Quickly explaining to the other three that have followed me to the buildings and also giving an example so they can see exactly what I am doing that will help the buildings go up so they can repeat it, we get to work.

It doesn't take us more than an hour to get all of the materials into the right spots.

"How long be you thinkin' this will take?" Zul'Zara asks me.

I inspect the holograms and see that the two tombs will take another 6 hours to complete while the cemetery will only take about 4 hours after all of the materials have been put into place.

While not the most ideal of situations for Zul'Zara and Uxa since they won't be able to get into their houses until later in the night I will have to figure out what to do later this afternoon to make sure that the queue doesn't empty out unlike yesterday when I had nothing being built all day.

Thinking about it I focus on the three of them and mentally send them a party invite.

Laxreal's eyes brighten a little bit, Zul'Zara takes a step back in shock, and Strauvana reaches for her dagger on her waist at the appearance of the prompt.

"Would you like to join Drake Taldrit's party? Yes or No"

They look to me still shocked about what is going on when Zul'Zara speaks up.

"When we be a party, what happens?"

Looking over at Ritotorus for confirmation of what he told me earlier. "We will share experience with each other, and we will have a small icon of each other that can show us some basic information so we know where we are at health and mana wise."

"That would be a useful thing then, yes?"

"It can be incredibly useful, I read lots of books back on my planet that involved people getting these things and they were able to help out tremendously in making sure that everyone was at a good point before they go further into unknown lands, like we are about to do right now."

"That makes a lot of sense." Strauvana chips in. "Being able to see how our mages are doing mana wise will be a great factor in whether we are able to continue exploring or if we have to turn around. Though one thing to note, we shouldn't go through all of our mana or in my case stamina in case we run into monsters on the way back from our exploration."

"Good point, we will have to maintain some communication as to when we should head back as I will have more mana than you from what I know of a human's stats."

They all agree and accept the party invitation.

I then get several prompts.

"Strauvana has entered the party.

Zul'Zara has entered the party.

Laxreal has entered the party."

Seeing that everyone here is in my party I bring up an important question.

"Which direction should we go?"

Laxreal while slowly getting out of his stupor mumbles his vote of going to the east like my original plan was. Which the other two agree.

And off we went towards the east and the skeletons that are there. On the way I start to notice several piles of bones sporadically throughout the area. I know there is only one person that would be out here killing skeletons in what appears to be a very aggressive manner.

Not long after seeing the bones piled up I see Uxa, he is panting but still slashing his sword at an oncoming skeleton. There are wounds all over his body and he seems to be in the verge of collapsing.

Watching the fighting I suddenly see an arrow fly past my shoulder and hit the skeleton in one of its ribs knocking it back a couple of feet and giving Uxa a little bit of breathing room.

I call out that I will cast my arcane shot so no one else wastes their precious mana. It flows out of my staff and lands directly on the skeleton's head causing it to explode.

"Congratulations, you have killed a level 3 skeleton. Reward: 4 Experience points (1 point shared between party members.)"

After the skeleton collapses into a pile of bones, Uxa follows suit. Rushing over to him I can see that he has a multiple injuries and some are still bleeding.

"What are you doing here?" He snorts while panting heavily.

"Saving your sorry hide." Strauvana quickly snaps at him.

With a downcast glance Uxa mutters darkly under his breath, "I could have taken it down without your help. I am fine."

"You are fine?" Strauvana hisses in fury at him. "You are FINE? If you are so fine then tell me what your health points are at? Huh? What is your stamina at? Because from what I can see you don't have any stamina remaining, and your health is close to bottoming out."

Seeing this completely different side on Strauvana I am about to step in when Strauvana continues on.

"Do you know that there are options for us to help each other out and make everyone stronger here? Do you know that going off on your own in such a manner could have gotten not just yourself but someone else killed?"

Uxa gets his feet underneath him and spits back.

"So what if my health and stamina are low, so what if there are options to make you people stronger, and so what if I could have gotten myself killed. It's not like you undead scum care about the living. It's not like you haven't already destroyed my whole world as we slowly fight for our own survival in the small bands that we can get together."

"That is how you see us, huh? As scum that kill without concern for those we are harming?" She replies though most of the anger is gone, now only a small amount of sadness appears in her eyes.

"How else am I supposed to see you? All I have known is the emotionless undead that have taken almost everything from me. When I was transported to that white room I had hope. Hope that I wouldn't have to see undead again. That I would be able to see my friends in an environment that they could slowly rebuild and prosper. But what do I get instead? I am stuck with two of my most hated enemies, a human that doesn't know how to fight properly to save his life, and a troll that I can't really have an opinion on.

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I don't see my friends, and I don't see what is left of my family. I was the strongest warrior in our band, and now I am gone. I don't know if they are going to die without me. I don't know a lot of things. The only thing I know is how to kill undead, and how to hate them just as much."

I am in absolute shock hearing that I am from Uxa. I didn't know that he had such troubles back on his planet. It does hurt that he thinks so little of me, but I am willing to admit that I have no idea what I should do in this situation that could make this a positive turn.

While looking around my surroundings as I am trying to think of a solution I see Laxreal step forward and gently touch Strauvana's shoulder.

"You hate us so much that you are willing to give up everything? You hate us so much that you aren't even willing to work with people that aren't your own for your survival in the hopes that your people might still be moving on and you might be able to bring them here? I can understand hating 'Your' undead for what they have done to you, your family, your loved ones, and everyone else on that planet of yours. Have you asked yourself though if it is different on Strauvana and my own planet? Have you thought that maybe not all undead are the same?"

Shaking his head, Uxa looks at Laxreal still with hatred in his eyes. "No, I have never thought of what your world could have been like since to me it didn't matter. I would give up everything because there is nothing left that I can do other than fight. Why should I-”

Laxreal cuts him off by raising his hand. "Let me tell you a little about my planet then. On it all of the different races get along to an extent. Sure there are wars, what the planet doesn't have them though, But the living come to the lands of the dead to learn, to find out what they can do with the knowledge that we have been storing for hundreds of years, and in turn we learn from them. As while they are a short lived race they are so intriguing when they get something that they figure out on their own. They bring new items to the world that we wouldn't have thought of in our wildest dreams allowing everyone to make steps forward.

I have even seen tengu in the halls of my family's schools that learn and expand on theirs and our knowledge. I digress though, what if it is possible to bring your people here still? What if it is possible that we find a way to slowly target your populations and get them to start rebuilding here? How would you feel about that?"

Still shaking his head and holding it Uxa replies with small sobs of frustration. "I would give anything to see my people free of the threat that is the undead scourge on our lands. If I could summon them here that would make things easier but we don't have scrolls, we don't know if we can even target specific races to bring them here anyways so what is the point?"

Laxreal slowly points at me, "I think you need to hear what Drake has told us whilst you were out searching for things to kill in such a blinding rage."

Uxa looks at me with a small amount of hope in his eyes. I step forward and take a deep breath. "While I don't know if it is possible to get specific scrolls to target a population, there might be options available to us as we progress. I mean from my standpoint I was going to potentially be a guinea pig in my world due to some issues with growths in my heart before I was summoned here. I was all alone until I leveled up the settlement to level 2. Now I have 4 people that I can talk to even if they aren't of my own race, it brought me joy knowing that I don't have to be alone anymore.

But it also petrified me when I saw that the first person to walk through the gate was Laxreal. I also had fought a couple of undead in this area and I wasn't born on a planet that had these issues so since the first day of my time being here I have been frightened. Now though I know we can pull through, so I promise you that if there are specific race summoning scrolls I will give them to you in hopes that we can pull your people here instead of the death that might be waiting for them in your home world.

So do you think you can at least trust me in helping you get your people here at least a little bit?" I reach out my hand to help him up one more time. He has fallen once again but this time he is on his knees sobbing into his hands.

Removing one of his hands to see my kind smile and outstretched arm towards him. Nodding he slowly grabs my hand and I pull him up to his feet.

"Let me ask you one more question Uxa, might we know how old you are?"

"I am an adult in terms of my people, but honestly I am only 17 cycles old."

Thinking back to when I was 17 I didn't have nearly the responsibility that this young tengu has on his shoulders. I look around and see the faces of my new compatriots to see a gentle smile from Zul'Zara, and what I can only interpret is a smile from Laxreal. I do see a small change in Strauvana's posture as well when she hears of his age.

I can feel the wisdom that comes off of Laxreal, I can feel the concern that comes from Strauvana, I can see the hope sprouting from Zul'Zara, lastly I can see the courage and strength that is Uxa. We are all not alone, we just haven't found the right path completely yet but I vow that I will make sure that when we are strong enough we will get their people here to either save them or show them a whole new world that they can explore!”

Seeing a new determination fill his eyes he stands on his own two feet firmly grasping my hand. "I haven't fully changed my mind about the undead that are with us, but if you feel like we can trust them then I will trust that you will watch my back in case something untoward happens to me."

"I promise that these people will look to you for the support that you can provide. They will look for a strong back that can help them move forward just as much as you have to move forward with what is happening." I confirm his determination and give him something that he can hopefully look forward to in the future.

I know this isn’t the last time something like this is going to happen with Uxa but at least with the help of the others we might be able to get him to focus a bit more on what is going on around us instead of what could have happened back at his home planet.

"To start, let's get you in the party so we can assess the situation." Inviting him to the party I immediately received a prompt.

"Uxa has entered the party."

I do take note that while his health and stamina are regenerating faster than I anticipated it is still not very much and we might have a long day ahead of us. Using some of my old mages robes to make simple bandages I try to wrap his wounds. I a stops me and does it himself with much more steady hands.

I look towards the east and lead the way to the mana berry bush I found last time I was out this way figuring that we can't have too many boons to add for those moments that we absolutely need them. Arriving at the bush pretty quickly as we don't need to worry about any surprise attacks from the skeletons we grab a handful and eat them, I also instruct Ritotorous to put some more into the bag he is carrying so we have a stock as a backup.

Finally we get to the cliff face with the cave that I found earlier. As we arrive we spot a skeleton walking out. I immediately analyze it and it's only a level 2 skeleton. I cast a spell and miss him from my maximum distance, while Ritotorous casts and hits the skeleton blasting off the lower half of it dealing 9 points of damage. Zul'Zara also casts her spell on it and misses as it is her first time casting mana, let alone trying to cast it through her staff. Strauvana hits the skeleton and puts an arrow right into its eye sockets that comes out the back killing it, dealing 4 damage.

"Congratulations you have killed a level 2 skeleton. Reward: 2 Experience points (As there are not enough experience points to give to everyone the highest contributors to the kill will receive them.)"

I also received another prompt.

"Congratulations, Arcane Shot has leveled up to level 2."

Thrilled, I look at my status menu.

Name: Drake Taldrit

Race: Human (F)

Gender: Male

Planet of Origin: Culhara

Class: Mage

Class Level: 1

Class Experience: 11/100

Profession: Enchanter

Profession Level: 1

Attributes:

Strength: 1

Dexterity: 1

Constitution: 1

Intelligence: 3

Wisdom: 3

Charisma: 1

Skills:

Analyze Level 2

Arcane Shot Level 2

I analyze arcane shot to see if anything has changed.

- Arcane Shot Level 2: Deals 2-9 Damage to an enemy within 30 meters. -

Seeing that the damage has gone up I am ecstatic. I look to everyone in the group once I am done with my status menu and then motion for us to proceed into the cave entrance.