completely ignored as she makes her way to a central carapace tent. She glides to a stop before entering.

“I’m back!” she calls out, finding everyone relaxed but also preparing over a large table.

“Perfect. Tessa, come here. What have you learned?” Quasi exclaims.

Tessa nears the table and finds a literal map of sand with drawing that depicts the whole floor.

“Well, the [Grand Size Queen] is dead.”

“Wait… what? What do you mean dead?” Quasi asks.

Tessa frowns. “Well, from far away, it looks as though the queen is wrapped around the rock formation. But as I got closer, everything smelled of death. The [Queen’s] insides are all dead and decomposing. I don't think other monsters have even realised she is dead yet.”

“Are you absolutely sure? Because if you are, I just wasted several days of planning.”

Tessa Nods.

“Ahhh, fuck.” The Gejan around the table begin to chuckle. To them, the death of such a dangerous threat is great. It means less risk.

But to the [Necromancer], it means the possible loss of a powerful minion.

“Wait, you said it’s still decomposing? Shit. Ok, maybe its body is still revivable… though something must have killed it. It might still be around.”

“Shouldn't we focus on the other grand queens?” asks Aldonis.

“I need her body, otherwise the last two queens are going to be a bitch to fight.”

Magic and flight are two very annoying things to deal with.

“Alright, get up.” Quasi stands up and away from the table, “Let's go see that corpse.”

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Well then, at least my [Advanced Analyze] skill worked this time, unlike the other queen that was so thoroughly destroyed last week. I’m kind of upset about that, though I can't blame them for being thorough since I just wanted that queen dead.

“That doesn't look very dead to me, though it does smell like it.” says Lilly as her nose scrunches up.

I shake my head, “It’s dead alright. No doubt about that. I can't sense anything living near it either. Lets take a close look.”

With a mental command, I order my vast decaying undead army to circle around the monster. Unfortunately, twenty thousand undead is my limit to how much I can support with only my mana regeneration. Any more, and I was forced to use [Necromantic Mana Corrosion]. Unfortunately, that means that most of my army will die off in a couple weeks as the undead bodies destroy themselves to fuel the mana required to keep them undead.

It is very annoying, but understandable. Twenty thousand monsters over level one hundred is rather insane on its own. Then again, they would naturally degrade in the presence of sunlight.

I order my [Size Queen] mount towards the dead monster.

“Tessa, you said you saw the insides. Is there an entrance?”

Tessa nods behind me, “Yes. It is at the top of the monster.”

I groan.

“Tessa, did you just say you climbed an extremely dangerous monster to check if it was actually dead?”

“Um…”

I shake my head.

“That was stupid. If it was alive and had some crazy ability, then you would be dead. Please dont do stupid shit like that.”

Tessa blushes as she realizes her mistake.

“Oh, and you don't do stupid shit?” Jessica voices while rolling her eyes.

I wave my hand at her, “I didn’t say not to do stupid shit. I merely said not to do stupid shit like that.”

“And how do you decide what is acceptable stupid shit?” Thorous asks with a smile while getting an eye roll from Aldonis next to her.

“Simple. By doing a lot of bad stupid shit, you eventually learn the difference between acceptable stupid shit and unacceptable ones.”

Everyone stares at me, confused. Except for Darrow, who is nodding along like everything makes sense.

“Okay, when I say stupid shit, I mean risk management. Taking risks that have a high failure rate is fine as long as that failure is acceptable. Tessa took a risk with a possible failure of death. Death is a bad risk to take if it can be avoided. In this case, it fully can be. Anyways, we are here.”

With a mental command, my undead queen climbs over the dead one, only to reveal a rather disturbing image.

“Something killed it from the inside.” I say.

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Near the head of the corpse, but a bit ways down, is a large hole where something had clearly slid out before diving into the sand and disappearing. The hole of chitin looks to have been drilled open, and relatively recently too.

“This queen looks like it has been killed about a week ago by something from the inside. I don't see any entry holes, so it may have been killed from the inside. It’s weird, considering how dangerous the internal acid of these monsters are.” I speak aloud, gazing at the miniscule differences. The rock structure has a large opening with which the monster could enter with its head to consume water. Unfortunately, it looks as though the queen had rather violently removed its head and caused a partial cave in. Probably due to its death throes and pain.

“It also looks like the body is very undamaged… Hmmm. Yeah, it seems whatever killed it destroyed the queen core and then burrowed out.” I continue.

Jessica sighs. “Just do it already. We all already know you want to.”

I chuckle and give them both a smile and a wink.

Then, I begin to converge my mana. As much of it as I can. At the same time, I begin activating [Necromantic Mana Corrosion] on even more of my undead so as to free up more of my regeneration.

I raise my hand towards the [Grand Size Myrmer Queen].

“[Raise Undead].”

A purple visual torrent of my mana leaves my body like a concentrated fog. It flies towards the undead, infusing with its massive body. Mana continues to be siphoned, feeding my spell. My mind begins to get drowsy, as the spell continues on. With a bit of concentration, I slow down the completion of the [Raise Undead] spell. Not too slow, or the spell will cancel, but still slow enough so that my mana regeneration can help to fuel it.

After two minutes and five thousand mana, I feel the connection form.

“Heh, it worked.”

The ground trembles as the [Undead Grand Size Myrmer Queen] begins to move to my will.

____________________________________________________________

Bonfires. Ever since the second floor, they have been a recurring thing in Jessica’s life. Heck, she could argue that it all started when Quasi saved her and they had a little fire going in the dead forest. Granted, there wasn't any food at the time, but it was a good memory. It was a time where in her ignorance, she thought that [Heroes] were amazing people that destroyed monsters and slayed villains.

Now, she has revised that view. It was somewhat right, except that they are people too. They aren't this perfect force for good, but just people who are gifted and capable. It’s a fact she realises was thoroughly omitted from the stories she heard as a child. In the stories, they were flawless and never made mistakes. Quasi constantly would make mistakes, his recent one involved creating an undead at the cost of all his mana and then passing out. He succeeded at the very least, but now we all have to wait till he wakes up. Thankfully, the new undead he now controls is a very effective deterrent from roaming monsters.

“Jessica.”

She looks up, finding Orlan handing her some skewered monster meat that they had sliced off one of the undead. She still has some reservations about eating such meat, but the alternative is death… it also helps that said monster meat tastes rather flavorful.

“Thank you, Orlan,” she says as she grabs the chitin skewer and begins nibbling on the meat.

Orlan nods slowly before frowning after a moment.

“I wanted to ask you something. You say that you follow this goddess Eir. Could you tell me what a goddess is?”

Jessica stops nibbling as she processes the question.

“You don't know what a goddess is…?”

He shakes his head and realization finally dawns on the [Arch Priestess]. No god or goddess is being followed by any species other than the Kitsune.

“I am very curious. You are able to heal wounds, mend bone, and create powerful beings out of nothing. Is this a part of your class, or is it something given by this Eir you keep mentioning?”

“Oh. Um. Well,” she stops and begins formulating a response.

“Here, let me start from the beginning. A god is a powerful being. A sort of deity-err being that has no physical presence.”

“That seems rather restricting.”

Jessica nods, “It is, but gods communicate through those that worship them and accept classes which can only be obtained by worship. For example, I became a [Priestess] of Eir. Eir is a goddess of aid and healing. Her focus is on helping those that need help. So, to follow her, she gifts her followers a mark.”

Jessica reveals a white raven on her shoulder, near her collarbone.

“This is the mark of Eir and it gifts me the ability to make my [Heal] skill more potent.”

“I see. And in exchange, you must follow the rules of your goddess?”

Jessica frowns now as she remembers her younger years and the distasteful acts committed.

“Normally, yes. Otherwise the goddess can remove her mark and I would lose my class.”

Orlan nods.

“I see then. I have seen similar marks on the commander. Does he also have rules he must follow?”

Jessica chuckles.

“All gods have restrictions, though some are far less needy. I think… the rules might even be different for him since he has the [Hero] class.”

Orlan opens to ask another question before he begins to hear sizzling and the smell of smoke.

“Thank you for this talk. I would like to continue it later, but I must care for the food.”

Orlan turns away and rushes back to the bonfire.

Jessica watches him run. She then looks at Quasi sleeping soundly on the ground. She remembers the first day she met him and her thoughts shortly afterwards.

“Thank you,” she says, before starting to eat once again.

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