[SD:DD] Negative Or Necromancy? - Chapter 7

The “undead” houses are super obvious once they become visible. Samuel spots the first with only a little prompting from Gem.

It is an odd mix of well-preserved and rotten. The bricks are mostly there and look to be in near-perfect condition. Which is odd on the face of it, as every other structure had the edges worn off.

Except where the bricks are missing. In those sections, there are advanced signs of decay. Not just the edges being worn smooth, but discoloration and parts that look almost as if the bricks had melted away.

Besides that, there was a feel in the air. Not a scent, though some might think of it like that. The closer they got, the air began to feel stagnant. Which when in the middle of a dust storm, is not what you expect.

Gem frowns, “Well, looks like whatever is happening here, my resistance isn’t so resisty.”

Emrys shrugs, “Eh, if before it was mostly Air damage, I would guess there’s now necromancy added in. I wonder if that means actual necromantic Mana or simply negatively charged Air Mana?”

Samuel, “What difference would that make? We’re dealing with the undead. Presumably, we still haven’t seen any. Wouldn’t the undead be powered by necromantic Mana and any spellcasters therefore be using negatively charged spells?”

Emrys sighs, “There’s a big difference. Mainly because ‘negative’ Mana can cause undead to form naturally. While actual necromancy requires someone to have set things up.”

Smash

The three turn towards the building and see Gem through an empty window.

Gem looks back towards them and shrugs, “Nothing in here either.”

Samuel sighs, “Fine.”

June shrugs at him, “I will admit, it is rude of them. Do you want me to talk to them? I think they’re a bit lost in it right now and not really paying attention.”

Samuel snorts, “They should know what they’re doing wrong. If they can’t figure that out, what’s the point of talking about it?” And as he says that, more sounds of smashing can be heard from within the building.

Samuel turns away from the building Gem is in and goes to check the next. “Bah, there are reasons most successful companies in the game have a bunch of rules. And there are certainly more than a few of the top guilds that have strict codes of conduct.”

He might have said more, but the dust storm was already noisy and within the stagnant feeling area, noise seems to die out faster.

Emrys shrugs at June, “Yeah, that’s a bunch of nonsense. More than a few? More like the more populous guilds that hold on to the bottom of the charts. The true top guilds tend to just let their power players do as they will.

“Oh sure, some of them do this by forcing their idea of rules on the lower guild members. Most though? They let the guild admins handle the lower ranks as they quest for their own power.”

June sighs, “That’s nice, but my problem is this is exactly the kind of situation that leads to misunderstandings! Like, you can’t expect someone to know what you’re thinking. He needs to talk to them.”

Emrys laughs, “Oh, that? Yeah, like a TV drama or some such. So, are you going to talk to Gem about it?”

June glances between the two buildings, “I don’t know. I have a feeling the two of them might not get along on some basic level.”

Emrys, “Well, he is the Order to their Chaos?”

June shakes her head, “Meh, we’re getting along just fine. Besides, you brought up those top guilds? More than a few have all four locks at the top. Someone that is Lawful can be friends with a Chaotic, seeing the chaos they cause as something to work on.”

Emrys, “Well, we better gather them or we’ll certainly find those undead while separated.”

The two of them grab Gem from the one building and head over to the other, finding Samuel surrounded by a number of piles of dust.

June, “Well, we should probably head deeper yet. Gem, can you still see deeper in?”

Gem shrugs, “Nah. In fact, I bet that normally I’d have been able to see even further than the first set of buildings. Whatever it is that’s defeating my resistance is working across the board.”

June turns to Samuel. He shrugs, “We’re seeing as much as you are. We’ll just have to move forward, finding what’s ahead of us one set of buildings at a time. This honestly feels like we’re in some sort of strategy game and are dealing with the fog of war.”

Gem laughs, “I wouldn’t put it past some entity creating exactly that sort of situation. Though I’m guessing this is simply an unplanned, of happy, accident by whatever set up this zone.”

There wasn’t much else to say about the subject and Samuel had done a pretty good job of clearing this building, so the party moved on.

A few more coins, simple gold pieces, were discovered and given to Samuel. Though the preserved buildings remain empty. In fact, when the group finally comes across the first evidence of who has lived here, their remains are laid out in the middle of what might have been a packed-earth street.

Gem rushes up to the dedicated body, takes a small leap up, pulls their spear out, and comes down point first on the bodies head. Said head is easily pierced, shattering under the force. Though, unexpectedly to Gem, that is all the reaction they get from the body.

Gem takes one hand off the spear and scratches their head, “Huh, that was the perfect set up to introduce us to the undead.”

Emrys walks up beside them, “Well, if you managed to one-shot them, there wouldn’t be much evidence.”

He bends down and glares at the corpse, his eyes glowing for a brief moment. “Hmm, not seeing any active Mana residue. Even if it was an undead, this thing has been re-dead too long to tell. Though it certainly doesn’t help that the local Mana field is already so negative.”

June, “What was that?”

Emrys looks up, eyebrow quirked, “Something you aren’t on top of? It’s just ranked up ‘Sense Mana’. I got a version called ‘Researcher’s Mana Sense’. Gave it an active component. Well, more active.”

June rolls her eyes, “I’m not going to know literally everything. I simply know more because I’m hanging out in pretty exclusive circles.”

Gem, “If by exclusive, you mean all Sai.”

June, “That’s still pretty exclusive. Also, it won’t be just Sai. There’s some interesting options coming soon.”

Gem’s ears perk up and their tail swishes aggressively, “Better VR? Because you’re not the only one with information and I know the reason others can’t join the special Sai locations is latency and fidelity.”

June glares, “People aren’t exactly supposed to know that sort of thing.”

Gem shrugs, “As if that ever stopped anyone. I looked heavily into that kind of stuff when the first game was released. Sci-fi is not my thing so I was looking for another way in.

“Well, it seems Sai aren’t immune to frustration when going in circles on a call.” Gem wiggles their eyebrows, “Only took a couple days to wear the one down enough for them to announce that to me in a real high-quality customer service voice. You know, the kind that is totally polite yet you can feel the hate?”

Emrys bends over with laughter, “I can see that! Though I have to ask, how did you keep it up? Not to be rude, but you don’t seem to be the type to do that sort of thing.”

Gem shrugs, “I’m always up for a nice bit of arguing. As long as someone doesn’t devolve to things like personal insults? I can keep it going for days!”

Samuel scoffs, “They had the wrong people handling calls. You need a proper sort to handle tricky customer support calls.”

June, “Whatever, I’ll just say that isn’t right, but not entirely wrong.”

Gem nods, “Okie dokie, now, deeper we go! Onward, to victory!” And they move down the road with the corpse on it.

The four pass by buildings of all sorts. The only consistent feature is a vague “desert” theme. Which isn’t really much of a connection at all when you’re in a desert.

One building will look like a two-story shop and house combo. Next door is a large structure that none of the four can figure out the use for. They’re six buildings deeper before June figures it out.

She gestures everyone to come to the edge of the building. “Take a closer look at this.” June squats down and points at a spot on the ground.

The others gather around, but can’t make heads or tails of it.

Emrys shrugs, “My Mana Sense isn’t picking anything up. At most, that looks like a line in the same, which I didn’t think we were quite to the point of drawing yet.”

June traces the line until it meets up with the nearby building. “This isn’t just a line in the sand. It is where a wall used to run. I think whatever is here? It’s been shifting and rebuilding.”

Samuel gestures at the building in front of them where there is a large rotted out hole. “Rebuild? Doesn’t look like it.”

June, “Ignore the obvious signs. That would be like looking at a Dullahan and wondering why when at full health, its head doesn’t become reattached. The damage you see is just the nature of the undead. They don’t grow, they stagnate at best.

“Honestly, now that I think about it, they must have done Something! I mean, look at the gaps between buildings despite this having all the appearances of being a well-populated area. The buildings should be packed much tighter, if not right up against each other.”

Emrys, “Well, if that is the case we should find more evidence.” He turns to Gem, “I assume you can manipulate Mana to some extent?”

Gem nods and he continues, “Well, then how about you cause a bit of a stiff breeze and we see what there is to see?”

Gem laughs, “That’s one way to handle things! We’ll have to be quick though, as I assume this windstorm won’t exactly stop and the sand will soon return. Oh, and I’ve only ever manipulated my Wind Blades, so this might take a second.”

Samuel shrugs at that, June nods, and Emrys smiles and says, “We aren’t exactly in a rush.”

So, Gem settles into the ground, sitting cross-legged because popular media tends to portray meditation being like that. Though they don’t close their eyes and hum. That seemed a little too far. Besides, they wanted to see what was going to happen.

Of course, they immediately ran into difficulties. Any attempt to grab onto the external Mana gives a chilling feeling and makes them feel sick. The Mana itself seemed to seize up under their prodding. Only feel, though. There are no actual physical effects.

Gem, “Blarg, feels like putting my hand in ice water or some such. I guess that’s the whole ‘negative’ air thing. Despite the actual air moving, the Air Mana feels like the what’s it called. The goop that is liquid, but resists you?”

Samuel, “You mean the cornstarch and water thing? I remember that specific mixture is called oobleck. Not the concept though.”

Emrys, “Oh yeah! I remember playing with that in school. I think it’s called a ‘non-Newtonian’ fluid. The more force you apply, the more solid it becomes.”

Gem nods and points at Emrys, “That! That’s the word I’m looking for. The Mana is flowing slightly, even if generally stagnant, but the second I try to push it around, it hardens.”

Emrys frowns, “Well, that certainly sounds like a negative form of Air. Can you push through it?”

Gem focuses on moving the Mana, their tail still and tongue poking out as they concentrate. The Mana really doesn’t want to go along with their orders. Except, the more they poke at it, the more it seems to “warm” up.

Though the use of the word warm is more because of the connection to “negative” than any actual temperature change. Even if Gem does notice that the stagnant area does seem to be slightly chiller than where they just came from. The difference is so small that it could be something else or simply their misremembering.

Whatever the case, once the Air Mana “warms” up to their touch, it becomes much easier for Gem to swirl it about. So after a good ten or so minutes of sitting there, the wind itself follows suit and forms a bit of a cyclone around them. And with that, Gem manages to pull down air, have it drop and sand directly around them, and then swirl outward. Which does a decent job of sweeping away the loose sand, if leaving them half buried in turn.

Smashing Pots - Chapter 6

The Magic Smoke Is Escaping - Chapter 8