The search spell was a trick he thought of to distract the undead. After all, these creatures were not smart. If the necromancer were not actively controlling them, they would chase the sound created by the search spell instead of finding him.

"Three search spells cost about 20 cores worth of mana. That's about 360 cores of mana expended in a second. It would take a little over 3 minutes or maybe 4 minutes for me to recover fully."

"I don't have to worry about that since I'm going into hiding after looting the undead."

As he was thinking, the search spell activated, sending out ringing sounds from three directions. Then, a short while later, they all spread out, ringing from three different directions.

Because of sending the spell attached to the mana bolt, Zephyr had no control over the object it chose to search for. If the mana bolt struck a tree, it would search for another part of the tree. If the mana bolt hit a rock, it would search for a part of the rock.

So, he didn't know what it was searching for. And it didn't matter to him since it was a distraction.

"It worked." He commented, then resumed his task.

—

Zephyr covered the hundred meters in about half a minute and crouched down near the corpse.

The three undeads were as dead as they could be. The light element had crippled their ability to defend against the explosion and fire attack. Therefore, their body were in terrible condition.

Zephyr smelled the charred meat and hair and pinched his nose. Then he remembered he had to dig out their mana cores.

With only an arm, it was a tiresome chore. He couldn't even cover his nose anymore.

Gloomily kicking a corpse, he rolled them over to the side.

The undead he killed were wearing simple rags. Their pale white bodies were covered in sea grass and dried algae.

'They must be Zombies. Ghouls would have been faster when reacting to the explosion.' Zephyr muttered and plunged the sword into the back of the corpses.

Then, closing his eyes, he sensed their core, pulling them out along with the sword.

The core was a round, shiny black crystal as wide as a thumb. They were smaller than a mage's core by a lot.

"That's bigger than mine."

Zephyr muttered and instantly regretted it.

"I meant my core." He mumbled as he was speaking to someone.

Then he shoved the black core into his robes. The mana from it could erode and poison the body of someone who was not used to it. But because of absolute mana control, Zephyr could easily tame and keep it safe.

Then he went on to pick out the core from another undead. The last remaining one had died with its chest being completely obliterated, so there was no mana core in it.

"The remaining mana within the body during death condenses to a core. The cores of the undeads are small. Which must mean the necromancer didn't infuse much mana into their body."

"Is he in a weakened state?" Zephyr thought.

"He could be hard-pressed for mana since he was using a lot of undead to hunt me."

Zephyr chuckled.

"This makes my life a lot easier."

He muttered and ran back to the depths of the jungle.

The nearby undead would surely come looking for him since he killed a group. He wanted to greet them properly.

—

A few minutes later, just as he had expected, a new group of undead, 3 individuals, rushed towards where he had left the corpse.

This time, they sniffed the air like animals and rushed towards him.

Watching it from a tree far away, Zephyr was amused.

'Were they a different kind of undead?' He thought.

Then he waited for them to find him. The undead took the same path he used and chased after him. They were great at tracking him, perhaps through his scent.

'Now I have one more thing to worry about.' He muttered and waited for them to come closer.

A lot of time had passed since he killed the initial undead group. He had completely recovered the mana and was ready for round two.

However, the undead that came at him were stupider than he imagined.

They sniffed the air and tracked him perfectly, but failed to notice the trap he had laid out on the path.

One by one, they fell into the earth spike pit he had dug and died pathetically, skewered to the spikes.

This time, Zephyr was disappointed. Watching them fall into traps was not as thrilling as sniping them.

"Uh! What can I say…the undeads are too stupid." He complained and went back to finding and killing the undeads.

After killing, he would send search spells in all directions to confuse the undeads, preventing them from gathering at a place.

—-

As soon as the fog formation broke, the necromancer sent out his minions in rage, asking them to kill the person who had intruded onto his land. He was blinded by anger and had sent them out without monitoring them.

Meanwhile, he meditated to gather the mana he lost by defending the fog formation. Because of his large mana pool, he had to meditate for hours before he could refill half his mana core.

During the entire process, he couldn't spare any thoughts on the undead he released to hunt down the intruders.

And that was a mistake.

By the time he woke up from his meditation, he noticed the change in the number of undeads he controlled.

"BLOODY DAMNED BALLS."

He jumped to his feet in shock.

More than half of the two hundred undead he sent out to find and capture the intruder were dead. Their mana cores were also systematically stolen, costing him mana while also preventing him from creating more undeads quickly.

"What kind of madness happened while I was not paying attention?" He thought in pure dismay.

It took a lot to create that many undeads. And now, someone was killing them one by one without end.

Who is it?

He closed his eyes and tried to look into the minds of the living undead.

It was already evening, and the sun was sinking below the horizon. The undead creatures of his will not have to fight against the sun and consume mana anymore. With darkness by their side, they could move and hunt down the culprit. With that thought, the necromancer abandoned rest and began to peer into the minds of the undead.

If they can't find him, he will.

—

Meanwhile, Zephyr returned to the mainland with a small pouch filled with fifty or so undead mana cores.

After grinding for a day, he decided to rest and eat something. So, he caught a crab and was grilling it on an open fire on the other side of the mangrove forest.

The pleasant scent of protein stirred his stomach, causing it to growl in excitement. With saliva oozing out of his mouth, he waited patiently for the meat to cook.

He could see the juices and fat splash out of the giant crab's body, falling into the flame, spreading the scent of bliss all around him.

He gulped and swallowed saliva without a care in the world. Once again, he failed to realise the extent of his actions. While the necromancer anxiously searched for him, he was about to enjoy the best meal of his life.

The decision to abandon caution was, for some reason, working in his favor.

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