CHAPTER 1373: KEEP IT FOR A WHILE

---Sea of Trees---

“You want to keep Diromold a little longer? I don't really mind,” Evee said, chatting with Joannia. She was sitting on the veranda of their temporary camp, with a view over the vast forest at the foot of the massif.

In the process of repairing and upgrading the undead Koor Worm Evee had assimilated into her Hades, they had come to know each other better. Usually, they spoke about the various improvements and Joannia's progress.

Today, she asked if she would be allowed to take Diromold with her when she went to the College of Magic. Evee had already given her the right to command the almost legendary undead, since she would not have been able to work on it otherwise.

“Thank you, but are you sure? I meant to ask earlier, but what is going on on your side?” They had not been talking for long, but it was enough for Joannia to have a look at the scene behind Evee, where a giant, nine-headed, undead hydra was carpeting the lush forests in toxic green mists.

“Oh, we were attacked by a bunch of treants. Nothing big,” Evee downplayed the mountains of broken and charred tree corpses that were piling up below their camp, just out of sight for Joannia to see the full extent of the attack.

“To think they actually ambushed us. Fucking treants,” Alison commented, sitting down beside Evee. Although it was not the Hangingtree, the alchemist had not expected any kind of tree to ambush them, like at all. She lacked the extensive knowledge of fantasy and pop culture like Seth, who knew that anything could be a mimic and any tree could be a treant.

“If it's nothing, why is Torrent going crazy in the background?” Joannia asked about the undead Hydra's actions. Evee had renamed the hydra, as she didn't quite like its previous name. As Heads was already taken, she chose a more modern name, inspired by torrent websites of the past.

“Torrent is just making herself at home,” Evee said with a shrug. It was in the nature of Hydra to settle in big, toxic swamps, and when there was no swamp, or it was not toxic, they would terraform it. Not only did Torrent feel calmer that way, but it was also a good defense against treants and other forest creatures.

“Oh, I see. Well, I don't want to take up any more of your time. Have fun on your mission going forward,” Joannia ended their conversation. They all said their goodbyes and ended the call. With the call over, Alison turned to Evee.

“How are the scouts doing?” she asked the necromancer. To find and potentially harvest useful herbs without endangering themselves, they had sent Evee's undead into the forest, instead of scout golems, who would have needed constant supervision for the same task.

Eve had sent out a horde of undead a day ago, but there had been no updates on any really precious herbs so far. Some undead made it back with a bunch of uncommon plants, maybe a rare herb here and there, but nothing to write home about. Evee gave her an awkward smile.

“Nothing really new. The forest is more dangerous than we thought. Yesterday I already lost any golem below Lv.50 I sent in, despite barely getting deeper inside. Now, I'm already starting to lose contact with some of my lv.60s and lv.70s. Still, no message about a herb that would need our attention,” she said with a shrug.

Alison leaned back on her chair, slightly disappointed. She had been looking forward to a paradise for alchemists, with rare and epic herbs growing left and right wherever they went. Of course, there was a little chance that the undead were unable to recognize the good stuff, but the chance was low.

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Even if they didn't know what plant it was, the undead could identify the living by their aura and life force. If they came across exceptional plants, they were supposed to call. Anything else, they could harvest themselves.

Although their search for ingredients didn't bear immediate fruit, at least one of their main objectives had been fulfilled on the first day. It was not hard to find the seeds of the quick-growing trees. The forest floors were literally littered with them. Especially the edge, since this was a place where they could hardly take root.

Since they had nothing to do until the undead gave feedback, Alison, Evee, and everyone else were simply watching the hydra dissolve the nearby forest into a toxic sludge, or ...something else to pass time. Jess and James only occasionally joined them on the porch.

“Oh?” Evee suddenly exclaimed a few hours later. The faces of the others sitting around her lit up. Was there finally a reason to get moving? Seeing them perk up, Evee gave an apologetic smile.

“Sorry to get you excited, it's just that I lost one of the undead Spatia soldiers right now. It's the first lv.80 undead I lost and it simply vanished without a fight,” she explained her reaction. Many of the undead she sent into the forest were the expendable high zombies she had taken over after the battle of Delta. She had split Natina's forces with Haa'Skon.

“Wait, you just lost an undead in the 80s without as much as a warning?” Edward asked, more surprised by that than if they found a magic herb. Although they were expendables, they were still undead forces left by the Chosen of Kali. They were actually quite proficient in battle, for one of them to just vanish...

“We knew these forests were dangerous. Look at the number of treants that suddenly came out like flies when a bait was dangling in front of their nose. Seth also said to be extremely careful,” Evee argued back.

“Yeah, but the last time Seth was somewhere in these woods, he was like lv.40 or something. I just didn't think there would be anything of that caliber this close to the edge,” Edward mumbled as an answer.

“You forget that Seth always wore superior equipment,” Bulko commented, sharing his knowledge as one of the two who knew Seth the longest in their current group. “When he says it's dangerous, it is better to listen.”

“...I guess you are right. My fault,” Edward said quietly.

“So, how far did that zombie get before you lost contact?” Alison changed the subject. Evee stared into the emptiness before answering.

“I guess its presence vanished roughly 200 kilometers directly east from here...” the necromancer estimated the distance. 200 kilometers was neither far nor close. Since they were looking for plants, the zombies were not too fast. Still, considering the size of the forest, that was still the edge.

Would the lv.80 undead even manage to get far enough into the forest to find anything? Evee's estimate made some of them doubtful when Evee let out another surprised sound.

“Did another one die?” Lyxiss asked, eager for something to drive away the boredom.

“Nope, we got a hit! The zombie was on the way back when he found it.” Evee revealed with a wide grin.

“What is it? What is it?” Alison asked excitedly. Things finally started moving.

“Give me a moment, I'm checking right now,” Evee said and started sharing vision with the undead that just signaled to have found something. When the picture became clearer, as clear as a pair of rotten eyes could perceive, she saw a field of white flowers with violet stems.

The zombie and the field were standing in the twilight of a steep canyon, like a crack in a giant boulder. The dim lighting allowed the flowers to glow in a soft white light. It was obvious that they were no ordinary flowers. However... those were just uncommon .

The undead were enough to take samples of these kinds of herbs. The reason the undead had signaled back was the massive but unassuming brown bulb with a couple of stems of dark green leaves on top. It was growing in the shadow of the rock wall.

Epic

A plant that can reach sentience upon blooming, turning into a powerful forest sage. Potions and Extracts of this plant have strong effects on intelligence, mana, willpower, and magic multipliers.