The Dark King
Page 24
They turned to see that it was Mason so they were relieved.
Mason saw that they were alright so he snapped: "You guys scared me. I almost thought that I've lost you guys!"
Sham scratched his head. "It was you who scared us! I was watching Dean dissecting the undead so I forget to inform you.."
Zach hurriedly added on, "You have come down so who is gonna throw the bricks? "
Mason's eyes rolled up, and replied "Of course I'm back. I'm exhausted. Decide who will change with me."
Sham stared at the beheaded corpse. "I'll go," Sham said.
Dudian's thoughts were interrupted by Mason. He continued to think but he couldn't find more clues. He wouldn't dwell on this topic anymore, surviving was the most important thing right now. His eyes lit up as he looked over at Mason and Zach. "Come with me as a back up."
They were in doubts as they couldn't figure what Dudian wanted to do but they still followed him downstairs.
Dudian arrived downstairs to see the group of undeads were far away. He sneaked out to the corner and used the dagger to cut the heads of two undeads which were still lying on the ground. Carrying their heads over he quickly ran into the building. He saw Mason and Zach retreat, so he smiled and told them, "Nothing dangerous, they are dead."
Mason was frightened: "You, when have you become so daring?"
"I'm still adapting." Dudian replied. Returning to the upper floor, he slit open the second head the way he had done before. Now it was much easier to pierce inside, as the heads of the undeads were ripped apart from the body. As expected, there was another exactly similar looking dark blue ball inside the head of the undead.
He was going to cut open the third head when he thought of a problem. He decided to forgo the previous cutting method. Instead he began to cut through the splits of the skull that had resulted from the free fall. The head slowly broke apart. Soon they saw the full intracranial view. Most of the brain tissues were frozen. Dark blue ball had lodged itself into the brain in an ovary like place.
However, probably due to the skull crack the dark blue ball lodged inside the brain tissue was damaged. Dudian carefully rummaged for a while. Soon he came to understand the dark blue ball was in control of the undead's actions.
The so-called, destruction of the head can kill the body of the undead, were firmly based on two principles. First is to destroy the central nervous system in the head so that the head could not control the body. The second is to destroy the dark blue ball's connection to the brain.
In simple terms, this dark blue ball somehow connects to the brain through the ovary-looking organ. So there was no need to cut the head. As long as a strong enough force is applied to its head this dark blue ball will vibrate within the ovary. In case like that it will lose the contact with the ovary's wall and won't be able to signal the nervous system to perform any actions. The undead will automatically cease to act. It is same as killing the undead.
Dudian was more puzzled as he understood this point. What was the matter that made up the dark blue ball? Why would it grow in undead's brain? Was it manufactured or formed by the virus?
Dudian picked up the dark blue ball and began to cover it with fabric. He covered layers over layers so it was wrapped into a large fist-sized ball. He handed two of them to Mason and Zach: "This thing can absorb the body temperature. It will help us to lower the temperature down. You don't have to hold it as it will absorb the body heat anyway. The best is to put it into the backpack."
Macon and Zach were surprised to see these wrapped up balls. Mason curious: "What are these?
"I don't know exactly what these are. However, Hunters who kill the undeads will pry open their heads for this thing. It should be very valuable. Otherwise they won't turn a blind eye on things like gold." said Dudian. He had seen many all the heads of the undeads had been split open but he would have never thought that Hunters would split the heads just to pick this dark blue ball out!
Mason became frightened. "Are you sure that Hunters kill the undeads for this? "
"Maybe."
Chapter 57: Melting
"This thing has 'heat-absorbing' characteristics! It proves that my previous speculation was correct. These corpses are driven and controlled by it. They are attuned to our body temperature. That's why they gradually gather here. They don't track their prey by the smell of blood but they track the heat!" Dudian was reviewing the information that he had compiled. "Scott and the rest should attract more undeads as their group would produce more heat in comparison to ours. Moreover there are very large number of undeads and they are not leftovers ignored by the Hunters. Most probably, these zombies had moved over from other regions!"
Dudian frowned at such thoughts. He closed his eyes to recall the map that Scott had. There was a gray area near the are no 8. It had not been cleaned. There were other colored areas which marked the hunting grounds for other consortiums.
Concluding his thoughts, Dudian said to Mason and Zach, "It will help us to lower our body temperature. Soon we will be able to get rid of these undeads. As they would not be able to track us anymore. Because we have only three of them which means Sham won't get any for now. We gotta hunt another one and dig the dark blue ball out of its head. That way we will have enough dark blue balls for four of us to use."
Mason was alarmed. "Would we actually be able to avoid being tracked by them with this?"
"How can we hunt them? They are way too strong. We are not their opponents." Zach added on.
Dudian smiled and responded. "Humans are the strongest not just because we are good at fighting but because of the wisdom that we have. We can't fight hand to hand with undeads but we can use our minds to easily kill them."
"Easy?" Zach and Macon both echoed in a daze.
In three years of harsh training they were taught on how to search for prey in the wilderness as well as in a variety of environments. It was all about how to look for food. However, they were not taught how to hunt, because that was the work of the Hunters. So although they were trained but in front of certain problems such as facing undeads they were at a loss. Yet, compared with the other children, their lack of panic was already very rare.
"The easiest way is to use fire." Dudian smiled and said: "You first find some fabric. As long as the fabric can be lit. The more the better. I will go to replace Sham. I will give you ten minutes to find and gather fabric downstairs in front of the building."
Macon and Zach's eyes lit up as they guessed what Dudian wanted to do. They quickly left the room in separate ways to search the various floors for combustible materials.
Dudian went upstairs to see Sham still tirelessly throwing stones. "You should rest for a while, I'll keep throwing the stones."
Sham replied. "No. Jobs like this, where no brainpower is needed, should be done by us. You are the only one we can rely on to leave this place."
Dudian laughed/ "Mason and Zach are doing everything. After everything is ready we will be able to leave. We only need the eastbound wind."
"What do you mean?" Sham was confused.
Dudian shook his head and said. "Nothing. I'm free till they find everything that I asked for. You should go upstairs and bring some stones over. Do not empty this floor." The he grabbed a stone from the ground. He looked at wandering undeads and found that the number of these undeads had increased by a few. There was a single undead which was wobbling over.
Dudian threw the stone to another place. The undeads were led to other side of building because of the sound emitted.
Ten minutes later, Mason and Zach had already gathered flammable materials in a pile in an open space in front of the building. Dudian began to throw stones and glass close to the circle where clothing and wood was gathered. The sound echoed out and grabbed undead group's attention. They staggered towards the circle.
Because of Dudian's previous instructions Mason began to act as he saw undeads coming over. He was on the second floor. He ignited the torch and threw it onto the circle. He
lighted five torches. Four of them fall onto the circle because of close distance. The flame soon spread to all over the circle. Clothes and rotting wood furniture was burning together and soon turned into a raging fire.
The undeads came close to fire but avoided it instinctively. However, they began to walk around outside the fire circle.
Dudian was slightly dispirited as he saw the scene. He threw few more stones to attract the undeads into the fire. However the sound was not able to attract them.
Dudian ran downstairs in hurry and yelled: "Incinerate them!"
Mason, Zach and Sham immediately set to implement the spare plan prepared by Dudian in cases such as this. It was simple, just burn the undead! The plan was made so that if the undeads didn't go inside the fire pit. Now, the plan would just be handy.
The three quickly picked up sheets, quilts and blankets that were prepared in advance. They began to throw them at undeads. Although they were not affected by the but were cover in sheets, quilts or blanket. They were walking around the fire pit so the fabrics were ignited by the fire. Soon their bodies began to burn up.
Dudian was relieved as he quietly watched. After some time the flame extinguished. There were close to a dozen undeads lying by the fire pit. A few undeads which had avoided the inferno had fled to few hundred meters away and continued to move on.
Dudian threw rocks at once, which lured them to a far away distance. He then let Sham to replace him in continuing to throw the rocks. Mason, Zach and Dudian arrived downstairs. They were ready to get close to undeads when they saw one of them lift it hand a little. They were surprised, didn't the flame burn them up?
"The body is charred, but the dark blue ball can still continue to control them..." Dudian's facial experssion changed. He asked Mason and Zach to throw more combustible fabrics and wood so that they burn them for more.
Seven or eight minutes later, after a careful observation of the undeads, Dudian threw stones onto their bodies. He was relieved as he saw that the undeads did not respond to the stones. He took Mason and Zach with him and went down towards the corpses of undeads.
Sham lured the undeads away by throwing more rocks so the job was easy. Their gloves were wrapped in fabric to prevent skin burns. Afterwards, they cut off the heads.
There were total of eight heads which were brought back into the building. Dudian pierced the head and saw that its intracranial tissues had softened and were almost in liquid state. The dark blue ball in its skull was melting. It had shrank from the size of a thumb to a soybean's. After the dark blue ball melted into liquid it had the appearance the same as translucent color of water.?"It can't handle high temperatures? " Dudian frowned.
...
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Chapter 58: Injured hunter
Dudian quickly cut open the other head. He saw that the same thing had happened to the dark blue ball. It was melting down. It confused him. Aren't these things heat absorbing in nature? How come as of this moment these balls were instead melting at high temperatures?
Was it not it's purpose to begin with?
He was puzzled with lots of doubts in his mind. Dudian used the dagger to pick them out from inside the skull. After leaving the intracranial tissue the dark blue ball stopped melting.
Dudian's eyes fell on bluish liquid which was melted inside. With the passage of time, intracranial tissue's temperature gradually reduced. Color of these bluish liquid thickened. The next moment, Dudian, Mason and Zach witnessed the horrific scene. These bluish liquid as if having their own minds began to twist and retract to a ball. Slowly they condensed into a dark blue ball!
Dudian was completely shocked.
This scene gave him a sense of de-ja-vu, like ... ... when water froze into ice!
This dark blue ball seems to have similar structure. Yet, it does not need to wait to reach zero degree celcius before freezing. It is equipped with highly efficient 'endothermic' characteristic.
Dudian looked at the dark blue ball. He felt as if there was an eye inside the dark blue ball staring back at him. It gave him a creepy feeling. Although he didn't know what kind of material the dark blue ball was and why would it appear in undead's brain but it gave him the feeling of an extremely dangerous object. Of course it was just only based on instinct. It may also been the impact of the scene that had occurred in front of his eyes and resulted in wrong intuition.
In any case, Dudian was reluctant to be in contact with this thing any further. He thought to himself that if he had his own alchemy laboratory should he wanted to study this thing.
This terrible virus made him felt that three hundred years ago when he entered the cold storage he had missed something. Only after a thorough study of the virus, he may get to know a thing or two about it.
Mason looked at Dudian and whispered. "Dean, can we use this thing?"
Dudian looked at him and replied, "You can use it but be careful. Isolate it well."
Mason nodded delightedly. He used the cloth to wrap up the dark blue ball.
Dudian also picked up one and the cold feeling returned again. It was not different compared with the previous experience. He was assured that with the help of this thing they can escape the body sensors of the other undeads.
"Continue to arrange the combustion circle." Dudian took away all the balls and said to Mason and Zach.
They were surprised: "We have killed enough undeads. We can go around them now."
Dudian shook his head slightly and said, "Hunters don't pick up gold but dig this indicating that the value of this material is higher than jewelry. The more we can hunt the better it is for us. It is a large fortune!"
Both of them reacted to Dudian's words. They were ecstatic. Zach patted his thigh. "Yes, ah, so to say...we are doing the work of the Hunter...ha ha ha..."
Mason laughed. "Fortunately, Dean is smart. We are going to be rich! Although the undeads are horrible but they are dumb. It is easily to kill them. After we finish we this batch we should go and find other undeads to hunt! We should not pick anything else. Those tattered metals were not much of a value either!"
Dudian looked at these two who previously were scared the hell out when the word undead was mentioned. After he used wealth angle to address the problem with them they agreed without thinking about it... These two were blinded by financial gains!?Half an hour later, all the wandering undeads in the area were killed by Dudian and the others by using the fire circle. Including the previous three undeads, their total harvest amounted to 21 dark blue balls.
"Where do we go next?" Mason asked excitedly as he was carrying a bag of dark blue balls: "To the gray area mentioned by Scott? That place has not been 'cleaned'off. There must be a lot of undeads..."
Dudian replied in a low voice, "You're crazy. Haven't you seen the streets where Hunters had killed so many undeads? Going to the gray are won't be like here where you can lay out the traps and wait for the undead to be ensnared. We will be sieged endlessly by the sea of undeads. Do not be blinded by the money!"
Mason recalled the number of corpses he had seen along the way and shivered in fear.
"Dean said that the gray are is too risky. There definitely will be more rats than here. This animal is not the same as the undead."
Sham whispered, "We should find Scott and rest. They have a map and know the way back. There would be some undeads after them. We have to help them. By the way we can kill those undeads too!"
Dudian nodded in agreement. "Let's eat something first to add strength."
Because of the previous 'hunting' they hadn't rested at all. They were tired and hungry. They pulled out the dry rations and water from their backpacks and began to eat. After three years of training they knew how to control their hunger and thirst. Everyone ate a few mouthfuls and drank a little water. They stopped because if they didn't find new food source the stuff in the backpack may not last for ten days!
As they were ready to re-start a figure came running at high speed from the area through the other street.
And this scene was caught in Zach's eyes.
"Dean, come and see." Zach quickly called Dudian.
Dudian quickly walked past and saw Zach point to the location. There was a youth on the ground near the adjacent building. There was a crossbow on his back and arrows. He was clutching his right arms. It seems he was injured at the moment.
"A Hunter?" Dudian stared.
Zach, Macon and Sham froze up for a moment when they heard his words. They were Scavengers and the best thing that they were provided with were dagger. This dagger was not meant to be used to fight but to cut the bark or used by Scavengers when the need to cut things arise. According to consortium's definition Scavengers do not need to fight. If they met up with monsters the only option is to run. If they can run away it's their own fortune, if not they were just unlucky.
Like cannon fodder on the battlefield. They were not meant to take away the enemy's head and bring victory. Each position was given value according to its functions.
"A Hunter?" Mason, Sham and Zach were excited. For Scavengers the Hunter is an unattainable presence. They had presence that were comparabale to nobility and were qualified to talk with the aristocracy on the same level!
And them, at the end of their lives they will be only be Scavengers! Good and bad, high and low! It didn't matter how much wealth was created by the materials that they brought in. They will only be a Scavenger. This is because they don't have a 'light physique'.
The consortium let Dudian to be a seeded Scavenger because his radiation value was close to 'light physique' and his special training results were above the top. The consortia was willing to give him the opportunity to become a Hunter.
Otherwise, no matter how much wealth Dudian would create for the consortium, he was destined to die as a Scavenger.