An old man walked through a deserted alley in the middle of the night in a gloomy city. He bore a cloak of exquisite design, and a set of heraldry was jotted against it. One would even think that this man was a high-ranking noble who wouldn’t bother with the likes of the lower world, yet he stopped in front of a beggar and conversed with him.

From a distance, it looked like casual chatter, but from someone with prying eyes, they could see that the beggar gave the old man a letter.

“Temp-Boss, we have confirmed the target,” someone whispered to me.

I nodded then stood up, followed by my subordinates. We were tracking him from afar on the roofs of the tall building sprawled across the city.

I slashed the air gently with two fingers, giving an order to my men. They left without further ado, leaving me behind to observe the old man for a bit longer. I caressed my black mask and traced its outlines out of habit.

‘It is time,’ I quietly concluded to myself.

I quietly stalked the old man as he navigated through the city and into the richer part of the place. It wasn’t until he was near a large manor when I broke off, and went straight into the manor.

I entered the manor through an open window and was immediately greeted by my subordinates.

“Temp-Boss, we are in position. He will not see it coming,” one of my men reported.

“To the front door, now,” I ordered.

We went down to the entrance and waited for him. Normally servants of nobles would be the one to greet their rich masters upon returning home, but the old man lived in quiet solitude within this manor, so we didn’t need to worry about collateral damage.

Click.

The door opened as the sound of creaking wood ruined the eerie silence, and the old man entered the manor. Just as he clapped to open the lights with magic, my minions and I jumped out as planned.

“SURPRISE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” we all screamed simultaneously.

“What?! Urk! My heart!” The old man clutched his chest, attempted to grab the wall in vain, then fell limp onto the floor.

“Oh crap!” I screamed as I rushed forward to check on the old man’s condition.

As I placed my hand on the man’s neck to check for a pulse, my subordinates surrounded me.

“Temp-Boss?” someone called out.

I sighed, then gently took off my party hat.

“He’s dead.”

The announcement sent a shock to all my minions, and the whole place quieted down for a moment.

“Good job, everyone. I guess…” I scratched my head as I stood up.

“As expected of Temp-Boss!” A close companion of Boss and mine, a buffoon named Daggerless, exclaimed as he began eating cake.

“Spymaster Beor will be happy with this result,” one of the armored subordinates said. “Did you… planned all this?”

What? No way! I didn’t expect him to die like this!

Some time ago, Boss ordered us to investigate and, if possible, assault a group of undead-hunters called ‘The Order of Returned Knights’. By now, our war in the Sorcerer City States with this order had reached a point where both sides had already suffered casualties.

With the use of our mortal minions from various criminal groups, we were able to capture several of their fortresses close to the Sorcerer City States, but the Order had been fighting back, sending their own men to assault our bases.

According to our sources, this particular old man was actually an undercover high ranking lieutenant of the Order and had an outstanding anti-undead capabilities. We had already sent several low-ranking minions after him, but he had taken them down without trouble, causing his guard to go up.

We didn’t want to risk sending off Boss’ closest companions to take him down, so we decided to befriend him instead of fighting him straight-on.

As Boss said, ‘if you can’t fight them, bribe and coax them into your side!’

Unfortunately, I wasn’t exactly sure how to befriend him, so I decided to stalk him and find out more about his personal information. As it turned out, today was his birthday so I wanted to surprise his lonely days with the gift of friendship.

“This… is all according to my calculations,” I replied as I searched his pockets. Taking out the letter he had received earlier, it seemed to be highly classified information. How did I know? Well, it was because this looked like nonsense to me.

“This is obviously encrypted so give this to Beor for decryption,” I ordered as I handed it to Daggerless.

“I’m still eating cake,” he protested.

“You can go to him while eating cake,” I retorted.

“That sounds tiring.” He sighed.

“I’ll write a bad report about you to Boss,” I threatened. We still make contact with Boss since we already know where he was, so I could still pass threats like this to encourage this idiot.

“Yes, Temp-Boss! On it!” He threw the cake to the side, then bolted out of the manor with the letter in hand.

“It seems you’re working well,” a familiar voice joined in as Daggerless left.

I turned then bowed deeply to the owner of the voice, Satel. She was short, had the skin of bark, and a dress made out of leaves. Though anyone might think she was a wood nymph, Satel was actually a fairy living in bodies she made or hijacked.

Although she would return to Boss’ side from time to time, Boss still had given her the task of leading the hunt against the order knight. After all, the city-states are relatively close to each other, so travelling back and forth wasn’t much trouble.

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“Boss Satel,” I greeted.

“So you’re the leader of this band of troublemakers, huh? Lich…” Satel waved her hands in a circular motion as if indicating something.

“Thyros. I’m usually third-in-command in every operation.”

“Ah. Third-in-command, huh…” Satel nodded.

“Indeed. There’s Boss at the top, and of course, you. Then the brass such as Lady Maven and Spymaster Beor. After that, it’s me,” I explained further.

“I get the gist of it,” Satel replied as she approached the corpse of the old man.

“This is one of the lieutenants of the Order, Boss Satel,” I pointed out. “He had some information, but it was encrypted so we’ll have to wait for Beor to crack open the egg.”

Satel placed her hand against the man’s head, then pondered deeply.

“We won’t be able to resurrect him to get some information since the Order augmented themselves with the vile corrupted magic,” I told her.

“It’s true that you, the undead, won’t be able to do much…”

I bowed my head deeply. “My apologies if this is the best we could do.”

“But there’s a reason why Boss told me to lead you guys.” Satel bent backwards as her chest began ripping apart. From her wooden body, a tiny person with transparent insect-like wings flew onto the corpse of the old man.

Satel, in her true form, jabbed her hand straight into the center of the corpse’s chest then began digging through the flesh until she could squeeze through like a flesh-eating parasite.

It didn’t take long for the man’s body to start twitching and glowing. I stood there patiently as Satel began the process of taking over the old man’s body. The gaping hole on the man’s chest slowly closed by itself, then the man’s eyes opened.

“This might be disappointing to me, but we’ll be heading straight to the heart of the Order in the Sorcerer City States to finish this as soon as possible,” the old man said as he sat up straight.

“And where would that be?” I asked.

Satel, now the owner of the old man’s body, cracked his neck sideways to get used to the new body. According to her, it had been a long while since she possessed a new body since most of the time Boss would confine her into the wooden bodies she would make.

“There’s a forest near Cahalot which houses a so-called ‘abandoned dungeon’,” Satel answered.

“Hmm? Didn’t Boss said he wants to go to a forest near Cahalot to try and takeover the dungeon? Could it be the same forest?”

“Why would he want that?”

“A long time ago, Boss accidentally made a spirit homeless so he sort of owes the spirit a new dungeon,” I answered.

“But that dungeon is taken over by the Order as their headquarters in this region…”

Satel kneaded her brows then massaged her forehead with a finger. “We need to move quick.”

.

.

.

“Alright, kids. Gather around. I’ll tell you what we’ll be doing today,” I announced as the students began crowding around me. We were just outside of the city walls of Cahalot next to a large flat platform. Transportation in the Sorcerer City States was, of course, advanced and magic.

Large platforms would float from city to city, but they could also be used to move to other places by driving the platform with magic.

“Today, we’ll be joined by one of Yomi’s associates, Mauri, to help me supervise you all. We’ll be going to Fairhallow Woods to experience practical training since just learning the theories would make you woefully underprepared once you’re up against those bicep-totting muscleheads. Mauri would act as Yomi’s eyes so she’ll report everything directly back to her,” I explained.

“Master Yomi’s associate?”

“So we’re being evaluated.”

“This is a good thing.”

Voices were whispered among the students and I could feel the excitement soaring throughout the class… with the exception of a particular group of students.

“I will be blunt. I’ll be dividing you all based on your skills and abilities, but the tasks I will give will be based on the group. We won’t solely focus on combat abilities since teaching children how to make giant fireballs is a pretty unethical thing to do. After all, the academia games have categories like construction,” I elucidated.

“So you’ll pick the groups for us? How would that work?” the bubbly girl asked as she raised her hand.

“I already evaluated your abilities yesterday. So, before any of you ask anymore annoying questions, I’ll begin announcing the group details. The first group will consist of the bubbly girl, Kendra, Boye, that girl with the thick glasses...”

As the first group was formed, Iova raised her hand. “W-Wait! Did you forget my name?”

I looked over my list then said, “No way. You’re better at magi-medicine, aren’t you? You’ll be placed in the second group.”

Iova went up to me, then we both turned out backs towards the class.

“Oi, oi, old man. What’s the big deal? I already paid you this week’s bribe!” Iova protested.

“Sorry, kid. Just doing business. You’ll have to pay extra for this one.” I shrugged as a shadow fell over my head like the evil scum I am.

“Tsk. You drive a hard bargain, you damned fashion disaster.” Iova quietly slipped a few sheets of silver onto my hand, concluding our deal.

“Oh no! I made a mistake! Iova was right! She pointed out in my list that I had accidentally read over her name! Iova’s with the first group,” I announced.

Kendra looked like she had a massive burden lifted from her shoulders until someone placed two boulders over her head. “B-But… why?”

I rubbed my index finger and my thumb together then nodded apathetically at Kendra.

“Damned rich girls…” she quietly cursed.

I quickly went over the rest of the group until I reached the last group. “For one reason or another, this last group would be placed way deeper into the forest to… fetch me some herbs. Yes. This is the herbs-picking group.”

Lard, who was standing next to me the entire time, placed his hand against his chin then noted, “Fu fu, if I, Vakasa of the Darkness, am right, the most dangerous monsters are deeper within the forest.”

I crouched down to Lard’s eye level then told him with a monotone voice, “You’ll be their supervisor so you’ll have to lead them into the forest.”

“Huh? Am I, Vakasa of the Darkness, hearing that right?”

Lard spent a few minutes trying to convince me to not make him the last group’s supervisor but I threatened to cut off his measly weekly allowance of food if he persisted.

“Everyone, quiet down and get on the platform. We’ll be heading to the forest now.” I clapped my hand and got on the platform we were using for today.

As soon as the students were all accounted for, the platform lifted from the ground and began levitating towards the distant horizon.

“Whoa! At least give me a warning! This might be fantasy, but couldn’t you guys bother to build railings?!” Lard complained.

“You can always sit down.” I shrugged.

I sat in front of the platform, driving it by placing my hand on the floor and manipulating its mana control.

Mauri was, in particular, popular among the students since she has connections to Yomi, but she finally excused herself then sat next to me.

“So, Lord Archlich…”

“Boss.”

“So, Boss… are you sure there’s a dungeon in Fairhallow Woods?”

I looked at her with a confused expression. “What do you mean?”

“You see, I’m a spirit, so I vaguely know where most abandoned dungeons are located at.”

“Do all spirits need a dungeon to manifest into this world?” I asked.

“I’m not sure, but for someone like me, I do need a dungeon to stay in this world,” Mauri answered.

“Where’s your dungeon?”

“Under the classroom we use to teach necromancy.”

How subtle.

I placed my hand against my head, then recalled, “My companions already scouted the forest and they did confirm there was an abandoned dungeon. They think it’s defunct since they can’t detect any magic coming from it.”

“That’s…” Mauri kneaded her head then kept silent.

“Well, anyway, I wasn’t sure so that’s why I wanted you to come with me so you could help me set the dungeon up. I’m an expert in raising the dead, not building magical basements.”