Aedifex tried to open his eyes, but nothing happened. He couldn’t see or hear anything. His taste and smell were gone, not that he couldn’t taste or smell anything, the senses themselves were just gone. Touch was still there, but all he felt was this sense of pressure from all around. Pressure and... wetness. He was encased in something wet, tough but slightly yielding, almost like... meat. It was his own flesh he was feeling. He supposed he ought to be feeling nauseous right now, but somehow he wasn’t. Maybe because he didn’t have a stomach to upset anymore? Never mind, there was something more important to worry about. He couldn’t move.
Aedifex strained his muscles (or whatever he was using) trying to move his arms and legs. It wasn’t that they weren’t answering, he could feel pressure build, but something else was pressing back. Giving up on his normal 5 senses (well, 3 senses now) he concentrated on his Sense. Each magic user developed their own unique way of perceiving the world through mana, determined mainly by how they used it. All of these were lumped together under the generic term Sense. As an Enchanter, Aedifex’s Sense was very short ranged and specialized in analyzing the composition of objects. Not exactly the best way to see what’s around you, but under the circumstances...
He concentrated on his Sense. First he sensed his skeleton... or his body, as he ought to get used to calling it. Still the same material, but now coursing with mana. Moving outward he sensed first a layer of dead flesh, then a layer of cloth, then... a second layer of cloth? Finally he sensed... dirt. Just dirt. Everywhere.
He felt a bolt of pure panic. He’d never been bothered by enclosed spaces before, but then again, he’d never been BURIED ALIVE (minus the alive) before either. He got a hold of himself, pretty easily too. Actually, he felt like there were a lot of things he should have freaked out about before this too. It seemed like his emotions didn’t build upon each other like they had when he was alive, they just sort of flared up and then dissipated. He supposed he ought to be disturbed by that, but right now it was useful so he was just going with it.
Calmly thinking about this, it became clear what had happened. Even though it felt like Soul Anchor had only taken a few moments to cast, in reality it had been far longer. Someone else had come to his store and found... a body. From finding the body, time for the guard to look over the scene, a priest to perform the rites... it had probably been at least 2 days. That would explain all the extra mana as well, that was long enough to refill his mana pool 8 times. Well, at least he wasn’t being kept alive (sort of) by a hastily cast enchantment. He’d never spent 2 days enchanting a single item before, could he call himself a masterpiece now?
Getting back to his current predicament, the first thing to deal with was that second layer of cloth... his burial shroud. He decided the easiest way was just to overload it with mana. Every rookie enchanter destroyed a few items this way before they learned to control their mana. Starting above his feet, he focused his mana to one point on the shroud. It quickly crumbled, and he moved the focus up, centimeter by centimeter. He got roughly half a meter before his mana ran out. He was pleased to note there was no feeling of tiredness from using up his mana anymore. At this rate he’d be out of here in under a day. If he was still alive he’d have needed to sleep after exhausting his mana that way.
Finally making it through the shroud, the dirt was easy. Aedifex had studied earth magic to the Adept level, as it was useful for working with metals and ceramics. Targeting an oval column of dirt strait upward, he cast Quicksand, removing the friction between flakes of dirt. Anchoring his hands in the unchanged dirt to either side, he slowly pulled his way through the wet-mortar like dirt.
And so in the dead of night, the newly revived Lich, the most dangerous kind of the feared and hated Undead, arose from his own grave... quietly, without any fuss or bother. A quick Level Earth spell and you couldn’t tell anything had even happened here. Aedifex hadn’t planned that far ahead when he chose Quicksand over more violent spells, he was just a naturally low-key kind of person.
Now, he really wanted to look around but there was a problem. His eyes were in the way. Though anyone seeing him would think he was a zombie, the dead flesh covering him was not truly part of him. Since Skeletons were able to see, Aedifex ought to be able to see even with empty eye-sockets... only his weren’t empty. Gouging his own eyes out didn’t seem like a great idea to him. Also, he had no desire to walk around as just a skeleton, that was way too obvious. However, he needed to see curse it! Examining his eye sockets with his Sense, he realized one of his eyes had burst under the pressure of being buried. Well, he guessed he could cover that with an eye patch, and since he was going to have to cover it anyway...
Trying very hard not to think about what he was doing, he forced his fingers into his empty eye socket and pulled out as much squishy stuff as he could. Suddenly, he could see! It was just in black and white though. Looking up, he saw stars. Ah! So it’s like a Night Vision spell, let’s just hope it changes back to normal when there’s enough light. He wasn’t surprised it was night, he felt like he’d already known somehow. Night was... comfortable. He was a bit worried what sunlight would feel like, he should find a heavy cloak. Not only would it, hopefully, protect him during the day, it would also make it harder to see the state his flesh was in.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
That thought made him remember the disgusting lump still in his hand, and he threw it away randomly as hard as he could. A distant thump announced it’s landing on the roof of a nearby chapel. ..... Well, there should be no reason for anyone to connect that with the recently buried Enchanter, should there? Speaking of which... he finally thought to read his own tombstone.
Aedifex Venenatus
22 BH (before Hero) - 31 AH
Master Enchanter
Honest Citizen
IS THAT REALLY ALL THEY COULD SAY ABOUT ME?!?! Well actually... he wasn’t sure he could do much better himself. They had probably wracked their brains to come up with even that. He just hadn’t done much of anything besides enchanting. Aedifex just got more and more depressed. Not only had he died single, he’d never taken an apprentice or even published his techniques. He’d left nothing behind, other than a lot of enchanted items... which he was now one of.
Well, he couldn’t go back to that life anyway. He pictured how people would react if the person they buried just showed up back behind his store counter like nothing happened. Then he realized there had probably been so few people at his funeral it would likely take a few days for anyone to freak out. Ah, he’d gone and depressed himself again. But he still needed to leave town. His old life might have been utterly forgettable, but his new life (or unlife) would be different!
Of course, he wasn’t about to set off on some epic adventure with only the cloths on his back, he wasn’t as stupid as a Hero after all! As quietly as possible he set off for his store, trying not to think about the squelching coming from his shoes. Fortunately, the town wall was still only half finished, so he didn’t need to worry about gate inspection. His new night vision let him dodge the patrolling night guardsmen before they saw him, and no one else was up at this hour.
Arriving at his back door, Aedifex discovered his keys were missing. His money pouch too. Well, obviously someone had paid for his funeral, and he had a feeling that person had been him. Fortunately, he had always been worried about being locked out, and had installed a little trick in his door. Placing his finger on a certain spot to the left of the lock, he inserted his mana and pulled. *clunk* Quietly, he opened the door and slipped inside.
A quick search of his shop and attached home revealed that no one was here and the front door was locked and barred. It also revealed that his personal effects were disturbed, his strong box had been forced, and the most expensive of his enchanted items were missing. That must have been agonizing. Even if no one was there to stop you, stealing multiple items in a row could kill someone if they didn’t use healing magic or potions in between. Likely, the local noble had ordered the cash and most expensive items seized immediately, then sent for an Enchanter from another town to disarm the shelves. If someone showed up who could prove kinship (Aedifex had a few cousins left, but none lived in this town) then the noble would just claim they were stolen before his men arrived, and if no one got here before the Enchanter he called, he’d just quietly confiscate everything. He was a shrewd bastard that Duke Dyrecktor.
Fortunately, Aedifex’s real treasures, his tools and materials, were in an ordinarily looking box in his workshop. The box was enchanted with space magic, similar to an item bag but more sophisticated. In addition to having a much larger capacity, the space could only be opened using Aedifex’s mana. If anyone else opened the box, all they would see is an ordinary box with just a few pieces of ore at the bottom. A quick check assured him everything was still there.
Since it was impossible to put one item with space magic inside another, Aedifex rigged a pair of cloth straps to his box, turning it into a crude backpack, before hanging an average item bag (capacity 1 cubic meter) on his belt. He also decided to take one of each weapon and armor type, all ordinary looking but well made, the kind he sold to real warriors, not the showpieces he sold to nobles. Those items left a very weak impression, so even if the Duke’s men noticed there seemed to be less items now, they would have a hard time figuring out what had been taken and when. One last stop to take two sets of sturdy travelers clothes (self-cleaning) and he left his store forever.
At that moment, Aedifex discovered he couldn’t sigh anymore.