The elf found herself in a dark place. Unlike before, she didn't find herself on an island sitting down under the shade of a tree. Fighting through the sensation of drowning, she sensed the layers that surrounded her slowly peeling away.
"Where am I?" The elf asked herself as a colourful mess of shapes began to blend with the darkness slowly revealing the familiar contours of the junction her body stood in front.
She felt odd as she stared at the murky sight as if she were watching an echo of her senses. The contours of the tunnels faded into shades of greys appearing like rough sketches of an artist. On the coal covered canvas colourful ripples emanated from where the water dripped down with another source of the bizarre circles appearing even larger each time a drop of water hit the floor.
"I can see why Kia always snaked her hand under my shirt now." The elf felt dizzy as her mortal mind found difficulty in watching the ever-pulsating sounds and smells but never experiencing them in their usual way.
If she were in a position to bet, she would wager that the shattered isles evocative of the shards of glass in Kia's possession and everything on the main isle she trained on were somehow all connected to the ice-cold mage. Iris knew that the girl was helping her in her training but she had no idea Kia had to calm down all of the terrible clamour of information causing her a headache.
"Should have probably seen this. No wonder why I never heard of people training inside their minds. Learning new spells felt far too easy with her... and she dares to call people cheaters." The risen humoured some ideas flashing across her mind before the choking sensation grew too much for her to bear.
Feeling herself thrown out of her own mind Iris suddenly was hit with her old keen senses numbed by her meditation punching her all at once. Taking deep breath as she leaned forward resting her arms against her knees, the tall risen took a moment to gather herself before reassuming her previous posture with a clear path ahead of her.
There were many spells she had seen during her eventful service with the Hero but few of them would have been ever recorded by the scribes hounding at any scrap of knowledge regarding their beloved protector. It was odd to think that out of everyone she, an elf knew everything there was to know about Brad and his companions. The mighty Utrecht Skulltaker feared heights, forcing Alicia to cast Calm Mind on more than one occasion.
She had seen both Dian and Alicia use their magic to find people and things requiring only a small piece of the thing they were trying to find to work. Both of them had never uttered the name of the spell they used, preferring silently casting it but Iris wasn't trying to copy the masters of their respective craft, needing the memory of them to help her visualise her desired outcome for the spell.
Slowly and gingerly a whisp of flame began to lick the scally parchment, engulfing Iris's right hand in the process. A silk-like strand of fire lazily reached out of her clasped fist before gaining speed as the tip of the fiery silk got further away, pointing away from its summoner..
"It worked." Iris opened her eyes to see a chain of fire wrapped around her hand, extended forward like a snake reaching across a gap.
{New attributes detected}
[Searing Guide] You have learned the spell Searing Guide. The spell caused a leash of fire to wrap around the catalyst guiding the caster toward the marked person or object, disabling the hand holding the catalyst for the duration of the spell.
"It worked!" Like a small girl, the towering undead smiled as she excitedly touched the snake-like rope, finding it somewhat warm to the touch. "Falsely advertised or is it my race?" After caressing the spell, finding it naturally clingy as it wrapped around her finger as soon as she touched it, the elf extended her hand toward the streaming water behind her. "You're not the petting type."
Feeling an exited urge manifest into her mind. Forcing her fingers open with unholy strength of her race, the blazing chain wrapped tightly around her hand began to glow like the sun as it was stretched, filling the undead's vision with blinding white light. "Better leave this sort of thing to Kia." The risen having satiated the curious urge instantly stopped her struggle with the spell seeing her mana rapidly drain.
The flaming snake made a U shape with its body as Iris turned around, its thin head pointing toward the junction before a wall of steam surrounded the novice mage as it did around steel being quenched. As the caster, she seemed to be immune to the spell's scorching effects or perhaps it was a combination of being the caster and being a risen reduced the searing guide into a harmless spell for her.
If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
"That's fine, I already have a monster who likes getting scratched. I think I leave you to my enemies." The elf spoke to the spell, more out of excitement and a whim to voicing her thoughts at getting a new useful spell than genuine belief in the spell's intelligence.
Moving to the side and looking at where the head of the spell pointed the copper adventurer took the right tunnel. With only one arm to wield her long weapon the elf preferred to use the butt of the shaft and her feet to dispose of the slimes and giant rats roaming in the sewers. The constant downpour of water leaking through the brickwork seemed to have made the region under the slums not as densely populated as the tunnels she had been clearing near the port causing the main annoyance of her travel to become the slushing of water in her boots.
*Grrr*
A growl emerged from a heap of garbage which had washed onto the walkway and she rested her weapon on the shoulder staring at the blockage ready for battle. The territorial warning being too low of a sound to be any common monster.
[Inspect]
[Ghoul Level 31]
A pinkish monster with a human face contorted and stretched to become more hound-like emerged from the trash pile, digging through it with its forearm-sized claws before flopping down like a piece of lard onto the brickwork.
Unlike the ghouls she had seen before this one had its torso bloated, the bare ribs sticking out from the layers of muscles like marble columns were so widely spaced apart and the monster so fat on the abundance of food that the ghoul needed to drag itself forward, its hind legs appearing like twin tails seemingly unable to handle the additional load. The silver eyes of the corpse eater hungrily stared at Iris as its two long muscular arms propelled it toward her.
"Firebrand." The glass-like head of the spear turned into a torch, illuminating the tunnel and causing the ghoul to shriek as it covered its keenly adjusted eyes from the light.
The elf swung her spear like a broadaxe, hitting the monster between the sail-like membrane strung tout between the ribs causing the yellowish fat to force her weapon out as it rushed out from its flimsy confinements. Compensating for the force which had pushed her backwards, the elf broke her stand for a split moment just as the ghoul swung its body around. She ducked as an oversized hand clawed at her head, cutting a sizeable amount of her hair at the back of her head as she went down.
"Mana Shockwave, Infernal Mirage, Mana Missile, Flame!" The ghoul fell on its side as a fury of spells hit its body before the undead hoplite speared its side, pulling herself onto the giant monster and raised her reinforced heel above the tip of the spear which had got stuck in the thick blubber.
A Shard of orange glass erupted around the risen as the ghoul began to vomit up acid from its engored bowls before suddenly stopping as the adventurer atop it kicked the spear cleaving through its organs. Smoke began to rise around the haft of the weapon as the flame still raged on inside the flinching monster.
"Hoped for a clean rematch." The risen carefully cleaned her face from the foul acid before hopping off the monster.
Kicking the head of the ghoul with all her unholy strength to ensure its death the risen rested her weapon before slicing the ghoul's ear using her sharp nail. Her deep frown momentarily softened as a delicate chime of a bell caused her to look at her sheet.
Status
Iris
Race: Risen {Undead}
Age: 5 months
Title: [Anchor of Undeath]
Classes: [Risen Level 32 ] [ Hoplite Level 22]
Talents: [Masterful Translator] [Pure Mana Manipulation(awaken)]
HP 2029/2100
Strength 450
Constitution 446
Dexterity 456
Wisdom 446
Intelligence 448
Charisma 445
MP 1850/2300
With a spell and a level-up, the elf couldn't have hoped for a more productive day causing her to almost forget the state that she was in.
"Need to learn a cleaning spell." She grumbled as she stared at the monster it's large jaw crookedly opened from the kick she gave to it, contemplating if she should cut its head of fearing the Guild not believing in the ghoul's size. Deciding not to foul herself more she quickly turned back to clean herself in the constant downpour of the tunnel behind before returning, her HP and MP regenerated fully.
Using mana shockwave to clear her path, Iris demolished the wall protecting the ghoul's nest finding a disturbing collection of bones, toys and driftwood belonging to the fed corpse eater. Seeing something glitter in the dim light of the searing guide the tall undead hoplite stopped to rummage through the stash.
"Silver locket, it opens," The elf found a silver locket on a white gold chain with a piece of painting inside. It must have been a beautiful piece of art once but the moisture had gotten to it before Iris. "One hell of a dragon's nest..." Iris froze, lifting her eyes from a sack of silver coins she found.
Covered in the mud and detritus making up the nest, an eye stared back at the looting undead. Gingerly pushing the face from the mud a youthful face gone white from bloodloss lost sight of Iris as the eyes blankly stared at the ceiling above. There was little left of the familiar-looking human, the ghoul had eaten his legs and back leaving a terrible mess as it picked off the tastiest organs.
The risen didn't feel anything as she examined the human finding more than one badge pinned on his dark blue tunic. To whoever his soul belonged to, it had long ago departed Niuran painlessly. Still, she felt a speck of pity and anger occupy her mortal mind as she recalled from where she had seen the boy.
"Liz should see these," She whispered as she unpinned the badges the boy had taken from the rest of his group. She was never one to pay attention in ceremonies, either being too young to understand or preoccupied with being a perfect servant to care but it felt right to close the human's eyes before leaving. "Kia would have done it better."
Storing the badges in one of her pouches, the elf moved forward guided by the flaming rope which unbendebly pointed forward.
"?" The elf noticed as her spell moved as she was passing what looked like an old loading area with rotting boxes littering the floor all the way to the end of the tunnel.
She dispelled the guide, freeing her arm at last as she carefully crept toward the nearest stack of boxes, carefully ensuring she had checked all ambush spots before moving forward.
"Wah!" A high squeak emerged from the very back corner of the tunnel before Iris had saw a barrel jump before beginning to roll.
Iris's hand punched through the rotted wood and felt scales on the tips of her fingers before she tightened her grip, digging her nails into the flesh of the monstrous lizard.
"Wait, undead don't kill me. My brain doesn't taste good!" A panicking voice begged Iris as she was kicked as her target flayed around trying to escape.
"You knew I'm an undead?"
"..." The green lizardman she was holding onto curled into a ball, one of his giant eyes watching her full of fear. "...Yes." He said before quickly covering his head with his tail showing fearful submission to the other monster.