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Chapter 4: Dead Scar?

Part 1

It was around afternoon that Aethas and his group arrived at their destination, the children look excitedly at the wasteland before their eyes, filled to the brim with death and remains of Scourges and Heroes alike- well most of them anyways, the girls in the group only frowned at the sight of bones and long decomposed corpses that stuck out in the dirty black mud.

“You boys can go down and play in the mud, Valeera and I shall be the look out.” one of the girl declared and volunteer for the non-handin role of their little expedition after she carefully weighed the pros and cons of either, dig in the disgusting ground that is the Dead Scar to look for treasures, or just stand on the side line and be a look out, where it’s safe and she will still get a share of the loot in the end.

Of course, Aethas being the only adult in the group, technically since his soul was indeed, much older than these children, could understand why the girls would choose such task.

“Alright, just stay there and warn us if you see anything.” girls being girls, they tend to dislike doing the rewarding dirty work, Aethas doesn’t have much complaining as either way, they’re only children in the end.

“Alright bois, grab a shovel from your backpack and follow me.” Aethas came prepared, he previously asked his teacher, Professor Sunreach to see if there were any treasure hunting magical items for sale, and indeed being a magic researcher and a renowned mage that he was, Aethas managed to buy it off for a fair price of 10 gold coins. Well worth the investment for finding riches.

The item was an enchanted compass, make a whole lot of sense in a way as the moment Aethas step into the black soil of the Dead Scar, the needle began to spinned in haywire before stopping and locking onto a certain direction.

“Look like the reading is that way! Follow me my minion! Treasure await for us!” Aethas excited ran toward the direction where the needle indicates the location of a magical reading, the rest of the boys followed Aethas excitedly, shovel in hand while the girls just followed along on the side-lane, not daring to set foot in the black soil filled with long withered away essence of undeath.

It wasn’t long before they arrived at their destination, which was a large fallen tree that has long wither and rotted away.

“It should be here, let start digging- of course being cautions about it, we don’t know what in the light is under this log, it could be anything so just prepare.” Aethas pointed at the middle section of the rotting Golden Birch tree that was uprooted aged ago during the invasion of Quel’Thalas by the fallen Prince, Arthas Menethil.

The boys nodded and began to carefully dig around the area- it wasn’t before long before one of the boy, his name was Faramis, his shovel managed to unearthed a skeletal hand buried under the log, covered in ragged clothes of course, doesn’t seem to belong to any Elven style of craftsman, Aethas guess is that it must be from an undead Scourge.

“Look like we found a jackpot guys, the reading is strong for this one.” Aethas said excitedly, seeing the needle spinning non stop as he moved near the skeletal remains.

After digging a bit more, the children managed to pull the entire remains of the undead Scourge up, it what look like to be a skeletal mage, covering in ragged robe, hand endorsed with rings and a book covered in chain stuck to it waist.

It was the book that caught Aethas eyes, the book seemed to be made of a black leather material and an eerie facial feature of what look like the face of a humanoid creature was plastered on the front cover, bound by chains.

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“What an evil looking book, just how I like it!” Aethas grinned as he grabbed the book from the dead Scourge mage and began dusting it a bit, Aethas carefully unwrapped the chain and read the content on the first page of the book, which was nicely enough to have a title.

[Book of the Dead] with the author being Kel’Thuzad, the infamous Lich Lord of Naxxramas, one that caused misery to the countless souls and formerly a powerful mage of the Kirin Tor whom studied the forbidden art of Necromancy.

“Oh, this is juicy.” Aethas couldn’t help but exclaim, this is indeed a good finding- if anyone were to see such an object, their first thought would be burn it and spread it ashes in the Eastern Sea so no innocent could set eyes on it ever again, however Aethas was different, such priceless artifact shouldn’t be destroyed, it should be study under strict supervision(himself), Aethas quickly closed the book and hid it in his backpack, much to the curiosity of the children as they were about to ask Aethas what that was.

However before they could voice it out, the children facial feature immediately turned ghastly pale as they pointed behind Aethas back. “Boss… b-b-behind you!” Faramis yelped.

Part 2

“DIE!!! MORTAL!!!” the skeletal mage yelled in a ghastly voice as the creature began rising up, the chilling soulfire lit it eyes as the monstrosity of unliving set it gaze upon the group of innocent children, Aethas included as he held the sacred object belonging to the dead and dead only!

“What the hell?” Aethas jumped away from the creature as it began casting a frost spell, judging by the chilling aura emitted from it skeletal hands.

“Like hell I’m going to let you take your sweet ass time casting a spell!” Aethas loaded an explosive marble onto his slingshot and launched the deadly projectile at the rotten head with a bang! Seeing their boss took the initiative attacking such a terrifying creature, the kids followed suit by launching explosive of their own.

“AHHH!!! NOO!!! STOP IT!!!” being a mage has it pros and cons, the pros being having the ability to throw out an insane amount of damage while the downside is being screw once being focused by attack on all sides.

The skeletal mage wailed miserably as hail of explosive marble smashed against it body, chipping off bones and sending limbs flying, the killing shot was coming from Aethas, blowing up the skull with a marble right in the forehead.

In the end, what remained was only pieces of jewelry and old rusted trinkets mixed in pile of broken bones, seeing this the children quickly went in and began looting the dead corpse, after that they quickly make a run for it and return back home, and divided the loot before the undead showed up, since they made quite a ruckus with raining down hell upon the poor skeletal mage, of course they took their chance digging up more stuff on the way back, by the time they reached home, it was already sunset.

To sum up their entire trip today at the Dead Scar in a more efficient manner, they dig, they break, and loot, and dig some more, filling up their kids treasury that would shock any grown-up if they were discovered.

[List of Items Obtained]

1 Enchanted Ring

1 Enchanted Necklace

2 Trinkets

11 Rusted Weapons

A few copper coins.

Added into group Treasury, signed by Aethas.

Or so what Aethas filed in their account log, which was set up by himself in order to keep track of his future minions along with their spending and assets.

Of course not being an idiot, he did not register the [Book of the Dead] which he discovered, and pocketed, perks of being the “Guild Leader” he can get away with these kinds of stuff, corrupted- yes, he isn’t denying it, but who cares? As long as he still feeding carrots to the minions and keeping them happy, none of this would matter anyway!

What better way to take over the world? Other than to create an organization that solely loyal to him and would carry out his will without questioning? Progress is slow as they’re still kids, but if he were to dedicate his time training them- sure? It will get there eventually.

This thought somewhat terrified Aethas as he wasn’t like this before his untimely reincarnation to this side of the Universe, but it doesn’t matter now, maybe it’s because he finally had a family and he wished to keep them safe at any cost.

Anything that could possibly put them in harm ways must be eliminated or promptly, secured from happening, if it means taking over the world of Azeroth, then so be it.

“Putting modern knowledge and magical knowledge to good use is the first step- but for now, let's find out what this precious has to offer.” Aethas smiled gleefully after locking the door and setting the [Book of the Dead] on the table and began to read it content, which bound to content a great deal of knowledge, seeing the author was an infamous Lich.

*Omake

Aethas reach out his hand and grabbed the old leather bound grimoire from the skeleton of the undead mage- the moment his hand touched the book.

[A new hand touched the Grimoire!] a cold yet obnoxiously loud voice sounded in his head, first it confuse the living daylight out of him and secondly.

“What the fuck?! Wrong game!” Aethas cried out.