Bear School Astartes-Chapter 869 - 852: Undead

"Helping each other during a journey is a given."

The old knight said nonchalantly, appearing to be a righteous person.

And obviously, even a wandering knight should know more than a group of lumberjacks. What’s more, Fodolink’s earlier hesitant demeanor clearly suggested he had a complicated identity.

Lann was pondering how to gather more information from him.

The old knight himself slung the small shield onto his back and, holding his flame-shaped greatsword, precisely and steadily used the tip to lift the clothing off the bodies of the lumberjacks on the ground.

Lann noticed a strange phenomenon on the upper bodies of these lumberjacks.

Black ’holes’ had appeared on them.

They weren’t wounds from when Fodolink killed them earlier, but simple, bottomless ’holes.’

The largest of these holes was the size of an orange, while the smallest resembled a cherry.

They seemed very deep, yet one couldn’t see through the openings to glimpse the other side of the lumberjacks’ emaciated bodies.

It was as if the exits of these holes were connected to some non-material aspect of their being. What appeared before others was only an entrance tied to the physical level.

"So many and such large Rings of Darkness... looks like they’ve died many times already."

Fodolink said calmly, then turned his attention away from the corpses.

With Lann’s hearing, there was no way he couldn’t hear clearly at that distance. But to gather intelligence, he skillfully feigned a bewildered expression, blinking at the old knight.

Someone who can perceive others’ emotions must also be an adept actor.

"What? I didn’t quite catch that. What did you say just now?"

"I said these undead have died many times; their humanity has nearly drained out of the Rings of Darkness."

Fodolink, with a good nature, slightly raised his voice and explained in more detail when he saw Lann’s genuinely bewildered expression.

"Looking at their intact clothes, it’s likely they starved to death here alive many times. After all, there are quite a few undead on the mountain path back to the Undead Settlement that have already turned into lost souls."

"Perhaps they didn’t dare go back, so they just kept dying here many times over. As their humanity leaks away, they become muddled, their memory deteriorates, and they forget even the fact they have died."

Lann nodded silently, indicating he had heard clearly this time.

After all, continuing to feign ignorance would only seem too clueless.

Mentos and Lann mentally compiled the intelligence they had gathered: this phenomenon of dying and coming back to life is locally referred to as the "Undead," aptly named for its seemingly incredible immunity to death.

Whether starved or chopped to death, nothing seems to stop their revival.

Yet in the process of dying and resurrecting, humanity is lost.

Lann licked his lips, sensing that the "humanity" Fodolink referred to might not be the same as the "humanity" he knew in his daily context.

In Lann’s familiar everyday context, "humanity" refers to a person’s empathy, compassion, and the outward manifestations of those feelings.

But in Fodolink’s words, "humanity" of this world seemed to be... a tangible substance, an energy metric.

Losing this thing severely impairs a person’s cognitive and memory abilities, even to the point of forgetting their past painful deaths.

When the undead’s "humanity" is completely drained, they turn into these wandering souls.

The crucial point is ’leakage.’

Mentos specifically highlighted this term in red.

Because if the undead’s revival process ’consumed’ humanity, then as long as you killed them several times, they’d eventually run out.

However, since it ’leaks,’ it signifies that the loss of humanity is merely a phenomenon generated during the undead process.

The undead’s resurrection results in the loss of humanity, and even when humanity is exhausted, it will not affect their physical revival.

The outcome is the group of lumberjack souls lying before the two.

Is this some kind of curse?

In Lann’s understanding, only a curse could accomplish something so unreasonable.

"Undead"... and by the sound of it, there are quite a number of "Undead."

A massive curse.

Lann couldn’t help but grind his molars; this feeling eerily reminiscent of when he first arrived in Yan’an made him uneasy.

The beastification plague in Yan City back then was deemed by him as a super large-scale curse.

Fodolink watched the bodies on the ground for a while, his old and deep eyes seemed filled with many thoughts and feelings.

But that was all; he shook his head heavily at the bodies, slinging his flame-shaped greatsword over his back and turned to leave.

Without turning his head, he waved to the Demon Hunter behind him.

"Come on, I need to return to the Undead Settlement for supplies as well; you can tag along, ’young master.’ Although it’s poor and chaotic there, it’s at least a place where you can handle some of the undead that have suddenly turned into lost souls, so it’s relatively safe."

He teased Lann’s exhibited ignorance about the undead good-naturedly.

In his eyes, anyone in today’s world who had never encountered an undead must indeed be a ’young master,’ catered to and well-protected.

After all... Prince Losric had delayed for too long.

The Fire-keeping Ceremony, which should have been held long ago...

Lann seamlessly followed Fodolink’s pace and casually asked.

"Just leaving their bodies here?"

Aren’t there any ways to handle these undead?

"Even if you pound them into pulp or bury them underground, the undead will still revive. There’s nothing to be done."

Fodolink felt he almost understood Lann’s identity, so he could accept this level of ’ignorance’ exhibited by him.

"However, I did take quite a bit of their blood just now, and losing body fluids can significantly delay the undead’s revival process."

Lann’s brow relaxed a bit, finally having a way to somewhat tackle the undead.

Drawing blood... then his Qi Flow Blade would certainly fit the bill.

Their ’undying’ state isn’t the fault of the undead, but their fault lies in becoming a soul with an intense, indiscriminate urge to attack once deprived of humanity.

Killing ordinary people amounts to murder. But if one kills other undead, the result would be like the group of lumberjacks Lann faced earlier.

The more wandering souls killed, the more accumulate... it’s like a madness spread by murder.

In the end, if it cannot be contained...

Lann and Mentos both pondered the picture at that time.

Though knights in this world seem to have abilities beyond ordinary people, the foundation of the feudal kingdom’s rule is ultimately the vast number of commoners.

In terms of organizational ability in the feudal era, if a wandering soul outbreak were to occur among the undead, it could likely result in something akin to a scene of national destruction?