Types of Undead

Day 5 of our journey through the dark wood, all of us stand before a still fidgeting undead wolf.

"Something is wrong with this forest. There shouldn't be so many packs sent out after us." I say this looking concerned.

This is the third group of wolves to attack. Unlike the first group, this time we were more prepared. Sif started using a staff about her height for defense. So she wasn't defenseless.

I used my magnetic shield spell around the carriage and whenever the wolves got close they were bounced away. I used Leviateinn as a spear to back up Nix in poking some of them through the shield. I preferred not to use my knives here since I wouldn't get them back.

That way we stayed safe while slowly picking them off.

Even Ullr commented at this string of events. Something is hunting us. It's watching us to figure out our moves. You guys should be wary. I'll interfere if it's something out if your ball park like any beast above Rank 2.

Yea beasts have ranks along the same lines as humans. These undead wolves were all rank 1.

"Elder Ullr, what kind of undead are there so we can be more prepared next time."

Ullr looked for a moment before smiling at us.

"The undead have several species all with their own unique habits and way of being."

At this point we all sat down to listen.

"You can sum all the undead up into three categories. The first type would be the ones you see before you. They are reanimations. What's common about them is that they have no Will of their own other than the Will of their creator. They usually look like rotted corpses and have the least amount of mana recomposing their limbs. They mostly use their already dead flesh to function until they can't anymore. Besides the obvious rotting, they are very flammable and brittle."

So basically zombies. No wonder these guys still went down from my bolts. I shocked their nervous systems.

"The second type is something you see naturally occurs. They are your specters. There are a lot of types of specters but essentially their all spirits who haven't departed. They have no bodies of flesh but of intangible substances. Magic Is usually the only way to interact with them."

"Another common category would be constructs. These are way more dangerous overall than the other two. Unlike the ghosts these are artificial, and unlike the reanimated these are not brittle. People can transform themselves into construct either through a natural process such as trying to fire your tomb or through magical means. It a bit difficult to tell the difference between reanimated and constructs because they can be pure skeletons or corpses as well. These guys are fueled solely by magic. Their bodies were constructed in a way that makes them never rot. They have a Will of their own and are hard to kill. They usually have strong abilities and are immortal. They are still weak to blunt force damage and flames but they won't burst from those attacks. In fact their only known deadly weakness would be light magic."

I was shocked at this moment and got very serious. "That means.."

"Yes your brother is a miracle of sorts. I'm sure if Hel wasn't scared already of you two siblings, they will be when they find out."

I was very scared for a moment and almost turned around before I caught onto something. "They don't know?"

Ullr smiled wider. "The last order that came out of the palace was to lock down information coming from anyone. Their going to use this as an excuse to say that you had escaped to explore while the true reason is that they need time to come up with a plausible excuse for your brother."

I sighed in relief.

"Even at this distance, you are still protecting your baby brother." Ullr put a hand on my head and shook it.

Ullr then calmed down for a moment and got serious. "There's in more category of undead that I forgot to mention."

I jumped out of my reverie. Nix and Sif actually listened intently as well. It looks like they want to be stronger as well.

"Evolved undead... You see undead have a nasty habit of trying to get stronger. Especially Constructs. Normally they can't transform their bodies anymore but they can pursue one thing should the choose to. A living body. Any undead type can go through this for example, Specters would try and gain a body. Reanimations would regain strength and will. And Constructs would complete their fractured souls."

I was confused. "Wouldn't you turn into an undead in order to gain eternal life and strong abilities? Also constructs have flawed souls?"

Ullr then pointed something incredible out. "The belief is that undead who succeed in evolving a living body will remove all their weaknesses, restore their soul, and keep all their undead abilities like immortality. Constructs by virtue of having incredible bodies sacrifice a piece of their souls. Reason, memories, emotions, something has got to give to attain such power."

I guess all types of undead give something up.

[Reanimations for sure get the short end of the stick]

Yea, a sub par body and no will. Basically their slaves.

[They don't really have souls. Their just magically animated flesh. These are easy to construct. Even you know a forgemastering method to create them even though you've never been successful. Constructs could be considered a step up from that with a better body and at least a piece of their souls]

I don't think having reanimated corpses running around is good for my image.

"Since reanimations are just undead servants, what have we done for their creators to show interest?"

"That I don't have an answer to. I noticed something though. The wolves seemed to try and avoid hurting you."

Now that's something to think about.

Looking at my left arm I spot the sigil of of a Raven close to my hand.

It's time we were a little more proactive.

[Cue the mission impossible theme song]

"Muninn, besides scouting ahead and warning us of danger I want you to see if you can find the den of these wolves. If you can see their situation do so but if it's to dangerous flee."

I said this telepathically of course and got a nice yes master back.

Muninn has been growing smarter and stronger everyday.

I periodically let him read my thoughts on language and I even have tried procuring for him a way to train.

Demon beasts usually get to full adult hood and then don't rank up anymore.

Even though three eyed ravens have an interesting ability, they are considered rank 1 beasts.

I decided to make my black feathered friend a darkness bird by teaching it the same reinforcement technique Hilda has. It wants to be the perfect scout and for that I have to also be teach it the warrior training manual.

Ravens are not blessed like other beasts that naturally reinforce themselves.

It grasped the warrior manual through my help but hasn't quite gotten the reinforcement part. That part is almost like breathing for some beasts so learning it systematically is difficult for it. It would be like relearning to walk for it.

I'm sure time and patience is all I need and my little bird brained fellow will catch on.

In the mean time, because of his training, he's gotten smarter. He can sometimes even make sentences.

At first Munnin spent the next few hours flying overhead. It was bright above the trees giving him ample view and time to use his thought skill to search for the den.

His ability to read and transfer thoughts is so broad that it can even read animal thoughts. Their thoughts are more simple like hungry, run, smells bad, mate etc..

Muninn was actively sifting through this info looking for something that would indicate something weird like undead.

Searching around he finally found something.