Published at 29th of July 2022 8:58 am

Chapter 514 - Death March

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At this moment, Ed felt a certain way. How could he who appeared to be immortal know to appreciate life? Shouldn’t he more than anyone disregard it?

“I am sure you have all experienced misery and death” Whose misery… maybe their own… whose death, most definitely not theirs. Yet, Ed felt that these experiences should have taught them a valuable lesson.

“Life is feeble” …and that was what made it precious.

For the first time in a good while, he felt he could remember his past a bit more clearly. To be exact, he remembered his appreciation for life.

‘What a bitter feeling…’ Ed suddenly felt that the death of his previous identity must not have been a simple one. He couldn’t imagine he was run over by a drunk or reckless driver. Nor did he believe he was sent to this world after saving someone from the aforementioned scenario.

If he had, he must have angered the devil with his deeds because the world Ed came to was definitely some form of punishment. Or… at some point it had been some form of punishment, the amount of pain he was subjected to thus far was definitely torturous. It was also tortuous the amount of boredom he experienced.

“When you see someone die you should have learned that life is feeble and therefore precious” Ed said emotionally. He felt emotional because Ed understood the problem very well.

“Actually, I think you all did learn that life was precious” There were two outcomes to the lesson taught by hardship.

“You should have learned that all life is precious, but you all learned to think of your own” The resolve to sacrifice one of their fellows for the fear of their own life was… cowardly. It was the epitome of cowardice.

“That’s why, from now on, you are all under me” Ed reiterated his earlier declaration. This time, with even more conviction. Right now, his heart was feeling heavy, almost sick..ᴄᴏᴍ

But although he was still feeling something, Ed didn’t say anything more.

‘Round them up, we are heading back home’ Ed transmitted to his minions who all immediately took action.

The encirclement of the undead rushed forward with unprecedented force. The elven warriors flinched before lifting their weapons. Ed disapproved of this, but he didn’t stop them.

While he didn’t want to rule by fear, if he was going to he might as well do it right.

‘The skeletons I first met were loyal…’ They were dumb and were intimidated by his aura.

‘The goblins…’ Well, Ed didn’t interact much with them but the orcs were certainly battle maniacs. They appreciated his strength and eventually took a liking to his reforms. Ed suspected they both awed and feared. This mix of emotions resulted in the orcs holding deep respect towards him.

Then came the mushroom cavern, a sub set of the marshlands…? There he formed a mushroom kingdom and befriended one of the monsters, especifically an octocrawler.

‘Huh… I wonder if octobuddy is still alive…’ The events that separated them would suggest not.

As for Ed’s conquest of the lizardmen… he had to admit they practically handed themselves to him hinging on their faith. They thought of him as a deity and put their full trust in him.

Finally, the present.

While it made sense for Ed who could live many lives to come to disregard it… with the many experiences it provided him it would actually be a miracle for that to be the case. Each floor presented him a new scenario and for each scenario he would take a different or similar approach and always receive a different outcome adding to his list of experiences.

With such thoughts occupying his mind, Ed watched silently as the elves were brutally beat to the ground. The undead were understandably merciless.

Ed had to make sure none of the undead killed someone, however. He said he’d teach them to cherish life so killing any of them now would make him seem a tad bit untrusty and very much hypocritical.

After the full subjugation of the elves by his undead, the elves were led to the surface through a passage Ed and the wormllipede created. The elves who were now used to their underground life squinted thanks to the glaring light of the surface.

“Sob… ” Quiet sobbing as some now expected to go on a death walk through this desert.

“Where… Where are you taking us?” An unexpected voice mustered the courage to ask. Ed who was mounted atop the wormllipede turned around and put said elf under scrutiny to confirm it was indeed who he believed it to be.

“Oh? Are you done crying?” Ed asked. The brave elf was none other than Riniya who once again regained her vigor.

Well, to be exact, she regained her slyness. Ed could tell she was scheming and planning on holding tightly onto his thigh after being abandoned by the elves. ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀ​ꪶ​

“Hmph” Riniya said playing coy. This elf was a calculative woman.

‘I’m not sure if I admire or detest that part of her’ On one hand, he could admire her ability to adjust but from another perspective she could not be at all trusted.

‘Not unless you can guarantee that you are always her best choice’ Which Ed was confident he could pull off. He was just afraid that putting in the effort to actively show her that was not worth the effort. After all, what could she offer him in the long run?

“I’ll take it that you are done crying. How about you explain to me what you know about your village and how it ended here?” Ed decided to strike a conversation with Riniya despite his misgivings. He’d keep her around to observe her.

‘If I remember correctly the saying was keep your friends close and your enemies closer…’ Ed muttered inwardly.

“About the village…?” Riniya didn’t expect for the powerful necromancer to ask about such trivialities. She was quickly reassessing her judgement of Ed and making any necessary calculations to how she should tackle him in the future.

This meant it took her a good second to finally respond to Ed’s inquiry.

“I… I don’t really know much…” Riniya had to shamefully admit.

“You should ask the elven council instead” Those were the figures that gave her away to Ed without too much of a fuss. She was reluctant to pass Ed’s goodwill to them but she really had no choice here.

“I see” Ed responded.

‘No benefit in the short term either’ Ed thought criticizing Riniya silently. She raised an eyebrow noticing his expression, however. Her gaze seemed to be asking if he was thinking poorly of her.

Ed only nodded to the question she didn’t ask leaving Riniya both flabbergasted and angry. If it weren’t for her manipulative nature suppressing her anger she would have flipped out.

“I’ll ask those elders the questions when we get home then” Ed said much to the surprise of the elves. They thought they were just going on a death march as some sort of punishment. The elders who were amongst this death march were now holding onto a faint hope.

Eventually, under the increasingly hot rays of the sun, elves started to collapse from exhaustion.

When the first instance occurred Ed immediately called for a break. The water mages immediately got to work in hydrating the group by carefully casting their spells. After this break there were no problems for another good hour.

They had continued to trek through the sands with regained vigor but…

“Ah…” Someone let out a powerless gasp as their friend fell to the ground.

A second break was warranted.

Unfortunately, the water mages themselves seemed very much out of their element. Due to their focus on purity, their physical prowess was extremely lacking. It didn’t help that they were entirely out of their element in the literal sense.

Seeing that most of the water mages including Sanev were out of commission after the simple trekking and break all the elves felt that this was after all a death march. They felt naive for falling for the false hope the necromancer provided.

“You are heartless…” Riniya’s uncle muttered, this strong arid elf was glaring daggers at Ed.

Just as this mutter rang out, water fell from the sky.

“What!?!” “Water!?” “Ra- Rain!?” A cacophony of voices. Ed paid especial note to the last one of those voices. The papers he read in the city had confirmed the existence of weather patterns but Ed found it surprising that someone still knew of it.

Ed thus assessed this person and found them to be the oldest of the elves present. They were surely hundreds of years if not thousands of years old. Ed wasn’t clear about the life spans of elves in this reality.

‘Due to their reclusive nature, the notes of the monster encyclopedia on elves was rather empty…’ Not just that but elves unlike humans were very adaptive. Due to their nature as monsters this adaptation usually came in the form of a rapid evolution meaning elves’ attributes were always different.

The elves rejoiced at first but then noticed something. It wasn’t raining, water just so happened to fall out of the sky!

“Do you all want more?” Ed asked the elves who widened their eyes. The necromancer did it?! Some elves asked themselves this question but the more perceptive ones nodded.

“Yes! Yes!” And exclaimed that they did indeed wish to be hydrated. Who didn’t like living after all?

Ed then followed this up by forming a stream of water out of thin air. This wasn’t magic, it was just the remote materialization upgrade taking water from the system space.. But no matter what it was, the elves were mystified.

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