Waking up early that morning, both Arcena and Megan seemed to be acting normal, it was almost like the argument from the night before didn't happen. They were both cooking breakfast, training, and even talking with each other, but deep down they both knew this was just a facade, and that their disagreement would have to wait until they arrived at Uhsa.
After resting for an hour, they decided to enter the forest of Astoricia, as the sun was above their head now, and the undead that infest the dark forest get weaker in sunlight. They followed the little sunlight that broke through the forest canopy, the reason they did this is to get rid of the undead power of resurrection, as normally you would use holy magic, but none of them knew how to use it as of now, so they would have to settle for leaving the corpses and skeletons in the sun.
Looking towards the dark unknown ahead, Arcena felt a shiver go down her back. She felt scared of what may lurk in the forest, she heard the rumors of the undead and how horrifying they looked, but she was not ready to see one in real life. Up ahead, slowly peering out of the bushy surroundings, came a boney hand with no flesh upon it, the bones had a dirtied white color to them due to how long they had been exposed to the elements, which also caused the bones to crack.
The hand slowly extended out into a similar textured boney arm, then the rest of the creature came out from the bush. It's chest was missing a few ribs, one of its legs was missing, and its skull was infested by centipedes and other bugs. Seeing the bugs crawl in and out of the skeleton's eye sockets, Arcena felt she was going to vomit, and so she decided to let Elden and Megan deal with it, and deal with it they did, as one swing of the flaming halberd caused the skeleton to shatter into bone fragments and dust.
Seeing the broken skeleton, Elden picked up what was left of the skeleton, and left them in the sun. Moving forward, the group didn't face many challenges, and even Arcena decided the undead would be good practice for her. Walking into the only clearing in the forest, the group had a feeling that something big was about to appear, but they didn't know from where.
Looking around, the only thing that seemed off was a tree in the middle of the clearing. The tree was so large that it broke through the forest canopy, from its branches hung skeletons with nooses around their necks, its bark looked gray and decaying, and the surrounding plants also looked grey and lifeless.
Suddenly the ground shook violently, from the dead soil erupted thousands of roots with blood red thorns laid on them. They lunged forward towards the group, but when the attack hit Elden, the roots just bounced off, but now the roots looked like they ran straight into a steel wall. The roots that went for the other group members were cut into tiny bits by Megan.
The undead tree slowly got up, revealing its arms and legs, well they were actually just roots, but they looked like and acted like arms and legs. Stomping its leg down with great force, the tree thought it would squash the stone statue in front of it, but instead it got a flaming halberd to the foot. Quickly, the tree absorbed oxygen from the air, causing the flame to go out, and creating a non-breathable zone in that spot.
The tree quickly backed away from Elden and sent in a poisonous cloud to block its retreat. Once far enough away, the tree slammed its hands into the ground, launching even more roots at them. Though, this time the roots held acid in it, meaning Megan couldn't cut them without launching deadly poison everywhere.
Despite all its attempts, the tree couldn't stop Elden from approaching. So, it decided to use its most powerful move, summoning magic into its hands, the tree slammed them into the ground again, but this time no roots emerged, but instead dead bodies of those who had long sense died. Their bodies were even more disturbing than the skeletons, as their rotted flesh peeled off their bones, their skin was infested with maggots, and even a few of them were missing body parts or eyes.
The now un-dead bodies slowly walked towards them, some had knights' armor while others wore bagged peasants clothing. Elden stepped forward to face them all head on, lifting its flaming halberd up, Elden swung down with great force, cutting an un-dead in half, its guts spilled onto the floor, but oddly it was not dead yet.
A few minutes of fighting later, Elden stood atop a mountain of rotting bodies, it had told Megan, Agro, and Arcena to go forward as it fought off the un-dead horde, as it couldn't be poisoned or infected by them or the tree. Speaking of which, the un-dead tree was now just bark, as Elden got annoyed about how the tree would back away and prolong the needless fight.
Walking away from the corpses, Elden didn't make it too far before it was shot by a magic arrow. Turning around, Elden found the deceased corpse of a wizard. Walking towards it, Elden grabbed the magic staff from the un-dead's hands, as well as a spell book, which it would give Arcena later.
It was night once again; Arcena was studying the magic staff and book Elden gave her. She learned by reading the spell book, that the author, Fred Winston, had a knack for taking notes and commenting on the subjects in the book. Still, Arcena wasn't complaining, the notes and comments left behind helped her learn faster than she would without them.
Arcena looked through the book and found a fire spell meant to start a fire tornado, casting the spell, Arcena had just realized what she had just done, but before she could stop herself, the house she was in burst into flames.