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"It\'s normal that the loss of a loved one can send us into a truly dark place for weeks, months, sometimes even years. Just imagine what it would be like when before, death was an abstract concept you didn\'t even really understand."

"Sure, they know of it and they know it happens to everyone and that it can even happen to them. But that difference between knowing and understanding, it can make all the difference."

"Yeah, I get what you mean. It\'s the difference between someone dying of old age and just suddenly getting a call that they were killed in an accident or something." Ilmadia knew even this would not be on the same scale, but it reflected the idea eloquently.

"I\'m curious though, why haven\'t you asked her help in learning more about magic?"

"I use a unique way-"

Ilmadia quickly cut him off, "That\'s not a good reason, sure it means she can\'t directly teach you what she knows in a direct simple transfer of knowledge. But why not ask for her guidance regardless. She is sure to know far more than Sofiera or anyone else in the city, why not ask her help as you asked the help of Ceph\'s parents?"

"I-I..." Eldrian didn\'t have a good reason, his original reason was truly just because she couldn\'t teach him everything exactly back then it had been what he had needed. He hadn\'t even thought about it again since the first time she had told him this. Now the situation was different.

Just because he used magic differently didn\'t mean he couldn\'t learn from her. Heck, just the way she was healing Pelaros, that was something he was just starting to explore and she must certainly be able to give him game-changing tips.

"I\'ve been so focused on my own world that I didn\'t even think about it. I guess that\'s mostly because I\'ve yet to hit a dead end, so I felt like I was constantly moving forward and didn\'t need the help. I\'ve been blinded, thinking I just needed some time to focus on magic."

Ilmadia didn\'t really think that being in charge of a city was being focused on your own world, but she didn\'t think debating that was worth it. Instead, she simply smiled and told him to not waste the opportunity while she was here. Glad that he was at least open to the idea.

"The worst she could do is say no," Ilmadia commented, a saying often used and more often forgotten.

...

The group finally met up with one of the scouting players, who quickly caught all the leaders up on what was the situation with their first undead horde. The leaders were Nikki, Elizabeth, Eldrian, Evale, and Jannet.

"The horde is probably between half a thousand and a thousand, mostly skeletons with a few very decayed zombies. The stench is horrid, might want to warn everyone."

"No other undead?" Jannet asked, while skeletons were hard to kill, with the right spells and preparation it would not be hard. Most people who managed to reach Tier 4 were able and had learned these spells and skills, thus they should all be effective in fighting the undead.

"None that I saw, they were kind of milling about randomly. I don\'t understand why."

Nodding, the group of leaders quickly went to organize their respective parties. Evale was actually not in command of anyone and rather just kept in the loop since she was the strongest person here.

"Any thoughts on why they are milling about? There are actually a few groups who\'ve been staying at certain spots almost like they are drawn to it. In fact, the mergers happened as others were drawn to a still group."

Evale frowned, "It\'s actually more shocking that there are still zombies. All the flesh should have rotten after weeks in the sun without a supply of mana-"

"You don\'t think they are getting mana somehow?"

"It\'s possible."

"I\'ve never even touched on this, can you quickly fill me in on how magic materials are found and come to exist?" Eldrian asked, him and Evale on the same train of thought. That there must be mana rich areas which the undead are using to sustain themselves.

Evale naturally wouldn\'t go into the basic story of how mana evolved the material, instead, she directly jumped to the mana veins, or so they called them. Though it wasn\'t really understood what they were.

"The thing is, we call them mana veins simply because we normally find them associated with veins of some ore or crystal and so we associated the term. In a mana vein as you would expect mana is far denser and that allows the metal to slowly transform over long periods of time."

"We don\'t know why mana accumulates in such veins, it appears to be random. Almost like the bubbles of boiling water, mana simply accumulates and moves upwards towards the surface."

"Similar to the bubbles, if there isn\'t an ore or crystal vein to stabilize it the mana will explode and dissipate after reaching a critical level of accumulation. This normally causes some an extreme storms along with massive earthquakes, but it happens very rarely..."

She paused and quickly asked Eldrian how many undead hordes were staying still.

"Around thirteen are milling around set areas, ten have merged with those, and thirty are still moving randomly without aim."

"That..." Evale paused, that was far more than she expected. "Are you sure it is that many?"

"Yes, why?"

"It\'s just, the cases of a mana vein reaching its limit and exploding is a once in a lifetime event. If there are so many so near Kynigo, how is it possible that it is so rare?"

"Most of them must be stable- Wait why is it so hard to- ah that must be it." Considering how Mana Examination -or colorful sights as it is known in the kingdom- filled your entire sight with a mist of mana. It made sense that it couldn\'t be used to scout for an area of mana.

"But there must be some ways to find mana veins," Eldrian commented while wondering if maybe some of the veins simply never built up to a large enough degree to explode.

Instead of building up to a critical point, they would lose what holds them together after a certain amount of time and simply dissipate into the environment peacefully.

"There are, but it takes so much time and requires massive amounts of luck. You have to travel with a special type of mana crystal, crafted to be near spent and at the point of turning to dust."

"Due to the runes added it will seek mana to refill itself and repair its structure before it collapses and turns to dust. But the crafting process eliminated its ability to slowly gather mana from a normal density area."

"Normally you would go through a hundred before finding a mana-dense area. And then there wouldn\'t even be any way of knowing if there is an ore vein there."

Eldrian did not reply, instead, he thought of the possibilities this might actually open to them. Evale also quickly thought on the same line. "What is your actual approach to finding a vein then?" He asked

AN: A big thank you to everyone who continues to read and support the story on WN.