Stuck as a Dungeon Mob

Following the mystifying rain, the death march continued. So far no one had died in this so-called death march. Thanks to Ed they now had water and maybe that played a part. Yet, at the same time, some still felt they would cross onto the realm of the dead any moment now.

Yes, despite the hours of walking through the arid desert, the elves had not eaten anything. They were therefore both starving and physically exhausted. No one knew what energy they were currently burning to move forward as things stood.

Knowing this, it didn't take long for new elves to start collapsing or old ones to welcome the sandy dunes with their face anew.

'Carry them' But water proved ineffective in helping these elves get up so Ed ultimately commanded for the undead to carry them.

Just like that, those that overcame their fear of the undead collapsed one after another and those that remained fearful found another pool of energy to slowly burn.

"You monster…" Occasionally such mutterings would reach Ed's ears. He was a bit hurt by these words since he knew or at least felt that what he was making them suffer through was for their own good.

The abandoned city had an ample supply of water which would free the water mages from their positions and loosen the weird hierarchy it created. Once the playing field was even the elves might be able to learn a thing or two from the old books in the library and maybe take up research again.

Overall, the elven city would come to life and the elves would benefit tremendously.

'Just have to knock these prideful fellas down a peg' Ed didn't think there was anything wrong with that even if his current method was a bit more extreme than he was accustomed to doing.

As for why Ed felt they were prideful… Putting aside what Ed remembered from his past life, the elves' continued disregard for the undead suggested they were at least somewhat stuck up. 

'So much arrogance is fatal' Riniya was a perfect example of this, and it seemed she hadn't learned her lesson just yet. He was sure that being abandoned by her fellows would make her rethink her decisions but... 

Instead, she was trudging through the sands following closely behind Ed with commendable grit and determination. For a mage her performance was praiseworthy but her intentions of sticking to Ed were too obvious.

"Huh?" An arid elf exclaimed seeing what he could only assume was a mirage in the distance.

"What? What did you se-" Another mustered the strength to ask before promptly cutting themselves short. What they saw in front of them was a green paradise!

"Plants?" "Grass?" Those things were legendary to many arid elves. It was said that only the water mages had the privilege of caring for plants and thought that supplying food to the whole village.

"No way…" Riniya muttered coming to the realization. This had to be the city the undead spoke of. W had mentioned the place a good couple of times so while he didn't mention anything about greenery, Riniya figured that given that the city was their most likely destination the grass had to be a sign they were close.

"We are almost there" Ed said without emotion affirming Riniya's thoughts.

The elves reigned in their surprise and continued walking towards the paradise before their eyes. As they approached they were finally able to convince themselves that the lush sparse grass were not a mirage.

"Wow, this is my first time touching this…" An arid elf said as they caressed a blade of grass.

"This texture is…" Another elf said noting that the blade of grass he held was harder than expected.

Ed didn't pay them any mind. The elves usually could not ask for anything else but here it meant that they couldn't continue caressing the grass or they'd be left behind.

As more grass became present, the death march became… more of a tour with Ed acting as the *sshole guide. The undead didn't play nice with stragglers.

Just when the newness of the grass was dying down, some elves with keener eyesight noticed more green… in the sky? That was wrong, those were leaves on trees!

A good chunk of the elves were now all smiles. They almost forgot about the line of undead creatures keeping them in order. Of course, these undead creature didn't take kindly to that.

"Ouch!" "Hey!" "No! Please" The elves were kindly reminded to match Ed's pace. Some had slowed in their stupor and others hastened in excitement. They all had to match Ed's pace regardless though.

"A wall?" Riniya whose legs had turned into noodles at this point muttered before finally collapsing. She was one of the last arid mages to faint from exhaustion.

'She lasted quite a bit…' There were only a few other mages still standing but it looked like they would soon join Riniya on her sand nap.

Before one of the undead could go ahead and pick her up, an arid elf came to pick her up. That was Riniya's uncle Alolvi. It seemed that even after glaring at Ed for so long the elf still had strength to carry another.

Ed didn't mind him carrying Riniya and diverted his attention to the city.

That was their goal, and seeing this goal, a lot of elves began to falter and fall onto the hot sand. Arid or not they were all picked off the ground by some beastly undead. The undead laid them upon their backs and the march welcomed its final steps.

"This is a city wall!" "These are trees!" "If this is a dream… I don't want to wake up!" The elves were now close enough to touch the trees and clearly see the city. They were exhilarated but this excitement was doused the moment they remembered something.

They were being taken there as captives or underlings. Didn't that mean that they would at the bottom of the pyramid in this society?!!?

While some were worried about their status, Alolvi was much more preoccupied wondering about the residents of this city. Were they undead? The idea was frightening and the man now weakened by the trip still held his weapon tightly.

Riniya who was on his shoulder remained unconscious and he didn't believe he could protect himself never mind his ambitious niece if there were truly many undead in there. In fact her ambition was likely to get them into trouble, Alolvi could already foresee that.

"Hey… wait… Is that the sound of… running water!?!" One of the elders exclaimed with surprising energy. Well, he was an elf actually so being an elder probably didn't matter much. What did matter however was that others instantly picked up on the sound.

"Running water! We..." Someone wanted to celebrate but noticing that they were still surrounded by undead kept their mouth shut. This water wouldn't be theirs.

As if to affirm this, Ed had the large wormllipede scale the wall effortlessly and looked down on the elves below.

"If you want anything to drink you'll have to scale this wall" Ed said to them causing their morale to instantly die out. The wall was not the highest Ed had come across, but for the exhausted elves it was insurmountable.

"Oh, right, but also if anyone dies someone has to take the blame and they won't be allowed in" Ed said adding a rule that appeared to benefit the elves. He was suggesting that they shouldn't let anyone die but if someone did die someone would have to take the blame after all. Some people were unconscious, could they guarantee there would be no deaths?

"Come to think of it…" Ed muttered audibly. The elves were frightened worried that another rule was coming.

"You must all be up here before sundown, I don't have all day. That also means none of you should be wandering around when I return to check up on you" Ed said finalizing his requirements.

His words were harsh but they did contain some truth.

'Ed! Ed! Ed!' As soon as he got in the vicinity of the city the divine tree Azalia had been pestering him with transmissions. He needed to hurry over and care for the tree.

'Hmm… Maybe these guys can take care of the tree in the future' Finding the elves was somewhat of a blessing. He couldn't ask undead to care for the living right?

With such thoughts, Ed disappeared into the city. He first returned the wormllipede and its parts to the assembly room in the system space and then dashed off towards his destination. It was really convenient to be able to summon and return undead on any of his whims.

Not even a minute after Ed's disappearance, the warriors of the village stepped forward. The most noticeable of these warriors was obviously Alolvi who was even carrying another elf at that moment.

"I will climb up first and bring water for the warriors and-" Alolvi said solemnly.

"For the warriors-!?" Someone exclaimed worriedly rudely interrupting the rugged warrior.

"Yes, and then they will help me get more water for the rest" Alolvi delivered a glare and continued. Those words had cast doubt on his morality.

The elves started to quickly work together and organize themselves. Ed was not present to watch this take place but all of it was within his expectations. The rules he placed could divide them or bring them together.

Although the chances of division was small, Ed still felt it necessary to put the elves' loyalty to one another to the test. After witnessing their savagery, if they couldn't even pass such a simple test they definitely weren't worth keeping.