However, in contrast to the increasing circumstances of the North Continent’s southern sector, the situation of the rest of the continent was rapidly declining. It was becoming increasingly brutal and the few remaining Beasts who were actually of the living, had either been mercilessly killed or converted into the undead. But that did not mean the slaughter had ended or even slowed, no, it was just as chaotic as ever, and this was because of the existence of the mutant undead.
So far, there were 3 known classifications of undead in the Eridius World; Original Undead, Lesser Undead and Mutant Undead.
The Original Undead were the beings that had been killed and then forcefully assimilated with one of the Slime Abominations ‘children’ that were created with the skill called [Reproduction], and although there were only less than 30 of them left, they alone possessed an iron-clad grip on the rest of the undead world and were completely insurmountable. This was because as pseudo-descendants of the Slime Abomination, they possessed the same (but to a much minor extent) ability to absorb some of the Strength, Durability, Agility and Intelligence of whatever they ate. There used to be a lot more Original Undead on the continent, but after they all gathered in the Forest of Death, they all slaughtered and devoured each other until there were only 37 of them left.
The Lesser Undead were beings who had recently died, but had somehow received a vast infusion of Undead Essence. It was possible for ancient corpses to be converted this way but the amount of Undead Essence needed made it an extremely rare occurrence for it to happen naturally, and quite expensive for someone who wanted to personally create the Undead themselves. These Lesser Undead aren’t too different from abominations in the fact that they are always in a state of discomfort if they don’t syphon any Life Force, and for this reason, they are always seeking to devour more and more. Unfortunately, as soon as any Life Force enters their bodies, the comfort and pleasure it gives them only lasts for a few seconds (kind of like a drug) before it is immediately converted into Undeath Essence. This Undeath Essence increases the power of the Undead, but to the Lesser Undead who lack intelligence, power barely means anything to them, all they want is to stop suffering.
But speaking of intelligence, the fact that they’re all dumb is not quite true. The intelligence of a Lesser Undead is connected to their strength, it’s just that the ratio is so appalling that a Lesser Undead had to be in the 3rd Realm just to have the barest amount of Self Awareness. Luckily, so long as they kept eating living beings and surviving, they could raise their strength and subsequently their intelligence.
(For the record, these so-called Lesser Undead are usually the only kind of Undead on most other planets, and are normally just called ‘the undead’.)
The Mutant Undead were much more impressive than the Lesser Undead and although it wasn’t a unique existence to the Eridius World, they were very rare. Throughout the many locations in the universe they had different names, for example, the Unhallowed Region of the Lolay Galaxy called them Greater Undead, but there were other names like Higher Undead, Unique Undead and Perfect Undead, but in Eridius, they were just called the Mutant Undead.
The methods to create these beings were surprisingly numerous, but the reason for their existence in Eridius was because of one thing and one thing only, and that was the Forest of Death which had become a ‘Sacred’ Land. The ambient Magical Energy in that Forest had long since become something else entirely. It was of course still energy, but unlike pure Magical Energy or even a normal Sacred Land’s ambient Magical Energy, it had a large mixture of affinities which was already extremely rare, but its predominant ones were Undeath Essence, Death Essence and something reminiscent of Chaos, something that was definitely because of the Abomination, who’s very presence had created it.
And because of this strangely-mixed nefarious energy, any corpse (that wasn’t already an Undead) that stayed in the Forest long enough, would automatically become a Mutant Undead. Mutant Undeads were much more powerful than regular Undead and had a much easier time gaining intelligence, the interesting thing was that as they became stronger, they actually began to regain the memories that they had when they were alive. The only thing was that 9.9/10 times, they didn’t care for them, they only used the useful knowledge and discarded things like emotions and relationships with their previous loved ones. But that was not the only unique thing about them.
The other thing about them is that… they actually preyed on other Undead! In fact, devouring other Undead was far more beneficial for them than living beings. Normally, Undeath Essence within an Undead was like the various blood types of humans, which meant absorbing one of a different type could cause serious issues. However, EVERY Undead's inner Undeath Essence was unique and it was impossible to find another Undead with compatible Undeath Essence, which was why regular Undead rarely ever attacked each other, talk less of eat each other.
But this wasn’t a problem for the Mutant Undead. The Mutant Undead possessed the amazing ability to absorb the Undeath Essence of other Undead and make it completely theirs, allowing them to become stronger much faster than a Lesser Undead. But this is not to say that they would forsake living beings for other Undead, nay, they liked both. It just so happens that other Undead were much tastier, and it was because of this that the continent was still so full of slaughter.
The North Continent was by far, the most depressing location in the entire Eridius World. And that came with more ‘tangible’ problems than it sounded like it should, but truth be told, calling those things tangible was a very big stretch. After all, what they really were called was Resentful Spirits and they were exactly what they sounded like they were; The remnant souls of the dead that possessed a hatred so deep that it could evaporate the seas or freeze the deserts.
A desire for revenge so abnormally heavy that even when they should have lost all intelligence and departed to the Reincarnation Cycle, they absolutely REFUSED.
These were generally the type of people who say things like ‘Even if I were to be reduced to 2 eyeballs, I will stare you to death’... and genuinely mean it. Googlᴇ search Nov3lFɪre.ɴet