[NR] Full Saturation - Chapter 674

It is unfortunate for the power behind the undead that an army of ghouls is less trouble than one of zombies. Or rather, compared to the sheer quantity of zombies that could come through, the few ghouls were easy enough to stop. And so the attempt to take out Jason, instead turned into the easiest wave of the night.

Then that night and the next passed by and Siegfried received unfortunate news about the waves. They’re getting bigger. While limited by what can push through the soil at one time. The overall power level of beings that can be sent through was increasing and not by just simple addition.

After the third night, Siegfried finds himself in front of the council once again. “We’re still in contact with the outside world, have the kingdom’s diviners got any information on how many nights this will last? We can hold out for a good while with our food reserves. However, before we run out of food, the undead assaulting us will be strong enough to ignore us and our wall.”

One of the council members speaks up, “You know how diviners, even those backed by the System, are. We don’t have a timeline. However, they show only a major misfortune. So the System isn’t specifically testing us to destruction. We face doom and yet are not condemned to it. I, uh, don’t feel better knowing this, but maybe it will help us know?”

Siegfried sighs, “If we were anywhere besides the edge of the Deep Wilds, I would be happy with that. Not because the Deep Wilds could stop the System from closing the graveyard from further undead. Rather, because the best way to go against a prophecy of any sort is to get adventurers involved, especially those that are travellers. We’ve got three.”

Later that day, Siegfried meets up with Jason, Rosha, and Courtney. “I hate to ask this, but do you have any friends nearby that might want to pop by and help?”

Jason and Rosha both shake their heads, but Courtney quirks an eyebrow up, “Bad prophecy?”

Siegfried sighs, “Not bad bad, but we certainly don’t know how many nights this will take.”

Courtney shrugs, “Sad to say, while me and Rosha do have contact with others, none of them are close enough to matter. Have you talked to your sister? She might not be in on the martial side of things, but Helina might be able to help predict the waves some. Not what is showing up, but how much should be there so we can at least be on the lookout for powerful foes and such.”

Siegfried, “We can certainly ask, though the specific undead is fully out of the realm to guess. Basic undead are easy enough, but anything beyond that can get weird if someone is behind them. That goes doubly so for the Deep Wilds.”

Still, the group heads over to Helina’s office, which is pretty busy. After all, she is in charge of community supplies, which includes things like food and ammo. Though much of what she is personally dealing with is of a more irritating sort of task and so she gladly pushes the people out of her office. “What’s up?”

Courtney, “We want to see if you can help predict how powerful the undead will be going forward.”

Helina shrugs, “A graph or two should be enough for that. Why can’t you do it? I’m not saying I can’t, just that for some simple math like this, you should be enough.”

Siegfried sighs, “If only it were that simple. At first we figured it was some set increase, even if it wasn’t a simple plus one to the quantity or some such. Maybe the strangeness we saw was a simple matter of the force on the other end not always using their entire pool of resources or not having enough space. Except that doesn’t seem to be the case.”

Helina shrugs, “Fair enough, let me take a crack at it. Though I’ll want your help, Courtney. I suspect you probably got a better handle on the undead we’re seeing than the rest of us.”

Courtney couldn’t exactly deny this. She has spent the last couple days familiarizing herself with what they had seen and might see in the coming days.

So without further ado and completely ignoring the whiny rich people outside the office that had been complaining about rationing, the two get to work on the information. Even on the first night, Siegfried had multiple people keeping track of how many and what type of undead were in each wave. Those people didn’t always agree, but after comparing the numbers, the counts were accurate plus or minus only a few zombies.

Of course, since this was something others had already gone over, it wasn’t a simple task. In fact, Courtney and Helina end up working on the math through the rest of the day and into the night, Courtney even missing the night’s undead.

Though that night saw an important change in the make-up of the waves. It seems the zombies had reached full saturation. Not even a mass grave could cause such an eruption of zombies to happen. It is only by magic that they rise up out of the ground.

And once out of the ground, the zombies on the outside end up falling over as the magic no longer holds them packed together, pushed by the sheer mass of undead flesh. With this, another form of undead shows up. 

Until now, the zombies all maintained that classic look of a dead person with decayed clothes. The last three waves of the night instead now contained a single advanced zombie. Not the same one either.

Siegfried had this new information rushed to the two, except at some point they had worked themselves to sleep. Whatever information could be gleaned from this change would have to wait for them to wake up. Though Siegfried was worried that there were both warrior zombies and green-haired zombies showing up. It is not normal to mix and match such basic evolutionary forms.