Chapter 260

It was good to be moving around once more.

Even if I was going through a long stretch of ruined land, necrotic mana getting more and more intense without the forest I had built up to prevent that. It was not the whole world filled with that mana — at least not yet — but that didn't mean it wasn't an unpleasant feeling.

Especially since I couldn't just plant one of the seeds that were with me and transform the whole area, not unless I wanted to be swarmed by a horde of disposable zombies. I wasn't afraid of them, not with all the tricks I had developed since my arrival, but that hardly meant that I wanted to face them on unfavorable ground and ruin my preparations.

The river gave me a route to follow, and I moved upstream, though I made sure to stay half a mile away. Close enough to see anything that was going on easily, but far enough to avoid the occasional patrol that was following the river.

The patrols were getting more and more common as I moved upstream. A few zombies walked around aimlessly at first, but soon turned into disciplined squads that were made of skeletons wearing armor that was forged for their bony bodies, accompanied by a necromancer.

It was much harder to avoid necromancers, but that didn't mean I was unhappy seeing them. The number of patrols and their strength meant that they had something to defend.

"It's better to be worth my time," I murmured as I hid under the shadow of another dead tree as waited for a large contingent to pass me, ignoring the smell of death. "I wonder if I could set up a secondary breach," I murmured as I slipped a seed, but the mana that followed didn't go to its growth, instead covering it to create a field that would protect it from necrotic mana.

Along with a beacon that would allow me to teleport there if I wished.

[-583 Mana]

{-1 Nature Spark}

It was difficult to put that much Divine Spark in seed without destroying it, but luckily, I had enough time to fiddle while I waited for a particularly large patrol to pass me.

I even had enough time to reach Aether Dimension to grab some Aether, efficiently breaking it down to more usable mana.

[+9210 Mana]

Though, as I delved aggressively, I could feel the density of Aether was dropping. Not significantly, but enough to be noticeable.

I had a feeling that my forest had a role in that change.

Soon, the patrol moved away, and I continued my depressing trek, toward the border of the plane once more, though stopping more and more due to patrols.

Until I came across a fortress. One that was even more depressing than the desolate landscape, as the fortress was carved from the remains of a huge, broken tree, the kind that would be measured in miles rather than yards.

I didn't know how tall it had been when it was alive, with its branches reaching toward the sky, but considering even its broken state it was taller than two miles, I had a feeling that the term touching the sky wouldn't have been too much of an exaggeration.

Pity that was not only completely dead, but was also carved into an imposing fortress, spitting out undead every second.

The imposing nature and the density of the undead already revealed that it was my destination, and I didn't need to see the river that I was following was coming from the roots of the tree, probably born from an underground spring.

Now, all I needed was to decide how to sneak into the place. I was tempted to use my usual underground trick, but unfortunately, I was quick to realize it wouldn't work. The closer to the tree, the more the ground was infused with necrotic energy.

"Annoying," I murmured as I realized that it was probably not an intentional strategy, but a side effect of corrupting that huge tree. It was the roots spreading the necrotic energy in a wasteful manner.

I could have tried to cut through the necrotic mana, but the density of mana would effectively blind me.

The river was facing a similar problem. Diving sounded like a viable strategy, but considering they were using the river to constantly pump for mana, it was also risky. I didn't know how active they were in managing the process, but the risk was unacceptable.

Luckily, there was an easier solution. A few choice illusions, some tailoring, and a hunch later, I was just another zombie, walking forward. It was a simple disguise, yet effective, for one simple reason.

I could manipulate necrotic mana to stick around me.

It was hardly a pleasant feeling, even though I was careful to maintain the distance and my Proto-HP was there to block any harmful side effects. Unfortunately, it was a vital part of my disguise.

With that, I waited until I noticed three groups of zombies merging together under the guidance of several necromancers, and slipped into the group, acting like a part of the flow. It was not as simple as it sounded, but luckily, all the times I had disguised with the assistance of Subterfuge taught me a lot, and I managed to slip in.

I could feel the energies of the necromancers spreading around and controlling the zombies, and a tendril also reached me, convinced by my fake connection.

And, I just acted like I obeyed their command as they patrolled around their fortress, occasionally slipping between patrols to drive closer. Luckily, the necromancers were occasionally stealing zombies from the control of each other, which made my switch rather innocuous.

Once I mixed into a new group, I waited for an opportunity to change my concealment method, sometimes looking like a skeleton, sometimes as a zombie. The closer I got to the fortress, the stronger I made my necrotic-mana shell.

However, the closer I got, the more I started to notice interesting stuff.

For one, the dead tree was not just filled with necrotic mana, but also Necrotic Spark. I couldn't be sure how much unless I probed directly, but even at a distance, I could feel thousands of units would have been an understatement.

Fascinating, though that brought the question, of why the river contained so little mana — at least relative to the potential it represented. Some were clearly being used to create a bigger undead army, but unless I was significantly miscalculating, that didn't explain it either.

I had a feeling that the answer was in the Aether dimension, but even as I took a quick peek — which was a risk — it ended with a failure. Not unexpected, as I was still far away from the tree, and I doubted it would work, not with the way the distance worked in the Aether dimension. Without a beacon to help me find my path, it was near impossible to find the tree.

Temporarily shelving that objective, I turned my attention to my more immediate problem. Sneaking into the fortress successfully.

It took five hours for me finally to arrive at the huge gate of the fortress tree, and another hour to find a group actually entering the fortress to slip in. Hardly an efficient use of time, but much less risky than trying to penetrate the layer of magic around us.

Six hours later, I was finally inside the fortress.

The inside of the tree had been carved into a huge entrance, every inch filled with undead, with stairs that were going both upstairs and downstairs.

The upstairs seemed even more crowded, so I chose downstairs as my first direction. Another half an hour, and I managed to slip down, and even find a nice corner to change my disguise once more, walking around as a low-level necromancer.

I even conjured a large pile of paper, walking around in a hurry, hoping to give the impression I was a man with a task.

After taking another set of stairs that brought me even deeper, I finally came across the source of the river. A huge spring, bubbling fresh, and some kind of mana I didn't recognize — similar to nature mana, but not the same.

Pity that was the only glimpse I could get before it was drowned by the constant necrotic mana that was being pumped into the water by a necromancer, using a corrupted root filled with runes to achieve the objective.

It accounted for some of the mana the corrupted tree was generating, but not all of it.

Luckily, that floor had several nooks I could use to draw teleportation beacons. Even better, the constant conflict of mana as they fed the river made sure that the energy in the room was chaotic enough that the beacons could stay concealed for more than a temporary glimpse, which would allow me to teleport into the fortress directly into the future.

Risky, but safer than trying to dig a tunnel, and more preferable than half a day of constant disguises, alternating between skeletons and zombies while suffering the suffocating aura.

With the beacons done, I climbed the stairs once more, looking for a safe corner I could use to peek into the Aether dimension.

{Strength: 8 Charisma: 10

Precision: 8 Perception: 12

Agility: 8 Manipulation: 10

Speed: 8 Intelligence: 10

Endurance: 8 Wisdom: 9}

{Purified Divine Spark: 399}

{Pseudo-HP: 2869 Mana: 16831}

{ADDITIONAL SPARKS

Light - Chosen 7.4

Nature - Chosen 10}

{MINIONS

Guardian God Forest - 2049}

Elven Priestess - 70}

[Level: 36 Experience: 631374 / 666000]