Still

The undead retreated under water, leaving only a dark spot where he had stood.

He wasn't a rabid beast, he could bid his time and come back later, before making any decision on his next course of action, he would try and clear the other two ways of their fake flesh growths.

He seemed to be walking a little bit faster now, or rather, the weightlessness he felt in water wasn't quite as pronounced as when he had first stepped into it.

Arriving back amidst his fellow undeads just a little bit faster thanks to this, he instantly went to work, this task too appeared to be going smoother than before.

Whilst fighting the ever growing flesh, he brought up the purple panel, feeling like it might have something to do with the sudden improvements.

Certainly enough, a previously empty spot now had a few things written in it.

The skill section had multiple sub-parts but for now, only the first, nameless one was filled.

Considering what Loimos had noticed improvements on, the skills he saw made perfect sense, there were even a few skills he had obtained but hadn't noticed anything when partaking in the related activity.

Climbing, moving underwater, ripping apart and sneaking around to mention the most prominent ones.

Even though the other two ways were obstructed by much more of the fleshy substances, doing it for long enough would guarantee that he would eventually reach his goal.

The distant falling of debris now seemed much less frequent, the sound of the zombies and skeletons were inadvertently making seemed much more prominent as well.

Just as he was about to begin with one of the two paths, the undeads all stopped dead in their tracks, as though a switch had just been flipped, they all moved directly toward the Loimos, or rather, toward the wall he was facing.

Instantly, they put their weak bodies to work and began to tear the false flesh apart, clawing and biting at it.

With their assistance, the entirety of the path was cleared in little time, at least, little time for a bunch of undeads without clocks.

Moving some rocks, the faint lighting of the room allowed them to see what was hidden behind, this path got smaller and smaller, ending with a dead end.

Resting against the wall of this dead end, was another undead, which rose to its feet the instant it realised a way out had opened.

Unlike Loimos and the rest, which could seem to all be coming from human remains or something of similar build, this one was much larger, nearly two meters tall with thick bones.

Pieces of petrified muscles and bits of dry skin still stuck to it in certain places, its skull had a distinct shape, somewhat elongated toward the back.

Its lower jaw wasn't holding on as it should anymore, hanging loosely.

Still, compared to the rest of the undeads, it didn't seem nearly as frail, it must have had quite the hefty kill count to be brimming with so much death force or had remained in a place full of death for a while.

In the intelligence department, it was tied with the rest however.

It appeared to be realising that some life was nearby but unable to pinpoint the location, so instead of going after that, it followed Loimos and the rest as they went to deal with the other way.

He didn't know why they had all suddenly began to follow him around, he hadn't gained anything that could have such an effect.

With the big guy's help, everything was much swifter, the sheer width of its hands made it more efficient than all of them combined, not to mention how easily it was ripping the flesh-like construct.

This way didn't lead them to another ally, but to a long, very long passageway which ended with a sturdy, stone door.

Even their combined efforts couldn't budge it in the least.

There was nothing that could be done.

It was time for Loimos to pay a visit to the other side.

_________________________

The sun never truly set here, it simply glowed less strongly until one could barely see a few meters in front of them.

Despite the dark, one of the green-skinned inhabitants of a small tribe of little monsters wasn't afraid to venture out, he had been around for three years already, he was all grown up now and knew that there was nothing dangerous around.

It would be a different story were he not heading for the lake, but he wasn't an idiot, he knew where hairless wolves lived, they didn't go down to this part of the river anymore ever since the chieftain had hunted them into near oblivion.

He also knew that the wolves despised the taste of goblin meat with a passion and would only even think of biting them if they stepped too far into their territories.

He wasn't stupid, so he was perfectly safe, all of the tribes had friendly or at worst, neutral relationships, there were no dangerous monsters living in the water too.

Going to get some buckets of water was no big deal, when the others woke up and noticed that he had gotten all of the water needed for the day by himself, he would be praised and perhaps, he would even be able to land Irgob's affection!

'Yes, that is a flawless plan, all the ladies love a hardworking man' he thought with a satisfied smile on his face.

Not only that, but he was only second in strength to the chieftain himself, he could carry buckets filled and water back and forth without any issue.

A good personality and the body of a war god? He was simply irresistible, one could only wonder how he had yet to find a mate.

He arrived on the shore, there was no sand on this part, only humid grass, which had been flattened by the repeated passages of various goblins doing the same thing as him over the years.

It was a surprise grass even persisted to grow here.

He could see the reflection of the dim sun up above, making for a beautiful sight.

'I should take her here during the night, I am sure she'll love it' smiling by himself as he got lost in reveries, he shook his head and prepared for the first filling of the buckets.

Something moved in the water.

"Mmh? Someone here?" he spoke aloud, he could have just assumed it was a fish or something, but for some reason, he instantly believed that it was someone else.

Maybe the way it sounded reminded him of when he went for a swim himself, or perhaps he unconsciously caught a sight of a figure standing upright.

The night was dark but not the darkest it could get, with the water reflecting some of the light, he felt confident that someone wouldn't be able to hide very well in the lake.

"Need some help?"

"No?" he grew a bit scared, his mind running wild with multiple possibilities, most completely improbable.

He backed off from the edges of the water, grasping both of the buckets with only one hand, he pulled out a knife made of stone from the beast pelt tied around his waist.

"You better not be trying to be funny, I'll seriously stab you!" he warned in the dead of night, it would be a shame if some joke ended in bloodshed.

Puffing his chest and standing as tall as he could, he knew that if something was lurking around, appearing stronger than you did could dissuade it.

He hadn't gotten the pelt he was wearing by sitting back and lazing around.

'Huh? What's this?' his gaze landing on something in the water.

It had been standing there for gods know how long, it had been remaining so still that it had merged into the surroundings perfectly.

With the light coming from behind it, he couldn't tell for sure what it was, but the fact that streaks of light could somehow pass through its body freaked him out beyond comprehension.

Raising his arms aggressively, he slowly backed off, not wanting any sort of business with whatever this thing was.

It remained perfectly still nonetheless.