Koyuki, the Necromancing Foxkin

CHAPTER 371: A short Trip

The next day we decided to go on a short trip since neither Cassie's mother, nor Skadi's parents had arrived yet. Hans had mentioned some undead and his men had a lead, so we decided to investigate. It might also be a great opportunity to see Goro in action.

The carriage was not suitable for the terrain so we borrowed some horses from Hans. We left all the tier two's at home, except for Goro. Kaito used him as a mount while Rose and Hatsumi rode Garm. The cats split up between the mounts and Nyx joined me on Coffee. She sat on his head, something the horse did not seem to be too bothered about. Nyx' ability to not fall off the heads she was sitting on was truly remarkable.

Helena took the lead since she knew the area. "The scouts said the undead have been seen near the base of the mountain. Further, the last patrol encountered some in the forest when they checked for any vampiric nightshades, so we are going to start our search there. The mountains are rather steep in that area and the forest extends right up to the mountain face."

"How did they come down the mountain then? There must be a path." Skadi said.

"I am thinking they are coming from a cave. There are few but usually they house monsters, or goblins. Whenever the goblin activity increases daddy sends some troops to clear the caves. But you have to be careful, if you go too deep there are nasty things, like tunnel crawlers."

"What's a tunnel crawler?" I asked.

"Imagine an acid spitting ant the size of a wolf. Armour does not do much against them so regular soldiers have high casualty rates when fighting them. You need mages with magical shields. Or bombs."

Cassie grinned. "I can do bombs."

"We also have magical shield spells." I pointed out.

"I can lob bombs from behind a magical shield." Cassie added.

"You have to be careful inside a tunnel or you will collapse it." Helena cautioned.

"Fire and smoke can cause problems with breathing, so that is also a concern when you are underground." Skadi added.

"Ha, breathing is a mortal weakness." Garm stated.

"Being crushed is a universal weakness though." I countered.

"True. However, we undead tend to be more durable. At least the more refined undead." Garm said.

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"Speaking of undead, why would undead emerge from a cave suddenly?" I asked.

"Depends on the undead. There are a surprising amount of monsters and animals in those mountains and the dead often rise after a while. There are also adventurers who fall. However, there is a theory that the mountain holds ancient cities filled with corpses and undead. That rumour lures in fools who then become undead themselves." Helena explained. "Oh, and there are criminals, like the Brotherhood, who hide in the mountains."

"You think they are behind the recent undead?" I asked.

"Daddy does not think so but I am not sure. There are also normal bandits who hide in the mountains and die to the wildlife. It could just be a gang of criminals who made their camp inside the wrong cave."

"What animates all those dead?" I asked.

"There just seems to be some death mana in those mountains. It could be an ancient undead who lives there but those are just rumours." Helena replied.

"The Devourer could be ancient." Cassie said.

"But it is a feline, it would be way too lazy to animate every corpse there." I countered.

"Meow." Nyx agreed.

We continued our conversation as we rode towards the search area. The forest had a lot of evergreen trees and snow was covering most of them. A road led through it connecting the nearby towns but our goal was to search near the mountain face. As we left the road we dismounted and led our horses on foot.

"Are there any specific monsters we should be aware of?" Kaito asked.

"No, we should be fine. The road is well patrolled and Garm's presence will deter a lot of attacks. Most monsters are not smart enough to detect a vampire, or a mage, but Garm is something they would see as a threat." Helena explained. "If we enter a cave we have to look for signs of crawlers. We can deal with a few with our magic but once we start encountering them we leave."

"Do crawlers have blood?" Hatsumi asked.

"They have some form of liquid but I doubt that it counts as blood." Helena replied.

"Unfortunate." Hatsumi replied.

"I prefer not to bite some acidic bug anyway." Rose said.

"Oh, I think I might be able to use their acid! I have some empty bottles with me, we should try to kill one and harvest it!" Cassie said.

"Helena warned us to avoid them." I pointed out.

"I am not saying that we shall pull their entire clan, nest, hive, or however their groups are called, I am just saying we could take out one, or two." Cassie clarified.

"Are you now interested in acids?" Skadi asked.

"Not particularly but with the right combination of ingredients it might explode." Cassie replied.

"Ah, good. For a moment I was worried about you." Skai teased.

Cassie replied by sticking out her tongue.

"I guess I wouldn't say no to a crawler corpse, if we kill one." I mused.

"As I have said, we can deal with a few." Helena stated. "But they can swarm you if you are not careful. We certainly don't want to go near any nest. For now we are looking for undead but I guess killing a crawler or two would not hurt. I do admit the idea of Koyuki animating a swarm of crawlers sounds appealing."

"A swarm might be a bit much…" I said.

"But you need an army to pay for me." Helena teased.

"What?" Skadi asked.

"Koyuki promised my father an army for my hand in marriage, it's quite romantic." Helena said.

"No, it was a joke!" I insisted, while blushing.

"You are bad at haggling, Koyuki. I could have gotten you Helena for a squad." Skadi teased.

I sighed, then I tried to change the subject: "Garm, can you smell something undead? Maybe we can use your nose to find them."

"I haven't noticed anything so far but perhaps I can smell a cave entrance, once we find a cave. I do wonder how a natural undead tastes? I am curious about devouring one." Garm replied.

"In about 15 minutes or so we should reach the first cave." Helena stated.

"Really? I do believe I can see one already." Kaito stated and pointed ahead. Between the trees you could see the cliff face and there was indeed an opening. It was surrounded by smaller rocks, as if something had blasted a hole in it.

"Huh, I think that one is new." Helena said.