Wilona waved at Phocles, "Thanks for the help!" She put on her best grin. Who would have thought that some guy in the middle of nowhere knew so much about the world? "I'll go and check out the local bog now! See if there's actually anything wrong with it, yeah?"
Phocles hesitated but then he gave her a single nod, "Do it, I'm just gonna tell you to be careful." His grave warning was noted but how bad could it be? "There's something wrong in that place."
"Uhuh," Wilona's wave turned into a slow drawl, now she's just getting bored. "This isn't some horror movie, you know? Quit acting like it," seriously, the genre of this world is fantasy, not horror. "Next you're gonna tell me that there's a cabin in the middle of that swamp."
"There isn't," denied Phocles. See?! Fantasy. "But it's best that you don't take the dangers of the bog lightly, it's not every day that areas get an ominous feel. I pray that you come back with good results however, so I am going to wish you luck."
"Results huh?.." Wilona turned away. She heard the door close behind her just as she opened her system.
She got a new quest while talking to Phocles and this one actually sounded interesting. Like, helping out a bunch of beavers is cool and all, but the quest didn't specify that she had to kill Ogres too, so she kinda just ignored it and assumed that it isn't a big deal. This one? The title alone had a tone of eeriness to it. It also implied that there's something more going on behind the scenes.
[New Quest! - Is it really just a bog?]
[Quest Type: Influence]
[Rewards: Unsinking Boots]
["Well would you look at that! There's a mystery to be solved surrounding a town local to Lower Reedham! Who would have thought that such a humble settlement would hide secrets? It's up to you to figure out what's going on and solve this once and for all! The people will thank you for it!"]
The rewards aside, the fact that something is actually happening was kind of interesting! Like, it's not every day she gets to play detective and solve mysteries. Maybe she'll even get a profession for doing it! Wilona began to mutter, "Wonder why I'm not getting any more of the stuff? Is there a limit to my professions or something?"
She hoped not. Otherwise it's clear that she wasted all her available slots on some stupid ones. She shook her head, "Seriously, why didn't I get a warning beforehand? That's so annoying..."
To get it off her mind, Wilona focused entirely on the task ahead of her. The fact of the matter is, the bog isn't normal—so what does that mean? She needed to solve it!
... Now she's just going around in circles.
"Actions, I need to take actions," Wilona said to herself in resolution as she sped up, "Who cares if I hit the limit of how many professions I can get? I didn't rely on them so far so who cares!"
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She did. "Ugh!"
Wilona stopped flying. That groan didn't come from her, or at least she hoped not. It sounded far too coarse and the one who made it clearly hasn't been able to drink water for a while now. That, or they need to see a doctor and get their throat checked.
She looked below her. The bog was as empty as it was the last time she checked. And she would have noticed if there was something moving around underneath this thing...
"Oh," Wilona's eyes widened, "Zombies? Seriously?"
The thing before her is a walking corpse shambling above the peat. It somehow managed to crush the carpet moss with its rotting feet, and with pieces of its legs missing. The zombie's face was unrecognizable, large portions of it have long since rotted away or been eaten by the acidic waters of the bog, a missing eye standing as proof of that fact.
The remaining eye of the reanimated corpse was bloodshot and focused on Wilona. It couldn't reach her on account that she's 20 feet in the air, but that didn't stop the zombie from trying.
"Hello~" Wilona waved, "Is there still something in that skull of yours?" Idly, her eyes went over to the part of its head that's missing a chunk and she winced, "Guess not."
Wilona sighed, "Well, if you're just gonna stay there, then I'm gonna have to take you out, little buddy." Her palm faced the zombie and cast Wind Blade, the resulting spell easily sliced through the undead's soft flesh, killing it instantly. Well, not really.
"You're still moving huh?" Wilona shook her head and redirected her aim, this time she went for the head. "Let me just..."
The zombie finally stopped moving. Wilona clicked her tongue, "A bit cliché but sure."
Why can't zombies just die when hit in the spine or something? Like, why the head? And that guy was clearly missing more than half of his so he shouldn't even be able to move if those are the rules they operated under!
After burning it with Fireball—an idea that she only really thought of after deciding that the corpse deserved a respectful farewell—Wilona continued flying across the bog. Now that she knew what to look out for, finding the cause of the bog's danger was no longer hard.
She systematically killed zombies left and right, trying her best to clear them out and make the local town safe. Nothing really made it difficult for her to do this, and most of the undead she encountered were just reanimated corpses. Regular zombies didn't come from nowhere though, so Wilona wanted to ask Phocles about these things when she goes back to tell him that the bog is now safe from the undead.
Wilona looked up. She's only noticed it now but the skies grew darker and darker the deeper she went. It's like the bog had an atmosphere of its own—it didn't make sense.
"But what does make sense?" Wilona scoffed at her own thoughts, "I'm literally flying on a magical staff." She shook her head, "Why am I arguing with myself anyways?"
The zombies got denser and denser the more she pressed on. It no longer stopped at her encountering a single corpse after a few minutes, now she's seeing them more frequently, and in larger numbers.
"I'm reaching the source of these guys huh?"
Wilona turned away from the mass of burning corpses. Just in time too, because doing so made her notice that an arrow was heading her way. She flew to the side and then used her barrier, a ball of wind surrounded her. It thankfully stopped another arrow from hitting her chest.
Wilona flew to where the projectiles came from, expecting them to be shot by some stupid necromancer, but what she saw was even more concerning.
A group of undead—no, not group, a legion. A small one so this should be called a troop—okay, specifics aside? The group in front of her had shields, arrows, and a few even glowed bright purple like they were infused with poison.
The ones carrying the shields also had purple skin, but instead of the rotting carcasses she had encountered so far, these ones didn't have a single sign of damage. Their skin looked compact and while they looked malnourished—to the point that their heads had the shape of a skull—this didn't seem to affect their ability to carry shields.
Or pull a bowstring. Wilona looked at the group of archers behind the shielded undead. They had arrows in their bows, nocked and ready to be fired. Aside from the fact that they had regular clothes and weren't naked like their counterparts, they didn't seem all that special to her.
Then, there are the ones that glowed purple. Wilona wasn't an expert in zombie movies but like, in the ones that she did see, glowing zombies meant mutants. Or radiation. Possibly both!
There's no doubt that those are the ones she needed to watch out for the most. And there's only what? Four of them? Compared to the other types, which were at least a dozen in number, this type of zombie was scarce. And rare means powerful, because of course.
Wilona narrowed her eyes, why aren't they attacking her? Wait—are these things smart enough to recognize a stalemate?
She pushed past her fear and waved at a shield-wielding zombie, which returned her greeting. She didn't have the time to get shocked because another shield-wielding zombie slapped the back of the other one's head. She laughed. What the hell?!
