I really didn't expect to have to bandage a corpse, after Raven and Mia bandaged the red sparrow's body and Taric poured his elemental energy into the fabric's rune arrangements causing them to change color from silver to gold. Both the material and the rune arrangement used in this fabric is really amazing the ability to absorb different types of elemental energy to trap others and amazing, I'm surprised that the runemaster who created it single-handedly didn't earn the grandmaster title.
But it seems that unfortunately for him the strongest fabric he has been able to manufacture is not much better than what is being used by us today, it seems that because there was no way to improve the level of the insulating fabric it did not deserve to be considered. a great master. Particularly I think this is very wrong, just because his really revolutionary invention can't be applied to very strong beings doesn't make his discovery any less important.
The cost of this scroll, both in terms of materials and time spent to make the runic arrangements on the fabric, is low for the effect it has.
I accompanied Raven to the group's mounts to bring them to the settlement, surprised to find that most of them were carrying several yards of rune cloth.
Upon returning to the settlement, I was told to pack up what was left of the undead that were killed by Milena and Taric in the cabin, so that Volkan would be able to remove all the materials and remains of bodies buried under the house. When I told Raven what I found buried in the house, she was genuinely surprised, but not confused as I was when I realized what was buried there.
It made perfect sense to her for the sparrow to do that.
"He made that resource 'farm' under the house to have both more food for his undead and to cultivate the materials of the element of death, it may seem strange from our point of view, but the materials of the element of death that are used by necromancers are cultivated slightly differently."
"Certain paths that one can choose to develop like the path of necromancy have ended up creating diverse processes through the ages to modify natural resources to better match their way of cultivating their power."
"Necromancers not only engage with the remains but a death element material like roots or even minerals can be baptized through exposure to dead bodies. Also, to those who like to dive or feed depending on what kind of natural resources they are with fresh blood or dead blood, each of them can transform the material attribute."
"It's not exactly a method of refinement but more something close to changing or adding a property to the material, there are plants that don't even need to be of the death attribute to be modified by being planted in a dead body. In fact, I've already encountered a literal garden of dead bodies that served as vases for various magical herbs, really disturbing even if not a part of the garden had blood or references to violence and brutality."
"Okay, really fun learning about how necromancers farm resources, but what are we going to do with the materials inside the house?"
"Collect them all in order to verify their identity and nature, those that have already been turned for the use of a necromancer will be destroyed right here, the rest will be cataloged and handed over to the realm. Don't even think about picking up any items during this quest, Wolf, because of the possible association of the red sparrow with a master necromancer, the report of this quest and the recovered items will belong to the realm, but it is necessary that at least two temples verify the result. of this mission."
"Won't that make the identity of the unit's members known to a lot of people?"
"No, a very strict protocol that will protect us, but to enjoy that protection I will have to undergo a ritual of truth throughout the realm. After that, apart from the two people who received my real report, they handled the rest, for all this to work out, it's essential that the rules are followed to the letter. He understood?"
"Yes, I understood. I hope not even a dangerous item buried there."
"You're thinking the wrong way, the best outcome is having really macabre and rare items in there. The more lucrative the materials found there, the greater the security rank of the realm to keep this mission a secret."
This really is a very different way of looking at reality, but I can't find an obvious flaw in Raven's logic, even if it pisses off the one who financed the red sparrow even more, the chance he'll get away from us would only go down.
Upon arriving at the hut, it didn't take me long to finish tending to the undead bodies here, as the only real body in the hut is the lich's body and he was missing his head. After wrapping it up and tossing what was left of the melted armor out of the house, I went to find Volkan to tell him to start excavating the house.
Volkan was very happy when I called him, he basically runs away leaving Milena behind. The two were mummifying the body of the giant night devourer, at the end of the fight he was almost four meters tall and had a very deformed body.
It didn't take much thought to figure out why Volkan was so happy, even though I was still far from what was left of the undead I smelled a horrible smell. Something that was sweated into making this undead really quickly rotted away, does he have poison inside his body?
Some venomous beasts give off horrible smells when their venom spreads through their body after they die brutally. Moving quickly away from a very annoyed Milena to be alone with this smelly corpse, I try to catch up with Volkan who was already far away, for a mage he would run really fast, but I was still able to catch up to him before he got to the house.
"The smell was bad but it wasn't that bad, why are you running so hard, Terra?"
"The bad smell is the least problem with being around that dead body, Lobo. To something really bad with that corpse, its scent is extremely noxious and it didn't even use a poison attack during combat."
"How was the fight against that night devourer?"
"Nothing too special, the undead were strong and big, but luckily for us he wasn't that smart or fast which is a bit unusual for this kind of undead. As Raven said before the quest the devourers are very tricky enemies to face, but for that brainless giant it wasn't that hard, I had to break at the end so I could take advantage of his body's weakness."
"What weakness?"
"The bigger he got, the slower his movement speed, but that was just the most apparent. I think the bigger his body was, the dumber and clumsier he was, I don't know what kind of modification was done on him or what kind of night eater he is, but I know it was a wrong choice."
"But is it his physical strength?"
"Very big, but if she is not able to hit her enemy, she is useless after all. The first night predator to die was much more dangerous, had he not been the target of the ambush our group would have had trouble defeating him."
"What made him look so dangerous?"
"Wings, that thing had two pairs of wings and a stinging tail that probably contains a really tricky venom. But it was split in two before it could take off, the defense of neither of the two was abnormal which ended up making our mission much easier."
"But our fight didn't even come close to the confusion that was on the captain's side. That damn necromancer who was supposed to be an academic turned into a nearby battle mage, I saw it from afar for obvious reasons, the death element territory he released from his body made the death mage leading the cultists caravan during the last mission look like a child."
"It was at least three times the amount of elemental energy, the area where they were fighting was completely dead. Anything that survived there is dead now and all the land is contaminated, I particularly think we should harvest the land near where the necromancer died and sell it as death element level three material to grow death element plants to many of them that need to be plants in soil of that quality."
"That may be true, but it's not us who decide that, it's those who will come here to purify the settlement. They will collect whatever they find useful and purify the rest, but even after doing all this I doubt anyone will live here again in the near future, the houses are basically destroyed and the ground will be depleted only the settlement well is in good conditions when you ignore the fact that being someone with a green core or below drinking that water means being poisonous."
"We arrived, there are many items to be excavated, but I think the remains of the dead bodies you can already throw aside to be destroyed."
"I know, but it's really sad that I can't profit from any of this mission. Who would have thought that someone called the red sparrow would be so troublesome."
"He had the word red in his name, I doubt a pacifist would use the color reminiscent of blood in his name."
"Good point."