The trees also no longer emitted a paralytic sap when touched, but instead constantly produced a haze of white, thin webbing around them. The paralytic effect was strengthened, but more diffusely applied by the webbing than from the denser, stickier sap. The changes in the purple grass were more subtle, their color deepening, becoming almost brown, and the angle of their growth was altered slightly. Curious about the effect, Axl collected some of each to examine later.
Reaching a slight incline, Axl was able to look at the hill dominating the near distance, the seat of Valioon, its massive Oocile sphere hovering over the eastern wall. As he looked, the sphere concentrated a point of Mana upon its surface and emitted a powerful blast at a trebuchet of the forces around it, crashing into a Mana defense and shattering it, blasting the entire top of the several-story high construct to pieces in a dense explosion.
Axl stared at the massive sphere in wonder for a few moments, its Mana and sheer pressure something he'd never encountered before. This was no mere cultivator a Grade or two above him, this was the culmination of the work of a true D-Grade and an entire sub-system. Roken's memories had references to how the central strongholds of Oocile had powerful spheres guarding them and various fanciful stories of what they did, but this still seemed absurd.
Then he got a notification that gave him pause.
>>Terrania Quest (Unique): Second Oocile Infiltration.
>>Activate [Mana Absorb] on a nexus of Oocile.
>>Reward: Upgrade Dao Vision Re-visitation reward from Total di-millennial grounding Achievement to Dao Vision Return.
So this was why Terrania had offered him that fourth option together with Oocile. He'd understood the balanced sub-system wanting to protect its own city, and now he knew why the caretaker of Sol wanted him there, too. Still, he looked up at the orb floating several hundred meters in the air, even as Axl watched, forming a massive protective shield over the wall as hundreds of spells and arrows were negated.
Not sure I'm going to be able to take on that one, boss. Terrania was likely running a bit blind here, not realizing he'd have no real ability to even get to that thing, much less get away with stealing anything from it, an entire city's worth of defenders likely to turn on him if he did anything to their main protection. Not to mention that Terrania mistakenly called his inborn Skill by its old name, not what he'd upgraded it to, which was not a good sign.
With a sigh, Axl decided not to focus on that complication and look down at the encirclement around the city, or at least try to, his view entirely blocked by a very familiar green mist.
The valley lining the base of Valioon's hill was entirely covered in the same mist that filled Piril, forming a two-kilometer-wide shroud around the city, hiding the undead except for the tops of their larger fortifications and siege equipment. At this, Axl smiled, realizing that the bastard who decimated Piril was now here, and even if he wasn't strong enough to face that particular undead just yet, perhaps foiling his ability to break through the city would be a real setback to his Legion.
Slowly and carefully, Axl started down towards the mist, not to the nearest source of Undeath, but one that was almost a quarter of the city away. After all, some of the legion members from the convoy likely made it back, or would soon, so their guard would be up.
The edge of the mist was a stark dividing line, the green dense and stagnant as he remembered it from Piril, but this time stacked at least ten meters high, even at the edge. Walking into it was like pushing into a wall of wailing air, and Axl activated [Mana Shroud] to start absorbing the aggressive Mana of the mist and start turning it to his.
This mist was denser than what he remembered, its distinctive Mana more active and destructive, and after a few moments, crouched beneath a tree, focusing, Axl noticed why. There was a hint of Undeath in the mist itself. Barely enough for him to notice, even Call of Undeath missing it entirely until he saw it, but there it was. [Mana Shroud] was still able to cover his body in a thin layer of mimicking the mist, but the Undeath wouldn't quite behave, separating from the misting Mana at even the slightest touch from his Skill.
He kept trying for a few more moments, but soon gave up, hoping that his mimicry would be enough. He also realized that the [Seed of Undeath] in his hand would absorb the unruly Undeath if Axl let it, so he just piped the mist in there. It would take years of collection to match what he got from the terrarium, but it was better than randomly emitting it back into the air, or worst, trying to hold it in his body some other way.
With a strategy in place to blend in, slowly, Axl also extended [Mana Shroud] into boosting his Perception, getting it to compensate for the mist's annoying opacity. This was a bit faster, once he had the hang of processing the mist and camouflaging himself with it, able to see the mist as only a vaguely green filter over his sight, even if he didn't get the full range he was used to, and things were a bit fuzzier than he'd prefer.
Still, he felt further improvements would have to wait, so he started further in, the trees and grass oddly much like their altered state outside, nothing more. At least more stuff to hide behind, and soon Axl came across the first sentry protecting the camp.
It was an archer sitting on a wooden platform barely two meters high, a bell near his head. He sat cross-legged, as if deep in meditative cultivation, bow on the floor to his side.
Carefully, Axl took out a dagger and took a long way around the archer, thinking he might have some detection Skill he could only use in that pose or something. But Axl managed to go around him apparently undetected. Maybe the mist interfered with his vision more than it did Axl's?
Axl just shrugged and continued, soon reaching a line of tents, the density of trees rapidly decreasing. He could see undead milling about without any sense of urgency, all in the G-Grade and wearing mediocre gear similar to what he saw at the convoy. One of the tent flaps facing him lifted, and as an undead stepped out, looking unhappy, Axl could see two more within, both sitting cross-legged in meditation.
Axl smiled in realization. They were cultivating the Undeath in the mist. This was probably a big part of the reward for taking part of the siege. He wondered what kind of payment the Undead Legion could offer their calculating members for participation, and this seemed like a rather elegant solution. The forces wouldn't complain about a prolonged siege, nor would they want the siege to be broken, making the forces retreat or give up. This likely would mean most of the rank-and-file wouldn't want the city takeover to happen at all, but that kind of thing perhaps, was more reliant on the F-Grades, which likely would have different incentives to fight hard, say payment for when the city fell that dwarfed the mist’s benefits.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Of course, there was a huge risk built into this plan, and Axl smiled at the [Seed of Undeath] in his hand.
Weaving his way through the ocean of haphazardly set-up tents was far easier than Axl expected. He knew that the undead could sense each other through even the most basic use of Charisma, so if he was spotted, they'd immediately know he wasn’t one of them. However, the undead were barely moving around, most in their tents cultivating, and the few that patrolled or headed to their duties did so with hurried efficiency, clearly just wanting to get that over with to get back to cultivating.
It got to the point that Axl was confident charging into any random tent, because every single one held groups of undead deep in meditation, letting him avoid patrols or large groups, or even when the foot traffic's density started to pick up. He also got the sense that the mist was interfering with their vision more than Axl had predicted, twice an undead staring right at him, barely four meters away, but he didn't see him at all. Axl even trailed the undead for a while, in case they simply waited to report him, but in both cases, they just went to their tents and immediately started meditating.
Still, Axl was careful, not wanting to get exposed this deep in enemy territory. Even if all the undead he'd seen so far were in the G-Grade, their sheer numbers were more than enough to overwhelm him, or at the very least wear down his stamina and internal Mana.
After a few hours of this careful progress, Axl had made his way halfway into the encirclement, the haphazard tents starting to be punctuated by larger tents that held artisans making arrows, healers treating the injured, and a cantina serving the foulest-smelling food he'd ever witnessed.
At one point, Axl heard a deep boom that reverberated in the shaking ground, and the undead all froze for a moment, waiting to see if the sphere was targeting them, but quickly they just got back to work. He couldn't help but be impressed, even the weakest G-Grade cook looked like he just didn’t care about the risk he was under. I'm not sure I'd be able to work day in day out, not even being able to see the massive sphere that might kill me at any time with a stray shot. One of the benefits of having a fearless army, no doubt.
Soon after, Axl slowly approached a larger tent, one at first glance similar to the others. He likely would've missed the differences too—its metal struts were twice as thick, its canvas rigid, and each of its two entrances overlooked by a pair of quite alert F-Grade soldiers hovering around the area, each trying to make it look like they weren't really focused on the tent. A rather effective way of blending in, but Axl had Call of Undeath telling him this place was the source of Undeath he was heading towards.
Luckily, there were still a few housing tents nearby, so Axl ducked into one at random, ready to kill the residents if need be, but a pair of well-armored undead were deep in meditation, as usual. So Axl camped out in the tent's corner for a while, using a small rip in the fabric to look out as his target, hiding behind some of the junk the two undead had in nailed-shut boxes and locked chests.
He managed to settle in for hours, a third undead joining the two and immediately starting to cultivate, and one leaving, not even looking towards where Axl hid. It seemed clear these more serious G-Grades were trying to squeeze every possible moment of cultivation, not even looking around their tent as they came and went.
During Axl's vigil, he saw the smaller entrance to the tent would have mage-kitted undead come and go every half hour or so, while the much larger one in the back would allow large carts to enter carrying balls of varying sizes, between a meter and five in diameter. These deliveries and pickups were more regular, almost exactly on the hour, and seemed to come and go in exactly the same way.
Having seen enough, Axl left the meditating undead and settled on a narrow gap between tents further down, just as one of the overloaded carts approached, being pulled by one of the pillbug-like creatures he'd seen back at the convoy. A single G-Grade drove the cart, her attention barely present as she unsuccessfully tried to do her job and meditate at the same time. Axl rolled under the low carriage as it passed by, then stabbed a pair of daggers in the wooden underside and lifted himself with a flex of his back muscles.
He held the position as the cart slowly made its way to the armored tent, Axl thanking his Strength Attribute for delivering his ability to stick to the awkward pose that he was sure his human body would barely be able to maintain for a few seconds. Still, the cart rolled in and soon stopped, the pillbug detaching and leaving with another, empty cart, together with the driver.
Axl waited a few moments then slowly lowered himself onto the ground, which was no longer densely-packed dirt, but even, smooth stone. The mist in the air also oddly felt much thinner than outside, even as the density of the mist had increased as he got closer to the city walls, which he presumed was part of the deal—chose a more dangerous posting, get access to more Undeath.
Extending [Mana Shroud] and peeking out from beneath the cart, Axl saw a group of three F-Grade mages in the center of the tent, all facing away from him, their attention on an object floating in front of them. It was a severed arm with numerous mushrooms growing from it, the source of Undeath he was after.
The three mages were clearly extracting Undeath from the arm onto arrays on large plates on the ground, leading to the several balls lining the walls of the tent. A single F-Grade warrior was picking up the balls from the cart Axl was under and lining them up, his muscular body making it clear he focused on Strength for his build.
Seeing up close what was being done, Axl figured out that the three mages were infusing Undeath into these balls to activate components already within to produce odd effects that he couldn't figure out, until he saw one turning into a rather insidious-feeling poison, and he got it. These were ammunition to send into Valioon, probably not even to attack the defenders themselves, but the civilians within the walls.
Axl remembered the streets of Piril and its eerie emptiness. If the legion had its way here as well, that would also be Valioon's fate.
Holding his building anger steady, Axl waited until one of the mages left and another arrived, then counted to thirty, and attacked.
He threw two daggers loaded with centipede poison onto the ammunition-loader, one in the throat, another in the center of his chest, the man chortling in choking, gasping pain. Axl activated [Bolting Motion] and was at the mage trio, unsheathing his sword as he changed the movement skill from his legs to his arms, and in a flash, his sword cut into all three, from lower hip of one to upper collar bone of the third. They didn't even get a chance to react as their bodies fell into uneven halves.
Axl felt the Karmic Energy of the mage trio before the bodies even started to fall, so he quickly turned to the loader, who was on his knees, hands to his throat. Another dagger to the forehead, and Axl confirmed his death as well.
Not wasting any time, Axl picked up the four corpses and threw them into his external ring, retrieved his daggers with [Minor Telekinesis], then approached the severed arm.
Up close, the arm was at least half as much longer as even a large elf's, and strangely disfigured, with seven uneven fingers, two of which were thumbs, and three joints. Even if it had none of the decay or corpse-likeness of the undead, there was something fundamentally broken about the limb that Axl had a hard time parsing. The mushrooms that grew from it were also growing at a speed visible to the naked eye, a large box under the floating limb two-thirds full of them, as if this limb also served as a fungal gathering spot. Each mushroom was light green and flat at the top, as if forming neat little shelves on the limb, their vibrancy and Mana density in stark contrast to the empty wrongness of the limb.
Axl quickly removed all the mushrooms on the limb and tossed them in the crate, taking it to his storage, then grabbed the arm with his left hand, activating [Seed of Undeath].