Eldrian took a few seconds to simply try and get used to this fatigue covering his mind and mana. Only after having cleared his mind slightly did he bother to look at the kill notification, surprised, but not too much at the XP amount.

[44100 XP]

While it was quite an amount, it was nothing much compared to what Eldrian needed to level. This currently being over a million XP.

After looking at the notification Eldrian turned to look at the now rotting corpse in front of him. How do I get out of here? Eldrian wondered after realizing that the entire alley was blocked by the arkbeast.

He really didn't feel like climbing over its rotten flesh, maggots having already moved out and started feasting. Without the protection of undeath, the flesh rapidly started to decay and a smell worse than any before started spreading out. Seeing the flesh almost melting, as the decay caught up to where it should be if not for undeath, along with the smell, caused Eldrian to almost vomit his guts out.

He quickly realized he couldn't just stay here, he would not be able to keep control over himself for much longer if he dared. After recovering enough mana Eldrian sent Floga to try and create a safe passage for him to climb over. Hoping to clear the area of maggots and rot. Unfortunately for him, the opposite seemed to happen, while the maggots were indeed all fried to a crisp. The flesh melted under the heat, adding even more to the terrible smell surrounding him and clearly causing it to be too weak to step on.

Cursing Eldrian forced himself to not think of it and climb as quickly as possible. Rushing out of the alley and away from the smell as soon as he could. Seemingly unable to outrun the stench Eldrian drenched himself with Nidia in the hope of getting clear. Even going so far as to pull a barrel of water out as Nidia didn't summon enough.

That royally sucked, Eldrian mumbled as he now found that while he was clean, the smell lingered inside of him. Slowly he started tasting the foulness of it all as it came out of his lungs. Finally, Eldrian could stand it no longer and vomited his guts out right in the middle of the street. As soon as he stopped he rushed to get away from any other smell that might cause another violent attack.

Only after clearing around twenty meters did his mind start working normally again. Remembering that he had not been alone, and that he had actually helped others. Eldrian quickly turned around and headed to the alley he had seen them all go for.

Are they safe? Eldrian wondered as he found the alley deserted. They're gone...

Eldrian sighed as he realized that they had simply left him. He was slightly mad and disappointed, but he understood their actions. They likely saw no hope in defeating the zombie beta, and as such, they had decided to save themselves.

Let's go to the keep. Can't just sit around and do nothing. Eldrian mumbled to himself, using Aoidos as a walking cane and continuing to use its ability on cooldown. He hoped it would also help him recover from the magic fatigue, but all his tests and experiences told him it would not. He needed to rest properly for at least half an hour if he wanted to recover. Something he did not think would be right to do in this situation.

As Eldrian walked he could hear the sounds of fighting all around him. He ignored most of it, deciding that he had already done more than enough. He did not want to get near another zombie, the previous experience had been harrowing.

Still, he couldn't just ignore the fights going on upon the road he was walking on. He could tell himself to ignore the sounds, as they were distant. But when he saw people struggling for their lives, he couldn't force himself to ignore them. Killing the undead will also lessen possible trouble later, Eldrian told himself to try and explain it rationally.

He had first encountered such a fight after three minutes of walking, looking up Eldrian saw a centaur in full plate armor fighting against an undead arkbeast. Both of them were weaker than Eldrian expected, the undead Tier 2 and the centaur Tier 3.

Still afraid of the terrible smell, Eldrian refused to charge into melee range. Instead, he stopped around ten meters from the fight, used Anthizo on the centaur and Thera on the undead. As a Tier 2 zombie, it only had 255HP at max, having already lost over a hundred from being launched and the fight.

Eldrian's Thera instantly halved what health it had left, quickly followed by another that ended its undeath. The centaur quite grateful, but Eldrian didn't mind him and had just kept walking.

[450 XP]

That is not much XP at all... Eldrian sighed as he realized killing the undead was most certainly not an effective method of leveling. The amount he needed was simply too much, causing him to understand why most quests gave levels as a reward.

On his walk, Eldrian also confirmed that nature magic indeed did not work on skeletons. Confirming his thoughts that healing must be possible for it to do anything. Most likely the thing keeping the body moving needs to counter the effect of healing. I assume healing is the attempt to return things to their normal state, though I need to find a corpse to test this on... Eldrian had thought upon discovering that Thera did no damage to skeletons who lacked flesh.

Against a skeleton, he didn't mind getting closer, so after confirming the bones that needed to be targetted he had rushed in and quickly ended the fight. After which Eldrian had looked for a corpse, which there was no lack of in the battle.

Eldrian did limit himself to trying it on the undead's corpse and not that of a civilian or soldier. Finding such a one on the road he had crouched next to it while trying to not breathe any air. I need to learn a spell to keep smells from me. Eldrian thought after accidentally breathing in the rotting air.

After saving that as a 'must as soon as possible', Eldrian returned to his investigation. How does necromancy work? Is it even necromancy in this world, or is it something else? In any case, let's see what healing does to the dead.

Eldrian was completely astounded after using Thera on the wolfbeast's corpse. He had thought it would try and fix the damage, stop the maggots from consuming it. Instead, the complete opposite happened.

Its decaying was hastened, the maggots enlivened and the smell worsened. Push-filled wounds burst, releasing a horrifying smell that forced Eldrian to retreat to not vomit again. The results of the healing spell leaving Eldrian without words to describe his shock.

Later on, in his walk, Eldrian realized what must have happened. The natural state of corpses are to decay. If healing is to return to the natural state, then the effect makes sense. It works well for living beings as our purpose is to survive, to reproduce. Hence the energy is used to recover from damage. For our cells to multiply and fix things.

Seems that for a corpse the energy is instead used by the bacteria, maggots, and such that inhabit it. Used to quickly finished what nature was already busy doing. I wonder how nature magic works with plants and how people can heal corpses to return the person's looks. Is it control or a different spell? Or rather is it determined by the state of decay already present?

Finally, after around half an hour of walking and helping out, Eldrian reached the keep. Or rather he reached the square before it, hiding in an alley and observing what was going on, something that was quite easy to do thanks to the balls of light hovering over the square.

In front of the keep, a line of soldiers were holding out below its steps. Stopping the undead that was almost filling the square from entering. Behind the soldiers were a few clerics in white clothing. They had likely sent out the balls of light that were hovering over the square, the light so bright that it almost seemed like day.

The undead seemed to be weakened by this light, they were completely unable to pass the wall of soldiers. When a particular strong undead, or skeletons, made it to the front. The clerics would focus their magic on that individual, quickly destroying it through divine magic. They seemed unable to do massive damage to the horde, but were perfectly able to destroy individuals, confusing Eldrian.

There's Katania... Eldrian mumbled, recognizing her in one of the groups of clerics. Behind them, he saw a few people focusing on something on a table. Thesolis must be in that group. Eldrian thought, both of them had left upon their return. It made sense, they had homes and full-time occupations in the city. Naturally, they wouldn't stay with Eldrian and the others inside an inn.

I wonder if they know why and how the fort was attacked without warning. And why does it seem like they are struggling to keep the balance?