The answer to whether or not Alolvi was an undead was obviously… no. There was no need to kill Alolvi and turn him into an undead. If he was in danger of dying however things would be different…

“What happened to his injury?! Was it fake?” Sudryal questioned still agape.

“No, it was a real and serious injury.” Ed said before thinking back a few hours.

The situation had been dire.

Alolvi (Gravely ill)

The system’s assessment could never be wrong so Ed knew to act quickly. Without further ado, he entered his storage and looked for a potion. It didn’t take him long to find some.

Meager Healing Potion (Orc)

Ed still had the potions he made with his own blood lying around.

‘I’m not sure these will be enough’ Ed thought as he brought it out of the system space and surprised the onlookers.

All they saw was Ed closing his eyes for a few seconds before materializing a vial of a viscous red liquid. He then applied the potion to various parts of Alolvi and even fed him the remainder.

“Cough, cough” Alolvi let out a cough but remained seemingly asleep.

Alolvi (Gravely ill, persevering)

‘The potion has definitely bought us time’ Luckily Ed did not have just one bottle of these, but multiple. He made sure to feed the potion to Alolvi as many times as was necessary and even went a step above.

“Huh? What is he…?” An elf exclaimed seeing that Ed had lit a fire inside the fleshy tunnel.

“I’m making a medley” Remembering a technique he had used in the past, Ed created his world-famous healing medley.

Alchemy has leveled up

Healing medley

A medley of soothing ingredients capable of healing external injuries and soothing internal ones

This recipe of blood mushrooms stirred in boiling water with Alivio herbs and ground serenity buds was still just as effective as Ed remembered it to be.

‘The orcs are still using this recipe to this day if I remember correctly’ Sharog would often report things to him regarding the daily ongoings of Sanctuary whenever he was in his orc body.

Alolvi (Recovering)

Although it took some effort and quite a bit of time, healing Alolvi back to full health was not a difficult task. In fact, the most difficult part was now escorting Alolvi back.

“Huh? This tunnel wasn’t here before” An Elven warrior commented.

Ed observed the new tunnel and also noted that it was definitely not dug by the Wormllipede. Putting aside that Ed would have known, the tunnel had fewer signs of digging.

‘It’s more like the ground shrunk back to form a tunnel’ The Bloodhaven was clearly living.

“Let’s take the normal path back” Ed commanded but he soon learned this was a mistake. The tunnels he dug before had also been modified and blocked even at certain points.

‘Something is playing with us’ Ed wanted to escort everyone out of the Bloodhaven safely so tunnels were the best method. Unfortunately, if the place was uncooperative the only option left was to go to the surface.

‘Or so the place would hope I’m sure’ Ed did not feel threatened by the appearance of new holes and blocked past ones.

‘It changes nothing’ As long as Ed had the Wormllipede he could create the tunnels again and again.

If the shrinking and squirming flesh were scary, the tunnels could have collapsed with them still inside to suffocate them in a single swoop. …So why didn’t the tunnels do that?

‘It must take too long’ Suffocating the group in the vile fleshy ground seemed like a clean way to get the job done so since it hadn’t happened Ed felt this was the only reasonable conclusion.

The person or thing responsible for the winding and twisting tunnels had opted to quietly operate on the Wormllipede’s handiwork to disorient the group.

‘If this happened while we were split up it could have been a problem’ But since it didn’t Ed just summoned the Wormllipede and the group, carrying Alolvi, followed after it.

During this trek, Ed got a chance to feel grateful for his healing of Alolvi. He could only imagine the reactions of the mages back at the temporary base if Alolvi came back injured never mind dead.

‘They’d feel hopeless’ If a strong warrior couldn’t conquer the Bloodhaven what chance would an earthen or water mages stand? If that happened, Ed would have to give up any thoughts on a further exploration into the field of death lest he gives it any more bodies to act as part of itself.

‘Wait.. would everyone feel hopeless actually?’ There was one individual waiting at the refuge that Ed could not get a read on.

Sudryal.

‘Up to this point, how has he acted…?’ Ed asked himself this question in hopes of trying to decipher how Sudryal would feel but all his thoughts came up empty.

The more Ed thought about him however the more he felt that things didn’t add up and something needed to be done.

That was when he formulated a plan. Ed believed that Sudryal would not care for the safety of Alolvi, but he would probably still be surprised. Ed planned to use that to his advantage.

‘But I already had him recover…’ It wasn’t like Ed could injure him again for the sake of surprising Sudryal, right…?

“Hahaha” the idea was silly so Ed let out a chuckle. The answer to the question was yes, however. In fact, he could injure not just Alolvi but some of the other elves as well for additional dramatic value.

Sudryal was now left dumbfounded by the knowledge that he was completely toyed with from beginning to end.

“You’ve really put me to shame” Ed did not tell Sudryal about how all of this came to be though. He only answered Sudryal by saying that they weren’t undead and everything was indeed a farce.

p anda nOvel.cO,m “I came from another village as you’ve guessed” Sudryal began to narrate his story.

He was in fact proud from a young age and believed that he could be a savior to his people. The reality of things was different, however. When Sudryal went to the Bloodhaven his brazen behavior caused the lives of some of the expedition members.

“I deeply regretted it at the time but… I ran” Things were getting heated as the warriors threatened to kill him and Sudryal fled.

Eventually, after enough pointless wandering, Sudryal came across an elven village. This was a village that hadn’t adapted to being underground. Perhaps it was due to this that it was undergoing a period of decline and Sudryal as a water mage was easily taken in.

There were doubts about him but these doubts faded with time and people. Thanks to the high-profile nature of an above-ground village, many died and many came just like Sudryal himself had done.

Before Sudryal noticed, he was one of the few remaining members of the original population at the time of his arrival. Using his age and position, he turned himself into an elder and forced the village to adopt the underground lifestyle that the village he cast himself out from once had.

The sun was nice but it was unsafe. Sudryal convinced himself this was the right choice and although they would have to move from one underground place to another, most people would concur.

“That’s…” An elf who was hearing this for the first time exclaimed.

“How old are you?” Alolvi of all people asked.

“Ahem, I don’t believe that’s relevant to the story” Sudryal was visibly aged compared to all other elves so he was undoubtedly the oldest. The story simply helped them visualize what exactly being the oldest meant.

“That answers one question” Ed commented silently. The village that Sudryal migrated to was formed with elves from all sorts of places and villages. It was natural that they all had their own knowledge and theories.

It didn’t explain one thing, however.

“When was the council of elders formed?” So far the story made it seem that Sudryal had total control of the village.

“Hahaha…” Sudryal laughed awkwardly. One could immediately infer that Sudryal had been manipulating things from the shadow.

“When someone died most people cried but I rejoiced.” Sudryal said seriously.

“Each death was an opportunity to push public opinion in my favor” Sudryal after acquiring a position of elder himself pushed the blame for any and all things onto the others.

Basically, he controlled public opinion and forced the elders to cave into his whims. Once his ideas no longer coincided with public opinion Sudryal lost all sway however and he started to fade into the background.

In a desperate attempt to not lose that sway, he started the spread of religion. He turned water mages like himself into deities and became the highest authority in regard to this religion.

While people like Alolvi held physical power through his control of the village’s punitive and defensive forces, Sudryal held power through the minds of the people and his religion.

“Wow, so you were the reason the village was so depraved” Ed said with an expression of genuine surprise. But the reality was different, Ed was not surprised, he was just disappointed.

‘I should have investigated the elders more carefully’ He appointed people to important posts without too much thought. Should he thank luck for the thriving of the orcs and lizardmen?

But this also complicated things.

‘Should I actually let a man like this go?’ It wasn’t a question of utility anymore. It now became a question of morals. Should Ed willingly associate with someone like this?