"A thousand undead?" Daniel raised an eyebrow â that number wasnât a joke.
"Is that a lot?" The skull-headed figure tilted his head in confusion, clearly unaware of the implications.
Daniel stood up, grabbing it in one hand, mounted Vorak, and started riding toward the undead tribe.
"A thousand undead is a lot, especially if the lich isnât even B-rank. That number is absurd," Daniel finally replied.
He didnât know much about liches, but even with his limited knowledge, he was sure a B-rank lich couldnât command the strength of a thousand.
In fact, the very idea of a lich being half-step into B-rank didnât make sense â because undead who reach B-rank are already referred to as liches.
The problem is, unlike most other races, undead canât increase their power. They retain whatever strength they had while alive.
If a B-rank climber dies and becomes undead, theyâre called a lich. An A-rank one becomes a Great Lich, and an S-rank turns into an Undead King.
Liches are essentially undead who can create more undead.
Thatâs why he couldnât understand how a half-step B-rank could become a lich. It just didnât make sense.
"I donât know, great human. Weâve lived here for centuries, and our numbers grew slowly over time," the skull replied.
"Centuries?" Daniel gave the skull a surprised look. He hadnât expected that.
"Thatâs right. Weâve been here for centuries," the skull confirmed.
"Centuries, and you never left this place? Thatâs interesting."
"We did think about leaving. But we undead need Death Aura to survive. And back when we first turned undead, the Death Aura here was extremely rich," the skull explained.
"Death Aura? But I donât feel anything," Daniel glanced around, trying to sense it.
He failed, but didnât dwell on it. Maybe it was something only the undead could sense?
"The Death Aura has weakened a lot over the past few decades. We were actually thinking of leaving, but then a human came and entered the deeper parts of the mountains. He soon left again and exited the mountain."
"After that, countless humans started arriving. Not just humans, even other races. The powerful ones went into the deeper regions, but very few came back. Meanwhile, the Death Aura kept growing stronger and stronger every day."
Daniel said nothing, contemplating the skullâs words. His instincts told him something was wrong here.
"Tell me everything you know about the mountain," he looked back at the skull.
"Huh? The mountain has two parts. The surface is divided into three zones. I donât know anything about the deeper areas. Iâve never dared to go there."
"We and the other two races that rule the other zones only stay here because of the Death Aura that flows out from the mountain depths," the skull explained.
"So they feed off the Death Aura too?" Daniel asked.
He didnât pay much attention to the mountain being "two parts" â after all, the skull admitted he had never been down there, so maybe he didnât know much about it.
"Thatâs right, great human. Death Aura is essential for our existence. But we donât have much contact with the other zones... except for those strange spirits that live near the entrance to the depths."
"Strange spirits?" Daniel asked curiously.
"Yes, strange spirits. They were here even before us. They probably formed from the Death Aura itself. Most humans are killed by them."
A spark of curiosity lit up in Danielâs eyes. He really wanted to know where this Death Aura was coming from.
If it was powerful enough to support three different races, then its source couldnât be ordinary.
Could it be leaking from the corpse of that rumored ancient demon? It wasnât impossible â in fact, it seemed pretty likely.
But for some reason, Daniel felt like that wasnât the case. There had to be another reason.
This mountain was grabbing more and more of his attention â first a lich that wasnât even B-rank, and now this mysterious Death Aura and strange spirits.
The method the lich was using to try to reach B-rank also caught his interest. As far as Daniel knew, the undead couldnât increase their power after death. But it seemed that wasnât entirely true â maybe there was a way.
"Anyway, aside from that human you mentioned, did you have any other visitors before?" Daniel asked the question that came to his mind.
"We did, but they were all weak. Most of them died and turned into undead. In fact, all of us here turned undead because of the Death Aura."
"Because of the Death Aura? It can do that?" Daniel raised an eyebrow.
As far as he knew, Death Aura corroded and broke down living bodies.
But turning someone into undead? He had never heard of that before.
Could this be related to that ancient demon too?
"Of course. All of us undead here were created because of the Death Aura. Our lich doesnât have the ability to make undead," the skull said, glancing at Daniel.
"Well, that makes more sense now," Daniel nodded. So the lich was basically a fake lich.
"Anyway, you really donât know whatâs inside the deeper parts of the mountain?"
"No. But Iâm sure thereâs no living being there. Theyâre all ghosts. Even the spirits near the entrance are part of them."
"Oh, actually, we did once catch a weak human who had escaped from the mountain depths. But he was badly injured and almost dead." The skull, as if suddenly remembering something, said
"Really? What happened to him? Did he turn into undead?" Daniel asked curiously. If he could find someone who had seen the two inner layers of the mountain, that would help a lot
Assuming, of course, that person turned undead and Daniel could defeat him. Otherwise, he would have to give up on it.
"No, he died. But before dying, he kept saying everything was a lie, that the demon wasnât real, stuff like that," the skull replied in a confused tone.
At that time, he hadnât understood what that human meant either.
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