I'll go to meet Zeke last. I still want to visit the boot camp first and then see what Merlin has been up to. It is far more active than it was when I was a member. I see at least 2-3 times as many people now then when I was a member. It must be people trying to polish their skills before the pirates are supposed to invade. I head inside to talk to the leader… I don't remember his name, we only had a few conversations and he wasn't very remarkable, so I didn't bother remembering him. The assistant is behind the desk like normal. He looks up at me and asks.

“Are you here to apply for membership? There is a test to join.”

...I just got an amazing idea.

“Yea I'm here to apply. As long as I can fight the leader to see if it is worth my time.”

I'm given a set of school armor and I am taken outside. I few men rush around, some continue to train, some stop to watch. Once the assistant starts yelling for the head everyone stops what they are doing. Everyone begins to watch the idiot who just challenged the leader. He comes stepping forwards, he isn't as big as I remember...

“So someone wants to fight the strongest person here? Why? Do they have a death wish or something? GAGAGAGA!”

We stand away from each other, staring each other down. I was given a training sword but have thrown it away and have my hands out in front of me. The leader speaks again.

“Boy, I don't think you realize how strong I am. You'll need 10 swords to fight evenly against me, but you've thrown away the only one you've been given...”

“I don't need a weapon to beat you. I don't need any fancy skills either. I'm just going to beat you bare handed.”

He looks intently at me. Almost trying to discern my intentions. I am an unreadable wall right now. He takes in a deep breath then says.

“Okay, it's your funeral though.”

I take up my unnamed style stance. It is the easiest to switch stances from. Hands down at my sides, almost as if I am surrendering the fight. The leader steps forwards… It looked like he was going to rush in but stopped for a second after taking two steps towards me. I continue to stand still without doing anything. He speaks one more time.

“Boy! This is the last chance you have at fighting me fairly before I come at you now.”

“Then come!”

He rushes at me. The fight is over instantly, the leader takes a swing at me and after dodging out of the way I trip him and pull his hand behind his back as I sit down on him… Instantly winning in less then 1 second… Everyone had watched the fight because I made a big deal about fighting the leader… Looks of shock and surprise cover everyone's face.

Not for a second did they think I stood a chance, let alone I would win the fight so overwhelmingly. He struggles to get up, his pride not letting him realize how unevenly matched we are… He attitude reminds me of Burke and I have to hold myself back from breaking his arm on the spot. I let him up and take a defensive position waiting for him to attack me but he just gets up and speaks.

“Fine, this is clearly my loss… I know it is not normal to ask for an opponents name after you've been beaten but… Can I please ask your name?”

“It is… You can just call me Jack.”

“Alright Jack, you've more than qualified to become a member of our boot camp, if you join now I'll even make you a teacher of that voodoo magic you just pulled off on me.”

I start walking away. I wave backwards as I say.

“Maybe some other time. I have a few more people to speak with today.”

I exit the boot camp with some of the students following after me. After running through the old slums almost as fast as I could, I had lost them all. I stop running once I get close to Merlin's old shop… What a difference in size again. The front of his shop was very well decorated, only a master of construction would be able to make designs so elaborate. It must have cost quite a hefty amount.

I walk inside and look around. Every rare is on display, neatly placed on a piece of cloth inside a display case. Several of the cheaper rares are now lined up side by side with a thin wooden barrier separating them. I see dozens of void bags, rings and other easier to make rares all neatly displayed on racks.

I head to the front desk where there is a student sitting and ask to speak with Merlin. He disappears into the back room and out comes Merlin. He looks… Far different then before. The lived in a heavily enchanted robe with food stains has been replaced with a finely made robe with no enchants. His matted messy beard now finely oiled and combed. Everything about him screams wealth now. His robe looks to be made for style over comfort and practicality. He looks at me for a second, harder than he normally should then yells out.

“KITE!?”

I let out a little laugh, surprised he recognized me. He continues to yell.

“What happened!? Did you fall into an un-ugly tree or something?”

“Haha. No, I just had a growth spurt.”

I hear him mumble under his breath as he circles around me, inspecting and making sure it isn't an illusion.

"Growth spurts don't make you look this attractive..."

I'm now looking down at him from my height. He had previously been a few inches taller than me. Now I am almost a foot taller than him. I go to put my hand on his head to pat the noticeable bald spot but stop myself. I ask him how he has been, we talk for a few minutes before finally getting to why I had visited him.

“So… I need to ask you if you have any knowledge on these.”

I pull out a few mana crystals I had on me. He grabs one from my hand it looks it over. Eyeing it closely he appears to be shaking slightly at the sight of it.

“I've only ever heard of these in stories from over 50 years ago. These are mana crystals, pirates use these to help them combat stronger monsters in the ocean. From what I heard the methods for making them have been lost in time… If you leave a few here I might be able to reverse engineer them.”

“You can have all of these. I have a few boxes of them from my war with the pirates.”

The look of shock deepens as he hears how many I have. I hadn't realized how rare they were… I wish I had more knowledge on how to make them… I should be able to make them with mana to matter but something so mana heavy would be much harder to make than a different item.

I've tried a few things but it seems materials not tied to money/value are the best things to make. Ingredients are far easier to make than the finished product. The herbs to make a healing potion are far easier than making the healing potion itself. It still takes far too much time, effort and mana to make ingredients that way. Perhaps it will be more useful for recreated rare materials later once I find them to be scarce.

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“So, besides the craziness of you having several crates full of an item I have only heard of… How is the war going?”

“We're not doing as well as I would like. The leader of the pirates is a human born lich and her right hand man is a blood knight.”

“That… That would make things far more difficult for certain. Both help each other out. As the lich would gain the boost if it is on desecrated ground. For a human to choose to be a lich… That takes a singular mindset... I had dabbled with necromancy in my younger years and I know that to become a lich, you need to have a single minded focus towards a goal for it to work… You also slowly lose your humanity as the time continues on… To take that risk… The person must be mad in the head.”

Merlin has surprised me by his knowledge. I ask more questions.

“What else do you know about both the blood knight and the lich? I've checked several books but my research has been very limited.”

“First, you should attempt to get a paladin to consecrate the ground. If that is impossible attempt to lead them from their location. If that is impossible… I would suggest enchanting several bottles of water with healing magic and weaken undead. Lich's have a negative effect towards normal healing. The blood knight needs blood to function, try to cut off the source or limit the amount he can use… The lich can control the bodies of the dead, attempt to keep bodies away…”

“I had known most of this… Is there anything else you can tell me?”

“The lich… Becoming immortal is no small feat… Doing so limits any further progression in every class or knowledge besides what they had before becoming a lich. Only necromancy can be improved. You have to have lost a part of your humanity to be able to change into a lich… You're enemy will hold no punches in your fight. They are willing to do anything to win.”

“Thank you for the warning… I wish I had known before I went undercover as a spy… I… Don't know how to say this but… She was willing to feed her men… Human flesh.”

His expression of trying to remember the past has changed to remembering something awful.

“… You're enemy needs to be killed quickly! The longer your fight drags on the more desperate it will become… She is making ghouls… They are beyond the normal power of a human. Undying servants who are willing sacrifice themselves at the whim of their master… No fear… No pain… No mercy towards their enemies… You're army.. No army is prepared to fight against an opponent like that...”

“Thank you for your help.”

Thinking everything Merlin has said… I had known the situation was bad but… For it to be this grim… I need to relay the mission to my generals… I head to the main guard building I've been to before. Walking inside I see a familiar face. In more detail than normal. Blonde hair covers most of his head, white streaks throughout. A grizzled beard of patchy blonde and white hair peak out of his helmet. He sees me and immediately starts to look frustrated… He rifles through papers as he gets out a question.

“What do you need?”

“I… Can you by chance consecrate the ground for me?”

He is riffling through papers as I ask. I continue to speak.

“The leader of the pirates is a lich.”

His hands stop at the word lich… He puts the papers down and for the first time since I've seen him I see a smile come across his face.

“A lich you say? I missed killing the last one. It was attacking a village close by but when I reached the city, a group had already dealt with it. If you give me the chance to fight against an undead beast I can finally shine!”

The look of excitement his face hasn't seen for years looks creepy. I have to explain the situation fully. He looks on shocked when I tell him who I am but he still looks happy that he will get to fight a lich. When he hears the 4000 pirates his face of joy slowly shifts back to neutral… Then to a frown… He slams his hand against the table.

“DAMN IT! I thought I was going to get to utilize this useless class! FUCKING DAMN IT! This useless class that has given me nothing but trouble. The few unholy enemies I fought against were easy enough to destroy but they are so rare!”

He looks defeated again… I start to feel bad for him. I decide to make him a deal.

“If you help me by consecrating the ground… I can teach you another class as compensation.”

“I don't have time for jokes. If you want some of your land consecrated, I'll charge you 10 silver per hour of my work. That may seem like a hefty amount but paladins are rare and I am busy.”

I can tell he is just trying to get extra money out of me. I agree anyways… He isn't lying about paladins being rare. He gets off work an hour after I asked. I left and told my few generals who are planning to head to Merideth today that I'm busy and to go without me. Making it back just as he gets out. As we head to my fortress I ask him which class he would like to learn.

“This shit again… I guess… If I had to pick… It would be something to help fight evenly against other people… Warrior would be fine… I have shitty warden and paladin… I can't fight evenly or even tank… My shields wear off normally before they are useful and I can't do anything except fight well against the undead.”

“Good to know... Have you ever thought of learning enchanting? You could sell your enchants at a high price because of how rare enchanting is.”

"I actually tried to learn enchanting before but... It is a very time consuming and money consuming process... I'm far too busy to learn it."

We head back to the fortress as I think of how shocked he is going to be in a few hours.