Alix longed to stay behind in the woods and forget all his problems. He wanted to throw himself into clearing all the trees around the walls, collecting enough lumber that they could replace every scrap of rotten wood in the castle, but his heart had sank at Brant’s tale. If his wife had been sold into slavery a week ago, there was little chance of finding her now. She could be half way across Babyl by now, although he didn’t have much idea of its scale. Maybe she was already on the other side of the world. Plus, the combined strain of carrying thousands of lengths of lumber, and the hours spent training with Tifayn, had exhausted his body. If everyone was set on this course of action though, they needed to get moving as soon as possible. With a heavy sigh, he left the clearing and climbed back over the wall.

“What in the Naether is that!”

Alix heard a voice yelling as he entered the castles once grand entrance chamber. The voice came from upstairs, and as he rushed up the steps he noticed that some of the dodgier ones had been recently replaced with fresh wood. He quickly opened his map and found where Tifayn, Evory and Brant were congregated, in a room near to where he had taken refuge his first night in the castle. He distinctly remembered the room being in pretty rough shape back then, but when he entered the room, through a newly installed door, he found a fire burning in the hearth, the holes in the floor repaired, and the skeletons installing shutters over the broken windows until they could source some glass. The chairs had been brought into the room, and a remarkably intact dining table had been found.

Tifayn was sitting at the table, nursing a large glass of wine, and Evory was sitting as far away as she could at the other end with a glass of her own. Brant was pressed up against the wall by the door, a look of fear plastered on his face as he stared at the reanimated dead installing the wooden shutters and tending to the fire with remarkably nimble fingers. Damn, they are working fast, Alix thought to himself.

“I told you already, the only ones here are me,” Alix began, pointing at himself, “a demon,” he pointed at Tifayn, “a vampire,” he pointed at Evory, “and hundreds of skeletons,” he then waved his hand around the entire room. Just then Mr Bones entered the room with a tray of food, followed by a couple more skeletons carrying yet more food, a keg of beer and some mugs. Brant stayed frozen where he was until the food had been placed on the table and the skeletons retreated from the room, to continue their endless tasks. “The sooner you start believing what I say the better. Now, pour yourself a drink and we can discuss what to do next,” Alix said, taking a seat beside Tifayn and pouring himself a drink.

Brant unpeeled himself from the wall and stiffly followed Alix’s command. He poured himself a full tankard of beer and after taking a few appreciative sips, downed the whole thing, before filling another one and then taking a seat up near Evory. Alix stated at him expectantly but he wasn’t forthcoming with any plan.

“What? My plan was to come here and kill you. I don’t have any more ideas. If you have any, feel free to share,” Brant eventually said around a mouthful of beer.

“Well, it sounds to me like we don’t have much time to sit around and discuss what to do. If the men that took your wife mentioned slavers, then the logical thing to do would be to find some and try get some information from them. As an Imperial soldier, I’m sure you must know something of the kingdom’s underworld,” Alix said, trying to coax more useful information out of him.

“There are a few slavery gangs working in the kingdom. There is no way of knowing which one she might have been sold to,” Brant replied bluntly.

“Then we will just have to look into them all. We should try and question the men you left your wife with as well, see if there’s something they remember.”

“I trust my men to have told me everything they know already.”

“But I don’t. I’ve had dealings with the Imperial Army before and I can tell you that there are a few assholes among you.”

“This is all meaningless, unless we can find a way to get you into the city,” Tifayn said, bringing all his plans crashing down. Alix had completely forgotten that he couldn’t just walk in there and look around.

Alix groaned in frustration. Back to the library. Again. Actually... Alix opened up his map again and opened a communication line with Mr Bones.

Mr Bones, there’s something I meant to ask you. I heard one of the previous Darknight’s was a librarian and she was the one that created the card catalogue system. Is she among the ones I resurrected from the crypt?

She is, my lord, Mr Bones replied.

Excellent. Could you send her to me?

She will be with you momentarily, my lord.

“What are you planning?” Tifayn asked. She smirked at him as if she was glad he was starting to come up with ideas by himself.

“I can’t keep spending all my time looking through the library for the information I need, so I might have found someone that can help me find it, and help organise the uncatalogued books,” Alix said.

A few moments later the door opened and a skeleton walked in.

“Are you Astrid?” Alix asked the new arrival.

“Yes, my son,” the skeleton replied in the same disembodied voice as Mr Bones, but distinctly feminine. The text hovering above her changed from Skeleton to Astrid, Lv. 724. With her name back, it almost looked like she stood straighter, prouder, if that was possible for a skeleton.

Damn, all that reading must have done her some good. Alix suddenly wondered if the skeletons could keep levelling up after their death? He wished he had a notes section in his interface where he could store all the questions he wanted to ask.

“Great, I was hoping you would be able to help me. The ring told me that you are the one that came up with the card catalogue system for the library. It’s been very helpful for me so far, but over the centuries none of the new books have been added to the catalogue so its becoming a bit of a mess. I was wondering if you would be interested in continuing the work you started? I would also really appreciate it if you could help me find certain things when I need them.”

“I have wished for nothing more. Thank you, my son. I will begin at once.”

“Before you go, there’s two things I would like you to find me first. I need a book on making clothes, and another on how to change my appearance somehow so I can go into town unnoticed.”

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“I think I know just the thing,” Astrid said, before leaving with a new sense of purpose.

“Why did she keep calling you her son?” Brant asked from across the room. He had shifted seats once Astrid had entered the room to put Evory between them.

“She used to be a Darknight. All of the skeletons used to be Darknights. It only just occurred to me that I should be utilising their knowledge instead of just their labour though,” Alix said.

“Let us eat for now,” Tifayn said to the group. “We only have a day or two to spare before we need to leave so let’s enjoy it while we can.”

It took several hours before Astrid finally returned, just as Alix was about to call it a night. Evory and Brant had already retired for the night. Evory didn’t need sleep like a normal human did, but Brant was still weak from his ordeal. He had been sleeping rough for the past week, hunting after ghosts, and he had drank too much beer on a stomach that had been light on food for days. Alix couldn’t understand why he was sticking with Evory so much, considering she was the one that had fought him in the grounds. He suddenly thought back to all the vampire films he had seen. Had Evory biting him created some bond between them? Was Brant going to turn into a vampire? He hadn’t shown any signs of it, if that was even how it worked in Babyl. He hoped Evory wouldn’t take it upon herself to rebuild the entire vampire race by stealing people from others. Although it really didn’t matter in the end. Once his five years here were up, she could do what she liked without him stopping her.

Tifayn had also gone to bed. Brant had tried to insist they leave first thing in the morning, but Tifayn had resisted. The whole thing would be a guaranteed failure if they weren’t prepared, and they needed at least a day or two for that. What she really wanted was to spend more time training Alix, which was fine with him if they were going to be going up against slavers. He didn’t want to rely on the ring’s abilities to save him if it came to a proper fight. The sooner he learned how to handle himself in battle, the better. Plus, they needed to see what Astrid came up with as well.

Astrid was as flustered as it was possible for a skeleton to look when she returned to the dining room. She carried a handful of books in her arms and she deposited them on the table with a shake of her head.

“I’m sorry it took me so long to return. I cannot believe the state the library is in,” Astrid said, all formality gone from her voice. Now she sounded more like a mother about to chastise her son for doing something wrong. “It is such a simple system, I don’t know why no one thought to keep it up. I know it is not your fault, you have only just arrived. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to restore it to its rightful state. I have found the books you requested, although there may be more among the unsorted. It will take me a while yet to catalogue them all. If you will excuse me, I would like to get back to the library.”

Astrid left as quickly as she had arrived, before Alix could ask her exactly what part of the books were relevant. She had found more books than Alix was expecting, some of them fairly thick. Any thought of getting an early night faded. If they wanted to leave within the next couple of days, he needed to read through the books.

The first one he picked up was another that looked like it had been lifted straight from his own world. The Complete Book of Tailoring looked more like The Complete Book of Fancy Ass Suits, but that would still suit some of his needs. The next book, The Weaver’s Handbook, was what he was really looking for.

It began with a brief overview of the converting of raw material into yarn. The raw material is turned into fibre, which he already had, and then the fibre combed and blended into a roving. The roving was then spun into thread and at that point the thread could be woven into fabric. A few more pages were dedicated to diagrams of all the tools used, the various forms of looms, before each step was further expanded upon. It covered every aspect of the fabric making process, all the way up to dyeing and fabric finishing.

By the time he had finished power reading the book several hours later, he had unlocked various new Titles, and a whole range of new Crafting abilities. Together they all meant that he could now open his Crafting menu, select Fabric, and the Fibre he had collected immediately wove itself into Fabric.

Alix crafted a tonic with the addition of a few coffee beans before he opened the book on tailoring. It was a very dry read, full of the intricacies of tailoring the perfect suit for any style or occasion. He was at least glad to see that it contained designs for more clothes other than suits. The tonic was wearing off by the time the notification bell finally went, telling him he had unlocked Tailoring.

The option appeared under the Crafting menu and he eagerly selected it. All of the various clothes he had read about appeared in a list, along with a list called Outfits that grouped together bits and pieces. One of them was called Librarian Uniform. It had a stated Fabric cost underneath the icon, which he was able to cover ten times over. He selected the uniform, and then another menu appeared asking him to select who the outfit was for from another list, which showed everyone that had been logged into his Map. It only took a second to find Astrid, as the majority of the names on the list were Skeleton. He would have to find a way to learn all of their real names soon.

With a flash, a fresh pair of Librarian Robes appeared on the table before him. The voluminous robes were a rich shade of red, with gold bands around the hems and sleeves. They seemed pretty elaborate and ornate for a librarians uniform to Alix, but he had yet to see another librarian in Babyl to compare them to. They suited his purpose though; to give back the skeletons some of their humanity by restoring their names and clothing them. The other skeletons would have to wait a while yet. Even with his large stores of Fabric, he would only have enough to clothe a dozen or so.

Alix left the clothes on the table and moved on to the next book; Impractical Potions. It was thicker than both Practical Potions Volume 1 & 2 combined. He debated leaving the book until tomorrow, thinking it had to only be a few hours until sunrise, but on the other hand he longed to know what impractical potions were. Then he noticed the book had a ribbon bookmark. He flipped to the marked page, and saw that Astrid had already done the work for him. Then Alix learned just what an impractical potion was.

This potion is impractical for several reasons. The first one is the problematic ingredient, Lovebud. Lovebud is a very rare and highly potent aphrodisiac, one that’s use is banned in most regions across Babyl. The second is that the process of distilling its essence into a non-lethal form is lengthy and prone to failure. If the process is successful, the resulting essence can then be used to produce the potion known as Obscene Privilege, the production of which is itself length and expensive.

The last impracticality are the effects of the potion itself. Even diluted, the effects of the Lovebud are extremely potent, although the potion does not affect the drinker themselves, but those around them, with the effects increasing the longer the user is in contact with someone.

The user will no longer appear as themselves to anyone around them. They will become an object of desire, differing from eye to eye. The beholders will do anything that is asked of them to appease the user, with the effects increasing to harmful levels of worship and devotion after long exposure. In most cases, the user is forced to flee and live in solitude until the effects wear off.

Use with extreme caution.

* Recipe Acquired: Obscene Privilege.

Despite the books claim that its ingredients were extremely rare, he found that he already had them in his inventory in abundance. He was apprehensive about creating the potion but now that he finally knew something that Lovebud could be used for, he was eager to try it out, although he wasn’t entirely sure that it was going to be appropriate enough for their needs. He didn’t want Brant falling madly in love with him. He made sure to craft a new vial first, and then he selected the recipe for Obscene Privilege.

* Obtained x1 Obscene Privilege.

Alix took the potion out from his inventory to have a look at it. The contents of the vial at first looked like an ominous black, but as he turned it and it caught the light, it began to glitter and swirl with captivating shades of red, pink and purple. Before he could stop himself, he found the vial half way to his lips. It felt like his head was full of cotton, unable to think clearly. He quickly returned the vial to the safety of his inventory and decided to call it a night.

Alix sent a quick message to Astrid letting her know the robes were for her, then retreated to his rooms. He downed a Nightbringer Draught and hoped he wouldn’t be too exhausted for whatever Tifayn had planned for the morning.