After all, if you don't spend it, piles of gold are just shiney and not really worth anything. However, that doesn't stop me from sucking all of it into my ring and taking it with me. Next I head to the storage room, but this time I don't really have any expectations.

This time what I find is way beyond what I was expecting, the storage room is massive. It is more like a warehouse and it is packed to the rafters with crates of food. What catches my attention the most is that the food is all perfectly preserved.

However, the room is not enchanted, it is the crates that are keeping the food fresh. To be more specific, there is a rune that is burned onto every crate, and that is the source of the spell. The rune sucks in ambient mana to maintain itself, it is actually impressive.

The runes are all exactly the same, like they were stamped onto the crates. Although, from the burn marks it is more like they were branded into the crates. That suggests a fairly high end procedure, not something some bandits could come up with.

Not even a major merchant group would have the resources to create such a procedure. That makes me think that these crates originated from the magic kingdom, but how did they get here? Are these bandits like those smugglers I ran into, working for the magic kingdom?

If they are, then where are all the nifty magic resources that they should be collecting? It is possible that they were already sent off and I just have bad luck when it comes to timing. Just to be sure I scan the entire fortress again, but I don't find anything interesting.

So, I use the communication amulet to warn Stillwater, then after five minutes I open another gate. Once it is open I use mana to start floating the crates through one by one. There are thousands of crates, enough food to feed the elves for a couple of years at least.

With what I bought for them earlier and what is in the crates I shouldn't have to worry about supplies again. At least, it better not take us years to sail back to the peninsula or I will get murdered. That is assuming I don't run out of time and die before the girls have a chance to murder me.

Once I am down to the last couple of crates I stop and close the gate. Now the only thing I have left to do is free the human women, the last two crates are for them. After all, they will need enough food to get back to a human city.

Oh, I almost forgot, there are bandits outside at the defensive wall that I should kill. I should probably do that before I release the women or they might get recaptured. So, I leave the fortress and go looking for the remaining bandits and kill them.

Then, once they are dead, I return to the fortress and free all of the women. Once they are all free I give them the crates of food and then leave them to their fate. What happens to them now is not my concern, but if they are smart they should be fine.

Since I didn't bother to loot the bodies of the bandits, there are plenty of things laying around. So they should be able to get weapons and armor easily, there is even gold left on the bodies. So as long as they take some time to look around they should have good odds.

As for me, I leave the fortress, drop shapeshift, and then fly into the mountains. Then I find a decent spot to land and get some sleep until the sun comes up. When I wake up I have some breakfast, then take off, and fly out of the mountains.

Now I can get back to my original plan, which is to head to what the merchants called a forbidden zone. According to what I was told, this forbidden zone was created by the fall of a city. The city fell to the undead and the entire area is still controlled by the undead.

This includes powerful undead that are intelligent, exactly what I want to study. The forbidden zone is really easy to spot, it has been covered by clouds since the city fell. No weather or magic has ever been able to move them, leaving the area in permanent darkness.

The merchants told me many different stories about what caused the city to fall. The truth is that no one survived to tell the tale, so all the stories are made up. It makes me kind of curious, but I doubt I have the time to figure it out right now.

I only plan to stick around long enough to find and study a couple of intelligent undead. If possible, I don't even plan to fight any of the undead, just study them. As I was told, the forbidden zone is really easy to spot even from a distance.

I land before entering the area under the clouds and use my mana to hide my lifeforce. That should keep the undead from noticing me, or at least it will make me look like one of them. Of course, that only applies to normal undead, intelligent undead won't be so easy to fool.

However, it is the best plan I have right now, but if it fails I can just fight them. As long as I get a good scan of them before the fight ends my goal should still be reached. With my mind made up and my mana wrapped around me I enter into the forbidden zone.

As soon as I step into the area covered by the clouds the temperature drops. Not only is it colder, but there is no life at all, not even weeds are growing. It also doesn't take long for me to start seeing undead wandering around, but they ignore me.

It looks like hiding my lifeforce is working for now, at least on the normal undead. Just to increase my understanding I scan all of the undead that I pass. They are a lot like the maker's undead, the only real difference is the flavor of the energy that is animating them.

So far it looks like the way Bones is gaining energy will work, but I need to study more. Now ignoring the normal undead I head towards the ruins of the city looking for intelligent undead. Just as I am about to enter the ruins through a hole in the city wall I scan something living.

As soon as I scan the thing I crouch down and use the wall to hide behind. Carefully peeking through the wall I spot someone in a black robe walking down a street. The odd thing is that even though I can tell it is a living human I can also detect undead energy.

My first thought is that he is a necromancer, but oddly I can't sense any mana in him. The other odd thing is that while the undead are ignoring him, he is being careful not to get too close to them. I quickly shapeshift into human form and put the cloak on, then I follow him.