When he came back, caravan members were surprised and uneasy, that he could get so many new, and strong undead in such a short amount of time.
Dezen was aware of that, and to calm them down, and show that he is not going to attack them, but protect, he ordered 46 of the wendigos to stay outside, to guard the camp. He took the 47th inside, to be modified by his human undead, he himself was tired, thus he went to sleep.
During the next weeks, nothing extraordinary happened. Dezen was modifying the first wendigo with the help of his human undead, who was doing most of the work, since he doesn't need to sleep.
They soon reached their first destination, Harben.
Harben is one of the oldest cities, belonging to the Alerih kingdom, in which Dezen lives. Placed deep in the mountain chain, at first it was known from mining mineral resources, but now the mountains are empty. The only trace of the old times are densely packed mines, with high risk of collapsing. However, the city alone is not in such a bad state.
Majority of its population are soldiers with their families, since it is one of the more important fortresses. Like all people, they desire luxury goods, such as perfumes, salt and sugar. This desire lures merchants, who are ready to provide these products, for an appropriate price.
Currently, his hopes to start career as a merchant are deeply connected with this place, which will be the main outlet for his goods.
Of course, he is not naive, thinking he, with no experience, will win with old foxes. His confidence comes from his ability to quickly and safely transport goods to the Harben.
Contrary to appearances, it is difficult to get to the city. The reason for that are Rock Worms, magical beings of earth magic, living deep underground, creating countless tunnels, which destroy the roads from time to time. Furthermore, there are few widely known cases of unexplained deaths of people going to the Harben, what makes some of the merchants reluctant to go there.
Kingdom can't find the sources of deaths, but it can constantly make new routes to prevent citizens of Harben from becoming displeased. In this purpose, it is using tamed Mountain Makers, enormous magical creatures, which, as the name says, make mountains, by raising the terrain. They are also the reason why Rock Worms, aren't seen only as pests. Without them, Mountain Makers would make terrain constantly higher, what is not something beneficial, moving them wouldn't solve the problem, and killing them would be too great of a loss. The presence of both of the races creates sort of a balance, keeping this area in a wanted state.
However, it must be admitted, that Rock Worms are still the source of calamities.
Going back, Dezen's confidence comes from the fact that he can use space magic. For normal merchants it is impossible to do the same, thus he will have enormous advantage over them. He just needs to get permission and enchanted item allowing to teleport near Harben - cities and their surroundings are covered with anti-space magic fields.
Before the caravan entered the mountains, they stopped at a military post.
The main purpose of this building is to inform people about collapsings of underground mines and tunnels of Rock Worms, that they know will happen and where. Besides this, soldiers have to do other normal tasks, such as using enchanted items to see if there is any criminal nearby, and checking caravans, whether they have illegal substances.
The latter, and a set of other procedures, were done to the caravan.
As expected, they found nothing, and soon Dezen was riding on one of his undead wolves, at the front of the caravan, appreciating the beauty of this place.
Despite spending the past weeks without any serious dangers, except that strange fog, Dezen didn't let his guard off. Instead, his paranoia made him even more vigilant. He was constantly using spells, to keep himself focused, and search for anything unusual, slowly destroying him.
Though he is aware that it is not healthy for him, Dezen would rather die because of it, than because he let himself relax.
However, even with paranoia, he couldn't stop himself from thinking about random things, from time to time. Most of them were legends about unexplained deaths, that happened at these mountains.
Some were about people, both lone wanderers and caravans, who disappeared, leaving only a few traces of clotted blood. Others were telling about people who disappeared, leaving only their belongings, damaged by something with big claws.
The most unsettling were legend of Blandear carriage. It was said that Blandear Merchant Company (one of the prominent companies of this country) owner, send his daughter to Harben for some reason. Even though she was escorted by 3 strong mages and had enchanted items protecting her, there were no traces of fight found. Only depressions in the road, which looked like they were made by wheels of the carriage, but without the carriage. Not that they could be part of any, as they were going few metres in the ground. Between them, in the ground, like placed there by space magic, the body of 11 years old girl in silver pyjamas was found. The fact that it belonged to the daughter, who was 19, makes it more disturbing, but the strangest fact is that it was confirmed by many great mages that it wasn't obtained by magic.
Thinking about him, gives Dezens chills, but it also makes him happy, that he didn't take Alex with him. Otherwise, he would be constantly worrying about him, unable to do his job properly.
This time, the caravan was moving slowly. Made up from large carriages, it could use only a few routes safely. Unluckily, all of them were relatively close to each other, and near them, the next collapsing of the ground is going to happen. Its scale is unknown, thus they have to wait until it happens, to choose the road that will remain untouched.
The route they are currently using is beautiful, but watching it quickly became boring, thus Dezen was looking in the sky, from time to time. Once he saw something flying, but he couldn't tell what it is, even with spells. A little curious, a little wary, that it could be something dangerous, he sent one of his undead birds at its direction.
After around a minute, he saw what it is, using Almost Like I Was. Annoyed by what he saw, Dezen cursed silently and told the caravan to stop.
The caravan overseer, who was sitting next to him, asked.
- Why you wanted us to stop?
He wasn't scared, or stressed, since Dezen didn't look like he saw something dangerous, more like he saw something problematic.
- Magical creature. Something strong and strange looking. We should wait a few minutes, and then go on.
Dezen didn't want to tell what it is, because he wanted to hunt it down by himself and turn into undead. And if the information spread, he surely would be overtaken by someone, since it was phoenix - magical creature worth fortune, both dead and alive. Thought, this one was strange, maybe sick or weak by nature, what lowers his value. Dezen could tell this because first, it looked like it didn't notice his undead bird, what would be a shame to every phoenix, second, his undead bird could get to him close enough, to see him clearly, without using spells designed for it.
For him, it wasn't something bad, rather something good. Weak or not, phoenix is still a phoenix, he can use him in his researches, and make him stronger, if there will be such need. Moreover, there are rumours that alive phoenixes are used to lengthen life. Dezen doesn't have any other way to check if they are real, except checking it by himself, though turning phoenix into undead may make it impossible.
Using undead bird, he was observing the phoenix, memorizing where he went, hoping it is the direction of his nest. Besides this, he could see more details of his unusual appearance. Phoenixes are covered with normal fire, their bodies, legs and feathers are red or orange, with entirely black eyes. However, this one was green, with a thick belt of brown flesh at the middle of his body, covering his whole head among the other things. Even fire had different colour. Only eyes were the same, as at the normal ones.