I became a legion lich

126 Preliminary investigations

In the middle of a hill, a group of white fangs were camping in the middle of the night. They were the unit sent to the city of Faltra and they were only 1 day trip from the city. Unlike Emilia’s unit which was focused on combat and assassinations, this unit was more oriented towards investigation and tracking.

Despite having different functions, both were recognized as mage slayers affiliated with White Fang.

Their costumes had enchantments that lowered stamina expended and increased speed, allowing them to run great distances without tiring instead of magical dispersion. As most were in layer 4 and their leader in layer 5, they could run at horse speed for nearly a full day before getting tired.

They were on their last break before rushing into town, but none of the members were resting as they should. Everyone was too tense about their next destination.

“Captain, still awake? What do you think of our next mission?” one of the mage slayers asks, certain that everyone is still awake.

“Don’t bother me, I’m trying to sleep, here.” A grumpy reply came back, but the mage slayer ignored it and continued talking.

“Don’t be cold, captain. I’m not the only one wondering about our next mission, you know? Information is very sparse and contradicts itself.” The mage slayer spoke suspiciously.

Realizing that most of the mage slayers were listening intently to the conversation and that the man would not shut up until he received an answer, the captain sighed and answered him. “I know the information is strange, but that’s exactly what we should investigate. The church and kingdom are certain that the plant monster is the creator of the undead army, but our elder is skeptical about it.”

“The unit of assassins that came before us got a corpse with a mana body with late awakening with darkness, which the elder suspects is the real culprit in the situation, but we need evidence pointing to him.”

.....

“What about the plant monster?” the mage slayer asked with a raised eyebrow.

“That’s what doesn’t add up to this whole story and what we’re going to investigate.” The captain spoke and turned his back on the mage slayer, trying to sleep. The man didn’t ask any more questions and 4 hours later he woke everyone up and they resumed their journey.

They made the day trip in less than 16 hours, but they didn’t go directly to the city, but to one of the villages close to the city. If the undead army really showed up here, they would definitely have destroyed villages to get soldiers and it would be a good starting point to start your investigation.

Before they even entered the village, the unit captain signaled them to stop and crouched on the ground, taking a handful of dirt in his hand and frowning.

“Did you find anything?” The same man who was on guard the day before asks.

“The land is dry. Very dry, as if it were completely devoid of life.” The captain tried to explain the uncomfortable feeling he felt as he touched land. The ground was almost sandy, Treevor’s world pillage making the land barren.

“It’s winter, it’s normal for the land to be dry. Maybe this region was in a period of severe drought or something, information from the city said that the region was in an unprecedented state of poverty, with many turning to crime to survive.” The assassin responded with a shrug and the captain nodded in agreement with him but made a mental note to report it.

They entered the abandoned village and tried to look for anything relevant, but found only smears of dried blood. All the houses were open, their doors smashed to the ground. One of the mage slayers went to the fields outside and noticed that the fields were completely dry.

The strange thing was that the fields seemed to be being maintained, which would make no sense with how dead the land is. Definitely something has been done here. After finishing checking the village and finding nothing, the unit bids farewell to the village and rushes into town, preferring to climb the wall rather than enter through the open gates, just in case someone left an unpleasant surprise.

The view of the city from the wall is like a war zone. Buildings completely destroyed, tents torn apart and dried blood smeared all over the place. Almost no buildings were left whole, those not directly affected were later destroyed as skeletons looted the city.

“Looks like the undead looted everything before they left.” It was the assessment of one of the mage slayers and the captain had to agree. As there was no visible threat, the team split up and began scouring the city.

They easily found the tracks of chariot wheels and footprints of skeleton soldiers, but their job wasn’t to figure out the route the undead took so they ignored it for now.

“Captain, you should come here in the town square. Now.” One of the assassins sent through the communicator and the captain could hear the anger in his voice, so he decided to hurry.

The town square was in chaos as Athos didn’t bother removing the wreckage except for the main street leading to the gates, but the assassins didn’t care, glaring angrily at the town’s fountain.

Seven corpses wearing the white fang costumes and masks were impaled on wooden stakes like scarecrows. The wooden stake was driving through the corpses starting at the ass and coming out in the middle of the skull.

All the skin on the corpses was removed and the costume was sewn onto the body, the front of the skull completely removed and the mask nailed in place. It was a little prank Athos made to kill time while Treevor was busy runesmithing.

Treevor had buried the corpses in the earth beneath his workshop along with the magical equipment, as they were useless to him. Treevor had already copied the runes, and the elves had a hard time using weapons that weren’t made of wood.

Athos also didn’t bother to retrieve the equipment, as they would be useless after a single use and Treevor had already said he could replicate them when he had time.

The captain gritted his teeth at the sight and ordered his subordinates to remove the corpses and destroy them along with the magical equipment to erase any evidence that his unit was here.

They searched inside the buildings but found nothing much. The undead had looted anything useful.

“Captain, I also found something in the sewers, but it’s strange. Someone dug a grave and buried a corpse. No visible wound marks, so it’s likely dark magic was used to restore him. He’s dead at most two weeks and in relatively good condition.” Another assassin spoke into the communicator.

“Is there any way to identify him?” The captain was surprised that a corpse had been left behind, but just added that to his report.

“No sir. He is wearing only ordinary clothes and there is no magic item on him.” The answer came a few seconds later.

“Then destroy the body so it won’t be found.” The captain ordered and the assassin obeyed.

“Guys, have you seen the view from the other side of the walls?” A new voice sounded on the communicator.

“What are you talking about? there’s nothing on the other side, just a wasteland.” The captain remembered seeing nothing and did not understand the man’s question.

“Yes, there is nothing. There should be a forest here according to the information.” The assassin spoke and they all froze in place. Even if the forest was a little further away than the information said, it should still be visible from the walls.

“How does an entire forest disappear like that? Did the undead do that?” one of the assassins asked. It was possible that the skeletons used the darkness to feed on the forest, but would they really waste time on something like this?

The captain doubted, until he remembered the tree monster. Perhaps it was a monster that lived in this forest and was transformed. There were still many questions, but the captain knew where the next step of the investigation would be.

“Let’s search the vacant lot. See if we can find anything useful. There’s nothing around here.” The captain ordered and everyone moved to where the Faltra forest was originally.

The ground was the same dry earth as elsewhere, but the battle marks were clearly visible. The assassins used their familiars to check the front and found the big hole. Some of them went down and found Treevor’s workshop empty.

“What did you find down there?” the captain asked.

“It’s empty. Whatever was here, they’ve already looted it. But this place reminds me of a rudimentary runesmith’s workshop.” One of the assassins came out of the hole and spoke.

“So, did the undead get weapons here? But who created them?” The assassins began to wonder.

“Perhaps the spirit that lived here? The information said that the forest was protected by a spirit.” It was not uncommon for spirits to be able to enchant weapons using the magical wood of their own bodies. More than one adventurer has reported meeting a spirit and receiving an enchanted wooden weapon as a gift.

“But what happened to the spirit then? Maybe they killed him?”

“Or maybe we’ve just discovered the plant monster’s identity.” The captain suddenly spoke and all the other assassins looked at him in disbelief. Spirits were unable to leave their place of origin, becoming an undead shouldn’t change that, or at least that’s how it should be.