Chương 22: GB - Chapter 22: Dire Woods

"Your head," Garran said.

"It's just…white bone and eye sockets." Luke ripped a gauntlet off, dropped his sword, and felt up to his face with his hand. He heard the loud clack of bone on bone.

"The fuck?" he whispered as he looked down at his left hand, which had also been eaten down to the bone. But, it was still held together to the rest of the arm by strands of magical energy, just like his raised skeletons. No, he thought with rising dread. No, just— He spent some of his mana on a Pale Flame Bolt, and to his relief, not only did his Health increase, but muscle began to grow over the skeletal hand.

"Oh thank God," he said. Garran glanced down, then looked back up to Luke's face, and away.

"Uhm…I'm guessing you want to wait a bit and heal up?"

"Yes," Luke said. He looked at his remaining skeletons. All three were intact.

"You all, start getting bodies out of the vines." They went to work, and Luke set to continuous Pale Flame Bolts to heal himself, until he could feel flesh on his face, see normally once more, and even to his slight surprise, feel hair grow back. Garran had gone around collecting Essence Shards in the few minutes that took, and came back with a visible look of relief.

"Seems like you're all back together. Far less off-putting."

"You're telling me," Luke said with a smile.

"I would've hated just being a skeleton head the whole rest of my existence." He then pointed at Garran's leg.

"I expected some level of healing to be able to do what I did, since you had a whole leg re-grown."

"Yeah," Garran replied.

"So what are you thinking is the next step?" Luke glanced at his HUD and his dwindling mana.

"We need to stay here for a bit until I raise another six Mindless Undead." Garran looked up at the sky.

"Night is falling soon. We should make camp."

"I don't need to sleep," Luke replied.

"I'll just keep watch." Garran nodded and pointed to the right of the clearing.

"I saw a few good trees over that way. I'll set up there." Luke followed him while his skeletons kept extricating bodies in the clearing.

"How do you normally sleep here in the woods?" Garran reached a thick, banyan type of tree, and pointed up to a crook between two massive branches.

"I've got a hammock that wraps me up nice and tight. Just gotta be high up enough for Fog Creepers not to notice you." That caught Luke off guard.

"Do they not look up often?"

"Nope," Garran replied as he began climbing the tree. He called down as he clambered up higher, saying, "It's one of their weaknesses—they struggle to look up at steep angles." Good to know, Luke thought, filing away that information for later. While Garran set up, Luke went back to the clearing. His skeletons had already freed several corpses of humans—many of which decayed well to the point of being just bones already.

As he began to ready himself to use the Art to bring them up, words flickered across his vision. [Experience Gained: 225. Current Experience: 383 / 1000.] [Resistance Increase: Life (-22%) → (-21%). Caustic (2%) → (3%).] [Aspect Increase: Armor Familiarity 5 → 6 (gain +6% damage resistance when wearing armor).] [Enduring Soul 5 → 6 (Reduce time to regenerate soul by 10 hours {960 → 950}).] [Art Increase: Pale Flame Bolt 2 → 3 (Restores/Damages 7% max Health to Undead/Living Creatures. Increase range to 45-feet.] Over the next few hours, Luke raised each of the Mindless Undead until he had a full cohort, then returned to the tree. Garran was well up in the branches, almost impossible to see from below thanks to the camouflage, and Luke instructed his skeletons to form an outward-facing perimeter. He then clambered up to the crook between branches that Garran had tied off to. The man was eating a bar of compressed food, and paused as Luke's head came into his line of sight." Oh. Hi?" Luke got into a comfortable seated position and said, "I won't be watching you sleep. But, I had a few questions since we have some time before your nap." Garran nodded as he took a bite of the block and chewed." I perceive Classes and magic differently than all of you," Luke explained." So my question is… how do you know what Class you are, and how you use Arts?" Garran shrugged." Your god tells you your Class during the first few years of your life. They guide you, teach you." Just like my tutorial Quests, Luke thought. Garran continued." During that time, you get your lot in life, and learn how to cope. As for Arts?" He waved his hand, and a nearby vine shot down to the forest floor and became a simple snare." I'm a Trapper. When I want to use an Art, I just think about it, and push mana out of me to perform the feat." He frowned." Sometimes, though, I just get tired. I have an Art which allows me to blend into my surroundings, but it winds me." The latter must be Stamina-based, Luke thought. His camouflage Art must be Stamina-intensive. Luke asked, "How do you feel when you use up all of your mana?"" Mentally exhausted," Garran replied." Like when I was a lad, trying to learn numbers. Never was good at those." That made sense enough to him." What about your skill with a crossbow? Does that come from your Class? Training?"" A bit of both," Garran replied." I'm a good shot because of my Class, I'm sure, but some of the hunters outclass me by miles." Luke thought, So they have VITAE, minus the HUD. It's just a natural system of progression for them, and not gamified like it is for me. Interesting." Can you learn other Arts through books or lessons?"" Oh yes," Garran replied after taking a drink from a canteen." I had a mentor who taught me a lot of good things. Like that vine trick. Repetition is the key." Luke nodded." Well, get some shut eye. I'll be a branch or two below you, and shout if something comes in the night." Garran nodded and grabbed the sides of his hammock, then pulled them over his body." Good night," he said from inside." Sleep well," Luke replied as he climbed down to the widest point between branches below the trapper, grabbed his book of notes on Arts, and began reviewing them. The Necromancer had a ton of Arts that Luke went through, and he chose to try each of them during the night. Right, he thought. First up, Grave Blast. [Name: Grave Blast.] [Power Type: Death.] [Duration: Instant.] [Mana: 25.] [Stamina: 0.] [Effect: The user creates a sphere of Death that is launched forth, devouring all in its path, until it reaches the end of its range. 30-foot range.] Strange… no percentages like my Arts and Aspects. Maybe because they don't have a HUD and VITAE? It does seem… acclimated to my background of having numbers to work with. He held up his hand, and felt the warmth of mana swirling in his body. The Art description didn't have anything about how to activate it, and so he just aimed at a tree a short distance away, and tried to push the mana into his hand. He felt the stream of warmth responding to his intent, flowing down his arm, and pooling into his palm. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. Then, a sphere of grey energy began to coalesce and ball together… before fizzling away. What happened? He thought. The Last Warden's voice resonated through his thoughts, and sounded angry. [Do not meddle in Arts or Aspects beyond your Class.] Why not? Versatility is important. [...] Luke felt a weird, aching sensation in his chest, and instinctively clutched the scale armor over his left breast. He'd never had a heart attack, but the sudden coiling feeling, the sensation of constriction, made him think that might be what he was experiencing. There wasn't pain, just discomfort… and a weird feeling of shame, as if he had been spoken to by an upset parent after breaking something in the house with rough play. [Do not question my will.] The discomfort vanished, and Luke sucked down a few shallow breaths. The voice came back a moment later, admonishing, just like a disappointed parent. [You are a Gravebound Knight. The powers of others are beyond you. Using them will invite my darker face.] Luke sighed and re-opened his journal, then began ripping out pages of the Necromancer's Arts and Aspects that were off-limits to him. He didn't want to get the attention of some evil god. Why make me feel uncomfortable? [A warning.] Right… well, don't do that again—please. [... Very well.] Luke threw the pages onto the ground and closed the journal once more. Why are you talking to me so much? I thought you would be really absent once those first ten levels of Quests were done. [Other-worlders are heralds of change. You are mine. One of them.] Got it. So I'm not just your special little project. I'm one of many projects. There was no response to that parting thought. Well… thanks, I guess, for the chat. Luke scanned the environment around him. Not needing to sleep, but not having anything to do either, sounded incredibly boring. Instead of doing nothing, he descended to the ground, and looked at his skeletons. An idea hit him, and he went to one and ripped its arm off. Then, he used a Pale Flame Bolt to reattach the limb and heal his minion. He tried the feat, over and over again, and after the one-hundredth time, got the message he was looking for. [Art Increase: Pale Flame Bolt 3 → 4 (Restores/Damages 8% max Health to Undead/Living Creatures. Increase range to 50-feet.] Right, some quick math then. 10 mana per bolt, with a pool of 126. I have to wait 3 seconds in between uses. I get back 12 mana per minute. Assuming Garran sleeps another 6 hours for a good average of 7 of sleep, I'll be able to do 444 casts. Luke did just that, but also alternated and wove in Grim Harvest, since one of the Arts cost only Mana, and the other only cost Stamina. He was able to get 222 casts of that off before Garran woke, and as the man uncurled from his cocoon anvil up above, Luke had gained a bit of progress in both Arts. The range on his Pale Flame Art did not increase past 50-feet, and Luke assumed it was because there was a hard cap on range increase. [Art Increase: Pale Flame Bolt 6 (Restores/Damages 10% max Health to Undead/Living Creatures.] [Art Increase: Grim Harvest 4 (Restores/Damages 8% max Health.)] Luke was quite satisfied with the night's Art-grinding session. But, he imagined, there would be diminishing returns if he kept doing it as he had been. He'd seen the curve of growth, and could extrapolate from there. He would eventually hit a section where doing it the way he was wouldn't result in any progress. Makes sense, he thought as he stood next to his skeletons and waited for Garran to climb down. If everyone could cheat the system like that, then there'd be tons of people rushing around doing massive feats. I bet I'll need to do more 'real' healing of actual injuries, not ones I inflicted on Mindless Undead, to continue progressing at a reasonable rate. Still, it gave him something to do during downtime if he had nothing to read, no one to talk to, and nothing to do." How was the watch?" Garran asked." Fine," Luke replied." The night was quiet." It had been eerily quiet, as no insects or animal noises met him during the night." Wildlife and bugs must be scared off by the presence of Death."" That tracks," Garran replied as he got down all the way." No, that's you," Luke said with a wry grin." True," Garran replied with a chuckle." Good to know being Undead doesn't strip you of your sense of humor."" I can't agree more."" Now, we should start heading to the dire woods to the northwest." Luke began walking the direction the man pointed, and instructed his skeletons to clear the path for the duo while he talked to the trapper." Let me ask you a bit more."" Go ahead." Luke pursed his lips." Can your Arts grow in might?"" With enough use? Sure. But it's tied to how much Mana you can spend per use of it." Weird. VITAE works completely differently. The costs are remaining the same for each Art, and only the effects grow in power. I suppose I prefer that, over a percentage-based mana and stamina cost. What it does imply is that later on, I'll be able to use a lot more Arts before running out of resources, compared to the usual people on this world. Or, the costs will increase at specific thresholds." You OK?" Garran asked." Oh," Luke replied, mumbling, "just thinking."" You do that a lot. You'll go quiet and then talk after a few moments."" My grandma said that we have only so much life, and speaking words without meaning ruins that life for others," Luke replied." Every word we say should have meaning and purpose."" Wise woman." Luke frowned and let out a sigh, then sucked in a breath to keep talking." Yes, she was."" How'd she pass?" Luke could remember the day he found her passed away as if it were just that morning." She was sleeping," Luke said." On the couch, up in the living room. I had left her the night before and gone to bed in the basement. She sounded sluggish, so I figured she was just tired. Turns out, she had a medical condition she kept hidden from me." As the words left his lips, memories of the times Luke had spent with his grandmother flashed through his vision. The most prominent that surged to the forefront was when he was sitting in the police department waiting room, after his mom and dad had died in a car accident, she was the one who came for him. He could remember the scent of her clothes as she held him close, and whispered to him that he would be OK—"You're crying," Garran muttered. Luke didn't feel it, but took the man's word for truth." Sorry… memories."" You're crying blood. It's rather disturbing." Luke brought his scale-mail covered forearm up to his eyes and used the cool metal to wipe away as much of the fluid as he could." Well, hey, crying means I'm still human, right?" he asked, trying to put some levity back into the situation. Garran patted his pauldron." My condolences. I lost my first wife, and then Sybil shortly after. But… we can remember them."" True," Luke replied." Thanks for being willing to look past my body and see the man within."" It's the least I could do after you saved my life." He pulled his hand back." But… I am still a little creeped out when I'm near you. Goosebumps all over." Fair enough, Luke thought. The forest around them shifted gradually from a jungle-like environment to an old-growth, tropical rainforest. Massive canopy trees arched overhead, with their vein-like protrusions of bark teeming with insect life that scurried away from Luke's Chill Field aura effect. The plant life on the ground was a mixed tangle of moss, little vines, and thick roots that required a cautious footstep. Luke's skeletons were completely stumbling over those, and constantly falling down thanks to the unpredictable terrain. Luke had to keep both eyes on the ground to make sure he didn't misstep and take a tumble. But Garran just hopped from root to root, as if he was born to travel through the place." This is the dire wood," Garran said." We'll likely see Fog Creepers once we get a bit farther on, but you can expect kriskarns."" Those are?" Garran described them, and Luke equated them to a big cat, like a lion or jaguar, but they had scales along their body that formed a hard, defensive carapace, and had a total of six legs. Their tails were tipped with poisonous barbs that would deliver a paralytic payload, and their padded feet had a near-thumblike gripping talon to allow for easier traversal of the trees." Sounds dangerous," Luke said." They are," Garran replied. Then, he stopped on the root he had just jumped to." But… they could make for an amazing undead." That also stopped Luke in his tracks." You're absolutely right," he said with a smile." As far as I know, there's not a size limit to the type of Undead I can raise. I just need the body."" We should see if we can track one down for you to replace a skeleton with," Garran replied." If we find one big enough, we could even ride it, and cut down on our travel time immensely." Luke chuckled." Sure. Why not? We're already deep in a hostile region." Garran raised his hands to his lips and made a weird noise that sounded like a mix of a cat meow and a death metal scream. Then, he moved down the roots, and into the middle of Luke's skeleton squadron." Well, that's a mating call. Let's see what answers." Luke already had Marrowsteel Plate at its maximum stacks, his Black Guard ready to go, Chill field active, and Infuse Weapon with Pale Flame online. [Health: 125 / 125 {Barrier: 62}] [Mana: 81 / 81 {126}] [Stamina: 98 / 98 {123}] [Command Limit: 45 / 46] Garran repeated his kriskarn mating call, and then crouched down next to one of the roots." I'm going to hide. You do your thing." His body blended into the tree base." Wait, you're not going to help shoot them?"" They have armor plates everywhere except the ass and head. They move fast. I can't get good hits in." Luke was going to ask something else, but heard the yowling cry echo in the distance, and could hear the loud ta-thump, ta-thump of something with multiple legs rushing over a large distance. Alright, Luke thought as he kept his sword at the ready. Where are you? He could see movement in the trees and dense foliage to his left, and turning, he saw the enormous creature, just as Garran had described, but it was the size of a mini-van. The thing let out a howling cry of aggression, and charged right for Luke and his skeleton formation.