I awoke the next day. Covered in bandages and lying on the bed Campbell had loaned me earlier. I let out a light sigh. This was becoming a habit, it seemed. Slowly I rose and despite the aches in my body, I was in far less pain than I’d have thought I’d be in.

“Ah you’re awake.” Campbell said kindly as he made his way inside the room. I had been getting dressed and was just pulling on the last of my boots on. I had decided to forgo the hooded tunic for now as I suspected that there would be a lot of work to get things going.

“Have the people started?” I asked gently. I didn’t want to broach the subject too harshly. After all, these people had called this village their home for almost ten years now. Many of their children had been born and raised here as well.

Campbell simply nodded with a slight smile on his lips. “You don’t have to worry lad.” He said before looking me over a little. “You know, I think I might have some spare clothes lying around that I don’t use any more. Perhaps I’ll find them while I pack.” He said and the knowing look that passed through his eyes made me a little curious.

I didn’t want to come across as greedy so I decided not to ask about it. I simply gave a thankful smile to him. “How long was I out?” I asked as I fastened my belt properly and was about to head out the door.

“Just a night but wait for a bit.” Campbell said as he gestured for me to sit down as he sat in the doctor's chair at the bedside. I sat down near him on the bed and looked at him.

The old man suddenly seemed his years and he exhaled as if letting off a heavy burden. “Lad, I’m likely the only one alive left in this village that knows you're a necromancer.” He began and he gave me a stern look.

“Judging by the character you’ve shown in this village I have no doubt you’ve got your reason for having such a class. But I’d suggest you find education once you're out of these wilds.” He then said while pulling out a slim pipe and began to fill it slowly with smoke.

“Why? I mean, I won’t be very trusted with that class.” I responded and felt a little bad over the look I was given by the old man.

“That is true but you know a class isn’t everything, right?” He asked me with a raised eyebrow. “People usually accrue a few classes over their lifetimes, though rarely three at your age.” He said stopping as he brought the pipe up to his mouth. Snapping his finger over the pipe I saw sparks fly from between and after a few snaps, the pipe was lit.

“Now listen well. You have a magic class yet I doubt you have the mana sense, manipulation or even empowering skills.” He said and I had to scratch at the back of my head sheepishly.

“I figured.” He said, letting out silvery smoke as he spoke. “Now lad. You should either join an adventurers school, a magic academy or one of the guild run schools. Point is you have a lot to learn and that is clear.” He said before he looked at my hands and then smirked a little.

“I think you’ve no doubt noticed that you can get skills without using skill points, correct?” He asked me wryly.

“Yeah, I found that a little weird too.” I said looking down at my hands. Then what had been said dawned on me and I looked up at Campbell with wide eyes. “You?” I muttered.

Campbell simply smirked at me. “Groovy” He said with a shit-eating grin and I was so shocked I couldn’t speak. I just stared at him, mouth agape and eyes wide.

“Many of us don’t get to retire my boy. Those of us that do, usually by faking our own deaths.” He said with a grin. “You, however, act like one of us but we are usually always human. So I guess you didn’t retire… shall we say voluntarily, right?” He then said as he pointed at me with the mouthpiece of the pipe.

I just nodded dumbly, still not over the revelation in the slightest.

“Ay… I don’t know which deities or beings decided to bring you back as what you are but I’ll give you some advice, one world traveller to another.” He said smiling at me.

Later I was walking around the outside of the walls in a daze. The bombshell that had been dropped on me by Campbell weighing heavily on me. He had told me to get into a school for individuals that travelled a lot or had magic, such as adventurers or mages.

He’d even given me a small pocket book filled with little rules of his. Both for daily life and for adventuring.

I had it in my hands now and was reading through it. The very first rule made me chuckle a bit.

Adventuring rule # 1: Never go to a dungeon without pistons, rope, a pickaxe, a lantern, a canary and a flask of lubricant. One never knows when one would need but one of these or all.

The next one was even stranger.

Adventuring rule # 2: A bag of holding isn’t just convenient it’s an absolute must-have! It’s recommended to save up and buy a quality one as soon as possible!

I chuckled at that and put the book away in a large pouch I had strapped to my waist. I needed supplies, gear and arms for what was to come but I wasn’t walking around the wall for that now. No, I was searching for the strongest looking of the wolf corpses.

I needed to raise up some minions and test out what Campbell had told me yesterday. I had tried to help out around town while they all got ready but I had been told to just do my own thing. It made me realize I was still a stranger to them. Only Campbell had survived that actually knew me and I couldn’t help him out due to him having shooed me out of the house.

Instead, I’d decided to do my current task. I could now raise up to eight skeletal wolves. The first level up of the skill has given me one more to my cap. The third had increased their overall stats by a tiny margin.

I figured that would be how this skill grew, with a plus to my cap every even-numbered level and growth to stats every uneven one. I’d just have to raise it a bit more to get some hard evidence to my theory.

Campbell had also told me that mage oriented schools could teach me spells and allow me to gain skills. The spells I’d be taught would not show up on my main status page but I’d be able to open up a spellbook type status page if I got the correct skill for it.

I think it was called self-managment or something of the sort. It also seemed to compile everything on one’s person in a sort of inventory screen. A simple skill that only had one level but a very useful one to have.

That had also surprised me. I had always thought that every skill gained would continue to grow until master level 10. Or pinnacle as I later found out. However, there are some skills that simply have one level and some that don’t grow beyond their first ten levels.

He’d called the first type, talents and the latter type abilities. I explained one of my more benign natural abilities, my carapace, and he’d simply shook his head.

He’d said those were natural abilities that grew and were almost akin to single-lined talent trees. Same with class skills, such as raise minor skeleton. I’d have that skill forever and it didn’t spend much in the way of mana to use but instead it used up some of my stamina as well to be “cast”.

The more I realize how little I had been allowed to learn of this world the more fascinated I became. I also began to realize that I wasn’t really that driven in my revenge after spending these few days here in Deepguard.

Granted I cursed them often and vigorously but until now I felt a little like my heart wasn’t in it. I also realised I was just falling into the same hopelessly naive “hero” type as before. I needed to be pragmatic, ruthless even if I was to even hope to get my revenge against that party.

It was this reason I was now raising up the seven strongest wolves I could find. I’d found out that animals of intelligence similar to a wolf were affected by raise minor skeleton.

But because the skill was not only a skill but used mana and stamina, these creatures were permanent summons that only had one life, unlike the skeletons from the raise skeleton spell. Those skeletons created by the spell couldn’t grow in power but could be created from any skeleton of humanish size or less, lasted up to three days depending on the user’s mana capacity and ability with the spell, and the bones could be reused again to summon another if the time limit ran out as long as you had the mana to cast the spell.

That had made me rather intrigued on what I could do with such permanent summons. Once my minions died that was it. Their bones rapidly cracked and became unusable by any spell after death. I wondered if I could raise a skeletal horse and have it transform into a nightmare or some sort of skeletal steed like the one death had in the Darksiders series.

In the end, I held a little battle royal. Pulling up all the wolf corpses and just having them fight and fight and fight one another until just seven remained. Now you might be wondering why I decided to go one below my current maximum amount of skeletons.

Well, I had seen a horse that had died in the town and I wanted to raise it. I just needed to wait until every one left to do so.

I was only raising these seven now since the townsfolk were all busy packing up their stuff and loading up wagons. So once they had been summoned and made ready I sent the skeletal beasts into the forest to patrol around the forest.

Telling them to keep near the town but out of sight.

I also had learned mine took well to my orders and could follow more complex ones. Those summoned by the spell needed very simple orders and even a “follow me” order could sometimes be too complex depending on the skeleton.

I watched as the white bones slinked off into the forest to patrol. I hoped they’d fight some things they could beat and then win against. I wanted to see their abilities and possible evolutions. I had also told them to leave wolves alone. I didn’t want to provoke the Worg on accident.

New status screen unlocked! Minion Management!

Oh? Well that’s interesting. I think I should check it out.

Minion Management screen:

Current maximum minion capacity: 7 / 8

Sources of minions:

Minor skeletons: Skill lvl. 5 = 6 max Intelligence at 26 = +2

Highest rank creature control.

Minor skeletons: rank 3

Current skeletons:

Skeletal wolves: 7

Skeletal wolf status

Statistics:

Strength: 12 Agility: 15 Vitality 10 Endurance: 13 Intelligence: 8 Perception: 16

Creature rank: 1

Innate abilities:

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Dark vision: (black and white up to 40 meters in pitch darkness)

Endless stamina: (being dead grants this creature near-endless stamina.)

Dead disposition: (Has no need to eat, sleep, drink or breathe.)

Senses: (Increased senses such as scent, hearing and sight.)

Skills:

Basic Bite lvl. 1, Basic Stealth lvl. 1, Basic Evasion lvl. 1, Basic Pack tactics lvl. 1 (Passive)

Hmm, interesting. So me having them fight one another to the death made it so that they didn’t gain anything from it huh? Well, that’s at least good to know before I’d develop such a habit.

Secondly that creature rank thing. I’d theorize it’s how often they can evolve and I can keep control over them. Now I just have to figure out how I evolve these things.

With that settled, I began to walk around the town, without going into the forest itself. I didn’t wish to go too far from the town. Out of the thirteen guards and eight or so volunteers, only five guards and two volunteers survived. And I’m included in the volunteers total.

I still had a shiver run down my spine at the thought of the Ogrewolf. That thing had been weakened, tired and had spent some of its skills. I was sure of that. I’d have never have survived against it in tip-top shape. Hell, I’d barely gotten through alive in the first place.

If I hadn’t had wraith step, I’d have been dead within a minute or less.

The whole thing showed me just how much I needed to increase my innate abilities, especially Defensive carapace. I looked at my hand and let out my bone claws. The way they grew out of my fingernails and how they looked reminded me of Sabretooth from that wolverine origins movie. Lengthwise the claws were around perhaps six centimetres.

They had certainly come in handy when I was unarmed. Perhaps I should try to increase all of my innate abilities. Though that said, dark vision really didn’t require an upgrade at the moment since it worked just fine.

Then again the liches gift ability just utterly confused me. All I knew is that my heart was designated as something according to the skill. Then there was vampiric strength. What would that do once I spent an ability point on it?

I ruminated on how to not only get stronger but just better in general. I had much to learn and as I was now I was certain that I had no chance against my old party. Let alone that lying goddess. I mean I couldn’t go around killing off gods willy nilly!

Then an idea came to my mind. Maybe I didn’t need to face Aona herself. Perhaps with my classes and sufficiently advanced skills. Yes, perhaps I could simply wipe out her religion? Create a kingdom of the dead and march an army on Wolfsgarde.

That thought sent a shiver down my spine. No I couldn’t do that. There were innocents living there that had no idea of their goddesses twisted personality.

I sighed and looked down at my utterly tattered and torn clothes. I had been given two pairs and one was now drying off and these were all covered in dried blood, sweat and had the marks of all of my fights clearly on them. I’d need better clothing as well. Some self-repairing and cleaning tunics and the like?

I had really enjoyed those enchanted clothes I’d been given while travelling with Ragnar and the rest.

Spitting to the side I growled, the memory souring my mood even more. I needed to get stronger that was obvious. Even if I just wanted to survive in this world I needed to be stronger. So I guessed joining a mage centred school would help in getting my magic up to snuff.

Then, of course, it was becoming an adventurer, but which branch guilds to join? The adventurer name was a catch-all term for those that worked in the three guilds.

The first being the subjugation guild, men and women contracted to tackle dungeons, wildernesses and the like with the aim of lowering monster and creature populations.

Second was the explorers guild, pathfinders and travellers that surveyed new routes and lands. They also joined the subjugation guild on their missions due to their abilities.

Third and last was the Warden guild, these were not as good in combat as the subjugators but they acted most often as travelling guards for merchants and caravans.

All the guilds worked together almost like branches of a single guild but were still independent organisations in their own right.

I just had to decide which branch to join or if I should delay that and go for a school instead. I ran my fingers through my hair as I pondered it. Doing so reminded me of Olive. She had helped me shave the sides of my head.

She, Bertie and Nicholas where good people. Even Grandon in his fucked up sort of way, I guess. It was a shame really.

That thought jarred me and I stiffened. A shame?! It was a freaking tragedy for fuck's sake! Why the hell was I so calloused all of the sudden? Or are the innate abilities more nuanced than I thought?

Another shiver ran down my spine, this one powerful enough to make me jolt in place. I pushed those thoughts to the back of my mind. I couldn’t really afford to go all introspective right now. I had a lot to do and….

Actually I really didn’t have all that much to do. I mean I was waiting until tomorrow for the worg to fetch me. Another thought to sour my already sour mood. The townsfolk didn’t seem to need my help getting ready to leave.

I guess I could simply go over notifications and maybe just take up guard duty above the broken gate?

I felt useless and that annoyed me to no end.

Levelled up classes! Skill levels increased! Stat points gained! Skill point gained! Ability point gained!

Hmm seems the more dangerous the situation the higher the rewards. That does make sense. It would stop someone from farming giant rats one at a time until they were at the top. They probably could but it would take forever to get there.

Death squire lvl. 5 > 7! Basic Death’s armor lvl. 3 > 6, Basic Wraith step lvl. 1 > 4

Necromancer lvl. 3 > 4! Basic Raise minor skeleton lvl. 5 > 6, Basic Death sense lvl. 3 > 4.

Shadowmancer lvl. 3 > 5! Basic Shadow strike lvl. 3 > 5, Basic Shadow bolt lvl. 2 > 4. (new skill to choose.)

New minor skeleton limit: 8 > 9!

Shadowmancer available skills!

Shadow meld: (Coats the user in shadows to aid in stealth.)

Shadow sense: (Allows the user to sense usable shadows in their vicinity. Aids in other skills.)

Darken vision: (The user throws a ball of shadows at a target. It wraps around a target's eyes and darkens their vision significantly. Light and dark vision can pierce this skill.)

Hmm interesting, given shadow sense’s description I should be able to use the shadowmancer abilities better with it. Shadow meld also has its uses. Darken vision seems to be such a base ability that to get it to any useful state would waste quite a bit of time.

I think I’ll take shadow meld now and then the next time I’ll take shadow sense and see if there's synergy.

Basic Shadow meld lvl. 1 Gained!

Basic Clawed combat lvl. 6 > 7

Advanced Evasion lvl. 1 > 3

Basic Sword mastery Lvl. 8 > 9

Basic Improved Reflexes Lvl. 5 > 7

Basic Improved Stamina lvl. 6 > 8

Basic Intimidating growl lvl. 3 > 4

Basic Power strike lvl. 4 > 6

Basic One-handed axe lvl. 3 > 5

Basic Dual-wielding lvl. 2 > 4

Basic Toughened skin lvl. 1 > 2

Well, that’s good, having those skills level will only serve me well in the future. Though I’m not so sure I’ll go with dual-wielding as my standard fare. Having an axe as a back up would still work out. After all, flipping it over would give me access to a small maul.

Maybe I should just look at my status screen, after all, there have been quite a few changes.

Status screen:

Name: Vlad von Carstein

Classes: Death squire (lvl. 7), Necromancer (lvl. 4), Shadowmancer (lvl. 5)

Race: Dökk Álfar

Statistics:

Strength: 26 Agility: 32 Vitality 30 Endurance: 22 Intelligence: 26 Perception: 12

Innate abilities:

Dark vision: (black and white up to 30 meters in darkness)

Moderate Regeneration: (Capable of healing most normal injuries within 3-4 hours. Aches and pains will be faster, so will bruises and scratches.)

Bone Claws: (Sprout needle-like claws from the user's fingertips.)

The Liches gift: (Currently no item chosen, as such users heart has this designation.)

Defensive Carapace: (Able to cause a carapace to grow around the user's body and limbs. Gives as much armour as a gambeson currently.)

Vampiric Strength: (Each stat point invested in strength gives a second one for free.)

Class abilities:

Death Squire: Basic Death’s tug lvl. 2, Basic Death’s ethereal armour lvl. 6, Basic Wraith step lvl. 4

Necromancer: Basic Death sense lvl. 4, Basic Raise minor skeleton lvl. 6,

Shadowmancer: Basic shadow strike lvl. 3, Basic shadow bolt lvl. 2, Basic Shadow meld lvl. 1

Skills: Basic > Advanced > Proficient > Expert > Master > Pinnacle

Basic Clawed combat lvl. 7, Advanced Evasion lvl. 3 (Passive), Basic Stealth lvl. 2, Basic Sword mastery Lvl. 9, Basic Parrying lvl. 5, Basic Shield use lvl. 9, Basic Improved Reflexes Lvl. 7 (Passive), Basic Improved Stamina lvl. 8 (Passive), Basic improvised weaponry lvl. 1, Basic Intimidating growl lvl. 4, Basic Power strike lvl. 6, Basic One-handed axe lvl. 5, Basic Dual-wielding lvl. 4, Basic Toughened skin lvl. 2 (passive),

Unspent stat points: 3 Unspent skill points: 2 Unspent ability points: 1

Secondary status screens unlocked: Minion Management,

Hmm, I like it, though I’ll hold onto my points for now. I feel like my skill tab's getting a bit crowded already.

Waving my hand through the screen only I could see to dissipate the screen. I hadn’t noticed Campbell approach me from behind.

“What are you doing?” He asked causing me to almost jump out of my boots. I did not yelp almost like a little girl. I didn’t I swear!

The old man simply looked at me and chuckled wryly. Darn ninja old man.

“I was just going over my status and the like.” I replied as I eyed him warily. “Why do you ask?” I said and I took a step back. He had that kind smile he had before he jumped me yesterday.

“Well, I just realized I need a few things from the forest before I can go.” He said as he turned his eyes from me and to the forest.

“And I come in why?” I asked a bit confused but still on guard.

“You don’t have anything to do.” He said and his smile widened a little. My shoulders slumped a little.

“Is it that obvious?” I muttered before rubbing the back of my neck.

“Indeed my boy.” He said and I began to compare him with a certain chain-smoking ghoul. “I need you to hunt some meat for the journey and I’ll also need a few herbs and the like.” He said and handed me a piece of paper with a list.

I looked it over and saw the pictures of the herbs so I could identify them.

“So what you're giving me a quest or something?” I chuckled at him.

His grin widened a little more. “Sorry this ain’t no Goldshire. But If you manage to get more than I asked for and a good stag or something for food.” He paused there and smiled at me, almost mischievously. “I’ll get you something extra for your journey after we leave.”

I raised an eyebrow. “You don’t think I’m going with you out of here?” I asked and just got his chuckle in response.

“I noticed how you looked at that dead horse.” He said smirking almost conspiratorially. “I’d want to raise that thing too if I was a necromancer. After all I think they might turn to bone steeds if they evolve enough. Those things are like trains in terms of speed.” He said and I began to share his grin.

“Can’t get anything by you huh?” I asked as I looked over my shoulder at the forest and then back at him.

“Of course! I’m only seventy-two in this body but I’ve been around for almost three centuries my boy. One learns a thing or two in that amount of time.” He said and then walked away. Leaving me with open-mouthed astonishment painted over my face.

I knew Campbell was an old man and an old soul, but damn! I guess I should learn all I can from the man while I can.

With that thought I looked over the list and went into town to get some gear. Leather armour without the gambeson. A short sword and woodcutters axe, a crossbow with a few bolts. Then a few good pouches and a backpack.

When I was coming back out towards the forest I saw the pack I had raised waiting for me. They were rather eerie but I found them to look rather cool.

They were standing there, bleached bones pristine and jaws closed and watching me patiently. The pale blue almost firelight glowing in their eyes as their dead minds observed me.

It didn’t take long to settle into a travelling rhythm in the forest. The skeletal wolves helping me tracking down not only the herbs but they seemed to even find tracks of different animals too.

Deciding to spend a skill point as I thought I’d have to get the skill sooner or later. If not to make today easier but I had a feeling it would come in handy in the future.

Skill purchased! Basic Tracking lvl. 1 gained!

Secret unlocked! Skeletal wolf minions gained skill, Basic Tracking lvl. 1!

Huh? Interesting. So I could unlock skills for my minions if they fit them? I guess I can experiment in the future.

I managed to find a bit of a surplus of the herbs around the area of the village. Seems like their presence held back most animals, which allowed the herbs to grow almost in abundance. I had almost filled up all of my pouches when the wolves noticed a scent.

They sent back to me over some sort of rudimentary mental link what they had found. A stag with a small herd. I was rather unused to using the link. I’d noticed it when looking for the herbs as they had begun to point them out for me.

I had read a few stories that featured mental links with pets and the like but this. It was really weird. I got faint feelings, images and the like over the link. Though all muffled.

Another thing I had discovered was that even though they were skeletal, they enjoyed getting the back of their heads scratched. I had to use my bone claws to do it properly for them but I had to admit it was amusing. Skeletal wolves acting like scritch needy dogs when we weren’t doing anything made me chuckle a little to myself.

I hadn’t decided to name them as I didn’t know how long they’d survive. Perhaps I’d start naming minions that managed to reach rank 2?

Those thoughts were pushed to the back of my amused mind as I stalked forward into the forest. The skeletal wolves spread out with one moving next to me as we hunted for some prey. I just hoped I was a decent shot with a crossbow.