To oversee the area surrounding his home, Dezen placed in one of the fortresses towers formations, that were designed for this. However, it had the flaw, that it could what is on the ground, not underground. To prevent situations, where appearance happens there, and he doesn't know about this, Dezen decided to create a group of creatures, which will be responsible for patrolling the ground. He didn't use undead for this, instead he used body magic and transformed nastecs - bugs he used to check if strong animals can become magical animals. He was keeping them to this day, so they could fuel his undead army, but now he had a better way to use them.
He tasked with this 2 of his undead humans, but instead of working together, they were supposed to modify nastecs in 2 different ways.
As for now, it was the last interesting thing Dezen did, and the only thing protecting him from being bored, was the natural pleasure of cultivating his soul. However, even this couldn't satisfy him forever, so he was impatiently waiting for a next appearance to happen, to gain something, but there was none. At least none he could see, because some of the appearances were unnoticeable, taking only light, air, or grass to this world.
But it is what happens in the area close to his home. All over the country, the caravans were encountering various monsters, causing them to travel less and less often. "Unluckily", Dezen's caravans met none of them, so he couldn't benefit from this. The good part was that with every day, his merchant company was getting more and more requests of signing contracts, foreshadowing his future wealth. Theoretically, he could even rise the prices, to earn off of this even more, but he is not a greedy fucker, and he is satisfied with what he earns now. He just has to create more caravans.
***
After over 2 and half a week's, the 2 undead humans ended modifying nastecs, and presented them to Dezen. The first made them look like polychaetes, with countless, little sharp legs, on their thick, and over 2 metres long bodies, covered with black-red armours.
The second made them look like octopuses, covered with a brown armour. Both their heads and tentacles were spike-ended.
Dezen was really curious how they move underground, but didn't doubt they can. A short presentation showed they do this easily, so Dezen accepted them as watchers of the underground, and help his undead with breeding more of them.
Not long after this happened, Dezen finally made the spell to turn his undead to magic types, using his own mana and not the one from magical resources. The best part was that every undead could use it by itself, since every undead has the ability to use any spell he knows if they have permission. Now, he only has to chose which undead will use which mana.
This pro
***
Over a week after, one of the Dezen's caravans found magical creatures. They weren't too strong, but it was still some kind of entertainment for Dezen, thus he teleported to them, even though his undead would handle them easily, let alone him.
The battle started and ended at the same time. Dezen appeared, immobilized all the creatures, which were birds, with telekinesis, and watched as they try to attack. Of course, they could do no harm to him, so he quickly put them in a cage, made for such occasions.
Then, Dezen used a searching spell, to see if there is something worth attention, before leaving, but instead of nothing, or something interesting, he saw as part of the space is being sucked, not too far from him. He didn't even try to investigate it, he just ran with his undead, assuming it is "appearance", but instead of taking something to his world, it was taking some from his world.
Around 2 kilometres from it, he stopped, checked it any of his undead is missing, and then tried to see the disappearance. When he did, Dezen could see nothing, thus he assumed it ended, but still didn't want to get close to it.
"Should I report it? It could be dangerous- no, I panick. If it ended, there is no threat. No need to tell anyone about that, or rather that it happened here. People should know that there is something opposite to the appearances, unless they focus so much on them, that they forget there is also a threat of the disappearances."
Dezen watched this place for a moment, before going back to his home. There, he was busy with making a new prison, one for flying magical creatures, where they can also reproduce.
Not long after he started, Alex came to Dezen, with news he wanted to tell.
- Dezen, can you talk now, or are you too busy?
- What is it?
- The kingdom and churches started giving tasks, to help other regions, that are more affected by appearances. They want mages to either kill, or catch the creatures, and hand them to them. Taking the beings, or their corpses, for yourself is forbidden, due to unknown dangers, what makes independent mercenaries and lodges angry. However, the kingdom and Church of Alen agreed to make an exception for you, since you provide them with undead, and they trust you.
For a few seconds, Dezen stood in one place without moving, thinking about this news. Then he said.
- Good that you told me. Thank you. Since there are very few appearances in this area, at least the one I could benefit from, it will be helpful. I guess they provide teleportation. And even if not, it is still good that they say where I can find creatures from appearances. I will send undead to do this.
Then, they started talking about organizational matters, before going back to their tasks.
***
To catch creatures from appearances, from another region, Dezen send 22 undead. They were:
- 10 undead wolves with changed shapes
- 4 undead wolves with changed shapes
- 6 undead wendigos
- Nanan
- Human undead
- Bugs and birds, which aren't counted, because they are used only for scouting
Of course, they won't be working all the time, without his supervision. Sometimes, like now at the begging, he will be controlling one of the undead, and personally commanding them. He also plans to create a spell which will let Alex also do this, so he will gain some battle experience.
After leaving the teleportation station, the undead lined up in a row, everyone except Dezen. This let the Church of Alen member who was waiting for him know which one he is controlling. The woman approached him, greeted, and started talking about the current situation of the region, also telling him where the most creatures from the appearances should be.
Dezen listened carefully, asked a few questions, and then left the church's outpost, starting the hunt.
To move faster, they all were using movement spells, but it didn't help them too much. During the first day, all they could find was a small part of the forest, that clearly didn't belong to this world, but had nothing special to offert. Dezen checked them 4 times, and couldn't sense any magic, he also destroyed few of them, but nothing happened. However, to be entirely sure it doesn't possess any threat, he killed a few bugs, revived them, left a special sign, and left there to watch this place. If anything unusual happens, they will go to the Church of Alen outpost, and warn them.
The next 3 days went similar to the first, with the difference that he met other mages. Something really happened the 5th day, when was sitting on the top of the tree, creating an enchanted item, and watching the area around.
The ground around 80 metres from him raised, and somehow the earth and plants disappeared, showimg the rock beneath them. Raising, they started forming giant ball, and more surprisingly, they came back to the previous shape, after some point.
It repeated a few times, and Dezen watched this with an open mouth, not believing in what he sees. After a minute, he sent some of his undead to check it, at the same time using searching spells, and sending undead, to inform the Church of Alen.
When the undead reached the strange stones, he controlled one of them, and tried to see what is inside, but none of the spells worked. He then considered trying to break it, but didn't even attempt. What was inside was clearly above his level, and the best thing he can do, is wait for someone stronger to come.
So he did, and while waiting, he started placing the formation that will isolate the area.