Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead-Chapter 1220: Silly, Magic Rocks

Capítulo 1220: Silly, Magic Rocks

Ridfoirn’s main issue with getting done with the conquest of his realm was the many hermits and elusive creatures inhabiting the swamplands of eternal twilight. Taking over the academy of Volon Sormaca was easy enough for him to achieve, as competent as the Volonstone mages may be, they still couldn’t match him or his followers in terms of skill or raw magical power.

When it came to a head-on confrontation, the livings of this realm could do very little–The humans, at least, were simply helpless. Volonstone beasts were another story.

As was often the case with magically gifted creatures, their inner energies had a wild, untamed edge that often made their base energy-based attacks stronger and far more ferocious than those of a sapient.

However, sapients instead knew how to shape magic into more refined spells. Most beasts with such capabilities and talent would only develop a handful of spells throughout their entire lifetime. Oftentimes, those spells would be very easy to deduce as they were basically extensions of the beast’s natural capabilities.

For example, feral dragons equipped with a flaming breath would often develop fire spells that were basically an imitation of what they could naturally do, or in other cases, they would simply meld spellcasting with their inborn, natural abilities.

Thus, most beasts with magical talent would only appear as especially strong members of their kind, as they would only use magic passively to boost their strength and other physical traits.

Only wise, sapient beasts could truly use the advantage of beasts and that of sapients… However, as there was with everything else. This belief had its own slew of exceptions. Such as this very realm Ridfoirn was dealing with.

Here, the way of power, the way people and creatures wielded magic, was through contact and experimentation with Volonstones. These stones grew in many places across this realm, most were simply blue by default, being made from basic, raw mana–Yet, they were very different from the mana rocks or crystals that were to be found in the main world.

They were inherently associated with the way of power that shared their name. The minor lord had studied the subjects, and indeed, the people had not moulded or created the way of power. They discovered it from entering into contact with Volonstones.

They did not choose this way of power, nor did it choose them. The two parties simply happened to exist near one another. Leading to the current state of this realm.

Here, nearly everything was a flat, shallow swamp of sorts. Of course, there was no mud everywhere. The water was clean for the most part. However, it was indeed rather barren and lacking in anything stimulating to the mind.

Surviving was easy, but living for the inhabitants? Quite arduous. For the longest time, they had had absolutely nothing to do. Their evolution had been done at a snail’s pace. Hunting did not require much effort, evading powerful threats wasn’t actually that complicated either… The humans of this realm had simply lacked a driving force for the longest of times.

Until they found the wondrous powers of Volonstone, of course.

This shiny rock became an obsession, to the point that people did not see any problem in allowing it to grow upon their own bodies–Taking no issue with attempting to literally replace their innards with crystals. For more magical power. For a deeper understanding of Volonstone. To discover new spells. To create new elemental Volonstones.

To put it simply, the people found what was nearly their sole hobby here. Thus, the humans created everything from this. All was about Volonstone. Everyone needed to know about it, to learn more–Which is why the academy took center stage in all of this.

This mad pursuit for power and knowledge led countless to separate themselves from others entirely, hiding away in holes in the wild, taking refuge in caverns, hollowing out trees to turn into homes… The desire for knowledge created the hermits.

Now, Ridfoirn had to deal with them. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

The lone wolves could prove nearly impossible to find without falling back on the old reliables and simply throwing endless numbers at the problem to quite literally search every single centimeter of space within the realm.

It wouldn’t be so bad if concealing Volonstone were not so common. Hermits would absolutely cover everything in their hideouts with it, covering up even their life force from being picked up on.

The easier targets were the hermits who had eventually come out of seclusion and created their own places–Their own versions of Volon Sormaca. Naturally, erecting structures made them far easier to track down and subjugate.

For the most part, at least, some had gone far, and others were part of schools that favoured stealthy usage of magic. One of such places was supposedly not so far from Volon Sormaca, but Ridfoirn and his followers had yet to find it.

Regardless, the human casters were an issue that was not nearly as problematic as that of the beasts.

As stated previously, humans and beasts were supposed to be mostly separated in their usage of magic. In simple terms, wisdom against power. This did not apply within this realm at all.

Volonstone had a stimulating effect on creatures. It didn’t just grow on them. It imparted an innate understanding of magic and spellcasting. The crystallisation of the brain and major organs in particular was said to bring about wondrous revelations… As such, what about beasts, which were naturally more resilient, often times larger, and overall less likely to succumb during such a process?

The result was obvious.

Although Volonstone exposure did not grant intelligence, wisdom, or anything of the sort, it still granted a universal understanding. As such, the wild beasts who came into close contact with Volonstone were going to develop far more spells than their counterparts who accessed magic without the crystals.

The spells were also more refined, and oftentimes, the beasts would experience a mutation to further adapt to having become a host for Volonstone, only granting it more spells, more means of attack, and even greater power.

Nonetheless, the creatures remained non-sapient, so their weaknesses could still be exploited by leveraging this fact. Still, this made the beasts the more dangerous threats of the realm by a long shot.

The sheer power they could dish out with a single spell was astonishing.

Ridfoirn’s acolytes couldn’t take on such beasts head-on, but it was complicated to set up traps and ambushes, considering the sheer flatness of the realm. Everyone and everything could see things coming from very far–Literally.

If this was coupled with a creature that often flew around–Actually getting the drop on it required lots of preparation, solid stealth spells, and a whole lot of patience.

Ridfoirn had already overseen several of these slaying operations, but the speed of progress was… unsatisfying, to say the least.

The Headmaster of Volon Sormaca was not much help in how to take down these beasts. The livings rarely hunted down the stronger creatures, not because they were incapable of it, but simply because it just wasn’t worth it.

They would rather die from having a crystal needle form in their brain than die crushed under the paw of a beast. Only those interested in learning from Volonstone extracted from beasts would bother with hunting the more powerful ones.

Everyone else would just feed themselves using the weaker, easier-to-catch creatures…

Ridfoirn was an accomplished mage, although imbuing specific spells into it was not yet done with ease. He was capable of casting a zone. A feat that was nowhere near easy for a mage to accomplish.

To reach such a level, one either needed utterly monstrous talent or a keen understanding of magic. Of course, a zone could be achieved through means other than energy manipulation, but that was besides the point.

To get to where he was, Ridfoirn had worked incredibly hard over the course of centuries. His inner mana possessed a special trait, but that was it. Besides this, he had never been someone who stood above other mages in terms of natural talent.

This lengthy journey had required him to find ways to push himself further, alternative means of learning when he found himself stuck at a bottleneck. The road had not only been lengthy, but covered in bumps and pitfalls as well.

Thus, when faced with a problem, Ridfoirn knew to adapt instead of trying to brute-force his way through. This was certainly what Loimos had intended. The goal was for Ridfoirn to figure something out in the face of a problem.

The zombie believed that the answer was rather simple, however. He needed to learn and master Volonstone. He needed to expand his horizon, all the while becoming more attuned and knowledgeable about the weapon used by his enemies.

Since learning alone would be a waste, he made sure that his acolytes were also all going to be learning this new way of power.

Once it was done, it would certainly allow them to tilt the playing field in their favour as they would have what was essentially insider information…

Still… This was going to take a long while.