Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

Chapter 213 Dense Woods

Loimos put the rusted amulet down, leaving it inside of the caravan as he stepped outside, the overgrown grass, almost reaching up to his knees, glistening with humidity, lush branches getting in his face as he walked around, Dschungelland was heavily forested country, although they did their utmost to cut the trees down, vegetation here was persistent and hasty in its regrowth.

Lacking the means to properly fight nature, they had to all accommodate like this, the population was low here, and they still exploited everything they could with incredible ferocity, making it not very welcoming to the nature loving people and species, not to mention that was festering with wild animals and monsters, things could be hiding anywhere in this nation, many areas left unvisited for years, if it had even been travelled through.

The skeleton was sticking to the rough path the woods allow at the moment, having to force his way through the underbrush using violence, and he had yet to reach the madness that apparently was Laba, there, he would not be able of using his caravan to get around, there is pretty much no empty space from what he had heard, even by foot, he would struggle to get around.

Of course, simply unleashing his miasma would make everything easier, but that was not possible without alerting another nation that the dead were, indeed, out and about.

It was also rather difficult to find where the cities of Dschungelland were to be found amidst all of this blooming life, there was one that was rather easy to discern though.

A familiar tree sprouted in the middle of the road, appearing with a much different expression than usual, appearing to be gazing into the distance rather than at the undead.

"He may have divested himself of I, but his pride and duty will never leave him, oh, you loathsome copycat, the might of the living is much superior to the unfeeling coldness of your kind, you shall learn in time"

The First Seed, as per usual, said its piece and simply disappeared into the ground, leaving the space behind that it had obstructed visible to the undead, a knight standing in the way instead, garbed in stone armour covered in vines and moss, wielding a broken blade of the same material as its suit.

It was alone, or so it appeared, even with the blinding life of the tree messing with detection of life, Loimos should have noticed something approaching, so the conclusion was that the knight would have been capable of doing the same without The First Seed covering their approach.

The skeleton stepped off the caravan, grabbing hold of a most regular-looking spear, allowing the tip to rest against the ground, tapping it against small, protruding pebbles, paying close attention to the vegetation around.

Even the smallest of those tools of transport had at least three balloons supporting the wooden structures they carried effortlessly.

The people leaving here were a blend of humans, beastfolks and even a few demons, although, sometimes making the difference between a demon and a horned beastfolk could be difficult, in fact, the terms beastfolk, demon and human gathered up together many different species that just happened to be related, but those three groups were known as the inhabitants of Dschungelland.

They lived together, and even blended in more intimate ways, although Loimos was not interested in a study of the population, approaching the first person that had the misfortune of being closest to him, he instantly questioned them.

"May I inquire about bat-like monsters in the area?" the one he had accosted was a small child with droopy rabbit ears that almost dragged on the ground, apparently not very rattled by getting stopped by a total stranger in armour, the young beastfolk brought a finger up to his chin, thinking really deeply about it.

"Me-mah, my mom told me not to go out at night, be-because, because there is a big, big bat that snatches children who go out at night, roar!" he was not very proficient in his speech but the message got across.

"Woah, you came here by foot?! You must be a strong adventurer or something! The big bat? Ah yes, it's not just a story to scare children!

My father told me that his brother was taken by this creature a few years back, it only comes out once every years, taking a single person from a few cities around the country, I hear, and I can attest to this, when it does come out, the night gets noisy, it keeps making the same noise over and over again as it flies just barely above the trees!" next, he approached a young woman, who was very enthusiastic about this abductor of people.

"And what noise does it make?" he asked, expecting a precise answer.

"It yells: Ah-ool! Ah-ool! All night long, I heard it twice in my life, let me tell you, I was not very confident those nights! Ahah"

The odd one went away, and Loimos felt a hand grasping his shoulder.