Chapter 45) Back to work. Or, Waking up is hard to do.

Osalor took a step forward, but instead of doing that stretchy thing to get down to the ground, he twisted as he stepped forward and turned while drawing his sword which gleamed with a blade made of the white background of the panels, and he did all of that as he dropped down to land in the dungeon beside me. Looking up with his sword held in what looked to me like a practiced stance.

He sounded a little panicked. “What is that? Nothing is supposed to be up there.”

Turning toward me, I found him shaken to the point that for once he was looking right at me. “Why aren't you… You make speak Szoke.”

Oh, may I?

“I’ve been calling it the Sniffer. It’s invisible and it checked me out every time I’ve gone up there in a new body… But come to think of it, it never bothered me in the ball of light Guide form, or sniffed at Allie something or other, at least not that she said. But about that exit portal, could we do the Plane-”

He held his hand at me while looking away again. Finger out as he closed his thumb up against his fingertips, “Enough.”

…that was almost as annoying as ‘Skip.’

Osalor seemed lost in thought, then he sheathed his sword, without looking, in one try.

I admit that impressed me a little.

“You will train the fighters as I instructed you. You will not possess a body to go wandering up on the Strata or to train the Fighters. No additional items, no additional gates. Tell me that you will be a good little Guide and follow my orders.”

Hmph. “By your command.”

He half grinned, then looked upwards and did the stretchy thing into the sky and vanished.

In my most sniveling whiny voice, I began talking to myself. "Be a good little guide and follow my orders" Like hell.

I seethed, I plotted, I planned… I waited.

No countdown, no trainees.

"Did I miss something?"

Wandering around the place, I began etching some of the same helpful information into the walls about gaining the Starter skills, and then after a while, how to gain the low hanging fruit of the Basic skills that the Trainees could unlock after they went through the gate.

He didn’t say I couldn't, and how was I supposed to find all the limits he was going to place on me unless I pushed them?

I just had to hope I didn’t push them too far.

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So the warning and breakdown on Tesaro made it to the wall, along with a map of the insides of the city, and the areas I saw outside of the Barricade. At least as best as I could remember.

More time passed.

“He forgot to start the intake on Trainees didn’t he.”

And the last time the person in charge had some questions, like ‘What was sniffing me’, and went looking for answers. They didn’t come back.

How long was I going to be stuck here?

No one to train, and taking a Wisp or a Skeleton to go exploring could get me sent to hell.

Plus even going up as high as I could, I couldn’t see any sign of anything else out in or on the Strata in any direction.

But O’Sailor didn't say anything about going through the portal now did he?

A quick trip to see how things had fallen out sounded good. I wanted to know what had happened with the wakeful dead, as well as Matt, Josh… and Drew along with the Liche.

Of course, the boss from hell could just be waiting for me to screw up, either watching me himself or with some agent or recording device. But what was I supposed to do, just wait here forever?

Being a glowing ball of light somehow meant I didn’t get frustrated or go insane from boredom, but I was still bored.

Shoot, I’m going.

I made a Skeleton, and after a brief pause to see if anything happened since I wasn’t supposed to make any skeletons, I jumped into it and ran for the gate to Tesaro.

No one stopped me.

A brief passage through blue light in front of me and red light behind me, and I once again stood in the temple of the Lady of Life.

Standing in front of a group of skeletons, the ones in front in armor and holding a net.

They seemed confused.

A suspicion that got confirmed when they began talking.

“Ah, what’s going on? Are we getting undead Adventurers now?”

“Should we capture him? I think it’s a him.”

“I don’t think we want to start a precedent of enslaving the dead, besides it's not like he can work on the Barricade. And he is a he, I mean look at his hips."

“Hey my body was male when I was alive, but I got to be a woman in the dream time, so we should all be free to be what we want, like gender matters to walking bones anyways.”

While the dozen or so skeletons argued and discussed various matters, I slipped out the front door.

The city was different from before, for one thing, the grounds outside the temple were packed with the dead praying toward the temple itself, and the plaza outside the grounds was pretty much filled up too.

But I didn't have the time to ask them why they were all here as a shout of "Hey, where'd he go?" sounded out behind me. Followed by am “Or she!”

Running, running, running.

As one more set of bare bones wandering around the city, it wasn't like they could catch me by giving out a description. I didn’t even have any gear with me since no one had arrived at the new dungeon yet.

So I took a grand tour.

The streets were pretty much deserted now. The dead either had better things to do than wander around in the street waiting to become Life points for some Adventurers or…

They were sitting around, half collapsed in absolute despair.

It seemed like waking up to their reality had left a lot of them emotionally wrecked.

Eventually, I made my way to within sight of the Barricade.

To find a few dozen men stripped the waist under the hot sun, working at the Barricade with crude tools and make shift scaffolding, as they worked at digging a hole through the great big wall, as well as prying at a holy symbol of a golden cross with a loop on the top.

One of those Onk thingies.

All of them were working with a group of skeletons armed with spears and bows aimed at the living men as a dead man yelled at them to keep at it.

I looked around at the faces of the living men and saw a half starved Matt look up at the yell.

After giving him a wave, he gave me a curious look.

It wasn’t like he could understand any of it, but I began to sign.

“You should have learned sign language fool.”

After a moment of looking confused, his head jerked back, and he gave me the slightest of nods before turning to get back to work as a familiar looking woman stood up from the Liche’s throne where it sat underneath a thick patchwork tarp.

She said something to one of the Skeletons with a bow.

Who then shot Matt in the back.

She called out to the rest of the living who stopped working to yell and glare at her.

“Oh stop. He was starving to death anyways. Tomorrow morning he will be back all hearty and ready to get back to work.”