Returning from the mindscape, I found myself hidden away in the hollow where I’d been meditating. Listening carefully, I picked up the rustling of something pushing through the dense trees. It was growing closer. I scrambled out of the hollow and continued my flight through the forest. The guards from the city were no doubt using a tracking spell, and without my own counter spell, there was no way I could evade them by hiding.

I fled deeper and deeper into the forest. Eventually, the sound of pursuit faded, but this time I didn’t stop. The forest seemed to stretch on forever, and I was thankful for that. The recent destruction of the city had tainted this land with death magic, and all the regular creatures had either fled or died. There certainly hadn’t been enough time for a new biome to grow. So now there was no threat of large predatory creatures, which was quite the relief considering I was a weak Lich at the moment.

I came across a road traveling through the trees, and pulled out a map of the region I’d acquired. Staring at it for several long seconds, I found the very road I’d stumbled across. It looked like it wound its way through a mountain pass and to the north. Since that direction was the shortest route out of this undead kingdom, I decided to follow it.

It didn’t take long for the winding road to meet the edge of the forest. It straightened and led out onto a series of small plains, dotted with gnarled trees and scrub bushes. The once golden grass that covered this land was now a dull gray, which was rather surprising. I had no idea the death magic from Dother had reached so far.

As I crossed the plains, I came across my first undead, natural occurring, creature.

The body of a field mouse lay next to the road. I thought nothing of it, only just noting it as an odd occurrence. But just as I passed, the corpse stirred. Kneeling to watch, in rapt fascination, the corpse got to its feet. The undead field mouse shook itself, then looked up at me.

Its eyes held a slight glow of necromantic energy. The creature studied me for a moment, then darted into the grass. As I continued on my way, using my staff as a walking stick, I thought on that. What would that strange undead creature eat—how would it eat? Undeath biomes existed elsewhere, but it didn’t make sense to me. How could death live off more death?

It was likely similar to how I increased my death core. Larger undead creatures would likely eat that mouse, adding that death energy to its own. This would likely allow the predator to reproduce or grow stronger.

I wished I could stay and watch, certain it would be fascinating to watch a biome based off predation come to life. However, I couldn’t stay. They would be looking for me. Especially since they saw me heading north. They probably thought I was a spy for Valdor, the kingdom to the north. While it wasn’t a theocracy, there was a powerful church there known as Olattee. The church technically had no political power, but they held both an immensely powerful presence in the population and often whispered in the ear of the king.

My guild was sure they’d taken note of the conquering of Dother and were no doubt on high alert. Due to the power and presence of Olattee, it was rumored they were likely preparing to attack. I didn’t know if that strange pulse of soul energy would change anything, but there was no way Olattee would tolerate the presence of an undead city on their borders.

Moving on, I combed through the spells I had access to. There were a number of spells I’d retained. Likely because knowledge of spells wasn’t tied to my soul, instead it was tied to my mindscape. Which while currently in ruins, still contained everything I’d done.

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The vast majority of my spells were far beyond my ability to cast, and I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to cast many of them. After all, I wasn’t sure how I felt about who I’d been.

It took me a while to find the right spell—one I learned but never had a use for. Looking at the mana cost I winced. Even with my discounts for casting dark magic, this was still outside my ability to cast. Fortunately, it wasn’t too far outside my ability. I just need to add a few stat points to my intelligence.

Several hours later, as I approached the mountains, the road became surrounded by lightly wooded fur forest. The trees closer to the plains had an ominous look to them, with pale green needles and gnarled, twisted bark. Following the road, it began to climb. The mountains weren’t big, as far as mountains went, but they rose rather abruptly. As I climbed the switchbacks, I noticed it was here that the trees became healthier looking.

By the time I left the timberline, the trees were almost normal. The ground beyond the trees was covered in hearty tough foliage that could survive the colder temperatures. These mountains were known for getting a lot of snow. They acted as a storm wall standing against many of the powerful winter storms that blew in off the Crystal Gulf.

At the top of the first pass, I opened my map. There were several valleys and lesser passes I needed to travel through before I left these mountains. Near the middle of the mountain range was a fortress, beyond that the details became less exact.

Getting past that fortress would be the hardest part of my journey. I doubt a kingdom with such a heavy religious influence would look kindly on a Lich down on his luck.

Taking another look at the spell I hope it would get me past the fortress. All I needed were a few more levels. In mountains like this, that shouldn’t be hard. So long as I didn’t pick a fight with something I couldn’t beat.

***

The cries of battle reached me before I saw it. Stashing my phylactery away in a small crevice, I followed alongside a stream of crystal-clear water that wound through the steep mountains. It let out to a small valley full of tall trees and light undergrowth. The screams grew in strength ahead, sounding more and more like a group of travelers in trouble.

Deciding it was worth the risk, I followed the cries. It didn’t take long to come upon the fight. A group of four people was being attacked by a small, undead troll. One of them was a priest, making me hesitate. Then one of his companions went down. The troll reared back to land a killing blow and I acted.

Almost out of instinct, my arm snapped back and I catapulted my spear forward like a javelin. My weapon wasn’t meant to be thrown, but I’d practiced with it for situations just like this. My aim was true, and the sharp blade pierced the troll’s rotten flesh. I pulled the hood of my robes down over my face as I rushed forward, hoping no one would see my skeletal nature.

Leaping forward as the troll staggered from the surprise attack, I gripped my blade-staff and ripped it free, twisting it to widen the wound. My attack was far from enough to kill the troll—these beasts were notoriously hard to kill. My attack was enough to buy time for the priest to cast a healing spell on his friend.

Holding my blade-staff in a guard position, I quickly looked over the group.

The felled man was likely the party’s tank, and the other two members were a pair of rangers. The troll had multiple large arrows sticking out of its body. This was likely a group of players. Hopefully, they were friendly.

With a series of stabs and cuts that shred its long arms, I manageed to keep the troll at bay.

It was far stronger than anything I should have been able to fight, but with the help of the players, I was able to keep ahead of it until the tank rejoined the fight. He rushed in, using a shield rush to bash the troll. The tank gave a nod of acknowledgment in my direction, and we began to systematically whittle the powerful monster down.

The fight was a close one, but in the end, we prevailed. As the troll died, I opened my character sheet, hoping to have gained a level. Seeing that I had, I put all of the stat points into intelligence and closed the character sheet.

I immediately cast my illusion spell. Dark magic briefly rolled around me and then I appeared as a human.