“Yo, Zeke, I heard you got a ticket to go downtown.” A small serpentine dragon poked its head over the top of a white cubicle.

“Yea mate, I’m pretty pumped about it. It feels like I’ve been looking at system reports for decades.” The cat known as Ezekiel replied.

“Nice! What’s the mission?” The dragon asked.

“You won’t believe me if I tell you.” The cat said, spinning round on it’s pearly white chair to look at the dragon.

“Go on, don’t leave me hanging mate.” The dragon said.

“A level sixteen freaking zombie, Aza." Zeke said after a dramatic pause. "I’ll finish in five minutes and have the rest of the year to do whatever I want.” The cat grinned from ear to ear, and the angels spent a few minutes talking about what mortal experiences Zeke should cram into his year-long vacation.

“Seriously though Zeke, how the hell did a zombie manage to get marked?” Aza asked. The curious coworker had shifted forms, and was now a miniature gargoyle, perched on the marble cubicle divider of Zeke’s office.

“Looking at the logs it’s pretty obvious that the zombie had no idea what it was doing. It got targeted by [Death Ward] and used [Corpse Explosion] without dying often enough for the ability to level up, despite it being flagged as an unscaling ability. Exploit hunters use a similar trick to force mum to upgrade low tier abilities. Like you remember that [Rogue] who tricked her [Swiftness] to evolve into a [Bladedancer’s] [Swiftness]? Absolutely broken.” Zeke complained and dramatically widened his eyes to the size of dinner plates.

“Oh really? So there are two targets with the mark? Who else is going down?” Aza asked.

“I was paired up with Relar.” Zeke said.

“Shit, bad luck mate.” Aza said.

“That’s what I thought, but this is where it gets interesting; Relar got kicked out of the briefing room because his target disappeared. I hadn’t even finished reading the incident logs.” Zeke said, and his smile literally stretched past his ears, touching the sides of his plate-sized eyes.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Oh my gods! I would kill to see the look on his face.” Aza laughed.

“It was pretty hilarious, but a bit weird. From what I gathered, his target was a steel tier necro, and beat the mark before, twice actually. That’s what has me a little nervous, and why I wanted to check over the zombie's system logs again before I head off. Maybe the necro isn’t dead, and has figured out a new way to beat the mark: a way to exploit the exploit.” Zeke said.

“Shit bro, so you might be spawning into a trap? Make sure you have [Safe Haven] ready, I'm glad mum added that to our base abilities ever since what happened with Telandriel.” Aza said with concern.

“Maybe mate, a copper zombie evo is a piece of piss, but a steel tier necro that’s had time to prepare is something else. That’s why I think imma go anti-caster this time round, maybe a [Spellthief], or [Null Mage]. Then I’m thinking once the dust settles, I’m gonna go play around on the frontier. Maybe I’ll take a crack at the [King of the Dead] if killing the necro breaks me into iron.” Zeke said with his fangs bared, giving his ear to ear smile a more predatory tint.

“Hahaha, good luck with that, mate. You got no chance. Plus, ain’t that gonna upset the balance too much?” Aza laughed.

“Yea well… maybe I’ll unleash an ancient evil or two to even it out. Maybe I’ll just become a windcutter pilot. Airships and other elemental machines weren’t really a thing last time I was downtown. I’ll see how I feel when I get there. I should probably head to the character shop now, I just had a couple of things to sort first.” Zeke said

"Alright, mate, have fun. Don’t work too hard, I wouldn’t want you to stress yourself out over one little zombie!” The gargoyle chuckled, and Zeke laughed as he padded away.