Chapter 1278: Sentient Undead
The First ghost felt a bit awkward. Even though Sam's face is not fully revealed, he could see just from his eyes, that Sam has understood what he is hinting at.
Being exposed this bluntly made him a bit embarrassed, but he took a deep breath and spoke.
"Unless, we finish the task right now. We made a pact that we would catch that Sentient undead ourselves, but the external factors around the forest are making it a bit difficult. The undead creatures in the surroundings are extremely defensive when it comes to this one's defense.
From what we could guess, this sentient undead is actually planning on gathering a large enough undead army so that it can invade on this town.
It has already gained enough power to create undead from corpses. It is only short of an artificial core formation for it to become a complete undead creature and the starting stage of it would be Initial Stage Transcendent stage of Astral Plane.
Which means..?
"I know what it means." Sam replied as he went into deep thought. He didn't expect to come across a sentient undead creature in a place like this.
The sentient undead creature they are talking about is completely different from the undead creatures like the vampire and ghouls who have sentience to do their own things, rather this sentient undead is a completely normal undead that became sentient because of the natural causes.
It might be because of the long time it spent in the death energy to gain a spirit by itself, or a ghost or a specter that was forcefully attached to its body and slowly it strengthened enough to form its own consciousness. But either way, it is not exactly a good thing.
This thing is actually an abomination even vampires and ghouls wouldn't let spawn. It is possible to artificially create this, but no one wants to do it, because anyone who did it in the history became a prey for this undead creature and turned into its food.
This undead creature is like any other undead creature, it has no pain, fear or other emotions, but it has extreme hunger and has intellect on top of all of that which makes it dangerous than any other undead.
Once an undead manages to grow an artificial core, things would be even more problematic. It would be nothing short of a cultivator and growing its strength is extremely easy. It just has to feast on the vitality of living beings and soon it can help other undead creatures go sentient as well.
Sam could imagine the nightmare the people of this realm will need to go through if that thing comes out with its army.
Not many people would be able to deal with these things.
Undead are actually terrifying creatures, the only thing they lack is a proper person who can use them wisely. Now that there is such a creature in the dark range there are not many good days left for the people in the town.
"So, you want me to help capture this creature?"
"In a way, yes. But we don't need you to attack it directly. We need you to help us stop the legion of undead it has in the valley and in the surrounding mountains.
From the past year, we have been doing expeditions solely related to this mission. We were trying to eliminate its greatest allies as well as to see the status of its enemies. Undying Wyvern family is one of the enemies and it is actually quite detterent force against the Sentient Undead.
But now they were gone. It seems like the sentient undead didn't know the special ability of the wyvern, so after they died, they became berserk in protecting their egg. Since the attackers that came at them must have already been injured, they must have left."
Sam nodded in understanding.
"So, what would you guys have done, if I am not here? If they went as far as destroying one of the deterrent forces, they must have had a lot of progress don't you think?"
"Yes, we had a different plan. We would have checked three more locations and based on the information we got, we would arrange a large expedition and show them a glimpse of what we know and what these undead creatures are capable of, then the other expeditions groups will be forced to work and then we would swoop in and capture this creature."
"Do you really think that the other expeditions groups don't know about this?"
"They do know. But they don't know the threat it pose to the town and the planet. They just view it as a source.
A source for a constant stream of undead creatures. After all, most of the corpses that we get from the dark range are from the creatures we wouldn't normally be able to hunt. The beasts come here based on their instincts for the resources, but they die in here and the expedition teams take their carcasses for the resources they provide.
But what they don't know is, that only one out of ten such creatures escapes the hands of this Sentient Undead."
"You guys are really smart. You planned this out well didn't you? But there is one thing I don't understand yet?"
"What is it?"
"Why are you constantly saying, that you want to capture this thing? You are not saying destroy or kill, you are asking to capture this thing, why?"
The first ghost hesitated a bit before saying.
"The Sentient undead is actually formed because of a ghost chimera. It is just too valuable of a source to pass on."
"A ghost chimera. This is an awfully weird coincidence isn't it?" Sam muttered slightly to himself.
"What?"
"Nothing. A ghost chimera, is not something that easily created, who did this?"
"We don't know, there is some sort of weirdo who wanted to create the chimera with the ghosts in the valley and wanted to devour it. But instead, the chimera devoured his soul. But he is strong enough to struggle and his sentience is being merged with all the negative emotions of the other souls in the chimera and they all took over his body."
"So, a humanoid sentient undead and the basis of its sentience is the set of negative emotions of the Ghost Chimera? Is that what you are saying?"
"Yes."
"It is very close to manifesting an artificial core and that too at the same power level as an Astral Plane transcendent stage?"
"Yes."
"You guys are in a tougher spot than you think. It is not easy to counter the ghost chimera."
"We know, we prepared something for that."
The three of them, then took out three formation flags with various inscriptions on them. Sam took a look at them and within two minutes, he understood what they are.
"Soul Purgatory formation. Where did you get this curse?"
"We found these on the spatial ring of the guy who created this chimera. When he was on the verge of collapse, he recorded the video of himself explaining the situation and sent it out with the help of an undead creature of his, which we captured."
Sam sighed. He didn't expect he has to go through this much just to get some assistants for himself. This is completely uncalled for.
He looked at the formation flags and said.
"This formation is incomplete and second rate. A chimera of that level will easily breakthrough from that."
"You know curse formations? But you are not a dark element user."
"Of course, I know. It is a long story, so I don't want to go there. But I know curses better than you do.
You guys need to modify this purgatory curse. The main element of this curse is not to capture the soul, rather to corner the soul.
This formation would make the soul go through an invisible passageway through which it feels the burning sensation. You need the wisps and consciousness of many tormented souls just like a chimera and integrate them.
They would divert all their emotions towards the soul that was trapped inside.
Their emotions would clash with the already existing emotions within the trapped soul and will make it go through the pain.
This is complicated guys. This would be such a drag."
"So, you agree to help us?"
"What choice do I have? I really need an assistant. That way, things would be lot easier. Anyway, go get ready for a few long days, you guys are going to be exhausted. We need to make some modifications on these formations."
"Why cant you do it?"
"Didn't you already say it before? I am not a dark element user." Sam gave him a side eyed glance and walked out.
"Come and meet me at my inn with the tools and those formation flags. Don't come empty handed though. Bring some captured specters and ghosts from the dark range.
Quality doesn't matter. Quantity is the key here. The more the better."