The terrain was slowly shifting, from the rough and largely desolate slopes of the Dorrian Mountains to gentle, rolling hills, covered in a couple of forests and large, almost steppe-like meadows. From our elevated position, we could make out a few farmsteads in the distance, the buildings surrounded by palisades and cultivated fields around those.

“Lenore, can you go up and look around, so we can find our way back to the Imperial Road?” I asked, knowing that there should be a town near the ancient road. We hadn’t used the Ancient Road within the mountains, mostly due to the fact that it had been used for past invasions and part of it was now rather infamous for the amount of slaughter that had occurred there, making it a prime-location for undead. As such, we had made our way through the mountains on our own, scouting the path as we went and hunting undead on occasion. But now, we needed to get to town, to turn in our quest, get a few fresh supplies and maybe find out if there are tasks to increase our local reputation, so I would be able to board a ship to cross the ocean.

“You want to join us when going into town?” Olivia asked, looking at me with a raised eyebrow when I made my desire known. I could understand her surprise, as I had eschewed going into towns for weeks, to make sure I wouldn’t be the cause of trouble. The decision was mostly because I wanted to be there when we turned in the undead-hunting quest, to receive the huge sum of twenty silver, a veritable pittance for the work we had to do for it. But at the end of the day, the Adventurer's Guild had a limited budget and for an essentially unlimited quest like the undead hunting quest, that meant they had to keep the payout small.

“Indeed. If nothing else, I will have to get used to moving into towns, or crossing the ocean will be…” I paused, looking for the right word, before settling on a simple, “difficult.”

“You could remain within your Hallow for the journey. Might keep us from getting into trouble.” Adra snarked, causing me to sigh. She wasn’t entirely wrong and I had considered that approach, but at the end of the day, I wasn’t willing to take a week-long break.

“I can’t always shy away from contact, unless I want to retreat to some distant mountain-top and kill anyone who enters my domain.” I told them, getting nods in acceptance.

“You might want to cover the head of your staff with something less…” Rai reminded me that I was still carrying Lenore’s Skull-Focus on my staff, the image rather ominous and not at all in line with my preferred perception, even if a certain intimidation-factor might be quite useful. I could move the

“Hmh, right.” I accepted, considering for a moment. The easiest solution was to simply cover the skull in Ice, at least if I managed to make the Ice cloudy enough to conceal what was within. I might look a little strange, carrying a staff with a big chunk of Ice at the head but a chunk of Ice was a lot less ominous than a slightly glowing humanoid skull. Acting on the thought, I conjured Ice, covering the skull, instantly noticing that it was slowly destroying the Ice and if I kept the magical connection to it, I was suffering damage through the connection.

Grumbling to myself, I dispelled the Ice, making a note that Lenore needed to cover the skull, that way, she would be linked to the Ice and hopefully wouldn’t suffer. Once more, I realized that, while a great weapon, the skull was a massive pain in the rear.

It didn’t take Lenore long to return, having found the town from the air. The images she shared with me were about what I had expected, though there was a rather obvious slant in their defenses, the wall on the eastern side, the side towards the mountains, much higher and five out of seven towers located on that side. Unless my guess was entirely false, there might be some sort of migration going on with the skeletons, though I didn’t know what might motivate undead, that seemed to be very much content to just wander around in circles, to migrate.

Sadly, as so often, the distance we had to cover on foot took us much longer than it had taken Lenore to find the town, so instead of the thirty minutes she had to fly, boosted with her magic, we had to walk for hours, moving up and down the hills.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

During that walk, Lenore kept scouting ahead, once she had concealed the skull, with Adra and Rai keeping an eye on our surroundings. According to Olivia, the local beasts weren’t a real problem, their levels and strength limited, but after getting hunted by the special skeletons for the last couple of days, there was a lingering feeling of paranoia, making all of us a little twitchy.

While we didn’t encounter any beasts directly, we all noticed a few of their tracks, nothing out of the ordinary, mostly boar, deer and rabbit, with the usual wolves, foxes and bear that made a lunch out of them. Overall, that didn’t mean that we could assume ourselves the king of the local hill, but given that the last, ordinary beast that had given us trouble had been a massive Turan Tiger, I had some confidence. Not enough to make me drop my vigilance, but some.

We pushed on into the twilight, as the sun was setting slowly in the distance and were likely the last travelers to enter the gates, before they closed things up for the night. The guards at the gate were Trolls, neither the Ice-variant I had seen in Kolyug, nor the River-variant inhabiting Ladrin, but a somewhat smaller variant, their build more like dwarves, only scaled to a height of five to seven feet, making them massively wide and sturdy beings.

As always, I remained in the back of the group, carefully keeping my wards and magical defenses active, while trying to appear inconsequential. The usual questions were asked and Adra answered them without problem, getting us into the town and directions to an inn and the local Adventurers’ Guild. While I couldn’t be sure, for some reason, the guard appeared to be almost happy to see us.

For once, we had to move through most of the entire town, not that it was terribly large, maybe home to a thousand people, to reach the Guild, which was near the fortified, eastern walls. The Guild itself was built on a square, right in front of a much smaller, already closed gate that was flanked by two towers. The whole construction around us was almost an extension of the fortifications, making me wonder what that was all about.

“I think that’s a kill-zone.” Olivia muttered, speaking barely loud enough for me to hear.

“What?!” My tense question made her look back at me, giving a quick shake of her head, before falling back and walking next to me.

“Not for us. I think, if the walls are threatened, they open the gate, creating a choke-point through which mindless foes can make their way in, the fortified buildings creating a kill-zone, allowing them to strike at their leisure. A controlled break, instead of a forced one at some other point, I think.” She explained, and looking around, I could somewhat see it. None of the doors, other than the one of the Guild, was opening into the square, the only windows were on the second story and appeared to have heavy shutters.

“I see what you mean. Do you think they get attacked often?” My question made her pause for a moment, before she shook her head.

“No, I don’t think so. But then, the whole town is close to the mountains, making it an obvious target. So, maybe they get attacked more than we’d think.” she paused for a moment, before letting out a mirthless chuckle. “Often enough for them to plan their town accordingly.”

“These buildings look old, so either their preparations were needless, or they worked very well.” I looked around, nodding to myself, “But either way, I doubt that it will be relevant for us. I certainly don’t want to get caught in a skeleton-siege or something like that.”

“That would be unpleasant, yes. Though, I do think that Lenore and you would make for excellent people to have around, when an army assaults a town.” she agreed and the two of us fell into silence, as we all approached the Guild.

Inside, we were greeted by the usual architecture, with all the charme of an office-building that served double-duty as a butcher’s shop. Behind the counter stood a rather small, brown-haired humanoid, someone even I could look down upon, looking back at us with a curious expression on his face.

“Good evening. What may I be able to help you with?” he asked, the deep, bass voice surprising me, as Adra stepped up.

“Greetings, we just crossed the Dorian Mountains and would like to turn in the Undead clean-up Quest.” Adra replied and I noticed the Guild Clerk’s eyes flicker away from her face for a second, before a wide smile appeared on his face.

“Great. Let me get you your money,” he nodded, reaching under the counter and the moment he nodded, a blue window informed me that I had completed a quest, though the EXP were not enough to grant me a level. It was a nice chunk though.

“Would you be interested in some follow-up work? We do have a bit of a pickle nearby.” he asked, a hopeful look on his face. A part of me wanted to step up and inquire about the obvious follow-up quest, but given my social ineptitude, I kept back, letting Adra handle things.