A New World, an immersive game experience

Vivian could vaguely recall meeting Ceph before, back when she woke after being rescued from the caves and goblins. However, it only made it harder to believe. 

Finally connecting the dots only added to her shock.

There was of course a reason why not everyone stared at Eldrian and Ceph in wonderment, outside of the initial shock of seeing two elves both with unique hairstyles.

That reason was that not everyone could see that he was a mythic grade beast. 

In fact, most couldn't even see that he was an alicorn if he was in his elven form. 

Knowing this fact left Vivian astonished. However, when she thought of all the amazing things Eldrian had been capable of in the short time since he arrived on Gaia. It somehow felt consistent. 

"What are your plans forward?" She asked, she had gotten a month of leave with the threat dealt with. Some soldiers from the city were sent to fill in to ensure the undead are contained. The numbers of before naturally no longer required. 

A month later after her and all the other soldiers' leave ends they were likely going to need to move to the other side of the kingdom. To help against the orc siege that was slowly pushing further and further into the kingdom. 

Granted Taurus didn't have direct control over Vivian and the other humans from Phallos. They might stay here and focus on garrisoning the forts. But that would depend on the political agreement between Taurus and Phallos. 

With Herglem fallen a massive part of the kingdom is suddenly open to raiding. However, the orcs hadn't pushed inward. Instead, they had pushed up to Amrough. 

A city that is far more fortified and between two large mountain ranges. They were now besieging it from all sides, stopping reinforcements from reaching Amrough. 

It was highly likely that some of the Phallos soldiers would be sent through teleportation to add to the cities defenses. However, only the strongest would get this treatment, thus Vivian felt she was safe. 

If Amrough were to also fall, then the chances of recapturing Herglem would fall massively as there would be no major settlement nearby. No place capable of housing a sufficient force. As such this was of major importance to the kingdom, to both kingdoms.

The orcs decision to not push forward and raid all the exposed villages worked massively in favor of the kingdom. While they had to abandon massive amounts of crop and grazing fields, few lives were lost. 

Sustaining all the refugees won't be easy but it was doable for the kingdom. And if the orcs plan to keep attacking from Herglem, then their supplies would be wide open to the centaurs' mobile forces. 

Eldrian also knew of these plans, Evale had shared most of them with him before leaving for Trowcrawling, the village that they had actually requested as their reward back at the start of it all. 

Its name was derived from the woods near where it was created not long ago. Trow trees are ranked-1 trees with a crawling network of roots. This makes it far harder to traverse, especially for horses and centaurs. However, with some training the locals can get used to this. 

The town actually had an insane budget as the kingdoms thanks for the twins' effort, as well as the need for a proper town being required for all the refugees. At the rate it was currently being constructed and expanding, it might turn into a smaller city just a few kilometers from Kynigo. 

"For now... For now, I just want to wait and see what the kingdom decides to do with the leftover corruption and undead. If there is a quest to still clear it out, I will likely join it."

"Outside of that, I still need to sort out my rewards. But I haven't thought further than that."

Eldrian smiled as he recalled all the rewards he still had coming. Of course, the 13 levels he received from the quest were halved thanks to Intertwined, but that didn't bother him much. He still managed to reach level 32 and finally didn't have the negative free attributes. 

"Oh, and what may they be?" Vivian asked, curious what Eldrian had managed to gain from the mission. 

She felt no jealousy, knowing how much Eldrian had put into this and all the dangers he had faced. She only hoped that he was rewarded properly. 

Smiling, Eldrian slowly started sharing what he knew and received thus far. Of course, he kept things like the nobility title to himself for now. Since he shouldn't be able to know of it coming. 

Which led to him wondering just how it was going to come. 

...

A few days more passed and by now the kingdom had decided what they wanted to be done about the forest. There were arguments for keeping and cleansing the corruption, but ultimately thanks to the dangers surrounding the kingdom, cleansing it won the discussion. 

However, the rewards were drastically lowered. Where the inner part of the corrupted area would reward a steel emblem (10 gold) before, now it only rewarded a bronze emblem (1 gold). This was still a significant number, and as such there was no shortage of adventurers. 

Eldrian of course had made sure to not miss out, even if it was insignificant to before. Actually, he was going more out of curiosity than for the reward. 

Flying with Cephaphyr from the fort directly to the center, Eldrian managed to find the camp that used to be the undead's key location after a few hours of searching.

It was truly well hidden amongst a network of caves, but the lingering death mana was far stronger here and as a result the lower undead were drawn to it. 

Landing and jumping off, Eldrian could immediately feel the suffocating feeling that was trademark of the corruption. Circulating his mana, he pushed the feeling away and killed the undead rushing towards him. 

Nothing more than zombies and skeletons, unable to survive a few casts of Thora. 

Eldrian had yet to learn any tier 4 spells, instead, he had decided to rest a bit and just enjoy his time with Ceph and Vivian. Joking around and taking strolls in the forest. 

'Here!' Ceph shouted after finding the entrance to the main base. 

'Ah yes, let's see what is inside.' Eldrian smiled, another reason he had wanted to rush here as quickly as possible was to try and find some good loot. 

Of course, he didn't think of this as a game. However, a lair occupied by thousands of higher undead had to have something good. Unfortunately, they were stopped just a few meters in. 

'Do you know what this array does?' Eldrian asked, both managed to spot it thanks to their unique sights. However, they were clueless about what it did. 

Shaking his head Ceph neighed and changed into his elven form. Running his fingers over the invisible Rilpai and Protii.

"No idea, but it seems to be inactive."

"True, but it still has some mana running through it. Which means we might activate it if we rush forward." Eldrian replied, not particularly into the idea of rushing into the unknown again. 

He had done that more than enough and each time escaped by sheer luck. 

"Or we might not," Ceph said, stepping forward before Eldrian could stop him. As he did, the array did indeed trigger, however, what it did was shockingly ineffective. 

AN: A big thanks to everyone who continues to support this novel on WN.