Chapter 757 - 687: Camping
(Post first, edit later)
After the Scholar dispelled the spell that maintained the breeze, the fire in the woods quickly diminished, and extinguished at a much faster rate than naturally possible, seemingly the pervasive shadows of this plane themselves possessing the power to suppress flames. The group did not linger at the spot, and promptly set off after a brief organization.
As Kalalin had previously described, the Fallen Shadow Netherworld was a sort of dark, twisted reflection of the material plane, and thus there were roads and bridges here as well. Relying on the observations of little Isha, who transformed into a bat and flew up high, they quickly found a broad road and thereafter, Lancelot, Kalalin, and Alamir each summoned their own mounts and proceeded along the road towards the location where those ghosts had captured souls not long ago.
Even on the Prime Material Plane, roads in the wilderness were not particularly safe, plagued frequently by robbers, wild beasts, or malevolent wizards, and this plane was even worse. The group hardly traveled a few miles without encountering a battle, mostly with roaming undead creatures, which, much like the Low Rank Demons of the Abyss, were ubiquitous, only here, their numbers were greater, and Lancelot could not scare them away just by exuding his presence.
Fortunately, although the skeletons and zombies were irritating, they were not truly a threat to the group—Lancelot aside, the Dwarf’s and Elf’s hammers served as excellent blunt weapons against the undead creatures, not to mention little Isha who was continuously signaling from the air; otherwise, the efficiency of the battles would have been even higher.
Occasionally, they also encountered some less aggressive passersby: once, they came across a small parade of undead led by a Death Knight riding a skeletal warhorse. Lancelot and his companions were ready for battle, but the other party calmly passed by them. The Death Knight even gave Lancelot a cold nod in greeting, and then disappeared into the mist along the road.
"That’s really rare," Bruto turned his head toward the direction where the undead had vanished, "Back on the material plane, we’d probably be beating our brains out..."
"In Candle Castle, there’s an Archmage named Ulrand who wrote a book called ’Ulrand’s Guide to the Fallen Shadow Netherworld.’ It starts off with, before you continue reading this, repeat this sentence until it is ingrained in your minds: ’I do not understand the Fallen Shadow Netherworld, and I never truly will,’" Kalalin softly told his companions, "The danger of the Fallen Shadow Netherworld lies in that, in many places, it looks very similar to the Prime Material Plane, and our subconscious might unconsciously assume that things will proceed in the way we are accustomed to, whereas the actual situation can be drastically different."
"Uh, sounds complicated," the Dwarf gloomily gazed at the Scholar, "Can you explain it in a simpler way? Assume I’m a five-year-old..."