Chapter 224: Heading In
Taking the first step outside into the hallway, Lake realized he just received the Exp from the undead that he had left in the staircase. That meant it had survived a few minutes with no head or core. He had kind of assumed nothing could survive if you took its core but it seemed he was wrong.
It made him wonder if cutting someone's core out with them surviving it, if you had taken their ability to use skills or jobs. They had to be related in some way since you could get stat points and skills from cores. It was possible that the core would slowly regrow if you somehow survived yours being removed.
It would most likely cause a huge problem for the person during the process though even if it did grow back. He could imagine that you would lose every job and skill you had as well or that they would slowly reappear during the growth process.
It might also be that the undead had only been able to survive the loss of the core because it wasn't its core but the core to the person the undead had been before it was turned. Maybe it had a second smaller core that he had missed that was its core.
He guessed he should have taken the time to inspect the body better before he left it when he saw his race was still human. Thinking that the body might have had multiple cores he wondered if there were monsters or people that could have multiple cores naturally and if it would make them stronger.
Maybe it would allow them to level up multiple jobs at a time. He wasn't sure how the Exp would work though. Would it spit the Exp to the different jobs or would you earn the full amount for each job. He felt it was more likely that you wouldn't earn more Exp but he could see you being able to surpass the 100 stat limit mortals had.
He didn't think it would be a common thing for anything to have multiple cores though so there wasn't a real way he could ever find an answer to this question unless he found a book that had information on cores. It seemed most people just thought of them as currency but they had to be more important than that.
It was the only thing that physically separated humans here from the ones in his world that he had noticed so he was sure they had something to do with the stats and skills they were able to earn from jobs. It was probably a way for the gods to interact with the people they granted the jobs to.
Lake realized he had kind of lost focus but at the same time enough time had passed while he was in the hallway for him to know no one was paying attention to him. He had been kind of worried that there would be someone somewhere here that could feel the death of the undead he had killed and with the blood on his clothes and him being human it was unlikely they would believe his lies if they questioned him even if he did look like the person he had replaced.
With him being able to blend in as long as no one looked at him too closely he could probably leave his post as long as it wasn't for too long. He was going to wait though because he wanted to wait till something happened to cover his tracks better. It was the middle of a war so something should cause some type of commotion eventually.
When that happened he would be able to move without anyone noticing for a short moment and hopefully he could kill someone and hide their body in that time. With an identity that was human before he got here and a better robe he would blend in better and be able to start trying to get out of this base.
...
Looking at the time Donny saw seven hours had passed since the fortress shut itself off. With even the weakest people only needing eight hours to be back to tip top condition unless they had been wounded he was pretty sure there was a good chance the fight would start up again.
That meant he could go and take a look at the situation around the fortress without it changing too much in the time after he left. He wanted to make sure the fortress had a chance of winning before he flew them all towards it. Standing up Donny pulled a few of the people that were able to fight together and said. "I'm going to go see what the situation around the fort is like since the fight will probably start again soon."
Donny felt like there wasn't much of a chance that they would want to come with him but he still said. "I'm going alone and I might be gone for a while so don't feel bad if you have to abandon this place to survive on the off chance you're attacked before I return." After he said this he looked at the corpse of Peter.
A lot of these people would die in the coming hours so there was no reason the healthy should throw their lives away to protect them. All that would come of it was everyone would die and he would rather the twenty people that could move got away. "Also don't try to use the Air Formation without me."
He was talking to the Wind Mage that had helped him make the formation when he said this. All that would happen was it would go out of control since they weren't skilled enough to use it so they were better off running away on foot. Happy with the fact that they seemed to agree with what he had told them to do, Donny headed towards the roof.
Once he was on top of the building he looked down at the street. They had been silently hiding inside so for all he knew the streets would be filled with undead looking for prey. The streets were as empty as they had been so the Demon Worshipers' army was probably still surrounding the fortress.
Walking down from the roof Donny exited through the front door onto the street. Outside Donny couldn't help but wonder if he should maybe turn around and go back inside. Now that he was out here he realized there was a miniscule chance that he would be able to get there and back alive.
All it would take was for him to go around one wrong corner and he would get swarmed by enemies. Really considering going back inside Donny remembered they weren't safe here either so going inside and hiding just guaranteed that they would be discovered eventually.
Taking his first steps towards the fortress he started to feel better about what he was doing. He would be fine as long as he was careful and turned around as soon as he started to run into anyone that wasn't on his side. He should be able to see them before they saw him if he used his mana and the metal that was everywhere in the city.
After passing a few houses Donny stopped because he heard a crashing noise come from one of the buildings he was about to pass. He remembered that the gargoyles tried to drag people into buildings and the building he heard the noise from had no door so it was a perfect fit.
He didn't know what could be causing the gargoyle inside to be making so much noise and he was curious but decided he should try and go another way even if he could kill them instantly there was no way to know if they would be the only thing inside the building without using his precious mana.
Heading towards the ally Donny heard footsteps and hastened his movements to get out of the street before whatever it was saw him. Once he was in the alley he turned his head to look back at what had emerged onto the street from the building.
He was happy to find that it didn't seem to be an enemy and that it was actually someone he had been wondering about since they hadn't seemed to make it back to base. It was the buff warrior he had saved that had asked about their wife. Donny stepped out from his hiding place and waved towards them.
"Hey, were you not able to find the place I told you about?" Donny felt like this had to be what had caused them to still be out here after all this time. "No, I saw an undead come from a building on the way there and realized what the gargoyles were doing with the people that they were dragging away and figured I was better off clearing any that I passed before they went and joined the besieging army. You know if you saved my wife she's safe and if you didn't maybe I could find her before they were able to turn her."
Donny nodded and said. "Good luck." And was about to walk away when the guy stopped him with a question. "Where are you going?" Donny pointed towards where the fortress was and said. "I'm going to get a look at the fortress." The guy nodded before saying. "You should wait till the sun fully comes up."
Looking up Donny guessed that that was a good idea even if he ended up arriving after the battle had already started again and asked. "Do you want me to show you back to the others?" This guy had been out here for a long time fighting and it made him think they had to be tired. Seeing them start to nod after a few seconds Donny started to lead them back to base.
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