Swain, Jackie, and eventually Sam, joined Sylas and Diana outside the gas station as they woke and ate breakfast. Sylas was dripping with sweat by the time the others were ready to move out.
"Alright, Soulforged," Sylas cracked a grin as he said their new name, "We're a little over half way to our destination and we're leaving earlier than yesterday so we should get to our houses around the early afternoon."
He turned around and pointed forward, "Let's get going! And make sure you keep up your training." Sylas looked back, smiling as he teased. "I can't be the only Silver rank in our party. That'll just be sad."
His jest was met with groans which only made him laugh. The Gobs and Gabby grabbed their wagon handles and followed behind their master.
The wagons were rearranged and repacked after last night allowing Jackie to ride in one as well as Sam. The three wagons without riders were packed to the brim and bright orange straps were ratcheted down to hold the overflowing contents.
Sylas nodded as Swain and Diana began their physical training and Sam and Jackie continued their mana training.
'This is good. We've only met two other groups and we were stronger than them, but training should put us even further ahead.'
Sylas thought about the two groups of humans they'd met so far. Both instances ended poorly for them after they started a fight with Soulforged.
'Well, Brock didn't technically start the fight, but there's no way we wouldn't have fought after finding out what he was doing.'
He shook his head and began to drown out the monotony of walking endlessly with his mana practice and thoughts. Sylas felt the warmth of Aria on his back as he remembered his experiment this morning.
****
"Sam, I want to try something. Tell me what you can feel." Sylas reached out, taking Sam's hand in his own. Concentrating, Sylas brought his mana out from his core, through his channels, and then to his fingertip, just as he had with Aria.
He took a deep breath and then looked into Sam's sky blue eyes as he willed his mana to exit his finger and enter the back of her hand. What he didn't expect was Sam's immediate reaction.
"Ow, Motherfucker!" Sam whipped her hand back as his mana touched her. Sylas sat there stunned for a moment before apologizing to her.
He explained his thought process, how Aria didn't have a reaction, and then they contemplated the cause of Sam's violent reaction. Wanting more data, Sylas turned to Swain with a grin.
"No, no, no, no, no!" Swain immediately ran away, pretending like his physical training was very interesting and took all his attention.
Eventually, he came back and held his hand out to Sylas with a pout on his face.
Sylas couldn't help but chuckle, "Oh come on you big baby. You're going to be fine. Even if it hurts, it'll only hurt for a little bit."
He ran through the same process as with Sam and Aria until Sylas's mana was about to seep into Swain. The whole time Swain was twitching and pulling his hand back randomly, but since he couldn't sense mana well, when Sylas's mana was actually about to enter his hand, Swain didn't react at all.
That was until Sylas's mana actually seeped through his skin. A look of disgust immediately dawned on Swain's face.
"It doesn't hurt, but it's so gross. The sensation is the same as your wand. It's like there are bugs crawling in my skin where your mana is."
Swain pulled his hand out of Sylas's grasp as he finished his explanation and shivered.
"I'd pay anything to not feel that again."
Sylas nodded and looked at Diana and Jackie, "Would you two mind?"
They begrudgingly accepted and gave the same response as Swain, no pain, but a large amount of disgust.
****
Sylas stepped around a crashed car as he continued to think. 'Sam was the only one that reacted violently. Maybe our mana doesn't mix. But why…'
He stared at Sam as he contemplated.
'Hmm, because she's a healer? Her only skill so far is a passive heal. While my skills and equipment all mention death. Is it a life versus death problem?'
Sylas rubbed his chin as he debated with himself.
'A hint of Death in my mana would make sense with my class and items. It would explain the natural disgust the living beings have towards it, but that doesn't explain Aria. She didn't have an adverse reaction at all.'
'That school of thought would also mean life and death are diametrically opposed rather than two parts of a whole like yin and yang.'
Sylas lost himself in thought for a while before deciding he didn't have enough information yet. This subject could wait for later. Right now, he needs to figure out another way to train his mana since he mapped all his mana channels.
'The cultivation novels I've read have always mentioned condensing their mana, or energy, to concentrate its potency. Maybe I can do that too.'
'The System and everything about this new world are fantasy elements, so it's a good place to start.'
As hours passed, Sylas attempted to apply pressure to the mana with his channels, but didn't have much success so he moved on to his core. The process of entering his core was difficult at first, especially while paying attention to his surroundings, but he succeeded in entering.
When he tried to compress his mana within his core, the process felt different than within his channels, but he didn't feel a large change.
Sylas gave up and was withdrawing his focus from inside his mana core when he noticed a peculiarity. His core was passively pulling in mana from the environment and refining it, but he hadn't spent any of his mana.
'It's working. It's actually working.' Sylas thought in bewilderment. The only explanation he could think of for his core to be regenerating mana would be for the mana already in the core to be compressed which would open more room for new mana.
Sylas didn't notice a big difference with his mana over the hours of his training, but he believed his process was working as his core never stopped drawing in mana.
His eyes lit up as he looked at the road sign in front of the party. Red Oak River. Sylas looked to the horizon and could see the bridge to cross the river.
'Only a couple more miles.' Sylas smiled as he thought about the remaining journey. There was less than a mile to the bridge and then around two miles to his house after that. 'We're getting close.'
The party stopped for lunch to refuel their bodies from the massive amount of training they'd be doing. The sun was almost directly above them as they sat down.
They ate their meat while chatting with each other or watching Aria pounce on insects and chase small rodents.
Sylas laughed out loud as they were packing up to resume their journey when he got a notification that Aria leveled up after her many successful hunts. He walked over to her and picked her up.
"You're my best hunter." Sylas cooed at the small black kitten. His face turned confused as he noticed she was a bit bigger than before.
'She wasn't much larger, but there was definitely some growth.' Sylas thought as he examined Aria. 'Maybe leveling speeds up animals' growth process?'
He put Aria back in his hood and rejoined the group as they resumed the monotonous walk.
They only made it another ten minutes before coming to a stop. The bridge was in full vision now, but that let Soulforged see a problem. Well, it let them see many problems.
A horde of zombies were gathered on the bridge, most weren't moving as they stood in a large group.
Sylas spotted the likely culprit for the horde. An ancient stone archway with a blue swirling portal was in the middle of the gathering.
"There's a dungeon." Sylas muttered to his party. "They're gathering around a dungeon, likely because it radiates mana and that attracts them."
The party was crouching behind a truck to ensure the horde didn't spot them as they discussed their options.
"What can we do?" Swain questioned.
Diana answered with her own question, "Can we go around?"
Sylas shook his head. "Not that I know of. I'm sure there are other bridges, but they'll be miles away and we don't have a road to them so they'll add at least a day to our journey."
"So, we fight?" Sam pitched in with a calm expression.
Sylas stood to his full height which allowed him to view the horde. He used [Analyze] on the entire horde, something he had no idea he could do.
[40 Level 6 Zombies]
[30 Level 7 Zombies]
[15 Level 8 Zombies]
[10 Level 9 Zombies]
[5 Level 9 Silver Zombies]
Sylas sucked in a deep breath as he scanned the horde. For some reason, the levels of each zombie was floating above its head so he could locate where each of the higher levels were.
Unsurprisingly, the Silver Zombies were the closest to the dungeon, followed by the Bronze level 9s, but then the strict hierarchy crumbled as the levels 6, 7, and 8 were intermixed, but with the level 6s making up the majority of the outer ring.
Sylas crouched down and told his party what he discovered. Soulforged was silent for a couple moments after he finished speaking, but Swain broke the tension as usual.
"So, it's going to be really easy?"
The others laughed upon hearing him. Sylas took advantage of Swain's momentum to empower his party's confidence.
"Not easy, but definitely doable. We're all much stronger than we were when we fought the hellhound and we actually have a terrain advantage this time."
Sylas went over the plan he developed as the party listened in and asked questions. Ending with Sylas's question. "Everyone knows what we're doing?"
He received silent nods as the party steeled themselves for combat. "Stay low, try not to be seen until we're ready. This is the official debut of Soulforged so we can't have anyone die now."
The party grinned as they slowly backed away from the bridge.
Minutes later, the first part of Sylas's plan was complete. The two wagons that were mostly empty for Sam and Jackie to sit in, now held every throwable rock or debris within a couple hundred feet of their location.
"Phase two now. This is where it gets risky. Everyone, eyes on the horde." Sylas instructed after approving the amount of weapons collected.
They snuck forward to the beginning of the bridge where a massive pileup crash had occurred. The vehicles in the crash somewhat formed a V shape which Sylas planned to use as a funnel.
The risky part of this phase was that Swain was in charge of moving two of the cars slightly to seal some cracks in the V. If Swain was spotted before he could finish then the party would have more than one location to fight which would increase their risk by a lot.
The group was only 50 feet away from the edge of the horde at this point, so any noise made would reach them and Soulforged would be beset upon before they were ready.
Swain grunted a little as he grabbed the front of a sedan and started to scoot it towards the van next to it. Red faced, Swain was able to nudge the sedan into place, but as he released the front bumper and the car settled, the suspension whined as the weight was set back on it.
Immediately, the horde turned and saw the party. The level 6s stood still for just a moment before shambling towards them.
"Swain, in position. Diana, you're in charge of the hole we couldn't patch. Sam, Jackie, Throw once they get close to the vehicles forming the V."
Sylas commanded in a soft voice. The edge of the horde was aware of them, but he didn't want to attract every zombie at once. He continued to give his minions mental commands.
Swain and Diana ran to their spots. Swain was at the point of the V where he would take the brunt of the horde and Diana was ten feet to his left at a smaller gap where only one zombie should make it through at a time.
Gobs 1 and 3 flanked Swain while 2 and 4 were by Diana. Gabby was positioned to the side with her bow at the ready. Shammy was told to hang back for a moment until the rest of the horde realized what was going on. His [Fireball]s would attract attention as soon as they impacted their target.
Sylas felt the mana pulled from his core during [Bossy Words] increase as he was finishing his commands to the group. He checked his new notification quickly.
[Congratulations! Your skill [Bossy Words] has been upgraded due to your proficiency at the skill and using it on a larger group and in a large fight.]
[Strategic Calls]
[Grade: Rare]
[Passive: Your tactical directives empower your allies. When Soulforged members follow your precise instructions during combat or complex group maneuvers, they receive a +3 buff to their two highest stats and a +1 buff to all other stats for the duration of the directed action. Additionally, their morale and coordination are significantly boosted, reducing mental fatigue and improving synergy within the group.]
All of Soulforged felt their stats increase slightly after Sylas finished their orders. Interestingly, even the undead minions were included in [Strategic Call]'s influence when they weren't included under [Bossy Words].
'It must be a perk of going from Common to Rare grade.' Sylas hypothesized.
Sylas may have read through his notification, but his blue eyes never truly left the battlefield in front of him. The edge of the horde was closing in on their location.
There was only a 50 foot gap between the groups at the start, but the zombies didn't move particularly fast.
Sylas shook his head to clear his mind as the first batch of zombies approached. He watched as they slowly approached their location.
"Fire!"