Rayne was deep in thought, and an awkward silence filled the room as the woman waited for him to respond.
cough she coughed once, trying to avert his attention, and then again after getting no reaction.
cough cough
"Hm? Oh sorry, is that all?" Rayne asked after snapping out of his thoughts. The woman nodded and said that would summarize the report and turned to leave when Rayne stopped her and asked her one more question.
"Where did Bones stay? Your report only said where he was going, but there was no mention of where he was staying."
"Ah yes, just a second." She started turning the pages, searching through the reports when she finally found a paragraph she was searching for.
"His exact location is unknown. He was traced back to a few locations, all outside of the central area toward the west, where the badge signal disappeared.”
“Disappeared? Every time?” Rayne asked, to which he received a nod of confirmation. He dismissed the officer and stayed seated. He wasn’t sure, but some things became clear to him. Bones either knew how to nullify the signal in the badge, or someone showed him how! Then he frowned at the implication. “That scrawny little fucker has inventory unlocked!”
Rayne got up and left his office. He approached one of the guards standing close by and directed him to send a message up top. He needed to meet up with the only person he could think of who might have the answers to his questions. The gold-ranked adventurer like him and the only necromancer employed by the adventurer guild, Varia the Summoner, of the Jolly Regiment. The guild, Jolly Regiment, had its main headquarters in one of the major cities on the coast of the Kingdom of Brales, and has branches in many kingdoms, including the Wezar Kingdom.
Varia was a researcher in the branch guild of the Adventurer’s Guild in the Brales Kingdom. Around twenty years ago, he was transferred to the headquarters in the Wezar Kingdom for reasons unknown. He was received with great scrutiny due to his necromancer class, but over the years, he had demonstrated nothing but loyalty and had proven to be of great help with his research on the undead. The man was almost unreachable now as his special position within the adventurer guild required his full attention.
Later that day, a letter requesting a meeting landed on Varia's desk. He wondered who would formally request a meeting with him. Setting aside the research paper he was holding, he eagerly read the request and promptly sent a reply. Half an hour later, with a knock, Rayne entered the office.
"Greetings Varia, hope I'm not intrud.."
"Nonsense! Come!" interrupted the mage, grabbing Rayne's arm and leading him to the main hall. Varia motioned for Rayne to pick a seat at the table while he went to the cabinet and retrieved a bottle of wine and two glasses. Rayne was surprised but smiled, recalling Varia's character.
"Varia, I don't want to intrude on your research. I just have a few questions I need your expertise for."
"Rayne, I haven't left the study since yesterday! I need a break, so…ask me anything! Though I have to warn you, I've already shared everything I knew and thought about the attack on Westbrook. There's not much else to say except that they were well-prepared, whoever they were."
"No, I'm not here about the attack. Well, not entirely anyway."
"Oh? Well, don't hold back then! Fire away!" Varia cheerfully replied while sitting at the table and pouring them drinks. He leaned back into the chair and started massaging his shoulders, awaiting Rayne's questions. Rayne raised his glass, nodded at Varia, and said, "Cheers!"
They both took a sip, and then Rayne summarized the information he came across about a certain skeleton that appeared around the time of the attack. Varia tentatively listened to Rayne until he finished talking.
Varia didn't answer immediately. "I've heard you've been stripped of your position as branch guild leader. You must've been relieved? I know how much you disliked being in the spotlight. Do you know who they sent to replace you?" he asked, smirking.
"Don't even mention her. I don't care about the position and even less that Roselyn was assigned to replace me. She can babysit the academy all she wants," replied Rayne firmly.
"Right, you two don't get along well," Varia teased, then added, "This character Bones could be trouble. No, not could, but most certainly already is."
"What do you mean?"
"The time between his appearance and now is just too short, Rayne. Sure, he could have grinded monsters if he was in a dungeon or had a proper group to level up with. But he didn't, did he? Not according to what you have told me. He is a skeleton and has reached level twenty-four in the Bonemancer class in less than, what? Three months? Yeah, that thing killed humans before. Adventurers most likely, and I have a suspicion he is the result of soul magic," Varia finished, emptying his glass as well.
Rayne frowned. "Soul magic? Are you sure? Is it the result of an experiment or research? Or just one of the skeletons becoming self-aware? It has happened before."
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Varia shook his head. "I don't think so. Enlightened, self-aware undead, as you have put it, don't behave like your undead does. It isn’t in undead’s nature to mingle with the living, and they certainly don’t have intentions of joining the Adventurer’s Guild. Besides, have you felt mana corruption from it?"
Rayne shook his head. "No, the mana felt normal."
"Then there's no doubt that soul magic was involved, whether he did something himself or someone did that to him, but there's an old soul in that skeleton!"
After a moment of silence and downing his drink, Rayne asked, "How old?"
Varia shrugged. "Can't really tell. He could be someone older than me or simply have lost memories, like you said. My bet would be on both though. An old mage, clinging to his life, transferred his soul in an attempt to avoid death. He succeeded but his memories became all jumbled up. Same old, same old."
“Same old? You’ve seen soul transfer before?”
“I did, Rayne. It was before I even joined the guild. However, I’ve never heard of someone successfully transferring his soul to a non-living vessel until now. I’ve heard of users transforming their bodies into something else, something grotesque, and it usually ends up horribly. You see, transferring a soul into a new body has always been temporary, not permanent, because the body rejects the soul and starts falling apart. For a soul transfer to truly be successful, the soul would need to be fully compatible with the body. Of course, that would apply to the living.”
“So it’s a matter of time before the skeleton starts rejecting the soul and starts falling apart?” asked Rayne.
Varia frowned and hesitated for a moment before replying. “Yes, that’s right. Do keep an eye on it though. If it was up to me, I’d lock that thing away and leave it to rot.”
“Really? I thought you’d be among the first in line to want it for research?”
cough “Well, you know I'm not well-versed in soul magic so… actually, now that you mention it, maybe I could make it into my minion!” said Varia enthusiastically.
“Varia, no. Thank you for the information! I'll be leaving you to do your research in peace.” Rayne stood up and extended his arm in greeting.
“Not a problem, shame you’re leaving so soon. How’s the old man?” Varia asked while shaking Rayne’s hand.
Rayne locked eyes with the necromancer for a second before replying. “He’s old,” he said and grinned, “but looking a bit better.” Rayne left, leaving Varia sitting in a lounge chair, alone with his thoughts.
Back in front of his office, Belle awaited. “Rayne, there you are. Where did you run off to?” Rayne, approaching, smiled at her. “Why? Missed me?" She raised an eyebrow. “I met with Varia.” Before he continued, Belle fired off questions.
“Varia? Isn’t he with his guild, Jolly Segment? What’s he doing here? Why would you meet him? You know I don’t like the guy! He smells, Rayne! He smells of decay!” She finished, arms spread wide and looking at Rayne questioningly.
“It’s Jolly Regiment, and he’s not bad, Belle. I needed to meet with him because we have a skeleton on the loose, if you haven’t noticed.” Replied Rayne.
“Uh, Skulls, right? I thought he’s under supervision?” Rayne had a blank look on his face. “It’s Bones, Belle, and he was under supervision until he left the city.” He replied, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Forget about him for now; we have other matters to deal with first. Come, let’s get us some Guntar.”
----------------------------------------
Meanwhile, at the smithy...
"Dar, on the way over here, I saw a strange-looking carriage in front of the construction guild. It didn’t have anything pulling it. It moved by itself, and the design of the carriage was..."
"Ah, I think I know what you're referring to, Bones. It's quite an attraction, isn't it? It's a car, short for carriage, and it's moved by mana. Mana stones, to be more precise."
"A whole car moved by nothing but mana stones? Rune Smithing?" Bones asked.
"Yes, and yes, but it's more complicated than simple Rune Smithing. The one you saw was owned by the CEO of the Yelsa construction company here in Stonefalls."
"Yelsa? Wait, the construction company is privately owned?"
"Ye haven’t heard of Yelsa, Boney?" Hem pitched in.
"Boney…? No, I haven’t. By your expressions, I assume it's a well-known company?"
Dar and Hem shared a look and snickered. "Yer a funny guy, man? Skeleton?" puzzled Hem, while Dar continued. "Yelsa isn't just a construction company, Bones. They're known to have investments in construction, import-export of goods, even mana stone processing facilities around the kingdoms. But they're most well-known for manufacturing mana cars, just like the one you saw," finished Dar, leaving Bones with more questions.
"Right, and how does that work exactly? How do mana stones make the wheels move?" inquired Bones.
"Sorry, Bones, I haven’t had a chance to dismantle one and see what made it tick. It's all this new technology, you know?" said Dar, shaking his head, and Bones nodded in agreement.
"Nuff ‘bout that, Boney, drink!" shouted Hem, chugging from a bottle.
Bones chuckled, opened a new bottle, and poured himself and Dar a drink. "By the way, how much does one of those… cars cost? I imagine quite a sum?" Hem choked on his bottle while Dar replied, "It depends on the model, but in terms of gold? Nothing less than ten grand."
"Grand?" Bones asked puzzled, taking a sip. He hadn't heard the term "grand" before.
"Nothing less than ten thousand gold," Darsumi repeated.
"For the love of..." Bones exclaimed, spilling his drink.
It was late at night when Bones left Hemdus, Darsumi, and the third dwarf who had joined them earlier in the evening. Bones couldn't recall his name. The three dwarves were left sleeping and snoring at the table. Well, Hem was under the table.
Bones estimated he would reach his destination by noon the next day with the speed he was moving. One month had passed, and the dungeon cooldown had finished by now. Meeting the dwarves was a nice short break in-between training, but he was looking forward to continuing leveling after so long. He swerved from the road and took to the forest where the constant rustling of leaves, growling, and roaring was heard. All the monsters were lower level than him and would net him no experience. Many of the monsters he saw for the first time. Interestingly, he hadn’t encountered a single kobold since he killed the four, long ago. Kobolds were eradicated over time by the patrolling goblins who eventually took over the whole region as the dominant species.
Bones stepped into the familiar clearing, smiling. The same open field welcomed him, the grass reaching up to his knees, and giant Steel Tusk Boars in the distance, chilling and foraging for food. “Well, almost the same”, he mused.