Kingdom of the Malaise (30)

"Hmm" A tall heavily cloaked grey clad man hummed a tune as they manipulated their long skeletal fingers around the tall glass apparatus.

Connecting a long hose like contraption to the nozzle on top of the apparatus, the man fixed it against a large machine.

Turning a few gears and pressing a few buttons, the large machine crackled to life before feeding on the blue cells that were contained in the large glass apparatus.

Smiling underneath their hood, blue light seeped through the edges of their mouth.

The collector grabbed the large pulsating sac that was on his waist and connected by a series of thick iron chains.

Opening his mouth and revealing a large blue light the Collector took a bite out of the strange blue sac.

Eyes lighting up briefly the Collector devoured the rest of the pulsating sac before reaching another one.

Grabbing a much smaller sac, the wide blue mouth devoured it as the blue eyes raked the machines body and watched it do its work.

The visibly turning gears groaned against each other as various other apparatus continued to move around, doing something to the taken cells which would soon be revealed.

Outputting a blue fluid through one of the many pipe like structures.

A variety of blue lights lit up on the machine.

Running along many of the pipes, they soon connected to a husk like body sitting embedded in a chair, a variety of machines surrounding their body.

Spasming when the blue fluid was put into their body, blue light left their soulless eyes, blue lines running underneath their skin.

Smiling the Collector whispered to themself "Soon enough... it will be complete"

Letting the machine take the last of the cells in the glass apparatus, the Collector disconnected the pipes.

Fastening the chains around their body they hefted the empty glass apparatus onto their back and slowly left to gather more cells.

Leaving behind the strange machine that continued to put a modified form of cells into the dried husk of a body.

Taking one last glance at the body that was being infused with cells.

The collector went back out of the strange room.

---

 "Hey! Let's give a warm welcome to the new accidental who will be joining our colony today!"

"WOO"

"YEAAH!"

All around me a series of battle hardened warriors gave me cheers as they stood on top of what I could only call a mountain of corpses.

After defeating every single monster down to the last one, it was a bloody massacre only on one side.

When looking at the results they would speak for themselves.

Only one unfortunate man died in this battle, the rest had varying injuries of increasing severity.

But when compared to the mountain of corpses that were piled up on the fortress walls and even went over it in places.

It was literally a one sided massacre.

Getting congratulated by people was a new experience.

Smiling I accepted the praise before moving away.

Perhaps sensing my want to be alone the survivors stopped their celebrations and went to do their own thing.

Whether that be tend to their wounds, loot the battlefield, fix the battlements, re supplement themselves or rearming their weapons.

They all went to do their own thing.

Watching a few people whip out large knives that were stained in dark blood, I watched as they tore into the monsters and started to look for things that may or may not be useful from them.

Briefly admiring their skill in dismantling the monsters, I turned my attention to other things.

Namely.

The sync rate that had paused at 69% without breaching the 7th thresh hold.

Of course I knew that I had to do something to break through that thresh hold.

But I guess I've been used to a path without obstruction for a while now that I am more then annoyed at the sync rate that suddenly stopped.

Feeling slightly stifled I turned my attention once again to other things.

Moving my feet and stabilizing myself on the mountains of corpses, I used them as foot holds before hopping off and moving to the battlements.

Briefly nodding to the people slowly fixing them, I moved through the blood soaked wooden gates and looked at the city behind the walls.

And it was a completely different sight than I had expected.

But as humans go, I guess we are adaptable where ever we go.

All around me were a series of thick cloth blankets drenched in red blood, hanging off the sides of the buildings in varying states of disarray.

Alongside the blood-soaked cloths were various stands selling items.

Ranging from weapons of various states, strange looking collectibles? Gems, food, drinks.

Basically things that I would've expected to see in a normal city.

If one ignored the bloodstains, the fact that everyone had wounds and were carrying weapons and the variety corpses on display.

It almost seemed like a normal city!

Almost.

And funnily enough the blood soaked cloths that were scattered around seemed to have done a purpose as besides a few spots here and there, the streets were rather spotless and clean from blood.

And even those spots were being quickly cleaned up with various means.

Seeing someone burn the blood splatter with fire, I turned around and instead roamed a different direction.

And nevertheless, even when I got turned around there was much to see.

From strange cuisines that bordered on cannibalism.

To even stranger weapons utilizing the enhanced body parts of the infected monsters to the fullest.

To even stranger wares that involved putting organs into a pot and stewing them together to make even strange concoctions.

And people were buying the obviously poisonous concoction like it was nothing!

But when accounting for the fact that literally everything here could potentially kill you it seemed fair.

But Yeah.

It was crazy.

But if there was an upside to this was that I now had a use to the accumulating funds since buying things from the wandering merchant named sky.

Wandering around for a brief bit, I eventually settled on a few things that had caught my attention.

Such as a spatial pouch that could store a few things of varying sizes in it without problem.

It had the downside of not reducing weight but I had no problem with that.

Some new variety weapons.

Raw materials that I hadn't seen before.

More parts of the fragmented inferno core.

Even more blueprints.

And finally.

A potion stand.

Smiling in happiness of my purchases.

I was unaware at the time of the eye that was staring at me.

Or more accurately.

The area around me.

---

With a discontent look in their eyes, a strange, cloaked figure stared at the intact city standing on top of the [Slumbering Sanctuary].

An incredibly ancient place where ancient magics and technologies still resided to this day, being the place where magic and new technologies were developed.

It was an incredibly important place in the war.

Although the place was now filled with a proliferating number of monsters taken over by the malaise.

The figure was exactly aiming for the monsters that proliferated the ruins of the Slumbering Sanctuary.

Glaring at the city still filled to the brim of battle-ready people, the figure glared at the people that were slowly dismembering the figures many thralls.

Despite throwing so many thralls and using their coveted [Buzzcutter] swarms in this attack.

The attack provided meager unsatisfying results.

'I thought that damnable old man was going to be missing for a while'

Their fist clenched in barely contained rage 'Why the hell did he return now!?'

Grinding their teeth together they looked at the unconscious man besides them.

Someone that his comrades would recognize to be the man that was taken by the swarms of flying critters.

'One Elite thrall for several thrall swarms is not a good exchange'

Glaring at the man, the figure thought back to the other man that joined the battle alongside the old mage.

'A new accidental...'

Glaring fiercely at the city walls as if unraveling them with their mind.

The figure backed away from the cliff face.

+++

Tree