Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 1353 - 139: The Undead Caravan

Chapter 1353: Chapter 139: The Undead Caravan

"Step, step, step," heavy footsteps echoed in the eternal night of the Realm of the Dead.

The Three Ladies of Moonlight were about to depart from the night curtain, the cool light in the night sky gradually growing dim. In the sky, several Skeletal Vultures chased after the fading moonlight, vanishing into the mountains faintly visible on the horizon. These once fierce birds of prey, after becoming undead, no longer attacked the living at will due to the influence of the Will of the Grimreaper, but they retained their natural instincts from when they were alive. They enjoyed swooping down from the sky and pouncing on the undead creatures moving below. This habit gave the undead quite a headache, fortunately, the number of Skeletal Vultures that could be resurrected was so few that many undead would not see one for decades.

With the departure of the Skeletal Vultures, the plain by the mountain seemed even more silent. A light mist began to spread in all directions before nightfall, enveloping the entire plain. The heavy footsteps grew louder and louder, and suddenly, a giant beast five to six meters tall burst through the thin fog and appeared on the plain. Yet, the heavy footsteps did not cease with the appearance of the giant beast. Behind it, more of its kind emerged from the mist, and quickly, five giant beasts stood proudly on the plain, curiously surveying their surroundings as if seeing the world from this angle for the first time.

Although these bone giants were tall, they were not ferocious-looking. They had short, stout legs, a solid body, a broad and flat back, and an oval-shaped head mounted on a neck several meters long. The flexible neck allowed the head to rotate 360 degrees without a blind spot, while the long tail whistled through the air as it whipped back and forth. From their massive, heavy bodies and flat teeth, it was clear that these beasts had not been meat-eating predators when alive. Every feature on their bodies seemed to have evolved for the better consumption of plant matter.

If creatures from the Yarran World saw these giant beasts, they would certainly find them unfamiliar because they had never appeared before the people of that world. However, if scholars who specialized in paleobiology saw them, they would likely faint from excitement, for they would know that these creatures were ancient beasts that had gone extinct back in the First Epoch, now only remembered by the few bones occasionally unearthed. Perhaps only in this Realm of the Dead, littered with countless bones from the ancient to the Third Epoch, could one find such complete skeletons that... still moved.

Of course, the giant beasts were not wandering on their own. Behind each beast, two or three undead sat, along with a considerable amount of cargo. It was apparent that the undead had assembled a transport team using the skeletal remains of these creatures, and on the surface, it was almost indistinguishable from a merchant caravan from the World of the Living. Notably, the cargo on the third beast was not as plentiful, for behind it, apart from two undead handlers, eight visitors from the World of the Living also sat, jolting up and down with the thunderous footsteps of the beast.

"Thud, thud," the heavy footsteps grew slower and finally, the five bone giants stopped in the wilderness, slowly bending their short, thick limbs and kneeling down on the ground. The passengers quickly jumped off, and taking strange tools, they busied themselves with work. These undead were not unloading but rather were constructing supports on the back of each beast so that the cargo would have a sturdy base and not fall to the ground even if the creatures vanished. After completing this task, the lead undead of the transport team called out, and without knowing what the handlers of each giant beast did, one could see all five beasts’ bodies tremble simultaneously. Then, the bones that formed their bodies dispersed all at once, with various bones raining down from the sky like a shower, scattering on the ground and quickly piling up into small hillocks of white bones. It seemed something was squirming beneath the pile of bones, causing more bones to roll down the slopes. After writhing for a while, accompanied by the clattering sounds, the heaps were pushed up from below, and a horse’s skull emerged from the pile. The flickering Soul Fire within looked bewildered, as if unsure why it had suddenly reverted to its original form.

"Ha, your kind of skill is really convenient," Pannis praised beside the leader of the transport team. "When we first saw you turn five skeletal horses into five giant beasts, it truly gave us quite the scare. If we living beings could also have such a skill, the transport industry might undergo a revolutionary change."

"Unfortunately, that is a race-based talent unique to us Undead, which you will never be able to learn. I’m truly sorry," the leader’s voice was hoarse and deep, almost as grating as the sound of metal scraping. This leader was neither a skeleton nor a ghost, but a dried-up corpse, a mummy with skin wrapped around white bones, completely dehydrated. Different from the Divine Servant’s three moribund, this mummy was purely Undead, known in the main world as a Necromancer, naturally an Upper Rank Undead, with the weakest being of Gold Rank. Necromancers are quite rare among the Undead, and even within the Realm of the Dead, they are seldom seen. It had been nearly three days since they left the village of Nals, and on en route through many villages and towns, they had come across only this one Necromancer.

"It’s alright, Mr. Kenseth. Just witnessing such a miracle with our own eyes is satisfaction enough," Catherine said, smiling gratefully. "Speaking of which, we should be the ones thanking you. If you hadn’t agreed to let us ride your mounts, we would probably have covered less than half the distance by now, instead of making such rapid progress."

Just as the knight maiden said, because the village chief of Nals had mentioned that the King of the Undead urgently wanted to see them all, everyone set off early the next morning, hurrying on the road. However, they hadn’t gone far before encountering this merchant convoy transporting goods, led by the powerful Necromancer Kenseth, who could sense the uniqueness of Pannis and identified him as a guest of the Grimreaper. Without a second thought, he agreed to the request of the group to hitch a ride, and they rode the giant beasts all the way toward the capital.

"We can only take you this far," Necromancer Kenseth said regretfully. "We now need to head due north, whereas you need to go east. See those mountains over there? Once you cross them, you’ll be able to see the capital. I’m sorry, but with the goods, we can’t take you all the way to the capital. I hope the rest of your journey goes smoothly."

"You mustn’t say such things, Mr. Kenseth," Catherine responded, shaking her head. "We’ve been troubling you for the last couple of days, and we’re already quite embarrassed about it. These are some small trinkets we brought from The World of the Living, which we’d like to leave with you as a keepsake. We hope you like them."