mana sense has reached level 2

Finally, my mana sense has reached level 2. That took way more time than I had expected. Anyway, the knowledge that I gained this time is way more useful than the knowledge that I got with the weapon mastery skill.

Now I can quantify the amount of mana each being has, it is already something I could do before the level up, but with this upgrade, I can do it even more accurately than before.

This is my status right now.

Species - undead armor

Level - 1/5

Mana - 10/10

Skills - mana sense - level 2

Weapons mastery - level 2

Abilities - bone king - level 1

Armor possession - level 1

Passive - armor sharing - level 1

Well, right now mana sense being enhanced is a bad thing for me. There is a strong source of mana right in front of me and it is now becoming very annoying for me to deal with him. Every time I look at him, it is like looking at the sun directly. It is getting pretty annoying now. It is not as intense as the mana of the one inside me or the mana of the goblin mage, but you have to let a man complain.

Well, we are finally in the black water swamp. For a few days there i was worried. Right now i would like to keep my distance from the mage. She is hiding something that is not something that i want to know about.

She gives me the same vibes as the devil's and that is a comment i don't make lightly. The devil's are scary to deal with.

Anyway, the source of mana is the named one, known as Jack. He is a necromancer that the goblin leader has provided me and the one that is commanding the group right now. Technically, it is still me, but we are in unfamiliar territory and he has knowledge of this region. Right now, my purpose is to be more of a mediator.

You see, His presence is making the other goblins very uncomfortable, but that is to be expected. There is a clear hierarchy here and in terms of strength, he is a first step goblin. Even among the named ones, it is pretty rare especially for one so young. Not for me naturally, but the goblins of this village.

Well, traveling through these swamps is very uncomfortable too. The feel of the water in this region makes me feel very uncomfortable. It is like walking through sludge. Judging from the way that the soldiers are covering their noses I am thankful that I don't have a sense of smell right now, though I still have my sense of touch so I can still feel the slimy water passing through my legs. Somehow, my empty body makes it even worse. It feels as if the water is entering my body, filling it up and that is how I know that my sense of touch extends to the inside of my body.

Well, the black water swamp is a much different place than I imagined. My sight is barely affected in this place, the place is full of mana through the goblins have very little visibility in that place. at its brightest, the place is supposed to be quite similar to the setting of a sun, which is when we have entered in this place, but the light is fading pretty fastly, but I can't tell(i can see mana not light). this is due to the presence of dark mana in this area. Nobody is exactly sure why exactly this region is so full of dark mana.

Some believe that there is a dark metal ore below, which is what is powering the swamp. Though such a thing is supposedly impossible since, with such a high amount of dark metal ore, a den core would have spawned in this region and produced a shit ton of dark attribute monsters.

Some believe that the region contains the body of a fifth step being, but such a situation happening is pretty unlikely in this region. A fifth step being simply has no reason to even be in this backwater.

Then again, it does not matter why the black water swamp exists just that it does.

Well, that is why they send troops to patrol this region and make sure that there is a basic idea as to what is going on. It is nearly impossible to tell how many beasts are there are in this zone from a distance(they can hide themselves too effectively.). It is too much of a danger. The place is pretty close to the southern walls and holds the ability to hide a pretty large group of night wolves and water wolves.

A surprise attack and they can completely break the southern walls. After all fire bull does take some time to activate and fire bull is one of the only defenses we have to deal with a massive number of enemies. Sadly, i have yet to see the formation in action so I can't speak much about it.

Without it activated it would be pretty hard to deal with the enemy. That is why they are so particular about this region. It is a danger zone. That is why they send troops, to patrol the region and visit three separate locations, each a place that is supposed to give me an idea as to the number of deadly beings in this place.

I dont think things are that simple though. Firstly there is me and secondly, The mage they have sent into this region is one of the rare users of dark magic(it is a sub branch of necromancy). He is the reason that the nameless ones can even see right now. He has applied some kind of magic on those guys. Well, at the very least I won't need to deal with too much of the politics a larger groups of named ones would bring. I am a servant of their king(even if they don't know), after all, though no goblin elder would feel pride for such a comparison. Humans often tend to be the enemies of the goblins.

He also must have a decent amount of battle power, but only one man can't do too much about this place. We are talking in terms of tribes of beasts here. There will be groups of tens of beast, if not in hundreds.

(Almost after half an hour)

Soldier one - let us set camp in this region named one. The soldiers are exhausted and The land seems to be solid enough, named one. We won't be here for long, just a couple of hours.

We have been traveling through the swampy waters for the last couple of hours and the soldier do look like they are getting exhausted. That is another disadvantage of this place. Travelling through the gel like swamp is very exhausting and slow.

if you are not careful you can find yourself exhausted in front of an enemy and that something that no one wants. Then there are the bugs. Most of them are harmless but a few of them can poison a person to death or weaken you by a lot. Spending too much time in the swamp is a bad idea. Normally, resting would be pretty smart, but this place doesn't give me much of a safe vibe.

Me- fine, but we will have to leave as soon as possible.

Thankfully For our base, we are setting up our base on a piece of land that is perfect for camping. It is the right size for a base and there are trees nearby so we can collect firewood and the wood needed for the poles for our tents.

Soon, there are tents already placed and while lighting a fire here is nearly impossible, there are rations for us to eat and the swamp water has been purified by jack for our consumption. Well, at the very least for my troop's consumption. Thankfully I can't eat.

Well, all of this noise seem to have attracted a couple of wolves in the area, who have been following us fo quite some time. They seem to hold some ability to hide themselves as the other member of my group have not even noticed them. anyway, I will finally have a chance to stretch my legs. I am not good at dealing with stress.

Me - soldier one, I am going for a walk in the swamp, I will complete the basic scouting of the region.

Soldier one - yes troop master.

Saying that I enter the swamp surrounding our temporary base. Well moving about in the swamp is a bit harder but my speed is not as less as I was expecting it to be. Whatever I say the brute force of this body is pretty high. I would make for the perfect tank if I can strengthen my body a lot more.

The night wolves have already found me leaving the camp and are trying to sneak around me and strike me from the back. They do not expect mana sense to be able to detect them, I think.

One of them has about five mana and the other has about two mana, though I can't confidently say it for sure until they are closer.

The five mana Wolf opens his mouth as mana gathers around his mouth. It must be the darkness bolt.

I swing my sword as the bolt leaves the enemy's mouth. My sword cuts through the enemy darkness bolt, forcefully dissipating it.

I begin to charge towards the five mana wolf as the other uses a darkness bolt on me. I block it again, with my sword, as I reach my target.

The five-mana wolf suddenly pounces at me, trying to bite off my throat with those teeth. The teeth are like small lights to me as it seems that the wolf is strengthening its teeth with mana.

Thankfully it tries to bite my throat, which is not a fatal spot for me( i shall naturally not discuss my weak spots) . As it is biting, l swipe and my sword is in its throat, which is still a weak point for that beast. The damage is pretty heavy but I will live through it.

It first begins by biting even harder and wildly trying to claw my armor, but its strength begins to fade as the wolf began to slow down and it finally falls on the ground in front of me.

The two mana wolf still keeps its distance, trying to hit me with darkness bolts, but it proves very ineffective. I barely even felt anything As it hit my right arm and while it can damage the other parts of my armor, the damage is not too serious. it can only cause small dents in my armors.

After seven or eight weak darkness bolts, the wolf retreats. I can't follow him, so all I can do is return to the camp and inform the others. After finding a relatively secluded part of the land our camp is on where the others won't be appearing anytime soon. I begin to dig a grave with my greatsword. after completing all of that I finally am going to use bone king.

touching the corpse in front of me, I activate the ability. as usual, it is a very overwhelming feeling, but this time I do not let only the system take control of me. I still don't have complete control, but I can at very least control what goes where. this time I am using the ability to strengthen the remaining part of my body and to repair the damage to my throat. my right arm still is the strongest part of my body, but this at least decreases the gap that exists.

well, I can confidently say that this is going to work out even better than before. I can feel sturdier, though I don't know if that is due to my strengthening or a trick of my mind.

Well, it does not matter as I dump the remains of the wolves into the grave and cover the grave up. No need to give my comrades anything to be scared about me, after all. They are already pretty spooked here.

I return to our tents, where the others have already begun to rest. I can only see soldier one and soldier seven who are practicing against each other.

Soldier seven also tends to use a dagger along with his bow and arrows. It is a proper duel with both sides not giving the others any benefits. Soldier seven is faster than soldier one, but his dagger has a problem of range against soldier one's spear.

It is a pretty high-quality duel for the goblins, but for me, all it does is bore me.

Their duel continues for a couple of minutes, after which they finally stop.

Me - soldier one, I have something to discuss with you.

Soldier one - yes troop master.

Me - there is a pretty significant probability that we are going to be facing of against a attack soon enough. I have intercepted a couple of scouts who seem to have been following us from the moment that we have been in this area.

Soldier one - I know that, troop master. The enemy knows that we have been here since the very beginning. A couple of scouts is to be expected.

Me - well, any possibility that your soldier can build a defensive wall in this area.

Soldier one - no, troop master, while we have wood from the trees, the ground here is too small to create a proper wooden wall. All it will serve to do is tire out the soldiers. Anyway, this is only a resting spot. It is kind of pointless isn't it.

Me - well, then there is nothing for us to do but wait for the enemy then. You both go and rest, I will be taking over the patrolling duty for now. We will break camp as soon as possible. Something doesn't feel right.