Chapter 2025 2025. Staring Undead Taking the wood entirely was easily done with the high spatial storage. Walker even found that he was able to flow through the motion of storing it even better. Something he had not realized was that he had gained a better control of using this skill. The many times that Walker took things in and out of his spatial storage skill was innumerable. He knew very well how useful it was. The constant use of storing things was always happening. Especially as an adventure. The monsters that they defeated had to be taken care of. If they were not, it would be a waste. Therefore, even whole monster bodies were stored away with his touch. He had to butcher them sometimes to take materials, but with how they had gotten so popular, the party just dropped them off here and there to the places that would do it for a small or no fee. From there, Walker also stored all their armor, weapons, food, you name it. There were too many things. That was also using other skills like the moving forge. That could be taken out of the spatial storage as long as he had every required material or tool to use it. This was something that made him even better at using the small amount of space manas. Therefore, when he went to touch the tree and it disappeared in to the high spatial storage while still a foot away from his hand, Walker realized that he had grown without noticing. His understanding of space had changed. He understood it much more and had a better theory about how to improve that strength. From there, he even understood that he was going to be able to do multiple other things in the future. Using the space mana to teleport would just be the start. Imagining battle style using spatial mana was something too fantastic to even talk about right now. The idea that he would be able to teleport behind monsters or enemies to fight them at an advantage was huge. Being able to skip over difficult terrain using skills to teleport small distances was also attractive. Now he couldn't do such a thing. But one day, he knew for certain that he would. "The undead are staring at us. We should leave." Su made it clear that Walker was taking too long. They had gathered the light ash wood and now they had to retreat from the undead city. The ruins were not their safe haven like it was for the immortal king. Regardless of it being his prison. This was his land. His territory that should not be tread on. Beyond that, there were also the facts that there would be many other instances that the undead could cause trouble. Right now, they were the lucky ones. The immortal king was distracted by the mana he had gotten. While it worried all of the party that the immortal king now had some form of new toy to play with in the essence of natural mana, they were unsure what to do with the knowledge. They could worry a lot and manage to cause themselves a lot of stress. Whoever, they would not be able to do much with that. Especially since they were going to face a worse threat. As the party began their brisk run out of the ruins, they found that the undead had started shuffling toward the massive tower. Not toward them. The undead had only been looking at them as a warning to leave. The immortal king did not wish for distractions. He would be very angry if anything bothered him right now. Therefore, it was best to wish for the safety of anyone foolish enough to try and loot these ruins or explore these ruins in the coming weeks or days. Who knew how long this would go on. Focusing on the fact that they were leaving, Ventus had seen them. She had managed to remain in the air without any bother the entire time. Her growls acting as a reminder to whatever was down there that she was not some easy prey or just a dragon flying around on its own fun journey. She was saying that she did not mind attacking with all her might. The fact that she could jt break the tower in the middle was clear. She did not hide that. Especially since she could sense the odd manas and see the runes on it. Even Walker said he did not understand that place. The prison of the immortal king. But she also knew that she would not stand much of a chance against the immortal king. It was a monster that was more powerful than that of what anyone could understand. While it might be age or the mysterious nature, no one knew. But she could still destroy a lot. As a wind dominator dragon, all the ruins that were not the tower, would be destroyed. All the undead would be reduced to bone dust at most. That was just the power that Ventus could bring using the full forces of wind blades that slashed through everything. It was a threat that she would be petty and destroy as much of what the immortal king had as she could if the party was harmed. This was just a set back to an immortal undead. As the party neared the outer edge of the ruins, Ventus swooped down and caged them within her talons. She did not see the point to them remaining here for even a second more. She didn't care that they had yet to tell her what they found. Instead, she focused on the fact that she could not do anything with them the way that they were, in the ruins. After the ruins were left behind in the winds, Ventus finally lowered the party down outside Genesis. It was a longer way back, or at least it felt that way since they were all recoiling from the stress of their encounter. Many things were there for the party to think about. Midnight and Onyx had their own thoughts on what they had seen. Onyx had seen serpents that were massive which had been turned in to undead. He had fears that one day his little serpents could end up the same. Especially the heavenly serpents that were more relaxed and less prone to battle. Mainly Aurora, who had followed Alice in healing as a focus. Midnight had her own thoughts, but Walker had already comforted her as he sensed her feelings becoming unstable. "We need to make progress here. We need to get Alma to grow these trees." Gil's thoughts had not strayed too much. He knew that they could use the elemental teleportation formation to get to the Sigil continent. From there, they just needed to grow their weapons faster. "We will need Walker to help with natural mana. He should help make them grow faster than what Alma can normally grow. Especially if he can gather enough mana to use that nature dragon's domain skill." Remey felt that she would be ready to fight very soon. She could even have someone give her some shaped wood as a gauntlet, the elves were skilled in their growing methods. She could just stop herself form using fire on her fists. Su's focus was on the way she would have to fight against these new foes. She would not be able to fight the same way if they were going against monster that was great at illusions, charm, and generally used others as their method of battle. Not to mention that she used shields and not wooden spears or other weapons. But all of this was not just her. Walker was considering it all as he retold every single detail to Ventus who was walking along with them after taking her dragonkin form again. She would be the one to tell all the others what had happened while the party and Alma focused on growing the trees and beginning to shape their weapons. It felt that they had only lost a few hours, but realistically, they still needed more time. The only hope was that whatever seals and defenses were left to trap these vampires would remain. But the question still stood, how had they been sealed in the first place. Walker knew that one of the books they were given held the knowledge of how this came to be. He also understood that the vampires had been the enemies of the immortal king's people. The questions that came to mind all revolved around these things. But also about how some vampires did not become evil. Did not become a race focused on blood and power. What about them? Where did those good vampires come in to play? n--o(-v--E-)l/(b./I(/n