Chapter 2035: Entering the Wall
Potential grinding spots aside, Althea and Garan did reinforce the rest of the wall, at least the areas that seemed like it would break soon.
The current setup was only fun because the breach was small. It would be meaningless if the wall broke down any more that it already had.
One hundred meters long and ten meters high was too big for them to spend energy on right now. For the rest, if the plan to develop the place really pushed through, then they could bring in some construction materials.
By then, they would add some control even over the breach, so they could close it if they wanted to and open it up when they wanted to do an easy Undead hunt.
For Althea, an earth elementalist, and for Garan and Sinnan, who were metal elementalists, it was not too difficult. Today’s schedule was just to study the wall anyway, and they could get rest in the cave they found for tonight.
Althea carved grid lines along the walls, making them denser where the tension was high, like near the bottom. The location that needed to be repaired was the area around the breach, so they just worked on a few meters of that area.
The spacing of the carvings was not too dense since creating permanent metal was not easy. It was estimated that the two metal users would consume quite a bit of mana potion to complete even just this area.
After they placed the metals, Althea would cover the gaps with her abilities, and only then did they rest.
This way, even if they decided not to develop the place, the wall should last a few more years, and that was already a big enough contribution.
...
The next day, the group of four finally headed inside, with the two men carrying the women to save on energy.
To climb up the ten-meter wall wasn’t too difficult for the men. It wasn’t like it had anti-scaling features, so they could use their own strength.
The wall was built within a mountain pass, so the area right below the wall was narrow, making the undead particularly more creepy. This density was how they piled up so high in the first place.
"I wish we can just burn them..."
But they couldn’t.
Ironically, burning this amount of Undead while their cores were inside their bodies was akin to setting up micro-nuke. The radiation would also linger for a much longer time than it should, making things inconvenient for their mission.
At this, they decided to travel along the mountain face instead. The mountain was steep, but there were ledges. Except for Medusa, their current level, balance, and reflexes were enough for them to jump around at the side. Even if there weren’t enough ledges, they had their elements to create some.
The entire trip would’ve killed anyone with a fear of heights and a fear of zombies.
Sinnan, in particular, felt uncomfortable. It wasn’t that he was afraid of heights, but seeing so many Undead made his scalp crawl. This was the subject of nearly all horror stories growing up, after all.
The pass was surprisingly long, extending to a few kilometers. The number of undead had never diminished, and they ended up getting tired midway. After all, walking at an incline was much more tiring than walking on flat land, let alone near-vertical surfaces.
The steep mountainside with minimal stepping space was a very awkward place to get tired in.
In the end, they dug out an area with a relatively large ledge, making it big enough for several people to sit and lie in. This was already a few kilometers into this area. If they decided to develop this place, this could become a nice hiding spot.
As they sat, they couldn’t help but look at the bottom. The Undead remained dense there, walking around aimlessly.
Unlike those near the walls, these were far less aggressive and more passive.
"It might be because they are too far away from humans now," Medusa said. "They cannot detect them, so they are not stimulated."
They were tens of meters above ground and it seemed like they couldn’t detect them either. Medusa took out her notebook and wrote a few things. "It seems like their perception is only 2D..."
It might also be why they would never see an Undead tilt their heads along the z-axis.
While Medusa was busy scribbling in her notebook, muttering long sentences to herself, Althea and the others looked at the end of the canyon, which was still a kilometer or two away.
"Where do we go next?"
The Elysian Stone was said to be where the Undead was, but...where. Now that they were camping right above the Undead, they were not quite sure where to go to next.
Krhhhhh
While they chatted, the ’background music’ made by the Undead—the growls, growns, and skitters—echoed around them.
Medusa was the only one unaffected. When she wasn’t taking notes, she was taking photos with her phone. Medusa had solar panels and solar-powered chargers, so she didn’t worry about running out of battery.
They rested for an hour before moving forward, finally reaching the edge. There were slightly fewer Undead here, likely because they were more dispersed from here on out.
Most of the Undead that ventured deeper into the pass would likely stay there, as well. The Undead had mush for brains, after all, so they wouldn’t know how to ’get out’ on their own.
Althea and the group stared at the sight in front of them and were not quite sure where to start.
In front of them was a massive area of gorges, canyons, and drylands. Not counting the undead, it was a complete wasteland with no true living things.
"Is this really where the supposed ’stone of life’ should be?" Althea couldn’t help but ask in doubt. The Elysian Stone supposedly had a lot of vitality. This place was the opposite of that.
She turned to Sinnan.
When it was decided that they’d be heading into this area, Dune Town was tasked to find out as much as they could about the item. As such, Sinnan had done a lot of independent research on the subject.
Sinnan had confirmed Holt City’s data, i.e. the likelihood that the stone was here was very high.
The exact reason was unknown, but the probability was very high due to various things like records as well as interviewing very, very old people.
Facing the three gazes at him, Sinnan awkwardly rubbed his nose, feeling a little embarrassed at his lack of knowledge.
"It might be counterintuitive, but... what if the ’stone of life’ doesn’t give it out, but rather sucks out life from its surroundings instead?"
