Wilona closed the lid of her jar as she finished her lunch. She couldn't wait to eat something other than a fish in the near future. It'll only take what? Another day before the town can start trading again? The zombies that she threw at the outskirts of the town in search of bandits had come back with more than 5 people.

  That amount was shockingly enough to make Rottie evolve? She wasn't sure what he meant by it honestly. She does know that the dungeon core evolved after killing those 5 men however, and she wasn't going to lie, seeing those bandits get mauled by dozens of zombies and scream themselves hoarse felt pretty gratifying. She can see why some cops are trigger-happy now.

  Besides that, Rottie has also used his undead labor force to essentially build most of the bridge in a single morning. She's flown towards the town earlier and saw that a part of it was already touching the edge of the bog. It was no more than two logs stabbed into the ground for now, but regardless of that fact, Wilona wouldn't deny that it was a good show of progress.

  Things moved fast when the ones working are undead creatures with no will of their own. In a sense, it's like an automated factory made out of rotting corpses.

  There's a fucked up joke in there somewhere. Wilona could tell.

  It was at the tip of her tongue too...

  "Things have been going well huh?" Wilona looked at the crow perched on her shoulder. Unlike the last one, this little avian got boosted by Rottie so that it won't decompose, he said something about finding hosts being tiring but all Wilona heard was that he wanted to talk to her at all times. "I mean, this took what? A few hours?"

  "Do take note that it is not reinforced. It is, at best, made of wood and tied with reeds. It is not strong, fundamentally speaking, and a single storm would blow it away." Rottie rebuked, ever the pessimist. This guy.

  "Stop being so negative," Wilona rolled her eyes, "it won't hurt to think that the bridge looks cool as fuck!"

  "Not my choice of words, but sure. It is pretty good." Nodded the crow, it looked at the bridge with bloodshot eyes and sighed. "Some parts of it are unstable, and I assume the acidity within the water would only make things worse over time."

  And... He was back to being pessimistic.

  "I can walk on it though?" Wilona flew to the bridge and physically made an example for emphasis. She even jumped. Nothing happened. "Safe."

  "And that's a good thing." Nodded Rottie, the crow left her shoulder to peek at a rotting part of one of the beams. He did it until a large worm fell out of the wood. "And now we're dealing with parasites. It hasn't even been that long!"

  Wilona crushed it, she casually shrugged. "It could have been there from the start!" She said full of optimism, "good for you for noticing it right?!"

  This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  "No, it wasn't." The crow shook his head, he then looked at the work in disgust. "Just my luck to deal with pulp worms. If you have any books, ensure that nothing of this sort finds its way there. Nasty little critters, these things."

  "Ya okay," Wilona gave the crow a thumbs up. Even the dungeon knew more than her huh? And Rottie has been in this bog all his life. Something clicked in Wilona's head, "wait, you have to deal with these things on a daily basis right?" She rubbed what's left of her worm with the face of her boots, "since you're a tree and all?"

  "Yes." Rottie confirmed. "Though I may seem immune to such things, I am, in fact, not. Only in the later stages of my life will I reach such a state."

  "Huh." Now Wilona can understand why he's so hung up on the squiggly thing.

  "Aren't you perturbed by this thing?" Rottie gave her a strange look, "aren't women supposed to be afraid of critters? I expected you to start screeching."

  "Eh, that's not for me." Wilona shook her head, does this bird seriously think she's some princess to be rescued? "I've never been afraid of bugs."

  "That's a shock to me," muttered the avian. He shook his head, "regardless, I do believe it's time for us to move on. I'm sure the other parts of the bridge need supervising, yes?"

  "Probably." Wilona shrugged but flew alongside Rottie as he took off. They stopped around the halfway point of the bridge, where zombies were stacking wood between the support beams and then stacking more wood on top of those, this time linearly to form the bridge's floor.

  To top it off, they add trees cut in half to make a flat surface and then ensure they stay in place using some kind of mud and peat mixture. Last but not least, they tie everything together using dried reeds.

  "That's a lot of work for a bridge." Wilona muttered as the zombies completed a single section. Which, by the way, is like, 2 steps in total. "Now I'm just shocked you managed to get this far in just a single morning."

  "I have plenty of spare workers." Just as Rottie finished saying that, a zombie to Wilona's side collapsed. "One less I guess, but its mass will serve me well."

  "They're carrying it to your tree?" Wilona commented on what a pair of shield-carrying zombies are doing. "To what, turn into another undead?"

  "Yes. One of my more powerful ones in fact."

  "So wait, you're telling me not only are you building a bridge, but you're also getting an army?" Wilona blinked, holy shit. And this is happening under her nose? "Why didn't you tell me?"

  "I didn't feel the need to," the crow somehow managed to shrug. "And I would have been more comfortable if you didn't comment on what I was doing."

  "I wasn't going to do that." Wilona pouted.

  "Well, just so you know, I added over a dozen shield carriers into my ranks just this morning."

  "Oi! Then make them help out on the bridge!" Rottie went silent and stared at Wilona in a deadpan manner. "What?"

  "Regardless — I am feeling excited to add more corpses into my ranks. It seems that the guards we sent to patrol the town's outskirts have gotten aid from the locals, who are now acting as bait for the bandits." Rottie had a sense of a satisfied tone as he told Wilona this development. "You are correct, perhaps this is better for me in the long run."

  "Right?" Wilona didn't know that people would do that. At all. Were they fucking suicidal?! "I clearly gave you the idea of a lifetime, you better thank me."

  "I suppose so, yes." Rottie nodded, "thank you."

  "You know, just for that, I'm gonna upgrade your bridge and cause a bunch of stuff to grow from the dirt you use as glue to keep the bridge together." Wilona grinned, "and yes, I just thought about it just now."

  "So have I." Fuzz parroted. "It's a good idea."

  "You're giving me a big head," Wilona sighed, "I can only take so many compliments for my ideas in a single day before I decide to think that I'm a genius you know?"

  "Of course, I'll endeavor to insult you from now on."

  "That's not what I meant!"

  Rottie cawed in laughter.

  The two of them left the bridge after observing it for a little while longer. Their next destination, essentially, was the little ring of chairs surrounding a stage that Wilona suggested. The auditorium was only starting to get constructed for now, with Rottie having been the one to figure out how to make a circular row of chairs from scratch and Wilona having no idea how to build it, it was safe to say that the planning took all morning and a quarter of the afternoon to even finish.

  But now that it was, the auditorium is now on its way. Rottie actually added more peat and mud during its building process knowing that Wilona was going to re-inforce it once finished, vines and plants holding it together not only granted a sense of mystic aesthetic to the building, but also guaranteed protection from the elements for years to come.

  A series of arches were also built on top of the bridge, then after that roofs. It took two whole days to fully construct, all the while Wilona talked to the locals and learned magic as she waited. By the end of the second day, she was finally ready to grow the plants on top of the bridge and the end result was something straight out of a children's fairytale. Wilona also ensured that no lights got added to the bridge so that she can use bioluminescence to its fullest potential while walking across it.