The rest of the time they spent familiarizing themselves with the City, was spent in silence.

Astrid would occasionally glance over at certain places with longing, but she would restrain herself, usually with another glance to Alaster, who pretended he didn’t notice. What he had said was harsh, and if he was being honest with himself, he said more than he meant to. But he believed that it needed to be said.

He could not allow himself to be found by the people hunting him, not yet. That would be a lot easier if he was alone, but at the moment, his growth was improved with Astrid being there. At least, it would be once they actually began hunting.

As they returned to the shelter, Alaster was thinking of how he would get the Black Guard out of the City unseen. He had been so excited to create it, that he had not even considered that. Right now, Alaster had enough bone to make a full suit for the Guard, at least, he believed. But not enough to actually strengthen it. It would just be normal bone.

Alaster already had an idea for the design of the Black Guard’s armor. So when they finally returned to the Shelter, he immediately got to work. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Astrid being to do push-ups. It seemed she wanted to improve as well.

In just a few hours, Alaster made all the armor pieces and attached them to the Black Guard. Alaster took a step back and admired his work. If he didn’t know otherwise, he would never assume it was an Undead Skeleton under the armor.

The Armor itself was designed to appear fairly light. Not the usual bulkiness of heavy plate. The entirety of its left arm was thicker and wider, as he intended that to be the shield arm. But on both shoulders, the pauldrons flared out. They appeared as if they were just slightly curved square pieces that had been glued on. And it wasn’t far off. That was exactly what Alaster had done. The pauldrons would grant extra armor to the neck and head.

By no means was Alaster an Artisan, but he was quite happy with the final product. He had based all of it off story pictures that had been shown to the village children, with a twist of his own.

Unfortunately, they had not found anyone that would take the furs and hides they had taken from the Goblins. So while that meant they had no money, that did mean that Alaster was able to use the good parts in between the armor pieces. However, he was almost entirely out of bone. Only the helmet and the chest piece were strengthened, and as such, darker. The rest of the armor was slightly darker bone, but nothing else. And it was Goblin bone, certainly not the strongest.

Alaster’s plan was to leave the City, with the Black Guard, just before the closed the gates. When the sun was beginning to set. It would be darker, so Alaster hoped that when the City Guards saw the Black Guard, that they wouldn’t notice anything different about it if they saw it again and the armor pieces were darker.

As for the Night Child, he would have it climb over the City Wall during the night. It was a risky move, as the City Guard were more alert for that exact thing. But they would also be watching for it to happen the other way around, monsters entering the City from over the Wall, not leaving.

Luckily, due to Sicon being a frontier city, the walls wouldn’t be enchanted to prevent things from going over them. At least, he hoped it wouldn’t. He knew next to nothing about enchanting, but it sounded expensive, extremely so. He had heard that City Walls that had been enchanted were extremely tough and hard to damage. They also prevented projectiles, magic or mundane, from going over. And he also heard that they somehow prevented creatures from flying over them.

Of course, Alaster was relying on the fact that it sounded extremely expensive. He doubted that a Frontier City could afford it.

It also did not escape his notice that he could have four skeleton minions, but still only had two. That slightly irked him. It made him feel as if he wasn’t using everything to its fullest, and he wasn’t. But he was limited by the lack of material.

Alaster could have created four Night Children. He had the material. But the Night Children would not be able to defend him properly. They were daggers, meant for quick kills, not shields, meant to protect. Which, Alaster noted with a groan, the Black Guard still did not have.

As the sun began to set, He told Astrid where he was going, which she acknowledged with a grunt as she did another sit up. Alaster told the Black Guard to follow him, and he left the Shelter.

At this time of day, with light fading, most people had already returned to their homes. Unknown to Alaster, the Walls, in fact, were not enchanted. And while the City Guards did their best, occasionally, some monsters would sneak in. No one wanted to tempt fate, and were quick to remain indoors at night.

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By the time Alaster reached the City Gates with the Black Guard in tow, there was no one in sight except for the City Guards at the gate.

“Hold it lad.” One of the Guards said, holding out a hand to block Alaster. The Yellow sash across his chain mail vest designated him as an Officer and likely the only one at the gate. Alaster did not actually know what the color meant. He did however know that any Guard wearing one was of a higher rank than the other Guards.

“We’re closing the gate in a bit.” The Officer continued.

“We’ll be really quick. My friend here wants to hunt at night. I’m just here to see him off.” Alaster lied, pointing to the Black Guard.

The Officer turned his attention to the Black Guard, “Alright, what is your level? I can’t, in good conscious, lock you out for the night without knowing you are at least capable of surviving.”

“Sorry, sir, but he can't talk. That’s why I'm here. He took a serious cut to the throat a while back. The healer that was with his party managed to save his life, but not his voice. But he is level thirty-four.”

Alaster had expected the City Guards to ask, so he had planned ahead. Thirty-four would put him as a fairly strong Adept, but not anything to take note of. While the vast majority of people were Adepts, most were under level thirty.

The Officer scratched his neck with his gloved hand, “Alright. But you need to understand that the Gates will remain locked the entire night. You will be on your own. If there is a monster you can't fight, do not lead it back to the City. That is an executable offense. Understand?”

Alaster quickly ordered the Black Guard to nod. Which it did.

“Good. Go on then. Good hunting, and be safe.”

‘Go and hide yourself in the forest. Either bury yourself in the snow, or climb a tree.’ Alaster mentally ordered.

The Black Guard, clad in its armor, walked out of the gates. They closed the Gates right behind it, but the Black Guard continued to walk.

“By the way,” The Officer said to Alaster, “Where are his weapons?”

“Oh, he had a Ring of Holding. He did a contract for a Warp Mage a few years ago and was given the Ring as compensation. Apparently, the Ring was one of the Mage’s first one, so its pretty small.”

“Lucky bastard. Well, good night Lad.”

“You too!” Alaster quickly left, not wanting any more questions.

He had completely forgotten that when someone intents to go hunting, they usually bring weapons. The Sun had completely set by the time Alaster entered the Alley with his Shelter.

‘It's time, Night Child. Climb over the walls and get into the forest without being seen. Then hide yourself.’

He would have wanted the Night Child to go to the Black Guard, but he had a feeling that the order would have been too complex for the mindless Undead. He had yet to give it a Mind, and was not in any rush to do so. It had taken five hundred mana just to make the Black Guard simple-minded.

Alaster saw the Night Child jump out of the snow on the roof of a building, a lot of the snow dropping into the Alley, and immediately begin climbing the wall. He waited until the Night Child disappeared over the wall, when he didn’t hear any cries of alarm, he entered the Shelter.

Astrid looked up from the fire, “Oh good! Dinner?”

Alaster raised an eyebrow. Astrid sweaty from her workout and was rubbing clumps of snow over her arms. Instead of saying anything, he just pulled out some meat from his Ring. They would soon be out. Not just of food, but of firewood.

“Tomorrow, we will enter the forest and begin hunting, we need more food and firewood.” He told her.

“Ok,” Astrid rubbed the last of the snow over her face before she took the meat and hung it over the fire, “How did the drop-off go?”

“Fine, I guess. It is hiding in the forest by now. Tomorrow, we will see how well it performs.”

“By the way, you mentioned that you were able to give it a basic intelligence, but that it took a lot of mana. Are you able to add more mana to make it smarter?” She asked, warming her hands over the flames.

“No, I don’t think so. The amount I was able to give was limited by the bone itself, I think. And after I finished it, the ‘mind’ felt locked, somehow. Like I couldn’t change it, at least for now. Maybe as I grow stronger and learn more, I could? I don’t really know. I don’t really know a lot about my Class and because its a Unique Class, there is practically no info on it anyway.”

“Hmm. That sucks. My Class is just a Rare Class, but I have the same issue. I can’t find anything about it, at least, nothing informative. All I know, is that it is a Frontline Support.”

“Well, tomorrow, we will try to figure it out.”

The rest of the night was quiet, except for the occasional word. Alaster had never been much for talking, and it seemed Astrid was still a bit sour from their talk earlier. They ate when the meat was cooked, and then laid down to sleep.

It was a quiet night, at least in the City.