Zeph flinched when the undead soldiers stomped their feet against the ground in unison. At the same time, they lifted their swords and weapons into position, the synchronized movement carrying a sense of discipline as though it was something they had done countless times before.
From the direction where the opposing force had appeared, Zeph gradually began to make out what was waiting beyond the hill. They were undead soldiers as well. Their silhouettes and the weapons they carried made that obvious enough even from a distance.
These were the green-attributed undead soldiers.
“They are not about to exchange friendly greetings, are they?”
Because that certainly was not what this looked like.
The two undead armies seemed to be... preparing for war.
Zeph stepped backward as the undead soldiers around him began moving forward. Getting trapped in a battle between armies this large did not sound like a pleasant experience for him.
The undead soldiers descending from the hill soon advanced as well. They charged down from both the left and right sides at remarkable speed. It was astonishingly fast, especially as the undead army below simultaneously prepared itself for the coming clash.
Zeph continued retreating, occasionally breaking into a run to create even more distance. He had already reached the very back of the formation when exactly what he had expected finally happened.
The two undead armies crashed into one another.
They charged forward and collided head-on. Steel met steel as the clash erupted, and moments later the battlefield descended into full-scale war.
“They really are fighting, just like I thought,” he said quietly. “Are they continuing a war that began long before they became undead?”
Zeph remained at the rear, watching the two undead armies tear into each other. They slashed, shoved, and stabbed relentlessly. Yet it was clear that they were not killed nearly as easily as living creatures.
Swords pierced through armor and slipped between the gaps of their ribs, but such wounds barely affected them. Unless they were knocked to the ground and their skulls crushed apart, they would simply continue fighting.
“If this war keeps going...” Zeph murmured. “What if the number of the undead eventually drops to zero?”
He swallowed nervously as the thought crossed his mind.
Because if that happened, Zeph would lose his greatest tool for navigating this rift. These undead were not only providing him with free loot, but they were also protecting him from monster attacks that would otherwise put his life at risk. As long as they remained around, surviving inside this vast and dangerous rift was far easier than it should have been.
“This war has to stop,” Zeph said, a little nervous.
He tried to move closer to the rearmost line, but he froze when a severed hand suddenly flew toward him. A moment later, a head still wearing its helmet came spinning through the air in his direction.
He dodged just before it slammed into his chest. He kicked the head away as well, checking whether it could still move or not.
The problem was that these undead seemed unable to rise again once their heads had been severed. He glanced up at the moon and realized dawn was still a long way off.
If this continued, the undead would truly wipe each other out through endless fighting. Zeph had to do something.
He then turned toward the forest. After thinking for a moment, he swallowed hard at the thought of what he was about to do. He did not have much time.
Zeph broke into a run, moving so fast that he reached the line of trees leading deeper into the forest in no time.
He swallowed once more, weighing everything he needed to do. He had an idea, but he had no way of knowing whether it would work. In the end, he simply followed his instincts.
He rushed inside, slashing through branches and dry bushes with his sword. Then he quickly gathered piles of dry leaves and twigs into one spot. He moved with remarkable speed, and within minutes he had built a sizeable mound.
He crouched beside it for a moment, then pulled a lighter from his pocket and tried to start a fire. The flame flickered weakly at first before catching on a patch of dry leaves. It was difficult in the beginning, and the fire stubbornly refused to stay lit.
He removed his wolfskin cloak and shielded the pile from the wind. After that, the flame finally began to grow. He stayed there for several moments, making sure the fire became strong enough before moving away.
The flames spread quickly, devouring the dry leaves and brittle branches. This could work.
Zeph then moved around gathering even more dry material to feed the growing blaze. He felt fairly confident about this task. He had done something similar before, and he had even managed to burn down an entire large storage warehouse.
After some time, Zeph ran back out and looked at his masterpiece, which was now blazing fiercely and sending thick smoke high into the sky.
“There’s no way the whole forest will burn down from a fire this small, right?”
He then took off running again, refusing to think too much about it. He pushed himself as far away as possible, passing through the battlefield where the undead were still fighting and putting more distance between himself and the fire he had started.
Eventually, he found a spot high enough to climb onto a hillside, where he could watch whatever happened next. He searched for a place comfortable enough to settle down and wait. He remained there for a while.
“This is going to work.”
Zeph waited there, watching the battle between the two armies of undead soldiers. The clash was both brutal and relentless, a strange and unsettling war where two sides that had already died were brought back to life only to force the other side into eternal sleep once again.
Then, in the distance, the thing Zeph had been waiting for finally began to happen.
Movement emerged from the direction of the forest, where the fire was clearly visible even from this far away. The flames had not spread as quickly as Zeph had hoped, but they were still burning steadily, consuming several sections of the woodland.
“Those massive trees won’t burn that easily.”
Still, there were dry bushes and patches of dead vegetation scattered throughout the area, more than enough to fuel the growing blaze.
Shapes began to emerge from the forest.
At first there were only a few, but their numbers quickly became overwhelming.
Zeph straightened up as he watched what was happening. Groups of monsters poured out from the forest. Dozens of them, perhaps even hundreds. They seemed driven out by both the ongoing battle between the undead and the massive fire raging behind them.
Zeph flinched when the first violent collision erupted as the horde of monsters crashed directly into the undead forces.
He adjusted his sitting position, preparing himself to watch the even greater chaos that was about to unfold during the night.
“Those undead always seem to prioritize killing any monsters that come near them.”
And that was exactly what began to happen.
The undead stopped fighting one another. Instead, they turned their attention toward the monsters and moved to intercept them. The creatures scattered in all directions, only to be surrounded and attacked by other undead moments later.
And the outcome Zeph had hoped for… Was finally starting to become reality.
He opened his backpack again and pulled out whatever supplies he still had inside. A water bottle that was already running low and a few snacks.
“I need to find a new source of food after this,” he muttered quietly.
He briefly considered taking meat from the monsters. It should be possible to roast it over a fire.
He had once read that monster meat was actually edible, especially when the creature had been freshly killed. The cooking process was not particularly complicated either. It could simply be slow-roasted over a fire with nothing more than a bit of salt.
It would probably be tougher than normal meat, but it contained a good amount of protein. On top of that, it was said to provide beneficial effects when cultivating a mana core.
The thought alone almost made him drool.
He continued watching the battle, his legs swinging lazily as the chaos unfolded below. The only unfortunate part was that Zeph could not go down there and harvest mana cores himself.
A battlefield this chaotic was far too dangerous. If he got caught in the middle of the fighting, there was a good chance he would end up injured or worse.
Getting slashed by a sword or torn apart by a monster’s claws was seriously not an experience anyone would enjoy. Even with his fast regeneration, it would still be incredibly painful.
Even worse would be surviving through all of it. Being trampled, cut by blades, and battered from every direction while remaining alive afterward sounded even more miserable. He would have to endure every second of that suffering.
So, yeah… He was perfectly fine staying right where he was.
At the very least, the rate at which the undead were being destroyed seemed lower now. With the monsters invading the battlefield, the undead had no choice but to work together against a common enemy.
Zeph leaned back against a tree and relaxed.
Maybe it would be better to get some sleep and see how everything turned out when morning finally arrived.
**
Zeph stirred after what felt like an incredibly deep sleep.
More accurately, he woke up because he could feel the sunlight striking his face and the air had become noticeably warmer compared to the chill of the previous night.
The moment he opened his eyes, he realized that daytime had fully arrived.
He moved forward and looked toward the battlefield where, the night before, three different factions had been locked in a fierce and chaotic conflict.
He saw the undead lying motionless on the ground once again, along with the corpses of countless monsters scattered across the area.
Judging by the position of the sun, it was already around midday. It seemed he had slept much longer than he intended.
He quickly stood up and brushed the dirt from his pants. After taking a small drink of water to refresh himself, he stretched his muscles for a moment.
Living inside this rift was making Zeph feel like he desperately needed a bath. At this point, he was covered in a mixture of dust, dried blood, and the disgusting stench left behind by the undead. The combination was truly awful.
He started moving, making his way down the hillside with energy that had completely recovered compared to the last thing he remembered before falling asleep.
How many days had he been inside this rift already?
After some time, Zeph began walking across the battlefield. As he moved through the area, he noticed that many of the undead bodies were still largely intact. In theory, they should be able to rise again once night falls, returning in much the same condition as before.
“There are a lot of monster corpses too,” he said afterward, though a small concern lingered in the back of his mind.
He began searching for an axe. After a while, he managed to find several among the scattered remains. Once that was done, he wandered through the battlefield looking for the freshest monster carcass he could find before starting his work.
“If night comes and these undead rise again, they’ll just go back to fighting each other. That’s going to be a problem.”
Should he deliberately destroy the corpses belonging to one side? That way, when the undead rose again, a single faction could easily defeat the other. They could then continue hunting monsters. It would give Zeph another opportunity to take advantage of the situation.
Or perhaps he could move the bodies instead and separate the two armies. If they awakened far enough apart, maybe they would not immediately resume their war against each other.
However, that sounded like a task that would take a considerable amount of time. And Zeph still had no idea what goal he was supposed to reach inside this rift before it could be considered cleared.
Did he need to find the dungeon boss and kill it? If so, what exactly was it? And where was it hiding?
Should he use these undead armies to wipe out every monster within the rift instead? Or should he prioritize finding the other nine people who had entered with him?
There were too many questions and not enough answers.
But there was one thing he knew he had to do right now.
He needed to collect every monster core left behind after the battle.
A grin slowly spread across his face as the thought crossed his mind.