A New World, An Immersive Game Experience

After around ten minutes of waiting Kydone finally came back. Seeing her approach the others quickly moved slightly closer, all of them had been keeping an eye out for any wandering monsters that might betray their location.

"Kydone what have you found?" Evale asked as soon as Kydone was close enough to allow them to talk softly.

"Not good," Kydone replied, shaking her head as she tried to clear her thoughts. "There isn't just one higher undead, but rather three. Two of them are Tier 7 and the other is a Tier 5."

Hearing this everyone took a sharp intake of breath while being completely discouraged. Generally weaker undead couldn't pass Tier 4, and hence they were no problem for the group. Even if there were hundreds of them, it would just take everyone some more time to grind through them, especially with Katania's mass weakening of undead.

Higher undead were different though, they aren't just risen dead, but rather those who willingly became undead. Or in some cases pulled into undeath by far stronger undead, undead over Tier 8 or higher only.

"What types of undead are they?" Evale asked, not yet willing to retreat as they had yet to even enter the corrupted part of the forest. While they had found some signs in some plants, they hadn't been able to actually find the corrupted aura. Evale hoped to at least confirm what the corruption felt like, and what it did to them, before heading back to the fort.

"Well... One of the Tier 7's is a lich, while the other is a ghoul... The Tier 5 seemed to be a revenant, though I couldn't really tell much about it. It is clearly under the two Tier 7's command, as it is patrolling and ensure the other undead stay in order."

"How large is their horde?" Evale asked, shocked that different classes of higher undead were working together. It would have made sense if one was clearly the leader, as then the others were clearly being pressed into submission.

But this case seemed different and didn't sit right with her, she felt that either the lich or ghoul should be a variant, or that there was a mastermind in all this. All things that would lead to a great deal of trouble. The more she thought about it, the more she wanted to retreat. Their group would be hard-pressed to fight against these higher undead alone, not to mention their horde.

"I didn't even try to count, they are close to five hundred I would say." Hearing this Evale quickly decided that retreat was most certainly the only option. As such the group quickly started heading back in the way they had come from, hoping to circle around this horde that certainly was strange.

However, this seemed to not be uncommon at this point in the forest. After heading back a kilometer or so, they had started heading to another cabin that Thesolis knew of. This one was also guarded, though slightly less, still more than Evale was willing to risk.

On the third attempt, they found a group more acceptable, a single higher undead in command of around six hundred weaker undead. Upon hearing the report from Kydone, Evale felt they should at least try.  While six hundred weaker undead was certainly a great amount, it wasn't too much for their group. As long as the higher undead was taken out quickly, as such Evale first needed to know what type it was.

"What type of undead is leading this horde?" Evale asked before deciding anything.

"It is a revenant," Kydone replied, her fur standing on end as she thought back to when she had looked at it. "I recommend we retreat even if it is alone."

"Why?" Evale asked, she understood that a revenant was one of the strongest leaders undead could possibly have, but not why Kydone's fur was standing on end.

Revenants were almost the perfect commander for undead. They spread an aura of death that weakened anyone weaker than itself, while strengthening all the undead at the same time. This aura could be combated with divine magic though, hence Evale still felt it was their best option.

"It might be alone, but... Just looking at it sent chills down my spine." Kydone replied, not really knowing why she was so afraid. Yet the more she thought of facing this revenant, the more her instincts screamed at her to run.

Evale naturally didn't understand Kydone's fear, but she respected it. A large part of why Kydone was so great at stealth was due to her instinct. If it told her something was too dangerous, then one would be smart to heed its warning.

"Then..." Evale paused and started to contemplate. They could certainly sneak past instead of fighting, it was what they had originally planned. But due to the amount of undead wandering they had felt it wasn't feasible.

It would be too easy for them to be discovered and more enemies to surround them at that time, which would naturally lead to a dire fight. Getting past them would be even harder if the undead didn't stay bunched as they had been thus far. If they instead walked in ones or twos then their group would never manage to pass unnoticed.

Even if they headed back and all 22 of their complete party set out together, they might be able to press on here. However they certainly won't be able to press on for long, the same situation would quickly come about further in.

"Let's fall back to the cabin we slept at yesternight." Evale finally decided, knowing well that night was coming. Even at that cabin they had had to fight, but it had only been around thirty weaker undead, so it had not been a problem. With this decided though, the group quickly set out again.

Eldrian was left wondering just what the undead classifications were, and why the revenant seemed to cause Kydone to shiver in fear. He knew that Kydone was Tier 6, which caused him even more confusion.

He also realized that night was just around the corner, causing him some concern as he knew that it would likely enhance the undead. A small part of him was also worried that he couldn't exit the game yet, four days inside was definitely not going to be good for his body. Especially when he thought of how even now his avatar still felt slightly strange to him.

On the way back they fought through two groups of under twenty undead without much trouble, but before they reached the cabin Kydone popped out from the leaves to stop everyone.

"What's going on?" Evale asked in surprise upon seeing Kydone jump in front of them.

"We can't go to the same cabin." Kydone replied, "It seems that the undead knows our location, or at least where we had been. A revenant is waiting there with three hundred weaker undead."

Evale frowned upon hearing this, it certainly did not bode well for them. "What Tier is it?" She asked, thinking of just killing it before heading out to a different cabin. They certainly couldn't stay there if the undead knew of their position, but she hoped to do some damage to their stronger combatants.

A dead revenant would certainly be quite the blow to their forces, at least she felt so as they are normally extremely rare undead. It was already strange that they had encountered four in just one day.

"It is just Tier 6, but it gave me the same feeling." Kydone shivered slightly as she thought of it, "The feeling to run is certainly much weaker, but I can tell that there is something off with it."

Hearing this Katania suddenly thought of something, "Kydone, did the first revenant, the Tier 5, also give you a strange feeling?"

Upon hearing this Kydone nodded after some thought, "Yes, though it was basically nonexistent."

"That might be just because it is actually weaker than you. This one is at least around your level of strength, give or take some measure..." Katania paused before continuing, "Maybe they are how the corruption is spreading. While we haven't managed to actually analyze it, I believe the aura of a revenant should be similar to that of the encroaching. Many books mentioned its similarity to the aura of death that revenants spread around them."

"How would that be possible?" Evules asked, magic never having been his strong point. He generally only knew enough to manage to use his skills and spells. Granted this was far more than most others, but when grouped with others of his Tier, he was always reminded of his lacking quality in that area.

"Maybe the undead found a way to harness this power. If they set up an array similar to what we have in magic towers then it would certainly be possible to spread corruption such as this for massive distances."

"Do you think they can do that?" Evules asked in disbelief, the thought sending shivers down his spine, quite a long distance since it also went down his horse part.

"Normally no. You all know that undead generally don't mix with each other, so generally, they are limited in what they can do." Upon saying this everyone quickly agreed that seeing so many different higher undead together had been strange.

"So, you are saying them coming together might allow them to accomplish this," Evale asked, hoping that this wasn't possible. This would certainly cause massive trouble in trying to defend their borders if the undead could create an area to strengthen themselves and weaken others.

Undead were already a terrible race to face since each dead added to their numbers, adding this would make them one of the worst races to possibly face against. Only true devils and demons would still be worse at that point.

"Yes, it is most certainly possible. Revenants have the aura they need, liches the knowledge, ghouls the adaptability. Just these three classes will theoretically enable them to accomplish this. If they manage to create a draugr where they plan to do this, then it will certainly be nearly impossible to counter. Luckily that is highly unlikely."