landbeastnovel Chapter 2036: Weaknesses
Chapter 2036: Weaknesses
A/N: Shout out to the lovely Cardinal for the castleee! Thank youuu~ If you have chap request do telll~...
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The parents looked at Sinnan in disapproval. "Do you think we’d want something like that near our kids?"
"..." Fair point
That said, it also casted doubts in the couple’s minds, and they indeed worried about the same thing. In the end, they just decided to find it first and then cross the bridge when they got there.
Alterra probably had one of the most comprehensive group of scholars in the world. They believed they would study it well and figure out how to make sure the kids were not damaged by it.
Anyway, they had two more materials to collect after finding the Stone, so they ought to take one step at a time.
They did not jump into the depressing land filled with Undead. Instead, they stabilized their base of operations. This part of the mountain was sloping down and much friendlier compared to the steep slopes of the mountain pass.
After walking along the surface, they found a cave. It was small but they could dig it out. Althea had a few pickaxes in her space. If reinforced by the two metal users, then it could be like hitting tofu.
The cave had a nice view of the desolate land in front of him. This way, they could be comfortable while they planned and rested.
One of their tasks there was to collect as many nuclear cores as they could. Those things were useful and finite and they could really make use of everything they could get.
They were no longer in the desert. The desolate land was either rocks or cracked soil without anything decent growing on them. There was no vitality, and the only ones moving were the undead.
It was a vast valley like land that could be as big as a high-level town in size, but there were hundreds of thousands of undead instead.
The research and further studies of the core was ongoing in Alterra and so far, they had managed to build simple things and make a core power it up.
It wasn’t easy, and it was only recently that there were significant breakthroughs. All they knew that as long as they handled the cores well, the more they could get, the more advantageous the trip would be.
The main task, looking for the Elysian Stone, would have to be done section by section. Althea would use her earth skills to scan an area and also map out enemies.
Since the area had minimal interference from other elements, it was easy for Althea to recover lost energy. Since the ground was more solid, she could have farther reach than normal.
Among all of Althea’s elements, Earth was the most prominent in this place, so she naturally would maximize it.
Controlling the soil remained to be a challenge. For one, her control was more difficult. As mentioned, her earth element depended a lot on organic materials in the soil. When the soil was dead, it was challenging.
Most earth users like Mao would thrive here.
Althea scanned their camping area first to check if there were any surprises. She saw a few hollow areas in the mountains, formed naturally as nature grew older.
She did sense some slight interference somewhere, but it was a bit deep and it was impractical to see it. They still had too much work to do.
The sector they chose was the area below directly below the cave. This way, if they encountered a problem, they would just run back and rest. The area also had less dense amount of Undead.
This time, they decided to mimic the situation by the gate—creating a wall with a breach.
Since they were moving around sectors, the walls didn’t have to be so sturdy. For most part, they depended on Garan’s ice wall instead. With every sector they tackled, they would create an area of about a few hundred square meters.
One limitation was that the undead didn’t fall from a height so they didn’t have the ’cheat’ of broken bones and pre-battle weakening. Another was that they were technically surrounded by them. A little temporary wall made by abilities wouldn’t be able to control everything.
The undead were unaffected by beast-attracting and repelling potions, and using diversion tactics wouldn’t work either because they were outnumbered so badly, so as soon as they descended, they would definitely be mobbed.
Another challenge was that the Undead hardiness were similar to zombies. They wouldn’t die unless their cores were taken or detached.
They chose to stand a few meters above the ground and then proceeded on ’coralling’ themselves. As soon as they descended to about ten meters above the ground, the Undead turned their heads simultaneously and then rushed forward.
Krhrhhkkhhhh!!!
It was very creepy.
Anyway, the temporary wall was erected and it did block the dozens or so of Undead nearest to them, but as time passed more and more from those farther away got attracted as well.
They left three ’breaches’ on all three exposed sides (they kept the mountain as the other edge) and a few Undead entered through it. As for the rest, they kept trying to mindlessly squeeze in.
At the same time, if the number of Undead increased, the wall might buckle altogether.
So what the group did was to target the undead causing the most damage.
Some of the corpses would pile up and the Undead would climb over. The Wall wasn’t tall enough to cause injuries, but they’d at least inconvenience the monsters.
This went on for a few hours, and piles of corpses started to line up the areas outside and within the temporary walls.
When they felt tired, they would climb over and the monsters attacks would become less intense, though most of them would linger in the area.
From a height, they could see some more distant Undead slowly heading in their direction, too, and it honestly felt endless. Just the drylands itself was intimidating, but the walking Undead also felt like they covered the land, and there would be no moment of peace as long as they descended.
Would they really be able to find a mystery rock amidst all of these?