“That is something, alright,” Ralph said, sounding excited at the prospect, as we walked alongside the river.
After having no idea what the crystal meant and leaving Tom and the others to continue working on securing the chambers, I had climbed back up to the neighborhood in search of the one man who might have answers. I decided it was best to get out of earshot of the others before I fully broached the topic with him, just in case there were any true oddities he could share.
“Any idea what any of it means? The Crystallized Mana alone already seems kind of insane, but I've never heard of anything that tracks a stronghold by its members like that. Assuming that's what it's even doing. Since not everyone's name is listed there, I'm not actually sure,” I replied, really wanting to understand what was happening.
Ralph shrugged as he started to speak. “Yes and no. I've never seen anything like this or heard of anyone who has, but there are some scraps of legends that survive about times before the System. One of them briefly talks about something called a fate stone where the names of the heroes were inscribed. Obviously, that could have nothing to do with what we've got down there, or it could be exactly the same thing. We're in pretty strong uncharted waters here, Adam. From everything you've told me and what I've already seen myself, it's going to be pretty hard to predict where any of this goes.”
“Wait, legends from before the System? I've never heard of anything like that.” I knew observers were on a very different level in terms of what knowledge they tended to pursue, but the idea that there were tales of times before the System out there, and I had never heard the tiniest whisper, which was a bit strange. Then again, considering death had recently visited us and told me all kinds of things I'd never heard of, maybe what I viewed as the wider System-space was a much smaller fraction than I had ever realized.
“There aren't a lot, and the few that do exist, people are pretty afraid to talk about them openly. There's a ton of superstitions tied to them, but as far as I could tell, they're just that. This isn't the first time I've openly spoken of one, and so far I haven't been punished for it. Unless you count this life as punishment,” Ralph said, laughing lightly at his last sentence.
I shook my head at the man. As far as I could tell, he was still enjoying all of this, and considering he had chosen to come into this integration, even if he didn't, that was on him. He had made me rethink my opinion on observers, at least a little. Though, as far as I could gather, he was also rather unique within the group, I had never seen one before willing to enter into an integration like this after all.
A sudden flurry of movement and a desperate scream drew my attention to the other side of the river. “Help! Please help!” a boy, somewhere around Noah's age, screamed as he emerged from the forest.
He was bleeding from several different cuts on his face, and something sharp stuck out of his shoulder. The cause was obvious as several of the smaller skeletal monsters burst out of the forest after him. Had he been out there in that damned undead-infested forest since the integration had started?
“Over here, jump in the river and come to us!” I called back, running down the bank toward him.
Damn. There were too many monsters, and they were too close on his heels. He'd never make it. Changing my run into a dive, I leaped into the water and swam as quickly as I could to the other side, ignoring any of the potential dangers far below.
The sword barely held in its sheath on my back as I quickly pushed against the water. Again, I knew I'd need something stronger, but the problem of how often I was destroying my clothes made me question how feasible that actually was. What I really needed was to unlock more of the mana orbs so the sword could handle that part itself.
“Jump in the water and swim to the man over there. I'll handle them!” I yelled, pulling myself out of the water. It was the first time I'd stepped foot on the other side of the river, and it came as little surprise that I'd done so to fight monsters.
A dozen small skeletal figures, all twisted their odd goat-like skulls toward me. I was a much bigger target than the kid, and they knew it. Though how much actual intelligence there was in their skulls, I had no idea. It was always hard to say with the undead.
Some undead creatures ran on the pure instinct that remained from their life. Others were often connected to a unifying purpose that was imbued in them during their creation. But the scariest ones ran on their own intelligence. They were always the biggest problems.
With their attention diverted, a loud splash told me the kid was on his way to Ralph. Good. That meant I didn't have to worry about him while I dealt with these problems. Not that they looked that dangerous, but based on the other things I had seen in these woods, these were probably some of the smallest minions. Whatever controlled them at the top level was still a mystery, one that looked like we may be forced to solve sooner than expected.
“Can you talk?” I asked, pulling my sword off my back. I didn't fully expect an answer if they could, but it wouldn't hurt to try. It would help if whatever was behind them got a little more scared of me, especially now that I knew they were hunting people within these woods. That was something that made them a much higher priority.
“Grrroggl,” one of them replied. I had no idea if it was actually a word I didn't understand or some half-remembered response to being talked at. As they were still moving towards me, hostilely, it didn't really matter.
Taking several rapid steps forward, I swung the sword hard, crashing through the bones of four of them. Their forms crumpled to the ground, entirely lifeless again. A rapid flurry of swings mixed with a kick finished off the rest of them before any of them were able to hurt me.
As I jumped into the water to return to the other side, a system message popped into view.
__________
Enemy Defeated
Small Skeletal Goatman [3 Experience]
This undead is a specialized skeletal creature created from the remains of Kobold, Goblin and goat bones and returned to a half-life by powerful necromantic magic. It has little intelligence of its own, working only under the remnant orders of its creator or those the creator has imbued with control. It will pursue those goals with relentless fury, stopping only when either a new order is given or they are destroyed. Unlike many forms of undead, the sun has no effect on them.
Further Information Locked.
__________
That write-up gave away a lot of information. I had never seen this exact type of undead before, but they were basically unlimited mixtures of skeletal monsters out there. With the infinite number of different species to pull from, anyone could create their own horrible abomination. The fact that there was something out in that forest controlling them all, though, was good to know.
“Let's get you back to the neighborhood and patched up, and you can tell me about everything that's going on out there, okay?” I said gently to the kid. He still had a giant look of panic on his face. Just how much of a nightmare had he been through?
“No, wait, we can't leave yet. My family is still out there. Grandpa's the only one who could still fight. He told me to go find help,” he replied, pleading desperately with me.
That explained more of how he'd survived out there. He hadn't been alone. It also meant there was no way we could avoid exploring that forest now. I wasn't about to leave his family out there alone, and we only had a few more hours until nightfall. Things always got more dangerous then.
“Alright, I promise that I will do everything I can to help your family today. But right this second, I need to get you back to the neighborhood, not only to get you patched up, but to get a few allies before I return back to the other side of this river. Now come on and tell me everything you can as we quickly head back,” I said, turning on my dad voice, aiming for both supportive and authoritative at the same time. We didn't have time to waste, and the panic that kid was feeling was justified, but it also wouldn't help anything.
“I’m Adam. What’s your name?” I followed up as I rushed him along toward the walls.
He gulped down tears. “I'm Jimmy. My mom and dad were hurt a couple days ago. Grandpa and Grandma were doing their best to hold back the monsters, but we were running out of food. Last night, one of them shot Sarah, my sister, with something. She's real sick. Grandpa made me run for it as soon as the sun came up. I didn't know if there was any help to find, though. Please save them.”
“I promise I'm going to try,” I said gently, but firmly. I wished I could promise I would, no matter what, but I didn't know what state they were already in. But that wasn't something he needed to hear. If it came to that, I would avenge them and tell them that story in full. Until then, though, I'd give him as much hope as I could.
There was an immediate uproar of activity as I led the kid into the garage. The appearance of a crying kid no one had seen before was enough to worry everyone. And his eyes went wide at the sight of the Goblins and the Rock Trolls. But to his credit, he stuck right with me.
“I want you to sit down right here and let this Rock Troll examine you. He's not going to hurt you. He's a friend and an ally. He has a son who is probably about your age. And while he treats you, I'm gonna go get some people, and we're gonna go in search of your family okay?”
He nodded his head, taking a seat exactly where I told him.
“Norm, Ralph, go find Ash and Floof and pack some supplies for treating injuries. Noah, Tom, come help me grab the old rowboat out of my garage. We are going to need it. Grimbleflork, if we're not back by nightfall, double up on the watches. There are a bunch of undead out there, and I'm not sure how angry I just made them, but they were chasing the kid, and I killed a dozen of them.”
“You always just have to pick a fight, don't you, kid?” The old Goblin replied, setting down one of the coyote pups he had been holding. “Alright, boys, you heard him. It's gonna be an all-nighter. Go double-check all the walls. I don't want anything getting through. Let's start an extra fire near the river as well. I want a nice big one so they can see it from deep in those woods. Make those monsters know we're out here, ready and willing.”
I was again glad to have that man with us. A nice giant bonfire there could give us another distraction, and we probably need one. It wasn't that I was worried about getting our people in and out, but we were probably going to have to transport a bunch of sick and wounded, and that was going to be difficult with monsters attacking us from every side.
It wouldn't stop me from trying, though.