He honestly didn't feel anything was bad at first. He found himself adrift in the void of his mind, utterly thoughtless and without purpose.
Then a sudden shake woke him, and soon pain became his very being. His body was cold, but that was just a natural state at this point in his life. His head was splitting apart like a melon, and his insides were either burning like they were in acid or he had pins the size of blades sticking at him all over from the inside. Finally, every ear, eye, and nostril were aching and stinging so much that he just wanted to dig out whatever it was affecting them with a sharp knife for good measure, regardless of his physical state afterwards.
All in all, he was having a pretty shitty time.
Still, if this wasn’t the case of him still being alive, somehow, then all the better. Now he wished he truly died.
But then a face propped up before his own, making him realize that life wasn’t so bad.
It was Mikella, and she looked as horrid as he remembered. Still, she cleaned up a bit, especially the soot as she looked mostly fine, albeit there were still some burns here and there. Some of her brown hair was even burnt off, giving her a sort of bald spot here and there. Still, despite the messy look she had, her eyes were the ones that reminded him how pretty she was.
Her eyes widened after a moment of studying his face, realizing that he was awake.
“Zeke!” Mikella shouted as that easily got the others’ attention. Now it wasn’t just Mikella–Myra and Val showed up in his vision, making him realize that he was staring upwards towards the sky.
The sky that was blue and fresh, and not within the confines of a tower meant to kill them all. They were outside.
Messy, bloody, and hurt beyond all reasoning… but they were outside.
Zeke tried to speak, but his throat was hurting a lot more than he expected when he tried to make a sound. He coughed violently, even spitting up hints of blood. He turned his head, realizing that he was riding on top of something.
It was some sort of carriage, and he was resting on top of some furs. It was currently driving too, which might explain that sudden shock that got him awake. They were currently traveling through the forest, as they must have stumbled over some roots. The sky he saw above was slightly hidden behind the canopies of the trees, giving off the nature scent he so longed for.
“Oh my god, Zeke!” Mikella helped him up, raising his head slightly. He tried to do it himself, but it was as though his body refused to move despite his will. It wasn’t the pain, but rather the lack of control, like his mind wasn’t connected to his body.
“Easy, Zeke,” Val noticed his struggle as Mikella helped him drink some fresh water she got from her storage pack. “You’re badly wounded, and you’re spiritually damaged to a pretty nasty degree.”
“S-Spiritually damaged…?” Zeke’s voice was harsh and rough, and he could still taste the bitter coppery taste of his blood.
“You spent a lot of mana that your body couldn’t physically handle. That, and you somehow managed to bring out enough power to get us out of that situation,” Val explained, her eyes growing softer as she explained. “And you saved my life.”
Zeke actually narrowed his eyes. He was definitely sure all he did was stop the progress of her turning. He didn’t do anything that could’ve helped her survive.
Not to mention, looking at Val now, she didn’t look very good either. She was riding in this same carriage as he was, possibly injured like he was, but she at least was able to move a bit. Her face was pale and there was a hint of exhaustion that was beyond normal tiredness. Her eyes and cheeks were sunken in, and her eyes were even a little dimmer than usual.
Though, in some respect, she looked better than how he felt right now.
But despite all that, she smiled at him, a hint of warmth from her eyes that showed all too well her gratitude towards him.
Nodding to her statement, Zeke groggily asked. “...What happened?” He closed his eyes to try and preserve whatever control he had over his painful headache. “What happened after the undeath?”
“You pretty much stopped her turning, and Cloud managed to clear it all away. He even got the rest of it out of all of us,” Myra, the one who stood by and waited for Val to finish, spoke up. “After that, the tower started to break apart, but you managed to summon a portal out of there.”
“Huh?” Zeke tilted his head. “How did I do that?”
The three women around him all stood silent at his question. Mikella was the one who answered next after helping Zeke settle on a pillow she brought up to sit upright.
“Zeke… you don’t remember?” Mikella asked slowly. “I knew you were out of it, but you managed to open up a portal with a raise of your hand, like… you ordered it to be summoned. We had no way out before that.”
“I figured it was that, you know, ‘special’ part of you guys,” Myra said discreetly, flexing her fingers. “Like ‘bam’.”
“Oh, oh…” Zeke lowered his eyes towards his own hands. After looking at them now, they were dry like all the moisture was sucked out of them. “I… I’m still kinda out of it… I can’t even remember…”
Then Zeke recalled the time he made his attunement. His eyes widened as he opened up his status screen for the first time.
There were plenty of notifications, but he put that aside as a more pressing matter was at hand. After seeing the new change, he nodded.
“Yep… that makes sense,” Zeke said. That immediately got the girls’ attention, so Zeke turned his status to life and turned it around.
The moment they read it, they froze in place. Not just Mikella and Myra, but even Val watched in shock as they read his newly acquired attunement.
‘The World’. Whatever it was, it was powerful, and Zeke recalled the power he used, or what he felt, when he took that in for the first time.
It was as though everything around him became his, to the point where he even managed to control the tower. He didn't know why the portal did not open–perhaps since Alex was the ‘owner’ of the tower at the time, he refused the portal to head outside to continue his sick experiments.
But the moment Zeke gained control of this attunement, the control of the tower became his.
As he remembered, he could definitely recall the link he felt to the tower when he lost it, and the incredible backlash of doing something that was supposedly outside of his control, explaining the amount of blood he threw up.
He honestly thought he dreamed up such a cartoonish morbid way, but apparently it was true.
“The World…” Val repeated slowly, almost in awe. “I never heard of that kind of aspect before.”
“You made an attunement when you were getting drained?!” Myra nearly shouted, but she kept her voice low as the others around the carriage were still exhausted from their walk. “What the hell were you expecting to get when you did that?”
“I wasn’t,” Zeke shook his heads. He winced, but realized that it was better to just say it. “I planned on taking undeath to get us out of that situation.”
The words hit like a truck for the girls, especially Mikella as she just stared dumbfoundedly at him.
They all had something to say, but in the end Val was the first to speak up.
“To save me,” Val said, then she shook her head. “No, to save all of us. If you could control the undeath, you could’ve stopped me from turning, and in turn stop me from killing everyone here.”
“Yeah…” Zeke said in a whisper. He was afraid to look at Mikella, so he kept staring at the floor of the carriage. “I was ready to accept the consequences for that when I chose it, but it just… refused my request.”
“It ‘refused’?” Mikella asked, this time forcing Zeke to look at her as she turned his head towards her. “Explain.”
So Zeke did so, and this time he was forced to keep staring at Mikella (not that he was complaining) as she didn’t like how he tried to make a heavy decision like that. Still, she let the matter drop as he kept explaining. Putting aside the horrific consequences, in the end, it was for a good reason. Eventually, the girls became more curious as to this invasive attunement that took control of his decision.
“How did you get something like ‘The World’ anyways?” Mikella asked curiously. “I mean, I know I had the option to take lightning after taking it from my sword…”
“Which was still incredibly foolish for you to do,” Val spoke up before continuing, sending a glare at her. Mikella instantly wilted from that heated stare despite the exhaustion clear on her face. “I know the situation was rough, but to take an attunement directly from a weapon without any insurances? You could’ve died on the spot!”
“I-I know…” Mikella nodded. “But if I didn’t, the zombieman would’ve killed me.”
“Even so, you must take precaution,” Val shook her head. “Normally, what you did is not only incredibly dangerous, but also indescribably difficult to pull off. Not even high level practitioners would go so far even if it would help improve their attunements.”
“But isn’t that because they don't have a powerful skill and lots of stats under their belt, captain?” Myra asked, which prompted Val to give a passive stare at her.
“Myra, be a dear and don’t give any ideas to our crazy fighter over here.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
Myra saluted, utterly serious in her posture while Zeke could only stare blankly at the cheekish Mikella. Zeke was glad she was getting a rundown of her actions, but who was he to speak about it?
In the end, there was no way to know about how his attunement worked. There were plenty of other things to ask, but for now, he was glad that he wasn’t at least turning everyone around him into a zombie.
Breathing slowly, he turned to Val to get on with what he needed to know. “Val… how are you? Are you fine?”
“I’m more than fine,” Val said, smiling back at him. “True enough, I spent so much of my energy, I could barely move. That’s why I’m here in the carriage with you. I could walk, but my dear husband lost his mind and refused to let me take a step.”
“Captain, please, Cloud is just really worried about you,” Myra said. It was clear that she was in Cloud’s camp. “You look like you could keel over at any second!”
“I have plenty more in the tank than you lot combined,” Val scoffed. “Still, I can’t deny that I can’t really move. My stamina is in the pits too.”
“And that’s why you’re here too, Zeke,” Mikella offered, getting back to him. “Tell me, how bad of a debuff you have?”
Wincing, he opened up his blinking notifications. The system was kind enough to actually sort out all the things he had, because quite frankly, there was a lot of shit to go through.
Sparing a glance, he optimized the notifications to first read the ones with a blaring red notification color rather than the light blue. He definitely remembered that one before and brought it up for everyone to see.
> You are afflicted with Intense Mana Deprivation.
Zeke groaned out loud, showing his debuff to her. Mikella also groaned, equaling his disasfaction.
“You’re either incredibly lucky or incredibly durable,” Val said, actually sounding more impressed than distressed.
“How so?” Zeke asked, mostly out of sarcasm if he was honest.
“You could’ve easily been afflicted with permanent damage. Perhaps during the attunement process, you gained enough mana to circumvent that… but it looks like this debuff would last a lot longer than usual.”
Zeke took a moment to reign in his disappointment. It was like saying he could have lost a leg instead of just breaking it. It would’ve been ten times worse, and having permanent damage involving magic doesn’t sound very fun.
“Still, he really should’ve known when to hold back. I should’ve stopped him, but he just went ahead and did this. So don’t worry about it, Val–I’ll make sure Zeke is properly punished for this.”
“Umm, excuse me,” Zeke raised his hand, staring at Mikella in disbelief. “I’m right here, you know.”
“Quiet, dingus, adults are speaking.”
Zeke could only roll his eyes at her remark, a very familiar insult hitting him just as before. He had a feeling a certain little girl would be saying that sometime soon in the future. Somehow, that insult gained a lot of weight as of late.
Val could only giggle at the chide remark from Mikella, but then someone galloped over to the carriage.
“She’s right, you know,” Cloud spoke up, getting their attention. Now that Zeke saw him, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
Cloud looked withered, way more than Valorie. If anything, he looked like he lost years of his life. Even worse complexion than his wife, and he even looked paler than most. Yet he still stood with a straight-rod posture even as he rode on the horse.
“Holy shit, Cloud…” Zeke wheezed, not realizing he was speaking more often than not and began coughing.
“You don’t have any right to tell me how bad I look,” Cloud smiled, withered as it was, at Zeke. “I’ll recover. But you’re only just starting as an Expert mage. If you keep doing things like this without any preparations, you’ll only pay the consequences at a time where you need your powers the most.”
Despite his serious tone and lecturing, Cloud smiled softly at the young man. There was a hint of gratitude behind his eyes that Zeke felt a bit awkward to see.
“But please understand–I owe you my life. What you did for me and my family will never be forgotten. I swear I will never forget what you did for us. I promise.”
Zeke almost felt pressure from the intensity behind Cloud’s voice. But he never once considered asking for a price. It felt wrong to do so. Who wouldn’t save a friend, even if hurt like a bitch?
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
He just felt that this horrible feeling is nothing compared to losing Val, a good wife and mother, and a dear friend that gave them sanctuary in this new world.
“Are you forgetting that I’m the one he saved, not you?” Val said, though there wasn’t any clear anger in her tone. Cloud only patted her head, smiling ever so sweetly.
“He might as well have. Without you, I’m nothing.”
Now Zeke wanted nothing more than to look away. They had the look in their eyes that felt like they entered into their own little world. Not that he disliked them doing that–after the crap they went through, Cloud had every right to fully appreciate Val still alive and breathing.
But thankfully both Mikella and Myra shared his sentiments as they quickly got back to topic. Apparently Val was taken aback by his words and just melted straight to his hand that caressed her cheek.
“But you gotta have gained something, right?” Myra went back on track. “Did you get anything from clearing the dungeon?”
“Clearing the dungeon?” Zeke asked, furrowing his brows. “Can we get rewards?”
“Apparently everyone got a reward when we got out of the tower,” Mikella said, almost as stumped as he was. “Not to mention a crap ton of levels.”
“Oh…”
Zeke finally looked up at his notifications, the good ones he ignored to find the bad one. It wasn’t really that bad, as the cost was nothing in his mind.
And for once, the notifications brought a smile to his face.
> You have cleared the dungeon: Embrace of Undeath.
>
> You have received the following rewards:
> 50 Gold Coins
> 100 Silver Coins
> Necklace of Last Night
.....
> Pain Resistance Level Up! It is now level 7.
>
> You have gained +1 VIT (x2) from your skill.
> You have gained +1 END (x2) from your skill.
…..
> Steadfast Mind Level Up! It is now Level 5.
>
> You have gained +1 SPI from your skill.
> You have gained +1 END from your skill.
…..
> Mana Perception Level Up! It is now Level 10 (Maxed).
>
> You have gained +1 INT from your skill.
> You have gained +1 SPI from your skill.
>
> Mana Perception has been maxed. Bonuses are now applied:
>
> -Increased mana control
> -Evolution available
> -Advancement available
…..
> Barrier Craft Level Up! It is now Level 10 (Maxed).
>
> You have gained +1 INT from your skill.
> You have gained +2 SPI from your skill.
>
> Barrier Craft has been maxed. Bonuses are now applied:
>
> -Increased potency
> -Decreased mana consumption
> -Advancement available
.....
> New Title Available:
>
> Dungeon Delver:
> You are not one for a comfy life. You rather venture into unknown territory for riches and glory.
>
> You have gained +2 DEX from your title.
> You have gained +2 END from your title.
>
> Title Skill attained: Eye for Treasure
…..
> Eye for Treasure (Title), Level 1 (Maxed)
> You developed a keen eye for particular riches. Increases sensitivity towards any unowned treasure around you by 1%.
Zeke whistled at the number of gains he made. Though the title skill wasn’t something he planned on using sometime soon, the attribute gains are always appreciated.
As for the tower rewards, the money was definitely appreciated. If he knew his coins, what he got was equivalent to six grand.
Then there was this strange necklace, pulling it out of his storage bag which the item threw itself into the moment he received the notification. He saw that it was a necklace with a golden braid-like chain with the centerpiece being a round dark gem, edged with a golden plating. It looked pretty, almost like seeing the dark sky without any stars. He checked the effects it had, and stared at it in awe.
> Necklace of Last Night (Uncommon):
>
> A necklace created with dark-based mana, fueled by a sorcerer with a shadow and night aspected attunement.
>
> Enchantments:
> Lesser Darkness
> Lesser Shadow
He showed them the necklace, to which everyone was happy to see, but mostly due to being able to sell it off for a decent amount of coins. It’s not like everyone around has any dark-based skills or spells.
After sharing his spoils, Mikella went in next. She gained a substantial amount of coins too, but it was around 50 gold with a 100 silver as well.
“It’s not surprising,” Val smiled. “Out of everyone here, you contributed the most. If anything, it’s because of you why the dungeon raid was so successful… in a way.”
Zeke couldn’t help but grimace at how she worded it. They couldn’t help it that they lost so many to some kid with a zombie fetish.
“I’m surprised it has something like a contribution thing at all,” Zeke said, shaking his head.
“It’s the same with the horde,” Myra pointed it out. “Outside of treasures and nice loot, that’s why so many people often go out exploring. The system recognizes your efforts, so it’s only obvious that the system rewards that effort along with any levels you gain.”
Zeke and Mikella nodded, prompting Mikella to show the same to Zeke from what she got. Not only did she get a reward of coins from the tower, she also received a Skill Book known as ‘Pain Shot’. It’s a Dark-Based Mana spell (go figure) that Val recognizes that simulates pain across the human body when afflicted with it.
Zeke shivered as he recalled the painful magic Alex threw at him. How it made his body feel pain way more than it should. He wondered whether Pain Resistance actually upgraded thanks to that…
Needless to say, Mikella had no need to learn it, even if her special status allowed her to learn a spell. It wasn’t her style, and if she were to pick up a magic spell, it certainly wouldn’t be something as cruel as this one. So she put it away in her storage bag. Good riddance, Zeke would gladly say.
That was it for the rewards, but she wasn’t done with her gains. Not only did she gain some levels and the Dungeon Crawler title as Zeke, she even got some skill levels too. Zeke only had a blank look on his face as he kept reading Mikella’s outrageous gains.
> Kinetic Perception Level Up! It is now Level 7.
>
> You have gained +1 DEX (x2) from your skill.
> You have gained +1 END (x2) from your skill.
…..
> Sword Mastery Level Up! It is now Level 9.
>
> You have gained +1 (x2) STR from your skill.
> You have gained +1 (x2) DEX from your skill.
…..
> Acrobatics Level Up! It is now Level 8.
>
> You have gained +1 STR (x2) from your skill.
> You have gained +2 DEX (x2) from your skill.
…..
> Hawk Eyes Level Up! It is now Level 8.
>
> You have gained +2 STR (x2) from your skill.
> You have gained +1 DEX (x2) from your skill.
…..
> Heavenly Strike Level Up! It is now Level 5.
>
> Decreased stamina and mana consumption.
> Increased damage.
…..
> Dragon Descent Level Up! It is now Level 4.
>
> Increased speed and maneuverability
> Decreased stamina and mana consumption.
…..
> Aerial Advantage Level Up! It is now Level 3.
>
> Increased attribute increases (x2).
Once everything was all well and calculated, he opened up his status screen in clear view.
> Name: Zeke Parlow (Savior)
> Race: Human
> Runist: Level 30 (Evolvable)
> Attunement: The World (Tier 1)
> STR: 20
> DEX: 65
> INT: 87
> SPI: 115
> VIT: 38
> END: 44
> Free Points: 0
There was certainly a lot of things to go over now that he reached Expert. His skills evolving and reaching their maximum level was certainly one of them, as now he had several options to see how he’ll upgrade them at some point.
For now, he can’t even think about anything on the skills. His Class, however…
“Did you make your choice yet?” Zeke asked, figuring that Mikella must have talked it over with anyone else while he was, once again, knocked out. “Your class evolution, I mean.”
“Not yet. I wanted to wait until you woke up.”
“You didn’t have to do that,” Zeke added, but in truth, he was happy to hear that she waited for his opinion.
Apparently Mikella could read the expression on his face like a book as she grinned back at him. “I know, but you’ll feel lonely then. Now come on, show me what you got.”
Zeke rolled his eyes, which he regretted soon after as his migraine came back to bite him. After a momentary pained headache, Zeke opened up his class evolution options.
Just like how Myra did it, one can evolve their class at the same time they jump up a tier. And just like how one can choose their class at Apprentice, one can evolve their class to suit their now upgraded needs and wants.
So he was surprised to find out he had three available options for his Runist Class.
> -Incantation Runist
> -Haphazard Runist
> -Spiritual Runist
For a class upgrade, none of them were any good at their names, but at least their descriptions were explainable.
He explained to Mikella that the first one, Incantation Runist, specialized in making Runic Spells like how he used his wind blast. It was certainly good, as it allowed him to increase the potency whereas a normal Runic Spell was lower in power compared to an average spell. It was also faster to cast, and can even alter it slightly in a better way.
The second, Haphazard Runist, was… well, like how Mikella called it:
“Dude, this is so you,” Mikella said with a giggle that almost pierced his heart.
In a way, it helped Zeke create strange runes that were not of the norm. One of those examples was his Superball Barrier, or the Counter barrier. Basically, making runes that even the system itself hadn’t seen before, or at least thought about but never tried.
However, while it may reflect him (on a fundamental level apparently), he didn’t like the sound of it. He could only have those ideas during the moment, and it’s not like he can plan ahead on how to use these crazy ideas at any point, especially on purpose.
Finally, the third one, was odd. It was vague, as the description itself wrote it out.
> Spiritual Runist
> A runist that relied on the aspect of mana through their runes. One’s runes, in some ways, reflects a runist’s soul. A Spiritual Runist can bring that soul out to create something more with their runes.
>
> Attribute Growth Per Level:
> +3 DEX
> +3 INT
> +3 SPI
>
> 2 Skill Choices at Level 30, Level 40, and at Level 50.
While it seemed weird, he can’t help but admire that strange yet intriguing way to bring something more into his runes. The Haphazard version was definitely out, but while the Incantation version was decent, he can’t help but think that he can just as easily learn how to do his Runic Spells better by himself, rather than using up an entire class evolution on it.
This one, in some ways, would improve all around, which by a process of elimination, easily made this the best choice.
Mikella also agreed once he gave his thoughts, and so he chose the class path.
> You have chosen Spiritual Runist.
>
> For each level, you gain:
> +3 DEX
> +3 INT
> +3 SPI
>
> For choosing Spiritual Runist, your Runecraft has advanced. It is now Rare.
>
> You gain points based on the advanced rarity:
>
> +6 DEX
All in all, a good haul, especially with Runecraft advancing to Rare rarity, a first for one of his General Skills.
On a side note, he also had his first skill choice at the Expert stage. Pulling up his choices, he read what was next.
> Class Skills available:
> -Explosive Runes
> -Phantasmal Runes
The first skill was interesting, at least. Explosive Runes is pretty much in the name–it makes runes that explode easily.
Adding in more detail, it allowed Zeke to draw runes with the potential to reach critical mass of mana and direct it however he wished. It was like Runic Spell in this case, except that it could also be used as a way to supercharge a rune array with a chance of exploding. He doesn’t plan on using this for any supportive type of rune arrays, especially on his barrier that was protecting the others.
Still, he did add that to the potential skill options to choose if the next choices weren’t up to task.
The second one, the Phantasmal Runes was a lot more interesting in all accounts.
> Class Skill: Phantasmal Runes
> A Spiritual Runist’s inscriptions would contain a piece of themselves in them. Allows the Spiritual Runist to connect any connecting rune to their Spirit stat, allowing an increase dependent on the attribute. Increases the potency of any runes created according to the level of the skill and the Spirit stat in increments of 10.
That got the otherworlders’ interest. For once, the end of the skill description mentioned the stat in increments, rather than the current number. In other words, it was a skill that relied solely on how large the attribute is.
Zeke’s own Spirit attribute is a whopping 115. It’s possible that this skill is perfect for him, so he chose it without any hesitation.
> Class Skill learned: Phantasmal Runes
As for Mikella, she showed her own options, to which Zeke had to try and laugh for Mikella’s sake–to which he failed miserably.
After a lot of trial and error, the time spent going back to the town longer as everyone is just trudging along from their injuries, she managed to make her choice. It wasn’t some fanfare, or some painful process like during their stage improvement, just a simple choice and now figuring out what to get after that.
When everything was well and done, they saw Zacharia coming over with his giant-ass horse, looking as pissed and stoic as ever.
“Zeke,” Zacharia spoke up, looking down on the nearly immobile Zeke with a steady glare. “Good to see you awake. How is your status?”
“I’m… recovering, at least, sir,” Zeke answered as best he could, even trying to straighten up a bit. That didn’t help at all since he nearly fell down the moment he tried.
“Good,” Zacharia nodded. “Though I have plenty of questions regarding your… knowledge of the tower, and how you managed to get us out of there.”
Zacharia mentioned, looking over to Mikella, then back to Zeke. He almost grimaced, but he didn’t show it. The tension was rising as he noticed Cloud and Val showing rather different looks. Val looked worried, but Cloud looked like he was ready to throw down if need be.
He didn't quite remember what was happening with everyone while his mind was within that strange void trying to cease Val’s turning. But from what he heard through snippets, it wasn’t very good.
Zacharia then turned back to Zeke, this time showing a somber stare. “But I won’t annoy you with such things. For now, rest well. You earned it after everything.”
“I…” Zeke lowered his head. “I know I could’ve done better.”
“Looking back is fine and all. In fact, I implore it,” Zacharia raised his head, a hint of pride as a general in his eyes. “But there is such a thing as chance and luck. While I hate to rely on superstition, it is no doubt an element in battle. We happened to be caught at our lowest. No matter how prepared we are, that won’t change.”
“I… I understand,” Zeke nodded. “Thank you, sir.”
“All of you did good, despite the circumstances,” Zacharia turned to both Myra and Mikella, giving them each a nod in respect.
“I definitely messed up on holding Zeke back, though,” Mikella offered, pressing her lips. “I know you told me to look out and all, so I apologize.”
“Such things are out of your control,” Zacharia shook his head. “One must work with what they have. Now, make sure to keep a look out. While Zeke needs rest, neither of us can drop our guard until we reach Eve Glade.”
With that, Zacharia went ahead, looking forward while returning to Piker who trudged along on his own horse. The carriage was left behind as Zeke looked back at Mikella.
“He really did a lot for us, while you were gone,” Mikella shrugged one shoulder. “And if you hadn’t noticed, he was really the worst off…”
“He’s the best when it comes to taking blows,” Myra shook her head. “But even I’m shocked at how much he could handle that. Nobody in this entire group took on that much undeath as him and lived to tell about it.”
Zeke nodded in return, still remembering how bad Zacharia looked. It must have been awful for him as well, considering that most of his retinue died while on the venture. Thankfully, Piker was safe, especially since he was apparently the general’s son.
“For now, let’s get some rest. Looks like the two of us will be getting along for a while longer on the ride, so why don’t we take the chance to relax?” Val smiled at Zeke, who returned the gesture. “Is there anything you wanna talk about? It gets pretty boring in the carriage and all.”
“Well…” Zeke grinned. “I’d like to know what I can do with my attunement, now that I got it.”
Mikella, Myra, and Cloud all nodded as they pitched in their thoughts, proving to be a good ride along the way.