"Itâs home!" the ghoul female replied.
"I know itâs home! Iâm asking about the townâs name! Anyway, just leave that. Tell me where Valley of Wandering Souls is?" Ryder changed the question as he found himself getting annoyed.
"Valley!" the ghoul said as she pointed towards Ryderâs feet.
"Your Highness, It feels like a useless endeavor. I had heard that low-level Undead had low intelligence, but I guess we still overestimated them. I donât think she can tell us anything," Rale told Ryder. "With the level of her intelligence, I doubt if she would even know about it."
Ryder looked towards the ghoul and sighed.
"You might be right. Itâs not going to work like that. We need to talk to someone smarter," Ryder muttered.
He left the ghoul behind and started walking ahead.
Rale and his team followed after him.
They looked around the town but didnât find any intelligent species.
"Well, this was a wasted effort. It looks like weâll have to continue our search for the Undead Towns that have intelligent Undeads," Ryder muttered.
"Oh, right. How many Undead species are there?" He asked Rale as he stepped out of the town.
"There are over 40 Undead Species that I know about, but there might be more. Itâs quite possible that our information is incomplete," Ryder said.
"40? Thatâs more than I expected. How many of these 40 are Intelligence species?" Ryder inquired.
"There are six intelligent Undead Species. Amongst those 6, the Vampire and the Lich are considered to be the most intelligent and powerful," Rale explained.
"That makes sense. Thatâs why their Kings are on the same level as our High Dukes. What about the rest? What are the other 4 Species that we can ask our questions to?" Ryder inquired.
"Dark Ghouls, Dullahan, Mummy, and the Vrykolakas are the other four that are considered intelligent," Rale told him as he carried Ryder and flew in the air in search of the next town.
"Thereâs a special like the Dark Ghouls as well?" Ryder inquired in surprise.
"Yeah. They are very different from normal ghouls. They are more powerful, and they have intelligence. The Ghoul King that I talked about before is one of them. The Ghoul King is a Dark Ghoul. Heâs not on the same level as the Vampire King and the Lich King, but if we go by hearsay, then heâs the 3rd Strongest in the Undead Region," Rale told Ryder.
"Interesting. So we need to stay away from the 3 Kings, and we shall be fine. It shouldnât be tough. The strong ones like them would rarely leave their castles," Ryder let out softly.
"Yeah. We most probably wonât meet them, but it would be better if we donât attract much attention after all," Rale replied.
"Is it only me or that looks like a city?" Ryder asked as he saw a glimpse of something at a distance. There were tall buildings there that looked much better than the Town they saw before.
"From the construction of that place, it does look like a city. We should be able to find someone from the High Undeads there, but we might be unlucky and meet the Kings there too. Should we go someplace else?" Rale asked Ryder.
"Thereâs no need for that. Weâll go to this city. We canât be afraid just at the thought of meeting a king, or weâll never be able to fulfill our mission. Letâs go down. Weâll walk there," Ryder commanded Rale.
Rale was somewhat stunned as he heard the response, but then a smile appeared on his face. He remembered the speech Ryder gave during his coronation, and his bravery impressed Rale even further.
Rale got down to the ground with the others, and they covered the rest of the trip on foot.
They got to the city and entered inside with ease.
Their bodies were covered with their cloak, which wasnât suspicious as many vampires dressed in a similar manner.
As Ryder walked through the city, he saw many people there, but they didnât look like Undead. Instead, they looked like normal humans.
"Rale? What Species are they?" Ryder asked Rale.
"They are the Vrykolakas, Your Highness. Even though they look similar to vampires, there are a few fundamental differences between the two. While the Vampires feed on the blood, they feed on the flesh. They also canât fly like the Vampires," Rale informed Ryder.
"This should be a Vrykolakas City as I canât see anyone else other than a few vampires here and there. Itâs mostly filled with Vrykolakas," he added.
"Letâs hope they donât try to eat our flesh, or things will get dirty," Ryder muttered with a wry smile on his face.
They walked to a small shop that sold flesh to others.
"Welcome. How much do you want?" the seller asked. He was dark-skinned and had a short body, but his stomach was sticking out slightly.
"Weâre the Vampires from far away. We were wondering if you could tell us where we are," Ryder asked the man.
"Oh? The Vampires? This is the first time Iâve seen so many vampires walking together. Are you from the Vampire Royalty?" the man asked with a cheeky grin on his face.
"No, Weâre normal Vampires, nothing special. Tell us where we are," Ryder asked.
"Youâre in the Wingu City. A city owned by our City Lady Asemori," The man said.
"Oh, Nice. How far are we from the Valley of Wandering Souls?" Ryder inquired.
"The Valley?!" The man exclaimed in shock as his mouth opened wide in shock.
"Yes. Weâre looking for someone who went to the Valley of Wandering Souls. Please tell us the directions to get there," Ryder said to the man.
"Iâm sorry, but I canât talk about it. I donât want to talk about it," the man said as he looked sideways.
"Itâs really important to us. Just tell us the directions and the distance, and weâll handle everything else," Ryder let out as he looked towards the man.
"I canât. That place is cursed! I wonât talk about it, let alone pointing in the direction. Go away," the man said as he closed his eyes.
Rale brought his face closer to Ryderâs ears and whispered into his ears.
"Your Highness, should we kidnap him and force him to tell us? We can do it silently without anyone knowing," Rale suggested.
"No, thereâs no need to do that," Ryder replied to Rale.
"We will find someone else to answer us. Donât worry about it," he added.
"Alright. Thanks for talking to us. Weâll ask someone else," Ryder told the seller before he turned and walked away.