Chapter 46: Planning 2 (2/2)

He waved the rest of his creards and left, getting into a hovercar that started driving back towards Blackwater

Good That meant that Aldrich's plan had worked: he had convinced Seth Solar and Blackwater that Ghost had died to variants

As the search tea into their cars, Aldrich locked his fingers together and rested his chin on his hands, thinking

He thought

Then thought some more

To become a lich, Aldrich had to sever his mortal bonds and obtain the Obelisk

To sever his ainst Seth Solar and his crew

To obtain the Obelisk, he needed to clear the fifteenth floor of the Necropolis which he was too weak to do now

These seemed like two mutually exclusive objectives, and it was obvious the order in which Aldrich should go about clearing therind and obtain the Obelisk Then, with the levels and rewards fro fifteen floors, he would devise a way to kill Seth Solar using a trap involving instant deaththat there was an easier way to go about this

It did not takerealization: there was a way to destroy Seth Solar and obtain the Obelisk at the same time

"Fisk," said Aldrich

"Yes, boss?"

"Appointments at the Red Circle can be set up online, no?" said Aldrich "Contact theuy called 'Casimir' Tell the some of his multi-million credit inheritance Tell the a nice private party this weekend as well

Tell the, but ot it, boss," said Fisk as he took his laptop out of the bag Aldrich had taken out of the Odinson base Fisk plugged hi the tech mentally

"Oh, and check the AA bulletin for any Variant Nests in the Wastelands," said Aldrich "Give h list of all Variant Nests within a two ht to in this forest

I need to hunt for levels And this forest is running out of variants strong enough to raise h"

"On it" Fisk raised a thumbs up to Aldrich

"The rest of you, do as you want for now," said Aldrich to the other undead "Train, talk, or hunt more Variants"

With this command, all of Aldrich's Variant undead scattered out into the forest to hunt The Troll Chieftain and the two Mud Crabs also followed

"Wanna train?" said Dynamite Girl to Valera "Pure hand to hand combat, y'know? Cause' I can't be startin' a fire here or anythin' Plus, I think ettin' real rusty"

"Certainly," said Valera "But do not cry when you feel utterly powerless before me"

"Heh, we'll see about that," said Dynaainst each other

Meanwhile, Fler'Gan now hovered around the Geist, poking at the Variant with his long, sliers "A creature such as this I have never known How quaint How odd How very…interesting"

"Geh…(You're creepy)" said the Geist

"In the nae, I have cast away any consideration for how others judge ic, child"

"Gehgeh (I guess)" The Geist followed Fler'Gan away

Aldrich waited for Fisk to do his work In the meanwhile, he had Adam and Elaine sit by him on the fallen tree trunk

"We're so close," said Aldrich "So close to taking down Seth Solar When it happens, I will make sure that you two have a chance to tear into hiroaned and growled in response

"Yeah, that's the spirit," said Aldrich with a s to mindless zombies like this Or maybe he had always been insane

Hadn't he asked himself this before already?

Well, it didn't matter much now

He hat he was, and he accepted it

==

An hour and a half passed before Fisk spoke, looking up froht, boss, I sent your et a response soon As for Variant Nests, well, I pulled an official map from the AA website" Fisk turned his laptop screen to Aldrich and pointed at a big chunk of map on the east coast of the United States

He tapped the area and zoo it in red "That's where we are And here are all the Variant Nests in a two hundred mile radius like you said"

Fisk zoo the location of Variant Nests

Variant Nests were, as the naested, nests of Variants that did not pose an immediate threat to human civilization In fact, these nests were actually welco ecosyste to encroach on hu as the nests were not attacked, the Variants within did not attack

When roads had to be made near them or new cities planned and built, the AA would send heroes to wipe the nests out But otherwise, they were largely left alone

These were the perfect spots for Aldrich to hunt for levels and new undead nobody would be around here Any ing or whatnot, he could block with a Ghast

He looked over the five red dots and discounted going to three nests that would involve having to cross over public roads where his undead could get spotted

Instead, his eye caught on two nests located right outside the southwestern edge of the forest There was little to no hue canyons and fissures where roads could not be built

This area was called the Shatter Zone because of how the earth looked so utterly fractured, and apparently, this had been the site of a battle between the greatest hero Vanguard and a powerful giant villain called Megalodon during the Age of Villains

"I knohere we're going now," said Aldrich as he stood up, getting ready

"Uh, us? I'?" said Fisk