The party had boarded the carriage by the time Cain finished his breakfast, allowing him to smoothly take his normal spot on the end bench. “So what’s the plan for today?” He asked, leaning to his right some as Jared whipped the horses into gear and the carriage started rolling.

“We’ll just be scouting the area for any undeads. Depending on the situation we might just cull their numbers instead of doing the bonus quest.” Victoria answered from within the carriage. She had picked up on Jacob’s loneliness and decided to cut down on the time she spent flirting. This would also give Jared the breathing room Cain recommended.

“I see. What was the bonus quest?” Cain asked, immediately receiving dumbfounded looks from the party. “What? My short term memory sucks.” He attempted to defend himself, showing an expression of innocence and confusion. In actuality, he was simply too lazy to check his memories and read the quest slip from it. Not to mention, Rex would have probably bugged him if he didn’t ask.

“The bonus part was just to investigate the cause for their sudden increase in numbers. We’d get a larger reward, but we’ll most likely have to bring something back as proof of our findings.” Victoria replied, noting a possible weakness of Cain’s in case it was ever needed.

“I see… Is there any problem with heading out this late?” Cain pointed to the sun as he spoke, implying that they lost precious amounts of time.

“Yeah, we’re fine. Although the undead are weakened by sunlight, it’s best to wait till the afternoon if we’re just going to be scouting for a few hours. When the sun just rises, it doesn’t do much to them because of its intensity.” Veronica spoke up this time, finally getting to show off her experience in scouting missions.

“Huh…” Cain breathed out, contemplating why this may be. “Does anyone know why the undead are weakened by sunlight?”

“Maybe skeletons are just afraid of the light because they’re naked?” The ambient noise of the forest was replaced by an uproar of laughter due to Jared’s suggestion. Their gasps for breath in between the laughter overcame the crinkling of the country road under the carriage wheels.

“Maybe… but I doubt it. And what about the other undead?” Victoria patted Jared’s back, comforting his silly contribution to the conversation. She managed to retain her breath for that short moment; a glance from Veronica was all it took to send her dying once more.

Cain waited until after everyone managed to breathe normally again, hoping an answer to his question would come. Silence rewarded his wait, announcing the party knew nothing more on this topic.

—Group chat: Cain, Dresil, Bob, and Rex— (31ms)

Cain: What about you guys? Do you know anything?

Rex: Maybe it’s because they’re afraid of a tan since they have white bones?

Dresil: Well… Skeletons, zombies, and most undead are carnivorous. Perhaps since they don’t need to photosynthesize they avoid the sun?

Cain: …idk whether to be proud or disappointed right now.

Cain: Bob, you got an actual answer or theory?

Bob: Indeed. Although I’d have to explain everything about necromancy, how reviving the dead works, how a soul intertwines into everything, and various other factors.

Rex: Please don’t… I don’t have the brain to handle it.

Dresil: Someone’s honest, but also same. This topic seems out of my league right now.

Cain: Rip… guess we’ll just have to wait for some examples to crop up so Bob can explain with a demonstration.

Bob: Agreed. Although if something is time sensitive I’ll explain it immediately without regards to brain cell casualties.

Rex: :Pain:

Dresil: Well heck.

Cain: Alright, sounds good.

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Cain’s body slithered down the carriage bench, stretching itself across both sides; the preparations for a quick nap complete. He scheduled the changes in his physical enhancement to occur at midnight tonight.

The carriage trotted along for two hours, the party passed the time with their normal conversations of what they were going to do once they got back, how they would spend the quest money, and various other miscellaneous activities.

Jared tugged on the reins, pulling the carriage to a stop in front of an odd clearing. Purple and black overtook the green and brown of the forest. Dried trunks of trees were all that was left of the towering forest grove. The occasional wind would sometimes cause a decayed tree to fall, collapsing into a heap of an ash like substance, and other times it would whistle through the lifeless bark that remained on the stumps.

“Woah there… Yikes, that looks deadly.” Jared commented, peering over the horses’ heads to get a glimpse of the blackened soil. He adjusted the hitch near its attachment point on the carriage and clicked his tongue a few times to get the horses to back up.

“...is it cursed or something?” Cain asked as he hopped out of the carriage to inspect the unknown material. The rest of the carriage’s inhabitants exited shortly after.

“Maybe… Let me try to cleanse it first.” Victoria suggested, following after Veronica and Jacob to the border of the ghostly soil and normal dirt. Cain activated all functions of his eyes, preparing to witness holy cleansing for the first time. ‘I really need to get used to having these active all of the time…’ He thought while Victoria inched closer to the suspicious soil.

She mumbled a prayer while holding her staff and a trinket in front of her. Holy mana was channeled through the staff and trinket, a sliver of Victoria’s own holy mana intertwined with it, producing a magic circle close to the gem of the staff.

Cain wasn’t close enough to see the process in detail but still observed the magic circle as it launched a small pulse of holy mana. The spell cleansed a small semi-circle of air and dirt in front of Victoria; as it was intended to prevent too much mana draining. Instead of the lively soil and fresh air the party thought would be under the cursed substance, only dried soil and stale air remained.

Cain immediately tugged Victoria back by her collar before she could breathe in the air. She stumbled backwards into Jared’s arms who moved to catch her from Cain’s rough action. Victoria quickly covered Jared’s mouth before he said something rash for tossing her away, her eyes trained on the cursed substance and the area she once stood in.

Cain stepped off to the side, allowing the party to see the cursed substance instantly devour the cleansed area. It slowly continued to advance past what was assumed to be the border, but upon closer inspection, even that was expanding at an extremely slow rate. They only noticed it due to the differing speeds of growth from the area Victoria cleansed.

Victoria’s hand drifted downwards, pulled by the sudden realization of what she just did and the embarrassment that followed it. “What… is that?” Jared mumbled shortly after Victoria’s hand uncovered his mouth, unphased by the past few seconds and his interactions with Victoria.

Jared helped Victoria to stabilize her footing, keeping the same social distance friends conferred on each other if they went through something similar; no follow up checks on possible injuries either. She sighed inaudibly, Jared’s denseness her number one cause of frustration.

“It should be a type of cursed substance that strengthens the undead… I’ve only read about it in books though.” Victoria spoke up to distract herself from the headache that stared at the clearing blankly, walking closer to the growing border of the living and the dead.

“I’ll have to create and maintain a cleansing barrier around us if we want to venture in. It won’t deflect any attacks though and might be very fragile… It’s my first time making one so I don’t know much about it. I also only be able to last about 12 minutes before my mana is drained.”

While Victoria explained her spell, Cain gathered some of his mana and scooped up a bit of the cursed soil from beyond the border. He encased it in a dense mana net as it floated towards him, stopping a few centimeters from the boundary.

Cain directed his mana to devour the cursed substance; an attempt to seize control over it, similar to how he converted others’ mana into his own. His mana attacked the substance head on, without regards for tactics or strength. An unknown type of energy escaped the cursed substance, leaving behind a withered husk of purple and black.

The party observed his experiment with awe, even though they couldn’t completely understand what was happening. They had started shortly after Victoria finished speaking.

Cain plucked some fresh grass from the ground and tossed it over the cursed substance in a wide arc. Blades of grass landed in the cursed area beyond the boundary and a few were directed towards the shrunken sample within his mana net. The moment the blades of grass touched the cursed ground, their life was drained away, leaving behind gray blades that soon crumbled into ash.

Although slower, the withered husk of the cursed sample performed the same actions. The only difference between the two was the withered husks’ resurrection. It had used the life of the grass to restore itself to its former shape, ready to devour the living once more.

—Group Chat: Cain, Dresil, Bob, and Rex— (73ms)

Cain: Bob, I think this is enough of a demonstration to start explaining some bits.

Bob: Indeed… although it’ll only be a small portion.

Cain: That’s fine.

Rex: Wait! Split your messages please.

Bob: …only if you give me a few riddles.

Rex: Deal.

Bob: This cursed substance is similar to miasma. It devours anything with life, using the energy to strengthen the undead that stand on it and continue its expansion.

Bob: I’m not sure if you saw it Cain, but it released some of this energy after losing to your mana.

Cain: Well dang… Things just got annoying. And nah, I didn’t see anything being released.

Rex: …why?

Bob: Only a lich or something stronger than it can create this substance. The stronger the being, the more area it can cover.

Bob: Based on this patch of cursed area… the lich should have the power of a 6th or 7th circle adventurer.

Cain: Yikes… That should be around a Rank S adventurer then… Too much for the kids to handle?

Bob: Definitely. Although they could gain some experience fighting the undead in their domain.

Cain: True… Would the substance do anything to them if they come into contact with it?

Bob: It will drain their mana then slowly drain their vitality.

Cain: …yeah let’s not let them do that then. Maybe a few skeletons here and there.

Rex: this one wasn’t so bad… I wasted my riddles :Pain:

Rex:

Rex: Something doesn’t add up.

Rex: How did you know to pull Victoria back before the cursed thingy grew over the cleansed area?

Rex: …hold up.

Rex: Did you even know about the lich when you said “things just got annoying.”?

Rex:

Cain: Well it’s not like any junkyard skeleton could make this substance.

Rex: True…

Cain: And the substance reminded me of cursed soil in modded minecraft that spread over dirt rapidly so I pulled Victoria back.

Rex: Dafuq…?

Rex: …I’m just going to go back to reading.

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