As the new undead marched towards them Three noticed that once again there were new types of undead in the mix, he saw several zombie like creatures walking on four legs, their sharp claws and even sharper teeth, glistening in the moonlight. The tags told him the creatures were called ghouls, some of the larger zombies were walking smoothly, similar to the fast zombies from the night before. Plenty of changed skeletons as well, although he barely noticed any difference between the level twenty and the level ten evolutions.

Once again he prepared for battle, this time he had his bondlings, conscripts and himself pulled back in the trenches. He was in one of three foremost trenches. Three, Crimson and Sir Kelly were in the middle one, Shuffles and the conscripts in the rightmost, to his left was the large woodcutter and some of his bulkier friends. They waited as the undead slowly marched forward, his muscles ached for action, he calmed himself, reminding him that if he went of on his own he could endanger the villagers. He would do more good in the trenches.

He had expected a different battle, a harder one, yet once again he stood among the corpses barely injured. None of the villagers had been killed, and he had gained two levels. He must have been really close to the twenty-first level to reach the twenty-second. Something that excited him more than the battle was that both Shuffles and Sir Kelly Ton had reached level twenty and were ready for their evolutions.

{Sir Kelly Tonn has passed level 20}

{Choose your Companions evolution

{Strong Tough Skeleton, Strong Skilled Skeleton}

He scratched his chin for a moment as he thought over the decision, he thought it spoke for itself as he selected the skilled evolution. Sir Kelly Tonn was tough enough as it was, if he could survive a battle against near two thousand of his compatriots, both the same and a higher level than he was, then he should be alright. The evolution available to Shuffles however gave him a moments pause.

{Shuffles has passed level 20}

Choose your Companions Evolution}

{ Large Fast Zombie® , Smart Ghoul®}

He thought for a moment, what eventually swayed him was the sheer ferocity that the ghouls had displayed. Nearly all of the ghouls had targeted either him or Crimson, they charged at the two of them with no regard for their own lives, something not that strange in the undead. What was strange however was how they specifically target the few places where Three could actually be harmed. They tried to gouge out his eyes, one of them was nearly successful, his eye was still healing from that one. They went for his ears, mouth, one of them had honest to god actually tried to stick its claw up his anus.

He sighed at the memory, the woodcutters were still chuckling about that. He had puckered his cheeks just in time to avoid being spit-roasted. He shook his head, focusing back on the job at hand, Shuffles already showed clear intelligence and tactical insight. He wondered what the zombie could do if it had the increased intelligence of the ghouls while being just as ferocious. He tapped the evolution and watched the zombie change.

Shuffles grey skin turned slightly green-ish. His fingernails elongated into claws, his teeth grew and became sharper, pointier. He also grew an entirely new set of teeth, a new row behind the first. His eyes became colder, his arms longer, giving him the potential to run on all-fours. The ghoul looked at its claws, piercing its own hide to test its sharpness. Then he looked over at Three and nodded. Three blinked. He was sure that Shuffles had just shown its gratitude, His gratitude he supposed, he was pretty sure the ghoul was now sentient.

He stared over the field and watched as one of the scouts returned, everyone gazed at the scout as the young man grinned happily. The men rushed towards the scout, the chieftain close behind.

"We found the lair, we are pretty sure a necromancer is behind everything."

Three made his way through the forest, it gave a disparate feel in the day, not at all as eeiry without the fog and the shuffle of undead. The villagers had selected a group to enter the necromancers lair, Three went, along with his bondlings. The large woodcutter, the young scout and the elderly man he had talked to before who was the best shot with a bow. The large woodcutter's name was Reg, the scout was called Tillian and the elderly man's name was Harold.

The chieftain had wanted to go, the villagers persuaded him that he was needed in the village. The party followed young Tillian through the forest, it took them a good few hours of walking to reach the entrance to the cave, two other scouts stood at the entrance and nodded to them.

"Anything happen while I left?" Tillian asked.

"Nope, tis quiet." One of the scouts answered.

Three swept his gaze over his party, the villagers had placed Harold in charge, to no ones suprise. Three walked over to the man.

"How do you propose we go about this?"

Harold scratched his short grey beard, he looked from one of his party members to the other. "You n your Jurgor take the lead, Reg n Tillian take the middle, with me behind em. Yer other bondlings cover the rear."

Three nodded in aknowledgement. He gestured to Shuffles, the ghoul nodding as he understood his task, he snarled at the other undead and they followed the ghoul. Three wondered how the ghoul actually gave them commands, he had never seen the ghoul actually issue commands, the undead always seem to understand what he wanted from them regardless of what he did. Something he would have to look into after they found the necromancer.

Three rolled his shoulders and stepped into the cavern. He had to admit that he was nervous, a necromancer that could summon over a thousand undead a day was bound to be powerfull. Who knew what it had summoned or created after all this time in the cave, there might be undead down here that he couldn't match. Once he started thinking about it his blood started pumping, his mouth curving into a small smile. Crimson let out a low growl as she pressed her snout against his arm. He patted her in reasurrence, as he made his way forward.

The cave itself was a near pitch black, the only visible light was the flickering flame of the torches Reg and Tillian carried. Harold had strung his bow and walked around with an arrow knocked, Shuffles and the rest brought up the rear. Stalagmites and stalagtites formed at various areas in the cave, the water dripping from them sent echoes throughout the cave. The drips were the only sound that broke the monotone silence of the cave. The deeper they went the more uncomfortable the silence became. Three was tense, his heatvision and enhanced senses working overtime searching for anything of import.

The hall, such as it was, became broader, making way to a cavern. They entered to be greeted by rows of skeletons. Each and every one of them was level twenty. Their bones dark, the shimmering of the flame casting ominous shadows. The undead stood motionless, the gaping holes in their skulls watching them with unseen eyes. Three motioned with his hand, Shuffles and Sir Kelly made their way forward with him, the rest of the undead stayed in the rear.

Reg walked over to his right, while Tillian grabbed his spear with a white knuckled grip and stepped towards his left. He nodded to the both of them as he slowly made his way forward, the undead stood silent. Three edged his way forward, step by meticilous step.

In a burst of movement the skeletons suddenly charged once they reached the halfway mark. Their bones clanking as they charged, Three stepped forward to meet them, he dragged his fist behind him, smashing his right fist into a skeletons face with a giant haymaker. The skeleton collapsed into a pile of bones. Before he could ready another punch the skeletons swarmed him. He heard Crimsons roar as she smashed her paw through the rows of undead.

Next to him an axe cleaved an undead, that was trying to claw his eyes out, in two. Tillian was using his spear in sweeps, its sharp point not very usefull against skeletons. A skeleton charged at him from his left, only to be intercepted from a charge from Shuffles, the ghoul rammed its claws into its eyeholes, then tore the skull in half. Sir Kelly Ton was in a boxing match with two other skeletons of the same level. The evolution showed its stuff as the skeleton made effort to dodge blows. He was holding his ground against his two foes. Harold was shooting blunted arrows at anything that threatened a party member.

The undead in the back stood silently, making sure nothing came from behind. Three broke a spine in half as a skeleton clawed at him. He put his hand behind the skull of another skeleton and smashed its face into the stone floor. Another skeleton clawed for his face, he leaned back, its sharpened fingerbones whisteling just above his eye. An arrow shattered its skull, another skeleton was thrown through the air by a powerfull paw swipe from Crimson, it crashed into another skeleton killing the both of them.

Then as abruptly as the battle had started it ended. They stood their surrounded by bones, the three villagers heaving, their breath making clouds in the cold cave. Crimson stood further to his right, her flanks rising and falling as it breathed deeply. Three and the undead bondlings stood still, no sign of exhaustion. He gave the others a few moments to catch their breath before he continued deeper into the caverns.

They checked the cavern only to find two different entrances that led deeper into the cave, with a shrug Three choose the one to his left. The rest followed, the hall was getting to narrow to walk abreast with Crimson, she started pacing behind him, her head peeking over his shoulder. They came across another expansion of the hallway into a larger cavern, this one was even larger than the last. This cavern was not filled with orderly lines of skeletons. Instead there were ghouls, ghouls and more ghouls. They were stacked, lying on top of each other, climbing on hills made from their own brethren, everything was wriggling, the stench of rotten flesh penetrated their nostrils.

Crismon growled and clawed at her snout, Three had to resist the urge to do the same, the sound they made echoed through-out the cavern. Suddenly the mounds of ghouls froze, they beedy luminiscent eyes pointed towards the hall. The whole cavern lighting up as their eyes glowed fiercly, with an earthshatering screech the ghouls charged towards the group, their claws tearing and scratching on the stone.

"BACK!" Three roared, backing up so he could block the narrow entrance. Crimson roared a challenge, her own mighty roar drowned out by the countless screeching ghouls.

With a powerfull crash the ranks of ghouls smashed into Three, they clawed and scratched at him. He closed his eyes, trusting on his other senses, he did not want to lose an eye to these ghouls. He was planning to count on his senses, but his sense of smell and the noise blotted out any individual sounds might have aided him. Instead he just smashed and kicked at everything he could. He felt claws scratching on his skin and used that to locate his oppononents.

He heard curses coming from the behind him, the ghouls were pouring past him and attacking those that were more vulnerable. He breathed in, gathered the energy in his chest and released a challenging cry. It was more of a roar than a cry, regardless it worked splendidly, he could feel the ghouls piling on top of him. His muscles ripled from the effort as he tried to throw them off, slowly but surely he succumbed to the sheer weight of bodies as they climbed on top of him.

He was pressed to the ground, he tried to get up, his face was smashed into the cold stone cavern. He felt the ghouls crawling and clawing all over him trying to get through his skin. Crimson roared and smashed her claw through the pile of ghouls, killing several. The rest of his bondlings were pressing forward under the command of Shuffles, who tore through a ghoul and pointed at Three,

The conscripts pressed forward, pushing back the ghouls as best as they could, Harold was shooting arrows as fast as he could nock them, killing a ghoul with each shot. Tillian was using swift short stabs to eliminate his targets. Reg was making large swings with his even larger axe, cutting through multiple ghouls with each swing.

The group of them tore through the mass of ghouls, their black blood covering their bodies, seeping into their clothes. They stood ankle-deep in the black goo, one of the conscripts went down under the combined force of multiple ghouls. Three took the oppertunity to swiftly bond one of the ghouls assualting him, turning the monster against its brethren. They fought against the onslaught for several minutes before the fight eventuall died down. Three took a deep breath, that had been uncomfortable.

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He checked the others, Reg had a gash over his fore arm and Tillian had a scratch above his ear, no one had been heavily injured. Harold applied some first-aid to the wounds and they made their way even deeper into the caves. Three was worried they would have to fight against more waves of undead, this one had been a close call. Perhaps not for him or Crimson but the villagers had been wounded, a stronger force might be able to kill them.

The next cavern however, was well lit covered in shelves, scrolls and books. Bones littered the area, marking covered the walls, none of them making any sense to Three. In the middle of the cavern bent over a dark heavy mahogany table stood a young woman, her hair was clitted and bunched together, hiding much of its original frizzles. Her robe, if it could be called a robe, was torn dirty and messed up. She was so focused on the parchment that she had not even noticed them entering. Three softly made his way forward, their attempt at sneaking failed however when one of the conscripts stepped on a bone and it made an audible snap. The young woman twisted facing them.

Her musty green eyes had prominent dark circles lining them, her jaw was open as she stared at the group of them in fright. She stepped back and stumbled over the bones she smacked into the table, her head started bleeding but she got back up to her feet, holding her shaking arms between her and them.

"Y-you are them, here to take me, I tried to hide! Tried to get away, moved far, far, very far north! But you still find me!? Go! LEAVE!" The girl shrieked, tossing parchment, an inkpot and whatever else was in reach at Three, Three didn't even try to dodge, the items bouncing off him. He stepped forward with large determined steps. The girl tried to scramble away from him, her messy blond hair covering her face.

Three ignored her attempts and gently, but firmly picked her up and held her.

"WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITH ME?!" She screeched. "I WILL NO LONGER BE SUBJECT TO YOUR FILTHY EXPERIMENTS!"

Her words shook Three, who dropped her and stared at her.

"Hags?" He asked, his face inches from hers

She tried to back away as she stared into his eyes, "W-what?"

"Hags? Put you in cage? Poke you with magic, force things into you body?" He asked insistantly.

Her eyes widened a bit, "Y-yes. A-are you one of them?!" Suddenly she started trembling and tried to crawl away.

Three shook his head, he pulled the Status plate off his chain and held it out for her. She stared at the plate then stared back at him, he nodded towards her and pushed the plate in her hands. She carefully took it off his hands before scurrying back under the table. She looked at the status plate reading what it said, as her eyes widened she crawled back forward slightly.

"They cage you too?" She softly asked.

Three nodded.

"You are not here t-to take me back?" She whispered.

"To those hags?" He hissed, "If I ever see them again I will destroy them and anything linked to them untill nothing is left."

"So you are not here to k-kill me?" She asked tilting her head.

"Actually we are... were here to kill you." Three told her honestly.

She scurryed further under the table. "W-why!" She squeeked.

"Your undead have been laying siege to the village of these men." He said pointing to the men behind him, they had stayed back, staring curiously but letting Three handle the situation.

"Impossible." She said, her eyes suddenly gaining focus. "I ordered them not to travel more than a day away from the caves, to fight whatever they could and then return."

"Their village is only a few hours travel from here." Three stated.

The girl faltered as she looked at the men behind her and then back at Three. "Really?" She whispered.

"Really."

She stood up from under the table and peeked past Three at the men behind him.

"S-Sorry!" She softly yelled.

The men blinked, Tillian was actually blushing scratching the back of his head. Harold coughed scratching his beard. "It's not that bad miss, no one was seriously injured."

She smiled softly, as she peeked past Three at the elderly man.

"I didn't kill or hurt anyone?"

Reg and Tillian tried to not so subtly hide their injuries, the girl was so focused on Harold however that she did not notice.

"Not a one."

The girl sagged in relief, before murmering nearly inaudible to herself. "I almost became like them, I almost hurt people." She stiffled a sob as she wiped her eyes.

"How did you even create that many undead?" Three asked.

The girl piped up at the mention of undead. "This cave leads to ancient tombs, and there is a large battlefield with many mass graves!" Then she pulled Three over to a table. "Skeletons I made myself! I put a lot of Warmors into a pit, I keep them in a pit and they breed!" She showed him diagrams of skeletons, and drawings and sketchings how to replace bones and create different types.

"I started tinkering with their bones, and was able to create skeletons from them! Warmors are great, they fatten up from the world energy, they live off the stuff. Then they breed and more and more of them appear, and I don't need to feed them or anything! Then I just send some undead to gather the bones and I can create more!"

She started excitedly explaining her undead and their many applications to Three, the young man followed her akwardly as he glanced to the other men for help. They stood there looking as lost as he did.

This was definetly not how he had expected the day to go.

Three watched as the girl talked animatedly to Harold, she was dragging the old man around and proudly showing him her experiments. The elderly man seemed to take it all in stride and smiled a grand-fatherly smile and complimented her about all the right things. The girl was positively beaming, she was so excited to show her experiments to people who actually meant her no harm that there was no stopping her. Reg and Tillian watched the two work, they walked over towards Three.

"Well this day did not go as I expected." Reg said, scratching his thick beard.

Tillian nodded. "I think she reminds Harold of his granddaughter, she was killed a few years ago, she had the same kind of energy. I think it would be good for the both of them if we gave them some time. This is gonna be a hell of a thing to explain back home."

"That it will be, who woulda thought that the attacks were on accident." Reg glanced at Three. "We heard your conversation and I don't mean to pry into your business, but the way she spoke of experiments done on her, you seemed to know what she was talking about."

Three glanced at the large woodcutter. "If i'm correct, a group of magicians forced a core into her, these cores change who we are, they make us... different. No longer the race we once belonged to, her changes are minor, I see no physical changes. I think that her mind was affected, it might have been damaged."

Reg huffed running his hand over his axe. "Do you know who these mages were and why they did what they did?" Three shook his head in answer.

"We know nothing about them, not their reason, their backing, or anything else. The only thing I do know is that one of them is my mother." Three told him, brows furrowed.

Tillian blinked, "Your mother was the one who did that to you?"

"If what we heard is true, then yes."

"That's rough, I have to admit I am surprised that you are able to tell this story to us so easily," Reg said, putting a hand on Three's shoulder.

Three cocked his head, looking over his shoulder at the woodcutter. "What do you mean?"

Reg blinked, then moved to scratch his beard. "Well most people don't like sharing things this personal, especially to people they don't know that well, you can't even be sure that we are not allied with these hags."

Three froze, mind racing as he thought of past events, now that he gave it some thought he felt that it was unnatural to share the story as easily as he had. They had trusted people without hesitation, something that should be difficult for people who had been through a situation similar to theirs. He thought about what happened to them and felt a strange lack of secrecy over what should be one of his largest secrets. He frowned, tried to think of it as a secret, but for some reason it was difficult for him to do, even trying to do it made him light-headed.

Reg saw him acting strange and shook him gently, "You doing alright friend?"

"It is... odd." Three said rolling his shoulders, "I cannot think of what happened to me as a secret."

"That's not that strange, perhaps you are a person who shares easily," Reg reassured him.

"You misunderstand, I CAN'T think of it as a secret, I want to, but when I try, I get light headed and feel like it's perfectly natural to share." Three grunted, brows furrowed.

Reg frowned, "I have heard of mind magic, but I've never seen it used on anyone before, nor do I know anyone capable of using it. Vyria might actually be able to detect if you have magic inside your head, despite her focus on monster studies her magical knowledge is top notch."

Three nodded, "I will ask her to check, perhaps she knows something, worrying about it now will do me no good. I would ask you to keep what I told you to yourselves, however." He looked from Reg to Tillian, both of whom nodded their agreement.

"Harold!" Three shouted, the elderly man turned around, raising an eyebrow.

"Perhaps we should take the lady back to the village, so she can see where it is, we could take things from there as we decide what to do."

Harold nodded, scratching his beard as he thought. The girl looked between the two of them bouncing on her toes. "What about my undead and research?" She asked.

"They should be safe here, there are plenty of undead left in the caves that will discourage anyone from entering, You could always come back to your research after you've met the village, it is better to be on good terms with your neighbors after all." Three told her.

The girl nodded, she scrambled to pack some more things before they headed back to the village as a group. The girl happily bounced around the groups members, getting excited when she noticed shuffles and his rare mutation. She also took a liking to Crimson, running her hand through the Jurgors fur and sighing happily. She threw a barrage of questions at them during the trip, Tillian was tripping over his words as he tried to answer the girl. He shuffled his feet and blushed everytime she walked up close to him, nearly hanging on his arm as she asked her questions.

The trip back to the village was lively, all of them had taken a liking to the energetic girl, Three was surprised she had all this energy, she certainly didn't look like she had eaten properly over the last few days. Then again she could have the mana sustanence perk like him, although that would probably slow down her research, now that he looked at her she did seem like the type of person who would completely forget to eat to favor her research. He sighed, he felt protective of the girl, he wondered if there were others like her out there. The more he thought of it the more he thought that the experiment on her had most likely failed. If there was one there were bound to be others.

He threw the negative thoughts out of his head and walked over to Harold, the girl was enthusiastically talking with Reg and Tillian. He adjusted his pace to the elderly man's he walked next to him in silence for a few moments before asking, "What are we going to do with her?"

Harold scratched his chin as he watched the girl bounce up and down, "I feel for the girl, she is... odd, she reminds me of mah daughter, we are lucky that the attacks have done no harm, nor damaged anything. The only effect it had was strengthening the village defences, which is actually a positive so we have nothing to condemn her for, nor do we care that she is a necromancer, we are not men and women of faith, any power that lets an individual survive the wilderness that does not harm the living is a skill set that is accepted by us."

"So the village does not plan to do her harm? I was expecting some people to ask for penance at least." Three added.

"The village doesn't have much in the way of rules, we moved away from kingdoms and their religions for a reason." Harold said. "As long as they have done no harm, nor taken any property, they have committed no crime in the eyes of the village, it was good training after all." He said with a smile.

Three nodded, relieved that he did not have to worry about her getting in a trial and being mistreated.

"How about you, were will you go now that the issue has been handled." Harold asked.

"I think I will head back, there are some things Vyria and I have to discuss, my party will also need me, they have probably not been into dungeons during my absence." Three told him.

The girl had heard him and joined the two of them, she looked up at him pouting, "You're leaving?"

Three nodded, "I am."

Her lip trembled, "I can't come with you?"

He shook his head, "The villagers will settle things, they will treat you well you do not need to worry."

She looked at the other men looking at her and huddled a little closer in on herself. "They are nice, but they don't know." She said softly, stressing the word know.

"Me and mine will be fighting and searching for the hags, we will be actively chased by them and we will have little to no time for research, then you have the issue of some religions that will target you for being a necromancer. It is safer for you here, trust in me. Trust in these men, Harold will take care of you." The last part he said as a statement as he locked eyes with Harold. The elderly man nodded reassuringly.

"Doncha be worrying dear." He said, "I will make you hot soup and you can tell me all about your experiments, I bet me old lady will have some advice for ya, she been a monster tamer herself for a good long time."

The necromancer looked back and forth between Three and Harold, before grudgingly accepting their point. Three nodded, "Well now that we have that settled I guess I might as well leave, it is just as far from here as it is from the village."

Harold blinked in surprise, "You should at least let us pay you for yer trouble, stay for dinner, we will probly be havin a feast."

Three shook his head, "I cannot afford to waste time, there are questions that I desperately need answers to. Say hi to Vila and the chieftain for me."

He moved to Crimson, the rest walking up to him. "Ya sure you know the way back?" Harold ask scratching his chin. "Ya won't have the crystal to guide ya this time, it won't be a trouble for one of us to guide ya."

Three scratched his chin, "Crimson, you know the way back?"

The Jurgor snorted, he could tell she almost felt insulted by the question.

He smiled, "I think we will be fine, I have to hurry back. Me and Crimson will run." He looked back at the rest of his bondlings and conscripts. "You guys travel in a group, you will catch up perhaps a day after us, you guys might be undead but you will still be slightly slower Shuffles may be able to keep up but I need you to get them there alive. Travel safe!" The ghoul nodded and the rest of the undead circled him.

He took off waving his goodbyes to the party, The necromancer stood there clutching the hand Harold held out to her, put off by his sudden goodbye, she watched him go, doubt apparent in her stance. He rolled his shoulders, he would have faith in the villagers, the way they had shown their faith in him. It was time for him to go back, There were many things he needed to discuss with the others and questions that needed answers.