Eldrian met Vivian and Myropsis at his mansion. He had arrived a bit earlier than them and served Theas some tea and cakes while he talked with Aspen about the estate. He needed to add some money to the estate''s budget regardless, so it felt natural to make it the meeting point.


    ''I''ll have to work to gain some money,'' Eldrian thought, realizing that after ordering the potions from Erik, he was down to just around a hundred gold. "I hope this will be enough for the next month."


    "I believe it will be..." The Xue (wolfkin) seemed hesitant.


    "Aspen, please say what''s on your mind."


    "If you won''t mind, my lord." Aspen started off carefully, his caution Eldrian found tiring, as he found all noble etiquette—especially after spending a day experiencing the highest levels of this with Boran. But it seemed to make those working for him feel more rxed if they could fall back onto these customs, so he did not speak out and made sure to not let his feeling show on his face.


    "I''ve been wondering if we shouldn''t add a few of the... Vertical farms to the estate. We would need a few gardeners or farmhands..." Aspen paused. Currently, they were sharing the load of maintaining the estate between the retainers and maids. It truly wasn''t a good representation of their lord, but given circumstances, it could be forgiven.


    "I assume you''re thinking of growing some magical nts, since normal nts won''t bring much of an ie."


    "Indeed, but the problem is the initial investment. A rack spanning ten meters would cost around 20 silvers, but the addition of the arrays and the magical source would bring the cost to slightly over one gold."


    "Prepare the nts for now. There are also some local nts that might be a good investment. After our mission, I''ll return with a friend and we''ll organize the rest ourselves."


    Aspen smiled, his snow white ears perking up. Eldrian handling this himself was the best possible oue. Outside of managing the estate, Aspen had been working hard to grow stronger, much like Brazan and Tjan. Sadly, he had been the most upied with other things and had shown the least growth. While he was happy to be of service, he wanted to do more.


    His hope was a simple one, to make the estate self-sufficient. With the extra ie, they could hire more retainers and he would finally be freed to train and catch up to the others.


    ...


    The journey to the fort went smoothly, Eldrian always checking his map to ensure they wouldn''t run into any unwanted trouble. The Pyknos forest was still an infestation of undead, but someone -normally adventurers, and in extreme situations, Pros and Evale- quickly dealt with any wandering undead that left the forest. Life was slowly returning to the surrounding areas.


    Sadly, life would never return to what it was before the undead invasion. The scars of death filled thends. When leaving the city, Eldrian had seen this all too clearly in the artifact. It truly had be a memorial site, and it helped those who visited it, but seeing how many still made a journey to visit it had been a sad sight. It reminded Eldrian of how much loss there has been, and how much there was still toe.


    Their little group of four now stood before the Kyno Northeast forest. Eldrian and Vivian were both frozen in ce, shocked by the sight before them. Theas and Myropsis, on the other hand, were blissfully ignorant of the hell they were about to step into.


    ''Let''s hope this isn''t what is seems like,'' Eldrian mumbled. Sadly, his map could not tell him much of the details of an area, and the details truly seemed frightening.


    "What''s wrong?" Myropsis asked upon noticing that Eldrian and Vivian had frozen, turning serious immediately.


    "It... Seems that the miasma of undeath is strong. Far stronger than we thought it would be, given the number of undead..." Eldrian''s mind was racing and the only conclusion he coulde up with was that it must be the lich''s doing. He could only pray that an element of chaos -such as the Death Crystal he had looted inside the forest- would not be part of things.


    "You mentioned that there is both a revenant and lich inside the fort. If the lich is using the revenant as a source, then such a miasma is to be expected." Theas said. Taking out a monocle like item and holding it over his left eye, only to frown at the sight shown to him. "This amount is excessive."


    "I''m afraid to speak what I think, but I fear it is likely because of the living being kept living." Eldrian spoke carefully, watching Vivian as he did.


    "How would that—"


    "Let us start with a probing attack to see their responses." Eldrian interrupted the dwarf, not wishing to talk theory now that they were here. And for a moment, he lost focus on Vivian.


    Upon hearing Eldrian mention attack, Vivian pulled out Nelida''s me and stared at the fort, which to her sight was covered in the miasma of undeath with countless screaming souls chained to this ne of existence. She dared not imagine what her father must be enduring.


    The sight of this hell fueled her anger, and her anger fueled her sword. She charged forward and with each step she took; the mes covering her and her sword grew.


    ''Fuck!'' Eldrian jumped around and rushed after Vivian, who was already halfway into the miasma. Just its presence alone would suck the life out of someone and weaken them by the second. Yet, shockingly, the miasma was being sucked into Vivian.


    With each step she took into the miasma, her mes would rage and grow—devouring the miasma. Eldrian would swear he sensed divinity in those mes, but that made no sense. And he had no time to question.


    Sensing the presence of the living, the chained souls turned their sights onto Eldrian. Theypletely ignored Vivian and dashed towards the confused elf. And, of course, he could not even see them. He only barely noticed something was wrong when he saw the miasma around him acting strangely.


    ''Something''s wrong!'' Eldrian immediately started gathering his mana, only to be left standing like an idiot as a golden halberd smashed through the surrounding miasma. Returning everything to normal.


    "They chained souls to this fort! Be careful or you will find yourself in a struggle for survival!" Theas shouted as he continued to swing his halbert around, targeting the denser parts of the miasma.


    Myropsis was the only one to have yet to move closer. She understood that doing anything careless would only worsen the situation. So, instead of rushing forward, she started forming a fallback point. Using the knowledge and experience she had gained working with Eldrian to set up a safe haven.


    ''Shit, I didn''t think I''d be blind of all people!'' Eldrian cursed, quickly altering the sight that mana sense showed him. While he still could not see the souls directly, he focused in on the points where the miasma was thicker than normal. Eliminating the rest of the miasma from sight to allow him to actually see into the thick smoke like fog.


    And there were hundreds of abnormal miasma concentrations.


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