Morning came way too early. The bad thing about being next to the bathroom was that I could hear everyone entering and exiting, toilets flushing, and whenever some drunk needed to toss his cookies. I would ask Marge for a room change whenever one became available. I had sleeping issues as it was, being kept up by the other patrons' nightly emissions was not ideal.

I left a note addressed to both Marge and Daisy. Not complaining, but just a simple request whenever it was convenient.

I checked the town for Undead before I left to grab breakfast at the cafe. There were now three wandering around outside the wall. None in town, good.

Curious if I could do it, I entered Living Undead into the search. Nothing came up. Then I tried Wraith and Necromancer. Something odd came up with Necromancer, 'unable to track.' So it was a Necromancer? If it was then why couldn't it be tracked?

I looked up instances where the Gamer Glass wouldn't be able to track. There was a list. Briefly it said it wouldn't track things I'd toggled off, the dead, or persons or monsters concealed using magic. So there was a magic that could keep me from tracking. I couldn't think of any other reason. If there was a magic for concealment, maybe there was a magic for tracking too?

What tracking skills Crue taught me weren't magical, they were physical. Was what the Gamer Glass used a form of tracking magic then? Could a person learn tracking magic? If there were people out there who could track using magic then it might be prudent to figure out how this Necromancer was hiding and learn the skill.

Illia had warned about people who would track for the government. If it ever came to us having to run for it we wouldn't be able to hide from someone who used tracking magic. Unless, we learned concealment magic to counter it.

I decided to look up the magic in my Big Book of Magic Powers that Amoris had given me. Without the specific magical name it was difficult, but using key words I was able to find at least four different magical hiding skills. There may have been more in the book, but I just wasn't searching for the right things. Still, the skills existed and I needed to learn one of them.

I got a few startled glances when I walked into the Guild with Amisi. I explained to the man at the counter what Commander Tagert had told me and showed him the note he'd written.

I was given a book, told to read it, then come back to take the test when I thought I was ready. I was charged 3 coppers for the book. I could just add the book to my inventory and then look up the answers for the test as I took it. With Undead running around it seemed like expediting the process would be a good idea. The book wasn't that big and I could finish it in a few hours. To cheat or not to cheat, that is the question?

Amisi buzzed around the room making friends with the other adventurers. After the first few startled people calmed down they took it upon themselves to explain to newcomers how a baby Death Bee ended up in the Guild. When they found out she liked snacks everyone went out of their way to feed her. Amisi was well and truly spoiled.

I asked the man at the desk to talk with Dunbar. I was told he'd been summoned to the Temple of Amoris. I could guess why. However, I needed to talk to him about the honey. I didn't want to just hand this employee buckets of Death Bee Honey and expect him to just deal with it. I'd just have to wait until he returned.

I found out that the Red Wolves were still being bought for 7 silvers each. So I went around the side and dropped off our 33 Red Wolves. The dismantler looked a little overwhelmed, but counted up the lot of them. He subtracted some money from the wolves Illia had barbecued.

I turned in the paper and instructed the man that 14 silvers went to Ave. The rest would be split between Sturgis, Crue, Lotte, Illia, and I. They could pick up their share later. I was given 4 gold, 3 silver, and 40 copper for my share. Somehow after turning in all those wolves it didn't seem like enough, but we did have to split it five ways. When they processed the Cave Bear I'd probably get more.

Was I becoming greedy? Perhaps not, at the rate I'd spent the last bit of my money I was legitimately concerned that I'd blow through this at record speed as well. After all, winter was coming and I hadn't gotten any gear to prepare for it.

With a sigh, I settled down to read the book. It would suck if I skipped some part that wasn't on the test and I got into trouble for it later. It was a rule book and if you broke those rules as a tamer you could end up with a fine at best the death penalty at worst.

I periodically checked for Undead. Ave hadn't shown up yet, but there wasn't any concerning activity so I continued to read. I'd finished the book around 1o'clock and had just requested the test when she showed up. I waved the papers at her and signaled I'd seen her. She waved back and pointed to a spot at an open table.

I settled down with one of the Guild employees and filled out the test. It was very simple. What were the three rules of taming? What were the consequences of out of control tamed monsters? At what point is it prudent to kill your monster? I felt like I was in high school getting ready to take my driver's ed test.

When I'd finished and signed my name at the bottom the employee took my paper off to grade. It really was like high school. I hadn't cheated, but I already knew I'd passed. Really the questions hadn't been hard. I'd been expecting something a bit more complex. It seemed that being a tamer was more straightforward than I thought.

While I was waiting Ave came up to me. Amisi was asleep on her head. All the attention must have worn her out. She was still a baby after all.

"'bout ready to go?" Ave asked as she took a seat across from me. She had a cup of tea in her hand and my belly gave a growl at the smell.

"I had a late breakfast but I'm hungry again. Do you think we can grab something to eat before we go?"

"I've already eaten, would you mind grabbing things from the food stalls and eating as we go along?"

"That's fine," I accepted. I had a vision of fried chicken for an instant before I realized that it was going in the wrong direction. I'd probably have to grab some meat skewers or something.

"ERI!" A booming voice interrupted my thoughts. It was followed by a few big slaps on my back. "Good going boy! A King Cave Bear and in your first week! I knew I was right about you." Dunbar slapped my back a few more times then picked me up into a hug. I guess the guy was happy.

"It wasn't just me," I tried to protest as I was being smothered into his large man chest.

"I know, I know. I just got back from getting Crue's report. By the seat of your pants there for a while, huh?" He let me go and steadied me as I found my balance.

"I guess it was." So Crue had filled him in. Good, that meant I didn't need to spend a lot of time telling him about it.

"So this is the hero of the day?" Dunbar glanced at the sleeping bee on top of Ave's head. Then he broke out into a huge grin. "Will you never cease to impress me boy?" I got another slap on the back.

"Sir, I needed to talk to you about the honey..." I began.

"Right, Crue told me about the hive. Cleared it out. Good thinking. I understand that it's all stored in your inventory and that it isn't in any containers?"

"No, We only had a few pots and a bucket to gather it with so I mostly just placed it in my inventory."

"We have a standard sized jar that we use for measuring. I'm going to order all our jars to be brought over from the warehouse this afternoon. They'll be here tomorrow morning. I'm not certain off the top of my head how many we have in stock, but I might have to place an order for more if you cleared out an entire hive."

"I can only give you a portion of it I'm afraid. Amisi is still a baby and needs it for this winter. However, I've been told that this spring she will start producing her own honey. We can figure out if more jars need to be made after that."

"Sounds good, sounds good," he nodded in understanding. "It's been an eventful week for the Guild that's for certain. King Cave Bear, Death Bee Honey, a new tamer, Undead and Red Wolves running amuck. I'm sort of excited and worried about what is to happen next."

"About that, Commander Tagert said he'd send in a request for aid for Crue and I. He wants our help in getting control of the Undead situation."

"Crue mentioned it. I assume this young lady is going to be assisting you?"

"More like we are teaming up, but yes."

"Very well," Dunbar turned to Ave. "If you would provide your name and Guild ID to the desk we can get it sorted so that the guards compensate you for your time."

"I've already worked that out with them. I've been hired on by them directly as a consultant," Ave smiled at Dunbar. "Thank you for considering me. Many Guild heads would just let the extra work pass without pay."

"They shouldn't. One of the Guild's mottos is fair pay for hard work. If you put in the work and it benefits the Guild we will pay you. If you know of Guild heads that fail to follow that dictate they should be reported to the head offices."

"I'll keep that in mind next time I come across that situation. Thank you again."

"Not a problem. You keep Eri safe. He's a rising star in the Guild," Dunbar patted me on the back and smiled at Ave. He gave a wave and left us to our business.

"He's a nice man. He really loves his job," Ave commented with a slight smile in Dunbar's direction. "You were lucky to run into him as your first Guild head. He sets the standard fairly high."

"I hadn't thought of that. Thanks for letting me know," I told her earnestly. If I did go out into the world I'd have to deal with other Guild heads in the future. It was good to know that not all of them were like Dunbar and that I needed to be cautious.

We left the Guild and walked in silence. It was an uncomfortable silence, at least for me. For all I knew Ave was ok with it. Edomael had told me that she needed my help. I was helping. I'd track down the Undead and we'd get rid of them easypeasy.

Finding and getting rid of the necromancer wasn't my job at this point. I'd tried, but whatever magic they were using blocked me. So I'd leave it up to the guards. They had more experience in this sort of thing. That is if they would stop getting killed.

Ave coughed hard a few times and gave me a glance. Was she laughing? What was she laughing about?

I glanced around and no one had fallen or done anything particularity stupid. Was she laughing at me? Did I have bed head or something?

I self consciously slicked back my hair with my hand.

"So, I thought we should head outside and leave the town to the guards." I waved at a group of four guards walking past on patrol. "As long as they are in groups like that they should be fine, right?"

"Yes, I see your point. If an Undead shows up in town in the daytime it would be reported fairly quickly and can be dealt with as quickly. The trickier ones will be outside the wall. There won't be as many people to report those and with our tracking skills we would be more useful anyway," Ave agreed. Then she pointed to a cart about fifteen feet away. "That cart has some good steamed buns. You should try them."

We walked over to the cart. On display were round white buns made with a sticky looking dough. They puffed up when steamed but remained sort of dense and sticky rather than flaking up and becoming a pastry.

The vendor said that the meat was a combination of whatever his brother had been able to hunt the day before. Today was Ring Rabbit and wild boar. The meat was minced, mixed with herbs and vegetables, placed inside the center of a dough circle, then had a little bit of congealed broth spread inside. Then they were steamed in a large circular cauldron.

Unsure of why I was buying pseudo mystery meat buns, I got ten at Ave's urging. I had a feeling she wanted some, but since she'd just eaten she'd wait until later to ask for one. Depending on how long we'd be out, taking portable snacks was a good idea. Though her choice was questionable.

I was hungry, so I placed nine of the buns in my storage and paid the man. I bit into the bun and was instantly surprised. The flavor was so complex. Holy hand grenade they were good. It was sort of like eating a pot pie in meatball form, but having the Asian steamed dumpling texture. Cakey and doughy and deliciousness. I turned right back around and bought out the ones he had ready. 15 more buns went into my inventory.

I would have to remember to share these with Crue and Illia. I hoped they didn't already know about this vendor. It would be nice to surprise them for a change. On top of that, he was just a short way from the Guild. Easy accessibility.

I finished off three buns by the time we got to the gate. I probably could eat more but if we were going to get physical then having a bloated stomach wasn't a good idea. Physical... right. How did you kill an Undead again? I looked it up.

*Undead. Skeletal monsters that used to be humanoid. Most of the body must be present in order for an Undead to rise.

Undead rise with the ability to use any equipment they were killed with. A soldier who becomes an Undead might rise wearing armor, carrying a shield and a sword. A farmer who becomes an Undead might rise carrying a hoe or scythe.

To kill an Undead one must first separate the majority of the body from the head. The easiest way to do this is by decapitation. If the Undead is in full metal armor this might be difficult so attacking the limbs first then decapitation is suggested.

An Undead that kills a humanoid in combat rises in difficulty. Undead Warrior, Undead Mage, Undead Soldier, Undead Archer, Undead General are some of the variations an Undead can take once they have risen in rank.

Anyone killed by an Undead eventually becomes an Undead as long as their body remains intact. If a member of your party should die because of an Undead attack it is standard protocol to decapitate the victim and keep the head separated from the body until priests can perform funerary cremation. However, if you are in a remote location this might not be possible. It is up to the surviving party members to perform the cremation ceremony themselves to the best of their abilities, making sure that they burn the victim's body.

Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

Failure to perform these duties will result in possible fines, jail time, and possibly forced labor. Some exceptions are made in the case of an Undead uprising where the safety of the majority is paramount.~

So we had to lop off the head. Might be difficult if the Undead running around the wall were guards or adventurers in armor. Would using magic to blast the shit out of the Undead work? As long as the body is separated from the head then it shouldn't matter how that is achieved.

I would prefer to attack from a distance. No matter if Illia did tell me that you couldn't become an Undead if you were attacked and survived I still felt like I didn't want to chance it. If I was killed then Ave would have to cut off my head and burn me. I doubted arrows would do the trick. So maybe this would be a good opportunity to try out my magic again?

I had Metal Rain and Lightning magic for attacks. I guess I could also try Restraint. If I managed to keep the monster still then I could just walk up to it and lop off the head. It might be better than blasting it to bits with Metal Rain or Lightning. I imagined decomposing zombie parts raining from the sky.

Ave began to giggle then tried to cough to cover it up. Then she gave up and laughed out loud. What was up with her? She'd seemed to be in a good mood since earlier. What was she laughing at now? There wasn't anything here but trees and a Red Wolf about half a mile off.

"Sorry," she gasped. "I was thinking too hard."

"Ok," I gave her a look that clearly said I questioned her mental state. "By the way, there is a Red Wolf incoming."

Her face sobered up some but there was still laughter written all over it.

"What was so funny?" I asked.

"Were you aware that you were being followed in town?"

"Wait, what?"

"I noticed when you went back for more buns. There was a woman in the Guild slowly eating her lunch and reading a book. She was there when I got there and she left when we left. She went around the corner and I thought she'd gone in another direction. Then when we left the vendor the first time then you turned around I noticed her dodging back behind the building.

"I kept an eye out for her on the way to the gate. She followed you to the gate but didn't leave the town."

"Are you certain she was following me?" Really now that was creepy. I didn't expect to get a stalker in Elrich. Could she be one of those unsavory people Illia and Crue had warned me about? One of those people willing to attack for Amisi or even to try and steal my inventory bracelet?

"She's not very good at stalking. Every time I turned to look she'd dodge behind something. It would have been far less noticeable if she would have just pretended to be going in the same direction as us rather than play pop-a-mole behind the vendors carts and the bushes."

Pop-a-mole? Was that the Elrich version of whack-a-mole? It didn't matter.

"I didn't notice," I said but was interrupted by the growling of the Red Wolf that had finally found us, not that we had been hiding. We'd just been walking along anticipating the attack.

"Do you want to take this time to test out some attacks you want to use on the Undead? You've never fought an Undead before so now might be a good time to work out your strategy," Ave commented, pulling out her knives and falling into a defensive crouch.

"Does lightning magic work on the Undead?" I asked her also dropping into a defensive posture. The Red Wolf was just hiding in the bushes at the moment so we had to wait until it jumped out to attack. Running after it into a tangle of bushes and thorns wasn't a good idea.

"Depends on what level you're on. Illia would be able to do some damage but most lightning attacks wouldn't do much but stun an Undead. Physical, fire, and water attacks do well. However, fire is discouraged in a wooded area."

"I assume that's because you don't want the woods to catch fire," I commented and considered throwing a stick or rock to flush out the Red Wolf.

"The Undead don't really feel pain but they light up like a torch when faced with fire. Normally, if a creature is engulfed in fire they are in too much pain and try to do what they can to put out the fire. Undead don't do that they will just wander through the woods like a human torch catching everything on fire in the process until they lose enough of themselves to fall apart."

"I don't have fire magic but it's good to know. My lightning skill would probably not work either. So I think we are left with physical, but I might have a way to make that a little safer."

"What are you thinking?" She asked. Then she glanced up. Amisi was still sleeping on her head. She gently picked her up and placed her on a low hanging branch out of the way. Then she gave up on waiting bent to pick up a large branch and chucked it at the bushes.

The Red Wolf yipped then howled. Next thing we knew it was charging at Ave. The red eyes glowing and saliva dripping down it's jowls was not appealing. However, this was a good time to do a test.

I activated Restraint by thinking about dozens of ropes binding the wolf. The wolf seemed to trip over itself when its legs stopped working the way it wanted them too, but it didn't really stop it.

The way the wolf reacted reminded me of the time my friend had started putting holiday sweaters on her dog. That dog would scruff along the ground and roll around until it could get the sweater off. The wolf was reacting the same way. It was trying to 'take off its sweater' while simultaneously attacking Ave.

It didn't take long for Ave to figure out something was up and she chose her moment to attack. She waited for a pause in the wolf's struggling before she stepped in and cut its throat. I was surprised she didn't get her hand bitten off the way the wolf was flopping around snapping at anything. I probably wouldn't have that sort of precise timing. Knowing my luck, if I tried that I'd lose my entire arm as well as my hand.

"Hum, well that magic certainly has its uses. It will probably work better with an Undead than it did with this wolf. The Undead don't have sharp teeth that will rip your throat out," Ave nodded and wiped the blood off her knife on the wolf's fur. I bent down when she was done and added the wolf to my inventory.

Amisi flew back to Ave and got settled in again. Poor baby bee was sleepy.

"You think it will work?" I asked scratching Amisi gently on the butt. She buzzed contently at me.

"Yes, but most of the Undead wandering around out here will probably be adventurers who still have their armor on and may still have a weapon. Be cautious. They don't feel pain and have superhuman strength if they get a hold of you they could easily rip your arm off with their hands rather than having to bite it off with their teeth. If you can control the arms though, you should be fine."

"So should we aim for the limbs before going in for decapitation?"

"If you have a chance, yes. Immobilization is a smart tactic for fighting an Undead in armor. However, with that magic we may be able to bypass that if you can immobilize them enough."

"I guess we'll just have to wait and see if it works then?"

"I'll have your back. I've fought Undead before so I know a few tricks. Keep in mind that their body no longer reacts as a human and you should be ok."

"What do you mean?"

"It's that pain thing. You stab them in the gut and it will do nothing but irritate them. Blind them and they are still able to 'see'," she used finger quotes. "Keep it basic. Lop off a leg and they can't chase you as quickly. They can still crawl. Lop off an arm they only have one to grab you with. My knives aren't actually the best weapon for the Undead. Knives are for slashing attacks. They don't do well with limb splitting."

"Then why use them for this?" I thought it was a very decent question.

"Better the weapon I am most familiar with than one I am not. I can do more damage with these knowing what I am doing rather than picking up a huge sword and swinging it around hoping I hit something."

"So how do you kill an Undead with knives?"

"Speed and precision. My knives aren't small, with the right leverage I can manage. Still, it's not the ideal weapon against the Undead. You should probably try immobilization then attack with your sword. Aim for further immobilization if you don't have a clean shot at the head. Go for the legs if you can. Once down it makes it easier to get to the head."

So I was actually going to hunt zombies. It was surreal. Monsters running around I seemed to be able to process. Mostly because they belonged in this fantasy setting with a Guild and adventurers. Zombies, they didn't fit.

Zombies belonged in post-apocalyptic worlds where the main character wakes up after years of being in a coma in the hospital. A mutated virus taking over the planet. The majority of the world's population wiped out in months. Rambling dead shuffling around their only goal to eat brains and create more of themselves.

Zombies somehow didn't fit into this setting. A real large purple bear fit just fine. A bee the size of a potato, yup. Orange lizards with purple spots that were the size of a house? Sure, why the hell not? Welcome to the club you glorious spotted bastard. Zombies?

I just had a hard time thinking of the Undead as something other than zombies. I'd been told they didn't work the same. No biting, no infection, but they still killed you to propagate. I felt like I should be wielding a chainsaw or a shotgun not a sword and some untrained magic power.

Why was I trying to talk myself out of this? Just last night I'd been so cocky. I was willing to jump in and save people if an Undead popped up. I was still willing to do that but I had an uneasy feeling filling my gut and it was working its way up my throat. If I let it out I might just run away screaming. I was about to see a real zombie. A thing of nightmare. Shit, Shit, Shit.

I took a few deep breaths hoping to calm myself a bit. My nerves were getting to me. However, the deep breath was a very very bad idea. At first I couldn't figure out what I was smelling that was leaving this god awful taste in my mouth. It smelled slightly sweet but also smelled like the worst garbage pile that had been rained on then had been left to sit in the heat for a week to get nasty.

I gagged a bit and bile worked its way up my esophagus. I swallowed quickly taking short shallow breaths. I would not throw up dammit.

"Oh, this must be a newly dead one," Ave coughed. She was probably trying to get the smell out. That shit seemed to just cling to your lungs and linger in the back of your throat.

"The smell?" I asked. I was trying not to hyperventilate but the short breaths and my anxiety weren't working together well.

"Older bodies don't smell because most of the tissue has had time to deteriorate. Bodies that have been left out in the elements for any length of time don't smell because there is nothing there to smell, no tissues are left."

"So Undead are skeletal most of the time?"

"Most of the time since having Undead rise this quickly after a death isn't normal. Keep in mind that this entire situation isn't normal. Most Undead take months or even years to rise.

"I could guess by the smell but I'm guessing it's close by right?" She asked as she rubbed her nose. The smell was beginning to burn my sinuses. It was probably doing the same for her.

"It's up ahead. I don't think it's moving around. Do they sleep? If I didn't know better I'd say this one was resting."

"They don't sleep but sometimes they do remain inactive if there isn't anything close by to hunt."

"So how do you want to approach it?" I asked.

"Well, if it's not moving I don't see why we shouldn't try to sneak up on it. You do that restraint thing. I can take on the blade work or I can spot you as you try. It's up to you. After all, you're the Surveyor in training."

I really didn't want to do the 'blade work' as she put it. I was having enough problems keeping the contents of my stomach down. However, she did have a solid point about my being the Surveyor. I'd need to know how to do this. Having her here watching my back the first time would be better than having to do it solo for the first time. Shit.

"I'll try, but be ready to follow up if I don't manage to get the head separated."

"That's fine," she gave a shallow smile.

Amisi buzzed and sent an image of a Death Bee stinging a human.

"Won't work," Ave told her. "It's already dead, poisons or anything like it will have no effect."

"So you might want to find another branch to hang out on," I told her.

Amisi buzzed in understanding and flew to a patch of late blooming white flowers.

I tried being sneaky. I tried, but it seemed the harder I tried the louder I got. I tried focusing on the branches in front of me and forgot my feet. Focus on my feet and I ran into a tree.

How was Ave doing it? I watched as she did this odd sort of sideways walk on the balls of her foot. Sometimes she'd pick her foot up higher and gently set it back down. Sometimes she'd just shift forward without any discernible movement of her feet at all.

I attempted to mimic her odd sideways foot move.

*Skill Gain- Sneak~

*Skill Change- Skills Sneak and Stalking have become Stealth. Stealth has automatically been activated. This skill is currently at level 1.

The Skill Stealth is the physical act of concealment and stalking. Not to be confused with the Racial Ability Stealth, which is the magical act of hiding and concealing oneself.~

Well, I wasn't feeling very stealthy, magically or physically. I felt like I was a little kid playing at ninja. I felt very silly but something about the odd movements felt less awkward than when I first started to try mimicking her. It did seem like I ran into fewer trees too. Dead leaves still crackled underfoot but I wasn't snapping as many dry sticks. Ave managed to move through the woods without a sound. I was a one man polka band beside her. Ummppaa paa ummppaa paa ump beat in time to the increasing beat of my heart.

The Undead still hadn't moved on my map though, so maybe I was doing something right.

We passed a thicket of ivy covered bushes. It was standing in a very small clearing staring at the ground. The zombie, because damn that is what it was and I'd probably never stop calling them zombies, didn't even twitch. Living things move even when they are still, they breathe, they blink, they shift slightly from foot to foot. The zombie didn't move. It wasn't a living thing.

That stillness more than anything made this surreal. The smell and the rotting skin which was sort of an all over bruised color, could be something a living monster could have. The stillness, not even monsters could be that eerily still. It made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

I glanced at Ave and found her entirely focused on the zombie. It was my show I had to do my part first.

I activated Restraint and pictured the zombie bound in ropes.

There was this unearthly scream as the zombie suddenly became animated. I nearly wet my pants at the scream. The invisible ropes cut into its softened skin making things ooze out of it. Flesh began to slough off around where I imagined the ropes. Dark, viscous, decayed matter began to ooze off her bones.

It turned and I saw that it was once a woman. It was wearing simple leather armor. In one hand she held a thick stick. No, it was a short staff. Had she been a magician adventurer?

"Can Undead use magic?" I yelled at Ave over the sound of the screaming.

"Only if it's an Undead Mage and those have a very high difficulty. You can tell if its an Undead Mage if it has black tattooing on the bones."

"You can't see its bones," I pointed out.

"I doubt it's a mage because it would have had to have killed several high level monsters or humans to become one. This one hasn't been dead long enough, I don't think."

"What do you mean you don't think?"

She just shrugged at me. Great, just flippin' great.

I gathered my nerve and attacked. It was a head on attack but because of restraint the zombie was having difficulty moving to attack back.

It tried to bite at me when my sword first made contact. I'd missed the neck a bit and I cut more along the clavicle. The momentum from my blow knocked it over though. So my next hit was more exact. Still, it took three swings before I managed to cut through the neck. I was as delicate as I could be about the business. I did not want any of that, um, rotted matter to get onto me.

How did you know it was dead? I mean, other than it had stopped screaming. It had been super still before. I poked at it with the point of my sword before I felt safe enough to remove restraint.

Ugg, my sword was a mess. It was sticky with things I didn't want to think about. Screw cleaning it the normal way. I turned on my hand faucet from the water in my inventory and hosed off the sword in a patch of clean grass. Then I laid it to dry in the bushes.

"You need some training with that sword. I'm worried that you will rely too much on your magic and will fail to gain the necessary skill with your blade. I fear without the magic you may not have been able to subdue this Undead," Ave critiqued my efforts.

"I can see that," I nodded. Restraint could make a person lazy if they relied on it too much. "There might be a monster it doesn't work against and if that happens I'd be screwed. I'm working on improving my martial skills with Crue."

"He might be a bit busy to teach you right now. I know I use knives, but I think I might be able to show you some movements and attacks that will be useful. I noticed how you tried to mimic my movements a bit ago. You didn't do badly."

"You want to train me?" Why did that make me uneasy? I liked Ave. She seemed really nice and willing to help out. So why did I get this odd itchy feeling at the base of my spine?

"Only in things I don't think Crue could cover. I don't want to step on any toes. However, I think you need to up your skill if you want to take on these Undead alone."

"I see." I had a lot on my plate right now but I probably shouldn't turn down her offer.

"We need to take the head back and burn the body," Ave motioned to the Undead.

"I thought we only burned people who were attacked and died?"

"We burn what we can, when we can, of the Undead. It's mostly out of respect for the human it once was."

I added the head to my inventory.

"I don't know how to burn a body. Do I need to gather wood?"

"Some yes, but not as much as you might think. Undead are susceptible to fire after all."

So we gathered some wood and moved as much of the dead leaves away trying to leave a fairly clear space. We didn't want to catch the woods on fire. Though I could always use the water in my inventory to douse the flames if they started to burn things other than the zombie.

I was going to pull my fire stick from my inventory when Ave pointed her hand at the fire and launched a small fireball.

*Skill Gain- Fire Magic~

The zombie didn't immediately burst into flames. It took about thirty seconds before we got that whoosh of flame. Shit on a stick, you'd have thought we'd doused the zombie in gas first. Ave had said the Undead burned but I didn't really think they would be more susceptible to fire than the wood we'd placed under the body. Shit, and the burning hot garbage smell.

I'd been doing ok with the stench. The adrenaline from fighting sort of forced my nausea to the back burner. Not any more. I shamefully ran to the furthest bush and lost everything I'd eaten that day. Then proceeded to gag some more. Amisi flew from her flowers to me in concern. Well, at least I hadn't thrown up on the body.