Over the next few hours, the waves of undead became more dense. With only a few feet of distance between each cadet, they stood in a circle around the camp, continuously fighting the raised dead. Omia could tell that the first-years next to her were flagging, and she was forced to pick up the slack.
Pushing herself harder, it had the opposite effect she needed. With the pressure easing off them, she was annoyed to find that the two cadets slowed even further. Before she could say anything though, one of the trained guards clipped them both on the backs of their heads, making the two jump as they shouted “FOCUS!” directly into their ears.
Once more the pressure eased off her as their drowsiness temporarily abated. She wasn’t feeling in her top shape either, but she felt like her Glimpse gave her more endurance as well. The Life energy it absorbed simply made her better in every way physically.
Like that, the night passed in tedium. Occasionally there were screams from the guards directly into the ears of poor cadets to wake them up, but ultimately it was much the same.
Still, for the first day, this didn’t seem good. They still had, what, three more months before they could go back to town? She could only hope that the mistakes were because each of the cadets hadn’t slept since the day before and that they would fare better tomorrow.
* * *
They could tell the moment the sun crested the horizon. Unlike how the undead slowly became more frequent and stronger through the night, the switch to daylight was instantaneous. The sun touched the forest, and the crowds of undead instantly dropped like puppets with their strings cut.
Omia saw the white aura’s pulled in as well. She noticed that the aura’s did not disperse, but were fully stored within the inactive undead.
A wave of relief washed over the remaining cadets, Omia feeling it as well. She glanced around her, taking stock.
There were three first years passed out near the center of the camp, supposedly unable to keep up with the stress of the night. She didn’t think they would have dropped from exhaustion after only a single sleepless night, so it must've been stress that made them fall. That, or they were too badly injured and knocked unconscious, only to be healed up later. She highly doubted they would suffer such severe injuries early on, but later in winter? Things like that would become more commonplace.
Nonetheless, she saw that Rory and Jamei were fine, both walking towards her.
Jamei in particular was stumbling, clearly aching all over from the extended fight. Before he could even say anything, she told them “I can keep the first watch. Everyone else in the camp needs to go to bed immediately and be up in time for me to get some rest too.”
Jamei grunted. “Alone?”
“Yea.”
“Fine by me.” Turning around, he looked out over the exhausted second years and listless first years, confused on what to do next, and shouted “Everyone!” Causing the camp to turn towards him as he continued, saying “Omia takes first watch, everyone else to sleep immediately!”
Nobody complained, happily turning in at the first opportunity, Jamei joining them without even glancing at Omia for confirmation.
“Good luck” Rory said, patting Omia on the arm and following after Jamei.
It would be quietest now, but there would definitely be a few undead. Now, just her, she had to focus. With her Glimpse, she was in the best condition to keep going.
She had to endure, just a bit longer.
* * *
Despite the ache in her bones, Omia continued responding without hesitation against all undead coming near the camp. She couldn’t afford to let even a single slip through, as she was the only one not vulnerable right now aside from the full guards, but they wouldn’t step in.
It was longer and shorter than she expected before Rory came out from his tent beside a bleary-eyed Jamei, greeting her.
“Yeesh, you look awful. Thanks for taking first watch, I’m sure we would’ve had a lot of injuries if there was anyone else on it. Get some rest, we’ll take it from here.”
She grunted in agreement and walked off. She wanted to pass out immediately, but was hesitant to get her hammock dirty. They’d be here for months, she was not going to sleep in rot.
Instead, she dropped her bag and potions next to her hammock, took off her armor, and walked a distance out into the forest carrying only her sword.
The chilly air stung at her skin, but felt incredible with how hot she ended up becoming under everything.
Using the clean snow just out of sight of the camp, she got as much grime as she could out of her hair and off her face, going as far as to try and clean her overshirt by running it through the white frost. There wasn’t much, so it took some time, but eventually she was passably clean, and made her way back before slipping into her hammock.
She’d never gotten a chance to test whether it would be able to prevent the artificial visions the forest always attempted from reaching her, but she was reasonably confident. The tendrils were never particularly smart, so she couldn’t see them crawling up the trees around her to reach where she slept, but she still remained cautious.
Lying on her back in the hammock, claymore flat on her body, she waited. Despite her exhaustion, this wasn’t something she could half-ass, she had to get it right the first time.
Luckily, after several minutes, she felt no visions appear. When she mentally decided it was safe, she closed her eyes and fell asleep in moments.
* * *
At once, her dreamless sleep came to an abrupt end. Eyes snapping open with perfect clarity, she knew exactly where she was and had to get ready. Rest time was over.
From within the darkness of her cocoon though, she took a moment to plan her next few moments. In her hammock, most scents were blocked out in favor of her own sweat. Despite that, a second putrid smell faintly tickled her nose as she heard the crackling of fire.
‘They’ve begun to burn the bodies. Good, otherwise they might reanimate tonight.’
She braced herself for when she unwrapped herself, as the smell would become much thicker in the open air.
The next thing she had to consider was, once more, Wiltwoods attention. While it was true that she was unreachable in her hammock, as proven by unimpeded sleep, she didn’t know if it would congregate below her, leaving an army of tendrils for her to step on when she unraveled herself.
Mentally reaching out to confirm it, Omia felt that the Undeath mana she’d pulled from her glimpse hadn’t dispersed. This was something she’d already confirmed- the undeath mana would not dissipate if it was in an enclosed space very close to her skin. As it got further from her or there was space for it to flow, it struggled to retain its integrity. Pressed against her skin in an almost airtight space? The mana had a much lengthier lifespan. Now that she took direct control of it once more, the cloud’s slow dispersal came to a stop entirely.
Inhaling deeply and letting out a calming breath, she held her claymore steady within its scabbard and rolled in a practiced maneuver.
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The hammock opened and she was dropped towards the ground, an instant scan of it showed that there were no undeath tendrils, waiting to ensnare her in a memory.
Bringing her legs down first, she fell into a balanced position on her knees, primed to burst into action should she need to. A quick scan of her surroundings showed it to be unnecessary though, as the camp was well maintained.
Spotting her two familiar comrades, she saw that Rory was directing some of the first years in their efforts to burn the bodies more efficiently, while Jamei looked over the crowds of people, keeping an eye out for any undead approaching the camp.
Most fell into these two groups, but she did notice a chunk was absent, and resolved to ask about that in a moment.
Before that, she felt exposed without her armor. A few saw her get up and greeted her, getting a nod in return as she quickly slipped on all her gear. Checking and rechecking everything, it took her around fifteen minutes to get her specialized suit of armor on and belt set up.
Slipping the leather helmet over her head, she finally turned to walk towards Rory. It seemed he’d taken control of the situation somewhat, so he’d know where she was needed most. She could also see they were well past noon, approaching evening as the sun was halfway down the sky.
When Rory saw her walking towards him, his face lit up. “Omia! Up and at em?”
She nodded. “Where’s the others?” she asked, referring to the six or seven that were missing.
“Ahh, Iluden and Garret took five first years to scavenge for food. It’s true that we have a lot of rations, but it would be better to save those for later in the winter when it might become impossible to do so, if we can.”
She vaguely recalled that Iluden and Garret were some of her classmates but, like most others in her class, they didn’t particularly stand out in her head.
“Am I needed anywhere?”
“If you can, I’d appreciate you pulling some of whatever undeath remains in the bodies. As we get on in the day, I can almost feel them charging up with energy, and it’s making them harder to burn. Might just be my mind playing tricks on me though, but please try. Ah! Also! I told Iluden that he could bring back some of the more poisonous animals in the forest and we could see if you would be able to pull the sickness out of them. Things like Carcass Wolves that are normally too charged with undead energy might actually be edible if you can take that away from the body, but I want to get your agreement first. Is that okay? Are you up to try?”
Omia nodded, seeing relief in Rory’s face when she did. He probably felt bad for volunteering her without her input, but it was a good idea.
Last time she’d seen a live Carcass Wolf, it was clearly filled with Undeath mana. She also remembered Torei saying that once he’d forced someone to eat Undeath mana and they became violently ill, so it wasn’t a bad assumption in her head that it was perhaps the excessive Undeath mana in their body’s that made them poisonous. Take that mana away, and they might have an actual secure source of food.
“In the meantime” Rory continued “we’re going to use some of the spare tents and turn them into smokers. Some makeshift smoked meat won't last the full winter, but it should stretch our rations further than they would’ve.”
Impressed with his foresight, Omia gave him an encouraging slap on his shoulder then went to help with the mound of corpses. She found that Rory was correct, and some Undeath mana had slowly seeped into the diced bodies, which she now pulled away. Those manning the fire jumped back slightly when it flared up slightly, but were otherwise unharmed.
* * *
After dragging bodies around for a while, they were just finishing up when she saw the missing people show up at the edge of camp. There was nothing as grand as a Carcass Wolf, but they carried a couple of known poisonous berries, as well as a large snake that reeked of Undeath.
‘It was Ilumen and… Barrett?’
“Iluden! Garett!” Rory said excitedly.
‘Yea, them.’
“A successful hunt I take it?” Rory asked.
“Sort of” Iluden responded. “We couldn’t find any of the normal variety, but we did find some poisonous berries and a Bone Bender,” he said, gesturing at their “food.”
Omia was already on her way to them, inspecting the mana in each from a distance. She reached them right as Iluden finished saying his piece, telling them “I might be able to do something about the snake, but those berries don’t have any mana in them at all. They’re just flat out poisonous.”
“Mana?” Iluden asked.
“Undeath energy. Undeath mana, whatever,” she shrugged.
Iluden himself didn’t seem to care all that much, so he just handed his pouch of berries over to a first year and told them to dump them somewhere away from the camp and clean out any residue from it, sending two other first years to go with him so that he wasn’t alone.
As for the snake, Omia got on it right away. Rory guided them towards one of the normal fires, not used for bodies, and Omia didn’t waste a single moment in sending her mana to scour its corpse, pulling out any energy she could.
She found it to be incredibly difficult. Unlike the Undead where she had to battle against their wills, this corpse felt like it had undeath mana baked into it. It felt sticky, and she had to scrape it out piece by piece.
She wasn’t ashamed to say that she struggled.
“Any progress?” Rory asked her, seeing her stare intently at it.
“Sort of. Not easy at all. I might have more success if it’s cut up into more manageable chunks.”
Rory nodded and got on it immediately, quickly skinning, gutting, and cutting it. The skin and guts weren’t useful so they were put in a separate pot and handed off to go be burned with the rest of the bodies, lest it potentially become a part of a larger undead.
When he had just the edible meat, Rory cut it into smaller chunks as Omia and the cadets who retrieved the body watched.
She looked at them questioningly, wondering why they were still around, and Garrett answered. “We worked hard to get this, might as well see if it works.”
Omia shrugged and said nothing else. When the body was in more manageable pieces, Omia took control of every scrap of mana she had, pushing it all into the designated chunk.
She felt her mana press into it, running along invisible pathways within the small bit of flesh. Slowly but surely, her mana thoroughly saturated it. When she felt she could push no more in, she commanded her mana to begin devouring all foreign mana around it, and felt a rapid purge.
The entire process was very intensive, and she felt herself sweat from exertion. When she was done, she finally relaxed, and indicated to Rory which part she’d worked on. “This one doesn’t smell like undeath anymore, so it should be safe to eat after it’s been cooked. I can't be sure though, the mana might’ve done something else to the meat.”
He’d already prepared a metal spit and stuck the chunk on now, cooking it over the fire as he talked to her.
“I really hope this works. Otherwise, our only choice will be to find some of the rare animals that aren’t going to make us violently ill, or to completely burn whatever meat we get. Burning it is literally the only other way to get rid of the poison in the living animals.”
‘I really don’t think it’s poison we’re worried about. Just the mana stuck in Wiltwood creatures. I can’t pull out poison and cooking would only make it marginally safer. Burning the mana out would work, burning poisonous things? Not so much,’ she thought, but didn’t voice. She’d be the only one dictating what got thrown out and what got its mana pulled, so she was the only one that really needed to know.
When the snake looked well-cooked but not overly so, Rory took it off the fire. “Alright, so who’s trying this to see if it’s poisonous?”
“I can’t. The mana would work differently for me, so it might be safe for me and dangerous for everyone else” Omia told him.
Looking around, all the other watching cadets took a step back. Realization flickered in Rory’s eyes as he realized that he was, in fact, going to be the test subject. “Well… I guess it was my plan. Only fair that I’m the one to back it up. Have some purge potions ready just in case, yea?”
Omia nodded, and Rory didn’t wait to throw it down the hatch. After a few minutes of scalding his mouth, he finally swallowed it and the other cadets watched closely for any change.
Several minutes went by without Rory showing any notable signs of discomfort, eventually asking her “How long do you think it would take for me to get sick?”
“Seconds. Mana poisoning happens in the first four or five seconds from ingesting incompatible mana.”
“What!? So what have we been doing just sitting here?”
Omia shrugged. “I wanted to be sure. Besides, it’s not like I haven't done anything. I’ve been cleansing a few more pieces of meat while we sat here.”
Rory scratched his head and said “Yea alright, better safe than sorry I suppose. Either way, this is good news! This means that we’re going to have a much easier time getting food than the previous years, and that we’ll probably have to dedicate more of the camp to food gathering. One snake per day isn’t going to work at all.”
Omia didn’t give any input. He would be a lot better for planning something like that, so instead she just focused on purging the rest of the meat, thinking to herself ‘I wonder if I could mimic the effects of a purge potion by pulling Undeath mana out of someone's wound. Speaking of mimicking, could I become poisonous by running mana through my system? I doubt that would help at all. If I die then I don’t think I’ll care all that much about whatever eats me.’
If she was going to test out magical effects though, here in the Wiltwood probably wasn’t the best place to do so. She didn’t want to attract its attention after all. Leaving that behind, she focused fully on the task at hand.
