Qu didn't even have to take extra efforts to watch the Tower during the night. His dutiful nature made the group feel well taken care of, they were able to get plenty of sleep.
It had been quite a while since Wu Hai had slept in a human body. Pushing himself every day had tempered his body religiously. The development of his upper body having taken significant stride into adulthood. It seemed like everyday he was a bit more of an Adult. He worked hard to make his way across the Continent and into the Eastern Plains. Rarely had he taken the time to examine himself. It was already obscure to change bodies at all but Wu Hai had been changing bodies on a regular basis. It was obvious that his grace had gone through changes and it was all for the better. The many transformations left him with an appreciation for identity.
Very quickly it was time to leave, the journey had to continue.
"The Eastern Plains are still a ways off," Wu Hai gathered the group, shrunk the pagoda and asked what they wanted to build. "Another Garden?"
"I like Gardens" Khan Ni put her thoughts into it while she jumped up and down. It was her favorite thing to leave behind as they traveled.
"HOT SPRING! HOT SPRING!" The Cheng Brothers were calling out in unison, apparently they had been looking forward to making one.
It wasn't large but there wasn't a nearby heat source. Wu Hai had to roll a few times to get the power of fire and it was a demon transformation, so he didn't keep it long. Working with the Twins to find a deep water source, they finally managed a workable Hot Springs.
Although, it would not be much a Hot Spring but a Natural Spring when they left.
Stretching out in the water was nice, Khan Ni wore a bathing outfit and joined the rest of the group. The Spring was isolated, it was thirty foot square and about ten feet at one end.
The Spring was big enough for Darkwing. He laid there, floating in the steam.
Clearing up debris and readying for travel, they all felt refreshed but the day had passed into the afternoon. Reluctant to rush the group off into the evening, Wu Hai decided to pull the Pagoda back out and made sure not to crush the new addition to the landscape. He was careful.
Rushing inside to drink, the Brothers carried Khan Ni while the Jiao and Darkwing followed behind. They were taking the night off, officially. The Cheng Brothers and Khan Ni were extremely cheerful as they drank until the nights end, the Tower echoed with laughter.
Early in the morning, they all set out on the journey. The celebrating from the night before left them all feeling very vibrant and alive. It was good to take some time off, everyone put their best effort forward and flew in formation.
Darkwing seemed to get bigger and faster, the Cheng Brothers had a harder time keeping up with his pace.
It wasn't until they saw creepy cultist buildings that were swarming with undead, that they stopped. It was good experience, fighting off the hordes of evil seemed like a good goal for his coming of age quest. Wu Hai asked the others, they agreed to come along. Undead were feared by most races, their infectious spreading made them a viable target for extermination by all who came upon them.
Approaching a door through the shadows, they saw an opening and ran inside.
There were corpses of adventurers cast about like leaves in the forest. Bashing into the doorway and crushing many fallen skeletons, the group found themselves with an easy time in the beginning. There were no discussions in the distance, no rattling of bones. The inside of the building was extremely quiet and the silence sent chills up Khan Ni's back.
It didn't take long for the situation to turn upside down, after reaching the second floor of the building, there were many Lesser Undead packed densely into several of the rooms.
The Jiao kept to a small size but its breath was devastating to the Lesser Undead like Skeletons. The Golden light of its breath was like acid on their bodies.
'Wue Hoo Wue Whirbbbble Wirbbbble' Khan Ni produced a sound to call out for the Leopard Jiao and as usual, the Jiao followed Khan Ni as if it had always belong to her. Shrinking to pocket size, the Jiao laid on her neck and watched the group fight the Undead.
The Cheng Brothers had both their fighting spirits raised from the journey, being able to produce weapons on demand was more fun than they ever thought possible. When they chose their abilities, both of them gained the power of Metal. Crushing enemies to death was great stress relief. It didn't take very long till both of them saw yet another golden Light surrounding their bodies. Wu Hai was first and then it was Cheng Yu.
Both of them felt reinvigorated, a sign of development from the Gods, a endowment, an acknowledgement of their advancement into a stronger, better version of themselves.
'Level ups?' The term rattled around in Wu Hai's head. He tried to grasp at the light and then it disappeared like a lie. There were still many things he didn't know about the Golden Light but he was never going to let it go.
"Not bad, we should allow them to come to us. If we venture too far it will be complicated. We'll find ourselves blocked in and tire out." Wu Hai gave a few orders to the group and everybody took positions.
"Fire from a distance," Wu Hai looked at the Cheng Brothers and cast the dice. He rolled 'Ice, Stars, Combat, Elemental, Small' it was a bad choice for the situation, he had to continue to throw the dice or perish. He didn't know how to fight properly with Ethereality, there were too many variables, he needed fire.
There were moans coming down the corridor and approaching Undead.
Reading the Gygax off in his head, Wu Hai saw another problem.
'Earth, Darkness, Downpour, Vishnan, Large' The transformation was large, the air in the tomb-like dungeon was dry and filled with bone dust. Wu Hai could hardly breathe as an amphibious being, he had to try again.
Khan Ni saw that Wu Hai was having trouble and doubled down with rapid shots from her bow, her reward from the Tower was the only reward they could use during a battle. It was proving effective but more of the Undead were coming as a result of the noise and disturbance.
'Fire, Metal, Wave, Elemental, Large,' Reading them off in his head once more, Wu Hai cheered inside.
"Now this is more like it!" Scooping the dice back up with a wave of his hand, Wu Hai grabbed the Weapon from his back in the same motion and started threw a Lava Tsunami at the Undead in masse. The crushing wave pushed them back and destroyed a lot of the bodies, loot, artifacts in hallway in front of them.
They had finally gotten somewhere that monsters were pouring it.
Wu Hai wanted to have adventure, not a warm bed and a hot meal with occasional entertainment. He wanted to complete his quest and return home in victory. There was nothing greater than accomplishment with your own hands and coming home an adult, one that had successfully completed the rights to adulthood, was the first step.
Defeating foe after foe, Khan Ni's attitude had changed recently and for the better. She was very good in battle already but before, she had always hesitated. When it was not against a living being, she had no mercy and would mow down undead like grass. It made a lot of her pain disappear, her eyes grew wider and she could see herself growing stronger.
'Zadk!' The sound of metal striking bone could be heard, another skeleton destroyed by Cheng Mu.
'Zadk, zadk, zadk,' the Brothers traded places during their strikes, it started to sound like a grinding machine.
.. Half an hour later …
Each time their bodies glowed, all of them experienced significant improvements in their conditions and ability to control their actions. The marked changes in their strengths showed greatly on the battlefield, enemies fell quicker. It made little sense to the group but they attributed it to the will of the Gods, a blessing from the Guardians upon their lives. Training rarely yielded such results and they had progressed significantly.
The pace they were growing outstripped all of the battles they had seen so far. In fact, they had spent so much time doing other things, that they never even considered going out to slaughter.
It had been Khan Ni that stopped them from hunting beasts in the wilderness when it wasn't for a reason. Now, with everyone on a common goal of growing stronger, no one uttered a word about stopping.
"I wonder what is up in the distance, we've been crushing these things like maggots for about an hour now, I know if we keep this up till nightfall that we will be too slow to continue." Wu Hai smiled at his progress. "We should take a break."
"Its a bit scary that we can grow like this." She hacked down another skeleton and said, "I can see why Humans hunt so much." Khan Ni started to bite her tongue but the words had already escaped her mouth.
Dashing across the room to scout the corridor ahead, Khan Ni quickly returned.
"There are at least fifteen rooms in that hallway" Pulling her bow, she took down a few loose skeletons that were lingering near the Twin's wings. "Pay more attention, these undead are too weak to allow such foolishness, don't become absentminded."
"Who did you call Foolishness!" Like a child, Cheng Mu shouted outrageously, he even missed the point and word. Both Brothers furled their wings out and kept bashing corpses. They got faster and faster, refusing to take the insult.
"Standing in a river of your enemies blood sounds great and all, in conversation but when its mixed with brain matter and bile, guts and mashed monster, you really need to try to watch your step better." Opening up his mouth to lighten the mood, Wu Hai certainly got them all to change the conversation. Scanning around, he saw a bunch of loose items and placed them into the Crusher's storage.
"Pull back, I'm going to incinerate the room and we can start over. The bodies are just too many. Look, the corpses are almost touching the ceiling." He yanked on the Twin's wings, "Pull Back!"
Wu Hai gave another order and everyone ran back to the entryway.
Turning around, a wall of molten rock slowly scooped up the corpses and crashed into the adjacent wall. He watched them burn into nothingness, smaller items that were previously undamaged by the molten rock glittered brilliantly. There were hundreds of such rocks laying around. Waving his hand, Wu Hai felt like a bandit and collected everything that remained.
Small blistering hot metals and crystals lined the space where the undead had vanished.
The group pushed down the Hallway, it was time to check exactly what was deeper. The horde of Undead seemed like it was never ending, there was plenty to fight and the Brothers had to stay away from the fire.
Molten rock was overwhelming for the majority of items, almost everything it touched was incinerated and there was no battle loot. The group chose to have Wu Hai use regular fire instead and make traps with the molten rock as a deterrent for bigger prey.
They focused on getting every ounce of Treasure from the infested Tomb. For hours they had already been bashing their way through the bodies of the fallen, yet, more arrived and in ever increasing number.
"Keep watch." Khan Ni pointed to the Twins. "Each of us can make traps with our abilities, I think we should alternate the three that go in and the one who guards the door, does that seem fair?"
Cheng Mu wanted to sound smarter but she actually gave a really good idea.
"Agreed"... The decision was unanimous.
Kicking down the door, a giant, rotten, fat mountain of an Undead exited a pod in the back of the room. The Fluid drained out and filled the floor basin. As it screamed in horror, it seemed to scream in pleasure. Then, it started to swing its arms and rushed toward the group.