While her new minion ran trough the woods, sometimes bringing down a couple of trees when they were too thick to simply evade, Elena thought about her future.

While she would have liked to exact her revenge as soon as possible, she knew she wouldn't be able to stand head to head against an entire kingdom, even if it was Meriad, one of the least powerful and by far the smallest one on the entire continent of Thedus. A wonder why it had yet to be conquered by its neighbors.

Even after gaining her new powers and raising so many undead, she barely poses a threat to a large settlement, not to mention one of the two cities or the capital, she wouldn't stand a chance.

Elena shook her head. No, she had to train and become more powerful, especially now that Melia switched off the System for her. It had its advantages, in the long run, being able to use her magic more freely and letting her create new spells, but now she had to study her powers by herself.

For that purpose, they were currently headed to the town of Krentan, located in one of Meriad's adjacent kingdoms, and where Elia was born. There she could finally get down to read the books she had found in her cave and in the dungeon, most of which were incidentally about necromancy. Also, they would register as adventurers, both to gain money, gain experience and gather corpses for her to turn into undead.

A sharp cry interrupted her thoughts. Looking around, Elena rapidly found the source of the noise. While running, her minion somehow ran over a wandering Wyvern and had cut it in half.

A shame, Elena thought. It would have made such a good minion, but she was not able to raise back to life corpses if they were mauled to such an extent.

Ignoring Elia's shaking, a reaction she knew very well was related to his past traumas, she ordered the King to continue forward, towards the direction Elia had indicated before departing.

The dense trees began to thin, as they finally reached the outskirts of the forest, and she made her minion stop. Then, they dismounted the monster and Elena put him back into her ring. She didn't want to announce her powers to the whole world just yet.

After a couple more minutes of walking out of the woods, they reached a dirt road, where they diverted towards north, as Elia told her.

On the way, they didn't meet many people, but the few they encountered were obviously either adventurer going into the forest to complete some kind of quest, merchants or pilgrims.

They were quite polite, greeting them as soon as they were in sight, though Elena couldn't help but notice how their friendly expressions changed to slightly scared after meeting her eyes. What's wrong with them?

Soon enough, they reached the town. The guards at the gates were obviously slacking off, either playing card games, chatting or drinking, completely disinterested on checking the people passing trough.

Only a couple of them seemed to take their job seriously, though they were also being easily distracted by their fellow guards.

Elena and Elia passed by without incidents, though she was quite sure one of the guards had been looking at her weirdly.

The town inside the walls was bustling with activity, though it was quickly dying down as the sun started to set, and they started to look for a decent inn to spend the night in.

They didn't have much money, only a couple coins Elia had somehow managed not to lose in the days past, so they weren't searching for a luxurious place. Not that they would have anyway, it would have just been a waste of time.

Finally, after an hour of searching, they found a decent looking inn that seemed to be affordable for them. Opening the door, they were greeted by the kind of atmosphere you would have found in any other inn early in the evening.

Four waitresses were serving around forty people seated around various round table, drinking and joking, laughing and drowning their problems in alcohol.

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A nice looking rotund lady stood behind the counter, talking to a few people before taking some coins from them and giving in return a key.

Elena, followed by Elia shortly after, walked towards the counter. A couple guests who noticed them stopped talking, laughing or doing whatever they were doing before, and stared at their backs, though most turned around after a couple of second and resumed their activities.

As soon as she reached the counter, Elena addressed the barkeeper.

"A room for the night. How much?" she said.

The bartender turned around, and as soon as she saw Elena, she gasped.

"No, that's wrong!" she half-shouted, drawing some stares from the nearby costumers. "That's not how a lady speaks, you have to be more polite, and stop looking at me like that, that's so unladylike! Also, what do you think you're doing, walking around dressed like that, you..." and she started a really long monolog, pointing out this or that about Elena's manners.

Halfway trough the conversation, she had grabbed Elena by force and brought her in a room behind the counter, after throwing a key to Elia.

"You must be her boyfriend, right? Ask for something to eat, and then go take some sleep. I will take care of her for tonight." and they both disappeared.

The day after, Elia was sitting at a table consuming his breakfast, when the barkeeper, which he had discovered was called Nervira, burst out of the same door she had disappeared the day before, with Elena in tow.

"She completely refused to wear a dress, but at least I managed to convince her to wear something better under her robes and put on some decent makeup! And also take a crash course on manners from me, obviously." said Nervira, a slight tinge of pride leaking from her voice.

And sure enough, Elena was... different from the day before. Though the new clothes and makeup weren't all too flashy, they were enough to make the other costumers in the tavern, and Elia, stare at her quite hard.

A glare from Elena made most of them turn around, but some still stole a couple glances a few times.

After the... incident, Elena dragged Elia to the adventurer guild they had passed by the day before, where they would be able to register as adventurers and take on requests posted by the citizens or the town guards to gain money.

They entered the building, and they immediately noticed most of it was very similar to the tavern they had just come out from, though there were a few differences.

First of all, everyone here was armed from head to toe. Second, there was a long line to a counter with various attendants behind it, and a crowd gathered around a large board filled with sheets of paper.

After waiting their turn in line, they finally got to talk to one of the attendants and registered as Tier I adventurers, the lowest tier as they were new. Then, they got to the board and took one random requests at their level.

"... this went on for many days, weeks, months and finally years.

Request after request, monster slain after monster slain, they built up their knowledge, developed new skills, trained the ones they already knew and gathered strength. But this is another story, you don't really care, right?" the strange blue haze asked you, after finally finishing to narrate the story.

It felt as if months had passed since he had started. Meanwhile, it was still playing chess with the 'average guy'.

You lost count of how many games they had played, but you know the average guy had never won one. But he was coming slightly closer every time, and the fact unnerved you.

Why? You don't know, and you don't think it really matters.

For the first time, the blue haze stops playing and starts floating towards you, before engulfing you whole.

"Now, it is time for your story to begin. But first, you need some... reshaping. I wonder what will become of you? Obviously, it all depends on you, ah ah." it said, looking towards YOU.

End of 'Book I – Undeads'

The first chapter of 'Book II – Wars' will come out on the 17th of July, see ya then!