Global Awakening: Apocalypse Ender's Chronicle

Asad had nothing to do at the moment since Zombie Exterminations could be done by his Death Knights, so he didn’t have to worry about enemies finding his secret base underground.

With this in mind, Asad ordered one of the Death Knights to station inside the throne hall.

”Ready the Sand Crawler,” Asad ordered.

The Sand Crawler was his mobile fortress aside from his Bone Scorpion. The Scorpion prioritizes speed or mobility, while the Sand Crawler has a good balance of speed, offensive, and defensive capabilities.

Nonetheless, the best thing about this was the fact that the Sand Crawler was a segmented construct of bone and metal, capable of moving beneath the earth.

Indeed, he could move underground with this Sand Crawler that was like a mix of spider and snake.

Then, Asad decided to arrange a gift for Shane since they would become ’neighbors’ soon.

After some consideration, he decided to give Shane five Orb of Undead Summoning ( High Tier ).

***

After some time, Asad sat inside the Sand Crawler… This skeletal mount wasn’t really digging through the ground or creating a tunnel or path as it moved.

This creature, which seemed to be a fusion of serpentine length and arachnid legs, was more like phasing through the ground instead of tunnelling beneath the earth.

It was such a strange ability but because of this, no one could follow him through the path that he was using. Unfortunately, it was also the reason why his movement was slow.

In any case, inside its hollow ribcage served as a cockpit, where Asad could command its movements with a mere thought.

Of course, if they passed through the rocks or other hard and large minerals, it would actually slow them down even more, so they have to move around them most of the time, which also increases the time they take to reach their destination.

The last thing that Asad hated about this form of transportation was the fact that this Sand Crawler couldn’t function autonomously and required constant input…

”Still… We’re moving faster than on the ground.” Asad muttered as he could sense with his Perception that there were numerous high-tier Zombies above ground.

As a matter of fact, they almost hit a few Stone Zombies buried on the ground and they had to detour in the process.

Their journey continued as the Sand Crawler would avoid any areas with Stone Zombies buried in the ground.

’Traveling underground is really boring…’ Asad commented as there was nothing he could see here aside from dirt, rocks, tree roots, and even some bones from time to time.

Nonetheless, he was still thankful that he had some glowing fungi embedded in Sand Crawler’s skeletal structure that illuminated the area they were passing through.

In the end, Asad decided to just have a drink while traveling.

He took out a black wine and a goblet and served himself a sip…

”Nice…” Asad muttered after taking a sip. This black win was obtained from a Silver Treasure Chest and he didn’t have a lot of it. So, after a few sips, he decided to store it again.

Occasionally, they passed buried ruins, like subway tunnels that were now home to some Zombies that tried to bite the Sand Crawler after being startled by its presence.

***

”It’s close…” Asad muttered as he controlled the Sand Crawler to breach the surface about 500 meters outside the Eclipse Domain’s walls.

Its bone-plated body rose from the ground like some sort of a boss monster preparing for a battle.

Of course, because of the previous attacks, the elves stationed in this shelter were quite sensitive to any strong presence close to their shelter.

As soon as they sensed Asad’s presence, they immediately alerted the shelter but didn’t move to intercept him.

After all, they could still sense that the bone creature moving to their shelter wasn’t something a couple of elves could handle.

Just like that, when Asad reached about 200 meters of the wall, automated turrets started moving and targeted the abomination.

They were just waiting for confirmation about the identity of the target, whether it was a friend or foe.

Once confirmed, they would either return to standby or fire their bullets.

As a matter of fact, it wasn’t just the turrets; the ballistas also creaked as their operators prepared to fire once commanded by the guard leader.

Asad sighed as he noticed what was happening... ”It’s not surprising…”

He had also tried staying in some Neutral Shelter before, and it was indeed not easy whenever he arrived with the Bone Scorpion or with this Sand Crawler.

Soon, Asad stepped out from the Crawler’s ribcage, raising his hands in surrender.

”Stand down. I come bearing gifts.” He said with a chuckle.

For a tense moment, nothing happened. It seemed that they called for someone atop the walls.

Then—

”Hold fire!” Shane commanded as the turrets powered down and the gates creaked open.

And there stood Shane, already waiting for Asad to enter.

”You couldn’t just send me a message?”

Asad grinned. ”Where’s the fun in that?”

***

Asad followed Shane inside…

Immediately, his senses that were blocked by the barriers were finally freed. With that, he was able to scan the bustling streets, fortified walls, and thriving populace within this shelter.

”Impressive,” he admitted. ”It’s a lot better than the large Neutral Shelters I’ve been.”

Shane smirked. ”We’ve been busy. Where is that Neutral Shelter by the way? Maybe they can be our trading partner in the future.

”I’ll tell you the coordinates later… As long as they knew you’re my friend, they wouldn’t be difficult to deal with. However, you have to give me something for that.” Asad replied.

At this point, Asad had still not given up on surpassing Shane. However, he could accept the reality that Shane was simply that gifted. Because of that, instead of being on his bad side, it was better to be on his side.

”Then, if we make a satisfactory deal, I will give you something in exchange…” Shane replied with a smile. After all, he knew that Neutral Shelters specializes in something. Whether it was gunpowder, prosthetics, animal husbandry, pottery, or others, all of them should be quite useful for all of his shelters.

Asad didn’t immediately tell about what he had found out and decided to ask Shane about this place… Instead, he asked Shane to walk him around and once he did, he would give him some information about the Necromancers hunting him.

”You know?” Shane asked in surprise.

”Of course… I’m also a Necromancer—Ah, don’t look at me like that. I’m not here to hunt you. Hahaha…” Asad laughed as soon as he noticed Shane being on guard.

”Well, I’m just teasing you. Alright… Let me show you around.”

Shane then brought him to the Armory, where blacksmiths hammered out reinforced steel blades. They were making steel bars, swords, or even some kitchen tools like knives, utensils, cast iron pans, and others.

”This looks really good. I might have to teach my skeletons how to smith…” Asad muttered as most of the weapons of his undead summons were from the Marketplace, Survivor Store, or looted somewhere.

Asad also saw the Alchemy Lab but didn’t really visit it. It was enough to know that Shane actually had several Alchemists or other Potion Brewers constantly making supplies for his army.

It was a very impressive work.

Lastly, Shane brought him to the Training Grounds, where recruits sparred under the watch of veteran warriors…

After this, Asad finally provided information about the Necromancers and their hideout. Of course, this included the information about the Neutral Shelter’s locations.

”For you.” Asad said as he gave the five Orbs of Undead Summoning to Shane.

”Wait… You can make these? I thought it could only be obtained from Wild Necromancer’s drop.” Shane asked in surprise as he took the five Orbs.

”It’s only possible because of my Grimoire…” Asad explained while showing off the Grimoire tied on his belt.

Shane then thanked Asad and also gave him a parting gift. It was just a small Mana Crystal with about 10,000 Mana Units.

”This is useful… I’ll look around in the market for now.” Asad said.

”Alright, keep this Temporary Resident Token so you can come back without any issues next time...” Shane said as he gave the token to Asad.

***

In the meantime, about an hour after Asad visited, Sandra was mid-flight, practicing her supersonic dives over the training grounds. However, before she could do another dive, she heard Shane’s voice in her earpiece… ”Sandra. War room. Now. You have a mission.”

Sandra was startled for a moment before she landed gently on the ground.

She didn’t question Shane’s order and immediately followed. Inside the War room, Shane was looking at the map on the table, marking the terrain west of Eclipse Domain.

”Asad gave us a heads-up,” Shane said as he looked at Sandra, still sweating. ”Twenty-five wild Necromancers. They’re gathering here.” He tapped a spot—the Green Marsh…

”Do you want me to scout it from above?” Sandra asked.

”No… You will be annihilating them.” Shane replied confidently.