So a few things I think I should go over. First, it seems that I can use shadow meld with almost ease. Just think it at first but then it sort of became an instinct whenever I wished to be hidden. I learned this as I waited for the wolf to return. I had decided to try out and test my skills during that hour I waited for its return.

Secondly, I learned that a newly raised raven skeleton couldn’t fly. Guess my dream of flying murders all over the place to feed me the information was a bust. I simply stared at the small skeleton that stared right back up at me.

I was about to speak when the thing snapped its beak at me. I flinched a little and the thing began to shiver a little. I realized the thing was laughing at me. “You little shit.” I said leaning down and had my hands on my hips.

Those beady blue little eyes stared up into mine. For a few long moments, we held one another’s eyes before both of us began to laugh a little. The little guy moved up and with a little help from me, perched itself on my left shoulder.

For the next one I decided to try something different. I remembered being able to use two skills at the same time, namely power strike and shadow strike. With that as a base I decided to experiment a little. Using shadow meld I concentrated the skill within my right hand as I stretched it out towards the second raven corpse. This time a tendril of liquid shadow slithered from my hand and into the corpse.

For a few very long moments nothing happened, then the corpse began to twitch and then jerk from side to side. It was like someone had fired a stun gun at the creature. Then my vision got taken up by notifications and I wasn’t able to see more.

Congratulations! You’ve unlocked a new skill! Basic Shadow infusion lvl. 1! An unspent skill point has been used to unlock this skill due to its hidden nature and being a class skill of the class: Shadowmancer.

…..Ok?

Warning! Due to the nature of the used combination of skills the new raised undead is not under your control.

“What?” I muttered as I closed the notifications and stared down at the thing before me. I could see the raven’s skull and legs, the rest seemed to be covered in a very inky or rather oily substance. It conjured an image of a raven covered in oil in my mind. The creature looked at me and cocked its head to the side and I did the same.

Then it attacked.

I panted as I watched the skeletal wolf and raven pick and claw at the corpse of the shadow raven I had raised. The memory of how it had snapped around my head had made me think of a particular alien species that likes to hug faces.

The thought sent a shiver of dreadful ice down my spine.

I shook my head, this was really weird. So at least I learned something but then I thought back to the first notification I had gotten before it attacked my face.

Scratching at the fresh scratches on my face, I brought up the notification and peered closer at the skill to get some better information.

Basic Shadow infusion lvl.1 : This skill grants the ability to infuse shadows into objects, granting a minor protection bonus. Restrictions: If used in conjunction with skills that create minions this will create shadow infused minion that isn’t under the control of the creator.

Huh… That’s interesting. First time I’ve ever seen a skill with a restriction. I wonder if I level it up high enough I might be able to release the restriction? I’ll have to find out in the future.

With that little question of mine solved I looked at the skeleton Raven as it pecked at the shadow infused corpse and then looked up at me.

I reached out and placed a hand on it. Then I tried once more to infuse the creature with shadow, hoping that since it was already a minion this wouldn’t cause my loss of control over it. The raven seemed to preen under my touch before it began to shiver and then vibrate as I poured shadow into it.

The shadow began to coalesce and filled up the creature's ribcage. Then it spread along the bones and covered the spaces between its bones. Once it reached the tips of its wing bones it began to bubble a little before shadowy feathers burst out of the bubbles and formed full wings. The oily shadow also burst out into tail feathers and each of the creatures wing flaps made the wings give off a few small tendrils of smoky shadow.

I marvelled at the new creature before me. “Amazing.” I murmured as I looked from the Raven and to the wolf. Somehow the expressionless skull conveyed astonishment to me and almost eagerness. I was about to reach out and do the same to the wolf before my vision turned black.

Once more my face was attacked by a wannabe facehugger in the form of a shadowy raven skeleton. “Gods darn it!” I swore as I stomped on the creature. The wolf had kindly bitten its head off before it managed to stick its beak into my skull.

I looked from the thoroughly stomped raven skeletons to the wolf. The wolf looked a little down but perked up once I gave it scratches at the back of its skull. “Don’t worry buddy, I’m sure we’ll figure out how to do that without turning you guys hostile towards me.”

I looked up while I continued to pet and scratch the wolf, noticing that the sun seemed still high in the sky. Was I dead for the night? I hadn’t even noticed the sun’s illumination of the forest. Rather it didn’t even register with me.

That made my mind whirl to a screeching stop. I had been dead, again! Yet I was still alive! Then my conversation with O’Malley came back to me and my free hand moved up to clutch at my chest. The thing that now was my chest had reconstituted my throat, like a lich's phylactery.

That gave me a rush of enjoyment, it would mean I was significantly harder to kill. My elation then fell to another realization.

That simple thing might also mean changes were happening to me. Chernobog had said I was corrupted somehow, I assume he was speaking about me at least. Might that be the cause of my unstable emotions? I mean I hadn’t actually felt that sad about the losses we had taken from the wolf attacks. I had rather felt it was a shame, not sad.

That second realization filled me with horror. Had my greed and anger caused me to make a rather pointed and bad metaphorical devils bargain?

I had sat down and held my head in my hands as those thoughts roiled within me. Was I just a puppet to those five? Should I trust anything they had to say? Were they just as bad as Aona and were just using my anger and desire for vengeance to fulfil their purposes?

They seemed to hate Aona around the same or more than I do. Then might their goals align with mine? This was all a little too much. I had no idea who to trust.

A snapping jaw made me jerk my head up. Chernobog was standing over me, the skeleton wolf between us with the minor god. “Why do you look troubled?” It asked me in its deep voice that sounded like breaking bark.

I stared at him for a few long moments, choosing my words carefully as well as trying to calm down my raging emotions. “Can I trust them?” I then asked without being able to catch my words as they left my lips.

I grimaced a little at my blunt reply to Chernobog but I needed answers and the nature god, or nature archangel, might give them to me.

Chernobog tilted his head a little from side to side as if he was mulling my question over before he spoke in his slow voice. “Who?” He then asked and I just stared at him almost dumbfounded and wide-eyed at his answer.

“Those five you killed me to speak to vines for brains!” I spat at him as I stood up quickly and pointed a finger at the sentient shrubbery.

A slow rumble seemed to emanate from Chernobog and I felt the ground beneath me begin to vibrate. Ok, note to self do not piss off the impossibly ancient near god.

“You alone can trust those five.” He then rumbled out and he seemed to read my sceptical expression because he continued. “They gave you a piece of themselves.” He said as he reached out and pressed a branch-like finger against my chest.

I went wide-eyed and stared at him. So they had given me a piece of themselves? How? When? My thoughts went into a spiral before stopping as Chernobog spoke again. “You are corrupted.” As he said that I noticed he had his hand out and his spear grew out of the ground. It grew right out of the fucking ground and into his hand.

I took a step back and felt the log I had sat on press against my calves. “W-what do you mean by that?” I asked hesitantly given the incredible difference between us. The wolf seemed to emulate a growl by grinding its teeth at the nature spirit. Then roots exploded out of the ground and held it firmly in place.

“You have gone through too much.” Chernobog said as he stepped around the almost thrashing skeletal wolf and stepped up to me. “Your previous lives.” He said as he placed his palm onto my chest as he leaned towards me. The hand was about the size of my chest and I gulped.

“They have left themselves as spirits. They seek to consume you. Make you mad. Corrupt you.” He spoke slowly and each sentence was punctuated by a pregnant silence that swelled once he was done.

That revelation stopped everything. I felt like everything had stopped, my mind, my breath, the area around me and my very heart. How was one supposed to take that revelation? I had no freaking clue on how to take that or what to do about it.

Chernobog seemed to sense my inner turmoil and began to chuckle a little.

That sound was really, really weird. I mean with the sound of snapping bark as the undercurrent to his voice already being weird. His chuckle seemed to add in the sound of snapping branches to the mix.

“Is there...” I began but paused, biting down on the corner of my mouth. “Anything I can do about it?” I asked and then followed up after a moment. “Can I undo this corruption?”

Chernobog stared at me and then shook his head. I felt my heart fall down to my groin along with the feeling one gets in their stomach when falling from a great height or when an aeroplane takes off.

“Not as you are now.” He then said and it was like he had slapped me on top of everything else I was feeling.

I looked down and cursed under my breath. “Then… how long do I have before this… corruption affects me more?” I asked as I felt hope drain from me. There had been so much I had wished to accomplish, seemed I was destined to turn into some sort of mouth-frothing lunatic. Then again it might not be much of an improvement, given my maddened rage when the five had woken me up.

“You have four moons before you are overtaken.” Chernobog said as he leaned a little in to inspect me some. I felt almost apathetic now. “I sense Aona’s hand upon your soul.” Those words made me shoot up my head and stare at him, anger boiling to the surface and cutting through my depressing thoughts.

“She did this to me?!” I almost shouted as I felt my breath come hard. I had a growl almost building in my throat as I stared at Chernobog’s skull face.

Chernobog slowly shook his head. “No this is before you came to this world.” He said and I grew pale as I felt as if all blood drained from my body. “You seem to have had this mark on your soul when you arrived here. I suspect she did it as a contingency, in case she couldn’t destroy your soul once you had served her purpose. Perhaps she used it to mess with your mind or perception of this world as well.” He said as he brought his free hand up to his chin.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

For some reason, I thought of a thoughtful professor or some such when he did that. As if he was seeing a problem he happily wished to solve out of his own curiosity.

I grit my teeth a little. “So she wasn’t content in just trying to destroy my soul and deceive me.” I growled out as my anger came right back. I then paused as I realized the time I had left after Chernobog’s revelation. Four moons. So I guessed around four months at the most.

How was I going to throw a wrench in Aona’s plans in that short amount of time?! Let alone try and save Trolgar if I could manage to even find the big lug.

I sat down on the log and almost put my head between my legs as I sighed heavily. “You should grow. Perhaps you might learn how to undo this corruption of your soul.” When Chernobog spoke those words I looked up at him with a little hope once again budding within me. Chernobog on the other hand almost seemed amused.

His fathomless eyes held a knowing spark within it and I noticed he had the eyes of a cat as they turned from round to ever so slightly horizontal.

His eyes seemed to really hit home with me just how ancient and wise he was. The countless centuries if not millennia he had lived through. I took that in and before I knew it I had hugged the larger being.

It was like a fourteen-year-old was hugging their much taller parent. I didn’t know why I had done it but when I felt his hand on my shoulder it seemed to comfort me somewhat.

It was a feeling of acceptance I hadn’t realized I needed. As if I had found an old friend after many years apart. I almost began to sob as my well of emotions churned and exploded within me but I choked them back.

Pulling back after a few moments I wiped at my eyes and smiled a little awkwardly at him. “S-sorry I don’t know what came over me… but thanks.” I said a little sheepishly.

Chernobog for his part simply placed his hand on my shoulder and nodded at me. “I wish you luck.” He said before suddenly disappeared in a roiling mass of leaves that left me and the skeletal wolf just standing there stupefied and covered in leaves.

Both me and the wolf then looked at one another. The sight of the wolf looking perplexed somehow with its skeletal face and a large leaf on its snout caused me to burst out. I almost doubled over as I continued to laugh, my roiling emotions getting through and as I continued to laugh, I cried and almost curled up against the log.

I felt almost manic with my fluctuating emotions and as I continued to rock a little back and forth with I had my head pressed against my knees. I had my eyes closed as I cried, laughed, sobbed and almost screamed.

I didn’t feel in control of myself any more. Why had Aona done this and what could have possibly caused a supposed goddess of light and justice to go to these lengths. What exactly had I ever done to cause such a horrid reaction from her.

With my mind spinning in utter horror I didn’t notice until I calmed down that all of my five skeletal wolves had come and were curled up around me. A silent show of support the only thing the creatures were capable of. I began to feel that the creatures were far to intelligent to be simply minor undead.

The ones I had seen in dungeons or even under the control of that one necromancer I had faced, had all been more like automatons rather than acting almost like the pet wolves they were acting as now.

They all raised their heads and looked at me and I could swear I saw worry in their pale blue glowing eye sockets. I decided then and there to try and keep myself grounded and I hoped that these strange wolves might help me with that.

I thanked the wolves with vigorous thanks and scratches to were they wanted them. They all seemed to perk up and were rolling around on the ground in joy at the end of it. It made me laugh a little and had lightened my darkened mood considerably.

As I fully stood I also felt a little better after the almost hysterical episode I had gone through. The same feeling of relief one gets when one has a good cry or an outlet for one's frustrations. I made a mental note to thank Chernobog if I ever met him again.

With that in mind I looked up and saw that the time was perhaps just around two in the afternoon. Perhaps I had spent almost an hour and a half in that little outburst after Chernobogs visit. I didn’t know but I felt the urge to make my way back to the town.

On the way back I hunted another stag with the wolves and as I and two wolves carried it over towards the town I had the other three move around the forest and get me any ravens and birds they might be able to catch.

They seemed rather eager for a hunt but seemed to deflate somewhat when I told them to avoid any other creature around.

Once I was at the outskirts of the forest and the clearing around the town I told the other two wolves to go hunt for ravens and birds as well. I didn’t know why I was so fixated on ravens and crows and the like but I chalked it up to some eccentricity I had without realizing it until now.

With those thoughts I came to a rather halting sight when I had a clear view of the village gates. Wagons, horses and people all were lined up just outside the village. Some moving around and placing the last of their belongings onto the wagons and securing them or the horses properly.

I tried run up to them, almost forgetting the stag I had tied to my back and undid the ties around my body when I realized just how slow my progress was. Once there I saw a few people giving me wary but not untrusting eyes, most likely wondering where I’ve been.

“What’s going on? I thought you were all leaving tomorrow.” I said as I walked up to one of the guards who was milling around the caravan.

He looked at me like I was mad. “You’ve been missing for a day Vlad. Are you all right? I know you wanted to see if you could get any uses out of what we left behind before you moved on after us but...” He trailed off as he gave me a strange look.

I gaped a little at him and then realized I must have been dead for a full day. Wait if that was the case why did I get so little time in the “dead zone” with Németh and the others. Mysteries of this world’s afterlife? Or something else?…

I snapped out of my thoughts when the guard coughed a little, looking rather awkward after I had been silent and almost gaping at him. I was closed my mouth and looked a bit awkward myself. “Uh It seems I slept through an entire day out in the forest.” I said and the guard looked at me like I was a lunatic.

I really couldn’t blame him for it.

With a sigh he simply pointed into town. “Campbell has something to talk to you about before we leave.” He said as he shook his head and I smiled at him as I began to jog inside the town.

Before I fully entered I asked a few guards who were walking around if they wanted to take and butcher the stag I had caught to have more food on the journey if they left me a leg or so for myself.

They happily agreed and went to get it as I entered through the broken gates and made my way to Campbell’s clinic. I hadn’t seen the man in a few days, even before my death.

I knocked on the door and waited. I stood before the clinic house and wondered what was going on. The time lost concerned me quite a bit. Then I thought of one of the rules Campbell had written down in his book.

Adventuring rule # 308: Take things in stride and digest them over time. Getting caught up in the moment can get you killed or you can make a mistake that can get your party killed. Never let the enemy you face get under your skin, then they have won.

I was thinking of trying to live by that rule fully when Campbell opened the door and I flinched back. The man wore a freaking plaque doctor suit and held a pair of rather menacing tongs, looking rather like a vicious scissor claw or something.

Looking from me to the tongs in his hand and then back he began to chuckle. The muffled chuckle made me even more wary of the man as it made him even creepier to behold.

I was about to turn and say I must have gotten the wrong house when the man gripped my shoulder and pulled me inside the house. I began to fear what he was about to do with those tongs before he pulled off the mask and smiled broadly at me.

“Chill kid, I’m not gonna go all Frankenstein on you.” He said and his smile really didn’t put me at ease as he must have hoped I would.

“Ok… mind telling me why you look like a plaque doctor out to carve out my brain?” I asked as I pointed at the tongs.

He looked at them and then laughed heartily. “Oh no, this is my old adventuring outfit. I wanted to show it to you since I doubt I’ll ever wear it again.” He said with his broad smile and I stared at him almost incredulously with a raised eyebrow.

“So what class are you?” I asked him almost sceptically.

“Oh I’m an apothecary, rouge, assassin and necromancer.” He said with a knowing grin and I gaped at him very openly.

“W-wait you’re a…” I started but I just couldn’t put out any other words as I just stared at the man as he continued to grin at me.

“Ay, I am. Now listen I’ve left a few items in the chest at the foot of the bed and I want you to look into it after we all leave. You have around two days before the wolves said they’d come back. So I put together a little training regimen for you to go through as well as my old notes and the like.” He said as he began to rub the beard at his chin.

“Oh right I should tell you this first. There are classes that change such as squire to a knight and then from knight to Edelfrei in some cases. These classes can evolve once you reach a specific level and are usually easier to level than single classes such as necromancer. Though I’ve heard necromancer could possibly evolve if you have the correct classes which it would combine with.”

He began to speak in a lecturers tone and I decided to listen as this must be important for him to tell me now. “Now when you reach level 100 in a class it usually increases your stats related to that class by a fair amount. That’s only in the first class, the second and your race will evolve as well. I have achieved level 100 in rouge and assassin and as such I evolved, I chose high human for an increased lifespan and higher stats. I’ve heard the third one might give you the chance to keep your skill levels and start again in a class of your choice for better rewards each level.”

As he spoke the more I began to be at the edge of my metaphorical seat, eager for what he was saying. I could see that it was pertinent information that I would need to know especially since I suspected that my old party might be evolved humans by now and close to a third level 100 at least.

“Now no one has managed four level 100's, at least to my knowledge so keep that in mind at least.” He said as he clapped me on my shoulder. “I suggest you also make your pets eat bones and kill more. The skeleton wolves you have can evolve and I’ve put a few of the evolutions I managed with my minions. Though I used my minor skeleton skill on rats and the one bunny.” He said with a wistful and nostalgic tone.

My head was spinning as he devolved into telling me of the time he had wiped out an entire orc war band by using poison to coat his rat skeletons and sent them into the sleeping orc’s tents where he then raised the dead as zombies to devour the rest.

He finished with how he had then tied firebombs to each rat skeleton and had the zombies stomp on them to set the whole camp on fire to destroy the evidence.

I sat on part of the destroyed door as he waved at me, wearing his adventuring garb without the ominous plague doctor mask and wide-brimmed hat. My mind had so many questions but after the story, a guard had rushed into the house to fetch Campbell and he had told me he was heading towards the city of Veta and he would put a letter for me under my name in the adventurers guild there. The letter would allow me to find him if I wanted and he promised to teach me a thing or two but I couldn’t come to him until after two months.

“Then I’ll be set up in the city proper. Fool that you are, I’m expecting great things from you. So catch you on the flip side.” Those were his last words to me.

I think he’s from the ’70s or something. That thought made me shiver a little and I began to wonder just how many and how long people from earth had been forcefully summoned here. Then as I saw the caravan disappear into the forest path out I remembered something.

“Crap! I forgot to ask him about the corruption issue!” I screamed in my head and smacked my forehead.

I had half a mind to run after the caravan but I suspected I’d meet him again, and I needed to try and figure this out for myself. At least while I stayed here for the next two days at least. I looked at the sack that had been left for me, food for the next two weeks.

Trail rations and the like as I looked into it and swung it over my shoulder. Now should I go for the horse first or check out the gear Campbell had left me?

Thinking it over I clicked my tongue and put the sack into Campbell’s clinic and then went to the dead horse carcass that had been dragged out and left in the charnel pit that the moat had become. Calling my wolves over I had them begin to tear into the corpses around the horse as I used my skill on it.

Making sure not to use shadow infusion along side it, after all, there was only one horse that died!

I watched as the flesh bubbled and began to slough off as the skeleton began to jerk and twitch around. I had to step a few long steps back due to the horrid smell. Then I watched as the skeletal horse jerked itself and rose up onto its legs.

The blue spectral lights in the sockets of the skull left a very tiny trail of blue ethereal smoke in its wake as it moved out of the moat and trotted over to me.

I just stared at the skeletal horse and then I realized my mistake. There was no way I could ride it as it was now. Not only didn’t I have a saddle, I’d have to look for it in town and hope for the best, but the protrusions of the horse's spine did not look comfortable. Not. At. All.

I mean have you seen a horses skeleton?!

Remembering what Campbell had told me I told all five of the wolves and the horse to begin to “eat” the bones they could get their jaws on. The tearing flesh and crunching of bones made me wince and I began to move back into the village.

Figuring there was some arbitrary limit they needed to get until they were “full” or something. Telling them to come to me once they were done.

I wondered around the town a little killing time just a little before I came up to the small manor house that Dunleavy owned. I smiled a little to myself as I moved to enter it. I felt a sly sort of satisfaction at my plan to rob that asshole blind if I could.

I also realized I didn’t have a clue what the townsfolk had decided to do with the man in the end.

I found out when I opened the door and there he was, struggling in the middle of the entrance hall. All tied up and as he saw me he began to scream in anger, I guessed since he was gagged.

I smiled at him wickedly and he seemed to sense that something wasn’t right as he stared at me. I moved up to him and pulled the gag out but held my hand over his mouth in case he began to speak.

“I’m going to ask you a single question asshole and I want a clear answer.” I said as I gave him a hard look. “What is your class and what is your level. I want to know every class you have and each of their levels.” I said coldly before I moved my hand from his mouth.

“I-I’m a noble level 4 and administrator le-level 7.” He squeaked out as I suddenly smelled the scent of urine and I crinkled my nose at him.

“So non-combat classes?” I asked with a raised eyebrow as I stood and took a step back from the man to avoid the smell.

“N-noble is a s-semi-combat class.” He said meekly and I wondered if his bravado and asshole nature only came when he thought he had a clear advantage over others. That only made me dislike the man even more.

“Interesting.” I muttered as I began to hear the clopping of the horses hooves and I figured my pets were coming back. I smiled devilishly as a thought came to my mind. “I think I’d like to play a game with you.” I said as I moved to begin to untie Dunleavy from his bindings.

“Oh.. thank you.” He sighed as I began to untie him before he seemed to register what I was saying. “What game?” He asked as I finished untying his hands and then began to walk towards the doors, leaving him to untie his legs.

“Oh that’s simple. It’s a game called tag.” I started as I stood at the closed door right as I saw it push ever so slightly open but I mentally told my pets to wait until I opened the door. “There are six chasers and then there’s the one who’s it. The one who’s it is supposed to try and get away from the chasers as best they can.” I said and I smiled as Dunleavy’s face began to grow pale.

“Now the one who is it can also fight back if they can.” I waited until Dunleavy had managed to untie his legs and stood up. “So I suggest you run. Since. You. Are. It!” I said with a wide and most likely evil from his point of view as I flung the doors open and commanded my pets to tear into the fat little aristocrat.

Laughing at his ashen face of pure fear and panic as he sprinted away with my pets right on his heels.