Before going to the city, Dezen wants to do one more thing - test if undead can absorb mana from magical resources and if it changes them.
He could do this only with corpses of Royal ants, so during these 2 months, he tried to expand their colony, as much as he could. He even made queen of the Royal ants hatch another queen, but she is still too young to lay eggs.
The first test he made was with undead tree. For 3 days, he was giving it corpses of Royal ants, and ordered it, to "eat" them.
He was also regularly checking it, and ordered undead tree to inform him about any changes in his body.
After 3 days, the tree didn't undergo any bigger changes. Although it absorbed part of that enslavement mana, but it couldn't use it.
Seeing the result, Dezen started wondering if giving more corpses of enslavement ants will cause some changes, and whether he can use his own enslavement mana.
After thinking about it more deeply, Dezen decided that he will stop giving corpses of ants, and wait to see if that mana will leave undead tree. After it, he will try to give undead tree his own enslavement mana.
He will also give enslavement mana to one of his changed wolves. Thanks to it, he will check if he can give any mana he possesses to his undead, to change them, or if he had to give them magical resources with the same type of mana, before he can give his own.
After 3 days, mana in undead tree didn't disappear, thus this it is permanent, but meaningless change. However, giving enslavement mana to his undead wolves worked. Their bodies didn't change, but they gained enslavement abilities.
After testing them, Dezen found out that they can enslave not only insects, but also small mammals and reptiles.
Undead tree gained the same abilities, after being given enslavement mana too.
After creating these undead, he had 2 things to do.
The first was creating a spell speeding up this process. It would save his time, mana, and let him cultivate more as an enslavement mage.
The second, was naming them. That undead tree and 3 wolves he changed, are no longer the same race. Because of it, he decided to name them somehow. At first, he wanted to add "Royal" before "tree" and "wolf", because it started thanks to Royal ants, but Dezen didn't like it.
He then started thinking if it is proper to treat them as a new race, because they aren't living beings.
After thinking, Dezen decided to call them "enslavement undead".
Currently, he doesn't have anything to do, nor test in his plans, so he decided to go to the Aren, and try to work for Church of Alen.
He made 3 more enchanted items storing mana for Alex, revived the next undead wolf and set out.
While travelling, to pass the area with lava rivers, he used passage made by Church of Alen.
It was a giant, black bridge with fences being also decorations. He didn't know exactly how, but its builders added to this place spells protecting from heat, ash and even making the air in the surrounding area more clear.
Dezen stopped somewhere on this bridge, to appreciate the view. From curiosity, he used Better Sight and In Search Of Warmth, to try to find magical resources.
He didn't find any, but because of his encounter with phoenix, he wasn't too disappointed.
After a few more days of travelling, he finally reached the city.
From distance, he appreciated how beautiful it is.
Wall around the city are made from light gray stone, high for 20 meters, with many guard stations on it. In front of them, there are many enormous sculptures, which look like guards, protection literary every part of the walls.
The only exception were gates. They are 7 metres high, each with six sculptures looking like they are part of them.
Besides sculptures, the most eye-catching parts of the city was the castle with one giant tower, in the centre of it, and a huge blue barrier, starting at the top of said tower, and ends covering walls and sculptures.
To enter the Aren, he had to undergo a search, and identity check. It was needed to prevent criminals from entering the city.
After guard checked Dezen, he finally could see how Aren really looks like, and how it changed from the last time he was there.
All buildings here are made from stone. Just like in front of the walls, there are densely packed statues, placed between pedestrian paths and roads for carts, both made from stone.
Dezen can also see many old trees, some even growing into the buildings.
He assumed they were specially planted here in so big amounts, to be used by druids as a part of the city defence lines.
There is also a big difference between Aren and surrounding area, what is, that there are no snow, despite winter.
It also has constant temperature, which is around 20 degrees.
It all was something what Dezen remembers from his past visits. However, something changed. At the ends of the roads, he noticed black poles, spaced every 5 metres.
After asking the guards, he was told that they are part of the defence. If criminals get close to them, they will create barriers imprisoning them, or protecting citizens. They can also attack, and detect illegal items and substances, like drugs.
Hearing it, Dezen was amazed by the development of that place, and started wondering, how he could recreate defence of Aren, changing his house into fortress.
Pensive, he came to the closest building, belonging to the Church of Alen.
There, he told the priest that he wants to become a mercenary, and asked where he can accept assignments.
He quickly did what the priest told him, and soon could choose his first quest.
As he expected, there weren't many assignments. It was because church has many qualified mages working for it, and it won't rely on mercenaries like him, whose numbers are small.
The quest he chose requires killing sick deer. Disease that touched them isn't dangerous for humans, but they suffer a lot, and it can spread to other animals.
Dezen wondered if he can heal them, since church doesn't really want their death.
After asking, he was told that if he cures sick deer, he will be paid more, but they will have to send someone to check if he really did it.
Dezen was happy hearing it, and started planning how to use Fallen Disease on them.
He also asked about details of that sickness, to know how it affects them.